Meaning of Life

I honestly believe in the best music you can find the meaning of life.  Maybe that's a bit of a stretch?  But I think it's there.

Take, for example, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, an artifact of my birth year, a great year for music.  I've probably listened to this album hundreds of times and still get something new from it even still.  This album has birth, death, capitalism, war, and impenetrable soul, not to mention the nature of sanity and the human condition.  Recently I got to listen to it with Megan, and we both felt the full intensity.  This is undoubtedly Pink Floyd's best, and, at least to me, the best album of all time, period.  I can remember listening to this in high school, in college, and just about every phase of my life thereafter.

Next we listened to this little gem, while Kelly was getting a massage and needed something relaxing:

Grant Green's Idle Moments is probably the definition of laid back, but not in a boring way.  In a word, it is perfect.  Joe Henderson's smooth sax is not so in a "Kenny G" sense, but in a way that you can hear the intensity of his ideas and his breathing--he's stating the theme, meditating, chewing it, and spitting it out.  This is also probably one of the best guitar jazz albums of all time (possibly Wes Montgomery's Incredible Jazz Guitar as a one-better).  It is a long favorite of Kelly's, Amy's, and mine.

Dave Brubeck's Time Out is undoubtedly the first jazz vinyl I ever listened to.  I happen to own the exact copy that I first heard, thanks to my dad.  Kelly requested to hear it tonight, so I was happy to oblige.  This album was a lot of things, long before my time.  For me it opened my ears to different time signatures, and, of all things, that white people could play good music.

Perhaps by subconscious contrast, or just because I was in the mood, I put on James Brown's Live at the Apollo.  Listening to it this time made me realize that the best instrument James Brown ever played was the audience.  This is a short album and almost feels rushed, but the band is the definition of TIGHT.  I can't think of anything tighter except perhaps Basie or Ellington, and they had to work harder.

Finally, I put on the Clash's Combat Rock, what Amy used to call "their sellout album."  But this is really the only Clash album for which I knew multiple songs, and the only one I really grew up with.  Nowhere near as listenable perhaps as London Calling, but there are some truly amazing tracks on it, including "Straight to Hell" and "Rock the Casbah."  It also has their most repetitive and well-known song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go."  After all these years, I still like this album.  And perhaps the best part is that it is cheap and easy to come by.  I think this one cost less than $10, and you can probably find it for $5.  One of the best bang for your buck albums.