Gift Ten – Teresa

It appears I started a bad precedent by bringing my gift late last time. I therefore I have my gift today, in the hopes you all will follow in suit. My gift this go-round is the album “Skylarking” by XTC.

I realized something about the gifts that I’ve brought to the table. They are all very dated. All of my music comes from a time when I was most impressionable. My collection has an obvious cutoff date from 2001, when I rededicated my life to the Lord. I didn’t stop purchasing music because of some strange conviction that secular music is evil. My priorities changed and so did my influences. There was some music that I burned in effigy (translation: threw away in a garbage can) as some misguided sense of sacrifice to the Lord, but all in all, my music stayed frozen in time. The Collective has forced me to pick the music I loved from its long untouched shelf, blow off the dust and download onto my computer. I am indebted to The Collective for this.

This album was huge for me in my late teens and early twenties. And I struggled with it. The most popular track on the cd is a song called “Dear God”. My atheist friends loved it because they felt it was an anthem for them. But, I don’t find that to be the case. “Dear God” is a song for the angry Catholic who can’t just seem to wrap their head around what kind of God would allow such evil in the world. For someone who would rather try not to believe in this type of God rather than grapple with the hard questions about God we all face. I loved (and still do love) this album for its gut-wrenching honesty, from lost-love, bitter heartache and this song that shows anger at a God they don’t understand. The album is fluid and flows together as a movement. This is one of my favorite cds on the planet. Please enjoy!

That’s Really Super, Super Girl

1000 Umbrellas

Dear God

Gift Six – Teresa

First, I would like to extend my sincerest apology to The Collective. My gift is very late and although I have excuses in my head as to why, there is no excuse in my neglect. However, I am hoping that my gift will more than make up for it. My offering this week is “Elvis Costello”.

When I was growing up, I really wanted nothing to do with Elvis C. I wasn’t a huge fan of Elvis Presley and felt that Mr. Costello’s name was too close to Mr. Presley’s. Guilt by association. I am still lukewarm on the “King of Rock n’ Roll”, but I discovered my deep passion for Elvis Costello in high school.

I had many other ideas in my head, but I found out last week that, even though the concert is technically sold out, tickets to the Police concert with Elvis as the opener were available to me if I could talk my husband into paying close to half our mortgage payment for said tickets. I had a great Elvis compilation that I donated to a friend’s collection. I never seemed to keep any of my cds because I always felt music was so important to share.

So, today, I share my love of Elvis Costello. And I say to him, “Mr. Costello, I’m giving you a longer look everyday I write the book…”

Everyday I Write The Book

 

Oliver’s Army

 

What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace And Love

Gift One – Teresa

My gift to The Collective is ‘Big Star’. This cd is a two album complilation consisting of their 1^st album “#1 Record” and their 2^nd and last album “Radio City”. Big Star was a band in the early 70’s that were victims of poor distribution due to internal label wars. They were also mostly a studio band due to the conflict between frontmen Chris Bell and Alex Chilton. Although Big Star tried to play a few gigs here and there, they were highly unsuccessful. The late Bell (passed away in an accident in 1979) left the band after ‘#1 Record’ was recorded. He came back to work on the 2^nd album, but his conflict with Chilton led him to abort his portion of the project and he refused to take any credit on ‘Radio City’, although his influence can be heard throughout the tunes.

With Chilton’s bluesy and rhythmic guitar combined with Bell’s british influenced vocals, the band tops my category of bands that you should be listening to probably never heard of. You can hear the 70’s infused in the tracks with its “ooh aah” background vocals and driving guitars. Tracks that are a must-hear are “The Ballad of El Goodo” (side note: Evan Dando has covered this tune), “You Get What You Deserve” and “September Gurls”. And here’s a pop quiz for you, tell me where you’ve heard track #3 “In The Street”.