Good rock. That’s hard to come by. Truly. In our modern litany of rock lyrics, it’s remarkable if you find a group that has decent tunes and very little or no profanity. I really don’t like rap in general, except for Eminem. I’m not, despite listening to Eminem, real fond of the F-word. Or any other profanity. I think that we can be much more sophisticated in our expressions of emotion, circumstance, and present state of being than to use the F-word (or any othe word) for every part of speech that exists. There are a lot of things that rhyme with the F-word, granted, but then you have to listen to those, too, some of which aren’t too flattering, either, in the whole scheme of things. I prefer older music for this reason. Older music was better in a lot of ways because the artists didn’t have all of these electronic adjustments to make their voices pitch-perfect and they actually had to have a good tune and good lyrics to make it. That, and they actually had full albums!
I found a rock group that I really like recently. I played Pink Floyd to death, and began searching for other rock groups that may suit my tastes. Riverside is the group and they have an outstanding album called “Wasteland” that introduced me to their brand of rock. I really like their music! I’ve loaded their albums onto my iPod. Suggestions that iTunes made regarding related bands in the form of “You May Also Like…” included one named Haken. I’m listening to that group as I write this post and I’m liking what I hear, so they may also make it onto the iPod as a permanent party.
It’s just a matter of finding the music I like without all of the profanity. I know all the profanity well enough. Introduce me to some new, insightful, powerful lyrics! Make me think by using some words and combinations of imagery that blow my mind or take me to the depths of my soul and are longer than one syllable or two. Challenge me… That’s what I like about good music. I’m into rock right now because I’m looking for good crushing tunes for my climbing projects, but I like a variety of music. Rock is an interesting genre of music. It’s rather versatile, I’m finding out. There is some that incorporates some metal at times (Haken does this), which is perfectly fine. Some of it is more purist when it comes to classifying genres, but what I’m interested in is that element of intelligence and creativity and drive in both the music and the lyrics – that elusive “perfect combination”. Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is hard to beat. There are groups out there, I’m finding out, that can challenge the mind and make good crushing music. I just have to take some time to find them. So far, I’m liking the ones I’ve named – Riverside and Haken. They have enough “noise” value to be good for crushing on the rock while I climb while still being interesting if I actually want to listen. It’s not “white noise”. It’s more like “indigo noise”, if you will. A motivational factor…that’s what it has to be. So choose your color of “noise” and go crush some climbs!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 