The Sound of Silence

I like music, not that I have any musical talent whatsoever, but I do enjoy listening to music. My musical tastes are rather eclectic – you could find me listening to Adele, Jimi Hendrix, Abba, John Denver, Heart, LeAnn Rimes, or even Deep Purple (and there was a time when I bought an album by a little-known 80′s New Wave band called Bow Wow Wow!) – but you will rarely find any Classical Music, Jazz, Reggae, Rap or Punk on my playlists. In the 60′s I favoured Gerry and the Pacemakers over the Beatles, and Dave Clark Five over the Rolling Stones, probably just to be different. The first album I can remember buying was The Kinks, “Village Green Preservation Society”, and I once bought the Hollies’ “Distant Light” album, after hearing just a few notes at the start of a couple of tracks (anyone remember the music booths in record shops?).

I don’t think I favour any particular genre, but if I hear a song and it “moves” me, no matter what sort of music it is, then it goes on my list. It might be the lyrics, the music itself, or even the sound of the singer’s voice (so foreign language songs occasionally get my vote!), but occasionally a song will give me goosebumps and make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I become a slave to that song – why else would Eminem’s Stan be on my list? But that could be due to Dido’s contribution as she has one of those singing voices that haunts me! Or it could be because it tells a story – I do enjoy a tune with a tale in it too. I am not sure if I have a favourite song, but there are some that will always move me – Jennifer Rush’s “Power of Love”, Heart’s “All I Wanna do (is make love to you)”, John Denver’s “Annie’s Song”, Elvis’s “In the Ghetto”, to name but a few.

So what is the purpose of this, and the title “The Sound of Silence” (apart from the Simon and Garfunkle song, also on my list, with the same title)? Through choice I spend most of my days at home in … silence! No radio, no CD or MP3, no TV, not even music on the computer in the background – and the first thing I do if I play any online games is mute the music! But if I am driving I always have the radio on – or more likely here a CD playing or my MP3 plugged in to it, as radio stations are few and far between in the rural areas – and if I am travelling (in a plane or on a bus) I will usually have my MP3 on (unless they have decent music available through the provided headphones).

Where I am living there are many public “parties”, where music (and dance!) is the main pleasure (well, apart from alcohol), but I will occasionally go before the music has started just to “have a look”, and my house is far enough away from the middle of town so the music doesn't really bother me. I had the misfortune to spend Carnival in Salvador one year, when music and street parties go on for days, and it was driving me nuts (long story but I had to be there) – there was no way to get away from it all – strangely the throngs of people did not really bother me, but the continual cacophony of sound did.

Maybe it is a sign that I am getting old, that I crave peace and quiet, or maybe I am just trying to shut myself away from the world, hence the hiding behind my earphones on planes and public transport – putting up a barrier between myself and everyone else, cutting everyone else out. I still enjoy my music, but on my terms! At the moment all I can hear is the sound of my keyboard clicking as I type, the occasional call of a bird outside, the creak of my roof as it heats up in the sun, and the muted hum of my electric fan – sheer bliss!