Soundtrack of your life.....

So, after something like 7 years of waiting, iTunes has acquired rights to sell the entire Beatles catalog.  I am personally thrilled by this because, I'm a big fan of contemporary music history.  I like to delve into the music of artists who represent an ongoing era of musical genius.  I love to hear an old track and be able to hear where several new artists sampled the music, be it a good or bad use of the music.  It's great ear training.  I once formulated a playlist on my iPod consisting of only songs which sampled "What You Won't Do For Love" by Bobby Caldwell.....and not one was a direct remake.  All the songs were decent songs as well, because "What You Won't Do For Love" is such a darn near perfect song, how could they not be?  And this track keeps popping up in everyone's music.

I say this to say, all of our lives have a soundtrack.  Whether you know it or not, there's a song, a hook, a lyric, or chord out there to match every experience.  I also believe that there's a purpose for all music.  We all have preferences and all that but there are just times when music is so beautifully matched with a moment, nothing else will do.  And for the rest of your days when you hear that song you will go back in time to that moment.  Yeah, time machines do exist!!!

I'll share some tracks on mine...and there are many.  Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues" was a common song to hear in my parents car when I was a little girl.  I was really young, sitting in a car seat and that song played and  I remember it photographically.  The scenery, the weather, the smells, I was probably eating a KitKat!  I was happy.  

"Erotic City" by Prince, this is a favorite of mine, transports me back to my summer camp days and dance class.  I was in a performance in which the choreography was set to this song, and I was part of a solo of 3 dancers and was complimented on it a lot (and I looooove compliments).  Another good moment.

Of course I could go on all day....I guess my point is that if you keep listening,  and I mean listen to the rhythms around you, and you have one of those priceless moments in time that only come once in a lifetime, at least you can rely on the music to bring you back there.  No matter how quiet you think it is....there is always a song playing.  Keep dreaming.

xoxoxo

Freelancer

"The Reckoning"......an odd liberation.

     I know, my title is a bit on the odd side.  Let me explain.....I have a habit of looking up the Wikipedia pages of various people and/or places that fascinate me at that present moment.(Like last month's brief obsession with the World's Fair, Flushing Meadow Park, and Coney Island....there's a connection...but that's another entry).  I just happened to be looking up the actress Taryn Manning.  I've liked her since I saw her in the broken Britney Spears movie debut, Crossroads.   I also discovered Zoe Saldana in that film, but again, another entry.

     Anyhoo, interestingly enough, Taryn Manning is a musician of sorts.  She's got a duo thing going on with her brother.  I read about them and their various label changes and stylistic influences.  I was looking for a new album or two to add to my collection, and I decided to go and listen to their single entitled "The Reckoning"...which was released 7 years ago......and was presently surprised and appalled that I didn't know about them before.  Needless to say, I'm feeling it......I mean really feeling it.  I waited until I had heard a few tracks and then read the iTunes description/review and I was also delighted to see that it was pretty favorable.  I knew then I had made a good choice.

     But the fact that I picked it out and I listen to it and groove to it is proof that the choice was good.  No disrespect to iTunes, but they are in business.  They also represent the unseen influences that spoon feed us what we should and should not listen to, or like musically.  The song "The Reckoning" was a moment of freedom, its that feeling of liberation I got when I downloaded a single by Adam Lambert and  when I purchased many other titles that cause people to look at me sideways when going through my various iPods.

     Yes, iPods....when your world is as expanded as mine is, all of it can't fit on one!  So, people, I encourage you to listen to what you want.  Don't read reviews, don't let all the opinions in and just follow your heart and your ear,  It's a good life it really is.  I've got lots more exploring to do as I know there are decades of the past that I haven't even touched yet.  But what you must do, once you do go on this journey is take the music....play it LOUD!!!  Make people around you either ask you what it is or beg you to shut it off! (As I get my mother to do a lot).

     We weren't made to fit into a mold.  It's quite exhausting to try to fit into one, have you ever tried that?  That said, I truly believe that music is the one thing that could bring us all closer. You never know who you will have something in common with when you share your deep, dark, musical secrets.  It brings together generations, and it brings together countries.  When you have an artist that can go all over the world and be recognized and applauded by people who don't even understand the language the songs are in, that shows the power of the language of music.  It's not to be taken for granted.  So in closing, I would just like to say, I've found a way to be free....just throw on my earbuds and hit shuffle!  Be free, dreamers.


XOXO
Freelancer

" oh, Impossible"

I've been pondering on something I heard on the radio yesterday morning that made me smile. I was listening to Lite FM via the iHeart radio app on my Blackberry when they played an excerpt of a phone call. It was a call to the station from Bon Jovi.

Now in preparation of the upcoming holiday season in which I spend a considerable amount of time listening to Lite FM and being nostalgic, I've been playing the station like crazy and purchasing new tracks from iTunes that I've heard throughout the day..... by "new" I mean, something that's about 20 years old but is just making it from my childhood memory, to my scratch pad of songs, to my ipod. One of these songs being "Living On A Prayer". I've been loving it lately, and I was all of four when it was number one.

One of the things about the call that made me chuckle and made me think was when the station asked him (Bon Jovi) just how hard it is to sell cds nowadays..and his reply was "oh, impossible". But the conversation takes an upturn when they go on to discuss their twelve and thirteen year old kids who are blasting this song like it was a new Miley Cyrus track with Diddy on the hook!!! (my words not theirs). It made me laugh because I'm one of those people...though I haven't been 12 for 14 years, I know the feeling of hunting through the history of music and discovering such hidden treasures as these. When I do it, it's something like this....

The song plays, I listen and almost skip it, hesitate, then realize, I know half of it....I see the old Pan AM terminal from the back seat of an old school mustang and a foggy window and the song is playing on the radio and my father is in the front seat and my mom hops in the passenger's side. I've always known the song...it's part of my generation. It's no wonder I don't want to let go of these sounds, they are littered in the background of the modern music that's played on the stations that people would expect someone my age to listen to, and it's all too obvious why I tire of these stations so quickly.

I've also been pondering my non-existent music career, and my desire to be an actress, singer, writer, or entertainer of some type in some capacity whether it be an famous recording artist or a local hero who does it for fun...and I've been so fearful lately of the crumbling music industry that I have been hearing about and reading about for the last ten or so years. CD's can't move, they closed Tower Records....again, the Virgin Megastore....to someone like me these are catastrophic events on the scale of an earthquake or Tsunami....and the fact that the beautiful Virgin at Times Square is now a (gasp) Forever 21 of all things....is lots of salt on the open wound!

Then, as my mind is going back to these devastating thoughts....they say it on Lite FM.....these kids know these songs from ROCK BAND, GUITAR HERO.....I love it! It just reiterates my internal philosophy...music is eternal. It never dies, it will find its way back to you over and over...they try to kill it with piracy and overzealous critics and crap artists but the music still comes out. It pops up in commercials, toys that make noise, ring tones, movie soundtracks....one of my favorite sources...and video games!!! I love it....its great...something to keep living for, striving for, and dreaming for....just find your path dreamers....there's enough out there for all of us. You may not find yourself where you thought you always wanted to be, but you will find yourself where you were always supposed to be.

Sweet dreams

Freelancer.