Musical Banter

I think The Cars are terribly underrated. They give a sense of style and uniqueness to the mass selection we clump together under the title of "80's music". I remember when I was a little girl and thought that Ric Ocasek was the ugliest man in the world. Of course this was before I'd ever seen a picture of Keith Richards. Speaking of pock-faces, have you seen Bryan Adams without airbrush? My God he must have gone through hell as an adolescent.

I was very fortunate to have grown up listening to all kinds of music. I mean everything. My Mom listened to everything from Tommy James to Alice Cooper (her all-time favorite) and I was the only kid in grade 2 who's favorite song was Abracadabra. I'd be walking around school singing "Black panties with an angel's face." This was waaay before they started altering classic music so it was politically correct. The first time I was at the bar and they played Abracadabra with the word "touch" instead of "grab" (I wanna reach out and grab ya..) I almost had a shit hemorrhage. I was also dead-set against remakes. Now I've decided they are not all bad. If someone wants to redo a song with their own personal touch that's fine. If they are going to copy it word for word, note for note, it's not. It's already been done asshole, don't waste our time. That's what karaoke is for. What drives me INSANE is when you hear an old CLASSIC song redone, or worse dancersized, and people are going "This new song rocks!" It takes everything I have not to leap across the table and bitch-slap them into next week. It's not very nice, I know, but I can't help it. It's like my lack of patience for really stupid people. Sorry but morons need not apply.

I also spent a great deal of time at my Grandparents' and they played things like English pub music, German drinking songs, Polish drinking songs, Scottish bagpipes, yodelling, Russian, Ukranian, French, every nationality of folk song imagineable, and english parlor songs. My Grandma used to quiz me by making me tell her which country each song she played was from. She'd occasionally throw in things like a Native Indian rain dance, or a bit from a Chinese play just for fun. The same with classical. Mozart, light and airy with lots of notes, Beethoven heavier with melancholy undertones, Handel's Watermusic, imagine you were a king floating down a river, Vivaldi, etc,etc. I also got a history lesson with every song.

Translating German songs was another big one but I hated it so I won't talk about it.

Then there were the musicals/showtunes. Some of my favorite songs are by Rogers and Hammerstein. These seem to be less appreciated by others though. You can't drive through town with your windows down screaming along to "Just You Wait 'Enry 'Iggens, Just You Wait" at the top of your lungs without people staring at you like you're insane. Imagine this. I have the house to myself and I'm cleaning the bedroom so the living room stereo is cranked to the tune of the entire Oklahoma soundtrack. Naturally I'm singing along, don't remember all the words, completely tone-deaf, when halfway through "I Can't Say No" I realize my roommate has come and left and never said anything. Ever.

I also learned about country music. Not like today's, but Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, and the like. I never heard Country rock until much later and have to admit it's never done anything for me. Save the occasional song. Twang- not so good.

I feel very fortunate to have had such opportunities. Music is a huge part of who I am and I am proud of that.

Today's quotes:
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. –Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Only sick music makes money today. –Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)