Over my head, I hear it loud and clear
Music, music, over my head, I hear music- King's X,
Over My Head
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My recent post asking for advice on a gift of music for TheDude has pushed me to post something I've had in the "rumination stage' for well over a month; a post about music.
I've meant to talk about the sounds in my head (no, I'm not crazy!) as well as tell you that every lyric, quote and riff I put on here is for a reason. I try to create a mood, evoke an emotional response, or offer something relevant to the content of the post when I put quotes up- and I hope you enjoy.
The fact that talking about music inspired TheDude to comment on my blog for the very first time does have a little to do with this decision, but not a huge amount. [Hey you!]
When talking about music, it's important to note that TheDude & I have some pretty different tastes. I swear, that man loves anything loud, crass, tasteless and offensive- just because it is all of those things. In addition to loving punk and metal (which are generally loud, rude, crass, offensive and/or tasteless), he's a HUGE GWAR and ICP fan and searches out the Psychopathic Records stuff on a fairly regular basis. And, as Christian can attest- his biggest "failing" (at least in my book) - he loves DEVO. (Someone take pity on me, please. It's terrible.)
He's also something of an amateur rock historian, so he has some very strong roots in old school stuff. One of his favorite "joke Jeopardy" categories is "musical trivia only I know for $800, Alex". The man is amazing when it comes to knowing who played in what band when and where they went after that. He knows the names of SESSION players.(For real- who does that?)
Our first date involved music very prominently. We went to all three of the local CD vendors- a pretty standard afternoon for the two of us. He wound up buying several CDs (again, pretty standard-he'd often drop half his paycheck at the CD shop). One of them was
247 Spyz Gumbo Millenium. He read the liner notes while we ate, in a desperate attempt to figure out how to talk to me (his best friend).
For a while early in our dating/marriage history, we didn't go on dates, we went to concerts. For my high school graduation present, we went to Queensrych, with Suicidal Tendencies opening (THAT was a crazy show). My earliest "scrapbooks" were ticket stubs from all the shows we saw.
We took TheBoy to see Weird Al as his first concert. His second? Judas Priest and Anthrax with the classic lineups as a Boy/Dad only affair. The kid was 10, 11 and we made sure he was exposed to Halford.
When we got a dog, we decided to name him after someone or something musical, and among the possible names were Joey, Mastadon and Cash. We named our dog after The Man In Black, folks.
I am still thinking of what to get The Dude for Christmas, as he's dang near IMPOSSIBLE to shop for anymore. Any time I think I have an idea, he's already scored whatever I wanted to get him. So I'm thinking music. I know he likes it, and I know what he does (and doesn't) have very well.