Music

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol link and Talk of the Town by Jack Johnson link are the two songs that originally began my second great period of interest in music. My original interest was in The Beatles and this group of people remain of great influence to my life. At the same early age I also became interested in groups like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Jethro Tull. Of those three Jethro Tull still somewhat, in the personage of Ian Anderson, aligns with my interest in singer/songwriters. My best friend introduced me to Bob Dylan, the single best modern singer/songwriter I know of. I think I posted one song by him, Everything is Broken, link  that I found on a Catholic site (original sin, I think, though Dylan is/was variously Jewish and born again. :) )  Apparently, Dylan's publishers had thought that this video post was OK but all others for that song on YouTube had to be withdrawn. Perhaps that one link was just oddly Dylanesque enough.

Later, I also liked other singer/songwriters like James Taylor and Paul Simon. Of the new music I like today, I don't bother enough with the details behind a song but just enjoy it. For instance, early on I liked James Taylor's You've Got A Friend but I liked it mostly because Carol King wrote it, a wonderful singer/songwriter herself. I admire James Taylor for never failing to point out in concert that possibly the biggest hit in his career was written by someone else. But these days I just listen to the music and don't bother with details about who wrote the song or the history of the song. One exception was k.d. lang's Olympic performance of Hallelujah. I definitely looked up the song writer, Leonard Cohen, of that one. Here is a clip from YouTube of another non-Olympic version:

As we gaze over the riots in London, the site of the next "peace" event of the Olympics, I marvel at a world that would so restrict availability of the Olympic video version of kd lang's Hallelujah just so that it could be sold for profit. But it is so.

And they wonder why the world is what it is?