I was reading Bumping Into Geniuses by Danny Goldberg, and it got me wondering, where have all the musical geniuses gone? When is the last time you were absolutely floored by an album? I mean, like it was the only thing you listened to for days. Had it in your CD player, loaded on your MP3 player and that was all you listened to? For me, it was Dream Theater’s Scenes From a Memory (released in 1999). I have listened to many releases since, yet I still go back to this one constantly. It touched a nerve for me. Think… what was the last album you listened to over and over again? When was it?
I’m not sure that I was ever a big radio listener. I can only speak for the radio stations in my home town and growing up, your choice was to listen to one station that seemed to play the Eagles and Rolling Stones so much I couldn’t listen to either band for a very long time (and both have produced more than their fare share of great music). For me, it made more sense to go buy the latest release on VINYL (some you still remember those black things called LPs) and spin it over and over on my turntable.
It seems that today there is a lack of message or meaning in many lyrics. The music might be great, yet the words are that, just words. If you have watched the movie Eddie & The Cruisers, there is a line Eddie (Michael Paré) says to Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger), “Words and music.” It takes both to make a great song. For an instrumental piece, the “words” are conveyed through the melody. So, let’s take it one step further and say it takes words, melody and music to make a great song. When someone hits all three of these, it is a song we remember and play over and over again. Let’s get back to that state of music.