“And like I said, hip hop is only one of my loves. Although I've been playing the guitar and dreaming of being a "rock star" since I was 14, I actually hated hip hop until I was about 17, lol. I'm now 26. I thought it was just stupid that they spoke their words instead of singing them. It just seemed very unskilled and talentless (I now realize that it takes a lot of talent to be a great mc). One day my best friend forced me to listen to it and after a few songs, I just "got it". However I love the blues, jazz, MoTown style soul music from the 60's-early 80's. Some of my favorites from the genre's listed are Marvin Gaye, Louis Armstrong, Bill Withers (Lean on Me), Al Green, and Nina Simone (listen to this specific song of hers and you'll understand a lot about the kind of person I am http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INLBcBGwr0g ). I also love Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison (their solo work, not too much of the Beatles), Bob Marley, Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Randy Newman, and too many more to name- I'm an old soul. I also love Hindu instrumental music, Asian, Arabic and Indian acappella songs of worship, African children choir "chanting" type music, classical music, and old sad Russian music, lol. Even though I can't understand any of the just listed, it moves my soul and gives me goose bumps.”
That is quite a wide spectrum, which is why I’d rather quote Dave than try to paraphrase him. I think it’s simple enough to say he loved music. Except that I want to add that I introduced him to Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Bruce Springsteen. At one point, he and I bought harmonicas because we were supposedly going to learn together, and possibly create a band in which he was the guitarist and I the harmonicaist.
I imagine that if the need for Dave was elsewhere any more imperative, it was in heaven due to his musical prowess. Heaven needs his musical expertise more than we here on earth do. This, if true, makes his death a little more bearable.
Dave, as I've said elsewhere in this blog, could play a mean guitar. You could sometimes feel his soul reverberating through a playing of "Stairway to Heaven" or "Creep." The goosebumps would run up my arms and back, and I'd say to myself, Man, my brother can play! He eventually entered the John Lennon Songwriting Contest because he was that good, but nothing ever came of it. I think that part of the reason he decided not to pursue music full-time early on is that he didn't think that he was that good. But inside him flowed deep reservoirs of genius!
His equipment were the toys of a music virtuoso. Everything from pianos to keyboards to microphones, he needed and had it all. He didn't actually have a music studio in his apartment but he often said he did, so when he died I was surprised to discover that he indeed had the equipment for more or less a full-faceted studio but the items were scattered about. This is merely a peak at the side of him that loved to embellish things.
However, with all the music programs installed on his laptop, there is no doubt that Dave had a full-blown, state-of-the-art studio. How many hundreds of years would it have taken him to even scratch the surface of this colossal library?
I often try to find a theme in the songs that most resonated with Dave. There doesn't seem to be one. Most of these songs are simply what he described as anthems. Though he never gave a clear definition of what an anthem meant to him, I take it that he meant what it means to everyone: a song of praise or devotion. A song of success. Since this is all he aimed at, this is all that captivated his attention.
I was regularly bombarded by Dave's anthems when he still lived here. Given that his room was next to mine, they would blast through the wall and often awake me like a glass of cold water. It was 6:55am and all of a sudden, from seemingly nowhere, "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems" would roar into my ears. It was almost like being electrocuted.
I can imagine him now in heaven, leading the choir. He's a celestial Beethoven whose job is to make heaven's music shine.
Song written and performed by Dave, "I Wish I Could See You Tonight"
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