Well, the bad tempered zombie tagged me and since I never want a zombie, bad tempered or otherwise ticked off at me, especially now that I have misplaced my zombie taming collar, I decided to wallow in the hits of my 18th year. I was scared to be sure, especially when I saw the hits listed on Billboard. What? The Pina Colada Song? Captain and Tennille, Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow? No, say it isn't so. This is not music I listen to!!! Next I turned to Billboards Top 100 list. Ok there I saw the Eagles, hate them. Seriously, do you really need to hear "Hotel California" ever again? Screw that list. So as 668 would say, "My blog, my rules." So I dug around a little bit and still thinking in the vein of "popular" music I looked up the discography of some of my favorite recording artists. Leonard Cohen released nothing, Bob Dylan went Christian. Oh dear things were not looking good. Turns out my 18th year was a bit of a black hole musically. The word homogenized comes to mind! Frustrated I went to my stash of vinyl and it hit me I had been going about this all wrong. So my list is comprised from albums I own released within that year.
In no particular order:
1. Me Myself I: Joan Armatrading
What's not to like? If forced to pick one song on the album I think I will go with "Friends" but I find the words from "Simon" ring true and find them often popping up into my head out of the blue.
The reason why I will never give up my turntable is "Jean Pierre Rampal, Telemann Twelve Fantasies for Flute" but having been released in 1975 it does not make the cut here.
On a historical note, Rampal helped form the Quentette a Vent Francais. During the war the ensemble would broadcast at night from a secret radio station at the Club d'Essai in rue de Bec, Paris, performing music outlawed by the Nazis, which included the works by the composers, Hindemith, Schoneberg and Milhaud.
3. James Galway Suite in A minor Telemann
Galway performs the Ouverture and Passepieds at a slower tempo than most but in doing so every note rings clear and with his impeccable phrasing and execution the effect is absolutely glorious. This composition will fill up a room and take you away to places magical.
4. Shadows and Light: Joni Mitchell
This is a live album with Pat Metheny on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, Michael Brecker on sax, Don Alias on drums, and Lyle Mays on keyboards. The album is worth it just to hear Pat Metheny on guitar.
5. Bartok: Klavierkonzerte - Piano Concertos 1 +2 Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Well, there you have it. One of the incredible things about great music is its power to unleash an infinite diversity of thought and opinion and an ability to transport you from one place to another with a single perfect note.
The rule of the game is I'm supposed to tag others in turn. I don't know if Busterp, Kelly "the kind" or 668 have been tagged as yet but I would certainly enjoy seeing what their lists contained. So guys if you're interested in playing what you do is supposedly pick 5 songs from your 18th year from Billboard's Number One Hits. Oh, no breaking the rules! As you can see we are very strict about that around here.
Have a great weekend everybody. Cheers!
11 comments:
I love Joan Armatrading. "Kind Words and a Real Good Heart" is one of my favorites.
Joni Mitchell's "Amelia" is another of my favorites, as is the album it was originally on, Hejira. I blogged last year about the pleasure of discovering that my cd of it had not been stolen in a car break-in.
Johnny yen, whoa, I just posted that about 2 minutes ago! I love the album Hejira. By the way I had a good laugh when I saw your grad song! Glad to hear I wasn't the only one walking down the aisle to some dorky song.
Hey, I was born in '62 as well... Okay, which one of us is older.... ;-)
Good for you,Toccata, for finding a way around those awful rules and even worse billboard charts. No zombies will be hunting you down.
I love Joan Armatrading and Joni Mitchell as well, and while I am not as familiar with the classical recordings, knowing your exquisite taste, I'm sure they are boffo.
Whitenoise, unless you're a January baby I win this one!
Barbara, good to hear no zombies will be knocking at my door. I still can't find that darn zombie controlling collar.
I love looking at people's lists...gives you a better picture of who they are. Great stuff and I like that you are a rebel and break all the rules!
Deb, you survived!
barely :)
Mmm, Bartok .. played some of his stuff in my youth. I agree with the Hotel California comment ... it had a revival a few years ago and I'm still sick of it!
What's this, no mp3s?? How can I judge? Sure, make me do the work and search them out ;) Joking!
I love Joan Armatrading, I really do.
Deb, no more eating free food for you from unnamed local corner store!
Small town teacher, I was thinking about you today on my walk home. Can you believe the year is almost over? I for one am starting to get pretty excited for summer.
Allison, oh you. I know you have sent me umpteen directions. I'm hopeless what can I say. Sitting my butt down and figuring out how to do it is on my summer list of projects. I'm always envious of the ones that can do it so now I have to become one that can!
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