Where does the music take you?

[rugerpc]

I never owned an 8-track - but a fellow on my floor in freshman year at college did and played DSotM continuously whether he was there or not, whether he was sleeping or not.

I read the "Hobbit" and "Lord the the Rings" trilogy in his room that year and still get mental pictures of the Misty Mountains and characters and other places in my head when I hear anything from DSotM.

Music transports us. It is the background of our lives. I can actually see and smell (mix of incense and AC) my dorm room from summer school between my freshman and sophomore years when I hear 10CC's "I'm Not in Love". I can see a girl I met for the first time there too.

Everyone has songs that punctuate our memories. What is the soundtrack of your first love, your first child, your first car?

 

[solacematt]

Whenever I hear Train's "Drops of Jupiter"I think of the day I graduated high school. I think the song just came out around that time, but that morning as I parked my car and was about to walk into the college campus arena where my graduation took place (large graduating class size), that song came on the radio and I sat in my seat, stretched a bit, and than left.
Can't say I have a single song for my first real love honestly. First song I played in my very first car though was Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream album (starts with "Cherub Rock"). 1994 Mitsubishi Eclipse with a sunroof.

 

[swede71]

Lullaby for my daughter was Frank Zappa-Watermelon in easter hay

 

[rugerpc]

I have been building in a basement. I set the iPod to randomly play through the songs I have for a single artist like Rush or The Beatles or Gilmour or Knowles, etc. and now when I hear some of those songs, I see various parts of the basement in partial completion.

This isn't the long term ingrained music transport I was specifically thinking of when I started this thread, just another example of how music attaches itself so easily to our memories.

 

[László]

Too many music/life associations to list.

 

[rugerpc]

OK - maybe the question should be "Where did the music take you TODAY?"

I'm driving down the street yesterday and 'Horse with no Name" comes on - Instantly I'm back in my Freshman dorm room....

 

[prsrocker1988]

As I posted in the "Guitar Love" thread, Hotel California by the Eagles was the song that made me play guitar. That album is the soundtrack of my life.

There are a lot of bands that mean a lot to me. I'm a classic rock and blues guy, so mainly 70s stuff is what I love but it spans from 60s-80s for me with some rare exceptions of some newer stuff from old-school artists.

For me my favorites are Eagles, Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Guns N' Roses, Fleetwood Mac (Buckingham/Nicks era especially), etc. I really like some 80s stuff too like Journey, REO Speedwagon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, .38 Special, Def Leppard, Van Halen, etc. The only 90s band I liked that were popular then was the Black Crowes. I never liked the alternative stuff or anything too "experimental" (progressive). Also love a lot of the 60s/70s blues stuff like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Yardbirds, Free, Paul Butterfield Band (Mike Bloomfield), Freddie/Albert/BB King, etc. I love that stuff and is the stuff I really like.

I do occasionally like some Country, Soul/RnB, Funk, etc. Not a big metal or modern rock fan. And I can't stand most modern pop/rap/hiphop stuff either. As far as modern music goes, there is very little stuff I really like. It's mainly artists/bands with an old school vibe/sound.

 

[SFactor123]

I don't know where music really take me, I just know that I feel relaxed and full of myself when I listen music.........which is a great feeling.

 

[MrKnaggs]

A few truths that music has taught me:

We hear our first music while in the womb. The rhythm is the beat of mother's heart, the melody, the flow of her blood.

In music, compare yourself to no one but yourself. Steal it from everyone you admire and call it research.

Where music takes you as a player, is quite irrelevant except to the player. Where your music takes the listener, is most relevant to many more.

Music is the most wonderful thing there is. It allows you to dream out loud and is a blessing as well as a curse. It is also the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Music can only be in the moment, can only be listened to as it's being created, and it is created, not made. Music is not a noun, it's a verb. This is the reason you cannot write music, you can only write notes & rests.

Music abides in the future and the competent musician has the power to bring it into the present only to give joy to others.

I began to seriously study the written note in 1965 and continue studying to this day. Yes, you can never learn it all and I can tell you that college degrees really make little difference on stage. It's not about style or genre, it's about approach, it's about content and it's about tone.

The best music you will ever play, you haven't played yet. The best player you will ever be, you haven't been yet. It is good to hope you never realize those goals.

Words as language are inarticulate and are inferior to music as even a small child just learning to speak can easily manipulate words to make a lie. But, even the greatest masters of music could never make a single note lie. Words are from the mind and the mouth but music comes from the heart. Therefore, music is always truth. It will reveal your joy if you have it, and will reveal your sorrow if you don't. In this way music surpasses the spoken word and is the superior language of humanity as it is the language of the soul.

After all these years, music doesn't really take me to those exotic places any more, rather it brings those places to me. For some of us who are musicians in life, music is more than the soundtrack to our life, it is our whole life. After a time, music becomes much more than something you do, it becomes who you are. It becomes all you are and all you ever want to be.

Sadly, the music business today is 10% music and 90% business. A business degree will get you further ahead in music than a music degree. Unless you love music enough to let it kill you, you will be happier and more prosperous in life if you get a real estate license.



Peace,
MrKnaggs

 

[sergiodeblanc]

First kiss was "Careless Whisper" by Wham, I was in France on a back to back program while in fifth grade and it was at a dance of some sort, always takes me back.
First car would be "Reign in Blood" by Slayer, I must have worn out ten copies of that tape in that brown and tan Ford Bronco XLT.
First child has not happened yet, but I will most certainly cue up "Isn't She Lovely" by Steveland for the car ride home, even if it's a boy.

 

[rugerpc]

The Bananaphone song has taken me to a whole new, unexpected place. It's gonna have to be my iPhone ringtone for a little while...

 

[Shawn@PRS]

Rancid's song Radio sums it up the best. "When I got the music, I got a place to go"

 

[Owluitar]

Music takes me to my "happy place". I can sit in my bedroom studio with headphones on and not have a care in the world. Easy by Lionel Richie and The Commodores is what I'm currently listening to.