Strutting my stuff all because of ... Gregorian chant?
The joys of discovering new music...even if it is "old"
I like to take long walks. Not as much to clear my head as to fill it up.
Sometimes—though more common on my shorter jaunts around the neighborhood—I’ll listen to podcasts or audiobooks. To really kickstart my thought pattern, I used to like ambient sound/instrumental music.
However, I prefer Gregorian chant … for a variety of reasons that we don’t need to get into here today. I almost “need” it on a walk these days.
The other day, trying to find some different chant on the new Apple Classical Music app, it was suggested to me that I might like something by the group The Chant Masters. The album was called Gregorian Genesis & Phil Collins. So, on my walk today, I turned it on, figuring the music would be more “vanilla” and that the lyrics would be in Latin.
Alas, I was mistaken.
In English and bordering on rock ‘n’ roll background music.
Nonetheless, the interpretation was entertaining and rather cool. But not what I needed to get my brain moving. I was too busy singing—and air-drumming—along.
So, I ditched Gregorian Phil & went straight to the heart of it, playing the Apple Essentials of Phil Collins. So much better.
I had a little “pep” in my step when the 1985 dance-pop anthem Sussudio came on. In the Air Tonight played soon after and I waited for several minutes for the famous drum fill … until, naturally, it did.
I was pecking and weaving and bobbing around the neighborhood like “Little Jerry.”
More importantly, I started thinking about a lot of things.
Is Phil a “soft rocker?” I think not.
Do we consider Collins “adult contemporary?” At times.
Is Phil the best drummer who is the lead singer of a band? There’s an argument. If you consider Levon Helm the lead singer of The Band, Helm is definitely in the conversation (and may end it as well).
Contemplating the value of Apple’s paid subscription model versus something like Pandora and its FREE model. My conclusion: you get what you pay for.
Should I podcast on this today? I don’t know. I blocked out some time to do a pod today, but some day’s unplanned events occasionally prevent me from finishing any given pod. Hopefully not too often.
In any event, since I didn’t get to the podcasting yesterday, I wanted to drop a note to our folks out there assuring you all that, yes, I am still alive after another weekday without a pod. I know, it’s like a part of me is missing as well.
I plan on a podcast later today, but if not … bear with me.
Yesterday, we were finishing up some website stuff. Always takes me longer than anticipated and the time I had allotted to the task.
Ironic, considering one of the things I was finishing up was a checklist on how I manage my time. Yesterday was a competition between self-discipline and getting done some tasks that had been hanging over my head for weeks if not months.
One of those tasks was the aforementioned “checklist.” Just head on over to briandoleary.com and there should be an alert bar where you can grab your free checklist. If for some reason you don’t see it on the site, let me know & my team will get you a copy.
Looking for more chant once more, I found Gregorian Beatles & decided to listen to that while typing this epistle. The first track was Eleanor Rigby, which already has a great George Martin-influenced instrumental part. I was hooked.
Though… I vastly prefer the original Fab Four. But, much like Gregorian Genesis, the chant interpretation of The Beatles is pretty cool and is certainly a unique idea.
I believe we need more of that type of “one-off” thinking.
As always,
Brian