by -buck.

Created on: March 16, 2007

There are those who maintain that an exhibition, meant only to entertain, is art. It may be, but I prefer an artist to a performer any day. Does that make sense? Okay, what is art? Is beauty truly only seen or heard, through individual perspectives? Does true art touch the soul? Does it evoke emotion? Does art leave one with a different perspective and attitude; encouraging change while carving its own place in history? Then in my opinion (consider the source), music does just that.

Music is easily the most influential form of art in my life. I have been exposed as long as I can remember. Skewed by my Mother's influence, I was subject to a wide variety of music, from church hymns to the weekly countdown of Casey Kasem. My first forty-five R.P.M. record (I now have a collection of about seven hundred LPs) was The Beatles, I don't remember which side was top-billed, but I know it had Ticket to Ride on one side and We Can Work it Out on the other. I think I wore the grooves off it. Music became a deeply interwoven thread in the fabric of my being. As a disclaimer, I will also add; my experience, admittedly limited knowledge and personal bias will surely reflect in this work.
Although we do not know for sure, it is likely that music is as old as time. Spawned thousands of years ago, as a means to coordinate and synchronize collective human movement, such as heaving on the oars in the belly of an ancient ship, coaxing giant stones in place to form the pyramids of Egypt. Even today, it comes natural to start singing a rhythmic song to accompany the activity of a group; whether hiking in the mountains or building a home; the chattering from above can be quite amusing if you stop to listen(I think roofers' brains are a little too close to the sun).
Music has also shown me a facet of myself I may have otherwise never found. The flip side. The Blue Oyster Cult classic, "I'm Burnin' for You" contains the line, "...Time to play b' sides". I've found I'm burdened, or blessed depending on the moment, by being a stone turner; I not only want to see how things are put together, I possess a keen desire to understand the way things work, and then, I have to find out (if the other two processes haven't already brought to light) how to dismantle and re-assemble stuff'. This inquisitive nature led me to explore rock music, and the artist who so brilliantly bring it to life. I wanted trace its origin, look within and try to figure what "makes it work". What I learned was surprisingly

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