Music comes at me from all directions. Sometimes I'm dismayed by the music (but really the musicians), like hearing "Iron Man" or classic Led Zeppelin sell cars and trucks. It's not so much new bands selling stuff in commercials (this is almost like airplay, since I'm not sure how much new rock the radio plays these days--and I had no problem with the Shins, who once stomped the sidewalks of Albuquerque, selling songs to commercials, TV shows and movies), but these old bands, old singers who are pimping products with the same songs dominating classic rock radio. The song in the new car ad with John Cougar Mellencamp (he's singing a new song) doesn't bug me as much as the use of disasters to sell trucks. I only mention car ads, but I've been watching a lot of sports lately (baseball and football), so this is the dominate shill streaming into my consciousness. Luckily I don't hear the commercials so much (I either have the sound off or I skip to another channel), so my ire is only occasionally raised by this.

Music in movies I have absolutely no problem with. Unless a completely horrible song shows up in a movie I like. Then I get mildly turned off, but I also know it'll become cheesy if I end up watching the movie a few times. And cheese is okay. I think "Gimmie Shelter" by the Stones has been in more movies than any other song (this is not from statistical analysis, it's just a feeling). In the last couple of days I heard it in Adventures in Babysitting and The Departed. Scorsese (who directed The Departed) himself has used the song a billion times, give or take. In all honesty, the most used song is probably either a Beatles song or something from the 50s or 60s, but I don't always speak in all honesty.

Lately, I've been getting a lot of greatest hits albums. There is a service where you get a new CD every month for $6. You load up a list of CDs and they come in whatever order you put them in, once a month. I think it's loaded till sometime in 2008. This month it was ZZ Top's Greatest Hits (which concentrates mostly on the 80s hits, but still has "La Grange" and "Tush"). A few months back, it was Journey. Greatest hits are based, mostly, on radio hits. This can skew what is on the CD to the poppiest of any band, but this is what I know them from (well, I do remember the Journey video game), so it's a good representation to me. I don't need any more Journey or ZZ Top than what I've got on one handy CD.

Last night, I was talking to an enthusiastic guy who started out praising my "Animal" drumming and then veered (somewhat drunkenly, but hey, it's a bar) to his favorite music. He plays bass and tries (when he's really drunk) to sing like Michael Anthony. I like to think my harmony style is also based on Michael Anthony as well as Melvin from NOFX (who sang in one song, "Some people tell me I can't sing" to which Fat Mike, the singer, replies, "Oh sure you can, just don't do it 'round me"). So I was all ready to talk about Van Halen when the guy mentioned Anthony couldn't go wrong since he had Sammy Hagar singing along with him.

I have to pause here because this struck me deep in my heart. And I had to look at the guy and try to figure out how old he was (he didn't look particularly young, but, from this response, he had to be at least five years younger than me). I said I was a David Lee Roth man. Van Halen with Roth is the real Van Halen. At best, Van Halen with Hagar is like methadone. It keeps you going, but it's not the real thing. Then he mentioned he didn't have Women and Children First, Fair Warning or Diver Down.

Fair Warning is the best Van Halen album. Ever. Period. Which means it's one of the best albums of all time. Ever. Period. Buy me a drink.

Now, I'm not especially outwardly aggressive about these things, but you have to believe in something (I think Poison said this). And this I passionately believe in. I don't care what Roth is like now--it's not about now, it's about the time capsule you get with an album. This was then, frozen by the studio recording. They will be forever young, drunk, on coke and screwing anything that moved. All consequences from said actions can be taken up at a different time when you're trying to instill morals in your kids.

Of course, I'm not really trying to tear down this guy who just wanted to talk because he liked our show. He stayed all night, drank too much and who knows how he felt when he stumbled home. I hope he felt good. Like he connected to the music and the people who made it. Because that's what makes whatever music you listen to truly amazing. There is an alchemy that happens when it leaves the musician (either from a recording or on stage) and goes to the listener. The space between the speakers and the ears changes it somehow. It makes it good or horrible or amazing or transforming or something you never want to hear ever again in your life. And the next time, well, the next time might be completely different.

But I always hope the next time it doesn't make you want to buy a new car. That there is something a little more uplifting than that going on.

Matt Worley likes to think he plays drums like John Bonham, Dave Grohl and Animal from the Muppets. Feel free to disagree.