#2. Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has 10 _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Last edited by al-Qa'bong on Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
You know what I find disappointing? That mainstream Generation X music criticism is content to make the same pointless rockist comparisons that the boomers and their inflated sense of importance made 40 years ago, with the same cast of characters and the same ridiculous hall of fame mentality.
A 30 year old contemporary music critic who pretends that Led Zeppelin or The Doors has anything to say to the current moment beyond nostalgia is as deluded as a rock critic in the 1980s refusing to admit that music evolved after Glen Miller.
#2 in particular is fairly awesome. She deserves it. Seriously. #rihannanavy
To the proposition that there's anything unfair in any one of these people or groups not having done well enough on sales charts:
Michael Jackson (!)
The Beatles (!)
Elvis Presley (!)
Led Zeppelin
Pearl Jam
Jimi Hendrix
REM
Depeche Mode
Simon & Garfunkel
Queen
Nirvana
Bruce Springsteen
Johnny Cash
Tom Petty
Bob Marley
Um, okay! Poor Beatles! If only the market was fair enough to reward them better, relative to Ke$ha.
Yeah, you know who really has reason to complain? All the blues artists who were so shamelessly aped by the 1960s beat groups without earning a cent for their troubles. Howlin' Wolf alone should've been given half of everything Led Zeppelin ever earned.
It's a credit to the post war generation that they didn't feel the need to bitch and complain that Billie Holiday and Miles Davis never got as many endorsement deals as the fuckin' Monkees, despite their obvious superiority in talent.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:15 am Post subject:
F. wrote:
A 30 year old contemporary music critic who pretends that Led Zeppelin or The Doors has anything to say to the current moment beyond nostalgia is as deluded as a rock critic in the 1980s refusing to admit that music evolved after Glen Miller.
That's Glenn Miller, and his was as commercial an outfit as has ever existed. It's debatable whether pop music has evolved or devolved since 1944. I know I find it unlistenable today, whereas I quite like the popular music of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
By the way, "In the Mood" was a rip-off of Fletcher Henderson's (the guy who wrote all the best Benny Goodman swing arrangements) "Hot and Anxious," which he borrowed from his brother Horace.
Horace himself borrowed the riff in "Hot and Anxious" from Wingy Manone, who called it "Tar Paper Stomp."
My teenage kids, who are guitar players, play a lot of Led Zeppelin tunes, despite my urging that they take a shot at learning how to play like Django Reinhardt. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 998 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:40 pm Post subject:
Every musical era since music became popularized over radio and then TV had it's share of filler crap in between the commercials. But every era also produces gems that stand out from the usual muck they torment everyone with. Then there's music that can't be accurately described as muck or gems, but that only resonates within certain demographics and scenes, where if you're not getting anything out of it, it likely means it wasn't created with you in mind. Rihanna's offerings sometimes have gem-like qualities, as does Lady G, Madonna, Usher, Kane and a whole host of personalities I can't even begin to identify, but who's music might come through as a pretty good composition on the drive home, if the teenagers insist on switching from the classic rock station I normally have it on. But then there's some real shit from every era that I simply can't abide, and I have no understanding as to why others would. Personally I'd darn near classify the entire second half of the 80s in this category. _________________ At its zero-level, ideology could thus be understood as a system of beliefs which enable us to sustain our position within liberal-democratic capitalism.
You know what I find disappointing? That mainstream Generation X music criticism is content to make the same pointless rockist comparisons that the boomers and their inflated sense of importance made 40 years ago, with the same cast of characters and the same ridiculous hall of fame mentality.
A 30 year old contemporary music critic who pretends that Led Zeppelin or The Doors has anything to say to the current moment beyond nostalgia is as deluded as a rock critic in the 1980s refusing to admit that music evolved after Glen Miller.
I don't know. I think every era has artists in pop music that moves the goal posts and stands the test of time. I have niel young's comilation "decade" on my Ipod and there are a good number of 40 year old songs on that i find fresh when i hear them. I can not skip "cortez the killer".... I just can't. the guitar is moody, brooding, sinister, melencoly and riveting. his guitar work was unlike anything else from the era and many of the songs employed a hypnotic rythym line that just drove the guitar work.
You know what I find disappointing? That mainstream Generation X music criticism is content to make the same pointless rockist comparisons that the boomers and their inflated sense of importance made 40 years ago, with the same cast of characters and the same ridiculous hall of fame mentality.
A 30 year old contemporary music critic who pretends that Led Zeppelin or The Doors has anything to say to the current moment beyond nostalgia is as deluded as a rock critic in the 1980s refusing to admit that music evolved after Glen Miller.
It seems to me that "my generation was better than yours and created more intelligent, socially relevant music/literature/movies" style snobbishness will always be with us. In addition to the very obvious ageism in such lists (not just this one but also other similar ones I've seen in Rolling Stone and other "middle aged white guy rock" oriented media), there are also elements of racism, sexism, homophobia and plain old class prejudice since for the most part, the musicians listed as deserving the most adulation or respect are middle aged or older straight white males who are generally liked by other educated, urban, middle aged or older straight white males. Now this isn't across the board since all these lists contain at least some POC, women and queers (for example Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Queen, Joni Mitchell or Kate Bush frequently, but not always make these lists in a positive sense) and it's probably unintentional but it is clearly apparent. _________________ I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day. - Assclown Rob Ford
Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 2402 Location: Vancouver
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:50 pm Post subject:
F. wrote:
You know what I find disappointing? That mainstream Generation X music criticism is content to make the same pointless rockist comparisons that the boomers and their inflated sense of importance made 40 years ago, with the same cast of characters and the same ridiculous hall of fame mentality.
A 30 year old contemporary music critic who pretends that Led Zeppelin or The Doors has anything to say to the current moment beyond nostalgia is as deluded as a rock critic in the 1980s refusing to admit that music evolved after Glen Miller.
The other day (evening actually) I went into my local coffee shop for an evening tea, and they had a group of young (teenager) musicians playing acoustically. The song they were playing as I walked through the door was the Eagle's "Take It Easy".
That song is (gasp!) forty years old. So what made those kids think such an old fogie tune had 'anything to say to the current moment'?
I think what it says is young musicians do find something in that music. Probably number one thing they find is that they can reproduce that song (and others like it) live, without electricity. Try that with most of pop music today.
Then there's a couple of Canadian artists. Neil Young's 'Live at Massey Hall', a live performance from 1971 becomes a hit album in 2007. Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' first recorded a generation ago becomes such a hit a generation later that three different versions of it are on the UK hit charts at the same time.
That should tell you that good music is timeless.
I spent years running jam sessions and open mic nights in Vancouver. One of the things you almost never saw (or heard) was young musicians coming in and playing contemporary pop. For starter most of it is impossible to reproduce live. For seconds, strange at it may seem, contemporary popular music has nothing to say the the current moment.
Go to a jam session anywhere and what do you hear. Kids playing Jimi Hendrix, who died over forty years ago. Why is that, do you wonder? You hear the Eagles, Neil Young, The Band, Led Zeppelin, even Johnny Cash. You hear old blues artists that never made a penny out of radio. You hear old jazz artists who sang, clean and clear, Tin Pan Alley songs. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and a host of other long dead singers and songwriters. What you don't hear is contemporary pop.
Why is that? Is it because contemporary music 'has nothing to say to the current moment'? Absolutely!
Even when you do hear newer artists, you're much more likely to hear Jason Mraz's 'I'm Yours', or John Mayer's 'Waiting On The World To Change', (both completely 'retro') than any Lady Gaga. Of hip-hop you'll hear none.
Whatever young people listen to, when they take up an instrument, they go back to that old music that 'has nothing to say to the current moment', because they know instinctively that it does have something to say to the current moment.
They know that in those ancient days of pop there was no 'product placement', the Jimi Hendrix's and Neil Young's and Joni Mitchell's didn't shill for hair care products or beer in their off hours, and they didn't let bean counting record producers tell them what to do.
Was there crappy music back then? Most certainly. But time tells the tale. Good music lasts. I'm going to go out an limb here and say that a generation hence, young musicians will still be playing music that is two or three generations older than they are. That music will still be 'saying something to the current moment'. _________________ On the wilds of the Drive
I think what it says is young musicians do find something in that music. Probably number one thing they find is that they can reproduce that song (and others like it) live, without electricity. Try that with most of pop music today.
The list could just as easily be titled "It really pisses me off that certains artists I like have sold more albums than certain artists that I dislike".
Now, usually, that sort of thing is done up with at least a veneer of championing authenticity. Okay, most people will probably agree that Elvis had more feeling to his music than Justin Bieber.
But it's ulitmately all pretty subjective...
Quote:
Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album
I'm not sure I've ever heard anything by Katy Perry, but her music would have to be extremely milquetoast to rank lower than my estimation of Jackson. I mean, I don't hate his music, but I AM basically indifferent to it. I never quite saw what the big deal was. I enjoyed his music in the same way that I enjoy sunflower seeds: If I'm bored and they're sitting on the table, I'll eat them out of nervous habit. But I don't go around jonesing them otherwise.
I will admit that, when a co-worker informed me that Michael Jackson had died, I actually stood there with my mouth agape for a few seconds. Not because I loved his music, but just because he I came of age in the 80s, and he's always pretty much been part of the cultural furniture.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:33 pm Post subject:
I liked seeing the Jackson 5 on Ed Sullivan and Michael Jackson when he was part of the group, but I never cared for his music much after "Ben." Mind you, I was 9 when I liked him. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 2402 Location: Vancouver
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:20 pm Post subject:
Corey wrote:
Maestro wrote:
I think what it says is young musicians do find something in that music. Probably number one thing they find is that they can reproduce that song (and others like it) live, without electricity. Try that with most of pop music today.
On the continued relevance of classic or neo-classic rock and blues and all, I don't disagree.
I went to the site, and found almost every video had backing tracks. How is that a capella? Pardon me, the first one up had a violinist playing acoustically, but triple tracked himself. Try that without electricity...
Here is an example of what I'm talking about. A live performance of a song by the composer, sung to the accompaniment of the audience.
I'll admit that the first two of these performances were in large auditoria where sound systems were used, so presumably if the electricity went down, the performance would have been greatly restricted, but the point is that all of these performances could have (and were) done exactly the same in coffee houses and small bars with no sound systems. By the way, I was once playing at a bistro when the electricity went out.
The owner brought candles for the tables, and gave me his acoustic guitar (one string missing - I think it was the B). I ended up playing for close to four hours sitting on a stool in the middle of the dancefloor, lit by candles, using only my voice and a 5-string guitar. I won't comment on my performance except to say the audience stayed throughout, and we all had a great time. I was struck at the time by the fact that this was music as it might have been 50,000 years ago.
Music existed before electricity, before the pop music industry, before copyright, before mechanized civilization. Music is an expression of the human soul, and as such provokes a poignant, and sometime excurciating, emotional response. To paraphrase Noel Coward, strange how powerful acoustic music is.
I am not saying that all of today's music is dreck, but in art the only real arbiter is time. 99% of pop music from the 60's and 70's is gone, and good riddance. But at least in those days it was not an industry totally taken over by bean counters. Unfortunately today it is.
Lady Gaga has given a boost to Virgin Mobile and Miracle Whip via her video hit, Telephone, which has already been viewed 63 million times on YouTube. There’s nothing new to product placements like these – but what is new in this growing trend is the prominent positioning of brands in a clear bid for additional revenue.
...In-video product placement revenues totaled $15-$20 million last year, more than double the amount in 2000, according to PQ Media, and spending by the music industry on that brand marketing opportunity increased 8% last year. Patrick Quinn, CEO, PQ Media, tells today's New York Times, “That real estate — getting into the content itself — has become that much more valuable. There’s an opportunity there to make money and charge for that real estate.”
...as MTV turned to reality programming and stopped emphasizing music videos, the gap was quickly filled by labels and advertisers shilling on the web. “Before, video was definitely to showcase creativity and content. It was promotional, and today we look at video as another piece of pie and a way to generate venue,” commented Jonathan Feldman, VP of brand partnerships for Atlantic Records.
...Lady Gaga's 9.5-minute video for Telephone includes 10 product placements and generated more than 4 million views in its first 24 hours. Pass the mayo!
Obviously she's not the only shill in the industry, but is certainly indicative of the trend. _________________ On the wilds of the Drive
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:46 pm Post subject:
Commercial interests have always played a big role in radio, if not the recording industry. Glenn Miller, since he's been mentioned here already, had his "Chesterfield Broadcasts" where references to cigarettes were stuck into song lyrics.
Other groups, such as the Clicquot Club Eskimos (they went by a few other names - a common practice to avoid contractual restrictions), actually took their name from the product (sparkling sodie pop) they were hustling. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
The list could just as easily be titled "It really pisses me off that certains artists I like have sold more albums than certain artists that I dislike".
Very true. That's the way I would sum up the vast majority of these lists. Other factors which make it so ridiculous to compare the sales figures of today's music stars with those from one or two generations ago is population growth, and economic growth. The population growth is self explanatory. As for the economic growth, artists like Elvis, Led Zepplin or the Beatles had completely closed markets in the USSR, Eastern Europe and mainland China. India was very poor and had only a tiny elite that could even afford Western goods. Other countries that today are either quite rich (Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) or rapidly industrializing (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam etc.) were back only a fraction as rich as they are today. I'm pretty sure all Enmassers are well aware that these formerly closed off or too poor markets are quite open to Western penetration today. Even countries that have huge economic inequalities (India, Russia, China) still have 10s of millions (Russia) or 100s of millians (India, China) who can afford Western music and go to the concerts when the singers tour. So for me, it's no surprise that Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Ke$ha out sell Elvis or the Beatles. Don't like it? Too bad.
Quote:
Now, usually, that sort of thing is done up with at least a veneer of championing authenticity. Okay, most people will probably agree that Elvis had more feeling to his music than Justin Bieber.
But it's ulitmately all pretty subjective...
Quote:
Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album
I'm not sure I've ever heard anything by Katy Perry, but her music would have to be extremely milquetoast to rank lower than my estimation of Jackson. I mean, I don't hate his music, but I AM basically indifferent to it. I never quite saw what the big deal was. I enjoyed his music in the same way that I enjoy sunflower seeds: If I'm bored and they're sitting on the table, I'll eat them out of nervous habit. But I don't go around jonesing them otherwise.
I will admit that, when a co-worker informed me that Michael Jackson had died, I actually stood there with my mouth agape for a few seconds. Not because I loved his music, but just because he I came of age in the 80s, and he's always pretty much been part of the cultural furniture.
Well IMO, Perry's voice live sucks (I've had the misfortune of hearing her live, and can only conclude that the studio voice on songs like "Firework" and "I kissed a girl" have been heavily reworked), while Jackson could sing (even with his famously high pitched voice). Again, this is only my opinion and is subjective. On the whole though, yeah I agree with you, I never thought of Jackson as "all that" and certainly never understood how he became the "King of Pop". Again, only an opinion and I realize music (and any art) is subjective (the compilers of these lists, OTOH, obviously do not).
Of course in the case of Jackson in addition to his entertainment abilities, we also had his rather famous (better to say infamous?) life and the various rumours and allegations (not just the criminal allegations, but also the various alleged eccentricities). _________________ I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day. - Assclown Rob Ford
Exactly the same with me as well. Ben is the only song of his that I genuinely like, and have gone out of my way to hear. Of course, it's quite different from the later stuff that everyone considers to be quintessentially Michael Jackson.
I did show the video for Leave Me Alone to my class after he died, just because I think it's an interesting video, and the biographical lyrics seemed relevant to the occassion.
Other countries that today are either quite rich (Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) or rapidly industrializing (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam etc.) were back only a fraction as rich as they are today.
It's been interesting for me to note the western songs that apparently did hit it big in South Korea. That old sixties ballad "Are you going to San Francisco?" seems to be fairly well known. Which is somewhat odd, because, assuming it was popular here at the same time that it was popular in the west, it's tribute to Haight-Ashbury references a counterculture that probably didn't have much following in Korea. (The students who've mentioned it don't seem to know what it was referencing.)
Don MacLean's Vincent is also quite well-known, but not American Pie. Makes sense I guess, since lyrically, American Pie is pretty culturally specific.
And while of course the Beatles are well known, Let It Be enjoys a prestige way above anything else in the Beatles songbook.
It seems to me that "my generation was better than yours and created more intelligent, socially relevant music/literature/movies" style snobbishness will always be with us.
My point is simply that mainstream Generation X journalism refuses to look to the margins, where all good criticism occurs, and engage in the fascinating discussions that are happening there by members of their own age group and life experiences. Instead, they just keep regurgitating the same fictions that the Boomer journalists and rockist snobs have been perpetuating for decades. Mainstream Gen X music journalism has no voice; it is nothing more than an extension of the Boomer Hall of Fame mentality.
A relatively small generation like Generation X is always going to be drowned out by the two larger generations on either side of it. But I don't doubt that the complete corporate takeover of the media has something to do with the most irreverent voices of Gen X being confined to the margins. I mean, this is a generation that is capable of (rightfully) characterizing Mick Jagger as the Al Jolson of the Boomer generation, and the Beatles as little more than sophisticated children's entertainers (sounds about right to me - even their "heaviest" song is about a playground slide). You're not going to sell as much product with these kinds of ideas floating around, ridiculing the integrity of your brands.
Eventually, when the genius of something like Joy Division refuses to go away, it gets uneasily slotted alongside Springsteen on all sorts of "best of" lists, despite the inherent differences and often against the express intentions of the artists. You think Joe Strummer was pleased that London Calling was called a classic? It probably made him sick. You think Chuck D. would be flattered to see "911 is a Joke" used to sell cars? I consider it a disappointment that Gen X journalism let this happen to their music, music that begged for a re-evaluation of the way in which we listen to and talk about music, but instead found itself subject to a discourse that could never have anticipated and cannot properly accommodate its uniqueness.
Quote:
That should tell you that good music is timeless.
Many Gen X musicians and fringe journalists reject this notion outright as more corporate/Boomer hegemony. Nothing keeps a catchy song alive more than the need to sell coffee makers and toilet paper to the public. Instead, they have explored the possibilities of disposability and emphatically minor art. Something similar is happening in art photography. Again, I'm not really talking about the quality of music; I'm just saying that I think it is unfortunate that so many people of my generation are content to understand the art of their time using the ideology, vocabulary and rhetorical structures they inherited from their parents. We certainly wouldn't stand to let Barry Goldwater of Lester B. Pearson serve as the models for the way in which we conceptualize contemporary politics.
Oh, and those kids playing The Eagles in a coffee shop? They're obviously playing for tips. Who would play that shit willingly? If they have any taste they'll go home and play Autechre or Merzbow.
Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 2402 Location: Vancouver
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:57 am Post subject:
F. wrote:
Oh, and those kids playing The Eagles in a coffee shop? They're obviously playing for tips. Who would play that shit willingly? If they have any taste they'll go home and play Autechre or Merzbow.
Actually they weren't playing for tips, they were playing for family and friends, and enjoyment (I know this because I know the coffee shop management really well).
Were the Eagles bad or good? They weren't my favourites, but I played their songs in a band I was in.
What do I look for now in a song? As a singer, it is my opinion that if you want to stand out from the crowd, you gotta do songs that are beyond the capabilities of the average singer. Even funny little songs like "One Note Samba" are good. It starts off very simply, and all you have to sing is that single note. So far most singers are there. When it goes to the bridge it suddenly takes a leap, and 99% of the singers fall off. Good song if you want to stand out.
It is also my opinion that any song worth doing can be done a capella and still sound good (and elicit an emotional response). _________________ On the wilds of the Drive
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:40 pm Post subject:
Quote:
You think Joe Strummer was pleased that London Calling was called a classic?
Oi, don't go sticking Joe Strummer in with Gen X. He's a bit older than I am, and I'm right in the middle of "The Blank Generation." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:05 pm Post subject:
Quote:
[In what should be c]omforting news for anyone over the age of 35, scientists have worked out that modern pop music really is louder and does all sound the same.[Geez, can't Reuters of all people write in complete sentences?]
Researchers in Spain used a huge archive known as the Million Song Dataset, which breaks down audio and lyrical content into data that can be crunched, to study pop songs from 1955 to 2010.
A team led by artificial intelligence specialist Joan Serra at the Spanish National Research Council ran music from the last 50 years through some complex algorithms and found that pop songs have become intrinsically louder and more bland in terms of the chords, melodies and types of sound used.
"We found evidence of a progressive homogenisation of the musical discourse," Serra told Reuters. "In particular, we obtained numerical indicators that the diversity of transitions between note combinations - roughly speaking chords plus melodies - has consistently diminished in the last 50 years."
Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 2402 Location: Vancouver
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:01 pm Post subject:
In my local coffee shop the other day and hear a new version of "I've Just Seen A Face", a forty-year old Beatles tune. Control of the music in the shop is in the hands of the youngsters working there (most around late teens to early twenties), so one can only assume the kids like that retro music.
Why is that, I wonder? Also was told by on of the employees that the previous manager was the only one who like the new pop music that was played constantly on the house sound system.
Anyone wonder why the music sales are going down, and the music industry is gradually reducing the number of musicians they push? It's all about money. You may not like the musicians in The Band, but watching 'The Last Waltz' shows a gathering of musicians that would be all but impossible today. By the time they sorted out the various intellectual properties, copyrights, residuals, etc., the audience would have gone home... _________________ On the wilds of the Drive
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:16 pm Post subject:
Hmmm. Rubber Soul was my first record. My parents gave it to me for Christmas in 1968.
Last week my 15-year-old used a guitar slide for the first time, and learned Josh White/Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying."
He sounded great, and he was justifiably happy with the music he was making.
He asked me something like, "Aren't you glad you have a kid who likes good music and not that crappy modern pop stuff?"
When I played my Led Zeppelin record (I had but one then) in the house when I was his age, my Mom complained about the noise, calling the band "screaming meemies." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 1153 Location: Saint John
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:22 pm Post subject:
Our10 year old has started doing interviews on Community Radio. His first interview was with his favourite roller derby participant. This week he is branching into music with an interview of one of the members of Grand Theft Bus.
Hmmm. Rubber Soul was my first record. My parents gave it to me for Christmas in 1968.
snip
my first two records (bought where and when my parents bought me a STEREO, Dick's Photography, Provost Alberta) were Free - Fire and Water ("oh, i'm carring a heavy load") and Stepenwolf - Stepenwolf; I think, though my memory says "snowblind" and "hippostomp" from 7 along with "magic carpet ride" and "the pusher"....)
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:17 pm Post subject:
Caissa wrote:
Our10 year old has started doing interviews on Community Radio. His first interview was with his favourite roller derby participant. This week he is branching into music with an interview of one of the members of Grand Theft Bus.
The Bongettes aren't at all interested in being community radio hosts. I suppose they associate the activity with their moldy fig of a father.
Quote:
my first two records (bought where and when my parents bought me a STEREO, Dick's Photography, Provost Alberta)...
My parents bought our first stereo, a heavy piece of light walnut furniture, in 1967.
I bought my first stereo in 1979, up at the Hudson's Bay store in Lac la Biche, Alberta, while roughnecking in the area. The Bay store also sold T-shirts that had "Lac la Biche: the most violent town in Canada" written on them. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 3140 Location: tahsis, british columbia
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:16 am Post subject:
I think the first LP I bought was one featuring Dakota Staton. I played it on my "record player", a turntable which sat on a platform-thingy in which the speakers were hidden. It looked a bit like a suitcase or a portable typewriter...or maybe a sewing machine?...had a lid that fit over and was held shut by snaps.
You can just about imagine the quality of the sound!! It also had a radio in it. Sound was crappy on that, too.
But I had bought it with my own money and was proud as hell of it.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:23 am Post subject:
I remember some neighbourhood girls had a record player like that, on which they played "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells out in their front yard.
At the time I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever heard. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 998 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 7:46 am Post subject:
The other day I overheard an ignoramus saying that Metallica was no longer relevant. The same could be said these days of practically any artist that goes more than one month without a radio hit. _________________ At its zero-level, ideology could thus be understood as a system of beliefs which enable us to sustain our position within liberal-democratic capitalism.
Joined: 04 May 2006 Posts: 808 Location: love of one's country is a terrible thing
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:37 am Post subject:
Maestro wrote:
The song they were playing as I walked through the door was the Eagle's "Take It Easy".
As the only guy under 40 at the Eagles' most recent Montréal concert, I feel the need to point out that song was actually written by Jackson Browne.
Whatever you think of his music, that man is a phenomenally talented musician. At a solo acoustic concert of his in Louisville once, an audience member shouted out a request for "Sky Blue and Black". He played a few bars on the guitar before stopping and apologizing -- not only had he begun playing the song in the wrong key, but on the wrong instrument. His musical talent is so innate that, much like a bilingual-from-birth person can accidentally begin speaking in French without realizing it, it took him 20 seconds to realize the song he wrote had actually been written for the piano.
Slumberjack wrote:
The other day I overheard an ignoramus saying that Metallica was no longer relevant.
I still have a bit of a grudge against Metallica from the Napster days, I confess.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 3:21 pm Post subject:
I saw a 13-14 year-old kid wearing a DOA t-shirt yesterday. That would be like me wearing a zoot suit or a Benny Goodman t-shirt when I was a teenager.
Here's some disturbing news, and I even like Aerosmith (I was listening to "Rocks" on the eyebox just yesterday).
I saw a 13-14 year-old kid wearing a DOA t-shirt yesterday. That would be like me wearing a zoot suit or a Benny Goodman t-shirt when I was a teenager
My parents both claimed to like Lawrence Welk, even though they would have been in their teens and early twenties in the mid-1950s, and my father at least said he liked Elvis Presley and guys like that.
I also remember my dad, early 1980s, giving me a "your crappy music today" rant about the Rolling Stones(who were being featured in a news report), as if they were the preferred musical choice of people born in the late 60s.
I think maybe some of the people who were around for Elvis etc in the 50s got off the bandwagon in the mid-60s, when things(to their ears) got louder and heavier. I don't think there's the same type of generational cleavage today, so your kid with the DOA shirt doesn't strike me as all that incongruous, though his friends probably think he's a little retro. _________________ I hear words I never heard in the Bible.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6165 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 5:24 am Post subject:
Quote:
I also remember my dad, early 1980s, giving me a "your crappy music today" rant about the Rolling Stones...
That's pretty funny. When "Some Girls" came out in August of '78 I thought the Stones were old fogies, yet I bought the record anyway. I used to listen to old Stones music from the mid-60s during the late '70s. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
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