I listened to a lot of Cat Stevens in my younger days and I still love his music.
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.
Starboard Tack
The Who. Small Faces. Fleetwood Mac w/Peter Green. The Doors.
TheOtherHank
The Blasters, Los Lobos, Lone Justice, X
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
dr. luba
David Bowie, Blondie, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols……that was my college years.
Larry B
Great timing.
Harold and Maude on Turner Classic Movies Tonight.
Omnes Omnibus
The Clash, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Prince, Ultravox, Nena, Boomtown Rats, Bowie, Roxy Music, The ‘Mats, Violent Femmes, The Time.
FlyingToaster
Styx. R.E.M. Berlin. Pat Metheny.
HinTN
@Larry B: Headed for the DVR now. Thanks
gwangung
Gil Scott Heron. Earth Wind and Fire. Stevie Wonder. Smokey Robinson.
hueyplong
Santana. Pretty sure I got on people’s nerves constantly putting on Santana.
Omnes Omnibus
I can damn near guess ages from this.
Rusty
He goes by Yusuf Islam, out of respect we should use his name.
hueyplong
@FlyingToaster: sheepishly raising hand for Pleasure Victim in grad school.
Omnes Omnibus
@hueyplong: I own that one too.
Starboard Tack
David Bowie was part of the soundtrack for decades.
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.
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…
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.
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.”
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl:
Part of my package.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Strange. Looks like I can’t record Harold and Maude.
Steeplejack (phone)
Cat Stevens? (Perhaps) little-known fact: he wrote “Here Comes My Baby,” a hit for the Tremeloes, covered by many groups since then, including Yo La Tengo, but I’ma go with the Mavericks because of my well-known penchant for go-go dancers. Oh, yeah, here’s Cat’s version. Or, you know, the Jags doing it Clash/Costello style.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Mink Deville.
ETA: Technically, that was senior year in HS.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): I didn’t know he wrote that, and I had never heard his version. I do love his voice.
Mike in NC
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
PJ
When I think of Cat Stevens, I think of him wishing that someone would murder Salman Rushdie. So much for “Peace Train”.
Kristine
Fleetwood Mac. Heart. The Southern Rock boom. Tom Petty. Talking Heads. Bowie.
WaterGirl
@Mike in NC: Airplane really holds up well.
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
alongout like last time.prostratedragon
@oldster: Not the first time I’ve wondered if those numbers used to mean something different than they do now.
raven
College age years, ha!
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.
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.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: All 37 of them for you?
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.
Bodacious
Absolutely LOVED Harold & Maude!!! (And Rocky Horror Picture Show)
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.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: A lot of those were high school for me, but I was into folk singers, too, and all of the ones you listed.
debbie
Youngbloods, Fairport Convention, The Band, Allman Brothers, Traffic, and stuff from high school.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Started in 69, undergrad in 78, Masters in 86, Doc in 99.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Okay, 30.
jnfr
Harold and Maude is absolutely tops of my favorite movies list.
debbie
@PJ:
Not wishing death so much as condemning Rushdie’s disrespect for his religion.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Sadly, Airplane! isn’t currently on Netflix.
But it did recommend Jaws. ⁉️
jnfr
@Scout211:
Much of that for me as well.
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).
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Dead in The
Red GymCamp 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.NotMax
@Rusty
This. And thank you.
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
MagdaInBlack
@raven: I’m pretty envious of you having seen the Allmans.
WaterGirl
@JOHN MANCHESTER: We have a classical musician Artists in our Midst next weekend. You might enjoy that!
Edit: We have a poet featured tomorrow.
Steeplejack (phone)
College: Abbey Road, Santana, Idlewild South, Carole King’s Tapestry, James Taylor, CSNY, Buddy Miles’s Them Changes, Ahmad Jamal, Freddy Robinson, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, etc.
Buddy Miles covers the Allman Brothers: “Dreams.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Kalakal: A bit?
WaterGirl
It’s a perfect evening here – 72 degrees. Perfect porch-sitting weather.
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
FelonyGovt
College years- I ‘m old. James Taylor, Neil Young, Sly and the Family Stone…
WaterGirl
@Benw: Didn’t you go to a concert this week?
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.
Omnes Omnibus
@Benw: That was law school in the early/mid-90s
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.
NotMax
Hiowzabout some one-hit wonders which populated the AM dial? Such as this from 1967.
;)
WaterGirl
@oldster:
hahaha
(in case you can’t hear that, I am laughing)
Steeplejack (phone)
Cat Stevens makes me think of Tears for Fears. And Tears for Fears makes me think of Gary Jules: “Mad World.”
Cat Stevens also makes me think of Nick Drake: “River Man.”
West of the Rockies
@Emerald:
He struggles with Father and Son, but does sound pretty good still.
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.
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.
Rob
David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Emmylou Harris, Brian Eno, Gong, Genesis
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.
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
Another Scott
The only time I’ve seen Cat Stevens / Yusuf live was at the Stewart / Colbert rally in DC. The Peace Train / Crazy Train piece with Ozzy was fun.
He was great then, and I assume he still is now.
Cheers,
Scott.
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.
WaterGirl
@Frosty Fred: That was lovely, thanks for the link!
oldster
@WaterGirl:
Stop mumbling! Why can’t you young people speak distinctly any more?
raven
@MagdaInBlack: Twice before Duane died.
Ruckus
Airplane! is on Amazon Prime and Hulu. Not on Netflix
raven
@oldster: I’ve seen Hot Tuna a couple of times and Jorma once. How did I forget Santana twice, 47 years apart!
?BillinGlendaleCA
No, that was Roger Murdock, the co-pilot.
raven
@oldster: When I got the VA hearing aids I just cited the artillery and left out the Wall of Sound!!!
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.
raven
@Kattails: My brother manages this Floyd Tribute Band,
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).
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ah, yes, it comes back to me now.
EriktheRed
Todd Rundgren and Utopia.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack (phone):
God, how could I forget Van Morrison’s Moondance? Also John Mayall’s The Turning Point.
And Gordon Lightfoot’s Sunday Concert, in a weird apposite. “Apology.”
And I’ll throw in the James Gang’s “Midnight Man.”
The antiwar demonstrations in the fall of ’70 were a big deal. CSNY, “Ohio.” . . . That made me cry.
Joni, “Woodstock.” And CSNY’s take.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ha! Maybe until the kid quoted his dad saying he was lazy!
HumboldtBlue
If you haven’t met the biggest dog o the music scene, well, here’s your chance.
PJ
@WaterGirl: @debbie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens%27_comments_about_Salman_Rushdie
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.
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.)
PJ
@PJ:
You can judge for yourselves if you think Islam was “joking”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-wjxwpvqps
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): Also “Find the Cost of Freedom”
and “What Are Their Names” Crosby
raven
@Splitting Image:
Richard & Linda Thompson – A Heart Needs A Home
debbie
@raven:
I saw them in Boston right after Duane died. Whoever filled in on piano was very impressive.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack (phone):
CSNY, “Almost Cut My Hair.”
Richie Havens, “Freedom.”
Hendrix at Woodstock, end theme.
debbie
@Steeplejack (phone):
“Room to Move” was our senior song in high school.
WaterGirl
@raven: Great songs, great links.
YouTube just recommended John Prine and Nancy Griffith. I hope someone dedicated a Covid flag to John Prine.
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.
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.
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.
eclare
@HumboldtBlue: So talented!
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.
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”.
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.
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.
Tony Gerace
@Tony Gerace: And, oh yeah, supporting the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I wonder whether he ever atoned for that.
eclare
@Steeplejack (phone): Almost Cut My Hair was very popular with my boyfriend and his friends. They were a bit shaggy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: There were two Bruins in Airplane, the other one “Picked the wrong week to quit…”.
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”.
Steeplejack (phone)
@debbie:
“Room to Move.”
My favorite: “California.”
Tony Gerace
@eclare: Yeah. That song was David Crosby at his looniest.
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.
Steeplejack (phone)
@eclare:
Lettin’ their freak flag fly!
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-)
japa21
Al Hirt, Judy Garland, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra. Andrews Sisters, Gene Krupa, Yma Sumac.
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.
eclare
@Steeplejack (phone): As freaky as you could get at Vanderbilt…
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Really? I had no idea.
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.
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?”
?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…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Lloyd and his wife met at UCLA while they were students.
I’ll admit that I didn’t know about this until recently, the other surprise was that James Dean was also an alum.
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.
Steeplejack (phone)
@japa21:
Al Hirt, “Stranger in Paradise.”
WaterGirl
@LaméDuck: I love your nym.
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.
PJ
@debbie: Sure, he regrets it – it’s cut into his profits. But he never apologized for it.
Mike in NC
@Uncle Cosmo: Moody Blues! Thank you because I loved them in the mid-70s and was drawing a blank.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
If I Could Only Remember My Name is a desert island album for me.
Burnspbesq
Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Springsteen, and Steely Dan through junior year. Then Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Television, and the Clash.
Kattails
@?BillinGlendaleCA: if “that song” ends up as an ear worm I will cut you, dammit.
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.
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.
Ruckus
Just heard a nice take on Steve Winwood’s Can’t Find My Way Home
And Playing for Change – Peace Train with Yusuf/Cat Stevens
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.
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.
Benw
@WaterGirl: yeah Joan Jett. Who fucking ROCKS. It was good
Mike in NC
@Burnspbesq: They’re all wonderful but I never heard of Television.
Benw
@Omnes Omnibus: yep
WaterGirl
@Benw: There’s something about live music…
Benw
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us: yep, I’m about 5 years younger :)
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.
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.
Mike in NC
@Villago Delenda Est: Dire Straits were rock-and-roll perfection.
Starboard Tack
Zappa.
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.
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.
Chief Oshkosh
@Steeplejack (phone): Love the Tremeloes.
Benw
@WaterGirl: and Joan Jett, who just killed it live. She was AMAZING
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.
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!”
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.♫
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.
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.
Villago Delenda Est
@Benw:
Amazing talent, Joan is.
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.
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
Starboard Tack
@frosty: The Who in 1971? with Grand Funk Railroad first up.
zhena gogolia
Boccherini cello concerto
ETA: And Zappa.
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.
Starboard Tack
@zhena gogolia: I met Zappa and Jimmie Carl Black in line at the concession stand before a concert in the early 70s. They looked very clean up close.
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!
Scuffletuffle
Have you seen “Call me by your name”? Beautiful movie and full of Yusuf Islam music that will break your heart…
brantl
@The Moar You Know: Nope.
Benw
@WaterGirl: live music just can’t be faked. I’ve missed it badly since COVID
Steeplejack
@Burnspbesq:
Saturate Before Using! The album title that wasn’t really the album title. I studied that album in the head shop/record store for a long time before I bought it. Finally took a chance.
“Rock Me on the Water.”
Early Ronstadt and Steely Dan, too.
Another odd connection: from around that same time—Malo, “Suavecito.”
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.)
Steeplejack
@Kattails:
Rebuff the earworm with the Byrds’ “Ballad of Easy Rider.”
Origuy
@JOHN MANCHESTER: One of Bach’s lesser known works: the Coffee Cantata. Turn on English subtitles. It’s about a coffee-addicted young woman and her father.
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….”
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.
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.
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…
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.
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
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack:
Back when she was dating Chairman Jerry.
NotMax
@JoyceH
Stevenson left M*A*S*H for Hello, Larry.
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
;)
Kattails
@Steeplejack: Just listened. I’d forgotten it. My mental turntable had randomly selected SRV doing Cold Shot, but this will work fine as well.
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.
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.
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.)
eclare
@NotMax: Jim Croce was more of a childhood memory for me, my dad was a big fan. Great songs, perfect for driving.
?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.
dopey-o
No one remembers The Electric Flag?
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.
Starboard Tack
@dopey-o: I’ll see your Electric Flag and raise you an Ultimate Spinach.
NotMax
@dopey-o
Or, for that matter, Nazz?
frosty
@Starboard Tack: Ooohh! I had the Ultimate Spinach album too! Now there’s an obscure lost band.
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…
Starboard Tack
@frosty: There’s also Spooky Tooth skulking in the mists.
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…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lurker: You listed Madness twice. I saw them open for Bowie.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lurker: Heh, the story comes from Walton. He tells it almost every time he does UCLA Basketball broadcasts.
NotMax
@dopey-o – @NotMax
One more: Lothar and the Hand People.
;)
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.
Starboard Tack
@lurker: Walton could compete on the Olympic boring team.
ETA: Along with Raftery and Vitale, although Raftery’s more annoying.
Kattails
@JOHN MANCHESTER: The Los Angeles Master Chorale owns that piece, if you haven’t heard their version.
If I’m stuck in a creative block, The Lark Ascending will always break it loose.
I made a note of your recommendation.
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.”
NotMax
@Kattails
Totally different genre, Lark Descending.
;)
Kattails
@NotMax: “They don’t so much fly as plummet”?
prostratedragon
“City, Country, City,” War
Omnes Omnibus
Joy Divison, New Order, Everything But The Girl, Cocteau Twins, Yaz/oo, Pogues.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
The Go-Betweens, “Streets of Your Town.”
Shakespear’s Sister, “Could You Be Loved.”
Swing Out Sister, “Breakout.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Two great ones, but I never cottoned to Swing Out Sister.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
C’mon, man—Corinne’s haircut alone!
Okay, that is a little poppy. Twilight World was a good album. Song.
Palate-cleanser: Lisa Stansfield, “All Around the World.”
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Everything but the Girl, “Before Today.”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Nicky Holland, “Lady Killer.”
LarryB
@WaterGirl: depends on cable system. I do all my tv online and I get tcm in a multi channel movie package for $5/month
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!).
BigJimSlade
@TheOtherHank: No The GoGos or The Bangles or The Untouchables?
BigJimSlade
@Ajabu: Randy Weston — I second that shout-out!!!
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.
lurker
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Madness has that effect…takes you one step beyond…you can find yourself in a ghost town…mainly ‘cuz of hooligans at clubs
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…
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.
Splitting Image
@TiredOfItAll:
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
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…
lurker
@Steeplejack: not quite the same, but there is also
Lush-Ladykillers
Steeplejack
@lurker:
That’s pretty good. Hadn’t heard it before.
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
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
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:
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,
;^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…”
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.
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/
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.
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.
lurker
@Jørgen: can’t believe i missed xtc – still play their upsy daisy assortment on occasion.
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…