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You are here: Home / Popular Culture / If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out

If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out

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I listened to a lot of Cat Stevens in my younger days and I still love his music.

If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out
I was crushed when Cat Stevens renounced his musical career and set off to live another life in another world.  Of course, at the time in 1978 it was scandalous that he became Muslim; I wonder how that would be perceived today.  That never seemed to have an impact on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, wasn’t he in the movie Airplane?  You will have to forgive me if I got that wrong; I am not much of a sports person.

According to the Washington Post Magazine article I just read, Cat Stevens is performing again, re-releasing old albums and apparently writing new music.  His older music really spoke to me and, like the person who wrote the article I just read, was quite an influence in my world view and the person I became.

I absolutely LOVED the movie Harold & Maude, in no small part because of my relationship with my mom.  I was shocked to hear that movie came out 50 years ago.  Time moves so fast, and so slow.

When I think of college-age years, I think of Cat Stevens and David Bowie.  Who do you think of?

Music thread?  Whatever you want.  Totally open thread.

Update:  oh, and slightly related, BG will be back with Medium Cool this Sunday evening.  If you have any thoughts of culture-related topics you have been missing, feel free to toss them out in the comments.

Reader Interactions

228Comments

  3. 3.

    HinTN

    @Starboard Tack: Yes, and Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Miles Davis (Bitches Brew), John Coltrane (Africa Brass), Procol Harum, Cream,…, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    The Clash, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Prince, Ultravox, Nena, Boomtown Rats, Bowie, Roxy Music, The ‘Mats, Violent Femmes, The Time.

  16. 16.

    oldster

    On the themes of music, movies, time flying:

    In “A Hard Days Night,” the actor playing Paul’s granddad (a very clean old man) was 52.

    I don’t know whether our blog host is as old as Paul’s granddad yet or not, but some of us are a *lot* older than Paul’s granddad, and it’s a bit of a shock.

  17. 17.

    Ajabu

    I’ve spent those last 50 years as a working musician so my list of favorites would be too long. But special shout-outs to Randy Weston, pianist extraordinaire and Booby Martin, greatest R&B producer of all time.
    If you like Harold and Maude you’ll love Where’s Poppa? I had a big crush on Ruth Gordon back in the day…

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @Larry B: Is Turner Classic Movies something you have to pay extra for these days?  Years ago that was part of the cable package, but now Tivo tells me that I don’t get that channel.

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Omnes Omnibus: Also: Everything 2Tone, Dazz Band, the Gap Band, Commodores – but only for Brick House, P-Funk – when you have a party, you want people to dance.  “Free your mind and your ass will follow.”

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, wasn’t he in the movie Airplane?

    That’s a classic you have to re-watch every year. It might be on Netflix right now.

    College music: Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Elton John

  26. 26.

    PJ

    When I think of Cat Stevens, I think of him wishing that someone would murder Salman Rushdie.  So much for “Peace Train”.

  27. 27.

    Kristine

    When I think of college-age years, I think of Cat Stevens and David Bowie. Who do you think of?

    Fleetwood Mac. Heart. The Southern Rock boom. Tom Petty. Talking Heads. Bowie.

  29. 29.

    Sure Lurkalot

    We’ve got Harold and Maude cued up. Love both Ruth and Bud and Bud’s quirky roles like Brewster McCloud. I’m sure we’ll sing along out like last time.

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    @PJ: I have read that Cat Stevens never did that.  I believe that it was in the article I linked above. Check it out and then see what you think about what’s really true.

  33. 33.

    SpaceUnit

    And of course Cat Stevens should never be confused with Steve the Cat who gained fame with such memorable hits as Get Away From Me With Those Clippers Fool Or I’ll Scratch Out Your Eyes And Shit In The Sockets.

     

    ETA:  Say, it’s 7 o’clock hereabouts . . . I feel a beer coming on.

  35. 35.

    Emerald

    Major Cat Steven’s fan here. Actually he returned to music quite a few years ago and has at least two new albums. He hasn’t lost his touch and his voice is almost the same. Still making good music. Check out “Boots and Sand” (Paul McCartney did a bit in that). There are many new songs I like. Yeah, his return was, to me, second only to getting John Lennon back.

  37. 37.

    Scout211

    College years?  That’s a whole long time ago. . . let’s see if I can remember the albums (vinyl) I bought back then.
    James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchel, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young), Carly Simon come to mind.  I guess I was into folk singers in college.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    Youngbloods, Fairport Convention, The Band, Allman Brothers, Traffic, and stuff from high school.

  46. 46.

    JOHN MANCHESTER

    I made my living composing background music for corporate things, commercials and the occasional TV show. Fifty years ago Joni Mitchells Blue was at the top of my lists and still is. Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 also hold up. But I listen almost exclusively to J. S. Bach, particularly the vocal stuff. (B Minor Mass and the 75 CDS of Cantatas.) And that’s what I play now on piano. The fugues are way too hard, but  I can’t help myself from butchering them every day. It’s like being inside the heart and mind of the greatest musical genius that very lived (IMO).

  47. 47.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: Dead in The Red Gym Camp Randall Field House
    , Stones in McCormick Place, Allmans on Boston Common, Commander Cody ISU Bloomington Normal, Airplane Champaign Urbana, Tull, Beck, PG&E Chicago. . . Just a start.

  49. 49.

    Kalakal

    A bit dual personality

    Led Zep, Cream, Yes, Gentle Giant, Caravan, Fairport Convention, Wishbone Ash, John Martyn, Caravan

    and

    The Clash, New Order, the Specials, Madness, ABC, Spandau Ballet, Talking Heads, Motorhead, Depeche Mode, Dexeys Human League

  55. 55.

    Benw

    Lord you’re all going to laugh at me. College music: Green Day, Rancid, Social Distortion, No Doubt, Bad Religion, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Fugazi

  58. 58.

    eclare

    Depending on who/where I was hanging out, one group was Allman Brothers, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix.

    The other group was REM, Traveling Wilburys, New Order.

    And if there were dancing, Prince, Gap Band, etc.  A popular band at my SEC college was Tyrone and the Telstars, anyone else see them?  Great cover of Papa Was a Rolling Stone.

  60. 60.

    oldster

    @raven:

    I can cite a similar, though less impressive, list of concerts in response to the question, “why can’t you hear anymore?”

    eta: never saw J. Airplane, but saw J. Starship (meh) and Hot Tuna, so most of the ingredients. Both were too damned loud, and seemed so even then.

  65. 65.

    Frosty Fred

    I am very old. [ETA: I just finished a book where the protagonist was struggling with a number of life crises, including having her frail old father institutionalized with Alzheimers. At a point his age was mentioned; I will be one year older than that pretty soon here.]

    It looks as though Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam now goes by Yusuf/Cat Stevens. I think this is excellent, although he was after my college years. Grad school, I think, though.

  66. 66.

    prostratedragon

    Lots of stuff. A sample: Stevie Wonder (those first solo albums), Marvin Gaye from What’s Goin’ On, War and some other brass bands like Mandrill, Santana, Aretha. Tapestry was big everywhere. Prime dance music included James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Kool and the Gang. Was just starting to get into jazz and Latin jazz; much Miles Davis.

  67. 67.

    Rob

    When I think of college-age years, I think of Cat Stevens and David Bowie. Who do you think of?

    David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Emmylou Harris, Brian Eno, Gong, Genesis

  68. 68.

    CarolPW

    First year of college I met someone on my 18th birthday. A week later in his room he put headphones on me and played Sympathy for the Devil. Beach Boys and Beatles had been my previous musical focus, but that was a revelation.

  69. 69.

    Kalakal

    @Omnes Omnibus: ok, a lot.

    I went to uni in 1978, and I was kind of split between the stuff I’d known before like Zep and the Fairports and all the stuff that was coming in punk, new romantics, goth( I was in Leeds which was Goth city, went to same pubs as the Sisters of Mercy etc) and Ska. The UK had a pretty good range of music late 70s/80s.

    These days I’m a Blues freak

  71. 71.

    TiredOfItAll

    Same love for Cat Stevens.  Loved the Kinks. Saw a number of shows by Television back in the day.  Also Black 47 — always a rollicking good time. And the Modern Lovers. And They Might Be Giants. Anybody know Gregory Fleeman and the Fleewomen? Love the Lounge Lizards.  These days I mostly listen to jazz.  My dream for post-Covid times is to see Kurt Elling (my favorite jazz singer) at Dizzy’s Coca-Cola room (my favorite jazz music venue).   Also a Harold and Maude fan.  Also love the movie They Might Be Giants (unrelated) with George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward.

  79. 79.

    Kattails

    Started out young with the Beatles, played endlessly on a crappy portable record player, and I mean early Beatles. Chad and Jeremy, The Monkees. Sorry.

    Just after high school was Woodstock, and I moved out of the parents house shortly thereafter. So it was everything from Yes, Who, Small Faces (I can still recite long passages from Happiness Stan  and his search for the missing half of the moon). Jefferson Airplane, Procol Harum, Janis Joplin, Ten Years After, Almann Brothers (great road music), Crosby Stills Nash Young in various incarnations, Buffalo Springfield, Carol King,  Jackson Browne, James Taylor— Sweet Baby James will still bring me to a point of emotional deja vu. Yes, Cat Stevens, here it seems appropriate to use the name he was recording under. I will have to remember the new name. Jethro Tull. Stevie Rae Vaughan. Pink Floyd of course, saw them live doing Dark Side of the Moon, also saw Yes, Procol Harum, the Dead, Santana, Bonnie Raitt, B. B. King, Canadian singer Stan Rogers, and as mentioned another time both Beatles Shea Stadium concerts.

  81. 81.

    Eric S.

    @Benw: That’s roughly my college days too. My music soul is older though and I was a classic rock guy (Stones, Who, CCR, Santana, etc).

  83. 83.

    EriktheRed

    When I think of college-age years, I think of Cat Stevens and David Bowie.  Who do you think of?

    Todd Rundgren and Utopia.

  87. 87.

    PJ

    @WaterGirl: @debbie:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens%27_comments_about_Salman_Rushdie

    Kingston Polytechnic

    On 21 February 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s execution. He replied, “He must be killed. The Qur’an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die.”[4]

    Newspapers quickly denounced what was seen as Yusuf Islam’s support for the killing of Rushdie and the next day, he released a statement saying that he was not personally encouraging anybody to be a vigilante,[2] and that he was only stating that blasphemy is a capital offence according to the Qur’an.
    Hypotheticals

    Two months later, Islam appeared on an Australian television programme, ABC’s Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals,[5] an occasional broadcast featuring a panel of notable guests to explore a hypothetical situation with moral, ethical and/or political dilemmas. In the episode “A Satanic Scenario”, Islam had an exchange about the issue with the moderator and Queens Counsel Geoffrey Robertson.[6][7] Islam would later clarify the exchanges as “stupid and offensive jokes” made “in bad taste”, but “part of a well-known British national trait … dry humour on my part.”[1]

    Robertson: You don’t think that this man deserves to die?
    Y. Islam: Who, Salman Rushdie?
    Robertson: Yes.
    Y. Islam: Yes, yes.
    Robertson: And do you have a duty to be his executioner?
    Y. Islam: Uh, no, not necessarily, unless we were in an Islamic state and I was ordered by a judge or by the authority to carry out such an act – perhaps, yes.
    [Some minutes later, Robertson on the subject of a protest where an effigy of the author is to be burned]
    Robertson: Would you be part of that protest, Yusuf Islam, would you go to a demonstration where you knew that an effigy was going to be burned?
    Y. Islam: I would have hoped that it’d be the real thing.

  88. 88.

    Splitting Image

    Speaking of Stevens, another musician who converted to Islam and left music for awhile was Richard Thompson. He and his wife converted sometime in the 1970s, although he didn’t stay out of music for very long.

    I never got into Thompson until a few years ago, but I’ve been making up for it since.

  89. 89.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Geez, no love from my Geritol (De)Generation cohort for the Moody Blues? (I mean, of course, Justin Hayward and his studio band. Go look up whose name was on at least 90% of their memorable tracks.)

    (NB I saw them with a friend at Wolf Trap late in the previous millennium – during one number one of the unnamed guitarists was screwing around up front with the audience during “his” solo. Quotes because it was the instrumental version of lip-synching – my buddy nudged me and pointed toward where, well to the back of the stage and far from the spotlights, one Mr Hayward was rather modestly absorbed with actually playing the solo.)

  97. 97.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us

    @Benw: You’re only a little younger than me. Mine are Pixies, Camper Van Beethoven, REM, Sinead O’Conner.

  98. 98.

    oldster

    @HumboldtBlue:

    That’s a very sweet pooch, but the video really drives home the fact that it is deeply impervious to music.

    The human thing with grooving on a beat and crying over a chord change is deeply weird, and shared by very very few other species. It’s striking that several of them are birds that also have the ability to mimic human speech. Talking and singing and grooving seem to draw on similar biological abilities.

  99. 99.

    dnfree

    When I think of music when I was in college, I remember the first US appearance of the Beatles, my freshman year. When they sang “She was just seventeen”, I WAS just 17. Yes, a long time ago.

    The other music of that time included Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, Chad Mitchell, Kingston Trio, etc.

  101. 101.

    debbie

    @PJ:

    I think he’s woven different interpretations in different interviews over the years. In the interview I heard on NPR as he was beginning to reissue his songs, he had a tone of regret.

  102. 102.

    Tony Gerace

    I was never a big fan, but he was pretty popular during my teenage years.  I hadn’t realized that he had quit music in 1978.  I thought that he had just faded in popularity as music tastes changed.  I guess he remains part of pop culture though.  My son’s girlfriend (who was born in the mid-eighties) named her cat “Cat Stevens”.

  103. 103.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us

    Also as a GenXer, one thing I never understood was why half the people on campus were Deadheads. Half the parties I went to had some crappy Grateful Dead bootleg playing in the background. They weren’t a terrible band by any means but they weren’t really ours.

  104. 104.

    Jaysails

    Harold and Maude is hands down my favorite movie. I have seen it at least 50 times.

    Cat Stevens; Van Morrison; The Doors; Earth, Wind and Fire; Parliament Funkadekic; The Commodores; The Police; Madness; The English Beat; ; Roxy Music; Prince; The Clash; R.E.M; The DB’s; The B52’s; Elvis Costello; Little Feat; The Allman Brothers; Tom Petty; Stevie Ray Vaughn; Willie Nelson; Grateful Dead.

    I lived a house  with a boyfriend and lots of roommates in college, several of whom had large record collections, as did I. The boyfriend had wired the whole house for speakers with a set of selector switches from Radio Shack in the dining room, so there was always someone’s music on, and I liked a lot of it.

  108. 108.

    The Moar You Know

    I think Stevens’ Wild World is one of the most misogynistic things every written by anyone.  Read the lyrics.  It screams “controlling abuser”.

  111. 111.

    Richard

    I don’t take him very seriously. He did make some good songs.

    He is probably a Bektashi Shia. But i already decided that Islam and Christianity are two evil peas in the same pod. Shia, Sunni, Wahabi?

     

    Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical? Give me a break.

  113. 113.

    Kattails

    @raven: that would be an amazing job!

    Glad to have seen the original  in an outdoor venue. My hearing is such that it always sounds like a meadow in my head, with chirpy things, spring peepers and so on. 8-)

  114. 114.

    japa21

    Al Hirt, Judy Garland, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra. Andrews Sisters, Gene Krupa, Yma Sumac.

  115. 115.

    Another Scott

    College in Chicago – I remember The Wall being released and listening to it on a friend’s fancy stereo with Bose 501 speakers – he transferred to Chapel Hill a quarter or so later.  Was thinking about going to the Zeppelin show but then Bonham died and they canceled.  :-(  Saw Fleetwood Mac a couple of times at the newly opened Rosemont Horizon and enjoyed the show but the acoustics were horrid – far too much echo!!  Springsteen later refused to play there until they fixed the acoustics.  Springsteen was just starting to get huge and I remember people talking about his amazing 4 hours shows in smallish venues downtown, but never got the gumption to try to see him.  Saw and enjoyed King Crimson at a small theatre on campus.

    I was pretty much a home-body then and still regret not going out to the blues clubs.  :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  118. 118.

    LaméDuck

    Twice in my life I was lucky enough to score tickets for a taping of the Colbert Report way back in the day. The musical guest for one show was Cat Stevens. The other was The National.

  119. 119.

    oldster

    I halfway quoted Ann Lamott in my last comment, so I should name her and give the full quote:

    “How come you can hear a chord, and then another chord, and then your heart breaks open?”

  120. 120.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    I mentioned to Madame that they play 70’s music at Home Depot, her reply was “They have music at Home Depot?”  Much of it is quite good, ranging from about 1970-1980(or 81).  But if I hear ‘Wildfire’ one more time…

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    @The Moar You Know: Interesting take.  I just looked at the world and I don’t take it that way.

    Of course, a lot of the music we all grew up to was pretty awful, message-wise.  “how can my heart go on beating?”  etc.

  125. 125.

    Kattails

    People commenting on Harold And Maude & the soundtrack, I will make it a point to re-watch that, have forgotten a lot. Another wonderful film was Local Hero, with soundtrack by Mark Knopfler. One of my all time favorites.

  129. 129.

    Burnspbesq

    Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Springsteen, and Steely Dan through junior year. Then Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Television, and the Clash.

  131. 131.

    oldster

    @Another Scott:

    Saw Springsteen before ‘Born to Run,” so maybe it was ’74 or ’75, and he did indeed give an amazing 4-hour concert.

    It was in a tiny open-air amphitheater in DC, hardly bigger than a tennis court. Decent acoustics, and probably less hearing damage that day.

  132. 132.

    James E Powell

    I was in college from 1977-1980. It was a great period in music. Some established artists came out with great stuff – Stones, Bowie, Steely Dan – and there were so many new bands, so many different sounds. It was a great time to be a music geek hanging out at the used record store. Very much like High Fidelity, but more like the book than the movie.

  134. 134.

    frosty

    @raven: I started in 69, undergrad in 73 (had to keep that 2S!) MS in 81, second MS in 95 and I was cured of ever going back for a PhD.

    Actually talked out of it. I asked my MS advisor how many other courses I would need and his answer (several times) was “You don’t want a PhD”. He was right.

  135. 135.

    Villago Delenda Est

    When I think of my college years, it’s Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, ELO, Boston, Springsteen, and Dire Straits.  Among others.  Oh yeah Art Garfunkle’s Breakaway.​

  141. 141.

    Almost Retired

    @raven:  Which One’s Pink!!  I am familiar with them.  They played at Sainte Rocke in Hermosa Beach in the immediate before times (2019), and are playing in a couple weeks at a weekend festival in Redondo Beach. Both venues are within walking distance of my house, so I can go home and nap between sets.

  142. 142.

    lowtechcyclist

    I don’t think much about music in conjunction with college. In high school, I remember a lot of being at someone’s house and their saying, “you gotta listen to this” and playing some great music that I hadn’t heard before. College, not so much.

    So high school (1972 grad). People playing “Fire and Rain” and “Helplessly Hoping” at the UCM coffeehouse, fall of 1970. Or the Halloween party at Jeannette’s the next fall, where she put on Tea for the Tillerman which I instantly fell in love with. (Though my real fall of 1971 soundtrack was CSN&Y’s Four-Way Street. Anyone remember Neil’s intro to “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”? “It sorta starts off real slow, then fizzles out altogether.”)

    Or David P. playing Aqualung for me in early 1971, because he knew I was a Jesus freak, and figured it would freak me out. I loved it, and it’s still one of my favorite albums. George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, Dylan’s New Morning, Webber & Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar (even if their Jesus was a regular fountain of whining and self-pity, the music was still good)…the list goes on, and it occurs to me that I heard every one of those songs/albums for the first time between September 1970 and October 1971. Quite a time, and one hell of a soundtrack for it.

  145. 145.

    brantl

    Beatles, Stones, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Mississipi John Hurt, Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, Leon Russell, Leon Redbone, Arlo Guthrie, Carol King, CSNY, John Hammond, Cat Stevens, The Shondells, Led Zeppelin, James Taylor, John Denver, John Prine, Pete Seeger.

  146. 146.

    frosty

    @raven: ​
     The only Dead concert I ever saw was in the UCSB stadium in ’76, with the Wall of Sound. Crispest, cleanest loud music I ever heard. I read on Wikipedia that it almost bankrupted the band.
    Possible cause of the current tinnitus? Grand Funk Railroad with Black Sabbath opening. My ears rang for 18 hours.

  149. 149.

    Kattails

    @JOHN MANCHESTER: You are not all alone in the classical world, that’s what I listen to almost exclusively now, though not focused on Bach. Being able to get so far as to butcher his work on the piano would be a gift. I just listened to Sharon Isbin playing the lute suites last night, maybe I should put on Rostropovich doing the cello concertos later.

  150. 150.

    JoyceH

    Some years ago, I watched Abdul-Jabbar on Celebrity Jeopardy. The contestants were Terri Ferrel (Dax on Deep Space Nine), McLean Stevenson (MASH), and Kareem. I made my predictions on who would win. I knew that actors who played scientists on television tended to disappoint in the brains department, but Stevenson had been a standup comic, and that requires some mental quickness. Abdul-Jabbar of course was a professional jock. So my money was on Stevenson.

    Outcome – Kareem wiped the FLOOR with the other two contestants. Ferrel was even more of a rock than I expected, and Stevenson was disappointing. But I learned that not all Jocks are Dumb Jocks.

    Older memory, since we’re on the music of our youth. When I was still in high school, I saw Donovan on television, I think it was his introduction to an American audience. That weekend I went to the one record store in my little small town to ask if they had records by Donovan. The clerk said no, said they were a small store and could only carry the really popular stuff, not the less well-known names. I drew myself up and in my outraged ‘how dumb can you be’ teenager voice, said, “He was on ED SULLIVAN!”

  151. 151.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mike in NC: ♫I shoulda learned to play the guitar.  I shoulda learned to play those drums.

    Maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb.♫

  152. 152.

    frosty

    @James E Powell: ’77-’80 was really good. Elvis Costello and Blondie were my faves. Saw Blondie in 2019 at the theater where I used to take my dates to see movies in high school. Very weird.

  153. 153.

    hotshoe

    I can hardly believe I saw Harold and Maude in theater when it first opened — yet I know that I must have, because I saw it with my mom, and the last time I lived in the same town as her was 1972 — when the film opened in Los Angeles.

    I’m not quite as wonderful a person as Maude, but she’s been a role model all my adult life and I can at least be happy that I, too, have saved some little trees.

  155. 155.

    JoyceH

    Oh, and other music? Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Janis Joplin, Carole King, and as a VERY young teen, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Herman’s Hermits.

  156. 156.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Led Zeppelin, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Specials, early Allman Brothers, Booker and the MGs, The Beatles, early Who.

    ETA: Elvis Costello, Talking Heads

  159. 159.

    oldster

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Supertramp can be found on youtub now. For years it was not available there because of royalty disputes. But about a year ago, most of Breakfast in America was uploaded, and not taken down. Goodbye Stranger, Take the Long Way Home, solid tunes.

  161. 161.

    laura

    I picked up my newly rejuvenated early 80’s Technics SL-Q5 and we played a slew of records after all the connections were made and grounding was done. Sweet Dexter Gordon, the turntable turned and the joy of records from a brief sampling of my lifetime of records- of which there is an early 70’s Cat Steven’s but I’ve not yet played. So far, the Slits, English Beat, live Van Morrison, Pat Metheny live. Whooo Weeee, good stuff!

  162. 162.

    Scuffletuffle

    Have you seen “Call me by your name”? Beautiful movie and full of Yusuf Islam music that will break your heart…

  166. 166.

    JOHN MANCHESTER

    @Kattails: If you want an introduction to Bach’s vocal music google “BWV 45” (a cantata) and listen to the first movement.

    Non-Bach: The St. Saens organ symphony is a gem. And with the same theme as the great finale of Mozart’s Jupiter symphony. (It was a riff floating around back then.)

  169. 169.

    TiredOfItAll

    @The Moar You Know: Maybe “Wild World” is a little paternalistic. For out and out misogyny, there’s The Beatles’ “Run For Your Life”:
    “Well, I’d rather see you dead, little girl
    Than to be with another man
    You better keep your head, little girl
    Or I won’t know where I am
    You better run for your life if you can, little girl….”

  170. 170.

    Kattails

    @JOHN MANCHESTER : I’ve heard some of the Bach cantatas, but will check out your reference. Very lucky to have Vermont Public Radio’s 24 hour classical station available, in fact there is a regular choral hour.  Did Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna last week.
    I love the organ symphony, it would be amazing to see live.  There’s a very good YouTube of it with Paavo Jarvi conducting, at the London Proms. Also on YouTube, the Egyptian piano concerto, Thibaudet, Andris Nelsons and the Concertgebouw.

  171. 171.

    Richard

    @PJ: i am not agreeing with this statement by Yusuf Islam. It is horrible and repugnant. It is the words of a mentally ill person.

     

    I never understand, how this person could say this.

     

    As i struggle to go along, i try to remember that religion is a mental illness.

  172. 172.

    NotMax

    @JoyceH

    Surprised at some other names thus far (near as I can tell) unmentioned.

    The Mamas & The Papas, The Supremes, Buffalo Springfield, Thunderclap Newman, The Electric Prunes, Lovin’ Spoonful, The Fifth Dimension, Deep Purple, Chambers Brothers, The Byrds, Ian and Sylvia…

    A skootch later on came Flying Burrito Brothers, Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, Emitt Rhodes…

  173. 173.

    piratedan

    cut my teeth on Raspberries and Badfinger. Graduated to ELO, Cars and Boston… and then transitioned to Elvis Costello, Rockpile, Blondie and REM. Nowadays its Southern Culture on the Skids, Widowspeak, Khrangulbin and mining the Surf, Rockabilly, New Wave and Shoegaze genres for hidden gems.

  174. 174.

    Poe Larity

    College? Meh, rock was mostly over by then and Cyndi Lauper didn’t do it for me. Prince and weird stuff helped.

    Fortunately, I remember grade school. Three Dog Night, Funkadelic, Soul Train Saturdays and Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street

    You can’t go back

  175. 175.

    lurker

    @PJ: have not watched the link, or looked at the old articles/transcripts/etc.  However, my recollection was that Yusuf Islam publicly stated that he supported the fatwa and believed that those who defame the Prophet must be put to death according to the Quran.  From my point of view, he seemed pretty matter of fact about it – not so much fanatical as saying this is how it is.  I always found that pretty disturbing, and it made a lot of his music harder to listen to as a result.

    At the same time, he was already known for using much of his royalty income stream to support Islamic charities, and seemed to be embracing an attempt to use money to support good works – he did not seem like he was aiming to be a radical extremist.

    I have, over the years, been amazed by more than a few Muslim acquaintances who had this same type of matter of fact view.  Some were similarly surprised that I did not take a similar view of insults to my own religion of my childhood – for those who knew me well enough to be aware of it.  They seemed to have a tough time with the idea of a worldview that contradicted their own religion in that regard.  In contrast, there were plenty of other more secular Muslims I encountered who managed to have a more nuanced view on the fatwas and similar types of things, including some who were completely revolted by the idea of eating anything involving pork, for example.

     

    Hard to know what to make of the whole thing, and what to make of some bible-believing types who cannot deal with someone who contradicts that world-view either.  Engineers who told me evolution was clearly a fairy tale…

    well, enough on that area of human confusion.

  179. 179.

    JOHN MANCHESTER

    @Kattails: I don’t go much for recent Classical stuff (aside from Elgar, whom I’ll confess a weakness for) but I really enjoyed Lux Aeterna.

    The best interpretations I’ve heard of the Cantatas hands down are by Ton Koopman in Amsterdam.

  180. 180.

    lurker

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Regarding Murdock, that dude was tall and had quite the beard.  He really reminded me of someone.  And he seemed like he should have been a basketball player at some point. Was clearly really into the Lakers as I recall – had the shorts on at some point.  But I guess he must have tried playing center when he was younger, as he complained about how hard it could be busting his hump and getting fouled or some such – he might have been another Lew Alcindor if he kept it up.

     

    On another point, my recollection is that Kareem did deal with some negative issues as a result of his conversion.  However, John Wooden was generally pretty tolerant of his players doing unusual off-court things as long as they kept out of trouble for the program at UCLA.  Another example is Bill Walton, who was tolerated in his essentially hippy ways and Grateful Dead appreciation, because he produced for Wooden on the court.  That aspect and the timing of Kareem’s conversion (at UCLA) may have helped.  Apparently he did not use his new name until several years later though, so the gradual nature of the change may have made a difference too.

  181. 181.

    JOHN MANCHESTER

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I was lucky to play guitar for Linda’s opening act (Livingston Taylor) on the Living in the USA tour summer of ’78. Got to hear her first few songs every night; she never hit a bad note. (We had to leave before the end of her set to escape the traffic leaving the venue. We had a bus and she and band had a Lear Jet.)

  183. 183.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @lurker: Walton came back one summer with long hair and a beard and Coach told him, that you know the rules Bill and Walton said he wasn’t going to cut his hair and shave.  Coach told him that he would be missed.

  185. 185.

    frosty

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ​  The Chairman Jerry phase wasn’t early Rondstadt, that was early-middle, after she had done my favorite albums.
    “The Sound of My Voice” was a great documentary. BTW, I saw her several times, including the Troubadour, Palomino, and Bridges Auditorium in Claremont.​​​​

  189. 189.

    lurker

    On the subject of music in the original post – my time in college saw a few interesting things – Flashpoint from the Stones, Changes from Bowie.  These were not good developments.  It seemed like there were a lot of good albums (remember those) that came out a few years earlier.  On the other hand, I connected with some younger kids and saw Jane’s Addiction at the first Lollapalooza tour, so that was interesting.

    Being around a lot of different people and distinct groups of people, I ran into a lot of different music.  Examples are too numerous to list, but here were a few:

    The Clash, Talking Heads, Prince, Ultravox, Nena, R.E.M.,  Berlin, The Specials, Madness, ABC, New Order, Depeche Mode, Green Day, Rancid, Social Distortion, Roxy Music, Violent Femmes, The Time, Traveling Wilburys,  Prince, Tears for Fears, Black 47, Bad Religion, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Fugazi, They Might Be Giants, The Police, Madness, The English Beat, Moody Blues, Springsteen, Steely Dan, Dire Straits, Beatles

     

    I still remember a few key things:  first time I heard Sultans of Swing – that was a really big deal; first time I figured out that Dylan was always an option for karaoke, as no matter how pathetic my singing was, I could still sing as well as he did – How does it feel? (having to listen to me sing…); third – a group called Chumbawumba came out with something called Tubthumping a few years later and a musician friend and I were discussing how most songs had a hook and some additional lyrics and music (maybe even theme and variations), whereas these guys had put together something like 3-5 hooks over and over to make a song that was all hook.

     

    Ok – enough of this – other things to deal with…

  191. 191.

    lurker

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: very believable – my impression was he had to be presentable, but could get away with other behavior away from the court.  It’s too bad Wooden made Walton such a humble, unconfident guy who is afraid to share his opinions…

  195. 195.

    PJ

    @lurker: ​
      I could not care less regarding what myths anyone chooses to believe, but I care very much when that belief entails executing other people because they offended your beliefs.

  196. 196.

    Starboard Tack

    @lurker: Walton could compete on the Olympic boring team.

    ETA: Along with Raftery and Vitale, although Raftery’s more annoying.

  198. 198.

    Steeplejack

    This thread has put me in a maudlin mood, but I’ve been a bit squiggly all week. My back has been killing me, for some unknown reason, and that has further disrupted my already patchy sleep cycle.

    I was lying in bed late the other night, reading/surfing on my phone, and somewhere I saw a surname that jogged a memory. “Oh, I’ll look up Jackie [surname],” a girl I knew since high school (and not related to the website mention). The first link that came up was to a GoFundMe campaign for “Jackie’s Bucket List,” 2017, and the second was a link to her obituary less than a year later. Glioblastoma—malignant brain tumor.

    I was stunned. I had a huge crush on Jackie in high school, and we went to the prom together as juniors. We kept up through the years, writing letters and occasionally seeing each other (as friends) but gradually lost contact. She ended up marrying a guy with the surname that had triggered my interest. I hadn’t had any news of her in probably five or ten years. It’s one thing to find out that someone you knew has died, and it gets more common as you get older, of course, but somehow it is very different to find out they died three years ago.

    There was a good picture of Jackie with her obituary that showed that the cute, elfin blonde I went to the prom with in 1968 had morphed into a cute, blond old lady with the same big smile on her face. I would have known her immediately. Heartbreaking.

    I thought about her tonight because of the music in this thread. After the school year ended in 1968 I didn’t see her again until school started in the fall. I went to the opening dance/​mixer and walked into the dimly lit teen club at Sukiran to see Jackie up on the stage in front of the band belting out “Somebody to Love.” I knew she had a great singing voice—her speaking voice was very musical—but that was revelatory.

    She did a few more songs with the band and stepped down. I don’t remember much about that night, how much we talked or what we talked about. It was that weird time in high school when people change radically in a matter of months or your attention just goes somewhere else. (Does high school have not-weird times? Rhetorical question.)

    Anyway, we stayed friends and kept in touch for a long time. As I said, I hadn’t seen her in years, but this ending came as a big shock. You have people that are part of your background furniture, so to speak—part of who you were and what you became—and it’s a jolt when they are suddenly gone.

    RIP, Jackie. “Embryonic Journey.”

  209. 209.

    RaflW

    College age, I think of REM, Devo, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel. Saw all but the first in concert (well, Devo was high school). U2 I saw three times, once in H.S. and twice in just my undergrad years.

    I got my my college girlfriend interested in Joe Jackson, his jazzier albums were good make out music. She also secretly liked my Smiths records, but her best friend thought “Some girls are bigger than others” was mean (it wasn’t!).

  212. 212.

    BigJimSlade

    @FlyingToaster: Styx. Sigh… I’m embarassed by my Styx years, age 11–14 or so. I came to think of Dennis DeYoung as one of those musicians who learned the styles in high school: this is how you play jazz, this is how you play country, this is how you play rock. He sounds like a theater guy playing the “rock style.”

    Much later, but early in the blog years, I read a great takedown of Styx and The Grand Illusion – can’t recall where that was now, but it was pretty funny.

  214. 214.

    lurker

    @PJ: Yup … tend to be a live and let live person myself, although parts of the right wing of these united states have tested me more than usual recently…

  215. 215.

    lurker

    @Starboard Tack: agreed … there is a market for that somewhere, but I watch a lot less sports than I used to, and announcing is at least part of it.  Tivo/replaytv/dvr is about the only way I consume most events.

  216. 216.

    Splitting Image

    @TiredOfItAll:

    For out and out misogyny, there’s The Beatles’ “Run For Your Life”:

    Gotta defend Lennon on this one. “Run For Your Life” is a parody of an Elvis Presley song from 1955 called “Baby Let’s Play House”. The “I’d rather see you dead” line is a direct quote. I don’t think the Beatles song really works anymore because no one remembers the original, but it wasn’t meant to sound the way it does today.

    Baby, Let’s Play House

  217. 217.

    lurker

    @RaflW: cannot believe I missed U2 in the ridiculous list I compiled.  There were a lot of other bands that could have been listed.  But I saw U2 live at least twice.  Then again, I also had a copy of zoo station.  Some interesting songs, but Hmm…

  220. 220.

    Nick

    @Rusty: As far as I know, this cat hasn’t renounced his support for the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie.

     

    He is a “no go” for me

  221. 221.

    Jørgen

    Bowie
    Talking Heads
    Martha and the Muffins
    Joe Jackson
    Linton Kwesi Johnson
    King Crimson (Discipline version)
    XTC
    Random Hold
    Little Feat
    Japan
    Peter Gabriel
    Fischer-Z
    Echo and the Bunnymen

  222. 222.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @japa21: Al Hirt, now there’s a blast from the past!

    I recall watching him play “Java” on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall one evening ca. 1963. The reason I recall it (out of all the other nights we watched – Perry was one of Mom’s favorite crooners) is what happened afterwards:

    Perry met Al in front of the curtain after he concluded, and at one point said something like, “And do you know this man is the father of eight** children??” At which point the curtain parted to reveal a white staircase prop upon which were arrayed the aforementioned Hirtspawn. The studio audience applauded, um, lustily.

    But it wasn’t even that.

    The screen cut to a closeup of Mr Hirt smiling broadly, and as the clapping started to fade, he said,

    Don’t applaud, folks, it was my pleasure!

    ;^D

    Now was that a setup? And if so, by whom, the trumpet guy? Or were the host and director in cahoots with this, mmm, gentle tweaking of the bluenoses of broadcast?

    Anyway, pretty dang racy for a family variety show on the public airwaves at that time. Which is why I remember it*** from that long ago.

    ** At least that’s the number Wiki reports having survived their father; there may have been more that didn’t but my google-fu done failed me.

    *** Along with other scurrilous bits of the decade, e.g., Moms Mabley’s off-color joke told (IIRC) told on the Smothers Brothers’ show, and Johnny Carson’s memorably mordant comeback (which the fuddyduddies at snopes.com say never happened, dagnabit!) to the wife of the famous golfer (Palmer? Nicklaus?) who when asked what she did to give her husband luck, innocently and infamously replied, “I kiss his balls…”

  223. 223.

    TiredOfItAll

    @Splitting Image: Thanks, I did not know Baby, Let’s Play House — why I like this blog, I always learn something. Although I would posit that Lennon certainly made it darker.

  224. 224.

    BigJimSlade

    @JOHN MANCHESTER: Wonderful! I personally love the solo violin pieces by Bach – I have Yehudi Menuhin’s early recordings. Regarding Bach, Emmanuel Music in Boston  performs a cantata in a church every weekend! Back when I lived in Boston, after years of thinking I should check it out, I finally got myself to go to one – it was really neat to here a cantata in something like it’s real setting:
    https://www.emmanuelmusic.org/performance-info/2021-2022-cantata-schedule
    https://www.emmanuelboston.org/

  225. 225.

    way2blue

    Wow. Lot’s of comments…
    Laura Nyro. The student across the hall from me in my freshman dorm used to sing her songs. Also. I’d just discovered Gordon Lightfoot & Cat Stevens (via my dorm roommate) and Kris Kristofferson—who I finally saw in person about 10 years ago. Open-air performance with Merle Haggard plus guests, John Prine & Joan Baez. Very cool.

  226. 226.

    Bonnie

    My college years we were listening to Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Johnny Mathis, The Beatles. I loved any group that had one or more of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. There was Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Three Dog Night, the Carpenters, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Jones, and mustn’t forget Eric Clapton in Cream, Derek and the Dominoes, and solo. I became aware that Cat Stevens was singing again when he was enshrined into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a while back. I used to play Morning Has Broken daily. Many of my music memories go beyond college. Springsteen and Bob Seger were part of my after college life. I didn’t have my generation gap until rap and hip hop became the main music. Where that is concerned, I am Sgt. Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes: I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing . . . And, because before I was a teenager, I listened to my Mom and Dad’s favorites from the Big Band Era. So, Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, Sinatra, etc., mean a lot to me, too.

  228. 228.

    lurker

    am told by a relative who lives there that you do not really appreciate the limits of a one hit wonder until such a band plays a small/medium venue or fest in central Alaska.  You get things like a crowd hearing a couple of new/original/obscure songs and responding with a chant of “Play”…”The Hit”…”Play”…”The Hit” etc.  Not sure of how that relates to a thread that I already tried to kill, but there you are…

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