Tag / music

by LG

9.13.20

In The Before, we had plans with friends to see Brandi Carlile at Red Rocks in Colorado this weekend. That marriage of artist and venue makes a bucket list show I’ve hoped to see for several years now. The show got rescheduled for the same time next year and while I have no idea what’s in store for 2021 (lolsob), I’m grateful that I still have a chance to make it happen.

In the meantime, we got tickets for a BC livestream tonight, in which she played the entirety of her Give Up the Ghost album. It wasn’t a live show like I’m used to, but it felt so good to watch them jam and cut up and I don’t know, help us all feel a human connection again for a little while.

I hope to take advantage of more livestream shows from her and from other artists I like. Everything sucks right now, but participating in a performance in such an intimate way feels like a gift.

by LG

7.18.20

We had to run an errand today but felt so stir-crazy from being stuck home and so happy to be out in the sunshine that after we finished, we just kept driving south on the GW Parkway. We had the soundtrack of Hamilton playing because that’s the only thing we’ve listened to since it got released on Disney+ (it’s a daily question in our home: “So what random song or line from Hamilton is stuck in your head today?”), and we happened upon this sign just as we passed Mount Vernon. We clearly stopped to take a picture, nerded out about it, skipped to “Yorktown” (1781!), and proceeded to drive home along the parkway. We pulled over at one of the scenic overlooks for a moment because it felt so nice to be close to the waters of the Potomac River when LO AND BEHOLD, a GD bald eagle soared by RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. Peak ‘Merica, I tell you.

by LG

1.24.20

Gotta love how Brandi Carlile announced shows in two locations a few days ago, and immediately two friends texted to let us know/coordinate getting tickets. It took some doing, but we succeeded in snagging tickets for her show at Wolf Trap here in the DC area this summer and for Red Rocks this fall in Denver!

Seeing a show at Red Rocks a couple of summers ago felt like a dream because I’d heard so much about the beauty and acoustics of that venue. But I’ve wanted to see Brandi perform there for YEARS, so getting this chance feels like making one of my own dreams come true.

(I guess some people might call it checking something off my bucket list, but for some reason I really don’t like that term and am looking for a replacement ASAP.)

 

 

by LG

1.10.20

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I just finished a book (“Do Not Say We Have Nothing” – I thought it was very good) that contained copious references to classical music and composers, including Prokofiev. When I pulled up Spotify to see if I knew any of his work, I came across Peter and the Wolf, narrated by David Bowie, and a wave of nostalgia washed over me: I used to play this on our record player as a kid!

I listened to the musical introductions to the characters and felt a thrill as I recognized the melancholy oboe representing the duck, the wily clarinet for the cat, and the french horn for the wolf, which used to scare the shit out of me! I don’t feel like I have very many memories of my childhood, so it was really interesting (and weird??) to have such a random search lead to such a vivid flashback for me.

P.S. – Books should have soundtracks, the end.

by LG

Naughty by nature

I really loved the song “Only the Good Die Young” when I was a kid. It’s peppy! It has a catchy chorus! But my older sister admonished me to stop singing along to it (I didn’t even know all the verses and didn’t understand the Catholic references – just the chorus) because it was NAUGHTY, which was the worst. Except I didn’t get why it was naughty at the time (vague reference to sinners aside), so I guess it backfired because it only piqued my interest in it.

When that memory came back to me, I started thinking about alllll of the things I found out were NAUGHTY when I was growing up. Growing up in a Mormon household meant that a lot of things were off-limits, and in fairness some of them probably were too racy for me. But some of them are big ol’ question marks, especially when I look back on it now! I thought of a few right off the top of my head, and I may come back and add more later if I remember them.

  • Only the Good Die Young, Billy Joel: Bad due to general unexplained naughtiness.
  • Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham!: The line “It’s cold out there/but it’s warm in bed” made complete sense to my 9-year-old brain (duh!?) but was deemed v v racy by my mom for reasons unbeknownst to me at the time.
  • Maneater, Hall and Oates: Again, bad due to general unexplained naughtiness. It was 1982, I was 7, and though I knew nothing about sex at that point, I knew the woman was doing something bad because of all the “watch out boy” warnings. Looking back now, this woman sounds p r e t t y badass and 100% in control of her destiny.
  • Easy Lover, Phil Collins and Philip Bailey:  My mom would change the radio station when this song played. The best I could figure was more “adult theme” sinning, since there was a lot of singing about the woman who couldn’t be controlled. When I read the lyrics for this post, I couldn’t for the life of me find anything bad besides the woman who was making all of her own decisions.
  • L.A. Law: I was allowed to watch the opening credits and NOTHING MORE.
  • Three’s Company: Are you kidding me? Two women living with a man plus several other leery male neighbors lurking about. My brothers and I watched it anyway (I didn’t understand half the dialogue) and hurriedly changed the channel when we heard our parents approaching.
  • Any primetime soap opera: Dynasty, Knot’s Landing, and Dallas were all no-nos. I don’t think I had any interest in watching, but the powers that be made sure I knew it wasn’t even an option.
  • Madonna: NAUGHTY NAUGHTY NAUGHTY for obvious reasons in the mid-80s.
  • MTV: This may as well have broadcast live from Satan’s bedroom, as far as my parents were concerned.
  • Dirty Dancing: The title says it all. I definitely did not watch this at home and most definitely did watch it at my friend Carolyn’s house after school on her VCR.