Musical Thoughts ♪♫

“I can change the world, if I can change the world in me.” (1)

It wasn’t until 21 that I listened to anything but the Beatles, and The Stones. Now, I always knew there was other stuff out there, but I just wasn't interested. I met a self-taught guitarist and this changed things and opened doors. I explored. I still do. But everything I listen to, and like, is judged on a “special scale”. It’s been said before, that to have a left or a right, you have to have a center. The Beatles were it. Like it or not, they changed music and the face of pop culture. They wrote their own songs, despite covering a few tunes of American rockers that they liked, which, to me, is the mark of a true musician. There is no better piece of writing/playing/arrangement than "the medley" on side two of Abbey Road. Bless you, Sir George Martin. I forgive you for the blatant mistake on Please Please Me, so many years ago.

Music that friends listened to seeped in, I listened to the radio for new things. Today, my musical library is ridiculously large and varied. I bought Joshua Tree when it came out and it was played quite a bit. Achtung! Baby seemed strange to me at the time, though Mysterious Ways was ethereal. Imagine my surprise, when years after the fact, I started being a rather rabid U2 fan. Now? I find myself thinking that Achtung!Baby was U2's Abbey Road, in terms of musical cohesiveness, and genius.

Moral of this story? Even my precious Bono lives in the shadow of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Their work is what I measure talent by.

Words, particularly song lyrics are our modern day philosophy. When you hear a line of a song you really like and it makes you think, it’s stronger than anything you might get from a book. I think it’s safe to say that we get more out of music because it is more accessible.  Beatles, Dylan, CSNY, Floyd, Zeppelin, U2, depending on who you like, all take us to a place where we can just think and feel, and it’s effortless. Is it any wonder that I am in love with music?

It’s quite true that I am a snob when it comes to music. For anyone to call themselves a musician, I expect that person to play an instrument and write music & lyrics. My exception to this is, of course, Andrea Boccelli. The man does have one hell of a voice and he's sexy, too, so he gets a pass.

  Most of what’s around today is the opposite of this, and the “performers” strut and preen, thinking themselves the center of the universe. I remember being at the gym one afternoon and I hadn’t put my earphones in yet, so I was being assaulted by some ridiculous song where the singer proclaimed he “had the moves like Jagger”. All I could think of was that the dude probably never saw the Rolling Stones in concert, may not have even known who they are, and that someone else had to have written the lyrics. Needless to say, I NEVER liked "Boy Bands.

The Monkees were a manufactured group that was created in 1966. Initially, their music was written by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, and they were produced by Don Kirshner. The “plot” behind the show was that they were a band looking to make it big. They were modeled after The Beatles, with slapstick comedy thrown in. Growing up, I watched the re-runs of the show and liked it. At 10 or 11, I didn’t stop to think that they weren’t really playing, or writing their own stuff. As I got older, I learned the story behind the group. It turned out that Mike Nesmith (the dude with the hat) and Peter Tork (the naïve likeable guy) could actually play and even write their own stuff. The producers had session musicians play while they sang. They were forced to “fake it”, and in order, they started to resent not being allowed to write and play. Eventually, they did get to do their own songs and they weren’t bad. This is the only example of a Boy-Band that made it past my high standards. They fought for their right to do their own work.

I must confess that in the 70’s, I did listen to the Village People. I have a hard time believing it myself, but I bought the 45’s for In The Navy and YMCA. They were camp, flamboyant and just way, way out there, but there’s a reason some of those tunes are still around. They were catchy. Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead did the songwriting. This group was a good example of “junk-food” music