Songs That Changed The World

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2008-09-07T09:18:00.002-05:00

You know it is funny. With all the music that has been created I have only been exposed to very little and most of it in recent years after getting over some religious mind sets. Music is something
I love more than most things yet I have only experienced very little in comparison to a lot of people. Out of all the little experiences I have had I think that Switchfoot has impacted me the most. Most times when I listen to music I really only hear the music and not the lyrics but, with Swithchfoot their lyrics have taken me through some tough parts of my life. Not to mention I still think that have a very unique and distinct sound compared to most.

Howard Jones - New Song

2008-09-03T23:40:00.002-05:00

Howard Jones (or "HoJo" as those of us called him back in the 80's) was a hero and inspiration to me as an 80's teen. The 80's brought synth music to the masses and made playing a keyboard a cool thing. Howard Jones defined that coolness to me with his funky hair, baggy pants and Jupiter keyboard. It was this song on a 12" single that made me take notice of this wild-haired synth-guy from England. He's still a hero to me!

Vangelis - Chariots of Fire (Theme)

2008-08-28T21:35:00.003-05:00

This song changed my life, literally. I loved the synth instrumental style of music by the early 80's. This song just blew me away! I was a piano player first and foremost, then a synth player. This song fused the two together so beautifully, that I simply had to have more of this stuff. Vangelis is a musical pioneer.

I played this song at my 7th grade music recital which was to feature my school's band and choir (of which I was not a member). My 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Nola Castle, encouraged me to play at it and introduced me to the band director. I auditioned a song and it was agreed that I should play for the recital. I played Vangelis' Chariots of Fire and Mike Post's Hill Street Blues theme. I was a huge hit after that!

Also that evening, my friend, a child piano prodigy since 5, also played a piece at the recital. She has more talent in the first digit of her pinky than I do in my whole body. Katherine, you and I both know you kick my butt on piano! Period.

Psychadelic Furs - The Ghost In You

2008-08-28T21:28:00.004-05:00

There are a handful of songs from the Psychadelic Furs which have stayed with me for 25+ years; this is perhaps my favorite of them all. The Furs were popular in the dance / party scene with other hits of theirs such as "Heartbeat" and "Heaven", and later with the movie, "Pretty In Pink" starring Molly Ringwald (who lived near me and went to school with friends of mine, though I never knew her).

What I love about The Ghost In You is the slower pace and the featured synth lead sound. That is a classic synth patch!

Paul Hardcastle - Rainforest

2008-08-28T20:40:00.004-05:00

From an earlier post I mentioned Paul Hardcastle's "Rainforest". Gotta link to it here! I listened to this song over and over as I drove through the Hawaiin rainforests (my homeland!) as a 14 year old. This is a beautiful electronica instrumental.

Kraftwerk - Tour De France

2008-08-28T20:26:00.003-05:00

Since I mentioned Kraftwerk earlier, I better give them their props here. This song was my introduction to Kraftwerk, though they had been making music for a few years before I had ever heard of them. This song was so revolutionary in the sounds used as well as the sampling of the breathing. Kraftwerk made people realize you could make some really interesting percussive sounds with the analog synth. This song was both mesmerizing and beautiful, like Cybotron's
"Clear" was mesmerizing and haunting. After hearing this song I realized how much I enjoyed synth instrumentals and later would grow to love synth instrumentals such as those from Vangelis or even Paul Hardcastle's "Rainforest".

Cybotron - Clear

2008-08-28T19:24:00.002-05:00

This may be the one song that "sealed" the deal for me on techno or electronica music. I remember being about 12 or 13 when "Clear" came on the scene. I hung out with my minority friends (in a mostly white neighborhood - all of us "non" white kids knew each other regardless of our race: black, hispanic, asian - we were all friends). This was 1982 and breakdancing was just beginning to be popular. This song along with just a handful of others really struck a magical chord in my mind. I knew I wanted to learn how to create synth sounds with my keyboard before this song, but "Clear" opened my mind to an entirely new type of music: electronica.

Before "Clear" I thought of a synth as one of many instruments for song creation/recording. After, "Clear" I realized that you could make an entire song on nothing but synths! Way cool! Then I discovered Kraftwerk and several other "all synth" bands. Yeah!

Dave Brubeck - Take 5

2008-08-22T01:45:00.003-05:00

This is the jazz song that changed my life. A kid in high school was into the retro jazz scene when everyone else was into bands like The Jam, The Police, The Cure, etc. This kid was in a grade ahead of me (or two?) and he was a part of the even cooler crowd than what I hung out with. He found out I played piano and asked me if I liked jazz. I said "sure" equating my Dad's Henry Mancini albums to jazz. But what Todd meant was bebop and beatnick jazz; coffee houses and free verse poetry type stuff - you know the whole retro 50's alternative scene pre-British invasion.

Todd gave me a recording of Brubeck's Take 5 and after a few minutes of listening, I was playing it by ear for him in the music building at Mira Loma High School. I think that impressed Todd (my playing by ear tends to impress a lot of folks - but truthfully, I've just always been able to do it! - it's not a talent I've developed, it's a gift I was given - I can't take any credit for it!)

Todd was talking about putting together a quartet and playing local coffee house gigs. I wish I would have taken him up on that. Oh well... I did end up playing in college.

Bill Evans - Jazz Piano Great

2008-08-22T01:36:00.002-05:00

Bill Evans is one of the jazz piano greats! He influenced jazz in many ways, and jazz pianists in particular (myself included). A college jazz professor once commented that I play similarly to Bill. At the time, I had yet to understand what a great complement that was! (especially if you knew the professor!)

For your viewing / listening pleasure...

trying to figure out how to post video sing url

2008-08-02T10:57:00.002-05:00

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=38432523

creative

2008-08-02T10:54:00.002-05:00

He is an interesting fellow it is amazing the things he come up with.
Who is your favorite artist?

Weird Al's Take On Bob's Classic: "Bob"

2008-07-24T18:13:00.002-05:00

You gotta love Weird Al's creative genius! He takes Bob Dylan's classic and makes it hilarious. I love the palindromes. How could he figure out that many palindromes?

Bob Dylan Classic

2008-07-24T18:12:00.001-05:00

title

2008-07-23T11:56:00.001-05:00

Joe Walsh-Life's been Good Music: I really didn't know that but, Goggle can be an amazing thing.
Keeping in context with our blog I guess. I would say the there really hasn't been tones of lyrical music that has changed my life so much as just music. I would say soundtracks of my life have been more effective in shapeing my life I just love instrumental music

Chris the funny funny man

2008-07-18T07:54:00.002-05:00

I guess we could say at least he is true to his principals. I do understand where he is coming from. I'm pretty big fan of talking on the phone more so for the fact that you can hear inflections and tone. Which helps me understand people correctly on what they are trying to say. Although I do like this form Of communication because sometimes It is hard to find time to talk on the phone and I can shoot off an email in a few seconds. Any ways How if life treating you?

Chris Jumped Ship!

2008-07-18T00:25:00.006-05:00

He just called to say "I don't do web 2.0". I think its his way of rebelling. Ok with me, but I'll miss his witty banter in web text form. He said he does the live conversation thing, but not the web or email thing. (but I'll bet you can IM or text message him on his iPhone!!!!!) I think I'm gonna try that out and I'll post my findings here.

Note to Chris: I don't do MySpace either dude! There's way too many weirdos and advertisements that I just don't want or need to see. But this blog doesn't have a single ad or weirdo on it (unless you count me - which you probably should).

However, you may find that I will post blogs here and say that I'm Chris (but I don't think I can fool anyone on that). BTW, why hasn't Darren posted? And is DK actually Darren?

hey is not only for horses

2008-07-17T08:59:00.002-05:00

Hey, Thought I would say hey. I saw Your post I am here

Where Are You Guys?

2008-07-16T22:28:00.002-05:00

I know we're all busy. But I'm the dude that's almost 40 with 4 kids, etc. You guys are what Patty and I call "singles" - married, but no kids (except Darren). You should have plenty of time to post a short blurb here on the blog. Come on and just say "hi"!

For The Web 2.0 Newbies

2008-07-14T22:31:00.003-05:00

This is web 2.0. It's push and pull world today. You don't have to visit all your favorite websites each day to find out what's new. Instead, those websites will "push" the updates to your RSS reader, which will "pull" the updates for you. It's like an email inbox. You only get notifications for updates when new content has been uploaded to your favorite websites.

The best explanation I've ever found for this concept is here at Common Craft. (If you're unfamiliar with blogs, go here.)

What's this have to do with our blog? Simple. We don't need to email each other all the time (unless we want to keep our conversation private). Instead, let's communicate via the blog and our comments to blog posts. Then we can subscribe (via RSS reader) to the blog, and we can keep our conversation public. Plus, we can edit each others' posts on the blog. (Let's agree to keep editing down to spelling and grammatical changes only).

So... fire up your RSS reader (built in to your web browser, or use Google's). Subscribe to the feed on this blog. Comment. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

If you like, join Twitter and let's microblog there.

Threads

2008-07-14T09:28:00.006-05:00

Music is an amazing part of life. To think it is one thing that pretty much can be tied to the beginning of the world. It is a part of our life. More so I think it is in the core of our DNA. To think that almost every culture in the world has it's own type of music their own set of instruments in some cases. To think that maybe there is a distant tribe in South America or Africa that has not been discovered that might have a new style or instrument that might change our lives through music. I would say that music is the thread that has woven so many lives together. The thread that connects the world.

Who Should Be An Author With Us?

2008-07-10T12:14:00.003-05:00

I've included Darren, Chris and Jeremy as authors. Who else should join us in our musical blogging adventure as a regular author? Remember that anyone can comment on our posts, so its really not closed to the public. But only authors can create the posts. Got any ideas guys?

Intro To Songs That Changed The World

2008-07-10T12:01:00.003-05:00

We had a great but brief reunion and during this get together, Darren asks a conversation starting question (as he likes to do). This time instead of playing "this or that" he asks the question...

Name a song that has profoundly changed your life.

Jeremy says he knows my song: "Love Song For A Savior" by Jars of Clay and others quickly agree. I'm nailed - of course I must mention this song, but am I allowed only one song that has profoundly changed my life? I hope not!

As musicians and music lovers we understand the power of music to speak at multiple levels and make emotional, soulful, even spiritual connections. So I decided to create this blogsite for us friends to talk about our life-changing songs.

I'd like to suggest that we each blog about our own life-changing song and then we can comment to each other about it. Since this is the initial post, perhaps Darren or Chris would like to post with the title of their life-changing song and a little explanation as to why its important.

James mentioned "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys. We'll need him to elaborate on that one. Darren later mentioned by phone, "Sing sing sing" by Benny Goodman. Go on, elaborate Darren.