Music opinion/question of the week...

General music discussion.
Heston
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Heston »

Not sure if he crossed the Atlantic but I love a bit of Gilbert O'Sullivan.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2018, 11:51am
The only one that I can think of off-hand who I dig is Paul Simon. I don't hate the genre, I suppose; it generally bores me. At the same time, I dislike intensely Jann Wenner, so his ardent promotion of 70s singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne doesn't do it any favours.
He seems like a bad dude. Just read an article about his biography (which I want to pick up). Guess he gave the guy who wrote it hundreds of hours of interviews and access to tons of documents and then made a big deal about how he didn't want it to be "authorized" so the guy writing it would be free to write it without interference from Wenner...but then when Wenner saw a draft he threw a fit and basically disowned the thing. One funny tidbit was that he insisted Rolling Stone pick U2's uninspired Songs of Innocence as their album of the year a few years back.

Jackson Browne is a guy I didn't really get into until maybe a few years ago and then I was blown away by the quality of his writing and performing. I won't pretend to know a lot about his discography...but some of his early albums are really good.
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

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Heston wrote:
22 May 2018, 11:54am
Not sure if he crossed the Atlantic but I love a bit of Gilbert O'Sullivan.
I think he's best known in the US as the guy who sued Biz Markie! ;)
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

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When my ex-wife was pregnant with our son...we wanted to pick a name that was classic, but hadn't been used in either of our families. I was driving to work one morning when I heard the track Sweet Baby James by James Taylor - a song/album I remembered hearing a ton when I was a kid and the name James just stuck in my head and that was what we eventually went with.

We gave him my maternal grandfather's name as his middle name...so his full name is James Paul...which means he shares a first and middle name with a certain ex-Beatle!

I think a lot of these guys did get boring at a certain point in their careers. I feel like they had a lot of talent...but as they got more popular they just sounded uninspired. James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and so on.
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Low Down Low »

Love some of those guys mentioned. Gilbert O'Sullivan is ace. Incidentally, is there a specific category that 70s songwriters fall into? I could name loads of artists I love who were writing songs in the 70s, but not sure that means they are specifically "70s songwriters", guys like Van Morrison, John Martyn, Randy Newman, Richard Thompson, Steve Forbert, Gordon Lightfoot. Could list probably 20 more if I put my mind to it.

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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

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Low Down Low wrote:
22 May 2018, 12:31pm
Love some of those guys mentioned. Gilbert O'Sullivan is ace. Incidentally, is there a specific category that 70s songwriters fall into? I could name loads of artists I love who were writing songs in the 70s, but not sure that means they are specifically "70s songwriters", guys like Van Morrison, John Martyn, Randy Newman, Richard Thompson, Steve Forbert, Gordon Lightfoot. Could list probably 20 more if I put my mind to it.
You're correct. It could be a broad category. I was thinking about people like James Taylor when I posed the question...that mellow Southern California stuff. Maybe not the best question because the focus isn't narrow enough.
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

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WestwayKid wrote:
22 May 2018, 12:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 May 2018, 11:51am
The only one that I can think of off-hand who I dig is Paul Simon. I don't hate the genre, I suppose; it generally bores me. At the same time, I dislike intensely Jann Wenner, so his ardent promotion of 70s singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne doesn't do it any favours.
He seems like a bad dude. Just read an article about his biography (which I want to pick up). Guess he gave the guy who wrote it hundreds of hours of interviews and access to tons of documents and then made a big deal about how he didn't want it to be "authorized" so the guy writing it would be free to write it without interference from Wenner...but then when Wenner saw a draft he threw a fit and basically disowned the thing. One funny tidbit was that he insisted Rolling Stone pick U2's uninspired Songs of Innocence as their album of the year a few years back.
Wenner was fundamentally a groupie (ironic given that Rolling Stone was instrumental in popularizing the negative image of female groupies as little more than starfuckers and unscrupulous users). Rolling Stone's mission was about allowing him to hang out with rock stars as a peer. He regularly killed negative reviews of artists he loved (leading Lester Bangs to switch to Creem) and wrote reviews that read like promo material. Any good work done by that magazine was the result of strong-willed editors. Wenner encapsulates everything awful about Boomers and rock music.
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Low Down Low »

WestwayKid wrote:
22 May 2018, 12:49pm
Low Down Low wrote:
22 May 2018, 12:31pm
Love some of those guys mentioned. Gilbert O'Sullivan is ace. Incidentally, is there a specific category that 70s songwriters fall into? I could name loads of artists I love who were writing songs in the 70s, but not sure that means they are specifically "70s songwriters", guys like Van Morrison, John Martyn, Randy Newman, Richard Thompson, Steve Forbert, Gordon Lightfoot. Could list probably 20 more if I put my mind to it.
You're correct. It could be a broad category. I was thinking about people like James Taylor when I posed the question...that mellow Southern California stuff. Maybe not the best question because the focus isn't narrow enough.
I can understand perfectly what you're getting at alright. James Taylor is just one of those artists that defines the 70s and ceased to have pretty much any relevance beyond the end of that decade, for the little I know of him after that at least! As opposed to someone like Leonard Cohen who is very much a 70s artist but not somebody I got really into until the 90s and stayed relevant right to the very end.

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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Wolter »

Do Nillson and Zevon count? They’re good.

EDIT: missed an entire page. They do count.
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by muppet hi fi »

"Singer-songwriter" was always a pretty amorphous description of a genre (though I know what you're getting at, Westwaykid - predominantly West Coast LA US stuff). Loads of great stuff was produced in the early/mid-70s that would fit that description. Lots of the "next Dylan" peeps were great and some remained so i.e. Warren Zevon, John Prine, Springsteen, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Tom Waits. Zimmy himself wasn't too shabby then either: 'Blood On the Tracks', 'Desire', etc., though not getting much airplay, if that's a criteria for the genre. And though he never made much impact in the US, Richard Thompson was and also remains a master word/tune-smith (never mind his mind-bending guitar playing), one of the greatest songwriters ever, in my not so humble onion.
Last edited by muppet hi fi on 22 May 2018, 6:24pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Heston
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Heston »

WestwayKid wrote:
22 May 2018, 12:23pm
Heston wrote:
22 May 2018, 11:54am
Not sure if he crossed the Atlantic but I love a bit of Gilbert O'Sullivan.
I think he's best known in the US as the guy who sued Biz Markie! ;)
I've just read the story behind that, very interesting.

For anyone unacquainted with Gilbert, here is a song that still makes me weep with pure nostalgia and pathos...

There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by 101Walterton »

Heston wrote:
22 May 2018, 11:54am
Not sure if he crossed the Atlantic but I love a bit of Gilbert O'Sullivan.
I get him mixed up with Leo Sayer. When I read your post I was trying to think of one of Gilbert O'Sullivans songs and all I could hear was Kermit being strangled.

Heston
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Heston »

Can we include Billy Joel in this exercise? A master of his craft.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Marky Dread »

Peter Hamill
Can
Neu!
Van Der Graff Generator
Some Floyd
Hawkwind and definitely The Hawklords.
Be Bop Deluxe
Eno (of course)
King Crimson
Robert Fripp
Amon Düül II
Atomic Rooster
Pink Fairies
Can
Cluster
Golden Earring
Super Furry Animals
Sparks
Some Vangelis
Soft Machine
Frank Zappa

Just enjoy whatever sounds good to your ears fuck prejudice.
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Re: Music opinion/question of the week...

Post by Marky Dread »

JennyB wrote:
22 May 2018, 10:58am
WestwayKid wrote:
22 May 2018, 10:46am
Okay...for this week's opinion/question...let's go to the opposite side of the musical spectrum: 70's singer-songwriters. I do have a soft spot for certain musicians of this era/genre because my mom and dad listened to them...but I can also see why they sometimes get labeled as ineffectual, insipid wienie old hippies. Where do you stand? Do you like any of them - and if so - who?

I like Jackson Browne's early albums - same with James Taylor. I really like Gordon Lightfoot. I cannot stand John Denver.

Actually...I should probably throw that whole Laurel Canyon scene into the mix...just so I can express my dislike for The Eagles as people - even if I like some of their earlier songs.
I have a very soft spot for Gerry Rafferty.
I've got a couple of his albums and they are a nice listen. Late night music for me.
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Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

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