And Now for Something Completely Different

Yes, the title of my blog post has been stolen directly from Monty Python, but I like it and it suits what you are about to read because today, my dear readers, I’m going to completely break with my normal subjects. In fact…

Normally, I write about:

• Writing
• Short Stories
• Submitting Short Stories to Literary Journals
• Publishing Short Stories
• Thoughts on the plight of the short story, and short story writers…….

But today I’m going to write about:

• Music

That’s right, you heard me (in your head, with a voice that sounds nothing like mine unless you know me personally…)

I could try to make this about writing again and tell you that I don’t listen to music when I write, which is true, but it’s off topic for this post since this post is about Music.

Ahem.

So, about Music. I like it. I don’t listen to music as often as I should because I’m usually spending my free time… hey, wait a minute, I know where this is going! And you need to just stop right there and get back onto the topic. (Sorry.)

Alrighty then, Music.

I grew up listening to Rock-n-Roll, and I was raised on Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Jethro Tull, Steeley Dan (and Donald Fagan’s solo albums which I highly recommend), Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, The Doors, The Allman Brothers, The Doobies, Peter Frampton… I could go on, but this is to give you a flavor of the kind of music I listened to at the time.

If I keep going backwards, I’d also have to say I listened to a lot of Disco. And I liked it. That’s not as much of a stigma to admit today as it was in the 80’s and early 90’s. But when I listen to Tragedy by the Bee Gee’s, it’s still damn good and I’m going to keep listening to the Bee Gee’s until I get old (well, I may already be somewhat old so I’ll just say older and we’ll leave it at that, m’kay?)

I’m ALSO going to keep listening to Frankie Valley, and Seals n Crofts, James Taylor, Chicago, and John Denver (yes, I said JOHN DENVER), Little River Band, Wings, Queen, Michael Jackson and many, many other pop artists too numerous to count.

I have to create a special mention for Stevie Wonder in his own paragraph because Stevie Wonder is, you will undoubtedly agree, a GENIUS. The guy has written rock, motown, pop, ballads and everything in between and he has done it brilliantly. I love his entire catalogue and so should you because he is a national treasure.

Now, I’ve already confessed to loving Rock-n-Roll, Disco, some forms of Pop and Motown, but I haven’t really said anything about how much I love the Blues.

In fact, I love the Blues SO much, I may have to write another post about it in the future because I can’t even begin to do the Blues justice in a few sentences or paragraphs.

Let me say this for now, and we’ll come back to this topic again later.

I’ve made pilgrimages for the Blues. I drove to Memphis, TN from New Jersey a few years ago to eat ribs and to hang out on Beale Street at the music shop for hours buying blues CD’s and talking with the manager of the store to find out about artists I didn’t know. I bought SO many CD’s that day that he gave me a free t-shirt. (Trust me, it was a lot of CD’s.)

The Blues is uniquely American, of course, and has its roots in the South, specifically black culture, and some of the best Rock gets its riffs and deep sounds from the Blues.

BB King’s album, Live from San Quentin, is a great set to listen to if you’re not that familiar with the Blues but you want to get into it and have a good time.

I’m a huge fan of sooooo many artists, I cannot possibly do them justice here. Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a real stand out talent, in my opinion, from the last two decades of blues-rock fusion. Pick up the first four albums and just sit back and listen to all of them. It’s fantastic stuff. Then consider he was, like, 18 years old or so (maybe younger?) when the first album came out (I think Ledbetter Heights is the first?), and then pick yourself up off the floor and listen to it again.

So there you have it: music. I don’t normally talk about it, but I wanted to share some of the flavors of what I like and now that you know what I like, you can make suggestions from what you like and I can check it out too.

Who are you listening to these days?