Life Changing Music.
A long, long time ago (sometime last year), I was talking to the missus about songs that had changed our lives. Or at least had some kind of significant impact on them. You know, the kind of song that you remember inexplicitly clearly; where you were, what you were thinking, what you thought of yourself at the time, what you thought of your life and where you were going, the room, the time of year, and how it made you feel. I love those songs. I find it so strange that a song, a piece of music can have such influence and effect on you, when it’s just notes, strung together by someone you’ll probably never meet. Was it the effect they intended? Was it quite the opposite effect? I guess we’ll never know, but we all have these songs, no matter what genre, how embarrassing, or how old or new.
Anyway, this blog post has been a long time coming. I’ve started it many times, but once I started thinking about it, I started to just think back to my childhood, and my teenage years, and what started as a ‘songs that changed my life’, became a ‘musical history of Lara Mulady’. Needless to say, it ended up a pretty long post, and as interesting as it was, I went back and changed it. The first time I listened to Snoop Dogg’s, The Dogg Pound, might have made an impact on me (enough for me to listen to only that album for the entire drive from Sussex to Scotland), but it didn’t make quite the impact I’m looking for here.
There are many songs or pieces of music which I remember listening to when I was very young. Many of these are classical pieces, from long drives with my parents. Wagner, Mozart, and Handel, to name a few. Musicals also featured highly on these trips, with Phantom of the Opera, Cats and West Side Story being the strongest in my memory. We also had some disco records and for some bizarre reason, a record entirely devoted to ‘horse’ music; black beauty and the like. God knows why. I even listened to it.
Aside from these, rock and roll and music from the 50s and 60s were also in abundance. I think this was mostly due to my Dad’s record collection. House of the Rising Sun was one of his 45s that I just listened to again and again and again. Abba and The Beatles were pretty much staple too.
In fact, the first song I really remember listening to, and I mean really listening to, sitting on the sofa, with my Dad’s massive headphone on, plugged in to the record player, is this:
This is an awesome song. It’s just so bizarre. I remember being fascinated by the lyrics… “Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye.” You what? I think I thought it was totally psychedelic without even knowing the word psychedelic. I think it’s the closest I’ve come to dropping acid. At 8. Fantastic. I suppose it really opened up music to me; it could be magical, unusual, hypnotic – and it didn’t even have to make sense. Sweet.
Strangely enough, my early teen years seem to be musically sparse in my memory. I know I listened to a lot of music, and sure, there are a lot of great songs that I hear now which take me right back to sitting on my bed in boarding school, the smell of the lunch room, the smell wafting down from the boys dorm (teenage boys have that smell. Know what I mean? It’s rank. Sour, and rank. Poor dudes), and the terrible homesickness that was overwhelming at some times. But, none of them really made an influence, I mean, opened my eyes to music, or more importantly; me.
When I was 13, I changed school, and on my 14th birthday, I finally got my own stereo, with a CD player. Cool. Until this point, my music taste relied on my parents (not a bad thing at all. I still love Abba), or borrowing my brother’s cassettes. In fact, up to this point, I had only ever bought one cassette (The Simpsons Album – class), and two 45s, which I think, are still great, great records; Prince – Gett Off, and Guns n’ Roses – Don’t Cry. I still love them, in fact, I still have them. I might frame them, just as a personal reminder. Yes, I bought records because it was a record player was the only choice I had. Sweet. I also remember Eastenders in black and white, but that’s another story.
Anyway, so the same day I got my stereo, or ghetto blaster really, I headed down to the now gone Woolworths to buy my very first CD. I stood in front of the CD chart, not having a clue what was good, what was cool, what was in or out; I virtually knew nothing about music. The only thing I could think of doing, was to buy the number one. Thinking about the charts today, and for much of my life, I was very, very, very lucky. Just think if it had been Aqua, or Boyzone? What if they had shaped my music taste? Anyway, it was this:
It was the first time that I’d ever put an album on, and sat there and listened to the whole thing. And then again. I had no idea music could be like that. It blew me away, and I really think it changed my life – not directly, I mean. It didn’t speak to me or anything, but it opened my eyes to music, and with that, perhaps it made me more curious about sound. I’m not even sure it was U2 – it was just that album. A little bit experimental, different sounds on one album – maybe it’s all a load of shit, but to a 14 year old, mind wide open, sucking up new stuff, it really made a massive impact. I can still listen to it today, and I just love it. There’s no other words.
So that was the fist song/album that really, really influenced me.
It’s hard to know where to go next. I was in to soul music a great deal. Songs like Memphis Soul Stew crept under my skin and flesh, and rolled along my bones. Try sitting still through that song. Funnily enough, the first time I heard that song was on The Simpsons Album. Marge sung it. Not quite the same, but there you go.
I was fell heavily in to rock and roll. I think this must have come as an extension to my Beatles loving days. Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly – all the greats. My Dad took me to see The Buddy Story, and I thought it incredible. The energy! The transformation from blues and soul into rock and roll! I thought, and I still do, it was magic, and undeniably a pivotal point in music’s history.
By now, I’m about 16. For some reason, my music taste takes a huge turn and I become pretty much addicted to Guns n’ Roses for a term or two. It was all I listened to. I don’t even know why.
Around this time, Kurt Cobain topped himself, and River Phoenix did the same, albeit in a different fashion. Beck, Stone Temple Pilots and Suede were what I was in to then. But there was one album here that had a similar influence to that of Zooropa. I’m sure that there are many, many people out there who will agree with me on this one.
A girl called Thea leant this album to me, while she was supervising our prep one evening at school. I’d never heard of them, but put it in my discman (yeah, I was moving up in the technological world), and everything else stopped working except my ears. The volume went up, hairs on the back of my neck went up, and another magic album was found.
Who doesn’t know this album? It’s brilliant. Perhaps this time around, the lyrics got to me a bit. But then, when you’re 16, “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me”, just about summed up how you felt. Right? Right. Huge album in my life. Huge.
I discovered Madonna around this time. A friend gave me a ticket for her Erotica tour, and we ended up so close to the front, the bar pressed into my chest and I could see the wrinkles on her knuckles. She blew me away. Her presence, her sexuality (I blame her), and the power of the music. I bought the album shortly after, and listened to it over, and over and over. I remember it putting almost a spell on me – the same with Zooropa and RATM; it put me in a kind of trance where all I could do was listen. It’s really incredible.
Around the same time, I was having another musical revelation at my parent’s house, courtesy of my brother. He was listening to a lot of electronica. Like Orbital, The Orb, Reactiv8, Future Sound of London – things like that. We had a common group of friends, a bunch of lads, who used to come over a lot. We’d sit in the Purple Room, outside doors open to the garden, listen to this music, and, well, we’d just get high. It took me a long time to come to appreciate this type of electronica. I think Pink Floyd probably led me in to it (Oh….The Wall!). But the song that really opened my eyes to this type of music was this one.
Ooooh boy. This is summer. Again, I can remember so clearly realising that there was this whole other side to music out there that I’d never experienced. Another one where you stop, sit down, and just quite literally, man, get lost in the music. God damn it’s a good song, and again, a new musical chapter opened in my life.
The next number of years are a jumble of hip-hop, house, dance, electronica, rock, and grunge, as I moved up to London and got lost in the many bars and clubs and festivals there. I never had just one genre I fell in to, although you’d probably have to say grunge. Monday nights at Heaven. The Liquid Lounge up in Kings Cross. The Retro Bar off The Strand. But, living with my brother, kept up my electronica taste.
Oddly enough, right now, I just can’t think of the next album or song that had the same effect. Maybe it’s because I was older. Maybe it’s because I just was never lucky enough to come across another one. Who knows.
There are many, many songs that I remember from these past years, songs that take me right back to the very place when I heard them. The sights and sounds and tastes that go with that moment, but although they might have made an impression on me, they didn’t open my eyes and ears to anything new. That’s what went wrong with the first attempt at this post; I started listing all the songs that made an impression. Needless to say it span quickly out of control. I even had Tiffany in there. I rest my case (although, in her defence, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’, really does take me back…).
As it is now, I think this list is complete. U2, RATH, and The Orb. Not much when you look at it like that, but music that changed my life, in it’s own little way.
Anyway, this blog post has been a long time coming. I’ve started it many times, but once I started thinking about it, I started to just think back to my childhood, and my teenage years, and what started as a ‘songs that changed my life’, became a ‘musical history of Lara Mulady’. Needless to say, it ended up a pretty long post, and as interesting as it was, I went back and changed it. The first time I listened to Snoop Dogg’s, The Dogg Pound, might have made an impact on me (enough for me to listen to only that album for the entire drive from Sussex to Scotland), but it didn’t make quite the impact I’m looking for here.
There are many songs or pieces of music which I remember listening to when I was very young. Many of these are classical pieces, from long drives with my parents. Wagner, Mozart, and Handel, to name a few. Musicals also featured highly on these trips, with Phantom of the Opera, Cats and West Side Story being the strongest in my memory. We also had some disco records and for some bizarre reason, a record entirely devoted to ‘horse’ music; black beauty and the like. God knows why. I even listened to it.
Aside from these, rock and roll and music from the 50s and 60s were also in abundance. I think this was mostly due to my Dad’s record collection. House of the Rising Sun was one of his 45s that I just listened to again and again and again. Abba and The Beatles were pretty much staple too.
In fact, the first song I really remember listening to, and I mean really listening to, sitting on the sofa, with my Dad’s massive headphone on, plugged in to the record player, is this:
This is an awesome song. It’s just so bizarre. I remember being fascinated by the lyrics… “Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye.” You what? I think I thought it was totally psychedelic without even knowing the word psychedelic. I think it’s the closest I’ve come to dropping acid. At 8. Fantastic. I suppose it really opened up music to me; it could be magical, unusual, hypnotic – and it didn’t even have to make sense. Sweet.
Strangely enough, my early teen years seem to be musically sparse in my memory. I know I listened to a lot of music, and sure, there are a lot of great songs that I hear now which take me right back to sitting on my bed in boarding school, the smell of the lunch room, the smell wafting down from the boys dorm (teenage boys have that smell. Know what I mean? It’s rank. Sour, and rank. Poor dudes), and the terrible homesickness that was overwhelming at some times. But, none of them really made an influence, I mean, opened my eyes to music, or more importantly; me.
When I was 13, I changed school, and on my 14th birthday, I finally got my own stereo, with a CD player. Cool. Until this point, my music taste relied on my parents (not a bad thing at all. I still love Abba), or borrowing my brother’s cassettes. In fact, up to this point, I had only ever bought one cassette (The Simpsons Album – class), and two 45s, which I think, are still great, great records; Prince – Gett Off, and Guns n’ Roses – Don’t Cry. I still love them, in fact, I still have them. I might frame them, just as a personal reminder. Yes, I bought records because it was a record player was the only choice I had. Sweet. I also remember Eastenders in black and white, but that’s another story.
Anyway, so the same day I got my stereo, or ghetto blaster really, I headed down to the now gone Woolworths to buy my very first CD. I stood in front of the CD chart, not having a clue what was good, what was cool, what was in or out; I virtually knew nothing about music. The only thing I could think of doing, was to buy the number one. Thinking about the charts today, and for much of my life, I was very, very, very lucky. Just think if it had been Aqua, or Boyzone? What if they had shaped my music taste? Anyway, it was this:
It was the first time that I’d ever put an album on, and sat there and listened to the whole thing. And then again. I had no idea music could be like that. It blew me away, and I really think it changed my life – not directly, I mean. It didn’t speak to me or anything, but it opened my eyes to music, and with that, perhaps it made me more curious about sound. I’m not even sure it was U2 – it was just that album. A little bit experimental, different sounds on one album – maybe it’s all a load of shit, but to a 14 year old, mind wide open, sucking up new stuff, it really made a massive impact. I can still listen to it today, and I just love it. There’s no other words.
So that was the fist song/album that really, really influenced me.
It’s hard to know where to go next. I was in to soul music a great deal. Songs like Memphis Soul Stew crept under my skin and flesh, and rolled along my bones. Try sitting still through that song. Funnily enough, the first time I heard that song was on The Simpsons Album. Marge sung it. Not quite the same, but there you go.
I was fell heavily in to rock and roll. I think this must have come as an extension to my Beatles loving days. Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly – all the greats. My Dad took me to see The Buddy Story, and I thought it incredible. The energy! The transformation from blues and soul into rock and roll! I thought, and I still do, it was magic, and undeniably a pivotal point in music’s history.
By now, I’m about 16. For some reason, my music taste takes a huge turn and I become pretty much addicted to Guns n’ Roses for a term or two. It was all I listened to. I don’t even know why.
Around this time, Kurt Cobain topped himself, and River Phoenix did the same, albeit in a different fashion. Beck, Stone Temple Pilots and Suede were what I was in to then. But there was one album here that had a similar influence to that of Zooropa. I’m sure that there are many, many people out there who will agree with me on this one.
A girl called Thea leant this album to me, while she was supervising our prep one evening at school. I’d never heard of them, but put it in my discman (yeah, I was moving up in the technological world), and everything else stopped working except my ears. The volume went up, hairs on the back of my neck went up, and another magic album was found.
Who doesn’t know this album? It’s brilliant. Perhaps this time around, the lyrics got to me a bit. But then, when you’re 16, “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me”, just about summed up how you felt. Right? Right. Huge album in my life. Huge.
I discovered Madonna around this time. A friend gave me a ticket for her Erotica tour, and we ended up so close to the front, the bar pressed into my chest and I could see the wrinkles on her knuckles. She blew me away. Her presence, her sexuality (I blame her), and the power of the music. I bought the album shortly after, and listened to it over, and over and over. I remember it putting almost a spell on me – the same with Zooropa and RATM; it put me in a kind of trance where all I could do was listen. It’s really incredible.
Around the same time, I was having another musical revelation at my parent’s house, courtesy of my brother. He was listening to a lot of electronica. Like Orbital, The Orb, Reactiv8, Future Sound of London – things like that. We had a common group of friends, a bunch of lads, who used to come over a lot. We’d sit in the Purple Room, outside doors open to the garden, listen to this music, and, well, we’d just get high. It took me a long time to come to appreciate this type of electronica. I think Pink Floyd probably led me in to it (Oh….The Wall!). But the song that really opened my eyes to this type of music was this one.
Ooooh boy. This is summer. Again, I can remember so clearly realising that there was this whole other side to music out there that I’d never experienced. Another one where you stop, sit down, and just quite literally, man, get lost in the music. God damn it’s a good song, and again, a new musical chapter opened in my life.
The next number of years are a jumble of hip-hop, house, dance, electronica, rock, and grunge, as I moved up to London and got lost in the many bars and clubs and festivals there. I never had just one genre I fell in to, although you’d probably have to say grunge. Monday nights at Heaven. The Liquid Lounge up in Kings Cross. The Retro Bar off The Strand. But, living with my brother, kept up my electronica taste.
Oddly enough, right now, I just can’t think of the next album or song that had the same effect. Maybe it’s because I was older. Maybe it’s because I just was never lucky enough to come across another one. Who knows.
There are many, many songs that I remember from these past years, songs that take me right back to the very place when I heard them. The sights and sounds and tastes that go with that moment, but although they might have made an impression on me, they didn’t open my eyes and ears to anything new. That’s what went wrong with the first attempt at this post; I started listing all the songs that made an impression. Needless to say it span quickly out of control. I even had Tiffany in there. I rest my case (although, in her defence, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’, really does take me back…).
As it is now, I think this list is complete. U2, RATH, and The Orb. Not much when you look at it like that, but music that changed my life, in it’s own little way.