The law of diminishing returns applies to music as much as to other walks of life. If you are subjected to a particular piece of music for any length of time - as in Desert Island Discs - your enjoyment will gradually fade to boredom and perhaps outright hatred.
But the opposite is also true. If for whatever reason you are starved of music for weeks or months, you may find yourself enjoying it with an intensity you did not think possible.
Would I find the following song as moving in "normal" circumstances? I don't know.
It's certainly true that one can run a favourite piece of music to death, as I did with most of Nat King Cole. But I have just recently re-heard 'Without You' (Harry Nilsson) again after many years and find I love it as much as ever I did.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree! I suppose you could say that he was something of a one hit wonder (two actually with "Everybody's Talkin". But what a hit! In his live concert, the conductor was none other than Gordon Jenkins, who did so many of the orchestrations for... Nat King Cole!
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