jacinth's musical (re)education
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back in august I had a random hour or so in my schedule between finishing some work and meeting up with friends for a backyard cookout, and since artist dates have proven to be a wonderful addition to life, i used that hour to grab a blanket, bike down to prospect park, and listen to Joni Mitchell’s Blue for the first time.
“what do you mean, “for the first time??””
ATLA is one bit of pop culture i proudly stan
well if you know me you probably know that there’s a good deal of popular culture that is simply not a part of my life experience: sheltered upbringing, cultural background, simple ignorance—whatever have you—there are many things that i know Exist but that i have never actually seen/read/listened to/watched. some, like harry potter and game of thrones and hunger games i have managed to catch up on. others like star wars and citizen kane i remain obstinately determined to ignore if for no other reason than to have my lame fun fact ready for the awkward ice breaker/first rehearsal meet-and-greet i will inevitably be forced to endure politely chuckle my way through again. overall though, i don’t really feel any particular draw towards or push away from most of these cultural touchstones and figure i’ll get to them when i do. or i won’t and life will go on.
but some of these are absolutely a quiet source of self-chastising embarrassment. like…what do you do for a living, jacinth? you write and perform music and words, and yet under duress probably couldn’t name ten Beatles songs in five minutes—or at least ten that you knew for sure were the Beatles and not…maybe the Beach Boys? or the Who? (who were…also a band that people Know and who did…music stuff around the same time, right? * )
don’t get me wrong, if you need a word-perfect and tone-for-tone performance of dc talk’s jesus is still alright (mac is back no slack indeed and yes i was in fact this-moment-years-old when i discovered that this song is a cover of a much more popular song and not even the first cover of said song) or kirk franklin’s hosanna (let me hear you make some holy ghost crazy noise right now) or even…a solo recitation of ten to twenty minute chunks of a goofy movie or matilda or d2 mighty ducks (woo woo woo kenny wu) or aladdin** —if you need any of that, come at me.
inch wide mile deep. what i know i know very well.
but there’s a lot that i don’t know. and Blue in the shade of an oak at dusk was spectacular.
so.
to remedy this, i shot an email to several friends to ask for album recommendations—stuff formative to them in their own music journeys—so that i could fill in some gaps and also have a great reason to chat (yay the joy and “will they like it too??” panic of sharing personal treasures).
got a ton of great suggestions. and repeated versions of:
“ooh what’s on the list? what did other people suggest? can we see the submissions list? are you gonna review them?”
so here begins a little listening adventures blog where i’ll keep track of what i listen to and what i think about it. may end up being just for myself, but hey: i am me, so go us.
already i’ve typed way more than i intended to in this introduction.
here goes the first post of musings on Blue along with several other album recommendations: PLAY THE SONG!
Oh and if you’d like to submit your own album suggestions
*an exaggeration for effect. mostly.
**i kid you not i once on a date (not a first date—and also surprisingly not the last) where I started from the “bm bum bum bm bum” of arabian nights and got all the way through gilbert gottfried’s “well there’s a big a surprise! that’s an incredible—i think i’m gonna have a heart attack and die from that surprise…we gotta a big problem here a big big—patience iago, patience! “ before realizing how bad of an idea this actually…for a date. “i didn’t think you’d actually do the whole thing” —her)