Are musos babies?

[Mobbd]

I'm editing a book (this is my job) in which the writer mentions that "being 19, music had an almost spiritual importance to me."

I'd never consciously thought before that a deep enthusiasm for music might be connected to youth or that it might be something you'd grow out of.

I can't tell if my writer (rightly or wrongly) holds an atypical opinion, or if this is a commonly-held belief I've never noticed before. I know it's widely felt that an intense love of, say, comic books or Star Wars is a bit childish. But music?

My own enthusiasm for music has remained about the same for all of my life. My tastes have changed, but the level of love I have for music feels fairly consistent.

Are musos babies?

[SpiderChrist]

Marty DiBergi : Do you feel that playing rock 'n' roll music keeps you a child? That is, keeps you in a state of arrested development?

Derek Smalls : No. No. No. I feel it's like, it's more like going, going to a, a national park or something. And there's, you know, they preserve the moose. And that's, that's my childhood up there on stage. That moose, you know.

Marty DiBergi : So when you're playing you feel like a preserved moose on stage?

Derek Smalls : Yeah.

[the]

I'm editing a book (this is my job) in which the writer mentions that "being 19, music had an almost spiritual importance to me."

Aren't they just implying that music is tied more tightly to your social life when you're younger, which imbues it with an extra intensity. Or they could just be being pompous.

'Being an office worker, sandwiches have an almost spiritual importance to me'

[purlieu]

Everything in life has a certain sense of wonder that you lose over the course of your teens and early 20s, for various reasons. I don't think I've stopped loving music in any sense, although obviously listening habits change. I get into less new music these days because there's simply less space in my brain, and less time in the day to listen to it as the size of my collection grows. I think back to when I was 12 and had about 25 CDs and they were enough, and now my collection is in four figures and there aren't enough hours in my life to play them even a fraction as much as I'd like. Other commitments - relationships, jobs, social life, having a dog, household chores, etc. - also play into the lack of time. So I do miss having that freedom to just listen to an album countless times and get into it without anything holding me back.

But yeah, it still holds as much importance in my life as it ever has, and I'm sure it will continue to. I wouldn't say there's anything childish about it.

That said, there are certain aspects of certain types of music that might be considered adolescent. I often see traits like youthful energy, teen angst and such held up as signifiers of high quality in music; the idea that as musicians get older, they lose what made them good as youngsters. If that's the case, then perhaps one could argue that there's a bit of a disconnect between old people listening to something so geared around youth. It's not something really agree with (or have any particular interest in) so I wouldn't put forth that argument myself.

[Mobbd]

Aren't they just implying that music is tied more tightly to your social life when you're younger

I don't think so. I think he's saying that he took some spiritual succour[nb]I said "succour"[nb]yes, I know, I heard you clearly[/nb][/nb] from listening to music or maybe that he used music as a way to understand the world, unbox the meaning of things. I used to do that too, I suppose.

I guess that relationship with music is what we're generally thought to grow out of. I don't think I listen to music in that way anymore, in part because I've already reached working conclusions about what things mean and how to behave in the world; and in part because I take social cues from sources other than popular music now (which is generally overly romantic or skewed by artistic license and as such not such a great source); and in part because music has a different function in my adult life.

Thanks for helping me thrash this out a bit. Obvious really, innit?

[Mobbd]

it still holds as much importance in my life as it ever has, and I'm sure it will continue to. I wouldn't say there's anything childish about it.

That said, there are certain aspects of certain types of music that might be considered adolescent. I often see traits like youthful energy, teen angst and such held up as signifiers of high quality in music; the idea that as musicians get older, they lose what made them good as youngsters. If that's the case, then perhaps one could argue that there's a bit of a disconnect between old people listening to something so geared around youth. It's not something really agree with (or have any particular interest in) so I wouldn't put forth that argument myself.

Same.

Yeah, I think you've nailed it.

[NoSleep]

Musicians work is called "play". Actually, humans have probably the longest time of any species as a child and this may the key to human ingenuity and creativity, our playfulness leads to curiosity and breeds enquiring minds.

Youthful music is confident in its ignorance and some artists suffer badly when when they come to know a few extra bits of info that curtail their expression. A few more years and they may learn to know better how to get back to that original energy but without sacrificing the lessons learned along the way.

[wosl]

Musicians work is called "play".

As is the work of athletes and sports people - occupations/forms of self-expression (often of a more 'by-product' kind, for obvious reasons) that likewise generate moments or passages that become testaments to ingenuity and creativity, at the higher levels.

[Endicott]

Are musos babies?

Musos has a particular meaning in my neck of the woods, and refers only to people who make music by writing it and playing it. And all the ones I know are, most definitely, big massive babies (even in their 50s). Egos the size of planets. Of course the musos you know may be different ...

[wosl]

all the ones I know are, most definitely, big massive babies (even in their 50s). Egos the size of planets.

The ego stuff immediately made me think of something that John Peel once said to The Wire magazine:

The Wire: Years ago you used to play some of the more rigorous, experimental free jazz like Brotherhood Of Breath on your show.

Peel: Yeah, that was kind of [show producer John] Walters' influence, because I was the victim of these same kind of uncertainties as the people who listen to the programme.  I always see myself as being the listener's man on the inside, really. And Walters used to persuade me that The Brotherhood Of Breath - and one or two other things besides - were the kind of thing we ought to be doing. It was actually okay, but you couldn't get into it like you could get into a Gene Vincent track.  Nucleus would be another one.  Remember Nucleus?  Ian Carr was an incredibly serious man and he used to come in and lecture Walters and myself on the inadequacies of almost every other musician apart from himself.  And we were so frightened of him that when he said, "How about a session for Nucleus?", we didn't like to say no.