A few weeks ago, MaryB at alone with each other wrote about 25 books or authors that had a big impact on her. I am the world's lamest English teacher, so I actually added nothing to the conversation. Well, I haven't yet come down from my Cleveland high, so I am still in a musical mood. I thought that I'd post a list of the top 30 (I tried to stay to 25, but I just couldn't) of songs or musical acts that have had a big impact on my life. The list is alphabetical.
1. "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers: Okay, laugh all you want. I was 9 or 10 years old and I couldn't get enough of these Scottish boys. It wasn't the plaid on their clothes. It was that they left the top button on their pants undone. I knew that made them slightly dangerous and it peaked my very youthful attention.
2. The Beatles: For a while, as a non-baby boomer, I was completely sick of the Beatles. As a matter of fact, I still feel that way about Led Zeppelin. Unlike Led Zeppelin, I have come to fully appreciate how brilliant these guys were. I made sure that Sgt Pepper was the first CD I ever purchased.
3. David Bowie: I'd have to say that I love everything that David Bowie has ever recorded (except for China Girl). For me, the best are the albums from the Berlin trilogy: Low, Heros, and Lodger. He is artist who stayed one step ahead of trends and provoke controversy before Madonna could spell the word.
4. The Clash: This is yet another artist that I can't make one single song choice. London Calling is rife with amazing songs that touch on many genres. The Sex Pistols may have been the first, but, like Bowie, the Clash wouldn't be pigeon holed into making only one type of music. The first concert I ever saw was The Clash on the Combat Rock tour. I wore that t-shirt thread bare.
5. "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copeland: I love the scope and sweep of this composition. I am a complete novice when it comes to orchestral music, but this took my breath away the first time I heard it.
6. "32 Flavors" by Alana Davis: This is a one hit wonder that just struck a nerve. I have always felt like I am so much more than what people can see - a virtual 32 flavors.
7. "Tangled up in Blue" by Bob Dylan: In the summer of 1985, I was the full-time baby-sitter for this very annoying yuppie couple who lived around the block. The three-year old spoke in a perma-whine and the six-year old was already telling his parents that he didn't want to attend the University of Michigan. The best part of this deal for me was the parents copy of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks." I was already a Dylan fan, but the story telling in "Tangled up in Blue" has influenced the way I write short stories and poems.
8. "Lost in the Music" by Eminem: Heads and shoulders the best song ever about wanting to be famous. I don't really like the rest of Em's songs, but I can't get enough of this one.
9. Billie Holliday: She was my introduction to blues. An excellent place to start.
10. "Raw Power" by Iggy and the Stooges: Punk before the Ramones and the Pistols. This band is not in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and I won't visit until that is rectified. Good Detroit rock n'roll.
11. "Hammer and a Nail" by the Indigo Girls: I often like music that has a message and I love the message in this song. If I need a pick me up, I crank this tune, just to remind me that I can do anything.
12. "At Last" by Etta James: Yet another that introduced me to a different type of music. It's sexy and sophisticated.
13. Janis Joplin: I don't know what I can say about Janis Joplin that hasn't already been said.
14. John Lennon: He is the Beatle I followed for the rest of his career. He wasn't afraid to experiment or lay raw emotion out on the floor. I admired his courage.
15. "American Pie" by Don McLean: I was born in 1967 and this song is like a history lesson for me. I love all the cultural references and I love Buddy Holly.
16. "Sing! Sing! Sing!" by Glenn Miller: When I was a small child, we had this enormous stereo and at night, my father would play big band music. I need total silence to fall asleep, so I would beg my father to turn the music off. As a result, I hated big band music. At some point as a teenager, I heard "Sing! Sing! Sing!" and I did a 180. Of course, I didn't tell my dad.
17. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana: Thank Buddha for grunge and in particular this song. Without it, we might have been stuck with big hair bands like Ratt and Poison for longer. Kurt Cobain's lyrics about complete boredom and detachment from the world are powerful.
18. "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order": This song is a mish-mash of memories for me. Right after college, I was engaged to be married. Three months before the wedding, I went and visited a friend in Indiana. She and I went with her brother and some of his friends to the bar. This song came on and one of the friends, Joe, asked me to dance and let's just say that something...sparked. I went home and called off the wedding. More recently, this is the first "pop" song that I played for Andrew and it is the first song to which we danced.
19. "Black" by Pearl Jam: I love the line "I know you'll be the sun in somebody else's sky, but why can't it be mine." Eddie Vedder delivers it in such an angst driven way, I just want to give him a hug. I find the whole song to be very romantic.
20. "South Central Rain" by R.E.M.: There were so many choices from R.E.M. Time and time again, I come back to this song. It's comfort food for my soul.
21. Rent: I have seen this musical perhaps four or five times. There is something there that speaks to a part of me that is hidden away for my own safety. "Forget regrets, or life is your's to miss."
22. "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones: I love, love, love Marianne Faithful's solo in this song. Everytime I hear it, I want to sing like her.
23. Squeeze: Hmm...where to start? Chris Difford's positively brilliant lyrics or Glenn Tilbrook's masterful construction of perfect pop tunes? It doesn't matter, this has been my number one band forever and I suspect that they always will be.
24. The Smiths: Snarky and cad-like lyrics backed by Johnny Marr's amazing guitar playing. This band could have given Squeeze a run for the number one spot, except Glenn is soooo much cuter than Morrissey.
25. Tosca: This first opera that had me in it's grip from the opening curtain. I changed my mind about opera after seeing Tosca.
26. "Herion" by the Velvet Underground: A dangerous song. I was overwhelmed by the feedback and honesty of the lyrics. I have never taken drugs, but this song is great.
27. Paul Weller: It doesn't matter if this man is in The Jam, the Style Council, or on his own - he is GOD!
28. Stevie Wonder: I could write the same thing here as I wrote for Paul Weller. Stevie has tackle so many different types of music and a wide array of subject matters. Most of it amazing.
29. "Everytime You Go Away" by Paul Young: The summer after I graduated from high school, 1985, my family took in a French exchange student, Staphane, for a month. He was very cute, but my parents kept a very short leash on us - planning events or outings every night. I should have lost something that summer, but we couldn't shake my parents. This song was playing in the car as we drove him to the airport. We both cried like babies.
30. X: The best American punk band of the 80s and Excene Cervenka rocks.
Do you care to share any of your favorite songs or performers.
17 comments:
Interesting blog!!! I agree with number 8, but i still like his music...
Hey Salah!
Welcome to my writing world. I'm glad you stopped by. Check out some of the other music, I've always enjoyed older music. It gives me an appreciation for what's currently on the radio.
I don't think I could get to 25, although who knows, maybe I could. Which is kind of odd since I've always loved music. Here's a shot at 10:
1. Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado". When I was a little kid the people that lived behind us had a garage sale and my mom took us and bought us some kids records. We just called them the "Blue Records" because the label was blue. They had lots of kids songs AND the story of the Mikado with selections of the songs. We played that over and over and to this day I love The Mikado.
2. Stairway to Heaven - because I danced to it all through highschool at every school dance. I actually liked Color my World better but it was Stairway to Heaven that I was always asked to dance to. I've never really been a Led Zeppelin fan but that brings back memories. The first boy I ever kissed I kissed while dancing to Stairway to Heaven. I remember the song, I remember what he looked like, I remember what he smelled like but .. I can't remember his name. He was somebody's friend and he asked me to dance.
3. Born to Run/Bruce Springsteen - I associate this with my first two years of college even though it came out when I was in high school. I've been a lifelong Bruce fan since college when all my New Jersey friends converted me into one.
4. Billy Joel - two things. "Your Always a Woman to Me" I've always hated. I associate it with my first college roommate who was really annoying and I don't really want to remember but she was right when she said it sounded like it came from a Geritol commercial. And when the Kiel Center Arena opened Billy Joel was the opening act and my MOM went to the concert with a bunch of us because she'd never been to a concert before. THAT is a memory. :)
5. Bee Gees. Yeah my college days were weird. It was the disco era and at every party we'd all dance to the Bee Gee's except when we were singing along to Bruce songs.
6. Madonna. When I was in my twenties Madonna was the Material Girl. I had a lot of fun in my twenties. I had a low paying office job with minimal responsibility and could go out a lot. And Madonna was always playing. I had large groups of friends and we would go out dancing which leads me to ...
7. Michael Jackson. Thriller and Off the Wall came out when I was in my Twenties and, well, we danced to it. A lot. (Looking at my list of music, so far, most of it isn't music I really listen to anymore except for Bruce and Gilbert and Sullivan, the rest of it is just a key for great memories.)
8. Tosca. You and I are alike on this Toni. Tosca was the first opera I went back to see a second time.
9. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 2 - my favorite piece of classical music in the world. And has been since I can remember.
10. Samuel Barber's Summer of 1915. My former assistant became a professional opera singer and I heard her sing this at her master's recital and knew she was never coming back to work for me. But I've loved it completely since then.
There's ten. This is a completely different list than if I were to list my 10 favorite artists or songs.
mary,
I love the "Stairway to Heaven" story. The fact that you can remember how he smelled is a great detail.
Welcome Ruth. I'm glad you like what you've seen. Stop by and visit again.
Hi Toni,
I really got into Bowie way back then. I got to see one of his concerts, Diamond Dogs, and really enjoyed it.
I recognize a lot of the older bands you have, but the newer ones I have no idea.
My Mom was a big band fan and I was like you on not like it when I was younger. Over the years though, there is some big band music that I think is great.
Maybe next time you do this, you can come up with the top ten concerts you went to.
Hope you have a good w/e.
Hi FM,
I'm not so sure abut the concert list. I never had a lot of money as a kid, so I didn't go to nearly as many as I'd have like to:(
I SO don't have enough time to think it through like you did. Off the top of my head:
1-Delores Claman - The Hockey (night in canada) Theme was one of the greatest ever! It's probably the oldest song I can remember from my earliest childhood.
2-Pictures at an Exhibition
3-Take 5 - Dave Brubeck
4-Barber of Seville
5-Sinatra - 'nuf said
6-Aaron Copeland
7-Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim
8-Rush (Geddy Lee - one of a kind)
9-I'm Still Alive by Pearl Jam (Eddie Vedder - one of a kind)
10-Leonard Cohen (one of the greatest song writers ever)
11-Tragically Hip (Gord Downie -one of the greatest poets and songwriters ever)
12-Bubba O'Reilly - The Who (Teenage Wasteland)
13-Magic Power - Triumph (theme song of my youth)
14-Sweet Child O' Mine - GNR (one of the all time greats)
15-Iko Iko (et toi! a Zydeco classic)
16-Radio Free Europe - REM (the start of my love affair with REM)
17-New Year's Day - U2 (the start of my love affair with U2)
18-Morrisey/The Smiths - especially The Queen is Dead
19-Oh Sit Down - James (just a fun song to belt out, I mean sing)
20-Interstate Love Song - STP
21-Grunge - the music of my young adulthood
22-Johnny Cash (the first musician I ever loved - at a very early age)
23-Fast Car - Tracy Chapman (the song was played over and over and over and over on the radio the semester I spent at McGill - every time I hear it it reminds me of Montreal)
24-Rent (seasons of looooooove)
25-Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams (was played the night the Wings won The Cup in '97, as the confetti fell on my face and I revelled in the glory of it)
26-I Would Die 4 U - Prince
27-Good Mother - Jann Arden
28-Truganini - Midnight Oil
29-Manic Depression - Jimmy Hendrix
30-Stevie Ray Vaughn
You're right - 30 is not so hard to come up with!
- Suzanne
Thanks for playing Suzanne! You've got lots of great stuff - I love Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Maybe I should have had an end-of-us song too, eh? What I remember most was breaking up to Ernie Harwell's first last game, where he finished up, voice cracking with poetry. Sounds a little hokey, I guess, but I suppose one had to be there....how about these, as an incomplete list, songs only (with few exceptions) in no particular order:
1 - Over Under Sideways Down, Yard birds
2 - Crosstown Traffic, Jimi Hendrix
3 - Age of Aquarius, 5th Dimension
4 - Time - Chambers Brothers
5 - Carry On, CSN (barely beats Wooden Ships, but beat it, it does)
6 - I Got a Line on You - Spirit (still love that one...had the 45 you gave me for years)
7 - The entire Sinatra Family Christmas album
8 - Journey to the Center of the Mind - Amboy Dukes (though I really hate to give that kook Nugent any credit)
9 - The Immigrant Song - Led Zep (and I DO love Led Zeppelin)
10 - War Pigs - Sabbath
11 - Limelight - Rush
12 - Mirror in the Bathroom - The Beat
13 - We Are Spirits - Police
14 - What Difference Does it Make? - The Smiths (there will never be another like them...never never never..)
15 - Internationalists - Style Council (my heroes)
16 - Son of Ford Mustang - Swervedriver (best driving song EVER!!!!)
17 - Portable Men's Societies - Guided by Voices (absolute, unadulterated genius...)
18 - Flat Earth - Thomas Dolby (makes me cry just thinking how the world has changed for me since then)
19 - Mesopotamia - B52s (loved the killa mix by the Electrifying Mojo, back in the WJLB days)
20 - Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant (it rewired my brain)
21 - The Incumbent - Soul Coughing (you will regret ever getting me started talking on this band...best of the 90's as far as I am concerned)
20 - North Cedar - House of Large Sizes (best band you never heard of..hands down)
21 - Glamorous Life - Sheila E (if you were ever 14 and a boy, you get this one...she KICKS the cymbal!)
22 - Welcome to the Terrordome - Public Enemy (riveting....that song compelled me to learn it word by word)
23 - Holiday Song - The Pixies
24 - Lone Rhino - Adrian Belew
25 - Cue Fanfare - Prefab Sprout
26 - Erotic City - Prince (he was just, well, sexy....there, I said it)
27 - Waking of the Witch - Kate Bush (never got her due in the US as the visionary she is)
28 - Kiss of Life - Peter Gabriel (best concert I ever saw, and I did see the Smiths, and, for the purposes of this blog, Squeeze!)
29 - Add It Up - Violent Femmes
30 - Equus - Arm of Slug (OK, that was my band with George, but the song was really cool...I played drums and sang it)
Whew...I have a lot more than that. But shutting up is on my agenda.
OMG Chuck! I knew I could count on you. Nice nickname, by the way. Your list makes mine look so pedestrian, I'm embarrassed. "Carry On" is my all-time favorite CSN&Y song.
ok, in my view you GOTTA (the more imperative of HAFTA) have a Billy Bragg tune on any best-of list. 'A New England' would be a strong choice, but to keep things edgy I'm voting for 'Great Leap Forward.' Billy delivers with lyrics like 'The Revolution is just a T-shirt away.' Sing us home Biwwy. Sing us home.
Billy Bragg is amazing!!! I don't know why I keep forgetting him. What a bad union leader I am. Thanks for the reminder Gary.
Alright, I gotta admit, I laughed at #1. I wish I was alive when guys walked around with hair like that.
I got into The Beatles through Lennon, versus the reverse, so it was interesting to see the progression.
I haven't heard too much from Bowie, but I gotta say, I absolutely love "Bring Me the Disco King"
Dylan, what can I say about Dylan? Dude has jumped genres more times than I've fallen off a bicycle, but even before I really knew who he was, I heard "Mr. Tambourine Man" from his early days and knew he'd be, if nothing else, interesting. I also liked The Byrds cover of it- but the Jimi Hendrix cover? Not so much.
I recently burned "At Last" on a cd for my girlfriend 'cause she hadn't heard it, and I thought that weird 'cause, even if you don't know it, you've heard this song. Makes me wonder what songs from my era will really last through the years.
Anyway, I'm gonna miss my bus to Kalamazoo. I liked this list idea, I think you should do an extended version.
Hello Mrs. Coral,
This by far has to be my favorite blog post from you. I am always searching for new music (that includes old classics) and I’m going to use your blog to look some of these artists/songs up, so thank you.
My list includes (no order):
01. Eminem: He has been my inspiration and my motivation in life (I even was inspired to write poetry). Whenever I would listen to his music, I would feel re-energized. You have no idea how many times he helped bring me out of my many depressions (down times). By the way, the song you like by him, #8 is actually called “Lose Yourself.” A few more songs that I like from him are “8 Mile Road,” “Rabbit Run,” “Without Me,” and “Sing for the Moment.” He by far has been the biggest impact on my life.
02. 2Pac: The second artist who had a big impact on me would be the legendary 2Pac. There’s something about his music that moves me. A few songs that really move me are “So Many Tears,” “Only God Can Judge Me,” and “Only Fear of Death.”
03. The Beatles: For my 18th birthday, I was at a music store and I saw The Beatles 1 CD, so I decided to buy. I had no idea who they were, but I heard a lot of great things about them. I was not disappointed. That whole CD was awesome. My favorite song has to be “Yellow Submarine.”
04. Johnny Cash: Hurt, Cocaine Blues, and Gods Gonna Cut You Down.
05. Beethoven – Fur Elize
06. Carl Orff – Carmina Burana (awesome CD)
07. Elvis Presley: Jailhouse Rock, Shook Me All Night, and That’s All Right Mama (My favorite artist).
08. Tony Bennett – Steppin’ Out With My Baby (My favorite song)
09. Queen: Living On My Own (remixed by Julian Raymond), Another One Bites The Dust, Save Me, We Will Rock You, I Want It All, I Want To Break Free, Headlong, Miracle, Show Must Go On, Under Pressure, Let Me Live, Princess Of The Universe, and Great Pretender.
10. Duran Duran: Notorious and A View To A Kill
11. Def Leopard: Pour Some Sugar On Me, Rock On
12. Modern Talking – Brother Louie
13. KC and the Sunshine Band: That’s The Way I Like It and Jungle Boogie
14. KoRn – Coming Undone
15. David Guetta – When Love Is Gone (amazing artist)
16. Alicia Keys – Karma and No One
17. Jordin Sparks – One Step At A Time
Anyways, I can’t think of anymore… All of these songs I mentioned had some impact on me… I don’t have much time to go into detail as to how, but they did. Take care.
Thanks Amel. Your list is really interesting. I very much like the Johnny Cash tunes you picked.
Hey Taki. I hope you caught your bus. Have you heard the Jimi Hendrix cover of Dylan's "All Along the Watch Tower"?
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kelvin
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