The Study of Rocking Out

Hello again world. It seems as though the “more appropriate time” I alluded to in my last blog means 3:15am on Monday morning. Sleep is for the weak anyway. Well, I guess its time to let the world know what music I associate with certain points in my life…

First off would be the music of Motown and specifically the Four Tops. I definitely have a strong connection with that music and dancing in my living room when I was about age 7 and under. My parents would always play that music on the weekends and my sister and I would sing and dance to it while my dad would videotape the scene. I would qualify those years (or basically age 11 and under) as my “prime” or the “wonder years”. Thats a different story however.

Moving on I get to my dads “morning music”. I’m almost embarrassed to mention this, but once we moved to my new house in 1996, my dad would play a mix of five cds, usually consisting of but not limited to artists such as: Enya, Kenny G, Elton John, John Mellencamp, and the Beatles. Every weekend morning for years I remember waking up and hearing Enya’s voice. This was hardly a bad thing though. I look back and think fondly of waking up and knowing what time it was not based on my clocks, but rather what song was playing in the mix.

I have many musical associations with Bruce Springsteen songs. Once again I go back to my dad. Usually after the morning mix was done it would be between 10 and 11. On Sundays this usually meant it was time for my parents to make my sister and I clean the house. If cleaning was in order the so was Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Hits. So many time would I be dusting or cleaning a bathroom when all of the sudden the pounding opening of Born To Run blasts throughout the house, usually accompanied by my dads off key singing, off beat dancing and my mom telling him to turn the music down. Those were the days. One of the specific Springsteen songs I have a strong connection with is Thunder Road. This connection stems from all of the times my sister and I would be driving around (usually to nowhere) and put it on just to sing as intensely as possible trying to get all of the words. In fact, last time I was home over fall break I believe this exact thing happened. It probably always will.

Since I’m on a roll of rambling about stuff nobody needs or cares to know, here are even more musical associations- Bob Dylan music can be put to any situation, the more profound the better. I listened to Bob Dylan, as if for answers, before starting the first day of classes here. I listen to Dylan as travel between classes and try to sort out the meaning of some of his lyrics instead of fully concentrating. I should also give mention to various songs relating to high school band and specifically marching band. Holst First Suite in E-flat, Get It On, Vehicle, Into the Storm, Blue Skies, any song from Pirates of the Caribbean, and many others. I can not hear or think about any of these songs and not relate then to specific moments in my band career. I sure do miss marching band. I have also left out one of the types of music that I possibly have more associations with than anything else; rap.

First, I would like the class to know that honestly love to listen to most all types of rap/ hip-hop music. I would say that it makes upward of a third of my music collection and is consistently played as much as many rock songs. In fact I would say that if this were a class about the history and cultural impact of hip-hop/rap music then you might be hearing a bit more out of me.

Well, that got off topic. I think that I just wrote the equivalent of about 5 normal blog posts. At some point I will write a blog specifically about rap music to go over some finer points. I also feel bad for omitting my mother out of the music association chapter. Just let it be known that I do have many associations with music to her; most of them involve singing in cars or from other moments within the “wonder years”. That will be quite enough insight for my life for this morning. I do have an 8 o’clock class after all.

Just so the world knows, I DO intend to post my music testimonial, at a more appropriate time.

           So, I was pretty much told to blog about the collaboration of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.  So why not.  It is in fact true that they did do a duet of the Stevie Wonder song “Living For The City”.  I my opinion it is one of the best  live performances ever.  I came across this version when my friend posted it on his Facebook page a few months back.  I was blown away when I watched it and have attempted to post a link from this blog so the rest of the class can watch, if they haven’t already.  I’m not gong to analyze it or anything but I will say that the performance fits solidly in the soul genre. 

           I guess I could also fill up my Internet space with a few brief thoughts on the presentations.  I think that they have been going reasonably well.  Some are better than others I guess, but nobody has done badly.  It’s kind of hard to get exactly what we are supposed to be getting at sometimes.  The past two artists Ben and I have been assigned were never even mentioned in any of our books.  That made it hard to bring out book aspects in our analisis.  I thought our second presentation went better than the first but I kind of feel bad because I accedently used some of Ben’s scripted arguments to make my case.  I can’t go back and change that now I guess.

           If I’m not mistaken we are supposed to be reading The Commitments now.  The movie was great and I sure hope the book lives up to it.  I actually think we could benifit more from seeing the movie so as we get to hear all of the great songs.  That will be enough 1:45am blogging for now.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

It seems to me as though the world has not heard enough of my profound thoughts.  Not that it overly concerns me.  Possibly I could speak philosophically about all of my deep thoughts on the book about soul music.  Why not.  I did not enjoy this book as much as the others we read.  I thought it was a bit lengthy and maybe over detailed.  I am not as familiar with soul music as  I  am with the other types we have studied but I do enjoy the work of Ray Charles.

Ray Charles, one heck of a guy.  He had a rough life, he had lots of women, did lots of heroin, yet still was a champion.  I could care less about microanalizing his style or anything else about him.  As far as I’m concerned the music of Ray Charles is great whether it be rock, soul, progressive, bluegrass, or polka.  Maybe not all songs wanted to be picked apart like a dead rabbit is eaten by crows on the side of a road.  Anyway, Ray Charles was soulful in whatever he did.  ”Mess Around”, “I Got A Woman”, “Georgia On My Mind”; they are are filled with his unique sense of passion for his music and living the high life.  All of his other songs are pretty much like that too.  He has influenced most all popular and specifically R&B to this day.  His songs have been covered by people such as the Beatles and Stevie Wonder.  If I had the talent I would cover one of his songs as well.

Well, not like anybody needed too, but now the world can tap into what I think about Ray Charles.  Who knows (or cares) what I will ramble on about next time. It could be anything or nothing.  Whatever.  

           This blog will attempt to show my love of the Beach Boys.  Ever since I was old enough to actually think about and comprehend music, I have loved to listen to the Beach Boys.  In the beginning, it was not about the lyrics but rather just the way that they sounded.  All of the harmonies and different background sounds simply sounded good to listen to.  At the time I thought all of their songs were endlessly happy.  One could do anything to Beach Boys music; dance, try to sing or hum along, or simply sit in a room and listen. 

           As I got older, I started to pay more attention to the lyrics and came to realize that there was much more meaning behind their seemingly innocent songs.  Songs like “Sloop John B” and “Don’t Worry Baby” represented the side of the Beach Boys that was not talking about “Fun Fun Fun” or “Surfin USA”.  I still enjoyed the music and sought to learn about Brian Wilson.  In short he was a brilliant guy that kind of went crazy.  That fact did not change my outlook on the group as a whole however and as I moved through high school and fell in love with my girlfriend, their music took on another still deeper meaning. 

           The Beach Boys now represent a sence of young adult longing and sense of fun and adventure.  “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is the perfect example of this mentality.  When I hear this song I still get the sense of fun carefree happiness as “Surfin Safari” but with a deeper, more mature edge.  In other words, The Beach Boys like The Beatles are a timeless act whose music will still continue to affect future generations.

I am writing this blog in order to defend The Beatles. I won’t even claim to know everything about the Beatles. I couldnt point out their chord progressions or list out all of the random trivia about them.  In fact, I don’t even think I could identify specific reasons that I like The Beatles as much as I do. However I do maintain the mentality that The Beatles were and still are musically and socially significant.  No group has ever been as popular worldwide or matched their overall record sales. Nearly all of their songs were original compositions, which, in my mind, makes The Beatles instantly better than groups that only sang fabricated songs designed to appeal to the masses.  I put The Beatles above even Elvis for this reason.  The Beatles were also significant because of all of the new musical ideas they developed.  They were thoughtful about their craft and worked hard, not necessarily for the publics satisfaction, but for their own development and creative desires.  Albums such as Sgt. Peppers and Rubber Soul demonstrate the vast array of musical methods they were capable of and still produce a lasting legacy.  Some say that The Beatles were not even a rock group to begin with, claiming that they lacked the hardcore aspects of artists like The Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix.  I believe that they were the ones who actually blazed the trail for rock music to get to its stereotypical intense driving rhythms and shredding guitar solos. George Harrison does not get enough credit for being as talented as he was.  George did not have to be Keith Richards to be just as great in my opinion.  “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a great example of Georges musical maturity and mastery. 

I could go on and likely find better examples to prove my point, but once again it is late. I leave this blog believing that The Beatles were anything but overated and are still the best rock group to date.  

          First off I would like to express how happy I am  to have finally gotten this blog to work.  I apologize for the lack of previous posts. I will attempt to give my thoughts on the book to about page 210.

         This has been a great book so far and I’m learning more than I could have ever hoped to know.  The study of music, specifically rock and roll, has always fascinated me.  James Miller’s style of writing is fairly easy to follow and includes all of the details needed to make anyone’s music knowledge more complete.  I found the beginning of the book to be a little bit slow but as the book went on, it picked up and became more interesting.  I believe that some of the initial slowness came from the fact that I knew little or nothing about the earliest forms of rock.  Miller’s examination of the early forms of rock explained a lot in my mind.

         As the book moved on to cover Elvis, I became more interested to see if what I had heard before matched up with Miller’s telling of the story.  Most of it did ad I am once again in awe of how much Elvis did to change not only music, but the ways of American culture.  Compared to today’s standards Elvis and his behavior seem pretty tame but in the socially conservative fifties, I can see how many people where taken aback by him.

        I was also surprised to hear about Little Richard and how the industry formed him to their needs.  I always knew that he was gay, but the “Tutti Frutti” chapter stuck out in my mind.  I am also impressed by the influence of shows like American Bandstand and people such as Dick Clark.  I also learned a lot about the ”Payola” scandal and it effects on the music world.

           Part four of the book is by far my favorite so far though. I will be sure too cover it in depth if I can get this blog site to work on my messed up Internet again.

Welcome to UMW Blogs.org. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!