Travels: Part 2: Musicology

I shall now take the time to tell you a little about music, what I know of it.

I am a woman of simple tastes, not given to deep study of anything, though I have illusions of being such a person who will know much, I actually know very little. I eat what is put in front of me, and I listen to what is offered to me. In this way have I suffered much music with fleeting passion. It is mine for a time, then it or I move on, and I do not miss it. Do I sing in the shower? Sometimes, an odd assortment of tunes, but usually I am silent.

I catalog ever so briefly, the genre of music, its place in my history:

I. Showtunes
The formative music of my family and youth.

II. Classical:
Also formative, and my instrumental training .

III. Pop
A. Junior High School
i. Stairway to Heaven: Searching for a dance partner during this endless,wretched song.
ii. Freebird: The only song worse than stairway to heaven.
B. High School
i. Living in Europe I am only exposed to one hour of pop music on the radio at odd intervals. I buy a Culture Club album, and am loaned Thriller, and a Barry Manilow album. I find Barry tuneful, and for this I am ashamed.
C. College tunes
i. I return to American and wallow in the music I have missed, and the early years of MTV. I continue to flounder with no discerible musical direction.

IV. Jazz
A. My like/hate realtionship
i. Like: Classic, verse, verse, bridge, verse jazz, with the occasional trading of fours
ii. Hate: Modern, endless, etc...

V. Big Band
Noisy! Strong marching band like rythmn section! Swell to dance to!

VI. The Blues:
Relationships flounder and I sing along.

VII. Country: See Blues but more transparent.

VIII. Rap: The Sugar Hill Gang, then years later the music of my students.

The sum of the above, is what I stated previous. Acceptable to my ears upon offering, but left easily. and indeed looked back at later, with apathy and in some cases revulsion. And so to now. What I hear now strikes me different, though perhaps as years pass there will be the same leaving, but for now, my ears and mind actually long for tunes of the following nature:

IX. Indy Rock: A late entry, and I realize, the great undiscovered country

X. The Record Collection: Bob Dylan enters my life, and I realize what I have been looking for.

Next: We return to our traveler on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.