It’s funny how music affects you;
As I was flicking through the radio channels, I happened upon Desert Island Discs this morning, no honest I did; anyway Robert Fisk was talking to Kirsty Young which I actually did find interesting. Anyway, as I came upon the channel Samuel Barber’s: Adagio for Strings was playing, which is a fantastic and emotional piece. Whenever I hear it, I get the picture from Platoon of Willem Dafoe on his knees, arms raised in the air, with hundreds of Vietnam soldiers running towards him… Fisk then followed this with Winston Churchill’s speach “This was the Finest Hour”, which in itself is a powerful piece of audio. One of his next records was Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major. I never want to like this piece of music, it just seems too commercial and trite, however, I can never get away from the fact that it is indeed a powerful piece of music. So Pachelbel’s Cannon and Adagio for Strings within the same 10 minutes!
Unfortunatley he then descended into “The Lord is My Shepherd” so I felt compelled to turn over, right into “The Who’s” Pinball Wizard. Bizzarely enough, I heard this on Wednesday on the radio. Then on Thursday, I made comment about a work colleague being “deaf, dumb, and blind” to which Mark automatically responded with “but he sure plays a mean pinball”… So within 2 days I heard the same record that I’ve not heard for a while, with also a reference to it in a unconnected event.
However, unlike listening to Adagio and Cannon, hearing Pinball Wizard made me think… what a terrible song it is. I’ve never given thought to how bad a song it is before…
Robert Fisk, Samuel Barber, Platoon, Willem Dafoe, Winston Churchill, Pachelbel, The Who, Pinball Wizard
Robert Fisk, Samuel Barber, Platoon, Willem Dafoe, Winston Churchill, Pachelbel, The Who, Pinball Wizard
What do you not like about it, the music or the lyrics? I prefer the Who version to the one Elton John one, but I quite like it…
Even on my favourite table
He can beat my best
His disciples lead him in
And he just does the rest
To be fair, I think it’s the lyrics that are naff!