[Music Thingy] New meaning from my old loves.

[eustaciavye77]

As a child and teenager I was a rabid music listener. My tastes were not exactly what you would call good when it started, but through those years of constantly soundtracking my life I developed a better ear where better means more able to appreciate complex sounds and more open to sounds that might've been strange or even repulsive to 11 year old me.

During college and for a few years afterward I got distracted from music by a mixture of depression and life and a ridiculous idea that I was too old to spend that much time on music. In early 2003 I "rediscovered" The Waterboys and Mike Scott. I'd heard one of their songs growing up and adored it but never looked into any of their other stuff. The Waterboys were the first musical love affair of my adult life. I saw them play on December 5, 2003. Since then I've fallen for many more musicians. Luckily I am as polyamorous with music as I am with people. Still, there's something special about that first love and they stillhave 2 of my top ten favorite albums ever. Today listening to "Glastonbury Song" in the car the chant of "there is a green hill far away, I'm going back there one fine day." took me back to Ireland standing atop Dun Aengus (yes I know Glastonbury is not in Ireland but I challenge you to find a place with more green hills). I desperately want to go back but I can't just yet so for now at least I have songs to take me there. That is what Mike Scott does with his lyrics and music - transport people. Both times I saw them play, it was as if the entire Berkley Performance Center was plucked out of the urban crush and levitated atop a beam of light for 2 hours.

So tonight I share with you a few of my favorite Waterboys songs:

First, "Glastonbury Song" from Dream Harder

"Let It Happen" from A Rock In The Weary Land

"A Life of Sundays" from Room to Roam

And because its not a Waterboys spam without it, here's "Whole of the Moon" from This Is The Sea. Surprisingly hard to find a live performance of this where the sound wasn't horribly distorted.