Music

Music by Eric

28 Songs that Changed My Life: Miles Davis, “So What” (9 of 28)

February 9, 2021 0 Comments

It would be hard to overstate the impact Miles Davis has had on me, my taste in music, and how I approach music in general. His relentless experimentation, his drive to forge his own path, and the plain ol’ fact that his work is FANTASTIC have ingrained themselves into my life in a deep way. It all started with “So What,” the opening track from his legendary Kind of Blue record, arguably the greatest jazz record of all time. When someone wants to get into instrumental jazz, I always recommend they start here. Listen for the aspects you like — the tinkling piano, the roaring sax solos, the meandering pace — then go check out the artists responsible for those elements (Bill Evans, John Coltrane,…
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28 Songs that Changed My Life: U.T.F.O., “Roxanne, Roxanne” (8 of 28)

February 8, 2021 0 Comments

Is this one of the great songs in hip hop history? Absolutely not. I can’t lie: it hasn’t aged well. It’s pretty dated. But it legit changed my life. U.T.F.O.’s “Roxanne Roxanne” is probably my earliest rap memory, a song that took over the playground of my small New Jersey town, passed around on mix tapes recorded from the radio and memorized by half the school. There are still lyrics I quote to this day (including for some damn reason, “dermatology is treatment of the skin”). It also sparked the so-called “Roxanne Wars,” a series of songs hitting back and forth at one another that played out as an ongoing story between rival rappers. As a kid, I was mesmerized. This was right out of…
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28 Songs that Changed My Life: Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit” (7 of 28)

February 7, 2021 0 Comments

When I first started exploring jazz in the late 1990s, vocal jazz wasn’t tops on my list. I preferred (and still prefer) the instrumental stuff from the late 1940s through the late 1960s. However, I still made it a point to listen to the major names of the genre when it came to vocal jazz, too, because if I was self-educating, I wanted to take it all in. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and many others helped me zero in on the aspects of vocal jazz I liked. Then there was Billie Holiday. Her haunting voice was already familiar to me, in no small part because it’s been imitated so many times. It was … different. Otherworldly. There was little joy…
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28 Songs that Changed My Life: De La Soul, “The Magic Number” (6 of 28)

February 6, 2021 0 Comments

Hip hop entered my life at a fairly early age, making its way to the New Jersey sticks by way of transplants from New York City. Early cuts like “Roxanne Roxanne,” “Rock Box” and others were elementary school playground jams that stick with me to this day. But let’s be honest: The early years of rap were pretty samey. Awesome, yes, but not particularly varied in sound, approach, or lyrics. There was a formula and most acts stuck with it. Then in 1989, De La Soul dropped Three Feet High and Rising, and everything changed for me. Hip Hop could be light-hearted, joyful, romantic and fun? Who knew!? They sampled ’60s hippy jams and music for the Woodstock generation. They rapped about awkwardly talking up…
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28 Songs that Changed My Life: The Crystals – “Da Doo Ron Ron” (5 of 28)

February 5, 2021 0 Comments

There’s just something about a chorus of women singing a catchy melody over a dense bed of sound that feels right. Phil Spector was a murdering villain. That is now his legacy, and it will be forevermore. But that legacy shouldn’t taint the legacy of fantastic vocal groups like The Crystals, who provided a soundtrack for my youth and who, without me knowing it, influenced the music I’d later come to love. For a time, I found the stuff by The Crystals, The Ronnettes, and others to be dated and quaint. It was my mom’s music, not mine. It’s music for old movies (and old PEOPLE), not for listening by someone modern and with it. Time has proved me wrong. This stuff is classic for…
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