To what are you currently listening?

[red solo cup]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDH6V-3WNII&list=PLBGyVU0n9cBuVbj0-bRbit6tYKtJ7tXKF

[Mono no aware]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZQ69w8NmxI[/yt]

[red solo cup]

[Matto]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/embed/YMwPd27sg_k?ecver=1[/yt]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/embed/VhXuO4Gz3Wo?ecver=1[/yt]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/embed/VSH7N-HaxnE?ecver=1[/yt]

[Matto]

I have been trying to find beauty in modern culture recently and I have been going back over some of the art and music that I used to listen to before my conversion. For a while I kept away from modern culture completely but now I am looking back to some of what I used to like. This is Forever Changes by Love. It is an existential psychedelic hippie rock and roll album. I don't know much about the artists but listening to this record makes me feel like it was made by an artist on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I get the same feeling from Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, Raw Power by the Stooges, and for a more famous record, Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones, all of which I liked, but I don't think today I would want to listen to Raw Power or Exile on Main Street again.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/embed/VRTKtOZ-ta0?ecver=1[/yt]

[red solo cup]

[Lydia Purpuraria]

I spent a lot of time in the car this week, and I probably heard "Jesse's Girl" and "Summer Breeze" about 10 times each (on different radio stations--it's some kind of a conspiracy, I tell ya).  So, I was happy to hear this one come on yesterday ... hadn't heard it in forever.  Nice change from the monotony and overplay of the above-mentioned songs (and had me listening to some Pretenders, too, over the last couple of days). 

[red solo cup]

[Mono no aware]

I have been trying to find beauty in modern culture recently and I have been going back over some of the art and music that I used to listen to before my conversion. For a while I kept away from modern culture completely but now I am looking back to some of what I used to like. This is Forever Changes by Love. It is an existential psychedelic hippie rock and roll album. I don't know much about the artists but listening to this record makes me feel like it was made by an artist on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I get the same feeling from Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, Raw Power by the Stooges, and for a more famous record, Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones, all of which I liked, but I don't think today I would want to listen to Raw Power or Exile on Main Street again.

Exile on Main Street and Astral Weeks are two of my very favorite records.  I'm not sure if I get an "artist on the verge of a nervous breakdown" feel from Astral Weeks, though.  More like a pastoral pagan at the height of his powers.  I do know that Exile on Main Street was recorded over a long period of time when the Rolling Stones were holed up in Keith Richards' mansion in France and living lives of extreme decadence and squalor.  I don't know what kind of game board or runic design it is on the little stone table where Van Morrison's lady appears to be reading his palm, but I like the photo.  A lot of posters on this forum despise the culture of the 60s, but not me.

[Matto]

Exile on Main Street and Astral Weeks are two of my very favorite records. . . . A lot of posters on this forum despise the culture of the 60s, but not me.

I find the culture of the 60s to be problematic morally for the most part but not nearly as problematic as today's culture. When I used to listen to a lot of rock and roll music Van Morrison was my favorite artist and Astral Weeks was my favorite record. My favorite moments of the record were on Cyprus Avenue when Van sings "Here comes my lady / Rainbow ribbons in her hair" and at the end of Ballerina when he sings "take off your shoes." There are some records that I can listen to now and some I can not. So sometimes I feel okay listening to Neil Young or Van Morrison, but I would not listen to Led Zeppelin or the Velvet Underground. I don't listen to much current music, the most current song I listened to (other than the background music I hear around me in the world) was Pon de Replay because I wanted to see what your username meant and it was pretty awful.

[red solo cup]

One of my favorites from that time.

[red solo cup]

And this.

[Lydia Purpuraria]

And this.

Not one of my favorites, but can't help but try and lower my voice and sing that opening line when I hear it. 

[Lydia Purpuraria]

[Mono no aware]

I don't listen to much current music, the most current song I listened to (other than the background music I hear around me in the world) was Pon de Replay because I wanted to see what your username meant and it was pretty awful.

That's good to know.  I was thinking of how awful a song it was when I chose it.  It would be hard for me to pick a favorite moment from Astral Weeks, but "Madame George" is an exceptional song.