my musical gifts

I have many musical gifts. I received some new gifts yesterday from my wife's family in Colorado. Especially exciting was the set of headphones I received from J.P. I will no longer tape my old headphones together every day. I also received a book I asked for, The Blues Line. It is a collection of blues lyrics edited by Eric Sackheim. In the past, a library copy I've checked out has given me lots of insight into how modern songs utilize structures and themes from traditional works. I've reaped a few ideas from it myself.

I also got a card from my amazing cousin Rachel saying that Van Dyke Parks' debut album Song Cycle (1968) is in the mail. Very exciting. She also gave me Randy Newman's first album Randy Newman(Creates Something New Under the Sun). I have to learn how to post pictures on here, the album covers are remarkably similar. Also of note: these albums came out during the same year, Van Dyke co-produced Randy's album, and they have a similar archaic orchestration/grand concept song writing style on these albums. As I understand this, Randy's songs strayed a bit from this afterwards, while Van Dyke continued in this vein. I love these albums. I'm soaking them in.

Check out the covers here until I figure out how to do it (go on, look at them):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Dyke_Parks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Newman_(album)

They both wear glasses and write notable music.

Thank you David for introducing me the the Parks. It only took me a year or so.