Music that has impacted my life, Vol 1

Before I get into the meat of my first “music that has impacted me” series (currently sitting at 30 albums), I’ll give a taste of my musical history.

I’ve always loved music. Always.  I remember listening to music on A.M. radio (back when A.M. HAD music) in mom and dad’s car, and in the mornings - getting ready for school - on the little transistor radio mom had in the kitchen.  The music was populated by John Denver, Barry Manilow, The Carpenters, etc.  Easy listening stuff.  In the spring and summer, during “clean up” days, mom would have the record player going with Herb Alpert, John Denver, and others that I can’t remember.

Come 4^th grade, I was able to choose an instrument to play if I wanted.  I chose violin.  I did that for a year, then in 5^th grade I moved up to upright bass.  I was one of a few members from my school that went to ANOTHER school for practice before school started, and that little orchestra did a few “tours” of the schools in the district.

In junior high I was a member of the orchestra, joined the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra organization, starting with the youngest group, the Little Symphony.  The music there was good, semi-popular classical music, but arranged down a few levels for the young musicians just really starting out.  Following year, I moved up to the Junior symphony where the music was a bit more advanced.  But, as I was the only bass player, I still played with the Little. Finally, in 9^th grade, I moved up to the actual Youth symphony.  This group was for the “kids” up to age 21 (I think), and played full, unedited symphonies by the greats: Mozart, Beethoven, Sibelius, etc.

In 11^th grade, I also picked up the bass guitar to play with the high school jazz band, and still played with the Seattle Youth Symphonies, in addition to a couple more local groups.  That year was my busiest one, musically: Little Symphony, Junior Symphony, Youth Symphony, high school orchestra, high school jazz band, an operetta company, Redmond Chamber orchestra, another group that played Beethoven’s 9^th (complete with large choral group), and a trio that was a spin-off of the chamber orchestra that played a few gigs here and there.

Starting in about 7^th grade, I started getting away from my parent’s type of music, and developing my own taste.  The first tape I ever bought was Bryan Adams’ Reckless, followed by Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.  I started listening to a rock station at night, before switching it to a classical one to fall asleep. Typical 80s rock: Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Kiss, etc.

I bought a few more rock tapes over the years: Guns n Roses (more on them in a later episode), Bon Jovi, etc.

But I still think the most memorable one, and first real “metal” music I bought, was in 1989.  Iron Maiden’s Powerslave album.

I had just watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and the lines: “Put them in the iron maiden.”
“Iron maiden?! Excellent!” stuck with me for some reason.  I thought to myself: “hey…that’s a metal group, right? If they like it, maybe I will too.” (That was my reasoning at the time. Hey, I was young and stupid then, shaddup.)

So, I went to a Fred Meyer (dad had to stop by there to get something, I just went to the music section), looked under “I”, and found the only one they had by Iron Maiden: Powerslave.  I remember being excited about it because of the skull on the front (Eddy), and getting a “real metal” album.  Man, was I NOT disappointed. From the first chord of Aces High, to the final strains of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, I was absolutely hooked.

There are two “must hear” tracks from this album: Powerslave, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  The first, Powerslave, tells the story of a pharaoh, who is apparently about to die, and is ruminating on what is to come after he passes. The song starts out with a heartbeat with an accompanying “uh-uh”, then a wolf-type (maybe jackal, considering the setting?) howl screams out, dissolving into a rather menacing laughter, then dissolving into the opening chords.
The entire song is just awesome, but I think the best part is the second guitar solo that hits at about the 4:40 mark. It starts off really growly that just grabs me, then the driving rhythm of bass, drums, and the other guitar makes this song simply addictive.

The second song on this album that is a must-hear is “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, and is loosely based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name.  Again, from the opening chords, this song just hooks me. Part of it may be the length: clocking in at 13:41, it is the second longest Maiden song (the first is over 18 minutes).  Another part that I love about this song is the inclusion of lines from the actual poem in two separate instances.
It tells the story of a mariner (sailor) on a ship sailing south, to the Antarctic region, apparently. On the voyage, however, he kills an albatross…which is a “bird of good omen”, which starts a curse.  Everyone on the ship dies except him, and the ship just sits there unable to move due to no wind.  After who knows how long, he finally prays for all the animals including sea creatures, and the wind and rain come and take the boat home.  The curse is lifted as the ship gets close to his homeland. A hermit (I’m reading country-dwelling priest, here) hears the mariner’s confession, and has him tell his tale wherever he goes.

This song has three distinct parts: beginning, where the ship is sailing south and the mariner kills the albatross. Middle, where “Death and she, Life In Death” roll dice for the crew of the ship. She wins the mariner, Death wins the rest. This is a slower section where not much is going on, just like when the ship is unable to sail “with no wind in her sails and no tide”. It includes some creaking, as would be heard on a wooden ship.  Finally, the third section is after the mariner prays for the sea creatures and the curse is lifted.

A couple interesting things here: the artist that drew the album cover put in a few easter eggs.  See the pictures below.

First one has "Indiana Jones was here 1941" and a Mickey Mouse head.  The second was a Kilroy picture with "Wot? No Guiness?"