{"id":130,"date":"2005-06-14T17:23:02","date_gmt":"2005-06-14T21:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=130"},"modified":"2005-06-14T17:23:02","modified_gmt":"2005-06-14T21:23:02","slug":"meme-meme-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"meme meme meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudi has taken the concept of the meme and turned it into a memoir on his personal music history<\/a>. And he has passed the torch on to me to do the same.<\/p>\n

Some people would give lazy, impatient readers a hyperlink to jump down to the survey at this point. I am not such a person. Scroll down yourself if you’re that impatient. Otherwise, journey back in time with me…
\n
\nGrowing up, I can’t remember a time that wasn’t filled with music. Some people nowadays play music for their babies in utero<\/em>, hoping to raise smart children. My parents played music all the time because they loved music. I think we grew up pretty smart, so I guess it was a side benefit anyway.<\/p>\n

We listened to all sorts of music in our house — country, Mo-Town, folk, pop, classic rock, disco, classical… We were exposed early to the Beatles (whom we liked) and to Bob Dylan (whom we didn’t). Dad has a recording of me (maybe when I was five?) and Josh (who must have been two) singing “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.” I believe there also is a recording of us doing “Put the Lime in the Coconut.” I can remember him later trying to arrange a family a capella<\/em> version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” while we were driving to pick up our Friday night pizza once.<\/p>\n

When we got up in the morning, the radio went on. And something was playing on the stereo pretty much until we went to bed. We fell asleep to music (I, in particular, liked a Sesame Street recording called Good Night, Bird<\/em> and, later, a Kenny Loggins album, Return to Pooh Corner<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Dad had a system wired through the house so he could listen uninterrupted to the same music in the dining room, the living room, and the den. He had a separate sound system — which included my Uncle George’s reel-to-reel player — in what used to be his dark room. The deck had outlets and speaker shelves for his outdoor audio set-up, which was really just a boombox that he set up to provide surround-sound. There were radios in the kitchen, the bathroom, and all the bedrooms.<\/p>\n

Josh and I had our own record player in our bedroom and our own set of records.<\/p>\n

Even our tv watching was music themed — from Band Stand<\/em> with Mum to The Muppet Show<\/em> to The Mandrell Sisters<\/em>, The Patridge Family<\/em> reruns, Jackson 5 cartoons, and Donnie and Marie<\/em>. Fame<\/em> was a particular favorite of mine.<\/p>\n

I don’t remember John Lennon being shot, but I recall Mum crying when Harry Chapin died.<\/p>\n

I remember my first musical angst was brought on in fourth grade when I felt peer pressure to like Michael Jackson<\/a>‘s Thriller<\/em> instead of the John Denver<\/a> and Harry Chapin<\/a> I preferred. Little did I know that while I would one day come to know most of the words to the songs on Jackson’s famous album, that I would still be listening John Denver and Harry Chapin all these years later. (In fact, we watched a the John Denver wildlife concert on WETA Saturday night.)<\/p>\n

When I was in middle school, I bought a stereo at a church sale for a dollar. It came complete with a turn table, a receiver, two speakers, and an eight-track player. For those of you who are my age (or younger), an eight-track player is the predecessor to a tape player, which is (for my really young readers) the predecessor to a cd player. If you don’t know what a cd player is, you’re too young to read my blog.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what record or tape I first spent my own money on (Mum might), but two of the earliest that Josh and I bought (sometime in middle school) must have been Christian hair band Stryper<\/a>‘s Yellow and Black Attack<\/em> (the record itself was blue translucent vinyl) and Cher<\/a>‘s eponymous album.<\/p>\n

High school brought my first concerts — at Lake Compounce amusement park<\/a>. The first was Tiffany (I still have the huge concert tee and sleep in it periodically), with New Kids on the Block opening. The second was New Kids as the main act.<\/p>\n

I headed to college in 1992 with a brand new cd player and one cd — Enya<\/a>‘s Watermark<\/em> — both gifts from my folks. I think REM<\/a>‘s Out of Time<\/em> might have been the first cd I actually bought, but I don’t remember. I discovered Tori Amos<\/a> my freshman year through an appearance on David Letterman’s show<\/a>. Kim brought the Indigo Girls<\/a> to my attention my junior year, the same year Eric gave me a greater appreciation for James Taylor<\/a>. (I bought us tickets to see him that summer at Hartford’s newly built Meadows amphitheatre<\/a> — our concert preceded the actual inaugural concert by a few days and our inside “seats” were actually folding chairs.) Danny introduced me to Dar Williams<\/a> my senior year.<\/p>\n

And since then it’s been a little of this, a little of that. I’ve been to Newport Folk Fest<\/a>, Lilith Fair, Falcon Ridge<\/a>, and New Haven Folk Festival<\/a>. I’ve seen Paula Cole at Toad’s Place<\/a> in New Haven, Erin McKeown at a House o’Muzak (now Hear at the HOMe) house concert<\/a>, Bob Dylan at Jones Beach, Vance Gilbert at a house concert in what used to be a church<\/a>, John Mayer at the Oakdale, and David Wilcox at a church on Cap Hill. I’ve seen Richie Havens in Middletown, Odetta in New Haven, The Nields in Hartford, Joni Mitchell in New York, Paul McCartney on Long Island, James Taylor in Virginia Beach, and Simon and Garfunkel in D.C.<\/p>\n

So it’s always a mix of new and old, pop and folk, mainstream and indie. And that’s good. But overall what matters is that I keep listening and sharing and singing along. And that you sing with me.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite monologues in television history comes from The Monkees<\/em>, the reruns of which I watched as a teenager. It’s from an episode where Peter Tork accidentally makes a deal with the devil to give up his soul in exchange for the ability to play the harp and make beautiful music that made people happy. The quote is from Mike Nesmith’s defense of Peter:<\/p>\n

No, you didn’t give him the ability to play the harp. You see, Peter loved the harp, and he loved the music that came from the harp and that was inside of him. And it came … it was the power of that love was inside of Peter. It was inside of him from the first. And it was that kind of power that made Peter able to play the harp and you didn’t have anything to do with it at all. Don’t you understand what that means when you have that inside of you? What comes out. If you love music, man, you can play music. If people say I can’t carry a note, I can’t say, I can’t sing, I’m tone deaf. But nobody’s tone deaf and if you love music you can play music. And all it takes is just love, because, baby, in the final analysis, love is power. That’s where the power’s at. And you want to tell me that you gave it to him but I know different, because I’m a musician. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, with that, I give you the meme:<\/p>\n

Total volume of music on my computer:<\/strong>
\nMy iPod has 3.84 GB of music on it — 881 songs or just over 55 hours of music. (Rudi and I also have about 1,500 cds between us, which is how I still listen to most of my music. I downloaded weeks’ worth of music onto my computer at Wes, and it was just too painful to lose it all when I left, so now I just have a day’s worth of music on the work machine and mostly just tune in BBC Radio via the Web or Grassy Hill Radio via iTunes.)<\/p>\n

The last CD I bought:<\/strong>
\nThe last CD I bought would technically be Phil Roy’s Issues + Options<\/em>, my June selection from Ronald’s Record Club<\/a>. The last CD I went out and bought intentionally would be Bruce Springsteen’s Devils and Dust<\/em>, a birthday gift from Gramma to Rudi. The last CDs I bought for me were two used Oasis Acoustic compilation discs. I bought all three of those at Turn It Up<\/a> in Northampton, Mass.<\/p>\n

Song playing right now:<\/strong>
\nOn Virgin Radio’s iTunes feed during the final editing process: ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man,” The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me,” The Beatles’ “Let It Be,” and The Callings’ “Wherever You Will Go.”<\/p>\n

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first one is a listen-to-a-lot song, but the rest are songs that I have strong associations with.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “The World Ain’t Slowin’ Down” by Ellis Paul<\/a><\/li>\n

    If, like in Ally McBeal<\/em>, we were going to pick personal anthems, this would be mine. It never fails to leave me dancing and singing along (although I sing silently when on the Metro) and smiling. And it never fails to leave someone else smiling as they watch me do this in public. And we all need a little more of that in our lives.<\/p>\n

  2. “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand <\/li>\n

    We were performing the play Send Me No Flowers<\/em> the night in middle school when my dad’s mom died, and this was one of the songs that was played during the intermission. I think of her whenever I hear it.<\/p>\n

  3. “Sometimes When We Touch” by Dan Hill<\/a><\/li>\n

    This was my prom theme and I will forever stop what I’m doing when it comes on the radio. For the record, I had a perfect time at my prom with my best friend, Danny. We danced a lot<\/strong> that night.<\/p>\n

  4. “Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard<\/a>” by Paul Simon<\/li>\n

    My senior year of college, I started dating Rudi, who is a big Simon and Garfunkel fan<\/a>. I borrowed a Paul Simon cd from Rebs and played it for several weeks with my door open (my door was always open in college). One day I turned around during “Mother and Child Reunion” and Brian was standing there. Meeting Brian led to my coming into the darkened Blackstone living room one night to hear him play his guitar.<\/p>\n

    “You can come in,” he said. “But you have to sing.”<\/p>\n

    I’m not a good singer, but that wasn’t a sufficient excuse for Brian. And it shouldn’t be. Because music makes us happy and unites us and helps us deal with emotions that are bigger than we are.<\/p>\n

    Eventually it became a large group of us. Brian and Rudi would play guitar, as would Jeff if he was down visiting Brian. ECN would add his melodic whistle (which surprised Brian the first time Eric did it). The rest of us would sing. We took turns picking songs.<\/p>\n

    We don’t have a broad repertoire, but we can handle most popular James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel songs (including Paul Simon solo works). We also include a good number of Peter, Paul, and Mary songs, and the occasional Indigo Girls, Beatles, CSNY, and Kansas tunes.<\/p>\n

    “Me and Julio” is the song we do best. We all sing loud. We join Eric on the whistling. Rudi and Brian strum loudly. It works. And it works well.<\/p>\n

  5. “Alice’s Restaurant<\/a>” by Arlo Guthrie<\/li>\n

    Dad played this song every Thanksgiving when my brother and I were growing up. (Chances are he probably played it before we were born, too, but we weren’t around to hear it then.) Josh and I hated the song — it went on for half an hour! So when we got our own bedrooms, we used to close the doors and play our own music when Dad started the song. So he responded by waiting until we were driving home from Gramma and Grampa’s (usually a 10-minute drive) and playing the song in the car’s tape player. So we retaliated by stealing the tape before the next Thanksgiving. The flaw in this plan, of course, is that Dad owned the song on record and could just make himself another copy.<\/p>\n

    But as many things our parents do that annoy us when we’re kids, this quirky behavior grew on me as I got older, and now I joyfully wait for it to come around on the guitar and join in on the chorus — loud and with feeling. I actually listened to the words — and realized that Mum and Dad had tried to give me a key life lesson here: if ever confronted with a friend’s messy house, do not throw all their garbage over a cliff because you will just have to pick it up again anyway and it will prevent you from being drafted.<\/p>\n

    Hmmm… maybe that wasn’t quite the lesson I was supposed to take away from the song after all.<\/p>\n

    Oh, wait, I remember now. It’s that “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.” Come on, join in the movement with me. Now seems like an awfully good time to sing it, don’t you think?\n<\/ol>\n

    Five people to whom I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m passing the baton:<\/strong>
    \nWell, I will pass this to people who can respond in the comments section here (unless they want to surprise me by telling me they have their own blogs and would like to respond there):<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Dad, because I always brag about his broad musical tastes to people who lament their own parents’ lack of interest in anything recent.<\/li>\n
    2. erik, because he has his finger on the pulse of the music scene, even though he no longer works at Sony.<\/li>\n
    3. Karen, because we were just talking about her musical collection the other day and because she plays Debussy and Chopin so beautifully I used to sit on her doorstep just to listen way back when we were teenagers.<\/li>\n
    4. Rebs, because she had the best collection of cds of the cwm in college and I’d like to know what she’s thinking about music and listening to today.<\/li>\n
    5. Josh, because he, too, lived through “Alice’s Restaurant” and his musical tastes are also good, albeit different from mine.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      How about you? Would you like to play, too? Jump right in in the comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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