Friday Influences Thread 03.13.09

[Stackabones]

So what has influenced you in the past -- or since the last FIT?

 

*

 

I remember first reading Leda and the Swan by William Butler Yeats in some survey college course. Though the sonnet was properly footnoted (Leda, the swan, Agamemnon), I ended up doing further reading and went down into the rabbit hole. In my descent, I discovered the myriad reflecting mirrors of the funhouse carnival world of criticism.

 

And it led me to more Yeats, eventually stumbling upon Adam's Curse. I won't quote the whole poem, and I trust you understand the title's allusion, but I will quote some early lines. As a musician and songwriter, these lines remind me that what I do isn't what what others do. They also give me hope that someone else understands that we must labour to be beautiful.

 

 

 

 

... 'A line will take us hours maybe;

 

Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,

 

Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.

 

Better go down upon your marrow-bones

 

And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones

 

Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;

 

For to articulate sweet sounds together

 

Is to work harder than all these, and yet

 

Be thought an idler by the noisy set

 

Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen

 

The martyrs call the world.'

 

[tspit74]

I've had Steve Forbert's new cd on non stop play since it arrived on Monday. It's criminal that he's not more well known or regarded. I'll be seeing him in Chicago on April 15. I'll likely be one of 20 people in the audience.

 

Here's some free downloads from his website. If you like Dylan or Springsteen and really well written songs with clever lyrics, he's your man. Check him out.

 

http://www.steveforbert.com/live_and_rare/

[rsadasiv]

I'm gonna go with Pete Townsend. This week I've been digging the youtube Quadrophenia videos in this thread:

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2269742

 

Basically, all my attempts to combine synthesizers and rock guitars are based on Pete Townsend's work in the 70's. Who's Next (of course) but Empty Glass is a huge influence as well.

 

[YOUTUBE]6riDuGkad4I[/YOUTUBE]

 

I can't find the Empty Glass version, but in this video he's replaced the synths with a live horn section, whereas I'm usually in the opposite position of trying to replace a live horn section with synths.

 

You can check the last minute of "Rain" for my take on the Pete Townsend song.

 

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6752969

[A Happy Crowd]

I'm new to these FIT threads, but I spent yesterday watching a bunch of Yngwie Malmsteen videos on Youtube. I don't listen to shred and haven't really listened to metal since junior high, but it inspired me to practice the guitar in a way I haven't practiced it.

 

I'm not sure if this is a direct cause and effect, but the result is good regardless -- after practicing, I finished writing the music to a song I had been working on for the past week or so. I still need a vocal melody and lyrics, but I'm feeling pretty good about the potential for this song so far.

And no, it sounds nothing like Yngwie.

 

Here's a clip of him performing with the New Japan Philharmonic.

 

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

[1Crazyguitarist]

I'd have to say Coheed & Cambria. I recently discovered that their songs are based of graphic novels by Claudia Sanchez, and that there's a storyline that goes with it all. kudos on the Yngwie Malmsteen:thu:

[blue2blue]

That embedded video comes through in stereo! How'd that happen? (I just tested another vid with a stereo version and it didn't show up in stereo. I wonder what the trick is?)

 

Sounded like the orchestra had a little trouble keeping up with Yngwie a couple times, there.

[Stackabones]

I'm new to these FIT threads

 

Welcome aboard!

[Etienne Rambert]

Still sounds fresh, yet romantic and mysterious after 40 years.

I don't think any other band could do this song so well.

It's sui generis. Superb idea. Superb arrangement.

 

aBl7bERuJdo

[tspit74]

I picked up that Spanky and Our Gang 45 with original picture sleeve last Saturday in it's original MONO single mix. Yummy sunshine pop at it's finest!

 

Without Rhyme or Reason is a great lost 60's concept album. What a freakin' trip. Great stuff.

[lightninglicks]

what has influenced me lately has been anything acoustic, especially any "classic" acoustic rock songs... the songs you likely to hear in an open mic a million times over, great stuff

[Sentry68]

 

Sounded like the orchestra had a little trouble keeping up with Yngwie a couple times, there.

 

 

Sounds more like Yngwie rushed it. Pretty much the whole way through.

[Lee Knight]

Joni Mitchell by way of Dianna Krall. God... I really feel Krall is misunderstood as an artist. She's an interpreter of the highest quality. Some say yawn inducing. I say her reading here is gorgeous. Almost spiritual. Listen to this. If you've got 7 minutes, sit back and hear how she "does" Joni, intentionally, but you hear Krall loud and clear, or rather, softly and with poignancy. Shades of Julie London and Peggy Lee too...

 

And her grasp of Joni's lyrics kills me.

 

I met a woman

She had a mouth like yours

She knew your life

She knew your devils and your deeds

And she said,

"Go to him, stay with him if you can

But be prepared to bleed"

Oh but you are in my blood

You're my holy wine

You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet

Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling

Still I'd be on my feet

I would still be on my feet

 

 

 

[YOUTUBE]BGrsc5FeQDs[/YOUTUBE]

[blue2blue]

 

Sounds more like Yngwie rushed it. Pretty much the whole way through.

 

 

I was trying to be sly. Yeah. He seemed to gallop ahead in more than a few places... at some points he and the orchestra were probably a full eighth note off rhythm from each other... it was kinda syncopated. But not in a cool way.

 

Well... it was live. But I see a lot of live orchestral performances with soloists. (I'm a subscriber to my local symphony and have been seeing about 7 concerts a year for about two decades.) And by the standards of my local symphony (not the putatively world class LA Philharmonic but rather the local Long Beach Symphony) and the soloists who come through town (or are occasionally drawn from the first chairs of the orchestra), this was not particularly tight or clean.

[blue2blue]

 

I've been a Krall fan since long before Elvis hooked up with her (which seems to be when she got on the mainstream radar) and I think she's just swell. I love a good pianist/singer... whether it's Nat Cole, Blossom Dearie, Mose Alison, or Dianne Krall (OK, not Billy Joel, admittedly, but even I have limits to my stretchability ).

[Stackabones]

Shades of Julie London and Peggy Lee too...

 

I agree. I think she's an amazing and gifted interpreter of the Great American Songbook and of popular song. She gets knocked imo due to the jazzhole hatred of vocal jazz, which has often been claimed as being too pop, or sung by the wrong color (white or black, it doesn't matter), or any number of reasons -- at least while the singer is alive.

 

She has a killer band and her arrangements are well crafted. And she can make that piano swing. Easy on the eyes, too. A horrible combination for the jazzhole instrumentalist with a degree in Jazz Ego who gets the spotlight stolen by singers at gigs.