Tuesday, January 16, 2007

• The Music in Me

  Currently Listening Rumours By Fleetwood Mac see related

  Thank you all for your movie recommendations.  I'm getting really excited about them!  Please feel free to send more as they come to you or as you discover them. 
  
  I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I should be bedding here shortly... but I'm loving this still moment.
  
  My brother's at a Lindsey Buckingham concert in Monterey tonight.  For those of you who don't know, Lindsey is the (male) bad-ass guitarist for Fleetwood Mac.  The album Rumours only showcases some of his many talents.  He's one of those few artists whose feet I'd worship if I ever encountered him.  Then again, my brother called a few minutes ago to tell me he was twenty feet away from Mr. Buckingham, and he was too chicken to say hi or ask for a picture.  Still, it must be a great experience.  He promised to write to me about it (or he'll probably call or IM tomorrow). 
  
  I love to be part of a family to which music is so important.  My dad can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I've seen the look on his face when he hears "Turn the Page" or "Stairway to Heaven."  I've heard him whole-heartedly "sing" "Hold me close, I'm tired of dancing" when Elton John does "Tiny Dancer."  We were listening to classic rock this early autumn when we went to be with my grandparents when my grandfather died... and while we drove around the city where he spent his college days and were he and my mom fell in love and got married, he told us how happy he was to experience such a flood of memories.  He was the person who first taught me to love Led Zeppelin.  Max and Andrew and Katelyn came much later.
  
  So much music of mine is so intricately tied to people I know and experiences I've had.  Old loves and lingering flames rush back and make me blush if I hear the right note or song.  Every song on my playlist and most of the ones on the radio, have a different story.
  
  My sister has always been musically talented.  She's been making noise non-stop since she was born.  We watched lots of musicals and cartoons in our shared youth, and, because she was my younger sister (and I was a bitch), I became really annoyed with the sound of her voice.  Grease and its music disgusted me for the longest time because I didn't want to hear my sister yodeling it all in the background (or the foreground).  Now she's the best karaoke-er ever and has the strongest voice of all of us.  I do the classical, repressed stuff and she can belt out Cher or Leann Rimes or anybody, really.  She was first chair trumpet in high school and picked up French horn, too, because they needed somebody who could learn quickly and kick ass.  I don't talk about "Yoda" much.  I love her to bits and don't know what I'd do without her, as silly as she can be.  She'll always be the "questionable" one in the family because she is so spirited and stubborn.  I wouldn't be who I am without her.
  
  Then there's the aforementioned brother.  He was quiet and shy, very "sensitive."  He always had a pure little boy's voice.  Puberty hit and he became obsessive and compulsive about music.  He knows his 80s hairbands, all the 60s and 70s guitarists and vocalists.  He loves the greats.  He played trombone and tuba in high school - and taught himself guitar.  I truly believe he's better than 60% of the professional musicians out there.  He can even keep up with most of the old-school Metallica.  We talk music constantly, and he and I influence each other's interests a lot.  From indie to country to R&B to folk to classical to good, solid rock, he was made for music and deep thoughts. 
  
  And finally, The Mama.  She instilled the music in me before I was even born.  I heard and fell in love with Willie Nelson in utero, and apparently he calmed me down when I was a baby.  I sang along to "Iron Man" and had a penchant for the Village People when I was a toddler, dancing with and delighting my daddy.  In preschool, I knew the difference between Mozart and Bach and Handel and Vivaldi (well, duh!).  My childhood was mostly oldies and 70s rock.  In 8th grade, I discovered The Beatles, and it's been joy ever since.  Then it was Simon and Garfunkle, the Smashing Pumpkins, The Doors, Metallica, Jethro Tull, the Cranberries.  No, the list doesn't stop.  My love for my family doesn't stop.  My incessant talking about them, by definition, doesn't stop. 
  
  And I hope it never will.
  

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