#1

Finally, after months and months of this, I am ready to announce the #1 "album" that I could listen to over and over, any time, any place.

For those of you who are just now "joining" me on this new Blog platform, what this is all about is this:

A few month ago, my brother threw out the challenge to all of us posting at that time. What are your five favorite albums of all time. The choices could not be "Best Of" or "Greatest Hits" or concert albums. Other than these rules, the only stipulation was you had to honestly enjoy every bit of said album, not just two or three tracks.

To recap, here are my 5-2 choices:


#5 "5150" Van Halen
#4 "The River" Bruce Springsteen
#3 "Hotel California" The Eagles
#2 "Southern Accents" Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers

And, my most favorite of all time is:


Beethoven's Symphony Number Nine

And here is why. For me, music has always been an experience that takes place in my head. Not just because I am hearing the sounds, tones and lyrics, but because of what they make me think.

Some music doesn't make me think at all (none of those albums made my top five list). All of these that I selected are either associated with very strong memories or very strong thoughts, hopes, dreams, inspirations, wishes, fears, realities, etc.

Beethoven, in my book was the king at creating thoughtful and emotional music. You can tell within the first few notes what sort of mood he was in when he wrote that particular part of a symphony. What is fantastic is how, during the symphonies, the emotions go all over the place. So, if you like to identify music with thinking like I do, each bit invokes a different sort of thought (and emotion, of course).

But why the 9th, you ask?

Good question since there are others that a I really, really love too (like the 6th and the 7th). But, the 9th is just a master piece. Every single bit of it is beautiful and some parts are so breath taking theyalmost always bring tears to my eyes. Mabye some of it, also, is the way he incorporated Frederich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" into the mix. Although there are parts to the symphony that are tragic, the overall message, I think, is one of triumph and joy. The joy to be alive, the joy of breathing, running; the joy of overwhelming love and pure happiness at simply existing.

To me, this is a perfect piece to be played at a birth, at a wedding and at a funeral. It celebrates all aspects of life.

It's inspirational.

Have a listen to what the famous Leonard Bernstein had to say (he said it a lot better than me) about Beethoven's music and watch him perform some of the "Ode to Joy" from the 9th:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZJ1Tgf4JL8

Mrs. B