What are you listening to right now?

Started by Travis Bickle, November 08, 2012, 02:07:29 PM

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quiller

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 21, 2014, 10:00:58 PM
I was a rock-solid Elton John fan through the 1974 Yellow Brick Road tour -- I saw him live at St. John's Arena in Columbus, OH -- but absolutely everything he's done since then has been irredeemable commercial shit. Thanks, Reg Dwight, for 40 years of horrid schlock. Philadelphia Freedom my ass.
I got onto Baldry due to so many others crediting him with helping their careers, including members of the Rolling Stones and of course Elton John himself, who got the John from Baldry while enroute somewhere to a concert and Reg Dwight simply wouldn't do. (I think Elton was after an uncle or other relative.)

Clapton, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker...damn near half the Atlantic Records line-up for the British Blues Invasion then underway. They all owed Baldry. I was privileged to meet and talk to him a year or so before his death. And the song that I will always treasure from him is this one....

Long John Baldry ... Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie On The King Of Rock and Roll

quiller

Okay, admittedly that one's for Anglophiles.

Here's Baldry (with his amazing voice) and the phenomenal Kathi McDonald (herself no slouch at torch-singin'), in Willie Dixon's "Insane Asylum," on a German TV show. (Baldry told me the soundtrack was literally GIVEN to him, after they aired the show, forming his terrific album Baldry's Night Out). Headphones-wearers will note how fine the audio mix was for this.

Long John Baldry Band 'Insane Asylum'


TboneAgain

Quote from: quiller on August 21, 2014, 10:11:51 PM
I got onto Baldry due to so many others crediting him with helping their careers, including members of the Rolling Stones and of course Elton John himself, who got the John from Baldry while enroute somewhere to a concert and Reg Dwight simply wouldn't do. (I think Elton was after an uncle or other relative.)

Clapton, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker...damn near half the Atlantic Records line-up for the British Blues Invasion then underway. They all owed Baldry. I was privileged to meet and talk to him a year or so before his death. And the song that I will always treasure from him is this one....

Long John Baldry ... Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie On The King Of Rock and Roll

Don't get me wrong! I'm not trashing Baldry!

I'm just still mad about the complete collapse of Elton John, who was once my pop/rock idol. After "Yellow Brick Road," Mr. John went commercial in the biggest possible way, even to the point of writing and recording music for Billie Jean King, for Christ's sake. Billie Jean King was the first reason I ever encountered to call a woman a pussy.

TENNIS, man. We're talking TENNIS. BOP, boing... BOP, boing... BOP, boing.

Admitting you're gay is one thing. Adopting tennis as some sort of sporting goal is another thing completely. I can only speculate that he and Billie Jean and Elton's new boyfriend hadn't heard about badminton. Otherwise it would have been... TWINK, TOINK, TWINK, TOINK, TWINK, TOINK, until we all died of mediocrity.

I liked Bernie Taupin for a while. He at least could handle a receding hairline, and he liked girls.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. -- Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; IT IS FORCE. -- George Washington

Solar

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 21, 2014, 10:00:58 PM
I was a rock-solid Elton John fan through the 1974 Yellow Brick Road tour -- I saw him live at St. John's Arena in Columbus, OH -- but absolutely everything he's done since then has been irredeemable commercial shit. Thanks, Reg Dwight, for 40 years of horrid schlock. Philadelphia Freedom my ass.
My thoughts exactly!
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

quiller

Madman Across the Water was the last Elton John album that I bought. His lifestyle was the reason.


GuyMontag

Saw Ian Anderson live last week, and slowly snaking through the "who cares" half of Jethro Tull's discography.  this one was pretty unfairly panned, IMHO...or maybe I'm just a feefee boy and love the flute.

Jethro Tull - A Passion Play FULL ALBUM 1973 mix

TboneAgain

Quote from: quiller on August 22, 2014, 08:33:03 AM
Madman Across the Water was the last Elton John album that I bought. His lifestyle was the reason.

Madman Across the Water was certainly his best early work. (I think I bought it just for "Tiny Dancer.") Just three years later, he toured for Yellow Brick Road -- that's when I saw him live in Columbus -- and I think that two-disc set was his high mark. For sure, the quality of the music plunged afterward, going from soft rock to cellulite schlock. It has not recovered.

Actually, his "lifestyle," meaning his bisexual/gay proclivities, didn't become public knowledge until around 1976, when he admitted the bi part in a Rolling Stone interview. See, you could have enjoyed two years of seriously good EJ before you got bummed out, had you scooted yourself down to the record store and ponied up for YBR when it came out. God, I remember listening to the title song, wondering what had gotten into the man to make him compose such an intensely pretty but unforgivingly gymnastic melody line. The nostalgia (Brit-style) of "Roy Rogers." And falling asleep to "Harmony."
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. -- Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; IT IS FORCE. -- George Washington

GuyMontag

Quote from: TboneAgain on October 27, 2014, 03:54:28 PM
Madman Across the Water was certainly his best early work. (I think I bought it just for "Tiny Dancer.") Just three years later, he toured for Yellow Brick Road -- that's when I saw him live in Columbus -- and I think that two-disc set was his high mark. For sure, the quality of the music plunged afterward, going from soft rock to cellulite schlock. It has not recovered.

Actually, his "lifestyle," meaning his bisexual/gay proclivities, didn't become public knowledge until around 1976, when he admitted the bi part in a Rolling Stone interview. See, you could have enjoyed two years of seriously good EJ before you got bummed out, had you scooted yourself down to the record store and ponied up for YBR when it came out. God, I remember listening to the title song, wondering what had gotten into the man to make him compose such an intensely pretty but unforgivingly gymnastic melody line. The nostalgia (Brit-style) of "Roy Rogers." And falling asleep to "Harmony."

GYBR is fantastic.  Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding almost ruins it though, sadly - it's so amazing that the whole rest of the album pales in comparison.

It's sort of his White Album, he does everything...they even have that Jamaica Jerk-Off novelty thing.

quiller

Quote from: TboneAgain on October 27, 2014, 03:54:28 PM
Madman Across the Water was certainly his best early work. (I think I bought it just for "Tiny Dancer.") Just three years later, he toured for Yellow Brick Road -- that's when I saw him live in Columbus -- and I think that two-disc set was his high mark. For sure, the quality of the music plunged afterward, going from soft rock to cellulite schlock. It has not recovered.
Agreed.

QuoteActually, his "lifestyle," meaning his bisexual/gay proclivities, didn't become public knowledge until around 1976, when he admitted the bi part in a Rolling Stone interview. See, you could have enjoyed two years of seriously good EJ before you got bummed out, had you scooted yourself down to the record store and ponied up for YBR when it came out. God, I remember listening to the title song, wondering what had gotten into the man to make him compose such an intensely pretty but unforgivingly gymnastic melody line. The nostalgia (Brit-style) of "Roy Rogers." And falling asleep to "Harmony."

The rumors had gone global by the time "Tiny Dancer" became a hit. It was absolutely no surprise when he did fess up.

quiller

Quote from: GuyMontag on October 27, 2014, 08:46:37 PM
Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding almost ruins it though, sadly - it's so amazing that the whole rest of the album pales in comparison.
Easily one of the very best when it came to transitions in mood and tempo. Absolutely mesmerizing on arrangement.


quiller

This is a spreading-like-wildfire YouTube clip from a street-side piano player whose own composition (despite the crummy audio quality) remains the haunting song of the day.....

Man on the street plays beautifully

STORY:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/homeless-canadian-man-spectacular-piano-performance-article-1.1994334



Elfie

Quote from: GuyMontag on October 27, 2014, 02:51:08 PM
Saw Ian Anderson live last week, and slowly snaking through the "who cares" half of Jethro Tull's discography.  this one was pretty unfairly panned, IMHO...or maybe I'm just a feefee boy and love the flute.

Jethro Tull - A Passion Play FULL ALBUM 1973 mix
I saw him do Augalung and Thick as a Brick.   Hes a good story teller.   A few years ago we saw him in Chicago,   As much as I like his way, I found his concert rather sleepy.  We were rather dismayed . It was nice to hear him, but the mostly all dialog, yea notsamuch.
Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
Blaise Pascal