Music in my life

Let's get a bit personal for a minute.

There has always been music in my life, courtesy of my parents. And if I've swayed more to the rock more than I have to the country and western, I still have favourites that stray into nearly every genre.

I'm home resting today and decided to see how much of my download allowance I could blow on youtube. Not difficult. One of my favourite pasttimes is to look up singers, groups and songs that I love. I thought I'd share a few long-time favourites with you.

I became a big fan of Prince and Dr Hook, to name a couple, when I was little. These two have a lot to answer for - it seems many of my ideas about love and romance and, uh, various other things, might have come from their songs. At first glance Dr Hook may not have much in common with Prince, but they do have certain similarities:

1) Both have a range of incredibly cheeky songs about men, women, and uh, the way they interact. I can't remember who is credited with the quote, but it was said of Prince when he first hit the world that he "sings the unmentionable with the voice of an angel". I have about 95% of his earliest work released, and I can sure as hell attest to that (Soft and Wet, anyone?)! One of the Dr Hook frontmen Dennis Locorriere might not have had the voice of an angel (and often seemed to be stoned off his nut, but it was such a sweet voice to listen to nevertheless), but with songs like "You Make My Pants Want To Get Up And Dance", they sure knew how to have fun.

2) They were both able to turn out a truly beautiful song , even if at times they are just talking about getting laid! and

3) Some bloody good musicians involved. Prince of course is a freakin' master - I think he can play in excess of about 17 instruments. And listen to the guitar work from Dr Hook.

So let me share a couple of choice classics with you.

This one still gives me shivers. I've never felt about anyone the way this song says, but it would be fantastic.




And this one. I'm sure many people chose this as a wedding song.




And some fun ones to finish. I love this song. The story behind it makes me laugh no-end.




With this one... this is the album version, with someone's powerpoint slide for the graphics... but the only other version I found of this song was just too scary to watch!!




Choosing which clips to put up here was so difficult... I mean, how could I not include Up On The Mountain, or Jungle To The Zoo, or I Don't Want To Be Alone Tonight, or If Not You, or Storms Never Last, or Only Sixteen, or , or... well, you get the picture

It's hard to find clips of Prince music anywhere on the www these days... the few I did find on youtube had no sound :-( Although I did find a clip for Batdance... it showcases all that was NOT good about the 80s! Although I have to admit the B-side for this song, 200 Balloons, was cool: similar to the Batdance song, but better. That first Batman with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton is still my favourite in the Batman series.