Music to My Ears!

You may remember a few months back when I blogged about my favorite movies. Then recently I blogged about how I've taken an oath to stop watching TV all together. Total contradiction, I know.

Well, in it's place I have been regularly tuned in to my first love, which is MUSIC! Like books, music has always played an important role in my life as a child. For starters, my Dad was a musician, so whether I liked it or not, there was always something blaring from the stereo, be it Badfinger or Bach.

I've decided to blog today about all of the music, the glorious music, that I love and different songs that have touched my little world in a personal way.

I'm grateful that I had such exposure to different genres of music since, well, birth. I think I was born with Love Will Keep us Together playing in the background, and I swear that Toni Tennille was the inspiration for my name. Good thing it wasn't Strawberry Alarm Clock or the Flying Burrito Brothers on the radio that day. My name could have been Strawberry or Burrito.

The music of choice for my parents was usually pop, rock and R & B from the 70's and 80's, except for Saturday nights when we would have to listen to Solid Gold Saturday Night, which played wonderful be-bop and Motown from the 50's into the 60's. Sundays were reserved for Polkas, where I remember Mom dancing around in the kitchen showing us the proper way to Polka, all the while Dad would roll his eyes, and say "Puh-lease".

But contemporary pop and Polkas weren't the only thing. A trip down the road to my Grandparents home meant Pap would pull out his Gibson and strum a little twangy country, (usually Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash) and Grandma was forever singing her hymns. To this day I list The Battle Hymn of the Republic as one of my all-time favorite songs, of any genre.

My Dad also had a thing for not just the Beatles, but great artists like Frank Sinatra and James Brown. I too am a huge fan of Paul, John, George and Ringo. When my son was born, I didn't sing him the usual lullabies, it was Beautiful Boy (solo John Lennon) that lulled him to sleep. He's six now, and I still sing a verse or two at bedtime.

One year for Christmas I got my first stereo, complete with turntable for all of my awesome Madonna and Huey Lewis albums, and Dad just had to try it out. The first record he grabbed was a 45 of James Brown's I Feel Good, so oddly enough anytime I hear that song I automatically relate it to Christmas morning.

And Christmas... oh it's not just a season of giving but a season of listening. How I adore Christmas music, my favorites are I Saw Three Ships and Do You Hear What I Hear? And I can't let a Christmas pass without breaking out The Brian Setzer Orchestra's Christmas Rocks CD.

I played- no, let me rephrase that- I pretended I could play the clarinet in school. (Give me a break, it was an easy credit...) My band directer, Mr. Walker, was awesome. He exposed me to the likes of John Philip Sousa and Ravel (I still get goosebumps any time I hear Bolero. I really wished I could play the clarinet, I would LOVE to have been able to play that solo.) Classical music as a whole is wonderful, and although perhaps I don't indulge myself often, I've got a few CD's in my shelves that might surprise some. And the Gershwins- yeah George and Ira are in there, too.

And Hair Bands. Oh my gosh don't even get me started. Just the other day I took out my Ultimate Power Ballads CD and reminisced. Eventually the hair got a little lower, and Grunge became the next hottest thing, but I can't say it was music that I really ever got into. Somewhere I have a Silverchair CD, but that's about it.

In the early 90's, I admit that I rode the Billy Ray Cyrus bandwagon for awhile. Some may be hesitant to make that confession, but honestly I remember some really great country music songs coming from that part of the decade. Billy Ray excluded, but oh how I still love me some Dwight Yoakum. And the Dixie Chicks.

As I got older, I found myself preferring the music of my youth, which was really the music of my parent's youth, a little more enjoyable than most of the pop/techno/rap that was popular then. A certain Val Kilmer movie made me pull out my Dad's old Doors albums and give them another listen, and at about 14 I decided Jim Morrison was the coolest human being ever to walk the earth. (Until later, when I heard Harry Connick Jr. sing, but I'll get into that in a minute). I still love the Doors, and while I no longer have a big poster of them hanging on my bedroom door, you'll find one of their CD's in my changer pretty much always.

When I started dating my husband, I was re-introduced to a lot of music from he 60's through the eighties that I'd heard a lot growing up, but until I heard it from his perspective, it became so much more meaningful and pertinent. Bands like the Temptations and Commodores; yes my Dad had all of their albums too, but seeing the way Todd relates to old Motown is just somehow... different. And once you've seen him and Craig and Brad lip sync while dancing simultaneously to Papa Was a Rolling Stone, well, you just don't know what you're missing.

Moving on, sometime in my early to mid twenties, I heard Harry Connick Jr, and I can't even pinpoint which song from what album, but I feel in L-O-V-E. With Harry himself a little, (unfortunately we're both married) but experiencing his music was an altogether different experience. So much so that in 2002 I dragged my friend Kevin (a talented pianist in his own right) to Harry's show at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, and three weeks later my reluctant husband and I flew to Pittsburgh for his show at the Benedum Center. It was his Songs I Heard tour, and although I've got 'em all, this CD is one of the best Harry's ever done.

Billie Holiday also has her grips on my cochlea, and if I ever decide to make a mix-tape for my husband, Them There Eyes would have to be on it, right after All My Life by K-Ci and Jo Jo which is actually our song. Awe. Yep, he even sang it too me on our first anniversary. Well, I admit we both were a little drunk and he slurred his way through the chorus. But it was a precious moment.

Aside from Lady Day, I adore music from the early part of the century. I love the digital music channel on TV that plays songs from the 40's- who doesn't want to pucker up and kiss a sailor when the likes of Glenn Miller comes on? The 40's channel is my favorite music to mellow out to- I'll light some candles, drink something alcoholic and fruity, and just totally relax. Try doing that with Snoop Dogg bumping in the background... it doesn't work.

Speaking of Snoop, (Why does he carry an umbrella? For the drizzle- yo!) I'm not so much a frequent listener of rap, but I'm willing to blast my Nelly CD's any day of the week. Nelly and Tim McGraw, now that's a collaboration!

The list of music I don't enjoy is considerably shorter than that which I do, and here it is: Neil Diamond. Pink Floyd. Buster Poindexter. Two Live Crew. UB 40. Brittany Spears. Pink Floyd especially makes me want to shove an ice pick into my ear drums.

Lately, I've been wearing out Diane Birch and Jackson Brown, and my six-year old insists on listening to Michael Jackson at any opportunity. There's an awful lot of unnecessary crotch-grabbing dance moves that goes on in my house.

Music can set my mood, too. A certain song can remind me of something funny, like my aforementioned friend Kevin's and my version of Who Let the Dogs Out. I can't hear that song or Girl From Ipanema and not think of Kevin. A song can blow the dust off some old high school memory, I'm particularly attached to What Might Have Been by Little Texas for that very reason.

To sum up this post, I believe that music is gift from God to us all. Some are talented to play an instrument, sing, arrange, produce and so on. The rest of us benefit from their talents. I've never been one to listen to music just because it's what's "in" at the moment. Like in high school- [everyone loved] Technotronic as they Pumped Up the Jam, but I was jamming to Hall and Oates. I didn't care. Those boys got some serious soul.

It's important to me as a mother to pass the importance to music on to my son. I don't really care what he listens to, I let him pick. And at six the boy's already got some great taste- he loves Lenny Kravitz and John Mellencamp.

So music, I say play it often! I've always got it on at work, in the car, at home... you get it. Now go turn some on!!