Sam Harris

Don’t know just what you’re saying. Sounds like you don’t like my music? What do Sam’s books have to do with it?

I just put up some new songs that have been remixed and mastered, so maybe you’ll be assaulted in a more evened-out way, should you dare to return. Try “Adeophile,” just to keep sorta on-topic.

I thought the subject was What kind of music speaks for Sam’s book.  I must have read it wrong.  Sorry

Sandy - 26 October 2007 09:30 PM

I thought the subject was What kind of music speaks for Sam’s book.  I must have read it wrong.  Sorry

I think what you got wrong was that you confused my signature for a reply to the topic. Any user of this messageboard can set a quote, blurb, link, or whatever, to appear at the end of each of the user’s posts. I used the link to my Myspace music page.

I also posted a link to the webpage of the venerable British cult band, New Model Army, in response to someone else’s mention of them. If this is the link you’re referring to (http://www.newmodelarmy.org), I can take no personal responsibility for your feelings of assault. I think they rock, but there’s no accounting for taste, as they say.

But looking back at the topic opener, I see, “muslim [sic] fundamentalists and the war on Western Society” as the topic of this post. I have no songs about that.

And I still don’t know what you meant by “assaulted.” Maybe my janglepop garage band pseudopunk just ain’t your thing. Oh well.

Point made G.wood.  Hey, I’m 74 years old and raised on European classical music.  I had 3 kids starting with an Evis Presley fan.  I immediately moved to a two story house so that this assault of music could only be heard through the ceiling.  My next child loved “The Gratefull Dead” but the third one actually preferred my classical melodies and the beauty of the counterpoint of Bach.  She was invited downstair so we could enjoy our music together.

I’ve been a music promoter all my life and spent years on the board of directors of our Symphony Orchestra and even managed my own string quartet in California.  I meant no insult to your choice but simply did not recognize it as a form of music.  It is a generational thang.

OK, gotcha. I’m 53, so maybe the generation gap isn’t really all that big? Maybe more of a cultural thing? I like a bit of classical music now & then, myself.

Interesting how you say that you were “raised on” European classical music. Long ago I noticed that people generally stop being receptive to changing musical styles somewhere in their early 20s. For example, most people my age think it all peaked in the mid-70s with Led Zeppelin, The Who, and all that “classic rock.” They hated The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and all the punk stuff. I guess I’m immature, I didn’t shut down my responsiveness until the advent of rap. I really, really hate that noise! Maybe you’ll agree with me that any form of music that involves the playing of instruments and singing is preferable and superior to an electronically sampled loop as the background to someone reciting bad poetry in fractured English?

But to return to the topic of music about, what was it, Muslim fundamentalist war on the Western world? The only thing I can think of is that dumbass Republican drugstore cowboy Charlie Daniels singing about the flag isn’t a rag we wear on our head, or whatever it was. Yuk!

I had little choice of music in my youth as my mother was a studio musician and taught piano and theory for many years.  Our home was open to many musicians but I recall only one or two that played what we called jazz.  My mother practiced Boogie Woogie to strengthen her left hand to allow her to play Bach. 

My generation was into grand opera.  We had a home on the beach between Santa Monica and Malibu and my mother invited many opera stars to spend an evening on the ocean when they were in town with the San Francisco Opera Company.  My love of opera remains to this day. 

I would go back stage and learn about costume construction that made it possible for singers and dancers to wear costumes that flattered their figures as well as their on- stage movements.  I ended up designing and constructing costumes for Shakespearean groups all over the Los Angeles area.  It all seems to fit together. 

I missed out on a lot of the pop culture and did not even own a television until my kids were off to college in 1982. 

I’m a nerd and a bore!

Sandy - 27 October 2007 01:56 PM

 

I’m a nerd and a bore!

Not at all. Sounds like a fascinating life, real autobiography material. You made your life’s work out of what you love. What could be better?

-deleted-

Thank you g.Wood.  What a lovely compliment. 
Sandy

Two words Joel: Worldwide Suicide by, another two words: Pearl Jam:

I felt the earth on Monday
It moved beneath my feet
In the form of a morning paper
Laid out for me to see
I saw his face in the corner picture
I recognized the name
Could not stop staring at the
Face I’d never see again

It’s a shame to awake, in a world of pain
What does it mean when war has taken over?
It’s the same every day in a hell man-made
What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?

The whole world…
World Over…
Yeah, it’s a world wide suicide

The whole world…
World Over
It’s a world wide suicide

Medals on a wooden mantle
Next to a handsome face
That the president took for granted
Writing checks that others pay
And in all the madness
Thought becomes numb and naive
So much to talk about and
Nothing for them to say

It’s the same everyday and the wave won’t break
Tell you to pray, while the devil’s on their shoulder
Laying claim to the take that soldiers save
Tell them to quit it, the truth’s already out there

The whole world…
World Over…
Yeah, it’s a world wide suicide

The whole world…
World Over…
It’s a world wide suicide

Looking in the eyes of the fallen
You got to know there is another, another, another, another, another…
Way

It’s a shame to awake,in a world aflame
What does it mean when war has taken over?
It’s the same everyday and the wave won’t break
Tell you to pray, while the devil’s on their shoulder

The whole world…
World Over…
It’s a world wide suicide

The whole world…
World Over…
It’s a world wide suicide

The whole world…
World Over…
It’s a world wide suicide

The whole world…
World Over…
It’s a world wide suicide

Never would have pegged you as an AC/DC fan Joel! For those about to rock, we salute you!

I guess I’m immature, I didn’t shut down my responsiveness until the advent of rap. I really, really hate that noise! Maybe you’ll agree with me that any form of music that involves the playing of instruments and singing is preferable and superior to an electronically sampled loop as the background to someone reciting bad poetry in fractured English?

You didn’t wait long enough to shut down your responsiveness.  Rap sucks, of course, but worse has happened:

I thought the Boy-bands and Teen-idols of the late nineties and early 2000’s were a passing fad, but that type of music is now dominating popular music.  The success of American Idol is both a consequence of, and an impetus to, this miserable trend.

The horror.  The horror.

But there is always good music playing somewhere, and you can access it through the medium that you are now using.  Not just ITunes and Rhapsody, but smaller, more focused internet music services are starting to pop up.  I subscribe to Rhapsody, and have successfully used it to stave off the steady encroachment of musical lithification. 
 
You don’t need to search for new music, of course; you can re-discover old music.  For example, I can now listen to versions of Polk Salad Annie sung by Elvis, Mitch and the Polecats, Tony Joe White, and the Blues Brothers any time I want. 

Envy me.

Just been lurking a couple of days, but thought I’d register to suggest a couple of songs by Dream Theater that I think most here would enjoy.  As progressive hard rockers they can be a bit heavy in places, and their songs can be quite long, but their lyrics are usually fantastic, James Labrie is a GREAT singer, and I find their music thought provoking.  Click the links to listen.

In the Name of God - Dream Theater

How can this be?
Why is he the chosen one?

Saint gone astray
With a scepter and a gun

Learn to believe
In the mighty and the strong

Come bleed the beast
Follow me it won’t be long

Listen when the prophet
Speaks to you
Killing in the name of God

Passion
Twisting faith into violence
In the name of God

Straight is the path
Leading to your salvation
Slaying the weak
Ethnic elimination

Any day we’ll all be
Swept away
You’ll be saved
As long as you obey

Lies
Tools of the devil inside
Written in Holy disguise
Meant to deceive and divide
Us all

Listen when the prophet
Speaks to you
Killing in the name of God

Passion
Twisting faith into violence
In the name of God

Blurring the lines
Between virtue and sin
They can’t tell
Where God ends
And mankind begins

They know no other
Life but this
From the cradle
They are claimed

Listen when the prophet
Speaks to you
Killing in the name of God

Passion
Twisting faith into violence
In the name of God

Hundreds of believers
Lured into a doomsday cult
All would perish
In the name of God

Self-proclaimed messiah
Led his servants
To their death
Eighty murdered
In the name of God

Forty sons and daughters
Un-consenting plural wives
Perversions
In the name of God

Underground religion
Turning toward
The mainstream light
Blind devotion
In the name of God

Justifying violence
Citing from the Holy Book
Teaching hatred
In the name of God

Listen when the prophet
Speaks to you
Killing in the name of God

Passion
Twisting faith into violence
In the name of God

Religious beliefs
Fanatic obsession
Does following faith
Lead us to violence?

Unyielding crusade
Divine revelation
Does following faith
Lead us to violence?

Blind Faith - Dream Theater

Hear me, speaking
Asking why I even bother
Tell me, how you
Live from day to day

Take your time and look around
Is this utopia you’ve found

Sick of all of this
The suffering and we just carry on
Isn’t it time we care and lose the hate
Understand our fears

But we do all that we can
Justify the means to an end
Sorry you must excuse me
I’ve painted my own Mona Lisa
She’s fixed everything
Now I’m spoiled beyond my wildest dreams

Blind Faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable

Take the streets, the beaten path
Our system works for whom I ask
Yeah I have it all
The bigger house
An iron fence to keep you out

When did we all let you down
So come Messiah show us how how
Our human spirit drowns
Don’t think you hear me now
No sign of you around
What is it you hope to see

Blind Faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Give us something we can use
Desirable
Cause you’ve done all you can do
Regrettable

And still life pushes on
With or without you
We’ve got to carry on
Our will, will guide us to
A place where we belong
Know there lies the truth
I am the believer who gives purpose on to you

I don’t think we let you down
So come Messiah show us how how
Throw us a pure lifeline
I hope that you hear me
Too proud to be around
There’s more to us than we see now

Blind Faith we have in you
Invisible
Which direction do we choose
Predictable
Self ignorance, abuse
Desirable
Cause you’ve done all you can do
Incredible

“The Way The Wind Blows” form the Snakes and Arrows album by RUSH:
Lyrics by Neil Peart, Music by lee/Lifeson

The Way The Wind Blows lyrics

Now it’s come to this
It’s like we’re back in the Dark Ages
From the Middle East to the Middle West
It’s a world of superstition

Now it’s come to this
Wide-eyed armies of the faithful
From the Middle East to the Middle West
Pray, and pass the ammunition

So many people think that way
You gotta watch what you say
To them and them, and others too
Who don’t seem to see to things the way you do

We can only grow the way the wind blows
on a bare and weathered shore
We can only bow to the here and now
In our elemental war

We can only go the way the wind blows
We can only bow to the here and now
Or be broken down blow by blow

Now it’s come to this
Hollow speeches of mass deception
From the Middle East to the Middle West
Like crusaders in a holy alliance

Now it’s come to this
Like we’re back in the dark ages
From the Middle East to the Middle West
It’s a plague that resists our science

It seems to leave them partly blind
And they leave no child behind
While evil spirits haunt their sleep
While shepherds bless and count their sheep

Like the solitary pine
On a bare wind blasted shore
We can only grow the way the wind blows