Thursday, August 14, 2008

Name Your Top 5 Music Inspirations

Here's Your Chance Readers!
Name your top 5 music artists that inspired you. Music that made you turn the corner on your life journey. Music that set you in motion.
Share with us why you choose said artists.
Don't you just love LISTS!

Angie's List
1. The Beatles
(Without the Beatles, I would have been listening to Cher over and over.)
2. Fleetwood Mac
(Spending hours and hours listening to their music, playing their music on the piano, and NOW learning the music while strumming the guitar, it is ageless to me and still awesome. Plus, Lindsey Buckingham is one of the greatest guitarist I have ever seen both in person and heard on a record!)
3. Metallica
(These guys brought the big hair of the 80's and early 90's back to the reality of what it is, metal. Head banging and heart pounding, ravaging metal. )
4. Queen
(Long time my favorite band, as a teenager and as an adult. Yes, I did take some Queen time off when I thought they went too POP. However, before Freddie died, got back into them with Innuendo and was back in. That was what 17 years ago? Now, Queen is often played every Friday night as part of Loon and my Friday Night Music Night play list. As a guitar player,now I am listening closely to the guitar parts and I am totally amazed by Brian May. Love him. He also is one of the greatest guitar players ever.)
5. The Replacements
This band was one of my FAV band's during college, early professional career. They never sold out, just dropped out. And now, I am finding out that some of my favorite music today (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Wilco, The 100s) may have been influenced either directly or indirectly because of this Minneapolis based band. How cool is that? Totally:)
And the final band....(Yeah, I can count but it is my BLOG and I can do whatever the hell I want......plus I live with this man and you guys don't so you know what you can do if you don't agree with me.....F**k off! :)
6. The 100s
(Without these guys, I may not be sitting here in the living room writing this review. And I certainly wouldn't be a guitar player. They have totally inspired me in all aspects of my life. That drummer is so CUTE.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're killing me with this '5' business!

Beatles, Beach Boys for overall rock genius.
Karen Carpenter, Anne Murray, Roberta Flack, Bonnie Raitt, Queen Latifah because I love good voices.
Blood Sweat & Tears/David Clayton Thomas and The Guess Who/Burton Cummings for great male vocalists backed up by a great 'boy band'.

But for true 'inspiration', when I was about 8yo, our parents started subscribing to a monthly classical record (LP -- I'm old) deal from Reader's Digest, and the music that sank into my heart and made me love classical music forevah was Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'.

Angie Looney said...

1 is the loneliest number that you'll ever know.
2. tea for two and two for tea.
3. knock 3 times on the ceiling if you want me.
4. uno, dos, tres, cuatro....
5. You see why 5 works?

Anonymous said...

I do love lists! But these short ones are hard. Okay...

5. Tom Waits. I want his music playing when I die.
4. Townes van Zandt. If you haven't heard him do his own songs, you haven't heard them right. Poncho and Lefty. for instance.
3. Al Stewart. He is just incredible. The Year of The Cat, and particularly his Past, Present, and Future album. Great music, great concepts.
2. Dylan. He changed my life. No exaggeration.
1. Leonard Cohen. Probably my all-time favorite singer/songwriter, from his very first album to his most recent stuff. He is a genius.

From that same classical series that Susan mentioned, I fell in love with Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 in D Minor and I still play it about once a month. An emotional powerhouse. He's the audio equivalent of Vincent Van Gogh, my favorite artist.

Loon said...

1. Chicago - when I first began to understand music, I was playing trombone and my friend, Ray, and I were into the bands with horns: Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chase, Ides of March. I realized that you could have great writing and musicianship in a rock band.

2. Alice Cooper - thanks to having a great older brother, I was exposed to a true "hard rock" pioneer. Campy, glam, showy and rocking, I loved the crunching guitars and pounding beat.

3. Ted Nugent - I was blown away by his sound and his guitar playing. The ultimate hard rock sound, and a crazy man to boot!

4. Rush - when I met my friend Steve, he turned me on to Rush. I came to understand that you could write intricate, challenging, deep songs, that still had screaming guitars and amazing drums. With the greatest drummer and bass player, and an outstanding guitarist, Rush was the ultimate rock band. No one has matched them in style or intensity since.

5. Uncle Tupelo - I got back into performing music after 20 years of retirement. I had discovered "alt-country" and was busy familiarizing myself with the genre. My friends (and band-mates) Dave and Jeff turned me on to the Anodyne album. I call it "life-changing" and recommend it to anyone who is interested. Creative and talented, they were the standard-bearer of the genre. The thing I like about it, is many styles are welcomed: rock, folk, bluegrass, punk, two-step, traditional country and waltzes - it is fun and challenging to play!

Oh, I too remember those classical albums and do appreciate them. I also consider my love of musicals to come from our home, and will never forget our family singing, "He's hardly ever sick at sea..."

Anonymous said...

But I believe you have tried to forget two of your sisters singing He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother to you on your birthday year after year. All the way through. Loudly. With feeling.

Loon said...
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