My Musical Evolution – Page 7 – Mapping Influences Over Time

My Musical Evolution – Part 353 The 90’s Jazz Cafe Worlds Away

Gambling on new music had become a way of life in The 90’s. The Jazz Cafe series started with a guess. It was the same place that I had picked up the Relaxation: A Time To Dream double disc New Age album. Meijer had a music department and like most department store music departments, it focused on the current and popular in the main categories. A few classic bands are thrown in to fill out the section but not any attempt to be thorough. At the end of the aisle was a section comprised of compilations and As Seen On TV kind of stuff. These are typically by people you never heard of or songs of a period or era as performed by the studio band singers and orchestra.

As I look at the cover art of Jazz Café Worlds Away, it is obvious to me my it stood out. I wasn’t what you’d consider a Jazz enthusiast. I think the closest I got to Jazz was the Charlie Brown albums that I had. It was in the $4.99 rack so it was easy to take a chance. Man was I delighted! Worlds Away is 9 tracks of energetic instrumental music. I suppose technically it is jazz but it is far from the free from jazz exploration I feared.

Saxophones, guitars, keyboards and up tempo beat. Worlds Away is a great album to listen to at the office. It is also good background music for a dinner party or other conversation based gathering. I would really love to share some samples of this cool album with you but YouTube doesn’t seem to have any. So here’s a link to it on Amazon.

My Musical Evolution – Part 352 The 90’s Northern Exposure

One of my favorite TV shows of all time is Northern Exposure. Mary started watching it from the beginning. I got hooked somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd episode. It is hard to explain why I like it so much. I’m sure part of it was because of my time in the wooded mountains of Vermont. The town I lived in was not unlike Cicely, Alaska in size and population.

When I saw the soundtrack, I jumped immediately. Not only did the television show have great stories and settings, the music was cool too. This album is a good sampling. It has a mix of classic songs as well as specific soundtrack scored pieces by David Schwartz including that iconic theme song. I still long for more episodes when I hear it. It is sad that the show came to and end like that.

The Northern Exposure Soundtrack is also a good jumping off point for a bunch of good artists like Etta James, Nat King Cole and Booker T & The MG’s. I can trace my purchase of a Procol Harum directly to an episode of Northern Exposure.

My favorite character in the series was the DJ Chris In The Morning. I liked his approach to music and his philosophical approach as well. Thoughts and ideas and art were real, tangible, touchable things to Chris.

Northern Exposure Theme

Daniel Lanois – Jolie Louise

Booker T & The MG’s – Hip Hug-Her

Etta James – At Last

Magazine 60 – Don Quichotte

Nat King Cole – When I Grow Too Old To Dream

My Musical Evolution – Part 351 The 90’s Loreena McKennitt

Sometimes the spreading of musical influence is like a virus that infects a person who then passes it along to the next. We’ve talked about how My Musical Evolution has been nudged into different directions by seemingly small pebbles in the road. Here is another example.

My love of Loreena McKennitt’s music is due to bagel crumbs in a computer keyboard. Sounds silly or unbelievable doesn’t it. I was at work managing the IT department for a company here in northeast Indiana. The CFO called me complaining that her keyboard was not working properly. I went to her office to investigate. She was playing what I now know to be Book Of Secrets in her computer’s CD player. The song that was on was Marco Polo and as I examined her keyboard I listened and was drawn into a an ancient world of spices and mystery.

I asked the CFO about the CD and she enthusiastically told me of her account of accidentally hearing it at a friend’s house. I feel fortunate that a pair of random events resulted in my revelation. With a can of compressed air, I blew about a bagel’s worth of crumbs out of her keyboard and it worked again.

That night by brother-in-law Dan and I went to the mall to search for Book Of Secrets. I figured that something this obscure and wonderful would have to be found at Musicland if at all. We got there and they didn’t have it. On a whim I decided to check that place where they sell porcelain dragons, Indian head dresses, incense and those sticks that sound like rain when you tip them over. There it was and it was mine. This is a fantastic album and one you should definitely add to your collection.

It opened up a new channel of world music and even added more value to my Enya CD’s as the Celtic influence became more desirable to me.

Prologue

The Mummer’s Dance

Skellig

Marco Polo

The Highwayman

La Serenissima

Night Ride Across The Caucasus

Dante’s Prayer

My Musical Evolution – Part 350 The 90’s From Columbia House Roulette To Internet

In 1997, I got my first Windows 95 computer and it was just a matter of time before I took one of the 3,264 AOL CD’sthat I got in the mail every week and tried it out. That was way back when computers had dial-up modems in them. It has been so long ago and not worth remembering but I think the big deal was speeds of 52K or something. There was also a BETA / VHS thing going on between Flex and some other now irrelevant technology.

It is a little mind boggling to consider how far we’ve come in 15 years. Not only in technology but in our use and expectations of the web. Back in 1997, people were just beginning to get online and the web had not yet evolved into the marketing juggernaut that it has become. Back in 1997 it was more like the frontier or wild west.

Most of the content seemed to be amateur pages hosted in areas like Geocities. Lots of fan stuff. In my early days on the web, it was purely entertainment, an alternative to TV. I was always amazed that no matter how obscure a topic, I would be able to find stuff. I’d spend hours tying up the phone line link hopping. I’d search something like Freakies Cereal then follow a link from that page to another and repeat. An hour later, I’d be someplace completely different. It was interesting.

I can’t help but smile when I think about the content of the early days when the world first began to connect in large numbers. All those bright banners on black backgrounds and the endless supply of animated GIF’s. It really was a curiosity more like a freak show than the tool it has become. The internet community as a musical resource was a year or two away at this point but it was too long after I got online that I made my first internet purchase. I found an old out of print book from my summers in Vermont called Moonlight, Cobwebs And Shadows. A cool little book with supernatural themes and old colonial style artwork. I’ve added a link to it at the bottom of the post.

I was still playing Columbia House Roulette. I’d get completely random stuff and check it our. Most of it like No Doubt, Green Day, Smash Mouth and such were great winners. The others all had some redeeming value even if it would take some time to realize it. Soon, though, I’d quit Columbia House and BMG for the last time and turn to the internet for most of my musical research and purchases.

That cool old dial-up sound

Moonlight, Cobwebs And Shadows

My Musical Evolution – Part 349 The 90’s Windows 95 And More Worth Mentioning

You might be wondering how Windows 95 plays into My Musical Evolution. Well it does for a couple of different reasons the smaller and more direct of those is the Windows 95 install CD. Most people install, wait let me back up. Back in 1997 most people we very new to Windows based computers. Doesn’t that blow your mind? Just 15 years ago, most homes in this country didn’t have computers or were just getting their very first one.

OK Back to the Windows 95 CD. Most people got the Operating System preloaded on a new PC and never looked at the CD. I explored mine and found a couple of music videos buried in a series of nested folders. One, Buddy Holly by Wheezer, I had seen before. The other, simply labeled GoodTime was new to me and not only did I think it was a great song but the singer delivered it in such a way that made it even much more endearing. I had no idea who it was. The only thing I had to go on was that 1994 Geffen Records appeared at the end of the video. It would be a year or more before I would be able to use that new Internet search thing to track it all down so for the longest time, watching that video was the only way I could hear that song and her cool voice. You don’t have to wait. See it below.

The other big reason that Windows 95 is important to My Musical Evolution was that coupled with the developing World Wide Web, it provided an unparalleled access point to musical influences and purchasing. We’ll talk more about that soon.

Edie Brickell -Good Times

Wheezer – Buddy Holly

UB40 – Red Red Wine

The Beach Boys – Kokomo

Ace Of Base – All That She Wants

Green Day – Basket Case

My Musical Evolution – Part 348 The 90’s Recap And Worth Mentionings

So I am at the point in My Musical Evolution where we are approaching another big technology change. Before I get to that I thought I’d take a moment to reflect and summarize a little.

All year long, I’ve been concerned about how the last couple of months would play out. I feel like this era of My Musical Evolution is somewhat sloppy and undefined. I have a few theories why. The biggest being that in this era, music had taken on a diminished, supporting role. Less attention at that time makes for foggier recollection now.

Another issue is focus or lack thereof in this case. In all of my tidy previous eras, my musical attention was primarily focused on the music of the moment. With a few clear exceptions, The 90’s feel like they didn’t have music of the moment. I was acquiring and enjoying music that had covered the entire span of my evolution which givesThe 90’s a bit if and identity crisis.

Lastly, I feel that this most current phase of my life is still active. Each of my previous eras had a pretty clear beginning and end that was linked to some autobiographical aspect of my life like a location or school or relationship. In 1988 I got married and even though we’ve moved once in that time and our kids have gone to 2 Daycares and 6 schools, and we have changed jobs 6 times, it still feels like it is the same 24 year phase. Perhaps the 24 year length has something to do with it. My previous eras were all 3 to 5 year blocks or less. This last segment which chronologically accounts for over half my life is being crammed into 2 months of posts. So yeah, I’m feeling a bit rushed.

I’m about halfway through 1997 at this point in My Musical Evolution. I work in IT for a local company. My personal computer is a Commodore 64C that I’ve had for 8 or 9 years and an early IBM ThinkPad. I have a mini mixing studio in my basement and my hobbies include brewing my own beer and making mix tapes for people. The mix tapes might be part of the identity crisis too. My mixes would cover the gamut and seldom focus on any particular era. As I think about this, I remembered that I have a rather large box of my old Basement Tapes. I should dig them out ant listen to them to see if that stirs and echoes. At this point, my Compact Disc Collection is so large that I make 2 custom shelving units to hold them. Commercial ones are either too small or cost too much. My musical influences at the time were few. Didn’t have much in the way of peer influence. MTV hadn’t played any music in years and my radio listening was usually just Car Talk on NPR.

Maniac Mansion Theme Love electronic music

Zak MacKraken Theme

MC Hammer – You Can’t Touch This

Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy

Roxette – The look

George Michael – Faith

Terence Trent D’Arby – Wishing Well

Van Halen – 316

My Musical Evolution – Part 347 The 90’s X-Files

Like just about everybody else in the 90’s, I got drawn intoThe X-Files. How could I not? It was designed for me to watch. Paranormal, Extra-terrestrial, Supernatural, Conspiratorial? These are a few of my favorite things.

The theme song was eerie and haunting too. I had to have it. I found Songs In The Key Of X and in addition to that great theme song are a number of other really cool songs that I am so glad to include inThe Eclectic Collection.

On The Outside is my favorite Sheryl Crow song. I liked Sheryl Crow for quite a while but kind of got turned off by her personal views on toilet paper usage. Maybe it is my size or my diet but whatever the reason I can get by on 1 square.

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave is another masterpiece included here. The use of the tubular bells, against the tone of the keyboard and guitars with that cyclic rolling bass line conjures real imagery. The Theremin like wailing adds to the mystery. I’m glad that the guiro player resisted the urge to overdo it. It is subtle and perfect almost insect like. The vocals carry that quality of the radio suspense dramas of the 30’s and 40’s.

Mark Snow – X-Files Theme

Sheryl Crow – On The Outside

Foo Fighters – Down In The Park

Nick Cave – Red Right Hand

Frank Black – Man Of Steel

Danzig – Deep

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Frenzy

My Musical Evolution – Part 346 New Age Roland Hanneman

These days, just about every department store has that little rack of Compact Discs that are not included with the rest of the music section. It is tucked away, usually closer to the greeting cards or scented candles. The display will have a backlit collage of all the album covers and you can sample a song by pressing the album cover you like. It really is common practice these days. All the albums feature soothing music or bagpipes or something.

Back in the 1990’s when this was just beginning, even before the sampling screen, I found this 2 disc set called A Time To Dream. It attracted me because it featured the sounds of the ocean and Thunder storms with musical arrangements. You know how I feel about sound effects. I’m drawn to them for some reason. It reminds me that I forgot to mention a couple of albums from the Environments Series that I had back in The Roach Days. One had a Thunder storm on one side and Gentle Rain In A Pine Forest on the other. I used to listen to the rain in the forest in my room at The Roach Motel and close my eyes and imagine being in the woods of Vermont. It was really cool. On the recording there was a Blue jay in the distance that would come and go. It was a good recording and I could really visualize the rain falling on the canopy of leaves and making their way to the forest floor. I can’t believe that I forgot about that album. It is a shame that they didn’t make it to Compact Disc. It truly was the best sounding forest effects.

When I found A Time To Dream at Meijer, it was $4.99. So many of those types of CD’s were priced like that. A double disc set for $4.99 how could I pass that up. Each disc has only on track. The Mystic Sea is about 40 minutes long and A Stormy Night is about 50 minutes long. They both are developing orchestrations that travel and evolve around musical themes while the sounds of the sea or thunder storms mingle in the background. The music is electronic synthesizer driven and melodic. It really is great stuff. Sadly, Youtube doesn’t have any of it to share with you.

In my searches online, I’ve only found one place to even buy this CD and it is priced at over $60! Amazon has each of the two songs sold separately as mp3 downloads for $.99 each. I highly recommend spending the $2.00 and picking these up. I’ll see if I can wrangle some links to them for you here.

I find it interesting that throughout My Musical Evolution certain themes and notions prevail. Electronic music, instrumental music, sound effects, sounds of nature, intricate orchestrations, and multi-layered composition have always been attractive to me. I really felt like some kind of pioneer during The 90’s with my exploration of New Age music in particular. I really had no peers who shared my love for this music. When I would play samples for people, they really liked it but none of them liked it enough to share in the quest. With this absence of peer influence I really didn’t have any choice but to continue to experiment on my own. It is a very different experience when you don’t have anybody to suggest “hey, if you like Ray Lynch, you should check out this guy.” As Y2K approached, that would change.

My Musical Evolution – Part 345 The 90’s Columbia House Roulette On The Sun

Another winner from my Columbia House Roulette Game was Smash Mouth. It is hard to be objective having listened to this album for the last 15 years. Would I have eventually bought it anyway? Hard to say. I think I probably would have but getting by surprise was a good experience.

Can you remember the first time you heard Walking On The Sun? If you really check out the song, it is so retro. The main vocal line may be more modern but the rest of it has a late 1960’s sensibility about it right down to the fuzzy guitar.

As I listen to them now, they make me think of a cross between Men At Work and The Ramones. There is a ska / reggae aspect with that simplistic punk drive.

So Smash Mouth may not have the longevity of my other favorite bands. I admit, that I don’t often think of them like I do with Pink Floyd, Styx or Journey or the other big bands of my life. But listening to Heave-Ho right now is very enjoyable. I gotta whiney neighbor!

Walkin’ On The Sun

Let’s Rock

Heave-Ho

Push

Why Can’t We Be Friends

My Musical Evolution – Part 344 The 90’s Gifts From Tiffani

Remember Aric from The Roach Motel? Well a few years later I ended up working with his little sister Tiffani. At some point along the way, Tiffani won a stack of Compact Discs in a contest sponsored by some local radio station. Since I had a reputation for a rather large and unusual music collection, she gave me the ones she didn’t want.

There you go a nutshell of musical influence. Like my Columbia House Roulette game, here I was handed a stack of completely random CD’s. Would I have gone out and purchased these? I would have to say “No”. But here they were in my possession and you know what they each have their redeeming qualities.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – A Nightmare On My Street I had been a fan ofA Nightmare On Elm Street for years by the time I heard this. I thought it was clever and funny.

L’Trimm – Cars That Go Boom This songs is kind of funny too. These girls don’t seem to have that natural rhythmic delivery. It seems kind of forced like when really white guys try to rap. There’s another song He’s A Mutt that the title alone makes me laugh.

Suicidal Tendencies – Send Me Your Money I vaguely remembered the name Suicidal Tendencies from The Roach Days. There was a video on night flight about a guy yelling at his mom to bring him a Pepsi. I should try to find that one. Maybe I dreamed it.

J.J. Fad -SupersonicOf all these, J.J. Fad was the only one that I never heard of. I find women beat boxing amusing for some reason. Kind of like Parrots drinking shots or chimpanzees smoking cigars. Yeah, they can do it, it just seems weird when they do. It is a good snapshot of Rap at that time.

Here’s that Suicidal Tendencies song I was talking about. You know the Pepsi one.