Growing up, my parents loved country music. I remember BJ Thomas and Kenny Rogers alot. My mother loved Kenny Rogers. I still love Kenny Rogers, especially this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj_NjLBPotQ
Everyone remembers Michael Jackson's "Thriller" coming out. I, like everyone else, had a cassette tape of this album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En-cHBv7UpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8
1983 or 1984, a school age friend of mine was recording a record and introduced me to Amy Grant's "Unguarded" album with its four different covers. I absolutely fell in love in Amy Grant's music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLEJ_WC2yQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmW_JwJjaVg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-EGzskcdp0
Along with the new found love for Amy Grant's music, I found the idealist movement within the Contempary Christian Music, which I still love today. Here are some links to some different songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbPKaIozS-c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BRUsSztA44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITYx4QhIEWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbLXGW6JIgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54RhlFUuRt8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFvhjEO0Ao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJC5efHpcF4
1987, U2 releases "The Joshua Tree" album. Once I heard this album, I was hooked on U2's music. They still are my favorite band. I went back and got a copy of "The Unforgettable Fire" and got a copy of "Rattle and Hum" when it came out. I still have the video from "Rattle and Hum"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8SPeR60lRI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogN5gdbJwkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVjTOHIkJgE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRKTm2lyVS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k4ULln7IkU
1988 and Amy Grant records and releases "Lead Me On". Today, this album is still my favorite of all time. There is just not enough I can say about this album. From the opening guitar of "1974", the historical references in "Lead Me On", the temptation of "Faithless Heart", the honesty of "What about the love?" and "Say Once More", the hope in "Waiting on the Healing". It is just a great album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbim0upW0A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGayAVrH0gQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfdqzPue2_4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR-GzNIPnpY
Of course, this was in the middle of the "Hair" bands of the late 1980s. I hated most of the hair bands, but a few songs I did enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq6OYpJjG0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKTiwCez6Zs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf0rIV6j2H4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlN3oEjMpUQ
As my high school years were closing and my future was ahead of myself, it was time to recreate myself. I was very nerdy in school and didn't have many friends and I was determined not to make the same mistake in college. So over the summer between high school and college, a massive "reinvention" was developed. At the same time, a single man under the name of Nine Inch Nails recorded "Pretty Hate Machine". This mixture of techno and raw lyrics was great, something very different from the typical "hair band" crap that was out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTs5SoOteQQ
I remember listen to Rebel radio out of Oxford in my bedroom at night in New Albany, introducing me to the alternative music scene, which further deepened as I went to college. My taste in music is still alternative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZRxjpxccF0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5E9kJYI7SU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZEwrK6ziLk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq8hQ_lyMBs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42V8CqWw0xM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcHB060NKYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6k4ZYjW-cA
Also, during the senior year of high school, I found the hippy movement music of the late 1960s and of course, the Beatles, especially "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the "White Album"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WROmhkagEjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDl0qPfkSRw
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7F9AD5226B62209A&search_query=beatles+white+album
Of course, as everything evolves, both personal and popular musical tastes changed, and the Grunge movement from Seattle took the world by storm. From that movement came a band called Pearl Jam. A song from them was titled "Black". Although I have a personal reason for this song being so special, this song is one of those that I think is almost the perfect song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X8Ic86Hx3w
And of course, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqmFKv3ow8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBuGjGrQVTM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCiJC2MM5Q
At Northeast Community College, I was introduced to some guys and we formed a very close friendship. One day we got together in a mall and just out of the blue started singing this song to the applauses of the bystanders. One of my favorite memories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg7YoXiKn0
And of course, I first heard the Violent Femmes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra8VTlXVqUQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpk2BEtSmnA
My musical taste continued to evolve as my life did...and finally we come to Ole Miss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2cDkFxpYrc
Two albums came out my first year of Ole Miss, U2's "Actune Baby" and Guns N Roses "Use your Illusions"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFWPeVfWB9o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwu7ixmQk0c
I met a woman at Ole Miss that changed my life. Increditably beautiful, remarkably intellegent with the soul and spirit of an angel and I was so in love. It took me six months to ask her out and I was so hooked by the end of the first date. Remarkable how someone can have that effect on another person. She and I had different musical tastes, but we grew to enjoy each other's music somewhat. She was the first person that I ever asked to marry me, but of course, she was wise enough to say NO. We had the remarkable relationship that just ended, and not a break up. I would be lying if I said that when she moved back home that my heart wasn't broken. I think that hurt was what I was healing as I through myself into paramedic school. That devotion to school today has made me one of the best paramedics in the state of MS. Years later, her and I, through the modern technology of Myspace and text messaging, have reconnected as friends. She still has the same angelic soul and spirit, still increditably beautiful and intellegent, though alittle older and wiser. Here are the songs that she liked or inspired my memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMHGgnlXfSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji-GONSfwnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqDV77r8244
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWdG8NoFXY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXxXj7rzZy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6635Gym6IA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpo5fVUGNG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdRJTr23gQo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrZ6NtPR2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzCSb6OnkZA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzCSb6OnkZA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCYr8TWAGn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPpkTgMbhRU
And here is a song that she absolutely hated. I use to harrass her to death with this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1cfTMdjkYM
Ok, I degressed alittle by watching a few of these videos over and over.
Then I met Alicia. We dated and eventually got married. Many years and 2 daughters later the marriage ended, but there were great memories of us together. I could write many pages on our lives together, but to put it simply, we are now better friends than we were husband and wife. Sometimes life is like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBGmc3bmgaY
My daughters. I can't say enough about them. They are the love of my life, my proof of God's existence and grace and love. I was madly in love with both of them the first second they were born. They amaze me everyday with their outlook on life, and everyday they tell me that they love me, I know that they mean it. They so have their daddy wrapped around their finger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8o8LZQbC4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HdGUNm6-qI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUk5SZ18WhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcMX-tXntS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk
Even though the pressures of life were destroying my marriage, my career was taken off. I love being a paramedic. I absolutely do. I think it is one of the hardest, most rewarding jobs out there. To be the calm voice in everyone's nightmare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEoEd0ef4_4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBoKorve6Cg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJGXC3AN6R4
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=39832674
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=49443678
These songs are dedicated to my friends Scott and Jay. Scott died of cancer. Still one of those deaths that I cannot understand. He was so full of life, truly one of those special people that we don't have enough of in our lives. Jay also worked with me and died the way he wanted to...on the side of a mountain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAMnjzU-6UQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jtpf8N5IDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IA36liLghk
This is a short video that I made for a class on mass casualties. I put this in because this incident changed my friend forever and almost killed him. For awhile, his spirit and sould was broken by what he had to experience on the gulf coast. In listening to him talk about it and try to heal from his obviously moral wounds, I learned alot about trust and friendship and what is truly important in life. We can never forget what is truly important in life.
This song is dedicated to a dear friend of mine that is starting on a difficult transition in her life. Originally recorded by Amy Grant many many years ago, this song is a remake of that song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXORJ16Ipn8
Well, that is my musical walk through life. At least a half of a life. I end this with a couple of songs that I would like played at my funeral/wake/bonefire with my dead body burning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgYKXZz2oOQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRMz8fKkG2g
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