Music That Changed Me, Made Me.
Let me ask you a fair question, "How many people you know, alive today, started listening English music because they listened to Bob Dylan and they fell in love with him instantly?" I am expecting a answer similar to zero, because other than myself, I don’t know any of them, yet.
Actually,
looking back, I had quite an uncommon upbringing. I started listening
English music when I first heard "The Times that are A chaingin"
while I was in class 6 or 7. My Uncle was listening to a English song
in a Audio cassette player. I looked at the cassette cover and, asked
him, "Who is this Bob Dylan Kaka?" I still remember what he
replied, "He is a poet, singer, musician, a communist who isn't
a communist, and a revolutionary. And, If you listen to him, He is
going to be that reason that your life will be never the same again."
Just as he said, the song hit somewhere in me, that I found the
rebellion inside me instantly. I listened to his records, I started
reading communist literature at the time most of us would study for
their exams or spend hours watching Movies. I started writing poems,
that would classify as "rebellion poems". And became free
willed. Right at the time, I started becoming agnostic, and when I
got out from school, I had already became an infidel.
Then
I got introduced to freewheleen' Bob Dylan when I first listened to
"Blowing in the Wind" , and it changed everything.
I couldn't help but think, How in the earth a 21 year old
boy could write a song like this, song of black pity and
moral dilemma of being white man in America of 60s. I was
barely over 16 then, and hadn't done anything remotely creative
except for writing some sulky poems. The voice of people had gotten
into me, and days started to begin with "even the president of
the United States has to stand naked" and end with "nobody's
home" or 'desolution row'. I became Johana's lover, as well as
the workman singing homesick blues. I saw my dream shatter while
listening to Bob Dylan's dreams. Bob Dylan was all English music I
ever listened in school.
Then
came the time of English Rock songs. Led zeppelin
Kurt Cobain Bob Marley and Jim Hendrix. I have literally
never touched a guitar, but If I have seen perfection, Its Hendrix
and his guitar. I went for a spiritual quest, I got back along with
Ravi Shankar and his strings. Whenever i went somewhere, I took some
Buddhist mantras as well as George and the whole Beatles with me. I
never find the solitude I searched for, yet, I am glad I didn’t.
The music that was more popular than Jesus, gazed me. Rumblings
around the tomato fields and nursery we have in my home, listening to
let it be, Hard day's night, and here comes the sun, I wept with
their guitar for the many good things I lost, I don’t know more
than a zillion times.
Its
hard to accept the fact that I got acquainted with Pink Floyd pretty
late. I was just out of high school and had dropped a year before
college. I got a DVD full of Floyd songs from friend. I was hooked
immediately, nothing had gotten me like the echoes, wish you were
here, mother, money, comfortably numb, Gunner's Dreams or the most
beautiful of them all Shine on you crazy diamond, did to me. Even
today the most favorite past time is listening to The wall,
Final cut or TDSM.
Those
who know me, know that I am terrible at Musical taste. And a thousand
time worse or so am I in making music or singing music. And whenever
I start making my playlist for some tour or something, I leave less
than 10% space for the contemporary music, while letting Dylan, Pink
Floyd, LedZepp and Beatles take the bulk of space.
And
lastly, I am not punk, neither do I do drugs or weed. I don't
wear torn jeans. I am not as freewheleen' as i used to be once
anymore. But yes, I am a Rock and Roll fan. And the thing about Rock
'n' Roll is, "there was time when, woody Guthrie was dead,
Little Richard was becoming a preacher, so whether you are a
christian or folksinger, Rock 'n' Roll was the devil." I was in
a ditch, up a cliff, out of step, ready to quit."(~I am not
there).
P.s.
Last year I discovered, Freddie Mercury is still alive, and holds a
concert at his home yearly. As soon as I heard that, It went to my
bucket list straight away.
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