Music That Blew Me Away

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Flash Company
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 09:49 AM

Seems like only yesterday I was second posting on this thread, hell, it was only yesterday! This one surely started something.
Thinking on it, I suppose if I go back to schooldays, I had a music teacher who did a lot to open my ears. On our Founders Day at the service at our local church he played something on the organ which I had never heard before, but which haunted me for weeks. I still didn't know what it was so it was referred to as 'Andy's tune'.
Later I heard Pete Seeger play it on the banjo-- Jesu, Joy of man's desiring.

FC

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Dreaded Thumbpick
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 09:14 AM

At various stages of my life, different things blew me away.

Early memories of songs that I couldn't get enough of are Vaugn Monroe's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Cool Water" by The Sons of the Pioneers. It was impossible to hear these songs too often on the radio.

"Skokiann" came a little later. It had a rhythm that I was totally unfamiliar with and that I couldn't get out of my head.

"Unsquare Dance" by the Dave Brubeck Quintet -- 7/4 time was and is still amazing to me.

I met Bob Coltman in the early 70's and found him to be one of the most electrifying singers and musicians I've ever met. Plus a sweetheart of a human being. Many of his songs have had an effect on me that has stayed with me for over 30 years. The first one was "Cool Drink of Water Blues". I later heard Tommy Johnson's version, but Coltman's voice is the one that stays in my head.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:55 AM

In the 80's, I was recently divorced and raising two sons on my own. The soundtrack for our lives back then was varied. Folk music (which my sons liked o.k. and heard a ton of because I was running a concert series and there was a steady flow of musicians through the house; rock, jazz, gospel, blues, reggae,country and classical. There were certain recordings that defined those years for us, and yesterday I did volume one of that "soundtrack." Reading all the postings in this thread, which I am thoroughly enjoying, I realize that our soundtracks vary, not just because of personal taste, but the country we live in. There's a definite split in this thread, with some music spanning all countries, and some being completely unfamiliar to everyone but the people who live in the country where it was popular.
My Volume One Soundtrack includes people like Dire Straits, The Police, R.E.M. and Tom Petty, who most people have probably heard, if they listen to rock at all. Others like Robyn Hitchcock, Bob Mould, and Timbuk3 are more obscure, even in this country. My oldest son was more into heavy metal, which I never could get serious about, and my younger son was more into alternative rock like R.E.M., and groups like Crowded House, INXS. Like me, he also loved rhythm and blues and soul. That'll probably end up on volume Three.

I've offered to send a copy of volume One to a couple of my friends in Canada (no, there aren't any tracks by Celine Dion on there...) I'll be interested in seeing if they can enjoy the music. Of course, if you don't like rock and pop music, it doesn't make much different whether you've heard individual tracks or not.

Maybe at some point, I'll start a thread to see which musicians have made it overseas (or up to Canada.)

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: KT
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:46 AM

I was watching a PBS special the other night, featuring Peter, Paul and Mary. I was fine 'til they sang "We Shall Overcome," followed by Mary singing "For Baby, For Bobby" as she held her granddaughter in her lap, each looking adoringly at the other. The frosting on the cookies was when Ritchie Havens joined Peter Yarrow on "The Great Mandala." I was reduced to a puddle. Blubbering, that is.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: KT
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:45 AM

Ah, Pete, my heart goes out to you.

KT

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Mooh
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:31 AM

The earliest I remember are the choral records made to accompany the Cambridge Hymnal. I was very young, and church music was the only serious music I knew, but this stuff was and still is a major love.

In no particular order: Roy Buchanan, Simon Mayor, Tony Mcmanus, Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli, Dire Straits, Led Zeppelin, J.S. Bach, Leo Kottke.

If I listened to it then and listen to it now, it's good, especially if I've seen them live.

I might as well add J.P. Cormier, I'm listening to him now, and he scares the shit out of me.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:08 AM

KT mentioned Fields of Gold. Always a spine-tingler. Me and my wife spent a fortnight on holiday in the Med many years ago and the crooner in the local bar sang it every night. He sang it really well.

Back in September this year, they played it at her funeral. Blown away? More like disintegrated.

Pete

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Grab
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:04 AM

Formative tracks:-

- The whole of Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son" album (definitely one of the greatest rock/metal albums ever)
- Live version of "Sultans of Swing" off Dire Straits' "Alchemy"
- "Galway Farmer" by Show of Hands

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 07:02 AM

J.S. Bach. especally the concertos,
Various Leonard Cohen songs,
Brahms, A German Requiem,
Pete mortons "Another train"

It's good to see what really touches people, though.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,Bernie
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 04:50 AM

The first time I saw Donovan singing Catch the Wind on Ready Steady Go!. Liege and Leaf from Fairport, Summer Solstice from Tim Hart and Maddy Prior and hearing Richard Thompson live for the first time.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Hovering Bob
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 04:36 AM

The first time I heard "The Vampire" By Kipling/Marsden was a party where a Cockesdale album was playing in the background so that I could only hear Marsden's tune. I was so taken by it I immediately asked the hostess if I could borrow the record.
I took it home and played it just to hear that track and then Kiplings words hit home. It was at a time in my life, my first marriage had just broken up, when the words expressed exactly what I was feeling.
It instantly became a favourite and it still is, I sing it as often as I think folk club audiences can bare. I treasure the memory of hearing Keith sing it at Wherwell folk club for me.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Rain Dog
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 03:39 AM

Back in the late 70s on the BBC TV program 'Old Grey Whistle Test' I saw Tom Waits perform Tom Trauberts Blues and Small Change. It was one of those 'what is this ?' moments. I was not listening to music so much in those years but as time went on I started listening to more Waits ( amongst other things ) and continued to find him interesting, exciting, moving etc
Move forward now to 2004. Me much older and more cynical. Turning into one of the proverbial grumpy old men. Berlin 15th November, sitting in the packed Theater des Westens, along with 1200 or so other people waiting for him to appear on stage.
Yes I know he is a 'performer' of songs, he works at his craft as he sees it, his stage act. Yes, I had read enough about him over the years to know what I was going to see and hear ( though I was wondering how he would cope with performing the new material live ). The bass player , the guitarist and the drummer take their places and begin to play the intro, the crowd already start to get excited and begin to cheer and clap and whoop. And then striding quickly from the back of the stage comes Waits, black shabby suit, hunched over , grabs the mike stand, waits for the noise to quieten down, says a quick 'good evening' and goes straight into Make It Rain.
Wonderful, exciting, powerful stuff, a force of nature standing on a small stage, magical. If any of your own favourite singers / musicians do the same for you, then you know what I mean. He just exceeded my expectations. The man still has it.

The magic of song.
The magic of performance.

Made me feel less cynical for a while at least

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 03:29 AM

My first exposure to Django Reinhardt in my early teens started a life-long love. Louis Armstrong's introduction to West End Blues stunned me the first time I heard it and still never ceases to amaze me. And Joe Pass' version of Night And Day, the only time I've heard something on the radio one evening and gone out and bought it the next day.

Mick

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,Vic at work
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 03:25 AM

I find it interesting that almost everyone of the songs and artists mentioned above have also blown me away. Maybe the Jazz, blues, folk, classical (and in that order) route just has something special about it.
However if you want epiphony then it must be Joseph Taylor singing Brigg Fair, what he must have sounded like as a younger man I can't imagine. He should be in the collection of every 'folk' enthusiast in the world. (rant over)

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 02:29 AM

Earlier this afternoon The Villan mentioned Bobby Darin, truly an underappreciated Great One. I had the opportunity to see the new biographical file "Beyond the Sea" last night, which brought back memories of this really hot singer.

The movie is pretty good, and Kevin Spacey's performance is *really* good. But I digress, I want to discuss Darin, not the movie.

How terrific a singer do you have to be to redo a LOUIS "SATCHMO" ARMSTRONG hit ("Mack the Knife") and make it into your own signature number! What incredible balls, AND talent!

At the very time that Bobby Darin was having his greatest success, moving "up" from American Bandstand to the big time nightclub circuit, I was more than ever turned off by mainstream American adult commercial music, because I was in the first flush of infatuation/discovery of unpolished traditional blues and folk music. Bobby Darin seemed to represent all that I liked *least* in popular music, and I decided not to like him, tried not to like him, but (of course) couldn't help but enjoy is renditions of, well, just about everything he tried.

Well, I still probably prefer Tim Hardin's rendition of his own "Carpenter" to Darin's, and always have, but Bobby's is not bad at all, and *all* his songs were terrific: "Splish Splash" (which he wrote on the spot in the recording studio) -- nothing serious, but good enough to be an unknown's breakout hit; "Dream Lover," the quintessential romantic doo-wop cha-cha-cha; the aforementioned "Mack the Knife," which managed to duplicate most of the power and soulfulness of Louis' definitive reading while lending the purer, sweeter tone of a great singing voice; the defining composition of his late hippie period, "Abraham, Martin and John," inexplicably omitted from the new movie in favor of two renditions of "Simple Song of Freedom" -- the guy was too much.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,Trix
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 01:07 AM

Cancel Today by Ezio from the Black boots on Latin feet album.
That wonderful feeling of being so in love and lust that you just want to stay in bed all day.
The only thing that has spoilt this song for me is Tony Blair choosing it on Desert Island Discs.I can never forgive him,I tried not to like the song but I can't help its great.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Peace
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 01:03 AM

"Twenty Years Ago" by Kenny Rogers. I cannot listen to it without crying.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 01:02 AM

As a child I attended a concert by Richard Dyer-Bennett that was the one where I learned how powerful live music is over recorded music. He sounds so good on his albums, but he was marvelous live. But the performance that I heard a few years ago that was so memorable and I'd love to find a copy of it was I think at one of the Kennedy Center Honor's concerts, and it was when Bill Clinton was in office and in the audience. Leontyne Price sang one of Clinton's favorite songs, "Amazing Grace," and I just stood transfixed, crying and with shivers running up and down my spine while she sang. And I remember the camera passing over the Clintons, with tears running down his face. Simply unforgettable.

SRS

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Metchosin
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 12:41 AM

An acapella unmiked solo performance of She's Like a Swallow in St John the Divine. The voice so beautiful, clear and powerful that as one line was still echoing in the stone ceiling arches, the next held it aloft, until the whole inside of the cathedral was a cascade of sound.

Another, an old tape recording of some old down and out fellow on the streets of London, singing Jesus' Love Never Failed Me Yet, over and over.

And a third, again acapella, of John Gothard singing You'll Not Get Me Down Underground in your Mine, many years ago.

I believe what struck me each time, to the fibre of my being, was the absolute lack of artiface. It was plain song and it was naked.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jimmy Twitcher
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 12:22 AM

Another one that really gets me is "My Favorite Spring," by Tom Paxton. Being a father, that song makes me sob every time I hear it. I'd like to learn it and sing it myself, but I don't think I could get through it without breaking up.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: number 6
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 12:04 AM

As mentioned before in a previous thread, hearing Bert Jansch's Angie when I was 15.

A few years later Jack Bruce's album 'Songs for a Tailor' became a memorable collection of tunes that have always endeared me, especially Rope Ladder.

One current musician I must mention that has caught my ear is Gillian Welch.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:27 PM

Was listening to Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. this evening, and it still brings tears to my eyes. Michael Stipes conveyed so much emotion with his voice, and it brings to mind all the people I see who are hurting, and the repeated line "hold on" really grabs me.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: KT
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:03 PM

Eva Cassidy's rendition of "Fields of Gold" blew me away the first time I heard it, and still moves me deeply. Especially the line, " I swear, in the days still left, we will walk in fields of gold." That line speaks to me of relationship, and the uncertainty of the the amount of time we have left with one another.

Another is one I've heard sung at this time of year - "Of the Father's Love Begotten." I don't know quite how to articulate why it stirs me so, but it has something to do with the ancient words, and the age old message, with a very simple piano accompaniment...... In the deep dark days of winter....

Good thread, Jerry.

KT

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 08:44 PM

I was only about 12 years old when I played an arrangement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony on the piano. The soaring second theme of the second movement brought tears to my eyes.

Then as a teenager I was introduced to Beethoven's 6th Symphony. My music teacher described how her sister sang the last theme in that one at the top of her lungs in the hospital when she was coming out of a coma. It's still one of my favorites.

...and today is Beethoven's birthday!

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,Nancy King at work
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 08:33 PM

PoppaGator, love your Sam Cooke story. He's always been one of my favorites.

One that blew me away is "Walk Right In," by the Rooftop Singers. What a sound!

Nancy

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jimmy Twitcher
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 08:29 PM

"Cruel Sister" by Old Blind Dogs. I'd heard the song many times before, but OBD's version (based on the old Pentangle arrangement) really pops out. Gave me shivers down my spine the first time I heard it.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 08:12 PM

Add Rock Island Line by Lonnie Donegan. There are probably a half a dozen songs in my life that have been turning points in my musical life. Those were records that suddenly opened a door I didn't even realize existed. Rock Island Line was one of them. At that point, my exposure to folk music was mostly the white bucks and matching striped shirts variety, with the exception of Burl Ives and Harry Belefonte. Not quite roots music, although I appreciate the desire they created in my heart to hear more.

Lonnie sounded like he must have stepped out of the recording studio directly into a strait jacket. Talk about taking no musical prisoners! Lonnie brought rock and roll intensity to folk music, which may be offensive to some of the traddies in here, but I loved his "What the Hell!!" intensity. I never cease to marvel at that recording, even after all these years.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:42 PM

The record that stopped me being a 'Purist' Trad jazz man was a reissue of the King Oliver Band with Louis Armstrong fresh up from New Orleans in 1923 ! First introduction to REAL Jazz !!! Johnny Dodds was MY Clarinet hero !!!

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: JennieG
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:23 PM

The first time I heard early music played by David Munro and the Early Music Consort. I knew some classical music and liked most of it, but this was so amazing. It started off a musical journey that is still going on. Then when I heard Hildegard von Bingen I thought I had died and woken up in heaven with the angels singing in the background.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Lizzie in SASSY SIDMOUTH!
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 06:09 PM

'Cousin Jack' by Show of Hands....and now a few years later, again by SoH 'Crooked Man' and 'Country Life'!

'Street of Dreams' by The Oysterband....I see fireworks when 'that bit in the middle' comes on!! Also by The Oysterband, 'On the Edge' and 'John Barleycorn' from The Big Session CD with Show of Hands, The Oysterband, Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray, June Tabor and The Handsome Family!


Good to be Alive Music!

Lizzie :00

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 05:57 PM

About that little essay on Sam Cook[e]'s "Hem of His Garment" -- I took my time writing that, over the course of *two* PMs sent more than a year ago. When I saw this thread, I felt compelled to to dig it out of my PM archives and copy-and-paste it here.

Helluva story, huh? I know I couldn't have written it on-the-spot today (at work, yet).

Sam's last name, incidentally, was originally "Cook," and he was "Sam Cook" for his entire tenure with the Soul Stirrers. He added the "E" when he "crossed over" to secular/pop.

I'm not sure, but I think "Hem" was one of Sam's last efforts before leaving the Soul Stirrers and the Gospel world. I'm almost certain the song is his composition.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Chris Green
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 05:48 PM

I agree. But for me "Kind Of Blue" is the better record. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking "how can you make something so complex out of something so simple?"

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 05:29 PM

Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain", still my favorite jazz LP.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Chris Green
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 05:19 PM

Canadee-io - Nic Jones. It completely revolutionised my approach to the guitar and still is one of those songs that I can't listen to without going all gooey.

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd. It STILL sounds fresh and it's over thirty years old!

Anything played by Vin Garbutt on his whistle. He makes that instrument sing!

More will doubtless occur to me! I agree wholeheartly with Carol about Bach - without a shadow of a doubt the greatest musician who ever drew breath.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 05:19 PM

Wow... PoppaG... Yes, that is my favorite Soul Stirrers song. We're going to try it with the Messengers, with our tenor Derrick singing Sam Cooke's lead. He's one of the very few singers I've ever heard who I think can take the song on and do it justice. Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver do a bluegrass a capella version of it that is almost a note for note copy of the Soul Stirrers arrangement, and it works beautifully..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: beetle cat
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 05:08 PM

..you win.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 04:59 PM

From ages 4-10 I lived next door to a "colored" church (Christian Methodist Episcopal, or CME) and thus spent several formative years listening close-up to some of the world's most incredible vocal music. This was in a working-class neighborhood in Plainfield, New Jersey, where most of the other white immigrant families (Irish, Italian and Polish) were leaving and black folks from the south were moving in. The neighboring congregation, as I understand it, was mostly from rural south Alabama, and the sound they produced was unlike anytrhing I've heard before or since.

You could easily pick out the voices of some of the older folks chiming in, demonstrating a very free, very "primitive" or tribal and kinda dissonant approach. The only music I've ever heard that is at all similar is the Georgia Sea Island Singers. An important difference: my neighbors included plenty of younger and more citified members, so the overall effect was a mixture of styles whereas in the field recordings from the Georgia islands, everyone in the ensemble employed the same ancient style.

Also, the pastor booked plenty of the top touring Gospel acts of the day, generally on weeknights, probably in-between gigs in New York and Philly. I remember the huge tour busses parked right outside my 2d-floor bedroom window, while I lay in bed pretending to sleep while listening to the church members singing along with professional artists, quartets, etc. Wow!

One late weekday evening, probably within the last year or two that we lived next to that church (making me about 9-10 years old, in '56 or '57), I lay in my top bunk listening to the most electrifying, most ecstatic, most totally abandoned music I had ever experienced. There was a big old tour bus parked in the reverend's driveway; one of the many great professional gospel acts was up in front of the crowd singing their hearts out, and the crowd's participation was as awesome and goosebump-inducing as anything that was coming out of the altar/stage area, as they sang along, in multi-part harmony and polyrhythm, with the wordless chorus ("wo-o-o wo/wo wo wo . . .).

This time, I *could* understand all the words of the verses being delivered by the lead singer, and the next day I was paging through the Bible trying to find the story of a woman who chased after Jesus, wanting only to touch the hem of his garment. I didn't find much -- I think it's just a few lines in just one of the Gospels. The song had really provided much more of a story, and certainly much more impact, that the brief little passage of Scripture.

Flash forward another year or so. A new popular (i.e., secular) tune is coming out over the radio, sung by a very familar voice, a favorite of mine. Then the announcer comes on and tells us that we've just heard a brand new artist with his very first record. I'm thinking, no way, I'd know that voice anywhere, he's been one of my favorite singers for . . . well, I don't know since when, or just exactly who he was or where I heard him, but he's sure not brand-new to me!

The record was, if you haven't guessed, "You Send Me," by Sam Cooke.

Another 30 years or so went by before I got a "Best of Sam Cooke" cassette that included two of his old recordings with the Soul Stirrers, dating back from before he quit the gospel world to go "pop" (commercial). Cut #2 was something already long-familiar; I'd heard it from Aaron Neville and probably several others as well, "[My Lord Is] Wonderful," which Sam had later recorded with secularized lyrics ("My Love is Wonderful, Wonderful," etc.) to the exact same tune.

But it was Cut #1 that really blew me away. For the first time since my childhood, I got to hear "The Hem of His Garment." Tears came to my eyes, every hair on my body stood straight up. It's a good recording of a great composition, with one of the all-time best harmony-singing groups backing up their talented young lead singer, but in *my* ears, I also heard the elusive memory of a whole churchful of additional voices joining in, adding so much emotion and spirit:

There was a woman, back in the Bible days,
She had been sick for so, so very long.
Then she heard my Jesus was passing though
So she joi-oined
the gathering throng.
And as she was pushing her way through
The people asked her, "What are you trying to do?"
She said if I
could but touch the hem of his garment
I know I...... would be made whole.

And she cried, Whoa-oh [etc. There's no point in trying to transcribe a whole 16 bars of scat. If you know Sam Cooke, you have some idea of the approach and the sound. I can tell you that the membership of the First Christian Methodist Episcopal Church had NO trouble immediately learning how to sing along with *this* part!]

She spent her money / here and there
Until she had / no more to spare
And the doctors / they did what they could
But their medicines / could do no-o good.
And when she touched Him, the Savior didn't see
So he turned around and cried, "Somebody touched me."
She said it is was I who wanted to touch the hem of Your garment
So I / could be made whole / right now.

And she cried ... (you'll have to imagine the rest.........)

That's the music that blew me away, once and for all, and I ain't been the same since.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 04:45 PM

That's about the truth Jerry.   I have Take 5 on CD and now that I get to thinking about it, I may try to round up a few of the others this coming year. Did you have the Getz/Mulligan collaboration where they swapped horns on some cuts? Loved that one....Gave me a lot better perspective on Getz.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 04:09 PM

I have that Two Of A Mind album, Spaw, and it is great... Take Five was another mind blower when I first heard it... and it hit the top 40.. never hear it on top 40 again unless it's sampled as the background for a song about gang rape.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 03:56 PM

About 1963 or so.......I picked up an album called "Blues in Time".....a re-issue of an earlier album cut 6 or 7 years before. Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan together and using Mulligan's piano-less quartet platform.........alto, bari, bass player and drummer. The cut "Wintersong" (along with the rest of the album) was so......so something! It really did blow me away! Just fuckin' unbelievable...........Mulligan and Desmond also had an album called "Two of a Mind" and they were. "Wintersong" remains to this day one of the most unbelievable pieces of work I have ever heard

Spaw

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: CarolC
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 03:50 PM

...also Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 03:27 PM

Man, what a lot of great stuff!

Little Robyn: that sounds like the first time I heard Skokiann by the Bullawayo Sweet Rhythm Band... another African band. It took me close to twenty years to find a re-issue of that recording, and my 45 rpm on London is pretty scratchy after a million plays. But, I found a two CD set of African jazz, and it's on there. It still gets me excited!

And Barbara: I was a big Herbie Mann fan. I very briefly took flute lessons when I was about 8 or 9 but my already shakey macho image was rapidly being destroyed, so I stopped the lessons. I always liked the flute in jazz. whther it's Bud Shank or Herbie Mann or a small handful of other musicians.

I'll add one:

Dark Was The Night - Cold Was The Ground by Blind Willie Johnson. Back in the early 60's when I was taking lessons from Dave Van Ronk, after he'd run through the lesson (which took about ten minutes) he'd play records for me. That's where I first heard Blind Willie. When he played that recording I was chilled to the bone. There are no words... just moaning to his slide guitar. No words could have conveyed the cold, dark desolation of that moan. It still gives me the shivers thinking about it. Many years later, when I was watching a foreign film, The Gospel According To Matthew, there is a scene where a leper comes up to Jesus, all crippled and barely able to walk.
Dark Was The Night- Cold Was The Ground was the only sound, and my heart just about stopped. Such power!

Keep 'em coming..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 03:17 PM

Back in the '60s, the 1960s not the 1860s, I'm not that old, I was in the Folk Ghetto coffeehouse in Norfolk, Virginia. One of the singers, one I have never seen before or since, sang "Suzanne". I don't think he ever changed chords. I was entranced. I finally found out Judy Collins had recorded it. I bought the record and played that one song over and over. I finally listened to the whole record. That turned me on to Judy Collins.   Then I found out that it was written and recorded by Leonard Cohen. So I bought that record and played the song over and over. Then I listened to the rest of the record and was turned on to Leonard Cohen.   Then I found out that Jennifer Warnes had recorded songs by Leonard Cohen and there was another amazing discovery.   "Suzanne" took my hand and led me to some wonderful places I often visit and always with pleasure.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 03:12 PM

Before I was even a teenager, I heard Elvis Presley on the radio singing "Too Much." I was completely mesmerized. My parents finally bought me the 45 (worrying about the bad influence). I got it home and literally played it for hours, over and over and over, dancing alone in my bedroom to the song. Something about it grabbed my adolescent pulse.

Several years later, I had the same visceral reaction to Herbie Mann on an album recording of "All of Me." In fact, for that one, I choreographed a dance at a school variety show. The little old ladies in my small town audience were probably shocked.

And then there was the Bach Bourree that made something click into place in my head as all the turns and landings and leaps and flourishes hit every corner of my musical consciousness. I've tried playing this piece on the violin (renaming my fiddle for the occasion) and catch some of the spirit, in my imagination anyway.

But the one that really blew me away was Beethoven's "Adieu to the Piano" which I found while skimming through one of my old piano books and trying out new pieces with my halting sight-reading. I literally started weeping all over the keys as I listened to this beautiful piece unfold note by note. Knowing that he had probably composed it while deaf made it even more precious.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,chinmusic
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:59 PM

I'll give you three of examples. I recall hearing Eva Cassidy singing 'Over The Rainbow', and I was stunned by the power and beauty of her extraordinary voice. She was singing 'Over The Rainbow, and she put me over the moon. I went straight out and bought her cd.

My second example goes back to the 50s, and it's the first time I heard the original lead singer of the Platters singing, 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes'. I don't know this gentleman's name, but his amazing vocals blew me away.

Finally, back in the 60s, I heard John Fogerty sing 'Heard It Through The Grapevine'. When I think of great rock 'n roll voices, I think of Mr. Fogerty.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:58 PM

They've all been said already...Tom waits' Innocent when you dream, Jimi Hendrix (anything by Jimi Hendrix)

Hurricane by Bob Dylan, too...although i was blown away by the whole album. Sends shivers up my spine...

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:58 PM

"Music" by John Miles

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: beetle cat
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:51 PM

ooof i just thought of another.
Bob Conroy's Erin's Green Shore on Irish Folk Songs From Old New England.

What a performance!
the rest of the cd is almost as amazing, but there is just something about that song. The first time I played that cd, I must have repeated that track about 20 times, and I still do, every time I listen to the CD. The way it opens with the banjo.. like magic.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Rasener
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:48 PM

If I were a carpenter - Bobby Darin

This has remained one of my firm favourites all through my life. The way he treated the number had such feel. This man was a master and I personally think very underated in certain ways.
His versatilty is just amazing.

I recently played a CD of Bobby Darin to my wife and children who hadn't heard of him, and to my utter amazement they all said they really liked him. I don't normally play my real oldie favourites to my family because I don't want to bore them.

Another was Gaye by Clifford T Ward. I can't explain why I like CTW. Just a very good songwriter who suffered ill health.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: dwditty
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:34 PM

Oh, and John Fahey's original release of Requiem for John Hurt.

dw