ForumGarden

I plead in advance that I'm one glass of gin up on the rest of you celibates.

Anyhow.

There's only one thing that destroys time. Carries meaning. Matters when everything else has been jettisoned. Music.

You're allowed, of course, to differ in your interpretation of what qualifies.

I have a pair of headphones on and the gin, honestly, is an incidental aside. I doubt whether I drink a bottle a year. This evening I had a swig and I put my headphones on.

I played several hair-raising CDs starting with Tarkus.

Tarkus is as culturally significant as the Iliad.

I went onto Wikipedia to edit an article that had got it all wrong, while I was listening. It was the delete notice on Lee Jackson. Jesus.

What's on at the moment - quite loudly, I admit - is the two best CDs Jethro Tull ever made (and NOBODY would agree with me on this call) - Stormwatch and A. I think I might play Broadsword after.

And Abbey Road.

And possibly the entire works of Rainbow because I'm the heathen who prefers Rainbow to Deep Purple.

Rock on, dudes.

Other than the obvious contender, who else agrees with me?

I'm still getting over the shock that you listen to Jethro Tull. I always pictured you listening to Mozart, Bach, and for a little thrill Beethoven.

I'm sat here trying to work out how many times I've seen them on stage and I can't count. Cropredy, the Dot Com tour at Colson Hall, the Wembley Arena for the 20th anniversary, the Broadsword Wembley, the Guildford festival - I think the 20th was the most exciting because I had my eldest with me, she was eight and she's never forgotten being driven there to see 20,000 bikers on their feet singing Too Old to Rock And Roll.

Why on earth doesn't Ian Anderson have a seat the House of Lords? What's Melvyn Bragg got that Ian Anderson doesn't? And Melvyn Bragg is the most deserving member I can think of.

:guitarist Rock on Spot all sound good to me.

I can not comment on Jethro Tull, Spot. What I can do is agree with everything I have that music is a powerful force. No matter what, it is rising and falling with my moods. It encourages my obsessions and heals my wounds. It loves and hates when I do. It can pull out my stubborn tears and reinforce a beaming smile.

Someone once said to me, "Music just isn't my thing." I didn't understand the sentence. I still can't compute. As far as I am concerned, there is no universal thread sewn in and out of every culture stronger than music.



"Music is what I need to keep my sanity." - 311



:guitarist

Come on, you know where this is leading. Attach a track. One of us has to make the other say wow.

Well, ok then. Sheesh.

My favorite band is Tool. A lot of folks tend to think of them as a dark band with lyrics that are down on life. I, however, find them to be inspirational. The song I feel the most attachment to is 46&2. Here are the lyrics, what do you think?

My shadow's

Shedding skin and

I've been picking

Scabs again.

I'm down

Digging through

My old muscles

Looking for a clue.

I've been crawling on my belly

Clearing out what could've been.

I've been wallowing in my own confused

And insecure delusions

For a piece to cross me over

Or a word to guide me in.

I wanna feel the changes coming down.

I wanna know what I've been hiding in

My shadow.

Change is coming through my shadow.

My shadow's shedding skin

I've been picking

My scabs again.

I've been crawling on my belly

Clearing out what could've been.

I've been wallowing in my own chaotic

And insecure delusions.

I wanna feel the change consume me,

Feel the outside turning in.

I wanna feel the metamorphosis and

Cleansing I've endured within

My shadow

Change is coming.

Now is my time.

Listen to my muscle memory.

Contemplate what I've been clinging to.

Forty-six and two ahead of me.

I choose to live and to

Grow, take and give and to

Move, learn and love and to

Cry, kill and die and to

Be paranoid and to

Lie, hate and fear and to

Do what it takes to move through.

I choose to live and to

Lie, kill and give and to

Die, learn and love and to

Do what it takes to step through.

See my shadow changing,

Stretching up and over me.

Soften this old armor.

Hoping I can clear the way

By stepping through my shadow,

Coming out the other side.

Step into the shadow.

Forty six and two are just ahead of me."

First off, I had to download the track. We're not talking poetry here, the music counts for just as much as the lyrics. Reading the words is too simple.

Yes the music works perfectly and it wouldn't if the lyrics weren't alongside it. The band's balanced the track so you can't even see the lyrics unless you know they're there in the first place which might be considered a safe fallback on the band's part.

Anyway.

You have a singer. He's eager to slough off his current restrictions and find a level higher that the commonplace citizen. One wonders whether he's actually worked for it to the extent that he naturally qualifies, or whether he's aiming for it on the basis that if he's granted the advancement he's been authenticated as superior without having made the push personally. One might think the lyrics are a bit Third Reich - presumably more than one philosophy can work toward the improvement of the species.

I'm not saying he's not thought it out - he did write the track, after all.

The music works perfectly. I remember about 40 minutes into an Ash concert where the music did that to me.

So. We have a question. Does the lyric's transcendental message override the music, or does the music have to be right before the message can get through to you? Either way's fine, I think the message counts for more than the medium, but it's an indication of talent if a band can carry both at once.

Somehow or other you're going to have to work out how to download this to listen to...



In the shuffling madness

of the locomotive breath

runs the all-time loser

headlong to his death.

Oh he feels the piston scraping,

steam breaking on his brow.

Old Charlie stole the handle and

the train won't stop going

though it could slow down.

He sees his children jumping off

at the stations one by one.

His woman and his best friend

in bed and having fun.

Oh he's crawling down the corridor

on his hands and knees,

old Charlie stole the handle and

the train it won't stop going

though it could slow down.

He hears the silence howling

catches angels as they fall

and the all-time winner

has got him by the balls.

Oh he picks up Gideons Bible

open at page one

and then God, he stole the handle

and the train it won't stop going

though it could slow down

though it could slow down

though it could slow down

though it could slow down.

When I was young and they packed me off to school

And they taught me how not to play the game

I didn't mind if they groomed me for success

Or if they said that I was just a fool

So I left there in the morning with their God tucked underneath my arm

Their half-assed smiles and the book of rules

And I asked this God a question and by way of firm reply

He said, "I'm not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays".

So, to my old headmaster and to anyone who cares,

Before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers!

I don't believe you, you got the whole damn thing all wrong,

He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.

Well you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school

And have all the Bishops harmonize these lines:

How do you dare tell me that I'm my Father's son

When that was just an accident of birth

I'd rather look around me, compose a better song,

'Cos that's the honest measure of my worth.

In your pomp and all your glory you're a poorer man than me

As you lick the boots of death born out of fear.

Hey

When I was young and they packed me off to school

And taught me how not to play the game,

I didn't mind if they groomed me for success

Or if they said that I was just a fool

So I left there in the morning with their God tucked underneath my arm

Their half-assed smiles and the book of rules.

Well you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school

And have all the bishops harmonize these lines:

When I was young and they packed me off to school

And taught me how not to play the game

I didn't mind if they groomed me for success

Or if they said that I was just a fool

So, to my old headmaster and to anyone who cares

Before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers!

Well you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school

And have all the bishops harmonize these lines:

I don't believe you, you had the whole damn thing all wrong, yeah

He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday

Being a musician I can only agree that its the purest and highest form of all human art. Keep on rocking dude, but watch the gin and tonics. :-6

Tonic?? I obviously gave the wrong impression.

Ice didn't figure in the equation either. On the other hand I did stay sober. There's a certain exhilarating rush associated with a shot of clean spirit but a third would take the edge off the faculties. I prefer faculties.

Way way back - well over five years ago anyway - George Starostin had the best reference site on the internet for rock and he authored the entire thing himself. It wasn't just the extent, it was the quality of his opinion I valued. He took it offline for an extended breather but I note that a revamped version is back, I thought you'd like to see it.

http://starling.rinet.ru/music/index.htm

He's quite a chap is George Starostin, he digs into the history of languages for a living. I enjoyed reading what he wrote about that as well.

He didn't just write the stuff, he categorizes. He indexes. He invents. Who else ever came out with a list labeled Mope Rock?

spot;814043 wrote: the two best CDs Jethro Tull ever made (and NOBODY would agree with me on this call) - Stormwatch and A.

Not only did I buy it when it came out - and This Was the same term - but those vinyls still get played an' I bet you never even SEEN a vinyl cause you're not OLD enough.

spot;814902 wrote: Not only did I buy it when it came out - and This Was the same term - but those vinyls still get played an' I bet you never even SEEN a vinyl cause you're not OLD enough.




Of course I grew up playing records !

LP's...Albums...Discs

45's even.

And I recall playing some of the old mans 78's

Well that just shows your antiquarian tendencies then. I was building crystal sets when you were still howling for your pacifier.

spot;814912 wrote: Well that just shows your antiquarian tendencies then. I was building crystal sets when you were still howling for your pacifier.


OH YEA !

Nomad;814898 wrote:


A magnificent album - and might I throw Uriah Heep into the mix as well.

Ian Anderson with Lucia Micarelli from last years tour.

Some complained that Ian's voice sounds weak.

I would say they missed the beauty.

Spot knows quite well how I feel about Tull.

Time for my headphones.

:guitarist



Get that Linux streaming, Spot. You know it can be done.