Your favorite artists/bands...
And the songs and albums you actually know from them.
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Thank-you, Dave.
It recently occurred to me that most people will talk about liking the music from a certain band or artist, but only really knowing a few of their songs. Some might even say that they have been fans of a certain artist or band for a long time...but they really only have a couple of albums from those artists or bands. You don't have to know every song an artist does, to know that you like their music.
I will start off with one of my favorites: Aerosmith. One of the first vinyl record albums I ever owned was "Toys in the attic". I got this album as a 1975 Christmas gift from my older cousins. I know that album upside down and inside out. I also have "Rocks" and "Permanent vacation" in my collection. I know most of the songs on Rocks, but I only know the hits from Permanent Vacation. Even though I have the entire Aerosmith collection in .mp3 format on my phone and my computer, I really don't know all of the albums outside of the few I have in my vinyl and tape collection. All I know are the hits that made it to the radio. Am I still a "real" fan of Aerosmith? Absolutely!
What's really strange for me as a guitarist is the one artist who was my original reason for starting guitar lessons way back in 1976. Peter Frampton is a legend. He has recorded well over 20+ albums, I only really know two of them: "Frampton comes alive!" and "I'm in you". I don't know any of his other albums. Heart is one of my all time favorite rock bands. I own several of their vinyl albums, but I really only know "Dreamboat Annie" and "Little Queen". I know many of the other songs on the other albums, but I don't know the complete albums the same way I know their first two releases.
I could go on with many examples, but you see my point.
Music is the soundtrack to our lives. It starts early on in life. We can remember old, old songs because our parents used to play them on the radio all the time. Both of my parents were musicians, so music was a high priority in our house. The Beatles and Barry Manilow remind me of my Aunt Kathy. Those are two of her favorite artists. However, I only know maybe half of the Beatles library and only the hits from Manilow.
Most of the music we listened to in our youth, was when we were growing up with our friends. Most of the music I know very well comes from me being a musician, but a huge catalogue of music comes from the music I remember listening to with my friends when we were teenagers. It's that time frame in our youth when we are becoming young adults, and we are trying to find our place and our identity in the world. Music has a way of being those soundtracks to our memories.
Anytime I hear a Queen or Elton John song, I think of my buddy, Curt. He loved Queen's music. He and I also grew up listening to Styx. When Curt and I were in our early teens, he and I would crank the "Grand Illusion" album in his bedroom and pretend that we were in the band, He would play keyboards and I would play guitar. Every song on that album has a meaning to both of us. As much of a Styx fan, Queen fan and Elton John fan that he and I both are, neither one of us know the entire catalogues of songs from all of those artists.
So, what's the rest of my point?
I think that it is fair to say that we can be diehard fans of a band or an artist, love many of their songs and maybe even entire albums, but it is not a prerequisite to know every song an artist has recorded. Let's be honest, not everything a musician or artist ever plays or records is worthy of unconditional satisfaction from their fans. Heart put out an album in 1982 called "Private Audition". I don't know one song on that album. Why? Because there were no hits from that album. Nothing on that album made it to the proverbial airwaves. I think I listened to that entire vinyl album once, and never again. Does this change anything about my appreciation of Heart music? Absolutely not.
It is rare that an artist or band will have a flawless album followed up by an even better album or two. Van Halen did this many times over. "Van Halen I and II" are both spotless, fantastic albums. "Women and children first" was almost as good as the first two. "Fair warning" was almost as good as the first two albums. Then "Diver down" came out and it turned out to be a not-so-good album, even though many of the songs were really great. I think I read somewhere years ago that "Diver down" was Eddie's least favorite album because of the commercialization of the five cover songs on the album. He was quoted as saying, "I would rather bomb with my own music than be the world's biggest cover band."
With the seemingly endless changes in the history of Van Halen, it was clear that after David Lee Roth left the band in the mid 1980's, that Sammy Hagar would have some big shoes to fill. I like both Van Halens, but honestly, the early stuff was more the soundtrack to my early youth. The stuff Van Hagar did in the 1990's was a whole different can of worms. Most of it was pretty great. By the end of the 1990's, Van Halen ran out of momentum. Does any of that matter, really? Not to me, it doesn't. Van Halen's entire catalogue of songs is testament to just how amazing they were.
As a nearly 60-year-old man, I have very little interest in today's music. It's just not the music to my life's soundtrack. It belongs to kids much younger than me. Today's music just isn't as important to me the way it is for the youth of today. They get to have their own music. Ironically, many of those kids are now listening to music that was recorded 20, 30, 40, 50 years before they were even born. They know that it was much better music back then. I think it's great, if they get the same value from the music I grew up with, and make it their own.
Mostly, I listen to songs from my earlier days. Maybe it's a form of continuing retro-inventory to remind me of simpler times. Occasionally, I will listen to rock from the 1990's or jazz from the 1980's. Hell, sometimes, I will even listen to pop and disco from the 1970's. I have music all the way back to the 1930's that I can listen to. I love big band jazz. I like the pop classics from the 1950's, but not all of them. If I'm in the mood for blues, I'll listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan or Eric Clapton. If I'm in the mood to listen to 1980's metal rock while I'm dodging the idiots on I-4 during rush hour, then I'll crank some Skid Row or White Snake or Scorpions or Def Leppard.Â
I think overall, most people listen to what they like to call "my music". This is why people make playlists on their phones. Most people aren't musicians, but they still love to hear themselves sing to "their music". These are the same people you see singing in their car while driving to the grocery store. You know who you are. You know all the words to all the pop songs from the 1980's and all of the disco lyrics from the 1970's. It's the same with older people who listen to music from the 1950's and earlier. To them, that was the only music that ever mattered.
Some of us are audiophiles and/or musicians. I am both. Music is the air that I breathe. I have a large record, cassette tape and CD collection. I have about 50k mp3's on my computer and about 45k of them are on my cell phone. I never use or pay for music streaming services. I have everything I want to listen to, already on my phone. Do I know every song in my collection? Absolutely not. Not every song is important to me or you. The songs, the albums, the artists and the bands we love are unconditional. Music, songs, albums, concerts and shows we've seen, remind us of times, things, places and people from our past. This is why so many people say that they "love music". Well, who doesn't?