Monday, October 31, 2016

Tunes

As I feel that I have settled well into my mid-thirties, I thought it pertinent to confide in you my top 10 musicians of all time.  Or at least up until now.

Back when I was a teenager, I thought I had arrived at the best music ever.  I believe my favourite band in high school was Buck-O-Nine, a ska band that sang songs about chicks and growing up.

Early twenties had me into Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, and Lauren Hill's unplugged album.  A little better but not even anywhere near where I needed to be.

In my late twenties, I swam in the never ending seas of folk rock.  Eventually, the names of the bands and the lyrics annoyed me too much.  I gave up and I realized that I had to stop letting a genre corner me into everything it had to offer.

I look back at early days.  When I was 10 I had a Beach Boys tape.  It made me feel great.  I sang along to it.  My mom gave me a DC Talk rap album.  Sure, why not?  It was fun.

Early teens, I had almost every Beatles record.  Good for teen me.  Then I got angry and went into Punk.  For some reason Ska was allowed to come along for the ride.

If you don't know what Ska is, good for you.  If you do, you probably remember the bands having 'yo-yoers' on stage with them.  Weird.

So now I'm sorta confident that I know what I'm talking about when I say that I know what I like.  I'm sure that 45 year old Brett will have a lot to say on the subject.

Musical tastes, like everything else within the human experience, evolves as it seeks fulfillment.  If I listen to Skynyrd and nothing else, then chances are that I am a stubborn person who would probably be very well glued to his opinions about everything.  I want to learn and grow, so I open myself up to music.

Miles, 2008


You might want disagree with my choices, but you can't... it's my list.  Go and make your own.

There is no particular order.  I have included a beloved song of each artist.

Leonard Cohen - Come Healing
Tom Waits - Anywhere I Lay My Head
Bon Iver - Re: Stacks
Feist - The Bad In Each Other
Hayden - Don't Get Down
Death Cab for Cutie - Binary Sea
David Bazan - People
Ryan Adams - Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
Wilco - You Are My Face
Andy Shauf - Lick Your Wounds
The Beatles - For No One


Conclusion is that most of this music is pretty sad.  Sad music makes me feel good.