Gotta Get To Know You
And this is why algorithms will never replace deejays…
I just got an e-mail from Mike Marrone, of Sirius XM’s Loft, he sent me a track from Foghat’s debut LP that immediately took me to a zone wherein I felt fuzzy all over.
And I’d never ever heard it. Even though Mike figured I had.
That’s the thing about music, it may be recorded in 1’s and 0’s, but it can’t be quantified, it’s something you feel, that changes your life.
And it doesn’t matter if you drop the needle or push play, whether it’s rendered on a $50,000 stereo or comes out of the single speaker in your Chevy, the essence maintains.
Lonesome Dave is singing about getting to know a woman, but what we’ve gotta get to know are numbers like this, lurking on YouTube, buried on Spotify, just waiting for someone to point us to them, not because they want to profit from the exchange, but because they want the payment of the joy they see on our face when we finally listen.
Why is “Gotta Get To Know You” so fantastic?
Because of the MOOD!
That’s why we sat in front of our stereos, why we wanted to pull back the foam on our JBLs and climb inside, because we wanted to merge with this sound, we wanted to be taken away to a fantasyland where we were immersed in warm honey, floating down a river of dreams.
And this is not the kind of stuff you can build by committee. It’s got to emanate from a core of like-minded individuals who pour their hearts into a groove, thrilled that they’re making this music.
Just as much as we’re thrilled to be listening to it.
So, take your eyes off of Katy Perry, get your head out of the Sahara Tent, put down your smartphone and slow down for an ethereal ride inside your own brain. Isn’t that what the Moody Blues sang about, not having to leave your own home, your own mind, to go on an amazing journey?
Yes, “Gotta Get To Know You” is an album cut. Its sound hooks you instantly, but the reward comes in playing it to its conclusion, and then listening once again, not because it’s being trumpeted by the media but because your best friend told you to check it out, because you stumbled upon it at the end of an LP.
Once upon a time, this exquisite number would have been dead and gone, only remembered by the few who heard it the first time around.
But now, through the magic of the Internet, it’s right here for all to enjoy, to be transported to a land where TV and movies don’t matter, where your only desire is to tell everybody you know…LISTEN TO THIS!
But not until you’ve spun it so much it’s bonded with your DNA.
“Gotta Get To Know You” is subtle. There’s no guest rapper. It’s got no superfluous instrumentation. It’s fully-formed, it’s genius on wax, it needs no remixing, no release of stems so fans can place their stamp, it’s sealed, listening to it is like stumbling upon the Dead Sea Scrolls, an artifact from the past.
And Lonesome Dave is long gone. Rod Price too. They’re not going to know you played this. Their heirs are not going to profit handsomely, hell, they didn’t even write it. But money is not what music is about. Cash is just a byproduct. The jism on the sheets that Gene Simmons keeps pointing to that really doesn’t matter.
Because it’s about the experience, whether it be coming or listening to music, it’s what it feels like during, not what you’re left with after.
And these land mines are all over the Web, throughout music history, just when you think you’ve heard it all, you haven’t.
We just need someone to point us to them.
Thank god Mike Marrone pointed this one to me!
