Have to thank cjl and his post about The Roches, what they meant to him, how from their music he branched out into the appreciation of so many other artists.
I didn't truly appreciate them, by the way-- liked them, don't get me wrong, but for some reason they just never fully gelled for me on record. Then they showed up right here in town, and I got a chance to see them live, and...
... dude, are you ever right on about how awesome they are. I was right, capturing what they do on a record... very, very challenging.
But what cjl did was not just make me think about which of dozens of "classics" I could choose from, but-- what choice would represent a musical influence, a style, what have you-- that was formative in my future choices of artists and their work.
That easily narrows it to a single album, and of all the songs on that album, the one that still can bring me to tears just hearing it. It was strange how at the time this record was regarded as "pretentious", or how ridiculous it was for a supposed rock band to implement such classical-heavy features into their tunes.
History proved those doubters to be clueless to true musical innovation. Today, blessedly, many young musicians freely blend all manner of genres into their compositions, and not only do listeners not question this, nearly all happily embrace it.
This is a very lovely live version of this stunning song, and it does my old heart good to see all those other geezers and geezerettes in the audience totally wrapped up in the moment.
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I didn't truly appreciate them, by the way-- liked them, don't get me wrong, but for some reason they just never fully gelled for me on record. Then they showed up right here in town, and I got a chance to see them live, and...
... dude, are you ever right on about how awesome they are. I was right, capturing what they do on a record... very, very challenging.
But what cjl did was not just make me think about which of dozens of "classics" I could choose from, but-- what choice would represent a musical influence, a style, what have you-- that was formative in my future choices of artists and their work.
That easily narrows it to a single album, and of all the songs on that album, the one that still can bring me to tears just hearing it. It was strange how at the time this record was regarded as "pretentious", or how ridiculous it was for a supposed rock band to implement such classical-heavy features into their tunes.
History proved those doubters to be clueless to true musical innovation. Today, blessedly, many young musicians freely blend all manner of genres into their compositions, and not only do listeners not question this, nearly all happily embrace it.
This is a very lovely live version of this stunning song, and it does my old heart good to see all those other geezers and geezerettes in the audience totally wrapped up in the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjUqfRrWwcM
Letters I've written / Never meaning to send