Radio Free Ronnie
I have written a lot about music in this blog, about how much I enjoyed it, how I used to review it for a living, and how much I miss listening to it. In fact, the cochlear implant I chose was chosen in part based on its strong capacity for interpreting music.
In fact, you want to know one of the things that just drove me up the wall after I went deaf?
Pet Sounds.
Pet Sounds, the album by the Beach Boys. Widely considered one of the best albums ever made.
I'd never gotten around to listening to it.
Every time I read a "Best Albums of All Time" list or an article about Brian Wilson which referenced the album I'd think, "Geeze, Pet Sounds. I've never heard that. I gotta listen to it."
But I never did. And then I was deaf. And I'm thinking, "I will never know what Pet Sounds sounds like."
It's the kind of small thing that can drive you nuts, you know?
But now, since there is a good possibility that I will have ... some ability to enjoy music again, and since I don't believe that anticipation is a jinx, I've started making some lists.
A list of albums I can't believe I never took the time to listen to when I could hear. A list of albums that have come out since I went deaf and which I am dying to hear. And a list of old friends who I have missed very, very dearly and who will be my first stop if and when I can hear them again.
albums I should've heard years ago but never did
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground and Nico
Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
the very first albums I want to hear again
London Calling - The Clash
The Ramones - The Ramones
So - Peter Gabriel
Asylum Years - Tom Waits
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
40 Licks - The Rolling Stones (best of)
Music from Big Pink - The Band
The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
The Joshua Tree - U2
Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
Barenaked Ladies Greatest Hits So Far
Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
Automatic for the People - REM
gotta-haves released since I went deaf
London Calling - The Legacy Edition including "The Vanilla Tapes" - The Clash
Smile - Brian Wilson
American Idiot - Green Day
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
Suggestions or additions are welcome. If all goes as we hope, I will be listening, in some way, shape or form, to music for a very long time to come.
ronnie
posted by ronnie at
9:20 p.m.
3 Comments:
The first thing I thought of was Beethoven's Ninth. Every time I hear it, it's like the first time again.
I left a rather long comment to Carpebonum's blogsite about how I deal with partial hearing loss and recovery via some high tech hearing devices. Music does sound a little different with them, but much better than having to crank it up so loud that it brakes the sheet rock; which I have done.
Oooooh, Derek. What you've started :)
When I can't recall a piece of music, I'm stuck. Nobody can hum it for me, or whistle it, and I can't slap it into the CD player to listen to it again.
And I can't remember Beethoven's Ninth!
Damn!
But you've guaranteed it will be one of the first pieces of music I'll search out if and when I can hear again... :)
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