Posted on 07/13/2002 4:55:42 PM PDT by Wondervixen
As for what RWP listens to:
1. Sheryl Crow
2. Garbage
3. Poe
4. Alanis Morrisette
5. Creed
6. Puddle of Mudd
7. Dido
8. Nina Gordon / Veruca Salt
9. Hole
10. Madonna
11. Radiohead
12. Fleetwood Mac
13. Heart
14. Pat Benatar
15. Tina Turner
And even some old school rap!
Basically, I like cutting edge stuff, but my heart still goes back to good ol' rock and roll.
There are a number of talented songwriters out there who are putting out good music, you just have to work a little bit to find some of it. I won't necessarily sing the praises of bands like Styx, KISS, the Eagles or some of the other 70s stuff, but they are certainly more listenable than a lot of the music coming out these days.
It shouldn't be any surprise, of course, that the decline of popular music took place during the Clinton Era. Like everything else the Clinton Baby Boomers touched, music became more base and vulgar, and ultimately less listenable. I could pontificate on the institutions that the Boomers have destroyed, of course, but that would turn into a lengthy treatise, if not a book!
I can only admit this on an anonymous forum, but "Eight Arms To Hold You" is one of my most cherished CDs (I hide it when guests come over).
"These kids today... the clothes they wear... and their music: it's just noise! How can anyone stand Puff Daddy? Now, Steely Dan... that was music!" -- southernnorthcarolina, 2002.
"These kids today... the clothes they wear... and their music: it's just noise! How can anyone stand Steely Dan? Now, Ella Fitzgerald... that was music!" -- my parents, 1978.
"These kids today... the clothes they wear... and their music: it's just noise! How can anyone stand Ella Fitzgerald? Now, Benny Goodman... that was music!" -- my grandparents, 1954.
"These kids today... the clothes they wear... and their music: it's just noise! How can anyone stand Beethoven? Now, Bach... that was music!" -- my great, great, great, great, great grandparents, 1799.
I no longer listen to those stations. I will think they sound like Hell, and tapes of my father will come shooting out of my mouth. That will make me think that I am an old fuddy-duddy, because that's what I thought he was, back when he said them. What the Hell is this... ka-weema-weh ka-weema-weh, sleeping lions. Whatever happened to music? Feh! |
Rap
He was an early member of Emmylou's "Hot Band"
(She's never forgot the advice she received from her mentor/lover, Gram Parsons, who said, "Buy the best band you can (or can't) afford".....and she always has)
He is also the greatest C&W songwriter of his generation.
He and Emmylou wrote a song that closes her third album, Luxury Liner, called "Tulsa Queen" that is such a lonesome, heartbreaking, train-song, that even Hank Williams would've cried.
(because he didn't write it)
His first album (which I don't think has surfaced on CD) was called Ain't Living Long Like This and the title song is a "Memphis Sound" rockabilly that positively will make you get up and dance.
studio musicians have it made! They work civilized hours, make good money (if they're smart...) they don't have to tour, they get the chance to have a normal family, they don't have to deal with the annoyance of fame, and their career isn't subject to public opinion. 'stars' don't have those options.
the trouble with being a studio cat is that a lot of the crap being produced these days doesn't include instruments!
as Rush (the band) wrote 20 years ago, "all this machinery making modern music can still be open hearted- not so coldly charted, it's really just a question of your honesty. yeah, your honesty"-- Spirit of Radio
That is an angle I never thought of before. When I was 18, it was just before the "age 21 drinking age" madness and I was able to get into clubs in Boston. This was the 1979-80 period when new and upcoming acts like U2, The Police, Teardrop Explodes, Devo, Talking Heads, etc., would play packed nightclubs filled with mostly teenagers. It was a very lively music scene during those years. Once the age was raised to 21, a lot of that exuberance was lost. Many people over 21 want to hear the music of their youth and are generally not interested in hearing new and unproven bands like teenagers do.
You may have an excellent point here. And I have always maintained that the mandatory age 21 drinking law was one of the biggest mistakes we made in this country for many other reasons that probably shouldn't be discussed here.
==================================
A long time ago, in a place which may have been Ireland (but could just as easily have been Africa or Madagascar) there occurred a very unusual series of events.
Two men - good friends - heard of a great golden statue found standing in a great hole in the Earth, quite close to their village. Now, these were simple people and rumours spread like contagion. Some said it was not a statue, but not a man either. One thing was certain: it never moved. But it was also said that it produced a noise, a sound, or several sounds from time to time. Now and then, people had said, it made all of its noises at the same time. The men made a plan to visit it. They left early one morning.
They progressed slowly.
"Do you feel exhausted as I do?" said the first man.
"I've felt better," said the other "but we must achieve our aim."
After many hours the first man stopped in his tracks, staring into the distance.
"I see it," he said quietly.
"What do you see?"
"A gleaming of beautiful gold, a great haze of light..."
Despite their tiredness, they began to walk faster. But however briskly they walked, the distance between them and what the tales referred to as "the gleaming golden light" remained the same. After a while they stopped. They were very frustrated.
The quieter of the two men said, "We'll never get there." "If we walk back, we will get there," said his friend.
The other surveyed him.
"Why do you think so?"
Without replying the first man rose, turned around and began walking back the way they had come.
To the amazement of the other, after a while the light became visible to him too and as they walked it drew closer. Soon the countryside around them began to look as if there had been a great fire. Blackened trees lay cracked on the ground and the Earth was scorched and barren. They felt uneasy. But they carried on.
Sure enough, they came to a massive charred hole. It was as if a great rock had been hurled from the heavens.
"What a mess," said the first man, "let's go and look."
"You go," said his more cautious companion, "tell me what you see."
His friend crawled to the edge of the great hole. Hanging onto a blasted but well rooted tree, he peered over. In the great pit gouged from the Earth was the tallest figure he had ever seen. It was of a beautiful golden finish, entirely smooth. It was not a statue, but it was not a man. He had never seen anything like it, and he couldn't look away.
"We have come so far," he said to himself. "I hear it has voices to speak of things we cannot speak of." He looked around and there was his friend next to him and he was staring into the crater.
He said "I am told that when a man hears its voice, it stays in their ears, they cannot be rid of it. It has many different voices: some happy but others sad. It roars like a baboon, murmurs like a child, rustles like water in a glass, sings like a lover and laments like a priest."
"I have heard it only says one word," said the other.
His friend looked at him, "I was told it depends on how you listen."
"What can you mean?"
"Imagine a creature with a melody for a voice. You either hear it or you don't."
"I do not understand," said his friend.
"He describes himself but he cannot see it; when he sees it, he cannot describe it. But there is always the sound, he will always make the sound."
They fell quiet. a long time passed. The second man turned to the first man.
"Doesn't look like we're going to hear it, does it?"
"I have heard it."
His friend looked at him sharply. "But there was no sound. None. What are you talking about?"
"Cheer up cloth ears," he said, "it's only a fairytale, innit?"
By William Murray
A bit of Trivia - "EATHY" was the original title of the Beatles' movie "Help!", and there's the obvious nod of the cap to "I Am The Walrus" in "Volcano Girls" (I'm showing my age!)
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They have been manufacturing plastic rock stars since I was a pup. Frankie Avalon actually sold a bunch of records. So did the Archies. Remember Menudo? Or Milli Vanilli? Plastic, the whole bunch of 'em. The Monkees even made a TV special about how they were "manufactured" in test tubes by record company execs; they thought it was funny. Somehow the world continues to turn. Somehow some halfway-decent bands always manage to coexist with the manufactured product.