As many of you know, I have been importing music for quite a few weeks, and while I am doing it, I am correcting the metadata, updating the artwork, etc. It’s a tedious process, made more difficult by the fact that I have A LOT of live Dead that doesn’t come with album art so I have to search fan databases or look for ticket stubs and the fact that itunes uses the Gracenote ACR which allows any semi-literate lead paint eating fuckboy to upload incorrect bullshit to the database.
At any rate, one nice thing about it is that I am listening to a lot of music again. When I quit drinking a few years ago, I lost interest in music to a large degree. It didn’t feel as good. So I spent several years just driving with no music or radio at all. I liked the silence. Since I started cataloguing the library, though, I have music playing almost nonstop. While importing, it give me a chance to listen to a lot of stuff. Sometimes I listen to a couple songs, sometimes just one, other times it is just get it in and pretend I don’t own that.
One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the stuff I listen to when importing is simple stuff- stuff like, well, embarrassingly enough, Huey Lewis and the News (which I guess is relevant because of American Psycho releasing his emails today). It’s not that I love it to death, but it brings back memories, they are short songs with singable verses that you can listen to while working, and it is just very accessible. That’s very underrated. I think one of the main reasons the Beatles were so popular is the reasons listed above.
Music snobs (I’m not really one, I think “good” music is like any art- if you like it, it’s good. If you don’t, don’t buy it or use it) don’t get that or don’t care. For varying reasons, almost every single music snob I have ever known just fucking LOVE the Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart. When Lou Reed died a few years ago more people publicly professed their love for him than the VU or he combined ever sold albums. And Beefheart. Don’t get me started on that hot mess. Some of the early blues stuff was good, but that’s almost unavoidable when you have Ry Cooder around. And I really like Zappa, so some of the later years are pretty interesting every once in a while.
But most of it is just unlistenable jibberish (and again, if you like it, good on you). in 1969, the Beatles followed up the White Album with released Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and a year later delivered Let it Be. Captain Beefheart released Trout Mask Replica. It’s 120 minutes of aural clusterfuck:
It’s horrible by any metric. But the music snobs, who will crap all over more accessible music, will tell you that it was an important contribution, a criticism of current trends, etc., ad nauseum. Rolling Stone magazine has it as the 60th greatest album of all time:
On first listen, Trout Mask Replica sounds like a wild, incomprehensible rampage through the blues. Don Van Vliet (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart) growls, rants and recites poetry over chaotic guitar licks. But every note was precisely planned in advance – to construct the songs, the Magic Band rehearsed 12 hours a day for months on end in a house with the windows blacked out. (Producer and longtime friend Frank Zappa was then able to record most of the album in less than five hours.) The avant-garde howl of tracks such as “Ella Guru” and “My Human Gets Me Blues” have inspired modern primitives from Tom Waits to PJ Harvey.
Oh shut the fuck up.
And again, I love Zappa. I love Tom Waits. But this is shit. It wouldn’t even make for a good acid trip. I forget the point of this post, that’s how god damned disorienting that shit is.
Whatever.
Eric S.
Its hard to react when you are told REO Speedwagon Roll With The Changes is the greatest guitar solo. Ever.
?
Keef? Nah.
Jimmy? Nah.
Eric? Nah.
Buddy? Nah.
Stevie? Nah.
Gibbons? Nah.
No. R.E. fucking O.
PS. Yes I know my list is limited to classic rock and blues but hey, that’s what i like and know.
Omnes Omnibus
I don’t really care for Little Feat.
SiubhanDuinne
My musical tastes and training are very different. I was trained as a classical musician, took what I believe to be the first B.A. in Music Journalism in the United States, worked for a dozen or more years as a classical music DJ on a couple of NPR stations, and subsequently as a symphony manager and opera development director, and have a kind of insane attachment to musical theatre and especially Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. For a long time, I almost prided myself that I neither knew nor cared about rock, pop, and the current music of my generation, but I’ve been working to make amends recently, and am starting to be at least tolerably familiar with the most iconic songs beloved of my cohort.
Hawes
Been listening to the new Jason Isbell album. It has the usual great lyrical story telling and catchy riffs. So I read some reviews and the tracks the reviewer singled out were the two that are tough to listen to, precisely because they are “different” and “aurally challenging.”
I “get” that if you have to listen to music all day long for your job, the different can seem profound. But sometimes different is different for a reason.
Eric S.
OK, i just skimmed the post, but John this non snob will not criticize Hurry Huey Lewis. We are of an age and it brings back happy memories.
Laura
I would like to take this opportunity to thank lahm36 for the Queen linkie-dinks last night, I wasted a solid hour rewatching many a Queen video.
Music! Ain’t life grand when that sing comes on you weren’t expecting or had forgotten? And it’s not just the music, it’s the flood of memories and what it meant at that time when you needed music to anchor an emotion or time or place or relationships.
Man, it’s THERE, just waiting, when you need it. (Like Jiro, with his sushi, I dream of the perfect summer mix tape.)
Flanders' Former Neighbor
I don’t get into Zappa, but won’t deny his importance in music. Waits on the other hand, I do.
I’ve often said the Butthole Surfers would’ve been a commercial success if not for the name of the band. Some of their stuff is stupid, but quite a bit really kicks @ss.
different-church-lady
The Rolling Stones: great singles, terrible albums. Discuss.
rikyrah
Evening Cole.?
I like what I like. Music touches people differently.
encephalopath
The difficult or somewhat inaccessible thing that I came around to and really still enjoy is Chris Bowden’s Slightly Askew
He has an electronica background and turned discord on this jazz album into a compelling, fully listenable groove.
Lahke
One of the most enjoyable parts of Despicable Me 3 is the 80s sound track that the villain works to. You can either enjoy it on its merits, or enjoy that it’s considered villainous.
Tim from MI
I’m a musician, and I snob with the best of them. But I have to agree with John, I just don’t get Trout Mask Replica. And I also like a fair amount of non-Trout Beefheart. I do admire TMR as a technical achievement – doing an arranged work that sounds like you’re making it up on the fly is not easy. And my songwriting hero, Andy Partridge, loves the album, so I’ve given it my best shot, but I still find it unlistenable. Sorry, Andy.
Major Major Major Major
*chuckle*
lamh36
This post has me thinking about a thought I had the other day while sitting at work. We are allowed to listen to a radio that’s playing in the back of the lab. It’s the first lab I’ve worked for that allowed it in a long time…
Being in the lab, the station reception is hit or miss.. The usual station is on the easy listening “while you work” adult contemporary station. Ya know, no rap, no hip hop, no “soul”, whatever, from the 70s, 80s 90..and on. If that station doesn’t work, the usual station is a old school rock station or god forbid…country.
So I’ve taken to bringing an old bluetooth device that can pick up online radio reception, just so we can listen to that easy listening station.
I prefer old school R&B, but of course they’d never listen to that…ugh…
I’ve come to hate that station…refuse to even listen to it on the rare occasions I listen to the radio in the car.
I mean the station plays songs that prominently feature a rapper, but they have edited out the rap portions…so you end up with a damn song that all fuqn’ chorus…
UGH…
Major Major Major Major
One of my favorite webcomics (Scarygoround) randomly did a brief history of Captain Beefheart that contains what is still my favorite line about Trout Mask Replica:
ETA: I’m in the latter group.
frosty
I’m with you on Beefheart. One of my roommates was a fan and he tried to get me to listen to it the way those critics do. All I heard was shitty noise. OK, you practiced 12 hours to play shitty noise when you could have been working on some decent music. Just great.
YMMV of course.
Omnes Omnibus
On a different note than my first comment, there is room in rock/pop for both John Cale* and Carly Rae Jepsen\
*n.b. for SiubhanDuinne: Cale is a classically trained pianist and violist (Goldsmith College, London) who worked with John Cage and La Monte Young before co-founding the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed.
Lyrebird
@lamh36: My college lab mates could agree on two, yes two albums. One was acapella stuff and the other was Stevie Wonder (probably Musiquarium?). Both awesome, but I did start to wish we could agree on a few other albums…
mongo
Good music is the stuff that you like.
different-church-lady
Now, if y’all want some great screwed-up music, try Dr. John’s early records.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: well I guess you’ll never be anyone’s Dixie Chicken or Tennessee Lamb…
Ella in New Mexico
OH MY GOD LOU REED DIED?
My two oldest boys (32 and 27) took my hubby to see his all time favorite performer Jethro Tull a few weeks ago, or Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson as it was named. (The oldest is named after Ian Anderson, btw) I was shocked at how much they genuinely enjoyed the concert. They could t get over how original and co pled it was, and how a 70 year old guy could still pull it off for the audience like a 20 year old.
We had some great music way back when that I think lots of folks in the younger generations today would love as much as we do. Enjoy your adventures, John.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: I like many of their deep album tracks better than the singles. And all of Exile… is brilliant.
Schlemazel
I have been converting my old vinyl to digital, it is tedious largely because I don’t want every song form many of the albums I own. I am surprised in retrospect how much crap filled some pretty decent albums. But you got the part about evoking great memories spot on. I sometimes wish I could be 18 again and listening to it for the first time but knowing how special it would become so that I would have more fully enjoyed that moment.
SiubhanDuinne
@mongo:
QFTFT.
Ruckus
What I don’t like is classic rock. Almost anything that was/still is for some, popular. Because it gets played over, and over and over and over and fucking over, 1200 times a day, if for example you have someone who turns on the radio at work and hasn’t heard a song ever on anything but his car radio. And on that he’s been listening to the same station for 40 yrs playing the same songs.
/rant.
I did a while back listen to a group that I liked, several decades ago, Quicksilver Messenger Service. What in the fuck was I thinking? Or smoking? It was so bad I was thinking of using the disc for skeet shooting. Not just the writing but everything about it was bad.
What I’m wondering is how much of the music that we consume from ages 15-25, and then get hooked on, no matter the generation is just horrible?
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I love Cale. I love his album with Brian Eno. I love the song Cordoba, which sounds like perhaps the bittersweet story of terrorist lovers, but is actually sentences from a Spanish language textbook’s exercises section.
ETA: also Spinning Away is an amazing track from that album. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u4v6swKWx9A
Schlemazel
@Eric S.:
Imagine how sucky it will be in 40 years when the current generation is nearing retirement & cranking Enema and Snoopy Dogg Dog on the self driving car sound systems
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: This is, of course, ENTIRELY WRONG!
GxB
@Eric S.: That’s Jimi with an “i” brother – though I’ll admit live “Golden Country” is pretty sick.
Ah, There is of course, Jimmy with a “Y” – I stand corrected.
guachi
The last few years I’ve gone through the Billboard Top 100 from 1983-1985 as it’s the best three year stretch of pop music there is.
With Billboard putting every week online and YouTube having basically everything I’ve listened to every song that was in the Top 100 for those three years. That’s about 800 songs.
A huge number of songs I’ve never heard. Many I faintly remember. A lot of the lesser pop songs are dreck but many of the genre specific songs are pretty good. It’s just they never hit it big on the pop charts.
And when you go week by week and listen to whatever new songs hit the charts you get great sense of how pop changed in that time period.
Made me love the “accessibility” of pop music. Made me love analog synthesizers. Made me appreciate the context of the Second British Invasion (which is hard to get unless you listen week by week). Made me appreciate no autotuning.
Gemina13
::listens to the Beefheart YouTube clip above::
::stares::
::gets bourbon, takes a shot::
. . . the FUCK did I just hear?!
No, seriously, what in the unholy blue fuck was that shit? And I’ve listened to at least 5 minutes of Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” without being under the influence of drugs. I know weird shit.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
I like most of Beggars Banquet.
Other than that I’m not sure I could disagree with you.
Major Major Major Major
@Gemina13: fast and bulbous!
different-church-lady
@guachi: Peter Gabriel was about 55% of it, and Phil Collins was the other 80%.
Gemina13
I have Pandora, Napster (formerly Rhapsody), Spotify, and Amazon Prime Music loaded on my phone, just so I will never have to turn on the car stereo. I was born in 1970, and my brothers were teenagers; they babysat me, which meant I spent my first 3 years listening to the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and the Who. Mom loved soul and R & B, so I also grew up listening to Marvin Gaye, Quincy Jones, Aretha Franklin, and Barry White. And Dad hated “all that crap,” so when he had music on, it was tuned to classical. If I’d hated music, I’d have been absolutely miserable as a kid.
I have so many different artists, ranging from classic rock giants to Arcade Fire, Adele, and Franz Ferdinand, on my playlists that it infuriates me when I’m in someone else’s car hearing what’s on the radio, and it’s the same fucking crappy songs played over and over. I understand; pop music sells because it’s familiar and has better PR than it does music producers. But it’s like going into Sears these days, looking for that fantastic set of linens you bought years ago, and finding they only carry two or three labels, none of which you want. Aren’t you guys supposed to sell shit? Do you realize there’s more shit than the pittance you’re distributing? Then why the fuck are you limiting yourselves?
Yeah, I know. Get off my lawn, damn kids, yada yada what the fuck ever.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Cale and Eno together is the very edge of ’70s avant garde.
Jeffro
Speaking of simple, yet just very accessible: been on a Replacements, Smithereens, and Police bender these past couple of days.
I have a feeling the rest of this week is going to be more along the lines of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Not sure why.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Laura: Also, discovering new (to you) music. My find today is a group called Compton, and a singer by the name of Jaidene Veda. A sample:
https://youtu.be/8vn39U9rYDs?list=PLLPojy-JxuWy-ylvIXahMK8yK4UiSoZGR
Jeffro
@guachi: Is “She Sells Sanctuary” there in the 1985 part? It sure should be.
different-church-lady
@Gemina13: I sometimes sit waiting for symphony concerts to begin and think to myself, “I bet I’m the only person in this hall who has the Red Hot Chili Peppers running through their head right now…”
The Dangerman
I saw Lou Reed in concert a few years before he passed; I thought “New York” was a great album. Might have been the most bored I’ve ever been in a concert. Just didn’t get it. Same with on the radio today when they put on Nirvana. Just don’t get it. It’s never a good thing when your lead singer can’t fucking sing. Yes, I know grunge is about being non-polished, but crap is crap.
Omnes Omnibus
@guachi: I was comparatively disconnected from standard pop during those years. It was the height my edgy LAC radio station DJ days.
different-church-lady
@The Dangerman: The real problem with Kobain is he wrote the same damn song over and over and over again. And it always sounded like it was taunting you — “Nah nah nah nah… nah nah nah nah… nah nah nah nah… nah nah nah nah…”
Ruckus
@Gemina13:
A far more important question, why are they limiting us? They are limiting us from buying from them. They are limiting us to shopping at Target or pretty much any other similar store, all of which are now better than Sears.
encephalopath
@The Dangerman:
I angered some friends by making that observation in reference to Nick Cave once.
frosty
@Ruckus: Two Quicksilver albums are good. The first one and Happy Trails, because they are the only ones that have John Cipollina and Gary Duncan on guitar. The rest are, with the exception of one or two songs, dreck.
I still love “Gold and Silver” off the first and “Mona” off the second. YMMV.
ETA I’m with you all the way on classic rock. I don’t ever want to hear a song on the radio again that I’ve heard for 40 years. Play some new music! Give these young bands a chance!!
GxB
@Gemina13: The Captain is very much an acquired taste (that I have not acquired all that well) but “Bat Chain Puller” is awesome in it’s own way. I like CBH more than Zappa on that song alone – much to the consternation of my musical “superiors.”
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I seem to be stuck in moderation. Someone please to fix?
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: you know who else is great? David Byrne.
Ruckus
@The Dangerman:
QFT
Major Major Major Major
@encephalopath: Nick Cave can sing, he just doesn’t.
The Dangerman
@different-church-lady:
Truer words have never, etc … it was always about shock value.
I wish I could eat your Cancer when you turn black.
WTF? I mean, I can pick my nose and fling it against the wall and call it art but, give me a break…
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Nothing to be ashamed of liking Huey Lewis and the News. I happen to like them. Good music is good music. Art is largely subjective, but most people agree on basic principles/concepts that are agreed to be good/timeless. I’ll listen and like a whole lot of things as long as I enjoy them.
I tried to get anyone who will listen to like the Dead Kennedys, but no dice so far. A friend described their third studio album, Frankenchrist, as “psycho surfer rock”, which was pretty much it. It was experimental for them, but I would argue it was their best work, lyrically and music wise. It’s an acquired sound. Much of punk rock isn’t all that accessible because of all the thrashing, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand the vocals.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: No argument from me.
Eric S.
@GxB: you’re correction is noted and i hang my head in shame. To be fair, no, make excuses. I qas +5 on the Cabernets and she did say REO had the best guitar solo. Ever.
I may not deserted it but i plead for some understandingand forgiveness.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: I like J. J. Cale. Different guy, I know.
justawriter
I’m an old folkie (Harry Chapin reference, someone who had little use for critics) so my criteria is simple:
If I can sing it, it’s an OK song.
If I want to sing it, it’s a good song.
If I have to sing it, it’s a great song.
Personally, the dance club (what we used to call discos) is a personal vision of hell. But so many people get such great joy out of it so even though it makes my skin crawl, I won’t criticize the people who love it and make it a basis of their personal community. The world is big enough for them to have their rave/techno whatever and me to have my hootenanny.
Ruckus
@frosty:
Just looked through my albums to see which one it was. Can’t find it. And no, I haven’t been skeet shooting in a very long time.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: @encephalopath: Bob Dylan. Define being able to sing. Very few people in pop/rock/folk could sing opera. Shall we dismiss them? What is the standard here? I suspect it is your personal taste. YMMV.
M. Bouffant
IT’S TREASONOUS TO ME!!
Gotta admit, the first time I heard Trout Mask Replica (in Zappa’s basement office in 1970, had no idea of the relationship between the two, just that Frank had produced it) I didn’t really like/get it. Same w/ the first album, Safe As Milk, which I heard maybe a yr. later. Essentially thought it was some jerk doing bad blues parodies. However, I acquired the taste. May I suggest Lick My Decals Off, Baby*, or Clear Spot. They’re a little more accessible.
And Beefheart is a great lyricist, no matter what you think of his delivery.
*This’ll sell ya!
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I find Leonard Cohen’s musical choices to be… odd… but I love listening to him.
delk
@Major Major Major Major: Listened to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts last week on a road trip.
encephalopath
@Omnes Omnibus:
You don’t have to be a great vocalist. You have to understand the music and mostly be able to hit the notes… my highest aspiration for karaoke.
See Chet Baker I Get Along without You Very Well, trumpet virtuoso, who sings just fine.
hellslittlestangel
I liked Captain Beefheart when I was 15 years old, but then I grew up.
I do think the Velvet Underground were a great band, but it was definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Lou Reed made a couple of good solo records, but I think he quit drugs too late. I can’t believe anyone can listen to him sing after 1980 without concluding he had suffered brain damage. There’s a guy who rested on his laurels for one loooong fucking time.
Death Panel Truck
“But this is shit.”
Some of us feel the same about the Dreadful Grate.
“Veterans Day Poppy” is a great song.
Major Major Major Major
@delk: have you listened to Everything That Happens Will Happen Today?
The Dangerman
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, he’s not a great singer, but he can write well enough to get the Nobel, so I’ll call it good (saw HIM in concert, too, and he puts on a great show).
Of course not, but I don’t expect PRF folks to sing opera, but I do expect them to be able to sing, or write, or something.
Speaking of rock and opera, I this is a wonderful rendition of what I think is one of Clapton’s finest songs (as it’s basically autobiographical):
Link
jimmiraybob
I’m hearing King Crimson’s 20th Century Schizoid Man. No. Really. Listening to it now. First thing I thought of when I read the post.
encephalopath
@Omnes Omnibus:
Adding I don’t think opera is the standard to measure pop singers against. Standards and Torch Songs are the pinnacle of modern music vocalists.
Chet Baker sings just fine, but he’s no Johnny Hartman.
Omnes Omnibus
@hellslittlestangel: Listen to some Cale. Just saying.
justawriter
@Omnes Omnibus: Dylan and Cohen are half of my vision of Hell’s Barbershop Quartet (along with Tom Waits and Tiny Tim (who had a fine baritone voice no one ever heard)). I only really appreciate their music when someone else covers it.
different-church-lady
Bob Dylan and Lou Reed once had a competition to see who could sing the fewest notes.
Leonard Cohen won.
delk
@Major Major Major Major: Yep. Been a while though. A bunch of my friends recently met David Bryne.
Omnes Omnibus
@encephalopath: Okay, very few people in pop/rock/folk could sing Frank’s work. You are a music snob. As am I, in a different way. I am also okay with pop confections. Are you?
encephalopath
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, yeah. I love trashy pop music. I’m a total sucker for an easy hook.
hellslittlestangel
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, he’s done some very good stuff. But nothing else equals his work with the VU.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not trying to pick a fight, as it’s just about bedtime, but I’m curious why a self-professed music snob would reply to a post of Johnny Hartman singing Lush Life and say “Frank’s work.”
encephalopath
@Omnes Omnibus:
Also, I don’t think you have to sing like Frank to be a good vocalist. I think Tom Waits is a good vocalist.
I sang Going Out West in the style of Tom the last time I was at karaoke, not thinking it was possible to pull it off. But I did, and it was really fun.
I want to sing Cold Water with a friend doing the harmony. Tom Waits doesn’t sing all clean and pretty, but he knows what he it aiming for with that messed up voice and DOES hit the notes.
MoeLarryAndJesus
People who don’t think Dylan, Cohen, Young or Waits are good singers have shitty ears. I’ll give you Reed, he wasn’t a gifted singer. But it didn’t matter.
Beefheart is an edge act. I love his stuff, but I can understand why Steve Miller fans would not.
Zappa was a great voice for free speech but his albums are an endless torrent of shit, for the most part.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@encephalopath: Speaking of Tom Waits:
Nyan Waits
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M9UI8dGvdZc
Omnes Omnibus
@hellslittlestangel: Well, duh. No offense. The Reed/Cale thing is what made the first two VU albums what they were. Reed’s weird Tin Pan Alley thing and Cale’s adventures into the weird. Pop songs with weird droning sounds. It took both. I still love the whole Paris 1919 album.
firusan
A scientific effort to create the most unwanted song in the world: Created inside a laboratory, this song was “designed to incorporate lyrical and musical elements that were annoying to most people,” including “bagpipes, cowboy music, an opera singer rapping, and a children’s choir that urged listeners to go shopping at Wal-Mart.”
http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6942231/listen-to-the-most-unwanted-song-in-the-world-scientifically-induced
Gin & Tonic
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
Counting the posthumously-issued work, there are over 100 such albums. Surely among all those there is something not-shit, don’t you think?
frosty
@Ruckus: If you had the later Quicksilver albums (Just For Love, What About Me) where Dino Valenti was singing, they suck*. The ones I liked were the first one: black cover with Rick Griffin art and the second: it had a cowboy looking back over his shoulder.
* unfortunately, they’re the ones everybody knows since the Big Hit came off of one of them: Fresh Air (oooohh….have another hit — of fresh air).
different-church-lady
@firusan: That thing is BRILLIANT!
Temporarily Max McGee (Ya Can't Catch Me!)
I cut back on music a couple of years ago, just before I was diagnosed. I love singing along with whatever I’m listening to, but my lungs were shot for a long time (the big tumor inside my liver was pressing against my diaphragm- I got winded easily). I lost 5% of the upper end of my hearing about three and a half months into my first chemo regimen (I’m looking at you, Cisplatin), and that threw off my sense of pitch. So singing became no fun.
Recently, however, I started getting my lungs back, and I think that maybe my sense of pitch isn’t as bad as I thought. I’m singing again. Saw Baby Driver last week and LOVED it, and downloaded the soundtrack when I got home from the theatre. I’m singing along with it. Loudly.
As for Trout Mask Replica…Not much of a fan. Maybe I would be if Ornette Coleman hadn’t showed his guts and released Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation in 1960. After that, anything that goes out on a limb to seem experimental is just derivative.
Bob & Earl
Harlem Shuffle
RandomMonster
I find Dead fans to be snobs of a different sort, able to roll one awful performance after another over their tongue and somehow discern some difference between them all. But I will agree with you, Cole, if it works for you, great.
CZanne
I listen to Laurie Anderson from her performance art years. That’s some weird-ass shit, and I love it. That Beefheart album should be melted into a 3rd grade papier mache fruit bowl. The tapes should be used as tomato trellis. The CD version should be covered in felt for coasters. It has no redemptive qualities.
I love pop, though I’m picky. I also know I have exceptionally weird tastes. I was born in 76, into a family that worshipped at the feet of the Country Trinity – Dolly Parton, Alabama and Mel Haggard. Which they played 24/7/365. They’ve added others in their times, but that’s what they love. And I have a quirk in my hearing — certain chords and instruments are physically painful for me – ice-pick in the ear. (Diminished minor 5ths, for the record; pedal steel is infamous for producing them.) I spent my first few months in failure to thrive mode because they played the music all the time and I cried when I heard it and I had energy, and grizzled when I didn’t. Then a cousin came over to use the grandparents’ hi-fi for a school project. The deal was, he’d keep the music quiet and hold me. He popped on something metal-classic (Either the 9th or 1812 Overture) and turned the volume knob the wrong way. For the first time, the very cranky baby chilled out entirely to 100 db of raw instruments with complexity and no diminished minor fifths, and l fell asleep. My family located a “Reader’s Digest Top 100 Classical” compilation and that was all I listened to until I was 6. I loved it, I’d get balky over almost everything else. (I could be persuaded to listen to Karen Carpenter sometimes.) The fam hated it, but they hated me screaming and getting weaker even more. Then at 7, I discovered MTV, especially the synth heavy Europop. I imprinted on the Eurythmics and Culture Club and Duran Duran. I couldn’t bear hair bands or bubble-gum pop, but I’d do extra dishes just to have an hour of Men At Work, The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ministry and Erasure. My musical tastes remain synth based, with solid classical influences. I went through a good punk stage in there, too, before settling into the subset of electronic called future pop in my 20s. I still follow music in my preferred niche, and the ones within a few degrees, and I don’t plan to stop. I’m 41, and while I buy about 10% of the albums I once did, I still buy and keep looking for interesting stuff.
Which is great, because I still come across some almighty interesting stuff: My current albums of obsession are 1) Mono Inc Together to the End 4th album, Released a few weeks ago. Cross sea chanties and synth pop. Add a dash of black metal, roll in operatic metal, and grow it in industrial soil. It’s crunchy and heavy and plays with intruments and voice. It’s not a hot mess. It’s gorgeous. Strongly suggested if you like Within Temptation. Or 2) Panic! @ the Disco, whose pedigree is the bastard off-spring of Oingo Boingo/CalSurfPunk and Synthpop, then spirit away that misbegotten child to be raised in Mormon Las Vegas in the 90s and 00s. Plus all of my future pop electronic.
There’s a reason I was an early iPod adopter — I couldn’t bear radio.
different-church-lady
@Gin & Tonic: The problems are (a) he’s notorious for his most juvenile lyrical efforts and (b) his music is brilliant but not easily accessible.
But there ain’t a person in the world who can say One Size Fits All is a torrent of shit and be correct.
khead
@CZanne:
Welcome to Night Tracks.
Mike J
@Jeffro:
I really liked the Smithereens until I saw them live. After an hour I was screaming for them to play any song that wasn’t in G.
Temporarily Max McGee (Ya Can't Catch Me!)
HALP! I IS BEIN’ MODERATED UNJUSTLY TWIXT COMMENTS #86 ‘N’ #87!!! ATTICA! ATTICA!
Omnes Omnibus
@khead: God, i loved that. RIP
burnspbesq
@Hawes:
There isn’t a single track on that record that is less than wonderful, but people are all over the place on what tneir facorotes are.
For me, “Molotov” is up there with the best things he’s ever written.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@CZanne: Syth based music is pretty popular right now. Go on YouTube and search “synthwave”. Its excellent stuff.
My local station has a Time warp Weekend where all they play is 80s stuff, including Men at Work, Duran Duran, Erasure. Frankie Goes to Hollywood is another excellent group that had a lot deep social commentary in their lyrics
moonbat
I like Captain Beefheart. Your mileage may vary. And that’s okay. But seriously, anyone who has a lot of Huey Lewis and the News in their collection has no room to talk about anyone else’s musical taste.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: But the ‘Mats…
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@moonbat: Take your own advice. Huey Lewis and the News were awesome. Not all of their songs were especially deep, but they had heart
GxB
@Eric S.: The ironic thing being, I’ve seen Jimmy with a “y” twice in concert while Jimi with an “i” was dead before I was out of diapers.
hellslittlestangel
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, Cale’s collaborations with Eno. Actually, anyone’s collaborations with Eno tend to be their better work.
burnspbesq
@encephalopath:
Exene Cervenka would like a word with you.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@GxB: Jimmmy with i was dead before I wad even born. I can’t even say I was alive at the same time as Hendrix was
hellslittlestangel
@firusan: Really, The Most Unwanted Song is pretty awesome. They also recorded The Most Wanted Song (both songs based on scientific polling), which is dull and forgettable.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I loved the ‘mats. They never put on a dull show.
Gemina13
@different-church-lady: Or when you start humming along to Muzak in the store and realize it’s “Paint It, Black.” :)
True story: My SO went to Evergreen College around the same time Kurt Cobain haunted the place, and said the few times he met him, Cobain came across as a couch-surfing weed mooch. The SO wasn’t impressed with his music, either. He said that when Cobain killed himself, his initial thought was, “Maybe now the industry will focus on some Seattle bands that can actually play.” The first time he heard me sing along to, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” he remarked, “At least you’re on key.”
hellslittlestangel
@burnspbesq: No one should be forced to have a conversation with Exene Cervenka. She’s crazy — right-wing crazy.
Gemina13
@khead:
Throw in some Cyndi Lauper, Kate Bush, Sisters of Mercy, and Peter Gabriel, and that’s been my summer listening library.
seaboogie
Hey John,
I sent you en email recently about how much I cherish our current team of FPers who bring deep expertise as well as eloquent rants, plus cooking, gardening and writerly fora.
A while back on a late night thread I asked steeplejack if he would be interested in FPing a late night music thread to help us wind down from the day (in the vein of Alain’s am travel posts). Steep felt like it would be too much of a commitment (which I well understand), but maybe you could find us a new FP evening DJ to help us through the “You-know-who” years. Just a suggestion….
burnspbesq
I do not, and will not, apologize for loving this song. Yes, the lyrics are mindless and insipid, but it is a beautifully constructed piece of pop ear candy. You’ll be humming it for the rest of the night. And if you can hit the high notes cleanly, you’ll win karaoke night every time.
https://youtu.be/4fndeDfaWCg
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Often a bad one, but never dull.
dr. luba
Dammit, I loved Lou Reed, especially Berlin and New York. Got into him via punk. Saw him in concert twice, and found him enthralling. Bought lots of his albums. Still enjoy them.
And I enjoy his wife’s music, too, weird as it is.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@burnspbesq: Its definitely catchy
Steeplejack
Music thread, cool.
For those who have SiriusXM, Channel 13 is doing Carolina shag for the next month or so. Worth checking out. Lots of deep cuts I haven’t heard in decades (or ever).
“Carolina shag”—the music, not the dance—is not really a distinct genre (IMHO). It’s more of a “jukebox genre” of varied music that gained popularity along the Carolina coast—everything from old-school black R&B to Whitey McWhiterson surf music. Common thread seems to be the easy-to-dance-to beat.
Three songs heard today:
Little Esther and the Dominoes, “The Deacon Moves In.”
The Nomads, “Somethin’s Bad.”
The Swingin’ Medallions, “Double Shot (of My Baby’s Love).”
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@seaboogie: Meant for John, I know, but I might be interested
Omnes Omnibus
@dr. luba: You worked back too?
Another Scott
The Captain Beefheart album was different, and that’s something important.
I heard an interview with Zappa once, and he was talking about conducting one of his orchestral pieces (at the London Symphony Orchestra, IIRC) and some of the musicians were looking at the score and saying “this is nonsense – this is impossible” – things like evenly spacing 17 notes over 12 notes. But then they thought about it some more and went “ah ha!”
Maybe Beefheart’s album was an attempt to make us go “ah ha!” too. I dunno – this is the first time I’ve tried to listen to parts of it. ;-)
Good art isn’t just or even necessarily beautiful – it makes us consider the world differently than we have up till then.
Cheers,
Scott.
sublime33
@hellslittlestangel: Lou Reed”s New Sensations album from around 1984 was outstanding. I do agree that VU is overrated. New York was also overrated.
Flanders' Former Neighbor
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I’m with you on the DKs. I think my 10YO (who is big on Alice in Chains) likes some of their stuff, so there is hope for the next gen..
danielx
@Major Major Major Major:
True, but not THAT great. There was a period when David Byrne could have farted into a microphone and critics would have raved about what a bold artistic statement it was.
Of course, that’s a relatively minor failing; I remember thinking at some point during the Cheney Regency that Dubya could fart into a microphone and Fox News would refer to it as Churchillian rhetoric.
seaboogie
Also – in a musical vein, I tweeted a youtube video so that I could pin it, and I deeply love my twitter setup: Banner is the weird pic of Trump hugging the flag (from some GOP debate). Avatar is hurrican rescue kitten in a tube sock sweater. And this is the song that I pinned:
Hope the link works, because I think it speaks for a lot of us.
Naked link it is then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: We did late night music things here for years. One of the things that ended them was a commenter who stalked me and attacked female commenters with unacceptable terms. We never really restarted.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus: No offense, I wasn’t here then, but how can one be stalked on a blog? Did they find out who you were IRL?
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
Link fixed: “Under Pressure.”
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Omnes, Omnes, Omnes, Omnes…
ETA: Ask around.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: I remember it well, and remember it getting very weird. Don’t miss that one, but maybe we could give it another shot? With a late night FM insomniac deejay with access to the ban-hammer? Might could work. Be a nice way to dial down…
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@seaboogie: How late are we talking here?
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: My friend Bill was playing the Antenna one Tuesday night or some such, and the Replacements were in town recording Pleased to Meet Me. Decided they wanted to play, so they come in during a set and ask to take over. Sure! Here! Take the stage! They were incapable of standing on the stage. The best thing about their sound was that after falling off the stage a guitar came unplugged.
But it wasn’t dull.
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: My kniight in shining armor…thanks, buddy!
Care to contribute a song?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: That would be the ‘Mats.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus: Was it littleboots, or something? I lurked here for awhile and I think I remember that nym. They showed up here recently (last year or so), drunk, apparently
I remember when Zandar used to post, Spinwheel was another stalker of theirs evidently from work who felt snubbed so they’d come to shit all over here
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus: Was it littleboots or something?
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
I don’t think it’s sustainable on a (roughly) daily basis—for me or anyone. It would quickly become a grind. And it would feel too much like one person dispensing to the masses, where the music threads we had here a while back were much more free-form, with people going back and forth and the general, uh, flow going in different directions.
I would throw in more music, but lately my feeling is either there haven’t been many truly open threads late at night or that there’s no one around to read them. I ran a long string of cover versions of favorite songs a week or so ago and got almost no response. (Looking at you, Kristine! Here’s another Smithereens cover of a George Harrison song for you: “Not a Second Time.”)
divF
@Flanders’ Former Neighbor: Re: Zappa and Waits. I first heard Waits as an opening act for Frank Zappa in the summer of 1974. At the beginning of the show, someone from Zappa’s entourage came out to tell the audience to be polite to this guy opening for him, ’cause he’s *really good*. And yeah, he was (and so was Zappa – this was during his Waka Jawaka – Grand Wazoo period, including George Duke.
Another Scott
@jimmiraybob: 21st Century Schizoid Man, of course.
Great song. [Ignore the images…]
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Of course, it was boots.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Steeplejack:
Join the club. I get almost no response unless I’m talking politics or something
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: rofl.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who saw Dylan with the Dead at RFK)
Another Scott
@firusan: I’ve got that CD. It’s got both the most hated and the most wanted songs in the universe on them.
I think I listened to it once. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
seaboogie
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Hmmm….
Well, we need to work the coasts, so I’m guessing 11pm east coast time ’til about 1 am west coast time when Anne Laurie posts her early wee hours east coast posts for those who wake up with the roosters.
Interestingly, I’ve observed that we have some east coast insomniacs who are very present in my late night west coast experience, which is very lovely in a sun rises and sets sort of way. The wee hours that we share can be quite wonderful if we don’t have Omnes stalking weirdos in our presence. That’s when I would check out.
encephalopath
@Another Scott:
I saw Dylan and the Dead at Autzen. Does that count for something?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus: Yup. I’ve lurked here since 2011 or so. I remember a lot of people who have come and gone. That one started off normal enough..
Remember Spin*heel? He(?) used to stalk Zandar so hard when they posted here
Irony Abounds
I never will understand why some people find pop music so pernicious. It’s as though people hate to be thrown in with the masses so they construct every argument they can find to show they are smarter than the vast majority of people. If you write or perform something that brings enjoyment to lots of people it can’t be that bad.
divF
@Ruckus: Wait a minute – once you discount via Sturgeon’s law (90% of everything is shit) then there is a lot of good stuff from the late 60’s – early 70’s. You have to dig, though. A good bellwether is the first albums by a group, preferably the non-top-40 stuff.
Quicksilver is pretty meh, I agree. But Janis Joplin singing blues standards, anything by James Brown, early Santana, Booker T. and the MG’s… I could go on.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Irony Abounds: 90% of anything has always been bad. I used to be one of those “all modern music sucks!” people, until I grew out of it. People so often forget that decades past had their terrible stinkers too. They’re just not remembered. All good stuff is
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
Three songs up above.
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: I understand, and I feel bad in reading your comment for not checking in and/or responding. Sometimes – especially now – we feel the need to dial back into ourselves, and that is a wholly wise thing to do.
Might take a while to get if off the ground, and also understand that some folks just need to sleep. It took me a long time to be able to accept that I wasn’t necessarily killing a thread, but just that folks had moved on…either to another thread or to sleep.
But I think it still has value – even if in an informal way where we can show up as we are moved to do so. I’ve often felt a great sense of community in those wee hours – especially with you – when it was about something other than politics.
Aleta
@seaboogie: oh yes! thanks
encephalopath
So I think the second season of West World absolutely must open with a montage set to ELO’s The Way Life’s Meant to Be.
It’s perfect. This must happen.
lgerard
If i remember correctly Trout Mask Replica was part of a scam Zappa pulled on Warner Brothers. They gave him a bunch of money to set up his own label and he made a few quickly and cheaply produced records and pocketed the rest
Aleta
@Steeplejack: >a long string of cover versions<. The next morning I bookmarked a playlist of them for myself. Not the first time.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@seaboogie: Would the FPer need to be active that entire stretch? I could stay up until 4 on a weekend not during work and a weekday during the summer; when college starts back up I wouldn’t be able to.
Maybe something that’s earlier would better for more people. Like around 9:30-10 EST? To unwind after work. Doesn’t have to be every day either
Another Scott
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Holiday in Cambodia is kind of an amazing song.
Cheers,
Scott.
GxB
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Drag man! The guy was a mutherfuck. And don’t believe any of that crap man, Nobody got his vibes…Not Stevie (who I adore), not Frankie (who I admire – to a lesser extent)… Nobody got the drop on JMP, The guy was a mutherfuck in every sense of the word,..
Chocko_Rocko
People in infancy when Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation was released in 1988 have long been able to buy liquor legally, which means it will soon be heard often on your local classic rock radio station, ha ha. I listened to that album sporadically, then disdainfully, then repeatedly, then obsessively, as it wormed its way into the deepest levels of my brain. I have accumulated a pretty freakin’ huge library of music, and the funny thing is, the more music I hear, the more music I like. The weirder the better. Makes me happy, and I must say, grateful for the creativity of others who mostly toil in obscurity and make no money at it.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Never heard that. It’s good.
Aleta
@Another Scott:
The Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA
divF
@Another Scott: One of the many great things about the Dead Kennedys is that we can rely on never hearing a sanitized version playing on Muzak in grocery stores.
Aleta
Going to bed, goodnight
Another Scott
@Irony Abounds: If the only time you heard The Doors was when some radio station was playing one of about 3 of their songs, but you heard those songs multiple times a week, you’d understand the criticism of music on commercial radio these days…
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
I feel that people can post music—or anything, really—pretty much whenever they want. Dunno that having a special thread would help. (And I note that no one has said dick about my Carolina shag comment—with songs!—in the hour since it was posted.)
Anyway, I’m not trying to be a downer. This blog has changed a lot since the election—a lot more political posts, obviously—and it has been interesting to see the ways that the various commenters have coped. Fewer free-and-easy late-night threads seem to be one side effect.
Lemongrass, “Sunrise on Fujiyama.”
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: hey, I bookmarked your covers thread. Will give it a listen. Have a flight to Oslo and then 9.5 hours back to the US of cray cray. Might listen to a song or two during that airtime.
Hello to the housecat.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Another Scott: If there’s one thing DK did well, it was vicious, hilarious, biting satire, of pretty much everybody and everything in America, just in time for Reagan and his Moral Majority. I own all of their studio albums except Bedtime for Democracy
Fair Economist
Late to the party, but I am *so* with you about the pretentious “in” people claiming inaccessible or unknown music is the best. Mozart had it right – good music has to sound good. I remember when I was in college and the “cool crowd” thought Wham! – which had not yet had a single in the US at the time – was the cat’s pajamas. Then “Wake Me Up Before You Go-go” hit the top forty and suddenly they all hated it. Oh, please.
And I say this as somebody with very weird and eclectic music tastes. Anybody for “Einstein on the Beach” on a car trip?
seaboogie
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Prolly not. Observation here tells me that the musical wind-down of the day is necessarily east coast night owls and west coasters winding down. Earlier hours mean the left-coasters are still venting on the politics of the day, and the night owls are not yet out…but THANK YOU for dialing into this, and maybe there is another iteration possible that has not been our usual habit? Any refuge in the storm is a wonderful thing – so perhaps something that starts earlier and whose embers are stoked into the wee hours would work also…
Now to listen to what steep has posted….
Aleta
@encephalopath: Perfect song for tonight too. Amazing song
Another Scott
@encephalopath: Sure! I guess. :-)
It’s too late – I don’t understand how the 5th Element clip fits. But I have to admit that I have Milla’s album as well – it’s got some catchy fluff on it.
‘night all. (I mean it this time.)
Cheers,
Scott.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@seaboogie: Its ultimately John’s decision. It’s his blog after all. I could try to hack it at being a Deejay :)
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
Thanks. Didn’t mean to sound like I was pouting about no response. I know there are far more readers than commenters, and I always assume there are some appreciative ears, even if nobody responds. I guess my point was more that I do sometimes rely on feedback to shape and extend my “playlists” or change the direction. No response? I can just listen with the housecat here in my modest rooms in Threadkill Lane.
encephalopath
@Another Scott:
Goddamnit I copied that Fifth Element clip to a comment on something else and then effed it up.
The ELO thing is still perfect for the West World bit. I need to figure out how to send it to the appropriate people.
encephalopath
I have a thing for Jeff Lynne’s arrangements right now. Turn to Stone is just the best.
Apparently I have a copy/paste problem.
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
The Smithereens did a cover of that whole early Beatles album. I can’t find a YouTube playlist for it now, but just go to YouTube and search for “Smithereens Beatles.” They also did an album of Beatles B-sides. “There’s a Place.”
ETA: Hope you see this in the morning.
Fair Economist
@hellslittlestangel:
Yeah, with all kinds of different musicians. He’s got a gift as a collaborator.
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: I think it’s happening – right now….there is a need and a desire there… ;-)
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Thanks. Now I do feel like a pouty whiner!
Speaking of that covers thread, long-time readers will know that I really love the Mavericks version of “Here Comes My Baby”—go-go dancers!—but the song was written by none other than Cat Stevens, who did a low-T beta cuck version of it himself. But endearing. Think it showed up in a Wes Anderson movie.
When are you jetting back to the USA?
Aleta
@Steeplejack: No you didn’t sound like that. You do have a talent for offering music imo.
seaboogie
@Steeplejack:
That is the most BJ quote ever. In my alternate, non-hermit-except-for-work life, I just want to hang with you and Aleta for brunch on Sundays…
Aleta
@Steeplejack: That’s really nice. I like both versions now. Others have said this, but there’s a personal warmth that comes through when I play songs you link, so thanks. It’s no small thing.
Steeplejack
@encephalopath:
I like ELO. My memory of the time is that suddenly they were everywhere but I could never get anyone to admit that they hadn’t always been there.
Me: “Have you heard this—”
People: “Oh, yeah, ELO. They’re great.” Yawn.
Me: “WTF?”
ETA: Sort of like Boston. They were nowhere, and then suddenly they had five songs that felt like they had been in heavy rotation forever.
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
Don’t jinx it!
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: Saw them when I was 15 in concert – I think with Eddy Money and the Little River Band. Big step up from The Partridge Family, where I started. My parents listened to The Ray Coniff Singers (but also Johnny Cash and the Ventures, when their marriage was falling apart).
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Steeplejack: I got see Boston last summer with my father and his friend. They were big fans. Me not as much. They were good just not my cup of tea. Boston was never able to make that transition into the 80s that other rock bands did. They just dropped off the face of the earth
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
As a west coast night owl I’m often up at 5am blog time. So I understand what you are talking about late nights lately. I think so many are just beat by the politics that we have to turn off even this little bit of the outside world and attempt sleep these days. It’s like we need to tell the world, “Stop, I want to get off.” You’d think music might be a distraction and maybe it could be, maybe it could brighten up an otherwise difficult to take world we live in these days.
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
That would be cool. My memorable quote would be “Who put orange juice in my goddamn mimosa?!” Followed by pitching face first into a shrubbery.
A little more Carolina shag: James Brown, “Don’t Let It Happen to Me.”
J.J. Jackson, “But It’s Alright.”
encephalopath
@Steeplejack:
My full introduction to ELO was on the other side of them being everywhere. All I remember on radio play was Evil Woman. Out of the Blue didn’t seem to make an appearance in West Coast small town radio.
It was the album Time in 1981 that got hold of me in my youth and stuck with me ever since. The other ELO, the stuff that everyone else knows, is a thing that I have come back to in later adulthood.
Time is still my favorite, though. Always will be.
GxB
@GxB: Oh Jezuz Patrick Hendricks Page – Of course I meant “JMH” – I’m mixing my guitar-gods all up!
Jacel
@Omnes Omnibus: Cale’s “Fear” album has a lot of interesting Eno involvement, as well as their later collaboration “Wrong Way Up”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
ETA: Actually, Carolina shag music would be good for brunch any time.
Eldridge Holmes, “Lovely Woman.”
The O’Kaysions, “Girl Watcher.”
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: In response to this post, I have a colleague who cannot snap her fingers. I feel like for this she should be able to park in the handicapped spot, or at least have that disabilty acknowledged on her driver’s license.
Ruckus
@divF:
We have had a few music posts or comments over the past few months and at one point I started thinking about the music that I like a lot and it runs a bit outside the normal of people that I know. For example some one gave me a CD of Dead music and I thought it was not bad at all, and most Dead stuff does nothing for me. Now I don’t dig it out and listen to it but I’m not throwing it out either. I like Rajaton, a Finnish a cappella group, ELP, Dead can Dance, Blind Faith……
In fact it may have been you I was discussing preferences with.
I’m supposed to be, like John, storing all my stuff in electrons, I’ve just had a few medical things on my mind for the last 3 or 4 yrs and have been having a hard time making any progress.
Greg Ferguson
I basically hate all of the music org software – if it was just a question of songs, I might be more lenient, but a lot of my stuff is classical, opera, obscure, and long, and it’s even harder to organize now than it was a couple of years ago. Cover art is 50% wrong, all the time. I roll with it, but it’s still unbelievably stupid.
Like the T-Kidz.
:-)
Steeplejack
@Ruckus:
It’s not just late-night posts. General level of testiness on the blog seems to have gone up a good bit, and people are coping in wildly disparate ways. For a long time I found myself reading most of the threads but commenting far less or not at all. Have turned that around a bit lately, not quite sure how or why. I think it was partially a conscious decision, but I’m not exactly sure about what.
Jacel
@Omnes Omnibus: On his radio show, John Fugelsang and a guest were talking about Bob Dylan. Somebody brought up Dylan being the first songwriter to receive a Nobel Prize. Co-host Frank Connif said, “However there have been many other Nobel laureates who have better singing voices than Dylan.”
Shalimar
In treasonous music-related trivia, I have spent the last 2 days hearing Elton John’s Levon in my head, except the last line is always “He will be peed on.”
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: I am right there with you on this comment, and yet do please note that while the usual tendency is to get all angsty and run upstairs to vent on the latest thread, this one is alive and and the one upstairs is not. As an experienced uber-earnest (owning my chit) thread-killer, I am seeing a need to meet and play and dance around a bit in our bones…(h/t to the lady)
Jacel
@hellslittlestangel: Even Paul Simon did a good album (called “Surprise”) with Eno’s involvement.
seaboogie
@Jacel: Oh no you just didn’t say “even Paul Simon did a good album”. Them’s fightin’ words.
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
Srsly.
Two of my childhood disabilities were that I never learned to snap chewing gum and I never learned to do that ear-piercing whistle where you put your thumb and finger in your mouth. I never had any direction on the latter, but my mother, a Tennessee farm girl who morphed into a tasteful lady, could snap gum and would occasionally do it just to taunt her three boys. (She was not a habitual chewing-gum chewer.) I think she even tried to show us how to do it a few times, but no luck.
You talked about what music your parents listened to. Both my parents were from Tennessee, so country music was in the mix, but my mother also had Joan Baez albums and Broadway soundtracks, and my father was a big fan of Dixieland jazz. (We lived in New Orleans for a few years when I was little.)
And I liked the Ventures! One of the first two LPs I ever got (Christmas ’63) was Telstar/The Lonely Bull. (The other was the first Beatles album.) I faithfully bought all the Ventures’ albums up until around Super Psychedelics (1969-ish), when they really jumped the shark and I finally outgrew them.
The Ventures, “Telstar.”
Al Hirt, “Stranger in Paradise.” Great Dixieland trumpeter who went “mainstream” to cash in. I always loved this song.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
I’ve written comments, looked at them and then deleted them completely over the last few months. I don’t really want to be just one more angry voice, although I did stand way out there on a limb one day and got roasted for it.
People don’t understand anger and venting? You can’t stay angry for every minute of every day, it will kill you. You have to vent once in a while, doing it with pixels seems to be a better way than in the real world. Oh well.
We are stuck in a horrible time warp that is not of our own making or even desire. If you follow politics at all these days you are going to be either maxed out or a moron, it’s too divided and moronic to be otherwise and we haven’t been able to move on past the second stage of grief, anger. OK maybe we are between the second and third. Nope, stuck in second gear.
ETA And with that I’m off to bed, work comes way too early for this night owl.
Jacel
@seaboogie: I meant it in the sense that even Paul Simon had collaborated with Brian Eno, and the result was good.
Jacel
@Steeplejack: I’m late to the thread party, but wanted to join in appreciating that SiriusXM Carolina Shag channel. I’m from California, not a Carolina, but that mix of music often reminds me of songs I found appealing on local stations in the early 1960s, back when Top 40 was a lot more eclectic.
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
Yeah, this thread is going great. Just don’t know that the effect can be “legislated.”
Thinking about my divergent musical roots. Thought of this song last week and realized I hadn’t heard it in many years: the Sir Douglas Quintet, “The Rains Came (Rain, Rain, Rain).” That Farfisa chord organ pierces my ’60s kid heart to the root. Takes me back to west Texas circa whatever time it first came out (1966—looked it up).
Hey, and then Doug and the guys moved to your neck of the woods. “Mendocino” (1968).
seaboogie
@Steeplejack: I spent my twefth summer holding my left eyebrow down so I could build the muscle in my right eyebrow to just raise that one. Not kidding.
My parents played The Ray Conniff Singers doing covers of such as Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey”. The Ventures and Johnny Cash were the only “real music” I was exposed to.
Going to re-listen to Telstar now…and in confession, you will understand the foundational nature of my musical ignorance: Not the original Bobby Goldsboro version, but the Ray Coniff version…so if I advocate for music here, you must know that I have deep ignorance, and also great amplitude in my curiosity..
Steeplejack
@Jacel:
Yeah, I mostly heard it called “beach music,” but since I was in Atlanta the whole Carolina coast connection was in the subtext. Just really good music that makes you want to have a marg and dance a little.
And Top 40 radio was way more eclectic back in the day. Any given week’s chart could have everything from Motown, the Beatles and a bunch of one-hit wonders to middle-of-the-road ballads, semi-country and the occasional weird import.
Kyu Sakamoto, “Sukiyaki.”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
ETA re “Mendocino”: That clip is from Hugh Hefner’s Playboy After Dark TV show, which was incredibly lame except that he always had really good musical guests. Hoocoodanode? And that’s Hef himself dancing with Barbi Benton at 2:26 in the clip.
seaboogie
@Jacel: I will check that out – my knowledge of Brian Eno is pretty much nothing, so please steer me if you care to…
I appreciate how Paul Simon has done not only his own original music, but incorporated and interpreted in an authentic way the music of other cultures – which he did even in his very early days. His ear for rhythm* is and has always been amazing for a Jewish lad from Brooklyn. Feels like he took everything he ever heard in and put it back out there.
Here’s a good naked link vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VrKro8djw
Steeplejack
@seaboogie:
Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
He has worked with a lot of people. And he did the Microsoft startup sound!
P.S. Whatever you do, do not repeat the word ambient. FYWP no likey. (Contains the name of a drug.)
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Microsoft Windows startup sound.
SgrAstar
@different-church-lady: I know so many prople whose music tastes run the gamut- I’d be more surprised if you really were the only rock lover at a symphony concert. My friends and I used to laugh that I was the only person in town who, on three consecutive nights, had seen Aida, Sting, and Nine Inch Nails…but I’m sure there were many who sought out that same fantastic experience.
Steeplejack
Damn it, now I can’t think of the Italian musician whose music is referred to (heavily!) in this Range Rover ad.
I wanted to hear the rest of this song, but I ran it down one time and it was only ever this snippet. There is a very similar song by an artist with a Japanese name, but it’s not the same. And I can’t even remember that guy’s name.
I always think of this in the Brian Eno zone. Dunno why.
Steeplejack
Okay, I’m out with a final cover: Eric Claption and Paul Carrack, “How Long.”
(Carrack wrote the song and was in Ace, which did the original version.)
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Goddamn it: Nicola Conte, “Bossa per Due.” From the album Jet Sounds, which ties in with Eno’s Music for Airports.
Now I may sleep the sleep of the just. Buona notte!
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Tomorrow is leaving on a jet plane day. Was depressed about that last week, but now kinda thinking of cool things I’ve wanted to get to when back home.
Very mixed feelings.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Elizabelle:
Happy (con)trails!
(Didn’t go for the obvious one.)
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack (phone):
Wow! Didn’t realize that Eva Cassidy covered that song. One of my favorite singers.
aliasofwestgate
@Steeplejack:
I love that song, and great covers of it that continue to do it justice from Kyu-chan. But i absolutely love this song, which i first heard on a cover for an anime called Twin Spica. I searched out the original, also done by Kyu Sakamoto.
Miagete goran yoru no hoshi wo
I’m a few months from 40 myself, but i’m an audiophile with college radio DJ experience. I’m also part of an online radio station i helped found that is extremely eclectic, and i’ve played this song on it more than once so my audience could experience it. I’m a former choirgirl, so i’ve got some classical backing. But my mom is a motown and an Elvis fangirl, so i’ve heard the gamut from classic pop. Sought out just about any other genre on my own, and fell in love with j-pop and rock about 20 years ago. I consider this the ultimate prototype japanese pop, with definite enka elements. But the melody is absolutely beautiful.
Murmeltier
My sister & I are the hearing children to 2 deaf parents, so we had zero parental influence musically. We both like a wide variety of music, although I think my tastes may be a bit broader than hers. While most of my high school friends were into classic rock, I was listening to more disco, new wave, & a little punk rock. These days I’m going back & listening to a lot of classic rock again, with a bit more appreciation for the instrumentation.
Larryb
There is at least one great song on the admittedly difficult Trout Mask Replica. I love “Mother”. The Police did a great cover of it on their Synchronicity album.
J R in WV
@Another Scott:
I saw Dylan Tom Petty and the G Dead at the Akron Rubber Bowl, I think it was the first show of a 3 or 4 show run together that summer – 1986.
maurinsky
I have no real music niche, I likes what I likes.
Re: Captain Beefheart – I only know one song of his and I love it: Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
Re: Lou Reed: Transformer is one of my top 10 albums of all time. I love the whole thing.
Re: Velvet Underground – I find them kind of boring, but I like when Nico sings.
Re: Leonard Cohen & Bob Dylan – songwriters and lyricists par excellence, I almost always prefer covers of their songs to their versions.
I’m a singer, and when I was younger I liked a good voice, but now I go more for the feeling I get when listening to something. I was a teen in the 80s, I was a Durannie, and I stand by them – they had a colossal rhythm section, even though they were known for being pretty, having sexy videos and synthesizers. Like all of my friends who were into Duran Duran, we segued from pop to punk – (I like the Dead Kennedys, person somewhere above who mentioned them). Not sure how Duran Duran ended up being a gateway to punk, but it so often is.
My daughter is a conservatory student and she made me a Spotify playlist and she keeps adding things she thinks I’ll like to it. My current favorite is an album by French singer Camille that was released in 2005: Le Fil, which means The Thread – there is a vocal drone that connects all the songs, and I love the whole fucking thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ryxk41HtI
The older I get, the more I like rap, I’m particularly inclined towards Missy Elliott. I guess I dropped my music snobbery somewhere in the past, but I appreciate rhythm so much more than a pretty voice these days.
Another Scott
@maurinsky: Rhythm is indeed a big thing, with me too.
X – Hungry Wolf
Rush – lots of the tricky rhythms on their old stuff (e.g. 2112)
Lots of Peter Gabriel
Lots of Fleetwood Mac (sure Rumors is a masterpiece all around, but just listen to Mick alone)
Lots of Santana
Quite a bit of Paul Simon’s stuff (e.g. Late in the Evening)
Tune-Yards’s Nikki Nack is rhythms out the wazoo. I haven’t listened to it enough to know if I like it yet or not. ;-) I discovered it via a clip on some NPR show a few years ago.
Cheers,
Scott.
GR
I don’t get the conflation of Beefheart and the VU. The VU were essentially a pop-oriented rock band — hooks galore — who also did some weird experimental shit, mostly on their second album. Kind of like how Nirvana were a pop-oriented alternative rock/punk band, except that Nirvana sold loads of albums.
Okay, Lou Reed isn’t exactly Paul Rodgers, but neither are Bob Dylan and Neil Young. The VU’s third, fourth, and “third and a half” albums are very accessible, even though no one heard them at the time. And “What Goes On” is one of the all-time great rock songs by any criteria except record sales. The version on 1969 Live kicks the ass of any Grateful Dead jam IMO.
Captain C
@Eric S.: “I take it you haven’t listened to much music. Check out this album by Jimi Hendrix…”
nickrud
My mother was the right age to collect Bill Haley and the Comets and my step sisters were the right age to collect the Beatles and Stones so I’ve been immersed in pop music since I was a toddler. My own tastes when I hit my teens was ELP and Yes (sue me) but since then I’ve learned jazz and classical and more.
But, I just got spotify to go with a killer set of headphones and stumbled across Richard Thompson. I’ve known his name and that he’s someone I should listen to since the 70’s, but never got around to it. I don’t think I’ve ever found an artist that I was sorry to have missed contemporaneously, but now I have.
Captain Beefheart. Safe as Milk was my older sister’s rebellion album. It drove my step-dad insane ;)
Panurge
@Eric S.: Gary Richrath was a fine guitarist. But he’s not exactly important.
Anyway: I’m a progressive-rock snob, so I don’t care for the Velvets any more than anyone else. (I prefer Beefheart to them, but that’s not saying much, I guess.)
And it’s not even really about “accessibility”; I daresay “Tarkus” (to say nothing of, say, National Health) is a lot less “accessible” than anything the VU or Beefheart ever produced–it just doesn’t sound so obviously harsh.
What your average post-punk hip-consensus snob is isn’t a music snob, but a rock’n’roll snob. In contrast to the old squares who say rock is a terrible thing that isn’t even music, the rock’n’roll snob says that rock isn’t music and this is a good thing. The progressive-rock snob, OTOH, takes the treasonous position that rock is music, and that’s what gets up the rock’n’roll snob’s butt.
Oh, as for Ian Anderson, he broke up the official band years ago, having (per his explanation) gotten tired of hearing drunk guys in the audience yelling “PLAAYYY “AAAQUALUUUNG”, MAAAAN! WHOOOO-OO!” during the quiet interludes at big arena concerts, but he keeps trying to find ways to use the name “Jethro Tull” to promote himself. The first time it was simply “Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull”. Later it was something like “Ian Anderson’s musical journey through the life of the original 18th-Century gentleman farmer actually named Jethro Tull, using the Jethro Tull repertoire”. And people cut him the slack, though some of his old bandmates don’t really appreciate it.