Saturday, August 18, 2012

Another blog meme - 'Six Songs Of Me'


Via a link at the Silicon Graybeard's place, we learn of a meme that's doing the rounds called 'Six Songs Of Me'.  It asks six questions:

  1. What was the first song you ever bought?
  2. What song always gets you dancing?
  3. What song takes you back to your childhood?
  4. What is your perfect love song?
  5. What song would you want at your funeral?
  6. Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.

OK, here goes!

1.  I mostly recorded songs off the radio in my much younger days, using an old and rather scratchy reel-to-reel tape recorder, because my pocket-money was only 5c for every year of my age.  That didn't leave much to spare for music!  I could earn more by doing odd jobs and extra domestic chores, and when I finally managed to save up enough for my first LP, it was Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung'.

2.  I was never much of a dancer, but I was born and raised in Africa.  I respond instinctively to tribal rhythms.  One song that can always get my feet tapping is Juluka's 1982 hit 'Scatterlings Of Africa'.  You can hear the original version on YouTube.

3.  My childhood . . . well, I don't particularly like to be reminded of it.  I read widely even during my younger years, and often a particular piece of music would become associated in my mind with a book or books.  A favorite book series was Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons', set largely in England's Lake District and on the Norfolk Broads.  For some reason Ralph Vaughan Williams' piece 'The Lark Ascending' has become linked in my mind with that series, so when I hear it, I'm transported back to those years.  Sometimes the memories are even pleasant.  You can hear a live concert version on YouTube.

4.  A perfect love song?  I don't have one.  However, back in 1983 I fell in love.  She was killed.  It was . . . not a good time.  We'd enjoyed the Moody Blues' 'Nights In White Satin' together, and its blend of love and pathos was unbearably reminiscent of her.  I couldn't stand to hear it for a couple of years, but after a while it became a reminder of what we'd shared, and what we'd lost.  I can look back now and be grateful for the short time we had together.  She made me a much better person.  So, it's not my 'perfect love song', but in memory of a lost love.  I guess that'll have to do.  (It's a whole lot easier to hear that song today, because the hole that had been left in my life has at long last been filled.  If you don't know it, here's the original 1967 version on YouTube.)

5.  At my funeral?  Something thoughtful, profound, yet also hopeful.  I think I'd like any and/or all of these three pieces:


6.  A song that makes me, me.  Hmmm . . .  I think I'll go for Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis'.  Here it is.  Turn up the volume and let it sweep over you!





What about it, fellow bloggers?  Have at it!

Peter

6 comments:

Toejam said...

1st music purchase at the age of 14.....1956.....45 RPM cost:-89 American cents....."After the Lights Go Down Low " sung by: Al Hibbler..

Mind you 89 American cents in 1956 was a lot. My part time job paid that exact amount per hour!

Luke said...

1) First song bought: bought it when I arrived in Perth for uni: Gary Joules: Mad World

2) Always gets me dancing: I love this song and will dance to it when no one's around. Genesis - I can't dance

3) What takes you back to your childhood. Laura Brannigan: Gloria. I remember my parents driving home from Accra late at night only to pull over and dance together under the moonlight when this came on the tape.

4) Love song. Hmm... Bryan Adams - Heaven

5) Funeral. Well I wouldn't go so far as to actually have it played, but: Darren Korb - setting sail, coming home.

6) Can't imagine a song to sum me up, but here's one I like. Gotan Project - Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)

Thanks that was fun and unexpected.

Luan

Mikael said...

1) Hey Stoopid - Alice Cooper. (Vinyl single, I was 11).
2) Latino rythm disco songs.
3) Paradise City - Guns 'n' Roses.
4) Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden.
5) Tough one... I'd be tempted to go non sequitor and play something like "The immigrant song" by Led Zeppelin. And I'm definitely going to put a clause in my will that if they insist on a church burial, that they play "Listen to reason" by Bryan Steeksma.
6) Impossible!

Borepatch said...

That Vaughan Williams is lovely.

Anonymous said...

1.) Let The Sunshine In (The Fifth Dimension)
2.) The Zoo (Scorpions)
3.) Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
4.) Annie's Song (John Denver)
5.) Somewhere Over The Rainbow-What A Wonderful World (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
6.) Samba Pa Ti (Carlos Santana)

Cybrludite said...

1) Probably Styx's "Paradise Theater" album.
2) I don't dance, but I'll go with Glen Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" on this one.
3) Not a particular favorite of mine, but my parents loved Rodger Whittaker. I'll go with "The Last Farewell" for this slot.
4) "Time Stand Still" by Rush. As Louie Renault suspected of Rick, I'm a rank sentimentalist.
5) "Yakety Sax"
6) Lately? Probably Chris Rea's "Road To Hell" or Sting's "Fortress Around Your Heart", depending on if you focus on my emergency preparations or my (lack of a) social life.