Van the Man, early on...

tonight's choice, van morrison's 1968 release, "astral weeks." a trippy, experimental, free form improvisational and sometimes brilliant work. i read once that this album was basically live, with all the musicians in separate rooms, playing what they wanted, what they felt, live. i can believe this. while this isn't (imho) some his strongest work lyrically, his vocals are typically outstanding. much like the music, free form and improvisational. this may not be as outstanding as some of his later work, but his was my intro to van and a nice little flashback.

continuing on my quest...

well, i'm continuing on my quest to listen to full albums that i have ignored for far too long. but tonight instead listening on my nightly walk with lilly, they helped me get through an afterwork chore of mowing and yardwork.

my first choice of the night was traffic's "john barleycorn must die" (in reality, steve winwood's intended first "solo" album), from the opening notes of the jazz influenced "glad" i was instanty thrown into the "wayback" machine... while mowing the front yard. it's kind of amazing how music, like nothing else, can instantly transport you to a time and place of long ago. to a good place, a good memory, a good "time." this album was originally released just as summer broke after my freshman year of high school. to this day, the song "john barleycorn" holds it's own with anything in my catalog. a good listen. a damn good one. as is the whole record.

next up, a real change in pace, linda ronstadt's 1975 release, the beautiful and underrated "prisoner in disguise." i think this record (along with her "heart like a wheel") helped me rediscover country music, from the beautiful "love is a rose, hey mister..., many rivers to cross, the sweetest gift," to her incredible cover of dolly's "i will always love you" (eat your heart out whitney), her country influences made me take note and want to listen to that music again.

it was interesting and refreshing, in an odd kind of way, that this young, beautiful girl with huge dark, innocent eyes and a powerful, crystal clear voice could sing so sweetly of lost love, of heartache and sadness with so much reality, emotion and beauty. you could tell that she felt it in her soul, in her heart. i think ronstadt possibly never got much of the respect & creditability that she was due since she wasn't a "singer/songwriter" and was just a "cover artist." but, i think few have matched their talents to the music they performed better than she did during this period of her career. and she had a great knowledge, respect and reverence for the songs she chose to sing. going from country to motown to rock, back-to-back, and never missing a beat. all while backed musically by some of the best of the L.A session players available. now i'm feeling the itch to listen to "heart like a wheel"...

yep, music can take you back, maybe where you "want" to be, maybe where you "need" to be, maybe just help "root" you to where you are, to where you came from. i'm not sure why, i'm not sure that i care. i just want to go there for a while. and listen.

i'm kind of diggin' this idea...

ok, finally...

...i'm going to start using this thing. i don't know how enlightening, how rambling, how "whatever" it's going to be, but...i'm gonna do it. or at least i'm going to try.

tonight, i took a nice, long, late (later than usual) walk with lilly. i consider the "ipod" one of the more significant inventions of my lifetime. as silly as that sounds (and i realize, it does sound silly), but i love music, it gives me so much, and the ipod has completely changed the way i listen to it, made music so much more accessible to me. it goes virtually everywhere with me.

that said, i have recently noticed that it seriously changed my listening habits, for the worse. i have recently realized that rarely listen to complete albums, in sequence anymore. that i have created playlists, or use shuffle and really kind of got away from the "concept" of "the album." and i have been missing that.

ok, back to the walk with lilly, we usually do between 1.5 & 2.5 miles on these walks through my great, old neighborhood (called "the highlands") and i listen to music throughout the walk. tonight, just prior to heading out, i commited (to myself) that i would no longer "shuffle" through these walks, that i would pick an album, one that was significant to me for one reason or another and listen to it in sequence through the walk. it was a good idea.

tonight, my first choice in this little listening adventure was neil young's 1970 masterpiece "after the goldrush"...yep, "there was a band playing in my head..." as i mentioned, by changing my listening habits, i'm really hoping to sort of rekindle a love affair with some of the music that has been important to me for one reason or another, primarily earlier in my life. my "formative" years so to speak. maybe a good memory, maybe not. but an important or significant one nonetheless, something that has too long been to ignored by me for one reason or another. and hopefully, i'll rediscover some of those little gems that are wedged in between the more well known songs that i had forgotten about.

"after the goldrush" was a great choice to start this little adventure off with..."when you dance, do your senses tingle and take a chance..."

more later.