| Stereotypical music | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 21 2012, 01:26 AM (227 Views) | |
| Caro | Aug 21 2012, 01:26 AM Post #1 |
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On our radio every day they interview a listener who gives them their 'Best Song Ever Written". "Best" here is not perhaps objective - not long after they started someone chose Honey. But today an older man was on who had odd interests in jobs - a graphologist and a garden tour organiser among other things. The announcer said "You've chosen something by a group that used to be very popular," and my immediate thought was "He's chosen The Seekers." And indeed he had - The Carnival Is Over. Are people really that easy to categorise for their music taste, or did I just get lucky here? PS I was once on this programme (having complained about how personally people were choosing these songs with nothing to do with whether they were good or not; they said, "Well, choose yours".) and I chose The Animals' House of the Rising Sun. Caro. |
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| rumbaba | Aug 21 2012, 08:51 AM Post #2 |
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Funnily enough, I was doing that arpeggio intro the other day from HOTRS (blimey, looks a bit like 'Hot Rats', another favourite ). Everybody does it when they first start to play guitar, it's easy but it still sounds great. I remember Alan Price saying in an interview that he had nicked the arrangement from an earlier Bob Dylan version. I recall, as a child, hearing the Animals version and finding it very atmospheric, spooky and sinister. Being very young, I wasn't quite sure what went on in there but I found it intriguing. 'Best song ever' is very difficult though
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| AmosBurke | Aug 21 2012, 09:06 AM Post #3 |
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I was involved in a lively discussion once with people who played in bands, and they decided that Love Will Tear Us Apart was the best song every written. I don't disagree, but I'd say The Lion Sleeps Tonight gives it a run for it's money. Somewhere, there is a website which lists over 500 different recorded versions. |
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| rumbaba | Aug 21 2012, 10:19 AM Post #4 |
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Oh dear, I'm on a very different wavelength: neither of those two songs would feature in my top 100 |
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| Caro | Aug 21 2012, 10:39 PM Post #5 |
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Well, I certainly don't see what is so good about Love Will Tear Us Apart. The Lion Sleeps Tonight has more appeal, but when I look for best songs they tend to be the big songs of the 60s: Hey Jude, Whiter Shade of Pale, Nights in White Satin, River Deep Mountain High, then perhaps Bohemian Rhapsody, Hallelujah and Bittersweet Symphony. I also have a soft spot for Celine Dion's It's All Coming Back to me Now, but I know it is not really done to think Celine Dion is any good. And for good pop songs Queen has a fair number. (My favouritest song is probably one of Roy Orbison's - Only the Lonely or Crying. But then there's Elvis's She's Not You and Paralysed or One Night. Or the Beatles' No Reply. Or Rita MacNeil's Working Man. Or some versions of Beautiful Dreamer. Or...) I like falsettos. I only know 60s songs and very well known others. Nothing alternativey. |
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| Caro | Aug 21 2012, 10:50 PM Post #6 |
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Forgot to say that if I was choosing Best Song Ever Written today it would be Lili Marlene. Not because I think it is necessarily the greatest, but I like it a lot and it has connections to my long-dead father, who was a soldier in the war and would sing it with "Italian" words which I only remember in my distorted English way (had ye peceiva dolce l'amour). (When I say 'soldier' that may be an exaggeration - my father apparently said, when he returned, that he would take to the hills rather than go to war again, so I think we can safely say heroism wasn't in his make-up.) But mostly I like Lili Marlene because it fascinates me that, in the middle of a bitter war, a war song could be hugely popular on both sides. I just find that very touching. |
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| rumbaba | Aug 22 2012, 08:32 AM Post #7 |
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I can't even decide on the criteria Should it be a specific recording or performance of a song or is just the song, separated from the performance? In that case, probably something that has no definitive version and is famous in it's own right, as a song, probably covered by lots of people. Sad song, happy song? Certain songs have associations for us as individuals but they skew us: a mediocre song may be particulalry evocative because it brings back memories. My mum, whom I never heard singing, towards the end of her life, became a bit less inhibited and would sometimes surprise us by singing little snatches of songs she remembered like 'Tomorrow is a lovely day' , which has a special significance for me. Edited by rumbaba, Aug 22 2012, 08:34 AM.
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| chris crossing | Aug 22 2012, 02:04 PM Post #8 |
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You'd have to be very unlike me not to be moved by this music, although the video is not that special for me. |
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| Caro | Aug 22 2012, 09:07 PM Post #9 |
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That was pleasant, but sort of nothingy to me, sorry, Chris! Rumbaba, when you say you can't fix the criteria are you thinking of Best Song Ever or your favourite song? Favourites don't have to have any criteria other than you like it. On our radio there is certainly no criteria either - possibly length might be one - I don't suppose they would want a 20-minute thing. Generally people choose something that means something to them, I think. But sometimes they talk about the musical qualities or the lyrics. (And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, for instance) The songs chosen in the last ten days or so have been: Boogie Blues - Anita O'Day Atomic - Blondie Bright Fire - Fleetwood Mac Impi Johnny - Clegg The Climb - Miley Cyrus Rock the Nation - Micahel frnti and Spearhead The Carnival is Over - The Seekers Surfing with the Alien - Joe Satriani |
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| rumbaba | Aug 23 2012, 01:27 PM Post #10 |
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One or two I have never heard of, in that list, but the rest wouldn't even make it to 'reasonably mediocre' on my scale. 'Atomic' isn't even the best Blondie song, never mind best song of all time
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| chris crossing | Aug 23 2012, 01:31 PM Post #11 |
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Agreed, none of those would get anywhere my top ten thousand list. And both 'Heart of Glass' and 'Call Me' are far better than 'Atomic'. IMHO |
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| rumbaba | Aug 23 2012, 01:50 PM Post #12 |
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What does 'best' mean though? Is this about quality, originality, ability to inspire, simplicity, complexity.....? Where would you even start? |
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| Caro | Aug 23 2012, 09:15 PM Post #13 |
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"Best" in this radio section doesn't really mean anything. People take it as they want to; it is really a peg to pin a chat to people, usually ordinary unknown NZers, but sometimes people a little more in the public eye, though never anyone with a very high profile, about what they are doing, what is important to them, where they live. It is usually a twenty-minute or so section. As I said sometimes people will choose a piece of music for its complexity, but usually it is more because they like it and it has meaning for them. But music, like other artistic endeavours, surely has some ways to value it objectively. I feel quite positive that Positively Forth Street is better than Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, for instance. For its lyrics, its structure, its musical depth, its tune, its meaning, its power and effect on the listener. And that's without me analysing any of its actual musicality, which I am not equipped for. Those are two extremes, but I don't believe you can't quantify music to a degree the same as art or literature or sculpture, etc. if you have knowledge and experience. |
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| rumbaba | Aug 24 2012, 10:58 AM Post #14 |
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One song I never tire of listening to is 'Come up and See me (make me smile)' by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. I'm not over keen on Steve's Ferryesque, stylised singing and some of the lyrics are a bit lame, however, taken as a whole, it has a great feel and that guitar solo is just so 'right'. It's a song that will live forever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxoke4yuWlI I hope this is good, I can't check it at work. Edited by rumbaba, Aug 24 2012, 11:00 AM.
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| Norm Deplume | Aug 27 2012, 06:22 PM Post #15 |
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I am in a different time zone to most of you. Two of my 'best songs' are Ella Fitzgerald's "Every Time We Say Goodbye" and Biily Eckstein and Sarah Vaughan's "Passing Strangers" |
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| chris crossing | Aug 28 2012, 05:32 AM Post #16 |
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One of the joys of music is that it's timeless, though. I love Sara Vaughan singing East of the Sun, anything by Charlie Parker is great and if I'm feeling low, Fats Waller or Bo Carter will pick me up and put me right back on my feet. Wagner was not too shabby either. |
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| rumbaba | Aug 28 2012, 09:47 AM Post #17 |
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I like all sorts of stuff and find these questions about 'the best' a bit pointless. I find, these days, that I like to be surprised, which is difficult with an ipod, even on shuffle. I sometimes tune into Gold or Radio 2 and, about one time in ten, there will be something good. Gold is weird because it claims to play the best of the hits from the past but then you'll get 'Juke box jive' by the Rubettes , which is not even the one song by them that people know. |
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). Everybody does it when they first start to play guitar, it's easy but it still sounds great. I remember Alan Price saying in an interview that he had nicked the arrangement from an earlier Bob Dylan version. I recall, as a child, hearing the Animals version and finding it very atmospheric, spooky and sinister. Being very young, I wasn't quite sure what went on in there but I found it intriguing.
Should it be a specific recording or performance of a song or is just the song, separated from the performance? In that case, probably something that has no definitive version and is famous in it's own right, as a song, probably covered by lots of people. Sad song, happy song? 
12:31 AM Jul 11