information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music, and music is the best.
- Frank Zappa
yesterday on the way to work i had a sudden musical impulse. the special thing about it was that it came with a vision. and boy, that gave me the shivers.
you know, i don't like to just listen to my ipod. music for me is almost never just nice sounds playing in the background. i like to hear and feel and breathe it, think it and desire it and work it. music is something that somebody is playing to me, and that makes all the difference in the world. in gentleness or in full-on adrenaline-crazed mania, music is something which someone is and wants to be sharing with me, one human being to another. music is something which goes right to the core of my person.
so when i listen to music, granted, i don't always listen to it with my entire soul, but when i do listen, i tend to give it a lot of attention. i like to trace songs, thinking of which songs i'd like to listen to next. i feel it makes a song about three times better to listen to, to have started the song in your head first. and often the tracing steps to one song are the patterns and lines and, well, melody, of the one playing. like say, one would start with stevie, right. it takes a bit of doing to start with stevie cos stevie, you know, he's intense in a blues rock way, very intricate, yet also very groovy, so i mean, you listen to pride and joy and okay, you know, you get off on it. and you really would. pride and joy. and i'd likely go on to texas flood, which is great.
and here's the thing. the third song in a playlist usually carries great significance (i dunno if anyone agrees). but the third song on an album, to me is special. you're in the mood, you're warmed up to the music, now you want something to hit the spot.
i might go right now to burn. burn is to me one of the greatest rock songs ever. it has everything. everything. the only thing burn might not have is varying time-signatures. but i don't think it needs it. burn has it all. i could get off on burn any day of the week, except as my alarm tone.
if not burn, maybe maiden. damn, let me tell you, maiden is the panacea full-stop. maiden is the be-all and end-all. maiden is the third coming of jebus in the flesh. i can't say enough about maiden. god bless you, bruce dickinson, and you, dave murray, and you, adrian smith, and you, janick, etc etc.
or you know, on another day i might start with the allman brothers. now the allman brothers to me are special. i can't really tell you why. there's a mystical quality to them. maybe it's the same mystical quality which envelopes all songs going back past the 70s. but in the case with the allman brothers, i think that there's some brother-level soul connection here. the allman brothers. i can't put it any other way. it's, ineffable. the allman brothers. with the best god damn blues-country-rock guitarist i know, duane "skydog" allman. let me tell you, the boy had it in him.
just like randy rhoads. now that boy, he had it in him. so now i'd listen to mr crowley, which is obvious. the one on youtube is excellent, and the one i have on mp3 has the drummer doing really annoying double snare things during the solo. boy it annoys me. mr crowley is excellent, the shining exhibit of classical-inspired rock. canon by jerry c is nice, but i don't like it being hyped.
and classical-inspired rock leads of course to, well, one might say yngwie, which i'd planned long ago to give a real shot. yngwie is abit of a love-hater, and i needn't say more i think. but i'd planned to give him a real shot, and i haven't yet, so that's on me. anyway i might go from mr crowley to deep purple, the true hallmark of lead guitar versus rock organ, based off blues and flavoured with thick, tasty and juicy classical ideas. rip john lord. hell, rip stevie. rip duane.
and of course you know, purple has one of the best lefty drummers i know, well, i really only know one, ian paice. purportedly he can do a roll with his one left hand, which i guess mike "the professor" mangini can do with either hand. and if one thinks of mangini, one has to hit up some dream theater. drums, maybe? then it's the train of thought album, of course. honour thy father is money. these walls in octavarium is money, especially those tinkly bits on the high hat and rides. in the video he has this ride tucked away on the right side which i fell in love with. great tinkly sound.
and dream theater leads to sabbath, because now we're in hard mode. and sabbath leads maybe back to dream theater, who wants to prove it's hard too. and that may lead to nowhere, cos that might have been 90 minutes of music right there.
on another day, classical. another day, mumsy and sons. another day, slow rock. oh god i could write a magnus opum on slow rock.
the list is infinite, like the library of babel.
but going back to yesterday. yesterday i looked up at the morning sky while walking to the trains. and in that sky i saw gentle, cascading light and soft cloud, stretching into the farther limits of sight. i saw it like a soft, hazy vision, greys and soft palettes. comfortably numb started itching to be played. and as i started it i saw in my mind, being in a plane, taking off, perhaps in slow motion, and slipping quietly through the greater sky. and it was beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzmiyTiO7bE&t=0m6s (you'll have to mute this)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpzxf_flm8M
and i thought of dl.
RIP, brother.
