Music Lyrics: Lyrics Analysis

The song I wish to discuss is Imagine by John Lennon.  The some was written for the album of the same name in 1971.  The song discuss a world without religion, countries, heaven, hell, and no possessions.  It is essentially a plea by Lennon for people to let go of that which divide people and to live as brothers and sisters in humanity.  Lennon, a known pacifist, is promoting a peaceful world with no strife.  Sometimes when this song is covered, the person covering it will change the lyric "and no religion too" to "one religion too' or something similar.  Beyond the lyrics, the piano rift that plays through the whole song is beautiful.  This song though is extremely sad for me to watch and/or listen to.  I find it very depressing and saddening that a man for peace and tranquility would be shot.  I suggest to everyone to go to youtube and search Imagine and watch the first video that pops up.  The song and the video are amazing.

Music Review

In late August 2008, I attended the concert festival Outside Lands in San Francisco.  The performances took place over a weekend at Golden Gate Park.  Of all the acts I saw, the best by far and bar none was the set by Wilco.  Wilco was the second to last band to play at Outside Lands.  This was the first time I saw Wilco live.  I had looked forward to their performance more than any other band and they didn't disappoint.  My brothers and I had tried to get closer to the stage, but by the time we got their, two hours before their performance, it was packed for them.  We were lucky ,though; We were able to squeeze all the way up to the fifth row off to the right of the stage.  We had to stand waiting for them with no wiggle room for nearly two hours.  When they finally came on, all the pain in my legs went away.  I might want to add that this pain was the build up of a weekend where I walked eighty blocks on friday, forty blocks on Saturday, and another forty on Sunday, not to add all the walking inside the festival.  Wilco started with some songs that I didn't know very well.  I still enjoyed it a lot, but many of the songs early I just didn't know well, until the song "spiders (kidsmoke)".  This already is my favorite Wilco song and when they played it, it blew me away.  The song, being already ten minutes, was turned into a twenty minute jam for the band.  They played just about every song I could have asked for.  As they were playing, I started to get worried that they would have to stop soon as that had happened to many bands at the festival already, but they just kept trucking along.  After the greatness that is Wilco had ended, I got into a few conversations with the people around me and it seemed that the general consensus was that Wilco should have ended the festival and NOT Jack Johnson.  Johnson is alright, but for the Sunday headliner, singing to 100,000 people, he should not be there.  I guess that is alright though.  I got to the greatest band of right now.  And please go away Jack Johnson.  Go smoke a joint on the beach in Hawaii and never come back.  You can still make music, but do NOT leave and steal headlining acts again.

AT Chapter 8 Exercises

Exercise 8.2

1. Finish my education.  I need to to get somewhere in life.

2. Have possibly a steady job. Will be needed.

3. To be in top physical shape.  Who doesn't.

4. Visit Europe.  I want to go back.  It is a great place.

5. I will suit up some skates and play some ice hockey.  I love the sport, but never played on ice.

Exercise 8.3

1. Education*

2. Physical/ Recreational

3. Financial*

4. New Places*

5. Career/ Job Development

(*= connected to dream)

All these will be needed for me to accomplish what I plan to do.

1. In Ten Years I will travel back to Germany and have a stein.

Yes

Yes

None apply directly.  It is a little bit of Character building and Social.

Exercise 8.4

Believable(check), Realistic(check), Desirable(check), Measurable(check)

Five Songs I Hate

These songs make me hate music and the people who listen to them.

5. "Last Resort" by Papa Roach.  From the time I first heard this song, I knew I would hate it.  Listen to it and you will understand.  It adds nothing to the musical world.

4. "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin.  Most people might be shocked that I hate this song.  I love the Zep, but I heard this song so many times on the radio that a major distaste for it has grown.

3. "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit.  What a horrible song.  I think it is very funny though.  When I listen to this song, I think of a MadTV's skit of this song.  Now that was priceless.

2. "Alcohol" by the Millionaires.  This "band" could be number one on this list, but then again, they are not a real band.  Look them up on youtube.com and you too can experience the horribleness.

1. Jon Bon Jovi.  Everything he ever does will be a personal insult to me in my eyes.  His music is lower than the soil beneath the surface of the earth.  It's kind of funny how my hatred grew for him.  I am a huge hockey fan and my favorite team is the Ducks.  In 2003, the ducks went to the Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils.  In seven games, the Devils bested the Ducks in a well fought series.  Now, my hatred was born after the game ended and the Devils were celebrating when a certain song started to play; Living on a Prayer.  From that moment on, whenever I hear Bon Jovi, I think of the Ducks' lose in the finals.  I realize that any song that would have played then I would hate forever, so I am glad it was a talentless hack.  The saddest part of it all though is that when the Ducks did win the Stanley Cup, I cannot remember the song that was played or really anything that happened after the game.  It deeply saddens me that I will always remember their lose more than their triumph.

Fever Chapter 7

I particularly enjoyed the paragraphs that discussed Michael Jackson.  I love how Tim Riley talks about Jackson.  He says that he had so much soul and precocious sexual edge at just the age of ten, but he turned into doomed, beyond repair person.  He describes him as having so much potential to be a star and how he did capitalize on it, but only ruin himself in the end.  I was to young to remember when he got married to Lisa Marie Presley, but from the way it is described in the book, it seemed to be a farce.  Michael Jackson had major success in the 80s with albums like "Thriller", but he progressively became stranger.  He started getting plastic surgery to change how he looked and eventually, he bleached himself.  This is how he became Wacko Jacko.  He did many odd things like build a theme park for himself, bought the Elephant Man's bones, and settled out of court on the case of his pedophilia.  This seems to culminate in 2002 when he dangled his baby son out a window in Germany.  Jackson is the perfect example of what not to do with the later end of your career.  

RE: FINAL PAPER

To narrow it down a bit, I will research the influence of drugs on the Beatles.  I think it is pretty apparent how drugs changed them and their sound.

Talking About Sex

In college, the pressure to have sex is lessened by comparison to high school.  In college, not as many people are in each other's business which creates more privacy and thus reducing the pressure.  High school, though, is a different story.  Regardless of the size of your school, word always gets around to people about things very quickly.  I may not have ran in the major social circles at my school, but I always heard about someone doing something.  To be honest, half the time I had no idea who they were.  The advice I would pass on would be that rushing into something if you're not sure or ready for it is not a good idea; don't follow the crowd; do what you feel like doing in your own time; and you'll live without sex.  In terms of dating, I don't have much advice to give out.  Respect the person you are with and don't be immature.  Do not google someone before going out with them; that is creepy, maybe afterwards.  That is up to the person.

Final Paper

For my final paper topic, I have chosen to write about the influence of drugs on the music of rock n' roll of the late 60s and early 70s.  Many of my favorite musical artists emerged out of this time and used drugs.  It is also at this time that drugs use became synonymous with rock n' roll.  I am curious to know, of the music they wrote, how much of it was influenced by drugs and is that the secret to good music?  I am half serious about that last part, but it is a good point to look into.  Is most of the music I like drug influenced?