A Great Way to Start an Argument While Waiting for Eggs.

Good morning!

I've always talked about how music is so important to the creative process, and how musicians and composers are every bit as literary as a novelist. Recently I've started wondering just how much people are missing in this digital file, download one song only world.

So yesterday Hubby and I went hiking and as a reward for my hiking  (I am not what you'd call an avid outdoors woman) Hubby took me to one of our new favorite breakfast places. (Glenda's Cafe in Okauchee, WI...if you're in the area check it out.  And if you have a chance to get the crab cake eggs Benedict, do so.)

The place was wildly busy, being a holiday weekend and all, so we had quite a bit of time to wait for our food. Over the restaurant speakers came a song from Dan Fogleberg's "Windows and Walls" album. I've long maintained this is one of the greatest albums ever put together if for no other reason than "Tuscon, Arizona" all eight minutes of it, is brilliant. It may not be the greatest, but in my opinion, it's one of my top 100 favorite albums.

That started a discussion about what 100 albums we'd take if we were forced to pick only 100.  (And that should tell you the state of our music collection. I'm not saying we have a ton of music, I'm just saying the 100 is a very small number.)  

Hubby and I set ground rules:  Soundtracks and live albums were in.  Greatest hits collections were not.  In this downloaded, digital files world, we wanted to pick albums, yes ALBUMS, that were collections that moment when the album was put together, not just a greatest hits or compilation of songs put together by some record label because that's what people knew that's what people would buy. Artists have reasons for putting songs on albums, at least most of the time they do.  In my own experience, if I relegated myself to only Barry Manilow or Rick Springfield's "Greatest Hits" collections, first of all, which one would I pick and second of all, I would miss out, in both cases on my favorite songs.  (Barry Manilow's "I am Your Child" and "You're Lookin' Hot Tonight" are barely a blip on the radar for his biggest ans and it's doubtful any but the most devoted fans can hum a few bars of Rick Springfield's "Dream in Colour" or "LIO.")


So greatest hits were out, but hey, if you want a live album, as Hubby pointed out with his choice of Johnny Cash's "Live From Folsom Prison" that is a different animal because that's different arrangements and different vibes from the audience.  Also helpful since two of my picks would be Neil Diamond's "Hot August Night" and The Smothers Brother's" Live from the Purple Onion." 

Not that either of us is stuck in the past, musically speaking.  One of my first picks, and a surprising one for those who know me, was Eric Church's newest "The Outsiders."  I haven't even listened to the whole thing all the way through, but I don't have to.  Hubby was trying to decide which, and how many, of Garth Brooks' and Weird Al Yankovic's albums he'd take along. And while he thought Little Big Town's "Tornado" was a no brainer, I was torn because my two favorite Little Big Town recordings:  "Boondocks" and the live version of "Life in a Northern Town" are on two other albums. And while I would take The Band Perry's album "Pioneer" because their one song, "Done" is about as good a song as I'm ever going to hear, I would NOT take Donny Iris' "Back on the Streets" even though "Ah Leah" is number two on my all time favorite songs forever.  (What's my number one song?  Check out the video below...I have no less than six different versions of this song on my iPod.)


Some groups brought up a debate because we disagreed on albums.  I couldn't decide which of my Florence and the Machine albums I would take:"Lungs" or "Ceremonials." Hubby said I should take "Lungs" because that one was better. And then we came back to Barry Manilow because I was POSITIVE he'd take "Swing Street," and he wasn't so sure.

"It doesn't matter, though," he said, "because you can bring it along."

That's when we had to stop talking for a minute and look at each other.  We've been together since we were 18, married for 24 years this year.  Thinking like a team, one completing the other, is in our blood.  

"What if where I'm going and where you're going aren't the same places?"

I couldn't believe he said it out loud, but he was right.  When you think of that deserted island we are all packing for, how many married couples just assume they're going together, so if I don't pack Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," then Hubby probably will.  
Another rule in the game:  Married couples don't get to share.  

That was a game changer.  So, then, since I can't take a greatest hits, and I'm really just a casual Beatles fan, do I take the White Album or do I sneak the "Across the Universe" soundtrack in?  Or, since I MUST have the "Top Gun" AND the "Footloose" (from the first movie, not the remake) soundtracks, will I even HAVE any room in my top 100?

This winds up leading, if you have to wait for your food long enough, to real differences of opinion and the idea that if you limit the vast selection of music to only what you want to bring along, and the debate can get ugly.  I would bring along at least one Backstreet Boys album.  Hubby thinks that's nuts. Meanwhile, he's bringing Lone Justice's "Shelter," a band and album that makes me want to tear my ears off.

God help me, I just can't help it.  THIS is my Fab Four!

The question many ask, "Stones or Beatles?"  I would, in the framework of this discussion, have to answer honestly, "The Monkees." 

For which I would be soundly mocked.

But when it comes to music, as with books or movies, it's about what speaks to us, not what is deemed great or worthy by the collective.  Sure, "Born to Run" is generally thought of as one of the best albums of all time.  But is it going to make my top 100?  Not if I have to sacrifice Rick Springfield's "Shock Denial Anger Acceptance" it won't.  And that's got nothing to do with the mass appeal, the writing, the quality of either album.  SDAA speaks to me in a way few albums do, which makes it my Best Album of All Time.

So what's the point of all this?  Why open a discussion about this at all?  We do it for the same reason websites like Goodreads exist:  We want to hold up what we love, what speaks to us, and see if there are others out there that feel the same way we do.  Granted, it always starts out with, "If I lived on a deserted island..." but, I promise you, by the time the eggs arrive at your table, you're going to be in a deep discussion about the value of the writing styles of Kesha versus Lady GaGa, and you may lose respect for your partner...and maybe for yourself a little bit.  (For the record, I'd take a Kesha album LONG before Lady GaGa.)

It's the same with books, and as writers we have to keep that in mind.  Writing is about telling a story.  Tell your story, don't worry about what the market trends are, or who is selling and who is not.  The best albums, musically and artistically, tend to come from artists after they've stopped trying to have a top 40 hit.  We as writers can bypass the noise and the nonsense and stay true to the stories we are writing.  Maybe they don't hit right away. Maybe we have to wait.  But someday, sometime, there's going to be a huge discussion raging at a table in a small breakfast place and our books may be part of that. 

And isn't THAT what's it's all about?