three songs

I find myself without anything remotely interesting to say tonight. In lieu of that, I present you, dear readers, with a list of three songs that turned my world upside down when I was a wee lad:

1. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (The Beatles). Given the Beatles' stature in the canon of popular music, it's hard to imagine just how revolutionary they sounded to my ears the first time I heard one of their songs. It was 1978, I believe. I was in fourth grade. Growing up in Freeport, Illinois in the late seventies, the Beatles were utterly absent from my radar. My world, musically speaking, consisted of Captain and Tennille (the first album my parents bought me!), The Doobie Brothers, Kiss (my first record was the dubiously titled "Love Gun" whose sexual overtones were utterly lost on me), Stevie Wonder, and Peaches and Herb. I had never even HEARD of the Beatles until I heard "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" for the first time, so I brought no baggage, no preconceptions to the music. And I was hypnotised by what, in retrospect, you could call the psychedelic elements of the song (although at the time all I could tell you was that it was unlike anything else I had ever heard, and yet strangely familiar). I first heard it at a friend's house (the same friend who also gave me a copy of The Little Prince for my birthday). And even though I was dumbfounded by the song, I did not become an instant Beatles fan or even seek out more music of theirs. I was too deep into Kiss at the time, and I moved to a new town later that year, effectively severing myself from my Beatles source! But this does not diminish the seismic impact that the song made on my consciousness when I first heard it.

2. My Sharona (The Knack). I couldn't tell you when I first heard My Sharona, but I can tell you that the song was like crack -- I couldn't get enough! The rhythm section - that unforgettable "boom boom boom BOOM boom BOOM" - burned itself into my brain. I was all of 10 years old at the time. I didn't know the title or even the band's name when I described the song to my cousin Ann, who is several years older than myself and who, at the time, was the touchstone of all that was hip. To my amazement, not only did she know the song, but she owned a copy of it! Desperately, I asked her to play it for me. As I recall, she only played it once which was clearly not nearly enough. I imagine I must've appeared more than a little Gollum-like in my obsession with the song - "Please play my precious one more time!" To be honest, Ann might have played it a few times, but it just FELT like once, I was so desperate! No matter - regardless of the count, I cherished and gloried in every second. No other song got under my skin quite so quickly, or deeply, as that one.

3. Ball of Confusion (Love and Rockets). I first heard Love and Rockets' remake of Ball of Confusion on MTV during 1986-87, when I was 17, and I was instantly mesmerized. I think it was the first time that I heard distortion used in an aesthetic way, rather than a signifier of anger and rebellion, and this was nothing short of a revelation. It was a thing of utter beauty to me, opening up a whole new musical vocabulary - a little like discovering that the alphabet contains another 24 letters! But of course a distorted guitar in and of itself is no great thing. I was also enchanted by the funky, loopy bass, and deadpan vocals which contrasted in a marvelous way with the guitars. What a combination! I was hooked, and once I obtained a copy of the song, I listened to it over and over again, never growing weary of the sound.