Started thinking tonight about the sort of “stages” I went through in my life with regards to belief. Belief that mother and grandmother were good, belief that god existed, etc. And almost all of those stages have… music associated with them. And the stage when all those beliefs started to fall away is irrevocably associated with The Beatles.
I’m not going to embed all of these videos as the page will take forever to load. Just the most important ones.
The Beatles are very tied up with my childhood. From age 10-14 I was fairly obsessed with them – their music is… pretty much the encapsulation of my childhood. Especially Lennon’s early solo work.
I realized as I was writing this that all my favorite songs come from two albums: the Beatles’ Let It Be album, and Lennon’s first solo album, Plastic Ono Band. Well… yeah. Makes sense. An album full of turmoil for the band, and the album JL recorded while he was doing primal scream therapy. Though frankly, depending on my mood, I love almost everything they ever recorded.
I used to sing along with this one late at night when mother had gone to work and I was alone in the house. Screaming the last choruses with John Lennon – “Mama don’t go… daddy come home…” This song is pretty much what I felt from as far back as I can remember.
This was another one I always sang along with. Even more than “Mother” this one affected me. It used to be the only song that could make me cry. Other people I’ve talked to say that this song was a sort of anthem for them too – around the same ages, 12 and 13.
This song just makes me happy. I think it’s their best love song – from the Let It Be album, which is one of my very favorites. They were just about to break up when this video was recorded. It was probably one of the last times they were just happy like this together.
One of the best lines about Jesus – even better than in “God” – is “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky / now that I found out I know I can cry.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7hdXZTm4Qk
This is one of their more beautiful songs. It would always piss me off that mother would sing it at me whenever we had a quarrel and she wanted me to shut up – or to tell me that she wasn’t going to listen me. But fuck mother. It’s a great song. I tend to listen to it when I’m alone and upset.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67J_66hdN-I
Have a bonus one from Hard Day’s Night, just because.
Kate Rusby’s cover of the Kinks song Village Green Preservation Society. Have a listen. It’s muy excellente!
(I will post some actual content later.)
I’m not a huge fan of Handel… but the countertenor singing this song is… like… REALLY good.
And here he is again doing some Vivaldi.
Really interesting work on the shawms here. This is – of all things – a German metal band. Go figure. I’d show you a live version, but the one I like has been taken down.
The song is about a rich troll-woman trying to woo a knight. She’s very ugly, so must offer other inducements. Highlight of the song is the knight saying that he will not take her even for all her riches, because she’s both ugly and not a Christian. But it’s in Swedish, so you won’t be able to tell. :)
Filed under: self-work, voice blog | Tags: MEcosystem, mother, music, self-work, voice blog, youtube
I made a fateful decision today, found my primal mother, finally broke the barrier of silence with Stef-in-my-head, had 17 pages worth of talks with various people in my head… and that’s not all! Yes, this is a 40-minute recording and I only get to the effing point around minute 30, but it’s worth a listen. It also contains a movie recommendation, some reading of transcripts of my convos, a realization that the anger that I feel when other people describe their childhoods to me is not MY anger at all, and… hey! Loads of good packed into this little audio.
I have also been listening to or thinking about these two songs (the first one is well worth the $1 on iTunes to hear it properly, not via cell phone camera):
Trying to find an adequate version of his Marche Pour la Ceremonie des Turcs on Youtube. Nothing seems to be quite right! If anyone has a better version, let me know.
Great dancing. Very authentic. A little too slow. But much the best.
A little too “swing”
A little too… tentative.
Not quite full enough. And the flute comes in too late.
Shows the piece in context, but… too fast.
Not pop this time. I’ve been listening to this… over and over. I’m happy today… but it’s a quiet happiness. Things are looking up. And though I’ve been having a hard time writing my list of accomplishments (which I’m doing because, as I said yesterday, I’m trying to analyze and end the habit of minimizing my own accomplishments) that’s alright. More will come to me.
So I guess this song is… evocative of that. “No, I regret nothing.”
Filed under: self-work, vie quotidienne | Tags: music, vie quotidienne, voice blog, youtube
So… I saw something on the subway yesterday that I wanted to talk about. A child was crying on the subway and some random jock stepped in and started talking to the kid. But what did he say? Was it actually trying to help, or just minimizing the child’s feelings? Tell me what you think!
Oh, and because I said I would…
