Monday, February 29, 2016

ToadMama's Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge (BBBC # 29)

So this is it.

The end of Kathy's February blogger challenge: 29 posts in 29 days.

I knew it was going to be a difficult challenge. I had a lot on my plate in February, but I managed to pull it off.

If you are inclined to see all 29 of my responses to Kathy's devilish prompts, you can click here for the February 1 to 6 responses, click here for responses 7 to 15, and click here to see 16 through 28. I have added links below each response to the other participating bloggers' takes on the same topic.

I decided to save a stand-alone post for the last response. I'm glad it's over, but kind of sad to pen the last response.

My responses revealed my character in significant ways, in the way that Chuck Close's hundreds and hundreds of tiny abstracts yield a portrait once you back off enough. If you've never experienced his work, I encourage you to seek it out, or click here to see some examples online (but it's not the same experience as seeing it in a museum).

Kathy's last prompt is...

29. The first song that comes into your head and why.

There are tunes that seem to be with us from our earliest memories, like the happy birthday song, or once you hit a certain point in school, the national anthem. Back in the 1960's the music I heard was mostly on the radio in the car, or at home, whatever my parents were listening to. I remember my parents and my uncle chatting about Elvis Presley and what to make of him, they seemed really interested, but I didn't really care.

Around the time I was painfully learning to ride my first bike, I must have been six-ish, I remember a friend's older sister and her friends sitting on the floor with a 45 RPM record player listening to top 40 hits. It made an impression, but I couldn't tell you what songs they were listening to.

We moved out to the suburbs in 1961. My new friends and I were living in a boys' dream. New subdivisions were springing up like mushrooms all around us. We spent our summers exploring. Eventually we went bottle collecting. The construction workers would leave their empty soft drink bottles lying around the work sites, and on the weekend, my friends and I gathered our Radio Flyer wagons and set off to collect the empties. Once we had as many bottles as we could haul, we would wash off the mud and crud in the driveway, and then take the long two mile trek to the grocery store in a shopping mall where there was a Woolworth store. We returned the bottles, collected our loot, divided it up like pirates, then hit the Woolworth store's model plane aisle. As we browsed through the Messerschmidts, Spitfires, Mustangs, and Zeros, the sound track in the background was mostly always Motown.

To this day I love Motown. I have an iTunes playlist with forty memorable hits, including 'Please Mr. Postman', 'Heatwave', and of course, 'I heard it through the grapevine' (both the Gladys Knight and the Marvin Gaye versions). And yet, much as I enjoyed and still enjoy those tunes, they didn't ignite a spark in my brain.

That happened at some point in the sixties when I first heard 'Take Five', Dave Brubeck's classic jazz tune. It was used as the opening theme for a TV show. I think the show was called 'Take Five', but that could be my mind playing tricks on me.


Now that song shot from my ears right into my soul, where it remains embedded to this day. It was the unusual melody and odd rhythm that just hooked me. I can listen to that music and lose myself in it. I don't think any other song does that for me.

If you want a musician's take on it, here is how the WikiPedia entry for that song explains it:
"Written in the key of E-flat minor, it is known for its distinctive two-chord[3] piano vamp; catchy blues-scale saxophone melody; inventive, jolting drum solo;[4] and use of the unusual quintuple time (5/4), from which its name is derived."

My last words on this challenge madness have to be to thank Kathy for dreaming up this challenge. I hope you have enjoyed reading along as much as I have enjoyed trying to step up to the challenge.

Read what other bloggers posted:

Kathy, Richard, Rachael, Steve, Mark, and Dar

PS 20210119: A reader reached out to me. If you think you'd like to learn to play the blues scale on your guitar, check out this link to Beginner Guitar HQ



10 comments:

RichardM said...

Nice choice of music. I never knew it's name but very familiar.

SonjaM said...

Take five... one of my favourite songs. I grew up with classic music, and my first memories would be from Verdi operas. When it comes to contemporary music I have a short attention span. But David Bowie's Life on Mars stuck with me through the past decades.

David Masse said...

Thanks Richard.

David Masse said...

Life on Mars... I'm terrible at remembering song names. I'll go have a listen.

len@RE-GLAZE-IT said...

Hello Dave not had much time to comment lately but i'm still here and around and checking in when I can:)
This latest challenge as had me hooked good and proper with me constantly checking in every single day!

Good stuff, that was a good idea Kathy cooked up:)

Regards

Len

len@RE-GLAZE-IT said...

Take Five.....Good music, What film??

Len

David Masse said...

It was fun Len. It's nice to know you're hanging around :)

David Masse said...

It was a TV show, but I was unable to find any trace of it in my searches. There are only memory fragments. I only got hooked on the music, not the show.

ToadMama said...

I have most definitely enjoyed reading along, even if I am late. I'm not a fan of that type of music generally. The strange rhythm throws me off. It's pleasant enough and definitely sounded familiar, but isn't my cup of tea.

Thanks for playing along.

David Masse said...

Kathy there is a saying "les goûts se discutent mais ne se partagent pas", tastes are discussed but not shared. Diversity is what makes us all tick.

The copyright in all text and photographs, except as noted, belongs to David Masse.