A Little Night Music
I am delighted to report that Sandy selected me for a baton handoff in the glorious music meme of 2005. "Oh my arm, it hurts. Stop twisting it.... OK I give in."
Before going to college the bulk of my musical listening consisted of my zadie's classical record collection, my mom's box of 45's that should took with her when she went to Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1964, my dad's bluegrass collection, and a hearty helping of jazz.
College, however, was a different matter entirely. Through a little help from my friends (mostly Wade, Jeremy, and Julie), I discovered the joys of late 20th century music. Whenever the music of the 60's and 70's comes up in conversation Julie has already heard it and I, like I did with the Kinks, operate under the assumption that everything is new.
I also assume that everyone I meet is my age but I digress.
Working at WCBU with Brian Siewirek taught me a great deal about 20th century "concert hall" music, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and David Bowie. Brian's competition with Jonathan Ahl to play increasingly obscure music beds on the air was an education and a ceaseless form of entertainment.
After I started working at AU my "boss," Rob Boston, shared the joys of the 80's and early 90's with me. From him my collection includes the Jam, early Robyn Hitchcock, James, and Echo and the Bunnymen. He forever rants about the decline of these artists but I appreciate his generosity in sharing the early stuff.
The most important piece of my recent musical evolution, however, is unquestionably KCRW's web stream. I tune into Morning Becomes Eclectic almost every day at work and am consistently greeted with something new and worth the listen.
Fortunately I have not lost my early tastes in this meandering process. There is always a place for Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, Ella Fitzgerald, and Mendehlson in my music collection.
Without further ado, my music info:
Total volume of music on my computer:
9186 songs. 41.77 GB. 24 day, 14 hours, and about 20 minutes.
The last CD I bought:
Mark De Clive-Lowe Tide's Arising. Recommended by Marc at Pulp
Song playing right now:
"The Sun Is A Very Magic Fellow," by Donovan
Some of these are just on heavy rotation and some just me a great deal to me. Following Sandy's lead, this list is ten songs long. Here are the ones that really stand out:
- "Frontier Psychiatrist," The Avalanches
- "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend," The Magnetic Fields
- "Abiyoyo," Pete Seeger
- "It's Too Late," Carole King
- "Hazy Shade of Winter," Simon and Garfunkel
- "Mambo Miam Miam," Serge Gainsbourg
- "Dear God," XTC
- "Dr. Worm," They Might Be Giants
- "Take Your Mama," Scissor Sisters
- "25 MInutes To Go," Johnny Cash
Although I took my sweet-assed time finishing this post, I will still hand off the baton. Some of these people don't often blog about music and some of their sites are still in the works but I am eager to see what they have to say.
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Who is this guy?
"Hazy Shade of Winter" still has a place in my heart too. I went to see Episode III with Amber and Brian, two of my friends from school. Brian was driving and it came on. He's pretty self-conscious about his singing voice, but Amber and I were belting it out. It reminded me of you and Keim and put me in the right frame of mind to see it.
Okay, it's posted. Consider the torch taken.
I had almost forgotten about your mom's box of 45's. What was the name of that one song about water, that was pressed on the clear vinyl? Wasn't it called "Water"?
"Cool, clean, water. (In falsetto) Water."
That song was great! I think my mom's 45 was the Sons of the Pioneers singing Cool Water. I found the lyrics!
All day I face the barren waste without the taste of water, Cool water.
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry and souls that cry for water, Cool water.
The night are cool and I'm a fool each stars a pool of water, Cool water.
But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn and carry on to water, Cool water.
(Chorus)
Keep a movin' Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, he's a devil not a man
and he spreads the burnin' sand with water.
Dan can't you see that big green tree where the waters runnin' free
and it's waiting there for me and you.
Water, cool water.
The shadows sway and seem to say tonight we pray for water, Cool water.
And way up there He'll hear our prayer and show us where there's water, Cool Water.
Dan's feet are sore he's yearning for just one thing more than water, Cool water.
Like me, I guess, he'd like to rest where there's no quest for water, Cool water.
The 45 of Cool Water was indeed sung by the Sons of the Pioneers. The record was lime green vinyl. My dad brought home a small pile of brightly colored 45s one day and this was in it. I did not take the box of 45s to Tanzania. I took no records because I didn't think that I'd have a record player. My roommate brought a battery-operated record player and brought 1 record with her, A Hard Day's Night, which was the only record that we listened to at home for 9 months. I had some records from the 60s and 70s, which I played when you were a child and teenager, including the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Phoebe Snow, Cream, Credence Clearwater Revival, Simon and Garfunkle, Canned Heat, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Roberta Flack, Jimmy Cliff, Janis Ian, the Persuasions, Leon Russell and Carole King. I also played musicals of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. From the time when you were young we went to several Raffi concerts (from when he was just beginning to tour through his becoming famous) and bought all his records. We had alot of classical and jazz records of our own. The ones from zadie are hifi and older recordings. By the way, I may still have some 78s, but I'm not sure.
I meant to change the "I" to "we" regarding the records we have from the 60s and 70s and our playing them.