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monkberrymoonsdelight · 6 months

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A Monkberry Moon Delight lyrical analysis because it is the greatest song of the 20th century

Monkberry Moon Delight is a song from Paul McCartney's 1971 album Ram. The song is generally considered to be surrealist 'nonsense' lyrics a la Lennon's late Beatles work like 'I am the Walrus' and 'Glass Onion'. But if we know anything about Paul (and Lennon-McCartney in general), he tends to put deeper emotions into his songs, often with out meaning to and without his direct knowledge:

"I don't write anything consciously, Sometime when I'm pissed off with John over Apple business a line might creep in." - Interview with Disc And Music Echo (Nov. 20, 1971)

"Songwriting is like psychiatry; you sit down and dredge up something that's inside, bring it out front." - Interview with Robert Palmer for the New York Times (April 25, 1982)

" But in a song, that's where you can [share your innermost thoughts]. That's the place to put them. You can start to reveal truths and feelings." - Interview with John Wilson fork BBC 4's (May 24, 2016)

And my favorite because it's y'know...in a song: "And when I'm gone, I leave my message in my song" - Beware My Love (Wings at the Speed of Sound, 1976)

All that being said, in my opinion, Monkberry Moon Delight is a projection of Paul's feelings of anxiety about his post-Beatles public/critical reception and his reaction to John Lennon's antagonism post-divorce. Specifically, he details his writing of Too Many People as a response to John's antagonism and the making of Ram as an attempt to recapture public attention/praise.

For context: Monkberry Moon Delight was first written/demoed at some point from May-August 1970 on his farm in Scotland. Paul's late 1969-1970 Scotland era is complicated. He often describes it as being one of the most difficult periods of his life because of the break-up of the Bealtes, the Apple financial troubles, his frayed relationship with John, and starting a whole new life which all compounded into a deep depression and alcohol abuse.

Let's start with the title and chorus. In Paul's own words, Monkberry Moon Delight comes from his kids mispronunciation of the word 'milk' and establishes MMD as a fantastical drink like 'Love Potion No. 9'. I think Paul obviously hides behind the surrealism of the lyric but its association with family and domesticity makes an interesting contrast. Though he is happy to be in his escapist domestic fantasy in Scotland, he juxtaposes this with the underlying pressure to be acclaimed (especially after being considered the greatest artist in the world for ten years). Though the song has a peppy, jaunty beat there is an air of anxiety developed through the songs key of C minor and the staccato of the piano and bass parts. His vocals also have a similar strained desperation like 'Oh! Darling'.

The lyrics:

So I sat in the attic, a piano up my nose

And the wind played a dreadful cantata

Paul starts with himself, writing. 'The attic' may be a reference to John Lennon's recording studio that he had built in his attic in Weybridge where he and Paul would often go to write.

"We nearly always went up to his little music room that he'd built at the top of the house, Daddy's Room, where we would get away from it all. I like to get away from people to songwrite, I don't like to do it in front of people. It's like sex for me" - Many Years from Now. Whether or not this is a direct reference to 'Daddy's Room', Paul is known to prefer small, confined spaces for songwriting.

'Piano up my nose' to me shows a rapt attention, leaning so close to his piano its almost up his nose. He is intently and passionately composing his 'dreadful cantata', this cantata I believe refers to "To Many People". Based on this record of the order of demos on the Ram cassette, it seems that Too Many People may have been written (or at least recorded) before Monkberry, which furthers my belief that Paul is making a meta narration of the writing of his song which he recognizes was very pointed or dreadful.

Sore was I from a crack of an enemy's hose

And the horrible sound of tomato

Here he describes what spurred him to writing this song, and this album as a whole. The 'crack from an enemy's hose' could refer to Allen Klein's treatment of Paul during the final months of the Beatles and his attempted mishandling of the release of McCartney (1970). (Note: The crack could also be from Phil Spector, the press, Ringo, George, Yoko or John; Paul is kind of getting shit from all sides right now). The 'sound of tomato' implies the idea of throwing tomatoes at an artist to express dislike or dissatisfaction, referencing the poor critical reception of McCartney (1970).

Ketchup, soup and puree

Don't get left behind

Ketchup, soup, and puree; liquidy tomatoes because splat, splat, splat go the critics. And ketchup because catch up pun.

Don't get left behind is the central theme of this song. He is worried that the public is going to forget about him while he's depressed, away in Scotland, and making critical flops. This is him desperately clinging onto the hearts of the public. Because we all know how much Paul needs to be liked.

When a rattle of rats had awoken

The sinews, the nerves, and the veins

The 'rattle of rats' could be any of the number of people who were getting on his nerves, sinews, and veins (pissing him tf off) in 1970. This could again be referencing the great "Let's all gang up on Paul McCartney" game of 1970 but because of the subsequent lyrics, I think this may be more specifically about John (and Yoko). Either way, it was these rats who annoyed him into getting to work.

My piano was boldly outspoken

And attempts to repeat his refrain

'Boldly outspoken' again connects this song to TMP. The line is similar to the TMP lyric 'This is crazy and baby, it's not like me' in the sense that both show how audacious he sees this songs as. In 'attempting to repeat his refrain' I think Paul is using the 'well he started it' justification for TMP because he's sees it as a repeat, of him rising to John's level of insults.

So I stood with a knot in my stomach and I gazed at that terrible sight

Of two youngsters concealed in a barrel, sucking Monkberry Moon Delight

Ah yes my favorite moment in all of music ever. This is the verse that really convinced me that this song may be referencing JohnandYoko. The 'youngsters in a barrel' alludes to John and Yoko's bag piece, where they would get into a black bag for...peace? As seen in Get Back, this particularly irked/disturbed Paul. "Go get in your bag. The Merseybeat award for couple of the year, goes to John and Yoko" (Get Back Episode 2). He also refers to them as 'the young lovers' in Get Back during the infamous January 13th 'and then there were two' conversation. Even though it makes him nervous and sick, part of Paul releasing TMP and Ram is to face up to the JohnandYoko powerhouse which was a non-insignificant portion of his early 1970 criticism.

Well I know my banana is older than the rest

and my hair is a tangled baretta

Here I think he is reasoning to the listener, the public, over why he thinks they've abandoned him. Paul recognizes that he has been in this music game a long time (so people may have grown bored of him) and has been depressed (and thus out of the game), his tangled 'baretta' of hair like the wily depression beard he grew out while in Scotland.

Also banana = dick, just so everyone is clear (can anyone find that banana poem from his poetry book? Also this just perpetuates my tinhat theory that all the banana milkshakes Paul got in Paris were just **** **** but I digress). Also something about Paul likening songwriting with sex so him not being 'musically desirable' is because...his music dick is old? Ok Paul.

I leave my pajamas to Billy Budapest

And I don't get the gist of your letter

This is the one lyric I am pretty unsure about. Not that every line has to fit perfectly into my interpretation but I genuinely could not make heads or tails of it. My initial interpretation was that this was referring to Billy Shears, and how during this period the Paul is dead theory regained popularity. This reference adds to the feeling of dissolution he builds in this verse.

But mike on the Beatles Bible seems to remember Billy Budapest as being a children's pajama designer though I have found not evidence of this. However going with this shot in the dark, leaving his pajamas to Billy Budapest could draw back to the theme of his current domesticity and occupation with his children.

The letter in question I believe refers to the infamous letter John and George wrote to Paul changing his McCartney release date that they had Ringo deliver which really set Paul off and kind of began the messiness of the divorce.

Catch Up, cats and kittens

Don't get left behind

Finally we get the pay off to the ketchup-catch up pun and see the resurgence of the theme; Paul feeling like he's falling behind his contemporaries and desperation to catch up.

In typical McCartney fashion, Monkberry Moon Delight is a seemingly shallow and superfluous song but actually reveals a lot about his inner turmoil at the time. Him dealing with the rejection by the critics and John by turning to his piano and creating the absolute banger that is Monkberry. This is why MMD is one of Paul's best, because of how quintessentially Paul it is. Veiling tough emotions behind ambiguous and surreal lyrics masked by a fun and light melody. Oh, the juxtaposition! Oh, the Lennon-McCartney of it all.

Anyways this is a barely organized rambling of thoughts but Monkberry Moon Delight deserves a mega analysis because it is genuinely one of the best songs Paul McCartney has ever made.

#song analysis #monkberry moon delight #Ram (1971)#paul mccartney #linda mccartney #john lennon #yoko ono #allen klein #thank you for coming to my tedtalk #seriously can someone find that banana poem it's driving me crazy

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grievetherat · 3 months

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I feel like rambling a bit about the Beatles; they have been my special interest for a while now but recently I've become especially hyperfixated.

I'm in college right now but my experience goes back to the 2010s when my father brought me trinkets from his trip to Liverpool some of which were Beatles-related. Living in a Eastern European country was a bit of a bleek experience as a child if you grew up being influenced by Western media. Being glued to the family computer or the TV, all I could do was admire the ways decade's leading up the the 21st century was shown in media, times which I was told were the darkest for my family (no electricity, no running water, the looming Soviet Union).

As such I was a yearning middle schooler, jealous of the Western world and their ability to create media that I admired. Don't get me wrong, I have gone back since then to realize even my home country had its charms and memorable breakthroughs in our culture of music or style but for me, as a kid being infatuated with the West, I was jealous of people who had their parents pass down cool records to them because they lived through the times when such music was popular, have access to merchandise or memorabilia, or the ability to visit certain historical places because I was worlds away from them.

As such I became fixated much of my teenagehood on the prospect of "what it could have been" for me, If I had the chance, I was basically a westernboo, I was chronically online most of the 2010s, exploring the emerging internet culture, the online sphere, youtube (because who else would have been the perfect subject to develop a parasocial relationship with British vloggers ahem dan&phil), but I also began to develop taste in music. As such it coincided with my father's visit to Liverpool, which fascinated me, the trinkets he had brought back along with the LOVE album CD, were mesmerizing. I mean I enjoyed my fair share of 2010s pop music, but by the end of that CD listen, needless to say, I became a pretentious prick.

To say I was interested in them is an understatement, I was obsessed; but I couldn't really explore my Beatles obsession with anyone my age so I paraded my hyperfixation to my father (a beatles fan, who took pride in me developing this interest) and the adults in my family, as simply an infatuation with the decades (the 60s-70s) to seem smart and sophisticated. They would praise me for being a history nerd and ask me to tell them fun facts about the Beatles which i pretended to simply comply with, but in reality, I just wanted an excuse to bring up the Beatles. Of course, those fun facts needed reading-up so i consumed as much reading material online (or from the few english history books my school library housed) as I could. I read of their contributions to music, their history, rock n roll, the pre-Beatles, post-breakup, their solo careers, the hippie counterculture everything ( i guess as much as a i could comprehend at them time lol) but most importantly, i read of John's tragic passing as well as the many articles, hypothesizing on 'what it could have been' for the Beatles.

My undiagnosed brain had melted at that one singular possibility.

Truly, in modern internet slang, the alleged/hypothesized Beatles reunion has been my Roman empire since the day I graduated middle school to today simply because I think of it every day at least twice. Eventually middle school obsession had matured into a primary interest, a personality trait, more of a "hello, I'm Nym, and I'm a big fan of the Beatles" and it would automatically tell the type of person I was. Only a few things after the Beatles had the same lasting effect on me (Gravity Falls as an example lol).

It also didn't help that I listen to them and their solo releases on the daily and that they're actually everywhere, being the greatest band in the world, but I think it's only in my tism brain that can't scratch that itch that makes my enjoyment of the Beatles such a surreal experience. Perhaps I could finally put it into words to give middle school me some sort of closure:

There has always been something so devastating to me about John's and George's passings. humans come and they go but for them it was abrupt, cruel; living in the 2020s now, there's something so poignant to me that begs the world why they never got to experience the next century to its full potential.

We knew the Beatles were over in 1980, the tale isn't as obscure as the Roman Empire because it feels like it has only just happened, it's part of modern popculture right? And yet we live in the 3rd decade of the 21st century, completely shifting the perspective to a type of lingering wound from such a long time ago that it never really heals anymore.

At the time, I had told this to my mother, how it bothered me so much. She had assumed I had realized the concept of sudden death and become afraid of it, and to her credit, she had tried her best to help me 'overcome it' as well, but it was never death that bothered me, it was the unfairness, the lack of closure and I guess the bittersweetness that lingers with me every time I turn on a Beatles song.

Being a Beatles fan has been a surreal experience really; I believed this weird, almost para-sociality with the closure that never came that I yearned for so long as a middle schooler would dissipate over time and I could enjoy the Beatles legacy as every other adult had around me, enjoy a fun fact now and then, get a trinket from a trip. I never really achieved that, I'm in college and they still essentially function for me as the fall of the Roman Empire. Especially with the release of Get Back a year or two ago and Now and Then, it's essentially gotten worse. Sometimes I can't bear to think about it anymore and sometimes I can't help but reminisce on what it could have been.

Anyways, I still treasure them in such a weird way, I think it takes a lot for a human tale with all its flaws to be this compellingly tragic and bittersweet to keep up a gen z college student at night over half a century later. Idk

#the beatles #paul mccartney #john lennon #ringo starr #george harrison #get back #60s icons #rambles #dad rock #autistic things #i guess now and then could potentially be that closure that i longed for #but also calling it the last beatles song kinda made my eye twitch #kept me up at night even more #not sure where this came from #peace and love

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wallisninety-six · 11 months

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Kick-starting the Rock n’ Roll Revival - The Post-Psychedelic Fun of “Wild Honey” (1967)

1967′s Smiley Smile painted the image of a Beach Boys that is thoroughly, energetically, and creatively spent- especially following the immense stress with the band’s collapse of success, drugs & mental health issues, and the collapse of Smile. But with Wild Honey- the band has never felt more unified and alive. And not only that, they helped initiate major changes not just from within the band, but also to the music world as well thanks to one move...going back to rock and roll’s roots and embracing R&B.

After total burnout and a severely stressful 1967, and with a lot of the music world lambasting the band as “ball-less choir boys” the band sought to re-invent themselves as a self-contained rock act, intentionally distancing themselves away from the lush, theatrical and extremely complex compositions of Pet Sounds and other psychedelic acts that filled the market, and make music that the band could actually enjoy making- recording at Brian’s home with only band-mates and their talents; only a love for R&B, Soul, and Motown driving their music process, more lo-fi than Smile.

However to call this lo-fi, either musically or instrumentally is almost misleading- not less because the newer 2017 stereo transfer of it shows greater musical depth and complexities in the background than ever heard before. Indeed, perhaps the Beach Boys’ greatest yet most underrated talent is their ability to immediately & effectively evoke worlds of fun, love and summer. This is used to great effect in tracks like “Let The Wind Blow”, “Country Air”, and their fantastic single “Darlin’“ and cover of Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her”- using their stripped-down approach with great precision and shining beautifully here. The landscapes they paint with their songwriting and musical chops help blur the lines between psychedelia and rock and roll, in various moods, setting, and form- from hazy countrysides, frantic parties, and flowering declarations of love.

The transition to blues rock for people unaware of the Boys’ later work sounds very unusual- some tracks you’d swear were made by The Rolling Stones in the late-60s. Yet, the psychedelic sound is still here, some songs can’t help feeling still a wee bit druggy or floaty throughout the album- but this shows how the album is considered to be an important transition point from psychedelia to the back-to-basics trend rock made after the Summer of Love, predating such work made by The Beatles, The Band, and even the Doors’ later work in Morrison Hotel- perhaps consequentially enough, Jim Morrison himself was a fan of Wild Honey.

But in the midst of musical evolution, and the return of Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s songwriting partnership- perhaps the real standout star from Wild Honey is the youngest Wilson brother: Carl. Carl Wilson’s voice and performance is even more powerful, that much more soulful and at times raw. His performances in the title track and “Darlin’” command the listener’s attention for just how much the man is giving his all and singing his soul out due to his immense love of Motown and blues music. And as Brian was very slowly ceding his leadership role, Carl’s increased presence in Wild Honey and future albums was consequential as he would soon become the de-facto leader of the band after 1970.

Considering that after 1967, the band members grew older, got married and had kids, and shifted to a more mature image and sound- Wild Honey feels like the final burst of youthful energy from a band that gained its fame partially for their songs’ focus on teenage summer love and fun- it’s still here and very much alive, but the form it takes on is notably different. Considering it’s historicity for being one of the first back-to-basics rock album, and its consequential influence on other major acts, Wild Honey comes close to being as important in music history as Pet Sounds and even Smiley Smile before it- As summer rolls around, it deserves a listen while we ourselves try to find a youthful love of fun & sun once more.

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a7xbrazilianfans · 5 months

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On its new year-end edition, Metal Hammer spoke to guitarist Synyster Gates about Avenged Sevenfold's eighth album, "Life Is But A Dream…" that combined hip hop, classic rock, EDM, thrash metal, classic soul and more, with some hailing it as a masterwork and others condemning it as career suicide.

It’s been six months since the release of Life is But a Dream… How do you feel about it now?

Synyster Gates: “I’m beyond proud of it. I don’t listen to it as much as I did, but I still listen to it a lot. I’m excited to get into some other songs to take on the road. It’s still fresh, we haven’t toured that much, we still have a few months off before we announce something…”

Did you have any fear before releasing the album?

Synyster Gates: “I say this knowing it’s not everybody’s cup of tea: you have to write what inspires you. I’m a big Beatles fan and a big Pantera fan. You want to touch people with eclectic taste in music. I have very eclectic tastes, and so I knew that if it touched me, it would touch other people. I knew we were on to something special. You know, The White Album by The Beatles is my favourite-ever album, and we tried to take our album to the next level… for us! I’m not saying this is comparable to The Beatles! Ha ha! We just wrote our greatest collection of songs.”

With an album like this, it’s probably too early to know how it’s going to be thought of in the long run, right?

Synyster Gates: “I think with an album like this, time is on its side. I’ve been using this analogy: both of my parents’ favourite band is The Beatles. My mom hates everything post-sgt. Pepper’s, my dad couldn’t care less about the early stuff. They both still respect the fuck out of it, but it’s not for them. So, for my mom, Sgt. Pepper’s was the death of The Beatles, and I think for a lot of people this is the death of Avenged Sevenfold. But for a lot of other people, it’s a birth. The birth of a different band.”

Have there been any comments you felt were way off the mark?

Synyster Gates: “Funnily enough, I thought it could go either way. We’ve actually had really amazing support from the press, so I don’t want to make people think that we feel like we aren’t supported by the press at all. I actually feel it’s good that it just hasn’t been ignored. Even the bad reviews, people have talked about it. People are still interested in us, so that’s all I could ask for, really. The negative comments, I feel they’re the minority. I think people have been really thoughtful in considering this album.”

Has anyone else from other bands reached out to you about the album?

Synyster Gates: “I can’t name-drop, unfortunately, I’m not that guy to use their names, but, yes, overwhelmingly so. The amount of positive criticisms or even the ‘What the fuck?’… that’s my favourite, people calling me up and going, ‘What the fuck did you do? What were you listening to? Where did this come from?’ I love that. We’ve definitely had more of that here than from any other record.” You’ve been touring the States.

How challenging has it been to integrate the new material?

Synyster Gates: “Well, there’s a lot of programming, because the new album is essentially a hip hop album in regard to the tracks and different things. The guitars have to change on a dime. It took six months to program the show, it took six months to create the visuals. We just have to get our setlist in order and see whatever bells and whistles we can add.”

Was it hard to choose the setlist, knowing what to take out and add in, and make it flow cohesively?

Synyster Gates: “Actually, no. We were all on the same page. We wanted to do a lot of new material, we don’t want to be a novelty, legacy act. We see the vision. If the album had flopped and fans had completely hated it then we wouldn’t have buttfucked them. But we can see the passion and I feel like we’re on the same page.”

Which young bands remind you of Avenged?

Synyster Gates: “Kim Dracula, they’re fearless. Their ability to just be themselves and their confidence, it’s mind-blowing. I’m sure you’re going to see a really unique career there. A personal favourite of mine is 100 gecs – Jesus, they’ve just turned music upside down. I was toast after this record – no more new music, maybe I could think about a new song in five years. Then their album came out just before we released our record and I was like, ‘Hey Matt, wanna go write some crazy shit?’ They completely re-energised me. We’re not planning anything new, but it gets you excited.”

#avenged sevenfold #a7x #synyster gates #m shadows #zacky vengeance #johnny christ #brooks wackerman #life is but a dream

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dorothygale · 8 months

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I was inspired by @silkchifffon to post my vinyl collection 😛 click for full quality! (not included: my preorders of 1989 TV and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan)

also here is my discogs lol

list ⬇️

Aly & AJ - Ten Years, Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor / Attack of Panic (single), Potential Breakup Song (single), a touch of the beat gets you up on your feet gets you out and then into the sun

The Beatles - Abbey Road, Hey Jude, Let It Be

Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?

Billy Joel - Streetlife Serenade, The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Bridge, A Matter of Trust / Getting Closer (single), An Innocent Man

Carly Rae Jepsen - Tug of War, Kiss (picture disc), Kiss (anniversary white vinyl), Call Me Maybe Remixes, Emotion, Emotion (anniversary blue vinyl), Emotion Side B, Dedicated, Dedicated Side B, The Loneliest Time

Carole King - Tapestry

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits

Dean Martin - The Dean Martin Christmas Album

Eagles - Hotel California

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac, The Farmer’s Daughter / Monday Morning (single), Rumours, Dreams / Songbird (single)

Frank Sinatra - Merry Christmas to You

HAIM - Days Are Gone, Something to Tell You, Women in Music Pt. III

Halsey - BADLANDS

Harry Styles - Harry Styles, Fine Linen, Harry’s House

The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart, Let’s Be Still

Hootie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View

Hozier - Hozier, Wasteland, Baby!, Unreal Unearth (signed)

Huey Lewis and the News - Sports

Jackson Browne - Running On Empty

James Taylor - Greatest Hits

Jonas Brothers - Happiness Begins

Judy Garland - The Very Best of Judy Garland

Julie Andrews - Your Favorite Christmas Carols Vol. 5

Leonard Nimoy - The Touch of Leonard Nimoy

Lorde - Pure Heroine, Melodrama

mxmtoon - the masquerade, dawn / dusk (double EP), in the darkness (Flexi single)

Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR, singles 4 you (12” single, sealed)

One Direction - Up All Night, Take Me Home, FOUR, Made in the A.M.

Paul Simon - Greatest Hits Etc.

Sammy Rae & The Friends - Chapter One

Simon & Garfunkel - Greatest Hits

Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift, Picture to Burn (single), Fearless (Platinum Edition), Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Red, Red (Taylor’s Version), 1989, reputation (picture disc), Lover, ME! (single), ME! BBMA rehearsal audio (single), Lover (Live From Paris), Christmas Tree Farm (12” single), folklore (stolen lullabies edition), cardigan / cardigan voice memo (single), cardigan (cabin in candlelight version) (single), evermore, Midnights (Lavender Edition)

Various/Misc - Camelot OBCR, Casablanca: Classic Film Scores For Humphrey Bogart, A Christmas Album, Christmas America, A Christmas Gift, Christmas Number 1’s, Cinderella (1965 OST), The Magical Music of Walt Disney, Free to Be… You and Me, Grease OST, My Fair Lady OBCR, The Sound of Music OBCR, The Sound of Music OST, Star Trek Stories, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock OST, West Side Story OST, The Wizard of Oz OST, The Wizard of Oz OST (Mondo)

#they're all my own photos except call me maybe remixes bc mine is in a frame and it's really annoying to take it out #so i pulled these from discogs lmao #blabs #vinyl

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thesunsethour · 7 months

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eveeeee my most beloved how are you?? ❤ i need some new music to listen to, do you have any recs? i have complete faith in ur taste.. though having the succession music as ur nr1 song made me questions some things. Maybe

i love this ask so much!! (apart from the succession judgement… sniffle sniffle 😔). prepare for me to be really very annoying about my music taste (which is just my father’s music taste in a trenchcoat)

basically every song from my three favourite Keane albums (Hopes and Fears, Under The Iron Sea, and Strangeland). Keane can really only fall under the niche category of ‘not-quite-rock-definitely-slightly-alternative’ or essentially post-britpop. they’re easy listen to (don’t make me go insane) apart from their song Everybody’s Changing which i cant listen to if i’m not in the right headspace. they are also of Somewhere Only We Know fame

BLUR!!!!!! i don’t care if you already listen to blur i’m gonna mention blur again. their greatest hits album is the best greatest hits album of all time behind maybe only the beatles’ no.1 album. i think For Tomorrow - Visit to Primrose Hill is one of the greatest songs ever written. anyone who disagrees can fight me

and we can’t forget one of the best albums ever made - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. absolutely no notes 10/10

time for some niche irish picks!!

dermot kennedy has some really great songs (and quite a lot of average ones so maybe listen to his hits)

KTG’s Searching For Magpies album is so quietly beautiful but so confident i adore it

moving away from ireland and towards the obvious: every song from my killers ranking list in order 😌

#THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK KAJS!!!#i love rambling about my music #i feel like we have quite a bit of overlap so i tried to think of some artists you maybe might not listen to as much #kajs tag

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open-your-heart-and-your-eyes · 2 years

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BIPOC PEOPLE IN THE ROCK MUSIC INDUSTRY

Post inspired by, and is an extension of this lovely post about POC emo icons by @rpf-bat. If I get anything wrong, please feel free to correct me. I’m going to try to keep the bios relatively short and sweet so I don’t write an entire essay. All my information was found from Google/Spotify search results or my pre-existing knowledge. Feel free to DM me for specific sources. Fair Use for educational purposes, no copywright infringement intended.

Acrassicauda: Iraqi metal band from Baghdad. Andy Capper and Gabi Sifre wrote Heavy Metal in Baghdad: The Story of Acrassicauda about the band’s formation and their fight to be able to play the music they love.

Booboo Stewart (Vic Lakota from The Relentless in Paradise City and American Satan, Seth Clearwater from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Jay from Disney’s Descendants, among many others): Blackfoot, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.

Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman): biracial- Kenyan and white (quick side note: Morello has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Harvard, which I thought was really cool).

The HU: Mongolian metal band. They’ve worked with the likes of Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach (The Wolf’s Totem), Lzzy Hale of Halestorm (Song of Women), and Danny Case of From Ashes to New (Yuve Yuve Yu).

Jose “The Metal Ambassador” Mangin (radio personality/host and interviewer, Sirius XM): Mexican-American. Is often hosting on Sirius XM Octane and Liquid Metal.

Meet Me @ The Altar: Pop punk trio made up entirely of BIPOC musicians Edith Johnson (Black), Téa Campbell (Black), and Ada Juarez (Latinx). Three of their popular songs are Hit Like a Girl, Feel a Thing, and Garden.

Nandi Bushell: Zulu and white. The twelve year-old drummer has collaborated with Roman Morello, Tom Morello, Jack Black, and Greta Thunberg on Roman’s song The Children Will Rise Up! She has also played with the likes of Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, Roger Taylor of Queen, Ringo Starr of The Beatles, and Matt Helders of The Arctic Monkeys (and likely more that I’m missing).

Joe Hahn (Linkin Park, Mr. Hahn): Korean-American. The man behind the band’s turntables and keyboard. Linkin Park’s Cure for The Itch on their album Hybrid Theory (2000) specifically highlights Hahn on the turntables within the first minute.

Ayron Jones: African-American. Jones is gaining traction in the scene. Two songs of his I’d like to note are Spinning Circles and Mercy from his 2021 album Child of the State. He has toured with the likes of Shinedown (and makes a hilarious feature in one of the band’s Tiktoks) and will tour with The Pretty Reckless and Black Stone Cherry this year.

BIPOC ICONS

Chuck Berry (The Chuck Berry Trio, Sir John’s Trio) Black. Widely successful, influential singer and guitarist known for Johnny B. Goode, You Can Never Tell, and No Particular Place To Go. Berry’s legacy is still deeply felt in his contemporaries today.

Prince (Prince and The Revolution, “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince,” 3rdeyegirl, Madhouse, 94 East, The Family) Black. Groundbreaking, inventive, and androgynous artist known for hits like When Doves Cry and Purple Rain. Prince has also written songs for others like Sinead O’Connor (Nothing Compares 2 U) and The Bangles (Manic Monday).

Jimi Hendrix (The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Band of Gypsys, Kings of Rhythm, Jimmy James and The Blue Frames): Black and Cherokee. Acknowledged by many to be one of the greatest (if not the greatest) guitarists of all time.

Slash (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Spinal Tap, Road Crew, and entirely too many others to list): biracial- Nigerian and white. He’s the guitarist for Guns N Roses, whose hits include (but are not limited to) Welcome to The Jungle and Sweet Child O’ Mine. He joined his bandmates of Guns N’ Roses Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum in the early 2000s to form Velvet Revolver, recruiting Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots for vocals. He continues to release music, especially with Myles Kennedy of Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators and Alter Bridge (see Driving Rain).

Robert Trujilo (Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Mass Mental, Infectious Grooves): Mexican and unspecified Native American descent. Trujilo replaced Jason Newsted as guitarist for Metallica, starting as a full time recording member with St. Anger (2003).

Carlos Santana (Santana): Mexican-born Latinx. A legendary guitarist, Santana’s song Smooth featuring Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas is still an incredibly popular hit to this day. A prolific part of the song is Santana’s guitar work at the beginning of and throughout the song. The riff is considered to rather iconic to rock music as a genre.

Freddie Mercury (Queen): Indian Parsi, born in Zanzibar. Mercury is also considered to be an LGBTQIA+ icon by many. He was a groundbreaking and charismatic performer (not to mention his prolific appearance and fashion). His absolute powerhouse of a voice behind Queen’s innumerable hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, and We Are The Champions earned Mercury a deity-like status in both the music industry and pop culture as a whole. He continues to influence and inspire many in the decades since his death.

To all my BIPOC beauties/handsome people:

You exist in this industry. You belong. Do not let anyone in this scene erase or invalidate you.

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junebugwriter · 10 months

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Aesthetic and Fandom

One of the things sticks out in my brain after being back on this hellsite once again is the phenomenon of "aesthetic." There were entire blogs devoted to aesthetics. Yet I'm not sure people know what an aesthetic actually is, or that it was at one time a hotly contested and debated matter of philosophy.

There are a lot of philosophers who have opined about aesthetics, or the inquiry into the subject of beauty: what it is, why we are drawn to things, and how we experience it. Chief among them for me is a guy named Hans Georg Gadamer. Gadamer is a 20th-century philosopher, a hugely influential and important figure in all kinds of areas. I am familiar with him mostly through what I would call his magnum opus, Truth and Method, in which he approaches methodological inquiry and how we know what we know, and how we go about explaining it all. It honestly would take entirely too long to explain in detail his theories regarding aesthetics--much smarter people than me have tried, and if I'm going to do that, I'm not going to do it in a damn tumblr post but an academic paper that might actually go in a portfolio--but I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the philosophical underpinnings of aesthetics.

It think what is relevant for tumblr, however, is this bit where he talks about taste:

(Truth and Method, pg 32-33)

This, I think, is something most people on here can appreciate. Taste varies from person to person, but we also can say that this person has "good" taste or "bad" taste. A person who loves, say, death metal, has a catalog or canon of bands that they would classify as ones that would be good to someone who has good taste, and a set that belongs in the trash with the garbage people. Then again, even between two people who like metal, there is disagreement. Say someone likes Metallica, for example. "Which Metallica songs are best?" is not a straightforward question, because you can break it down. Which era of Metallica offends me the least? Which songs are ones that even people with no taste can appreciate? This gets closer to the heart of the matter. But then you can have someone who says "St. Anger" is their favorite Metallica album, to which perhaps the great majority of Metallica fans would react with disgust--because, you see, among certain Metallica fans, to like "St. Anger" would be to admit that one has no taste at all, and this is a far more grievous sin than simply having bad taste.

The absence of taste is far more insulting than simply having a different taste. For example, my partner loves Madonna. I, not having been exposed to much Madonna as a youth, have no great fondness for Madonna. Yet, I can still appreciate that yes, Madonna is a good artist, and hits my partner's taste perfectly. I can recognize that there is "taste" there, and though I might not have it, there is subtlety and flavor there that I simply have not understood.

I'm not sure exactly how to explain the absence of taste vs. bad taste, because taste is extremely subjective. However, over time, communities build up certain agreed-upon opinions of taste and aesthetic that eventually become canon. Taste and aesthetic is something often thought to be a matter of individual opinion, but because humans are social animals, most often, it actually becomes a matter of community standards. And once you figure that out, it really makes it all that much clearer.

Why are the Beatles the best band ever? Is it because they are simply the most accomplished or skilled musicians of all time? Or did they simply make some very popular songs at the advent of mass media that the largest generation at the time glommed onto and decided that they would be forever known as The Greatest Band Ever? The truth is in between somewhere. To deny the influence of the Beatles is folly, but to over-estimate their greatness or artistic talent would be just as folly. Taste is not fixed, either. Time changes, and so does taste. Not a lot of guys walk around with ruffled collars and waistcoats, but for a chunk of time, it was the height of fashion to do so.

Which all brings me to my ultimate point: gatekeeping and fandom. Fandom is simply a kind of community, and each community coalesces around certain tastes. To keep someone out of a community is folly, because to deny someone the pleasure of something you enjoy for Not Enjoying it Correctly is a practice of self-sabotage. Older, seasoned fandom veterans ought to instead practice a posture of openness and excitement with new fandom members. Rejoice in the joys of discovery, of finding a new way of looking at a canon or headcanon, debate the merits of certain interpretations, but don't arbitrarily gatekeep people simply because their taste is different than yours. We are a people of fandom, and to be a fan is to be enthusiastic. Every community has toxic elements, but the goal of being in a fandom is to NOT be toxic, but rather welcoming and supportive. You can help cultivate good taste in others! You can help show why you love a thing, and why it matters to love a thing! This is the gift you can offer to a neophyte.

I'll be honest, I don't think there even is such a thing as "no taste." I think Gadamer was onto something, as saying the offense to a person with good taste is no taste. But I don't think "no taste" exists. I think it all comes down to experienced taste vs. new taste. Veterans and noobs.

Fandom is a community, and we ought to foster the best parts of community in each other.

#philosophy #gadamer #aesthetic #blog #academia #fandom #gatekeeping #commentary

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themaresnest-dumblr · 2 years

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Since It’s Coming Up To Halloween, A Good Time To Repost And Update This - Your Handy Goth-U-Like Reference Sheet!

Readers! Have you ever been stuck with trying to think of a Goth band your Gothophobic friends might like and thus give a chance at Halloween?

Here’s your handy cross-reference sheet courtesy of your super soaraway Mare’s Nest!

The Cure: People who still watch ‘Bagpuss’, play the American McGee’s ‘Alice’ series, think Tim Burton is the greatest animator of all time, 99.99999% of all Cosplayers, and people who like eating toast.

Sisters Of Mercy: Politics undergraduates, Guardian readers, people who when they get drunk will defend General Woundwort in Watership Down as a ‘misunderstood victim of events’, people who deny being Goth dusk till dawn.

The Mission: Harry Potter/Worst Witch/Doctor Who fans and weekend pagans who like cosplay. A lot. Those who think The Hobbit movies were better than the Lord Of The Rings ones even if they were less canon, and Captain Campion was a better Chief Rabbit of Efrafa than General Woundwort anyway ...

All About Eve: Fans of My Little Pony, The Chalet School/Mallory Towers/St Claire’s, essential oil baths with scented candles, and buying Amazon rainforest sized amounts of quaint writing paper which they never get around to using.

Die Laughing: See All About Eve and The Mission.

The Cult: people who like heavy metal but could do without the whole Dungeons And Dragons or pretending to be teutonic knights vibes. Also people who like tassles. Lots of tassles.

Merry Thoughts: Sisters of Mercy and Cult fans into Pokemon.

Fields of The Nephilim: ‘Sandman’ comic book fans, people who binge watch ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina’, theology students, Spaghetti western fans, adrift prog rockers thinking ‘oh well, suppose it will do,’ actual pagans that haven’t gone down the all-out-and-listening-to-Fairport-Convention route yet.

Killing Joke: Science and Engineering students who read a lot of old school SF but regard the fanbase as boomer stoners. Those who fancy Geordie. DC Comic fandorks who only like them because it entitled their favourite Batman story. Star Wars fans who only like them because Mark Hamill played the Joker in the tortuous ‘film’ version of said Batman story.

Bauhaus/Love And Rockets: people who insist that all original classic horror movies in black and white are far superior to their colour remakes.

Rosetta Stone - Miserylab: people who insist all original classic horror movies in black and white are far poorer in comparison to their colour remakes - even the remakes done by Hammer Horror.

The Horatii: those who like old school New Romantic videos with yachts and marigold glove monsters.

Aurelio Voltaire: They Might Be Giants/Pinky And The Brain fans.

Marilyn Manson: David Bowie fans who wished he’d gone more hard rock.

Dronning Maud Land: Fields Of The Nephilim fans who liked the Monty Python movies and post-Python spin offs better than the TV series.

Forthcoming Fire: Retro 8-bit computing fans.

London After Midnight: rubber and silk perverts and people who still believe villains on TV/in film should talk in a silly croaky voice and cackle loudly at the end of every sentence.

Siouxsie and the Banshees: Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker era Doctor Who fans, people who like hanging around big f**k off sized museums, punks, anyone who likes the Beatles or their copycats. eg. ELO, Oasis. Also your parents and grandparents. Just keep them away from the ‘Join Hands’ album.

The Damned: Those who will defend to the death every single Addams Family reboot, no matter how ill conceived in plan or execution. People who think Captain Sensible is ‘funny’. Harry Potter fans who think Rat Scabies would have made a better dad for the Weasleys in the movies.

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dollarbin · 7 months

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Dollar Bin #17:

Ian Matthews' If You Saw Thro' My Eyes

I had big plans for this weekend's post. My famous brother has been jawing of late about how I will kneel in perpetual penance before Stephen Stills' altar of jock rock greatness the moment I listen to a Manassas record and I will then declare Stills a rock and roll god. One would think my brother is famous for devilry and nonsense.

Indeed, so confident am I that Stills will forever suck that earlier this week I got down on the weathered floor of my local dollar bin (they know what they're doing in my local shop: all of Stills' records are relegated to a neglected, ground level cardboard box, while The Incredible String Band section towers at chest height over Stephen's treasure chest of trash) and hauled out their cheapest copy of Manassas's debut double album (there were plenty of copies to choose from; no one wants to own Stephen Stills records).

My grand plan was to spend a glorious Friday afternoon playing a drinking game of my own invention wherein I'd drink every time I heard a note that did not suck in Manassas's monster ode to mediocrity and I'd admit to each chug in print. I had no fears about a hangover heading into this adventure; I knew I'd emerge stone cold sober.

Fair Reader, I extend to you my sincerest apologies. You'll simply have to wait, with baited breath, for that future entry. The truth is that moments after gleefully cracking open a cold one and dropping the needle on Side 1 of Stills' pretentious piece of pomposity I heard Stephen open his crack (I honestly could not tell which it was, face or ass) and realized I did not have the spirit for it.

Simply put, the very real terror being inflicted upon our fellow humans in Gaza and Israel makes the musical terror Stills inflicts upon us both unfunny and utterly incidental. Please join me in praying for the safety of all innocent people now living in war zones, most especially the children in harm's way.

So, at least for now, I propose that we put off any further pulverization of the guy who thought it was a great idea to name his new band after the Confederacy's first and greatest victory in the Civil War.

Instead, let's consider some fragile and largely unappreciated beauty by spending time on Ian Matthews' first and greatest solo record, If You Saw Thro' My Eyes.

Nick Drake and Sandy Denny both hold and deserve sainted status in the history of popular song. Almost 50 years after their tragic deaths they remain the yin and yang of cosmic British folk music, their all too brief careers forever marking them as the only true peers we have to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Of course all four artists owe a heavy debt to Dylan, but each was also consistently capable of creating something Dylan, for all his greatness, has often chased after fruitlessly: beauty.

A consummate recognizer of genius, Joe Boyd saw Sandy Denny sharing the stage with Matthews in Fairport Convention in 69 and understood all of this. So he decided that Ian Matthews needed to take a hike. Denny and her almost equally talented bandmate, Richard Thompson, both loved Matthews but agreed with Boyd; so Matthews got his walking papers, leaving Sandy gloriously alone before the microphone.

Everybody knows the more famous version of this story: George Harrison similarly traded in his forever bronze medal in The Beatles then went on to make the truly Olympian All Things Must Pass.

But Matthews story is a bit more complicated. Rather than settling down and producing a masterpiece, Matthews acted like a restless, slightly panicked (but still quite handsome!) toad, jumping from scheme to scheme. Between 69 and 74 he founded two entirely separate bands (Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong) and put out 7 (!) albums. All are Dollar Bin winners, but only one, 71's curiously spelled If You Saw Thro' My Eyes, is transcendent art.

So let's talk about it!

A good introduction is the album's second track, Hearts.

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Matthews is not considered a songwriting genius; after this record he increasingly turned to covering other artists. But here he shows early equal promise to Young; indeed it's great to listen to Hearts alongside Young's equally tender track Birds, which was recorded just a year earlier. Both songs portray young men setting aside the bruising and dumb elements of their assigned and culturally dominent gender; indeed it's hilarious to compare these songs' equally androginus yearnings with the way an artist like Young was marketed at the time. Just look at the image below.

youtube

All he needs is a bullwhip, a fedora and a groveling look of worship from the babe on his hip to complete the image. But there's no macho macho man to be found in either of these lovely songs, and the gesture is missing from every note of If You Saw Thro' My Eyes.

Even so, there are plenty of men making music on this record and they all shred. That's none other than Richard Thompson you hear bubbling and bending on lead guitar all the way through Hearts, and he is a full contributor throughout the record, lending his unmistakable tone and gesture in ways that are frankly more successful than his contributions to Drake's first two records. Richard may have given Matthews the boot, but the two guys still literally lived together in the same house and clearly understood one another's gifts.

And then there's Keith Tippett. My famous brother will now crawl out from under his Stills' shaped rock of shame to shake his fist at me in exasperation when I admit that I know nothing about this guy. But he's clearly some kind of genius. Listen to his quavering, elemental piano work alongside Thompson's guitar on Never Ending.

youtube

Seriously, why did the 74 zillion people buy Tea For the Tillerman then skip on this record?

And that's none other than Sandy Denny playing the harmonium behind Thompson and Tippett. While in Fairport together, Denny and Matthews either traded off vocals masterfully, as in the band's version of Suzanne, harmonized conventionally around one another or stood to one side altogether while the other sang.

But on this album's title track, If You Saw Thro' My Eyes, they finally learn to lean in together. Like lovers, friends or even enemies, they perch on the opposite banks of some terrible chasm, reaching out palm to palm over the breach to hold one another up. High above turbulent seas we listen as they leave the land and soar away, taking us with them.

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I hope all of you are safe, and I hope you can find some way to reach out in love and peace to someone else this weekend. Even if it's Stephen Stills.

#ian matthews #sandy denny #richard thompson #stephen stills still sucks #Youtube #https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/

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flowerboycaleb · 5 months

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there were a lot of good tracks this month! judging by some of the new singles, early 2024 is shaping up to be a cool time for new releases. another note, i'm not sure if i'll do a favorite songs of december because i might just do a favorite songs of the year thing instead. i wanted to do one or the other because doing both would be a lot of work and i wanna enjoy my winter break tbh!!!!

as always feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter (i’m not calling it X)

"Mother Nature" - MGMT

◇ featured on Loss of Life - MGMT (not yet released) ◇ genres: neo-psychedelia, indie rock

This February we’re finally getting the follow-up to MGMT’s incredible 2018 album Little Dark Age! The lead single to this new record has the band exploring fresh, new sounds to great effect. MGMT are no stranger to psychedelia, but this track has them taking a considerably less electronic approach to it. The songwriting is some of their strongest to date. Very excited about this new album.

"I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time" - André 3000

◇ featured on New Blue Sun - André 3000 ◇ genres: new age, ambient

This month we finally received the first full-length solo project from hip hop legend André 3000. As the title of this song suggests, this is a much different direction than his work in OutKast over 16 years ago. On this album, André explores ambient or occasionally jazzy soundscapes driven by the flute (his recent instrument of choice). This track is gorgeous with André’s flute passages taking center stage. This whole project is definitely worth a listen.

"Now And Then" - The Beatles

◇ featured on The Beatles 1967-1970 (2023 Edition) [The Blue Album] - The Beatles ◇ genres: piano rock, baroque pop

The jokes have been played out by this point about “these Beatles guys are good, they’re going places!”, but it is still bizarre to have a brand new Beatles song in 2023. I highly recommend watching the documentary about the history of this song and how it came to be. Admittedly, that documentary played a big role in my enjoyment of this song. It feels like a fitting send-off for one of the greatest bands of all time. Is it overproduced? Yeah lol, but this project is clearly driven by Paul McCartney who, as everyone should know, is no stranger to overblown schmaltz. We love him for it! Will this ever be lauded as one of band’s best songs? No, but it’s still very good.

"Celibate" - Danny Brown

◇ featured on Quaranta - Danny Brown ◇ genre: abstract hip hop

This new Danny Brown album lived up to most of my expectations while also subverting them. Brown takes a more introspective approach which really sets this project apart from his previous work. This track has been in constant rotation for me since it dropped. Danny's more subdued delivery works very well with the feature from MIKE (who just dropped a strong contender for rap album of the year). Really enjoyed this track and also the entire project.

‧₊˚✧ BEST SONG OF THE MONTH ✧˚₊‧ "Oral" - Björk & Rosalía

◇ genres: art pop, electronic

I thought this track would be good, but this is like unbelievably good. Björk wrote this track during her "classic period", but it never saw the light of day until this reworked version with Rosalía. These two work so well together. Björk's trademark ethereal sound shines through hear and the occasional reggaeton percussion underneath is a very nice touch. The chorus is a highlight in both of their careers and thats coming from someone who holds both of these artists in very high regard (admittedly mostly Björk, although MOTOMAMI ranked very high for me last year). Please give this a listen! Not only is this a great track, but its for a good cause!!! All streaming proceeds go to protecting Icelandic fish from harmful fish farms.

"Wall of Eyes" - The Smile

◇ featured on Wall of Eyes - The Smile (not yet released) ◇ genres: art rock, psychedelic folk, post-rock

The Smile are returning with a new record out in January and this track is very good! A few months ago they dropped "Bending Hectic" which, if you're keeping up, was my favorite track back in June. That track is making it on the album so even if this song wasn't good, I would be stoked. Luckily, this track is really good. I love the bossa nova inspired guitar throughout the song, the hazy psychedelic sound, and the small string flourishes. Really beautiful stuff. I can't wait to hear the rest of the record!

"Red Flags" - Brittany Howard

◇ featured on What Now - Brittany Howard (not yet released) ◇ genres: psychedelic soul, neo-psychedelia

Look, I don't know why so many banger psychedelic songs dropped this month, but I'm not complaining. I was a big fan of Brittany Howard's last record and the announcement of her new album flew completely under my radar until I was made aware of this single. This is an interesting new sound for Howard, but she pulls it off really well. If the whole record is stuff like this, we're in for a treat.

#my favorite songs of the month #2023 #music #rateyourmusic #mgmt #andre 3000 #the beatles #danny brown #bjork #rosalia #the smile #radiohead #brittany howard

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argeriant18 · 1 year

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So today, I went to a cafe where their gig is they have vinyl records and you can choose which album to play. It was the first time I listened to a vinyl record. But before I chose one, I looked through all the albums to see what they had. I met a group of guys there who recommended me two albums and a drink. He recommended me "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" by Bruno Mars and "The Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd. I don't remember what drink he reccommended but I knew it was a cold drink and I didn't want one cause I had a bit of a sore throat.

One of their friends was the owner or the brother of the owner, I don't know, but he was nice and he approached me while I was looking through the albums again to ask if I liked vinyls and if I've been at the cafe before. I said the obvious that I haven't and he said that he understands why I'm looking through the albums cause you'd want the first album you hear in vinyl to be special which really made me think of which one I wanted to listen to. Cause so far I was interested in "Rubber Soul" by The Beatles, a greatest hits album of Buddy Holly, and this one Chuck Berry album that I don't think has a name.

So when the group of men left, I decided to play the Buddy Holly album and holy moly was it great! Then the owner's wife came from upstairs, which was a salon of some sort, and saw me. She was so overjoyed cause she said that most of the people who came in the shop were guys and that so far I was the only girl she's seen. And she was really nice! She asked me if I've met her husband, if I chose the Buddy Holly record, and how I started listening to Buddy Holly. Then she kinda took me around the cafe to get some pictures so she can post it on their page to encourage vinyl listening so, yeah, people will probably see my face now. Hahaha!

But she was so nice! And she recommended an album to me which she said I would love since I liked Buddy Holly and it's called "Mistaken Identity" by Kim Carnes. And she also shared how she likes "Live Killers" by Queen and holy moly, it also sounds amazing! Like what the freak?!!!

Vinyl sounds so good!!! My ears are blessed and I feel like I've ascended to music heaven!!! Lol, just wanted to let this out cause I can't get over it. Like listening to vinyl then all of a sudden shifting to listening to my phone and earphones are so weird. Like my ears are searching for the rich sound of vinyl. Like danngggg

#talking about me and my life #thoughts #hahahaha #argeraint #movie #music #rants #vinyl #vinyl records #buddy holly #the beatles #chuck berry #queen #queen band #kim carnes #bruno mars #pink floyd

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counterfeitbloodmoonlit · 2 years

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Listening to Albums, pt. 1

I decided to start trying to listen through Rolling Stones' list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and maybe I'll post opinions on this journey. Anyway. Here are today's albums and thoughts:

"Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles (1967)

I definitely want to give this guy another listen. I had the title track stuck in my head the entire time I was driving to get my takeout for dinner. I didn't listen to a ton of Beatles growing up, since my parents are a bit too young, so I have weirdly fresh ears on them. I liked the tone of "Sgt. Pepper." It felt kind of messy and homemade and was just fun.

Was it worth the listen? Yes!

How about a relisten? Yes!

Standout songs? "Fixing a Hole," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", "Good Morning Good Morning," "A Day in the Life"

"Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys (1966)

DAMN this album is listed as being incredibly influential. Like. It's talked about so much in the music history videos I watch. That being said, I had high expectations, which is also tricky because I don't really like the Beach Boys. I find their voices kind of... grating. But I liked this alright! I can definitely see how it influenced "Sgt Pepper" but at the end of the day, I just like the Beatles' singing style better. Musically, I thought "Pet Sounds" was great, much more dynamic and varied in instrumentation than other Beach Boys stuff I've heard in the past.

Was it worth the listen? Yes

How about a relisten? Eh, not for me.

Standout songs? "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "I'm Waiting for the Day," "Let's Go Away For A While," "God Only Knows"

"What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

OK so, first off, this album made that Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor song in which they reduce Marvin Gaye's memory to a sex metaphor even worse. And second... maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but this really wasn't my thing. It was so swirly and serious and notably religious, and I had trouble finding much to grab onto.

Was it worth the listen? Ehhh

How about a relisten? I'd be willing to give it another shot.

Standout songs? "What's Going On"

#music #rolling stones 500 greatest albums #bardista.txt #thoughts #marvin gaye #the beatles #the beach boys

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bleachellie · 2 years

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ellie listens to the top 50 best-selling albums of all time: 40-31

started this bunch yday and just finished now!! so for this lot, no jacket required, ...baby one more time, queen’s greatest hits and nevermind were the only albums i already liked and had in my library beforehand, and as for the ones i hadn’t heard before..

eric clapton - unplugged: already posted abt this in the tag but.. yeah i was unimpressed w/ this one lmao 😭 i was willing to give it a go, for the sake of listening to All of these albums, and it wasn’t a terrible listen.. but not being anything special there’s like.. plenty of other, better music, made by ppl who aren’t completely abhorent, so i don’t think i’ll be listening 2 this one or any of his other music again 😕

james horner - titanic: music from the motion picture: i was actually surprised by how enjoyable this was, considering it’s just an orchestral score (besides “my heart will go on”) and i’ve never seen the film b4 😧 probably not something i’ll be likely to listen to ever again, but it was an enjoyable enough experience!!

eminem - the eminem show: apart from a couple of tracks i didn’t like, i enjoyed listening to this a lot more than “the marshall mathers lp,” mainly bcos it eased up a lot more on the ~edgier~ lyrics 😅 still not gonna become an eminem fan™️ but once i’m done w/ listening 2 all these albums, i might actually go and check out his next couple of albums, just 2 see what they’re like too 🤔

various artists - grease: the original soundtrack from the motion picture: i thought i’d enjoy this more cos i like the film, and yh the john travolta and olivia-newton john songs are gr8!! but this album is 24 songs long, with a bunch of songs that were either cut from the film, or only used a background music, and it was kind of a slog to get thru.. 😔 also i’m not the biggest fan of either the “grease” song itself, or the “beauty school dropout” one 😕

mariah carey - music box: never listened to a mariah carey song other than “all i want for christmas is you” before, and i rly enjoyed “dreamlover,” the album opener!! but then the album went into 3 consecutive piano ballads, and i kinda lost interest, especially bcos “hero” is a song i’ve never liked v much, and didn’t know was by mariah carey 😅 it picked up a bit after that, and i did like her version of “without you,” but i wasn’t especially keen on this one, altho i might look more into getting one of her greatest hits albums or something, and seeing if i like that better 🤔

norah jones - come away with me: i didn’t rly know who norah jones was and i’d never heard any of her music before this, but this was a rly nice listen!! ☺️ i went and downloaded the recent 20th anniversary super deluxe version of this album once i was done listening, and i might check out some of her other albums then too 😄

so onto the top 30 now, starting with the beatles’ “abbey road!!” 🥳

#ellie listens to best selling albums

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el-im · 2 years

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What are your thoughts on each of the Beatles solo careers?

hi! thank you for the ask!

objectively, i think it's hard to deny that paul really took the lead in the solo career arena. he was prolific, and his work with the wings was extensive and productive and wonderfully exciting, not to mention (i believe) the most commercially successful. that said, i'm a little out of the loop as far as his post-beatles work goes. i know all the hit wings songs, and all the highlights of his later (true) solo work, but haven't, to my recollection, ever really listened to a full wings album (i might have tried, and not really gotten through it). i like some of it--really like some of it--i think "another day" is one of the most magnificent songs in the world, and have felt--since i was eleven or so--that it... comes very closely to how my life would look without internal narration--if i were in a film, it's how i feel i would be conveyed. (there's something interesting to me about the fact that the woman in the song isn't really expressed from her perspective. you hear about her routine, as though you were an invisible figure, sitting in the corner of her room, and can tell how she feels, but not because she's ever expressing it--it's just evident in the way she carries herself. i feel i can picture her standing by a window, looking out to a cold, rainy day, with a vacant look on her face, not really seeing anything beyond the glass).

from a social perspective, of course, his little "rivalry" with lennon gripped the press' attention pretty fervently, and the little stabs that they took at each other (paul writing "silly love songs" in response to lennon calling his work frivolous, lennon writing "how do you sleep" about him) are well documented, but i've always thought (maybe incorrectly--i don't know) that paul's work was more marketable, and more popular, and therefore longer lasting. i think there are much more people who are familiar with wings songs (even if they may not be aware of it) than they are of john lennon's solo work (with "imagine" being perhaps the greatest exception to that). and i think, partly, that's due to lennon's focus and involvement with politics, as well as his ostracization from society because of his relationships (i've always felt--as someone who is japanese--that many people were "put off" by yoko ono, and blamed her for "breaking up the beatles" not because she was eccentric, or because she came to recording sessions (and it should be mentioned--there were plenty of times linda eastman sat in on these as well, though she is never blamed for their breakup), but because she was japanese, and people were hesitant to accept her otherness). regardless--their semi-public bickering helped both of them stay in the public eye, whereas george and ringo took a bit of a backseat relative to them publicly, as far as i really know, even despite harrison's work with the travelling wilburys (that--with the exception of bob dylan and tom petty--I absolutely adore/admire every member of)

but--personally speaking? i have selections from all their solo work that i really enjoy (yes--even from ringo!). george harrison and john lennon's careers post-beatles have always been my favorite, just owing to how they wrote/composed their work (as much as i enjoy paul mccartney, i have always thought he either lacked the depth i enjoyed so much in lennon/harrison's writing, or had trouble expressing it).

as a kid, my interest veered resolutely toward lennon, but as i've gotten older, george has taken his place as my favorite beatle. harrison's all things must pass album has always felt full, and has seemed to me to be a very wise and reflective appraisal of life, and all the wonderful and hard things within it. (just for the sake of saying it--my favorite tracks off it--which are so dear and beloved to me--are "i'd have you anytime", the titualar "all things must pass", “if not for you” and "isn't it a pity"). but, i must say, my favorite "album" of his, which of course isn't a proper album, is early takes volume one. it has some of my favorite recordings of songs he would change before their actual appearance on his albums, but the sound of every track on it is so different, and so special. i find all the words i know just sputter and fail when i try to describe it. "the light that has lighted the world" just makes me weep. i feel like i'm seeing the full circle of my life when i listen to it. i really think george harrison was one of the more sensitive artists i know of, and was a magnificent composer (and he, of course, was the guiding force behind some of my favorite beatles songs--"long, long, long"...)

and because it also feels necessary to say so, my personal favorites from lennon's solo work (in no order but what i can remember) are: "hold on", "love", "oh my love", "nobody told me", "(just like) starting over", "#9 dream", "oh yoko!" (the line "in the middle of a bath! / in the middle of a bath, I call your name!" always comes back to me when i find myself all wound up in my love for someone. just the sweet, exciting joy of thinking of someone at all times, in the damndest places...)

this is to say nothing of their personal lives, which i don't really care much to talk about anymore. being (really) obsessed with them as a kid, i read every biography, heard every interview, listened to every radio program, and now, so full of information, have little to say on the subject. i've heard awful stories about almost all of them (with the exception of george harrison, really) but can't be bothered to temper their music with the knowledge that, for example, ringo starr behaves abysmally (in fact--he once yelled at my mother--in the front row of his concert--and told her to shut up, which i actually find hilarious. she was drunk, and was probably being obnoxious--but imagine. being told to quiet down by ringo fucking starr). they've been such a formative part of me + my taste that the context of their work has dissolved, in part, and now they're integral to who i am/how i think, and i depend so greatly on them for solace, such that they're like a walking cane, supporting a bad leg.

and finally--just because i feel i have to say it--i know that my attachment to them runs deep! and that a lot of people dislike their work (though i sort of believe that has to do--at least in part--with a relatively surface-level knowledge of their body of work). i know the songs i think of as particularly meaningful may not seem that way to others, but i've grown up on their music, and it has colored my worldview (one thing i think about often--a good friend of mine was once in a production of a series of vignettes on love, and instead of writing cast bios in the playbill, the organization he was associated with asked some questions about love, which the actors answered. one of his was "what song do you associate with being in love" or something similar to that, and his answer--immediate--definitive--was "baby, it's you" by the beatles. i feel the same way in many respects--at different times in my life, their work crops up, and takes on a new meaning to me. i make sense of things through their work).

#asks #sorry this is long i just have a lot of love in my heart and it's seeping out all over the place because it got BROKEN this week LMFAO

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