A musical confession…
If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, you will have noticed that I’ve just been watching “Queens of Country” on BBC2. It was a really interesting documentary about half a dozen of the most famous female Country and Western singers: Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Bobbie Gentry, Tammy Wynette, Tanya Tucker and (needless to say) Dolly Parton.
Although the programme was only an hour long, so each artist only got about ten minutes or so of airtime, it was a fascinating potted history of each of them, with contributions from various family members, record label executives, other musicians and assorted media types – not to mention Tanya Tucker herself in her part of the show. Overall, I reckon it was a pretty worthwhile way for the Beeb to spend some of the licence-payers’ money.
Of course, you could say that I’m a bit biased when I say that. Not only do I thoroughly enjoy a good documentary, I am also a complete, total and utter music-nut! I have a lifelong fascination for all things musical – whether that be the music itself, the performers, the history, the instruments, the recording technology, etc. The list of musical genres that I enjoy has grown with me over the years, so that my small CD collection would probably induce fits in anyone who is a dedicated fan of a single style.
From classical to blues to rock ‘n’ roll to prog rock to heavy metal to reggae to ska/two-tone to punk to rap to electronica to ambient to dance and umpteen other musical main roads and side-streets, I pretty much like the lot. Fancy a bit of Bach, Mozart or Prokofiev? It’s in the rack somewhere. Want to blow your mind with a bit of prog-rock excess from Genesis? Or your eardrums with some modern industrial metal in the form of Rammstein? Yep, they’re in there too. Or perhaps you’re in the mood for something a bit lighter or more poppy? No problem – there’s all sorts, from the Monkees to Madonna, Buddy Holly to David Bowie.
If you pick half a dozen random CDs off those shelves, you might end up with Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and ELO alongside Eminem, Kate Bush and Gorillaz. Or Green Day, Howlin’ Wolf and Franz Ferdinand alongside REM, Pink Floyd and Mendelssohn. And I find all of them absolutely wonderful. Uplifting expressions of the composer’s and the musician’s art. Great stuff!
Which brings me to the confession part (just in case you thought I’d forgotten the title of this post). You see, along with all of those assorted types of music, I also do have some fondness for…
…yes, I’ve got to say it, Country and Western.
I like folk music too.
Now, for those of you who don’t know, in modern-day band and musician circles those two admissions can be tantamount to saying that you have all the mental capacity of a small radish and can be easily distracted by bright colours. Or that you have a predilection for running around the local ringroad with no clothes on and your nether regions daubed in woad while waving a bunch of dahlias over your head and shouting “I’m the King of the Fairy-Folk!”
But I don’t really care. There’s good music to be found everywhere – even if it’s in the rebel-yelling, boot-scooting American chintz of the Grand Ole Opry or the sea-soaked shanties and rural morality tales of the folk club.
All of which means, of course, that that documentary I’ve been watching was even more of a treat. If it’s repeated and you’ve got an hour to spare, I heartily recommend it.
have to admit that I don’t listen to music much – well apart from the car radio, which is tuned to Classic fm, and the one and only cd player is also in the car (gets new cds loaded when son is home to do it for me – yea, I know, mentally challenged by anything techy) – but quite happy to listen to most things so long as it isn’t ear-shatteringly loud and/or discordant. Just back from the WI AGM in Cardiff – last ‘speakers’ were Only Men Aloud – had never heard of them before, but they were fantastic: the Tom Jones medley(well, it was Wales) brought the house down- rest of the music ranged from Macarthur Park to Bizet (Pearl Fishers) via something in Welsh. Will now be buying one of their cds – if nothing else it will remind me of a very pleasant trip to Cardiff, (not that we saw anything of Cardiff due to the M25 living up to the carpark reputation) and the group that was solely responsible for the event overrunning by over 30 minutes and the resulting traffic chaos
It’s good to find someone with such eclectic tastes. If you do not try new stuff how will you ever know whether you like it or not? Besides, different types of music elicit different types of emotions. I am a big fan of Gary Numan so I know what ridicule is like! If it is made with emotion and played with real instruments, or a good knowledge of electrical stuff, then it’s great. My Dad and his Dad were both into music so I grew up listening to all sorts of stuff, plus my Nana on Dad’s side used to be a nightclub singer. My Dad used to listen to those classic rock albums, with classical instruments covering rock greats. So I used to find the original version and got him to listen to that. As I went out with a ‘lead’ guitarist for ten years in a ‘melodic heavy metal band’ I was introduced to all sorts of stuff. Only just getting into Rush now!
Good music can make you happy or it can make you cry. Really good music makes the hairs stand up in the nape of my neck. I got my Dad interested in AC/DC which has made a comeback with the ‘Iron Man’ films. Saw AC/DC a few times in my youth and it took over a week for the ringing in my ears to go – but well worth it.
I say – variety is the spice of life. I remember Kenny Rogers, Johny Cash and Dolly Parton songs so well becasue they were my Dad’s choice for driving music on our four hour journeys – each way – on holiday. Queen Adreena did a cover of ‘Jolene’ which I love. You’ve mentioned quite a few of my faves plus some I have not heard of so I’ll have to look them up.
A great day for me is to visit HMV when they are doing 2 cd’s for a fiver and run around picking up stuff I’ve not heard of but that looks interesting. OK, you can pick up some duds but you can also get some great new stuff. Also, if I like a film I frequently get the soundtrack for it too. One of the most interesting soundtracks is from the original ‘WickerMan’ film which has some really great folk tunes on it.
Well, rant over, off to listen to something new, or find something new on YouTube.
Debby
Hi Adrian, happy NEW YEAR !; any idea what the title of Dolly’s last song on the documentary was/is ???
regards Harry, netherlands
Hi Harry,
Sorry it’s taken me a while to post your comment – been a bit crazy around here!
Unfortunately, it’s now so long since I saw that documentary that I could for the life of me remember what Dolly’s last song was. (I’m going to have to find a recording of the programme or see if it’s on YouTube or somewhere so that I can find out now…)
Happy New Year!