Song enriches appreciation
Published Saturday September 6th, 2008
Although the visual arts have always been my first passion, many hours of my childhood were spent playing piano, guitar, and drums. During my teen years, I went through the garage band phase, although our band practiced in my parents' basement rather than the garage.
When it comes to listening to music, the songs I end up liking are usually connected to a personal memory or image. I get pictures in my head when I hear certain kinds of music or sounds. I also find that knowing something about the history or background of a song enriches my appreciation of it.- Terry Graff, curator, Beaverbrook Art Gallery
1. Bird on a Wire - Leonard Cohen
This is truly a classic, one of the most resonating songs about freedom and trying to be true to one's self ever written. And it's made all the more poignant by the sonorous, funereal voice of its author, Leonard Cohen, who has produced many different versions of it.
2. Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin
This snappy tune derives from a morbid German song, 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer' with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by the great dramatist Bertolt Brecht for the 1928 theatrical production 'Threepenny Opera'. I've collected over 30 different renditions. My favourite version is Bobby Darin's 1959 smash hit, which was banned by several radio stations because it was thought to encourage gang violence.
3. Crossroads Blues - Robert Johnson
As his song 'Crossroads Blues' is reputed to recount, legendary blues musician Robert Johnson's burning desire for fame and fortune prompted him to walk, just before midnight, to the intersection of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. It was at the crossroads, a powerful site of Black Magic, where he traded his immortal soul for an extraordinary, unearthly, bottleneck slide technique. Although he died in 1938 at a very young age (27) and under mysterious circumstances, his music influenced countless musicians and laid the foundation for blues and rock 'n' roll.
4. Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
I first heard this song when it aired on the radio back in the 1970s. I recall that I was painting a white picket fence at the time, and was struck by its catchy melody and the environmental message of its clever lyrics. In 2005, I had the privilege of spending a day with Ms. Mitchell at her home in L.A. reviewing some of her paintings. At the end of my visit, Joni called a taxi for me and, of course, it was yellow.
5. Greensleeves - Unknown
This old traditional English folk classic played in melodic minor is probably the most soulful and exquisitely beautiful songs about love's rejection I've ever heard. Its earliest reference is 1580. There has been much speculation over its authorship, and one popular belief is that it was written by the Henry VIII, who was, in fact, a consummate musician, the lyrics being inspired by his turbulent courtship with Ann Boleyn. I highly recommend Loreena McKennitt's ethereal rendition.
6. King of the Road - Roger Miller
Roger Miller is often pigeon-holed as a country music singer, but I think his unique style, with its jazz-influenced undertones, defies such narrow classification. 'King of the Road' is his signature song. The stoical celebration of a hobo who enjoys the life of a nomad riding the rails and living a hand-to-mouth existence strikes a meaningful chord about freedom.
7. When You Wish Upon a Star - Cliff Edwards
This dreamy song, which was introduced by Walt Disney in 1940 in the feature-length animated cartoon 'Pinocchio', and which won the Academy Award for best original song that same year, has been ranked seventh by the American Film Institute in their 100 Greatest Songs in Film History.
8. Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) - Benny Goodman
The definitive rendition by the Benny Goodman Orchestra was in 1938, at the end of a 43-minute set, when it whipped the audience into a frenzy and shattered the image of Carnegie Hall as a shrine to so-called high-brow classical music. This performance is cited as the moment when jazz officially gained validity from the music establishment.
9. Taxman - George Harrison
George Harrison was inspired to write this song when he discovered how much he was actually earning after taxes were deducted. My favourite interpretation is by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
10. Night on Bald Mountain - Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Inspired by a short story by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol and based on Russian folklore, this dark and dramatic musical evocation of ghouls and demons gathering at a nocturnal witches' celebration, was written by a civil servant who was fired from his job for drunkenness.
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