I was having a great discussion with a friend of mine about a lot of different things, and talk shifted to relationships. We talked about how things can change, and with those changes, your eyes are opened, and the things that once mattered the most to you, are now the things you care the least about.
For me personally, material possessions – they used to be SO important to me. Now, if I had the right opportunity to move somewhere cool on short notice – I would take the stuff that really matters the most to me, and ditch/sell the rest of it. Now, one of those things would be my music collection – and if I move that stuff a couple more times, I think I’ll be over THAT too!
On a related note, that same friend is just wrapping up helping a mutual friend of ours who is selling his entire musical collection. He ripped the entire thing to a hard drive, and is saying goodbye. This friend is definitely someone that was formerly in my league, so I am impressed.
In talking about things that were no longer important to us, we also talked about dealbreakers that are on the table for future relationships. He shared the humorous story of a friend who requires that his girlfriend prospects know who Slayer is.
If they fail the simple test question “Do you know who Slayer is?” – no deal!
I don’t know that musical taste was ever a dealbreaker for me – I got lucky to be in relationships where the other half always had great dysfunctional musical taste like I did (diversity is key.) These days, just have good musical taste, and it’s even okay if you like country, as long as you don’t expect me to go to every single country show that comes to town. Do me that one favor, and I’ll do my best to screen you out of going to some of the shows that I go to that I know cater almost exclusively to my audience of one (even though there might be others in attendance.)
What are some of your dealbreakers?
I’ll close with a list of five bands/artists I like that are musically incompatible with my entire dating history:
5. The Yayhoos (and anything else that Dan Baird has been involved with.)
4. Michael Mcdermott
3. The Jayhawks
2. Del Amitri
1. Blue Rodeo (number one with a bullet – the girl that I meet that likes Blue Rodeo, has marriage potential.)
Honorable mention:
Michael Penn
Fountains of Wayne
Relevant Links:
Blue Rodeo beating out Arcade Fire and Finger Eleven? It happened.
Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo – Still Crazy After All of These Years (Paul Simon cover)
Fountains of Wayne – Hey Julie
Del Amitri? I had a cassette of Change Everything back in the early 90’s and just LOVED it. Not sure what happened to it – probably lost it in a move somewhere. “Be My Downfall” is awesome.
You have layers, Matt.
I’m always a fan of unique compliments, and for someone to tell me that I have layers….well, I will take that!
Change Everything was the album that got me into the Dels….and I’ve had a couple of Del-related posts in mind, including one that will include some various live and rare stuff, including an MP3 of one of my favorite unreleased Del tunes, a live radio performance of a song called “Drowned on Dry Land.”
Back to Change Everything – songs like The Ones That You Love Lead You Nowhere, and To Last A Lifetime…so awesome.
You can grab most of their albums cheap these days in the used budget bin….and I’d highly recommend getting reacquainted with a CD copy of Change Everything (and Waking Hours, and Twisted!)
There are a couple other bands that I thought of after I posted the list above, but now I can’t recall who they were….but to add a note for anyone that doesn’t know who Dan Baird is, he is the former lead singer of the Georgia Satellites.
Rest assured, you’ll read more about his current music here, soon.
You can find Dan online at this great unofficial website..
http://www.danbaird.net/
OK, I definitely have crazy (read: dysfunctional) music preferences. But the day my ex told me he couldn’t let me listen to Bob Seger and Michael McDonald, I knew it would never last!
Seriously.
The day that anyone tells you that you “can’t listen” to something, is a great sign that the days are numbered!
There ain’t no shame in Michael McDonald or Seger love btw….
I had a boss once who was a huge Fairport Convention fan. When Larry met Candace, who was also a Fairport Convention fan he (in his words) “of course had to marry her.”
That’s great….I’ve always been curious about Fairport Convention…they’re one of those bands that is forever on my list of bands to check out. I’ll get to them one of these days.
About 5-6 years ago when I was still living in my apartment on the third floor of a house, I discovered that the girl that lived downstairs from me was a Blue Rodeo fan.
I was still in a relationship at the time, and while I’d probably never seriously marry someone based on musical taste (or would I….,) we certainly had a lot in common musically.
And she was really cute.
Makes me think of Chevy Chase telling Christie Brinkley his wife was dead in National Lampoon’s Vacation…lol.