Mooooo!

This is not an "all the way back" post, but I'm leaving town for the weekend and I didn't want this to get too stale.

The fearless Fearful Syzygy has "tagged" me for what, I believe, is the first time I've been tagged since good old Blog Meridian has been in existence. For some reason, the image of cattle in a chute in the spring comes to mind, but there, I am glad to say, the extended metaphor quickly breaks down.

(Those who know what happens to cattle in the spring will know what I mean.)

Ahem. Anyway.

The Rules

List five songs that you currently love. It doesn't matter what genre they are, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog. Then tag five other livejournal friends to see what they're listening to.

Like Mr. Syzygy, I'll have to emend "livejournal" to read something like "blogosphere." But no matter. Also like Mr. Syzygy, I think it's better to comment a bit on WHY the piece is on the list; otherwise, the list has no context--it just exists in a vacuum.

Here we go:

*"So What," Miles Davis, from Kind of Blue. In his notes on the CD release, Robret Palmer describes the playing on the whole album as "a kind of singing." Yup. This, the first track, is my favorite track on my favorite jazz album. Davis' high-lonesome, smoky-cool trumpet is, still, the Real Deal.

*"I Walk the Line," Johnny Cash. Minimalist country. And the key shifts from verse to verse are haunting, drawing attention to the words and not to themselves, as if the keys chosen for those verses have some meaning as well. Bass, drums, shuffling guitar, but bottomless in its emotional depth.

*"Haiti," Arcade Fire, from Funeral. Not my favorite song on the album, but it's what I was listening to when the phrase "art-garage" came to mind as I was thinking about how to describe that band's sound. It's probably been used before, but I've not heard it, at least. Music that made me think something I'd not thought before.

*"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," Paul Simon. What must it feel like, I asked Mrs. Meridian as we listened to it the other day, to write something that sounds so effortless as that chorus does?

*"General Thanksgiving," from The Firebird, Igor Stravinsky. It's the finale of the ballet. Absolutely glorious.

My turn to tag now:

Erin at Mannequin Hands, Nancy at Sine Qua Non, "D-Day" at Sauce Box, Ariel at Bittersweet Life, and Rene at Teoria del caos.

I hope they will see this and join in this blogosphere round-up. Head 'em up, move 'em out.

Technorati tags:
Music, Memes