Susan's long weird musical Saga

WARNING: THIS BLOG MAY MAKE SOME PEOPLE SLIGHTLY UNCOMFORTABLE BUT LIKE LISA SAYS IT'S MY BLOG AND I CAN WRITE WHAT I WANT TO.

Well now that I am past my ominous disclaimer I will get to my blog.


I have been thinking lately about some of my favorite music. There aren't a whole lot of albums where I love every song on it. Some of those few are : Steely Dan - Can't buy a thrill, Carole King - Tapestry, Everclear - Songs from an American Movie Part One [this is a teeny bit of a cheat because I don't like the lame last song about Alex's daughter] , Elton John - Yellow Brick Road, Don Mclean - American Pie.

There are more but I think that's enough for now.

Anyway my point here is to talk about what I think is my favorite album of all time. Where every song is just so perfect and connected to each other in the most sublime act of musicrey, that I feel it compares with any famous classical composition from any of the past musical masters.

What wonder of the musical realm could I possibly be referring to. It would be my beloved,

Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

Now you might not agree with my assessment of this great work and that's okay by me. There are so many wonderful artists out there that I would actually be a little surprised if anyone agrees with me.

But that's not what this blog is about anyway.

I have had quite a long and curious connection to this great album. It first came to my attention when I was probably 14 or 15. I can't even quite remember my first exposure to it. It could have been when I first heard the song "Money" on the radio but I think I had heard the whole album before that. It might have been at a party I went to at Vicky Morrison's house. It might even have been at Grandma Mathew's house, even though I doubt that too. However I have a very distinct memory of hanging out with the the Twins and listening to it with them and on track three "Time", after the alarm clocks, they told me that the music following that sounded just like the music in a Clint Eastwood film.

It's crazy the things that stay so clear in your memory for years while other much more significant events are just a vague fog.

Well I loved this album and somehow I got my hands on my own copy of it which was a really cool thing for my teen-age self!

At this time in my life, I was doing a lot of things that I should not have been doing. I was pretty rebellious. My best friend Sally and I had discovered the joys of smoking pot, which we did downstairs, in her wing of the house when her Mom and Step-Dad were not home. Although when I think back on it I realize her Mom was the kind of super liberal, almost but not quite a hippy, Mom, whom I doubt really cared what we were doing down there. In fact Sally had marijuana plants growing out on her deck outside her room. So I doubt her Mom would have cared that we smoked the stuff.

Now, I'm not writing about this because I'm proud of it, because I'm not. But I'm also not ashamed of it either. I actually have some really good memories of those times.

We used to go upstairs to her living room where the really good stereo was after we had smoked our stuff. We would listen to Cheech and Chong, The Youngbloods, Cream, even the Rolling Stones. But our favorite was you guessed it......

Dark Side Of The Moon.

Man we loved that album.

So over my teenage years I came to associate the album with getting high.

Fast forward a few years after I had repented of everything and was actually worthy to go to the Temple with Don to be married.

I still had most of my albums that I had accumulated during my misspent youth, and I not only listened to them often, I also introduced them to my young children. My kids have a pretty good background in the really good music of the sixties and the seventies because of me.

The one album that I could not listen to though was Dark Side. It brought back so many memories that I was not in anyway comfortable with. I loved it so much but every time I tried to listen to it I ended up turning it off after the first few minutes, because it made me so uncomfortable.

I believe I actually gave it away to my brother Mike. At least I kind of remember doing that. [Mike if I did and if you still have it could I have it back?] I just could not have it in my life because of all the negative feelings it brought out in me.

Then one day, probably about 15 or 16 years ago, Donald discovered the BMG music service. You know the buy one get twelve free kind of thing? In fact he discovered it with a passion!

That little rat probably had at least three different accounts going at any given time.

I decided I wanted some of that action myself.

I looked through his list and quickly picked out about eight or nine albums that I wanted but then I hit a wall and couldn't really find much else that sounded good. I kept coming across Dark Side Of The Moon though and I finally decided that I had deprived myself long enough. I was a good active Mormon mother of five and that my past was just that. My past.
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I ordered it along with all the other CD's.

When they came it was the first one I listened to, and you know what?? I loved it all over again!!! I was able to enjoy it for the musical masterpiece it was without any of the negative connotations I was expecting.

I was so relieved to no longer be a prisoner of my past mistakes!!

I have introduced it to all of my children [well except for Shawn, it's so not his style] and they have all loved it.

I try to not listen to it too often because I somehow fear that might dilute it's specialness.

I have been listening to it lately more often and reflecting on my really long weird history with it, so I decided to write this blog. If anyone is still with me I hope you enjoyed my story. And if you are not familiar with this incredible artistic and moving piece of music I strongly reccomend you find a chance to listen to it.

I don't think you will be dissapointed.