The Invention of Music

Very clever list poem. You brought me back. I keep your book nearby and have been enjoying it slowly.

You're kind comments will help me sleep peacefully tonight.

We listened to "Those Little White Lies" on my mother's paper record! So I was surprised when it was resurrected.
Yes, Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, Harry Belafonte, Julie London, Satchmo, Dave Brubeck--we did indeed have a treasure of music in which to bathe in our time.

Yes, and there was a bridge from the big band singers to the pop music of the 50's and then from the folkies to the folk rock of the 60's.

Featured in Music in the Triple Name Club.

Thank you Kathryn. I really appreciate it.

I discovered the music of my own generation around the time that "Video Killed the Radio Star", in the early eighties when I was in my early teens, and MTV was just being born. It was mostly Albanian folk music before that... My parents were in love with their heritage, as am I... but then I wanted to hear what the rest of the world's impression of music was, or, otherwise, what impressions had been left in the sands of time as music is concerned. In my mid teens, I divorced myself of the music of my contemporaries (not completely, I would still listen in on what was new. I just didn't care to hear the same song over and over again.) and so embarked on journey through time and genre, I wanted to hear everything: opera, early and modern jazz, the popular music from USA of the 50's, 60's, and 70's.... old standards, swing, folk, country, broadway, bubblegum, rockabilly, blues, british invasion, psychedelia, disco, new wave... everything... My friends used to laugh at me, but I feel a great sense of privilege and am quite content in having been able listen to all the many ways in which music is realized through the hearts and the imaginations of the people blessed with the ability to create it... and, to me, it seems we'd never really left the golden... 'Because these are the good old days'....

Meant to say... "it seems to me we'd never left the golden age....

And I love the poem, by the way.

You're fortunate in early developing a broad appreciation. Most of us so identify with the music of our youth that we don't venture beyond.

Music has been around far longer than dear old grandparents - meaning for thousands of years and some periods are known as The Golden Age - maybe our parents listened to them..maybe it was given us as a gift from the ethers - whatever music tickles our fancy it is always amusing or something to keep our interests and attention too. Great poem - well done!

Thank you for sharing and submitting to
The Surreal Circus.

Indeed it has, Bernard, but it seems that every generation, at least in its youth, is really the start of anything good.

I grew up in a decade largely devoid of good music-- the eighties. I much prefer the older folk and rock songs you refer to here. Are you familiar with the music of David Mallett? I think you might appreciate him-- he seems to preserve music of that era.

Thanks for sharing with Gather's Luminous Writers and Artists. Featured and tweeted.

You surprise me, Ann. Most of us, I think, strongly associate the music of our youth with its egocentricity and with the interesting things that happened then. It may be just me (see Growing Up In Boom Times), but I think many people think fondly of their adolescence when they experienced young love and "knowing it all." Even the frustrations and failures have a bittersweet feel because they were YOUR frustrations and failures. Our music was and to some extent still is the soundtrack of our lives.

Oh, I like "New Wave" and "post-Punk" as much as anyone, but there were few groups that did that type of music well, and almost no one in the eighties was writing good lyrics, at least in pop music. The only exceptions I can think of at the moment are The Clash and The Church.

Well,young lady, all of that is foreign to me. In the 80's I was totally immersed in classical music. But, I never lost my love for the music I grew up with, pretty much through my first year or two of college. That's when I discovered classical. The first recording I bought was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Please look at my "On Hearing Beethoven's Fifth for the 99th Time." I think you'll like it.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977396316

Chris, we have something in common there, musically - something that is huge for me. At the age of five (or slightly over), "Moonlight Sonata" was the very first Western Classical record I ever heard... and Beethoven continues to bowl me over after all these years.

I still remember the exact circumstances that late, chilly December night in the early seventies - unable to sleep as usual, my head on fire with a zillion ideas of music, stories, inventions flying about in my head, I stole expertly ( :) ) from my bed without disturbing my siblings, and tiptoed down the stairs to the music room where , as usual, I espied my lovely Mom listening to that absolutely haunting melody.

It was two in the morn. She was so immersed, she never even noticed me - and that's the way I wanted it. I fell asleep right there in the enormous rockin' chair, soothed by the ineffably beautiful melodies washing over me.

Later that day, just before I got out of home to catch the school bus, I took out the vinyl, hugged it to my heart, whispered a very teary and heartfelt thanks to that grim-faced , ruggedly handsome visage on the cover, and walked out with an eternal song playing in my heart.

That memory has only sharpened over the years - and that song will resound in my heart beyond the grave. Mom, and Beethoven, have ensured that.

Your post just lit a very beautiful glow in my heart, amigo, and melted a fair bit of the sorrow that has quietly taken residence there in the last year-and-a-half. Music - even our memories of it - can be such a powerful healer, can't it!

As you can well imagine, the maestro's celebrated Fifth and his supremely beautiful Piano Concertos (esp. the "Emperor Concerto") followed in quick succession, and the party goes on........

Thanks for this memory-stir through such a heartfelt post, my friend. I'm in your debt.

Aman, thank you for sharing your experience. For many years WJR radio in Detroit, which was one of the very first commercial radio stations in the world, aka The Great Voice of the Great Lakes, carried a daytime program called Adventures in Great Music. It was hosted by Karl Hass, who talked about and played selections of classical music. The program started and ended with the beginning of the slow movement of the Moonlight Sonata. This program was a treasure. I am so glad to hear of your wonderful experience with the Moonlight Sonata and Beethoven.

You took me back to the good ole days.
Music is so soothing for the soul.

I'm so glad, Carol. I hope they were, indeed, good old days or at least that that's how they are remembered. Music is part of our souls!

Yes, they were good and completely agree about music.

I think most of our generation and probably most recent era feel the same. I like your 50's tinted second stanza.

I think so, but I also perceive that with the proliferation of music styles and their accessibility that young people are listening to many different kinds of music....none of it as good as ours, of course. :-)>

I'm getting mellower in style as I age, but I guess the Hurdy Gurdy man is still my Holy Grail.