Suzanne's Soundtrack Sunday

Beautiful Brown Eyes*

Back when I was years old, I had a HUGE crush on Shaun Cassidy. My bedroom wall was plastered with various pictures from Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, 16 and the magazines of the day. The piece de resistance was a 4 foot by four foot styrofoam and poster board of the "Born Late" cover that a sister's friend got from the record store he worked at. Bruce, where ever you are-I'm sorry for the humiliation you must have endured for saying "I want it!". Anyway, I didn't just like him because he was cute, but because he played music.

There's also a long overdue apology to Giggles. We shared that bedroom and she had to listen to that music over and over and over and over and, well, you get the idea.
She exacted revenge of her own a few years later by insisting we listen to Z100 whenever Dad drove the two of us anyplace, so perhaps it evens out. Glenn Meideros' "Nothing's Going to Change My Love for You" is hated to this day, I'll have you know.

That love for his ability to play music, specifically the guitar, inspired Dad. He'd asked if I wanted a guitar of my own. I most definitely did. That year, one of my Christmas gifts was an acoustic guitar and I began lessons. Alas, I was doomed. I was a lefty, with a right handed instructor. I couldn't understand why I had so much trouble with fretting. My instructor couldn't figure it out, either.

That little foray into those lessons made me realize what a skill playing guitar truly was. Since then, I've had a soft spot for well played acoustic guitar. (Yes, I'll get to piano in a future SSS-I can hear Donna and Joyce through the internet!) While the mechanics are the same as playing electric, somehow it seems like playing acoustic magnifies whether a player is good or bad.

Fortunately, there are quite a few examples of great acoustic performances out there.
Many of these are in the SoundtrackSunday You Tube channel, but some aren't available on there, or the versions there aren't the artists I'm mentioning. In no particular order, my favorite acoustic guitar songs:

Rhythm of the Blues - Mary Chapin Carpenter
Ventura Highway - America
Horizons - Genesis
Guitar Etude No. 3 - Dan Fogelberg
Made Again - Marillion
Why Worry - Dire Straits
Playing for Time - Acoustic Alchemy

In looking for these, I found a few reminded me of two other topics, but the artists aren't playing any guitars, so they're not on this list.

As much as I enjoy good acoustic performances, there is a member of the household who plays guitar. Extremely well, I might add. I'm sure he'll come along with a comment on more acoustic performances to check out.

How about you? If you've got one to share, please add to the comments. Thanks!

*The song that I spent several months trying to master in those guitar lessons. I hear it in my sleep sometimes and my wrists cry Uncle!

Comments

Saffa Chick said…
An SSS comment for you... nope, don't really get Shaun Cassidy either. Are you a few years older than me (I thought you were mid/late 30s too)? I see his main success was pre 1980, and I only really got into music in the mid 80s.

I too had a go at learning guitar. I was doing ok but then we moved and my new school didn't offer music. We didn't even consider private lessons... I play no musical instruments now but I'm not bothered about it.

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