I bought Slint's
Spiderland when it first came out, probably because of Albini's review in
Melody Maker. I tried listening to it, tried to give it a chance, but I could not get into it. I kind of just wrote it off as being "not my thing" and tossed it into a box where it sat for 30 years.
Over that 30 years the record became legendary and influenced many bands, most of whom I hate. Hello, Tortoise. But after reading about the 30th anniversary remaster and reissue I gave the album one more chance. [bI was at a much different place in my life][/b] than I was in 1991 and I understood the record in a way I hadn't back then. The emotion is just intense especially on "Washer" and "Good Morning, Captain."
I read the band members discussing the recording of the album, particularly Brian McMahan's vocal on "Good Morning, Captain" and his subsequent emotional breakdown and hospitalization. In the context of McMahan's strained relationship with his family at the time of the recording, the allegory of the shipwrecked captain is poignant to the point of being overwhelming.
In the last verse of the song McMahan seems to drop all the pretense of allegory and speak directly to his parents and his brother. "I miss you. I MISS YOU!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuqEpjc ... ZA&index=7That's notable in that Neil Young does the same thing in the final verse of "Cortez the Killer", a song that Slint famously covered and which lays out a template for the entire
Spiderland album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQlTesaKJr4Anyway, rediscovering that record led me to seek out some of the stuff that was influenced by it. As I said above, I hate most of it and the very idea of "post rock." But I did find this track. I wouldn't even call it a song. I guess a "piece of music" is how I would describe it. I don't think I've cried more than five times since I was ten years old but as I listened to this I was overcome by emotion to the point that I started weeping:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shvo9t2qznwI love music so much.
I think the reason music is important to us isn't because of the Beats Per Minutes, or the artists...it's where it intersects with our lives that makes it truly memorable. And because of that you can't tell me that Chicago's "Feeling Stronger Every Day" playing at a party in '73, when I got me up the shirt of a Junior High Classmate isn't a classic well then you are simply wrong...and not trying to diminish JORR's original post, just about where, and when, music enters our life has a huge impact on all of us.
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