Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things. – Oscar Hammerstein II
Yesterday I wrote about my favorite (non-horror) movies, though as some of you undoubtedly noticed a few of them were borderline horror or contained horror elements. Two of those films (and one from my horror movie list) have connections in today’s column, in which I discuss my favorite music. I’m going to limit myself to popular music here, but since I’m sure some of you would like to know my favorite composers are Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Holst, Shostakovich and Vivaldi (though the first two stand out above the others). Since chronological order is useless in discussing popular musicians, let’s list these in alphabetical order:
1) The Beatles: Because my father used to set a radio to lull me to sleep, my first experience of the Fab Four was when “Let it Be” was in heavy rotation on WTIX in 1970. The first Beatles album I actually owned was The Beatles: 1967-1970 (the “Blue Album”) which I bought (on vinyl, of course) sometime in high school. I played that album so often it would be a candidate for my favorite-album list (see below) had I not purchased every single Beatles album on CD while I was stripping.
2) Blondie: My first exposure to this now-legendary band was “Heart of Glass”, and the album from which it came (Parallel Lines) and its successor (Eat to the Beat; see below) were among those I got “free” with my first Columbia House membership in high school. Unfortunately, they went sharply downhill after that, though I later bought and enjoyed their first two albums (Blondie and Plastic Letters).
3) Blue Oyster Cult: I don’t really much care for their early work; the first song which caught my attention was “Don’t Fear the Reaper”, but I never considered them a favorite until Fire of Unknown Origin (see below), which I came to know through the Heavy Metal soundtrack (also below). Strangely, the band went into decline immediately thereafter.
4) Enya: When I bought Watermark as a Christmas present for Olivia,
I listened to selections in the music store and got a copy for myself as well; I later purchased everything Enya had ever recorded (or has done since). Her popularity has faded since the turn of the century, but not with me.
5) Heart: I fell in love with the Wilson Sisters from the first time I heard “Crazy On You”, and it’s still one of my favorite songs; Dreamboat Annie (see below) was one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money
(from a neighbor’s garage sale a couple of years later for 25¢). Though I liked their ‘80s heavy metal incarnation less than their original sound, it was still much better than the Private Audition/Passionworks era.
6) Meat Loaf: One of my university boyfriends introduced me to Bat Out of Hell (see below), and it quickly became one of my favorites. After buying a number of his other albums
I discovered that though I do enjoy his singing in general, the songs I really like are those written by Jim Steinman, so it’s most accurate to say that the Meat Loaf/Steinman collaboration is among my favorite music acts.
7) Queen: With a few exceptions, it’s their earliest stuff I like the most; I bought A Night at the Opera at the same garage sale which gave me Dreamboat Annie.
8) Rush: This particular band came to reside among my favorites by a circuitous route; they were the favorite of a boy I knew in 7th and 8th grades who was very friendly to me when his male friends weren’t around (he lived next door to my Maman) but rude to me when they were. Later, they were also the favorites of a friend of mine’s stoner boyfriend whom I couldn’t stand. So, I never gave them a chance until the 1984 hit “Distant Early Warning”
caught my attention. Frank slowly worked on me, exposing me to the group on every possible occasion throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, and though I came to like them it was my husband’s influence (Rush is his favorite band) which finally pushed them into my top ten.
9) Joe Satriani: “The Crush of Love” was released in November of 1988 and was played nearly every night on my favorite classic rock station while I drove home from a horrible retail job; driving much too fast down I-10 late at night
while that composition played refreshed my soul, and I went out and bought the CD on which it appeared, Dreaming #11 (see below) as soon as I could. Others followed, and Satriani is one of the few artists whose work I will buy simply because his name is on it; I own every one of his albums.
10) Vangelis: Most Americans only know his soundtrack for the movie Chariots of Fire, but that is IMHO among his weakest work!
My first exposure to him was through the passage from Heaven and Hell which was used as the theme to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos television series, and when I learned the name and composer of the piece in the Times-Picayune TV supplement, I absolutely begged Jeff to take me to New Orleans’ then-best record shop, Leisure Landing, so I could buy it. In those pre-internet days it was nearly impossible to discover every album released by a European musician, but by the time I met my husband I had most of them and he helped me uncover the rest. I thought I had them all, but my research for this column indicates I missed his very first soundtrack commission, which I’ve added to my Amazon wishlist. Personally, I think Vangelis’ best and most productive period was from 1975 to 1979, though 1978’s Beauborg is below average and 1984’s Soil Festivities is as good as any of his golden ‘70s oeuvre.
There are favorite artists, and then there are favorite albums. Some musical anthologies are just pure synergy; it’s like all the cosmic forces were in alignment when they were created, and every song contributes to that whole. I think most people have certain albums they feel that way about; such a favorite becomes more than JUST a collection of songs, and instead becomes an experience in itself. They certainly differ from person to person, but the experience is the same;
they’re played so often one memorizes all the notes and all the lyrics, and may even have to be replaced due to wear! Here are mine, in alphabetical order by title:
1) Bat Out of Hell (Meat Loaf)
2) China (Vangelis)
3) A Clockwork Orange (original movie soundtrack)
4) Dreamboat Annie (Heart)
5) Dreaming #11 (Joe Satriani)
6) Eat to the Beat (Blondie)
7) Fire of Unknown Origin (Blue Oyster Cult)
8 ) Heavy Metal (original movie soundtrack)
9) Jesus Christ Superstar (original rock opera)
10) The Stranger (Billy Joel)
11) Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield)
12) The Turn of a Friendly Card (The Alan Parsons Project)
These particular albums were just lightning in a bottle for me;
I mentioned most of them above, and of course the two soundtracks are from movies discussed yesterday. I was introduced to Jesus Christ Superstar in 8th grade and bought it almost immediately; it may be the one album I have heard all the way through more often than any other, and the only stage play I’ve paid to see more than once. The Stranger and The Turn of a Friendly Card came to my attention via my second roommate at UNO, and are interesting in that I actively dislike several other albums by the artists who recorded them. And then there is Tubular Bells, which I first encountered via one passage used as the theme of The Exorcist but came to love after I bought a copy from a used-record store in high school.
Well, I think that’s enough for now; as I said yesterday, if you’re curious about my favorite whatever-else-I-didn’t-mention, just ask in a comment!
One Year Ago Today
“The Slave-Whore Fantasy (Part One)” proposes that the reason so many men choose to believe in “trafficking” mythology is that it allows them to deny the uncomfortable truth that women are in control of the sexual sphere by pretending that prostitutes, the most sexually powerful of all women, are pathetic victims who are controlled by men.
I graduated High School in 1980 and I was the ONLY one who listened to the Beatles. If you were listening to them when you were in high school you were probably more out of place than I was. And yeah – that ’67 – ’70 album was the very first one I bought because it had all the good stuff from the later years of the Beatles. I didn’t really appreciate anything they did in the earlier years until I got a bit older and started learning to play their songs on guitar. I think the first things I learned to play were “Something” (the George Harrison tune) and “Let It Be” and I can even play the solo from “Taxman” (Paul McCartney played the original solo – as a gift to Harrison, he did it with an “Indian flavor” – McCartney is an underrated guitar player imo.)
I will tell you a secret though. Some songs sound better than they are. I’ve almost destroyed my appreciation for “Let It Be” since I learned to play it. I’m really upset that Harrison could not come up with a better solo for that – he really cheated Paul on that song with creating a lazy solo based on a basic sliding C scale. I think the Beatles realized it wasn’t that great and that’s why they released that song with about three different solos. Probably the best one is on “Let It Be – Naked” – which was the “naked” release of the “Let It Be” album sans the Phil Spector orchestras, female choruses and overproduction.
“Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” – another song I loved (by Poison) – yet an incredibly infantile guitar piece. It’s so easy I’m embarrassed to play it for anyone.
LOL Heart … I went to see them during their “Bebe Le Strange” concert tour all by my myself and a girl molested me on the floor of that concert! I was like 18 and she was drunk as hell and just came up from behind me and started fondling the wedding tackle in front of everyone!
Strangely enough, I wasn’t the only one I knew in high school who liked the Beatles; two of my girlfriends were huge fans, and so was Jeff (I remember “Old Brown Shoe” was one of his favorites, though I was never all that partial to it myself…we both agreed on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”). And though I know I’m in the minority, I like the “overproduced” Phil Spector “Let It Be”; I always like it when bands are unafraid to experiment, add more instruments, extra vocals, etc. The Electric Light Orchestra almost made it onto this list, only losing to Queen by the very slimmest of margins.
I have to disagree with you on “sounds better than they are”; where is it written that great music must be complex or difficult to play? Everyone agrees on the greatness of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, but its primary melody couldn’t be any simpler.
I can never think of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” without being irresistibly reminded of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, another on my long movie favorites list (OK, that scene is from the sequel, which is nearly as good).
I think there were at least six or seven other Beatle fans when I was in High School in the early ’80s, and my school only had around seventy students.
The first Beatle album my brothers and I had was the 1962-1966 ‘red’ album. I only knew of two Beatle songs before we got it, and they were both on it– Yellow Submarine and Nowhere Man, the only songs I remembered from seeing the movie years earlier.
You say you bought all the Beatle’s CD’s when you were stripping? Pray tell … perhaps … did you ever perform to one of their songs? I’ve never seen a stripper dance to the Beatles.
You should come up with a list of great strip songs. First time I heard “Let her cry” by Hootie and the Blowfish was at a place called the “Body Shop” in Point Loma, San Diego. I was transfixed by the woman who performed to it. And yeah – I learned to play that one too!
In fact, my youngest daughter is named after that stripper! Please don’t tell my wife! LOL
I must admit I never did use any Beatles songs, though I have used Heart, Blondie and Blue Oyster Cult.
Yeah, I don’t think the Beatles really had strippers at heart when they recorded those songs. 🙁
By the way, if you liked “While my Guitar …” then you should check Peter Frampton’s CD “Now” for his version. He recorded it as a tribute to George after he died. I really think this version is as good as the first but maybe that’s only because of the modern methods used to record it. No … I think it prolly also has something to do with Frampton’s guitar tone – which is just organically vivid. It’s a song you can really turn up and get into.
Does anyone ever strip to David Rose’s The Stripper in real life, or just in old movies?
My dialogue with a London pole dancer a year or two ago suggests that something of the length of The Stripper would be too long for what is now in style in terms of lap dancing, and I can’t really see it working for pole dancing, and though she vowed she was capable of old-style strip she reckoned it wasn’t as profitable.
It’s bound to make a comeback, though. I mean, the fun’s in the tease, no? And I imagine there was much more job satisfaction for most strippers in the old days with a longer time to keep their audience in suspense.
Old-time stripping is a lot more fun; I used to do it at some of my bachelor parties. The norm in New Orleans while I was a stripper was to do a three-song set: One fully clothed (such as it was), one in lingerie and the third as nude as was permitted. I always stripped in the second half of my songs, but many girls simply shed the garments in the brief pause between songs, which I found highly unimaginative.
Ah, the Beatles, my fellow scousers!!! I was in the immediately succeeding generation, and used to walk past John Lennon’s old primary school every day on the way to my own secondary. For a few glorious days in the late 70s I actually possessed John Lennon’s original marriage certificate to Cynthia Powell! A Widnes greengrocer had bought a second-hand chest of drawers in a shop in south Liverpool and discovered it taped beneath one of the drawers. He lent it me for the local rag I worked on. Happy days!
I picked up an Enya-like Canadian celtic tunesmith in Toronto Canada when I was there last fall. Her name is
Loreena McKennitt
I think. Something scottish. I downloaded her work and it’s different from but similar to Enya.
Here in Korea, there’s a singer who does something similar.
I’ll get her name for you, too.
(My SO loves this style of music).
Gorb, you got her name right – it’s Loreena McKennitt … I have a lot of her stuff and even tried to “meditate” to her music at one point when I was in the war zone.
You may have the “Book of Secrets” … there is one song on it, “The Highwayman”, which is based on an old Alfred Noyes poem. It’s pretty haunting.
I’ve got Book of Secrets as well; I absolutely LOVE “The Mummer’s Dance” and I used it on the stage sometimes, too. 😉
Loreena is (well possibly was as it’s been a while since I paid attention to them) the lead vocalist for Adiemus (they had a song of the same name that was frequently on those New Agey cd compilations advertised nonstop). Songs of Sanctuary was my favorite of their albums…if I recall correctly, the songs that they sung didn’t actually have words…well, sort of. They were “words” but meaningless, just letters stuck together for their sound.
There’s actually a very large and growing segment of symphonic metal that has some really powerful female vocalists in the lead–just a random aside.
I’ll chime in on my love of Loreena McKennitt also. Going off what you said about her style versus Enya’s, Loreena strikes me as more folksy as opposed to Enya’s ethereal qualities.
When i was on the swim team in high school, we’d listen to Book of Secrets before and after practice.
The Who; “Whos Next”
Beethoven; the 9th Symphony (Beethoven: 9 Symphonies – Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique / Gardiner for preference; period instruments and conducted according to the Master’s instructions instead of according to Romantic custom. It tightens the music up amazingly!)
Peter Gabriel; “Security”
Clannad; Legend (music from Robin of Sherwood)
Vertical Horizon; “Everything You Want”, “Go”, and “Burning the Days”
Jethro Tull; “Songs From The Wood”, “Crest of a Knave”, “Roots to Branches”
Elton John; “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Captain Fantastic”
Van Halen; “OU812”, “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”, “Balance”
Aerosmith; “Permanent Vacation”, “Pump”, “Get A Grip”
Individual Songs:
Witch of the Westmerelands (best by a little known group called Clam Chowder”
Rise by Yoko Kanno
Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn
Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi
I know of Yoko Kanno because of her version of “Country Road,” from Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart. I’d put up a YouTube link, but every time somebody puts it up, it gets muted. Just listened to “Rise,” and those are two very different songs! Both good, though. I’ll have to check out more of her stuff.
When I saw Clannad, I immediately thought of “Dango Daikazoku,” of which I have five versions.* But this is something else entirely, and it’s good.
* A note about that last version of “Dango Daikazoku:” my version is a bit more choral, without the childlike voice, but I couldn’t find that recording on YouTube.
I don’t really know what my favourite albums would be, although I’m certain that Revolver would most likely be number one.
My musical tastes are all over the map, and I go through phases where I’ll listen to one style until I get tired of it, and then move onto something else for a while. For the past month or so, I’ve mostly been listening to ye-ye music on Youtube, mainly Francoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan (but just the old stuff from the ’60s).
Some of my favorites:
Jethro Tull. (Far and above my favorite band, ever)
Steeleye Span (And Maddy Prior on her own, too)
Janis Joplin
Indigo Girls
Lilly Allen
Beautiful South
Joan Jett (Her song “Do you wanna touch” was my stripper song)
Grateful Dead
Al Stewart
Jonathan Coulton
David Bowie
Ute Lemper
Mary McCaslin
Neil Young
By the way, C.S.P., Stan Rogers did a rousing version of :Witch of the Westmerelands).
I was at this Jonathan Coulton performance, in Manchester, a few years ago:
Ute Lemper’s “Punishing Kiss” has to dark harlotry distilled into music. Check it out. Big ❤ to you Comixchik for reminding me of her sultry jazz club tones. *le sigh*
Comixchick,
I’ve heard Stan Roger’s version, and it’s decent. It’s just that Clam Chowder specializes in five part harmony, and are very good at it.
Was the symphony one of the places a client might take you? It’s always been one of favorites for a date.
The Beatles have sort of threaded their way into my life. When I was in my early-teens, they became very popular among my friends. And then I had a college roommate who was a devotee and really got me into them. The musical progression over their career — from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Abby Road” is simply astonishing.
Yes indeedy! I have especially fond memories of one such occasion.
Really, wow. Can’t say any client ever took me there, but then, that really wasn’t the kind of public image I cultivated. Very few of my clients ever took me anywhere save taking me on the bed, the table, against the wall, bent over a stool, a staircase, etc.
Oh, I was definitely the GFE type, and I especially played up my education so I got lots of clients who took me places like that. I used to bill myself as “the thinking man’s companion”.
Well, that’s cool. I don’t have much formal education to play up, and was billed more as the “Queen of Extreme” and other such silly rubbish. Even in as large a city as I last worked in, there were lots of GFE women, and only a few PSE’s, so I worked that angle as best I could. As I said, never got taken out much anywhere, but that’s all right. I found as I got older, into my 40’s, my “specialty” worked even better for me.
I’m a big believer in playing to one’s strengths, and finding one’s niche is as much the way to success in economics as it is in evolution. 🙂
Very interesting list. On my list of those bands though would be only Queen and maybe The Beatles as well. Satriani also has some great tracks.
A few missing classics (and a lot of overlap with Comixchik too)
Mahler’s 5th Symphony
Handl esp. Water music / royal fireworks
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
Def Leppard
Iron Maiden
Rhapsody of Fire
Davey Spillane (celtic bagpipes from original Riverdance)
Dire Straits (esp alchemy live. amazing sound, LIVE)
Jean-Michel Jarre
Magnum
The Pogues (inc Fairytale of New York with Kirsty McColl)
Guns & Roses (November Rain, a heavy metal ballad classic)
Sting (Moon over Bourbon Street)
Chris Rea (Road to Hell)
Joni Mitchell (for the roses)
and so many more 😁