Missing Out

Every now and then, I find some music that I've known about, even had in my itunes, and never given it a shot. This usually happens when I read about a band or a song somewhere, or hear it played at a restaurant, and I go to download it only to realize I've had it all along. This has happened twice lately, but these have been rather large cases. First it was Simon & Garfunkel. I heard Paul Simon was coming to Berklee about 2 weeks ago, and realized I had never given them a good listen. So I sat down at my laptop, thinking "well, I might already have a couple random songsm" only to find I had Bookends and a Greatest Hits collection. I listened to a couple of the hit singles, thought it was enough for now, and decided to watch a movie. I recently downloaded Almost Famous from Mojo, so I started it up. Not even 5 minutes into it, Zoey Deschanel pulls out Bookends on vinyl from under her coat. I decided to pause the movie and sit and listen to Bookends all the way through. I couldn't believe I hadn't listened to it before, or even known that it was an essential record that I should have listened to years ago.

Now after the Paul Simon clinic, I have 158 Simon & Garfunkel songs and 4 Paul Simon albums. I've been listening to them constantly, trying to make up for lost time.

I was pa-rousing around pitchfork.com today and stumbled across their list of the "200 Greatest Songs of the 60's" and went straight for the top 20. I saw Led Zeppelin at #11 with "Dazed and Confused." I recognized the title, but couldn't think of the song itself. I checked my library to find that I didn't have the song, let alone Led Zeppelin I. I scrambled to open Mojo and downloaded the whole thing, clicked on "Dazed and Confused," and listened. How had I not been listening to this song since I first listened to Zep in 7th grade?! It should've been the first thing I listened to... much more an essential to their catalogue than "The Immigrant Song." Not that it's not a classic, but it's merely a hit single and only scratches the surface of who they are. If there was only 1 song that could be picked to define Zeppelin, I think it would be Dazed. I feel like I've missed out on it, but I'm glad to have finally found it.

These incidents make me wonder how much other music I'm missing out on, and when/how will I find it. This is one of the biggest reasons that I have and always will be hunting for something new to listen to.