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Post by kds on Dec 20, 2019 14:48:28 GMT
Aimless noodling is one of the worst things in music! Be it in the guise of barroom blues, electronic "experimentation," jazz improvisation, or anything else. Such a bore... And this from a big fan of improvisation. But a person must keep in mind his or her audience. Not everyone wants to sit through 20 minutes of your fiddling. I couldn't agree more, and this is coming from a discipline of Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen. I love long songs, but they have to have some kind of structure to keep them interesting.
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Post by jk on Jan 6, 2020 23:30:43 GMT
These are String Driven Thing, with a curious if infectious song from 1972 called "Circus". I love the build-up. "Fall, why don't you fall for me now" feels like the chorus, certainly after it comes round for the second time. Then the chorus proper kicks in. Great spooky violin, nasty guitar and evocative lyrics. Scotland has a lot to answer for! Ironically, I later learnt that SDT and I were briefly on the payroll of the same music publishing company at the same time... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Driven_Thing
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 14, 2020 17:35:53 GMT
Big Star is one of those bands, man... I don't know. It's hard to explain, but maybe the way to put it is like this: I like the idea of Big Star more than I like the music of Big Star. An early '70s, American band with an undeniable love for British '60s rock, but not to the point of slavish imitation. An iconoclastic co-leader in Alex Chilton coupled with a talented (and doomed, adding to the romance) partner in Chris Bell. Undeniable brilliance that just never quite found its way to fruition, all crashing down more or less before it began.
And so it's snippets I love. Stories I love. A chorus here, a guitar part there. Don't get me wrong, I really like all three ("real") albums. I can listen straight through any of them and really like it. But what's their great song? What does a greatest hits look like? I don't know.
One song that would make it, though, has to be "Thirteen." A Chilton-Bell credit, it falls far to the delicate side of their output, multiple acoustic guitars as the base of the instrumental track (which also includes bass as well as harmony vocals and effected background vocals). It's an uncharacteristically sincere Chilton song, an open ode to teenage angst. And of course it has that great couplet, "Won't you tell your dad, 'get off my back?" / Tell him what we said 'bout 'Paint it Black.'"
Here is an alternate mix of the song (not anything insanely different from the original), but it's nice because of the video footage!
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Post by B.E. on Jan 14, 2020 18:15:11 GMT
I'm a HUGE fan of "Thirteen". It was heavily featured in That 70s Show, which is probably my all-time favorite show (its run aligned perfectly with my middle school/high school years and I still watch it to this day). Initially, I didn't realize it was a Big Star song, nor did I realize that their theme song was a cover of Big Star's "In The Street". I started connecting those dots a few years ago, around the time that I watched the documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. "September Gurls" was also included on a That 70s Show soundtrack album of sorts.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 14, 2020 18:52:37 GMT
I really like "Thirteen," too. And actually those other two you mentioned would also be right there in the same category among their best songs. It's really a shame the band didn't last more than, well, just one album, really.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Jan 15, 2020 1:13:52 GMT
I like Big Star a lot, especially the aforementioned September Gurls, but I also especially enjoy O My Soul, Way Out West, Back of a Car, and I'm In Love With A Girl. Usually when I listen to them I just put on the #1 Record/Radio City twofer CD and let it play through, and I have to admit that Thirteen never stood out to me listening in that way, so it's nice to hear it singled out like this -- it really is pretty.
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Post by B.E. on Feb 8, 2020 22:38:31 GMT
This song is an old favorite of mine. It may have been years since I last heard it, but it came to mind earlier this week so I gave it a listen. Then I decided to look up the guitar chords, dropped the key from C to A to make it easier to sing, and I've been having fun with it all week (I hadn't picked up my guitar in a LONG time). Anyway, I'm not trying to 'wow' you guys with an all-time great deep cut. Simple song. A few basic chords. Far from the greatest melody of all-time. But, the vocal performance is good, the chorus packs a decent emotional punch, and the arrangement is fantastic. The song always had a '50s-esque vibe to it. Maybe that's obvious, or maybe that's just me.
From Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 1991 album, Into the Great Wide Open:
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 10, 2020 20:15:36 GMT
"Night at Lake Unknown" always struck me as a beautiful, evocative late '60s or early '70s Bob Dylan tune, which is a great thing to be, especially if you aren't one. And indeed, it isn't one: it's a 2014 Conor Oberst song. But Jonathan Wilson's production (Father John Misty, Dawes, Laura Marling) nestles right into that warm, "growing-up" era Dylan, and some of Oberst's better lines could've been Bob's, as well.
"When I lost myself, I lost you by extension. I don't know who would stand to gain."
"When I break my heart, I know that yours gets broken. I just wish that kept me in line. But I can't live outside the moment, and it keeps leaving me behind."
I'm not a big fan of his, and especially his quavering voice--he sounds like he's got permanent stage fright--isn't to my taste. But in some songs, including this one, the big picture makes up for the individual flaws. I really like the song as a whole, and the arrangement is very pretty: clarinet, vibes, pedal steel, some background singers a la Leonard Cohen's... It's nice. Maybe you'll like it.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Feb 10, 2020 23:33:23 GMT
This song is an old favorite of mine. It may have been years since I last heard it, but it came to mind earlier this week so I gave it a listen. Then I decided to look up the guitar chords, dropped the key from C to A to make it easier to sing, and I've been having fun with it all week (I hadn't picked up my guitar in a LONG time). Anyway, I'm not trying to 'wow' you guys with an all-time great deep cut. Simple song. A few basic chords. Far from the greatest melody of all-time. But, the vocal performance is good, the chorus packs a decent emotional punch, and the arrangement is fantastic. The song always had a '50s-esque vibe to it. Maybe that's obvious, or maybe that's just me. I love that drum and that little guitar section! I don’t know what that effect is called. But yeah, lots of really interesting things going on in this.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 10, 2020 23:39:57 GMT
This song is an old favorite of mine. It may have been years since I last heard it, but it came to mind earlier this week so I gave it a listen. Then I decided to look up the guitar chords, dropped the key from C to A to make it easier to sing, and I've been having fun with it all week (I hadn't picked up my guitar in a LONG time). Anyway, I'm not trying to 'wow' you guys with an all-time great deep cut. Simple song. A few basic chords. Far from the greatest melody of all-time. But, the vocal performance is good, the chorus packs a decent emotional punch, and the arrangement is fantastic. The song always had a '50s-esque vibe to it. Maybe that's obvious, or maybe that's just me. I love that drum and that little guitar section! I don’t know what that effect is called. But yeah, lots of really interesting things going on in this. The effect is (quite appropriately!) called a wah-wah.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Feb 10, 2020 23:41:58 GMT
I love that drum and that little guitar section! I don’t know what that effect is called. But yeah, lots of really interesting things going on in this. The effect is (quite appropriately!) called a wah-wah. You know what, I wondered if that was it!
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Feb 10, 2020 23:44:00 GMT
"Night at Lake Unknown" always struck me as a beautiful, evocative late '60s or early '70s Bob Dylan tune, which is a great thing to be, especially if you aren't one. And indeed, it isn't one: it's a 2014 Conor Oberst song. But Jonathan Wilson's production (Father John Misty, Dawes, Laura Marling) nestles right into that warm, "growing-up" era Dylan, and some of Oberst's better lines could've been Bob's, as well.
"When I lost myself, I lost you by extension. I don't know who would stand to gain."
"When I break my heart, I know that yours gets broken. I just wish that kept me in line. But I can't live outside the moment, and it keeps leaving me behind."
I'm not a big fan of his, and especially his quavering voice--he sounds like he's got permanent stage fright--isn't to my taste. But in some songs, including this one, the big picture makes up for the individual flaws. I really like the song as a whole, and the arrangement is very pretty: clarinet, vibes, pedal steel, some background singers a la Leonard Cohen's... It's nice. Maybe you'll like it.
Lately I’ve found I’ve wanted a bit more from the “man and his guitar” genre of music, and I quite like where this goes in the second half of the song, when the background vocals and the other instruments start to layer in. It's quite haunting.
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Post by B.E. on Feb 11, 2020 1:00:04 GMT
"Night at Lake Unknown" always struck me as a beautiful, evocative late '60s or early '70s Bob Dylan tune, which is a great thing to be, especially if you aren't one. And indeed, it isn't one: it's a 2014 Conor Oberst song. But Jonathan Wilson's production (Father John Misty, Dawes, Laura Marling) nestles right into that warm, "growing-up" era Dylan, and some of Oberst's better lines could've been Bob's, as well.
When I saw the name, Conor Oberst, I almost didn't give it a chance. When I was in high school a few of my friends were fans of his. So much so that they convinced me to pick up his latest album, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. I believe I listened to it once. I couldn't get past his voice. He sounded like he was really, really leaning into the worst parts of his voice. I never bothered to listen to another song of his...until now. If this were all I heard of him, I'd think he was a fine singer. Also, I'm flabbergasted to actually get a very specific Dylan vibe from this song, beyond the lyrics. Very "Nashville Skyline" to me. Sheriff John Stone , are you hearing this? Are you hearing Dylan?
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 11, 2020 1:50:30 GMT
Oh my, yes, he does appear to be channeling Dylan circa Nashville Skyline. Maybe a little "I Threw It All Away" meets "Girl From The North Country".
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 11, 2020 1:54:52 GMT
When I saw the name, Conor Oberst, I almost didn't give it a chance. When I was in high school a few of my friends were fans of his. So much so that they convinced me to pick up his latest album, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. I believe I listened to it once. I couldn't get past his voice. He sounded like he was really, really leaning into the worst parts of his voice. I never bothered to listen to another song of his...until now. If this were all I heard of him, I'd think he was a fine singer. Also, I'm flabbergasted to actually get a very specific Dylan vibe from this song, beyond the lyrics. Very "Nashville Skyline" to me. Honestly that's pretty close to my experience, too. I'd heard of his band Bright Eyes in the late 90s, and was REALLY unimpressed. This was the song I heard that got me to pay attention.
I still wouldn't go so far as to call myself a fan, but I did get his Ruminations and Salutations albums (the latter being full band versions of the songs done more simply on the former), and his 2019 duet album with Phoebe Bridgers under the band name Better Oblivion Community Center.
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