Lost in the commotion of the weekend and starting a new job this week, I neglected this blog post but didn't want to abandon it. These songs mean too much to me to let them go by without the proper acknowledgement. Here's a late post about some influential tracks that have shaped me over the years. One of my top playlists I've created so far.
I've Been Working
Although not as big as The Boss, Bob Seger was a prominent voice in my household growing up being my mother's favorite artist. Blues rock and roll Detroit style is buried in my blood and gives me chills to this day. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band are the epitome of a hard working, down and dirty rock and roll band equipped to pummel you into the ground and make you ask for seconds.
It's only appropriate to start the playlist off with "I've Been Working" a day ahead of my first day joing the blue collar work force. In need of a big change in life to humble myself while growing up I've finally jumped on an opportunity to get down and dirty and put the work in to get what I want.
Song subject aside, this track plays with my dreams and aspirations of playing music for a living. Live Bullet has come to hold the title of quintessential live show by a rock and roll band in my eyes. This song does it for me and I'm trying to get better at explaining why, but until then, here's a dose of a drug better than anything I've ever experienced. It's rock and roll and it kicks ass.
It's Up To You
Many a song has come to me through skateboarding in grand surprising fashion. Consortium is a band that felt like a long lost gem that evaded my gaze as I've searched for the perfect rock and roll music. I'm in love with 60's and 70's rock and its many offshoots with a bias towards hard rock. So, its beautiful when one of my passions includes another passion of mine and introduces me to a band I'd most likely never hear otherwise.
Transworld's And Now still holds its spot as my top skate video and my most watched to date. The skating, the music, and the time period just get me in the feels. I was introduced to a lot of good music through this video and many great skaters. It will always live as the video I want to watch most.
Although this song wasn't used in one of the guy's parts I was led to "It's Up To You" by the opening part that featured another Consoritum song "It's Not Easy." Getting into that song, like so many other times, I checked out the artist and found more that hooked me.
Hunter of Invisible Game
I'm a massive Bruce Springsteen fan, so when I say I love all his music I mean it. Well, that's excluding one terrible song we won't talk about here. But one thing I love about Bruce is that I am able to find so many vibes and moods within his music that I can construct playlist after playlist of different tracks that go along with any feeling I am experiencing.
"Hunter of Invisible Game" is one of the songs that finds its way on a special playlist of mine that showcases all my favorite slower Bruce tracks that warm my heart and make me feel safe. This track is a masterpiece of feeling. It gives me goose bumps, it makes my hair stand up, and like so many other Bruce songs, it evokes such strong emotions in me.
Faster
I fought myself and my friends for years trying to get this song on my iTunes without having to pay for it. Somewhere around 2007 I couldn't find myself shoveling out the 99 cents needed to get what I wanted... for what reason I don't know.
"Faster" found me through the roller blading video of local blader from the town adjacent to mine. Half my friends skateboarded and the other half roller bladed, but we all looked up to a group of older guys who had been blading and making videos since before we even tried out these sports. This crew was a huge influence on my friends and me and gave us the ability to be ourselves and form our own crew where we emulated the multiple cool things they did.
I must have watched this video over a hundred times the first week I found it. The blading was amazing and the fact that it was done by a guy from the town over made me love it even more. I could not stop thinking about this track and I mean it when I say could absolutely not stop. I begged my friends to help me find it or to get it for me. I didn't know much back then apparently, but I was determined to get this song on my iPod so I wouldn't have to keep watching the video on YouTube.
Since those days I've dove further into the Third Eye Blind catalog and have happily fell in love with the rest of their music. "Faster" will always hold a place in my heart as the first 3EB song I heard and the first that got me seriously tweaking over it.
Corre por la jungla
When I was a young teenager I told my parents in a restaurant waiting area that I had found this "new" band called Creedance Clearwater Revival. My mother looked at me and appropriately started to laugh and elbow my father. What a bold and naive statement. I'll fight it to this day and explain that I only meant that they were new to me, but whatever.
In my years since, I've become a big CCR fan in love with the aura and vibrations they gave off as talented musicians and story tellers. Quiero Creedance was a project put together of all Hispanic artists who love CCR and were influenced by their music. An album of cover songs some in Spanish and some in English. I remember my excitement as a half Cuban American when I found these tracks and the powerhouse offering in Bunbury's "Corre por la jungla."
"Run Through the Jungle" has been one of my top CCR tracks ever since I perused their catalog. Closely intertwined with my obsession with the 60's, 70's, rock and roll, and the vietnam war, "Run Through the Jungle" evokes numerous emotions in me as I try to learn everything about that time period and why it resonates with me so greatly.
I didn't know that this track could be taken to another level, so when I first heard "Corre por la jungla" my mind was appropriately blown. It has everything that I love and cherish in a good hard hitting rock and roll track. The production is magnificent. The bass and drums get me moving and reverberate through my body like a inside version of the goose bumps. Finally, we have the Hispanic flavor infused all over the track with percussion that doesn't miss a beat and a break down that hits you like a freight train perfectly showcasing Latin American grooves.
Gosh darn this track really gets me going. Find yourself a good stereo and turn this baby up to 11. Feel the vibrations and thank me later.
Watching The Wheels
I first heard John Lennon's "Watching The Wheels" in, you guessed it, a skate video (previously mentioned in the beginning of this post.) Transworld's And Now was highly influential on my skating and on my music taste. Nick Trapasso skated to this classic Lennon track and created a memorable part that I still think of to this day.
Having the connection with music and skateboarding only helps to strengthen my bond to the songs and artists I get introduced to. Being a huge Beatles fan didn't necessarily translate to me ingesting the members solo music although I've gotten better over time as the songs have found me in precarious ways. I've fallen in love with "Watching the Wheels" multiple times and cannot skip it once it comes on.
I think that's a good representation of the songs that have made it on these weekly playlists. They are songs that I won't be skipping if they came up in shuffle. They are the tracks I will instantaneously recognize when I'm out or when someone else plays them.
This is such a feel good track and I hope it finds you well or gets you moving in that direction. Enjoy.
Damaged Goods
As I compiled this playlist the appearance of those influential skate video songs couldn't be annoyed. Once one came into my view I headed straight for my mental cache of tracks I've found through skateboarding.
My best friend and I would watch Foundation's That's Life" nonstop. I remember it being one of the first skate videos I watched over and over and had a connection with. In one of the opening parts a song came to eclipse the skating and that was "Damaged Goods." No disrespect to Daniel Shimizu, but the obscurity and sheer difference of what we listened to made this Gang of Four song stand out past any other sensory distractions.
My friend and I would listen to this song and watch that part on repeat because we couldn't get enough of what we thought were wacky lyrics. At its heart this track is a classic punk song, but to us then it was an alien species coming out of the TV to transmit some foreign lesson in what was cool.
Comments