Sweet Songs to Rock My Soul

A few years ago I was working as a chaplain in a children’s hospital. This one Thursday I was attending a seminar on music and healing. The woman hosting the seminar was a folk singer and guitarist. She and I had spoken earlier of the healing nature of the Grateful Dead, in fact, a few specific songs. My supervisor and I had a difference of opinion about what I was supposed to be doing at the time which ended in an assertion that I would not follow her orders. Later that day I found myself crying, the folk singer was playing Ripple right behind me, my supervisor was holding me, and a fellow chaplain, a man like a brother, was dead. Later that night while I listened to Broke Down Palace the words, “When there were no wings to fly, you flew to me,” came alive.

That night I listened to American Beauty over and over again, and got excessively drunk. I can’t help but think about that day that place, those tears, and my friend Wade whenever I hear this album. And it is that simple fact that I have a hard time “rehearing” this album. The connection is so strong that I had felt for a long time there was nothing new to learn from this album. I found over the years when I needed to return to reality or find inspiration from the heavens I would play this album, sometimes the whole things, but often simply the B side, starting with Ripple.

Of course there is always something new to learn, or maybe even something old, like meaning before that occurrence of death. I bought the album originally on CD because it had a few songs I knew and one I wanted. I knew Sugar Magnolia, Truckin, and so forth but I wanted Friend of the Devil. In fact, I had always assumed the latter song a good title for my autobiography. There are other personal draws to this album, it frequently references places I have been, or even lived. Candyman is its own little trip, I don’t think I actually heard the words until I was living in Memphis learning to talk the jive.

I spent a lot of time trying to “figure out” this album, and over time I have figured out that all I really figured out is that, trying to understand the dead is a deep pool of confusion and joy. I think that is why it’s my inspirational music, my personal hymnody. There is always something I missed, something they intended or something they didn’t. When I get stuck, there is beauty in this music, when I feel alone there is love. This album rests upon a fountain that was not made by hands of men.

Their name alone reminds us that time Box of Rain is short, that from the moment we start breathing we start dying, but there is something great about that. Encouraging us to own our moments, because there is such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there. 

My Birthday Present: AKA Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

The most important thing I took from Pulp Fiction was that I could be either a Beatles fan or an Elvis fan. Oh I could like both just fine but I had to choose between them, I had to like one better. Being 20 at the time I took the obvious answer, a new Beatles box set had been released a few years earlier, my college invited a Beatles tribute band called 1964 every year, and everyone, including my closest friends, loved the Beatles. So I chose Elvis.

Okay maybe it isn't that simple, my parents weren't big Beatles fans, but I had family who were nuts over Elvis Presley. I started listening to Elvis as a young boy in the 80’s because, let’s face it, there wasn't much going on in the 1980’s (cue angry pop fans). The Beatles seemed to “poppy” for me at the time, I had to be different, so I respected the Beatles but chose Elvis.

I think the other important factor is my first real introduction to the Beatles. My brother’s girlfriend came home with a CD of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I loved it, I was shocked that I had chosen any other way. This album is amazing, nothing like the stereotypes I remember. So now I learned I was a Beatles fan, and an Elvis fan. Sgt. Pepper quickly rose to the top of favorite albums list, I would tell me friends, “Oh I love that Sgt. Pepper album and I would get the reply, “Oh I like the early stuff, they got weird on that album” I wondered what could be better, it was like the author was sitting down to read the newspaper and then singing about it. 

I didn't know there were separate parts of the Beatles Camp. I will admit that the early stuff is catchy and I look forward to sitting down to hear it for the first real time on vinyl but, my home will always be with the weird stuff these guys had some wonderful forethought and weren't afraid to try different things. I love them for it, and am a solid Beatles fan now because of it. It isn't hard to find newly pressed Beatles’ albums so I will gladly work my way through. 

In fact, my mother-in-law is a huge Beatles fan, so around my birthday she came to my wife and asked what I wanted. Later my wife came to me and asked, I replied curtly with, “I don’t know, see if she can find Sgt. Peppers.” A week later it arrived on my step. So I may leave the Beatles for my birthday. 

This album is nice heavy 180 gram vinyl with the original artwork and a special insert for the re-release telling the story of the album including notes from producers and Paul (it seems like all fans tend to simply refer to them by their first names as if they were friends, so though I don’t really know him I am a fan so I will refer to him as so). The other insert is a cut out with metals, mustaches, and pictures, I had to inform my daughter “These really aren't for cutting but they sure are pretty aren't they.”

There is an extra track on this album for those of us that don’t have automatic tone arms, well, maybe it isn't a track. It is an obnoxious phrase telling me that the record is done and I need to remove the arm. But then it really could be any other. 

What can I do with a Dalmatian?

I’d always considered myself a music aficionado because I knew Sublime, well apparently I’m not that good because after coming home from the record store with the studio self-titled album I realized I don’t really know Sublime. Actually I had fallen into the basic trap of my generation, I knew the radio songs, and had never really cared to learn the rest of the album. And you can’t imagine my surprise when I found out that they had two albums out before this one, they are only lesser known because they weren't from a major label. So my education is still taking place because I just bought the vinyl.

Thing is, I never bought this album on CD or cassette, I wasn’t a big enough fan but, over the years I would hear their music on the radio, and find out that this amazing song I was hearing, was actually by Sublime. Of course I am glad that my first real hearing of the album is on 180 gram vinyl. I am just sad I don’t have a dedicated sub-woofer, to really feel the base. I know I am missing out, so I hope there isn’t a duplicate post after a “new hearing” in a few days when my sub arrives.

As I said this album comes with two records, for sides, with the original artwork. The records being nice and thick have a great sound, a great place to start if you know Sublime but don’t’ know Sublime.

What intrigues me about this band is the driving rock, ska, and punk then the laid back reggae. The third side moves fast and hard, then an immediate shift when one flips the record and settles into Caress Me Down. This band fearlessly moves back and forth between styles, listening is its own journey.

There will never be new Sublime. Bradley Nowell, lead singer and guitarist died of a drug overdose just weeks before the release of Sublime on MCA records. So what is there to do? Nowell saved up $500 dollars to rescue a Dalmatian from abuse. This dog named Lou Dog became the group’s mascot. So maybe there is no new Sublime music, but, you can go out and save an animal today. And every time you look at your adopted loved one remember, life is too short so love the one you got.

For Music’s Sake: A New Look at Ten Old Songs

Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh was once asked by a Christian Priest once to explain Buddhism. The response was simple, “We sit, we walk, and we sleep.” The priest was confused and replied saying, “We do those things too.” To that Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Yes but when we do it we know we’re doing it.”

I remember as a child sitting, back against the wall, headphones on, just listening to the music, I had to sit because the cord didn’t reach far enough to walk around, and there are no portable record players. I would sit and just listen, nothing else going on. Today most of my music has become background noise, and why not, music is cheap to buy, easy to find, and digital so even if we lose our player we are still backed up on a cloud.

I was sitting one day, listening to Pearl Jam’s album Ten, more specifically the redux. Pearl Jam is very important in my generation’s return to vinyl. Yes, there were some bands still releasing records, but Pearl Jam released their album Verses first on vinyl. I don’t own that album, I have never heard it, in fact I have never heard any Pearl Jam beyond Ten, and until I looked at the record, I never noticed that of the ten songs I really just knew 5, and that is the reason this album gets a spot on Friday Vinyl, even on this Tuesday.

I was sitting in the stereo room, my wife was in the kitchen helping our daughter with her homework, I was uninvolved at the time, so with my break I decided to listen to this record. Actually I thought, “I would like to hear Black but the track lines are very thin, so I started from the beginning with Once, I sat down in my special “listening chair” and took in the sounds.

The album come with two records, one is the original mastering, the second is a remastered version referred to as Redux. The cover opens to reveal the lyrics, the front has the members standing tall high fiving. The vinyl is nice and heavy providing smooth solid sound. This Vinyl set gives me something I can’t get through a digital download or CD, art, feel, and connection.

Eddie Vedder was also one of those musicians who spoke up for his beliefs, whether about supporting Napster, opposing Ticketmaster, or a woman right to choose. Eddie’s work outside of music kept his name in my head even during my break from Seattle Grunge. There was something more to this band than simply the music they played, and that was something I couldn’t pirate.

As the record continued to spin I listened and it was as if I had never heard it before. I finally got to the song I had wanted to hear and the sounds and tones came alive in a new way. For a week I sang the songs, and now I even enjoy the section I skipped with the CDs. The words and tones were alive again, I think for three reasons: The Vinyl, The Redux, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The music was not the background for what I was doing, the music was what I was doing. It was like magic, and it left my arms raised in a V.

Kicking Squeeling Guuci Little Piggy

I was in college, a close friend walked into the cafeteria with a bruise on his forehead. He didn’t care to tell me why he had the wound on his head, of course that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to stop digging for information. I overheard the story, as he told it to somone who would understand. It went something like this, “You remember the guitar solo in Paranoid Android, I was sort of getting into the music and when the solo came up I screamed and passed out then hit my head on the table.”

I didn’t know Paranoid Android, later they told me it was Radiohead. I said, “You mean the people who did Creep? I always sort of thought they were a one hit wonder.” I owned Pablo Honey on cassette, and had only ever listened to the one song, well, apparently I had missed out on some amazing music. My reeducation began with a different album, and when I can afford that one, I will tell that story, but, OK Computer will always hold a special place in my heart, if my friend had never told his story I would have never taken them in as I did.

As a religious man this story struck me, I didn’t think it was ridiculous, I didn’t think he was over reacting. In fact, I equate that story with the religious ecstasy of the Great Awakening, and modern charismatic groups. I wanted that charisma around some music, in fact I needed some music that took me to another world, Radiohead provided that music. So, OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac helped define that time in my life. If you asked me what they were up to now, I wouldn’t have any idea. Though finding this record I may just have to look.

This album like many being reissued comes with beautiful art, and two nice heavy vinyl records. It took me a minute to figure out which record was side one, it took me a little longer than I like to admit they were labeled eeny, meeny, miny, and mo. So I slid out eeny and was on my way to becoming fitter happier and more productive.  

My Rational

I grew up a child of the 80’s though my music selections resonated more with the 70’s and 90’s. I remember sitting down beside our stereo system, putting on the headphones and playing my parent’s records. At the time vinyl records were still common, most houses had record players and stereos were generally not sold without them. I remember so often pulling out my father’s copy of Led Zeppelin IV or Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and listening for at least an hour at a time. At the time all of my new music came on cassettes and later I would use cassettes to dub down my friend’s CDs.

Even as records faded away and even cassettes became obsolete I carried my old Walkman. I never cared much for CD’s. They seemed expensive and disconnected from the music. As trendy as it may sound, I preferred the vinyl, even as a kid. I will never forget before we could afford a VHS player pulling out my mother’s portable record player and listening over and over again to old Disney records. There are albums today that I have never owned on CD, and have no desire.

If you still go to record stores you may hear that vinyl is making a comeback, I have a different opinion, I don’t’ think it ever went away. Someone always had a record player, and I bet if you look in assisted living homes you will find many arthritic 80 year old that can drop the needle in the empty groove designated track number, but can’t figure out what to do with an ipod.

I will do something very simple in this blog, I will buy a record, or dig out and old one, play it on Friday, generally (maybe other days) and write about my experience of the music. If you enjoy reading, send me recommendations. If not… well this isn’t for you anyway.