Happy Monday, kids, and welcome to a new column that we hope to post on a regular basis, entitled ‘Love At First Listen’.
There are some songs that grow on you. The first time you hear them you may not be completely blown away, but upon further listening you end up appreciating the nuances that, with any song, reveal themselves over time (an example of this for me is U2’s ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’). With others there may be an initial strong attraction, deepening gradually into love (most of my favorite songs fall into this category). Then there is the type of song that you fall for, head over heels, the moment that you first hear it. Love at first listen.
Probably the first time this ever happened to me was the fall of 1993. My friend Chris lent me his copy of The Smashing Pumpkins’ new record Siamese Dream (released in July of that year, but we were living in Singapore at the time and everything came out there a bit later). I remember, vividly, lying on my bedroom floor and pressing play. I liked the first two tracks, but as soon as song #3 started, after literally the very first bar, I thought to myself “This is it. I am in love”. And I was right. As the song progressed, it just kept getting better and better, and I listened along dreamily, stars in my eyes. I was a total goner. I must have played that song 20 more times that day, and had it on repeat over the following months.
The fact that Billy Corgan wrote the song about a day in which he was having suicidal thoughts, with lyrics of depression and self-mutilation, did nothing to diminish my ardor – in fact, being sixteen at the time and suffering myself from the requisite dose of depressive thoughts that go along with being a teenager (though no self-mutilation or suicidal ideation, thankfully), it made me feel less alone to know that there were other people experiencing similar emotions.
As is the case with any true love, my romance with this song continues to this day. It is still as relevant to me ‘Today’ as it was the first time I heard it.
How about you? What song did you fall for the first time you heard it?
Let Them Eat Vinyl 
January 9th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
There have been several, but my most embarassing “love at first listen”,
You Oughta Know by Alanis Morrisette.
January 9th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
No shame, my friend. That song is totally legit.
January 9th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
There’s so many that have grabbed me from the opening bars. The latest was the song Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves) by The Wombats. But one of my all time gotcha songs was Peaches by The Stranglers. It just sucked me in with bass line alone.
January 9th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
oh man, when a song starts off with an amazing bass line, that is just a gift from the universe!
January 9th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
I love when this happens. Rush’s – Spirit of Radio comes to mind. I was stunned by the opening riff. It was so busy and weird. It even sounded great with DJ’s blabbing over it.
January 10th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Everything comes back to Rush for you.
🙂
January 9th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
The last song I lost it over was by Fever Ray, it’s called “If I had a heart”. Very subtle but haunting.
January 10th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Cool. I like your taste in music so I am gonna check it out…
January 10th, 2012 at 4:57 pm
(showing his age)
Janis, Me & Bobby McGee
Buddy, Every Day
Phantom, Music of the Night
L&M, Peace of Mind
All of Rocky Horror
January 10th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
I love that Phantom of the Opera is on your list!
That is super rad.
January 14th, 2012 at 9:17 am
This is a classic record!
When someone tells the truth about feeling so close to suicide, at some point in life eloquently enough, that it leaves you breathless but tingling all over, they’ve done a great service to world.
Even if it only reaches one person…
And years from now, that person may wonder wow! look what I could have missed out on! (The Smashing Pumpkins) Great Band! Also check out they’re record Machina (The Machines Of God)
January 30th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Yah, great band! Billy Corgan is a ridiculous(ly awesome) megalomaniac, but I love ’em!!