There are types of music aimed at different audiences. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that if you only listen to pop music. Pop music is designed and engineered to appeal to the widest possible audience. My favorite quote about pop music came from Wynton Marsalis on a 60 Minutes interview. The interviewer asked him if he liked pop music. The tone of the question made it clear that the interviewer expected Mr. Marsalis to trash the current popular “artists”. Instead, his answer was candid and revealed a universal truth. Wynton said, “Of course I like pop music. That’s like asking me if I like a candy bar. Pop music is made to be liked.”

And of course a lot of that pop music is designed, like candy, to appeal to kids. But there are some people out there that make music for adults. I don’t mean pornographic music (because a lot of that is marketed to kids too! Heh). No, I mean songs about themes and subjects that you have to have a little time under your belt to appreciate. I was reminded of that today while I was listening to Lyle Lovett’s Joshua Judges Ruth.

I bought that album when it came out because I was on a big Lyle Lovett kick. But I was disappointed in it. I recognized that it was good, but I just couldn’t get into it. I know now that I just wasn’t ready for it.

I wrote recently that it seemed that I know a lot people having marital problems. Well, that added a lot of weight to Lyle’s songs “She’s Already Made Up Her Mind” and “She’s Leaving Me Because She Really Wants To” (both written before he even married Julia Roberts). I’ve seen how it affects people and can imagine what it means to be on the other end of:

“So now she is at one end of the kitchen table
And she is staring without an expression
And she is talking to me without moving her eyes
Because she’s already made up her mind”

I already thought of the Cowboy Junkies as one of those groups that makes albums for adults. My Best. Album. Ever. is Pale Sun, Crescent Moon. I was initially disappointed in that one too, coming off the less challenging and more melodic Black Eyed Man. But I’ve been listening to Pale Sun… for over a decade and I still hear new things in it.

Now that I think of it, I guess what I really wanted to say today is how much I love when you listen to a song you’ve heard before and you finally “get it”. I had always thought of “Thirty Summers” on Caution Horses as a clinker on that album. But one day I listened to it, and it stuck. For those of you who’ve never heard it, it covers themes similar to Tim McGraw’s “Angry All The Time”, except darker. The man is clearly lost to depression, but she stays with him out of loyalty.

“He has blessed my life in so many ways
I could never turn my back.
But I need just one more reminder
Of that man that he used to be
If he would just look deep into my eyes,
And say “It’s me, my love”,
Then I would find the key”

When I “got” that song, I played it over and over, never again to be a clinker. It still breaks me up.

I’m going to have to go back through my collection and pull out some of the CD’s I stopped listening to 10 years ago. Maybe there’s more in there I’m finally ready for. I remember Robin Holcomb being a little too mysterious…