Help!

Ever hear a song out of the blue, that you haven't heard in a while, and it's like you've just heard it again for the first time?

This certainly isn't the best Beatles song ever... I wouldn't have even put it in my top 20. But for some reason, it must have been a right place, right time situation, it just connected with me perfectly, and I had to listen to it again. And then again. And then I had to get out my headphones, and plug them into the stereo, and put on the vinyl, just to hear all of it.
The layers of music. The harmonies. The power of the opening, no intro, no lead up. Just BAM right into the song, right into the album.

I just had to share this. Maybe someone else will hear it again for the first time...

The Pretender

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening?

I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it's the wink of an eye
When the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again
Amen.

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender

Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender.
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor

Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Jackson Browne

Against the wind

The years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home
And I guess I lost my way
There were oh so many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worried about paying or even how much I owed
Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searching
Searching for shelter again and again...

-Bob Seger

Horrible Bosses

Just an FYI, Horrible Bosses was hilarious.

That is all.

Justice Not Served?

"It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever." -John Adams

The Compact Disc killed music

OK, well maybe not completely, but I would argue it hastened the demise of the traditional record label. The Compact Disc itself is not entirely to blame, but the digitization of music that began with the compact disc is the primary culprit in my eyes. Without the CD, you don't have iPods or Napster, or iTunes, etc.
But in reality, this post isn't going to be about the death of music, but more about the rebirth of vinyl.

I was reading an interesting post written by Tommy Shaw of Styx fame, called "Tommy Shaw's Vinyl Ritual" (read it here if you'd like http://thecomet.com/posts/exclusive_blog_tommy_shaws_vinyl_ritual) and I was struck by this statement:

"Sitting back listening to music playing ambiently in a room with all its acoustic artifacts, knowing that in a few minutes you’ll be gently reminded by that subtle little popping sound to flip the disc to the other side if you wish to hear the whole thing, means you have to be involved. "

I come to realize that music is just (mostly) relegated into the background of my life now, where in the past it was such a focus. I don't know if it's a phase, or a lack of (or perhaps a lack of exposure to) good quality new music, but TS is certainly right. Every time I break out the vinyl, I'm a lot more focused on the music. Maybe it's because I have to put forth the effort to actually find the record, take the record out of the sleeve and fire up the stereo, as opposed to say setting the ipod to random, or jumping onto youtube while surfing the net.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a vinyl snob who rails on about the inadequacies of mp3 files, and how they would rather listen to cats knock over trash cans. Heck I have an ipod full of tunes (though more and more I listen to podcasts instead of music in the car), and I had a wall full of CD's (which have now been banished into 4 giant cd folders) to go along with my collection of vinyl. I guess maybe I'm saying that it's nice to slow down a bit from a hectic life, and enjoy the soft crackle of classic vinyl...

Phew, that was a close one, Thanks Mach!