For a long time now I’ve been in a music appreciation dry spell. Before moving to this city, I downsized my life big time. I sold all my CDs in my garage sale after burning them to my hard drive. I bought an MP3 player but never got into using it. Occasionally I switch the radio in the car from NPR to a music station, but something strange happens. I can no longer listen to music from earlier years. I have only a vague idea why this is so. It feels sort of like the old music is trying to keep me nailed to the past. I can only listen to a few lines before I impatiently switch back to world news or Car Talk.
At the same time, I haven’t discovered any new artists that I like. Not in a long time. Nor new songs by familiar artists.
Sylvain texted me the other day to say that Neil Young is coming to the Fox Theatre in Detroit and should he get tickets. I didn’t think about it for more than 30 seconds. ”Yes,” I keyed before realizing what I was saying.
I haven’t wanted to go to a concert in, well, since Leonard Cohen came to the Fox (we had to miss it when Sylvain went into the hospital).
After saying yes I read that the concert would include a lot of new material from his latest CD Le Noise, which I’d never listened to. I wasn’t that crazy about the last of his CDs that I owned, Greendale, except for one song, which I played over and over and over.
When I read the Rolling Stone review of the CD, I became intrigued. By the time I had watched a YouTube interview with Daniel Lanois about the album, I had calmed myself down and stopped second-guessing that lightning-fast YES to tickets.
Knowing you enjoy songs more when you’ve heard them at least a few times, I suggested we order the CD. The box from Amazon came today. I put the CD in my little purple retro-style player tonight.
Oh, yes. I do like it. I do.
To me it feels honest, intimate, raw, sweet, and in the same way that Dylan’s Time Out of Mind was–introspective. Forty-seven is not that old, but I find I can relate to artists when they start grappling with their mortality and aging.
The music is fresh and different enough that I’m not getting the “stuck in the past” feeling, yet it’s comforting to hear such a familiar old voice that I’ve loved through the years.
My darling knows how to surprise and delight me. I can’t wait to see the grand old Fox again.
Oh I love Neil Young too!
I know what you mean about the old songs. I went through a stage where that was all I listened to, yet now I am impatient with them and want something new. Enjoy the concert!
Patti, I thought it was just me. “Impatient” is a very good word to describe the feeling I get, as odd as that sounds. xo K
I don’t think I have ever owned any commercial CD’s. I have actually some vinyl laying around with Coltrane and Carole King on it, you know, but I rarely listen to it. I think, since my wife and daughters love musical theater so much and often have it playing at home or in the car I am perhaps getting my fill of recorded music (albeit not of my choosing) there. Not that I have anything against musicals – I enjoy them well enough. I think it’s just that, these days, I enjoy quiet more. Also I’ve always enjoyed playing music more than listening to it.
But live music is something else again. Watching and listening to an artist perform is a wonderfully full and satisfying sensory experience.
Have a wonderful time!
Live music is quite an experience, isn’t it? We used to attend the local folk music club nights / open mic nights. That was always neat. K
Wait, did you mean me, or Neil Young? :-)
I’m excited for you! Neil Young is IT for me. After hearing it once, I had some resistance to Le Noise — or rather disappointment because Lanois is another favourite of mine and I suppose I was expecting the stars to fall from the heavens when the two collaborated — but when I watched the movie on Youtube I was able to appreciate what the album is without my expectations. Funny, when you mentioned the one song from Greendale that you played repeatedly I knew it had to be Bandit… =)
Thank you! :) K PS: I know, eh? What is it about Bandit? So haunting!