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A British view of Country Music


oldgitplayer

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For most of my life I never listened to Country music (or Country & Western) as it was once called. There's still very little I can listen to, unless it's exceptionally well written.

I think most Brits were ambivalent about C&W, so hence a tendency to parody it. Here are two of my now fairly old favourite parodies:

 

 

 

 

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Ha! I LOVE Billy. My wife got me into him. Starting with some very old live performances of his. I love him. But you know...

 

:)

 

...country music is like your old man listening to your rock music, you little whippersnapper. He hears it with ears that can't hear anything but the fact that's it's loud, distorted and ugly. And uses that flated 3rd and 7th. Why would they?

 

When I play songs from the country catalog that I absolutely adore for my Brit wife... well... she looks at me and goes, "Near ner ner ner ner, uh huh ah huh, uh... huh." That's what she hears. I get that. Uh-huh. Of course. That makes total sense to me. Clearly, it isn't for everyone.

 

But, some things that make country tick. It is a place that a big manly man can be a little bit of a {censored}. He can use the excuse of booze to explain his heart on his sleeve where it clearly shouldn't be. Not a MAN with such big balls as he. And yet, there he is crying in his beer. Just after roping some cows and some such manly business. Or his love of GOD and COUNTRY might be the source of his soft spot. Whatever.

 

I'm a very cynical sort of guy. I love the point of view of an acidic character. I am one myself, I suppose. And yet... I happen to love country music and all the leeway it cuts our man in the truck and big belt buckle. Because...

 

...I see the need for everyone to enjoy that excuse. I'm no GOD and COUNTRY sort of guy at all. That is probably clear if you pay attention. But still... I love touching people. And I love to be touched.

 

That's what country does for me, and for my less than comfortable in their skin brethren. That may sound cynical in some respects but that's the best I can do after a couple. :)

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Oh, man, that Stones vid of "Faraway Eyes" is utterly priceless. Unbelievably, I've never seen it before, though I've always loved the song.  I couldn't help but feel there was a certain kinship between Mick's over-the-top vocal and visual mugging and the early comic performances by genuine small-town country boy, Andy Griffith, as in No Time for Sergeants, as well as some of the other country comics of the mid-20th century. 

Of course, it's different when you're an outsider, no matter how obvious the affection for the culture being sent up. Still, if you get enough distance, sometimes it all works out. Anglo-American monologist Lord Buckley was able to get away with some very sharp ethnically tinged hipster humor because he knew the turf and also because he distanced himself by adopting the persona of a British 'upper class twit' spewing hipster jive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buckley

I'd say that Mick has a better feel for real American country music than a lot of folks currently the darlings of the Nashville music biz.

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I just checked out a few Country tunes (some on youtube one that was mocked on The Colbert Report) and I have to ask...

What is with the autotune, Nashville? 

I'm not against occasionally tweaking a note here and there.  Even the best singers can have a bad moment in a great take.  It happens.  But the fixing is so obvious it becomes distracting, even on artists who I know to be quality singers.  Do they have a single take rule or something?  And, for all the money they invest, couldn't they fix the vocals without it sounding so blatant?  I mean, my crappy little Cubase DAW leaves less pitch fix residue. 

Sorry, I guess I'm a little taken aback after my first dip in the country pool in a while.

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blue2blue wrote:

 

I'd say that Mick has a better feel for real American country music than a lot of folks currently the darlings of the Nashville music biz.

 

Yeh - Mick pulls something off, doesn't he? Their Country flavour was especially good when Mick Taylor was on slide. He's the best guitarist the Stones ever had (stating the bleedin' obvious, I know).

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blue2blue wrote:

 

 

Oh, man, that Stones vid of "Faraway Eyes" is utterly priceless. Unbelievably, I've never seen it before, though I've always loved the song.  I couldn't help but feel there was a certain kinship between Mick's over-the-top vocal and visual mugging and the early comic performances by genuine small-town country boy, Andy Griffith, as in 
No Time for Sergeants, 
as well as some of the other country comics of the mid-20th century. 

 

Of course, it's different when you're an outsider, no matter how obvious the affection for the culture being sent up. Still, if you get enough distance, sometimes it all works out. Anglo-American monologist Lord Buckley was able to get away with some very sharp ethnically tinged hipster humor because he knew the turf and also because he distanced himself by adopting the persona of a British 'upper class twit' spewing hipster jive. 

 

I'd say that Mick has a better feel for real American country music than a lot of folks currently the darlings of the Nashville music biz.

 

I hate Mick for this vocal. Near the top of the list of "remasters I would like to see" is Faraway Eyes with just Keith and the ghost of Gram Parsons on vocals.

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