Music to sail to

[billmacfarlane]

I tend towards classic rock - Stones , Who , Beatles , Hendrix etc when I'm sailing. I port I switch to jazz - Miles Davis , Ella Fitzgerald , Winton Marsalis but only through headphones as my wife HATES jazz. We compromise and listen to classical , Mozart , Bach etc . I also carry lots of BBC Radio comedies which we both enjoy - Dead Ringers , Goons , Hitchhikers Guide , Wodehouse .

 

[Violetta]

Sighs. Rolls eyes heavenward

Minor talent versus stupendous genius
Hellish chaos versus heavenly order
Ridiculous versus sublime
Ephemeral versus eternal
Barabarism versus civilization
Noise versus music

Well, of course, I agree with you. Different orders of "good". Ectually, m'dear, I wouldn't normally dream of listening to the music of genius on the boat - sound system too poor, extraneous noise too prevalent and distractions too multifarious. Great music demands and repays (a thousandfold) all the attention you can muster. It does NOT make good aural wallpaper. "Background music" is an abomination without which I can very well do. Who will be listening, rapt, to most of the stuff mentioned here in 400 years time, I wonder? However, as long as no-one mentions Andrew Lloyd Webber, I shall remain quiescent.

 

[david_e]

Re: Bee Gees

Bet when you posted this you wouldn't have predicted the untimely departure of Robin Gibb. Bee Gees not exactly music to sail to but a sad loss for music.

 

[tcm]

You just mentioned Andrew Lloyd-Talentless!

Of course, the very best music lasts. So, that's about three tunes from the sixties, and several hundred from the late 1700's to early 1800s, the genius being shown by the fact that these are almost never altrred from the original composition and arrnagement. CD or tapes attempt to recreate the live performance. These days, nobosy write music - they "make a record" and then any live performance attmpts to recapture the recording, invariably failing.

The very best thing about playing the Brandenburgs intheir entiorety is that the rock and rollies daren't say a word, and even the cognoscenti feel they have to wait until about the third time through untill they ask very nicely if um seeing as how it's rather late or um early in the morning really...

Oh, and all hail to Art Tatum. Also Bix Beiderbeck. But then again, also the Elvis remix, later Kylie Minogue, ATB and er I think i'd better go now....

 

[david_e]

Re: Bee Gees

woops, wasn't Robin, apologies.

 

[claymore]

Re: Bee Gees

I don't suppose Clive Anderson will be unduly gutted

regards
Claymore

 

[claymore]

Local Hero

Mark Knopfler - Soundtrack to Local Hero - nothing quite like it

regards
Claymore

 

[Twister_Ken]

How about the Sensational Alex Harvey Band

A small sample:

Naked as sin
an army towel, covering my belly
Some of us weep, some of us howl
Knees turn to jelly
But Next! Next!
I was just a child
A hundred like me
I followed a naked body
a naked body followed me
Next! Next!
I was just a child when my innocence was lost
in a mobile army whorehouse
a gift of the army, free of cost
Next! Next! Next!

Me, I really would have liked a little bit of tenderness
Maybe a word, maybe a smile, maybe some happiness
But Next! Next!
Oh it was not so tragic
and heaven did not fall
But how much at that time
I hated being there at all
Next! Next!
I still recall the brothel trucks, the flying flags
The queer lieutenant slapped our arses
thinking we were fags
Next! Next! Next!

I swear on the wet head
of my first case of gonorrhea
It is his ugly voice that I forever fear
Next! Next!
A voice that stinks of whiskey
of corpses and of mud
The voice of nations
the thick voice of blood
Next! Next!
Since then each woman I have taken into bed
they seem to lie in my arms
and they whisper in my head
Next! Next!

All the naked and the dead
could hold each other's hands
as they watch me dream at night
in a dream that nobody understands
and though I am not dreaming in a voice
grown dry and hollow
I stand on endless naked lines of the following and the followed
Next! Next!

One day I'll cut my legs off
I'll burn myself alive
I'll do anything to get out of life to survive
not ever to be next
Next! Next!
not ever
to be next, not ever...................

 

[jimi]

Re: How about the Sensational Alex Harvey Band

I was priviledged to see SAHB at Glasgow Apollo a couple of time .. Faith Healer,Gang Bang, Delilah still remain in one's aural memory!

 

[jhr]

Pedantic git ahoy!

SAHB were a wonderful band and gave many great performances, but "Next" is actually a Jaques Brel song, albeit translated...................

Alex Harvey was a great loss. RIP.

 

[FlyingSpud]

Re: You just mentioned Andrew Lloyd-Talentless!

Always remember that 99% of everything is rubbish, Classical, Baroque, Romantic, Modern, Pop, Rock (Sailing and sex?) etc. It’s just that as time passes on the rubbish is forgotten. Even Wolfie wrote a lot of dross.

 

[1114C]

Re: You just mentioned Andrew Lloyd-Talentless!

Saw the title to this thread and go all excited then realised that even at 33 I am clearly very young!!!

There has been good music since 1985 honest although you would not really think that from this post!

Few things better than Roddy Frame or Craig Armstrong whilst sailing down the East Kyle of Bute with the sun in the sky and cool bottle of Perroni

Ah, cannot wait

 

[billmacfarlane]

Re: How about the Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Did you know he used to have a dog called "Hey you" ?

 

[vyv_cox]

And that, surely, is the whole point

Arguments about the "best" music will always be futile. Leaving aside the classical composers for a moment, a definition of rock music that I like is "music that your parents do not enjoy". Rock and Pop music are essentially of their time and there is no intention that it will survive for any great length of time. I am from the same generation and tastes as many in this thread, being particularly fond of Rory Gallagher, Bad Company, Robin Trower, The Who and many others. My nephew and I enjoy a regular e-mail discussion about musical tastes, he listens to my stuff but doesn't particularly enjoy it, and tries to interest me in White Stripes, The Polyphonic Spree and others, with little success. My father was a pianist in the Big Band era, there are still devotees of that style but I am not numbered amongst them. My mother had a pathological hatred for Little Richard and could not believe that I actually enjoyed his music, always claiming that I "hadn't heard the worst of it!"

When it comes to classical music, I see it as similar to literature. Which is the better, Charles Dickens or Tom Clancy? They are totally different, one may be timeless whereas the other is unlikely to survive beyond the next 20 years. That doesn't make one better than the other, although I know which I would read for enjoyment.

 

[Violetta]

And that\'s what makes it so delightful!

Suggesting that one sort of music is better than another never fails to get people worked up. It's poetry versus pushpin all over again. I wouldn't want to listen to Mozart whilst sailing any more than I would want to drink Chateau Lafite with a takaway pizza. (Come to think of it, I'm not sure I would want to eat the pizza either) Horses for courses. But, when it comes to the crunch, my fundamental criterion for "greatness" is - how often do I want to listen to (not hear)this? There are many, many pieces of music with which I have lived, in an ever developing and changing relationship, for a lifetime. Many different genres are represented in my personal pantheon, although "pop", which is designed to be ephemeral, doesn't figure much. Best way to make new relationships with music? Not "Classic FM" but Desert Island Disks. Usually any guest on there who actually likes music at all (I rush to switch off when they say "no, music is not very important to me") can open another door into the garden of infinite delights.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Violetta on 14/01/2003 15:50 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[BrendanS]

Re: And that\'s what makes it so delightful!

That sums up my attitude quite nicely, but agree even mor that Desert Island Discs can be a most wonderful window to the world of personally undiscovered music.

 

[Viking]

I play one of those 'Sound of the Sea' types you relax too!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Not too late to add?

Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like I Feel (the live version)

 

[claymore]

Re: Not too late to add?

Ken - is that not a bit young for you?

regards
Claymore

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Not too late to add?

Nah, Britney Spears is too young for me. At least her music(sic) is.