Music to my Ears

Sometimes you listen to music and don't realize how much music influences you. I was cutting grass on Thursday and decided to use my iPod instead of just listening to the lawnmower engine. I decided to listen to Simon and Garfunkel. I remember hearing them for the first time in the late 60's at my grandparents house. My mother's two sisters would have the radio tuned to a station that played their music. I do believe their music is timeless. I never tire of hearing the lyrics and the music.

Top Simon and Garfunkel songs that I like-The Sound of Silence, Scarborough Fair, Mrs. Robinson, The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Cecelia, El Condor Pasa and My Little Town. Really, poetry set to music.

On Tuesday I was at the gym and picked totally different music to workout. The Dropkick Murphys were my motivation. They are a punk rock irish band. First heard them playing a baseball video game. They had a song that played in the background of the game. Tessie was the title of the song. It was about the Bosox. Took my two sons to see them play at Toad's Place(Now the Hat Factory). I almost got in a fight with someone I wouldn't let in front of me. Good times. I finished off my workout with a song by the Muse called Uprising. Probably my favorite song right now. James Durbin on American Idol did a great job singing it on Idol.

In my teen years-okay, even now, I love Alice Cooper. In the early seventies, I took my brother and our cousin to an Alice Cooper concert. They were either twelve or thirteen at the time. It was their first concert. Alice puts on a show. Watching my brother and cousin stand on their seats and yell and scream till they were hoarse was great. They were totally caught up in the show. I enjoyed just seeing how much they loved it. Both of them loved music and had their own Kiss band.

There are songs that you hear today and it will transport you back to a memory. It can be good or bad. Many a time I remember hearing a song and closing my eyes and reliving that moment of time as if it was right then and there. Tom Petty reminds me of working at Busch Gardens during college. Sitting in my car in the parking lot at night after work just hanging with my fellow workers listening to Damn the Torpedoes. Good times.

Funerals. Every time I hear Amazing Grace I think of all my family that has passed away. It is always sung either at the service or at the gathering afterwards. It can bring tears to my eyes.

For years every time I'd go to Nags Head I'd have to listen to Jimmy Buffet to get that beach mood in high gear. I smell the salt air every time I hear Margaritaville.

Both my boys love music. They don't love the same type. My oldest is more top 40- Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, etc. My youngest is rap- T Payne, Lil Wayne, and other artists I can't even name. I like a little of both but have my own genre considering old school rock and roll.

Well, it's only rock and roll but I like it. It's better to burn out than fade away. Bye, bye miss American pie, drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry. And good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye..........

Keith