Monday, April 03, 2006

Seven songs I've been listening to lately

Bhakti tagged me for a meme last week… I had a rule that I only do meme’s that are requested by southern women (since they were the only ones who "tagged" me until last week), but I’m going to make an exception here (who knows, maybe she lives on the south side of the city). I’m suppose to write about the seven songs I’ve been listening to lately. This is a hard one. At the office, I generally listen to classical or turn on Yahoo Radio (folk, rock or jazz stations). I only have audio books on my ipod. In the truck, I’m often listening to NPR, but occasionally I need a break and I slip in a CD. So here are the top seven CDs as found in my truck’s console. By the way, the truck is now home from body surgery and looks good as new!

1. Steely Dan, "Aja" Steely Dan is probably my all time favorite group. I remember listening to them in High School and College on FM (back when the AM played top 40 junk). The smoothing sounds of the song Aja and the biting lyrics of Deacon Blues (drink scotch whiskey all night long…) make this one of my favorite albums. Debuting in the late 70s, Aja was a welcome respite from Disco.

2. Sufjan Stevens, "Seven Swans" This is the "newest" CD in the stack. I love the folksy sounds, especially on track, "Transfiguration." It’s interesting that a guy’s whose "hippie parents" named him after a Sufi poet is now he’s writing "Christian" (maybe better defined as Alternative Christian) music. He better stay out of Afghanistan. With a name like that, they might think he’s a Muslim apostate.

3. George Winston, "Night Divides the Day: The Music of the Doors" Jim, a friend of mine, when he saw this disk remarked: "You know you’re middle aged when you have a instrumental rendition of the Doors." I brought this CD at a Winston concert; it was incredible to watch him play the music of the Doors. I love the way he draws the blues on a piano when he plays "People are Strange" or "Summer’s Almost Gone." As for the Doors, I can’t imagine my daughter listening to "The End." I suppose I have grown up and become my father (well, not quite, I don’t listen to country music).

4. Leonard Cohen, "The Best of Leonard Cohen" "Suzanne" is just wonderful.

5. Bob Dylan, "Blood on the Tracks" I’ve been "Tangled up in Blue" a few times in my life. As this album came out toward the end of my high school "experience," it brings back memories.

6. Eric Clapton "The Cream of Clapton" All the good Clapton tunes are here, from his time with Cream to his more recent. "Bell Bottom Blues" is one of my favorite Clapton tunes and I hear bell bottoms are making a comeback!

7. Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" This album came out the year I graduated High School and brings back a flood of memories whenever I hear it.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Sage,
    Some good choices...Does this mean that I've got first dibs on tagging you? I'm from the southern US & now live about as far south as you can get :)

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  2. Oz, You'll have to tell more about your journey--something you wrote made me wonder if you didn't have some southern US roots--now I see you have--so how did you end up way down under in South Australia?

    Murf, that was a long time ago, and although I don't agree with the reasons they went to war, you have to admit my ancestors put up a pretty good fight.

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  3. Yeah, great list. I'm a big Clapton fan ... one hell of a guitarist.

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  4. It is a great list you have. Don't think I could do one because I haven't been listening much, spending too much time on the internets talkin' to all you fun people!

    Guess I could listen online, couldn't I but that would mean I'd havta walk and chew gum at the same time... {grin}

    oh, yeah, gigglin' at what murf said.

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  5. No Zappa????
    Just kidding...

    First of all, I can't believe that you are 12 years older than me. You'd never be able to tell that from your photos!! (BTW--I figured out our age difference based on your most recent post.)

    Secondly, thank you so much for doing the tag, even though I'm not from the south: I'm from the altered state of New Jersey.

    The funny thing about your list is that I can picture you (based on your writings) listening to all of this music! That's cool.

    I've never heard of the Sufi-poet monikored Christian rocker; I'll have to check him out.

    I didn't like Clapton when I was a kid: I loved Ace Frehley and Eddie Van Halen, etc. Now, I prefer Clapton to the two of them. Clapton's riffs are timeless and soulful.

    Thanks for taggin-up, as it were!!

    ;)

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  6. Suzanne is my all time favorite! An anthem to those times.

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