Here's a song for our times. Time, from Pink Floyd: I bought the album almost first thing 1973. Then in the early 80's when I'd gone well off the style, I suddenly played it one day, expecting to take it off the turntable after the first side and then this track came up with Dave Gilmour singing, "..and then one day ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun..." And I started to realise the futility of Victorian progress. What kind of future was it to acquire "things". Why was I sat in the middle of a decade where people were effectively being set against others. Miners striking, with the Daily Mail condemning them. Where there was so much growing inequality. Bullshit. I realised that if we are here for any made reason at all, we're here to help each other, love each other, and make a better world rather than leave our stink and filth behind us when we're gone. The power of great music and lyrics.
Sometimes you get a totally random song in your head. You start by humming, then maybe tapping. Then Mrs No7 joins in. A classic 80s floor filler. Glad to say that this song isn't history to me, I lived it
I always wonder just how much of what is of musical interest with "The Beatle's" is down to George Martin. I am not a fan but "Strawberry Fields" is fascinating for a number of reasons. Who would have the bottle to release pop music with brass as dissonant as in this track in 2020? There are a couple of points where the music feels like it will go in a particularly "outside " direction that seems totally appropriate to what was happening in jazz around the same time. I wish that they had continued the conclusion on for another few minutes as the music was going in to the kind of realms I am more comfortable with listening to. I have seen the likes of composer Howard Goodall make some persuasive arguments regarding their music and there is a tune by George Harrison that I have heard where I would be inclined to agree with his assessment. You get the impression that Harrison was the most capable of the four Beatles. Despite this, it is the arrangement that makes "Strawberry Fields" fascinating and makes me convinced that Martin was far more responsible for their musical success than the members of the band. If you like, they were very much his muse. The arrangement of something like "Strawberry Fields" seems to well beyond the kind of musical mindset of Lennon and McCartney whose had an ear for a good tune but neither of whom could have understood dissonance like this. I am not aware of anything similar in their work and I can never recall any mention of more academic styles of music prevalent in the 1960s being influential to them. In addition, I would have to argue that they were indifferent musicians, in Ringo Starr's case, barely capable of playing his instrument. ( I think jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell is actually playing drums on a number of the studio recordings. He is better known for being Animal in the Muppets.) The use of studio musicians in the 1960s was so prevalent that it is difficult to argue how many of these pops groups were really playing on their own records at this time and was a particular problem with drummers. I don't think McCartney was much better as a musician either. If all four were switched on musically, I doubt if Martin could have been so influential. To be frank, I am staggered that The Beatles made something that flirted with avant garde ideas like "Strawberry Field." There are contemporary artists like Frank Zappa who were genuinely gifted and had the level of musical nous that the likes of Pierre Boulez conducted his music. I think it is the most interesting record that The Beatles recorded. From a perspective of social history, I don't think you can deny The Beatles importance. As musicians, they strike me as having been too gauche to have come up with the arrangement for "Strawberry Fields." It is just too (jazz) savvy.
It isn't about getting "bites" but trying to understand where something comes from and perhaps put things in a broader context. Regarding the kind of orchestral setting , this is the kind of sound I think they trying for with the orchestration …...
Not a fan of this, but it is unlikely that something like this did not have a bearing on "Strawberry Fields." I am not familiar with a lot of their music but I think "Strawberry Fields" is pretty special by anyone's standards in pop music.
I just interviewed a bloke for a job. “Can you perform under pressure?” I asked. “No,” he replied. “But I do a great bohemian rhapsody.”
I once saved Meatloaf from choking on a piece of German sausage. He thanked me afterwards. “You took the wurst right out of my mouth.”
John Hollenbeck's re-working on Queen's "Bicycle Race" which ultimately results in a solo using a bicycle wheel as a percussion instrument. The whole of this album is intriguing and covers a wide range of music. This is one of the best tracks on this record although " A man constant sorrow" is pretty amazing. I think this will appeal to more open - minded Queen fans. There was a follow up to this record which I do not have. Not aware of any other covers of Queen's music but this one takes some beating. It is adventurous but does not lose sight of the original.
Playing some Fairport today. One of my all time favorites off Fairport 9, seems a little relevant these days. No fancy video but at 3:16 - Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage: Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage. If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty.
While reading stuff on the net, I've been playing albums in the background. Up comes Abbey Road and You Never Give Your Money. So good, yet so overlooked:
For no decent reason other than that I have always loved Jethro Tull. Back Door Angels, from the Warchild album: Why do the faithful have such a will to believe in something, and call it the name they choose, having chosen nothing. Now in the correct thread !
Steely Dan feature a lot on this thread. With good reason. They are one of the those bands that have crossed barriers and appeal to people who appreciate different music genres that would otherwise never meet. King Of The World:
