yes, another selection by the smiley sunsoaked band from california. even i was surprised by how high on the list this song ended up, but the more i thought about it, the better i understood. the beach boys have had a profound impact on my life. from a very early age (they were my first concert after all). i feel like they influenced me so heavily and so early on that they have informed everything i have listened to. i have always had a deep appreciation for this song. its harmony, its soft flow, its endearing pop, its youthful sentiments. it is a deceptively simple song that has can appeal to a wide audience. it was not until recently, though, that i realized what kind of impact this song had on me.
i dont know when i first heard this song. it was not on the 'made in u.s.a.' compilation that i obsessed over at a young age, but i know i was familiar with this song around the time i was listening to that album. my first experience must have been on the radio. in fact, i have a vague memory of me asking my mother to turn this song up when we were driving around town in her station wagon (this takes it way back). but regardless of when i first heard it, there was something that connected me to this song at age 7, age 12, age 17, and even today.
if the song 'basket case' represents one strain of my musical preference (the coolness factor), this song represents the beginning of its opposing strain: the personal song. this song became differentiated in my mind from songs about the wheels on the bus, the itsy bitsy spider and even songs about daddy taking the t-bird away. for the first time, i heard and felt in music what i was thinking. and though it wasnt complex, it was a sentiment i could relate to and feel a part of. they were singing about feelings that everyone could understand, no matter what age you were. after hearing this song, music began to mean something totally different than what i had thought it could. it was no longer something that was something to have on to pass the time or something to be done in music class at school. you could use it to connect. you could use it to learn something. you could use it to feel.
if music in my life appeals to me in three different ways (for its functionality, for how it makes me feel cool, for its emotional connection), it is the strain that i discovered in this song that has dictated the majority of my musical preference. i like stuff that i can hear and feel a part of, something that is emotionally revealing. stuff that is deep. stuff that makes you feel that indescribable feeling that absolutely great music conjures up inside of me. music that is thoughtful and personal in varying shades of pop has defined my musical life. this explains why i liked nirvana, sebadoh, coldplay, the replacements, otis redding, and most of the music on this list. years and years after i first heard this song i feel connected to it and i seek out songs that do for me what this song did. so, yeah, even though i never would have guessed it, this song is a very fitting choice for the second spot on this list.
i was there, i swear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YabBXayt3bs
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
3: smells like teen spirit-- nirvana
this song came close (very close) to not making it on the list at all. while most of the songs here were ordered by a gutfeeling/streamofconsciousness type of decision making, this song began on the outside and i kept thinking about it and thinking about it and it kept inching its way to number three on the list. and this song does deserve this position despite my initial reluctance to put it here.
i should explain why my first impulse did not accept this song with open arms. it has to do with overexposure, both self-inflicted and on a more global scale. i felt that it was too cliche for someone who had grown up in the shadow of 1991/generation x to include this song in a list of songs that had changed their life. so much has been said and written about this song, even sixteen years after its first appearance, that i began to feel that it didnt have much of a legitimate place in my life. it felt like something outside of me. even now, on the rarer and rarer occasions that i put on 'nevermind,' i will skip over this song and listen to the rest of it.
but then i started thinking back. to that time in 3rd grade when one of my friends brought 'nevermind' on the bus when we were on a field trip, and not that i even remember the music, but i do remember how funny i thought it was that there was a naked baby on the cover. i remember watching mtv with my babysitter shortly after kurt cobain had died and being really fascinated and puzzled by it all. i remember how it was still cool in 5th grade to sing songs off 'nevermind' while we rode bikes around the neighborhood. i remember how i would borrow this cd from a friend while on church retreats (and feel like a hardened rebel even though i was still afraid of buying the album myself because my parents might see the cover). and the list goes on. and i could not think of many periods in my life where this band and this song had not had an impact on me. i cannot even remember the exact moment i heard this song first, but it seems like it has always been there.
this song grew to represent a very complex set of things to me. it was rebellion, coolness, mystery. it became a representation of purity, youth, bygone days. it seemed like possibility, the apex of generational spirit, art. it stretched out to death, anger, rage. it became a monumental monster in my mind. as i aged, i kept longing for another song to come along and do what i believed (and had heard) this song did: break down walls, disrupt the status quo, win one for the good guys. i shudder to think of myself (and the world) without this song. while such sentiments feel dated to me now, i still can appreciate what this song actually was: a sharp, heavy mix of pop and hard rock that has the ability to make hearts run aflutter. and i do believe this song, this band, this album belong in a different category all together. in a glass case somewhere. and even when this song doesn't boom from my stereo speakers for months and months, i will still know what it did for me and for millions of others. and i guess that's pretty cool.
i should explain why my first impulse did not accept this song with open arms. it has to do with overexposure, both self-inflicted and on a more global scale. i felt that it was too cliche for someone who had grown up in the shadow of 1991/generation x to include this song in a list of songs that had changed their life. so much has been said and written about this song, even sixteen years after its first appearance, that i began to feel that it didnt have much of a legitimate place in my life. it felt like something outside of me. even now, on the rarer and rarer occasions that i put on 'nevermind,' i will skip over this song and listen to the rest of it.
but then i started thinking back. to that time in 3rd grade when one of my friends brought 'nevermind' on the bus when we were on a field trip, and not that i even remember the music, but i do remember how funny i thought it was that there was a naked baby on the cover. i remember watching mtv with my babysitter shortly after kurt cobain had died and being really fascinated and puzzled by it all. i remember how it was still cool in 5th grade to sing songs off 'nevermind' while we rode bikes around the neighborhood. i remember how i would borrow this cd from a friend while on church retreats (and feel like a hardened rebel even though i was still afraid of buying the album myself because my parents might see the cover). and the list goes on. and i could not think of many periods in my life where this band and this song had not had an impact on me. i cannot even remember the exact moment i heard this song first, but it seems like it has always been there.
this song grew to represent a very complex set of things to me. it was rebellion, coolness, mystery. it became a representation of purity, youth, bygone days. it seemed like possibility, the apex of generational spirit, art. it stretched out to death, anger, rage. it became a monumental monster in my mind. as i aged, i kept longing for another song to come along and do what i believed (and had heard) this song did: break down walls, disrupt the status quo, win one for the good guys. i shudder to think of myself (and the world) without this song. while such sentiments feel dated to me now, i still can appreciate what this song actually was: a sharp, heavy mix of pop and hard rock that has the ability to make hearts run aflutter. and i do believe this song, this band, this album belong in a different category all together. in a glass case somewhere. and even when this song doesn't boom from my stereo speakers for months and months, i will still know what it did for me and for millions of others. and i guess that's pretty cool.
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