Stuck on repeat

I think I once heard that, on average, most people regularly listen to only about 10% of their music collection. This may be true, as I certainly go through phases of things that I play repeatedly and things that I forget about completely.

Inspired by hannamime's question on lyrics that have moved, and because of my current fascination with lists, here is a completely unscientific 'top ten' of the tracks that I'm listening to at the moment. Again and again. With an attempt to pick out the lyric that suggests why.

1. 'The Guests', Leonard Cohen
"One by one the guests arrive,
The guests are coming through,
The broken-hearted many,
The open-hearted few."

2. 'Diary of Horace Wimp', Electric Light Orchestra
"Don't be afraid, just knock on the door,
Well he just stood there mumblin' and fumblin'."

3. 'The Chain', Fleetwood Mac
"And if you don't love me now
You will never love me again.
I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain."

4. 'Afternoons and Coffeespoons', Crash Test Dummies
"Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffeespoons and T. S. Eliot."

5. 'Torn', Natalie Imbruglia
"Illusion never changed into something real.
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn."

6. 'Jack, You're Dead', Joe Jackson
"When a chick is smilin' at you
Even though there's nothin' said,
You stand there like a statue,
Jack, you're dead."

7. 'Do Ya Feel', Right Said Fred
"Gravity's calling, the party will end,
But until it does, love's for lunch,
Half the world blows and half the world sucks."

8. 'Love on the Rocks', Neil Diamond
"Love on the rocks
Ain't no big surprise,
Just pour me a drink
And I'll tell you my lies."

9. 'The Lunatics (Have Taken over the Asylum)', Fun Boy Three
"I see a clinic full of cynics
Who want to twist the people's wrist.
They're watching every move we make,
We're all included on the list."

10. 'I Am the Walrus', The Beatles
"Expert textpert choking smokers,
Don't you think the joker laughs at you?"

Cold, shamed, and naked on the floor

Before starting on Blogger, I had a quick look at MySpace. True, Blogger is the grown-ups' version. But one thing that I'd like to add from MySpace is the possibility to list 'currently listening' music. For me, the choice of background music while blogging gives a definite flavour of mood that is difficult to share in words.

This evening it's Natalie Imbruglia. 'Torn', in fact, sums it up pretty well. If one is allowed to feel that way when one is not young, attractive, and female. Because I'm not. And I do.

A passion for a Passion

Does one ever fully recover from the emotion of theatrical performance? I cross-refer in this to Anna MR's blog entry on roles of theatre past.

In my 'current past' case, it was 18 years ago today, on 24 November 1988, at the Warwick Arts Centre, that we had the opening night of our university stage production of JS Bach's St John Passion in English. The performance was touted as the British stage première, being most often done as a concert piece in German. It was a semi-professional gig, as most of the soloists were fully fledged professionals on the opera and concert circuit. I was part of the dramatic chorus, a tight-knit group who wove choral harmonies into the action.

The show was a personal first in two other ways. It was the first theatre piece that I was in that was reviewed, and positively, in a national newspaper (The Sunday Telegraph, if I recall). It was also the first time on stage, in dress rehearsal, that I found myself with real tears flowing.

Back in the present, I have just this week, courtesy of Amazon, taken delivery of a CD of a recording of a different English language version. I have not listened to this music for many years, but had not heard three bars of Part 1 before remembering my tears at the end of the crucifixion scene ("It is finished"), and realising that the performance was still in me. Somewhere. An echo in time maybe, but very, very real.

A rediscovery

Usually, I dislike making lists of favourites, so I was a little cynical about the blogger profile. Yet the exercise has taught me something: the music that I listen to most is not the music that I like best.

My collection includes a good amount of slightly dated rock and pop. But the things that provoke a deep, visceral joy, or pain, or longing, are further down the shelf. Invisibly marked 'classical'.

Thank you, blogger. I have rediscovered my Beethoven, Chopin, Dvořák, and Gershwin; I have been reborn to (unlisted) my Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Vivaldi.

My emotional life is richer once more.