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You are here: Home / Music / Friday Evening Open Thread: Musical Interlude(s)

Friday Evening Open Thread: Musical Interlude(s)

by | 81 Comments

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The Finns are widely known for their… whimsical sense of humor:

(h/t commentor Haroldo)

News I run across while doing other stuff:


Reader Interactions

81Comments

  2. 2.

    Fair Economist

    How do they do such a good job of a dialectical accent in a foreign language? Wiki says they do bluegrass versions of heavy metal and punk but I’d call it more fusion, unlike Postmodern Jukebox which does its stuff almost entirely in the targeted historical style, e.g. Anaconda.

  3. 3.

    Eric K

    Sign of the Times isn’t even the best Prince Album, let alone best overall.

  4. 4.

    burnspbesq

    There’s Kind of Blue and Pablo Casals’ recording of the Bach cello suites, and then there’s everything else.

  6. 6.

    Jacqueline Squid Onassis

    It’s not a secret that Van Morrison has been widely renowned for being a colossal asshole for over 40 years, is it?

  8. 8.

    No One of Consequence

    @Eric K:  I concur with this, and offer up instead: The Rainbow Children as his best work.
    YMMV, of course.
    Peace,
    NOoC

  9. 9.

    Haroldo

    @Jacqueline Squid Onassis:

    It’s not a secret that Van Morrison has been widely renowned for being a colossal asshole for over 40 years, is it?

    True, but like our GQP, he’s quite enjoying saying the quiet parts out loud.

  10. 10.

    No One of Consequence

    @Jacqueline Squid Onassis: Opinions on his voice vary. I believe it is somewhat singular, in the 60’s and perhaps some early 70’s. As a fan from a young age, I was disheartened to learn that he was a genuine weapons-grade asshole. People like that make life difficult for those that must work with them, and in so doing, more often than not, sabotage themselves unknowingly, but assuredly.

    Despite my love for a good deal of his earlier work, I am not displeased to hear his latest efforts falling upon deaf ears. I won’t bother to give a single listen to it.

    Peace,

    NOoC

  13. 13.

    burnspbesq

    Sorry to hear about Aaron Neville. Talk about a singer blessed with a great instrument …

  15. 15.

    Delk

    Peter Frampton has a new album of instrumental covers. Here Is his cover of George Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity” and dealing with COVID.

  19. 19.

    caphilldcne

    Wow. This post just hit all my feels. Happy retirement Aaron Neville it seems like only yesterday I first heard Fiyo on the Bayou and, uh, I’ve been listening for 40 years. That went fast. I love that version of thunderstruck. Sadly YouTube pops it into literally every one of my song lists so in fact I’ve overlistened to it. Van Morrison is a Dick. Also anti-vax weirdo. But I love Brown Eyed Girl. Which is ridiculous because I’m gay.

    I’ve been thinking about Prince a bit. He died of a fentanyl overdose. We are on the verge of having recorded almost 100,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2020 (still counting I think our numbers are done through august). The highest number of overdoses ever recorded was around 71,000 (2019). Many of these deaths are a result of not knowing about fentanyl in the drug supply. He was an early harbinger of this disastrous year (barely acknowledged due to the pandemic). Why has he not become the Freddie Mercury or the Rock Hudson of the overdose epidemic?  Why hasn’t the US looked at this squarely and adopted more effective harm reduction policies (vs drug criminalization) and moved to safer supply policies to get the fentanyl out of drugs. Ok sorry but I do not understand. (I kind of know fundamentally it’s because this disproportionately affects African Americans but c’mon. We could be doing so much better.)

  21. 21.

    S. Cerevisiae

    I hate those “best album” or “best guitarist” questions because it all depends on my mood at the time.  I may have a dozen or so top ones but the orders are shuffling constantly.

  23. 23.

    RSA

    There are few things so depressing on this Earth as a once great artist, who has turned into an angry old bigot.

    Van Morrison hasn’t been alone in his descent. A couple of other musicians I used to like more than I do now: Eric Clapton (old news), Morrisey, Moby.

  24. 24.

    Miss Bianca

    Steve’N’Seagulls!! Love those boys! This video is in pretty constant rotation up at the Mountain Hacienda.

  26. 26.

    Cmorenc

    Greatest album of all time?

    Prince is but one plausible nominee against lots of equal or greater competition, and which is “greatest” is a matter of musical taste and preferred genres and age of evaluator

    other competitors for that athat come immediately to mind:

    – who’s next (who)

    – sgt pepper’s (beatles)

    or, as an example of greatest of particular genre, maybe one of coltranes albums, etc

  27. 27.

    J R in WV

    Fwiw, a good friend who has spent the last thirty years traveling abroad can verify that without question, Hotel California is the single most covered song across the globe. It’s not even close.
    — Sean Murphy (@SPowersMurphy) May 6, 2021

    Actually, what about “Stairway to Heaven”?

    Or some of those Dylan tunes now world famous, like “Highway 61” etc? Or even Robert Johnson? Or “Iko, Iko”…

    Although I’ve not toured like that… abroad. Not arguing, just suggesting other famous songs that get covered.

  28. 28.

    Minstrel Michael

    Since I put my foot in it in the artisan guitars thread, I’ll drop some more contrarian opinions.

    I’d seen that “Thunderstruck” video before, but I didn’t realize they were Finns. There was a rash of heavy metal played on bluegrass instruments about a decade ago, and it occurred to me that those two genres have in common, besides significant chops, is a kind of formalism– that there are rules you have to know to play this stuff properly– and, growing out of that, a hermetic kind of pride. There was a band called Hayseed Dixie that did a lot of this stuff, although they didn’t have a fiddle (and neither did these guys; the accordion takes that role, I guess). The oddest entry was some slacker band from Brazil doing a surprisingly credible take on Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.”

    If I had to pick a greatest album ever, I’d probably say “Who’s Next”– I love that record to pieces. I’m aware of records that surpass it on various measures– chops, quality of writing, evocation of a distinctly otherworldly aesthetic or mood– but I think very few that rank as high as Who’s Next on *all* those at once! And one thing I definitely believe is that “Thunderstruck” is Angus Young’s response to “Baba O’Riley.”

    There’s a book called “Astral Weeks,” by Ryan H. Walsh, subtitled “A Secret History of 1968.” I read it because it happened in the Boston metropolitan area, and I am a Masshole (and a lapsed hippie). It’s mainly about Van Morrison when he was living in Cambridge and crafting the songs for that LP (although there’s other stuff that goes into it– the Velvet Underground playing almost every month at the Boston Tea Party and a young Jonathan Richman catching every show he could, the harmonica player who decided he was God, some of the people Timothy Leary turned on when he was a Harvard professor, etc). In the book it seems that it was pretty widely known that Van used to abuse Janet Planet, but it didn’t get talked about because he already had the Van Morrison mystique.

  30. 30.

    craigie

    That was amazing.

    In other news, the clickbait under this post tells me that Aubrey Plaza is now married. One more life support fantasy kicked out from under me…

  31. 31.

    Minstrel Michael

    @Haroldo: It’s from a double-LP Monk tribute album called “That’s the Way I Feel Now,” released about 30 years ago. Produced by Hal Willner, it also features Todd Rundgren, various Steely Dan personnel, Carla Bley, and Terry Adams of NRBQ, who may be the world’s greatest authority on Monk.

  32. 32.

    steppy

    As long as Aaron Neville will still play the Gospel Tent at Jazz Fest, all will be fine.

  33. 33.

    J R in WV

    I do love MIles, and Prince, and Frank Z, who thankfully was recorded live more than once. But again, so many greats, blues, New Orleans, jazz, classical. Buddy Guy, Oh My! Los Lobos is a great live band. And groups in towns with regular gigs that never tour, Tucson has some of those. Great Mexican border acoustic sounds.

    The Cello Suites, maybe Rostropovich is as good as Casals? That’s what sits on the dresser in our bedroom, anyway.

    Everything by Rachmaninoff, most by Ravel, by Satie, by Debussy… So much good music.  We put on a CD to play all night at bedtime, to combat the tinnitus and help me not think about things besides the music I’m hearing. Sometimes I’ll change it out in the wee hours if I get up for a bathroom break.

    ETA: Some really like the Who, I don’t that much — from that era, Led Zep has them beat by a mile in my book. I have no Who recordings.

    The Dead have some great stuff, but I don’t listen to the recordings that much any more. Dr. John was great live, not so  much recorded. Los Lobos is like that too, so great live, such energy, not so much recorded, still great but not as great.

  34. 34.

    burnspbesq

    @J R in WV:

    I may be dating myself, but I would have guessed that “Johnny B. Goode” was the most covered rock song. And I would have guessed “Take It Easy” ahead of “Hotel California,” due to easier changes.

  35. 35.

    Cmorenc

    Speaking of famous musicians who are assholes , bob dylan to his paying audience, such as the dylan concert i attended.  I dont expect a performer to  suck up to their audience, but i do expect them to at least acknowledge and look at his audience instead of spending the entire performance facing away sideways and acting as if he’s annoyed we are there, nary a word spoken to us

  36. 36.

    Haroldo

    @Minstrel Michael:

    The oddest entry was some slacker band from Brazil doing a surprisingly credible take on Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.”

    I’d be forever grateful if you could post a link to this. Thanks.

  37. 37.

    Just Chuck

    A lot of artists I still love are assholes, I almost expect it.  Outright bigots, not so much.  Used to listen to my Van Morrison compilation album on my car CD player once a month or so.  Not sure I’ll be doing that anymore… maybe after he’s dead.

  41. 41.

    Tony Jay

    @Cmorenc: 
    Must be some kind of definitive aspect of arseholishness, because when My Better Half and her Dad went to see Van Morrison live a few years back he did exactly the same thing.

    He must know he looks like a burnt potato stuffed into a hat. Bless his heart.

  42. 42.

    toine

    When it comes to Prince, I’ve tried and tried, but I just don’t get it… What I hear is mediocre 80’s pop with a few more sexual references than usual and a great marketing campaign….

    Honestly, I’ve tried. If someone were to ask me who the most over-rated artist of all times would be, he would be near the top…

    Please don’t hate me…. :-)

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    @toine:

    I don’t hate you. I’m kind of in the same camp but haven’t tried as hard as you so I can’t really say.

  45. 45.

    Anotherlurker

    @No One of Consequence: 
    I was very disappointed to hear Tom Morello, on his XM show, refer to Ted Nugent as “his good friend”. I am sorry, but by associating yourself with Ted Nugent, you are accepting his missogynistic, racist , gun humping, fascistic rantings as “just his opinion”. You are giving these poisonous ideas credence.

  47. 47.

    Jeffro

    Sign O’ The Times haters are just so, so wrong.

    The albums I’ve played the most in my lifetime would have to be either U2’s The Joshua Tree or The Cult’s Electric.  But I am currently listening to John Cougar’s American Fool (to which, my other half asked, “Is that Huey Lewis and the News”? ?)

    Gonna be a long weekend here in Front Royal…

  48. 48.

    Craig

    Bluegrass Metallica from 30 years ago. These guys blew my mind opening for the Butthole Surfers. They have a great gospel record, and a gorgeous cover of Iggy’s Lust For Life.

    Bad Livers

    https://youtu.be/Fd1bkL1EFGI

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    generally i don’t have a problem with van morrison and morrissey ruining their legacies by devolving into stubborn old bigots but i do think they should be forced to merge into one guy for our convenience. it’d be a lot easier if they both just went by van morrissey.

    — Dan Ozzi (@danozzi) May 7, 2021

  50. 50.

    toine

    @zhena gogolia:

    The 80’s were strange… there was an awful lot of horrible music but also some of the greatest… Why Prince would stand out will always be a mystery to me.

  52. 52.

    Pete Mack

    @burnspbesq:

    For a more general definition of “covered”, I’d guess “because I’m happy.” But those aren’t covers; they’re alternate music videos.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @S. Cerevisiae:
    I agree. Music is not sports, where athletes compete against each other. There is no one GOAT album or guitar player or band or whatever. The lists that outfits like Rolling Stone publish change over time as people’s tastes and judgment change, which is why RS revisits them every so often. (It also gives RS something to run when music news is slow.)
    Incidentally, I still resent what RS did when readers tried to vote Animal onto its best drummer list. Disqualifying him just because he was a Muppet was high-handed and arrogant.

  55. 55.

    Minstrel Michael

    @Haroldo: ​
     The band’s called “O Bardo e o Banjo.” It looks like they generally try to stay within bluegrass form, and “Ace of Spaces” was a one-off prank. But a good one!

  58. 58.

    steppy

    I don’t know if you want this to turn into a “top 5” thing, but I’ll go.

    Who’s Next – The Who

    Odelay – Beck

    Trust – Elvis Costello

    Oh Yeah – Charles Mingus

    Bug Music – Don Byron

    These are recordings that I just go to again and again.

    Odd, maybe. These talk to me.

  64. 64.

    Shana

    Just popped in to say The Eagles are, and always have been, vastly overrated. And Hotel California is crap from start to finish. Mojo Nixon was right.

  65. 65.

    TheOtherHank

    @steppy: I love them. But my kids (big Zeppelin fans) can’t handle it and whine and scream so loud it’s hard to hear the sone

  68. 68.

    persistentillusion

    @Haroldo:  Listened to this almost non-stop driving back from NOLA with my daughter after Katrina. She was a freshman at NOLA when the storm hit.​
    ​
    ​
      ETA University of NOLA.

  70. 70.

    Minstrel Michael

    @Shana: I agree. I saw the Eagles when they only had the debut album out (opening act for Procol Harum!?) and they were… okay, nice harmonies and a little bit of banjo, and the most memorable song was the one they didn’t write (“Take It Easy”). Never did I imagine they’d sell gazillions of records over the next decade.

    Jethro Tull was another band they opened for, and much later, Ian Anderson complained that “Hotel California” uses the chord change from his song “We Used to Know.”

    I do respect Don Henley, both for writing “Dirty Laundry” and for appearing on stage with Mojo Nixon to sing along on “Don Henley Must Die!”

  76. 76.

    steppy

    @Another Scott: A cherished memory. At the long lamented Chestnut Cabaret in Philadelphia, the bill was Dread Zeppelin opening for Mojo Nixon. This says volumes about my musical tastes.

  81. 81.

    Miss Bianca

    @mrmoshpotato: Oh, good catch! Ghost is one of my new fave raves.

    @Minstrel Michael:

    Jethro Tull was another band they opened for, and much later, Ian Anderson complained that “Hotel California” uses the chord change from his song “We Used to Know.”

    Oh, man, now I hear it. And once heard, can’t be unheard. Was a huge Jethro Tull freak back in the day, never did care much for the Eagles. I do remember being pretty spellbound the first time I heard “Hotel California” on the car radio – I was, what, 12 or 13? But the first few hundred times were really enough.

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