Thursday, March 10, 2016

Music & Words #MWA

I was recently nominated (twice) for the Music & Words Award. First by Stephen T. McCarthy (even though we rarely see eye to eye on our musical tastes), then by Michele Truhlik. With two such nominations, how could I ignore this?

Here are the rules:
Once accepted, the award process has five steps:
1.) Link back to the person who nominated you.
2.) Answer the questions with words AND music.
3.) Pass the award on to 5 bloggers who inspire you with their posts about music.
4.) Tag your post with #MWA, for Music&Words Award so that we can all find you down the line.
5.) Quote these 5 steps and the award icon in your post. You can display the icon on your sidebar as well.

Questions & Answers.
Q1: What does music mean to you?
Music is my motivator, music is my constant companion, music is my best friend, music enhances my emotions. I listen to rocking songs when I'm in a good mood and sad songs say so much when I'm depressed. What would life be without music? It wouldn't be life at all. So music means life to me.



Q2: What is your first music related memory?
I never listened to music much as a kid. It wasn't till middle school that I started to notice it. In fact, I remember the first day I started listening. It was 1983, I wasn't even in High School yet. But I was sitting around the house when I heard a loud noise from outside. I ran to the door to find out what it was and it was someone walking across the street blasting their ghetto blaster. You see, back in those days kids, we didn't have headphones. We walked around with large cumbersome radios if we wanted to take our music to go. And we LIKED it that way. The song was Eddie Grant's, 'Electric Avenue'. The radio and the song were soon gone, but I wanted to hear more. I ran to my bedroom and turned on the radio, turning till I found another song I liked. I was now hooked. So much so, music became a part of my personal journal. Every year I would listen to radio stations count down. Here is an actual countdown I recorded in my 1984 journal. Do you remember any of these?
10.Klymaxx - I Miss You
9. Eddie Murphy - Party All the Time
8. ZZ Top - Sleeping Bag
7. Mr. Mister - Kyrie
6. Sting - the Russians
5. Starship - Sara
4. Survivor - Burning Heart
3. Sheila E. - A Love Bizarre
2. [I inaccurately noted this one as A-Ha - Amotaua / I literally have no idea what it should be]
1. Paul McCartney - Spies Like Us



Q3: What was the first album you've purchased yourself?
Does anyone remember Columbia Record Club? Yea, I got sucked into that. 6 or 8 cassettes for only one penny!!! And then the fine print. LOL I still remember most of the cassettes I picked out. Prince 1999, Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits, Hall & Oates Rock 'n Soul Part 1 & Huey Lewis and the News Sports.



Q4: What was the latest music you purchased? (No online streaming or free downloads, I'm talking about cash here)!
There is a store close to where I work called, 'Mega-Media Exchange'. I get a lot of great CD's & DVD's here for a low price. Which is good because I buy a lot. I have about 500 CD's in my collection currently and the number is always increasing. The last full priced album I purchased was probably 'Weird' Al Yankovic's - 'Mandatory Fun'. Because Weird Al or Diana Krall CD's I buy as soon as they are out. But the last actual CD I purchased was from the Mega Media. It was Michael Bublé's 'To Be Loved'. I love his music and he makes the best videos.



Q5: Which song did you listen to last? (No cheating, it's only fun if you're honest).
I love listening to all sorts of music. I have the maximum amount of Pandora stations and they are always changing. When I listen, I put all the stations on shuffle. When I started answering this question my 'Wang Chung' channel started and Billy Idol's 'White Wedding' was playing.



Nominations:
The people I nominated, I've noticed have almost all been nominated already. So I'm simply going to nominate them again, so they know they were thought of. I'm a little slow, so most of these have already done a similar post.
Shady Del Knight
Jingle Jangle Jungle
Doglady's Den
Tossing It Out
Mike's Ramblings

20 comments:

  1. Hi, Jeffrey!

    Thank you very much for tapping me for the MWA! I greatly appreciate it, good buddy! I have an acceptance post coming up next Friday, Mar. 18. (I will need to revise my draft because I was going to tag you for being a great music blogger as well. :)

    I didn't realize until now that you and I have similar backgrounds and similar tastes in music, especially the 80s stuff. Like you I belonged to the Columbia Record Club. How well I remember those ghetto blasters, considered noise pollution by many members of the older generation. In the 70s and 80s, I collected 12-inch vinyl dance singles. "1999," "Electric Avenue," "Party All the Time," "Kyrie," "A Love Bizarre" and "White Wedding" were all in my collection.

    Thank you again for sharing this award with me, good buddy Jeffrey!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never used to collect vinyl, but now that I inherited by dad's old stereo system (which he purchased in the early 80's) I now have a record player and have been collecting vinyl.
      Looking forward to your post.

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  2. The first music I purchased? I'd have to dig through those 70's 45s to figure that one out!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's hard for some of us to remember the exact one we purchased. If I were not in that club, who knows what I would have purchased first.

      Delete
  3. Thanks for the nomination, Jeffrey. I'll amend my own post to reflect that. Music is indeed life! I enjoyed your musical memories, but only recognized a few from your 1984 playlist. At least we have Michael Buble' in common. Love his voice (and he's a homeboy)! :) I belonged to the Columbia Record Club and got lots of great music that way. The trick was to cancel your membership as soon as you fulfilled your obligation, wait a couple of months, then sign up again and get more music for 1 cent. I did this with the Doubleday Book Club and the video club as well. ☺

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I love Michael's videos. As for the club, I recall cancelling and restarting several times.
      You'll notice I did the musical challenge too. It was lots of fun.

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  4. Hi Jeffrey - congratulations on the award ... not being a great music afficianado .. I didn't think I'd know your suggestions ... but to my surprise I do ...

    Congratulations to your nominations .. cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like a lot of well known songs. Late 70's, early 80's, are my favourites.

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  5. Thanks, Mr Scott! I'm toying with the idea of either amending my original post, or making a new one in a week or two, with additional nominees. Great selection of music. I was also a member of Columbia Record Club, as well as BMG at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I believe I was in BMG as well.
      To be honest, I think one of my last CD's I got when in the club was Diana Krall's Love Scenes. I got it on a whim. Had no idea how good she even was. Turns out, she has become one of my favourite female vocalists.

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  6. Nice collection of songs. :) Congratulations on the award!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Chrys. Glad you liked some of the music.

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  7. These are fun to read and gain some insight into fellow bloggers musical lives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. We get so little insight to our fellow bloggers sometimes. The ones where you learn a bit more about them, are fun to read.

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  8. I missed this one somehow, JEFFY.

    Anyway, you had some really interesting answers. The memory of how you first got into music was really unique. I remember that song, too, because the video got lots of airplay on MTV, which was really new at the time. We used to sit there for hours, just drinking and watching MTV videos. And some of those early videos got played so often they're, like, engraved into my mind.

    'COME ON, EILEEN' by Dexy's Midnight Runners
    'YOU GOT LUCKY' by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
    'THE OLD MAN DOWN THE ROAD' by John Fogerty

    Those got played to death. I really liked all three, but that last one was perhaps the most clever music video I ever saw. That was such a cool idea.

    Good blog bit, sir!

    And what's the title of that DIRE STRAITS song? The one that starts "I want my MTV" and has the line "-- OH, THAT'S THE TITLE! 'MONEY FOR NOTHING'. (I started to type "money for nothing and my chicks for free" when it hit me: THAT was the title.) Man, that video also got played about every hour, it seems like.

    ~ D-FensDogG
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I loved MTV back in the day when it was Music Television. That is, playing music videos. Now, it's just uninteresting reality TV shows. Do they still play music on the channel? Even the game shows like Remote Control were fun to watch back in the day. Now, I haven't seen the channel in, I don't know how many years.

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  9. I remember the days of the ghetto blasters. Ah... the 80s.

    Did you record songs off the radio??? I remember racing home from church to catch the top 10 in Casey Casem's Top 40 Countdown. I'd have the cassette all ready to record and then shout at everyone to stop slamming the doors, talking (at all), etc. because I was trying to do "something important here." It all seems really funny now, but it wasn't then. Plus, the whole thing could be ruined if he talked too long spoiling the Intro. Then I had to erase and hope for better next week. Of course, I could try and catch it another time, but it was always a crapshoot when it would come on.

    It was a real pain in the rear end, but I'm grinning just thinking about it:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I remember recording songs off the radio. Back in the days, we also had the new novelty of Home Box Office. A little device that allowed us to watch all the latest movies after 5:00 on a local UHF channel. I remember recording movies in the living room, and music from the radio.
      As for recording your faovurite song off the radio, I remember waiting around all day, just to record my favourite song. And if someone came into my room while I was doing that, they were dead.
      Well, you know what I mean.

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  10. I'm so glad you accepted the nomination and played along Jeffrey! Thanks for that. I enjoyed reading your answers and especially how you started listening to music. I remember those big boom boxes and I can just picture in my mind someone carrying one on their shoulder grooving to Electric Avenue! Cool tune there!
    Loved your song choices. Elton John's Sad Songs brings back so many memories. And White Wedding is a great song. Pandora rocks, doesn't it? My favorite Pandora stations that I have are my Guess Who and Fleetwood Mac stations.

    Thanks again for playing along!
    Hope you're having a great Sunday...

    Michele at Angels Bark

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    1. It was a lot of fun to play along. Those sound like awesome Pandora stations. And yes, I love pandora.
      Music has come a long way for us music lovers. Hasn't it?

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