6. VerdiRequiem

Verdi’s Requiem should be required listening. It is more punk rock than any shit you’re going to hear anywhere. It’s incredible. Certain sections on there, like the one with the brass section. Sit down with it, you’ll know, where you hear hell is falling down upon you.

All of Verdi’s music is really inspired melody. It’s almost too much, too rich – only in parts can you take it, and after a while you need to break because it’s not repeated as much. It’s so rich and decadent that there are four or five sections of that Requiem that’ll just knock your socks off.

Verdi was a real man of the people, popular stuff with the city state kind of revolution at the time. His name became a cult – V.E.R.D.I – in Italian it means something about praising the new unification; it became a chant of the people.