The last month was hard. A lot of work, issues at home, short on money... but unexpectedly, something saved the last month, and that was music.
I had prejudices when I was younger. I couldn't get the rap, country was stupid, metal too loud. A couple of hundreds CD's and 20 years later, some gigabytes of MP3's, changed my mind completely. So I heard a lot of music, and I'm seldom surprised. I'm not easily moved.
But -- I don't know why -- I have searched for a tune I liked way back on the YouTube, by a singer I knew of for a long time, 17 years at least, actually heard about her much before. I had just a couple of her CD's, and liked them, but that's only a small part, I discovered.
I found the clip. But there were links to more. And more. And it got better and better. I have then downloaded whole albums from file sharing sites. Then I ordered the CD's. Then I ordered more. I knew some her music, had some CD's -- they were great -- but failed to comprehend the big picture. You can't hear it on the radio, there are no videos on MTV. But there's Tube. And it all happened since early April.
Some people think she's way overrated.
Yes, there's some artificiality. Yes, different styles are sometimes just left side by side -- but that's intentional. Yes, there are better singers. There are far better guitar players for sure. Yes, her voice is annoying to some. Yes, she did mostly covers, and she's not a great songwriter. Yes, she is mostly static on stage. Yes, she had ups and downs -- but she recovered when most would give up -- at least three times. She is definitely very controversial, emotions run high about her, even some of her fans completely reject parts of her opus (ones with prejudices, I'd say). But, despite all these imperfections, when you sum up what remains, very, very few popular musicians archived more. That's because enthusiasm, emotions and hard work also count, and that's what separates purely commercial pop acts from art, that's the "deeper well".
AllMusic.com says:
"Though other performers sold more records and earned greater fame, few left as profound an impact on contemporary music .... Blessed with a crystalline voice, a remarkable gift for phrasing, and a restless creative spirit, she traveled a singular artistic path, proudly carrying the torch of "cosmic American music" passed down by her mentor, Gram Parsons. With the exception of only Neil Young -- not surprisingly an occasional collaborator -- no other mainstream star established a similarly large body of work as consistently iconoclastic, eclectic, or daring; even more than four decades into her career, her latter-day music remained as heartfelt, visionary, and vital as her earliest recordings."And that is a praise. Actually, this clip summarizes everything:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrcCa_…You'll note that her being female and pretty is the least important part (she's actually about 35 in that clip way back in early 1980's).
And the following clips seal the case:
1970's:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG7CQ0… www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfRYjL… www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRx5r3… www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJD2YM… 1980's:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W97_M… www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wkhym… www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp4lgi… www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3i2v_… 1990's:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz-bvg… www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CR4dl… www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4y9sI… www.youtube.com/watch?v=RElBNo… www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9N5MG… www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gskfe… www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctRWW… www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8oK4… 2000+:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca5fGO… www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqdGZC… www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey9kde… www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3fGi2… And there's so much more to explore (about 30 albums overall, five or six being "Amazon.com essential recordings"). Music should inspire and uplift people, and hers does it for me.
Maybe it won't work for others. However, my wife grabbed her long untouched guitar and started playing and singing for the first time in years.
A good month, actually. I thought I could share it with my watchers...
-ed you, you don't have to (but you can if you want to).
HURRY UP!
