That most impressed you as being exactly what you liked when you were a teenager, that, when you hear it today, brings back the whole feeling of loving the music of a particular place and time. For me, it's "I Can't Explain."
By the way, did you know they are making a biopic about Keith Moon? Mike Myers is playing the role. I don't know if I like that or not. Okay for the messed up, older Moon, I guess. Maybe they'll have someone else for young Keith. A good suggestion: Jason Schwartzman.
December 10, 2005
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The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen. I rarely (never) hear it nowadays, otherwise it probably wouldn't produce the effect you describe. I was 14 years old when that song came out.
Although I was passionate about music back then and that was one of my most favorite songs, I had all but forgotten it until the opening scenes of Donnie Darko. I recognized the song from the first few notes and I immediately recalled all the words. Memories of people I'd completely forgotten about came flooding back. It gave me the shivers.
"Under blue moon I saw you
So soon you'll take me
Up in your arms
Too late to beg you
or cancel it
Though I know it must be
the killing time
Unwillingly mine..."
She Bangs the Drums by the Stone Roses . I never listened to them much, and probably not at all between graduating high school and hearing it played at a party a few years ago, so it was vacuum packaged and fresh, as it were, when I heard it again. It immediately and vividly brought me back to the time when chucking it all and moving to Madchester to live in a squat seemed like a sensible livestyle alternative. Great snotty pop-fan lyrics, too:
I can feel the earth begin to move
I hear my needle hit the groove
And spiral through another day
I hear my song begin to say
Kiss me where the sun don't shine
The past was yours
But the future's mine
You're all out of time
I couldn't possibly nail it down to one song. For me it was a continuum, a stream of consciousness. LP, or FM radio. Car, or home. Though in the late fall ..... 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone' does a nice job of matching the mood.
Keith Moon doing a cover of 'When I'm Sixty Four' is quaint.
I was a late starter on music, I grew up surrounded by it (musical parents), but didn't really catch on until I heard Sky 1 by Sky. Absolutely phenomonal albums, I still love them to bits.
Apropos, Sky 1, remastered.
Bow Wow Wow's, Louis Quatorze
sample lyric,
With his gun in my back, I start to undress
You just don't mess with Louis Quatorze
He's my partner in this crime of happiness, 'cos I'm just fourteen
Oh I love it when he says so seriously
With his gun in my back, "Honey, make love to me"
Now that's gross and dirty old manish, but then I was thirteen myself so it was cheeky and kinda hot that a 14 year old girl was sexy and fronting a band, plus here in SoCal we had KROQ playing songs straight from England and I was deep into the import scene back then. By the time a band got a U.S. album they were already passe.
On Bow Wow Wow's first album most of the songs were about under aged sex, the second album (and first U.S. album) was more fun pop (I Want Candy their big hit) and much more successful in the U.S., Malcolm McClaren was a genius, but also a dirty old man. (And because of Annabella I still have a weakness for women wearing mohawks)
(But now I would be disturbed by those kind of antics, like those silly TATU girls from Russia, and now album covers (like those for Radio G-String) with 14 year old girls wearing g-strings would probably get you arrested here)
also as an aside, current Who drummer Zak Starkey was taught the drums not by daddy Ringo, but by Keith Moon...and Zak's daughter is also a drummer...
When I was a teen I was into hair metal so I'll pick Def Leppard's "Animal." It's short, sweet, has some good riffs, and rocks. All of that with a glistening pop sheen. (Thank you, Mutt Lang.) The words were pretty meaningless. What I loved about it was the energy with a hint of being on the edge.
Booys of Summer by Don Henley evokes the time -- ven though its was blockbuster and I wasn't into top 40 at the time.
The entire U2 output of 1983 -- The War Album and the Live Under a Blood Red Sky mini-LP (remember those?) and concert vieo from Red Rocks in Denver. Back when I was 15 and listening to U2 was important (though I truly did and still do like the music). Especially "Like a Song.." and "The Drowning Man".
Keith Moon was amazing. Keith and John Entwistle together were astounding! Listening to "Who's Next" time and again on LP with my headphones on was what really made me appreciate musicians, and, of course, lyricists (Townshend... now he can WRITE!). Both Keith and John are gone and it's sad. Zak Starkey is an incredible homage to Keith (a hell of a drummer in his own right), but it's tough to replace John, and even harder to replace the chemistry between John and Keith (though John and Zak were good together too). Thank God Townshend is still around... For an unusual treat, listen to his solo album "Psycho Derelict". For Who fans, he gives us a taste within the "rock opera" that Psycho Derelict is of what the "Lifehouse" project may have been.
Late to this party.
Also slightly off-point, I guess, since I wasn't yet a teen.
But here it is:
"Big Yellow Taxi".
(Joni Mitchell, 1970)
It taught me that it doesn't matter whatever the other little kids are singing: it's what draws me that counts.
Wish it hadn't taken me whole bunches of years to remember that ...
"Ripple."
A story from Matt Groening when JG died: how he was unhappy in school, not thrilled with life in general, so one day he skipped and went down to the local hippie record store and selected an album by a band with the coolest name he coud find. "And that was the day I began my escape."
Oh, man. I have been waiting for this moment all my life. I was born for this post!!!
JK
I just got back from the $2000 gig in San Diego (my cut is $500 + the comped accommodations at Loews Coronado). It was an awesome gig, except for the fact that I had to sing "Highway to Hell" and "You Shook Me all Night Long" which leaves my voice in tatters (what a mess, this town's in tatters, I've been shattered, shedobie, shattered). While driving back home to Fresno I found myself listening to the ELO album "Out of the Blue", the one with "Turn to Stone", "Sweet Talking Woman", and "Mr. Blue Sky". When I listen to that album, more than any other, feelings that I have repressed or are no longer relevant to my life come rushing back in a flood. A torrent of loneliness and sadness washes over me. God, I sometimes forget how alone I felt as a kid. And of coarse, with the exception of three songs, I listened to the whole double-sided album. It's odd, but those emotions kinda feel like old friends, and it feels right to keep in touch with them every once in a while. Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" also has the same effect on me. The album that cheers me up is "Duke" by Genesis ("Misunderstanding", Turn it on Again"). It came out at around the same time, so my life was in the same sad emotional state. The album was made while Phil Collins was separating from wife #1, for which he wrote the song "In The Air Tonight", the song that transformed his career and launched him into the super star stratosphere. Some of the songs on "Duke" also reflect his sorrows and are a bit depressing. However, the music on that album is soooo good that it gave me hope somehow.
PS. Miguel Ferrerr is playing Buddy Rich in a biopic that should be out soon. He does his own skin work, which I hear is quite good.
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