This is part of a series of blog posts written to share songs, bands and musical experiences that have shaped me as a musician and artist.

Nostalgia.

My brothers and I had a stash of legos that had accumulated into such a pile that we kept in a sheet in a box. All the instructions lost. We’d pull it out and spread it on the bedroom floor, calling out which piece we were looking for in case the other found it (“I need a red, flat, 8 long”). We’d tune the radio to Z-93, the local hits radio station. Then we’d play until we were called for dinner.  All we had was the radio.  Well, and Dad’s record collection. But that was risky and there wasn’t much selection we were interested in.  I believe the radio had a major influence on me during that time.  Now, this was the radio, not MTV.  So the influence was purely sonic.  No hair. No spandex. No bright color. Only little plastic bricks and electronic drums.  Little did I know how much my pre-teen ears were soaking up all those synths, harmonies, guitar solos, and reverb that typified 80s pop.

Here are a few of my favorite radio hits.

The classic…

BONUS:

Other favorite 80s memories include:

• Taping movies off the TV with the bad words re-dubbed (don’t forget to pause during the commercials!)
• Riding bikes and making ramps with scrap wood (mastering a bunny hop)
• Saturday morning cartoons that were actually good
• Jams, high tops (and my brother had a cool spike)

This is part of a series of blog posts written to share songs, bands and musical experiences that have shaped me as a musician and artist.

I can’t really tell you whether or not we were on the cutting edge in the early 80s.  To this day, whenever I get the opportunity, I boast in the fact that we had a Commodore 64.  Dad knew a guy at church who gave us a bunch of games on floppy disks and my brothers and I were in heaven.  One of the many games was a space ship shooter game called Saxion.  The game had some pretty boss background music.

Fast forward ahead a few years .  I can’t say where or when, but I heard the music from the game that I had loved so much.  I had the opportunity to look up and somehow figured out where it was from.  The library  had it on vinyl and it was Romeo and Juliet ballet by Prokofiev.  I dropped the needle to the correct track and I HAD FOUND IT.  It was the music from the video game.  But this was the London Symphony Orchestra so it was many times better.

The first video is the song from the game.  That is followed by one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve heard.

This is part of a series of blog posts written to share songs, bands and musical experiences that have shaped me as a musician and artist.

It seems like during my childhood, I was at the library at least once a month.  It was at the library that I would browse through the cassette tape racks and CD shelves looking for new music to discover.  I even would look through the records (vinyl).  I came across music that I immediately thought “not for me.”  But in the process, I discovered some of the most interesting and brilliant artists.  I’d like to highlight 2 of the best discoveries I made at the library.  Besides the following bands, I also discovered many interesting soundtracks, sound and special effects CDs and some other oddities.

They Might Be Giants

I must have been pretty young but my introduction to They Might Be Giants was on MTV or VH1 (can’t remember) when I saw their music video “Don’t Let’s Start”.  It was a catchy tune but didn’t grab me at first.  Not long after that, my brother’s friend was somewhat of a fan of this group and through his encouragement, I checked out 2 of their albums from our library on cassette – Lincoln and Flood.  This became a favorite of my siblings and I and we would then check these cassettes out over and over.  I was a big fan and followed them all the way through High School,  purchasing a few of their albums (on CD, by then!) and seeing them in concert.  Though they are unconventional, I still maintain they are brilliant in their artistry.  TMBG (real fans call them that!) is made up of 2 guys both named John.

Moxy Fruvous

Moxy Fruvous was a complete random grab off the cassette shelf.  The album was “Bargainville” and I immediately was a fan.  Moxy Fruvous was four culturally aware, mulit-musically talented Canadiens.  The unconventional band combined intelligent lyrics with heavy vocals set in rock/folk styles.  I would go on to purchase a few of their albums and see the in concert twice – they were awesome live.  They have so many good songs but below is one of my favorites.

This is part of a series of blog posts written to share songs, bands and musical experiences that have shaped me as a musician and artist.

This is my first mention of a movie soundtrack but probably won’t be my last.  I LOVE movie soundtracks (musical scores) and have since I was young.  This particular movie soundtrack came into my life through my dad.  I don’t know how or why Dad had it, but on a cassette tape he had a copy of the movie soundtrack from the film, “The Mission”.  This soundtrack, according to Wikipedia,

…combines liturgical chorales, native drumming, and Spanish-influenced guitars, often in the same track, in an attempt to capture the varying cultures depicted in the film.

Of course, like any movie soundtrack, listening to it brings back emotions that were evoked from watching the film.  I remember listening to my Dad performing “Gabriel’s Oboe”, one of the main themes of the film, on his oboe.

The soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone, the composer of famous western soundtracks including, “Good, Bad and the Ugly”, which is often used when imitating western movie scenes with your buddies.

For some reason, this soundtrack got into my hands and the music took root in me.  One of the main themes, as you’ll hear in the first video, is extremely simple, yet powerful. The second video is “Gabriel’s Oboe”.  The third video is entitled, “On Earth as it is in Heaven” and is an amazing piece that combines multiple themes, styles, and even time signatures into a multi-layered mosaic.