Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Medium Cool – Old Time Music Thread

Medium Cool – Old Time Music Thread

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Little Boots was mentioned in the Hey Lurkers! thread, and it reminded me of how much I miss the music threads we used to have.  So let’s have one tonight!

You pedants can tell me how to best punctuate the thread title so it’s clear that I am asking for a music thread like we used to have – and not asking for an old-time music thread like polkas or Sinatra or Elvis or whatever.  Though all of those are welcome!

I thought about titling the post Classic Music Thread, but then I figured you’d think I was looking for classical music.  Titles are complicated!

I’ll add a YouTube video up top for one of the first 5 songs that is mentioned in the comments.

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  6. 6.

    PaulB

    “The Tenors” used to be called “The Canadian Tenors.” For an amusing look at an earlier song they performed, see this YouTube video where they perform “Hallelujah” for Oprah. What they didn’t know is that Oprah had a surprise guest join them halfway through the song. Their reactions are hilarious.

  7. 7.

    Xavier

    Difference between country music and old time music: Country music is three chords and the truth, old time music is one or two chords and a bunch of lies.

  15. 15.

    karen marie

    I love me some WMBR on Sunday mornings when Patrick Bryant, he of the mellifluous voice, “[explores] a single song each show, through multiple wild and weird cover versions.”

    It’s incredible.  A couple months ago he did “Amazing Grace.”  Today was “Route 66.”  Patrick provides a great music history lesson each episode.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    Your post title reminds me of an anecdote that Gillian Welsh told. She said that after a concert she was approached by a little old lady who asked “Were those real songs or did you just write them?”

  20. 20.

    billcinsd

    @WaterGirl: Looks like they have two rooms, one holds ~800, the ~550. The Feelies are from the DC area so would probably do well at that size despite mostly being a niche band 40 years ago

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @MattF:

    She said that after a concert she was approached by a little old lady who asked “Were those real songs or did you just write them?”

    I laughed out loud, then figured the artist wanted to punch the person who said that.

  23. 23.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Another Scott:

    Never heard of The Feelies until I saw them open for Lou Reed in March 1989 (the New York tour). At the door, they passed out a cassette with Higher Ground and two covers songs, What Goes On? and Dancing Barefoot. Good luck finding that album or EP or whatever it was.

    Anyway, I became a fan, got all their albums, got Glenn Mercer’s solo albums. They are regulars in my rotations.

  26. 26.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Okay, here are two performances of the same song. One is from early in the band’s career, in the early 2000’s, when the audience still didn’t know the song the band was performing – even though it had already been out for a few years at the time of the show. Yeah, this is a band that took a few years to find their audience.

    The second performance is from 2023, same band, same members, performing the same song at the Albert Hall in London, with an audience of seemingly mostly women, the entirety of whom are pogo-ing and singing along, loud enough to drown out the singer, even singing the missing guitar parts at the beginning of the song.

    FYI, the lead singer is Kathleen Hanna, whose other bands include Bikini Kill and The Julie Ruin.

    The contrast between audience reactions in these two performances is just astonishing:

    Deceptacon – Le Tigre (early 2000’s)

    Deceptacon – Le Tigre (Albert Hall, 2023)

    P.S. Lyrics:

    Who took the bomp?

    Every day and night
    Every day and night
    I can see your disco
    Disco dick is sucking my heart out of my mind
    I’m outta time
    I’m outta fucking time
    I’m a gasoline gut with a vasoline mind but
    Wanna disco?
    Wanna see me disco?
    Let me hear you depoliticize my rhyme
    (One, two, three, four)
    You got what you been asking for
    You’re so policy free
    And your fantasy wheels
    And everything you think
    And everything you feel is
    Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright

    I take you home now I watch me get you hard
    You’re just a parrot
    When you’re screaming and you’re shouting
    “More crackers please! More crackers please!”
    You want what you want
    But you don’t wanna be on your knees
    Who does your-, who does your hair?

    Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
    Who took the ram from the ramalamading-dong?
    Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
    Who took the ram from the ramalamading-dong?

    “How are you?”
    “Fine, thank you”
    “How are you?”
    “Fine, thank you”

    You bought a new van
    The first year of your band
    You’re cool and
    I hardly wanna say
    “Not” because I’m so bored
    That I’d be entertained even by a stupid fuckin’
    Linoleum floor, linoleum floor
    Your lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor
    I’ll walk on it
    I’ll walk all over you
    Walk on it, walk on it
    Walking one, two

    (Who? Who? Who? Who?)
    Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
    Who took the ram from the ramalamading dong?
    Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
    Who took the ram from the ramalamading dong?

    “See you later”
    “See you later”
    “See you later”
    “See you later”

  27. 27.

    BigJimSlade

    Did someone say classical music? I just took the headphones off and got up off the couch after listening to Shostakovich’s 5th string quartet. I’ve been going through all the Mahler symphonies (currently on #7) and needed a break:
    youtube.com/watch?v=Ev4gBdlxBUc

  28. 28.

    Citizen Dave

    Love the feelies.  Only time I saw them was late 1980s, think Only Life was out.  Similar to the Pixies, I think,  as having good initial success, then inactive for a good while, then a second act.

    My listening today while doing yard work was:

    John Lee Hooker solo album from early 1960s; Neil Young, Chrome Dreams ( not the bootleg but a recent release showing what he would have put out in the 1970s); Hoagy Carmichael Sings Hoagy; and a 100 Years of Jazz compilation.

  30. 30.

    BigJimSlade

    @Xavier: I thought the blues was three chords and the truth. And for country music you play the record backwards to get your wife, truck and dog back ;-)

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    and not asking for an old-time music thread like polkas or Sinatra or Elvis or whatever.  Though all of those are welcome!

    Here’s the oldest-time music (well, as well as it can be reconstructed, which is not very well):

    youtube.com/watch?v=KElPnD-dbkk

  32. 32.

    glc

    Wake up Little Suzie (Everly Brothers)

    Not actually my favorite of theirs (I like the style of “All I have to do is dream” better, though the content seems dubious) but it made its mark, and it even got banned in Boston at the time, always a mark of distinction.

    Speaking of banning, at another time and place  “You’ve got to be carefully taught” (South Pacific) was perceived as “a threat to the American way of life,” as it suggested that racial animosity was not innate.

  33. 33.

    Citizen Dave

    @MattF: Great Gillian Welch story!  Love her and David Rawlings.  Gillian has written some fantastic songs, and for me Time The Revelator is on the highest level of songs.  Interesting given your story that that one is a reworking of a “real song”.

  37. 37.

    Melancholy Jaques

    What some have described as the perfect country & western song.

    Last verse:

    I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
    And I went to pick her up in the rain
    But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
    She got runned over by a damned old train

  39. 39.

    AWOL

    Been following them since the ’80s when I lived in Northern NJ, but saw The Feelies for the first time live Friday night at Racket in NYC. Forty bucks, including fees. That’s performing for free and in he nicest-run club in the multiverse. But that’s their ethos. Fucking incredible, and Dave Weckerman makes a great modern-day Anton Fier (RIP). Problem is, I’m an oldster and can’t stand up for hours in clubs. Pain was causing nausea. I could only endure for the first act.

    Opened with their hypnotic “When Company Comes.” “In Between,” one of Mercer’s “newest” compositions, was featured and beautifully rendered. They did a wistful version of Buddy Holly’s “Everyday,” and the genius of their percussion duo shone. Other covers included a Velvet Underground tease, The Beatles’ “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide,” and they exploded into pure rock to close the opener with the Stones’ “Paint It Black.”

    This is the group that stayed underground despite inspiring REM.

    Thank you so much for featuring them, WaterGirl.

  49. 49.

    blackmtn

    A possible thread subject – “Songs that blew my mind the SECOND time I heard them”. I would start with Suzanne Vega’s, “Luka” …

  52. 52.

    Mr. Prosser

    Motown! Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – Tears of a Clown

    Temptations – Ain’t To Proud to Beg

    Martha and the Vandellas – Dancing in the Street

    Fontella Bass – Rescue Me.

    I’m old, sue me.

  55. 55.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Another Scott:

    Great counterpoint!

    I just love the contrast, where Hanna is shyly, tentatively, telling/asking the audience to sing along in the first video, asking if they know the words, compared to second video, about 20 years later, where the entire audience is screaming and singing along, enthusuastically, with utter abandon, without any urging at all, even singing the instrumental parts.

    It looks and feels like: vindication.

    @eldorado: Thank you!

  56. 56.

    df

    I’m old, but I’m not stuck on old-time music so here’s some new music…

    He’s a Man off of Bob Vylan’s album Humble as the Sun – grime-punk and scathing social commentary

    Cuz I Love You off of Joshua Ray Walker’s album What Is It Even? – fantastic and courageous Lizzo cover

  59. 59.

    Ken

    not asking for an old-time music thread like polkas or Sinatra or Elvis or whatever

    Pity, I was going to vent about how “oldies” rock radio now means the 1990s. Though the really depressing thing is that “classic” rock radio is sponsored entirely by ads for generic ED drugs, divorce attorneys, and cash-for-gold shops. I guess they know their demographic….

  68. 68.

    Splitting Image

    I’ve been adding a bunch of new music to my collection recently, so naturally I spent the entire past week listening to all of Pink Floyd’s albums in chronological order.

    I actually love that the Spice Girls and Britney Spears are now considered classic rock. It outrages most of the right people. Spears is eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, by the way.

  73. 73.

    TheflipPsyd

    Anyone familiar with PostModern Jukebox? It’s newish music done in older styles. Their tagline is Today’s Music Yesterday. I like most of it, YouTube their Careless Whisper version.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    [Gazes at calendar, multiplies by seven and carries the two. Compile!]

    “Old time.”

    Dad had the hifi bug but also had mostly horrifying musical taste. Some Ray Charles sneaked in and if I filtered out the Nashville Sound dreck Chet Atkins was the man. How to catalog the Jackie Gleason Orchestra albums, though.

    What I can report is that redhead.edu was raised with constant music and while she has her own contemporary tastes that dad has no connection with the experiment worked, and she likes a lot of what I listened to, growing up. And that’s why a 22YO might have, say, a Kinks collection on vinyl.

    Music is so vast I can’t recommend anything unprompted any more than I could proffer a sand grain from the lovely beach at Carmel by the Sea and say “you HAVE to try this!”

    Bought a streaming player+DAC for the Big Music System and having a blast sampling various on-line radio stations. Because I like absurd contrasts have been listening to a reggae station from Switzerland and a blues station from Germany. Life in the 21st century.

    NB run your CD collection [my what?!?] through a modern DAC and see what happens. Boggled.

  76. 76.

    citizen dave

    @TheflipPsyd: I’ve watched many of their videos.  Been wondering lately if the lead singer (normally a guest and a woman) is required to sway to the music or that just happens.

    Here is something: The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army has 53 million YouTube views; Post Modern Jukebox version, 54 million views: youtube.com/watch?v=sB6HY8r983c

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    @trollhattan

    How to catalog the Jackie Gleason Orchestra albums, though.

    Music to show off your console stereo hi-fi during cocktail parties.
    ;)

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax: Sigh, yeah, pretty much.

    There were “The magnificant, spellbinding world of STEREO!” LPs that would chug steam locomotives through the livingroom and such. Those were easy to dance to.

    Heathkit amps, anybody?

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    @trollhattan

    Snippet of a parody radio ad from back in the day:

    “Other kits require you to use wires of different lengths and even different colors. Not Heapkits — all wires are 16 inches long and green. You can’t go wrong!”

  86. 86.

    Ramalama

    @AWOL: when company comes is such a great song. Despite being a music boaster (I saw a Shite ton of great music live from everybody to everybody) but never The Feelies. Whenever I listen to When Company Comes I always have to follow it up with REM singing Crazy, not the patsy cline song.

    Also I know there so few ABBA fans here but Little Boots plays or played in the live ABBA show in London, the Voyage concert with this live 12 piece band with the digital versions of the ABBA peeps. Benny Andersson asked her to be the first member and I believe she chose everybody else to be in the band.

    unless there’s a different Little Boots Water Girl referred to in the earlier post. If so…never mind.

    what do you do when company comes? Sit around, sit around.

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax: ​
    Seriously, knew neighborhood dads who tackled the Heathkit color television kit to avoid RCA prices for, you know, a teevee that worked as sold.

    So many tragic outcomes.

    TBF a color teevee had to be tech-installed and if you wanted to move it to another room, a tech to realign the color guns afterwards. All for fifteen shows out of a hundred.

  91. 91.

    Steve in the ATL

    1. Love the Feelies!

    2. They are from Hoboken, NJ.

    3. Saw them at lesbian bar in the Fan (Richmond, VA) in the late 80s.  Fun show!

  97. 97.

    Warren Senders

    Teaching a “World Music Survey” course at Emerson College in the early 2000s, I played the 120 or so students a recording of Japanese Gagaku music, noting that it was the oldest continuously maintained orchestral tradition in the world, with repertoire going back to around the year 800.

    A student wrote in a post-class response, “I’m totally blown away.  I had NO IDEA they had recording technology in the year 800.”

  100. 100.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @jame:

    Twice went to see Mountain, both times they cancelled while we sat there in our seats. Did get to see West, Bruce & Laing though. One of the loudest concerts I ever heard.

  101. 101.

    mvr

    @trollhattan: I’ve rebuilt/repaired a few vacuum tube Heathkit hifis in my time. They’re a lot simpler than the solid state variety but the voltages are higher. Sound is better too.

  102. 102.

    mvr

    @mvr: ​
      After 4 comments in a row replying to various and sundry earlier comments, is it hard to tell that I really love commenting on a dead thread?

  103. 103.

    frosty

    @trollhattan: Yep. My dad built his Heathkit stereo. And our first color TV.

    ETA I didn’t know that about the hassle of moving it around. My dad was an electronics engineer so it was just another day at the office for him.

  109. 109.

    Attempted Chemistry

    @Warren Senders: LOL

    My son, 17, told me, 44, that he had found this great old band and wanted to know if I had heard of them. Yes, son, I’ve heard of The Offspring.

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