@Lookout and remembering the controversies over various incidents in his life, I did a little research. Yeah, I know Wiki is compromised info but as long as we have a decent BS detector the info is ok.

I admit I started that trip about him because I mistakenly thought he had something to do with the cradle song... Anyway, wow! What a life journey he had. Quite a biography. He had some near death experiences, eg fro wiki:

Stevens contracted tuberculosis in 1969 and was close to death at the time of his admission to the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex. He spent months recuperating in the hospital and a year of convalescence. During this time, Stevens began to question aspects of his life and spirituality. He later said, "To go from the show business environment and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut."

Thanks very much for a bit of knowledge, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge,

In an age obsessed with practicality, productivity, and efficiency, I frequently worry that we are leaving little room for abstract knowledge and for the kind of curiosity that invites just enough serendipity to allow for the discovery of ideas we didn’t know we were interested in until we are, ideas that we may later transform into new combinations with applications both practical and metaphysical.

https://www.themarginalian.org/index.php/2012/07/27/the-usefulness-of-us...

We play almost everyday. Usually just 30 minutes or so. Seems to always make me feel better.
Laughing, singing, and crying its all the same release. - Joni

Our local music community took a hit during COVID. Now one of the regulars is with hospice for brain cancer. Sad to watch friends pass on, but it is a fact of aging. Over the years, we've lost many musician friends. Been writing a song for years that I still haven't finished called, "Their songs they echo through me". It is funny how each song or tune I know I remember who I learned it from, and/or where I learned it. Music connects us in both obvious and subtle ways.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QpjR6-Uuks]

“Peace Train” – Yusuf / Cat Stevens’ timeless anthem of hope and unity – was originally released on the classic album 'Teaser and the Firecat' in 1971 and was Stevens’ first US Top 10 hit, reaching number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This Song Around The World version features more than 25 musicians from 12 countries and unites Yusuf / Cat Stevens, singing and playing a beautiful white piano in a tranquil open air setting in Istanbul, Turkey, with musicians such as five time Grammy Award winning blues/americana artist Keb’ Mo’; Grammy nominated Senegalese artist Baaba Maal; Silkroad’s Rhiannon Giddens—also a Grammy Award winner; Ghassan Birumi playing the oud in Ramallah, Palestine; musicians from the Silkroad Ensemble in Rhinebeck, New York; Pat Simmons (The Doobie Brothers) and James “Hutch” Hutchinson (bass player with Bonnie Raitt) performing in Maui, Hawaii; and bringing together conflict regions with Tushar Lall playing the harmonium in Delhi, India, and Joshua Amjad playing the Kartaal in Karachi, Pakistan. "Everyone jump upon the Peace Train" and let's make this world a better place.

Thanks for the OT!

@usefewersyllables

good luck with your gig!

I think- I've never *not* had music. My earliest memories are always set against a musical background: my parents literally wore out multiple copies of their favorite records. The house was *never* silent. I grew up on Glenn Miller (Dad was a trombonist), Stan Getz (especially the one with Joao Gilberto), Dave Brubeck (the first tune I ever played on drums was Take 5, Joe Morello style- I just hadda know how he did that), Jazz At the Philharmonic played on glass 78s... And Mom was a pianist with more classical leanings than jazz, so Rachmaninoff was her jam. Lots of Russian stuff with massive Sturm und Drang. You could always tell when she was a little pissed off, because she'd sit down and start playing R's 2nd piano concerto *hard*. Her voice and facial expression wouldn't change, but she let her fingers do the talking.

And then my older sister introduced her rock and roll to the mix, and all the great 60's stuff just drifted across the hall from her room to mine. Even as far away as we were, we could get a very scratchy WLS, at least when there were no thunderstorms about- back in the days when "clear channel" meant exactly that. All the local AM stations were primordial country/western swing, or stuck solidly in 40s pop like the Andrews Sisters. But add in the birth of FM rock stations, like the one that suddenly grew one day in the nearest college town, and by the time I was bumping up against middle school I pretty much had the whole world to listen to.

And I've started to find some current artists I'm really enjoying, after having had a mostly-hate relationship with the overburden of urban music for a few years (I tire of songs about poppin' caps in people, for some reason). Paramore, Wet Leg, there's some creative stuff happening out there again. Indie rock never died, but you have always had to really dig for it. I'm putting together a pick-up band with some of my favorite local guys for a one-off gig, and we're covering the Paramore tune below.

So, rock is dead they say- Long live rock! What a great thread...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIYJ7VaSxYY width:400 height:300]

And in honor of the late Jeff Beck, my favorite version of "Ended as Lovers", from the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival- with my man Vinnie Coliauta on drums, and a very young Tal Wilkenfeld on bass... Godspeed, Jeff. Gone too soon.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVgUzUZeTw4 width:400 height:300]

@exindy I'm more connected to literature, books, the visual arts.

I think of music as a kind of spiritual release. I had zero talent for it in any respect. But I could draw, and paint. I was just watching a South Korean travelogue on NYC, and the host was touring the MOMA. I think I recognized every picture she showed by name, and if I didn't know the title, I recognized every artist by their technique. I learned this from my mother. I guess I was fortunate to be raised near NYC so I could visit the museums. I saw the Pieta, once. When I was in college, I did Europe on five dollars a day, visited the Louvre and the Prado, etc.

I could be wrong but subjectively I perceive the popular music of my youth, as authentic, and find that contemporary music has become too commercial to interest me. When I first arrived in South Korea, I heard a sociologist, complaining about sobija munhwa, commercial culture. She was complaining about the influence of the west. "What's that?" I thought at the time. I think after that I gradually started to become alienated from US/English mass media. So I could enjoy the music of my younger days, also the movies from that period or my parents' generation, but I gradually lost interest in the ongoing media parade. When I drove alone across the country, I spent most of the satellite radio time, listening to BB King's Blue's channel, and found that most rewarding among a hundred other channels.

At first when I got back to the US I had a very small online trade in ceramics, it was just a hobby. It started as I became acquainted with a prominent glass artist. I was basically a bar tender at the time, our friendship grew because of my interest in art. I promoted his work for a while online. I bought some small pieces, and he gave me some. He used to sell them on the art fair tour "to pay the rent," mostly paperweights but other small glass objects with local marine life themes. I'd visit his studio and watch he and his son work. It was very exciting. I met one other prominent glass artist there who rented the studio. There were usually art students from the local state college there blowing glass. When I was there, I felt the way I did when I heard some friends during high school doing their music practice in a friend's basement. One of them went on to become a professional singer/musician. Their favorite piece was Lighter Shade of Pale. They were also big on the Doors, Beatles, Stones, Beegees, etc. I thought it was great and was envious of people with musical talent.

My glass artist friend once gave me an early major piece he did, he said he didn't think it was worth selling to the wealthy collectors who sponsored him. I treasure that piece of work, and the other insignificant trade pieces we still have. He signed many of them for me. When my wife's family saw my appreciation for Korean art and ceramics, they gave me pieces as gifts, that we are greatly sentimental about because of their beauty and the tradition behind them. Big or small, we couldn't part with the collection.

When the hurricane flood threatened we did everything to preserve them. Those art works are our connection to our shared personal experiences. I know its foolish to be attached to material things like that (as in the Buddhist notion of attachment as suffering) but it's more of the cultural or aesthetic connection, it's really an intangible value.

I've written hundreds of posts mostly about Korean affairs, news, culture etc. It's a hobby. It's gotten sporadic since the flood. I made a small list of some of the classic Korean popular songs, and historical songs I've translated. That's as close I can get to music. It's very rewarding. I made a list of the titles just before the flood, and made sure I had it with me, when we were evacuated. Silly, wasn't it?

Below are two pictures are from Kim Hong-do's later life after the death of his sponsor King Jeongjo. Kim is famous for his lifelike portrayals of everyday Koreans of his time (latter 18th century) in the activities of daily life.

(Source- KBS역사저널 그날, youtube Sept 25, 2020)

(Source- KBS역사저널 그날, youtube Sept 25, 2020)

Love this song-
The Good Old Days 이선희(LEE SUN HEE) _ 아! 옛날이여 rough translation

You left my side
Because I miss you
I tried to get you out of my mind
I tried
My emotions are drawn by the moon and star light
I am moved as the fog and waves move

Oh, the good old days!
Those past times cannot return again
Don't, you must forget!
They say beautiful memories are buried
in the clouds
It's all a dream

Oh, those good old days
Oh, the good old days

for me it was literature and books. Music, even the kind available on the radio requires an investment in more than just time. Time was all I had. I also had considerable alone time.

My immediate family didn't do much garden work either. It's hard to invest in a future harvest when that land belongs to someone else who is letting you use it until they might need it for someone who might pay for it.

But with a book? The universe awaits. And when there's a library? Infinite.

Over the last couple months I have bumped into the current battle over digital media. Amazon, MSFT and (as far as I can guess) KKR (investment group). Each is using the corporatized copyright "laws" to restrict any usage outside their compound.

Our Kindles and library access has been compromised. When I spoke with my local librarian about the lack of ebook access using their new system, she said that it's better now because I can do movies, tv and magazines and across all my platforms and especially my phone.

So much for capturing a pdf of an online article that I can read when I wish.... oh well.

I've discovered music, though not in the same way as you and definitely not with the memories. Now I enjoy it more in contrasts of style and presentation. And especially in its derivations. Like finding that a popular song that I liked in my teen years is actually based on a ru folk song or that a John Barry soundtrack is really Rachmaninoff.

@The Hindsight Times

I'm not a musician so much as a writer
it is the string of lyrics which stick in my craw
although I can call a tune from the first note in some cases

the doors are great
one of my favorites

[video:https://youtu.be/5bdC7k2Nu4s]

What can I say about music. I grew up in the 70's so what I listened to was the car radio when out with the parents. Dad liked Tony Orlando and Dawn. Mom liked Elvis. I'm not much of a music person, I have no pitch. I'm a lyrics person. Nearly all the classic rock from the 60s and 70s I enjoy (NO DISCO). In 1981 I watched the premiere of MTV. Not a fan of most 80's music. There was some good stuff but nothing that makes me need to hear/see it again. 90's was a mix of good and bad rock, like nirvana, not a fan, and Jane's Addiction, fan, to the boy bands (yes, I'm aware the Osmonds and the Jackson Five were boy bands but there were bands of brothers) and what I consider the start of the downfall of the 'industry'. Since, there is only music with hooks every 2 seconds and no substance, aka horrible lyrics. Nothing being promoted by the industry people is worth a listen. When I do play music on Pandora it's The Doors channel. Anyways, that's my little rant on music.