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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Another Music Meme
Sarah of Carnaby Fudge has tagged your Curmudgeon with yet another "music meme," but that's quite all right. He was feeling under-inspired about the news of the day, and welcomes the opportunity to write about something other than politics.
1. How much music do I have?
Quite a bit: over 400 CDs and nearly 3500 MP3s culled from diverse sources. Moreover, all of it is "in play" and listened to frequently.
2. What was the last CD I bought?
As with Sarah, it was Glass Hammer's The Inconsolable Secret. If you haven't yet read your Curmudgeon's comments on this masterpiece of symphonic-progressive composition, it's right here.
3. What am I listening to right now?
Tangent, The Music That Died Alone. Tangent is a "supergroup," anchored by Andy Tillison of Parallel or 90 Degrees, and Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings. Supergroups often don't work well, but this one works so well that it's cut a second album (The World That We Drive Through) and has gone on tour.
4. Name five songs that mean a lot to me.
Now that's a hard one. I might have to go to ten. The following are in no particular order, except for the very last.
- A Curmudgeon is often a bit like a chocolate-covered ice-cream dot: hard and brittle, but only on the outside. If you can punch through his shell, you'll often find that he harbors loves that would bring tears to anyone's eyes, such as Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks. The experiences of his young manhood have...well...only something to do with it.
- In keeping with the above, you'll also find Emmy Lou Harris's magnificent album Red Dirt Girl high among your Curmudgeon's musical loves. That masterpiece contains a song, Michelangelo, about wrong turnings and devotion in the face of cultivated indifference that could rip the heart out of anyone's chest.
- Paul Simon wrote An American Tune in the Seventies, when it really did look as if our star was on the wane. Yes, we recovered, but that doesn't detract from the poignancy or power of this haunting song.
- David Ackles's work is less appreciated than it should be, by several orders of magnitude. On his American Gothic album, which was uniformly welcomed with critical raves, is a ten-minute epic called Montana Song. It's a paean to the lives of our forebears, to whom our present would be incomprehensible, and who suffered hardships and privations we no longer have the power even to imagine.
- Canadian chanteuse Jane Siberry can be a bit odd, and more than a bit irregular, but when she's good, she's very good indeed. Her song Red High Heels, a love letter to a sundered love, is an example of her finest, and more touching than any sad end-of-romance song in your Curmudgeon's experience.
- Let's not neglect pop! You can be forgiven for not knowing Level 42, a British band that had a very short lifetime in the public eye. But their breakout hit, Something About You, from their World Machine album, is a shout of joy that every music lover should know.
- And while we're "popping," Toto doesn't get nearly the respect it deserves. Seldom have five more skilled musicians come together for any reason. Their Toto IV album ends with the stunning Africa, which lingers in the mind for hours after a single playing.
- But let's get to the real blockbusters now. The Flower Kings, another band that's had many ups and downs, is -- or should be -- universally known for Stardust We Are, from the album of the same name. The album is only average, but the title track is prog-rock magnificence, thrilling and uplifting at once.
- When Neal Morse captained Spock's Beard, it seemed they could do no wrong. Their V album, next to last of the Morse era, concludes with an epic titled The Great Nothing, about a young musician captivated and misled by the mystical power of a tune that seems to come from nowhere. Words fail. Just listen to it.
- Last and best of all is the very same Glass Hammer composition Sarah cited: Junkyard Angel, from their On To Evermore album. Your Curmudgeon stands second to no one in his admiration for Fred Schendel, Steve Babb, and their co-conspirators. "Junkyard Angel" is the pinnacle of their art: lyrically exquisite, musically gorgeous, and emotionally riveting. Your Curmudgeon devoted a column to the lyrics alone.
What? Is that ten already? But there are so many more! Well, perhaps another time.
5. I'm passing this meme on to...
- Gerard Van Der Leun of American Digest;
- John Hudock of Common Sense and Wonder;
- Heather, the Li'l Cup Of Love;
- Akaky Akakievitch of The Passing Parade;
- Travis Corcoran of TJIC.
Have at it, ladies and gentlemen.
Comments
Holy crap, I’d forgotten about Toto! They were good!
Believe it or not, I’ve never listened to Spock’s Beard. Would you recommend an album for starters?
Posted by Sarah on 09/22/2005 at 06:53 PMWhew! Dodged that one!
M
Posted by Mark Alger on 09/22/2005 at 06:56 PMSarah, the last three albums of the Morse Era—The Kindness Of Strangers, V, and Snow—are uniformly excellent. Of those three, I would recommend V for your “baptism.”
Posted by Francis W. Porretto on 09/22/2005 at 07:04 PMI’ve taken up the meme at:
http://commonsensewonder.com/mtarchives/008399.shtml
Posted by John Hudock on 09/23/2005 at 04:20 PMOkay, my answers to these and other burning questions of the day are up over at the Passing Parade.
Posted by akaky on 09/24/2005 at 07:16 PMMy answer is here.
Posted by TJIC on 09/25/2005 at 03:37 PMI apologize for my late answer, but I’ve gone and done it see if you can stay awake.
Posted by Heather on 09/27/2005 at 08:20 PM
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