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R.I.P. Errol Brown "Lead Singer of the band Hot Chocolate"


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Heard that on the radio today. Few voices as unique as his for sure! Loved their hits. "You Sexy Thing". "Every One's A Winner". "Emma".

 

In addition to his hits with Hot Chocolate, he also wrote the classic "Brother Louie". Their version was a hit in the UK, but the hit version in the US was by a band called Stories even though most people probably think it was Rod Stewart. :)

 

Sadly we're going to be seeing more and more classic rockers passing away in the coming years. In the thread about Ben E. King's passing a few days ago someone wrote "his voice will be missed". But the truth is, that while the family and friends of Mr. King and Mr. Brown will miss them, the truth is the one thing that WON'T be missed is their voices.

 

Thanks to the miracle of recording technology, their VOICES will live with us forever. I, for one, will be playing some Hot Chocolate tonight. :)

 

 

 

 

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But the truth is, that while the family and friends of Mr. King and Mr. Brown will miss them, the truth is the one thing that WON'T be missed is their voices.

 

Thanks to the miracle of recording technology, their VOICES will live with us forever.

 

That's a great comment. In a way, they've achieved immortality.

 

If only there had been recording devices when Bach was around...I'd love to hear the elements of the music that didn't translate to music notation.

 

 

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That's a great comment. In a way, they've achieved immortality.

 

If only there had been recording devices when Bach was around...I'd love to hear the elements of the music that didn't translate to music notation.

 

 

I'd love to hear that as well. But I also have another take on that. I think that part of the immortality of classical music is that fact that it was never recorded originally. Had there been a "definitive version" of say, Beethoven's Fifth, then would we have ever needed all the live orchestral performances and countless recordings and interpretations over the years?

 

I've wondered if such music would have been so timeless and survived for hundreds of years had it been captured in a time capsule the way The Beatles or Led Zeppelin have been preserved. It's great we have those, but I wonder if the tradeoff will be that they will have harder time becoming immortal as time goes on?

 

 

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I'd love to hear that as well. But I also have another take on that. I think that part of the immortality of classical music is that fact that it was never recorded originally. Had there been a "definitive version" of say, Beethoven's Fifth, then would we have ever needed all the live orchestral performances and countless recordings and interpretations over the years?

 

I've wondered if such music would have been so timeless and survived for hundreds of years had it been captured in a time capsule the way The Beatles or Led Zeppelin have been preserved. It's great we have those, but I wonder if the tradeoff will be that they will have harder time becoming immortal as time goes on?

 

 

Maybe we would have had Beethoven tribute symphony orchestras :)

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Boy, Guido and Craig...You guys really brought up some thought provoking points. Had there been no recording technology can you even imagine trying to reproduce so much of the music that we all love, from just musical notation? How do you even translate John Lennon's inflections and vulnerabilty on a song like "Girl" off Rubber Soul? It's a moot point though isn't it? Without recording tech, he'd have never heard any of the American music that inspired him. Which brings us full circle to Craig's point...In Live performance with Bach, or Beethoven, or Mozart in charge of the performances...Who knows what wrinkles they were throwing in the mix to the musicians?

Fascinating discussion gentlemen!

 

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There are quite a few musicologists who believe that Bach's music included what we would call "swing" (a la drum machines), and that it was just the style of music at that time so no one bothered to notate it. If you listen to the Brandenburgs and imagine even just a tiny bit of swing instead of the usual metronomic precision, it changes the character a lot...the music "breathes" more,

 

And of course, we'll never really know what the Romans or Greeks played. There are some forms of music that have existed continuously for well over a thousand years, like the Sufi mystic trance music, but even then how do we know it hasn't evolved in ways that recordings never captured?

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There are quite a few musicologists who believe that Bach's music included what we would call "swing" (a la drum machines), and that it was just the style of music at that time so no one bothered to notate it. If you listen to the Brandenburgs and imagine even just a tiny bit of swing instead of the usual metronomic precision, it changes the character a lot...the music "breathes" more,

 

And of course, we'll never really know what the Romans or Greeks played. There are some forms of music that have existed continuously for well over a thousand years, like the Sufi mystic trance music, but even then how do we know it hasn't evolved in ways that recordings never captured?

 

Amusingly, as I read your post, I'm listening to the Swingle Singers' very swingin' version of the B-dude's Prelude Et Fugue Pour Orgue Bwv 541, en sol majeur, which does, indeed, sound very natural that way.

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There are quite a few musicologists who believe that Bach's music included what we would call "swing" (a la drum machines), and that it was just the style of music at that time so no one bothered to notate it. If you listen to the Brandenburgs and imagine even just a tiny bit of swing instead of the usual metronomic precision, it changes the character a lot...the music "breathes" more,

 

And of course, we'll never really know what the Romans or Greeks played. There are some forms of music that have existed continuously for well over a thousand years, like the Sufi mystic trance music, but even then how do we know it hasn't evolved in ways that recordings never captured?

 

Funny, but maybe the closest we'll ever get to imagining what the earliest music sounded like was the crowds "Rain Chant" at Woodstock...

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