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Post by drymdrum on Jan 12, 2014 0:28:26 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2014 4:42:01 GMT
Here's my tuppence-worth, or should that be six-songsworth . . .
Song # 1 - Death Letter Blues – Son House.
Heard this song at the age of 11 and was completely blown away. It was part of a documentary called “The Devil’s Music”. I had never heard Blues, never mind Delta, or country blues from a real master. The playing, the depth of emotion, the soul, I loved everything about it. Something clicked and I have loved Blues all my life.
Song # 2 – Love in Vain – Robert Johnson.
In the same way as people like Clapton and Keith Richards, when I heard Robert Johnson for the first time, I was speechless. Only 29 songs!! To be honest I genuinely find it difficult to talk about or describe what I feel about his music. I’ll leave it there.
Song # 3 – Running Up That Hill – Kate Bush.
This song is important to me for a couple of reasons. I had heard Kate before but hadn’t thought much of her. I had only heard her on my super-duper Sanyo Music Centre. Visiting a relative in England, another Jeff, I heard this song on an LP12, Naim amp and, I think, some Linn speakers. So I was hearing Kate properly for the first time and I was hearing real hi-fi for the first time! And I became hooked on both.
Song # 4 - Kashmir – Led Zeppelin.
I loved this song, I loved the album, I loved the band. As a young teenager, I spent many hours listening to it through headphones, whilst lying on my bed. I’m certain I fell asleep listening to it many times as well, because of its repetitive, hypnotic qualities. I seemed to have missed the first five albums, because this is the first Zeppelin album I ever heard. Didn’t take me long to work backwards though!
Song # 5 – Perfect – Fairground Attraction.
Although I spent the 80’s abroad, I would still come back for courses. I was in Plymouth in early 1988 for a course on teaching new recruits weapon handling, marksmanship principles etc. The instructor we had was absolutely fanatical about attention to detail and he would often go on about how he wanted it “PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT”. The song was all over the radio in UK at the time and course itself, the lads that were on it (some of whom I hadn’t seen since basic), and the Plymouth nightlife(!!!) were all brilliant. The course and the song are inextricably linked in my head.
Song # 6 – Nostalgia – David Sylvian.
A song (and album and artist) I have listened to and loved since 1984. It comes from his first solo album Brilliant Trees. The voice, the lyrics and the music all combine to produce a kind of bittersweet sadness in this song that I find irresistible.
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Post by drymdrum on Jan 15, 2014 0:24:57 GMT
Certainly can't get back to the cradle so nothing from Fisher Price in my memory box. However I would list "The Londonderry Air" as being a formative bit of music as played by my father on violin whilst I sang the lyrics and my four siblings giggled on the sofa, possibly under ten at the time. Sadly no recording of Alan and Dad but here's Bill Evans recorded early sixties. Joe Sutton and Little Rock Getaway on AFN (short wave radio) led me into stride piano, jazz, Fats Waller and others. Around 15/16 Broonzy's blues guitar " The Glory Of Love" early fifties concerts in Glasgow's St Andrews Halls. Bluegrass and Earl Scruggs featured high around then also. Instrumental mainly the vocal stuff was never attractive. Earl Scruggs - Ground Speed Freight Train - Nancy Whiskey and Chas. McDevitt Skiffle Group 1957 Joan Baez......Silver Dagger... So there you have it well some of it........"not a lot"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2014 0:26:40 GMT
Hi Alan, some good music there!
Particularly like (obviously) Big Bill. Only got a couple of his albums, but have always liked his early country blues. Don't know if you know, but he was so highly thought of that when John Hammond (Snr.) discovered that Robert Johnson was dead, he asked for BBB to fill his spot in his groundbreaking "From Spirituals To Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938.
In my opinion, to be asked to try to fill Robert Johnsons' shoes is high praise indeed.
When I was a young teenager, my best mate's dad had an album called (I think) "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", with (as I'm sure you'll know) Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. To a young teenager who had already discovered that there was more to music than just what was in the charts, or what they were talking about in "Sounds" or "NME", it was grist to my mill. My mate would always groan when I would ask him to play his Dad's 8-Track (remember them ??) of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown".
I didn't realise at the time that it was known as Bluegrass and was a fusion of Scottish/English ballads with Appalachian/Blues elements.
Of course now I understand why (as a lifetime-long blues lover),I enjoyed it even though my mate, who had similar Rock tastes didn't.
As I say you've highlighted some great music!
I thought we were music lovers in this forum! I thought we remembered that hi-fi was a means-to-an-end.
Are myself and Alan going to be the only ones to respond to his great thread? Come on, you might not know one end of a Soldering Iron from the other, but surely you can tell us about six pieces of music - and why they are important to you??
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mashv
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Post by mashv on Jan 16, 2014 2:00:42 GMT
You know what it is? I can't chose 6 songs, there are 6 songs that in this moment i would call the songs of my life, but tomorrow i could change my mind(it's assured )..maybe later i'll think to 6 songs i like a lot .
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 16, 2014 5:54:52 GMT
Exactly. The same goes for me to!
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Jan 16, 2014 8:44:25 GMT
I have the same problem.
Can't name the best 6 songs of all time for me. Can't even name the best 6 songs currently as I like many albums/artists/songs in about an equal amount.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 16, 2014 10:52:52 GMT
Hi Bluesy , I own up to not knowing one end of a soldering iron from another so thought I'd better respond to your little 'dig' . I cannot possibly limit any choice of music to 6 songs (or possibly any other number). Many songs have made a great impression at the time and still hold great memories for me but they have 'lost' their original charm or effect and have now faded into fond nostalgia. Many I can't even remember now but the memories come flooding back when I hear them. But there are far too many, even if I could recall them, to limit the choice to 6. I can only think of one piece of music that I will never forget and which still holds powerful memories for me and that is Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, Pathetique. I was introduced to it many years ago by my best friend who regarded it as the best piece of music ever written, a view I soon came to appreciate. He explained to me how he explained it to his children, the idea of two opposing bits of the orchestra, in places, doing battle with each other to dominate the passage being played, until one triumphs and the mmusic moves on. I played it many times on my old Sony TT before my children came along, at which time it all went up into the loft to be rediscovered 40 years later. A few years later my friend died, far too young, of cancer, and had this music played at his funeral. It reduced me to a jabbering emotional wreck and for years I could not face listening to that music without dissolving into tears - I'd even switch the radio off if it came on. But slowly those feelings faded and it has now regained it's former place in my affections - I can listen to it now and enjoy it again and it brings back many very happy memories. Other than that I cannot single out any other music that I regard as particularly special. Don't worry, I'm over it now . Dave.
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Post by deireleire on Jan 17, 2014 11:34:58 GMT
(this is the reason why they invented the repeat button)
(epic!)
(ah..)
(my heart starts pumping with the rithm)
(last part =a-b repeat...)
(discovered recently but it can calm me in 30 seconds)
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gommer
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Post by gommer on Jan 17, 2014 22:11:32 GMT
I'll have to post in episodes. Here's the first one...
One of many important songs for me must be from Harry Connick Jr. - She
This song was a brief hit on the Belgian public rock radio station, many moons ago. At the time, I was a Funk lover and since this is very funky music, i instantly fell in love with it. Once in a while I HAVE to have an album, without further listening, just because I dig one song. this was such an occasion. Off to the record store, asking for this album; i learned i should look for HCJ in the Jazz department. Huh? This guy was a crooner, doing jazzy things. To make a long story short, a single song from a funk album of this crooner, softly rolled me into Jazz and made me the Jazz fan that I currently am. The best memories from live performances that I have, are both from Jazz festivals: Galliano & Portal (Jazz Middelheim, Antwerp 2001 and more recently Jef Neve (Gent Jazz festival 2011).
I still love Harry though. I've seen him live twice in my life, one time in Paris, last time in Antwerp. But he seems to get less personal airplay the last few years. Life's too short, I guess.
I'll have to think about the next episode now...
Cheers, Marc
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2014 1:32:06 GMT
Hi Deireleire, some cool music there, "Voodoo Chile" is a stonewall classic. Same goes for "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" In all honestly I hadn't listened to much Pink Floyd before I joined Rock Grotto forum. Through that forum I gained an appreciation for not only Pink Floyd but "Yello" as well. The appreciation I gained for Yello was mainly due to Ian's superb musical notes. I have resigned from Rock Grotto (as have many others, and for the same reasons I imagine) but am glad to be in a forum where Ian, Frans, and Javier are the admins. I am a big Lou Reed(RIP) fan. I have everything he recorded, so obviously love 'Heroin'.If you like Bill Evans you'd probably like Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Corea, etc. It was through this appreciation that I enjoyed the block chords of Kate Bush's "50 Words For Snow".
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gommer
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Post by gommer on Jan 19, 2014 19:06:46 GMT
Part 2.
It has to be Kate Bush, definitively. I've been a fan since I was introduced by a mate, around my 15th birthday (oh dear, that was almost 30 years ago). I've played Never For Ever over and over again during my youth. I remember me working on my car, doors open and Kate at full blast. Those were the best days of my life, in the summer of ... 1986
If I have to choose one song: Breathing
Because it remains just as powerful as it sounded back then.
Cheers, Marc
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2014 13:29:45 GMT
Hi Marc,
I knew when I saw you posting here that Kate would come into it somewhere.
I listened to Aerial on Saturday night for the first time in a few months. I have every track in the same folder in my streamer so I didn't have to get up and change CD's. I tend to forget how great this album is. "A Sky Of Honey" is just amazing from start to finish.
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gommer
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Post by gommer on Jan 20, 2014 21:25:20 GMT
Hehe, since this is a trip down memory lane, I couldn't put a recent album here, could I? There's only a single album of Kate that I don't love to bits. The Red Shoes. She actually got a bit off track with The Sensual World IMHO, but with Aerial she was back in all here glory.
The earlier albums are a bit, euhm, girly, but I love them nevertheless.
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gommer
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Post by gommer on Jan 21, 2014 14:27:42 GMT
Part 3:
After putting up Kate, I just HAVE to list Raymond Van Het Groenewoud.
I'm a devoted fan of only 2 artists: Kate and RVHG. Raymond is sadly only known in Flanders and the Netherlands. He sings in Dutch but the man is a world class musician and performer, with a limited performing territory.
He performs a very wide spectrum of musical genres, but there's one strong link between all his work: he's a razor sharp observer and he sublimely puts that in his lyrics. Again, this can sadly only be appreciated by the Dutch speaking community.
The next song is a classic of him. It should be possible for anyone to appreciate it musically. Very slow, fragile build-up. Very strong climax. Subtle wind down. It doesn't bore even on endless repeat (I know from experience). The man knows what timing is and it shows. He never sings in perfect key, but that imperfection makes it stronger in some way. This song has has no chorus, nor rhyme, yet it seems to have it. It's an observation and/or imagination about 2 girls on a beach (real or metaphorically), talking, dreaming... about their prince. Time fades, the day turns into night... a page turns... and it starts all over again.
Please have a listen.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have, repeatedly.
Cheers, Marc
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