4.27.2008
4.20.2008
Are The Musically Narrow Minded Missing Out?
I think it's interesting how music is such a big part of our lives, and most of the time, most people don't notice it. Music has a way of driving our moods, no matter what kind of mood we happen to be in. I was riding my motorcycle to work one day, and Metallica came on the iPod. I was in the groove, looked down, and noticed that I was doing about 95 miles an hour. It's trippy. Totally unaware of what was going on around me, I was taken by the music to another place.
I freakin' love music! I dig sounds and vibes from all different types of genres. Take a look at my collection of LP's CD's, MP3's and even on Myspace page, you'll find everything represented by everyone from everywhere. I have country to rap, classical to acid metal, and everything in between. I love it all. Every genre has something unique that it brings to the table. Something that I love.
I think that I'm not the only one. Lots of people that I speak with feel the same way about music that I do. But they are often times my peers or about my age. I notice that people who were born in the 1970's or maybe even the late 60's are more likely to have a wide range of musical tastes than persons who were born earlier. Is it the 80's that helped open our eyes to different flavors? Is it the artists that we listened to that took their sound from several different influences, that shaped our own likes? I don't know. Am I off on this one?
Do you think that people who were born in the 40's and 50's have open minds when it comes to various types of music like people born in later decades? Or are they musically narrow minded? Maybe the older dudes that I know are just dorks, and there is a whole population of baby boomers that love genres other than say, classic country or Happy Day's music like the Beach Boys that I don't even know about.
I do have to admit that my dad is partially responsible for my love of music, and he is pretty musically sheltered, but he does love the music that he loves. He would wake the house up on Sundays with music. He would sit in his lazy boy, and just groove, while he smoked cancer stick after cancer stick. When I was in the third grade I remember him playing The Long Run album by (the) Eagles. (He would like it if I remind you here that the band is called "Eagles" not "The Eagles", people just add the "the" because it makes them feel better, similar to Counting Crows, there is no "The" in that bands title is there?).
Anyway, there are so many great songs on that record. One track in particular that I instantly gravitated towards was "King of Hollywood". It has a dark moody sound. It tells a story about the very dirty and corrupt underbelly of the entertainment (and porn) industry in Los Angeles. Lives that are forever changed and innocence lost when they come to Hollywood to try and become "Big Stars". What a great song start to finish!
Then there is "Sad Cafe", The title track, "The Long Run", and "Teenage Jail". Actually, there isn't really a song on that record that I don't love.
My old man turned me on to artist like Bob Dylan, Steve Miller, Elton John, and Paul Simon. I played the snot out of the Steve Miller Band's Greatest hits record! I would play it over and over and over again. I swear I wore the needle out on the record player just on that album alone.
I remember I would make a ham and cheese sandwich after school, sit on the sofa, and listen to the crap out of that record. I was a latch key kid, my folks worked long long hours, and often times my brother and I were home alone, left to our own devices and mischief.
Anyway, The inner sleeve of the album had a scene on it that I could stare at for days. It was a photograph of thousands of people at a Steve Miller Band concert. I don't know where, but it was at a large outdoor stadium. The picture was taken from the floor seats using a fish eye lens so that you could see almost the entire venue. A real wide, panoramic view of thousands of people having a great time waiting for the show to start. There were people with blankets having a picnic, others tossing a beach ball around, and others just kicking back, taking in the sun, sights and sounds. I remember wishing that I was there, wondering what it was like. I took note of the expressions on all of the faces of the concert goers. They were ALL HAPPY. Everyone was smiling. Relaxed, and excited at the same time.
Don't be a smart ass here and tell me that it was because they were all high on grass. It was more than that. It was the music. Only music can do that.
I'm 37 now, and I've been to see The Steve Miller Band about 8 or 9 times in concert. Every time, I'm happy and smiling, Excited and relaxed, and I get completely lost in the show that takes me back to my youth. Thanks dad.
It's really quite funny, if you ever go to a show with me, you'll see that once the concert starts, there is no talking to me. I'm gone. I'm off to where ever the artists and their music want to take me. I'm in a completely different dimension.
By the way, I have NEVER smoked pot. I never will either. I don't think that you're a bad guy if you do, but as for me, I'm not interested in the stuff. Music is my high. Sorry, I'm not saying I'm better than you, I'm just trying to break a stereotype I guess. Music and pot, can't have one without the other I mean. That's false.
Anyway, going back to pops, he turned me on to Bob Dylan too. He played "Infidels" a lot. Now that's a freakin' awesome record! Every single cut on the album is pure perfection. People laugh at me, and say "how do you even understand the lyrics?" But if you would just stop f**king moving and listen, you'd get it. Trust me. Infidels is one my top ten favorite records of all time.
To think, without my dad, I would probably not discovered Dylan until much later in life. Thanks pops.
But here is the deal, my dad is really into a lot of great music, but not from very many different genres. Classic rock, country, and maybe some rock/pop music is about the extent of his musical borders. He doesn't like disco, new age, classical, rap, alternative, hip hop, world, metal, techno, top 40, new wave, dance, latin, etc. etc. He just likes joints from 2 or 3 different musical places.
His loss? Maybe.
Maybe not though. Don't you think that if the music that he (and the musically narrow minded like him) loves makes him feel the same things, and transports him out of his body to different places, and reminds him of his youth and of happier times, and people that he knew and the one's who are gone, and makes him happy and laugh, and cry, and excited and relaxed and does all those fu*king awesome things that music does to me or say anyone else who considers themselves more musically worldly and open minded, then is he really missing out?
If music does the same things to his soul that it does to mine, just with a much smaller library of tracks and lyrics, then is he really missing out at all?
Take a guy that only likes rap and hip-hop. He won't listen to anything else. Hates county, hates anything that is not urban or "street". Hell, he won't even listen to R & B.
Same deal as my dad, he loves the music that he loves, and doesn't need the other stuff to make his life full.
Good for him. I guess that's just how powerful music is. It does so many different things to people, makes people feel every different emotion known to man, defines itself as the soundtrack to our lives.
One song can do that, let alone one genre.
What if I became deaf and couldn't enjoy music? How dry would my life be?
I can't even think of that. What about you? Would you rather be deaf or blind? If you were deaf, you couldn't listen to Depeche Mode or Counting Crows, or whoever is your life soundtrack band.... But if you were blind, you couldn't see your kids dancing, or learning to ride their bikes or walking down the isle to get married, or a sunset..... Which one is worse?
That's a topic for a whole different day.
Why don't you get off the computer and go listen to some music.
-13 Under The Gun
I freakin' love music! I dig sounds and vibes from all different types of genres. Take a look at my collection of LP's CD's, MP3's and even on Myspace page, you'll find everything represented by everyone from everywhere. I have country to rap, classical to acid metal, and everything in between. I love it all. Every genre has something unique that it brings to the table. Something that I love.
I think that I'm not the only one. Lots of people that I speak with feel the same way about music that I do. But they are often times my peers or about my age. I notice that people who were born in the 1970's or maybe even the late 60's are more likely to have a wide range of musical tastes than persons who were born earlier. Is it the 80's that helped open our eyes to different flavors? Is it the artists that we listened to that took their sound from several different influences, that shaped our own likes? I don't know. Am I off on this one?
Do you think that people who were born in the 40's and 50's have open minds when it comes to various types of music like people born in later decades? Or are they musically narrow minded? Maybe the older dudes that I know are just dorks, and there is a whole population of baby boomers that love genres other than say, classic country or Happy Day's music like the Beach Boys that I don't even know about.
I do have to admit that my dad is partially responsible for my love of music, and he is pretty musically sheltered, but he does love the music that he loves. He would wake the house up on Sundays with music. He would sit in his lazy boy, and just groove, while he smoked cancer stick after cancer stick. When I was in the third grade I remember him playing The Long Run album by (the) Eagles. (He would like it if I remind you here that the band is called "Eagles" not "The Eagles", people just add the "the" because it makes them feel better, similar to Counting Crows, there is no "The" in that bands title is there?).
Anyway, there are so many great songs on that record. One track in particular that I instantly gravitated towards was "King of Hollywood". It has a dark moody sound. It tells a story about the very dirty and corrupt underbelly of the entertainment (and porn) industry in Los Angeles. Lives that are forever changed and innocence lost when they come to Hollywood to try and become "Big Stars". What a great song start to finish!
Then there is "Sad Cafe", The title track, "The Long Run", and "Teenage Jail". Actually, there isn't really a song on that record that I don't love.
My old man turned me on to artist like Bob Dylan, Steve Miller, Elton John, and Paul Simon. I played the snot out of the Steve Miller Band's Greatest hits record! I would play it over and over and over again. I swear I wore the needle out on the record player just on that album alone.
I remember I would make a ham and cheese sandwich after school, sit on the sofa, and listen to the crap out of that record. I was a latch key kid, my folks worked long long hours, and often times my brother and I were home alone, left to our own devices and mischief.
Anyway, The inner sleeve of the album had a scene on it that I could stare at for days. It was a photograph of thousands of people at a Steve Miller Band concert. I don't know where, but it was at a large outdoor stadium. The picture was taken from the floor seats using a fish eye lens so that you could see almost the entire venue. A real wide, panoramic view of thousands of people having a great time waiting for the show to start. There were people with blankets having a picnic, others tossing a beach ball around, and others just kicking back, taking in the sun, sights and sounds. I remember wishing that I was there, wondering what it was like. I took note of the expressions on all of the faces of the concert goers. They were ALL HAPPY. Everyone was smiling. Relaxed, and excited at the same time.
Don't be a smart ass here and tell me that it was because they were all high on grass. It was more than that. It was the music. Only music can do that.
I'm 37 now, and I've been to see The Steve Miller Band about 8 or 9 times in concert. Every time, I'm happy and smiling, Excited and relaxed, and I get completely lost in the show that takes me back to my youth. Thanks dad.
It's really quite funny, if you ever go to a show with me, you'll see that once the concert starts, there is no talking to me. I'm gone. I'm off to where ever the artists and their music want to take me. I'm in a completely different dimension.
By the way, I have NEVER smoked pot. I never will either. I don't think that you're a bad guy if you do, but as for me, I'm not interested in the stuff. Music is my high. Sorry, I'm not saying I'm better than you, I'm just trying to break a stereotype I guess. Music and pot, can't have one without the other I mean. That's false.
Anyway, going back to pops, he turned me on to Bob Dylan too. He played "Infidels" a lot. Now that's a freakin' awesome record! Every single cut on the album is pure perfection. People laugh at me, and say "how do you even understand the lyrics?" But if you would just stop f**king moving and listen, you'd get it. Trust me. Infidels is one my top ten favorite records of all time.
To think, without my dad, I would probably not discovered Dylan until much later in life. Thanks pops.
But here is the deal, my dad is really into a lot of great music, but not from very many different genres. Classic rock, country, and maybe some rock/pop music is about the extent of his musical borders. He doesn't like disco, new age, classical, rap, alternative, hip hop, world, metal, techno, top 40, new wave, dance, latin, etc. etc. He just likes joints from 2 or 3 different musical places.
His loss? Maybe.
Maybe not though. Don't you think that if the music that he (and the musically narrow minded like him) loves makes him feel the same things, and transports him out of his body to different places, and reminds him of his youth and of happier times, and people that he knew and the one's who are gone, and makes him happy and laugh, and cry, and excited and relaxed and does all those fu*king awesome things that music does to me or say anyone else who considers themselves more musically worldly and open minded, then is he really missing out?
If music does the same things to his soul that it does to mine, just with a much smaller library of tracks and lyrics, then is he really missing out at all?
Take a guy that only likes rap and hip-hop. He won't listen to anything else. Hates county, hates anything that is not urban or "street". Hell, he won't even listen to R & B.
Same deal as my dad, he loves the music that he loves, and doesn't need the other stuff to make his life full.
Good for him. I guess that's just how powerful music is. It does so many different things to people, makes people feel every different emotion known to man, defines itself as the soundtrack to our lives.
One song can do that, let alone one genre.
What if I became deaf and couldn't enjoy music? How dry would my life be?
I can't even think of that. What about you? Would you rather be deaf or blind? If you were deaf, you couldn't listen to Depeche Mode or Counting Crows, or whoever is your life soundtrack band.... But if you were blind, you couldn't see your kids dancing, or learning to ride their bikes or walking down the isle to get married, or a sunset..... Which one is worse?
That's a topic for a whole different day.
Why don't you get off the computer and go listen to some music.
-13 Under The Gun
An introduction into my great life
My journey began at USCMC Medical Center in East Los Angeles California. It was late June, mom got to spend the fourth of July at the hospital with me. She often told me that the fireworks outside the window were no match for the ones going on in her heart as she got to know her first born son.
We lived briefly in the Rampart area of Los Angeles before moving up to central California for a few years. We then wound our way back to the South Bay, and called Inglewood our home for the next18 years.
I grew up in a hard working home with my parents and brother. Mom and dad did the best they could do for us, often working long hours just to make ends meet. We were "latch key" kids, and learned how to look out for ourselves. I began walking to school by myself in the second grade. That's about oh, about 7 years old or so. Something I would NEVER consider allowing my own kids to do. But hey, it was the 70's.....
I was a student of the Inglewood unified School District until the 9th grade when I used the address of a family friend to gain access to El Segundo High.
I graduated in June of 1989 by the skin of my teeth. Enrolled at El Camino College ( ESHS 13th grade) and became an E.M.T. (ambulance driver).
I was the youngest employee of the company at age 18 when I was hired. What a great job that was. I'd probably still be doing that job if only the pay were better. By design, they don't pay much. This makes it more of a stepping stone job than a career. They keep it that way so that the turn over rate stays high, and pay wages stay low. It's more cost effective for the company. But man, what a fun job.
I enlisted in The United States Marine Corps as a reservist, and was attached to "B" Battery 1/14 out of Pico Rivera.
That opened the door to Law Enforcement. More on that later.
I got married, and have three great kids.
That's the short, Readers Digest version of the story. I'll fill you in as the blog goes on.
Please feel free to share your thoughts with comments. Thanks, 13 Under The Gun
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