General Music thread 4
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idiotsavon 3 months, 3 weeks ago.
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21 July 2019 at 21:49 #67868
So, this day 50 years ago, the astronauts are on the surface getting final bits and pieces done, back to the Eagle and reconnecting to Columbia on the far side of the moon (itself an amazing manoeuvre of flying!).
That’s a helluva few hours these guys have spent!So, lets have something monumental about giant steps.
Now actually this next album has nothing to do with the Moon (other than “lunacy” as one of its themes).
But as @thane16 said, we ain’t had enough women on this thread!
Clare Torry had a little guidance from the band but essentially was left to herself to improvise the vocals. She (rightly) sued later to get co-writing credit for this track.
Why did she have to sue? Well… its Pink Floyd; egos; money; business; she’s a woman…22 July 2019 at 01:45 #67870Believe me, I was one of the annoying people at 21 (and at 14-15) saying “LISTEN to these dudes” -Police.
I would not have used the word dudes, actually. (()-())
That’s a great chuune, imho. “keep it up”
The Floyd’s amzing & yep egos were huge with Gilmour & d’rest.
I had a crush on Gilmour when I was very young & silly.
22 July 2019 at 03:03 #67871In light of your post, I am starting to think that there should be a sub-thread where we reveal the embarrassing musical tastes of our youth.
when I find it on youtube, I promise to reveal it.
22 July 2019 at 03:28 #6787222 July 2019 at 03:45 #67873OK, I promised something even worse (or better, when you think about who you were at that moment in time) and here it is:
22 July 2019 at 08:55 #67874Well, that was bracing! I had a rotten headache, overdid the codeine & in holding the laptop, every few seconds it would slip as I’d fallen asleep. Until I heard those two……artistic & unique pieces. Not exquisite exactly but adding something to the firmament nonetheless. I hadn’t heard them before….I feel my learning hasn’t been quite up to scratch or fully complete.
But it’s closer now 😈
– – The elder Syzygy.
22 July 2019 at 21:08 #67881@blenkinsopthebrave –
Those of us with embarrassing musical tastes???!!!??
Why I am an arbiter of taste and style and have never strayed from the true path of what is GOOD (even when I had to blaze it before me).Do you think I was the yoof who thought Phil Collins’ Tomorrow Never Knows was such a great tune that I breathlessly said how great the Sand Kings’ version was of his track at a gig of theirs?? Was I the yoof who couldn’t understand their furrowed brows as I thought it was a great song as was his other songs on Face Value?
tsk.
I also thought that about Jealous Guy by Brian Ferry.
But yours and these aren’t embarrassing songs per se.
The Jason King Theme is great – there’s brass parping and an up/off beat swing.
Plus Warhol-esque title colourisations. No shame in that music.
(btw if I were to say “An obscure planet in the S-K System your Majesty” I’m sure you’d have a smirk of “ahhhh…”)And the Persuaders theme is surely a classic??
It borrows from Ipcress, Russian-esque spy stuff (oh I’m sure someone better with music will tell me why those notes and rhythm are Russian/Eastern).
It gets a bit funky but I’m almost surprised they didn’t go full-on and use something as funky as a pastiche of Soul Bossa Nova.Embarrassing…? I’ll try to dig something out of the permafrost of my youthful cool….
;¬)
22 July 2019 at 21:29 #67882So apparently on this day fifty years ago, the astronauts slept (kinda deserved that and they’re also back to being passengers).
Also after heading back to Earth they reached the point where Earth’s gravity started pulling it home. But I can’t find anything even remotely interesting for that.
So a couple of sleepy songs…n’night.
23 July 2019 at 17:47 #67884Earlier this month, in honour of Stranger Things, the NYT put up a playlist of music from the 1985 American charts. I just happened on this list today. They wrapped it up with this. So good.
(For the interested, you can find the whole playlist here.)
23 July 2019 at 21:56 #67885Not much seems to have happened this day 50 years ago for the astronauts returning home.
Possibly a boring day.
Maybe it was just silly japes between the crew; maybe they played hide & seek, eye-spy… I bet they wish they’d brought board games for this day.
Probably Armstrong and Aldrin just spent the time telling Collins all about their day trip “and then Neil, he, he kinda jumped but he ha ha landed on both feet and kinda almost fell but ha ha, just bent and picked up the rock, and and… ah I s’pose you had to be there…”.
23 July 2019 at 22:04 #67886That’s such a great clip @arbutus.
Lucky they knew the guy on the soundboard who – just for their set – flicked up all the stadium speakers’ volumes!;¬)
24 July 2019 at 01:52 #67887@whisht Ooh interesting! When I was younger I wasn’t in on the day ‘tripper’ joke. but I don’t think anyone understood that for awhile- a year or two anyways 🙂
Popularity went to We can Work it Out – -which kinda fits the Trip Home too. It was the longest song, thus far, they’d worked on…..so …that’s a link (*\*)
24 July 2019 at 02:00 #6788824 July 2019 at 02:28 #67889@arbutus He was a monumental performer wasn’t he? Indelibly attracted to his audience & effortlessly so.
@whisht sorry for posting thrice but I love Ringo’s beautiful tambourine. The master that’s often forgotten has a spectacular bit of solo tambourine following a 2nd middle 8 on repeat.
@pedant yonks ago I was writing about music notation and styles & time sigs like common time and 3/4?
The waltzy sound here (“so I will ask you once again” ) is achieved not by changing the time-sigs but using thready suspensions to get that “here it comes, here it comes” moment & it was Harrison who composed that.
On the music -vid he’s madly counting & they had a cut-away. Someone from the Sorbonne made an elitist crack about their lack of musicality which reminds me of Jagger’s “Wot, and look like you?” (that’s a reference to a hair cut recited “adroitly” by Bowie ).
So like the moon landing (which success no-one was certain of ….) McCartney came into his own with this track scrabbling up the hill to John – & John beginning to slide down (OK, a bit like space travel, innit?).
It took 13 hours (just 12 minutes under that actually) to work it out. I imagine they’re were all in need of booze, tea and sleep at the end.
24 July 2019 at 22:01 #67890So for our amazing astronauts fifty years ago, this is the last day of the trip.
They’ve become passengers again, maybe slept a bit more.
Sometimes sleep is a release from reality and its certainly a World to run away from then as now, but you have to come back.But as they go through their drills, prepare to re-enter the atmosphere and ultimately splashdown this day 50 years ago, I wonder if they wished they were back in space.
24 July 2019 at 22:09 #67891@thane16 – that’s a brilliant connection to We Can Work it Out!
and will admit I keep learning how great a drummer/ percussionist Ringo is.
Also (entirely unconnected) bit on re-listening I realise I sometimes (usually?) shudder when time rhythms (signatures?) change in prog rock songs – like they’re trying a bit too hard to show off how virtuoso they are. But with the Beatles I just don’t notice it – the change usually feels … inevitable
27 July 2019 at 11:31 #67903The Cath is Back! Agreed @whisht it’s a beautiful film. I didn’t really want to see it. @pedant suggested it. It blew our minds. The language, the prediction of the language is astounding: if a musical piece is extant but at the same time composed with the fullness and completeness of the composition unwinding in front of you, all of it at once, and yet bars growing like branches from the whole. Everything is beginning, middle and end.
That reminded me of this…
27 July 2019 at 18:50 #67904@syzygy I love your description! Am working on the relationship between text and music at the moment for my thesis (specifically literary fugues…) so it rings lots of bells. Great clip too!
28 July 2019 at 06:46 #67906“It rings bells....” That reminds me of what @whisht said regarding @blenkinsopthebrave & The Persuaders theme.
A literary fugue -that sounds compelling! Text & music is very interesting isn’t it? Lyrics and choons or secular (initially French: between 600-1300) ) and sacred musics and texts are powerful combinations across the Universe (the Universe, well, I had to say it) and amongst different cultures exhibiting divergent elaborations.
The Russian-style ‘feel’ of the music @whisht impels you to that conclusion, if I’ve interpreted what you were saying? And absolutely rightly: the bells, for example, the xylophone & the pentatonic scale are inherited from amongst other areas, regions to the south of Russia with Assyrian music and its folkish charm sweeping into Russia as whole where, say, The Russian Five (like Mussorgsky) used folk music in their (evocative) works. Iranian musical styles which weren’t sacred but secular have been passed down the generations but so much has been lost to cultural dissonance & sacred ‘demands.’
John Barry, of The Persuaders, was influenced by composers like Glinka who liked to incorporate pentatonic scales, a variety of modes (Dorian to Mixolydian) and folk into his tonality. He used, as you suggested, the Moog synth and other cymbalon-type instruments – basically a group of plucked or wacked string instruments. Those style instruments and melodies came from Romany gypsies and spread north. It was the ruskies who actually created the theremin (Leon Theremin) btw -which takes us back to the original conversation a fortnight ago ((*-_-*)) .
If you reply & I don’t -it’s because I’m off for a week, maybe two -a small flood in the house means our floors have to be re-sanded & polished with coats of polyurethane which takes about 9 days. So, fun times. Insurer is terrific. They’re popping us into an apartment for the duration. There’s wif-fi but you never…. know. It’s all good.
The Siggers.
31 July 2019 at 08:15 #67910What on EARTH was I doing?
Sorry about the bloomin lecture. Gawd. Throw some tomatoes at me (rotten ones) -after all, the composer Debussy had lots of………you would know. You have a brain, curiosity etc so again, wack me about the head when I start blathering…
Thank you for birthday wishes. It was an interesting day. It involved lots of movin’ about & lots of sleep which was great.
Sigger the Silly.
31 July 2019 at 08:16 #67911It was Great -is what I meant. 🙂
15 August 2019 at 19:58 #67951Fifty years ago today, three days of Woodstock began.
My thought was that I’d go through the album and pick something that’s maybe overlooked.Maybe this is overlooked because it is slight, but I kinda love it anyway!
And lord knows we need a pickmeup in these times.
I did originally post this from Big Sur ! oops!
BTW#2 – on looking at the album tracks again and… my gawd there was some great music!So I’m gonna do big hitters too (and please add your own favourites)!
15 August 2019 at 22:08 #67952Woodstock – Day 1 (Friday)
So there’ll be others who know the story of Woodstock better than I (me not yet born and in a different country!).
An amazing list of artists and surprise! – LOADS of people turn up!
I mean just look at that lineup
ffs.
for my opener I’ll take Richie Havens (who I think did open)
and from a soul-searching guitar to a soul-nourishing sitar
(I haven’t yet heard the full hour set from Ravi Shankar – but I will! I’m linking and assuming he doesn’t descend into a foul mouthed tirade…)and whether he did or not I’ll link this to close Friday (though you won’t want to go back to your tent after this)
Slightly trebley but I can’t find the full version elsewhereTaken higher?
15 August 2019 at 22:10 #67953and yes for the pedantic I know I’ll be posting something on Sunday too….
;¬)16 August 2019 at 10:47 #67955And didn’t we hear them complain that The Grateful Dead had put everyone to sleep
17 August 2019 at 11:04 #67959syzygy @thane16 – Creedence Clearwater Revival !!
Yes Yes a million times yes!
Fantastic song and fantastic performance – I haven’t seen that before!So – I meant to post this yesterday(!) oops.
For the second day of Woodstock I’ll post these (though other great bands were on too).
Usually I’d say that drum solos and (god forbid) bass solos are indulgent, but my teenage self loved this (and on this listen I think it makes the resultant groove better)Trigger warning – in part of this video a man is dancing with a sheep.
This recording sounds better – I assume its same recording)For this next one (again a famous performance) Country Joe MacDonald was singing to American teens and early twenties who were all possibly up for the Draft (and who had seen brothers, neighbours etc called up and some coming back in various states of health and death).
I cannot imagine how this felt.
Fuck of a lot of energy in this.17 August 2019 at 11:33 #67960That IS energetic. The influence was Phil Ochs and Faron Young of all people. The ragtime and the shanty-town balance is fucking beautiful.
And then falls tears. God I hope that country finds itself again. I was gonna post Cocker’s I don’t Need A Doctor. Because well, we do here!
instead we have Joplin doing Big Mama. It’s not a hugely good recording. The Monterey one’s better.
Syzygy
17 August 2019 at 11:42 #67961Also she meets the tuning fork test. Her coda and end solo match up with her 1st note.
@whisht absolutely – -the terrific riff on Santana is really great to hear. They slowed it down a bit for the crowd and it’s tuned very nicely indeed. Considering the dust and wind.
Syzygy.
17 August 2019 at 11:53 #67962@whisht Aaaand this was interesting…
17 August 2019 at 19:23 #67963I know this is hardly an obscure Woodstock moment, but I have to interject with some Hendrix. Was he ever more beautiful?
17 August 2019 at 20:52 #67964@cathannabel – indeed! I think I might try and find an even longer version of what came before and after!!
Syzygy – aw that’s great from Joplin.
I’m not sure which the first version I heard of this song was, but I have a fondness for this version from a really great album I bought in my teens.
Big Mama Thornton namechecks Janis though you get the sense she’s saying… Ok you heard her, but I wrote it… now hear me…
“yahoo”:¬)
Its not better nor worse – its just the version in my head!
Oh and syzygy – you’ll be appalled but I only know of Faron Young as a name in a Prefab Sprout song (a brilliant song it has to be said).
You give me Faron Young, 4 in the morning…..
Need to do my homework….But of course I have to post this for Peter Fonda.
Co-wrote, produced, starred in etc – an incredibly seminal movie that have some saying it was a basis for independent cinema in the US.17 August 2019 at 20:58 #67965Now in terms of Woodstock, I think I may still be ‘behind’ in my posting of acts from each day but then…. well, time kinda got hazy man, and well, what is Time man and hey look….. a cloud….
{ahem}
{cough}
I’ll try these.
If my memory serves they hadn’t played a gig together before this….“A science fiction kinda story…”
But don’t let that put you off. its a really funky riff
(oh and Bowie was like blotting paper !)17 August 2019 at 21:01 #67966but if you’d rather something closer to “I am a MAN and here is my instrument!” then, well, I did like this when I first heard it in a “wow!” way
18 August 2019 at 12:09 #67970I don’t think Jack Bruce should be covered here, exactly, but link Theme of an Imaginary Western by Mountain & have you an exclusive vocal tone in Bruce -my opinion, only. And I did pick up your niiice mention of 4 in the Morning… He was an interesting character deemed quite conservative but over the years he had a massive discography with Keeping Up with the Joneses; I miss You Already, Congratulations and I Hate Myself.
You beat me to it with CSN&Y.
And the Hendrix sends shivers doesn’t it @cathannabel. A truly enigmatic but gifted performer. Some play great but don’t at concerts. Some are the opposite but Hendrix had it all. Focused like a laser although he made it effortless.
Also, I’m marching past Woodstock’s bed time with Sha Na Na’s Wipeout which is much faster & tighter than The Safaris
18 August 2019 at 12:24 #67971I had to check that too. They had no clue where Woodstock was but had played with Joni Mitchell -as their own opener which they were thrilled to do. Apparently they said “we were scared shitless” but a mate of mine who did Roadie work in the 70s concluded this was an urban/musical myth, organised in part to give off a “folksy, shucks” group persona considering, at the time, Graham Nash was being “quite difficult” – -that part I’m told by Jim-Jim is truth. He mellowed…eventually.
Siggers.
18 August 2019 at 12:46 #67972Hmmm…
And this (click if it doesn’t embed)
https://twitter.com/EMPIREREPORTNY/status/1163048956844224512
18 August 2019 at 14:55 #67976Ian Matthews is quite interesting. I didn’t have much of an idea how long he performed…..but he’s ticket holder for Scunthorpe FC. That gave me giggles & tickles. It’s intriguing just how many bands stood for acclaim but bringing along others, who’d either been kicked out of a band(s); volunteered a hasty retreat followed by induction to yet another group and eventually they’re tying themselves to the chopping block wanting to work alone.
The sheer scale of music in the 60s/70s is incredibly hard to imagine now. Mainly music (other than the 70s/80s which saw some great names and bands), struggles for what’s unique in all of us but the current music lacks a touch of the brazen and boy bands are everywhere ….with supermarket background noise and far too much healthy living
19 August 2019 at 23:04 #67981@thane16 – syzygy – yes yes yes for Sha Na Na !!
Oooooh Mountain – not heard them before – thanks for this, my 60’s/70’s knowledge is sporadic!@pedant – I know the song but not this performance (need to google harder)!!
It feels mellower than the one in my head – and none the worse for it!
Oh and I saw that news about the couple – that was really sweet!And yes syzrgy I have a lot to discover from the 60’s 70’s and that’s a great landscape ahead of me!
So, Woodstock – Day 4 (Monday) Bonus day!
Yay everything overran and Jimi couldn’t play Sunday night.
So we got Hendrix in the morning!
Whatever would he do with such a rubbish time to play for himself, the band and for those still left, getting up, rubbing eyes and everything else and maybe listening…?Nothing much
20 August 2019 at 20:38 #67985so… been reading the Kebab thread and… I know this ain’t right but its what I have.
And maybe what I wanted to find was something optimistic.
Instead I keep coming back to ‘this is what it is’.I remember this when it was first played and smirked at the Manic’s over populating a lyric with syllables.
Because that’s easy. Smirking is easy.Tutting is easy.
Shrugging is easy.
Irony is easy.
Decrying others is easy.The recent response to Greta Thunberg is merely the most…. recent.
Its not a perfect song, and I can’t find a good video for it.
The official one is anodyne.
Fan ones are… from what I’ve seen imo ham-fisted.
This is a fan one and it aint perfect and I don’t even recognise some of the people.Its what it is.
Normal service (me being glib) will recommence soon.
21 August 2019 at 19:44 #67987So syzzrs @thane16 – you wonderfully linked to Sha Na Na at their Woodstock finest (if anyone missed it scroll up now!!).
Slightly amped up 50’s Rock n Roll (and the amps aren’t the hardware!).
First thoughts went here, but then….…while thinking of something else, I thought of this
Which made me listen to this
Thane, we all looked like that back in the 80’s.
All of us.Which led to this though maybe I mistepped but whaddever – maybe its just because its tighter than a gnats chuff in its own way
Then I was in a spiral (upward? downward?) leading to this and NOW I’M HAVING AN EARLY WEEKEND – WHY NOT!!??
Ignore the video (if possible) and simply stick this on in your kitchen at full volume and drink some rubbish beer/ wine and imagine its a houseparty.
see y’all on the other side…
22 August 2019 at 01:49 #67988you have been working hard! I have the embarrassing tale of not knowing very much about the B52s until Love-Shack which I thought energetic -more so than Lobster, actually, which McCartney didn’t like and Lennon (well, OK, Ono did). I’ve never head Planet Claire before! Ooh. Good!
Brilliant choices! “Tighter than a Gnat’s Chuff.” That saying is almost as good as the music. I have to show to Thane this in particular -and the hairstyles of the B52s too. I like Word’s Up, a lot -for the same reasons: it’s beautifully choreographed & so well lit (in every way).
And Delite woke me up. ((-_-))
Now, I have NOTHING to offer. It’s all samey. Or maybe my brain is cluttered with bad Netlfix.
22 August 2019 at 10:42 #67990@whisht you’ve been playing a lot of great stuff. I don’t think I knew about the B52s til a few years ago. On at a party and I was surprised. It was 16 year old’s party and the music was 70s and 80s. I figured I’d go back to another one of those. Really awesome funky dancing. So.….
“We’d like to play a song which kinda is our..we knew we were gonna come back & do’t. This is a …yeah, sorry. Uh. This is kinda of our hymn, this song…it’s about you and me. We’re gettin’ a bit old now…..”
My Generation. And I know W’stock is over. But it’s never really over. (When you compare it to the NY dude who tried to put a music festival on in 3 months with kids spending between $3K and $250K for a yacht for 2 days or a “cabana, luxury, next to the beach.” )
So, my mum & dad gave me this when I was 2. For Christmas. I think I tried to eat it. Every year they gave me a new CD that was ‘serious’ from Pet Sounds to ma’s favourite (Revolver) which isn’t Dad’s (that’s Sergeant Pepper’s); Jeff Buckley? And some really weird stuff like Jimmy Buffet. But also The White Album and some Jewish music AND some amazing Tango. I don’t think that’s anywhere on youtube. And last year they slipped up & missed about 6 years which is something they need to re-dress! And immediately. Or should I say “very immediately coz it’s really unique.” But that’s being a bit scornful. I hear people say things like that, or write them, and I say nothing. Zip my mouth. Mum has trouble doing that! But they gave me something ‘blank’ with a chic’s voice I’d never heard. It was whoa! I find out from a mate who is 18 years older than I, that it was mum. Like 20 years ago!
22 August 2019 at 10:45 #67991that was me Syzygy the younger one. And I liked your music in post # 67985 @whisht.
That’s something we hear a lot. And I respect and support all that you said.
22 August 2019 at 18:51 #6799323 August 2019 at 02:37 #6799823 August 2019 at 02:38 #6799923 August 2019 at 02:47 #68000“Take it hip to hip, rock it though the wilderness”….
Pure filth.
Which for some reason reminds me of the title of the album on which this was the first single. I’ll leave you to look it up:
23 August 2019 at 03:55 #68001heheheh. Blast. When you’re at parties you don’t listen to the lyrics in the way you should….
Honey Lingers? “There are monsters, there are angels. “i’m nobody’s baby” Mum would say this is really good scansion. I think, after 17 yrs, I’m learning what that is.
“There is ice and there is fire in every single heart….”
I like how proud the lyrics are? Not “I’m gonna hit that ….[insert word].”
I don’t know why mum hasn’t shown this to me. I mean the Greek name alone she tells me ALL the time. Yesterday she said “you never listen” and I say “because you go on with this long thesis and 30 mins later we haven’t progressed past the 12 minutes of The Sinner!”
23 August 2019 at 03:57 #68002Ohhhh, hip to hip. Yep, missed that. I mean I totally missed it. Awkward. I was just dancing along.
24 August 2019 at 03:27 #68007For a child so busy with assignments, he sure has a lot to say, does Syzygy. Mind you, I agree: lots of music his friends listen to is similar with pulsating back beats, over- bass 16 tracks & is wholly digital with almost nothing that I would say gives the impression of natural. Certainly if the Beatles, Bowie, ELP could do things with Moogs and 20th century ‘classically’ inspired western tonal keyboard music and have it sound ‘live’ and flawless then current genx can do the same with digital inputs.
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