Musical Influences – Part 1

This is part of a series of blog posts written to share songs, bands and musical experiences that have shaped me as a musician and artist.

When this idea came to me, the first song I thought of, one I thought of right away, was a song I came across in an 80’s movie that I hope you’ve seen: Farris Bueler’s Day Off. Now, you may be trying to guess what song it was from that classic that got stuck in my ears. No, it wasn’t “Oh Yeah”.

Remember the scene at the Chicago Art Museum?

Back in the 80s, life was different than now. If you wanted to hear a song, you had to own a recording of it or know what radio stations played it and listen long enough to catch it. Or if it was on a movie, you had to rent the video (or as was our case, check it out from the library). There was no YouTube universe.  It wasn’t until college that I had the means to acquire a recording of the song.

As a college student in the late 90s, I was privy to a new technology called the Internet and peer to peer file sharing. It was an amazing and mind blowing discovery when I learned how to search the bottomless pit of cyberspace for mp3s of any song I could think of! This is when I went searching.

This was before well before YouTube and Wikipedia were born. I had to look up Farris Bueler’s soundtrack listing, find out the title to the song (which had no lyrics to search) and then put my Napster skills to use. Jackpot. I found it. “Please, please, please, let me get what I want” by Dream Academy…which was an instrumental cover of a song by The Smiths.  I searched for it and found it.  I downloaded it. Loaded up my media player (no iTunes yet) And I listened over and over and over again to my heart’s content.

So, to kick off my first post, enjoy a song that stuck in my ears and took root in my heart. I don’t know what it is about the song… perhaps it had to do with the time in my life, the way it was presented in the movie, or some other subconscious factor. What ever it is, it’s still nostalgic and makes me smile when I listen to it.  It’s the kind of song you just wish was longer.

Have a listen.  Maybe it’s nostalgic for you, too.  I’d love to hear your comments!

Here is the original by The Smiths