Playing Favorites

What is your favorite song?  To a real music lover, it is a nearly impossible question to answer.   Instrumental or vocal?  What genre?  Pop? Rock? Jazz? Should I include symphonies and concertos?   I have many favorites, some because they are part of the soundtrack of my life, reminding me of life’s best moments.    My wife Muri and I have considered Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers our song since we met over 50 years ago.  In our senior years we have added Gladys Knight’s You’re the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me.   Some favorites were written before I was born and were likely etched in my musical memory by listening to my Mom play her music collection on the stereo in the living room.  Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade always put me in a romantic mood, especially as performed by Carly Simon.  Linda Ronstatdt’s  amazing verion of Patsy Cline’s Crazy always tugs at my heart strings.  Sometimes I’m drawn by beautiful lyrics and sometimes it’s a perfect melody.  Acoustic Alchemy’s Lazeez is a favorite because of the virtuosity of the guitar playing.  Sometimes, I find a live performance on YouTube that brings a new arrival to my list of favorites.  An amazing live performance by Lady Antebellum recently catapulted I Need You Now onto my must play list.

The Queen

Over the weekend, we went to see the film, RESPECT, with friends.  In case you don’t follow movies, it is a biopic of the life of Aretha Franklin starring Jennifer Hudson.  Now, I love rhythm and blues, what we used to call soul music.   Not only did my years in college coincide with the explosion of Motown, in my junior year I joined Beta Sigma Gamma, the first inter-racial fraternity at the University of Connecticut.  As I used to say, almost half of my fraternity brothers were brothers.  I started my junior year listening to the Beach Boys but ended it listening to The Supremes, The Temptations and yes, Aretha Franklin.  So naturally, I really enjoyed RESPECT, filled as it was with Jennifer Hudson’s amazing renditions Of Aretha’s music.  As a film, it was good but a little long … still I learned a lot about Aretha’s often difficult life.  Reading RESPECT: Hollywood vs. History at home after the movie, I discovered that the film understated the ways in which her father and first husband controlled her life and career.

Coming Around (Again)*

Recently, someone posed this question on Facebook:  If you followed your childhood dreams, what would you be doing today?   It is the kind of post that catches my eye for a minute or so (leading me to see what others answered in the comments), then move on.  But it hangs around on the edges of my awareness until my own answer turns up out of my distant memories.   My oldest recollection of What do you want to be when you grow up? is … NUCLEAR PHYSICIST.  Chances are I was just trying to sound smart.  I ended up an electrical engineer.   A more interesting question is as an adult, what professions do I wish I pursued?   I have never been dissatisfied with being an engineer, but having such a left-brained profession has often given my right brain little to do except wonder what might have been.   In high school, several wonderful teachers taught me the love of writing, not just reports and term papers, but composition and fiction … and this combined with my love of reading … led me to wonder if I should have been a writer (more than a technical report writer and blogger with one published short story).  My Mom taught me to draw and paint, a habit I have continued sporadically throughout my life, and naturally, my right-brain has whispered, I bet you could sell this.   I love music and have dabbled with the guitar since high school and whenever I watch a guitarist, whether it be John Williams, Peter White or Carlos Santana, I imagine what it would be like to be able to do that.

Spring Walking Music

Winter is fighting hard to stay around this April.  During two consecutive days last week we had temperatures in the 70s only to awake to the following day to three inches of snow.   The saying is that April showers bring May flowers but we’ve had as many snow showers as rain showers as well as that undecided precipitation known as wintry mix.   As a California transplant I have learned to walk in the cold but I draw the line at snow and wintry mix, mainly because I don’t want to risk a fall at my age.  I have managed to keep up my 6000 steps per day by store walking (thank you, Home Depot, Target, Walmart and Costco) but I miss my music.   No, I don’t  know why I don’t just put in my earbuds inside but I don’t … maybe I’m afraid the sight of an old guy singing along with Bohemian Rhapsody would frighten the clientele.

Remembering Eva

I love music.   Not all music but a lot of it.  Being 76 years old, having lived through years of fads and new genres, gives me a lot of music to choose from, which is good because finding new music (not necessarily new to the world but new to me) has always been a a source of joy.  For me, perhaps the best time for finding new music was in the heyday of Border’s book stores.  Above the rows and rows of CDs were listening stations with headphones that allowed you to listen to new releases.  One of the most amazing Borders finds ever was Songbird by Eva Cassidy.   When I put on the headphones and fast forwarded through the tracks, what I heard was: a crystalline voice that brought a unique style to well known songs; as simple but beautiful guitar accompaniment; and a songs from every musical genre.  I also heard a lovely and poignant version of my mother’s favorite song, Autumn Leaves.

(Borderline) Boomer

I have been watching a LOT of YouTube videos lately, mostly music, music commentaries and art documentaries.   One of the channels I watch a lot is Rick Beato, especially his What Makes This Song Great? series.  According to EverybodyWiki, Rick Beato is an American YouTuber, record producer, songwriter, musician, and educator whose career in the music industry and in education has spanned several decades and brought him numerous awards and much recognition professionally.   You can read more about him here if you are interested.  To be honest, his commentaries are beyond me musically but I still enjoy hearing an expert dissect the songs I’ve listened to for year.

Walking Music – 8/15/2020

As I said in my post, Walking with Music, in the interests of dispelling the grey-ghost of depression, I am going to occasional post a Walking with Music Artist of the Day and include one song that particularly touched me. Maybe it can dispel a few grey-ghosts in some music lovers out there or just give them something to listen to. Or not. But if you stop by, leave me a like or a comment. The grey-ghost hates those too.

This morning as I began my walk, I dug deep into the hundreds of albums living quietly on the SD card in my Samsung Galaxy S9 and found an old, almost forgotten favorite album, Return to Forever by the band of the same name.   Fifty points if you’ve ever heard of them.   If you’ve been a reader of Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog for a while, you know that I am a music lover and that the genre I love most is jazz.  But I also know there are many who say, I hate jazz.  My favorite jazz story happened when I was in high school.  I borrowed a Modern Jazz Quartet record (you remember those, right?) from the library and  put it on the stereo in the living room.  My Mom peeked in from the kitchen and said, What is THAT?   It’s jazz, Mom, I answered.  The Modern Jazz Quartet.  Well, she said, it sounds like they are all playing whatever they want!   It’s called improvisation, Mom, I said.  She shook her head and went back to the kitchen.

Walking Music – 8/9/2020

As I said in my post, Walking with Music, in the interests of dispelling the grey-ghost of depression, I am going to occasional post a Walking with Music Artist of the Day and include one song that particularly touched me.  Maybe it can dispel a few grey-ghosts in some music lovers out there or just give them something to listen to.   Or not.   But if you stop by, leave me a like or a comment.  The grey-ghost hates those too.

Today’s artist probably would not qualify as a favorite.   There is only one of her recordings living in the music folder on my phone and one of her songs is most likely to be played when I’m walking with the Shuffle All setting on PowerAmp, my favored music app.   But there are half a dozen of her songs that indeed make my favorites list.    In the mood to guess?   OK, first hint:  This artist was the subject a song performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash and written by Stephen Stills after his breakup with her (my favorite CS&N song, by the way).  No?  OK, she started out singing mostly classic folk songs written by other artists and had her first hit with  Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now.  Still no guess?  Over the years she became known for her eclectic choice of material from various genres … and had her biggest hit with a song by Stephen Sondheim, Send in the Clowns.  Yes, that’s right … it’s Judy Collins (and the CS&N song, is, of course, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes).

I could choose Both Sides Now or Send in the Clowns as my favorite from today’s walk but I’m going to choose a perhaps lesser known song from the album, Judith, and written by Collin’s to honor the passing of the iconic artist and composer Duke Ellington in 1974.   The song beautifully describes the day of his funeral in New York City, a cold and rainy morning (the streets were silver and the sky was gray) when 10,000 people, maybe more turned out to pay tribute to one of our greateest composers.  It always brings tears to my eyes, especially the lyrics,

But none of us will be the same
If we hear the things his music says
That loving is the gift of life
And making music was his way of love

Enjoy Song for Duke by Judy Collins.

 

Walking Music – Linda Ronstadt

As I said in my post, Walking with Music, in the interests of dispelling the grey-ghost of depression, I am going to occasional post a Walking with Music Artist of the Day and include one song that particularly touched me.  Maybe it can dispel a few grey-ghosts in some music lovers out there or just give them something to listen to.   Or not.   But if you stop by, leave me a like or a comment.  The grey-ghost hates those too.

I set out for my daily walk three days ago to the sounds of Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits.   Usually, as I listen to a particular artist, I enjoy visiting old favorites but have no trouble picking a Favorite of Favorites.   And usually a single walk of 45 minutes to an hour is enough time with the artist.  Not so with Linda Ronstadt.  For three consecutive days I’ve taken Linda along for a walk and I still haven’t exhausted her repertoire.   Listening to three hours of Linda reminded my of the range of her voice and the breadth of the music she recorded … and I didn’t even get to he recordings of American Standards with Nelson Riddle, her recordings or traditional Mexican music or her Broadway performances.  Her voice is simply remarkable, with natural vocal range of several octaves from contralto to soprano, whether she is performing rock, country, light opera, or Latin.   She can take a relatively unknown song and make it her own (think You’re No Good) or cover a well known song by another artist and simply own it with her voice and style.  There’s Crazy, her version of Patsy Cline’s classic.   There’s Heat Wave, her version of the Martha and the Vandella’s hit or That’ll be the Day, her take on Buddy Holly tune.   On Mick Jagger’s suggestion she did a great version of the Stone’s Tumblin’ Dice and she recorded Blue Bayou, a country rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song.  It is almost impossible to pick a Favorite of Favorites from her hundreds of recordings, but for you, dear readers, I’ll try.

Walking Music – 08/18/2020

As I said in my post, Walking with Music, in the interests of dispelling the grey-ghost of depression, I am going to occasional post a Walking with Music Artist of the Day and include one song that particularly touched me.  Maybe it can dispel a few grey-ghosts in some music lovers out there or just give them something to listen to.   Or not.   But if you stop by, leave me a like or a comment.  The grey-ghost hates those too.

It has been a tough morning.  Last night I didn’t sleep well, bitter about my wife’s upcoming cancer treatment and this morning, she’s been verklempt on and off.   I’m a better caregiver when I can get past the anger so after making sure she was OK with being alone for a while, I set off for my Walk with Music.   I chose a musical group I suspect most of you haven’t heard of, Pure Prairie League, because their upbeat country love songs are perfect to lift a tired heart.   PPL is an American country rock band that scored five consecutive Top 40 LPs in the 1970s and added a sixth in the 1980s. The band has had a long run, and as of 2019 continues to perform over 100 concerts a year in venues across the nation with concerts for 2020 already booked.   Their first album used a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover showing a trail-worn cowboy, named Luke (shown above), who would appear on the cover of every Pure Prairie League recording thereafter.   This song is my favorite:

Enjoy and have a good weekend.