heart of rock and roll

Current Mood: restless

When I was a kid, my dad played music all the time. Some of my favorite memories spending time with him are just crusin' down the road rockin' out, or jammin' to some tunes making breakfast.

Still, I never really considered myself a big music fan with my own tastes, or even my own collection. I went through a time (mostly middle school) that I really preferred to spend my free time with things completely quiet. I didn't have a CD player until my junior year of high school, and before that all I had was a handful of cassette tapes of mostly soundtracks and such. Completely missed 8 tracks and records (although there are few things cooler in this world than vintage records).

All of that changed in late high school when I switched schools, got a car, and started working. My new school was about 20 minutes away, and I spent a lot of time washing dishes at work - so I really started listening to music a lot more, borrowing music, and finding my own tastes.

And I started singing.

Then came college, my computer, CDs (I remember spending a TON of money buying Greatest Hits and other collections at Best Buy, or hoping they'd have another Queen album I didn't). Also I spent a lot of money on the now-defunct allofmp3.com, building up my collection. My brother and sister got me to join Last.fm.

So as my charts will indicate, I spend a lot of time listening to glam rock, hair metal, and other high pitched vocalists, and it's always been a real love/hate relationship. I love to sing along, and I do spend a lot of time practicing and trying to emulate them. It's always come pretty easily to me. But I am also still fighting a very didn't-join-choir-in-middle-school attitude, where I am somewhat ashamed to have such a falsetto range. *shrug* I guess I've always been a little unconfident performing, especially when it comes to music, and the sometimes less-than-macho connotations of spandex and mascara music.

BUT

I don't get embarassed enough to stop. Lately I've been listening to a few artists that - wow, this is weird for me to say - I can't match! And it's not just a question of pure pitch - if that was the case, I'd go for Minnie Riperton or something.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - here are some guys who I really am blown away by their range:

Steve Perry - Journey
Brad Delp - Boston
motherfuckin' Rob Halford - Judas Priest
of course, Freddie Mercury - Queen
Cam Pipes - 3 Inches of Blood
Michael Matijevic - Steelheart, Steel Dragon
David Coverdale - Deep Purple, Whitesnake