Work In Progress: 65 Songs
On 22 December 2001, as I turned 50 years old, I put together a collection of my favorite 50 songs at the time; resulting in a 3 CD compilation I shared with my friends. I repeated the process every five years since, with a corresponding number of songs.
My 65th birthday approaches at the end of this year and I am busy listening, exploring my vast archive of music, compiling lists, comparing, and considering themes and segues as I prepare a collection of another 65 wonderful songs to share.
links to song selections and cover art:
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"50
Songs" liner notes, revisited/adjusted:
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE, OF COURSE, TO PICK JUST 50 SONGS . . . especially so if you’ve lived a half-century and voraciously devoured music every step along the way.
Here's a quickly spun history:
An early legend in my family has me figuring out a way to stand up in my crib and move my body (I’ve added the detail that it was done with an Elvis pelvis swivel) so that I could surf the crib across the room over to where the console radio/record player was, and turn on the radio.
And what I would have heard there, in that apartment on Avenue C, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in the early 1950’s, with the stations selected by my parents, reflecting the neighborhood outside, would have included programming in Polish and Ukrainian and German languages, with polkas, banduras, men's choruses, perhaps a pinch of Yiddish klezmer. My parents were first generation immigrants and as a result I didn’t hear much 50s pop or other "American"music - which must have been there somewhere, untapped, on that radio dial - until I discovered pop/rock through my sister, and then later big band through Frank Sinatra in my teens. I was also exposed to some classical music via a family relative who had been an opera singer in the Old World, and in whose house I often found myself after school, who always had WQXR in the background. I took piano lessons for some years to no great success. (My later attempts at numerous other instruments also failed.)
My sister was six years older so the AM radio hits started coming out of the smaller radio on top of the refrigerator by the late 1950s. Perhaps some doo-wop, which I would grow to enjoy only many years later, some early rock’n’roll, and a lot of WonderBread vocalists like Bobby Vinton. A few songs, besides the “novelty” items that caught all small kids ears, still stand out. Although they’re not in this collection, Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” still mysteriously haunts me, as well as The Browns “Three Bells”. I had a few records of my own (kids' type records - mostly on yellow vinyl) - and memory suggests that the first regular record that was my very own was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans' “Happy Trails”. (I still own my sister’s 45rpm copy of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” which I at some point inherited.)
Jumping ahead a few years and I’m in front of the television and The Beatles are on the Ed Sullivan show and my ears and eyes open with an awareness like nothing before. John (who was instantly my favorite), George, Ringo and Paul. Puberty kept the beat.
Soon after I began buying 45 rpm records. I’d save my money until I had 5 dollars plus tax and go to House of Oldies on Bleecker Street and buy ten 45s. The owner would play the new things coming in from England or California, and I’d experiment, delighting in all these different amazing sounds. Inspired by the radio hit stations, my friend and I would exchange “charts” every weekend to let each other know what our favorite songs were in what order. How shocked and disappointed he was with me when “Strangers In The Night” stayed No.1 for 8 weeks on my list.
The latter half of the 1960’s provided great songs reflecting the air of social change and protest, drug experimentation and sexual liberation (all of which, some 30 years later,seem to be reversing toward a new uniformity, a corporate media fueled consumerism, political ignorance and submissiveness; a culture of gadget addiction, missile shields and smart bombs, and ads for purple ketchup and hot pink margarine). The songs of this charged political and social climate inspired me.
For the next three decades I tended to explore different types of music for certain periods of time. In the 1970’s, when “progressive” bloated "rock" with its pretensions, I switched my focus to the many variations of "folk"/"acoustic" music, danced to "disco" and, in the latter part of the decade, pogo'd over to "punk", a creative period which also opened up doors to many great non-mainstream recording artists from Patti Smith to The Residents. (When I use musical categories, please sprinkle on large grains of salt.)
During the 1980’s my ears mysteriously opened to the amazing treasures hiding under the category of “classical" which I has missed before. Although I had a dozen or so favorite classical pieces before that, I jumped in completely, immersing myself in listening and reading, studying the centuries’ worth of wonderful composers’ work. The library grew extensively. A few early favorites: the Shostakovitch Quartets, Schubert's Quintet in C, Alan Hovhaness'"Fra Angelico", Bruckner’s No.8, Messiaen’s “Turangalila Symphony”, Arvo Part's "Te Deum", and so much more.
For the past five years or so I have exploring a lot of “world” music - from Pakistan, Russia, Portugal, Greece, Finland, etc.. And, as happened with classical/orchestral music before, a similar experience is occurring with "jazz", of which I previously had only a few favorites.
Online file-sharing was invaluable to me to try out new and different musicians…names I’d always heard but didn’t know: Coltrane, Davis, Monk, Chet Baker; some I had already known a little i could now truly explore: Armstrong, Ellington, Gaillard, Tatum, Webster. My ears opened more and more to these wondrous sounds.
End of digression in my little musical listening history.
Regarding these 50 songs . . .There are songs here that have held me in thrall for decades and some whose magic is very recent. Some because the lyrics are particularly powerful, some whose melody rises like intoxicating incense. Some stand out because of some nuance of production or instrumentation, or some amazing human voice. Many are a combination of these elements. Melody and harmony seem to predominate over rhythms, and that is probably because of my conception of what a “song” is. Some are fun and make you want to sing along or smile or tap your foot. Some are just catchy, with an ear candy hook. Some so sad they bring tears to my eyes even after I’ve heard them a hundred times. Some shine perfectly for some reason, some amazing beauty, which I cannot identify. The range of these songs is from the 1940’s into this century. (Except the Carlo Gesualdo piece, which is from the early 1600’s, but in which the vocal labyrinths are so amazingly beautiful it had to be here.)
I limited myself to only one song per artist. The categories include various samples and blends of rock (‘n’roll), blues, jazz, pop, country, rhythm and blues, folk, soul, techno, folk, and international – including Portuguese, Greek, Irish and African.
And then there are the songs left off. I started working on this 50 Song idea over a year ago. About 30 songs have remained untouched, but the space for the last 20 has shifted til the very last days of production on this project. What to leave off is so very hard. At least 30 songs anxiously await just below the 50. What to do with “Crying” by Roy Orbison, or”Gute Nacht” from Franz Schubert’s “Wintereise” song cycle, or The Sparks techno-ethereal, danceable and fun, “No.1 Song In Heaven”, and so on.
Now that my brain is open to searching and remembering favorite songs, new contenders come to the surface daily. Today it was “Reason To Believe” by Tim Hardin. Too late.
Looking over the list I am reminded of some of the other compilations of music I have put together over the years. About a dozen of the 50 Songs are sung by women and about 10 years ago I put together two 90 minute cassettes, called “Her Voices”, of female vocalists. Enjoying the range and textures of women’s voices, I could have made it twice as long (as when in the early 1990’s I put together five (5) 90-minute tapes of songs about food and drink (“The Dining Car Conspiracy”).
Two years ago I put together a CD of New York City songs, and since last year have been at work on producing Volume 2. I am also at work on a CD collection of anti-war songs. If this world of madness and violence, where art and dreams struggle against the forces of money and power, manages not to destroy itself, or if The Grim Reaper doesn’t come around to visit me personally before then, I’d sure like to collect 55 other great songs in 2006, 60 more in 2011, etc.
Want a copy? Let me know…Peace…and Music!
– AleXander Hirka, December 2001
I have over the years put together many other music compilations.
Click HERE to see a few of them.
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE, OF COURSE, TO PICK JUST 50 SONGS . . . especially so if you’ve lived a half-century and voraciously devoured music every step along the way.
Here's a quickly spun history:
An early legend in my family has me figuring out a way to stand up in my crib and move my body (I’ve added the detail that it was done with an Elvis pelvis swivel) so that I could surf the crib across the room over to where the console radio/record player was, and turn on the radio.
And what I would have heard there, in that apartment on Avenue C, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in the early 1950’s, with the stations selected by my parents, reflecting the neighborhood outside, would have included programming in Polish and Ukrainian and German languages, with polkas, banduras, men's choruses, perhaps a pinch of Yiddish klezmer. My parents were first generation immigrants and as a result I didn’t hear much 50s pop or other "American"music - which must have been there somewhere, untapped, on that radio dial - until I discovered pop/rock through my sister, and then later big band through Frank Sinatra in my teens. I was also exposed to some classical music via a family relative who had been an opera singer in the Old World, and in whose house I often found myself after school, who always had WQXR in the background. I took piano lessons for some years to no great success. (My later attempts at numerous other instruments also failed.)
My sister was six years older so the AM radio hits started coming out of the smaller radio on top of the refrigerator by the late 1950s. Perhaps some doo-wop, which I would grow to enjoy only many years later, some early rock’n’roll, and a lot of WonderBread vocalists like Bobby Vinton. A few songs, besides the “novelty” items that caught all small kids ears, still stand out. Although they’re not in this collection, Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” still mysteriously haunts me, as well as The Browns “Three Bells”. I had a few records of my own (kids' type records - mostly on yellow vinyl) - and memory suggests that the first regular record that was my very own was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans' “Happy Trails”. (I still own my sister’s 45rpm copy of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” which I at some point inherited.)
Jumping ahead a few years and I’m in front of the television and The Beatles are on the Ed Sullivan show and my ears and eyes open with an awareness like nothing before. John (who was instantly my favorite), George, Ringo and Paul. Puberty kept the beat.
Soon after I began buying 45 rpm records. I’d save my money until I had 5 dollars plus tax and go to House of Oldies on Bleecker Street and buy ten 45s. The owner would play the new things coming in from England or California, and I’d experiment, delighting in all these different amazing sounds. Inspired by the radio hit stations, my friend and I would exchange “charts” every weekend to let each other know what our favorite songs were in what order. How shocked and disappointed he was with me when “Strangers In The Night” stayed No.1 for 8 weeks on my list.
The latter half of the 1960’s provided great songs reflecting the air of social change and protest, drug experimentation and sexual liberation (all of which, some 30 years later,seem to be reversing toward a new uniformity, a corporate media fueled consumerism, political ignorance and submissiveness; a culture of gadget addiction, missile shields and smart bombs, and ads for purple ketchup and hot pink margarine). The songs of this charged political and social climate inspired me.
For the next three decades I tended to explore different types of music for certain periods of time. In the 1970’s, when “progressive” bloated "rock" with its pretensions, I switched my focus to the many variations of "folk"/"acoustic" music, danced to "disco" and, in the latter part of the decade, pogo'd over to "punk", a creative period which also opened up doors to many great non-mainstream recording artists from Patti Smith to The Residents. (When I use musical categories, please sprinkle on large grains of salt.)
During the 1980’s my ears mysteriously opened to the amazing treasures hiding under the category of “classical" which I has missed before. Although I had a dozen or so favorite classical pieces before that, I jumped in completely, immersing myself in listening and reading, studying the centuries’ worth of wonderful composers’ work. The library grew extensively. A few early favorites: the Shostakovitch Quartets, Schubert's Quintet in C, Alan Hovhaness'"Fra Angelico", Bruckner’s No.8, Messiaen’s “Turangalila Symphony”, Arvo Part's "Te Deum", and so much more.
For the past five years or so I have exploring a lot of “world” music - from Pakistan, Russia, Portugal, Greece, Finland, etc.. And, as happened with classical/orchestral music before, a similar experience is occurring with "jazz", of which I previously had only a few favorites.
Online file-sharing was invaluable to me to try out new and different musicians…names I’d always heard but didn’t know: Coltrane, Davis, Monk, Chet Baker; some I had already known a little i could now truly explore: Armstrong, Ellington, Gaillard, Tatum, Webster. My ears opened more and more to these wondrous sounds.
End of digression in my little musical listening history.
Regarding these 50 songs . . .There are songs here that have held me in thrall for decades and some whose magic is very recent. Some because the lyrics are particularly powerful, some whose melody rises like intoxicating incense. Some stand out because of some nuance of production or instrumentation, or some amazing human voice. Many are a combination of these elements. Melody and harmony seem to predominate over rhythms, and that is probably because of my conception of what a “song” is. Some are fun and make you want to sing along or smile or tap your foot. Some are just catchy, with an ear candy hook. Some so sad they bring tears to my eyes even after I’ve heard them a hundred times. Some shine perfectly for some reason, some amazing beauty, which I cannot identify. The range of these songs is from the 1940’s into this century. (Except the Carlo Gesualdo piece, which is from the early 1600’s, but in which the vocal labyrinths are so amazingly beautiful it had to be here.)
I limited myself to only one song per artist. The categories include various samples and blends of rock (‘n’roll), blues, jazz, pop, country, rhythm and blues, folk, soul, techno, folk, and international – including Portuguese, Greek, Irish and African.
And then there are the songs left off. I started working on this 50 Song idea over a year ago. About 30 songs have remained untouched, but the space for the last 20 has shifted til the very last days of production on this project. What to leave off is so very hard. At least 30 songs anxiously await just below the 50. What to do with “Crying” by Roy Orbison, or”Gute Nacht” from Franz Schubert’s “Wintereise” song cycle, or The Sparks techno-ethereal, danceable and fun, “No.1 Song In Heaven”, and so on.
Now that my brain is open to searching and remembering favorite songs, new contenders come to the surface daily. Today it was “Reason To Believe” by Tim Hardin. Too late.
Looking over the list I am reminded of some of the other compilations of music I have put together over the years. About a dozen of the 50 Songs are sung by women and about 10 years ago I put together two 90 minute cassettes, called “Her Voices”, of female vocalists. Enjoying the range and textures of women’s voices, I could have made it twice as long (as when in the early 1990’s I put together five (5) 90-minute tapes of songs about food and drink (“The Dining Car Conspiracy”).
Two years ago I put together a CD of New York City songs, and since last year have been at work on producing Volume 2. I am also at work on a CD collection of anti-war songs. If this world of madness and violence, where art and dreams struggle against the forces of money and power, manages not to destroy itself, or if The Grim Reaper doesn’t come around to visit me personally before then, I’d sure like to collect 55 other great songs in 2006, 60 more in 2011, etc.
Want a copy? Let me know…Peace…and Music!
– AleXander Hirka, December 2001
________________________________
I have over the years put together many other music compilations.
Click HERE to see a few of them.
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