Another Feature of Too Much Time on My Hands: My Favorite Works of Music at the Moment

I have a great deal of time to think, quite a bit of time to listen to music, and, despite some restrictions on my computer time,  a little more time to blog than I normally would have at this time in an academic  quarter.  I choose to use this time to bloviate on the topic of my favorite musical works.  Because no one has all day to read,  and I don't even have all day to type, I'll limit my selections to twenty-five. As a disclaimer, I admit to being capricious by nature. Were I to type this blog two hours from now, it's possible that the selections would be entirely different. Nonetheless, at this moment in time, I shall list my twenty-five favorite musical works, which appear in no particular order.


"Believe in Me" by Dan Fogelberg
                  -no particular reason or meaning behind it; I just like it

"The Black Horse Troop" by John Philip Sousa
                  -I've never actually played this march, but I love it


"Less of Me" performed by someone of whom I have absolutely no idea
                 -I probably shouldn't like this song for many reasons. For one, it has a country flair --          
                   I believe it was written or at least  co-written by Glen Campbell. Two, the lyrics lay a bit
                  of a guilt trip on me, as I do not come even close to trying to live my life the way this song
                  professes that a peson should endeavor to do. Still, the message is worthy, and someday, in
                  terms of the content, maybe I'll get there, or at least approach it.



"Cello Suite Number 1 in G Major" by J. S. Bach
                 -It speaks [wordlessly] for itself.



"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac
                 - I don't like Fleetwood Mac. My dad listens to them enough that I've had sufficient exposure
                  to make an informed decision, and I don't like them. Stevie Nicks' voice I find especially
                  grating. Still, "Landslide" is one hell of a great song, and it is Stevie Nicks' song; no one
                  else  should sing it. Ever.  Stevie Nicks' grating voice somehow works on this song,
                  Grating voice or not, it's a classic, but only with Stevie Nicks singing it.



"Crossroads" by Don McLean
               - It's on the depressing side, but it's great nonetheless.



"Good Riddance" by Green Day.
               - Some would say it has yet to stand the test of time. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the
                doubt and grant it "great" status despite its relative newness.


"Fantaisie Impromptu" by Chopin
              - In my own semi-informed opinion, it's one of the greatest solo piano works ever composed.



"American Pie" by Don McLean
              - Either the lyrics or the music by themselves would place this in the "timeless" category.



"Blackbird" by the Beatles
               -beautiful


"British Eighth March" by Alonzo Elliott (or Elliot, depending upon which source one accepts)
               - I never played this march, either, but I love it. My high school band director was too much
                of a wuss to use it in competition because he felt that the trumpet part in the trio -- almost a
                descant --  was too risky.



"You Can Close Your Eyes" by James Taylor
               - This one has sentimental value. My Pseudouncle Scott played it for me when I stayed with
                him and his wife during a few summers when I became homesick. It was and still is a
                comfort song for me.



"April  Come She Will" by Simon and Garfunkel
             - The words don't mean a great deal to me, but the song is so pretty that the words don't need to
               mean anything to me.  Incidentally, the song was featured in April's and Andy's wedding
               episode of Parks and Recreation episode, in addition to being part of the soundtrack  of
               one of the all-time great feature films, The Graduate.



"Sonata Number One for Viola de Gamba and Harpsichord" by J. S. Bach
             - I prefer the accompaniment on piano rather than harpsichord, but it's great either way. I  
              especially like the fourth movement.



"Sister Christian" by Night Ranger
             - another song for which I have no great reason for liking it; I just do, and I like the video



"Down Under" by Men at Work
             - Aussies rock.



"Miami 2017" by Billy Joel
             - prophetic in its own way, and Billy Joel is a genius



"Only the Good Die young" by Billy Joel
             - Billy works some great lyrics into this one.



"The Enigma Variations" by Edward  Elgar
            - sonic beauty; I especially like the Nimrod variation



"Eroica Symphony" No. 3 in E-flat Major by Ludwig van Beethoven
            - Despite its initial connection with Napoleon Bonaparte (it was originally to be titled
             "Bonaparte Symphony", but Beethoven  dissasociated himself and the work from Napoleon      
              when Bonaparte crowned himself emperor), and despite its relative lack of initial public
              acclaim , the work now stands on its own.



"The Standard of St. George" by Kenneth J. Alford (Frederick Joseph Ricketts)
             - It's another march I've never played, but I love it just the same, although I don't think the trio
               stands up to  the rest of the march in quality.



"Hotel California" by the Eagles
              - classic music, classic lyrics; I'm drawn to a particular line, "You can check out anytime you
                like, but you can lever leave," as it pertains in my mind  to Mormonism



"Bad Day" by Daniel Powter
              - Powter once performed this on Bill Maher' s TV program, after which Maher commented,
                quite fittingly, that the song, with only the most minor of changes, probably would have been
                a hit in any decade in which it had been recorded.



"100 Years" by Five for Fighting
              - profound



"All Will Be Well" by Gabe Dixon Band.
              - I became familiar with this song when it was used in promotion of the short-lived Dick
                WolfE courtroom drama Conviction.  It was also featured in Parks and Recreation. My
                Pseudouncle Scott plays and sings it beautifully, which is one reason I have become so
                enamored of it, but Gabe Dixon  doesn't do such a bad rendition himself. It's a good if
                obscure song.



Favorite music is not  nor should it be static. These are my favorites as of 6:53 PST on February 9, 2013. Ask me in three days and I may tell you twenty-five entirely different songs.

The Best Songs Have Already Been Written

I'm a musician. Mostly I play piano and violin,  even a little tuba or miscellaneous low brass for a good cause, and I sing when a situation calls for singing. One thing I don't do, however, is write music. My reasons for not writing music are two-fold.

First and foremost, I have no desire to write music. I don't have a strong desire to create, period. In my family, we're not artists of any sort except to the extent that musicians are considered artists. We're all happy to play the works of others. Sure, I've thrown a few chord and scale patterns together and passed it off as the work of Handel, Bach, or Mozart on occasion mainly for the purpose of illustrating someone else's pretentiousness, but as far as writing real music -- either melody or words--  I'm simply uninspired. Judging by some music I've heard recently, others are similarly uninspired yet do not let that get in the way of recording and making a buck. For me personally, at this point there's nothing I want to share with the world through the composition of original music, and I suspect the world at large is a better place for my knowing my own limitations.

My second and equally compelling reason for not writing music is a deep and abiding belief that the best music has already been written. Would-be composers of my generation are not likely to come up with anything to rival the works of Bach and Mozart, of Irving Berlin, of Gershwin, of Lennon and McCartney, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Don McLean, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Carole King, Dylan, Roger Waters, Billie Joe Armstrong, Andrew Lloyd Weber, or even Gordon Lightfoot, to name just a few. I've felt this way for as long as I can remember, and since I remember feeling this way, a few songs I really appreciate have come into existence, so I've certainly been wrong about this, just as I've been wrong about many things. For this reason, I would never actively discourage anyone else who so desires from writing melodies or lyrics. I still believe the odds are heavily stacked against anyone coming up with anything original that is truly worth hearing, but as long as there is life, there is hope, or so it has been said.

I'll close with an excerpt from a truly great song. It's probable that before this song existed,  there were people who felt as I do about new music. If so, I'm glad Don McLean didn't listen to them.


I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most-
the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost-
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died