Musical Influences

I have to ask, is anyone out there annoyed by my music embedded in this blog? I spent a lot of time finding an mP3 player that would work here on Blogger, and at some point, I nearly gave up, but I persevered, because it's just so important to me.

A few years back, shortly before I made the decision to become a freelance writer, I realized the influence of music on my life. It was always an important part of our family, and I became emotionally attached to my music very early. That attachment comes in two different ways, from remembering a place, person, or event through its connection to a song, or of course, to its lyrics. When designing this blog that is meant to share my words, I knew I had to have some of my influential music be a part of it somehow.

The music I have here are files I had on my hard drive, but doesn't even come close to the number of things I could include. At some point, I'll refine it to have only the most influential songs included, or I may just change out my music every few days, whenever something different inspires me. Despite the fact this was thrown together by just what I had on my hard drive, it doesn't diminish the importance of the songs.

The first song up is Ooh Child, by the Five Stairsteps. This song always makes me think of the movie Over the Edge, Matt Dillon's first. After these kids wreaked havoc all over the place, they're caught and arrested, and as the bus is pulling away, taking them off to jail, this song starts playing. No matter what happens in life, things are always going to get easier. If I'm having a bad day, I listen to this song, and know it's all going to be alright.

The second song is Levon, originally by Elton John, a certain inspirational favorite, but covered here by the current reigning American Idol, Taylor Hicks. I'd heard it before, obviously, by Elton John, by something happened when I heard Taylor do it on the show last season. He had so much passion singing it, and I believed every word he was singing. You could hear it in his voice, that there was something about it that was very meaningful to him, and that in itself inspires me.

Pish Posh is a song written and sung by a local DJ, Jonathon Brandmeier, about having regrets. The DJ's father had called him and told him to call back, but he never got around to it, and by the time he did, his father had died. My son and I had gone to see a live remote of the radio show, and coincidentally, he had asked me on the way there if I had any regrets. I told him no, that I didn't live by regrets. At the end of the show, Brandmeier and his brother sang an acoustic version of Pish Posh, and I was immediately affected. That night I cried my eyes out listening to the mP3, knowing exactly what my regrets were. Here's an article that explains it even better. Regrets, I've Had a Few

While many of these songs that inspire me are slow and moving, some aren't. This is the case with On the Darkside. From the movie Eddie and the Cruisers, Tom Berenger's character had written the song, and the others in the band decided to call him Word Man, because he always had the write words for every situation. This was nearly twenty years before I had even thought about becoming a writer, but thought, how cool it would be to be called that. Incidentally, my son tells me the kids in school used to call him that in fifth and sixth grade, because writing came easy to him.

I don't even know what the hell Rain King means, and I'm a little afraid to stick my nose into it long enough to find out. However, there's something about it that just makes me say, "Yeah." I love Counting Crows, and many of my favorite songs of theirs are like that. I have no idea what the words mean, but they just make me say, "Yeah," and make me belt it out, every time I hear it.

When You Were Young by Del Amitri started out the same way. I wasn't sure why I liked it, but I did. After making significant changes in my life in my 40s, I feel I'm finally the person I had wanted to be twenty years ago. So at the point I started listening to this song, I wasn't the person I had dreamed of when I was young, but I am now, and that inspires me even more.

When I log onto my blog and hear these songs, it makes my day. And while yes, I could certainly just turn on iTunes, and get the same effect, there's just something about having it all in one place, my writing and music, that ties it all up in a nice pretty package for me.