All I would want back from my youth was my healthy back. But it's interesting this obsession of ours. I guess that's why some famous people who die young become idols. Maybe we wouldn't be so obsessed with Marylin Monroe if we had watched her grow old like a regular human. And I think Lhasa, despite having died, would be honored that you found her. That you took the time to honor her with our words. I love the different subpaths that your mandolin journey has taken!
That's an interesting thought – that death is a prerequisite for young fame. I'm thinking of such as James Dean as well, maybe not singing, but probably becoming a bigger idol for dying young. Maybe we live forever in the minds of others as the ones we were when we died?
About Lhasa – she would be very honored, then, as very many seem to have discovered her talent after her death. And this is again one of those situations where many others have expressed words similar to mine, about finding the talent, being happy about it, and then immediately being shot down by the discovery that she is no more.
But whatever happens to people when they are dead, all what they did when still alive will forever leave a footprint in the universe, as I have mentioned earlier. Everybody, being a star or not, is important. Somehow, people should be able to develop even more importance when living longer, but that works in the background, not easily detectable for the rest of us: they simply keep changing the universe as long as they live, and as we also live in that same universe, we do not see it as changed, just as the one it is, given the circumstances.
The famous leave a strong impression of what they did to become famous, like a supernova in the sky. Very visible, sometimes shining so bright that we do not notice all the other stars, but we wouldn't experience the universe as the same without all of those; a universe of only supernovas.
So, what I'm trying to tell is that the young deaths of stars is being noticed more because it isn't the common situation. We have no automatic pattern of reactions to all what is not normal, so we tend to flow with the stream of public opinion, mixed with our own surprise that life can do that, and our growth when understanding that additional bit of it all.
I love how passionate you are about music! Music has been the one constant throughout my entire life - a backdrop to the good times (every wonderful experience I've ever had has corresponding songs that play in my mind when I reflect upon the memories) and getting me through the bad times... "Music was my first love and it will be me last" is one of my favourite song lyrics because it just sums it up so beautifully!
You have a musical memory, that's great! I've noticed that a lot of people not only forget music, they forget the very fact that they liked a certain tune a lot just a few months ago. I never understood how that's possible. Music really does mean a lot to me, but not so for everybody, it seems.
Music was my first love – indeed! I remember that song, by Alan Parsons, from when I was very young. There is such a big and rich universe of music, and it comes with all kinds of attractiveness to it. Either a song expresses something deep or just beautiful, or the singer is performing it with such skills and so much sincerity that it is like someone speaks to you directly, to your heart. Or some or all of the musicians are so virtuously playing their instruments that you wonder how this is even possible. Or, as you say, the music simply fit into a memory, like smells, physical emotions, and words said.
A thing I love about music is that it is somewhat borderless. People do put a lot of nationalism and other ugly stuff into it, but that will not prevent both the music, the musicians, and the emotions and memories from spreading all over the world. Take Lhasa as an example: growing up as English-speaking in the USA, but later learning Spanish, moving to Canada and France, releasing her first album in Spanish language, later other albums in French and English. She didn't feel any border-based limitations strong enough to stop her from expressing what she felt in the way she felt for.
Music has a very strong glue built-in, able to tie almost all kinds of people together. Somehow by the ears, so those without may not be connected by this kind of glue.
You're right, I feel the way people listen to and enjoy music has changed a great deal. I'm someone who loves listening to entire albums, for example, which no longer seems to be the norm. Most perceive music as something in the background, whereas for me, it's always been at the forefront of my life...
Music truly connects across cultures and borders. I think music and food have the potential to provide a basis for peaceful co-existence!
About the entire albums listening – I would have described myself like that until just recently, but lately, I have found music on YouTube, Qobus, and Tidal, often when searching for a style, like "Fado", or a particular instrument, like "Portuguese guitar", and what I have found would in some cased be albums but not always. And it looks to me like most musicians now are perhaps publishing albums, like before, but these are often just collections of non-related songs.
The time of the concept albums in rock music seems to be over, but there are luckily still many artists, for instance on the New Age scene, who produce a "full-length" experience (full length now being redefined - take Max Richter's "Sleep", for instance, which is 8 hours long).
So, albums exist, but for new music, they cannot really cover the full scope of music. I guess that people of today simply think in "tunes" rather than albums?
But, just now, listening to the album "Deb" by Souad Massi, it strikes me that even though it is a bunch of individual songs, they do have many things in common. I don't understand most of what she is singing, since I don't know those languages, but they could possibly circle around a theme, even with a progression. I don't know that, but even without a theme, they do have a certain tone over them that makes it obvious to me to listen to the whole album in one go. Same thing with Lhasa's "La Llorona", even though I do think that that one was designed as a concept album, as a rare thing today.
Some of the albums I like to return to are such as Philip Glass' "The Photographer" and "A Descent Into a Maelstrom", as well as Electric Light Orchestra's "Time" or "discovery". But there are many, actually most of the music I have ever bought is best listened to as albums, because it was designed for that.
If you should pick out some albums that you find work particularly well in their entirety, which ones should it be?
They have that potential, that's for sure! Food we all need, and most people can enjoy good food. Music – well, I just read about how it changes the rhythm of the brain: within a few minutes, your brain adjusts to match the rhythm of the music, making everything it does match the music.
I listen to music mainly via YouTube Music and I love putting together really long playlists. (I've been doing that more than writing, so I have something to listen to while I sort through and clean/clear out belongings I don't need anymore. It's been an amazing feeling getting rid of all this dead weight!)... Anyway, I can tell I'm an album-listener when I put together compilations because they're never random songs, each playlist has to have a theme and then I add music accordingly. I like it when every tune is somehow connected to the next and the whole thing is held together by an overall concept!
One of my all-time favourite albums is "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd. I think it's a brillant example of a concept album and I can rarely listen to just one song, I have to listen to the entire album.
I also enjoy Lana Del Rey's music because she's one of the few current artists who still produces albums as a whole where each song seems to contribute to a long story. The same goes for Sam Fender, a young British musician whose music reminds me so much of Bruce Springsteen, it's almost surreal... Same goes for Corinne Bailey Rae...
I can't choose a favourite genre, band, or artist though because I just love so many different types of music 🙈
All I would want back from my youth was my healthy back. But it's interesting this obsession of ours. I guess that's why some famous people who die young become idols. Maybe we wouldn't be so obsessed with Marylin Monroe if we had watched her grow old like a regular human. And I think Lhasa, despite having died, would be honored that you found her. That you took the time to honor her with our words. I love the different subpaths that your mandolin journey has taken!
That's an interesting thought – that death is a prerequisite for young fame. I'm thinking of such as James Dean as well, maybe not singing, but probably becoming a bigger idol for dying young. Maybe we live forever in the minds of others as the ones we were when we died?
About Lhasa – she would be very honored, then, as very many seem to have discovered her talent after her death. And this is again one of those situations where many others have expressed words similar to mine, about finding the talent, being happy about it, and then immediately being shot down by the discovery that she is no more.
But whatever happens to people when they are dead, all what they did when still alive will forever leave a footprint in the universe, as I have mentioned earlier. Everybody, being a star or not, is important. Somehow, people should be able to develop even more importance when living longer, but that works in the background, not easily detectable for the rest of us: they simply keep changing the universe as long as they live, and as we also live in that same universe, we do not see it as changed, just as the one it is, given the circumstances.
The famous leave a strong impression of what they did to become famous, like a supernova in the sky. Very visible, sometimes shining so bright that we do not notice all the other stars, but we wouldn't experience the universe as the same without all of those; a universe of only supernovas.
So, what I'm trying to tell is that the young deaths of stars is being noticed more because it isn't the common situation. We have no automatic pattern of reactions to all what is not normal, so we tend to flow with the stream of public opinion, mixed with our own surprise that life can do that, and our growth when understanding that additional bit of it all.
The lottery of you that for sure you will always win: with a rider being with unknown prices!
https://youtu.be/F3i4nqrEsNc
When Good met Evil, Good didn't question this step
Evil had already figured out how to prevail by tomorrow
"You seem tired," said Evil,
and added: "you're barefoot from all the walking"
"My back is yours to use
like the saddle of a horse"
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/le-bien-et-le-mal-good-and-evil.html
I love how passionate you are about music! Music has been the one constant throughout my entire life - a backdrop to the good times (every wonderful experience I've ever had has corresponding songs that play in my mind when I reflect upon the memories) and getting me through the bad times... "Music was my first love and it will be me last" is one of my favourite song lyrics because it just sums it up so beautifully!
You have a musical memory, that's great! I've noticed that a lot of people not only forget music, they forget the very fact that they liked a certain tune a lot just a few months ago. I never understood how that's possible. Music really does mean a lot to me, but not so for everybody, it seems.
Music was my first love – indeed! I remember that song, by Alan Parsons, from when I was very young. There is such a big and rich universe of music, and it comes with all kinds of attractiveness to it. Either a song expresses something deep or just beautiful, or the singer is performing it with such skills and so much sincerity that it is like someone speaks to you directly, to your heart. Or some or all of the musicians are so virtuously playing their instruments that you wonder how this is even possible. Or, as you say, the music simply fit into a memory, like smells, physical emotions, and words said.
A thing I love about music is that it is somewhat borderless. People do put a lot of nationalism and other ugly stuff into it, but that will not prevent both the music, the musicians, and the emotions and memories from spreading all over the world. Take Lhasa as an example: growing up as English-speaking in the USA, but later learning Spanish, moving to Canada and France, releasing her first album in Spanish language, later other albums in French and English. She didn't feel any border-based limitations strong enough to stop her from expressing what she felt in the way she felt for.
Music has a very strong glue built-in, able to tie almost all kinds of people together. Somehow by the ears, so those without may not be connected by this kind of glue.
You're right, I feel the way people listen to and enjoy music has changed a great deal. I'm someone who loves listening to entire albums, for example, which no longer seems to be the norm. Most perceive music as something in the background, whereas for me, it's always been at the forefront of my life...
Music truly connects across cultures and borders. I think music and food have the potential to provide a basis for peaceful co-existence!
About the entire albums listening – I would have described myself like that until just recently, but lately, I have found music on YouTube, Qobus, and Tidal, often when searching for a style, like "Fado", or a particular instrument, like "Portuguese guitar", and what I have found would in some cased be albums but not always. And it looks to me like most musicians now are perhaps publishing albums, like before, but these are often just collections of non-related songs.
The time of the concept albums in rock music seems to be over, but there are luckily still many artists, for instance on the New Age scene, who produce a "full-length" experience (full length now being redefined - take Max Richter's "Sleep", for instance, which is 8 hours long).
So, albums exist, but for new music, they cannot really cover the full scope of music. I guess that people of today simply think in "tunes" rather than albums?
But, just now, listening to the album "Deb" by Souad Massi, it strikes me that even though it is a bunch of individual songs, they do have many things in common. I don't understand most of what she is singing, since I don't know those languages, but they could possibly circle around a theme, even with a progression. I don't know that, but even without a theme, they do have a certain tone over them that makes it obvious to me to listen to the whole album in one go. Same thing with Lhasa's "La Llorona", even though I do think that that one was designed as a concept album, as a rare thing today.
Some of the albums I like to return to are such as Philip Glass' "The Photographer" and "A Descent Into a Maelstrom", as well as Electric Light Orchestra's "Time" or "discovery". But there are many, actually most of the music I have ever bought is best listened to as albums, because it was designed for that.
If you should pick out some albums that you find work particularly well in their entirety, which ones should it be?
They have that potential, that's for sure! Food we all need, and most people can enjoy good food. Music – well, I just read about how it changes the rhythm of the brain: within a few minutes, your brain adjusts to match the rhythm of the music, making everything it does match the music.
Your brain is like a ballet.
I believe that to be true. It explains why music can change your mood as well if it has such a huge influence on brain activity.
Here is one of the many good songs by Souad Massi: https://youtu.be/GblWKKUq48o
And here is one by Lhasa: https://youtu.be/HIJhrzAuWcw?list=PLWu3lk9NYm5uR5nfuPFxYic0KZ4tOxE58
I listen to music mainly via YouTube Music and I love putting together really long playlists. (I've been doing that more than writing, so I have something to listen to while I sort through and clean/clear out belongings I don't need anymore. It's been an amazing feeling getting rid of all this dead weight!)... Anyway, I can tell I'm an album-listener when I put together compilations because they're never random songs, each playlist has to have a theme and then I add music accordingly. I like it when every tune is somehow connected to the next and the whole thing is held together by an overall concept!
One of my all-time favourite albums is "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd. I think it's a brillant example of a concept album and I can rarely listen to just one song, I have to listen to the entire album.
I also enjoy Lana Del Rey's music because she's one of the few current artists who still produces albums as a whole where each song seems to contribute to a long story. The same goes for Sam Fender, a young British musician whose music reminds me so much of Bruce Springsteen, it's almost surreal... Same goes for Corinne Bailey Rae...
I can't choose a favourite genre, band, or artist though because I just love so many different types of music 🙈