So a couple of weeks ago I acquired a massive amount of new music thanks to my good friend Glenn Case. I got a lot of albums that I'd owned before but had to sell, a ridiculous amount of "Greatest Hits" material, and a lot of albums that I've never owned but am now ready to experience.
I'm a bit weird with music sometimes. The first weird thing about me is that if an album or artist is immediately popular and successful, chances are it won't win my affection until a few years later. I guess I just like to make sure that the music I listen to has staying power and is not just trendy. Examples of this are Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, and Alanis Morrisette.
The next wierd thing about me and music is that often times I have to be forced to listen to things, and then when this happens, I fall in love with them. The best example of this is Pink Floyd. I was systematically force fed a diet of Floyd by my friend Duane, who simply insisted that I listen to it. I now consider Floyd one of my two favorite bands.
Nine Inch Nails is actually an example of both of these things at work. When I was in high school, I really liked Broken after it had first been released. Then The Downward Spiral came out. It suddenly became impossible to walk from one end of East Valley High School to the other without seeing at least 25 Nine Inch Nails shirts on any given day. I immediately dismissed the band because I knew that all of these sheep were only listening to "Closer," and I never bough the album. Years later, I was explaining this to a friend of mine who was appalled that I didn't consider myself a NIN fan. He hounded me to go out and buy The Fragile, which had just come out at the time. I bought it and fell in love with the band again. As for ...Spiral, I just now got that from Glenn. It turns out, in this instance, that The Fragile and all the albums released since then are much better works, but it's still a good album and I'm glad now that I have a copy.
The next example of me having to be force-fed is Radiohead's Ok, Computer. People have been telling me for years that I would love Radiohead. I have disagreed because I heard some really chaotic stuff from Kid A, and was turned off by it. Glenn finally convinced me that it was absolutely essential that I listen to Ok, Computer. Again, it turns out he knew what he was talking about. I've only listened to it once and it's already one of my favorite albums.
Finally, we get to the most shocking example, and the reason I chose this subject for today's blog:
The Beatles.
Yep. I wrote it.
I have NEVER been a Beatles fan. For some reason, despite hearing all of the singles on the radio, on the TV, and in the elevator, their music has just never spoken to me. Today, however, I am happy to report that I finally understand why they enjoy the godlike status they've attained. I started about a week ago and listened to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I liked it, but wasn't immediately overcome by it. Next I went to Abbey Road. I had heard most of this album before, but I'd never made a concentrated effort to listen to it. Again, I thought it was good, but still didn't quite get it - although, I did start to realize that many of the songs I already liked really did need to be heard in album context. For example, "Here Comes The Sun," as good as it is on its own, is so much better when you here it's hopeful melody sandwiched between the menacing minor and diminished chords of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Because."
Ok, so this morning, I decided to listen to Abbey Road again, and liked it exponentially more than the first two times I listened to it. Then, I went to Revolver, and that's when I had my "Hallelujah" moment. "Why, oh why," I thought to myself "hasn't anybody ever made me listen to this album before?" I guarantee that if I had heard Revolver in high school, I would have been a Beatles fan ever since.
Oh well, I guess I'm ready to say that I am officially a Beatles fan now.
I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.
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