How about some stories of what we started to listen to when we stopped listening exclusively to devotee music?

I still like a lot of the music that I was listening to right before moving in: The Clash, The Cure, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Sex Pistols etc.. In my earlier years, I was more of a Beatles, Stones and Who fan and I still love the Beatles and the Who.

One of the first things that my ex and I did when we moved out (and we were still chanting our rounds and doing temple service) was to buy cassettes of all the missed albums. Soon we were listening to Beatles, Stones, Traffic, Hendrix, Cream/Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc., in addition to my New Wave stuff. One of the first groups I really started to like at that time was the Smiths. They had just come out with Meat Is Murder.

There were a few occasions where I listened to stuff in the Temple. I remember one or two days in Gita Nagari when I was burned out that I took this old Rolling Stones tape I found in my trunk and went out into the woods with the tape recorder and tape and listened to a good part of Exile on Main Street. There were also some bootleg tunes - one of Keith Richards doing Brown Sugar with Eric Clapton on slide guitar - that version was awesome. I listened to that as well.

Later in Boston, we had Hurricane Gloria and all the devotees took that opportunity to listen to the radio so they would be able to keep up on Hurricane news (yeah, right). I got to hear the The Cure, Duran Duran (yuk) and Julian Lennon (which freaked me out because he sounded so much like his dad). I had headphones and would occasionally listen to the radio at night if I was bored.

Hmm...I never stopped listening to "non-devotional" music at all, so I wouldn´t know anything about it.

I wonder why no one here likes Elvis? Is he just too naff or something?

I'm just the exact opposite - I didn't listen to any music before becoming a devotee.

But then I know that I was always a strange one. I didn't watch TV either.

Good grief. What did you do then? Suck your toe?

Trying to go back to see which music was first, after I stopped limiting myself to ISKCON music... Well, I listened to traditional Indian music, ragas and stuff. Bismillah Khan... then semi-traditional, like Ravi Shankar.

Then one day, an ex-devotee friend came to visit and gave my husband a tape of The Moody Blues. We put it on that night before going to sleep. I heard the first tone of the riff opening Nights in White Satin and I was floored, with tears all over my face. It was the memories of that song from when I was 17.

That got me hooked, and I began hearing in my mind all kinds of music I had listened to back in my teens. Songs came back and haounted me, giving no peace. I started chasing the music, some tunes I did not even know who sang, had to find that out first.

After lots of detective work I got Clannad. Then a collection of synth classics from the mid-80's. Deep Purple. The Doors. Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, and so it went. Some I couldn't find in Sweden, had to go to Poland for that -- Polish groups and singers, some old and obscure but beloved. Also there I finally located a collection of old Soviet songs in original, including Vstavay, strana ogromnaya. That one gives me goosebumps each time I hear it. Ridiculous, considering it is so full of propaganda.

There seems to be something special about the music one listened to or sang in one's teens. A late priming or what?

I have always loved: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, KISS , Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Indian classical music...

Now you're talking. Black Sabbath rules! Hendrix is excellent.

But while we're talking of re-entry into the mainstream etc., I admit that I am puzzled by the development of my liking for music with plentiful guitars. At first I was entertained by Red Hot Chili Peppers, and this progressed to Jimi Hendrix and heavy metal that included Black Sabbath (Mr Crowley), Motorhead (Ace of Spades), Slayer and Slipknot (The Shape). I'm puzzled how my liking grew from effusion of Chili Peppers to hardcore metal, but what the hey, as long as it has guitars its cool with me.

I still love listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers; 'Under The Bridge', 'By The Way', 'Universally Speaking', 'Aeroplane', 'My Friends', 'Road Tripping' and 'Californication' are all great songs and especially for the guitars!

Note to Moderators: The 'guitar' smiley does not appear in the emoticon menu.

But my all time favourite band is: Type O Negative! Check them out... Songs like Love you To Death, Christian Woman, Haunted, and Green Man. Very good and atmospheric goth rock/metal. A band that has been inspired by Black Sabbath, The Doors and the Beatles

Preyobrazhenya,

I listened and listen to more or less the same groups that you mention. The Smiths, of course. And Nick Cave and the Velvet Underground.

When I finally left the temple I was nine months pregnant and with the arrival of my first child didn't have the time and the opportunity to delve into music. At that time my husband introduced me to the Cocteau Twins and other similar Gothic groups, and it was love at first sound for me. And Elizabeth Fraser's enigmatic lyrics matched perfectly my confused and scattered thoughts at that time. She even has one song where she just sings the Latin names of a class of butterflies.

Some time later I tried Pink Floyd, but it wasn't the same. Except for a few songs, I found them not at all so special as in my teens. Same with the Beatles . Same with Nrivana. What really did it for me was the Doors. With them I reconnected immediately to my teenage self and was so happy and relieved to feel echos of my teenage despair when I listened to them again.

A very suprising musical experience was my newly found taste for classical music which I used to hate because it was shoved down my ears mercilessly by my mother. One day, I saw a box of 20 CD's at the supermarket and felt that I should buy it. I started listening to them all the time and enjoying the beauty of that eternal music. I am even contemplating going to a concert, and that was the worst punishment I could imagine when I was a preteen!

Dhyana, you are 100 percent right about "Вставай, страна огромная"! My father used to play it full-blast at the beach, with majestic lime rocks and emerald sea as a visual background. He said that whoever wrote that hymn was a genuis. I can compare it only to Bach's Toccata and Fuga (organ piece).

I didn't know boredom. I was very asocial - still I am -, and didn't explore the "subcultures" around me. So I mostly read then, and this is also true now - I use web too just as a big book.

(I still watch TV very rarely now. )

I was never much of a TV fan. We have cable only so my son can watch ESPN 24/7. Of course, I do enjoy some shows - I have liked the animation shows such as the Simpsons, South Park, Daria & King of the Hill and I also like most of the Star Treks (haven't seen Voyager or Enterprise, though). I LOVE British Comedy - but I prefer to watch these on videos so I don't have to endure commercials.

How many of us back in the 80's (or any time for that matter), while still full time ISKCON devotees would go to visit parents and spend the whole time watching MTV or movies or whatever? I remember one such visit to my ex-in-laws when there was a Monty Python marathon on PBS. Both my ex and I indulged to the fullest - the both of us being big Python fans.

I remember the first non-devotee novel I read - Clan of the Cave Bear. I was hooked and still love the entire "Earth's Children" series.

There was just something about Return to Sender (Elvis) that I liked.

I was raised in ISKCON but my parents were such big music fans that they were adamant that we kids listened to non-devotional music. I thank my dad for my classic rock education, and my mom for my classical tastes.

However, when my parents stopped picking my music for me, I started getting into more non-American-mainstream music. Most of the stuff I listen to these days is European or Japanese. European metal is so much better than American.

I'm also about early 7 Seconds.

My love for heart felt roots music never failed to move this soul, be it before, during or after the temple years. This type of music can take the form of classical, world, ethnic, rock, jazz, Bluegrass and anything in between.

Music has always had this spiritual dimension to it growing up. Listening to music that I liked was a way of transcending into a state that was so different than the everyday reality of living a working class neighborhood of Detroit in the sixties. My first foray into music that moved me was listening to my mother’s old 78’s, which were mostly big band music, Polka’s with some early rock and roll, such as Ray Charles and Little Richard. So it was not hard to fall for the sounds of early rock and roll & soul that produced Motown and the likes of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Kinks made the revolution in sound and lifestyle even more profound and the start of teenage life totally fab and groooovy, not to mention a change in dress, talk and longer hair.

Seeing local bands such as Bob Seegar, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, MC5, Iggy and the Stooges before their fame primed me for the hard stuff and liking the big acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Velvet Underground, Who, John Mayall and Cream easy to adjust to. Finding the source of the Blues being instrumental to all the new bands I liked, it was easy to go to the source and like Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Once the Beatles broke up, George Harrison’s first solo album’ All Things Must Past’ album brought Eastern Philosophy and Krsna into my consciousness, which led to Ravi Shankar and classical Indian music.

The second wave of British Rockers, such as Led Zepplin, the Who, Black Sabbath soothed the need to rock heavy and prepare for the journey into David Bowie and Brian Eno, rock with an edge into experimental sounds and directions.

Once the overproduction of sound infused Rock and Roll, it was easy to go into the Realm of New Wave and Punk; listening to the Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Blondie, Clash, English Beat, Police, U2 and the of course Reggae.

This is when I moved into the temple, but I did keep my tapes and albums. I loved Kirtans and Bhajans and no doubt, a rip roaring Kirtan equaled my lust for head banging rock and roll, but I did find a need to sneak out in a car with a cassette player, which led to listening to anything I could get my hands on that still gave me the thrill of being able to go that place inside that transcended the reality at hand that was negative.

Today, I listen to anything that moves the soul and it is again any music that is inspired and not overproduced. Music by Yo La Tengo, Billy Bragg, White Stripes, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Keys, Cake, Beck, Bowie, the Decemberist, Floorian, Radiohead, Wilco, Von Bondies, the Waxwings, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and on and on and on, for the beat goes on!

Good music is just amazing stuff, it comes from the place inside that all good spiritual things come from and it is hard to resist, even when the supposedly spiritually pure call your favorites tamasic and full of maya.

American metal is definitely rather sad now. It was a bad time to bring back headbanger's ball.

What European metal do you like? Maybe we should all start looking there for the good stuff.

I've been eyeing this topic ever since it began, but kept putting off my answer because it is such a big subject for me. I see in Kalisurfer's answer many groups I love (and some I haven't heard of--cool, something to investigate).

I also grew up working class with dips into welfare class during my childhood. I loved music from a young age, listening to what was available at home-classic country and western. I listened to Marty Robbins' Devil Woman over and over again until I knew the words. I have a good (not great) voice and sang all the time. In school I joined chorus groups and performed several times a year as a 1st soprano. I wanted to learn an instrument but we never had the money for that. I loved pianos and whenever I came into contact with one I'd be mesmerized and plunk out tunes as best I could with no training. I had no idea about chords but I have a good ear so I could pick out the right notes for simple melodies.

I progressed to Aretha Franklin and the realm of 60s soul courtesy of my Aunt Virginia, who married my Uncle Clyde, an African American, when I was 8. I remember singing along to "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud!" My mom was enticed into buying Aretha Franklin's "Lady Soul" album and I pretty much wore it out and could sing it all by heart.

Of course I listened to rock music also courtesy of my babysitters and in the 60s was listening to Beatles and all of the other current bands, Elvis, whatever was on the radio then. I was buying singles by then but still in grade school, so I didn't have the money for albums. The sole exception: "The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy" which was a cheesy production capitalizing on Star Trek's popularity. I memorized the Desiderata from his spoken rendition of it.

I didn't collect Beatles albums until they had split up. In Junior High I began to listen to them more and more and began buying their albums until I had every one, then I started buying their solo albums. Mostly I loved George and John's, as they fed my two sides, spiritual and political. I began reading about Hinduism from listening to George's albums, especially Living in the Material World and All Things Must Pass. My friend Carolyn and I celebrated our first Janmastami before even hearing about devotees.

I also bought a few Elton John albums.

I was desperately poor, so I also taped music off the radio whenever I could, many of the groups playing in the early 70s. But I was a fanatic about the Beatles. We collected books about them also, Carolyn and I, and had a scrap album, posters, the whole bit.

I gave them all up when I joined the temple.

In the brahmacarini ashrama there was no possibility to listen to anything, but when we went out we'd hear the radio played in public and my ears would perk up. I did love singing bhajans and was often singing most of the day, so I wasn't really starved for music. In Chicago we had a visitor named Kausalya dasi and she had the most amazing voice. Somewhere I still have a very old tape of her singing. Perhaps Bhaktavasya remembers her.

In L.A. I lived in an apartment with my first husband and yes, we listened to music and began to tape stuff off the radio and listen to the radio. Later we began to buy tapes and I went through a Led Zeppelin phase. It was the disco period and I heard it on the radio but didn't like much of it, and tried to find what non-disco music was out there.

In the 80s we had the hair bands...in retrospect they look so funny. I was in my early 20s then. I listened to r & b, Heart, Jethro Tull, The Who, Yes, Robert Plant's solo albums, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Laura Branigan, Michael Jackson, Journey, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mack, Santana (from childhood, really), Police, Steve Winwood, Billy Idol, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Talking Heads, Culture Club, Asia,...that's all that comes to mind immediately. In the late 80s I also discovered women's music as well as pagan artists.

Oh, I see I have to go--I am meeting my husband--will continue later as my tastes continue to expand...

I am relaxing a little and I am not being so exclusive to devotional music, though I would say it makes up 85% of what I listen to out of pure love for bhajans. I am really into traditional Irish mixed with modern drunking bar-song-punk dance "arrg" music, the best example being The Pogues... I love classical Indian Instrumental and have been admiring the new Ambient Fusion sort of stuff like DJ Cheb i Sabbah...

I love playing surf-instrumental with a touch of garage...that would be the best way to describe it. Like Clint Eastwood Goes Surfing...

Today, for some reason, I cannot get enough of the Monkees
I have a deep love for Oldies, pre '70.... I never really got big into 70's-80's

I beleive in a nice balance as far as musical appreciation goes. I know what I love, and I think I love it because whatever it is, be it rock or bhajan, it is charged with Krsna. I see pretty melodies as qualities of God.

In 80es i was fan of thrash, speed, and death metal scene along with the growing hardcore and metalcore music scene. Last thing i was doing before joining temple was riding in pro skate team and listening and trading lots of Black Metal and different industrial music.
My faves are today:
Raison D' Etre, Arcana,Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Corrupted, Boris, Sunn0))), Vinterriket, Velvet Cacoon, Om, High On Fire,Darkthrone, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, Ben Folds and also Ben Folds Five, Dead Can Dance,Xasthur, Leviathan.......
One of the artists i know and i am friend with is Mike Patton, but i doubt that anybody on this forum will remember or know him.He was initially singer of the band called Mr.Bungle and later member of the band Faith No More. Now he is solo artist.

I used to like straight edge but since 80es, that music as well as emo hardcore doesn't appeal to me because it is cheesy.

Let's see, I left off in the late 80s, as I was discovering women's music and coming out as a lesbian. (Ok, it's easy for bis to get confused since everybody expects us to be one thing or the other.)

So I began listening to Holly Near, Alyx Dobkin, Ferron, June Millington, Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge (we just knew she was one of us) and other classic lesbians or lesbian friendly artists. I can't remember the name now but I even found a lesbian rap artist with some cool socially conscious material. I met some of these performers as they toured and I had my share of crushes. As 89/90 approached I was discovering Dianic Wicca and goddess music to add to my lesbian feminist tapes. I loved the intersection of religion and politics that feminist spirituality represented. I could have my Goddess and protest too. I began listening to Lisa Thiel and Libana, Gypsy, and other Goddess and spoken word material floating around the pagan community. I mixed in indigenous music and various other cultural tunes, anything that felt wild and witchy and set a good mood for rituals. In general I gravitated to women artists and women's energy. (Though I still had my bouts of listening to hard rocking men, I must admit. It was almost an illicit pleasure in the lesbian community, to listen to the boys...)

In 1991 my son's accident happened and I turned to music for the long drives and to help me sleep at night. Goddess music served the latter purpose, soothing me and reminding me that I was not alone. On the drives to the teaching hospital where my son was at I would listen to Seal...



or Toni Childs' House of Hope:



In general any music that allowed me to get my feelings of worry, doubt, and despair out and express some hope of my son's survival was what I chose to listen to at that moment. I also bought The Lord of the Rings on tape so we could play it for my son while he was in a coma. I was imagining that he would be so bored laying there if he was ever conscious of sound in the room, and wanted to give him something I knew he loved to keep him entertained. When he came out of the coma he took great pleasure in this.

I also loved this (same Seal album as Crazy)




At some point I was introduced to Ani Difranco and I was fortunate to see her when the venues were still small, up in the front row. It was at that point that she released Puddle Dive. Blood in the Boardroom remains my favorite Ani song to this day, with some fierce competition.

During my son's teenage years he introduced me to Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Beck, Alice In Chains, Primus, and so many other progressive or alternative or metal bands. I in turn induced him to listen to Koko Taylor, Enya, Ani, Clannad, Dead Can Dance, Sarah MacLachlan, and anything else I thought might broaden his horizons. We really connected over music and spent a lot of time listening together. We went to see Pink Floyd (oh my god, have I even mentioned them yet?) when they toured in...93 or so. I love Tool for its sublime combination of hard rocking tunes with melodious vocals and often transcendental lyrics. Dave and I saw Tool the weekend before my heart disease diagnosis. I felt good that I at least got to experience that as I went into surgery. Actually we had tickets to see Billy Idol on the very day of my heart surgery. I made Dave go as that evening I was mostly sleeping anyway.

I listened to Tool a lot during my recovery. Much of Lateralus resonated for me.

Lately I am loading itunes and my ipod with a lot of different stuff, from oldies that I had been looking for and found on Apple's music store to new stuff that I've discovered or recently bought. I'll browse through my list at work for some names. Alicia Keys, India Aire, Alana Davis, Staind, Metallica, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Gwen Stefani, Hiroshima, Cold Blood (listened from the 70s on, saw them in concert locally), kirtans for my spirit mix, pagan tunes for same, comedian albums--Margaret Cho, George Carlin--Rob Zombie, 3 Doors Down, Enigma, Days of the New, Jerry Cantrell, Laura Love, Marvin Gaye, Patty LaBelle, Perfect Circle...the list goes on and on.

Rob Zombie is also one of people i have met while he was still singer of White Zombie.They even have played Danzig's song Mother for my birthday.

Tool is one of the best bands i have discovered throughout my entire life. I started listening to them during 80es, then stopped and now i collected their stuff back.Lateralus is a masterpiece.
Primus were cool while they existed.
Anybody here likes Nirvana?
I saw them once in 80es, while Bleach tour. Dave Grohl was not on drums.
I somehow always liked Kurt Cobain.He was weird but very spiritual person at the same time.

If you like Tool, you will like new Porcupine Tree album. It is called Deadwing.
www.deadwing.com

I like Nirvana. I remember the first time I heard Nevermind and especially the song Lithium. That song pretty much made me think that Kurt Cobain would end up a suicide.

Though i have not listened to nirvana in ten years or more it was that song LITHIUM that was the song that did it for me, the vocal parts not so much the guitar. One time i was on a rollercoaster for the first time, but this was a weird one that just halts for 5 minutes in mid air as you hang upside down. It did this and I thought omg there is something wrong with this machine it broke and I am going to die! All of my money and belongings started falling out of my pockets to the ground because I was 90 degrees upside down. I could not even see where my stuff was landing because the ride was so high like in the clouds. So in complete panic, I start to sing this song LITHIUM to myself. To me, it was not a a song of a person who will commit suicide but like an anthem of an eerily blissed wanderer-monk.

The day his body was found dead April 8 is also the Appearance day of the Buddha and as a kid his imaginary friend was called Boddah, and from this you can clearly see that I am one to absurdly link details together.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

It's been so long ago, it's hard to remember.

For the first little while after moving out of the temple, we listened to devotee music solely, but we gradually started listening to other things. Being married to Kalisurfer, he was more self-confident we weren't going to become rakshasas if we strayed away from devotee music. Oh, my God, I was so tense and tight and terrified coming out of the temple we were going to hell if we even dared stray a little bit. But one of the first things Kalisurfer bought was a Travelling Willburys tape. When we still seemed to be standing after that "deviation" I think I started listening to Joni Mitchell and Peter, Paul and Mary like before I moved in, along with whatever Kalisurfer came up with.
I never really listened to a lot of rock and roll. I was raised listening to classical music and '60s groups like Peter, Paul and Mary and The Kingston Trio. So before I moved into the temple I was still listening to those groups, except I'd added Joni Mitchell. I listened to her alot and I'd cry and feel melancholy and wanting. I also had a wild boyfriend for a little while before I moved in that got me into Captain Beefheart and Sun Ra and The Residents and this French jazz rock band called Magma. They were sort of heavy and angst-filled, but good. I also was still listening to My Fair Lady, The Music Man, West Side Story and all those older music theatre shows. Plus, there was the Irish music like De Dannan and the Bretton harper Alan Stivell and jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. So, coming out of the temple I went back to all those groups and people. But because Kalisurfer was more from the Cream, Led Zeppelin, Doors generation, he educated me in those groups more than the little I knew. I had a lot of catching up to do.
I never really got into the 80s groups The Clash or The Ramones or The Sex Pistols or Blondie. I kind of missed them somehow, but that's about when I moved into the temple. I don't think I was listening to them that much before I moved in because I was on my way in. I remember right before I moved into the temple I went to a Dire Straits concert because my mother liked them and she ended up with an extra ticket, so I went. It was kind of weird. I had already stopped smoking pot and I was chanting and going to Mangala Arati and somebody behind me was smoking pot and it kept wafting past me. I was already out of that world by that time. I couldn't relate, it was weird.

That's my story for now.

I listen to the same music now that I listened to before I was a devotee. I still love devotional music and listen to it a lot (I still consider myself a devotee, too). My favorite all time musician is TORI AMOS. Does anyone else here listen to her? I love her. I have seen her probably 30 times. She is so talented and a piano wizard.

I like her a lot too, I find her voice quite haunting. Though I tend to listen to her music while depressed... not a good idea- brings my mood down even further. That is not a criticism but you have to admit, her music is not exactly "upbeat."

I used to listen to Kula Shaker a lot. . . well it was devotional I guess!
I really missed movies when I was in the temple, a bunch of us used to get together in a disused office to watch Krishna puppet shows!

I had my office in the Manor where I hung out at night. I listened to Melanie and Bob Dylan a lot I remember. The Manor was actually a pretty cool place. Nobody ever cared about non-devotional music, I played it even in the ashram as did many others I noticed.
When I left however I really delved into jazz. I saw Ray Charles in Stockholm on my 25th birthday (a childhood dream come true). And since being back in my home country I saw James Carter live and fell in love with his magic. Miles Davis, Nina simone, Lizz Wright.... my list is pretty long.
Yes, jazz definately for me. Plus there's the added bonus of being a woman and liking jazz. At any concert, jazzcafé etc, the men/women ratio is 10 to 1.

What the funk? No Dead? Feed your head 24/7 online GD radio station at http://66.28.14.54:8010 (paste url into your audio player, think your player needs to be able to play real media files)

Lets see I left in 81. And then I moved to Maui. Hawaii especially Maui, as those of you who live there know, is Marley country. You can't walk around your block without hearing the Wailers coming from somewhere, He's worshipped there as God, the locals are all about getting high and surfin while listening to reggae. So reggae especially Marley, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, Eek A Mouse, Third World (me and a few devotee friends on maui met them and partied with them) etc, were what I first started listening to. Also at that time The Police had just came out with their great stuff and everyone was listening to them. Tina Turner had just made her great comeback album a couple years later, '83?

At that time the most popular local band was headed by a devotee on lead guitar. They were called Venus and played mostly reggae covers, they had a great singer, this black rasta guy I know, and the band could put down some serious jams. Later after Jerry Garcia died Deadheads flooded into Hawaii, lots of them to Maui and Kauai and the Big Island. At first there was a lot of consternation in the local press about all the hippies all of sudden hanging out everywhere, but they eventually fit in and now Dead music is heard a lot.

For 24/7 Marley music there are two staitons. One usually plays off of albums and occasionally other stuff.
http://64.182.1.110:8026

The other plays a lot of rare stuff and mixes.
http://67.15.74.6:6969


I used to have a roomate who used to hang with Kurt Cobain before Nirvana hit it big. He was this croation american surfer lifeguard on Oahu's North Shore (sunset beach) whose cousin was the bass player for Nirvana.; Krist Novoselic. Their parents were immigrants and they ended up living in Aberdeen, Wa. There they met Kurt and eventually started Nirvana practicing at my roomates mom's apartment. Anywaays, Kurt and Courtney came to Oahu to get married and I got to visit with them for a few minutes at our house by the beach. There's a lot of evidence that supports his death as not being suicide. There are quite a few websites dedicated to that, here are a few:

http://www.justiceforkurt.com/
http://www.cobaincase.com/

I was never a fan of the punk music scene, I liked punks, but their music was usually trite rehash or overly repetitive IMHO. Although I liked the SEx PiSTols and The Ramones, and a song here and there, and I like Green Day these days (just found out "Green Day" means when you've been smokin ganja all day long, who knew?). I don't really have much use for most of the heavy speedy metal type of punk that was popular among the fringe "Straight Edge" milieu which produced so many devotees and was heavily influenced by Krishna consciousness back in the '80's and 90's.

Today I like what I didn't care for when I was a teenager in the 70's. Back then it was all about Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, etc, also 60's stuff like the Airplane, Jimi, Mothers of Invention, Joni Mitchell, Stones, Beatles, Cream, Incredible String Band, Moody Blues, etc.

Now I like what was popluar in the 70's; good disco music, like the Bee Gees and other good Motown and Philly Sound stuff like Curtis Mayfield. I saw Wattstax on PBS recently and it was really great, highly recommended. HERE you can listen to 6 of the songs from the concert (audio player must be able to play real media files):

The Dramatics — "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get"
The Staple Singers — "Oh La De Da"
The Bar-Kays — "Son of Shaft"
Albert King — "I'll Play the Blues for You"
Rufus Thomas — "The Breakdown"
Isaac Hayes — "Theme from Shaft"

BUT you need ActiveX turned on to hear those great grooves. If you have a Mozilla browser like Firefox you will need the ActiveX plugin. It's at:

http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/plugin.htm#download

hey sonja the manor must have gone downhill since you were there! When I lived there, the TP used to harass me over what was on my iPod. . .

In the mid-80's, one of the women in the women's ashram in the Boston temple had a TV/VCR set and the women would have little cake and ice cream parties, complete with Bollywood movies. Somehow Bollywood was ok and occasional Hollywood movies were rented as well. That ashram was a blast until most of the cool matajis moved away to other temples or out of ISKCON.

I only ever listen to kirtan and bhanjans. What's wrong with you guys! No no just kidding. Actually I only ever listen to Insane Clown Possee and Marilyn Manson. No no just kidding. I really like KC and the Sunshine Band and the Bee Gees. No no just kidding. Actually I like to sit on my back porch and play my homemade banjo constructed out of a cigar box and a couple of rubber bands. No no just kidding...

"Mystery Train" is a killer tune.
Have you seen the movie by Jim Jarmusch?
I remember two musical gems that were introduced to me while already living in a temple: Roxy Music's "Avalon"
and "Living in the Material World"
by that English gentleman.

An older devotee turned me on to Avalon. He said he liked to drive and chill to it. And I was thinking "Prabhu, isn't that maya?"

LITMW I stumbled across in a devotee's office. Just played it for days like a loop. I met the English gentleman's sister-in-law last year. She said he used to love flying into L.A. and heading straight for his mother-in-law's house to dine on homemade Mexican bean burritos, presumably while hailing Sri Vishnu in between mouthfuls.

I got into music fairly late to begin with. Never listened to anything before I was 15. Then I got an urge to check into music and what it was all about, so I listened to a large variety of different kinds and styles of music. Uhm, actually a really large variety that spanned a big chunk of history, starting with dozens of thick, vintage vinyls from the 20s and 30s that could only be played on an old wind-up grammophone I got from my grandma. It was mostly folk music and classic.

Then I moved on to the 40s, with the Andrew Sisters and the like, and the 50s -- Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haily and a lot of early Blues and Rockabilly. I kind of skipped the 60s. I just couldn't relate. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Perhaps too psychadelic. I thought the 70s disco era music was hillarious, with the violins and the whacka-whacka guitars.

Since I grew up in the 80s, a lot of the music from that period did get my attention. The Cure, Simple Minds, Talking Heads... I was a big fan of Depeche Mode -- even went to one of their concerts. Still, I also had a great interest in Blues music from Albert Collins and BB King. Tried the early hard rock for a while with Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Saxon, etc. That didn't last. I got more and more sensitive to the type of sound vibrations that entered my ears. Toward the late 80s, just before I joined, I got more and more into New Age kind of music. Very peaceful stuff like Gaia, Ocean, and Andreas Vollenweider.

I kinda always had a harder time relating to heavy duty Bengali bhajans, even when I joined. I rather listened to Michael Cassidy (Mangalananda), JOB Orchestra's Govinda; Open the Doors to Your Heart (Ha! How's that for reliving the cheesy tunes of the 70s!) and the more poppy bhajans from Jagjit and Chitra Singh, than Srila Prabhupada's classics. I guess I wasn't pure enough yet to fully appreciate that -- although I also have the suspicion that the ching-ching-ching of the overly accented karatals on most of these old recording just gets on my nerves...

In the last couple of years I have rediscovered some of the old music from my past. I have similar experiences as both Dhyana and Milla. Some of it just doesn't sound the same anymore and doesn't have the same effect either. Other songs almost haunt me and spurred me to trace down old albums.

Currently I listen to a small selection of it every now and then. Most of it still Andreas Vollenweider. The urge to dive deep into it has waned. Some new-found material I listen to is Celtic style music, Sufi chants, and some of the great material produced by the second generation, such as Gauravani and his crew.

So I've heard. I was there when Damodar was TP, that may explain a lot. He's a normal dude. I ran for cover when the swami took over. I don't know what it's like nowadays... It's now Gauri, right?

This is a list of top ten albums i was obsessed with throughout the course of time in no particular order. I do not necessarily listen to all of this regularly now. I think this is how it is with most people, you are not going to listen to the things that you listened to ten years ago with the same ears and opinions, yet those things will still remain permanent fixtures because they were so influential to you at some point.

I am not totally ok with this list, there are more conceptual things that I am not including, and there are -awkward- items here that i think require eludication but to hell with explanations and self-conscious meta-narratives

TOP TEN

nirvana "nevermind"
sonic youth "experimental jet set trash and no star"
sonic youth "confusion is sex"
eric's trip "lovetara"
violent femmes "the violent femmes"
leonard cohen "songs of leonard cohen"
pavement "brighten the corners"
elevator to hell "parts 1-3"
jean leloup "le dome"
bright eyes "fevers and mirrors"

REALLY I MUST INCLUDE THIS TOO

velvet underground "the banana album"
belle and sebastian "if you are feeling sinister"
nick cave "murderballads"
magnetic fields "69 love songs" (especially volume 1 and 3)
elliot smith "roman candle"
depeche mode "music for the masses"
hole "live through this"
sloan "twice removed"
motley crue "decade of decadence", "dr.feelgood"
beatles "revolver", "rubber soul" & co.

velvet underground "the banana album"
I saw Lou Reed on the teli today.
He was wearing a friggin' mullet so it must have been an older concert.
Is Nico on the Banana Album?
Viva Nico.

I saw Elliot Smith perform "Beware of Darkness" on the teli. How fitting.
Rest in peace, Elliot.

Sonic Youth did a cover of "Within You Without You" that's suppose to be impressive. Haven't been able to find it, though.

ultimately i am a nico fan more than a velvet underground fan, but i put that album since it was my initial shock-encounter with nico. she is in it singing songs like 'all tomorrow's parties and 'i'll be your mirror.' In fact i think the official name of it is "the banana album and nico." It is true when you say viva nico. At one point i chanced upon all of these interviews of hers and i kept thinking ha! what amusing sayings. I was not expecting this, i figured she was just an aesthetic addition with a spooky voice.

"i've been out walking
i don't do too much talking these days
i've stopped my rambling
i dont do too much gambling these days
these days i sit on corner stones
and count the time in quarter tones to ten"

i hope lou reed was wearing an honest to goodness mullet and not one of those hipster ironic mullets

there is a cover of elliot smith singing 'jealous guy' by john lennon it is pretty good.
I stopped listening to him after 'roman candle' and don't really know any song that he did after that, and that was a long time ago, so when i heard about his fairly recent sucide i was surprised. In my mind he was this already vaulted-up songwriter whose story had been sung, I did not expect any such continuations. I would say if you take his guitar style like in the song 'southerne belle' and the guitar style of nick drake in general, add to that kaki king for strangeness, you have the best guitar sounds of pop music. Come to think of it nick drake commited suicide too!

i have pretty much everything that is in some way related to sonic youth pre- washing machine era. Washing machine was not so great for me and then it just got worse. Actually I can appreciate what they did after washing machine but only abstractly. At least no one can ever accuse them of making themselves too accessible! I probably would have given it more of a chance if I had not grown a complete aversion to long self-indulgent guitar solos at around that time. I have seen them in concert many times, but i am always sad that they ignore the songs from my 2 favourite albums every time. i can send u this song u r asking about if you send me ur email, it appears originally on the NME compilation 'sgt pepper knew my father.'

I loved the film Mystery Train, not to mention it highlights one of the best songs that Elvis ever recorded but is seldom heard anymore. I cannot believe that this film is already 15 years old! The whole concept of taking one bizarre surreal event and then watching it relived through each group of characters, from their own point of view during the same time period, and then putting it all together as the story zig-zags toward it's conclusion, was pretty innovative and creative. It is a creative directors way of looking at the supposedly randomness of how life unfolds but you know that there is a lot of Karma going on here. I thought using actual musicians Screaming Jay Hawkins and the late Joe Strummer of the Clash as fictional characters was appropriate and true to the spirit of the film.

The film follows two young Japanese hipsters on a holy pilgrimage to Memphis in search of the heart and spirit of rock and roll, not to mention Elvis himself. It starts there but weaves through the lives of a group of gritty characters who interweave into pretty funny surreal mayhem. Anyone who have not seen this film and likes independent film that entertains while being a little on the creative edge, this is one great DVD to rent.

Excellent, Kali.

Once upon a time I took my daughter and her friends to see Blink 182. Bad Religion was also performing. BR is a band I can sink my herbivorous enamels into.

"Sorrow"

Well you guard me now for I can't see
A reason for this suffering and this long misery
What if every living soul could be upright and strong
Well then I do imagine there will be
Sorrow no more

When all soldiers lay their weapons down
Or when all Kings and Queens relinquish their crowns
Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves
It's easy to imagine there will be
Sorrow no more-- (Graffin/Gurewitz) from the Process Of Belief CD by
Bad Religion

Ravi Shankar's daughter, sweet.


http://hem.passagen.se/akm/26%20-%20Norah%...-%20Sunrise.mp3

Best pre-mangal-aratik song ever (4 meg mp3):

Matt bianco

I was very happy to be able to start listening again to blues and jazz. Neil Young and Tom Petty have never let me down, either. But boy oh boy was I surprised today when I found my self listening to Rammstein!

Hey Milla, saw in your profile you are a Joy Division fan. You were almost 10 when Ian Curtis commited suicide. That's remarkable, and I am impressed. The first CD I bought when my material desires started on their prominent ride forward was Unknown Pleasures. New Dawn Fades still raises the hairs on my neck. Never saw them, although New Order did some JD numbers at this years Glastonbury festival. Not quite the same.

A fellow JD fan, in this forum. Imagine that.

My husband introduced me to their music when we plunged into karmi music post temple. He used to listen to them before he joined. I don't know how he found them, he is only a year older than me. I like New Dawn Fades too, as well as She's Lost Control, Ice Age, Isolation, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Decades....

How do you like Jude Law playing Ian Curtis in the upcoming movie?

Joy Division are pretty famous it is not that curious to know about them even if you are not born in that era. I am a fan but more into their biography and the mystique they would create during performances that I have seen through video footage, than the actual music! Ian Curtis would sometimes enter into epileptic convulsions on stage and then go back stage ashamed that he has made a fool of himself and embarassed that he was embarassing his girlfriend. It was hard to tell if he was dancing or having an actual epilepsy attack, the audience would never be sure. He has spoken of his seizures in religious terms before. Conversely, his epilepsy would also spiral him into depression. The opening chords of their most famous song still get to me after ten years.

Jude Law is an intolerable buffoon but I am thrilled that the fabulous Samantha Morton from the fantastic movie Jesus' Son is playing Ian Curtis' wife.

I am not sure about Jude Law, from what I read about him he seems a bit of a twit. Whether he can play Ian Curtis? I don't know. Lets see if he can pull off that unique voice.

Ian Curtis wife had doubts about his epilepsy, mainly due to the fact he would have a seizure during an arguement, and felt it was his way of excusing his behaviour.

I have some poor quality footage of JD in concert, plus some TV appearance. I am old enough to remember seeing it on TV the first time around, and remember the performance stunning me back then. There is an absolutely frantic performance of She's Lost Control.

I still hear their sound in modern bands, not bad for a band that had two studio albums. Closer seems to have more musical acclaim, I personally prefer Unknown Pleasures, what do you chaps think?