Music: A Personal Reflection 11/01/09
Music is one of the most important elements of my life.
At a young age, I was lucky enough to have an older brother who was in to top-notch bands like The Cure, U2, Grateful Dead, and others. It’s fun to think back to those days when I’d hole up his room in our basement, sit on his water bed, play Zelda or Castlevania on our Nintendo with the sound off, and listen to his collection of music. It was how I spent a lot of my time (when the pool was closed).
Still today I spend a lot of time listening, thinking, investigating, researching, discovering, and enjoying music. My all time favorite web destination besides Twitter + Facebook is Stereogum. When I get home from the office, it’s the first site I’m going to. When I work – I’ll kick on some music and pound through writing a proposal or a strategy memo for a client. When I’m happiest is at a concert with the people that matter to me in my life.
Living in Washington, DC and working in politics, I’ve also found music to be a great way to build and deepen relationships with those who look beyond politics when it counts. Indeed nothing makes me more pleased then seeing a Tweet from someone who I follow on Twitter (or who follows me) responding to something music-related. The typical Tweet goes something like this: “I may not agree with @DavidAll on the issues, but I dig his taste in music.”
In June of 2006, the National Journal did a mini-profile on the music scene in Washington and highlighted me for it that you probably never saw:
Washington may not have a signature song like New York City or San Francisco. But there is a running sound track in the life of the capital. Whether sung by Usher or Radiohead, the tunes accompanying big and small dealings across the city on any given day sound nothing like the music you hear when you’re put on hold. And one of the best ways to tune in is to go out. David All, a spokesman for Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., is among the members of an unofficial live-music caucus made up of personalities from political Washington. It meets regularly, but usually spontaneously, at places like the 9:30 Club, Iota and the Black Cat.
“There’s a small group of concertgoers, friends who kind of stick together,” All said. “The Washington, D.C., area has just amazing music.”
All remembered a recent Pat Green concert that was thick with Capitol Hill staffers; so are many concerts at Verizon Center. But the more eclectic the music is, the more exclusive the crowd becomes — and the deeper the connection goes. Seeing someone from Capitol Hill or K Street at a Decemberists show, for example, is altogether different from seeing someone at a Beck concert. “If you go to a concert like Interpol or the Strokes, you may only see four or five familiar people,” All said. “You kind of click with them because they get it. They get it.”
To conclude a post about what music has meant and continues to mean to me, I’ve thought about what music selection I want to leave you with. Quite frankly, I thought choosing just one music video or song would be easy. It is not.
I’d like to post a video/song from the first concert I ever attended: Grateful Dead, Buckeye Lake (Ohio), 7/29/94 but sadly I can’t find anything good to share. But make no mistake, that concert is what turned me on to live music.
The most influential band to me – the one I can trace my love for British music – is The Cure. Finding just one song to share is difficult, but this excellent, acoustic version of “Lovesong” does a good job of highlighting Robert Smith’s unbelievable song-writing abilities and great voice. Hearing it will always take me back to my earliest memories. Therefore, enjoy.
What does music meant to you?
