Listening Skills

January 14, 2005

What has happened to all the writing? It has gone underground. I have kept it close to my breast. The flow has been pretty splendid. The strangest thing is that I have gone back to listening. Where the hell was I? At a certain point there was just too much coming at me and I started to make choices. Gone were the days when I could go down through the layers of an album and work my way to its heart. For some records that takes more work than modern times will allow. X-box, Gamecube and Playstation time may make this a dying art. It’s not until the twentieth intensive listen through some albums that they become part of your body. Lights out. Laz-E-boy. The pilot light on the receiver bathes the room in enough low light that your eyes can still make out everything. Individual songs for your bathing pleasure:

Ray LaMontagne “Shelter”
Beach Boys “Caroline No”
Wilson Pickett “Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You”
Arthur Alexander “I Hang My Head and Cry”
Gladys Knight & the Pips “the Nitty Gritty”
Sly & the Family Stone “Luv N’Haight”
Rockpile “Teacher Teacher”

…hell the whole “Seconds of Pleasure” album (Rockpile) gives me such …pleasure.

I don’t know why I pick those but they are full of real joy and sadness. Not like any of us need any sadness but if we can embrace it the world is easier to understand.

Hope to see some of you in Hamilton, Ottawa or Toronto. Those in farther away places can see Jesse, Paul Brennan, Simon Kendall & I on CTV's “Canada AM” on the morning of the 18th.