Tag: Joni Mitchell

Musical Back and Forth

Ever heard of Belle Chen? Neither had I until recently.

A pianist. She creates complex engaging sounds at the keyboard. She interweaves nature sounds with her recordings.

I’m listening to whale sounds in the rendition of her current composition at the moment. Earlier she used synthesizers in a piece.

I read that Chen’s piano training took place under a number of teachers in a number of different locations as her family moved around quite a lot. First to New Zealand from Taiwan. Later to Australia.

Those various musical learning teachings shaped her unique piano playing style. I imagine her inherent musical talent and inclinations shaped her musical expression as well.

She is Taiwanese-Australian. She was a first generation immigrant in Australia and the first pianist in her family. She is now based in London.

She is 35 years old.

When we are growing up, we look up to and are influenced by the established talent out there in the world. My musical tastes were initially influenced by the big band sounds of the 40s. Glenn Miller. Artie Shaw. Duke Ellington.

And the superstar solo artists of the time. Frank Sinatra. Peggy Lee. Andy Williams. And the great Ella Fitzgerald. My parents were a little older than the norm. It showed in the music that shaped them and ultimately us, too

I watched both of them suffer culture shock as cultural musical tastes shifted from the big band vibe of the 40s to Elvis Presley in the 50s, then Beatlemania and the onslaught of rock bands in the 60s and 70s.

Even my father became an avid viewer of the Sonny and Cher Show in the 60s. Mainly, I think he liked how Cher looked and dressed.

For a while, it was our time in the music world. Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Fleetwood Mac were claimed collectively as our own personal minstrels. Or so it felt at the time.

For years, we were masters of and awash in the soundtrack of our generation. It was the music we played on our phonographs. Yes, our record players. It was the music we rocked our heads to when it came on the radio.

Joni Mitchell and Carole King were my personal musical heroines. I spent hours listening to their evocative tunes with others in university lunch rooms. I would listen to them through headphones all alone in my room with silent appreciation and gratitude.

These were my ladies and cheering section. They sang what I was feeling and comforted me.

This morning I met Belle Chen on Apple Music. I was searching the classical music section for a soundtrack to accompany my day. After looking her up online, and seeing her eclectic musical background, I opened up her musical offering. I am now a devoted, if emerging, fan.

Belle Chen is my daughter’s age. I note that I am now looking backwards at emerging musical talent out there.

The mainstream musical stage has shifted beyond recognition to my ears. Its artists are often multi-talented and have to create elaborate music videos to accompany their sound.

Today’s young artists are taking hold in my psyche. I am already a fan of rappers Bad Bunny and Doja Cat. Meghan Thee Stallion has caught my eye with her flashy television ads as much as she has with her music.

Ed Sheeran is a longtime favorite. And even he is likely getting too old to count as “fresh talent”. any longer.

The musical guard has definitely changed. The great musicians of my generation are being installed in musical halls of fame. Or they are already dead. Or dying.

Or they are enjoying a great revival as Joni Mitchell is. She is currently enjoying her first number one hit on the Billboard charts. She has been “rediscovered” after a mature and moving rendition of Both Sides Now at the Grammy Awards recently. She composed that song in her twenties.

I sit and watch the passing musical parade. I take pleasure and comfort from what I hear and what I can choose to listen to. I was never a head-banger back in the day, like many of my peers. If I wish to revisit the music of my or any other generation, I just have to hit up the internet.

Seeing my girl Joni’s star rise again in a new generation is a wistful and delightful development. “Ye shall know them by their works.” It was a Bible verse meant to apply to distinguish good people from bad.

Joni is certainly known by her works. Her lyrics sit in my head like prayers. She used her talent prodigiously on this Earth. I, for one, am mighty glad she did.

Now I don’t only have to look back to revisit her genius. I just have to turn on the radio.

Today’s young people, years from now, will be able to do as I do now with my 70s favorites. They can call up any of their favorite music and musicians at any time they want. Spice Girls, anyone?

Rocking Nothing

Today I am thinking about nothing.

Nothing in particular. What doing nothing means. What having nothing means.

Generally, people seem to be very scared of nothing. The requirement to be doing something all the time is especially tyrannical in the middle of our lives. It can take a concentrated effort to slow down and do nothing. Some people simply can’t handle it. Not comfortably at any rate.

We are all aware of how limited our time is on Earth. That can make us anxious about “filling” every minute of every day. That is not to be confused with living “fully” each day. Our anxiety can grow as the years begin to speed up, quickly at first, and soon they start to fly by.

Joni Mitchell’s advice to a young man in her song The Circle Game captures this: “And they tell him, Take your time, It won’t be long now before you drag your feet to slow that circle down.”

Death is perceived as the greatest nothingness of all. Unless we believe in reincarnation, we may believe only darkness and oblivion await us after death. I am not so sure of that anymore. The Universe is far too complex and convoluted to let us off that easy. But, I don’t really know. No one does.

So in light of life’s inevitable endpoint, and if we’re lucky, we start to slow down. After years of frenetic dedication to raising kids and making a living and staying in the mainstream of life, I stopped. One day, I found myself looking out my window at a pleasant scene whilst doing absolutely nothing. I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. I was just sitting.

You can’t imagine how foreign and far-fetched that scenario was for a Type A personality like me. I was steeped in the virtues of the Protestant work ethic. If you were too, you may get how odd and slightly terrifying doing nothing is.

This is the paradox of the human condition. We set goals early in our lives for the things we want to have and accomplish in our lives. Many of us metaphorically break our necks to get what we want.

But we rarely sit down and take a hard look at what we really want and need. Then we make our lives more difficult and less peaceful by comparing ourselves to our peers. If we don’t have what they have, we can get scared and sad. When we ignore the wisdom of stopping to smell the flowers, the memories of our life might be but a blur.

Stopping to smell the flowers can be the very place where we find joy and feed our sense of wonder. Only by stopping can we marinate our souls and senses in the wonder of what is all around us. We often fail to recognize that the little things are really the big things in life. I blinked and my children were adults. They will never be little again and it makes my heart hurt. I missed out on many small and tender and precious moments with them in my drive to survive and succeed.

These days I can be perfectly happy doing nothing. That is progress for me. I grab the chance to do absolutely nothing whenever I can get it. It is not that I dislike being busy or having something valuable to occupy my time. I actually quite like being busy. But these days, it is more of a choice. When life gets too crazy, it is up to me to slow it down.

It has become necessary to consider what avocations make me happy. Beyond the necessary mundanities of day-to-day life, I mean. There are only a few. They could be considered silly and frivolous pursuits but they are mine. I no longer need to justify them or justify my existence.

I have a friend who is a genius at this. He walks in the world at his own pace and is directed by his own interests. He goes on long daily walks just to exercise. He has been known to sit for a couple of hours on a park bench and just watch what is going on in the world and the people around him. I have always admired and envied him for that capability.

So I’m thinking I’ll sit awhile today and just watch the world go by. With no lives on the line, or mandatory issues that require my attention, I’m free to do that. It likely isn’t what the expression carpe diem was supposed to mean. But instead of “seizing the day,” I’m just gonna sidle up to it with a cup of hot tea and watch it amble by.