When Your Ears Get Older
I watched a video on YouTube comparing Kanye West and Childish Gambino and a comment that Gambino said in 2013 that he is the son of Kanye. Now when I heard that comment I didn’t understand until he explained it and I got it. Now I have listened to early Kanye and liked it but his later stuff I turned away from it because of the antics online and I lost interest in his music. When it comes to Gambino I didn’t know much about him or his music. I do own one of his CDs (Awaken My Love) but I could not get into it. I think at the time I was not ready or in the mood for it. When I think about music in general I love all kinds and I do sometimes like different sounds. My musical taste is wide but what I did not understand while watching that video is why it was so easy to throw Kanye away as an artist and not give Gambino a try at all?
I have listened to other CDs before that I didn’t like but came back to them later and realized they were good. I think I need to let my ears mature to get in the groove for some things. The one CD that comes to mind is D’Angelo and the Vanguard Black Messiah CD and for some reason on the first listen I was getting distortion but when I came back around a few years later I grew to like it. I remember seeing him perform 2 of the songs on Saturday Night Live with Jessie Johnson playing guitar with him and it was great! That CD is still played to this day while I work.
Now there are some CDs that I cannot do one that comes to my mind is Supernatural by Santana. I know, I know that was his big album but I was not a fan of all the guest vocalists and pop records. I wanted to hear straight ahead Santana songs, maybe one or 2 songs with vocals. I wanted to hear him sing with the guitar like his past CDs. Now don’t fight me on this because this is my opinion and I’m going to stand 10 toes in it. I grew up on Moonflower, Amigos, Welcome, The Swing of Delight, and other masterpieces by him so for this to be his biggest album I left a bad taste in my mouth. Have I listened to the album since the hype of it yes and I still feel the same way? I can’t wrap my head around it.
Some songs or CDs take me by surprise because I have not listened to them in a while and I have to stop and listen to them several times so I can get the full take of it. One day, while I was working Queen of My Heart by DeBarge, came on and I had to stop typing and just listen to words and try to sing along (even tho I can’t sing that high anymore). The breakdown of them singing She’s the queen of my heart. She plays a very big part in meeeee. It stopped me in my tracks and I almost shed a tear. El DeBarge wrote such a beautiful song and they sounded goooooooddddd singing it. Then the song after that was Private Eyes by Hall and Oates. The opening guitar riff stopped me and I had to do a little dance. Well, crafted pop record with catchy lyrics and gives good memories of spending hours watching MTV (when they showed videos).
Now, will I remove the outside stuff and give Kanye a chance on his later work and open my ears to Childish Gambino? The answer is yes and I already have. As I worked the other day I let Awaken My Love play and I have to say it is pretty good. It’s right up my alley in music that I like. It’s not standard or regular it’s different and I do like different. I want to sit down and listen to Donda and I just looked and it’s on Apple Music so I will give it a listen and I am going to keep my ears and mind open to it and see what happens