Music Musings
I am listening to the album “Bible Belt” by Diane Birch. Hailing from the true Bible Belt the song “Choo Choo” really jumps out at me especially when she sings the chorus “I am on a Choo Choo straight to hell and the devils got my baby and I know he really wants me…”. This kind of music makes me want to be in my Cowboy’s back yard mowing while he works on his cars and we cool down in the late afternoon with ice cold Budweisers and watch the fireflies come out to entertain us as the radio blares music from the kitchen window and we slow dance, beer in hand, around the fire pit. Her voice is amazing and if you haven’t heard her, run I say run to Itunes or whatever website you steal your music from and take a listen. Her voice is a throw back to my childhood, a slight mixture of Alanna Myles, Grace Slick and Stevie Nicks. Stunning I tell you and I am in love! Little gems on the CD are “Don’t Wait Up” and “Nothing But A Miracle”. The songs break my heart and heal my soul at the same time. I can’t wait to move to Chicago to slow down to the pace of this album and remember where I come from.
The truth is that my dream job would be in the music industry somewhere. I am no where near talented enough to make my own music but damn if I don’t know what will be a hit and what sounds right. I would really like to be a music critic for SPIN or Rolling Stone or truth be told for Playboy but most likely that will never happen, a girl can wish though and certainly more so on her 25th birthday.
The kind of column I would write would be pretty much like this blog, what I like, what it reminds me of, how I would listen to this music if I were given the perfect setting. You know tie in a personal feel as to why you like or dislike music. Not just writing on some pop culture soapbox of what is chart worthy and will sell millions of copies. Don’t get me wrong pop music I love you and I shake my ass to you every chance I get; you sell millions of copies for a reason but, just once I would like to hear the voice behind the critic telling me to listen to this album or if they really listened to it at all or if they just flipped through tracks on their morning commute then regurgitated whatever they think the public wants to hear or what they think will be controversial enough to raise their bosses eyebrow and get their column higher placement, then collect their check and go home. Give me your soul, tell me what touches you and for Christ sakes why you listen and not what you hear.
I would also love to be a music editor for movies, you know the person that puts the soundtrack together. How rad would that be? I love the thought of putting music to poignant points in peoples lives and I know that there has been many times that watching a movie and listening to a song will invoke so much emotion in me it will be nearly overwhelming. Like listening to They Might Be Giants sing “Other Father Song (Coraline)” I feel free, in love and high. I don’t know why I just do and I feel that way every single time I see the movie or hear the song or even hear something that reminds me of the song. If I am having a bad day 30 seconds of that song and I pretty much do an emotional 180.
On top of finding new music to enjoy I am also reviving some goodies from the past such as “Godzilla” and “Burnin’ For You” by Blue Oyster Cult. I am making a “Driving” mix for my Cowboy and I am reminded of all these songs that used to hold so much meaning to me. I know it is probably hard for a lot of you city kids to understand how I grew up but if you have ever watched “Dazed and confused” mixed in with a little “Footloose” you have a better idea. No it wasn’t exactly like those movies but close and oddly the music was almost exactly the same, strange how the soundtracks for those movies were almost identical to the soundtrack to my childhood. I feel like it is a chicken or the egg kind of thing. Was this MY soundtrack because of these movies or was it my soundtrack that matched so perfectly with these movies. Another reason for wanting to be a music editor; to create this for some other young impressionable girl growing up near corn fields and wrestling mats. Don’t even get me started on Vision Quest/Madonna and Rocky/Eye of The Tiger. Those songs and movies were our bibles. We learned lessons, we lived by these truths. I truly believe this is why directors make movies in the first place to get you to feel this, to listen, to hear. I remember a quote from Dazed and Confused while Dawson was laying in the grass on the high school football field “Well, all I'm saying is that I want to look back and say that I did the best I could while I was stuck in this place. Had as much fun as I could while I was stuck in this place. Played as hard as I could while I was stuck in this place... Dogged as many girls as I could while I was stuck in this place.” This was my motto, well dogged as many boys as I could, for I was never the “good girl” type. This helped me get through high school and the depression of my home life. I went to Aerosmith concerts like the kids in the movie did. I listened to that music with all my heart; I felt every cord of the guitar in my soul. Drumbeats were my pulse.
Oddly if you asked anyone I went to high school with or even my Cowboy, they would tell you that I didn’t seem particularly music oriented or if they could even tell if I had a favorite band or singer.
In college I listened to a lot of Counting Crows but, then again who didn’t. “Rain King” was one of my favorites and I always wanted to be the girl he was singing about, to be loved that much. I wanted to be the Queen to his Rain King. I remember driving around with my best friend, Danell, in her old Honda that was almost as old as we were singing this song at the top of our lungs. One of my favorite memories with her is driving with no map and no destination, flipping coins to decide which way we would turn; the roulette’s of right or left turns. We stopped in desperate need of a bathroom and stumbled into a coffee house that was also an ice cream shop. It was the bottom floor of an old warehouse and there was a sitting parlor in the old elevator and there was a fish tank in the wall of the ladies bathroom so basically anyone could see through to you squatting awkwardly on a toilet as to not let any of your bits be shown. The men’s bathroom on the other hand had a T.V. in it playing Little Rascal’s videos. There were photos on all the walls and they were all of Catholic schoolgirls in various states of undress. Looking back now this was my first exposure to fetish photography. When we finished using the facilities, we decide we would have an ice cream cone and a coffee and sit for a bit before finding our way home. Danell went out for a smoke and the owner/ice cream guy/barista followed her out, turns out he was also the photographer of the school girl portraits. He asked Danell if she would like to pose for him sometime. Danell being the spit fire she was said “Men jack off to me enough I don’t need a photo on a wall to tell me they’d like to cum on my face.” She walked back inside, we ordered our ice cream and coffee and sat down next to two high school boys that had a guitar. The one boy with the guitar is softly strumming “Rain King” and he just isn’t putting the feeling into it. Danell grabs the guitar and tells him if he isn’t going to belt it out like he means it, he doesn’t deserve to sing that song. Singing that song is something you have to earn not something you just do. She then starts strumming the guitar and belts out Rain King. I sing harmony and we do it right. We went home, we were happy, we had our music, we had our coffee, and we were whole.
I know it seems a little trite but music really does mean this much to me. Please give me feed back on this blog. Do you think I could possibly ever be a music editor or critic? Honesty is always appreciated. Ok back to my pain meds, gatorade and cuddling with the teddy bear that whittles gave me for my birthday.
