Goodbye also to 1982 World Cup star Paolo Rossi at the cruelly young age of just 64.
Posts by Backdrifter
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I mentioned it in the main thread (bafflingly not much visited) for the album here. There was no response so it's not clear if anyone else watched it but maybe your re-flagging of it might inspire some to do so. But it remains unappealing to me.
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Additional discussion here.
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Brian May seems like a lovely bloke
I think I mentioned this before but in my guise as Roger Repetitious I'll mention it again. My friend Dave sells tech to the music industry, often meeting some high-profile musicians along the way. He sold some stuff to Brian May, who insisted Dave came to his house with the equipment and stay for a cup of tea. Dave is a pretty good musician himself and Dr May let him have a go on the famous guitar. Dave confirmed that Brian is indeed a very nice chap.
On tangent, though kind of related as Led Zeppelin while not grating do fall into the 'overrated' category for me. Dave is a born salesman and often gets famous customers to do promo stuff for his company. I was amused by hearing that he did a transaction over the phone with John Paul Jones, evidently not as warm and amenable as Brian May, which led to:
DAVE: While I've got you , can I ask, would you do some promo for us?
JPJ: No, and don't ask me ever again. (hangs up)
😂
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I don't dislike Hotel California through it being overplayed, I dislike it as I've always found it really boring.
I had stopped listening to the radio for years until I decided to give local college radio a go in the car. Have discovered countless bands I'd never have heard of otherwise, most of them local. Shazam has been my friend in capturing the songs I like.
For me BBC 6Music is a shining beacon. So much of the stuff I pick up on is from various shows on that station.
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I actually really like KOL, perhaps I'm in the minority. Really everything but Mr Magpie and Feral I think are great songs. I like the atmosphere and percussive elements to the songs, something about them... Hard to explain.
MSP however is the first of their albums I can't crack. It feels distant for me somehow, like I can't get into it fully enough to enjoy it. There are good songs for sure but it loses me half way through with the exception of True Love Waits which I find to be a far superior version to what we had heard long ago.
I think TKOL is actually good, it was interesting as I found I had to work at it for a while, which made me think about how we are sometimes attuned to instant gratification and can lose sight of how some things reveal their attractions gradually which was very much the case for me with this album.
I agree about the percussive emphasis and the indefinable feel to many of the songs. There's something oddly skewed about Little By Little, and Codex has a wonderful sort of other-worldly feel. Separator is one of their absolute best ever tracks in my view, a top 10 one. In a way it mirrors my experience with the album, starting a little inconspicuously, maybe even a bit dry but slowly opening up and by the closing parts it's a thing of beauty.
Bloom is interesting as I don't like it on the album but absolutely loved it on stage. In fact, the two shows I saw on that tour may be the very best ones I've seen of the 30 or so gigs of theirs I've been to. The extra (non-album) tracks they released around that time feature some good ones too such as Staircase, The Butcher and The Daily Mail.
I was irritated by the inclusion of True Love Waits on AMSP. I don't mind the song but felt that after featuring quite a few times at the end of gigs it had sort of had its time, if that makes sense. It appearing on an album a decade after they stopped playing it live felt like a cop-out. But I understand fans' affection for it and it is quite an atmospheric rendition, but I'd rather have had another completely new offering in its place.
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I kind of lost interest a bit after Kid A, which was, at the time, a bit too heavy for me to digest. Nevertheless I enjoyed A Moon Shaped Pool in recent years. But I have to admit their music is hard for me to access. If you have some ideas how to dive in - let me know.
That's interesting that you enjoyed AMSP. I think it combines some of their established elements into a gentler overall sound. I've heard quite a few non-fans say they enjoyed it. Similarly many kind of came back to or discovered them via In Rainbows, which was a much warmer album for them at the time - it's my personal favourite along with The Bends and would be my suggestion for a way in if you don't already know it.
Some felt they then returned to being somewhat cold and unapproachable with the next album, The King of Limbs. While I'm a huge fan of them, I do understand why many find them aloof and inaccessible.
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So sorry to hear that David Saunders aka NedFlanders123 has passed away.
He has a post just above in this topic.
R I P David
I agree with thewatcher that even when you don't personally know members they become familiar through their posts and it's a shock to learn they've died. I liked Ned's comments and shall miss him. Squigelyfox thanks for letting us know.
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Me too, and she ruins existing songs. Whiter Shade of Pale, No More I Love You's (Cover of a song by unknown band The Lover Speaks) while thinking she's "an ARTIST"!
Agree U2 are overrated, early stuff was good, then they wandered off-piste.
Taylor Swift's name came up, I quite like her, she has done some very good songs (liked the last one, I'm the Man), yes some of her stuff is not that good, but given the standards of today, she's doing OK.
Lennox also drained the life from Blue Nile's darkly beautiful The Downtown Lights, one of my favourite ever songs. For that crime alone she's forever condemned in my mind. Yes, people seem to default to her version of No More while the original is all but forgotten.
I'm the opposite with U2. I only started to like them from Achtung onwards and was blown away by their Zoo TV show which for me completely redefined stadium shows. I still love the mid 90s stuff and have recently enjoyed listening again to the Passengers album, I liked and admired a major high-profile band going so far off their own beaten track. However, if the new direction doesn't appeal then fair enough. Sadly they soon returned to more familiar and less inventive territory though still did some good stuff. They got a bit more adventurous again with No Line which I still like a lot so I obviously prefer them going off-piste.
I agree some of Swift's stuff isn't bad and even when it is there's still her beautiful legs to admire.
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Just watching Annie Lennox now on BBC live . TEDIOUS.
She irritates the hell out of me. And her voice is so cold and clinical.
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The death metal stuff doesn't bother me
To some extent I agree it's so comically bad it's funny. An extension of that is the presence on Twitter of some of its fans who adopt ludicrously would-be macho names like WOLFSTEEL or IRON DRAGON or TITANIUM BEAST or OSMIUM MINOTAUR etc. Sadly they too often have very dodgy views, which isn't so funny.
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I too can't say I hate much stuff so the 'grating' aspect is probably more apt. When I really dislike something it's usually more that I find it really dull and boring and it holds no interest for me. There have been too many grating songs for me to remember them, especially recently with countless tracks by people singing miserably and self-pityingly apparently through their noses.
Sometimes it's grating when there's some repetitive thing in it, like that very high violin phrase in Toxic by Britney Spears. It's like someone came up with that and they thought, that's good let's put it ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE F***ING SONG COS IT WON'T ANNOY ANYONE. Ditto that late 80s/early 90s dance track thing with seemingly the exact same voices going 'woo' 'yeah' all the way though. There's a Jennifer Lopez one with a saxophone phrase midway through that's repeated what feels like 549 times and which makes me want to smash the radio to the floor and stamp on its remains.
Some here are mentioning genres they dislike. While I am open to anything, there are some types of music that always leave me cold and yes, a lot of c&w and country rock does so, but there are occasional songs that are ok. Various rap genres tend to make me feel like I'm being cornered and finger-jabbingly shoutingly hectored. It's frustrating as many rap songs start off with very promising backbeats and rhythm tracks and my interest is piqued but then this yabbering voice kicks in and it all sours. I agree about the guttural death metal shite, which seems to have absolutely no variation to it - unless of course I'm missing the subtle nuances of it amid all the growling about satan and various categories of pain and mayhem etc. I think we are all pretty well unanimous about the multi-syllabled melismatic R&B wailing of certain artists, count me in.
A lot of current prog is utterly tedious, sounding like they dug stuff out from the bottom of Genesis's dustbin, made it go fast and slow a lot, followed the quiet middle bit with a widdly keyboard solo, slapped thick layers of mellotron choir all over it and topped it off with badly impassioned vocals singing cringe-inducingly crap lyrics about space and time. Predictable unimaginative derivative junk-by-numbers.
M people have always grated on me in a particularly severe way.
The singer sounds too much like Fozzie Bear and I can't bear those cynical "empowerment" songs they're known for. It's as though having had irritating success with that "search for the hero inside yourself" one they thought, hmmm we'd better do sort of another one of those, kind of thing, like. So they did that godawful "what have you done today to make yourself proud". Well they can just mind their own business and piss off.
I used to hate Whitney Houston but I heard 'I have nothing' and now I really respect her. She really sings that one so well.
Bit controversial this but I have always hated Brian May's guitar tone. May always plays the same screechy tone so I have steered well away from Queen as a result. I understand the brilliance of some of Queen's records in some people's eyes so I don't admit this in public very much.
WH irritated me (that quivering mouth - grrrr) but I really liked It's Not Right which had a great rhythm track. I agree about May's guitar, it sounds horrible. It being home-made is no excuse - make one that sounds much better, Dr May. Queen did some good stuff, there's some great rock music on Sheer Heart Attack but they weren't that good. They benefited from having a flamboyant front man who died. A bit like Floyd having a front man who went strange and reclusive, then died. Both bands are okay but overrated and overpraised having gained some weird/dead front-man kudos points. If Gabriel had gone full-on weird reclusive then 'joined the choir invisible' Genesis would be really high up on the coolometer.
But never waste an opportunity to diss Queen in public. The righteously outraged reactions of their more pompous fans can be absolutely hilarious.
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Many on the left in the US & the UK despise anyone who disagrees with them for whatever reason, & simply brand them as stupid or racist.
Sadly this is true, and equally sadly the exact same is true of many on the right who despise everyone who don't share their views, and automatically dismiss them as 'woke' or 'libtards', 'luvvies' etc. This is all too often the level to which so much discourse has sunk, with each side dug in deep and refusing to give any ground as they shriek insults at each other.
On social media I sometimes engage with people of opposing views, which tend to be right-wing as I identify as liberal. It's rare that I can have a reasoned discussion as often even the initially most reasonable people quickly resort to insults and condemn me as a loony leftie. I'm know I'm far from alone in this, and equally I try to discourage those who share my views from doing the same in the opposite direction.
Both in the UK and the USA there has grown a huge division in society. I don't see any hint of those schisms being healed in the foreseeable future, especially with leaders who choose to deepen those divisions.
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Sounds divine. Going to try this one. Black pepper and rosemary... Mmmm
Not only are they indeed divine but they actually seem to improve after a few days in a tupperware box. I have to stop myself just munching my way through them all.
I'm going to try varying the flavours, next time possibly cumin and coriander.
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South Side Of The Sky is a pretty terrific song. I love the very Bruford drum fill to start the song. The middle section is tremendous with the harmonies, always love hearing that part.
For me Fragile is what got me into this band. Particularly Heart of the Sunrise. My first listen of that song turned me into a Yes fan instantly.
Yeah HotS is another great one. The version on Yessongs is absolutely incendiary, them at their peak on stage. But as with everything on Fragile the original has some of the best bass/drums of any rock music. The Squire/Bruford combo was sublime.
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Delicious crackers: wholegrain spelt flour, water, chia seeds with sunflower/sesame/pumpkin seeds (whatever you prefer but need chia to bind), sea salt, black pepper + whatever other flavourings you like - I used rosemary and thyme. Mix and let the dough firm up, spread thinly onto oiled baking paper on baking tray, into oven at 150C for 20 mins. Remove, carefully cut into crackers, turn each over, bake for another 10-15 minutes. Let cool and dry in the oven, store in an airtight container.
Lovely and savoury, really nice with cheese and/or honey or just some butter.
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Yes released Fragile on this day, 11 November in 1971.
My favourite track is South Side of the Sky, for me possibly the best thing they ever did.
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I know this isn't strictly speaking about what films we've seen but it's film-related.
Clearing out old files, papers etc and came across a Film Synopsis Generator that I made about 20 years ago.
Generate your own one by choosing 4 numbers between 1 and 14 (you can repeat numbers if you like) and one number from 1 to 3. I'll let you know your film synopsis to pitch to a studio exec.
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It turns out that the word written as "knockatize" in the printed lyrics is supposed to be "narcotize."
😂
Excellent. I'm glad it's a misprint, and a good one too. You still instinctively understand the meaning! I never questioned it.
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At the very least, it won't sound like his last 3!
Amen to that.
