"Then, O my beauty! say to the worms who will devour you with kisses, that I have kept the form and the divine essence of my decomposed love!".
An unexpected "outdoor trip" to Appeldorn, Nord Holland, last Saturday, turned a 2004 red wine into a time framing and decomposing tool to dig into music memories and a family heritage rist watch suddenly became a symbol of "golden classic", beating the time as a past and present "trait d'union".
Right like a mix of tracks in a djset, or a family photo album, the watch was mixing and alternating moments of discoursing about how modern music has been and keeps on being influenced by rock' n roll, blues, soul and jazz classics from 60's to 80's.
To make the atmosphere even more vintage than what we started with, we were sitting at the table in between "lekker" fat Swedish meatballs with blueberries jam, mostard and handmade Romagnoli's Tortellini, when this red wine, Cabernet Franc, Madiran, 2004 suddenly appeared from a "time lost" fresh canteen of the house of my friend's mother.
And like the soft plumcake small cakes "madeleines" made the Proustian character from "A la recherce du temps perdu" dreaming and remembering about a time hidden from the present... my friends started digging into a pile of old vynils, talking about how songs can last through time and what made them being listened to from fathers and sons; passed and played on now dusty turntables, but still in your minds when we hum their tunes, or we listen to modern music tracks.
Where does the modern sound of today come from?
Those tunes means time and inspiration for new generations. Are we able to remember, to recognize those inspirations?
As the role of memory is central to the Proustian episode, so it suddenly was for that Madiran 2004 based conversation where music flashbacks, adventourous search for musical paths, generational jumps, family history and personal discoveries, were being listed to make an original classic playlist; to show ways of listening and playing far from internet and downloading and days of taylor made tunes for songs, at the dawn of live electronics experiments... where the goal was to be Music Craftsmen.
Thanks to the Dutch "vintage sound lovers", after glasses of wine and Van Halen's jump in the past they figured out a Golden Classic Playlist from the early days:
Hereby some hints from my friends:
The Beatles Lady Madonna
Boston Long time
Elvis Presley Always on My Mind
Focus Hocus Pocus
Genesis Mama
Johnny Guitar Watson Gangster of love
Marvin Gaye I heard it through the grapevine
Paul Simon Still crazy after all these years
Ray Charles I got a woman
Steely Dan Deacon Blues
Stevie Wonder Isn't she lovely
The Jackson Five I want you back
Van Halen Jump
An art, a zen and a memory regained today in White Stripes, Interpol, Artic Monkeys and many more.
While we were having music sips and glasses of wine I started comparing wine to music. What was the wine soaked in? Where did it take his inspiration?
In a jovial strong structure wooden scented, blackberry hints that gives a resistent vinosity...6 years of finesse in a flavour. Surrounded by a French landscape.
Later in the evening, remembering and exploring the roots of nowadays music, thanks to years of music experience as guitar/drums/piano players from one side and a dj background on the other side, the bottle was finished!
A good taste and flavour of roots and inspiration stayed with me and brought me in between Morfeo's arms... to wake me up the day after without headache, wondering why...in my mind a melody was repeating.
And where did it come from?
