While I was in the farmers store this morning, befuddled over emulsion paint, Neil Young came on over the tape thing they play...he was singing Harvest Moon which I hadn't heard in the longest time...it's a sweet gentle song about falling in love...no raucous noise or shouting. Just a man singing about his girl and the great Harvest Moon low down in the night sky.
I found it on YouTube when we came home and listened to it again...and remembered all the words. The video is dated of course...the men have long hair, thought to be shocking at the time by members of the establishment...and my Father, who regarded anyone who wore their hair in a style other than short back and sides to be quite beyond the pale. But he was part of the establishment himself I suppose.
Another song I love is' Boots of Spanish Leather' sung by Nanci Griffith...again it is a love song...a girl is asked what would she like her lover to bring back as a gift when he goes away travelling...no huge amplifiers... nothing in the way of special effects...no glittery lights or half naked young men. Just a woman with a distinctive voice accompanied by a handful of musicians.
But my favourite...the one I could listen to over and over again is the McGarrigle sisters and Emmy Lou Harris singing 'Harlan'...again they sing with a handful of musicians...
The music I like the best are those songs I can sing along with...however badly that may be...Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel...'Come up and see me, make me smile'...all high cheekbones and that slightly weird Black man, who my friend Shane always says un- nerves him totally.
And The Moody Blues...'Isn't Life Strange'...
When I was doing a course some years ago about music and mental health, one of the points put was that the reason people don't connect with The Beatles music is because the drummer...Ringo Starr...was always half a beat behind the guitar and the vocalists...that half beat was enough to destroy the vital connection which your brain receives on hearing certain music which recalls memories or makes you want to get up and dance.
That half beat doesn't appear to concern anyone in raptures over Lady Ga-Ga or her ilk...
I can't bear to hear people like Paul Potts described as an opera singer...he isn't. El Divo are simply handsome young men who can sing a bit...they are not opera singers. There is no depth of passion or longing in their voices...listen to Pavarotti singing anything...he is living the part he's playing...you can hear it in the inflections of his voice...even when he sings with popular stars...one of my favourites is of Pavarotti and Barry White...there are those who said he was prostituting himself by singing with 'pop' stars...I thought the more he did so, the better the chances people would become entranced by opera.