When I was young I would lay on the living room floor with a CD player and a set of headphones. I would shut my eyes and listen to the entire CD. It’s like having a profound little conversation between the music and your brain. Anyone who has listened to the very, bitter, bitter end of “Soul Cages” will know what I mean. There are ideas, constructed and inspired that are built into these recordings we listen to. I suppose it’s no wonder that when I put my hand to producing music this experience is a driving force in what I try to accomplish. Yes, I am one of those headphone bands. Please take some time in the next day to just do nothing but listen to an entire piece of music (album, concert, whatever) on the best playback system you can find. The experience is good for the part of you that needs to experience something good.
One caution, some recordings today are designed to be insanely loud. If you find yourself wanting to switch off the music because of a confused or anxious feeling then pick something else and try again, the loudness is probably why.
“Goodnight!”
Hello Mr. Pierce,
When I was young I too would listen to an entire “album” as we used to call them, and would hold up the “album cover” and read/listen/imagine/experience the entire thing. Now don’t get me wrong I didn’t love every song and I don’t hold too many romantic visions of the sometimes shitty records but, that’s when a smoke was smoke……and groovin was groovin…..hey wait a minute??
I think enjoying music for it’s life and energy is all that really matters. thank you, goodnite!
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity/print
Thanks for the link Garnet. It’s great to see that issue getting high-profile coverage. I just recorded our local symphony last night and that is an excellent example of what is missing. Some of the great moments in music are when the listener is straining to hear that quiet utterance or gentle strum before or after the really loud part. It’s a real shame that we seem to have all but eliminated these moments for the stupid reason that you can’t hear them on your car stereo, driving at highway speeds in rush hour traffic!