From Bon Jovi until Alice in Chains, and Metallica: The fascinating world of Greatest Hits [A post for music lovers]

2 months ago

Today you could say that I had a fantastic day... And all thanks to the purest and most authentic coincidence... You see, I hadn't listened to music for too long. But when I say listening, I mean really paying attention to the lyrics and letting myself be entirely carried away by the melody and the musical rhythms. That's exactly what happened to me today... Because my daughter didn't have school today, for some reason the alarm on my mobile phone didn't go off, and I couldn't go to work... I woke up almost 3 hours later than usual, and instead of starting my day by going crazy, I decided to go with the flow, and skip a day at the office. What would be my surprise? Music, that old but always useful friend, would be my companion in this adolescent day of my boring adult life.

So I started the day sleeping as if I were in high school... Then it was the turn of Jon Bon Jovi and his greatest hits. You see guys, when you go too long without listening to good songs and without devoting your attention to them, it happens that when you listen again to those songs that changed the whole world, in a way, you re-listen to them again. It's similar to hearing them for the first time. Something like that happened to me with Bon Jovi's ‘Dead or Alive’. It's my favourite song of theirs, and I've sung it in multiple karaokes and bars in my good years of youth, and not counting today, I honestly hadn't listened to it in its fullness for more than 3 years. God, what a wonderful band and what a hit ‘Dead or Alive’ was, is and will continue to be.

It's funny, because my daughter and I are more than 23 years apart, and she recognises a lot of the music I listen to. Most of it (the music) was composed at a time when even I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest. This is the case of Alice in Chains, one of my all-time favourite bands. Whoever follows me in this world of Blogging, and more in this Hive community, will know that I have an unquestionable weakness for Grunge. It's an era of music that I will simply always love. I learned everything I know about rock and roll in that era, and I fell in love with it like never before because of the bands of that period. So, to actually listen to Alice in Chains again, at full volume, and with no audio or singing limitations, was orgasmic. ‘Bleed the Freak’ and “Love, hate, love” are some of the songs that moved every fibre of my body with Layne Staley's voice, and I must share with all of you so that you feel the same way I do...

And it may seem exaggerated.... But I'm sure that for many who read this post, it will happen that when they relive those great hits of music, they feel really happy. It's hard to describe it, but that feeling of togetherness and belonging that only the music we love awakens in us is something, beyond just magical....It's powerful, undeniable, inspiring, revitalizing. Honestly, for a person like me, who lives complaining about the greyness of the repetitive life of an adult with responsibilities, to suddenly find myself with a ‘free day’, untethered and pure music with simplicity and power, is something I not only appreciate, but hope you will experience as well.

Obviously, I'm not going to leave my most basic impulses behind. From Metallica, with their most controversial album (St. Anger) to Madonna and that beautiful remix of the ABBA song ‘gimme, gimme’, my musical life has taken a 180 degree turn. And that's also the beauty of music.... That at least, from my point of view, from my way of understanding things, fundamentals are superfluous. I can listen to Death, and be immensely happy and even moved by Chuck Shuldiner's solos, as in the following song I can do (try, rather) the choreography of Justin Bieber's ‘Sorry’ or Lady Gaga's ‘Applause’. I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that for music, the sky's the limit?

Thanks to platforms and the internet, we have in a humming; and yes, even if you don't remember the name of a song or a band, just by humming you might get that song you've been chasing for years but your memory is not able to recall.... And to think that when I was younger, when I was younger, I thought that music would be infinite? Sadly, at some point in my life, that constant search for stimuli and emotions at some point in time stopped.... I don't know why or when it happened, what I do know, is that the spark, the sacred fire, the flame of that teenage girl who loves music, and singing her heart out, is still in me. In my 30's, being a mother and with a different body, I still get excited and still get inspired by the music I love and that will always define me and be with me.... Today it was the curiosity of not being able to go to the office, but I am sure that music will always find mysterious ways to inspire me, to inspire you, to inspire everyone. Hail to the big hits and the ability to move us with melodies, long live!