Well, it’s taken me a month to use up my Christmas gift from Kay: a $30 iTunes gift certificate. A month! (Some of you are shaking your heads at me in wonder.) You see, because I love music so much and iTunes makes it so easy to spend money, I have trained myself to resist the temptation. So being given permission, well, it just made my head spin. Where to start? What to buy?
With new things about to begin, Soliton is on my mind, so the musical trigger of Coldplay was on my heart. So it seemed only fitting to start with:
Clocks, and
Speed of Sound
Then it was time to go back to my prog roots. First, a bit of prog jazz:
Romantic Warrior by Return to Forever
This album used to be listed at $5.94 because it only has six pieces, but by the time I bought it the price had been jacked up to the full $9.99. Oh well. This is so worth it.
Then onto prog pop. You didn’t know there was such a thing, did you?
The Gist of the Gemini by Gino Vanelli
I mean, side B (remember, albums used to have sides?) is a full-on concept piece called the War Suite. Jazzy progressions, with great synth work, and above all Gino’s amazing voice. He has an odd falsetto, but has such control of it that it gives me chills.
Since I’m on my prog kick, I really had to get true-blue prog rock:
Relayer by Yes
At $2.97 for a full album, this one’s a steal! Are there other prog bargains out there?
By this point I was starting to run low. Do I go for Todd Rundgren? No, the sound of Gino Vanelli’s voice had infected me, so I picked up
Appaloosa and
Feel Like Flying
I had forgotten that they both have sa-weet bass playing.
One more Coldplay,
Trouble
And finally, some serious jazz funk:
Hip Pockets and
Juicy
by the Billy Cobham and George Duke Band.
Because all these tunes are so familiar from long ago, but I haven’t heard them in a long time, I have found they give me a big energy boost when I do household chores. I mean, I am dancing around, woo!
And I’ve got 12 cents left.
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Coldplay? Don’t forget “Yellow” …
heh.
For some reason, I purchased their XY (I believe it was) album, and the whole thing got me depressed!!
I wonder if it’s just me..
“Yellow?” That’s how I answer the phone… I wasn’t quite as fortunate as you, but I did receive a $20 iTunes card from my brother for Christmas. I immediately bought the Kansas “Point of Know Return” album since I only had it on vinyl and like to e able to have it on the iPod. I also bought “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard featured in the movie “Once” that I recommend to you as a musician (if you haven’t already seen it). Cool story. “Space Oddity” by Bowie (don’t ask) and “Crazy on You” by Heart since my kids liked playing it on Guitar Hero and I keep having to prove to them that the originals are far superior to the simplified GH versions
.
Oh and speaking of depressed, I used to get Coldplay and Death Cab mixed up until Birgit bought “Plans.” Very cool musically and the imagery of the music is cool too, but how many songs about death do you need on one album?
I guess the thing for me is the associations (or “musical triggers”) I have with each.
Gino Vanelli takes me back to high school.
Yes takes me back to so many good times with my best friend Jim.
Return to Forever, and Cobham/Duke takes me back to summers at Lake Nojiri.
And Coldplay takes me back to Soliton, which continues to shape me.