My Desert Island Playlist

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:

1. Dark Star by The Grateful Dead (From the Live/Dead album)
2. Seasons by Chris Cornell (From the Singles soundtrack)
3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd (From Wish You Were Here album)
4. Right Turn by Alice In Chains (from SAP ep)
5. A Day In The Life by The Beatles (From Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album)
6. Starla by The Smashing Pumpkins (From Pisces Iscariot B-Sides album)
7. Pneuma by Tool (From Fear Inoculum album)
8. Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed (Title Track)
9. Into Dust by Mazzy Star (From So Tonight That I Might See album)
10. 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.

Complaints and Grievances Part 1

It goes without saying that MUSIC is my escape and my obsession. When things suck in my life, I turn to music. Lately my stress at work has been elevated. People are grouchy and mean. Everything is NOW NOW NOW! Today was seriously an overwhelming day at work. Social distancing, major construction, repaving the driveways and parking lots, raining/snowing, truck deliveries getting re-routed to outer space and then my department is shorthanded. My supervisor has no compassion or a soul for that matter. I think that’s all. I got a bottle of wine waiting at home. But I also have music by my side.

Then I start worrying about things in my personal life. Do my obsessions take over my life. Am I a good father? Do I live up to the responsibilities of a good husband. Do I pray enough? Perhaps I eat too much junk food? Do I bother people on social media. I think I text too much. What is love? Do I wear my heart on my sleeve too loudly? I believe that I am a good person. My time on this planet is short. I just want to make the most of it.

I need a new playlist. Open to suggestions. This playlist is intended to comfort me in these hours of darkness and melancholy. But I am lost for words and ideas. Uninspired and drifting through my days lately. Laughter has always been a part of my personality. Humor gets me through my days just as much as music does. But I cannot help but just feel sad sometimes. A lot of people don’t appreciate me. Some do. I acknowledge them. They are great.

I wish I could stop dwelling on the things I don’t have. My impatience takes over me. I get over excited about people and things in my life. I don’t even know the point of this ramble.

So now I’m going to use this time to reflect a little bit and once again look into my past. I miss my family and all of our gatherings. From simple visits to grandma and grandpa’s house to long drives to Florida or to New York. I miss all of the birthday parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I loved watching my cousins grow up and making them all laugh when I danced with Santa Claus. I miss my friends from high school and college.

You know who you are. I thought something like Facebook was going to bring us together forever but life happens no matter what kind of social media comes along because we are not in control of our lives anymore. We have to adapt and we have to go wherever the tide takes us. We can surely make choices and we are entitled to our feelings. But the reality is, things burn and they crumble and rust, whether we want them to or not. Ships sink to the bottom of the ocean.

We enjoy the museums to appreciate the relics of our past. People die. Life is precious and we shouldn’t take anything for granted. Look around you. Look at the sun. Embrace the sky. Take a walk while you still can. It’s important to cherish our lives now while we are living them. New families are created and new friends are formed. I am trying to face myself in the mirror and confront my feelings because I have suffered writers block for sometime now.

Once in a great while a creative bubble forms but I am out of the flow. I have endured a great many obstacles in my life. But of course everybody that I know in my life has also endured a lot of pain and suffering as well. Proving once again that we are not alone in this great universe. And now……in my trembling hands with my head shaking in my parked car while listening to the song “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” by Tears for Fears and looking at the railroad tracks and dead trees behind them, I am speaking to everyone in my life (then and now) and I want to give everyone a big hug but I can’t because we are all under house arrest.

So hopefully we can get back to that before the world turns upside down because otherwise I guess it’s been nice knowing you. However, my faith and sense of humor are both strong and it may take a long long time to rebuild this nation. Maybe something really really scary like this has to happen so that everybody could just wake the fuck up!

Music is healing. The songs in my ears are healing. I am always on a quest searching for more songs to capture my world and encompass my feelings. Maybe someone will read this. Otherwise, I hope to gather a bunch of songs and use them for solace and an escape. Ahhh now I breath.

And now I Drop the Mic

April Showers Bring My Playlist

For this month, I was inspired to devote the entire playlist to RAINY DAY related music. In fact the picture posted here is a painting I recently did. A muse came over me and I was compelled to work on this art piece to represent these feelings about this type of music.

I love those rainy Saturdays from my childhood and teenage days. They were wonderful times to play games, watch tv or listen to music while doing homework or trading baseball cards with my friends. What is it about the sound of the splashing water against the house or the crash of thunder and lightning that fascinates me? I really do get so relaxed from such wonders of nature. Not only is there the calm before the storm but there is this sense of beauty that the earth will not let the rain stop coming down until it has refreshed the soil and allow the trees and the birds to have a pleasurable drink.

The music I would listen to taking a drive with my dad to the hardware store or going out to the movie theater with my friends had a soothing effect on me when it rained. I used to stare at the wiper blades and the telephone poles and pretend they were chopping them down. It was the imagination of a child that I once was.

Of course my point here in this post is to share my rainy day playlist because these songs represent those feelings of sitting on a rocking chair enduring late night conversations with my mother. Splashing in the puddles on my paper route while I listened to my walkman is something I treasure.

So I chose songs that have this soothing and melodic sense to them. Memories from my youth but also tracks from films and tunes I would hear in the background at memorial day parties are some of what is represented here. For example the song “No Rain” by Blind Melon reminds me of high school at the sock hops while it stormed outside. “Here Comes The Rain Again” by The Eurythmics tend to bring back the 80’s era sitting in the back seat and being driven to a pediatrician for my usual check up on a cloudy day. Sometimes these tunes just simply are perfect background music during a summer shower.

Finally Jimi Hendrix’s “Rainy Day ,Dream Away” first awakened my sense when I was 18 during my first summer working at the movie theater just before college started as I would blare it in my mom’s minivan driving to work. So why not check out my playlist. Maybe there are some songs not represented here that should be. Anyway here’s the list. GO find these songs and give them a spin.

JUST IN TIME FOR THE MARCH PLAYLIST

TIME for a new playlist. Brought to you by me. It is now the month of March. What songs do I wanna hear? Old man winter slowly fades but still dukes it out with Spring even when the 2Oth gets closer (first day of Spring). Daylight Savings just happened. We set our clocks forward and lose sleep but gain more light. Saint Patricks Day is a highlight because we are all Irish this time of year; drinking beer, going to parades and wearing green. Our Oldest niece, Amanda, celebrates her birthday St Patty’s weekend!! But the music of those folky bands has a nice touch as well. Speaking of music; my playlist deals with time, St Patty’s, the Spring season and the days getting nicer to be outside. (just ignore Storm Vulcan) I hope you dig the music! Cuz I do…..

1 Time by Pink Floyd
2 Time Has Come Today by The Chambers Bros.
3 Fields of Gold by Celtic Woman
4 Perfect Day by Lou Reed
5 Spring (Vivaldi)
6 Time of the Season by The Zombies
7 The Unicorn by Irish Rovers
8 Time to Move On by Tom Petty
9 The Times They are a Changing by Bob Dylan
10 Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles
11 Spring Vacation by The Beach Boys
12 Some Other Spring by Billie Holiday
13 Whiskey in the Jar by The Dubliners
14 Echoes of Spring by Willie The Lion Smith
15 Groovin by The Rascals
16 Mountain Dew (traditional Irish drinking song)

That’s all folks!

Hee Haw
C-Note

Who’s The Greatest Band?

Who’s The Greatest Band?

Is there one?

So I’m walking through the office and this guy has a list by his desk of what he considers “the top ten greatest bands of all time!” He’s written down bands like Limp Bizkit, Journey and Creed. Just stuff that makes me want to puke! This other guy, who sits next to him; has his list too which is slightly better but I don’t like Lynyrd Skynyrd and I’m not really into rap like Woo Tang Clan or other things of that nature.

So there was a debate going on with the two guys standing there and my wife and this other girl. Who are the greatest bands of all time? Two of us previously had this other list going on, we called it the frisbee list which we tossed back and forth and kept adding albums to that we believe to be really good…….at least 70% of the way through it. Ones that you rarely skip through. Essentially they are excellent all the way to the end of the record. That was the criteria.

But the whole thing is subjective, honestly. The more people that get involved with the frisbee list, there is going to be so much criteria that too much conflict of interest will occur. My lists are simply a personal thing. I choose my favorite albums of a given year. Or I choose playlists of the month that indicate a mood or a feeling. There’s a difference between favorite albums and favorite bands. Because you have to look at all of their individual records and decide what percentage of them are AWESOME!!!

All of our opinions are different. Surveys, polls, interviews and contests won’t yield any true accurate result. It essentially would last forever, the process. You could just keep listing band after band after band. Led Zeppelin, The Who, Genesis, Metallica (are they the greatest heavy metal band of all time???) and you could drive yourself crazy with a list like that.

In fact, I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a top ten list. They are invalid. I’ll tell you why. How likely are we going to agree on all of the choices? Opinions are so wild. Let’s say you bring up The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. They seem to be the undisputed champions of the British Invasion. But then you forget about bands like The Kinks. Friggin LOU REED!! Now he was a genius!! I brought some of that up during the “discussion” at the office but that seemed to get shot down, among other artists I mentioned, like Megadeth (poor man’s Metallica? Really?) .

But coming up with lists are fun and we like to debate. Its an interesting way to IDENTIFY ourselves. We are all uniquely passionate about various artists. Criteria is very important. You can’t just say “these are my favorite bands” and that’s it. Could be only how you feel in that exact moment you announce those musicians. Or only what you remember. What if from several months from now your opinion greatly changes. Then what?

I wish people would focus on the dawn of music, more so. At least recorded music. Go back to the 1920’s. How about Louis Armstrong? An amazing Jazz innovator and trumpeter. Woody Guthrie, the folk movement. Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane.

The bands on those lists in the office are just too specific to a certain time period. You can’t say that they’re the greatest bands of all time especially if you’re too zoomed in on a short period.

Is there a point to my babble?

You can’t ignore jazz. Take a music appreciation class that discusses the history of Rock and Jazz. Its important to learn about how things began. Appreciate the birth of rock and roll. How can you fully embrace what you listen to today without that knowledge?

My my top ten lists are only valid for my world. We listen to what we feel like.

Disagreements are okay.

I think many of us have come to the conclusion that the band Creed SUCKS!!! I don’t believe that most people today in America would say THAT band is one of the greatest groups of all time. In fact, I own the book entitled “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.” Creed is never mentioned. Just saying…

You got to live for today. Make your mixtapes for your friends. They’ll either like them or they won’t.

There was talk about The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sure I like them but I don’t worship them nor would I say that they were the defining band of my generation. That’s a bit much. But I did enjoy a couple of their records. Again…..more opinions. What about Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots. Its silly to only limit it to one band. Just personal favorite tastes. 31 flavors…like Baskin Robins. Ice cream. Tons of licks. Don’t all enjoy the same flavor but we all like ice cream.

If we took a look a several genres and chose 10 bands (artists) from each category we could use those artists as a springboard. Or even go by decades. But honestly, its an impossible mission. Music is always new. Even now as I write down these words, there are “up and coming bands” recording incredible sounds.

We debate

and in the end….we establish something….I guess

It passes the time

Oh and one last thought…….

Playlist For February

Or better known as, a mix of songs that represent being in love, out of love or just surrendering to the mood of this month. Valentines Day is certainly a widely celebrated holiday every year with chocolate, roses, wine, movies, kisses and MUSIC! It occurs right in the middle too so this day is surrounded by love and the lack of it. People fall in love and breakup too. Or there are plenty of people (I used to be one of them) who hate this month because greetings cards remind them how much love can stink. But I think in general, its a good month. It can be cold and snowy for sure but it also reminds us that we’re halfway through winter and Spring is just around the corner.

So I have a playlist that depicts many emotions that I display this month. I sympathize for friends, family, my wife and for myself. I feel love and gratitude and that mystery of the tremendous feeling of love that extends way beyond puppy love and crushes. Brotherly love, amazing friendships and being alive. Enough babble. Here it is:

1. Slide by The Goo Goo Dolls
The guitar strumming and romantic lyrics are lively and upbeat. Though it may seem strange that this song’s words are actually about a young couple thinking about an abortion. But it’s still good.

2.Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
this really is a sweet song

3. It’s True That We Love One Another The White Stripes
Here we get a snippet of the relationship between Jack White and his drummer, Meg. The mood of the song is whimsical with Jack, Meg and a British singer named Holly Golightly taking turns with childish punches.

4. Maps Yeah Yeah Years
Highly emotional song from Karen O and the gang

5. Linger The Cranberries
(see a previous “feature review” of this song here at my blog)

6. Sometimes My Bloody Valentine
(a classic song from a stupendous album)

7. Please, Please, Please Let Me The Smiths
Captivating and haunting, this is a classic Smiths track

8. Anyone Else But You The Moldy Peaches
Quirky, cute, simple and romantic, this duet always finds a way into your head. “Anyone Else But You” was also covered by Michael Cera And Ellen Page in the 2007 hit film Juno.

9. Crazy Love Van Morrison
you gotta love Van

10. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
perhaps this artists greatest tune ever

11. Head Over Feet Alanis Morissette
While she is usually spitting on men who have damaged her throughout this album, she takes a turn on this song. However, she still manages to say, “It’s all your fault.” Such Classic Alanis.

12. Son Of A Preacher Man Dusty Springfield
I always loved her voice and this song

13. Saw Red Sublime
This song was released in 1994 before Sublime or No Doubt were known by much of anyone outside of the Southern Cal. music scene. Lead singer Brad Nowell dated Gwen Stefani for a time before making this song.

14. I Hate The Way You Love The Kills
Distorted guitar and anti-Valentine’s Day lyrics,
this song is a perfect representation of a typical Kills song.

15. All I Want Is You Barry Louis Polisar
As soon as you get past the cheesiness of this song, featured on the “Juno” soundtrack, you realize it’s just great feel good music. It also kind of makes you want to square dance.

16. My Girl THE TEMPTATIONS
makes me smile and want to dance as well

17. These Arms Of Mine Otis Redding
powerfully moving song

18. Pictures Of You The Cure
this was an intensely fine moment for Robert Smith

19. Everlong Foo Fighters
heart and soul man

20. The Scientist Coldplay
The dense combination of Chris Martin’s voice and simplistic piano tempo makes “The Scientist” one of the band’s greatest ballads and one of the greatest ballads in general, maybe.

peace out c-note

Playlist for COLD Days

My songs here represent the feelings I have during this crappy January weather.

Holy Cow has it been cold and really snowy!!! It is a desolate, FREEZING cold and boring month. Kids went back to school, after their long winter break. Some college students didn’t go back until MLK’s Birthday recently. Nothing else really happens unless it snows…..and it certainly has been BELOW FREEZING, snowing and blowing. Then all sorts of outdoor activities pop up. Sledding, Skiing and snowball fights to name a few.

But what about the music? No holidays really. It’s cold and we just want to be warm and comfortable. So I have comprised a list of 20 tracks about winter, the cold, snow and some random ones that just “feel” good this month. Here they are:

1 Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow [Single Version] – Frank Zappa
2 Black Night – The Dodos
3 Sweetness Follows – R.E.M.
4 Aspenglow – John Denver
5 Not Dark Yet – Bob Dylan
6 How to Disappear Completely – Radiohead
7 The Cave – Mumford and Sons
8 White Winter Hymnal 97 – Fleet Foxes
9 Winter – Tori Amos
10 Song For A Winter’s Night – Sarah McLachlan
11 Winter Ghosts – JBM
12 Hidden In Snow – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
13 Winter Time – Steve Miller Band
14 Cold Blows The Wind – Ween
15 Snow & Taxis – Gold Panda
16 Too Many Miracles – Badly Drawn Boy
17 Doughnut for a Snowman – Guided by Voices
18 White As Snow – U2
19 Snowblind – Black Sabbath
20 Steal Softly Through Snow – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

ALWAYS OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS

IGNITION ZONE

My wife and I were driving around on a Sunday afternoon discussing music (of course!). We were trying to come up with a playlist that has a good “driving” feel to it. Like when you’re just cruising around the city not speeding but not crawling either. Its as if you own a really cool car and you’re looking to just take an hour or two with the kids, you’re best friend or anyone really and just relax and go for a casual drive experience. This isn’t very easy to describe but I’ll give it a shot. When I was a kid, I used to go for drives on the weekend with my dad. He would take me to the hardware store or to run an errand. I enjoyed rolling down my window and sticking my right arm out and feeling the breeze run through my bones as great music would play through the stereo in his pickup truck. He wasn’t whipping around corners and tearing the town up or driving real slow either. He had a focus but he enjoyed looking around, smoking a cigarette and enjoying his “Led Zeppelin,” “Pink Floyd,” Rolling Stones,” and “Creedance Clearwater Revival” music. He was in a chillaxed state of being.

So nowadays, we live in a more digital world. So its fun to watch some of these car commercials that evoke a new kind of sound while driving. There are plenty of car chase films and ones about roadtrips too. What really kicked this “playlist” into high gear was the soundtrack to the film Drive with Ryan Gosling. The music just sounded good on the way to work or late at night on the way to a restaurant or heading out into the city. Here is a sample of the playlist I am posting below.

So as you might have gathered, some songs have a certain sound that belong on a car stereo. The following list is one my beloved wife and I coined as Ignition Zone. It’s all about that feel of being in an automobile and not having a care in the world. Just you and the road and being transported into another dimension.

Night Call…….Kavinsky Feat. Lovefoxxx
1901……Phoenix
To Go Home……M. Ward
Kids……MGMT
timber……Coldcut and hexstatic
A Real Hero……….College Feat. Electric Youth
The Distance……CAKE
Qué Onda Guero……Beck
Drive…….The Cars
In Motion……….Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
In Limbo………Radiohead
midnight city………M83
Under Your Spell…….Desire
Another World………..The Chemical Brothers
End of Line………..Daft Punk
Electric Feel………MGMT
ghostwriter…….RJD2
Tick Of The Clock………..Chromatics

December Playlist…..CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Are you tired of the same old songs? Want to hear something different? Well then look no further! I have a list of 25 songs here that are alternative and independent choices that will most certainly wake your ears up to brand new sounds! These tracks aren’t in any particular order. You can easily find them on iTunes, Youtube or Amazon. I will list them here and post a couple of video highlights. Enjoy!

Artist/SONG

01 Matt Harding/PURPLE SNOWFLAKES
02 Current Swell/CHRISTMAS ALONE
03 Julian Casablancas/CHRISTMAS TREAT
04 Still Corners/THE WHITE SEASON
05 Jars of Clay/LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS
06 Weezer/O HOLY NIGHT
07 The Layaways/O CHRISTMAS TREE
08 Young Moon/COLD DAY SOLSTICE
09 Travis Denning/BALLAD OF RUDOLPH
10 Trainwreck Riders/CHRISTMAS TIME BLUES
11 There Will Be Fireworks/IN EXCELSIS DEO
12 Los Straitjackets/DECK THE HALLS
13 Oh, Hush!/CHRISTMAS WITH YOU
14 She & Him/CHRISTMAS WISH
15 Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra/CAROL OF THE BELLS
16 Snow Patrol/WHEN I GET HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
17 The Raveonettes/THE CHRISTMAS SONG
18 Vampire Weekend/HOLIDAY
19 Oasis/MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY
20 Death Cab For Cutie/CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME)
21 Lenka/ALL MY BELLS ARE RINGING
22 Bahamas/CHRISTMAS MUST BE TONIGHT
23 The Eastern Sea/O, HOLY NIGHT
24 Andrew Belle/HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
25 Niki & The Dove/WINTERHEART

MERRY CHRISTMAS

C-NOTE

Nothing’s Wrong With Me

Caution: FOR MUSIC FANS ONLY!!!!!

I prefer to escape into the world of music. I am a geek about it.

When people ask me “so what kind of music do you listen to?” Or “who’s your favorite band?”or “what’s your favorite album?” That one is not easy to answer. What do I say?

I get that question asked often and I figured I’d develop this blog entry into that subject to give you an idea and get people inside my head. For one I could say that I have eclectic interests so I appreciate rock & roll and jazz mostly. Those are the foundations. But I would say that those two are only the major things because there’s punk rock, indie rock, metal, acoustic ballads, folk, blues, there are just so many facets to listen to. Like I listen to AC-DC & Alice in Chains but I’ll listen to John Coltrane or Miles Davis or the Grateful Dead (yea I know some of you don’t like them), Pink Floyd, the talking heads, the cure, smashing pumpkins, the beastie boys, tool, led zeppelin, the Beatles, the Who, and I could think of all the concerts I’ve been to. Like I’ve recently been to a show featuring this band called Savages and I’ve blogged about them a few times. So go check it out!!!

But I listen to artists like Neko case, which she’s a country, noir kind of alternative, indie punk-ish sound and then I listen to Colin Hay who was once with MEN AT WORK and he’s got that 80’s poppy background (WHO CAN IT BE NOW?) but now he tends to do more of the acoustic melodies. Perfect story teller. So yea I love going to concerts. Not just the big arenas, the lollapaloozas, where there’s a gigantic festival and a bunch of stages and you’re like an ant among the sea of people. Not just that. Those are fine. But I like the intimate small gatherings to get in touch with the performer on stage.

So it’s about a live experience too and growing up I collected cassette tapes, particularly the blank ones I would record stuff off the radio or even burn……well not burn because at the time you would just have the CD player which in 1990 was definitely the year that I caught onto this concept. That was 23 years ago. So WAAAAAY BACK IN THE DAY, 23 years ago I started to play CDs but I didn’t have my own cd player and I didn’t have my own CDs either so I would play my dad’s CDs and I would make cassette tapes off of them. My favorite tracks. And I distinctly remember listening to a radio station called 105.9 WCKG and it always like played the classic rock music, mostly the stuff from the 1970’s in general. I mean yes the 60’s too I guess mid to late 60’s thru the late 70’s. Like a decades worth of all kinds of anthem, acid rock! You got Alabama, Boston, Yes, and like I said Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, The Doors all that stuff.

And I listened to it all but I distinctly remember on Sunday nights there was a program called the SEVENTH DAY and they would play entire albums. They would play vinyl LPS. SIDE A and SIDE B.

So I would get out my cassette tapes and every Sunday night depending on what bands they announced, I would record those particular albums. So usually it would work out that side A of a cassette tape would correspond to side 1 of an LP or well that’s not entirely true. That depends on the length of tape and everything so it was a dependent thing, so anyway I would record those things. I would listen to them. Several Pink Floyd records like The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon and then for the Beatles I remember recording the White Album and building a model rocket with my dad this one time, hanging out in my room. Even the antenna fell off and I had to scramble to fix it, giving this one song a static interruption. LOL. And then also for the Doors, I recorded this whole “absolutely live” kind of thing. Which was like a double LP.

I remember I had like 2 tapes devoted to that Doors show. I played it in my dad’s truck one time driving up to Monroe, Wisconsin. So anyway that’s what I grew up with. I mean if you go back to the 80’s, I just remember listening to pop radio, the American top 40 from the 1980’s. It was all about the “radio.”

My parents also played the oldies stations. MAGIC 104 was their calling tag! The 50’s and 60’s bubble gum popping stuff from the hay day, the dawn of Rock and Roll. What my parents grew up with. And I actually still don’t object to that stuff. But you get burnt out and you always explore. Anyway I ventured on as I got into high school. Got into other bands. As I mentioned earlier; Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots and Depeche Mode. I simply got into bands like those. The early 1990’s was a special time for me in high school. I really just branched off.

So to take this all back home. This blog entry is gonna be devoted to the “types” of music that I listen to. I’ll invite you into my rock soul. I am going to share with you a playlist that makes people understand Chris Noe. Volume One is where I will naturally begin. I was making these ” tape mixes” over the summer but now I need to focus some more on my second book of poetry and prose, for one, but also musically I wish to share different aspects from various eras to help the audience get properly introduced into my head space and where it’s at.

Get into my mind. What is it about this playlist that when someone listens to it that they get to understand ME better? Will it simply be the musicians like the ones that I saw live in concert? The Rolling Stones perhaps? Eric Clapton? Joe Cocker? Is it those artists or is it really just the lyrics or a certain area in my life or do we just take the 37 year old Chris Noe right now and for somebody who just met me. Getting to know me through music. What are those songs? What are those titles? What are those albums to get YOU through the doorway and be able to scratch the surface of Chris…..that kind of mix.

I have chosen 10 MTV MUSIC VIDEOS that I grew up with to represent volume ONE: