More Musical Moments
Here are a few more musical moments.
This is from Dave:
While reading your post about shared music moments, I had an immediate recollection of a moment in my life that I fear might never happen again for anyone, but it is ingrained in my mind.
It was late 1991, and I would have been a sophomore in high school. One of my friends had a New Year's Eve party every year where we all went to his house, stayed up all night, playing D&D, basketball, etc. (it was a very wholesome party).
While in the car with my mom on the way to the party, I was listening to the rock station here in Dallas, and this magical, entrancing song came on the radio. I was transfixed. Nothing had ever quite grabbed me in my life up to that moment. I didn't even really understand what was happening, but I HAD to talk to someone about it. I arrived at the party moments after it ended, and ran into the house ready to proclaim that I had just heard the greatest thing ever.
Everyone in the house was just sitting there. They had the same radio station on in the house, and had just experienced the same thing I did.
"Did you guys just hear that??"
We were all stunned...that collective moment that we all shared together, thanks to terrestrial radio, was a game changer for all of us.
That was our introduction to "Smells Like Teen Spirit.
These next memories are from Ian:
Regarding your post about music, I find that it is far more disposable to people in this day and age.
My son is not dedicated to bands for life. He listens to a group for a few months, and then they are old news. The songs on his phone are disposable because he has no skin in the game. He doesn't have to buy his music one album at a time.
For an old guy like me (49), I still cling to that permanence of music. It means something. I still buy cd's of my favorite bands. I look at the liner art. I try to make that first listen a dedicated listen, where I'm not working, or playing video games, or doing the dishes. I've got special headphones that are for the dedicated listens. You have to give the music a chance to connect with you, or to hear lyrics that might mean something.
Of course, I am a musician (a lapsed one at least), so I put tremendous value on music and what it does for our lives.
Music is so powerful. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard a certain song.
I still remember being in my friend's bedroom, as we tried to figure out how to play Led Zeppelin's Black Dog on his guitar.
I was in the car, driving to see my mom in the hospital who was dying of cancer, when I heard Fade In/ Fade Out by Nothing More. It's a song about a parent who recalls watching their kids fade into life, and now the kids are watching the parent fade out. I bawled my eyes out.
Listening to the album "The Incurable Tragedy" by Into Eternity, which is about the guitar player losing 3 people in his family in a few months to cancer. It's one of the most depressing albums I've ever listened to, but also one of the most personal. I had my headphones on and listened to it the first time, not having a clue what it was about. When it ended, I was into the ugly cry, because I wasn't ready for how hard it hit me. At the time I didn't know anybody in my life that was sick, but I felt all the emotions though every song. Now that I actually have lost my mom and grandmother to cancer, I can't listen to that album at all. I tried and it was too intense for me.
I was just about to enter a Limp Bizkit concert, and a group of girls started yelling "System of a Down!" and ran into the arena. System of a Down was one of the opening bands at the time. I walked in and was transfixed. One of most different bands I had ever heard. I remember being entranced by them, how could such a fantastic band have been completely unknown to me? They ended up becoming one of my favorite bands after that, I still remember waking up in the morning and I went to the HMV and bought the CD before doing anything else.
I was at a King's X concert and they played one of their main hits "Over My Head", it's about feeling the music around you. "Music, music, I hear music/ Music, over my head." It was almost a religious experience, I would turn around and look around at the crowd and they were all singing, soaking up the energy and sharing it. Something like that is a unifying moment.
One of my friends once asked me if it was okay to go to a concert alone. I said of course, because you're going somewhere where there hundreds (or thousands) of other people that have shared experiences with you and are potential friends. I've gone to many concerts on my own, and it's easy to make friends, because you just need to turn around and talk about the band, and then you're all the same.
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