Rockin' Songs with Piano

General music discussion.
Kory
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Re: Rockin' Songs with Piano

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:13pm
Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:06pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 8:57pm
Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 8:46pm
dave202 wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:42am
I was in a pub a few years ago and someone started a conversation about the ultimate band line-up and it quickly came down to arguments about Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton on guitar, and that sort of stuff. Names were getting bandied about, arguments beginning and then I said, "I'm only playing this game if I can get Ian Stewart on piano." There was quite a consensus of opinion for someone hidden from view as a musician.
People are so boring. Hendrix and Clapton are so often touted as the Greatest Guitarists That Ever Lived, so people always lean to them in those kind of arguments. It's self-fulfilling. They're technically good, not even really GREAT, but on top of that, they just aren't that interesting.
I'd much rather listen to the weird squawks that Andy Gill or Keith Levene would elicit from a guitar than the pantheon of rock guitarists. Not stuff that overwhelms with technical skill but novel approaches to making sounds that seize the imagination. Nothing about Clapton grabs the imagination.
Agreed on all counts. I wonder how much of the popularity of “virtuosos” is the Paris Hilton effect vs people sincerely thinking they are the best.
Coincidentally, I'm editing a lecture for my popular culture class this evening that involves Pierre Bourdieu, who wrote about how taste is an additional factor in status (money being the other big one). The tastes of the well-heeled emphasize form over function, technical ability over bodily pleasure. The presentation of the meal over what it tastes like. So the genuflecting before virtuosos could be seen as defaulting to those high culture attitudes, applying them to lower cultural forms like rock. Maybe it's about seeking approval from elites or maybe it's people grabbing onto what they know to establish hierarchies in their own zone.
I don’t know if I’m going to express this clearly, as I’m a little drunk, but it seems to me that being into Clapton is a more populist view rather than an elite one, isn’t it? Is it just aspirational in the context of the punters?
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Rockin' Songs with Piano

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Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:13pm
Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:06pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 8:57pm
Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 8:46pm


People are so boring. Hendrix and Clapton are so often touted as the Greatest Guitarists That Ever Lived, so people always lean to them in those kind of arguments. It's self-fulfilling. They're technically good, not even really GREAT, but on top of that, they just aren't that interesting.
I'd much rather listen to the weird squawks that Andy Gill or Keith Levene would elicit from a guitar than the pantheon of rock guitarists. Not stuff that overwhelms with technical skill but novel approaches to making sounds that seize the imagination. Nothing about Clapton grabs the imagination.
Agreed on all counts. I wonder how much of the popularity of “virtuosos” is the Paris Hilton effect vs people sincerely thinking they are the best.
Coincidentally, I'm editing a lecture for my popular culture class this evening that involves Pierre Bourdieu, who wrote about how taste is an additional factor in status (money being the other big one). The tastes of the well-heeled emphasize form over function, technical ability over bodily pleasure. The presentation of the meal over what it tastes like. So the genuflecting before virtuosos could be seen as defaulting to those high culture attitudes, applying them to lower cultural forms like rock. Maybe it's about seeking approval from elites or maybe it's people grabbing onto what they know to establish hierarchies in their own zone.
I don’t know if I’m going to express this clearly, as I’m a little drunk, but it seems to me that being into Clapton is a more populist view rather than an elite one, isn’t it? Is it just aspirational in the context of the punters?
Depends on the group. If you're a Jan Wenner kind of guy, Clapton isn't populist at all. He's the reason they think a RNRHOF is necessary, to establish a canon of rock, stuff that is clearly elite. But if the group is wider society, Clapton, as a rock musician, can still be populist and a bit culturally unsavoury. It comes down to whether you ought to like an artist, to work to be worthy of what they offer. I have little use for liking some music or musicians because of their historical status. I can respect them for that, but if it doesn't appeal to me aesthetically, I won't self-flagellate. As much as I like hassling Heston, I think he's got the right attitude in not caring about what doesn't appeal to him. I can rag on him for being too conventional, but he's right in not feeling some kind of obligation to be “better.”
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Kory
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Re: Rockin' Songs with Piano

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:46pm
Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:13pm
Kory wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 9:06pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
02 Apr 2021, 8:57pm


I'd much rather listen to the weird squawks that Andy Gill or Keith Levene would elicit from a guitar than the pantheon of rock guitarists. Not stuff that overwhelms with technical skill but novel approaches to making sounds that seize the imagination. Nothing about Clapton grabs the imagination.
Agreed on all counts. I wonder how much of the popularity of “virtuosos” is the Paris Hilton effect vs people sincerely thinking they are the best.
Coincidentally, I'm editing a lecture for my popular culture class this evening that involves Pierre Bourdieu, who wrote about how taste is an additional factor in status (money being the other big one). The tastes of the well-heeled emphasize form over function, technical ability over bodily pleasure. The presentation of the meal over what it tastes like. So the genuflecting before virtuosos could be seen as defaulting to those high culture attitudes, applying them to lower cultural forms like rock. Maybe it's about seeking approval from elites or maybe it's people grabbing onto what they know to establish hierarchies in their own zone.
I don’t know if I’m going to express this clearly, as I’m a little drunk, but it seems to me that being into Clapton is a more populist view rather than an elite one, isn’t it? Is it just aspirational in the context of the punters?
Depends on the group. If you're a Jan Wenner kind of guy, Clapton isn't populist at all. He's the reason they think a RNRHOF is necessary, to establish a canon of rock, stuff that is clearly elite. But if the group is wider society, Clapton, as a rock musician, can still be populist and a bit culturally unsavoury. It comes down to whether you ought to like an artist, to work to be worthy of what they offer. I have little use for liking some music or musicians because of their historical status. I can respect them for that, but if it doesn't appeal to me aesthetically, I won't self-flagellate. As much as I like hassling Heston, I think he's got the right attitude in not caring about what doesn't appeal to him. I can rag on him for being too conventional, but he's right in not feeling some kind of obligation to be “better.”
This is very dangerous territory.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Rockin' Songs with Piano

Post by Dr. Medulla »

By no means a fan of Ben Folds Five, but I do dig this one.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

daredevil
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Re: Rockin' Songs with Piano

Post by daredevil »

I love the piano riff in McVicar

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