Monday, October 12, 2009

The Doobie Brothers and Julie Andrews?!?!

Listen to the Music

This afternoon I watched the last hour of a Doobie Brothers concert on the DVR. I love watching concerts in High Def - you can see so much more of the details of the performers and their instruments. It being the last hour of the concert, they played some of their greatest hits to wrap up the show. I had seen them in concert a few years ago - probably right about the time this one was taped. They really know how to make their music sound great. My 5-year-old granddaughter sat down to watch it with me.

One of the songs, "Long Train Running", took me back to my teenage years because the house band at our church youth group used to play it all the time. Others such as "China Grove" (one of my top 5 favorite songs) and "Black Water" are just superb songs of their genre. I explained that most of these guys had been playing together for many years, and these were their favorite songs, and these 11 musicians were just having a great time. Although the "show" aspects of lighting etc. were pretty simple, that's OK. It's not about how they look. It's about how the music makes you feel. "Listen to the Music" is a great way to end a show.

The Sound of Music

Then we (5yogd and I) watched the last hour of "The Sound of Music". She's going to be in a local production of it, so she's watching it to learn the songs (cool that they have "sing-along" lyrics on the screen). Although it's probably not one I would just sit down to watch, I love this movie. Why? Well, partly because it's just so well done. (Yes, I know it's not a 100% true story.) Partly because this too takes me back. This was probably the first "grown up" movie I ever saw in a theater, and the first professional musical I saw as a teenager. But also, because so much of the music is about music and how it can make you feel: "My Favorite Things", "Edelweiss", "TSOM". Just a great movie - and a great job by Julie Andrews.

So... an odd combination of music to take in back-to-back. You can't get much more different. But I like many styles and genres of music, if they're well done. (Well, I'm not a big fan of classical.) It doesn't get much better than the Doobie Brothers and The Sound of Music.

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