Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Bark louder, little dog.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

You are here: Home / Music / Saturday Night Open Thread: Musical Snippets

Saturday Night Open Thread: Musical Snippets

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I run across random news bits while vacuuming through twitter for the covid threads, and then I don’t find the right time to post them here. To those of you who know all this already: At least you can mock my (idea of your) tastes…

Yo La Tengo:

… Despite the palpable joy of the audience, emotions didn’t dissolve the safety measures of the event. Fans sung along to songs behind masks, and no one crowd surfed—the ultimate super-spreader activity. Wonder Ballroom staff kept their eyes on the audience, appearing to keep tabs on individuals’ adherence to the mask requirements. For being inside a dark room with more than 60 people after months of crossing the street to avoid walking too close to another person, it felt oddly safe. None of the fears I had imagined taking place as the concert date approached—A fight over a person refusing to wear a mask! A sweaty mosh pit! Someone sneezing directly into my eyes?—came to pass.

Perhaps it was enough to be standing amongst vaccinated strangers, swaying to a melody that had been long-quarantined to headphones, remembering that these moments haven’t disappeared.

If you’re vaccinated and want to remember that you can still experience nice things in an uncertain world, take yourself to a live show. The ringing in your ears the next morning will feel like a treat.

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    Went to my first in-person concert since the Before Times last week. No fooling around: Vaccinations required, masks required, no kids under 12 allowed (though, to be honest, subjecting an 11-year-old to Schoenberg is probably considered child abuse in some jurisdictions). It felt good, and didn’t feel dangerous at all given the aforementioned safety requirements.

    Edit: Thinking of (gasp) going to the movie theater tomorrow, to see the Dune adaptation. Again, mask-and-vax required.

  3. 3.

    Suzanne

    I have tickets to see Bad Religion in a couple of weeks! Venue is requiring vaccination, no negative tests will be accepted in lieu. Venue is outdoor. I am ludicrously excited. Their most recent album has been very sustaining to me during this last insane year.

  6. 6.

    laura

    Our first live show was the Avengers and X outdoors at Stern Grove in SF. We kept our masks on and got down with our bad old selves. It was glorious to be in an audience at a live show.

    @Suzanne: have a GOOD TIME ?

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m glad Jason Isbell is on our side.

    And speaking of Sir Paul– anybody see if Mick or Keith responded to his “just a blues cover band, really” comment?

  8. 8.

    prostratedragon

    Thinking about going to a movie theater to see the Met’s HD broadcast of Terence Blanchard’s opera. Not worried much about covid safety, oddly enough, just having the energy to manage the logistics of getting there and back. I should probably go just to work against that inertia.

    Listened a couple of months ago to the live radio broadcast of the CSO’s first live performance of the new era, from Ravinia. They played Beethoven 7 and I gotta say, between their performance and the audience reception there was a kind of electricity that’s hard to explain, except as some kind of magic. It will be good to get back to such things.

  9. 9.

    Capri

    Got tickets for my first concert in 2 years for Dec 3. Keep thinking something is going to come up so fingers crossed.  I’ve had tickets to see Gordan Lightfoot, my husband’s favorite artist, since March 2020. It’s been rescheduled 3 times already, next May is the charm.

  10. 10.

    Nicole

    I laughed at the post about Pink, because I just finished practicing guitar tonight before hopping back on Balloon Juice and I was working on… “Who Knew.”  I hear you, the UK!

  11. 11.

    Craig

    That Velvet Underground documentary is great. Maureen Tucker is so badass NYC. The editorial style is exceptional, the antithesis of Ken Burns PBS style.

  12. 12.

    Mike E

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, Mick pretty much treated it like he has always done previously when presented with the absurdity of there being any serious rivalry between them. As with Keith, he just casually sucked the life force from the interviewer, laughing about how us mere mortals never really catch on to our miserable fates while he keeps on keeping on…

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: Yeah, that was something I missed over the pandemic. Home audio just isn’t the same.

    This was the LA Philharmonic, in Disney Hall. Not quite their first concert back, but close.

  15. 15.

    Matt McIrvin

    I went to an outdoor concert way back in June in Portsmouth, NH, a peculiar local band called Bitter Pill. That was a lot of fun. Next one was Haverhill River Ruckus a few weeks ago, an outdoor festival with a number of acts–the ones I remember were Tall Heights and The Unlikely Candidates. And my wife’s wind band had an outdoor concert too. They’ve been having in-person rehearsals (vaccination required) for a while now.

    First indoor concert, as I mentioned a little while ago, was St. Vincent at the Wang Theatre on the 15th. Safeguards were a little laxer than the ones mentioned here–vaccination or clean test required, masks allegedly required but the dude yelling “I LOVE YOOOUUUU” at random intervals seemed to have decided his was a chin ornament.

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    @dmsilev: Oh, I’m envious. I’ve been in that building, but I’ve never seen a performance there. A friend of mine said that the room is as close to perfect (acoustically) as possible.

    Being in a new city, we are looking forward to going to new performing arts groups.

  19. 19.

    Mike E

    @Suzanne:  My highschool friend in Philly has been a regular at the most recent classical concerts there, a nice reward for all his careful efforts these many months…well deserved.

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    I ordered three copies of that Isbell thing: one for me, one to irritate my RWNJ brother, and one for a fellow true-blue music fan friend.  They better be in my mailbox this week!  ;)

  22. 22.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    I have been to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion many times for concerts, but never to the Disney. Is it a good and comfortable venue?

    Edit: Thinking of (gasp) going to the movie theater tomorrow, to see the Dune adaptation. Again, mask-and-vax required.

    I took a chance and saw No Time To Die at the TLC Chinese Theater. Small audience, all masked initially, although people took them off to eat and kept them off. I was well away from a lot of people, although I noticed a couple of rows of people all sitting next to each other, but they did not appear to be one group of friends.

    First time I had been in that part of Hollywood since the lockdown. Pretty good crowd, including tourists and the usual Hollywood scene, mostly all masked.

    I still love this town.

  25. 25.

    HumboldtBlue

    One thing I’ve noticed is how the music of my youth is now the soundtrack to the ads I hear repeatedly while watching sports.

    70’s and 80’s soul, rock, disco are all over the place, even some early 90s Hip Hop.

    One thing I have learned listening is that Barry White’s Cant Get Enough of Your Love and Let’s Hear it for the Boy from Footloose are a perfect mashup and some talented DJ needs to get on it.

  29. 29.

    HumboldtBlue

    I fucking hate to admit it with the same white-hot heat I hate the fucking Braves’ fans chanting, but the Atlanta bullpen has been outstanding.

  30. 30.

    Steeplejack

    Not a concert, but I went to a movie on Friday for the first time since January 26, 2020. It was Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. I liked it, but I’m an Anderson fan. I think other Anderson fans will like it too, but it’s definitely not a “starter” Wes Anderson movie. The friend I saw it with and I were joking ahead of time that one of the promos made us wonder, Is it possible for a Wes Anderson movie to be too Wes Anderson? Maybe, but in a good way.

    Not a lot of people in the theater, and everybody was masked (required). I confess that at times I did the below-the-nose thing because my glasses were fogging up. Afterwards we had a late lunch at the Spanish Diner, a José Andrés restaurant close by (in Bethesda, MD). Not too busy in the middle of the afternoon, so social distancing was not a problem. The food was very good and not unduly expensive. I had a panino-style ham and cheese sandwich and a side of patatas bravas (spicy potatoes). Tasty!

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    @prostratedragon:

    Not worried much about covid safety, oddly enough, just having the energy to manage the logistics of getting there and back. I should probably go just to work against that inertia.

    That’s definitely a thing, in my experience. Yesterday I had to drive on the Beltway to Bethesda, park in the busy shopping/​restaurant area, walk to the theater, then walk to the restaurant afterwards, then back to the car. I drove my friend to her house nearby, then got on the Beltway about 4:00, just in time to catch a bit of the rush hour. Not really an ordeal, but somewhat tiring after basically doing almost nothing for a year and a half.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Still three outs to go. Let’s not count our chickens prematurely. (FWIW, I’m a Braves fan and I also fucking hate the fucking chant. Haven’t done the Chop since ‘95.)

  41. 41.

    MagdaInBlack

    Watching “Young Frankenstein” and finding the humor is better now that I’m old ( and really get it)

  43. 43.

    James E Powell

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    And speaking of Sir Paul– anybody see if Mick or Keith responded to his “just a blues cover band, really” comment?

    Those two bands have been taking shots at each other since forever. It’s a friendly rivalry & they give as good as they get.

  45. 45.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    The Velvet Underground documentary directed by Todd Haynes is a must-see masterpiece film.  Haynes did a terrific job editing archival footage and interview clips from band members and their friends and relatives.  Just wish that Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison had lived to see it.

    With respect to Paul McCartney’s description of the Rolling Stones as a “blues cover band”, as much as I love the Beatles, McCartney can go fuck himself.  I hadn’t realized that he was such an egotistical prick.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jackie:

    Somewhere I have a big plastic storage bin full of T-shirts, caps, pennants, newspapers, ticket stubs, and other ephemera from the glory days that were the 1990s.

  48. 48.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @James E Powell:

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m not sure how friendly the rivalry is at this point.

    Decades ago, I thought the Beatles were head and shoulders above every other band.  At this point, I give the Beatles, a tiny razor thin margin over the Rolling Stones and the Who.

    To me, the biggest thing in the Beatles’ favor is that they split up at the right time.  If the Rolling Stones had split up after Exile on Main Street and the Who had split up after Quadrophenia, I’d consider the answer to the question of who’s the greatest rock band to be a dead heat 3 way tie.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    WETA-UK, the Brit-centric lesser PBS station here in the DMV, shows snippets of old newsreels in between shows that don’t fill up the hour, and after Phryne Fisher tonight I saw one that actually made me feel sorry for Mick Jagger, a feeling I can’t ever remember experiencing before. It was a black-and-white report on Jagger’s marriage to Bianca in Saint-Tropez in 1971, and it was astounding how much of a shitshow the paparazzi press made it.

    Just checked on YouTube, and this is the clip they ran. Mick looks really morose.

  51. 51.

    Steeplejack

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    For quite a while I have had an ongoing concern that McCartney is shaping/​retconning the history of the Beatles to the benefit of guess who. Ringo weighs in with observations occasionally, but I don’t get that he cares very much.

  54. 54.

    Mike E

    @NotMax: Heh. Mick hung out in public right after their Charlotte concert and nobody batted an eye…he didn’t seem to care though.

  57. 57.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Steeplejack:

    I never thought it would happen, but I think I’m getting close to being all Beatled out.  No one can ever take away the fact that the Beatles were the first rock band to achieve legendary, iconic status through super saturation in the mainstream media, but as I previously wrote I no longer subscribe to the notion that their body of work towers over all other bands.

    For decades, I’ve heard some die hard Beatles fans claim that the Rolling Stones were simply copycats and I think that charge is pure, unadulterated bullshit.  Yes, at the beginning before Mick and Keith found their sea legs, a legitimate claim could be made that the Rolling Stones were copycats and yes Their Satanic Majesty’s Request owes a big debt to Sgt. Pepper, but the Rolling Stones have produced an enormous body of work that does not remotely resemble any Beatles recordings.

  58. 58.

    JWR

    Adele? (Barf, upchuck and blech!) A voice like fingernails on a friggin’ chalkboard to these ears. Just like her last Greatest Hit, (only three years ago!), most likely “written”, (built, constructed, assembled), by a platoon of Greatest Hit writers. But such is barfy pop muzak these days, (I hates it, yesss I does), with Adele topping my barf list.

    Did I mention that I don’t much care for her?

    ;)

  59. 59.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    Many years ago, I saw John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, and Guy Clark doing their Songwriters Tour at the Disney.

    The sound was amazing, warmth & clarity I rarely hear in a venue that large. As for comfort, I don’t recall any issues, but I was so much younger then.

  61. 61.

    James E Powell

    @Steeplejack:

    Someone from the Beatles inner circle in one of the many documentaries remarked that with George gone, we’ll never get the real story on the Beatles. He said Ringo made it his policy to stay out of the disputes and that “Paul likes to re-write history.”

    Not to defend Paul, but all humans like to re-write history.

  63. 63.

    James E Powell

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    For decades, I’ve heard some die hard Beatles fans claim that the Rolling Stones were simply copycats and I think that charge is pure, unadulterated bullshit.

    The Stones chased the Beatles in a lot of ways, but they were not copycats. Satanic Majesties is derided as an attempt to copy Sgt Pepper, but I think it was more that the Stones were making a psychedelic album which is what nearly everyone else was doing at that time. It was The Trend.

    The Stones have been my favorite band since 1965, so I’m not putting them down at all. But they moved to their peak greatness when, starting with Beggars Banquet, they stopped trying to be a hit singles band like The Beatles.

  64. 64.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Mike E:

    I love the Stones, Who, Kinks…they sure as shit aren’t the Beatles.

    To your list, I’d simply add the Yardbirds and the Animals.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    @James E Powell

    “History will say the Right Honourable Gentleman is wrong in this matter. I know it will, for I shall write that history.”
    – Winston Churchill

  66. 66.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @James E Powell:

    Beggars Banquet is my favorite Rolling Stones album and includes what I consider to be their most underrated, underappreciated song Jigsaw Puzzle which unfortunately, as far as I know, has never been performed in concert.

  67. 67.

    JWR

    @James E Powell:

    The Stones chased the Beatles in a lot of ways, but they were not copycats.

    Yeah, this whole Beatles vs Stones thing is just silly. The Beatles were The Beatles, and the Stones are the Stones. Two totally different balls of wax, both great in their own magical ways. All this comparison BS is just that, BS.

    PS. I’m partial to the Beatles, but they, via my older sister, were a major part of the soundtrack of my life, along with all the AM radio Motown stuff she listened to all the time.

  69. 69.

    James E Powell

    @JWR:

    The fact that my teeny bopper older sister loved The Beatles – she’s the only one in the family who saw them in concert – was one of the reasons I held them at arm’s length. I liked them a lot, but in the first year of the British Invasion I was definitely more drawn to the darker, more ragged sounds of the Stones, Animals, and Kinks.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    “Morose” connotes a bit of sadness or unhappiness to me. I never get that from Jagger; his default is smug self-satisfaction with a hint of “I know it’s all a joke.”

  73. 73.

    Steeplejack

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    I don’t think the Rolling Stones were copycats, except in a few specific (early) cases, but I do still think the Beatles’ body of work “towers over all other bands.” Their influence is so vast that it’s like the oxygen in the air.

    The Stones have produced an enormous body of original work, but I think that quite a while ago they devolved into the world’s greatest Rolling Stones tribute band. Some in the musical press are currently wondering, on its 40th anniversary, if that point was shortly after Tattoo You. I would put it somewhere after that, but I don’t know exactly when.

  76. 76.

    James E Powell

    @Steeplejack:

    Pretty much agree with you on Stones and the Beatles body of work.

    For me the Stones shifted to glide after Steel Wheels. It’s the last Stones album I listen to as an album.

  77. 77.

    Steeplejack

    @HumboldtBlue:

    We also argue about other stuff, fucknuts. And, yes, we are old-ass white people on this site. That comes as a surprise to you? By the way, how old and white do you consider yourself? Aren’t you coming up on 56 this month? ?

  79. 79.

    JWR

    @James E Powell:

    The fact that my teeny bopper older sister loved The Beatles – was one of the reasons I held them at arm’s length.

    Oh yeah, (snicker), I’d forgotten how much I didn’t like some of the stuff my teeny-bopper big sister liked, (ETA just because she liked it), including some of the very early Beatles stuff, but it was a quickly forgotten grudge. And then, on my 12th birthday, my best friend gave me the first Zeppelin and Sabbath LPs, and it was off to the “I’m gonna be that sorta rock star” races for me.

  80. 80.

    Librarian

    The Stones might have been a “blues cover band” in their early years, but became one of the most versatile bands ever. They did rock, pop, blues, country, gospel. The Beatles never could have made an album like Exile on Main Street. And the idea that they copied the Beatles is just absurd.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    I love the Animals.  They are #1 on my “underrated [old] bands” list. Interesting that when you see them in clips from old TV shows they are almost unique in visibly performing live instead of faking it. “Shake.”

    (Also like the Yardbirds.)

  82. 82.

    James E Powell

    In the early months of the pandemic, during the shutdowns, I immersed myself in the music of my formative years. One part of that was that I looked closely at the British Invasion and specifically the artists’ appearances in the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 weekly charts.

    In the 12 months after the Beatles first No. 1 with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on February 1, 1964, UK artists put 66 songs in the Top 40. The Beatles had 18. For the week ending April 4, 1964, they had the top five spots plus seven other songs in the Hot 100. For the year, the other significant Top 40 appearances were the Dave Clark Five (7) and the Searchers (5).

    There is no consensus as to when the British Invasion ended. Some put it at the end of the first year. I am not sure, there are arguments for several different dates. Until I’m given reason otherwise, I go with the week ending January 28, 1967, three years after “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit No. 1. On that chart, the No. 1 song was “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees, there were no UK artists in the Top Ten, and The Beatles did not have a single song on the Hot 100.

    One month later, they released Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields.

  89. 89.

    Stuart Frasier

    i have a bunch of rock n’ roll stories that I can’t really tell, but one involves Rupert Murdoch’s current wife dumping a bag of cocaine on the master tape of a certain band’s master tape.

  90. 90.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Librarian:  Ronstadt’s version of Tumblin Dice still rules.

    That said Exile isn’t as good as Sticky Fingers.

  91. 91.

    JWR

    @eclare: Have you heard about the latest release from Zeppelin, a new doc called “Becoming Led Zeppelin”? I can’t wait! Here’s the first few lines from a review in Variety:

    For a band that’s now thought of as the Beatles of heavy metal, not to mention one of the four or five greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, Led Zeppelin got shockingly little critical respect back in the day.

    Heh. Talk about the Beatles.

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    @HumboldtBlue:

    What the hell was your “take” supposed to be?

    We discuss, and argue about, a lot of different things on this blog, including (tonight) the Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones. So your contribution is “Hyuck-hyuck, old white people.” How does that add anything? And why wouldn’t it deserve some pushback?

  94. 94.

    eclare

    @JWR:  The Beatles of heavy metal?  That is a strange take, not least because Led Zep is not heavy metal.  No, haven’t heard of it, I’ll have to look out for it, thanks!

  96. 96.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Steeplejack: ​ 

    I guess self-deprecation got lost.

    Righteous indignation about flippancy on a Balloon-Juice open thread on a Saturday night seems to be in play.

    You’re on your own, though.

  99. 99.

    HumboldtBlue

    Righteous indignation about flippancy on a Balloon-Juice open thread on a Saturday night seems to be in play.

    I’m gonna nominate that phrase as a rotating tag.

  101. 101.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @eclare: ​
      According to Pamela des Barres’s memoir, “I’m with the Band”, the answer is yes.

  103. 103.

    JWR

    @eclare: Re: The Beatles of heavy metal. Yeah, I think that was one of the reviews I read a few months ago, and I got the impression that the writer was too young to appreciate the band he was writing about, let alone their particular genre, (which is hard-ass rock and roll, right? ;)

  104. 104.

    eclare

    @JWR:  Absolutely!  I am no expert, but Led Zep songs had melodies, like Ramble On.  Going to California.  Heavy metal is Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden.  Head banging music.

  107. 107.

    JWR

    On topic O/T: Just heard that the fired Washington State football coach is planning to sue the school over it’s Covid mandate.

    Hey, dude, call Rudy!

  108. 108.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @James E Powell:

    For me the Stones shifted to glide after Steel Wheels. It’s the last Stones album I listen to as an album.

    “Last album I listened to as an album.” That’s a good metric.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @James E Powell:

    In the 12 months after the Beatles first No. 1 with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on February 1, 1964, UK artists put 66 songs in the Top 40. The Beatles had 18. For the week ending April 4, 1964, they had the top five spots plus seven other songs in the Hot 100. For the year, the other significant Top 40 appearances were the Dave Clark Five (7) and the Searchers (5).

    Good summary. I think a Beatles v Stones comparison is pointless. But I think you could say that the Beatles, Motown, Bob Dylan and James Brown were foundational to the explosion of popular music beginning in the 60s. Maybe throw the Beach Boys in also.

    But the Beatles and Motown were central to this musical revolution.

    Before the Beatles, no rock album had won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Their album Rubber Soul arguably led to the rise of rock criticism as a separate field of journalism. Other rock artists of the era speak about visiting the Beatles in studio and watching in awe and wonder at their creativity.

    Best band or group? Depends on your taste. But influence? Beatles and Motown.

    ETA. It is wild to watch pop and rock music reactions on YouTube. Most of these people are in their 20s. They listen to artists almost randomly, based on suggestions by people who subscribe to their channels. But they typically have little idea who many artists are and no knowledge of rock history at all.

  110. 110.

    prostratedragon

    @HumboldtBlue:  You remind me of a UMich game against FSU that I attended ages ago. Whenever the small FSU contingent –they brought a sizable pep band up from Tallahassee to Ann Arbor– began their version of that damn chant, the UM student sections began their own version of the tomahawk chop, left-handed, and with fewer than 5 fingers. I found myself wondering whether ABC was panning the crowd as usual.

    We’d have won that game from scrimmage, too (Shakes fist at Terrell Buckley, the FSU kick returner).

  111. 111.

    Mo MacArbie

    Saw a funny meme at the evil place yesterday that went something like, “Hear me out: the Rolling Stones don’t have a bassist or a drummer. The Beatles only have a bassist and a drummer…”

  112. 112.

    BigJimSlade

    @dmsilev: Ah, Symphony Hall! Getting cheap seats in the balcony, but right above the orchestra (pretty much in line with the front row of musicians!) for the raucous Rite of Spring – what fun!… another time, sneaking down after intermission to get a seat in the middle of the 14th row for La Mer.  Though hearing Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra in nearby Jordan Hall was fantastic, too. That final symphonic hit with which the piece ends lived for an extra moment in the air and dissipated like sparkles falling in the middle of the hall.

  113. 113.

    zhirem

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Hey, I know I’m late, but I wanted to respect this comment. I’m not sure I agree entirely with that argument, but running some songs/albums/performances in my head, I’m probably only going to be able to make single-song counters to that. Nothing album-length would hold weight for the Stones or the Who. I haven’t heard your argument framed in particularly that way before, and I think it is thought-provoking. Thank you.

    Peace,

    NOoC

  114. 114.

    zhirem

    My life mirrors the Misplacer of the Mustard closely, though I never served, we had similar influences. I, however, wish to state that I became politically aware at the end of Carter’s term and the start of Reagan’s. I became musically aware somewhere shortly thereafter.

    Now that I’ve read the thread, I just wanted to chime in.

    Raised on Classic Rock mostly, and am to this day still discovering great stuff done between the years of say 1966 or 67 and 1974’ish. So much great stuff was made, never heard any play. That said, Beatles were so influential, they edge out most anyone else, one could argue. But the Stone, the Who, Zepp, were towering groups. Widely influential themselves.

    Kinks were killed in their adolescence, imho. Animals, Beach Boys, Yardbirds, obviously influential, but I never cared for them much.

    Lately, I have been exploring the jazz fusion movement. Specifically starting to dive into Weather Report and Return to Forever. For musicianship, they are beyond astounding. To just be hearing some of this for the first time now, is sad for me (wasted time), but what a wondrous reward for taking the care to actively listen. Casipoea – Mint Jams is another I ‘found’. I been missing out.

    Ymmv, Peace,

    NOoC

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