Do you guys still sit and listen to your "favourite" songs?

by **Drumstruck** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:44 pm

I was just setting up my centre speaker and got out some vinyl (King Crimson - Epitaph) as a test - it was so nice to sit back and just listen to a song for no other reason than it was a beautiful song.... (being all soppy here :ymhug:

)

Do you guys still do this just for yourself? Just wondering if this bit of pleasure gets lost in the day to day audio world?.....

by **stosostu** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:10 pm

Can't say I do it very often, but the CD stacker in the car is usually full of my faves and occasionally after a late session when the adrenelin is still pumping.

by **musikwerks** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:50 pm

Every week... iphone--->sennheiser HD25's---->chemotherapy.

I get about 4 hours to sit and do nothing on chemo day so going back through old favourites and loading them onto the phone seemed like a good idea. Listening to music also helps filter out all those annoying funeral plan and life insurance ads that are on during the day. Not the kind of thing you want to be concentrating on in the oncology ward. %-(

by **vanderlae** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:15 pm

Geez Kris, you'd think they would wise up to the poor programming and cheap ads of daytime TV by now and switch over to foxtel. Discovery channel - anything interesting. I think it's an unspoken rule of thumb that all medical facilities purchase TV's made in 1986 from garage sales and whack them up in the corner, turn on Kerry-Anne and leave it locked for the day.

As for the original question, yes. Absolutely yes. It's what makes most of us here get into what we do in the first place; the kinship to music. And I probably have my eyes open to the music I listen to more than ever...sooner or later you shun the music you dislike and crave more of the music that gives you the goosebumps. Life is too short to waste time on unexciting music. I find myself going further and further back in time to get my fix, too, because of the unadulterated honesty and conviction you hear in it...from a performance perspective. And parties or having people over - music ALWAYS dictates the mood, so yeah, it's chosen wisely and in the interests of good listening!

Someone turned me onto this guy a couple of years ago and this song in particular is the most fun you can have either with people or by yourself. Defines fun, perhaps? I am in fact going to sample it. Take a listen. Go on, take it!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUi6UEQh00

Dave

by **musikwerks** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:06 pm

Public hospital system... it would take years to get Foxtel approved. They just removed the only ATM machine at the hospital because it "might" get in the way of renovations. The cafe only takes cash. They couldn't have moved it somewhere away from the reno's? No. Had to be removed altogether. Apply that kind of logic to getting Foxtel installed.....

by **irecord** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:58 pm

I watched the original version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with my 3 year old last night. He really enjoyed it. Now that's not to say the modern version with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonker does not have value, but I want him to appreciate the source. Of course there is an element of "sound track of my life" in the music I choose to listen to, but there's not much in the last 15 years that grabs my interest and doesn't sound recycled to me. And of course the internet has given us even more of the "source" to discover. But for my money, original recordings on vinyl the likes of Kind of Blue or Time Out or the Everly Brothers or Floyd does it for me. I can't believe some of that stuff was recorded over 50 years ago. I have a constantly evolving collection of reference tracks that inspire me and whenever I'm down on music, I throw them on to remind myself why I got hooked in the first place. And of course now I have a responsibility to protect and encourage my little one's ears.

by **AnthonyMF** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:16 pm

If you mean, just sitting down, with no distractions, and LISTENING to a song... yes.

I guess we've all done a lot of it when we want to study music. Whether it's in reference to an instrument, an arrangement, a mix, whatever. But a couple of years back it really struck me how much I didn't sit and listen to music solely for pleasure, without distraction:

I had the pleasure of meeting Herbie Hancock in 2007 when he came to Perth, and we were of course talking about music, when my Dad mentioned to Herbie his memory of walking into my room to see me playing WoW and slaying monsters, while listening to Duke Ellington. At which point Herbie looked rather astounded and asked me, "How can you do anything else while listening to music? When there's music on I just have to stop."

I think that these days, since it takes considerably less effort to obtain and then put on recorded music, people spend less time sitting and appreciating it.

by **DarkSky** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:31 pm

I still listen (as in concertedly focus on listening - as opposed to "have playing in the background") to favourite pieces. But the pieces that are my favourites change. I find that in any three to five year period I have current favourites - and a separate category of favourites that extend back over many decades (all time favourites, I guess).

I treat the two categories differently. I try not to listen to all time favourites too frequently, because I want to keep them fresh and they are an important reference. I really don't want to get to the point of "that's enough, thanks" with them. Newer "current" favourites I have no qualms about and am happy to absorb - fully and frequently.

by **Chinagraf** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:46 pm

Sometimes I do it too much, particularly when I should be working. The other time I often do it without thinking is around 11pm then suddenly I look at the clock and it's 4 am and I have to be up at 7.

by **NYMo** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:21 pm

Hi there,

I've been listening to the same music for basically 40 years (and I don't really give a f**k about new music)

When I got my ATC100's last year its been a pleasure to listen to old trax in the studio instead of listening usually on my iphone, ipod etc. You cant hear the tape hiss on those i things anyway

cheers
John NYMO Nyman
ex owner Red Berry Records

by **audioio** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:41 pm

irecord wrote:I watched the original version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with my 3 year old last night. He really enjoyed it. Now that's not to say the modern version with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonker does not have value

Yes, but Johnny Depp as Willy Wonker has no value.

What were they thinking...?

by **Ben M** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:22 pm

irecord wrote:But for my money, original recordings on vinyl the likes of Kind of Blue

I listened to Kind of Blue the other day after a long break from hearing it. Man that's a damn good recording. 1959.... and sounds better than any other jazz record I've heard. The musicians didn't know what they were going to record.

by **Drumstruck** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:38 am

It's interesting that a few of us reached for a record (vinyl) when wanting to listen to something for pleasure. (are we showing our age?).

One thing I ceased many years ago was having background music playing (and I only have an emergency windup radio) - it just seemed like pointless ambient noise...... (grumpy old man syndrome?)....

re Willy - generally I don't like remakes of movies but on this occassion I found the Gene Wilder version tedious and loved the Johnny Depp version. But each to their own or we would all be listening to the one song over and over 8-}

by **mylesgm** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:03 am

Yes and no. Sometimes after full days of working on music what I want is silence to refresh the batteries.

I remember talking to Peter Sculthorpe when I was a student and asking him what music he listened to when he was at home. His response was that he didn't listen to music at home, he created music at home and went to concerts to hear music. I was pretty surprised as a 17yo to hear that 'he didn't really listen to music much' but I really understand it now.

On other days I need to have what my Dad calls a musical bath to wash the crap out and refresh the love and feeling of great music. And it can be any style from Early Music like Gabrieli, Schutz, Allegri or Tallis through to Zepplin, Miles Davis, Michael Jackson, Laura Veirs, Feist or Daniel Lanois whatever. All music made with integrity, emotion and skill interests me and there is nothing like discovering or re-discovering to inspire anew or to open the eyes/ears.

I love that something potentially so abstract can be at one and the same time incredibly meaningful. Kind of like nature.

by **DarkSky** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:17 am

mylesgm wrote:...On other days I need to have what my Dad calls a musical bath to wash the crap out and refresh the love and feeling of great music...

Exactly - and very nicely put, Myles. I'll think of it as a bath in future! :-bd

by **AnthonyMF** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 1:08 pm

Hercules wrote:It's interesting that a few of us reached for a record (vinyl) when wanting to listen to something for pleasure. (are we showing our age?).

Nope! I'm a youngin' and I'll still raid my dads records if I'm feeling like having a serious sit and listen, even if it's something I have on CD like Led Zep.

Those big black ominous discs of wonderment demand your respect! I must be one of the few people my age that have touched music in a physical form. I freaked out pretty hard the first time I put the needle down and heard Jimi singing at me before I'd even turned the stereo on.

by **Hud** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:49 pm

One of my great pleasures is putting some good music up on the big speakers at home. It more than sets the mood, it takes over the whole house. I think it shuts off some of the overworked parts of my brain too. All of a sudden, the room is a different colour, and you're looking at the world differently.

by **DaleRoyce** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:08 pm

Are you kidding.. With my new set of ATC scm 40's pushed by my Chord 612 (350w/c) mono Amps..
Its 3 hours work and 4 hours Recreational listening a day.. I mean, i do need to run all this gear in right..
Well.... Thats my excuse anway

by **seancook** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:12 am

I do a lot of listening in the car to new music and cds of stuff
but when i listen to music from a purely obsessive music fan perspective it is mostly on my turntable through the hifi
Which certainly isn't out of the norm in my circle of friends, but it definitely started from listening to my dads copy of dark side that
influenced my listening to vinyl for musical pleasure, used to buy classic rock records all original and in good nick from my uni record store for under ten bucks each
pretty good value i thought!