Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Second rate reporter says what?

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

How stupid are these people?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Music / Late Night Decompressing Open Thread: Musical Choices

Late Night Decompressing Open Thread: Musical Choices

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Commentor Amir Khalid linked to this story earlier — 183 radio stations in 30 European countries played this anthem simultaneously to show solidarity.

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” was one of my favorite songs when I was in high school (it was the early 70s, there were far worse choices). This was the version I knew, though: opera contralto Claramae Turner singing to Shirley Jones, in the movie Carousel —

Who else wants to confess their questionable favorites and/or dubious adolescent musical preferences?

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Sum 41- Fatlip

    I also really like anything by The Offspring

    Honestly, really anything from the late 90s. I hear a lot of tunes from groups like Sugar Ray’s When it’s Over at work that I heard on the radio when I was young and I have to say they really give me a sense of well-being that I can’t explain.

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I have to admit, I have always DETESTED and DESPISED “You’ll Never Walk Alone” — though I love everything else about Carousel. But gods, I loathe that one song.

    Sorry. (Not sorry.)

  4. 4.

    terben

    One of the great Mondegreens. ‘When you walk through the storm, hold your head. A pie.’

  9. 9.

    James E Powell

    I’ve been an insufferable music snob since fourth grade. The only regret I have is forcing my friends to listen to everything I was into that was not exactly popular. It was a waste of time. They were cretins.

  10. 10.

    Enzymer

    @SiubhanDuinne: understood. The recent revivals have tried, but a radical re-imagining of the plot is dearly needed. Great music, great potential in the book, but Billy…..

  12. 12.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Genesis was prog rock, right? At least for a bit in the 70s. And Rush, Yes, and Pink Floyd. Though I have to say, I much preferred Genesis and Rush’s 80s outputs. Have always really liked synth rock/pop

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    I was a YUGE fan of the Monkees and went around telling people they were better than the Beatles who were for olds.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    Batmetal it is!!!!

    Batmetal Returns!!!!

    Batmetal Forever!!!!

    These have nothing to do with anything I listened to growing up, I just want to torment you all with Norwegian Death Metal that’s been animated to really bizarre and perverse home made Batman animation. Because I hold you all in such high esteem…

  20. 20.

    Anne Laurie

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have to admit, I have always DETESTED and DESPISED “You’ll Never Walk Alone” — though I love everything else about Carousel. But gods, I loathe that one song.

    That’s the thing about anthems: They inspire strong feelings, and not all of those feelings are going to be positive!

  21. 21.

    Hummus Where The Heart Is

    I think I read someplace this song helped Eric Clapton through some tough times; if you aren’t religious, that’s fine, it’s fairly low calorie religious/spiritual. Sounds great, less filling; the Bud Light of spirituals.

    Phil Collins shows up in that video so an extra one for Phil. Before this series of events, the last time I honestly cried was probably to this song (RIP, Michelle Ann Boyd and Beau; this goes back almost 40 years and it still rips my heart out), which was popular at the time.

    OK, one more, from roughly the same timeframe that kinda ties back to Eric Clapton’s issues: Elton John

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @patroclus: That’s the title of my master’s thesis in comparative religion. It’s the End of the World As We Know It: Faith, Fear, Foreboding, and Violence at the End of the Second Millenia.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I do not know. Most likely because I am neither a Norwegian death metal aficionado, nor a Norwegian animator who animates Norwegian death metal songs with really bad Batman animation.

  30. 30.

    Anne Laurie

    @Enzymer: Great music, great potential in the book, but Billy…..

    Seems like Billy could be re-imagined as one of the many, many Very Popular Men who get protected by their fans despite their ‘flaws’… until suddenly they aren’t.  He was so charming — as long as you weren’t one of the women he abused (or the men he cheated).

  32. 32.

    Zelma

    We sang that song in high school glee club in 1960.  Fittingly uplifting but never quite mentioning God.  Though come to think of it, mentioning God was not verboten in those days.  Actually, I prefer the last scene when Shirley Jones sings it to her daughter at her high school graduation when she’s ostracized for her suspect parentage.

    I just loved musical comedy growing up.  I can probably pull out the lyrics of most of the songs from Rogers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Lowe from the deep recesses of my memory.  I watch 177 6 every July 4th.  But I never cottoned to Sondheim or Weber.

    But Carousel was probably my least favorite.  Great music, great lyrics, horrible hero.  Nothing like spousal abuse to ruin the mood.

    I saw the South Pacific revival on Broadway several years ago.  Simply wonderful.  And the best Emile ever.  Also an excellent Nellie.

  33. 33.

    bluefoot

    Boston sing-a-long today was “Country Roads.” It’s one of my dubious musical loves.  I’ve loved that song since I was a little kid in the 70s.

  35. 35.

    middlelee

    We sang this song at our 8th grade graduation in 1953.  I wore my first pair of heels, Cuban heels.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:

    The Monkees were put together by Don Kirshner to play a band on TV, hence their nickname The Prefab Four. Kirshner was happy with them until they decided they wanted to be a real band too, so he ended The Monkees show and began The Archies with cartoon characters.

    While The Monkees would probably not claim to be on The Beatles’ level, they have given us some pop classics and no serious music fan disrespects them.

  38. 38.

    Hummus Where The Heart Is

    King Crimson leads to Tony Levin which leads to Peter Gabriel which leads to Genesis.

    All great music.

  44. 44.

    divF

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’d never heard this song before, but Claramae Turner’s voice is just wonderful.

    On a related subject, Madame divF sent me the following link from the Royal Opera House. It gives brief demonstrations of the various singing voices. My favorite was the alto with the bass a close second. The countertenor was just plain creepy.

  45. 45.

    cain

    What is this shit about Barr wanting the power to put people in jail in definitely? Does he really think that he would get that from congress? That fucker will put all of us non-white people in jail indefinitely saying we are spreading the virus.

  46. 46.

    CaseyL

    I did a post-college tour of Europe with a company called Contiki – I believe they’re still around, too.  The trips were designed for  young people with not much money: we camped most nights, ate camp food most meals, and rode the tour bus from city to city.

    Every morning setting out, the tour guides played “Take the Long Way Home.”  It became completely ingrained in my head.  To this day when I hear it, I get a sense memory of being on the bus, singing along, with 30 other people.

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    YNWA got its start as a sports anthem when Gerry and The Pacemakers covered it in 1963, and this is the version Europeans are most familiar with. Marsden, a Liverpool FC fan, played it for family friend, the legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly. Shanks approved of it: he considered the lyrics an affirmation of his socialist beliefs. The fans approved of it too, and clamoured for it when the Anfield stadium DJ left it off the matchday playlist. Marsden has led the singing of YNWA at every annual memorial service for the Hillsborough 96.

  48. 48.

    patroclus

    @Amir Khalid: We once had some British cousins visiting (when I still lived in Texas) and, for some reason, I just started singing “There’ll be Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover, Tomorrow, Just You Wait and See” (I had recently seen a special on Vera) and had memorized all the words and the wife of my cousin literally burst into tears.

  49. 49.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Adam L Silverman:
    This just screams what older executives thought kids at the time liked. When I think of 1969, the Archie’s don’t come to mind as an example of the musical zeitgeis

    Fun Fact: Archie comics published the Sonic the Hedgehog comic based on the Sonic SatAm cartoon for 20 years and employed one of the weirdest motherfuckers as a writer: Ken Penders. This dude was a terrible writer who had a bizarrely traditionalist bent despite being self-professed liberal. Fathers often lied/manipulated their children and were presented as being in the right. He generally treated female characters shitty too.

  57. 57.

    Anne Laurie

    @Zelma: I just loved musical comedy growing up. I can probably pull out the lyrics of most of the songs from Rogers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Lowe from the deep recesses of my memory. I watch 177 6 every July 4th. But I never cottoned to Sondheim or Weber.

    To be honest, I’m not really a big musicals fan… except for Sondheim.

    Another embarrassing confession:  For a couple of years, our 300-student parochial high school had a musical director ambitious enough to put on actual theatre performances.  I have a fine strong voice, but, like Trilby, absolutely no sense of pitch.  So for the two annual shows I was in — Oliver! and Oklahoma — I got assigned as an extra.

    But I got an inadvertent solo in Oklahoma.  Six of us were supposed to sing “Out of Your Dreams” at the leading lady, and during the first live performance, the other five extras looked over the footlights, and froze completely.  Since I wasn’t wearing my glasses (‘not in period’) I confidently sang right out, from the diaphragm, just as Mr. Michaels had tried so hard to teach us.

    My castmates eventually forgave me, but I’m not sure Mr. Michaels ever did!

  60. 60.

    jame

    That song was the class song when I graduated from South Cameron High in 1972.

    I guess it’s okay, but never really cared for it.

    The Impossible Dream was the song for GPGC, and it still makes me a little weepy.

  63. 63.

    Amir Khalid

    @bluefoot:

    Country Roads is in that category of things the critics disdain but The People love. The critics don’t know everything.

  66. 66.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Oh lord, how to answer that. That age for me was the era of AM Top 40 radio, and while there was a lot of great stuff there was a lot of crap. That I kind of liked, and still often hear in my head.

    Off the top of my head, The Captain and Tenille, and Tony Orlando and Dawn.

    Couple of weeks ago I was in a silly mood and was entertaining the wife with terrible “romantic” songs of that era, like “Knock Three Times on the Ceiling if you Want Me”. And “Muskrat Love”.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    @delk

    Mentioned before that one of the memorable concerts attended as part of the audience was Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The opening act was some new group no one had heard of at the time: Yes. IIRC they weren’t even mentioned on the posters.

    Blew the lid off the place, crowd went wild.

  71. 71.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Zelma: Agree about Sondheim. Some years back I had the opportunity to hear Mandy Patinkin in concert. I love Mandy Patinkin in everything, and it was really cool to hear him sing, which I never had. But it was an all-Sondheim program, which kind of detracted (just a little) from the joy.

  75. 75.

    JWR

    @delk:

    Saw Yes five times all with the original line up.

    Five times for me as well. The first 3 times were with the original lineup, and then twice with two other guitarists. The last was during the Owner Of A Lonely Heart tour, with Trevor Rabin, who was awesome.

    I loved Yes, but only saw them so many times because of a friend who went to see them, and every other prog-rock band, every time they were in town, and he provided the tickets!

    ETA, No, wait. As far as I remember, I never saw them with Tony Banks. I’ll have to ask my friend.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Think I’m allergic to Carousel in any form.

    Attended a stage production once and fled early on, promptly spending about a half hour upchucking in the parking lot. Wasn’t diseased, wasn’t drunk, purely a reaction to the show.

  81. 81.

    Fair Economist

    I really liked “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John back in college.

    If you don’t see any more posts from me, it means I’ve been blocked for bad taste.

    Currently listening to complete sets of music from classical composers, because I can queue them up for streaming and listen all day. Schubert complete piano, Scriabin complete piano, Mahler symphonies, Beethoven Symphonies, Brahms quintets and sextets, Tchaikovsky Symphonies. Amazing how many times I can enjoy those masterpieces.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: I am neither a Norwegian death metal aficionado, nor a Norwegian animator who animates Norwegian death metal songs with really bad Batman animation.

    Why not?  Don’t dream it, be it.

  83. 83.

    James E Powell

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    This just screams what older executives thought kids at the time liked. When I think of 1969, the Archie’s don’t come to mind as an example of the musical zeitgeist

    Sugar, Sugar was the No. 1 song of the year. Four weeks at No. 1 in the US, eight weeks in the UK.

  84. 84.

    lamh36

    Funny u should mention music.  I know the avg age if BI is what mid 50s??. but right now in IG live DJ Dice have been playing a set going on 9+hrs now.  He hit over 100K IG LIVE views already and been avg 90+ often.

     

    Michell Obama, Oprah, Rihanna, Janet Jackson, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and many of his famous celeb friends have joined in at some point.

    check out #ClubQuarantine and DNice’s IG page for the show.

     

    Ya old fogies ???

  86. 86.

    rikyrah

    Someone on here pointed out a challenge from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Lin Manuel Miranda.

    Got me hanging out on Lloyd Webber’s Twitter feed, where he is playing tunes.

     

    Phantom is my favorite. I was obsessed with it.

    For nearly a year, I played the original London Recording of Phantom everyday. I wore it out, and had to get a second CD of it.

    I would listen once, maybe twice a day. I knew every inch of that musical.?

     

     

    I went to see it in New York- twice, Washington, Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles.

  87. 87.

    L85NJGT

    @Yutsano:

    Soundies, I think, were the first. But then everything old is new again, and The Monkees TV show was basically stringing videos together with comedic bits.

  90. 90.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: Dang I couldn’t edit but ya get the drift.

     

    Ive been watching/listening for past 3 hrs answer  i’ve got to get to bed!!

  92. 92.

    John Revolta

    I……………..I…………I don’t hate Boston

    ETA: I mean, I want to, but,……………I just, i dunno. I think they’re pretty good. Shut up.

  93. 93.

    prostratedragon

    @Steeplejack (phone):
    Thanks. That one still runs through my mind occasionally, but I’d forgotten the title.

    Generally speaking, if I like the tune I’m not embarrassed about it, and some of you might have noticed that I like a large variety of tunes. There are, however, things that are beyond the pale, at least as presented. Here’s one that has had a small revival, or zombie awakening, or something, from

    The Paris Sisters

     

    Almost as paroxysmically funny as an exit, stage left.

  94. 94.

    cain

    @delk:

    I saw the Yes Unitiy tour with both old and the Yes at the time. Good times. I’m more of a Rush fan though.

  95. 95.

    cain

    @lamh36:

    I know, right? :-) Of course who am I to talk, I love Rush. :-) My gf helped manage Essence, she met with all the black artists – you name it, Beyonce, Jay Z, etc etc. She’s quite a catch, and I think some of them even expressed interest. :-) Black woman ended up with the indian guy.. go figure – that too listens to rock-n-roll, heavy metal – and can’t dance.

  96. 96.

    L85NJGT

    This paper, from the hospital staff in Bergamo, gets to the heart of the matter.

    we are learning that hospitals might be the main Covid-19 carriers, as they are rapidly populated by infected patients, facilitating transmission to uninfected patients.

    Coronavirus is the Ebola of the rich and requires a coordinated transnational effort. It is not particularly lethal, but it is very contagious. The more medicalized and centralized the society, the more widespread the virus.

    Same dynamic as in Wuhan. Staff and facility get overwhelmed, they lose sterility, virus load goes through the roof, and the occasional wipedowns and constant hand-sanitizer only serve to lethalize the pathogen.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Amir Khalid:

    Sorry, bad experience in grade-school chorus.

    I do find it bearable in the Liverpool context, if that helps. Sports and shmaltz go together.

  100. 100.

    cain

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Many many times. They were amazing live. one of the best live concerts you can ever go to. Somewhere in the late 90s they stopped having a intro band and played for almost 4 hours straight right up till they were in their mid 60s.

    I took losing Neil Peart hard, I would have loved to see his take on todays politics. The last album, Clockwork Angels had amazing lyrics relevant for today and under the Trumpian regime. The fact that he got brain cancer the same time Obama left is just sad.

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Great cover. I had forgotten how powerful that song is. Had to watch Kate Bush’s original video.

    “Lemon Eyes” is like a completely different person.

  103. 103.

    cain

    I saw ZZTop one time at the Oregon county fair. I swear I was the only dark skinned person there other than the black guy on stage. It was kinda fucked up. Some bands, just give the white vibe pretty strongly, I feel the same way about Styx. Screams white working class with mullets.

    I never saw much black people at Rush concerts, but I did see a lot of hispanics, indians and other types. You didn’t see much women though – it’s definitely a rock nerd band :-)

  104. 104.

    frosty

    @L85NJGT: Please try to keep this on a COVID19 thread. As we saw earlier, many of us, including me, have had a surfeit of plague posts and comments. I’ll get back into it with AL’s post in the morning. I was enjoying the prog rock comments until this one crashed the party.

  105. 105.

    Hummus Where The Heart Is

    I saw a question about Prog and Moody Blues and some of you might like this book; it is by Uncle Joe Benson, who any longtime LA person should know as one of the voices behind The Seventh Day (KLOS, 7 ALbums on a Sunday night). Uncle Joe has the best radio voice ever (James Earl Jones would listen to him and say damn, wish I had your voice).

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cain: a few years ago, Boston, Journey and Styx (IIRC) did a tour together. In my mind, I pictured them going over their set-lists, “Is that you guys? I thought that was us…”

  107. 107.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @prostratedragon:

    I liked that song all right as a kid—basically I let everything in the ’60s wash over me uncritically—but now that genre always makes me think of the background to something dreadful happening in a David Lynch movie.

    For some reason it made me think of Skeeter Davis, “The End of the World.” Not really suited for a David Lynch movie.

  109. 109.

    piratedan

    this is a musical question that I’ve never been able to answer…. ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), prog rock or no?

  112. 112.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I’ve only heard this song sung by the Liverpool FC fans. Consequently, I only know the title lyrics, followed by loud bleating (tipsy large crowd singing). It’s pretty high up there as sports fan anthems.

    Definitely better than that creepy cheesy organ grinder song Chelsea plays.

  113. 113.

    cain

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Haha, yeah.. Boston also screams white working class although I don’t think mullets with those guys.

    KISS, Guns-n-Roses, all of them.. very white. Not that it matters – like what you like. ;-) (not to shame anyone into liking music)

    My gf doesn’t like any of the music I like, I like her stuff, but I’m more exploratory in my interests.. I listen to music from an aural perspective and being Indian I listen to a lot of foreign stuff too.

  114. 114.

    Feathers

    Jazz fans or anybody really. Check out Elevator to the Gallows tomorrow morning at 10 EST on TCM. Fifties French noir with a Miles Davis soundtrack, improvised and recorded in one take while watching the film.

  115. 115.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @piratedan:

    Not to me, if only because they were too widely popular.

    I will admit, as sort of the opposite of a questionable favorite, that I never got into Rush because Geddy Lee’s voice really, really rubs me the wrong way. I mean really. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  116. 116.

    JWR

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Boston is one of those groups that send me into a nostalgic mood

    Same here, but not in a very good way, even though I actually liked a few of their songs back then. (Can’t stand ’em now.) Fortunately, there was Aerosmith, which band fit quite easily into my cup of tea.  Ah, for 1976. Hard Rock was still thriving, but punk was right around the corner. That’s what bugs me about modern, mass appeal popular music: it doesn’t seem to have any big changes these days. Or at least not for the last 20 years or so. (Though I would love to be corrected.)

  118. 118.

    Mike G

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    a few years ago, Boston, Journey and Styx (IIRC) did a tour together. In my mind, I pictured them going over their set-lists, “Is that you guys? I thought that was us…”

    Following on the success of the Bee Gees an ENglish comedy group formed the spoof band The Hee Bee Gee Bees and recorded a parody, “Meaningless Songs in Very High Voices”. The story goes that Maurice Gibb heard it for the first time in a store and was like, “Hold on, I don’t remember recording this,” for a couple of minutes before he caught on.

  119. 119.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Yutsano: 

    It’s probably a toss up between the music videos produced in Australia for the TV shows Countdown and Sounds starting 1974, and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975.

    The Australian videos were earlier and included bands like AC/DC, but Rhapsody was far more significant in the development of the medium.

  121. 121.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @JWR: That’s what bugs me about modern, mass appeal popular music: it doesn’t seem to have any big changes these days. Or at least not for the last 20 years or so.

    Corporations don’t like change and virtually all popular music nowadays is corporate.

  122. 122.

    piratedan

    @Yutsano: most of the music documentaries that I’ve seen actually credit The Monkees as being the first ones to wed the concept of a song and a video that loosely accompanies it as being the first “music video”.

    ymmv… I can actually remember when HBO was brand new that they would offer music videos in 30 min and 60 minutes showings to fill between films, pre-dating MTV by a few years.

  123. 123.

    JWR

    @piratedan:

    ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), prog rock or no?

    Definitely, no. But they were another band I never really liked, except for Roll Over Beethoven. That was good! (And I really didn’t care for Jeff Lynne sticking his claws into George Harrison, forcing him to sound just like… a different ELO!)

  125. 125.

    John Revolta

    @piratedan: To me, what the Monkees were doing was derived from the two Beatles movies. Every week they’d basically do a 30-minute “Help!” or “Hard Days’ Night” complete with proto-videos that featured their songs.

  126. 126.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Damn it, one more: the James Gang, “Midnight Man.” Joe Walsh on guitar, of course.

    I should wear a belaying line when I descend into YouTube late at night. Tug on the rope and get pulled out. Also known as the Floyd hole. Doubly appropriate for this thread.

    Part 1.

    Part 2.

  127. 127.

    piratedan

    @John Revolta: in a way… yes and in a way… no.  Many of the scenes/sketches/videos from The Monkees were loosely tied to the song itself rather than as a soundtrack to the movie to evoke mood… but there are many occasions where that didn’t happen too, where they were simply performance videos but again, there’s loads of room for argument to be had :-)

  128. 128.

    cain

    @piratedan:

    As a kid I loved watching the Monkees. They were funny and relatable. I didn’t really get as much into the Beatles. The Monkees were more accessible I guess because they were on TV.

  129. 129.

    John Revolta

    @piratedan: As Mrs. Revolta once said to me, “We can agree to disagree………………but don’t ever think that I’m wrong!”

    Now ELO, I wouldn’t call them prog rock………………no crazy time signatures, no long virtuosoistical (?) solos, just good pop tunes with a kinda weird instrumentation. Okay, really weird.

  130. 130.

    yam

    Long, dull story about a,well really fortunately horribly event.

    My Mom died on Labor Day last year. I’m the oldest and the one that took care of the trust (bit of advice: set up a trust if you can, it’s better on the survivors) as I’m the oldest. There was a bit of family weirdness we worked through. We made it and my brothers and I are good. We took care of Mom’s townhouse and split the proceeds. I was able to take my share and use that to pay off our mortgage.

    Thanks, Mom.

    I had no idea how the timing would be so f’n perfect. Me darlin’ Mrs. and I are set. I wasn’t that Mom was rich, but that we are both the children of Accountants and the value of money was drilled into our heads from an early age, so we worked to pay off our mortgage early anyway. Mom only made that happen earlier. I didn’t spend it on a sports car, or a grand trip to anywhere or jewels for me darlin’ Mrs., (who would kill me for such an extravigance), but only the reduction of our mortgage.

    Little did I know how the timing would be so apropos.

    I’m not bragging, but I am aknowledging my bloody good luck.

    So we’re now sending the extra money to our neighborhood stores, restaurants and such in the case of drive-up dinners, gift certificates and general love in the form of donations. We’re blessed and we want to share the love – spend the cash if you gots it, and keep the things you love alive as best you can if’n yer able.

  132. 132.

    Jay Noble

    The Carpenters, ABBA and Barry Manilow. Did I catch grief for my mid to late 70’s music choices. But If appreciated musical talent you couldn’t beat them.

  133. 133.

    Geminid

    @Jay Noble: I remember seeing a music video in the mid-late 60s by Kenny Rodgers and the First Edition, “I just checked in, to see what condition my condition was in.” Psychedelic themed. A few years later Rodgers popped up again as a country artist.

  134. 134.

    tokyokie

    @terben:

    One of the great Mondegreens. ‘When you walk through the storm, hold your head. A pie.’

    The soundtrack to the movie Carousel was one of the albums my mother played repeatedly while doing housework, and for years I thought the lyric was, “And don’t be afraid of the dog.” And having been bitten on the face by a cocker spaniel at a young age, this made perfect sense to me.

  135. 135.

    debbie

    Somewhere Over the Rainbow sung by a high school choir, separately thanks to the situation, yet beautifully as one. This song makes me cry even on a good day, but this version is so fucking beautiful

     

    (Apologies if this has already been posted.)

  139. 139.

    ThresherK

    @BruceFromOhio: The BeeGees caught the brunt of backlash against disco, but of course they weren’t the font of how much bad disco became way too popular.

    After disco died, however, their fellow music pros couldn’t stop recording their songs, using them for backing/production in pop and even country, and R&B/hiphop sorts sampled their classics continually. It’s nice to be vindicated by history.

  142. 142.

    debbie

    @JanieM:

    Especially in that context. Plummer, as much as he hate, hate, hated being in that movie, was incredibly moving. What an actor!

  144. 144.

    smintheus

    One very obscure song from the ’60s that has struck a chord with me is by Colin Hare (Honeybus): “For Where Have You Been?”

    Passing by, see a place I used to know

    Lighting up a part of my past, familiar faces old and new.

    Racing by, see a face I used to know,

    Look into the eyes of a friend, but they don’t know me anymore.

    For where have you been, old friend of mine?

    Lost in the wilderness the long wintertime.

    Here’s a re-recording of it from 1971, with lots of good cowbell.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIl6ZCQk84

  146. 146.

    J R in WV

    In high school, actually beginning in Jr High, I was in the marching band/concert band. Then in high school, although I am not much of a singer at all, I joined the chorus as well, because most of the cute girls I liked were in chorus. You’ll never walk alone was a song we did all through HS. Everyone enjoyed it because the harmonies were good and the range wasn’t out of most peoples vocal ability.

    I never did actually date anyone in chorus, but we had fun going to places to sing, esp around Christmas. And they were still cute girls. I played piano a little bit on the show tunes. In the band I played tuba, well actually it was a Sousaphone… silver-plated brass monster, why I had any physical conditioning at all later on.

    Here the bluebells in the back yard are suddenly in bloom, daffodils have been out for a couple of weeks now in spite of the pretty chilly nights. And the frogs are singing every time it warms up a little bit, especially if there is good sunshine. They love the warmth of the sun this time of year.

  147. 147.

    J R in WV

    @Zelma:

    Last trip to NYC with wife we saw that South Pacific revival, and it was great.

    And this time I was an adult who could see the discussion of race clearly, when I saw it several times in my early youth I was naive about racism and didn’t pick on on that at all, wasn’t analytical about shows yet either.

    My dad’s whole family was into theater, helped create a summer stock theater back in the 1960s, before which we traveled around to outdoor theaters all over the east, so saw tons of shows of varying quality, all fun, tho. Got to watch the lighting guy throwing switches, etc.

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    @Fair Economist:

    Currently listening to complete sets of music from classical composers, because I can queue them up for streaming and listen all day.

    I burned several CDs with over a dozen classical CDs on each one, I fire on up at bedtime to help fight the tinnitus and wife’s nighttime noises.

    Occasionally I’ll wake up during a louder moment and have to skip ahead.

    One album near the end has a very weird  orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, Great Wall of Kiev, etc, and I always skip that CD, too strange, upsetting somehow. There’s like 10-12 hours of music on each

    One double CD set that really works to go to sleep by is called Peaceful Adagios, really good calm beautiful performances. Ravel, Liszt, Marcello, Mascagni, Debussy, Saint-saens, etc. Can listen to that every evening!

  149. 149.

    J R in WV

    OK, thread appears about dead, so I’m just going to list musicians I love in no particular order:

    King Crimson

    Pink Floyd

    ZZ Top

    Miles Davis

    Duke Ellington

    YoYo Ma, so many classical musicians I won’t try to list them!

    Bob Dylan

    Beatles

    Chambers Brothers

    Carlos Santana

    Los Lobos

    Well done border Mariachi bands, Tucson is a pretty good place for this!

    Buddy Guy

    Stevie Ray Vaughn and his brother Jimmy Vaughn, Lonnie Mack opened for Stevie on at least one tour!

    Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt

    Lucinda Williams

    Most of the Texas wild bunch Steve Earle, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard Townes Van Sandt, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys (hope I got that name right, like I said…)

    I’m really not good at knowing the names of much of the great music I hear and love. We have Mountain Stage live music here, a WV Public Broadcasting production also on NPR, highly recommended. On Friday and Saturday nights, they have two house 10-12 pm radio shows with great unknown artists, highly recommended, Jim Lang’s Eclectopia is the best of those two hours…

    I’ll stop now, hope someone sees this and benefits from it sometime, somewhere.

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