Introduction

This is a music blog, but it's not a music blog in the sense of you'll see reviews or anything like that.  It's a blog about me, about my relationship to music, which is one of the real constants in my life, maybe the only thing that bridges the gap between my exterior life, and my introverted, interior self.  It's both a carrier of memories and the soundtrack to the stories in my head.

I'm going to write about how music affected me personally, about concerts I have been to, artists, songs and albums I have liked, sometimes I'll post videos...sometimes it will be chatty and personal, other times it will be really technical, digging into the depths of why I like a song or artist.  I'm going to be blunt about what I like and don't like...it is my blog, after all.  But also I know that music is so personal that it can really feel like a gut-punch when someone disses your favorite artist.  I apologize in advance...

I should say that I have really eclectic tastes.  A lot of people say that they have eclectic tastes, but...well, no matter how much data I give them, services like iLike, Pandora and last.fm always recommend the wrong things.  They think they should shovel up more of the same.  I almost never want more of the same.  I'm not quite sure why I'm drawn to what I like, and maybe this blog is a way of exploring that, among other things.

So my first post, after this introduction will be a list of artists that are somehow important to me, so that you can get some idea of what you are in for...

One last thing: the name of this blog, "Melody for Robin."  How do I put it?  It's the first favorite song I ever had, must have been when I was two or three years old.  I remember watching it spin round and round on...now this dates me!...Grandma's Victrola.  No, not a cool 1920's style wooden beauty with the horn, something like this thing.  I must have been two or three, and I was always demanding it, although I called it "Melody Robin."  I used to say, "Gramma, play Melody Robin!"  I must have driven her crazy.  And here it is.

Did you read the comments?  "This B-side is almost certainly not Jody Miller. Record labels would sometimes place generic, unremarkable instrumentals on the B-side to make sure disc jockeys played only the A-side. Philles Records practiced this almost exclusively on their singles."  And as an adult, I recognize this as basically a piece of elevator music.  Yet I remember the tune, and I still think it's beautiful.  And I can tell you that I never played "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," wouldn't have even been able to tell you that was on the other side of the record although that's the song Grandma probably bought!  And also, as an adult, I've heard the a-side, and I loathe it.  It's exactly the kind of sentimental pablum I detest.  OK, Jody Miller fans hate me now, and I'm not even through my first post...

But I guess the point is that there is absolutely no accounting for musical taste.  That is, real musical taste, not fake "I'm supposed to like it" taste - more on that later.  You can't fake when a piece of music hits that sweet spot in the brain, when you feel a chill down your spine, when you gotta dance.  And that the most "generic, unremarkable instrumental," can mean the world to somebody somewhere.