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| From | William Rabeneck <largro13@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: All Things Must Pass (or else they'll create intestinal blockage) |
| Date | Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:53:01 -0700 (PDT) |
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Hi John,
I agree whole heartedly. There's something in the way that we are wired that makes our earlier memories more important to us for some reason. Several years ago when my grandma was in her late-90s (and in the process of dying), and not in her completely right mind, she seemed to have the most lucid memories of things that happened before she was 40 years old. And it was like nothing happened after she was 40. But you could have the most fantastic conversations with her and learn so much about her personal history, as long as you got her on subjects about things that happened early in her life.
And in my opinion, we are all much that way with music. While it's possible to develop an appreciation for some newer sounds, I believe that nothing is actually going to hit most of us, like the stuff we heard before we were, say, 25 years old.
I don't know what everyone's personal musical history is here at audities. But I started as a big Paul McCartney fan in about third grade (1975). "Listen To What The Man Said" was my first single. And I moved on to several Wings' album, and backed into the Beatles. I also had a big KISS period, what kid didn't like their superhero look in the 1970s. I think that this also helped prepare me for the popularity of Glam-Rock/Hair-Metal during my high school and college years. So while listening to Hair-Metal during my early adult years, I still always held a sweet tooth for McCartney's melodicism.
While he's been very inconsistent since the breakup of the Beatles, almost every Paul McCartney album has something worth having on it whether it's two songs, or whether you luck out like on "Flowers In The Dirt", "Tug of War", "Venus & Mars", or "Band on the Run" and it's a quality album all the way through.
And back to the idea of your early influences and early songs you liked being important to you; I've just finished reading Chuck Klosterman's book "Fargo Rock City". And if any of you were into the Hair-Metal scene, like I was, "Fargo Rock City" is such an amazing book. Klosterman has the ability to point out what was good about Hair-Metal, laugh at the stupid stuff that came with HM, and actually give a pretty accurate portrate of the scene (or at least he and I seem to feel the same way about the scene, nowadays). After reading "F.R.C.", I had to get out all of the old cassette tapes, and the few albums, and greatest hits that I bought on CD. And it's amazing how much of it still sounds good. And a lot of it sounds like: "What the hell was I thinking?" And the pretty funny thing is that he and I mostly agree (probably 95 percent) on what fits the still sounds good, and the "what the hell was I thinking" categories.
But I believe you're right John, if I'd have grown up in the 80s and 90s, instead of the 70s and 80s, I might be nostalgic for Rap and Punk, instead of Wings, Beatles, and Hair Metal. With many of the people who came of age in the 60s, it's hard to talk to them about other music, because they were there with the Beatles, and the Beatles were great. But I will agree that it's disappointing that they don't give some of the Beatles influenced band the credit they deserve.
Another thing that happen with age too (and might be the reason that most of us get stuck in our musical youth) - I don't know if others here are experiencing this or not - is that it gets harder to learn new music, for it to get into your head and into your blood. In my teens and twenties, I could hear a new song twice, and sing it, if I really liked it. Now in my late 30s, I can hear something that I think is good five times today, and I can't remember what the heck it's like tommorrow if I wanted to try to sing it. Now it takes probably fifteen listens over two weeks, to get a song to the point where I can just recall and sing it. And I'm too busy with my 40-hour a week job to listen to most songs that many times anymore.
Peace,
W.D.
p.s. I suffer from writer's block every day..
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:47:47 -0400
From: "John L. Micek"
To:
Subject: Re: All Things Must Pass (or else they'll create intestinal
Message-ID: <011601c7883b$c446c9d0$6501a8c0@mcall.trb>
>
> I do think part of it was being there when it all happened.I am old enough
> to have experienced the entire British invasion as it happened.Talk about
> good and exciting times.The Beatles were the buzz at that time and "Sgt.
> Pepper" blew everybody away."Pet Sounds" had a huge impact as well.
> I do love FOW and Supergrass .I'm a huge pop fan.But they can't take the
> place of hearing all the early Kinks albums.
But I don't think that's anything to do with the *music* necessarily.
It's all to do with the age of the listener and the intensity of the memory.
And that goes to an earlier argument about Pepper's effect on the pop
culture zeitgeist.
When you're a teenager or in your early young adulthood, you just feel
*everything* more intensely -- because it's new and because it's exciting
and because you just don't have anything to compare it to. Obviously, that
feeling diminishes some as you get older (but not when it comes to falling
in love -- that rush remains the same no matter what) for a lot of stuff,
music included. That's because you're able to draw lines between records and
realize that this band was influenced by this band, who were obviously
influenced by this band. You start to appreciate music along a continuum,
rather than have those "Holy Shit!!!!" moments you had when you were a kid.
I feel the same way about hearing U2 and R.E.M. for the first time. Those
records, because they were the first ones I heard during my musical coming
of age ("Under A Blood Red Sky," and "Reckoning" respectively) remain more
vital and intense for me because they were the first. They were the ones
that inspired me to become addicted to Pop music and to start playing and
writing my own music. It's pretty safe to say I probably would never been in
bands or made records without having heard them.
But I wouldn't be so vain to say that everything that came after them was
inferior or were pale imitations. And that's the essence of the argument
that's being made in other posts, and it's the one I object to heartily.
john
(who really needs to get some work done today, but has writer's block, and
cannot)
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