An Oldies Forum?

Of my dozen or so favourite tracks of the '90s, no less than five arrived in 1990, so I thought it was a pretty good year compared to the rest of the decade:

Trash Can Sinatras - Obscurity Knocks
House of Love - Shake and Crawl
McCarthy - Write to Your MP Today
Chameleons - Denims and Curls
Connells - Stone Cold Yesterday

 

Never heard of any of these bands including forum postings.

 

Guitar Town is the template for the classic Steve Earle sound, his first major album, and it ended up being one of his best albums and one of THE best 80s country albums. Commander Cody's Lost In The Ozone is his debut and THE album that defines his sound and his career.

 

Commander Cody's Lost In The Ozone is one of these albums and it is a classic album, front to back. Gary Stewart's first major album is Out of Hand and is the album that defined his career. Another artist who hit it right out of the gate although she made many albums that live up to the debut is Amy Grant. Although technically Emmylou Harris's debut is 1969's Gliding Bird, the "debut" that established the Emmylou Harris sound is 1975's "Pieces In The Sky." John Prine's S/T album also is THE album that defines his overall musical style, the same with Steve Goodman's S/T album (although Steve had an early album called Gathering at the Earl of Old Town, his major debut is the S/T album and that's the album that established his sound).

 

Haven't heard of 'em, they must suck. It's like a mantra here.

 

Do you actually believe that there is not music being made today that doesn't hold meaning for people listening to it right now ? Do you think that a song like This Charade or What It Means doesn't have impact for people hearing it and relating it to the world they're living in today ? The level of condescension exibited in these posts about how music from The Golden Age as you choose to define it was this awesome force before which all else pales is frankly staggering. Absolutely staggering...

I'm probably roughly your age and when I hear tripe like Get Together from back then, wanna know what I think ?
I think : a) someone's trying to sell me Pepsi, and b) what a bloody mess those hypocritical flower children made once they got their hands on the steering wheel, for all their high-minded talk about peace, love and brotherhood. If there was ever a generation that needs to climb down off their soapbox already and get over themselves, it's that bunch who drone on and on endlessly about how their music changed the world, how it really meant something to people all around the world, and what a precious gift it is if only the youth weren't too ignorant or stupid to feel its power to heal the world and cure what ails us. To appreciate it... and to cast aside their inferior noise and get right with the real thing. Good luck with that.

Taking a broader view, there's a pretty substantial substantial segment of the world's population who have never heard the groovy little numbers you refer to. They're probably OK with that or likely predisposed trying to survive what the world is dishing out to them because they don't enjoy membership in The Lucky Zygote Club. They didn't and don't enjoy the luxury of turning on, tuning in and dropping out or getting ripped and sliding around in the mud while John Sebastian serenaded them. Your music didn't change their world. It isn't changing their world now.

At least Bob Geldoff and Bono took a stab at feeding some of them. When you and your kids are starving, that'll change your world....

D.D.

 

Decapitation, Baby!

 

They're all on YouTube. You're in for a treat!

 

Possible threads started:

Which type of peanut butter is your favorite?
Is almond butter underrated in PBJ?
Post your favorite jelly(or jam)!
Hey, I'm thinking of trying PBJ, any advice for a newbie?

 

No thank you, been there done that.

 

The complaint line is getting long on this thread!

Ya know, if I had five bucks for everyone here who has told me I can start a thread on contemporary music, I'd start up a whole other web site. But a) I haven't seen a nickle yet, b) I'm too lazy that way, c) I would no sooner know how to do so than I would know how to do brain surgery and d) I'm already happy with this one.

NEXT!

 

I'm guessing that there's a lot of us that would prefer you didn't generalize so freehandedly about an entire generation. And my experience here is that the negative response to anyone professing a preference for older music usually outweighs the intended message.

 

I think Dylan and others were successful writing whatever they felt like.

 

And?? Who's denying that? You're moving goalposts all over the place here, don't you think?

For every song with cutting-edge political/social commentary, there has always been a dozen primitive, vacuous, trivial "love songs". You are looking at the past through nostalgia-tinged glasses - not that there's anything wrong with that but it inevitably puts your pretense at objectivity into question.

You don't relate to much of today's music for whatever reason but are trying to make a broad assumption that it doesn't mean anything. Just admit it: maybe - just maybe - you just don't "get it", or the new music is just not your cup of tea?

 

Very surprising to hear. I remember being in high school when both of those bands were at their height and you didn't dare admit you listened to them unless you wanted to eat lunch by yourself! I got that same smirk from my 16 year old daughter this week when I came home with Madonna's newly reissued Music album on vinyl, and asking her if she wanted the download card. You would have thought I was asking her to listen to whatever the geekiest group out today is. It really is amazing what becomes in and out over the decades. Apparently Madonna is uncool!

 

Well, like I said, there is good music in any year. I'm only familiar with House of Love, as I have their first two albums (both called House of Love, right?), and I liked them.

Just in general, it was a comparatively weak year overall.

 

Lots of young ABBA fans, driven by the popularity of the musical Mamma Mia, and perhaps Glee. Consider that the Mamma Mia movie, as bad as it is, is the highest grossing movie musical worldwide of all time.

 

Totally agree....I think it works both ways depending on the artist. In fact, too many (Christopher Cross is an excellent example) come out swinging with a nearly perfect album and then it's quickly downhill. Amd then you have ELO who clearly evolved into nearly another band if you listen to their early material, which many hear love. I prefer A New World Record onwards but all their music except for the ocassional miss was pretty darn good. Elton John is another that many (sorry, I'm not one of them...I was only a huge fan of his 70's output) feel he has only become better over time. And most artists seem to only get three releases, no matter how good, and then the public moves on, at least with trendy pop artists.

 

Well, I've always been a huge fan of theirs and I'm glad to hear that. Considering they made few albums, the stamp they left is just amazing. Very complicated, well done compositions imo.

 

But there's a difference today. Pop music no longer carries the stigma it did in the 70s or even 90s. Now we have people in their mid-20s unashamed to admit they think Taylor Swift is great. I have posted on other boards and the number of teen/20-somethings who love stuff like ABBA, Bee Gees, Madonna (namely her 80s stuff. I know many younger folk who can't stand her today but love Papa Don't Preach and Like A Prayer), Donna Summer, George Michael, etc... is actually proportionately higher than those who love classic rock artists. For a generation bred where pop music is king (you have to consider to a 25 year old, Britney Spears or Beyonce essentially have been around as long as they've known music), "classic pop" essentially has become "classic rock" to a generation of people under-25 or so.

 

Well, it IS her first album and it does prove my point - that artists don't always sound like "themselves" on their debut.

Gathering was a various-artists compilation. Doesn't count.

Here are some debuts where the artists weren't really fully formed: Journey, REO, Dylan, Tom Waits, Thin Lizzy, David Bowie

 

lol... Yes. Reminds me of someone who cited The Beach Boys' "Summer In Paradise" as a reason the 90s sucked... because as we all know, The Beach Boys - especially Mike Love - were on the pulse of everything relevant in the 90s.

 

Interesting! I'm not negating or arguing with you about this because there may well have been places on earth, even in America where pop music carried a stigma in the 70's (even more baffling to think about in the 90's) but definitely not where I was during that decade, which was mostly here in my home state of California but also two years in rural western New York. Where do you see this atrocity having occurred?

 

Oh, believe me it did in the late 70's when I was in high school. Perhaps, however, that was due to such a diverse amount of music. The 70's is known for it's pretty sappy music, alongside Dylan, Van Halen and other music in that vein that was quite the opposite of a lot of one hit wonder top ten hits. John Travolta? Yikes, everyone was coming out of,the woodwork to try and make a hit song. I don't know that today there is a list of pretty "geeky" artists like there was in the 70's. Taylor Swift? Like her or not, I don't think people would think she is as bad as, say, a fan of Van Halen talking to an ABBA fan. Back then I'm not sure a fan of Van Halen would hang out with a buddy who liked ABBA or 25% of the rest of the top 40. Hopefully things have changed and you don't see that today. Tightening of playlists have certainly taken that wide diversity of music out of the equation, which is why I liked radio so much better pre 2000.

 

As you sow, so shall you reap.