And there was MUSIC....

One of the things that brought drummer guy and I together was our mutual love for music.  Let me rephrase that: our obsessive love for music.   When we both determined that we were going to place our hearts in fate’s hands and move across the continent to live together for evermore, we had this minor issue of our respective record collections.   They were both huge; combined, they consisted of easily 1500 pieces of vinyl.   So we decided to throw a vinyl “gifting” party, giving away one copy of any of the duplicates that we owned.

There were a grand total of 125.  

So while we both love the Clash, Elvis Costello, Devo, Peter Gabriel and the Rolling Stones, our collection and tastes goes off in wild solitary directions from that point of reference.  He loves Zappa.  I love Nine Inch Nails.  He adores Neil Young and Dylan.  I love Desmond Dekker and any Stax song with Booker T and MGs as the house band.

This brings up an interesting dilemma during concert selections.  The eternal question arises:

  “How far I can push the musical tastes of the love of my life before until they would rather have a root canal than go to a concert?”

Over the years concerts have fallen into three categories:

Music you introduced me to who I now love as much as you do!

This list has grown over our 25 plus years together.  It’s at the point where I’ll buy the Billy Cobham tickets before drummer guy does.   Drummer guy gladly heads off to San Francisco every New Year’s Eve to party with me and every freaky Primus fan in the Bay area.   Stanley Clark?  Check.  Zappa Plays Zappa?  Of course.   Ian Hunter?  Sign me up Ticketmaster!   They Might Be Giants?  Let me get the Tshirt out from the last tour to wear.

Music I’m not really into but I love you so much I can spare 2 hours and maybe I’ll actually like it.

For me, this is Tom Petty and The Black Crowes.   Not a huge fan but I enjoy the concerts.  Crowded House, a drummer buy favourite falls into the same category.   For drummer guy,  Gang of Four was fun but not something he’d seek out himself as a concert experience.   Same with Tower of Power and Nine Inch Nails.

Sidenote on this list, the Residents (who I love) may be in the list but it’s too soon to tell.   Drummer Guy review:  “They sound like Captain Beefheart on acid”.   

Oh man, I’d love to go but I have that pesky dentist appointment!

To me there is a trifecta here:  Bruce Springsteen, Dylan and Neil Young.   While I have not seen Dylan in concert yet, I don’t even want to go there.   I did see Springsteen with drummer guy once.  And only once.  It was three long hours of endless encores that I will never, ever get back.   I really don’t understand the big deal of Neil Young (who we saw at one of the Bridge concerts).  His songs are lyrically sophomoric and his voice is annoying.  

On the flip side (like the record reference there?), here’s Drummer guys list.   Any reggae / ska artist other than Selector.   He don’t like reggae, he hates it.   He once accompanied me to a Love and Rockets concert and he was having such a miserable time we left early.   I doubt I’d ever get him to a Depeche Mode concert or any band that lacks a real drummer.   And Seth Williams, who I raved about after we saw him open for Les Claypool and Drummer guy looked at me like I had lost a few brain cells along the way to the merchandise stand.

So our married sound track is varied and wonderful and we’ve learned to accept our musical differences and add a few more artists to our ever growing list.   It wasn’t part of the original vows but it works.

But if Robert Fripp ever decides to tour again, Drummer Guy is going solo.