Right now, my favorite bit of music is Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oxH-7VklBI

Most of the time, it's the music that captures me.


But then there are a few songs where it's the words; I want to hear them again and again.

Meatloaf singing Jim Steinman songs...
Simon & Garfunkel songs...


Your thoughts...?

You will be sorry you asked.

Streisand's "People". It's the lyrics. Needy people. I don't want a song about needy people. Or any people.

Whiney love songs. Women complaining about men. Men trying to show that they are as P-whipped as can be. So many songs ruined by---lyrics.

Imagine how much nicer the BoM would be without any words in it just to give an idea. Words kill things. The second you mouth it you have damaged it.


Which, to your point, makes the exceptions that prove the rule intoxicating. Like some Bob Dylan. Serendipity leaving his lips at an alarming rate. He duels with your mind and you know you are going to lose and you like it.

Leonard Cohen's last CD, "You Want It Darker?" I listened to every day for a year. "A Thousand Kisses Deep", , "Boogie Street", and, my new favorite--"Leaving the Table">

I do love the Aranjuez. Thumbs up. I will refrain from commenting further.



The big question is though, will anyone ever top, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", or, "Praise to the Man". Now THOSE are some lyrics!

Growing up I had every Simon and Garfunkel 8 track tape they came out with. My favorite song being, "hello Darkness My Old Friend".

Now, I lean towards instrumental music in the rhythm and blues section. However, acappella harmony will always catch my attention.

The first live concert I attended was Santana. The weed smoke that hung in the air made the stage a hazy blur by the concert's end.

How can you not be inspired by lyrics like this?

“I believe in Christ, who marked the path,
Who did gain all his Father hath”

That is from my least favorite LDS hymn.


But to seriously answer your question, it’s usually the music that initially hooks me, but often the lyrics that cause a deeper appreciation.

Just to piss off mormons, I really love latin motets, especially Palestrina; the music is beautiful but who can understand latin? Doesn't matter: the human voice is ultimately the best musical instrument out there, so the music *is* the lyrics. Can you imagine the juggernaut that is the MoTab singing a capella polyphonic music without it sounding like steam locomotive? Actually, I'd rather listen to a steam locomotive.

My favorite Handel's Messiah has a choir of 36 males, from pre-pubescent to late teens; my least favorite has the MoTab choir...

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Can you imagine the juggernaut that
> is the MoTab singing a capella polyphonic music
> without it sounding like steam locomotive?
> Actually, I'd rather listen to a steam locomotive.

If we could "like" posts, this would be one from me, Chicken!

This was the lyric that brought me to tears. Age 28 sitting in the Backlot Night Club. Helen Schneider singing with a voice made of steel and velvet. A voice that knew.


All the time I thought there's only me
Crazy in a way that no one else could be
I would have given everything I own
if someone would have said you're not alone

All the time I thought that I was wrong
Wanting to be me but needing to belong
If I had just believed in all I had
If someone would have said you're not so bad

All the time all the wasted time
All the years... waiting for a sign
to think I had it all...
All the time...

All the time I thought there's only me
Crazy in a way that no one else could be
I can't believe that you were somewhere too
thinking all the time there's only you . . .


All to brilliant Manilow notes.

Have you listened to the Miles Davis version, as found in his critically acclaimed album Sketches in Spain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsWidlDldVk

According to Davis, he approached Rodrigo soon after Sketches in Spain was recorded to ask his opinion of his version of Concierto de Aranjuez. Rodrigo told him he didn’t like it. Thereafter, Davis commented that he might change his mind once the royalties start coming in.

https://247valencia.com/composer-joaquin-rodrigo-and-miles-davis-the-valencia-connection/#:~:text=Anyway%2C%20when%20I%20got%20to%20his%20house%2C%20he,to%20myself%2C%20Goddamn%2C%20these%20melody%20lines%20are%20strong.

In any event, it is one of my favorite pieces. (I love the Rodrigo original as well.) Like Davis’ ‘fusion’ recordings, you have to sit back in a comfortable chair with headphones, without distraction, close your eyes and just listen passively; without any melodic or harmonic expectations. It’s wonderful!

Uh, oh, I could post all day about music (like, *anything* performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields), but I just remembered one of the most emotional, inspiring things I've ever heard--and it's from a video game!!
I believe Christopher Tin won a Grammy for his music to 'Civilization', and the video makes me tear up every time, even though it's Euro-American-centric, and despite the violence and struggle depicted, ironically the words are The Lord's Prayer in Swahili.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A&list=RDIJiHDmyhE1A

IN ~


4 links to tapes in this tread ~



thx ~

The music. Specifically Gideon's Oboe.