Philosophy On Music

Disclaimer: Everything said here is my opinion. It's perfectly alright to disagree on what I say

I guess music has always been an integral part of my life, even though I can't really remember being heavily influenced by music before the age of eleven or twelve. Curiously enough I was most fond of classical music at that stage! I absolutely loved Mozart's "The Magic Flute" (still do) and Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory". I also dug recordings of songs written by 18th century poet and composer Carl Michael Bellman. And this was at a time when my class mates were listening to ABBA. And slightly later Sex Pistols. Guess I've always been a bit behind in my musical taste... Or maybe it's just that I've refused listening to stuff that my contemporaries were listening to. You know, actually wanting to be different. But that's for my psychotherapist to find out - if I had one.

When I was eleven Elvis died. I can't say that I cared much 'coz I found him to be rather pathetic. But at the same time I realized that he'd meant a lot to a lot of people, so for a very brief period I became an Elvis fan. I think that might've been because a couple of girls in my class liked Elvis, a-hum... No, really, his early stuff is great and so is his 1968 comeback. But very soon after this I lost interest and went headlong into the world of The Beatles. Maybe I should point out that my interest in music is not only a matter of the MUSIC. I also want to know just about everything about the artists, perhaps to understand the music better. I've been a Beatles fan for almost 20 years now and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to keep up the interest if there hadn't been a lot to learn about that group. So, what's so good about The Beatles? Well, if I only knew... But I guess it's principally a matter of good tunes. They managed to write so many great songs in such a short time. Tuneful, singable stuff. Indeed, the tunefulness is quite typical for the sixties, isn't it? So that's probably why I tend to favour stuff from that era, or more contemporary artists who get inspiration from the sixties. A good example is the group World Party (Check out the
30 best albums in my collection section)

So, I guess that The Beatles are responsible for the fact that one of my principles when it comes to music is that it should be tuneful. Okay, I know that this sounds like I only like...uh, slow ballads or something, but a song can be tuneful and still kinda loud and noisy.

Okay, then along came Bob Dylan, which must've been in 1981 or 1982. And this is also when the second principle entered my life: the importance of the lyric. There's a tendency among songsmiths to write lyrics only because a song is supposed to have a lyric, because the singer needs words to sing... Which is why there's so many crap lyrics around. I mean, why are people writing songs? Ah, it's probably for one of two reasons (or both): 1. The need to express oneself 2. An attempt to make some money. Of course I prefer the first reason and I believe that's when the most moving songs are born (unless you're so desperate to earn money that this sentiment is reflected in your songs in a very honest way!). So what I'm trying to say is: if you can't write meaningful lyrics, make instrumental music! Jeez, awful lyrics really annoy me. Also, "standardized" woe-woe-woe's or na-na-na's in songs. What do I mean by this? Well, take Toto's song "Hold The Line" (I hate Toto). There's the line "love isn't always on time, woe-woe-woe" and it's recurring !!! It's like, "well, we've gotta fill out this space with a few words, let's use 'woe-woe-woe' throughout". Yeah, great. But there are even worse examples of incredibly idiotic lyrics. How about the group Me-Oh-My's lyric "Dub-i-dub-i-dub-dub-dub-dub-dub, dub-i-dub-i-dub yeah, yeah, dub-i-dub-i-dub-dub-dub-dub-dub I don't want your love"? Oh, stop it! And, mind you, that was a big hit! Of course, people may argue and say that there should be different music for different occasions. Alright, I agree to some extent, but it doesn't have to mean that the lyrics should be stupid. (I once had a class mate who claimed that The Beatles were no good because you can't dance to them! Ah, well...)

Another thing I like in music is honesty. I think a slightly flawed recording is a lot more interesting than a very polished one. There's for instance a lot of charm in a voice that cracks on the high notes. I also like original voices, people who "can't sing" (according to ignorant people) or have rather limited voices, such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Joe Cocker...yes, even Yoko Ono! What's important is that they're honest in their singing, that they actually want to say something, be it through the words or through their way of singing. This is not to say that I can't dig people with traditionally speaking great voices. There's for instance Sandy Denny who sang with Fairport Convention. What I absolutely hate are people like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston who're just wailing and showing off. "Hey, listen to this, I'm a great, great singer." And I guess the same thing goes for musicians. I don't give a damn how good they are on their instruments. That's not interesting as long as they can express themselves. John Lennon, one of my heroes, once said he wasn't very good technically but that he could "make a guitar speak". There's a lot in that. Again there are of course incredible musicians that I like, but they're the ones who actually "speak" through their instruments. Neil Young is a pretty good example.

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