Nothing like having children to make you actually listen to song lyrics. I have yet to find more than a handful of songs I remember from my childhood that I'm comfortable playing for my toddlers. Family friendly they ain't. I think it's an under-appreciated cause (or at least a symptom) of our cultural decline.
I haven't listened to any "pop" music in at least a decade, but I can't imagine the situation has improved.
You are 1000% right about that! Music really has a spiritual energy to it, and it can bypass your conscious filter, especially when you're young and don't know any better. You never know what is coming through or how it might shape a child's mind in a subtle but very real way.
Agree entirely with your comment, and for children's music (I think kids need to listen to adult music but some kids' music is worthwhile) may I suggest Beethoven's Wig and Laurie Berkner to check out? BW is classical music with clever, silly lyrics full of wordplay, and LB is also fun and innocent and well crafted. Just a thought ☺️
This is why I have parted from both libertarian and conservative orthodoxy: we need some sort of antitrust measures.
Allowing corporations to own more than 5 channels was probably a good thing. It allows more networks to get traction. But unlimited? That's where the uniformity and loss of locality comes from.
Yeah. If I was King I'd probably do a timed in localization of big corps. Four years to choose a region of operation, divest all assets outside of that region. Four more years to pick four adjoining states within the region and do the same. Last, pick a single state, and do the same. No company can operate outside of a single state besides transportation companies. Transport can only operate in a single area - trucks, trains, planes, etc - pick one.
But yeah, the music industry has been destroyed. Clear Channel is the devil in the music industry.
Learning the guitar, I find the only songs I care to learn and sing have lyrics I appreciate and mean something. A lot of songs I am learning are alternative and classic country, or like folk rock.
Folk singers tend to have great lyrics. You can't cover a lack of substance with just your voice and an acoustic guitar, like you can when you got a whole production team using state of the art studio wizardry to put all the bells and whistles behind whatever you're singing.
Great read. You're a brave man for saying what you said about Jim Morrison. You're also 100% correct, but I've been in situations where stating that factually correct truism has nearly sent boomers into an apoplectic fit. Fitting that they choose to define their generation not by the legitimately great artists of their time, but rather one who was likely a psy-op (do some digging into Morrison, as well as a lot of other "counter-culture" figures at the time, and you find some interesting connections!) I think the worst part of the phenomenon you're talking about though - specifically the vapidity and idolatrous posturing of female pop stars - is that they aren't just peddling their own narcissism. Lizzo in particular was hawking a particularly pernicious strain of self-indulgent, self-gratifying, and ultimately self-destructive self-worship that makes Taylor Swift's "Manipulative and Vain Pick-Me Girl" schtick looks positively wholesome in comparison. I'm not a fan of cancel culture, but I have to say that the world has become a demonstrably better place without Lizzo's face plastered all over it.
And thanks for the shout-out, too. I appreciate it.
The anomalies in Morrison's background stories and the whole Laurel Canyon scene are disturbing. Sometimes it really starts to seem like, rather than ask what *is* an astroturfed Op, we should ask what *isn't*. There are an insane amount of rabbit holes that go really deep and implicate a disturbing number of cultural narratives and institutions. I don't know what to make of it, but given the reality of MK Ultra and Project Mockingbird and Operation Northwoods and so forth, there's really nothing you could put past the regime's spooks, nothing that they would consider beyond the pale or overreaching.
And glad to shout you out! You manage to find these incredibly interesting angles in the most counterintuitive places, like Jimmy Buffett's fans or Nickelodeon children's shows, so your stack is always fun to read!
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words more than you know. Speaking of Laurel Canyon, I really would like to do an exploration into that at some point. If only so I can finally succinctly explain to my boomer friends and family that I'm not insane and that everything I've ever told them about it is true, complete with the receipts to back it up. Absolutely fascinating stuff, albeit truly disturbing and one of those things that I wish I didn't know. It really puts the whole counter-culture scene of the 60's into an extremely suspicious light. Nothing about it ever passed the smell test for me. Maybe that's just because I was always skeptical of the glowing, almost hagiographic way it and the people involved with it have been depicted in the media and by my own personal connections that were there to witness and experience it, but something about it just never felt quite right, you know?
1000% agree that the whole thing seems off. It really seems like the powers-that-be engineered a "pleasure island" (from Pinocchio) era for America's youth to lose their minds in. But at least they tried to hide the puppet strings (and mostly succeeded). Today's "counterculture" is so obviously funded and supported by the regime that you wonder how they can be so lacking in self awareness as to seriously see themselves as the resistance.
The surest sign of The End Times: country autotune. It’s over. The Machine won. News hasn’t reached New Orleans yet so my band still gets gigs. 😎. We’re so behind “the past isn’t even past here”. Thanks for the Beato vid, he’s cool and old like us.
New Orleans is one of the last holdouts against the global homogenized culture. The food and the music there are great. That speaks highly of you that you're a participant in the music scene there!
"Rich Men North of Richmond" is lyrically beautifully composed, musically simple yet complex and interesting, and marvellously performed - in the woods, live - by a 6'6" Ginger-American who should have changed the world. Change My Mind.
Shit aimed at adolescent women (and their solipsistic female elders) is, and has always been, utter drivel. IT INSISTS UPON ITSELF.
There are some songs that are worth savoring the lyrics to, and the glory that is Brown Sugar is one of them! Give it a listen with the lyrics! Bravo, Stones!
Mick Jagger is under appreciated as a lyricist. Sticky Fingers was the first album I bought with my own money as a kid (after hearing the song "Bitch" on the radio a few times and thinking it was the best song ever). The song "Brown Sugar" is an excellent jam, and I know this opinion is verboten on the dissident right, but ... burning coal can definitely keep you warm on a cold night. Love that song.
Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.....That line just works so well with the rhythm. I think your inclusion of Jim Morrison in this post is wrong and strange. He wrote plenty of poetry- in books, journals and had fairly complex thoughts and predictions about the future of music which turned out to be accurate. Other than that, I cannot say I disagree with you on anything. Bitch is an insanely good rock song, as well. When the Stones had a horn section, they were at their best, most likely.
Also underappreciated as a harmonica player and a singer of the blues. Smartly, he never tried to sound black, giving him at least one degree of separation from his idols.
Addendum to that thought- You chose to include Morrison's spoken word introduction to a song, but then phrased it as "singing a cappella". But it is spoken, not sung. This is the standard way the Soft Parade is introduced. I think, a straw manning of his vocal abilities. The song "The Crystal Ship" is a steel manning of his vocals, IMO.
You're right. I was trying to be funny with the Jim Morrison vs Tom the Cat bit. That said, although Jim Morrison had a great voice (especially on the first album), I think his lyrics are overblown and pretentious. But the musicians in the band are solid, and the band (especially on that first album) sounded good, which makes them listenable, in spite of Morrison's over the top theatrics. Of course, that's all a matter of personal taste, and some folks like over the top theatrics. 😁
Right, I get it was a humor based jab. And yes, everyone in the band was playing on a high level. I think Ray Manzarek was probably the best keyboard player alive, and doubling as the band's bassist. I think their is a case to be made for The Door's as being a relatively simplistic, almost minimalistic band. There is plenty of footage where Morrison is basically singing with his eyes closed, standing still, not doing much. Of course, that is not his legacy as a provocateur and performer. But if we are going into the realm of the over the top- I would probably mention the dozen or so hair bands, or pyrotechnic acts, Marylin Manson, etc, before Morrison. I think it was more the use of quotation marks in the word poetry ("Poetry") that got to me, prompting the question, "what would Morrison have to write for you to remove the quotations?" Meaning, even bad poetry is still poetry and there is no way for you to know that he is pretending that it is meaningful. Of course, he died at 27, so I think he gets a harsh wrap for what nowadays would still be considered kid. But you are right about "theatrics"- He was certainly involved in a level of performance that was based in theatre, film, etc. Not the ramp up the crowd type frontman of Mick Jagger's ilk. This is a very pointed critique of a much larger picture that you paint, however.
I like listening to Serge Gainsbourg, and I rather like that it is in French. This is to your point, although his music is not embarrassing, necessarily, but is not everybody's thing. Funny enough, I just read an article lamenting the popularity of tattoos and of course, it was mentioned how folks would get wise messages written on their bodies in Sanskrit or Chinese. Clearly, "go with yourself" or "peace be with you" just doesn't cut it when written out in English, for English eyes. It needs the abstraction of a foreign language and corresponding symbols to drum up complexity. Anyways, what a great topic you chose. I live in Brasil, where even basic words have a glimmer of something more interesting to them based on them written in a foreign language. My favorite is "parking lot" : Estacianamento- Wonderful!
While I agree with your assessment of them being better when not understood, it's a sign of how messed up we are as a culture. The words, the lyrics, are the highest part of the artform, to convey the story or meaning of the song. If they're not understood, or the song is better without them, you know our society belongs in the trash heap along with the song.
"...our society belongs in the trash heap along with the song."
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Those songs are an accurate reflection of what most people are into: themselves and just having a fun time, without the least care whether there is anything *real* or *meaningful* about any of it. And "Espresso" is hardly the worst example. I mean, pretty much anything by Beyonce is worse, and 99% of rap is even worse than Beyonce, in terms of skimping on the creativity and songwriting and human musicians and going extra heavy on the egotism and harlotry -- pretty much the worst possible combination.
I do think that there are songs and artists that capture the... ethos or spirit of the age, fairly well. Their musical talent is decent enough to listen to. I don't listen to enough "current" songs to know the song of the day, as it were, so it's merely what pops up on my militantly walled pandora algo's. But stuff like the song "Keep the Wolves Away" by Uncle Lucious. New Adaptations of 13 tons are good. Wake me up by Avicii. The kind of songs that acknowledge the pain of modernity, but aren't black pilled.
I'm usually drawn to the stuff that also has country or folk roots in how it's structured, and you can easily understand the lyrics.
For new retro music, you could do worse than Hazel English. Off my Mind, I'm Fine, Other Lives, and Nine Stories sound like remastered versions of songs written in the1960s and 1970s. A beautifully melancholy sound. The lyrics aren't too bad, either, though if you take them to heart they could be a little depressing. But, isn't that what we want from nostalgia, a sense of loss?
Yes, vaguely 80's Power Metal trending towards hard rock, singable lyrics, by a swedish band that is all about wars, battles, and heroes.
Songs about WW2, Thermopylae, the last stand of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, or the seige of Vienna?
Check.
An entire album about the rise and fall of the Swedish empire during the 30 years war?
Check, in english and in swedish.
TWO albums about the Great War?
Yup.
The songs encompass heroes, last stands, those who dragged others to safety, those sho showed mercy (such as the Charlie Brown incident) from all sides.
There’s an interesting thing happening in that super processed exacting pop subculture: K-Pop. Recently idol groups are starting to gain more followers by actually singing LIVE on music shows.
In fact the “backing band” set-up along with the encores at the end of the shows (a public vote results in a winner who then just sing along with their track but with raw vocals) has pushed the listeners finally over the edge. They want actual singers not just models who can dance. And they want good tunes as well.
I loved this article, and some of Rick Beato's remarks are hilariously choice, especially his advice to Taylor Swift on how to treat her temporary depression ! I agree that music has been on serious slide since the '80s. I am equally sure there have been a host of deep articles about the social/cultural/technological reasons for this. I love a great lyric...but by the same token, some of the greatest pop records ever had throwaway words but astonishing musical power, even if they were structurally simple. I think immediately of Phil Spector and some of the most timeless Motown as well as a hundred irresistible "bubblegum" tunes that just make me turn the radio up when they appear. Having said that, I appreciate you are talking not so much about banality as narcissism, so I see where you are coming from on that. That Spotify rundown did surprise me, as maybe we are finally seeing the back of bloody rap/hip-hop tripe. Was there ever a hip-hop record that actually had its own music instead of a "sample" hook? . "Sampled" being a euphemism for "plagiarised" of course. Just off to read your article about the '60s being the zenith of pop music. I would have to differ and plump for the following decade, but maybe there was a 65-75 sweet spot in there.
Thanks, and glad you enjoyed it. The 70s were solid too, especially the early part of the decade (although disco got to be a bit much), and I would say 65-75 was a great sweet spot, especially in terms of great rock and r&b. E.g., The Rolling Stones during that time frame were on an incredible roll.
I also saw George Clinton at a music festival where he came on after Fishbone. Both shows were great. Fishbone, the crowd was a giant mosh pit, and then P Funk turned the crowd into a giant pot circle. Both were loads of fun.
Nothing like having children to make you actually listen to song lyrics. I have yet to find more than a handful of songs I remember from my childhood that I'm comfortable playing for my toddlers. Family friendly they ain't. I think it's an under-appreciated cause (or at least a symptom) of our cultural decline.
I haven't listened to any "pop" music in at least a decade, but I can't imagine the situation has improved.
You are 1000% right about that! Music really has a spiritual energy to it, and it can bypass your conscious filter, especially when you're young and don't know any better. You never know what is coming through or how it might shape a child's mind in a subtle but very real way.
Agree entirely with your comment, and for children's music (I think kids need to listen to adult music but some kids' music is worthwhile) may I suggest Beethoven's Wig and Laurie Berkner to check out? BW is classical music with clever, silly lyrics full of wordplay, and LB is also fun and innocent and well crafted. Just a thought ☺️
Clear Channel destroyed local radio.
Reagan damaged the college party scene by raising the drinking age.
Ergo, not as much farm teams as in the old days.
Yeah, there used to be distinct regional and even local sounds. Now it's all the same globohomo algorithmically produced slop throughout the West.
This is why I have parted from both libertarian and conservative orthodoxy: we need some sort of antitrust measures.
Allowing corporations to own more than 5 channels was probably a good thing. It allows more networks to get traction. But unlimited? That's where the uniformity and loss of locality comes from.
Yeah. If I was King I'd probably do a timed in localization of big corps. Four years to choose a region of operation, divest all assets outside of that region. Four more years to pick four adjoining states within the region and do the same. Last, pick a single state, and do the same. No company can operate outside of a single state besides transportation companies. Transport can only operate in a single area - trucks, trains, planes, etc - pick one.
But yeah, the music industry has been destroyed. Clear Channel is the devil in the music industry.
Learning the guitar, I find the only songs I care to learn and sing have lyrics I appreciate and mean something. A lot of songs I am learning are alternative and classic country, or like folk rock.
Folk singers tend to have great lyrics. You can't cover a lack of substance with just your voice and an acoustic guitar, like you can when you got a whole production team using state of the art studio wizardry to put all the bells and whistles behind whatever you're singing.
Great read. You're a brave man for saying what you said about Jim Morrison. You're also 100% correct, but I've been in situations where stating that factually correct truism has nearly sent boomers into an apoplectic fit. Fitting that they choose to define their generation not by the legitimately great artists of their time, but rather one who was likely a psy-op (do some digging into Morrison, as well as a lot of other "counter-culture" figures at the time, and you find some interesting connections!) I think the worst part of the phenomenon you're talking about though - specifically the vapidity and idolatrous posturing of female pop stars - is that they aren't just peddling their own narcissism. Lizzo in particular was hawking a particularly pernicious strain of self-indulgent, self-gratifying, and ultimately self-destructive self-worship that makes Taylor Swift's "Manipulative and Vain Pick-Me Girl" schtick looks positively wholesome in comparison. I'm not a fan of cancel culture, but I have to say that the world has become a demonstrably better place without Lizzo's face plastered all over it.
And thanks for the shout-out, too. I appreciate it.
The anomalies in Morrison's background stories and the whole Laurel Canyon scene are disturbing. Sometimes it really starts to seem like, rather than ask what *is* an astroturfed Op, we should ask what *isn't*. There are an insane amount of rabbit holes that go really deep and implicate a disturbing number of cultural narratives and institutions. I don't know what to make of it, but given the reality of MK Ultra and Project Mockingbird and Operation Northwoods and so forth, there's really nothing you could put past the regime's spooks, nothing that they would consider beyond the pale or overreaching.
And glad to shout you out! You manage to find these incredibly interesting angles in the most counterintuitive places, like Jimmy Buffett's fans or Nickelodeon children's shows, so your stack is always fun to read!
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words more than you know. Speaking of Laurel Canyon, I really would like to do an exploration into that at some point. If only so I can finally succinctly explain to my boomer friends and family that I'm not insane and that everything I've ever told them about it is true, complete with the receipts to back it up. Absolutely fascinating stuff, albeit truly disturbing and one of those things that I wish I didn't know. It really puts the whole counter-culture scene of the 60's into an extremely suspicious light. Nothing about it ever passed the smell test for me. Maybe that's just because I was always skeptical of the glowing, almost hagiographic way it and the people involved with it have been depicted in the media and by my own personal connections that were there to witness and experience it, but something about it just never felt quite right, you know?
1000% agree that the whole thing seems off. It really seems like the powers-that-be engineered a "pleasure island" (from Pinocchio) era for America's youth to lose their minds in. But at least they tried to hide the puppet strings (and mostly succeeded). Today's "counterculture" is so obviously funded and supported by the regime that you wonder how they can be so lacking in self awareness as to seriously see themselves as the resistance.
The surest sign of The End Times: country autotune. It’s over. The Machine won. News hasn’t reached New Orleans yet so my band still gets gigs. 😎. We’re so behind “the past isn’t even past here”. Thanks for the Beato vid, he’s cool and old like us.
New Orleans is one of the last holdouts against the global homogenized culture. The food and the music there are great. That speaks highly of you that you're a participant in the music scene there!
"Rich Men North of Richmond" is lyrically beautifully composed, musically simple yet complex and interesting, and marvellously performed - in the woods, live - by a 6'6" Ginger-American who should have changed the world. Change My Mind.
Shit aimed at adolescent women (and their solipsistic female elders) is, and has always been, utter drivel. IT INSISTS UPON ITSELF.
There are some songs that are worth savoring the lyrics to, and the glory that is Brown Sugar is one of them! Give it a listen with the lyrics! Bravo, Stones!
https://youtu.be/DOfDD2OYOZE
The woke commies despise this song, so play it often and play it loud! 📻
Mick Jagger is under appreciated as a lyricist. Sticky Fingers was the first album I bought with my own money as a kid (after hearing the song "Bitch" on the radio a few times and thinking it was the best song ever). The song "Brown Sugar" is an excellent jam, and I know this opinion is verboten on the dissident right, but ... burning coal can definitely keep you warm on a cold night. Love that song.
Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.....That line just works so well with the rhythm. I think your inclusion of Jim Morrison in this post is wrong and strange. He wrote plenty of poetry- in books, journals and had fairly complex thoughts and predictions about the future of music which turned out to be accurate. Other than that, I cannot say I disagree with you on anything. Bitch is an insanely good rock song, as well. When the Stones had a horn section, they were at their best, most likely.
Totally agree with your analysis of the Stones. Their Mick Taylor era with the horns was rock and roll's golden age.
Also underappreciated as a harmonica player and a singer of the blues. Smartly, he never tried to sound black, giving him at least one degree of separation from his idols.
Addendum to that thought- You chose to include Morrison's spoken word introduction to a song, but then phrased it as "singing a cappella". But it is spoken, not sung. This is the standard way the Soft Parade is introduced. I think, a straw manning of his vocal abilities. The song "The Crystal Ship" is a steel manning of his vocals, IMO.
You're right. I was trying to be funny with the Jim Morrison vs Tom the Cat bit. That said, although Jim Morrison had a great voice (especially on the first album), I think his lyrics are overblown and pretentious. But the musicians in the band are solid, and the band (especially on that first album) sounded good, which makes them listenable, in spite of Morrison's over the top theatrics. Of course, that's all a matter of personal taste, and some folks like over the top theatrics. 😁
Right, I get it was a humor based jab. And yes, everyone in the band was playing on a high level. I think Ray Manzarek was probably the best keyboard player alive, and doubling as the band's bassist. I think their is a case to be made for The Door's as being a relatively simplistic, almost minimalistic band. There is plenty of footage where Morrison is basically singing with his eyes closed, standing still, not doing much. Of course, that is not his legacy as a provocateur and performer. But if we are going into the realm of the over the top- I would probably mention the dozen or so hair bands, or pyrotechnic acts, Marylin Manson, etc, before Morrison. I think it was more the use of quotation marks in the word poetry ("Poetry") that got to me, prompting the question, "what would Morrison have to write for you to remove the quotations?" Meaning, even bad poetry is still poetry and there is no way for you to know that he is pretending that it is meaningful. Of course, he died at 27, so I think he gets a harsh wrap for what nowadays would still be considered kid. But you are right about "theatrics"- He was certainly involved in a level of performance that was based in theatre, film, etc. Not the ramp up the crowd type frontman of Mick Jagger's ilk. This is a very pointed critique of a much larger picture that you paint, however.
I like listening to Serge Gainsbourg, and I rather like that it is in French. This is to your point, although his music is not embarrassing, necessarily, but is not everybody's thing. Funny enough, I just read an article lamenting the popularity of tattoos and of course, it was mentioned how folks would get wise messages written on their bodies in Sanskrit or Chinese. Clearly, "go with yourself" or "peace be with you" just doesn't cut it when written out in English, for English eyes. It needs the abstraction of a foreign language and corresponding symbols to drum up complexity. Anyways, what a great topic you chose. I live in Brasil, where even basic words have a glimmer of something more interesting to them based on them written in a foreign language. My favorite is "parking lot" : Estacianamento- Wonderful!
While I agree with your assessment of them being better when not understood, it's a sign of how messed up we are as a culture. The words, the lyrics, are the highest part of the artform, to convey the story or meaning of the song. If they're not understood, or the song is better without them, you know our society belongs in the trash heap along with the song.
"...our society belongs in the trash heap along with the song."
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Those songs are an accurate reflection of what most people are into: themselves and just having a fun time, without the least care whether there is anything *real* or *meaningful* about any of it. And "Espresso" is hardly the worst example. I mean, pretty much anything by Beyonce is worse, and 99% of rap is even worse than Beyonce, in terms of skimping on the creativity and songwriting and human musicians and going extra heavy on the egotism and harlotry -- pretty much the worst possible combination.
Yeah.
I do think that there are songs and artists that capture the... ethos or spirit of the age, fairly well. Their musical talent is decent enough to listen to. I don't listen to enough "current" songs to know the song of the day, as it were, so it's merely what pops up on my militantly walled pandora algo's. But stuff like the song "Keep the Wolves Away" by Uncle Lucious. New Adaptations of 13 tons are good. Wake me up by Avicii. The kind of songs that acknowledge the pain of modernity, but aren't black pilled.
I'm usually drawn to the stuff that also has country or folk roots in how it's structured, and you can easily understand the lyrics.
For new retro music, you could do worse than Hazel English. Off my Mind, I'm Fine, Other Lives, and Nine Stories sound like remastered versions of songs written in the1960s and 1970s. A beautifully melancholy sound. The lyrics aren't too bad, either, though if you take them to heart they could be a little depressing. But, isn't that what we want from nostalgia, a sense of loss?
Thanks for the recommendation. Will check that out.
Im certain K-Pop factors in here somewhere
May I introduce you to Sabaton?
Yes, vaguely 80's Power Metal trending towards hard rock, singable lyrics, by a swedish band that is all about wars, battles, and heroes.
Songs about WW2, Thermopylae, the last stand of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, or the seige of Vienna?
Check.
An entire album about the rise and fall of the Swedish empire during the 30 years war?
Check, in english and in swedish.
TWO albums about the Great War?
Yup.
The songs encompass heroes, last stands, those who dragged others to safety, those sho showed mercy (such as the Charlie Brown incident) from all sides.
Basically, about anything but themselves.
Thanks. Haven't heard of them, but will definitely check them out.
I loved this, I agree with all of it. Thanks so much.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
There’s an interesting thing happening in that super processed exacting pop subculture: K-Pop. Recently idol groups are starting to gain more followers by actually singing LIVE on music shows.
In fact the “backing band” set-up along with the encores at the end of the shows (a public vote results in a winner who then just sing along with their track but with raw vocals) has pushed the listeners finally over the edge. They want actual singers not just models who can dance. And they want good tunes as well.
And this is K-Pop where key changes still exist.
I loved this article, and some of Rick Beato's remarks are hilariously choice, especially his advice to Taylor Swift on how to treat her temporary depression ! I agree that music has been on serious slide since the '80s. I am equally sure there have been a host of deep articles about the social/cultural/technological reasons for this. I love a great lyric...but by the same token, some of the greatest pop records ever had throwaway words but astonishing musical power, even if they were structurally simple. I think immediately of Phil Spector and some of the most timeless Motown as well as a hundred irresistible "bubblegum" tunes that just make me turn the radio up when they appear. Having said that, I appreciate you are talking not so much about banality as narcissism, so I see where you are coming from on that. That Spotify rundown did surprise me, as maybe we are finally seeing the back of bloody rap/hip-hop tripe. Was there ever a hip-hop record that actually had its own music instead of a "sample" hook? . "Sampled" being a euphemism for "plagiarised" of course. Just off to read your article about the '60s being the zenith of pop music. I would have to differ and plump for the following decade, but maybe there was a 65-75 sweet spot in there.
Thanks, and glad you enjoyed it. The 70s were solid too, especially the early part of the decade (although disco got to be a bit much), and I would say 65-75 was a great sweet spot, especially in terms of great rock and r&b. E.g., The Rolling Stones during that time frame were on an incredible roll.
Spinal Tap actually does have lyrics worth understanding. "I'm flashing back into my pan" is sheer poetry.
And then there was Nancy Sinatra, the Mamas and the Papas, and yes, the Beatles.
Rush has some interesting lyrics, but that voice...
Gabba Gabba Hey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1CruTgaD1M
I'm lucky enough to have seen the Ramones live -- one of the most engaging live acts ever! Nonstop frenetic fun for the whole show!
Me too. Might be the best live band. Certainly the most fun. The only ones who came close were George Clinton and the P-Funk crowd.
I also saw George Clinton at a music festival where he came on after Fishbone. Both shows were great. Fishbone, the crowd was a giant mosh pit, and then P Funk turned the crowd into a giant pot circle. Both were loads of fun.