That's because you flinched when you squeezed the trigger.....
Here's some music whilst I ponder something to post.
I know that I found it tiresome when I was a teenager to have grown-ups rubbishing the music of my generation, but.... I was just boredly flicking through music channels on the tv... From Lady Gaga to niggaz with their pants around their kneez. What a load of crap. And so many of them "singing" with electronically distorted (autotuned) voices, because they can't really sing. The emphasis all on dance moves, costumes, fancy stage sets, lasers, lighting, fog...
Because there's really nothing there, beneath it all. Emperor's new clothes. And every band sounds like the last one.
And I was thinking, as I so often do, like an old fogey... that "It was better back in my day".
Well, there was plenty of crap around. loads of it, to be honest, but. It was more honest. People got up on stage and played and sang. There was nothing to hide behind, no computer auto correcting your bum notes, no pitch tweaking.
I was thinking of bands I saw back then, music I taped onto cassettes at friend's houses, oh yes "home taping is killing the music industry", it's my fault. When I went to college, I took a big box of cassettes, we were all swapping tapes. And we saw bands.
I know. We've been here before, I keep ranting about it. bands. Pink Floyd... David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Moody Blues, The Who, Rolling Stones....
They all played in venues like university dining halls, turned up with a couple of vans, one for the band, one for the equipment. Not 52 40 ton trucks and a corporate jet.
The hall I saw the Moody Blues in was a moderate-sized lecture-theatre. The only concession to rock'n'roll was the psychedelic oil-bubble projector, and the dry ice machine.
Here's a couple of songs. First one's from Britain's 1970 answer to Woodstock, the Isle of Wight Festival.
(o)
ReplyDeleteMusic has been dead since Abba appeared! People prefer vacuousness rather than talent.
ReplyDeletegz: that (o)looks like the end of a rifle barrel from a rabbit's point of view!
ReplyDeleteAdullamite: I think you're being a bit unfair to Abba, now. Within their bouncy niche, they're still streets ahead of a lot of later bands. And I'd hasten a guess that Dire Straits, to name but one, are post-Abba. But I do get your point. I try not to be too much of a curmudgeon, but so many bands that people born later than me think of as supergroups... are, to me, decidedly not. U2 anybody? Lots of posturing and politicising, but were they any good as a band? I think not. Besides which, their front man couldn't even spell his name. Bonno, not Bono, if he wanted it to be pronounced the way he did...
Oasis? Pah!
Britains answer to Woodstock. Right.
ReplyDeleteCan I say something to Adullamite here?
I heard of a U2 incident once. Probably a different one though. Not involving the perpetually-bugsunglassed one. I thought his name was Bonnie.
ReplyDeleteWho are all the foreign bands you keep talking about?
Of course, Max, feel free, I'm of the belief that comments should be open to discussion.
ReplyDeleteWoodstock, Isle of Wight....
Well, it rained heavily at both, there were major internationally famed acts at both, the fences were torn down by people unwilling to pay tickets at both, and performers at both demanded sackloads of money to go on.
The 1969 Festival started 11 days after Woodstock ended. Which of the two did Bob Dylan play? (clue: Dylan was living in Woodstock, NY at the time). If you answered "Isle of Wight", give yourself ten points.
"The 1970 event was by far the largest and most famous of these early festivals; indeed it was said at the time to be one of the largest human gatherings in the world, with estimates of over 600,000, surpassing the attendance at Woodstock. Included in the line-up of over fifty performers were The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Doors, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Melanie, Donovan, Free, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Leonard Cohen, Jethro Tull, Taste and Tiny Tim. The unexpectedly high attendance levels led, in 1971, to Parliament passing the "Isle of Wight Act" preventing gatherings of more than 5,000 people on the island without a special licence."
U2? Gary Powers...
ReplyDeletehe got shot down, which must have been a surprise at the incredible altitudes those things reach.
There are still troves of authentic & good music around, even some made possible by new technologies.
ReplyDeletePlayingForChange.com springs immediately to mind (uh-oh, Bono has a cameo appearance on one tune)... but I dare you to *not* dance & sing along with Stand By Me ...
Gaga, IMHO, is brilliant. Despite her over-the-top stage sets, choreography, and fire-blasting pointy brassiere.
It took me reading it three times to get your joke: did you miss me ... geesh what does that say about me ???
ReplyDeleteha.
xxx
Parsnip Soup: Well, I have to say, parsnips are very tasty vegetables, I like them roasted, mostly, but they do make a good soup. I'll agree, there are some good music makers around still, but they're eclipsed by the lousy ones. I watched rhe 'Playing for Change track, "Stand By Me" which you recommended. I had no urge to sing along, dance, finger-pop, or anything else.
ReplyDeleteDid any of the featured singers eclipse the original, sung by Ben E. King, back in 1962? I think not.
As for Gaga?
Oh come now, the woman's a parody of herself, a triumph of style over substance, yes, she's a great variety act, but... take away the costumes, the wigs, the visuals, and what's left? Not much. Musically? Well, to me she sounds bland and totally unmemorable.
Parsnips+excellent. Gaga not.
RDG: I'll put the not getting the joke down to your having a sweet and innocent mind. All in all, that's quite reassuring. Remember, i'm the guy whose seat of choice in the cafe is in the back corner, facing the door. I may be paranoid, but thats definitely the seat where nobody can creep up from behind and stab me!
ReplyDeleteIf, instead, you'd responded that you'd try again, with two clicks up, and one to windward on your sight, phoo, then I'd be worried.
xxx
I've always liked "Timothy Leary's Dead" by them.
ReplyDeleteFlows well and a nice metaphor for meditation --- lost in the ozone.
Oh, my gosh! I love Moody Blues!
ReplyDeletehi soubriquet,
ReplyDeletei have a soft spot for the music of that era for sure and really dug the moody blues (by the way, i played one of the videos and an ad immediately popped up for an "herbal" vaporizer... coincidence? i think not). i've kinda been having a donovan and nick drake rotation on my cd player of late but the strange thing to me was that as i grew into a music lover in the late 60s early 70s, my impression always was that the 40s and 50s were musically bereft and only included such nonsense as pat boone and bill haley. this was obviously the result of the rampant racism that is still going strong over here but my point is that when i got in my 30s, i realized that there was unbelievable music going on then, just that most of it wasn't being made by white boys from america and britain... who knew?