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And I Feel . . . Like I Want Some Cheese (WIAB Write-Off)Dec 11 '01 (Updated Feb 23 '07) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line I love "cheese." And toilet paper, beer, music and BEER NUTS. You should too.
And I Feel . . . Like I Want Some Cheese (WIAB Write-Off) My musical odyssey (dissertation length) began with the music of my parents (Big Band, Frank Sinatra) and my large family (7 kids). My "musical taste" has meandered through the 1960s of one sister's early Beatles and Herman Hermits, Tommy Roe, and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, to another's Janis Joplin, CSN&Y, Loggins & Messina, and Chicago. Other influences took root with 1970s AM radio. So, I had a healthy foundation and a love of "serious cheese" from artists great and really, really, awful. Cheese (the musical variety): sappy, syrupy music distinguished by the godawful and the banal versus the "ear candy" classic. Early to mid-1970s AM radio brought me Top 40 countdowns with Kasey Kasem, and heavy doses of both "cheesy" varietals. I may know all the words to "Henry the Eighth," by the Herman Hermits but also to "(Please) Go All the Way" by the Raspberries and "How Long" by Ace. "Shannon" by Henry Gross is still my favorite song about a dog . . . ever. I also knew the words to "Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)" by the Bee Gees before I ever knew what a fanny was. Let's not mention "Seasons in the Sun," "Afternoon Delight," "Torn Between Two Lovers," and other unmentionables. It scares me how much 1970s schlock and roll my brain synapses remember, yet I can't balance my checkbook at the end of the month. Of course, finding out about mid-to late 1970s FM rock stations brought me to a whole other state of mind and music. Being from NJ and growing up in Monmouth County brought me to Bruce Springsteen, but also to the highly underrated Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Also, The Smithereens. Friends brought me to more Beatles, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Cream, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes, and Supertramp. A brother got me hooked on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Pousette_dart Band. Of course, another sister had Barry Manilow in there somewhere, along with David Soul. (Out of my brain now!!) I caught the beginning, middle, and end of punk and new wave. The 1980s and a younger brother introduced me to U2. Another sister to Bauhaus, the Cure, the Smiths, OMD, and Spandau Ballet. Yes, I can sing "True". Badly and off key. For the rest of my life. Somewhere in my vinyl collection/obsession I found a great local record store and here's where I took off on my own, spending hours amid the bins looking for anything new and everything interesting, spending scads of paper route and busboy/waiter money on . . . music. I also had an 8-track player by the way. Note: Scads of information useful to consumer is one thing, scads of $$$ to spend on music is another. Put it all together and my musical catalog is rich and full of the classic, the banal, the indifferent, and the unusually awful. Let’s just say that if I were to be stranded on a desert atoll in the Pacific, I have lots of choices. Of course, I would plan better than Tom Hank's character in Castaway and bring…beer, BEER NUTS, toilet paper and matches. If this happens in December, I'm bringing Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. Any other time, I’m bringing their Pale Ale. I need a beer that's hoppy enough for hot weather and good enough to drink everyday. Toilet paper is a skid or more of Angel Soft. A case or three of Diamond Matches should serve me well. BEER NUTS can be bought by the pound at www.beernuts.com. Music is full of tough choices and alternative needs if the vinyl gets soggy. (I'll bring a hand-cranked phonograph or a solar powered CD player.) My Desert Island Top Ten 1. Pat Metheny. How do I choose with this guy? Is it all Pat Metheny Group (PMG) or solo stuff? Virtually impossible to narrow it down between the early Pat, the fusion Pat, the Brazilian Pat, and the Trio-Pat. If I have to choose, then it's 1982's Offramp by PMG, a fusionary, out of this world masterwork. The first time I saw him perform live was on this album's tour (11/10/82 at Trenton State College). Alternative choices: 1983's superb live Travels, 1978's buoyant White Album, 1992's emotional Secret Story, or 1997's out-there Imaginary Day. 2. Michael Hedges [1953-1997]. Another impossible, if not difficult choice. Now gone, he was a guitar demigod to me. I would have to choose the superb new collection Beyond Boundaries/Guitar Solos (2001). Alternative choices are 1984's Aerial Boundaries of course, with 1987's Live on the Double Planet and 1996's Oracle on my mind as well. 3. Derek and the Dominoes' Layla and other Assorted Love Songs (1972). One of the 20th Century's modern blues classics, an album of emotionalism and heartbreak tempered by brilliant poignant songwriting and classic musicianship. 4. Cream. The original power trio and the band that started so many others on their way. Six albums and where do you begin to choose? I gotta go with 1967's Disraeli Gears just because she was like a bearded rainbow. Alternative choice is 1968's Wheels of Fire, an indulgent but wild live record. 5. Beatles. Abbey Road and Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Still play them. Still love them. I'm taking both. Alternative choices: Revolver and Rubber Soul. 6. George Harrison [1943-2001]. His recent passing made me lug out my vinyl All Things Must Pass and I found that the binding had finally broken. (I got it for my 16th birthday in 1977.) The remastered CD released in 2001 is superb as well. This album with its subtle spirituality has always been a balm for the battered soul. No question it is a masterwork, though an overindulgent one. Still this album made me realize Harrison’s formidable guitar gifts and the additions of Clapton, Dave Mason, et al., is pretty satisfying as well, not to mention the Harrison/Dylan compositions. 7. Eric Johnson. Tones (1986). Hard to believe this is over 20 years old. The rock guitarist and album that came out of nowhere and blew my mind. He still does. Choice stuff here, perfect for air guitar on the beach. 8. Roxy Music. Avalon (1982). The greatest make-out album of all time. If I'm with someone else of course. Otherwise, I'm still enjoying it and thinking of someone back home. 9. James Taylor. Greatest Hits (1976). The first album I ever bought. Can't go too long without hearing America's best singer. 10. Bruce Springsteen. Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). I'm Jersey born and raised and this is the "Jersey" album for me. Power, poignancy, heartbreak, and resiliency. [The alternative choices are many. If I can get another thirteen (please?) there will be Eric Clapton's Crossroads collection (1988), Neil Young's Decade collection (1977), the Bee Gees' Main Course (1975), Jackson Browne's Running on Empty (1979), Bruce Cockburn's Waiting for a Miracle collection (1987), David Lindley & El Rayo-X (1978), Robben Ford and the Blue Line's Handful of Blues (1995), Stevie Ray Vaughan's Soul to Soul (1985), Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (1959), John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963), Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door (1979), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Damn the Torpedoes (1979), Michael Stanley Band's Heartland (1980), and Dan Fogelberg's The Innocent Age (1981).] Yes, I've ignored thousands of other deserving albums here, but I'm not on your desert island, am I? [Admittedly, I had a tough time sloughing through my album/CD collection which numbers 3,000 items or more. No lie. Ask my wife.] This is my belated entry into the "Where It All Began" write-off organized by Officer. I believe, in keeping with the rules, I've made the sort of embarrassing self revelations necessary for success and also provided the "Scads" of useful consumer information needed to keep Epinions alive. See the other entries by: Christoff, Daniel_Rf, difrentisgood, Divine_Cheese, educatedphool, emptywishes, ericexile, Jennjoy, kristinafh, kuuleimomi, lukasneville, Natch, omophagia, outofstep, PezKing, phixed, psychovant, and thordum for more submissions.  |
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