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You are here: Home / Music / Music Open Thread

Music Open Thread

by | 126 Comments

This post is in: 

I’ve loved these guys since they popped up on the scene:

 

 

I’m a little young for Tom Jones, but I remember my aunts being gaga for him. The man is 80 and wow is he still going strong:

And it’s that time of year when I’m full-on zydeco and playing my Lousiana Gumbo cd on replay

As we are coming up on Grammy weekend, what are you listening to these days?

 

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    frosty

    My son gave me a Pandora account for Christmas 2021. I found the Sarah Borges station immediately and haven’t switched! Alt country female vocalists! Jangly guitars with reverb! Great songs! Here’s a few I’ve discovered…. and oddly enough they rarely play Sarah.

    Lindi Ortega, Elle King, Gin Wigmore, Kasey Cubero, Ellen Jewel, Nikki Lane, Zoe Muth
    Check it out!​
    ETA I missed the coveted #2? Where are all you slackers?

  4. 4.

    Jim Bales

    Some years ago I discovered Pink Martini. Some of their stuff is just fun (e.g., the title track from “Hey Eugene”). Some is exquisite (e.g., Cante e dance)

    I then started to stream them on Pandora. This led me to the crooners of the 50s (Sinatra, Martin etc.), and I could now hear them as something other than my parent’s music. (I could now hear just how amazing they were!)

    It also open the door for me to electronic dance music and electro tango … and entire ecosystem of women jazz/blues/pop singers— including Caro Emerald, Jem, Jasmine Thompson, Imelda  May, …

    if you aren’t familiar with any of them, pick one and give them a try!

    best

    Jim

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    Sudan Archives new album is terrific. Sample song: Home Maker

    Recently became newly obsessed again with Depeche Mode’s Violator, and especially the 2006 remaster because it has Dangerous as a bonus track.

    I’ve probably babbled about aespa here before, but if you have any interest in Kpop, you have to listen to them. Girls is a fucking BOP.

  13. 13.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    The Hu(Wolf Totem, Song of Women featuring Lizzie Hale), Parliament Funkedelic and Kacey Musgraves( Follow Your arrow) also Brothers Osborne ( I’m not for Everone)

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @Jim Bales: Pink Martini often has Storm Large as one of their vocalists…she’s amazing!

    I think there was some brouhaha with her appearing on “America’s Got Talent” or “The Voice” or similar a year or two ago. She’s no amateur but she got on stage and the judges were blown away.

    Her cover of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is an all-time fave!

  20. 20.

    dm

    I’ve been piling up covers of Bob Dylan’s All along the Watchtower.  There’s Jimi, of course, but the one that really sticks in my mind is from, of all places, the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack.

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

    (song starts about 2:30 in)

    I’ve never seen the show, but, wow.

    (There are two Bob Dylan songs I’d love to see …. made into a movie?  Or maybe used as the theme for an anthology of short stories by contemporary writers?  All along the watchtower, and Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts.)

  22. 22.

    Jackie

    Tom Jones. My mom absolutely loved him and Englebert Humperdinck.

    My favorite memory of Tom Jones was on his variety show singing Delilah and swinging his arms accidentally knocking a female guest star into a pond of some sort.  Live TV in those days.

  23. 23.

    mvr

    Someone linked to a Clash live concert the other night which caused me to find out that a decade ago they put out a compilation of the remixed original five albums from the band (before they started kicking everyone out) and a bunch of unreleased stuff. So I’ve been going through those for a couple of nights.

    As for newer stuff (well newly released stuff), Jenny got me the Summer of Soul soundtrack along with the videos w Nina Simone & Sly & the Family Stone, among illustrious others.

  24. 24.

    suzanne

    For my birthday, Mr. Suzanne got tickets for us to see THE BOSS in Cleveland. Very excited.

    And this week, we got tickets to see Josh Ritter! We both love him. Here’s Where The Night Goes.

    Good timing. I needed a music thread.

  29. 29.

    mvr

    @suzanne & dm: “I keep feeling like Lilly, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts” is an example of a genre but it seems also like it is the only example of that genre that I can think of.  It has something in common with older folk murder ballads but has more of a plot and goes on longer.  What predecessors am I missing?

  30. 30.

    Jeffro

    @suzanne: I think that’s four more times than me so kudos!  Always a great time with Social D!

    Hey TaMara, thanks for this thread, the Maneskin videos have been really awesome.  =)

  31. 31.

    Jeffro

    @mvr: every time I put on Sly & The Family Stone greatest hits (whether I’m cooking at home or in the car) I can tell that my kids really dig it.  Mrs. Fro is like, “who’s this?” and we all giggle.  =)

  37. 37.

    suzanne

    I also wanted to let y’all know that I updated my wardrobe for spring: I got another hoodie. And it’s not black or gray!

  41. 41.

    frosty fred

    Ian Tyson died on December 29th and I spent the New Year’s weekend pursuing him down youtube rabbit holes–as I described it at the time, going from smiling to singing along to wiping away tears. Looks like this weekend is going to be Laura Nyro; one of my great regrets was missing her appearance at a local venue, not that long before her death.

  44. 44.

    suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Hey, I’m branching out! I don’t think anyone will recognize me with a color on!

    I bought a navy blue dress once and I had to have a drink afterward.

  45. 45.

    patrick II

    HBO’s “The Last of Us” featured Linda Rondstat’s song “Long Long Time”. Linda had the most beautiful voice and this is a particularly beautiful song. So I have been listening to Linda all day.
    Midnight Special Linda Rondstadt Long Long Time 1972

    And life’s full of flaws
    Who knows the cause?
    Living in the memory
    Of a love that never was

    [Chorus]
    ‘Cause I’ve done everything I know
    To try and change your mind
    And I think I’m going to miss you
    For a long, long time

  46. 46.

    Valdivia

    Wooo hoooo more Maneskin fans!

    Got to see them live in dc in December, they are an epic live band

    I am cheering so hard for them to win the Grammy this sunday.

  48. 48.

    frosty

    @suzanne: ​
     Makes sense. I haven’t really tried* but I have a Jersey-native friend who sees them at least once on every tour.

    *not quite true. I camped out at the Roxy on Sunset in ’75 to catch their “Let’s impress the record company suits” tour. Sad to say that’s the only time I’ve seen the Boss. At least I remember it, I mean it *was* the 70s.

  49. 49.

    mvr

    @suzanne: Long Black Veil?

    That’s good – something in the feel is similar and also to murder ballads. LBV clocks in at 3:05 in its first commercial release in 1959 while LR&JH is over 8 minutes and has more plot twists.

  50. 50.

    Redshift

    Back when I was, I dunno, maybe college age, old bands toured playing their hits. One of the things I’m happy about is that a bunch of the bands I loved keep making new music. Midnight Oil has been putting out albums regularly (except when their lead singer was in the Australian parliament.) I saw their last tour, and they were amazing.

    Duran Duran keeps doing new stuff, some of it good, some okay, but the shows are always fun.

    I’ve been contributing to crowdfunding for Shriekback albums (and a tour.) Basically you preorder the next album, and the money let’s then keep making music. It feels good, and the albums are great.

  51. 51.

    StringOnAStick

    Husband and I are going to play our favourite Django Reinhardt style song (For Sephora) next week at open Mic night; wish us luck and no cases of the nerves.

    A band I still push is the Colombian group Monseur Perine’, their Suin Romanticon will make anyone and everyone dance!

  53. 53.

    Origuy

    @mvr: Well, there’s “Hey, Joe”, of course. “Matty Groves” is an old English folk ballad about a noblewoman and her lover who is killed by her husband, that’s a pretty common theme.

    I was going to post the Fairport Convention cover, but here’s Joan Baez’s cover of Matty Groves.

  54. 54.

    HinTN

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I’m down with the Brothers Osborne and with Pink Martini. Most recently listening to Lucinda Williams singing with Charles Lloyd

    ETA – Headed to a Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives show next Thursday and an acoustic evening with Anders Osborne at the end of the month.

  55. 55.

    SpaceUnit

    Mike Ness of Social Distortion got arrested a few years back for jumping off the stage to punch some loudmouth MAGAT in the face.

    He is a righteous dude.

  56. 56.

    frosty

    @patrick II: ​OMG Linda. A friend of mine and I called her Our Lady Of The Voice. I sat outside all night to get us front row center seats once. Yours is one of my favorites, but my all-time favorite is He Darked The Sun (switch the genders though)

    .She walked into my life, with her cold evil eyes
    And with the length of her mind, she darked the sun.

    She is the queen of heartbreak songs.​​​​​
    FYWP formatting

  57. 57.

    mvr

    @suzanne: ​
     Lucky to have gotten some for KCMO in 2 weeks and a day from today. IIRC I had to fill in an ordered list of cities and KC was both closest and on the most doable date.

    Can’t find the article now, but a review said the first night in Miami was good and went for 2 hours 45 minutes.

  58. 58.

    frosty

    @StringOnAStick: ​
     Good luck and I’m with you on the nerves. The first time I played an Open Mic and the spotlight hit me I forgot all the lyrics and chords. It got better though!

  59. 59.

    Valdivia

    TaMara–Hello fellow Maneskin fan! Moriro da Re is from way back and one of my faves.

    So glad to know others like them as much as I do.

    Their new album Rush is so good,  even if it’s mostly in English (I love their italian songs

    This is one of my all time favorites is Vent’Anni

  63. 63.

    Spanky

    @Origuy: I was in the grocery store just today and one of the employees called another. “Hey, Joe!”

    All us old guys in my aisle mumbled “Where you goin’ with that gun in your hand”, then looked embarrassed.

  65. 65.

    mvr

    @Spanky: This is the sort of comment where I miss having a like button. I have nothing to add to it but I want to express my approval. (But I know it would get out of hand to have such a button.)

  67. 67.

    frosty

    @mvr: ​
     I agree! I would have mumbled the same thing, even though I’m not old (whistles tunelessly, looks around …)

  68. 68.

    JustRuss

    I do like Tom Jones, but somebody put the Tom Jones pandora station on at work the last two days, and there’s only so many overwrought love songs I can take.

  69. 69.

    dm

    @mvr: I agree that it seems like there should be an entire genre of such word-paintings, but… As Suzanne mentioned, The Long Black Veil.

    What about American Pie?

    Then there’s this (which is more at the American Pie end of the spectrum: Hatsune Miku’s Senbonzakura: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0gAwCFHdEA

    That one actually has spun off a cottage industry of fan works (that music video is one such), including novels and comic books.

  70. 70.

    patrick II

    @frosty:

    I forgot to mention how jealous I am of you for getting front row tickets at a Rondstat concert.  A ticket well worth waiting a night for.

     

    And on another subject, Tom Jones is 82 years old now and his voice sounds unbelievable.

  71. 71.

    mvr

    @dm: I went looking on Wikipedia and it says this about LR&JH:

    There have been two screenplays written based on the song: one by John Kaye that was commissioned by Dylan, and another written by James Byron.[10] Neither screenplay ever became a film.

  72. 72.

    Suzanne

    @mvr: I was one of the lucky few (apparently) to get tickets to Taylor Swift’s tour. I would love to go to Madonna and Beyoncé, also, but I can’t spend all my money on concert tickets!

  75. 75.

    Suzanne

    @SpaceUnit: God, I loved that whole incident. (I know I commented about it here.)

    I’m usually a “violence is not the answer!” type…..but…..when you go to a punk show and you get up in an old punk’s face….. I would just hope one has enough pattern recognition to understand what would happen.

  77. 77.

    mvr

    @dm: Well AP has length in common, but not much of a plot. And Bob Dylan would never agree to play for an NRA convention.

    So I’m going to stick with Long Black Veil and Mattie Groves, for now. .

  78. 78.

    patrick II

    @Suzanne:

    Nice.  Lighter colors brighten the mood.  I should take my own advice — a friend once told me I dress like an Irish priest.

  81. 81.

    mvr

    @Spanky: My Dad (who would be 102 a couple of weeks ago if he were around) used to love Benny Goodman.  Had a bunch of swing 78s that he moved out of Rotterdam (or another city) out to a relatives place in the country during WWII so that they would not be harmed. Relatives place got bombed. Place in the city did not.

  87. 87.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @HinTN: O cool Marty Stuart. I have a whole list of stuff now from this thread to check out or revisit now. Awesome!

  88. 88.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Origuy:  Last week I saw Shawn Colvin, Marc Cohn and Sarah Jarosz, and Sunny Came Home was on the program.

    I didn’t know that they were all mentored by David Crosby and of course they talked about that.

  91. 91.

    StringOnAStick

    @frosty:  Thanks, this is an instrumental and I’m the rhythm player, husband has the stress of getting his improvisation the way he wants it!

  93. 93.

    prostratedragon

    @Spanky: ​Guessed it in one! That was a great night, and agree about the piano. Also, you can see why drummers in the style of Tony Allen look to Gene Krupa.

  95. 95.

    Redshift

    @HinTN: Yeah, I’d lost track of them around then, too, but somehow I got connected to their crowdfunding for their tour, and I’ve been following them ever since. They raised enough for a European tour, but sadly not enough for an American one. But I got a cool T-shirt.

  96. 96.

    dm

    @Origuy: Oh, that causes me to free-associate…. None of these are “Murder ballads”, except maybe The Highwayman, and maybe the Queen and the Soldier, but I think they’re story songs:

    Suzanne Vega’s The Queen and the Soldier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcFa9VZxkBc

    Loreena McKennitt: The Highwayman

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGFo0xn4JeY

    (@mvr: that one is over 10 minutes long)

    Loreena McKennitt: Skellig

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfp4G2fN_uM

    (Maybe as much as 20% of Loreena McKennitt’s songs may count.)

  99. 99.

    mvr

    @dm: Those are good.

    I’ve kind of had the suspicion that Dylan invented a new kind of song with that one, while thinking that can’t really be true. It would seem that there have to be precursors. So what I’m trying to figure out is what is the closest song that might be a partial source/inspiration.

    I know that the length of singles put constraints on songs, so that there were likely longer performance songs not recorded as 45s or 78s.  But records also had a tendency to take long form dance blues and have the singers turn them into more thematically unified songs.  The thing about LR&JH is that it is a relatively worked out story complete with backstory and epilogue.

  101. 101.

    different-church-lady

    Revisiting the jazz companions of my 20s: Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and Eberhard Weber.

  105. 105.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Spanky:

    I was raised on the Big Bands. Dad had the bands, mom, the music master, was classical. Older brothers and sisters brought me the great rock, R&B, soul, folk of the 60s and 70s. I was lucky.

  113. 113.

    StringOnAStick

    @mvr: Its a really supportive group of people, so it’s a pretty safe place to try performing in front of a group.  We feel really lucky to have found it.

  114. 114.

    StringOnAStick

    @HumboldtBlue: I absolutely love MP, it’s made me try learning Spanish again.  The year after we left the Denver area they played a concert at the botanical gardens there, it almost made us sad we’d moved away.  If they ever play anywhere in the west coast, we will go!  

  116. 116.

    GibberJack

    Buckwheat.

    Saw him and his Ils Sont Partis band so many years ago. On a night like this. Everyone was dancing. I fell in love with zydeco then.

  117. 117.

    Amir Khalid

    The first I heard of Måneskin was in a recent video on the YouTube channel Justin Hawkins Rides Again, hosted by The Darkness’ guitarist and singer. (Which I recommend; Justin is both very knowledgeable about contemporary music and very entertaining.)

    Lately I’ve been listening to various versions of Kathy’s Song: sung by Paul Simon, by Art Garfunkel, by Eva Cassidy, and by Sarah Jarosz among others. It has a particular resonance for X-Files fans like me, especially this verse which describes a personal crisis that Fox Mulder has been through more than once. (Also because of Dana Scully’s middle name.)

    And so, you see, I have come to doubt
    All that I once held as true
    I stand alone without beliefs
    The only truth I know is you

  118. 118.

    The Quiet One

    Thank you Apple music algorithm. Maneskin pops up a couple years ago and have listened ever since.

  119. 119.

    lowtechcyclist

    On bobdylan.com, there’s a verse of LR&JH that isn’t on the recording on Blood on the Tracks, in between the ‘backstage manager’ verse and ‘no one knew the circumstance’:

    Lily’s arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch
    She forgot all about the man she couldn’t stand who hounded her so much
    “I’ve missed you so,” she said to him, and he felt she was sincere
    But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear
    Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts

    I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this. My personal take is that the song is better off without it. Without this verse, the love triangle of Lily, Rosemary, and Big Jim seems pretty clear: Rosemary’s been his wife in all but name, but now “it was known all around that Lily had Jim’s ring” which doesn’t sound like she’s being hounded, but rather she’s supplanting Rosemary willingly. And she’s “had lots of strange affairs with men in every walk of life that took her everywhere” so she sounds like if Jim was hounding her, she’d blow town and do just fine somewhere else.

    It certainly changes one’s notion of how deeply Lily’s previous connection with the Jack of Hearts goes.

    But the thing that really doesn’t work IMHO is that throughout the song as recorded, we don’t know what the Jack of Hearts is thinking or feeling, he’s this enigmatic figure who breezes into town, acts like a catalyst to change several lives (and end two of them), and then vanishes again. (Did Big Jim shoot him before Rosemary put the penknife in Jim’s back, doing that one good deed before she died? We’ll never know.) It’s discordant to be privy to his feelings just this once, instead of all along or not at all. That just doesn’t work for me.

    ETA: bobdylan.com lists the number of times he’s performed each song. He’s performed LR&JH exactly once, back in 1976.  (He’s performed All Along the Watchtower over 2000 times.)

  120. 120.

    citizen dave

    Dead Thread lowtech, but I’ll bite on the Lily question.  I haven’t read that missing verse until now, and agree with you, the song is better without it.  The lost verse perhaps has more to do with the rest of the BOTT songs though about his marriage breakup.  I did know, and glad for confirmation, that he only did it once live–I believe in Utah–no tapes of it exist, it seems.

    As far as newer music, my constant “go to” for the last two years has been Wet Leg, who are up for Best New Artist.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd9jeJk2UHQ  Multitudes of hooks within a rock/alternative structure (great drummer), with loads of humor and some deep thoughts.

  121. 121.

    mvr

    @lowtechcyclist: Yes, that is interesting.  Apparently the New York version of the song has him doing that verse and Wikipedia says it is a more somber rendering.  That same Wikipedia page has another verse at the very end that doesn’t seem to have been recorded and it doesn’t really say who wrote it and how come they know about it.  There is a footnote, but it looks like the link has changed.

    I kind of agree that verse is better left out for the reasons you say.

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @patrick II:

    Love Linda Ronstadt, such a great talent, the Trio albums with her, Emmy Lou Harris and Dolly Parton are amazing.

    And speaking of the crooners of the 50s and 60s… Sammy Davis is on You Tube doing imitations of all the great crooners, from Dean Martin to — well all of them. Amazing talent. He could do anyone’s sound perfectly. Look it up…

    Shame he got hooked on cancer drugs, lot of great talents died of tobacco poisoning, just like my mom. They passed out free pack of cigs at the football games at the U back in her day as a student.

  123. 123.

    Watership

    I recently did a playlist for my niece spanning 50 years of music grouped by my decades on earth. It turned into more of a memory exercise than anything else. It runs about 9 hours, but here is one track from each group:

    50 Now – Rod Stewart: I Know I’m Losing You

    40 Back – Oingo Boingo: Stay

    30 On – Big Audio Dynamite: Rush

    20 Ago – The The – December Sunlight

    ‘Round 10 – Latyrx (feat Forest Day): Exclamation Point

    Now – Kalush Orchestra: Stefania

    Bonus Tracks – TV On the Radio: Seeds

  125. 125.

    Watership

    @dm: Oh, man. When you’re into the show, and then THAT comes along after all that buildup, wow. So good!

  126. 126.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Super-late to this thread but I’ve been OBSESSED with this song, Ruler Rebel by Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah.  He calls his music “Stretch Music.”  It’s a combination of jazz, rock, hip-hop etc.  He’s also a ridiculously good horn/flute player.

    Also, just finished the “Music” episode of 1619 Project on Hulu, which was great.  It highlights the fact that Black People gave us pretty much every major genre (rock, jazz, disco, funk, hip hop, rap and even country) of American music and that Black music has always been a celebration of freedom, strength and defiance.  It also emphasizes that there’s “Music” and then there’s “Black music.”  There’s a certain groove, feel, pocket, soul to music originating from Black America (And Africa and Latin-America too) that is just unlike most of what Europe or Asia really ever had to offer before.  You know it when you feel it.  And it’s a wonderful thing and one of the great culture gifts we’ve ever been the recipient of.  Definitely check it out, especially if you are a musician.

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