Saturday, March 22, 2014

People Are Strange - And So Is My Taste In Music

So I have not been doing this whole 30 songs for 30 years thing nearly often enough and this post is a bit of cheat. Well, not a bit of a cheat. A BIG FAT STINKIN’ CHEAT. Earlier I had taken a look at a song that reminded me of my mom. Well, I thought it was time to do a song that would remind of my dad. 

I have to say that I attribute a lot of my eclectic taste in music to my dad.

Growing up and going on a road trip with him was a musical experience because you were basically going to hear one or two CDs over and over and over again for the duration of the trip. My dad would take my brother and I on mountain biking and fishing trips. Those trips were long. It would take us anywhere between 75 minutes and three hours to get to the location. I can still remember the list of the CDs in his CD case holder.

  • The Best of Santana
  • Pink Floyd’s The Wall
  • Sade
  • The Counting Crows - Yesterday and Everything After
  • Bob Marley’s Greatest Hits
  • Coolio - Gangster’s Paradise
  • The Very Best of Chicago
  • TuPac - All Eyez On Me
  • Earth Wind and Fire’s Greatest Hits
  • Madonna - Something to Remember NOTE: He owned this CD because of just one song “This Used To Be My Playground”. He would literally pop in the CD, listen to the song four or five times and then replace the CD with something else. I honestly don't think I ever heard another track from that album. Also, who owned the CD was a major point of contention in my parent’s divorce. They never argued about custody of me and my brother (seriously) but this one damn album, with only one song that either of them liked, was grounds for professional mediation (alright - well, the isn't actually true). The point is, in my family there is nothing too petty to hold against somebody or argue over.




So instead of picking one song I am going to pick an album. It’s not an album I listed above, but it is the one album that most reminds me of car rides with my dad. In fact, only Pink Floyd’s The Wall even comes close.



The Very Best of The Doors.

Rather than go into a lengthy explanation of why I chose this double CD album I will highlight a few songs and what I remember about them. Please note that I first began to hear this album on a regular basis at the age of 9 (maybe 8).

Light My Fire -  the song reminds me of seeing The Doors movie at age 8. There are only two things I remember from the movie. I vaguely remember the singer/performance artist Nico being introduced to Jim Morisson. And of course I remember the scene were the band was told not to sing the lines “we couldn’t get much higher" before their Ed Sullivan performance and then did it anyway. This act led to  their life long ban from the show.

Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) - I remember (while still about 9 years old) riding a three wheeler with my brother while my dad was washing our Ford Areostar blaring this song. Whenever it would come on my brother and I would sing the lyrics. We would also hold Squeeze It bottles in our hand pretend to drive the our three wheelers drunk. I won’t say where we learned what drunk driving looks like - but suffice to say at the tender ages of 7 and 9 we knew what drunk driving looked like.


Riders on The Storm- I remember being 10 driving through a desert and realizing, “oh this is a song about a group of murders!”. Ah the innocence of youth.

People Are Strange - When I was in second grade we had a lip syncing contest. Everyone in my class was broken up into groups of four or five. I remember some of the songs other groups choose: 

Kriss Kross’ Jump Jump and MC Hammer’s Addam’s Grove

These songs made total sense. We were 8 years old and they were current hits heard all the time on the radio. Well, for some unknown reason my group let me choose our song. I chose People Are Strange. I wish I could remember the look on my teacher’s face (Mr. Berlin) when he asked me what song we were doing and that song came out of my mouth. We actually performed the song. Just acting weird throughout the performance.  


To get a full appreciation of why this was so fucked up feel free to listen to the song with the lyrics.


How Mr. Berlin didn’t call social services on my family is beyond me.


LA Woman - it’s a really good song (even though it’s over 7 minutes long). and the musical breakdown is pretty musch the go to musical accompaniment to any montage of southern California beaches.


Love Her Madly - a good song and it’s prominently featured in Forrest Gump when they flash to what Jenny is doing during New Year’s Eve 1972.

So there you have it. My dad and the Doors. Two reasons why i have such varied musical taste... and so many weird childhood memories.


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