Dad bands

[tlbonehead]

I've heard Bolton sing acapella, and it wasn't pretty (IMHO of course).

 

 

did you hear it on purpose?

[Vito Corleone]

yeah, so is Michael Bolton.

Bolton never did anything for me. He never sounded anything more than a trying-way-too-hard version of the singers he was trying to imitate in much the same style/genre.

Perry, OTHO, was more of a great vocalist in the classic style of taking big cues from the singers he most admired (in his case, Sam Cooke) and applying it in a new fashion to a different genre.

[KeysBear]

In 1989 there wasn't a band anywhere in America who would have been caught dead playing "Jessie's Girl" on stage.

1981 #1 single that I do recall was my first wife's favorite song for a long long time. Even in 1986-88 my girlfriend then was still into Springfield and loved Jessie's Girl. Never once did we consider it for our set lists during that time. We would have died from embarrassment. Now? It seems like a pleasant enough tune, go figure.

[richardmac]

 

Here's the Top 100 of 1991: http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1991.htm I'm guessing there aren't more than a couple of songs on here you like very much at all. But for anyone who was a junior-to-senior that year? I'm guessing they love a BIG chunk of those songs as much as you love "It's Too Late".

 

 

Wow - out of those 100 songs I only liked 2, and I don't own either of them. Hmm. There might be something to this "70's music was better" thing...

 

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm old. I WOULD like to point out one thing, though... while it is true that each generation thinks the next generation's music is crap, that doesn't mean that it might not be true one day.

[bigboy78]

Wow - out of those 100 songs I only liked 2, and I don't own either of them. Hmm. There might be something to this "70's music was better" thing... Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm old. I WOULD like to point out one thing, though... while it is true that each generation thinks the next generation's music is crap, that doesn't mean that it might not be true one day.

 

 

I was in high school in 91 and reading through that list there were a lot of songs that I'd forgotten, but I really like. I think the difference is somwhere along the way the amount of tunes easilly reproduce by guitar bands, which lets face it are what most bands start out as, declined. Banging out some Creedence is easier than finding a keyboard player to repoduce all the samples etc of modern pop music

 

My picks from 91.

 

3. Gonna Make You Sweat, C+C Music Factory

6. Unbelievable, EMF

7. More Than Words, Extreme

17. Right Here Right Now, Jesus Jones

20. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway

36. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over, Lenny Kravitz

38. Summertime, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince

51. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...., C+C Music Factory

52. I Touch Myself, Divinyls

53. Tom's Diner, DNA featuring Suzanne Vega

75. Crazy, Seal

79. Wicked Game, Chris Issak

91. Groove Is In the Heart, Deee-Lite

94. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature

95. Freedom! '90, George Michael

[jimiv]

A lot of great stuff wasn't really on the radio back in the day either. One of the cool things about bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd was you probably first heard it in your friends' parents' basement or blasting out of some dudes El Camino on 8-track at a kegger. You'll note that that Top Hits of 1971 list posted earlier did NOT include "Stairway to Heaven".

 

 

Yep so true....in the 70s FM radio was considered underground and in order to hear the Who, Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zep, Humble Pie, etc you had to listen to FM and buy the records assuming you even had an FM radio. All of the top forty was on AM which I never listened to. To pickup an underground FM station from 60 or so miles away (Cleveland, WMMS) was a bit of a feat. If you couldn't dial it in your only option was AM radio top 40.

[Vito Corleone]

I was in high school in 91 and reading through that list there were a lot of songs that I'd forgotten, but I really like. I think the difference is somwhere along the way the amount of tunes easilly reproduce by guitar bands, which lets face it are what most bands start out as, declined. Banging out some Creedence is easier than finding a keyboard player to repoduce all the samples etc of modern pop music My picks from 91. 3. Gonna Make You Sweat, C+C Music Factory 6. Unbelievable, EMF 7. More Than Words, Extreme 17. Right Here Right Now, Jesus Jones 20. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway 36. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over, Lenny Kravitz 38. Summertime, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince 51. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...., C+C Music Factory 52. I Touch Myself, Divinyls 53. Tom's Diner, DNA featuring Suzanne Vega 75. Crazy, Seal 79. Wicked Game, Chris Issak 91. Groove Is In the Heart, Deee-Lite 94. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature 95. Freedom! '90, George Michael

 

 

Those are all great songs, most of which I think would work great for most modern club bands. I like most of that stuff just as much as most of the stuff on that 1971 list. But being an 80s guy, I have about as much personal connection to both years.

[SeniorBlues]

 

Banging out some Creedence is easier than finding a keyboard player to repoduce all the samples etc of modern pop music

 

 

Plus you have to find a keyboard player who is more into spending his time programming than playing. . .

[Vito Corleone]

Plus you have to find a keyboard player who is more into spending his time programming than playing. . .

 

 

If the keyboard forum is any indication, there is no shortage of guys who like programming. How much of them are into GIGGING might be another issue....

[Hegmatronicon]

'71 was a freaking good year for music. Wow. I love 75% of that list.

 

 

Funny.....I was going to say i know maybe 15% of it......i'm 29.

[mockchoi]

Did I say they shouldn't be out there? Or "LOL look at the old people on stage"? They can do whatever they want. But they also COULD play some newer stuff. I mean, it's allowed. I was wondering if there was anything interesting behind that kind of decision, but apparently everyone thinks the reason was "They didn't feel like it." So, nothing to see here, I guess.

 

Rangefinder, you seem to have abdicated this thread, but I have to say. I think your douche-ism is probably unconscious, but it is there. Let the people play without judgement from you for heaven's sake!

[chemikool]

So it MIGHT just be possible that they won't agree with me that Yes' 90125 album kicks ass.

I worked with a guy that played that album almost every day for years.
Don't get me wrong...it's a great album! But everyday?
Blah Blah Chris Squire Blah Blah Blah Trevor Rabin Blah Blah Blah ...

[3shiftgtr]

Only because you left out the qualifying statements I made in between those two.

Um I left them out cuz there is no need to re state them. The qualifying statements uphold your points. And the points conflict because of your qualifying statements.

And you can qualify an ideology into submission. Which is what you did. Which was my point.

[TIMKEYS]

I support the theory of a 20 year buffer before music/fashion becoms "cool" again. Now I am old enough to remember the first time it was cool. In my late teens (and still today) I was all about 70's and Disco. This was the late 90s. It started as a joke, safari suits, flares, tight shirts and daggy dancing and it slowly just became the fashion. I can see the same thing happeing with the 80s vibe around now. I'm sure the people who experience Disco first hand couldn't beleive it made a comeback. I can't beleive the 80s could ever be considerd worth a repeat.........until you start remembering the great pop music that came out in the 80s - Police, Duran Duran, Wham, U2 (when they were good). The 90s will be next. People are already being "funny" with Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer etc In 1975 a '65 impala was just an old car . It takes a while for something to be appreciated as being something more than an OLD song.

 

 

Nope ,,, in 1975 the 65 imapla was the car that you could order with a 427 cubic-inch 425hp Turbo Jet v8. the 1975 chevy was a boring ass car.

[wardjames]

Nope ,,, in 1975 the 65 imapla was the car that you could order with a 427 cubic-inch 425hp Turbo Jet v8. the 1975 chevy was a boring ass car.

 

 

Yeah...but I doubt the 65 Impala was as popular in 1975 as it was in 1995, when I was in high school, and Snoop Dogg et. al made that car, assuming you had a set of Dayton's (do those still exist???) the dream car of every teenager.

[wardjames]

Check that...if my memory serves me, Snoop was all about the 1964 Impala.

[Vito Corleone]

Um I left them out cuz there is no need to re state them. The qualifying statements uphold your points. And the points conflict because of your qualifying statements. And you can qualify an ideology into submission. Which is what you did. Which was my point.

Hmmmm... you're making too much of it. No conflict at all. My point are simple: Songlist is one of many tools a band needs to use to create a great overall show.

[Vito Corleone]

Yeah...but I doubt the 65 Impala was as popular in 1975 as it was in 1995, when I was in high school, and Snoop Dogg et. al made that car, assuming you had a set of Dayton's (do those still exist???) the dream car of every teenager.

 

 

Not sure about Impalas but I remember my dad buying my sister a 65 Mustang around about 71/72 for what couldn't have been more than few hundred dollars. She traded it in for next-to-nothing to buy a "Mustang II" in 1977. And that was a Mustang. Those 60s muscle cars didn't start getting much cache until the 80s. I don't remember anybody caring about Impalas in the 70s. If anything, they were kind of a joke. In California they were popular with the Mexicans who turned them into Low Riders. That was about it.

[3shiftgtr]

 

Hmmmm... you're making too much of it. No conflict at all. My point are simple: Songlist is one of many tools a band needs to use to create a great overall show.

 

 

Of course the song list is a tool. Of course lighting is a tool. Of course there are a lot of things that go into a great show. That is not the point.

 

You say 'audience first' is just one part of the equation, and yet you say popularity wins. You say set list isn't the whole thing, but all things being equal, the dance band wins? It is not hard to see the conflict, here.

 

You can't have it both ways. You can't qualify the Prog rock band as playing to their "audience" cuz you could say that about ANYBODY DOING ANYTHING. A nose kazoo band full of nekkid, overweight amputees playing Gotterdammerung backwards will find an audience, if all performance quantifiers being equal. So where is all the "play for the audience or stay home" ideology? If a band is doing what they care about, are they or are they not playing for the audience? You can't have it both ways.

[KeysBear]

 

Not sure about Impalas but I remember my dad buying my sister a 65 Mustang around about 71/72 for what couldn't have been more than few hundred dollars. She traded it in for next-to-nothing to buy a "Mustang II" in 1977. And that was a Mustang. Those 60s muscle cars didn't start getting much cache until the 80s. I don't remember anybody caring about Impalas in the 70s. If anything, they were kind of a joke. In California they were popular with the Mexicans who turned them into Low Riders. That was about it.

 

The pony cars torched the mid 60's Impalas, Chevelles, Tempests, etc, then the rounder '70 Camaro and later Firebirds torched the earlier pony cars. My buddy bought a '66 Impala for $300 in 1975. My dad had a couple of early 60's Caprice convertibles in turquoise that were just stunning cars but seemed like horseless carriages when he got his '65 Mustang. I bought a 1968 Mustang in 1979 for $300, and picked up a 1967 Rally Sport Camaro Convertible for $600 in 1980.

[pickinatit]

Well, only time will tell and like you said, we won't be around to find out. But time and experience have taught me a few things: 1) people love stuff from when they were young: music, TV shows, movies, games, clothing, lunch boxes. Nostalgia is a POWERFUL motivator. 2) many people are always convinced THEIR nostaligic era was objectively better than anyone elses. 3) nostalgia only comes to realization after a few years of people being sick of that period of time first. Things from 5-15 years ago, people don't like much. After 15 years, they start to have a new "appreciation" for the "classics". I've yet to see, or know of, a generation that didn't experience this.

 

 

I dunno. Most of my peers, if they watch tv shows that they loved back in the day, scratch their heads about most of them and wonder how in the world we ever thought they were funny/interesting/thrilling...whatever. Ever watch the 3 stooges now? Boggles my mind now that we thought they were so hilarious. Even shows like "All In The Family" seem pretty blah now that they are far, far, far from cutting edge. Music seems to be a different animal though.

[pickinatit]

I dunno, I think there is more than nostalgia going on there. In the late 60s there was a huge revolution in music that was riding a crest of anti-authority activism. Seemed like a real sea-change that was bigger than the music itself. Have never seen anything like it since .

OK!! You've hit on it! Something that was tickling the back of my mind but I hadn't quite figured out how to articulate it.!

[Agitator]

Seemed like a real sea-change that was bigger than the music itself. Have never seen anything like it since. OK!! You've hit on it! Something that was tickling the back of my mind but I hadn't quite figured out how to articulate it.!

 

This is really the crux of the whole matter.

 

The reason why music from our youth sounds "better" to us is that we associate it with the emotional experiences we were having at the time. For most people, they have their first really intense, adult (or adolescent) emotional experiences during the ages of about 15-25, i.e. as teens and young adults. Even if we have strong emotional experiences later (marriage, children, etc) it can't match the impact of the first time we felt emotions on that level.

 

So the point is, we enjoy music not only for its own intrinsic qualities, but for the way it provides a direct, emotional connection for days gone by.

 

For those who were alive in the 60s, there's no question that our society and our culture was undergoing a huge upheaval, the shockwaves of which are still being felt today. It was incredibly powerful to me, second-hand as a small child (circa 1967-74) and I can only imagine what it must have felt like to a young adult.

 

So it's no surprise, then, that the music that we associate with that exceptional time has exceptional levels of emotional resonance. It doesn't really matter whether a song like "Satisfaction" is inherently better than "Don't You Want Me Baby" because "Satisfaction", for the people who lived through that time period, has this huge accumulation of cultural baggage that makes the actual song almost irrelevant. (I said almost.)

 

Add to that the fact that the 60s represented at time when the dominant forms of pop music were undergoing a period of intense experimentation, which brings in the factor of "This is the first time they did this". First fuzz tone. Widespread use of studio techniques. First electric power trios. First Marshall amps. All that adds another level of importance/relevance to the music for those who heard it "in order".

 

I'm not really expecting to change anybody's mind, and I don't think this supports anybody's contention that the music from any particular period was inherently "better" than the rest (except the Beatles and Coltrane ) but I just wanted to throw out some food for thought, since this topic is apparently far from dead.

[tucktronix]

 

My dad had a couple of early 60's Caprice convertibles

 

 

IIRC, the Caprice wasn't introduced until the mid to late 60's

[MartinC]

I still howl with laughter at the stooges, so does my daughter, who is 17. She's watched them with me on occasion for years. One of the guys in the group still loves them too. Last year during a stooges festival, I recorded about a bunch of episodes-watched maybe a dozen or so-still so funny. Many people never thought they were funny. I think a lot of females don't find their brand of humor amusing. I always thought you either loved 'em or hated them. Interesting that you and your friends used to dig them, but don't think they are funny now......

I think they will have an audience forever.

 

 

 

I dunno. Most of my peers, if they watch tv shows that they loved back in the day, scratch their heads about most of them and wonder how in the world we ever thought they were funny/interesting/thrilling...whatever. Ever watch the 3 stooges now? Boggles my mind now that we thought they were so hilarious. Even shows like "All In The Family" seem pretty blah now that they are far, far, far from cutting edge. Music seems to be a different animal though.