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We had lunch today at Blueberry Hill, one of St. Louis' more famous landmarks. I settled into a deliciously onion-saturated French onion soup and a pint of Guinness while David and Ruth ate a hamburger and veggie sandwich respectively.
I was sitting at a booth that looked up onto these jukeboxes. They weren't playing, but another jukebox was. Firstly, The Animals' "We've Got To Get Out of This Place":Then came "Wonderwall" by Oasis.
It was a strangely apt combination. Both British pop groups, both bookends of a sort for my interest in rock music. Even though they came and went long before I started to listen seriously to pop music in the early 1970s, The Animals have always been a favorite. One of the first bands I explored and one that continues to move me.
Oasis move me too, but they represent just about the end of my true gut-involved fascination with rock music. Nothing that has come since has really engaged me and I listen almost exclusively to classical music, old and modern, these days.
Part of this is undoubtedly due to the splintering of rock music into a thousand shards of sub-genres and the overall homogenization of pop music into a shimmering mirage, not without substance in places, but lacking any truly interesting musical innovations. Mostly, though, it's because music has lost that centrally pivotal role in my own sense of self. When I had less, knew less, felt far less assured than I do today and was full of anxieties about almost everything that was come, music was a very solid rock to rest my emotions on. The music that spoke most directly to me during that time was rock music.
Now I don't need music for that purpose. I look for different things and I find them in the depth and sophistication of 'serious' music. It's a strange adjustment. In every respect, my life is better now than ever before, but I still find a pull – and a strangely compelling pull – towards that older way of listening and feeling when I hear these songs again. It tells me that on some level I actually miss those distant and more disturbed times.
But I wouldn't seriously want to go back.
BTW—Edward posted the Scarlatti piece.
Not familiar with Oasis, but Eric Burdon grabbed my attention. Eric Burdon and the Animals an all-time favorite of mine. I have a compilation CD of 19 of their hits and I love every song on that album. No one ever has, can or will do House of the Rising Sun as well as they do. Just beginning to really allow Classical music into my life and just added a Scarlatti harpsichord piece into my Real Player library. I will always love classic rock.
You can't go wrong with Scarlatti, Linda. I love his harpsichord music, so much so that I have a 34 CD collection of his complete keyboard works, and, before you ask, I have not played them all yet! But everyone I've listened to has been a treat. 🙂
😆 🙂
Cool. I like Animals.:D:up:
:up: 🙂
The Animals were also at the start of my love of Rock music and I do have some Oasis in my collection,unlike you however I have got into a fair bit of 21st century rock much of it due to the sharing of musical loves with my youngest daughter,as a result the likes of my Staind,Linkin Park,Nightwish and Within Temptation sit on my MP3 player whilst she has become a massive Meat Loaf fan
This is about music – but maybe even more about youth and maturing. At least the way I read it. The kind of music that first hit us with fascinating force in our earliest youth will be the music, and the emotions, which will define break-through and emotional impact for the rest of our lives.That we later on feel the urge to apply multiple layers of sophistication is just our way of maturing.Strange how music can and will form parallels to our lives that way. I often sit and listen – and I go through earlier stages. Re-live phases in education, love, understanding of art and much more – all defined by music and age. Also that age when music was close to be able to define myself.If this makes any meaning at all?
Nigel, I think you have found a perfect way to continue following modern rock music. Through the enthusiasm and adventure of a young person discovering it all for the very first time. Maybe my son will develop such an interest – he hasn't yet!Allan – I think you nailed the meaning of my post exactly. You comment makes perfect sense to me! 🙂
"When I had less, knew less, felt far less assured than I do today and was full of anxieties about almost everything that was come, music was a very solid rock to rest my emotions on."I think you expressed very much correctly the core idea of the things I feel about the place of music, even the whole fine art, in the soul "constitution" of many people I see around me. Including me. But this relation expands on books, cinema and poetry too.
"Part of this is undoubtedly due to the splintering of rock music into a thousand shards of sub-genres and the overall homogenization of pop music into a shimmering mirage, not without substance in places, but lacking any truly interesting musical innovations."That makes me think about the evolution of any music in general. I think about the Beethoven violin concerto, whose 1st movement lasts about 27 minutes (depending on the recording, of course). That was just unheard of at the time for concertos like that. I think the reason is that it was just the evolution of the language — more development took more time. And then with Romanticism came a looser harmony that changes the form. And then of course late Romanticism and its incredibly long symphonies and such (i.e. Mahler, Bruckner etc). I wonder if that could be said for popular music also. Assuming that there are limits even to cross-genre or munti-genre styles, will it reach a point where it needs to move on — and what would it move on to? Of course some might say that the creativity of musicians will always keep it going. Well, that sounds logical, doesn't it? But…Sorry to go on so long. I'm finished now. :p
Richard, since I made last comment here, I went to my MixPod site and made up a playlist of Scarlatti pieces. Most are harpsichord played by various artists, some were piano, and one was a piece I liked adapted for guitar. Named the playlist Classical Facets. I am enamored with the name I gave it. :whistle: 😀 Ended up with 14 Sonatas and Etudes and more. I REALLY like the harpsichord ones. Young artist named Pogorelich I especially liked.
Pogorelich is a fabulous artist – I have some exquisite Chopin performances by him. I shall have to look out for his Scarlatti. So glad you are enjoying this wonderful music. 🙂