Music Thoughts
A comment in the Neil Diamond concert post prompts this response: What's wrong with Neil Diamond? I grew up with his music. heh. I love most music from 1955 through now. I don't like hiphop or whatever it's being called now, but I can listen to classical music and gospel in small bursts. I know, with classical, it's never small or short, but you get the idea. I'll listen to some pop and some bluegrass. I'll listen to international music, too. Celtic music is good mood music as is music from other ethnicities and cultures.
But if it's rock 'n' roll, or what's now called classic rock (was that what was just plain rock?), or rockabilly, or soul, or folk, or folk rock, or filk (new lyrics for old tunes, the sort of thing done by the late Alan Sherman and more recently, by Weird Al Yankovic, but is mostly heard in science fiction circles — and I have a link to filk radio in the sidebar), I'll listen for hours. Heck, I even like some heavy metal. And I love show tunes, too. I used to listen to that for hours on end, too.
I don't have an iPod and don't really want one. I don't even listen to my hundreds of CDs, cassettes, and albums (in total, they number well over 1,000). I usually have the radio on for musical stimulation. When I buy a new CD, I listen to it to hear all the songs, then it gets put away. Hubby listens to CDs all the time, but I'm a radio kid. I like not having to pick what I hear beyond choosing the station. Yeah, I know I can do the iPod shuffle, but getting all the songs I want on one just seems like too much work.
I usually just listen to the radio and don't have favorite songs, beyond things like "Because" by Dave Clark 5 (keyboardist and lead singer Mike Smith was paralyzed in an accident a couple of years ago) which was the song I sent through the Google translator a while back (and did I ever post the actual lyrics? I think I forgot. If anyone wants them, just click the link on the title) which was our wedding song 20 years ago. And because I'm listening to whatever's playing on the radio, I can't really do music memes because questions like "What's in your CD player now?" or "What's on your iPod?" or "What are your favorite 5 songs now?" just don't have much meaning for me. Because, let's face it, if I said, "Because," "Sister Golden Hair," "If," and, oh, hell, I can't name just 5, anyway, how many folks reading here will know them?
I can definitely identify with what your saying. I happened to have been a DJ and have my own Internet station - although its down right now I hope to get it back up as soon as possible!
ReplyDeleteI have worked for radio stations that have played anywhere from gospel to spanish speaking to classic rock and roll. The most polite way to say what kind of music I like is ecletic.
There's this game I love to play where the question is "What album (or CD or whatever) do you have that you don't want anyone to know about or is a "guilty" pleasure. For me it's this album I have of all people - The Monkees!
I've seen the monkees in concert. On their reunion tour. When I was like fourteeen ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the radio but no Black Eyed Peas? No Usher? No Gavin Degraw? Well maybe you do listen to Gavin. He's not completely unlike Neil, lol. No Christina? For me hiphop was an acquired taste but I listen to more of it than anything else now.
Hey, I love the Monkees. I've seen Mickey Dolenz in concert, just last year, and will see him again this fall. I've seen Davy Jones in an oldies concert, too.
ReplyDeleteMickey was the morning DJ on the oldies station here in NYC from January thru May when they fired all the DJs and switched formats. He was wonderful fun to wake up to.
And I forgot to mention that I also enjoy a lot of Country & Western music, too.
I'm with you on the radio but no Black Eyed Peas? No Usher? No Gavin Degraw? Well maybe you do listen to Gavin. He's not completely unlike Neil, lol. No Christina?
ReplyDeleteI've heard of Black Eyed Peas, don't know if I've heard them. Ditto Usher. Never heard of Gavin Degraw. I think I know who you mean by Christina, so that would be a no, too, re: ever hearing her.
I am enjoying listening to Jethro Tull and Bob Seeger and music like that on the classic rock station. I like Bon Jovi, too.
Hello there...
ReplyDeleteBrowsing through, and came across "you." Just wanted to say I find your blog adorable, and "sweet" pun intended.. and even our musical taste seem as north as it is south from each other, I too do appreciate "world"
music... but I am an old school hip hop, 1980's head, I loved it, loved 80's music then too... WHAM, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears.... but alas Neil Diamond, more my parents speed, we'll part ways there. Thanks! Ciao for now!
Hi, Brooklyn Babe,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate a lot of '80s music, too. I just don't know it as well as the oldies because I've mostly been listening to oldies til WCBS-FM switched formats.
Come back for some cyber chocolate, when you get the chance.
There's a line in the song 1985 that goes "When did Motley Crue become classic rock?" MC is my favorite (yes a child of the '80s), but it is totally on the classic rock stations now. What is that about?
ReplyDeleteI can listen to nearly anything. Gangster rap messes with me because I can't understand any of the words. And I live in Oklahoma where every other radio station is country, so I could do with a little less of that. Otherwise, I'm all for it.
There's a line in the song 1985 that goes "When did Motley Crue become classic rock?" MC is my favorite (yes a child of the '80s), but it is totally on the classic rock stations now. What is that about?
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling. I'm still thrown by kids who don't know who the Beatles were. :)
Well you said you were surprised that some kids don't know who the beatles are/were.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit relieved to find that someone still remembers the Dave Clark Five! I'd completely forgotten them. Are they really still going?
I do remember going to a dance in Dursley where they were playing or some other group was playing bits and pieces. In an effort to prevent trouble at this dance they did not permit entrance after nine o' clock. In those days we had to get up the nerve to ask a girl to dance by going to the pub first and of course were very reluctant to leave it before ten. A very kind girl friend used to let me open the window of the ladies powder room to allow me to climb in and so go to the dance after nine o' clock and of course in free. In return I would take her home on the back of my motorbike when the dance finished. I always felt a little shamefaced sneaking out of the ladies powder room door and hoped no one would spot me.
Iparticularly rember Bits and Pieces because it had a heavy pounding beat and we would all get on the dance floor and just jump up and down on it in time to the music.
John
The Dave Clark 5 is no more as far as I know. Dave Clark wasn't interested in doing the music for the long haul and I don't know what he's up to or if he's still doing music. Same with the others except for Mike Smith. Mike did albums on his own and performed up to his accident. He even filled in one night for Paul Shaffer on David Lettermna's show when Paul was filling in for Dave. He was my fav of the DC5 group.
ReplyDelete"Bits and Pieces" is a great song, and I loved DC5 nearly more than the Beatles (but Herman's Hermits was my fav Brit invasion group). One reason folks don't know DC5 these days is that Dave Clark owns the music, I believe, and he hasn't let anyone use it. So, no covers, no commercialization of it, and there's no DC5 on the oldies circuit that I know of.
You always have the best stories, John. :)
Never herd of Gavin Degraw
ReplyDeleteGasp! Seriously, you should listen to him because I honestly think you would really like him :)
What kind of music does Gavin DeGraw do?
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am an "album" person, and that probably comes from listening to those FM stations during the late 70s/early 80s. They would play 3-4 songs from an album, not just the single. It stuck with me. I have an iPod clone with hundreds of CDs and I listen to each one in its entirety. As for Neil Diamond, well, I can't take him seriously. Maybe that's because in my Grade 7 band, we played Sweet Caroline too many times.
ReplyDeleteI love albums. Guess they're CDs now. When I was a kid, if I liked a group enough to buy 2 or more singles, I went and bought their albums. My first album was the Beatles' "Something New," following quickly by "Beatles '65" and a Dave Clark 5 album, possibly called "Glad All Over."
ReplyDelete