Musical Ramblings

I find myself in the kitchen, doing dishes and baking cookies if you must know, and I have the iPod spooling through my music collection. Two songs came up consecutively, 'Baba O'Riley' by The Who followed by 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen. Both of these songs are outstanding in their own rights, stand outs from an era (the 70's) that is more remembered for disco and folk rock than anything else. Baba O'Riley has the outstanding electric piano opening, the trademark Daltrey scream, the infamous '...teenage wasteland..." chorus, and Townshends guitar riffs. I know that it was a formative song in my musical education, I played the vinyl version of Who's Next endlessly on that old turntable we had in the basement. I also understand the import of these formative songs and the impressions that they leave in our subconscious. All those things considered, the raw power of that song hit me as a physical presence as I stood in the kitchen. When the opening verse of Bohemian Rhapsody came out of the speakers, you know the one, 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?...' and I saw the other side of the raw power of Baba O'Riley. The complexity of the Queen arrangement was something that was really eye-opening to me. I understood rock and roll to be pretty straight forward, verse chorus verse, I didn't know anything about intros and bridges and outros (it could be accurately stated that I still don't) so this song came totally out of the blue. The lyrics add another layer of complexity that I didn't really come to understand until much later in life. Music is such a powerful medium, it carries the power of the olfactory in that a song can transport to a time and place just like smell. Music carries a great emotional weight as we can all remember people, places, happenings, as if they happened yesterday when we hear a given song. I have always placed an inordinate value on music and lyrics in my life, just ask anyone who had to listen to me talk about Pink Floyd in the late 80s, but I think that music has that power to move people like no other medium. Go out today and LISTEN to one of your favorite songs, I mean LISTEN to it, don't just have it on in the background, really listen to it and let it move you.