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Thread: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

  1. #46
    Churlish Johnny Footstool's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by WilyMoROCKS View Post
    Johnny was the only one who loved the Sopranos ending.
    I tell you, I nearly peed my pants when Carmella walked into the diner and those piano chords kicked in.
    "I prefer books and movies where the conflict isn't of the extreme cannibal apocalypse variety I guess." Redsfaithful


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  3. #47
    Smooth WMR's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste


  4. #48
    Mon chou Choo vaticanplum's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool View Post
    I agree. I have a greater appreciation for people who can write their own songs and play their own instruments than for "voices" who just sing something someone else wrote.
    Appreciation is one thing, but I agree with reg that there's a place -- I would say a NEED -- for these "entertainers". That Sinatra guy did ok. I daresay the world wouldn't be the same without him, in fact, and that can't be said for a whole lot of songwriters.

    The absence of musical talent is one of the reasons I don't like rap.
    Define music Melody? Chord progressions? Creativity? Sonic quality? Tone? I find certain rap incredibly musical.
    There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.

  5. #49
    Man Pills Falls City Beer's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by vaticanplum View Post
    I find certain rap incredibly musical.
    I feel no guilt in saying that "Wipe Me Down" is Art with a capital "Sexy."
    “And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith

  6. #50
    smells of rich mahogany deltachi8's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    I likes what i like when I likes it. best way I can put it with the little brain that I have.
    Nothing to see here. Please disperse.

  7. #51
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/

    Why Bruce Matters (to me in Japan)
    November 1st, 2007

    Funny thing, I’m pretty sure I had never heard of Bruce Springsteen before “Born in the USA” came out. In fact, I think the first time I became aware of Springsteen was when he did the “Dancing in the Dark” video, and pulled the oh-so-excellent-looking Courtney Cox on the stage. And then next time I noticed him was was when he did the “Glory Days” video, and I still cannot stand that song. Speedball, indeed.

    Hey, there was no Springsteen where I lived. I grew up in a sheltered AM Radio home with Connie Francis and Bobby Vinton records playing — to me, as a kid, the epicenter of music hip was the Leif Garrett record that I got for free at Burger King (“Everybody go surfin’!”) and the Vickie Sue Robinson appearance on Bandstand. Turn the beat around. Love to hear percussion.

    I think it was my ghastly musical upbringing that shaped my philosophy about music, which is this: You just like what you like. I am, as is probably apparent from this blog, an unbearable pop-culture snob about most things. I cannot imagine a scenario where I could be friends with anyone who loves the movie “Patch Adams” or religiously watches “According to Jim” (no offense to Jim Belushi, if you are reading) or holds a monthly poker game that tilts towards deuces, sevens and one-eyed jacks. I really am a jerk, actually.

    But that snobbishness ends with music. I think music (as Elvis said during the Sun Sessions) either moves you or it doesn’t. And that comes from someplace beyond choices, something involuntary, the color of your eyes. I might prefer not to like George Michael. I might feel embarrassed that “Voulez Vous” makes me so happy. But this is what I am.

    Put in a negative way way: I may personally think that Billy Joel music sucks, but this does not prevent me from being best friends with a guy who can sing every song, word for word, off the Streetlife Serenade album (it also does not make me think any less of the cool and hot Sarah Silverman that she has the gruesome “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” on her iTunes playlist. Hey, Bottle of Red, Bottle of White, whatever makes you happy Sarah). I may personally rather listen to passing garbage trucks than Jethro Tull, but when a friend of mine went to see them in concert recently (yeah, recently), I did not stop returning her calls.

    (I will admit that going to a Jethro Tull concert in 2007 does push my liberal music sensibilities to the edge. Seriously, how old are those guys by now? Jethro Tull recorded “Locomotive Breath” when locomotives were America’s No. 1 transportation option. And that song sucked then too.)

    All of this is a way to offer my theory that while you may learn to appreciate music, loving it comes from someplace else. I appreciate Charlie Parker. I love Prince. I appreciate Mozart. I love Madonna. I appreciate the Beatles. I love Feist. I have Wilco and Arcade Fire on my iPod. I listen to Keane and David Gray instead. I suspect old Nirvana is better than old Pearl Jam, but I like Pearl Jam more. I appreciate young Sinatra and skinny Elvis, but I love cuckoo old Frank Sinatra and cape-wearing In the Ghetto Elvis. These aren’t choices I would necessarily make, if they were choices.

    And I love Bruce Springsteen. I know a lot has been written about Springsteen, good and bad, about his politics and his growth and depth as a musician and his place in American music and a whole lot of other things that frankly are way beyond me. But what I’m trying to get across here is that none of that means much to me. I appreciate that Springsteen. But I love the Springsteen whose music has made me feel stuff at different times in my life, stuff that, technically, is nowhere to be found in any of of the songs.

    I didn’t hear “Born to Run” — the album — until I was in college. And, like countless other kids, I listened to it over and over and over again, even though none of the songs really spoke to me, not literally. I don’t know anything about cars or the backstreets of the big city, and I haven’t really been around too many people like Eddie or the Magic Rat or the barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge (drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain). I still have absolutely no idea what Tenth Avenue Freeze Out is supposed to be about. I guess Bad Scooter was searching for his groove.

    But it doesn’t matter, not to me. There was something electric in the music, something I NEEDED to hear at that moment in my life, something I still love to hear, something about wanting to bust out and make a name for yourself and just be heard, man. I was like most of my friends, I had this nameless ambition to do something, be something, but also this overriding suspicion that I was going to live a half life with a dead-end, John Cusack, “I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought or processed, or repair anything …” kind of job. Bruce shouted down that fear. We’re gonna get to the place where we really wanna go and then we’ll walk in the sun.

  8. #52
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    I know a guy who walks around with a chip on his shoulder over the fact that his wedding band wouldn't play "Locomotive Breath".
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  9. #53
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    I know a guy who walks around with a chip on his shoulder over the fact that his wedding band wouldn't play "Locomotive Breath".
    Wow... Crossed Eyed Mary I could understand, but Locomotive Breath?

  10. #54
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Free Bird!
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  11. #55
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Generally speaking, I think my tastes have broadened as I've gotten older.

    There are always the music that was around during critical stages in your life that are imprinted (or seared) into one's being. And you naturally gravitate back to that stuff ("Whippin' Post! Bruuuuucceee) when scanning the FM/XM/iPod dial.

    But there is a whole lot of music that you listen to over the years and say "hmmmm, you know, I think there is something here". And you listen to it more, be it Charlie Parker, Doc Watson, or Mozart and learn to a.) like it, and b.) appreciate the music form. My biggest problem any more is I like too much stuff. XM has been a godsend.

    And that goes for most art forms, be it PBS TV, sculpting, 18th century Flemish painters, action thriller books, rap (my God, yes, rap), modern day poetry, speed metal, or whatever.

    I've been blessed with a lively mind and blessed to have access to a broad and varied content stream (for wont of a better term) and there is just a whole bunch of stuff I like. I don't have enough time to listen to, read, watch, and *do* all the things I want.
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  12. #56
    Harry Chiti Fan registerthis's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    My band used to do a cover medley that included "Immigrant Song", "Billy Jean" and "Ain't Talkin 'Bout Love". When I was feeling particularly adept, I'd throw in a little bit of YYZ.

    It was badass, I tell ya.

    No, really.
    We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

  13. #57
    Churlish Johnny Footstool's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by vaticanplum View Post
    Appreciation is one thing, but I agree with reg that there's a place -- I would say a NEED -- for these "entertainers". That Sinatra guy did ok. I daresay the world wouldn't be the same without him, in fact, and that can't be said for a whole lot of songwriters.

    Define music Melody? Chord progressions? Creativity? Sonic quality? Tone? I find certain rap incredibly musical.
    Musical talent is ability to sing and/or play an instrument. That's a pretty broad definition.

    Saying poetry over a sampled beat doesn't meet that definition.

    I'm not saying rappers aren't talented -- they have a great deal of talent. But they don't sing and don't usually play an instrument. They're entertainers -- artist, even -- but not musicians.
    Last edited by Johnny Footstool; 11-01-2007 at 11:33 AM.
    "I prefer books and movies where the conflict isn't of the extreme cannibal apocalypse variety I guess." Redsfaithful

  14. #58
    Yay! dabvu2498's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Best cover I've ever heard a country band do was of Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." True story. That was meant to be a country song.
    When all is said and done more is said than done.

  15. #59
    Churlish Johnny Footstool's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by dabvu2498 View Post
    Best cover I've ever heard a country band do was of Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." True story. That was meant to be a country song.
    You should hear my band's punk/metal rendition of Air Supply's "All Out of Love".
    "I prefer books and movies where the conflict isn't of the extreme cannibal apocalypse variety I guess." Redsfaithful

  16. #60
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
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    Re: Obscurity, popularity, and taste

    Quote Originally Posted by westofyou View Post
    Wow... Crossed Eyed Mary I could understand, but Locomotive Breath?
    Actually, I don't think you can dance to "Cross-Eyed Mary". Literally. It's got a screwy time signature. You'd have to pull out some acid drop moves.

    With "Locomotive Breath" at least you can do the fist pump-head bob thing. That wouldn't be dancing per se, but it would be organized.

    Though I wouldn't want to watch the grandparents dance to either one.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.


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