Zosimos of Panopolis

A few people have done this mem where they post youtube videos of their favorite song. Most people have just posted the video and that's it. I like a lot of different things for different reasons- being able to relate to what the person is singing about, technical ability of the performer (which I can only understand to a limited degree because I'm not a musician), because the song reminds me a of a person or an event in my life. What I find myself listening to most of the time is stuff that defies genres directly or has aspects of many different styles.

Here is an example:


Emotion Sickness by Silver Chair. The piano part is by David Helfgott who I really like. He has a reputation as an overrated pianist but I like him. He isn't tehnically the best pianist I guess but after someone reaches a certain point I just can't tell the difference because I'm not a musician myself. Plus it's interesting that someone with a severe mental disorder can become so talented.




I do have some experience with singing though and I really can appreciate good vocals. People will probably disagree with me but I like Diamanda Galas' version of Gloomy Sunday just as much as the Billie Holiday version. Diamanda Galas has a huge vocal range and can hit really high and low notes, but I tend to like the low range stuff better because I really like when women sing in a sultry-bluesy low voice.



Speaking of that I like Nico's version of The End. However, I like this song mostly because it reminds me of a very weird period in my life.



On that theme, for some reason songs by the The Postal Service seem to show up at the weirdest times in my life. Probably just because lots of people like them.



Then there are certain artist who have songs in which I relate to the lyrics. The Faint ofr example have a ton of songs that are about doctors, sickness, and weird things. I wonder if the person that wrote the songs is a hypochondriac or really sickly.



If I ever get married Id like to dance to this song. Yeah, I'm a romantic at heart. I really like Nick Drake. A lot of his songs are really depressing, he was a depressed guy who died from an antidepressant overdose, but this song is really happy.Whenever I hear someone playing guitar I jokingly ask them to play Nick Drake, it'ss like asking a pianist to play some Rachmaninoff, most people can't even tune their guitar to his tuning. I remember one guy actually did it when I asked him to, really impressive. I guess Nick Drake uses cluster chords/tone clusters which I don't know much about other than they produce dissonance.





Some pianists like Leo Ornstein and Henry Cowell used tone clusters too and their songs sound really cool.



Then there is Harry Partch. Made up his own scale which uses invented musical instruments that he made himself. It's really crazy.