Posts by foxfeeder
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For examples of good Country, try Nanci Griffith before she lost her way, which Hearts in Mind very much exposes. Lone Star State of Mind and Little Love Affairs are good examples, and the next 2, Storms and Late Night Grand Hotel, though veering into pop are also very, very good!
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Display MoreWhile there is music I dislike or don't care for, I can't say I hate much. There are narrow subgenres where I have yet to find something to like. But I find I cannot dismiss broader genres (e.g., country, hip hop) because there is so much diversity and I always find some artists and songs that I really like.
Many of the comments above mention songs that get overplayed. I too can get tired of some songs that I have heard a 1000 times or more, but it has never resulted in strong dislike, just a waning of enthusiasm. I know every single note of songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Stairway to Heaven, Hotel California, etc., but don't think less of them as songs. I can just listen to them less, to keep them fresher for me.
Some people really don't like ABBA and I echo the comment above about the hidden complexity of these songs. As much as people might perceive a super slick, sugary pop veneer, the music is quite skillful. Dancing Queen has some great harmony structures over the chord progression that are not the "obvious" notes and the bassline is pretty challenging.
If I were to pick a song I find particularly grating, it is Bryan Adams's Summer of '69. I find every single line so incredibly trite. In fact, it is hard to find a line that isn't a cliche.
I don't particularly like ABBA, but I certainly don't hate them. IMO they got better as the years passed, culminating in one of the finest pop songs ever: The Day Before You Came. The arrangement is sublime, the choir effects haunting, and the lyrics, written in English, a second language for them, tell us everything about the protagonists future by telling of her past. It's a masterclass of intelligent, emotional pop, and sung perfectly by one of the finest female vocalists.
It's true that Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston have no concept of less-is-more, (I always say Mariah will never use 2 notes when 10000 will do!), and they would have killed this song stone dead. Celine Dion, however, is not so guilty. She may have moved into this area more recently, but take a listen to the albums The Colour of my Love, and Falling Into You, and you'll find some excellent songs done superbly. Think Twice, from the first album, was a great song, and Call the Man (Same writers as Think Twice: Andy Hill, Peter Sinfield of King Crimson fame) and Fly are great performances of great songs.
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Rap, Disco, Happy by Pharrel as mentioned, and the Starland Vocal Band!
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Time and Tide is my favourite album of theirs. It never really falters, while the others don't keep the standard up quite as well.
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Interesting - didn't know that
I am assuming this to be the case, I could be wrong, but like I say, it was quite common back then. I've recalled the name of the company the Moody Blues were signed to, Ridgepride.
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Frankly, I doubt they were signed to Genesis at all. My guess is that they were signed to King's company, Jonjo, and that was signed to Decca. Common practice back then. The Moody Blues mk1 was shafted thus as they were signed to Tony Secunda's company and that was signed to Decca. The middle men, (Secunda and 3 others, inc. Alex Wharton, disappeared with the money), luckily, Decca honoured the contract, probably because they were still owed advances.
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Bit of confusion there, I think. King wanted to call them Genesis, but the name was in use by an American band. So they just called the album "FGTR". US band folded shortly after, leaving the name available.
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Didn't catch the name of the Republican who said the other day, "It's time for Trump to put his big boy pants on". Couldn't put it better.
As for Pompeo, if you look carefully, you can probably see the strings...…..
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Also one thing I need to make clear: While I am pleased Biden and Harris won, I still believe that they are both highly flawed candidates. I've adopted increasingly left-wing views over the years and I now consider myself a socialist. So I am not "fans" of capitalists Biden and Harris. I just think Trump is considerably worse in every way. Biden and Harris are part of the corporate Democratic establishment and the Democratic Party continues to prove that it isn't willing to become more left-wing just because their voters are shifting leftwards; they are a centre-right party and will comprise with the Republicans until the cows come home. Don't get me wrong, they will do the right thing on occasion, but all of the progressive stuff Biden campaigned on will be blocked my Mitch McTurtle and GOP-majority senate.
Never been a socialist. While they have a lot of very good and laudable ideas for things that need doing, they never have any concept of how to pay for any of it. Consequently, we have seen the political pendulum swing left and right on average every ten years here in the UK, with the left borrowing, and the right paying it back. Be nice if the borrowing was a party responsibility. Wonder how keen they'd be to borrow then?
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Well, morbid fascination or not, I am watching from over here in Scotland and even from this distance appalled and unnerved by what is currently happening. I feel for all reasonable decent Americans right now, I can't imagine what it must be like - it's bad enough watching from afar.
You expect it from a screeching solipsist piece of scum like Trump - he made it clear enough well before the election that he wasn't going to accept defeat and would do exactly what he is doing now. But worse than him are the senior Reps who, unlike him, are relatively normal sane people and absolutely know he has created a false alternative reality and is trampling US democracy and fairness into in the dirt. Yet they are enabling, promoting and supporting it. They have no shame, no decency, no conscience.
American Studies? Future scholars will have rich pickings with the Trump administration and the 2020 election.
Agree with much of this, the Republican Party members should be ashamed of themselves for allowing Trump to hi-jack their party just for a 4 year stint in office that has achieved nothing.
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Match of the day - catchy little number, very untypical of Genesis at the time, sounds dated now, not least given the price paid for the player!
Pigeons - dull, repetitive, monotonous, though the lyrics are quite good, in a satirical way.
Inside and Out - Far better than the other 2, still far from their best though.
That said, I'd swap Match or Inside for YOSW, although the lyrics Match would stick out like a sore thumb on that album.
I have the 3 inch CD single of this.
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British screen fixture Geoffrey Palmer has died, aged 93.
Shame, he was a fine comic actor, he was superb in "The Kipper and the Corpse" episode of Fawlty Towers
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At the very least, it won't sound like his last 3!
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I'd like to add, that I followed everything about Trump since 2017. Every imbecilic tweet, every scandal, every antic, every lie, every insane moment, every unconstitutional disgrace, every psychopathic crime against humanity. Trump is the worst leader of any country in modern history and these last four years have aged me. And I'm not even American! This whole presidency was like an extremely moronic reality TV show that transformed into a multi-layered political crime drama, there were so many times when I had to question reality. So many characters too... Stormy Daniels, The Mooch, William Barr, Kavanaugh...
Why? Where has it got you, apart from maybe depressed? I didn't bother, and STILL came to exactly the same conclusion as you.
It's to be hoped that he gets his come-uppance when the tax people etc catch up with him, but frankly, if he just disappears and Brand Trump never gets near any political office ever again, I'll be quite content.
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Mowed the lawns earlier.
We're in a rental but I've already told Mrs B that when we buy somewhere the whole lawn situation is to be re-assessed. I hate lawns. Fortunately she's as keen as I am to try having a small meadow instead of a lawn.
People rhapsodise over neat well-kept lawns but I can't stand them.
Aren't meadows bigger than lawns?
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Realistically, given the state of things now, I wouldn't bet on April, it doesn't seem realistic
Be fair, he doesn't specify WHICH April!
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That's correct in both cases, and I even learned about or didn't remember the Tony Clarke bit. The Threshold experiment came to an end, because Tony Banks had played a bum note somewhere. Pinder thought the recording perfectly alright while allegedly Mr Banks insisted on re-recording. And that was that.
Your turn, Jonathan!
All as told in "Chapter and Verse", which I think does not mention Tony Clarke.
It's quite likely that Tony Clarke did produce the track, he was the producer for the sessions King Crimson did for the first attempt at "In the court.....".
Threshold was co-owned by the Moody Blues AND Tony Clarke, despite Tony having turned down the offer to become a full official member of the band, even though he was not playing anything, only producing. He did, however, have a lot of input, such as the concept for "To Our Children's Children's Children" Each member had specific tasks, John Lodge was sales, Ray Thomas and Justin Hayward were advertising, press relations and promotions, Graeme Edge general manager for things like contracts, Mike P was studio chief (They had their own studio within the Decca complex at West Hampstead by this time, though it wasn't fully op. till 1972, and didn't see a band recording till 1980/1) and Tony C was recording manager.
Threshold produced and released albums and singles by Trapeze, (1st 2 albums produced by John Lodge),Timon (later Tymon Dogg), (Produced by Justin Hayward), Providence, and Nicky James, to name but 4, though only Trapeze would go on to bigger things.
Threshold had an office in London, painted in colours for which they were sued, who by or why I don't know.
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Fair enough, I don't wish to set myself up as the yardstick of 70s band recognition! As you say, they appeared on a range of 70s light entertainment TV shows, many of which my family and I watched, though I have absolutely no memory of the band. If they'd made an impact on the singles and album charts there'd be a greater chance I and others here would remember them but the wiki piece doesn't give chart placings.
Anyway, I'm guessing that regarding the trivia question it's moot as they surely don't qualify as Sredni 's "two well-known bands".
I've heard of them either, despite watching many of the shows they appeared in.
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I think Cat Stevens was one, Peter Gabriel played flute for him.
