Saturday, February 25, 2006

Found My Spots

Every one was Oregon, Wisconsin or the Northeast. Guess I was resolute on those weather questions. And that I should circumvent the whole thing and move back to Europe.

I think more in albums than songs, but I'll attempt a list. This'll be...top 5 songs at this particular moment.

1. Bob Dylan - Chimes of Freedom. I've noted before my general indifference to lyrics, but listen to this one time and you'll understand why the folk hippies were so mad that Bobby stopped writing songs like this. It's stirring, to say the least.

Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

2. Billy Bragg & Wilco - The Unwelcome Guest. Like "Chimes of Freedom," it's everything journalism or liberalism ought to be, but isn't.

3. The Beatles - Across the Universe. I listened to every Beatles album that my roommate and I have, which is most of them, and this stuck out among all the material. And interesting dichotomy with "Let it Be" to end the album -- both sweeping songs yearning for a better human existence. But Paul could have never written "Across the Universe," probably why he took to stagnation and John wrote "How do you sleep?".

4. Beethoven - 9th Symphony, First Movement. The Fourth Movement has the goosebump-raising choral bombast of "Ode to Joy," but the First is simply relentless.

5. Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd - Desafinado. It's hot.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So are you coming, or what? =) You're welcome any time, but be warned: I have plans on the 5th and the 18th. That's really it until the 24th. Sad...