The Top 5 Music Meme.

Oh dear, I seem to have been selected for my first blog meme.

ae, the muse at one of my favorite blogs arse poetica, has tagged me for the Top 5 Music Meme.

First, a disclaimer or two. I haven't listened to commercial radio for 15 years or more. Most adult contemporary music is marked unknown on my musical map. Instead, I gravitate to the weird corners and the cracks of the musical world. Stuff I find on the web. Cutouts in cd shops. Strange looking lp's in used record shops. The pop music I do know tends to be from the dim dark past, the 60's and before. So keep that in mind with my selections.

A. Top Five Lyrics that Move Your Heart

This category was hard for me. At first I kept coming up with things like Little Richard shouting "wop boppa lou bop a wham ding dong" but eventually thought better of it. Even though that lyric does move me (in a strange sort of way), I'll play it straight.

So here goes:

Neil Young, 'One of These Days'
One of these days/I'm going to sit down and write a long letter/To all the good friends/I've known/And I'm going to try/To thank them for the good times together/Though so apart/We've grown
Maybe it's the growing old thing, but it seems to me that what the world makes of us in our passing will mostly be how we touched those we lived with on the journey. Thanking those of such importance only seems right somehow.

Kathy Mattea, 'Standing Knee Deep in a River'
They roll by just like water/And I guess we never learn/We go through life parched and empty/Standing knee deep in a river/And dying of thirst
Substitute any of life's real rewards for 'they' . Friends, love, nature's beauty, joy. We all feel the emptiness and yet the way to fill it is all around us if we would just notice and DRINK.

Fred Astaire, 'The Way You Look Tonight'
Someday/When I'm awfully low/When the world is cold /I will feel aglow/Just thinking of you/And the way you look tonight
Strikes me that this is what love is all about, being with someone who the very thought of makes your life better no matter where you are. Sublime.

Johnny Cash, 'Hurt'
I hurt myself today/Just to see if I could feel
Yeah, I know it's a cover of a Nine Inch Nails tune. But by all that's holy, it's magnificent. The video is the one and only time something on MTV made me cry. Cry like a baby wailing for my lost momma. Oh Johnny, we hardly knew ya!

Tom Waits, 'Step Right Up':
Tired of being the life of the party?/Change your shorts/change your life/change your life/Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy/get rid of your wife/And it walks your dog, and it doubles on sax/Doubles on sax, you can jump back Jack/see you later alligator/See you later alligator/And it steals your car/It gets rid of your gambling debts, it quits smoking/It's a friend, and it's a companion/And it's the only product you will ever need
Well, you didn't think I'd play it totally straight, did you? This song is the Xmas retail theme song in my bookshop. During 'da season' we play this right before store opening as a ritual to get ourselves through another day of retail hell. Delightful.

B. Top 5 Instrumentals
This catagory was also hard, simply because a lot of what I listen to regularly is instrumental music. So many cds, so little time.

Yo-Yo Ma, Soul of the Tango
God, this is so good. The man has soul. Astor Piazzola would be proud.
drums and tuba, Flatheads and Spoonies
Trio with electric guitar, drums and tuba. A great variation on the drum n' bass form
Nightnoise, 'Retrospective'
Celtic smooth jazz at its best played by 4 superstars of Irish music
Glen Velez, 'Doctrine of the Signatures'
Velez is a master of the frame drum. The title cut is the best accompaniment for meditation I have ever found.
Ennio Morricone, 'The Mission'
A glorious soundtrack. In a just world this would be played in the concert halls that play our greatest music

C. Top 5 Live Musical Experiences

Babtunde Olatunji, Omega Institute, NY, 2001:
I actually got to play as part of his band in the camp concert. An amazing spiritual experience, easily the best two hours of my life. Not just on another planet after this one, folks, in another universe.

Boubacar Traore, Grassroots Music Festival, Finger Lakes July 2002:
Traore plays a version of blues roots music from Mali. I sat not three feet from him in a small tent stage area and was simply astounded by the fingerings he used. He is the most amazing guitarist I have ever, ever seen or heard. He sent me over the moon. It took me hours to come down.

Kodo, Wilmington, DE, 1988:
The best group of drummers from Japan. Seats six rows back. Heads just above stage level. Man oh man, it doesn't get any better than this.

John Adams & the American Symphony Orchestra, State College, PA, 1998:
The best modern American 'classical' composer. A marvelous orchestra. An evening of John Adams superlative compositions. Tasty. Tasty. Tasty.

Ain't Misbehavin', Off Broadway, 1986:
Fats Waller music. Great cast. Front row seats. My very straight in-laws beside me. And I get sucked up onto the stage to play the victim in the Youse A Viper number. What a hoot!

D. Top Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To:

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
The master of Pakistan's devotional Qawwali music, he is the most incredible singer you will ever hear.
The Langley Schools Music Project
A wonderful 'found music' classic. A group of rural Canadian school kids, some dimestore instruments, and their visionary teacher tackle the Beach Boys, David Bowie and the Eagles (among others). Their version of 'Desperado' is so good that the Eagles should NEVER perform it again out of respect for the nine year old girl who sings it. Absolutely brilliant.
The Sim Redmond Band
A haunting lead singer. Great guitar hooks. Thoughtful lyrics. Unusual percussion stylings. And totally unknown outside of the Finger Lakes. There ain't no justice.Hear them here.
The Deighton Family
A British dad with a taste for music hall songs and instruments. An Indonesian mom with an understanding of the differing tonalities of western and eastern music. And some precocious kids let loose on instruments and vocals of all stripes. Joyous, fun music. samples here.
The Tiger Lilies
A drummer who plays a kids drum set, a bass player with a porkpie hat and attitude, and a lead singer in theatrical whiteface who sings in counter-tenor and plays the accordian. Plug in a taste for the morbid and strange and what's not to love?

E. Top Five Albums You Must Hear From Start to Finish:
This is another category that gave me pause. I'm pretty old school. I always listen to the whole album. I'm still not used to the MP3 pick a song and go way of musical programming. So with that in mind, I'll just recommend some albums that I never seem to get tired of instead.

Talking Timbuctu: Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder
To the Moonr: capercaillie
Come Away with Me: Norah Jones
Specialist in All Styles: Orchestra Baobab
My Life: Iris DeMent

F. Top Five Musical s/Heroes:

Babatunde Olatunji: My musical bodhisatva, a true saint.
Van Morrison: The amazing spiritual odyssey recorded in his music so mirrors my own journey that it is positively eerie at times
Evelyn Glennie: Though profoundly deaf, she has become the foremost classical percussionist in the world
Patsy Cline: So completely damn HONEST in her performance that it is painful
Don Williams: He's 'just a country boy', but he sings for all us who straddle that awkward line between the mountain and the 'outside'. My choice of music when I want to have a good wallow in self pity.

Update: I forgot. I'm supposed to tag someone else. Ok, you're it, Dave at Via Negativa, Tom from Tomorrow's Ancient History Today and especially you Ned at By Neddie Jingo, in retaliation for this little ditty.