I did it everyone! I truly picked my desert island songs. I spent days with this. I disciplined myself to only pick 10 songs. I kinda want everyone to listen to these songs in this exact order. Makes me cry actually. It’s the end of the world. I’ve escaped to an island and could only download 10 songs into my brain. These are the songs:
Dark Star by The Grateful Dead (From the Live/Dead album)
Seasons by Chris Cornell (From the Singles soundtrack)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd (From Wish You Were Here album)
Right Turn by Alice In Chains (from SAP ep)
A Day In The Life by The Beatles (From Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album)
Starla by The Smashing Pumpkins (From Pisces Iscariot B-Sides album)
Pneuma by Tool (From Fear Inoculum album)
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed (Title Track)
Into Dust by Mazzy Star (From So Tonight That I Might See album)
Release by Pearl Jam (From Ten album)
These tracks all have special meanings for me. Bands I love and songs I obsess over.
Now I invite you to list your 10 desert island songs below in the comments.
Last week, I dusted off my “Oscar Schmidt” acoustic guitar and tried to play some random songs from my memory bank in front of my nieces. I failed miserably and I immediately lost their interest as they became focused on whatever else was entertaining them and I felt rejected, emotionally.
I enjoy listening to the sounds of the guitar. Its a great noise that comes from those strings as they are strummed, plucked and picked. In high school I wanted a bass guitar because it sounded cool and I had some friends that liked to play those funky backbeats. My parents rented one for me as a gift and it came with a small amp. I had fun messing around with it but I never really got anywhere. I even took advantage of a free lesson, but still, I got no where. Then about a year later, mom and dad tried it again. They rented an electric guitar for me to satisfy my interest once again. I cheated and played guitar solos on my cd player in the background in my bedroom and pretended I was playing. I ended up fooling my mother, but that wasn’t any fun. I lost patience and the guitar and amp was returned to the music shop.
College came. Various room mates and friends in the dorms had guitars. Electric and Acoustic. As much as I enjoyed hearing the guys jam away, and believe me they were impressive, I just didn’t have the time, patience and skill to jump right in and start playing with all the pedals and knobs, etc. However, when I listened to this one guy with a beard during my second year in college, I suddenly found a way to do this. He was reading tablature from a Smashing Pumpkins song, I think. Its a way of notating music. But tablature made it more simple for me to grasp. It lays out the frets and strings in a more elementary sort of way. At that point my interest in music was soaring anyway. I was experimenting with a lot of bands and hanging out with all kinds of friends that showed me a thing or two with the acoustic guitar. I find that going back to the roots of music with that kind of instrument and those kinds of easy guitar tabs made my experience a lot easier.
I would occasionally pick up my roommate’s, “Hotsauce” was his nickname, acoustic guitar and start jamming based on trial and error. I would hear the sounds on the cd player or sit and observe others, like the bearded man from earlier, and just go by feel and sound. But, of course, the tabs helped a lot when I returned home from college. My parents finally BOUGHT me an Oscar Schmidt guitar. I found myself enjoying it a lot more and growing much more patient with it. All through the late nineties and early naughties, I played frequently. I was able to mess around with the styles of bands like Monster Magnet, Type O Negative, Pink Floyd, Jewel, Mazzy Star and Smashing Pumpkins. But then it really started to collect dust, until I met my wife. I tried to impress her but my efforts weren’t so great because I started to rust out a little. My lack of practicing showed, unfortunately. But lately, since my encounter with the nieces, I decided to try and master a couple of songs and spend more time with it.
Sure I love to listen to music, write about music, go to concerts and review them. But I wish to bring back the acoustic instrument back into my life. I seem to know so much about music and who my favorite guitarists are and I love to write poems that are very much musical. So why cant I get back up on the musical horse and start riding again? That is one of my goals this year. To become connected with the music on a deeper level. Who knows maybe I’ll even post a video of me playing in the future. We’ll see. Later.
I have reached the halfway point on my top twenty record albums of the year 2013 (according to me). Just thought I would take a moment here and list numbers 20 through 11 before I continue later with the TOP TEN. My choices are based on originality (how fresh does it sound? to my ears?), longevity (how many times do I play it?, flow (consistency is key here) and basically I ask myself if it’s a fantastic album. Perhaps I can’t form a real emotional attachment to it or maybe it has 1 or 2 flaws that I just can’t overlook. Finally, is it an album I couldn’t possibly bring myself to part with? There’s my criteria. Anyway, here’s the halfway list:
20 ICEAGE—–YOU’RE NOTHING
19 CROCODILES—–CRIMES OF PASSION
18 TY SEGALL—–SLEEPER
17 THE FLAMING LIPS—–THE TERROR
16 THEE OH SEES—–FLOATING COFFIN
15 FUZZ—–FUZZ
14 BOMBINO—–NOMAD
13 MAZZY STAR—–SEASONS OF YOUR DAY
12 TEGAN & SARA—–HEARTTHROB
11 FOXYGEN—–WE ARE THE 21ST CENTURY AMBASSADORS OF PEACE & MAGIC
Her haunting voice arrives just after the organ’s hummer
The slide guitar lulls you to its peaceful rhythm
Steady but broken up drum beats
Slow burn of terrific melodies
Acoustic guitar strummed at the pace that screams of open fields
Off In the distant
I need my car so I can fill the tank up
And go for a very long drive along the lakes
Through the forests
Smiling up at the clouds
Seasons of Your Day is this brand new offering
From a band called Mazzy Star
How long has it been?
Seventeen Years?
Unbelievable friendly ghosts from the past
Make this music comfortable all over again
Like the best shower I have ever experienced
In the middle of the winter in a cabin
Deep in the woods
My feelings and emotions are strong with this recording
The voice of Hope is mystical and enchanting
Dreamy acid folk perhaps?
Pastoral country sounds mixed with late smoky rainy nights
Strumming the chords and the tablature
Are plucking on my heart strings
Romance hugs me even with the lovely harmonica notes
May I just say thank you for creating this wonderful music
It has brought me so much joy
since I first heard a hypnotic song entitled “Fade Into You”
so many years ago
Seventeen years ago I was still in college
Yesterday you entered my soul again
As if there was not this gap of time and energy
Heartbeat never skipped
I blinked and you were back
To rescue me from my misguided sleep
I think like the beautiful purple album cover
Just a perfect surprise
For the year two thousand thirteen
I cannot stop playing this record
I am simply blown away
The Music Bard 