On behalf of the recipients of these assignments, doesn't it make more sense to have us watch music videos in the evening than when we first show up at work?
That being said, you'll like this too.
Dave Weigel did ok fine, considering the audience and his goals, with his 5-part Slate series on progressive rock.
Missed mentioning "Pazop - Psychillis Of A Lunatic Genius (1972)" but hey, only so much room in a short series.
Sine I'm older than almost anybody most of the commenters in those threads, maybe I have a different perspective, but I just saw a close continuum with all the music.
Growing up with Link Wray and Telstar, through "Light My Fire" and Abraxas (what exactly is "Incident at Neshabur" anyway?), by the early 70s Bitches Brew, Ravi Shankar , Jones's "Pipes of Pan," Isaac Hayes, and Schoenberg were stacked with the Dead and Soft Machine. Stacked because I couldn't make it up to change the records.
I need me some Halleluhwah!
The song h-g links might be ok, but the low fidelity on youtube is just physically painful for me. Can't do more than a minute.
what exactly is "Incident at Neshabur" anyway?
Probably refers to the Mongols' massacre in the 13th century, when everyone in the city was supposed to have been killed in revenge for something or other; it was the origin of the "pyramid of skulls" image, which I strongly suspect of being apocryphal.
I have the single version of this song in my running mix and it's great for keeping a good running pace.
4: I meant the last song on side one of Santana's album Abraxas. Is it closer to "Incense & Peppermints" or to "Halleluhwah?" It is pretty far from "Love Me Do"
I gave some thought to calling the last song on Judy Collins' album Wildflowers "That's no way to say goodbye (Leonard Cohen) "prog." At least progressive folk, scored for three cellos, a flute, and an oboe I think, arranged as a round with Collins voice overlaid three times left, center, right with a very long dynamic fade to the inaudible. Very pretty and soft, but so was "I Talk to the Wind."
Josh Rifkin was just a kid when he orchestrated that.
Because I am predictable, I will note that the song in the OP hits one of my pet peeves -- complete absence of dynamic range.
Speaking of which, I've been listening to the John Peel collection lately and one of the songs which has been charming me is, "There Goes Concorde"
I just heard this song for the first time on the way home from a gig. The driver cranked it up and proclaimed his love for the singer, who's apparently a bit of a fitness buff or something. He then proceeded to belt out the song at full volume. Good times.
Pointless person spotting: my wife and I passed her (Goulding) in the street a couple of months back. That song, 'Lights', is pretty old (a couple of years) now. I did like her cover of Midlake's 'Roscoe', though. There's various full band versions on youtube, but:
Solo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4kVF77iFrM
Band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npk9NBo1nxA
That said, her phrasing is sometimes a bit affected for me. e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY78asVr0CI&feature=relmfu
I meant the last song on side one of Santana's album Abraxas.
I know you did, doofus, I'm the same age as you. I was suggesting that the track was so called because Santana or one of the band had read a thing about the pyramid of skulls and thought it was cool, in the unthinking way that hippies did.
8.1. Is right. I don't get Goulding at all.
8.1 has also been my reaction. When I hear it on the radio, there's no movement, no intensity. It just sounds like a vocal exercise or something. But it's still a lot better than a lot of other things that are out there.
Well, I was entertaining the possibility that he meant the version on the last days of the Fillmore West album, which has Bill Graham introducing it as 'the sounds of the street.'
I didn't know until just now that it was the hometown of Omar Khayyam. I'll have to listen again to see if I can hear the sounds of a loaf of white bread, two casks of wine, a leg of mutton, and a tulip cheeked girl.
a loaf of white bread, two casks of wine, a leg of mutton, and a tulip cheeked girl
That would be in Santana's contract rider.
I like this song, but agree with the other folks that its missing a low end. That thinness would keep me from repeated listens.
|| This week's episode of TAL is making me sad.
|>
Just to be clear, my comment about dynamic range isn't about high vs low frequencies (it does seem to be mostly mids, but that doesn't bug me) but between quiet and loud. The volume of sound is frighteningly consistent.
Yes, as pdf23ds, among others, pointed out something with a small dynamic range is easier to head and understand if you're listening in a situation where there are outside noises -- in a car or on headphones. But it's profoundly unnatural. In a concert or in normal life -- talking to people or just being in the world there will always be variations in volume and that conveys information. Giving up dynamic range means ignoring one of the major ways in which people communicate with sound, for the advantage of sounding better on headphones.
I find it off putting.
The Purton Stoke and Off Putting Village Green Preservation Society.
there will always be variations in volume and that conveys information
Laydeez.
Giving up dynamic range means ignoring one of the major ways in which people communicate with sound, for the advantage of sounding better on headphones.
This is an wonderfully succinct statement of the problem.
This is an wonderfully succinct statement of the problem.
Stanley, I've been meaning to mention that I saw Lyle Lovett (and his acoustic group) a couple weeks ago, and the drummer was amazing. I don't go to many big shows and the whole thing was a little more choreographed than I'm used to but it was the best band I've ever heard live, and the drummer was one of the most impressive members of the group.
It's not surprising since he is, in fact, a star drummer. But it showed live and, a propos of this conversation, he had an amazing command of volume as well as tempo. He was really good at getting a little bit louder to signal point where the band was really going to kick in, and then being able to hold his volume steady when he wanted to. It really added to the feeling that he was holding a rock-solid structure for the music.
23:Russ Kunkel is one of the few session drummers I could have named, mostly from reading album covers. I associate him with Jim Keltner on bass.
But Jesus, don't these guys ever retire?
Jim Keltner was another drummer? Damn. Sorry.
23: That's interesting. I'd not previously heard of Kunkel.
Honestly, I hadn't heard of Kunkel before the concert either. But I looked him up when I got home.