Without music, life would be a mistake...

Well… just re-read my last post and after some serious cringing I have come to the conclusion that it was just a badly written thank you note to mah peeps (there’s that black thing again…). So in my present stone cold sober state, I’ll just say thank you and I’m very grateful for your presence in my life.

I was also going thru some of eM’s old posts last week. She’s like a celebrity of sorts now. From a famous blogger to a published author. Quite the feat. She writes pretty good. See… that’s my writing style. But if I were an author I’d jazz that up just a bit – “Her, often vivid, descriptive style of prose is quite becoming… especially her accounts of love and life in the urbane landscape of the towering metropolis… quite enthralling indeed.”

Nice eh?! Felt downright British there... by Jove!... ole Blighty… Tally ho… Spotted dick! (what the...??)

While I haven’t read it yet, I do intend to get me a copy and who knows maybe get it signed by her since she lives in this city now. Damn! That would be a first. I don’t have a signed book by a real live author... err... or a dead one either. So all of y'all need to go out there and buy a copy too. Help a fellow resident of Blogosphere make a few bux and all that.

So coming back to that post of hers – it was about certain songs from different times in her life. Which got me to thinking about some songs/artistes which are so ingrained in my mind that I swear there are times when I just need to think about them and I can literally hear the music in my head. Goosebumpy sh*t that…

So onto the list of 4:-

1. Beat It by Michael Jackson – I distinctly remember seeing the video of Beat It way back when on television. Now I might have been just a 5 year ole chile but my memory is absolutely crystal clear on this. And I remember it was shown in connection with some award ceremony. There was a blurry memory of a picture which looked something like a big tuba like thing in the bacground of the stage. It was only years later that I managed to connect the dots. That's right... I was watching the Grammys that night in '84 on Doordarshan. Till date, everytime I listen to this song, it never fails to gee me up. I think this song really started off my on-going love affair with rock. Killer guitar riffs along with that super fantastic solo by Eddie Van Halen (with that speed shredding and his signature tapping) really make this a standout track. Aural delights aside, this solo is a visual treat too. Take a gander at this.

2. Let's get rocked by Def Leppard – My first e-v-e-r rock song. In them days, mix tapes were the rage and pretty expensive to make as well. So when my buddy Z got one made by a local dj, he was kind enough to give me a copy. (btw said local dj went by the name of Aqueel – yup the same dj Aqueel of Yeh Vaada, Disco '82 etc fame) I remember Joe Elliot’s raspy voice in the intro demanding if I wanted to get rocked. And no sooner did the first few bars blast through my Panasonic cassette stereo, I surrendered. Def Lep holds a special place in my heart. British pop-rock at its best and their heavy use of vocal harmonies influenced us when we did our own songs. Hysteria and Adrenalize are two albums I will never grow tired of listening.

3. Billy Joel – I can’t really pinpoint any one song by Billy Joel because I pretty love 'em all. Again an artiste whose tape I must have run ragged on that trusty ole Panasonic a million times. If I had to pick, it would have to be Allentown, Its still Rock n Roll to me, Tell her about it, Movin’ out (Anthony’s song), The Longest Time, New York State of Mind, Just the way you are, This is the time… aah forget it... just waayyyy too many. Billy’s song writing is unfussy and uncomplicated. I've thought of him as a storyteller more than songwriter. His stories are mostly simple ones… but whether they are or not, they'll get to you coz thats the way he writes them. If there was one thing I could have just for a while, it would be to have the talent to write a love song the way Billy does and sing it for my woman.

4. Nothing else matters by Metallica – My first “metal” song or so I thought going by the band’s name. I’d been given a free copy of their self titled album (also referred to as the Black album) by a school buddy whose dad was a biggie with Universal Music (back then it was Music India Ltd). That cassette lay in one corner of my bookshelf for all of like six months gathering dust. I can’t quite remember why one day I tore off the plastic wrap and slid it into… you guessed it – the Panasonic. It definitely had to do with someone at school telling me I just HAD to listen to this particular song. Of course I was hooked after listening to the song the first time. Played it for another 4-5 times in a row which was a task considering all the rewinding I had to do. For the younger readers of this blog, Rewinding (and Fast Forwarding for that matter) was this process one had do with tapes in order to get to any song you wanted to listen to which was situated anywhere after the first song in a tape. Quite like shampooing - RWD/FFD --> Stop --> Play to check --> Repeat if necessary.

Special mention also about that musically confused/chaotic decade - the 80’s. With most other decades, there is an association of a genre with a particular decade - like blues and jazz for the 40's and 50's, rock for the 70's, grunge/alternative for the 90's, hiphop for the (early) 2000's. But the music from the 80's has always been referred to as that. 80's music. No particular genre ever made that decade its own. There was rock and pop and metal and rap... just one big mish-mash. Musically I am pretty much an 80's child. My sense of rhythm and melody developed from listening to the artistes and music of that era. The harder, harsher edge to my music probably stems from the grunge and alternative influences of the 90’s.

Of course there are a lot more songs… tons more in fact but I think I’d have to start another blog for that. Since lazy me has no intentions of doing so, I'll just settle for listening to some Def Lep and MJ and Billy and reliving some memories past.

Man I miss that Panasonic…

P.S - In connection with my 15.09.08 post, I came across a supercool video of Incubus at their concert in the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver. If you like the original song, then i think you will love this trippy bass heavy version of Drive.