What Kind of Music Do You Like?

[saucycobblers]

Don't make me put Blondies "Rapture" back on!

OMG - David, stop it! That's my all time fave Blondie track! Very sexy song IMO...

[ZouBEini]

You're definitely not alone in that Larz! I have a theory that people get most nostalgic over the music they heard when they were in their early-mid teens. It's the time when most of us start doing more adult things (with or without parental knowledge / approval!) and really move out of childhood. Important times - so for me I always feel most nostalgic for early 80s stuff.

Yup. The 70's and 80's music is my favorite, simply because I was finally beginning to escape my parents' control. My wife and I lived in our second apartment when MTV premiered.  At first I wondered what the heck the show was supposed to be, then I saw the very first video and was soooo excited!   

My parents loved (among others) the Andrews Sisters, Nat "King" Cole, Perry Como, Bing Crosby (my father's to-die-for favorite), Doris Day, Frankie Laine (my mother had a crush on Frankie), Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Judy Garland, Mitch Miller and Andy Williams, as well as most all classical music. 

My love of musicals came from my father, though being gay, I would have found my way to it eventually I suppose.     Actually my favorite musicals were the ones I first saw during childhood.  The Music Man is #1, followed closely by Oklahoma.  Call me Ado Annie.  I'm just a girl who cain't say no -- especially to all those dancing musicians and cowboys and their tight pants. LOL     I was 10 years away from puberty, but thought Timmy Everett was hot as Tommy Djilas http://i9.ebayimg.com/04/i/05/25/16/e2_2.JPG "Ya wild kid-ya!"  David, you reminded me with the 50's comment: Grease is another favorite musical (soundtrack). 

Oops, babbling, sorry!   

~Larz

[moremojo]

Okay, I confess...I'm a rock and pop kind of guy. Classic rock, hard rock, soft rock, bubblegum pop, and even (shriek) disco...it's all good, which is why I had to vote for all five. This was the kind of music I grew up with, grew to love (for better or worse), and which have all now become part of my life and identity.

 I shudder, though, to leave the impression that other kinds of music do not inspire me. I really do love some folk music (does Nanci Griffith count?), country and Western (though tending to lean towards country-pop, like Shania Twain and Restless Heart), bluegrass (Allison Krauss), R & B (Marvin Gaye was divine), and positively cherish some Classical compositions (Bach, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, Debussy's opera Pelleas et Melisande). I just don't tend to seek such music out on a regular, active basis...I tend to let it find me.

But to all creators of beautiful music, which always transcends categories of genre, I say (quoting that immortal quartet Abba): "Thank you for the music...for giving it to me."

Still rocking in a hopefully free world,
Scott

[David In Indy]

I don't David! Please tell...

Well,  in the story Beethoven wrote Fur Elise especially for his "Immortal Beloved" as a love song to her. When one considers how lonely and sad Beethoven's life was, this makes the song even more beautiful and poignant.

Now the facts... or at least these are the facts I have heard about the song:

Beethoven did write this song for a woman. Her name was Therese von Brunsvik and she was a pupil of Beethoven's but it was later learned Therese was not the infamous Immortal Beloved Mr. Beethoven had described in his letters.

Also, it has been said Beethoven may have even penned this composition before he ever met Therese. I have heard some historians say the composition was originally called "Clavierstuck in A mull" and was later named Fur Elise because of an autograph Beethoven had penned on the music. Some say the name change for the composition occurred in 1867 when the music was first published.

Anyway, that is the story... and the facts I have heard over the years. The facts do take away from some of the romance of the story, but I always try to picture Beethoven writing this beautiful composition for his Immortal  Beloved when I play it. It is so full of emotion.

[David]

David, you reminded me with the 50's comment: Grease is another favorite musical (soundtrack). 
~Larz

LOL!   Don't get me wrong.   I like alot of the 50s stuff too.    Some of my favorites...Run around Sue, the Wanderer...etc.

Herb Alpert! OMG!   I used to listen to my folks old records of him!   Peaches and Cream, Tijuana Taxi!  LOL.

My Mom was into Country Western.  So I was exposed to alot of Johnny Cash and reruns of the TV show HEE HAW!     LOL.

[saucycobblers]

The facts do take away from some of the romance of the story, but I always try to picture Beethoven writing this beautiful composition for his Immortal  Beloved when I play it. It is so full of emotion.

Exactly David. I find it hard to believe that he wasn't thinking of a special someone when he was writing it. Have you seen the film 'Immortal Beloved'? OMG, it breaks my heart 

Tijuana Taxi!

  One of the funniest song's ever. Not sure why but it makes me laugh every time i hear it.

[David In Indy]

Indeed.  That was their only hit over here as well.   And they dropped of the chart after a few weeks.

I clearly remember being 25 yrs old, listening to them on the radio in my Lime Green 1974 Cadillac Eldorado  !   ha ha ha!

David -

I remember those lime green cars. My mother owned a pea green Oldsmobile Cutlass in the early 1970's. It really funny when I think about it now. Back then a lot of people drove green cars, and now most people wouldn't be caught dead in one. At least not in this country.

I wonder what colors people will be driving 30 years from today?

[Andrew]

Getting back for a moment to Claire de lune, which two of you mentioned...even if Debussy had not written Pelleas and Melisande, La mer or Prelude to the afternoon of a faun this one short piano piece would guarantee that he was remembered as a great composer.  My brother used to play this when he has 20 and I was 8.  I would creep into the living room every time I heard him begin it, thrilled.  What distant places it took me to in such a tiny span of time!  I would await with equal fear and anticipation the 'four broken chords' which told me the journey needed to come back to the place it began.  My brother seemed just as marvellous as this music -  clever, learned, full of different talents, strong and tall - at six feet five inches he would still be a few inches taller than I am now were he alive, but he died just a few years later at 23.  Of course Claire de lune has an added human layer for me because of this, but it is also the pure musical wonder it was when I first heard it.

[David In Indy]

My brother seemed just as marvellous as this music -  clever, learned, full of different talents, strong and tall - at six feet five inches he would still be a few inches taller than I am now were he alive, but he died just a few years later at 23. 

I sure am sorry to hear about this Andrew.

He sounds like he was a wonderful musician!

[ZouBEini]

LOL!   Don't get me wrong.   I like alot of the 50s stuff too.    Some of my favorites...Run around Sue, the Wanderer...etc.

Herb Alpert! OMG!   I used to listen to my folks old records of him!   Peaches and Cream, Tijuana Taxi!  LOL.

My Mom was into Country Western.  So I was exposed to alot of Johnny Cash and reruns of the TV show HEE HAW!     LOL.

LOL!  No David, I assumed you meant it was sort of a generational thing, enjoying the music of one's youth.  And I didn't think anyone would remember Herb Alpert!  I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I remember thinking of him when I replaced my old brass trumpet with a silver one.  During those days I abandoned my '76 silver Starfire for my mother's silver 1973 Cutlass Supreme, so I could scoop up my choir and band friends.  I loved that big Lass!  We never had a lime green car, but I'll bet you were noticed!    

My parents weren't into C&W but we also watched Hee Haw faithfully.  I wondered why Minnie Pearl never removed that price tag from her hat!  Well, duh - that was one of her trademarks!  "Howww-DEEE!"  A lot of guys were watching the busty girls in daisy dukes. I was watching the Hagar twins.   

~Larz