Music to my ears
I don’t listen to the radio very often.
I used to listen to it in the car while driving but nowadays I prefer the silence [broken only by the odd scream from a nearly missed cyclist]. I very rarely listen to it in the house.
The odd occasion though I do ike to have a bit of background music when I am doing something that doesn’t require that much though, usually cooking or something like that. Sometimes I listen to ClassicFM but a while ago I discovered Gold.
Gold broadcasts on the Interwebs and via satellite, though for some reason they claim on the Interweb that I’m outside the UK and can’t listen [I just stick in a postal address of BT28HQ and away I go]. They mostly pay stuff from the Sixties and Seventies.
I was listening to it the other evening while slopping up one of my famous savoury mince dishes. The latter involves a load of slicing , dicing and stirring so I like to have something to hum to while I slave over the hot stove. It struck me then that after one or two bars of every single track they played, I was able to recall the track title and artist, and was able to sing along. Seeing as I hadn’t heard most of those tracks since the mid seventies I somewhat surprised myself.
So here I am, able to recall virtually anything they throw at me from the dim distant past, yet I coudn’t tell you a single artist doing the rounds now. Okay, I have heard of one or two such as Beyonce or Rhianna, but I couldn’t tell you what they sing nor do I want to. I just hate modern music – it is bland, formulaic and more to do with electronic gimmickry and computerised distortion than with anything resembling music. I get the impression that they just programme a beat into a computer which then churns out something resembling an air and it is then sung by someone who has been chosen purely based on looks and who is severely lacking in any talent whatsoever.
I know that every generation complains that the Oldies just don’t understand modern stuff [my parents had a great distrust of the Beatles], but I would just make one point – how many times have songs from the Sixties and Seventies been re-recorded and how much of the modern shite is likely to even last beyond a month or two?
They just don’t make ’em like they used to.
Hi GD,
Totally agree !
If you look at a top 20 list from virtually any week in the 1960s you can practically guarantee that you will recognise and remember most of the songs listed . In most cases anything from 50-90% will be what i would describe as ‘classics’ ie.you will remember the tune and most if not all of the lyrics .
‘They just don’t make them like that anymore’
My taste in music includes some classical ,folk ,music hall and traditional jazz but for ‘pop’ it has to be from 1940s to 70s .
Classical, folk, rock and traditional [usually Irish traditional, but only because I used to play it]. Punk rock was the beginning of the end for me.
I was down in the village earlier having a coffee. There was a car parked somewhere with “music” blaring but all I could hear was a rhythmic thump-thump-thump. Every now and then it would stop and start and I thought it was someone repeating the same track, until it suddenly changed to a thump-bump-thump-bump-thump-bump. It then went back to the thump-thump-thump again. All exactly the same rhythm and beat. Horrible and monotonous, which just about sums up modern musical efforts.
Thanks GD,
I plugged in the Postal Code you so kindly provided and it worked!! Now I’ll be watching over my shoulder for the Intraweb police. Wonder how long before they realize I’m in Canada.
If the Mounties come a calling, just tell them you are in fact in BBC Broadcasting House, Belfast, Norn Iron.
I recognised the postcode instantly – the station will be baffled at having so many BBC listeners!
Turncoats!
It’s a code that is repeated quite often so it tends to stick in the head.
aw man, love the Mamas and the Papas, cool fact Denny Doherty was from my home town, later in life was the host of a kids show called Theodore Tugboat (episodes on you tube now) featuring a mock up of the Halifax Harbour. He had a voice like velvet. Auto tune has killed any desire for me to listen to the radio.
Blues Merchants were a good 60’s band – but then I was in it at the time!
Were they back in the 60s or they play[ed] stuff from the 60s? Did they chuck you out?
Very like! Thanks for the link.
The Mommas and the Pappas were good clean wholesome family entertainment. You could even hear the clearly articulated lyrics. I still enjoy listening to the Beachboys if somebody on RTE Radio 1 has the good taste to spin one of their songs. Old jazz and blues numbers are still worth revisiting. Hey, did you know that several JSBach tunes have been improvised creatively over the decades by jazz musicians? Beethoven too has been top of the pops. Bring it on Daddy-o!
http://www.dw.com/en/pop-star-beethoven/a-17072038
There was a funny little programme on the ‘Yesterday’ TV station the other night, they had old 1960s BW film of various folk artists – Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Tim Buckley, Peter Paul and Mary and others. I knew every word and every note of all the stuff they showed. Quite scary!
That is the scary bit – within two or three bars into the tune I can sing along with it, and sometimes even from the first note. I just wish my memory was so good in some other areas.
Isn’t ‘music from the past’ supposed to be one of the things that helps dementia sufferers to get a handle on life again? (No aspersion there: I’m in the same age range as you.)