“Everyone takes in music differently as a child and what you are exposed to at a young age is what you’ll be bouncing back to the world when it’s your turn to keep the lights on and feed the next generation. Music is motion, and motion is energy.”
“Dancing was a big deal to my mother growing up, but not what you think of as normal dancing, but a free form, often humorous exchange between the song and her heart. Listening to music she would say, ‘You know Kyle, this song makes me want to do this…’ and then would proceed to do some silly spin or something hilarious with her hands in a ‘backing up Diana Ross’ kind of way. Music was motion, motion is energy, and that still means a lot to me today.
Music was the fuel, and most of that fuel was hippy dippy shit, like the Beatles and CSNY. That’s not to say that’s all we listened too, but that was the spark. The albums she had were the ones I grew up with, but as I got older I found my own voice and my own types of music that inspired me.
Let’s look at a few, shall we?
Cheech and Chong, Los Cochinos, Ode Records, 1973 | This album was one of those ones that had it all, inside and out. The cover is of the guys in a car driving through the desert, the insert shows the car door stuffed with marijuana as if they were smuggling it. Can they do that? They did. The art, comedy, and music all tied together is something really special. “Pedro and Man at the Drive-Inn” is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard, and George Harrison’s guitar on “Basketball Jones” is EPIC.
Mother Earth, Plantasia, Homewood Records, 1976 | Once in Greenville, SC I was rummaging through a used record bin at a thrift store when I found, Mother Earth’s Plantasia. On the cover it is advertised as “warm earth music for plants….and the people who love them.” It should read, “spark a doobie and think about your hands” with a clause that reads, “and maybe your plants will dig it too…” This shit is so unbelievable it fails to compare, save to say it could be called similar to elevator music from a not to distant future on Jupiter.
Donovan, Wear Your Love like Heaven, Epic Records, 1972 | This is kind of like an album that you don’t skip around, each song takes you to the next, no fat to trim, ala Can’t Buy a Thrill by Steely Dan, or The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. I’m not even a HUGE Donovan fan, but when you’re right—you’re right—and Donovan hit a home run with this album.
XTC, Black Sea, Virgin Records, 1980 | Okay, only because I was given this “soap box” in which to tell you about my favorite music will I berate you one more time with a band that EVERYONE who enjoys and appreciates great music should know about.
Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding are without a doubt two of the most talented and inspiring team of songwriters out there—right there with John and Paul. New Wave never sounded as good as it does here, and it’s 3 dimensional. Where most music in general sounds just like every other band in that genre, there was always XTC to say, hey what if we did it this way? OUR WAY? And it always works in a spiritual way, deep, angry, whimsical, and ironic…
