Music Soothes the Savage Beast

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Music soothes the savage beast, or so they say. Quite who ‘they’ are I’ve no idea but ‘they’ may well have a point at least up to a point.

I must admit I’d rather avoid being caught out on the plains of Africa surrounded by lions with only a ghetto blaster between me and being eaten. What if the lions don’t like Morrisey??

Still, music means an enormous amount to all of us. You may love classical, you may love pop, you may love rock, you may love opera, you may love reggae. It has to be said, you may even love disco or house music and require urgent psychiatric help but you love the music you love.

Jazz, punk, blues, rock ‘n roll, country. Listing various forms of music could take quite a long time so I won’t. Personally I’m quite eclectic in my musical tastes. David Bowie has always been a favourite of mine albeit his ‘glam rock Ziggy Stardust years’ are my favourite. Green Day and Blink 182 I like along with 70’s favourites Wizard and Cockney Rebel not to mention Roxy Music, Iggy Pop and The Who.

The late 70’s ‘mod revival’ gave us The Jam along with the ska revival at the same time gave us Madness and Selector and The Specials. All bands I adore to this day. Did the USA get a ‘mod’ or ‘ska’ revival? No matter. If you didn’t it was your loss.

The thing is music touches us. Glenn Miller’s music is superb – how can I think that when I listen to The Sex Pistols? Easily. I try not to restrict myself musically speaking. The Smiths talked the talk whilst Oasis merely walked the walk but I enjoy both. The Carpenters were ‘middle of the road’ boring to many of my peers but, whilst I didn’t particularly rate many of their songs I found the late Karen Carpenter’s voice incredibly soothing.

Many people have ‘their song’. It may be the song they danced to with their wives on their wedding day or it may be a song they heard on a special occasion of some other sort. Quite conceivably it’s a song that they relate to at a certain important part of their lives. The song may be from Frank Sinatra or a classical composition from Beethoven or Tchaikov – er – Tchicov – er – you know who I mean. Perhaps it’s a love song like The Righteous Brothers ‘Unchained Melody’ which invariably makes me cry during ‘Ghost’ – a fact I will deny and claim Mike edited my contribution.

Whatever ‘your song’ is it will mean a lot to you and that is purely because the composer, arranger, singer happened to come up with the right tune at the right time for you – or alternatively, they came up with the tune many years earlier but when you heard it at a particular time it became, in your mind, your song.

As we stagger ever onwards through the 21st Century and worry what the future holds or even whether there is a future ultimately we can always take comfort in ‘our song’ and listen to it and forget our troubles and even the worlds troubles if only for the few minutes it lasts – unless you choose the 12″ extended version of course (that’s vinyl speak to you cd and Ipod people)

Your song is ‘yours’ and will always remain so even after you’re long gone and nobody remembers it was your song.

My song? Well, unlike some who may struggle to choose just the one – and I do understand that many people like too many songs to just choose one – there is one that purely by chance seems to encompass everything that i think about myself.

Others may not think the same way about me but that’s up to them. Those who know me would understand and say “Yes. I can quite see why you say this is YOUR song”

About Post Author

Neil Bamforth

I am English first, British second and never ever European. I have supported Oldham Athletic FC for 50 years which has made me immune from depression. My taste buds have died due to too many red hot curries so I drink Kronenburg beer and milk - sometimes in the same glass. I have a wife, daughter, 9 cats and I like toast.
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Bill Formby
9 years ago

I have numerous songs I like a lot. To say I have a favorite one is like trying to pick out my favorite child. Today it is this one, Tomorrow it is the other one. I was driving down the road the other day and CHuck Berry’s “Maybelene” came on and I had forgotten how much I like that song, especially when driving down the open road. Later I heard Pail Simon’s “50 ways to Leave Your Lover” which also a great song. Many of you who are younger have only a decade or so to pick from for your music. Mine, like Mike and James span from the big bands of the forties to now. We listened to Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie. Then of course, came Hank Williams, Elvis, a million one hit wonders, the doo wop years, and on and on. There is no one song nor even one artist that could ever become the one. Simply too much over the last sixty plus years that I have been paying attention to music.

Reply to  Bill Formby
9 years ago

Glenn Miller ‘In The Mood’ will always be in my top 10…about number 8 just below The Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy In The UK’…there’s really no hope for me is there? 😉

9 years ago

Some years ago, I was driving some sailing students to San Diego for a weekend sail. One of them was looking through my CD wallet. He saw everything from Jerry Lee Lewis to Beethoven and Vivaldi with the Beatles, Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Kingston Trio, and Johnny cash in there. “You know what this says about you?” he asked.

Thinking it was going to be something in the line of, you’re really widely experienced with music. I said, “No, what?”

He answered, “You’re a guy who can’t make up his mind.”

No, he didn’t “accidentally” fall overboard.

Reply to  James Smith
9 years ago

LOL! Good one James.

Reply to  James Smith
9 years ago

But perhaps, like me, his mind was beyond ‘making up’? 😉

Reply to  Norman Rampart
9 years ago

Could be. Here I am, decades later, still have the same stuff, although now on the computer and play on the guitar that variety almost every day. “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Annabel Lee” within minutes of each other.

Norman, we have more in common than you know.

Reply to  James Smith
9 years ago

Possibly because you don’t get much more common than me…;-)

Jess
9 years ago

Queen’s Under Pressure is my go to song for getting pumped up. I have a couple of favorites right now on repeat and they are a little old. Brandi Carlisle’s The Story, Pitbull’s Give me everything Tonight, Bruno Mars Just the way You Are is the song I am listening to right now and because of that you get a video of Jason Mraz because I know he is next up 🙂

Reply to  Jess
9 years ago

I’ve not heard of any of these songs. Sigh. 🙂

Jess
Reply to  Professor Mike
9 years ago

Oh then allow me Mike 🙂 Here is my boy Pitbull first

Jess
Reply to  Professor Mike
9 years ago

Bruno Mars did one of the last Superbowl halftime shows, he’s pretty cool. Husband says I look like the woman in this video, I don’t see the resemblance myself.

Reply to  Jess
9 years ago

Wasn’t there some controversy over his performance? Lip-syncing?

Jess
Reply to  Professor Mike
9 years ago

There always is when people are singing like that. Same thing happened when Beyonce did it and Madonna.

E.A. Blair
Reply to  Professor Mike
9 years ago

I read somewhere that big shows in venues like the Super Bowl are always lib synched because it avoids the problem of equipment failure.

Reply to  Jess
9 years ago

NICE ONE!!!!!

Jess
Reply to  Norman Rampart
9 years ago

He has a lot of really upbeat tunes for driving around with the top down on the car.

Reply to  Jess
9 years ago

I could only do that with the help of a chain saw 😉

Jess
Reply to  Norman Rampart
9 years ago

Damn, is that how you take your top off. I find it easier just raising mine over my head but ok 🙂 Ohhhh, convertible car… never mind like Emily Litella from SNL says.

Reply to  Jess
9 years ago

Who? Nah! Just kidding 🙂 Big SNL fan here.

E.A. Blair
9 years ago

“Music soothes the savage beast, or so they say. Quite who ‘they’ are I’ve no idea…”

Let me clear that up for you, Norman. It’s not a ‘they’, it was a ‘he’, and his name was William Congreve, an English playwright who lived from 24 January 1670 to 19 January 1729. His output of plays was rather small – he wrote four comedies and one tragedy, but fell victim to changing audience tastes – and he turned to poetry in his later years.

However, in his brief stint as a playwright, he gave the world two of the most misquoted phrased in the English language. Both come from his 1697 play The Mourning Bride, his lone tragedy amid his comedies.

The first, and most germane to this post, comes from Act I, scene 1:

“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak. I’ve read, that things inanimate have mov’d, And, as with living Souls, have been form’d by Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.”

So, it’s not the savage beast that is calmed by music but the savage breast (i.e., anger).

The second, and no less famous misquote comes from Act III, scene 8:

“Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d”

I don’t think I need to mention the misquoted version. The part of Congreve’s that get left out of this misquote – the part about heaven – was echoed in the play Faust>, in which the eponymous protagonist is offered a choice of devils with whom to make his pact. He asks each how swiftly their rewards can be delivered, and when Mephistopheles promises to be “…as swift as love turns to hate…” Faust knows he’s got his demon.

So that’s the full skinny on what music has. As for my own tastes, they are quite eclectic. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Roxy Music, Nico and bands and artists from the Nordic Roots movement (Hedningarna, Garmarna, Sanna Kurki-Suonio, Sorten Muld) and my old standbys, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, John Cale*, Cluster, Peter Gabriel, Raymond Scott, King Crimson and Jethro Tull.

*No, this is not JJ Cale.

E.A. Blair
Reply to  E.A. Blair
9 years ago

Oops. Looks like I forgot to close the italics properly after “Faust”. Oh, well. It was late and I was tired.

Reply to  E.A. Blair
9 years ago

Thanks for that background E.A. Had no clue.

E.A. Blair
Reply to  Professor Mike
9 years ago

I’ve been having a bit of a dry spell…but I think I’ll do a post on mangled quotes. I’ll get a chance to expound on my favorite (and set the record straight).

Reply to  E.A. Blair
9 years ago

Thank you old bean! I could have Googled it but…well..it’s me eh? 😉

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