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krj
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Geezer Rock
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Sep 6 16:44 UTC 2001 |
Salon recently ran a review of a new book "Rock 'Til You Drop,"
by John Strausbaugh.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/08/22/rock/index.html
The book and review seem to argue that the classic rock bands should
get out of the way, out of the cultural radar; the central argument
seems to be that the bands are unsightly. "Hope I die before I get old"
has been, for the most part, a promise unfilled.
If you were looking for a sign of the aging of the rock world, you
could not have done better than listen to the Toledo classic rock
station with us on Monday, as we drove home through Ohio.
We caught one adverstisement for a varicose vein clinic, and another
for a heart disease clinic. Both were phrased as "You're not really
getting old, but you might want to have this stuff looked at."
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| 23 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 23:
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Sep 6 16:53 UTC 2001 |
Here's a more critical review of the book in Slate:
http://slate.msn.com/culturebox/entries/01-08-28_114363.asp
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dbratman
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response 2 of 23:
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Sep 17 21:45 UTC 2001 |
From the review: "Keith Richards has long complained that no one would
criticize the Stones' longevity if he and Jagger were black bluesmen
from Chicago."
That pretty much says it all. Nobody'd ever seen old rockers before,
and it makes them uncomfortable. If you don't like it, don't look at
it. I sure don't look at the Stones, but if anybody else is still
interested, go ahead.
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dbratman
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response 3 of 23:
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Feb 17 08:25 UTC 2003 |
This might be a place to mention that I just picked up a cheap
compilation called "80's Party". (Not quite a geezer era yet, but
getting there.) I actually listened to pop radio for a few years in
the early 80s, and in addition to a few songs I remember, I was hoping
this album might include some of that elusive category, songs I'd heard
and liked without having any idea what they were or who did them. No
luck on that last category, and no real winners for me among the songs
new to me either. And I find that, on first careful listen (i.e. my
first time hearing them on a home stereo instead of the radio in a
noisy car), songs like "Karma Chameleon" and "Walk Like an Egyptian"
don't really hold up. Of all the songs on this album, the one that has
generated the most pop-culture references I've seen is "Centerfold" by
the J. Geils Band. This is the first time I've heard that song in full
at all, and I'm amazed how lousy a song it actually is.
There is one song on this album I really liked at the time, and still
really like. Unfortunately I get the impression that anyone with
discernment is supposed to hate it with a passion, so I'm really out of
step here. That song is "We Built This City" by Starship. I like it
because it has an actual tune (a very rare commodity in modern pop
hits), the tension builds and ebbs interestingly, and it does
unexpected things with its fixed rhythm.
By the way, checking for the lyrics of this song online proves the
perils of doing so. After looking at several sites, I find that there
seem to be two text transcriptions of it floating around, one at least
of which is totally inept, but more common than the other one, which
may be mostly accurate. I'm pretty sure the second text is accurate in
saying that it's Marconi who plays the mamba, not the first text's "Ma
Coley". (I'd always thought it was "My Tony".)
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anderyn
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response 4 of 23:
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Feb 17 15:24 UTC 2003 |
I've ALWAYS heard "Marconi plays the mamba". I have a very old and ragged tape
recording off the raido of "We Built this City", and still listen to it,
though I have it on a couple of 80s compilations now.
I loved the 80s, it's when I first started seriously listening to pop music,
and I still enjoy lots of the songs even though I know, seriously, that
they're not very good.
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dbratman
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response 5 of 23:
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Feb 18 07:37 UTC 2003 |
I started listening to pop radio about 1980, but I stopped about 1985
because the hit songs stopped including anything I liked at all - even
passingly at the time. Trying to remember the kind of song that
irritated the heck out of me, the one that comes to mind was a tuneless
wonder called "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I was also
dismayed when Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", which I didn't like,
drove her "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", which I did like, off the
market. I still hear "Time After Time" on occasion (in store musak,
etc.), but I haven't heard "Girls" in at least 15 years.
I understand that things got better in the 90s, but I never went back.
Of the famous bands since '85, I haven't the slightest idea what most
of them sound like.
Going through a tiny collection of singles I bought at the time, I find
two semi-tuneless songs I did like. One is "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim
Carnes, whose musical content essentially consists of one constantly
repeated instrumental riff, but unlike most such songs this one
actually varies the riff. I think the aim was for this song to sound
rivetingly creepy. It succeeds.
And the other song is "One Night in Bangkok" (the Robey version). All
I remembered about this song was that at the time I'd thought it was
very very weird. Now I listen to it again and it comes back to me.
What I'd thought was weird about it is that it's an example of a genre
of music I had never heard in 1984, when it was new.
It's a rap song. Or, at least, I think it is. And if so, it's the
only rap song I've ever heard that I like.
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scott
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response 6 of 23:
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Feb 18 13:59 UTC 2003 |
That's funny; I liked "Time After Time" much better than "Girls Just...", and
still think "Relax" is one of the best productions (not best song, mind you)
of the 80's.
"One Night in Bangkok" was a weird story to begin with. It's actually from
a concept album for the music for a proposed musical "Chess" which took years
to actaully be produced. Somehow the album came out, though.
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anderyn
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response 7 of 23:
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Feb 18 15:22 UTC 2003 |
Part of what makes me like an 80s song is if the lyrics make sense (I *hate*
some of the songs who go from a she to a you to a she again in addressing
(supposedly) the same individual ... agk!), part of it is if I liked the video
(I admit it, some songs I adore just because I loved the videos, although I
didn't really have MTV ever in the 80s...), and part of it is if I like the
way the voices blend (all of Def Leppard gets me because I really really like
how the four of them sing together -- ah, harmony....).
I would not have classified "one Night in Bangkok" as a rap song, based on
the rap songs I've heard. (My son, alas ,went through a a rap music stage,
and still likes it -- to me, the main feature of rap is that the words and
music take a back seat to the "pushy" nature of the "rap" ie
word word word word word WORD
word word word WORD
etc.
It's not so much that you can hear what they're saying as they push the
emphasis at you, to me. (I can't figure out why anyone likes it, but then
I'm a middle aged white woman who likes folk music, so I doubt I'm the target
audience.))
I thougth that "Chess" finally did get produced somewhere? I have the
soundtrack album for it somewhere in my tapes.
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