I didn’t understand “That is Priceless when I saw it on Tuesday, but even knowing that it’s supposed to be a “groaner”, I still don’t think I get it now, unless it’s just the pun of replacing “heart” with “harp”. Anyone care to elucidate?
The lemon’s third title is a lemon (it just doesn’t scan), and I wish he had come up with something to do with “Yellow Submarine”.
@Kilby You got it. Break my heart = break my harp.
They call me lemon yellow.
Peel Peel Me? (Please Please Me)
I’ll Follow the Sunkist
Rind Games….ok, that’s enough. Note of interest…I’ll Follow the Sun was Lennon/McCartney, Here Comes the Sun was actually George Harrison. John Lennon did not contribute, not even vocals.
They never want to hear your new stuff, just the classics.
“Note of interest…I’ll Follow the Sun was Lennon/McCartney, Here Comes the Sun was actually George Harrison. John Lennon did not contribute, not even vocals.”
And Joan Jett didn’t write “I love Rock and Roll”, and Elvis didn’t write “Hound Dog”, and the Beach Boys didn’t write the music for “Surfin’ USA”,
“Come for the comics . . . stay for the liner notes!”
“And Joan Jett didn’t write “I love Rock and Roll”, and Elvis didn’t write “Hound Dog”, and the Beach Boys didn’t write the music for “Surfin’ USA”,”
True, but they did sing the lead vocals. As noted, George contributed vocals for Here Comes the Sun. And Paul was lead vocalist for two of the songs on the list. The joke would have been better if all the songs were strictly Lennon.
But the songs of the poor Lemon are a thing not fit to sing.
@Downpuppy, nice matching of the line’s prosody!
“The joke would have been better if all the songs were strictly Lennon.”
They’re all Lemon.
Is the Portrait/Landscape one from the New Yorker?
Maybe New Yorker and maybe not, beckoningchasm: it was just left on my doorstep like Skeezix.
I believe Portrait/Landscape was from Private Eye, a fortnightly satirical and also serious investigative journalism mag in the UK (there is a National Portrait Gallery in London) that has been going since 1961. Link to the artist’s website here, where he will sell you an original redrawing of that cartoon for £100: http://rgjcartoonist.co.uk/blog/
(scroll down a smidge)
As painful as it may be to admit, I think the Lennon joke is entering Geezer territory. Not full-blown Geezerdom, like a reference to Pat Boone would be, but I’m thinking fewer of the kids today would get that. I was just a wee lad when the Beatles broke up and they were a staple on rock radio, but now any kids young enough to be my grandchildren (about 12 or so) probably haven’t had a lot of exposure to them.
Radio stations around where I live play Beatles songs frequently. WXRV “The River” mixes up the latest hits with classics from as far back as the 1960’s, and an occasional Sinatra record.
@ Mark in Boston:
How many kids even listen to the radio? Today’s 12 year-olds probably know radio as that thing mommy does in the car. As they get older they’ll hear some Beatles songs on one of those IOM (Inoffensive Office Music) stations that play in the background in workplaces. But even if they could name the band, many wouldn’t be able to name any members.
Kids today continue to be subjected to their parents’ choices of music.
The Beatles’ “1” album is currently available for sale, on vinyl, at Target stores.
Beatles songs continue to pop up in movie soundtracks.
“Kids today continue to be subjected to their parents’ choices of music.”
I’m not 100% sure they’re subjected to it, rather than than choose it. I work in a high school and the amount of kids who are into Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin would astound you. One kid in music class did a re-mix of Kraftwerk as a project. I even saw a kid wearing a King Diamond t-shirt the other day. I asked him about it and he said he was “Awesome!”
I say ‘choose’, as these kids have a lot more access to music much more easily than we ever did but still, Paradise City rocks their world. It would seem odd to me that teenagers, who notoriously think their parents are not cool, would be influenced to this extent by mom and dad when there is a wealth of other artists at their fingertips for them to annoy their parents with.
Yes, I’m sure it’s not all kids, and there may be an element of confirmation bias on my part here, but there’s a significant minority of kids who are into the ‘oldies’ for sure, parents be dammmned.
During my time as high school (9-12) Assistant Librarian, ‘my’ music was popular with the students. Especially the Doors; when I’d tell them I was at their last US concert before Jim Morrison went to Paris and soon thereafter died, they’d look at me in astonishment and disbelief. Sorry, kids . . . I was young once, too, ya know!!
” It would seem odd to me that teenagers, who notoriously think their parents are not cool, would be influenced to this extent by mom and dad ”
The kids are subjected to the parents choices of music, and pick out the parts of it that are cool. My dad was a C&W man, and had an extensive collection. From that, I get my appreciation of Johnny Cash, and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, and pretty much nothing else; Riding round in the car with me my daughter got her choice of the one radio station I listened to.
I think it’s an application of Sturgeon’s Law. Radio stations (and other media outlets) keep playing the 10% of popular music that is at all good, and as time goes by, they ignore the 90% more and more often. So Led Zeppelin still gets played, and Pink Floyd still gets played, and (insert band) still gets played… but Milli Vanilli, not so much.
I have to admit that I was VERY influenced by my parents’ music choices: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance . . . but they also appreciated folk, ‘new’ music (Beatles, Doors, Tom Waits, everything in between), New Age. In short, eclectic. Which my music collection definitely is, with the addition of New Country (because of years of line dancing) and Jimmy Buffet (whom my dad loathed, but that was only ’cause *I* like him).
John Lemon is saving “Hey, Food” and “Yellow Tangerine” for another night.
The notion that music should be generation-specific is itself quite a bit more generation-specific than music is.
That may be true of the notion that music SHOULD BE, but it isn’t of the observation that it is.
All the (old) people commenting on how The Beatles are still totally relevant to the kids today keep talking about how influential a parent’s musical choices can be on a child. This ignores a simple fact that, as oldsters. we probably don’t like to face: The Beatles is not “parents’ music”.
It’s grandparents’ music. It’s damn near close to great-grandparents’ music.
While The Beatles certainly have some recognition with younger people, simply knowing that a group called The Beatles existed and being able to recognize a few of their songs doesn’t mean they can name anybody in the band. I know The Glenn Miller Orchestra (grandparent’s music for people of my age) existed and might be able to recognize a couple of records, but how many band members can I name beyond Glenn Miller? One. And that only because yesterday I read something that mentioned Tex Beneke.
You’re right – if I’d remembered to have kids, I could’ve been a grandparent by now (horrors!), as I’m 70 and The Beatles came into being in the early 60s. YIKES!!
” The Beatles is not ‘parents’ music’. It’s grandparents’ music. ”
Fact check: I am not a grandparent.
75% of the Beatles have appeared in “The Simpsons”. Eternal 7-year-old Lisa is vegetarian because Paul McCartney asked her to be. But Ringo was Marge’s favorite.
With Big Band bands there are a heck of a lot more members to keep track of than just the Fab Four. In high school I got into Big Bands and didn’t look into the individual musicians. Perhaps if the internet was around then I might have.
I recognize a few names in Spike Jones’ City Slickers, but I couldn’t name more than one or two of them offhand.
The geezer thing can cut both ways. How many of you know the hot pop artists of today?
Similar to Andréa my parents – especially my dad – have very eclectic tastes in music. Lots of big band, Sinatra, and such, Gilbert and Sullivan, Broadway musicals, but also other types of music.
My mom had pneumonia when I was in junior high and they had concert tickets so I got to go with dad instead of mom. It was a balika and dombra society concert. Dad took us to a Monkees concert – complained about the music the entire time, but was smiling and bouncing my sister on his knee so I knew he was joking about the complaining. Broadway shows and local versions of same – saw my two Broadway plays before I was 5 – and Lucille Ball got sick in the middle of her performance at one of them. Concerts in the (local, not Central) parks. He would also make jokes about country music, but knew all the songs – he could even yodel – and would sing along. Now remember – I come from a family of tone deaf listeners! My parents even joined the Sheet Music Society and would go to the Songwriters Hall of Fame annually for some years.
Robert’s dad played the piano so he grew up with similar music – if not as wide an assortment – also. Big difference is I heard them all on records (a number of them 78 collection sets from plays) and he heard them when his dad played them. The result of this is that Saturday night we were home and of the all shows on cable and Roku – and with hundreds of movies on Beta, VHS and DVD what did we watch? Well it was “This is the Army” – a movie we each have seen so many times – but Irving Berlin is actually in it and performs towards the end – plus “look who that it is” .
Grandparents music – The first time we went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA much of the music playing was Geo M. Cohan and similar. My comment to Robert was that it was music of our grandparents’ time. As time went along and we were still going there the music changed,but always seemed to be that of the grandparents of the time. Not sure if it was aimed at same, it was off copyright or just tended to be more family oriented (much country music last time we went) than what was current.
Congratulations, James.
You’ve proved that The Beatles existed and that you, an older man know who they are. You must be very proud of yourself, winning the argument that nobody was having.
@ SingaporeBill – I think he sometimes needs sparring partners to stay in shape for courtroom shenanigans when his caseload is low. Perhaps we should all send him a class-action invoice for support services.
“You’ve proved that The Beatles existed and that you, an older man know who they are. You must be very proud of yourself, winning the argument that nobody was having.”
You seem to have gotten up rather grumpy this morning. At 4:24, no wonder.
” I think he sometimes needs sparring partners to stay in shape for courtroom shenanigans when his caseload is low.”
I think he’s an IT professional.
I don’t.
I’m pretty sure. Right now, I’m studying to take a certification exam, on configuring Windows 10 devices.
My ‘I don’t’ response was in reply to “The geezer thing can cut both ways. How many of you know the hot pop artists of today?”.
@Grawlix: While many of my friends do not, I do have some knowledge of current popular artists. This is deliberate. As I am a music fan, I am interested in finding interesting new acts. Most of the ones at the top of the charts are of little interest to me. There is plenty of good new music being made, but I find most of it isn’t making the charts. It is cool that, with streaming services, I do have access to try new music easily. Most friends are in the “there’s no good music anymore. It’s all just noise and all sounds alike” camp.
SingaporeBill: My 9-year old, who gets limited screen time, listens to the radio. When his 16-year old babysitter came over, she was basically like “This is weird, ugh, we just have to listen to whatever they decide to play?” (She wasn’t an idiot, she knew what a radio was. But she clearly hadn’t used one in a long, long time.)
I find it bizarre when people say there’s no good music being made anymore. It’s understandable to not like the top 40 music, but we live in an amazing age where we people are making virtually any style of music, old or new, and letting us listen to it whenever and wherever we want, for free. How can anyone pine for the olden days?
OTOH, all the best music was made when I was between the ages of 14 and 30. Sadly, there’s no getting around that.
I’m aware of a number of current pop musicians. They often appear on talk shows, besides being in the news for one thing or another. Some of them I enjoy and listen to their music.
“I find it bizarre when people say there’s no good music being made anymore.”
Start by assuming Sturgeon’s Law.
Now… is it worth your time and effort to muck around with the 90% in order to find the 10%?
If your answer is yes, you say “there’s lots of good music being made today. I just found some recently…” But if your answer is no, you say “there’s no good music being made today. I stick with the music I already like, such as…”
The tech companies are trying, but as yet there’s no reliable system for matching up new music to people who want to hear it. OTOH, there IS reliable techniques that work to match up people to music they already like.
If I want something that sounds kind of like “Dark Side of the Moon”, a computer can’t pick out a tune that will make me happy. But if I want something that sounds EXACTLY like “Dark Side of the Moon”, they can do that.
“I’m aware of a number of current pop musicians. They often appear on talk shows”
Saturday Night Live passed the tipping point a long time ago… the vast majority of musical guests are people I’ve no interest in, so they get a VERY limited window to capture my interest before the “skip commercial” button comes into play. Which is an advancement I also appreciate.
Some savvy humans who worked at a record (CD) store hit a high percentage hooking me up with new music I liked. But that doesn’t scale well.
“Some savvy humans who worked at a record (CD) store”
what’s a record store, grampa?
Currently, a record store is where pseudo-audiophiles buy music on a medium that degrades every time it’s played.
Since so many of you are fans of current music, do you have any suggestions for currently popular songs that would sound really good if played on a pipe organ? I am looking for ideas for a recital. (I arranged Bohemian Rhapsody for piano and organ duet and performed it with a friend of mine. Someone else made and arrangement for organ solo and I’d love to find the sheet music for it.)
Totally UNcurrent, but the Ode to Joy always sounds good.
The Simpsons had a bit where Bart slips the sheet music for “in-a-gadda-da-vida” to the church organist labeled as “in the garden of eden”, and that sounded pretty good.
Thinking of a pipe organ made me think of “Hello, I love you”
And, of course, Iron Man.
Speaking of records, I have been listening to my old vinyl records and I notice that there are so many variables and dependencies. I bought a brand-new Ortofon OM-30 stylus and that makes a big difference in the sound. My turntable is extremely steady in its speed and has no noticeable rumble, but if I walk around the bouncy floor it makes the record skip. Some records sound really good but some are indifferently recorded and some are cheaply pressed. Some have skips and pops but very few as I know how to take proper care of records — the previous owners of the records I bought used, not so much so. Some have swishes or other noisy surface sound. Many have inner-groove distortion. Some have an off-center hole. Some have pre-echo when one groove distorts the next one. I have bought a few brand-new (as of this or last year) vinyl records and some of them have similar problems. On the whole when selecting a record at random I have maybe a 50-50 chance of a completely satisfying auditory experience. With CD’s most of those variables and dependencies don’t exist. The sound is close to the original recording without wow, flutter, distortion, pre-echo, swishes, clicks, pops and the horrible sound of a worn-out diamond stylus. In addition, recording technology really has improved since the 1980’s, improbable as that may seem. Listen to the recent Boston Symphony releases of Shostakovich symphonies for examples. (But some of my favorite old vinyls have never been re-issued on CD and perhaps never will be.)
I have a piece of hardware that lets me record MP3’s out of cassettes.
The record companies wanted me to buy CD copies of all the cassettes I already owned, but I didn’t… partly because some were held out, partly because some weren’t popular enough, and some that got different versions on CD than on the cassettes. But the conversion process is…not quick, so I have a bunch that still haven’t been converted. Someday…
Andréa, that search yields many different arrangements of Bohemian Rhapsody but not a single one for organ. Watching someone play it on the pipe organ does not help me play it on the pipe organ.
See if I trust google search ever again! Sorry ’bout that! How did those who ARE playing on pipe organ transcribe the music?
It ought to: now you know it can be done ;) .
I can’t find a post from me about this, so I hope I did not just miss it (apologies if duplicate post) –
Robert bought some sort of device which lets him hook his turntable to the computer and copy the records to CD/hard drive. He plans to copy records that are not currently otherwise available. (Plan was delayed in implementation as the the device was ordered just before/arrived just after Robert’s shoulder & arm were in pain. He managed to get it to work, but was in too much pain to do wholesale copying – and has not gotten back to it, despite feeling fine now.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I didn’t understand “That is Priceless when I saw it on Tuesday, but even knowing that it’s supposed to be a “groaner”, I still don’t think I get it now, unless it’s just the pun of replacing “heart” with “harp”. Anyone care to elucidate?
The lemon’s third title is a lemon (it just doesn’t scan), and I wish he had come up with something to do with “Yellow Submarine”.
@Kilby You got it. Break my heart = break my harp.
They call me lemon yellow.
Peel Peel Me? (Please Please Me)
I’ll Follow the Sunkist
Rind Games….ok, that’s enough. Note of interest…I’ll Follow the Sun was Lennon/McCartney, Here Comes the Sun was actually George Harrison. John Lennon did not contribute, not even vocals.
They never want to hear your new stuff, just the classics.
“Note of interest…I’ll Follow the Sun was Lennon/McCartney, Here Comes the Sun was actually George Harrison. John Lennon did not contribute, not even vocals.”
And Joan Jett didn’t write “I love Rock and Roll”, and Elvis didn’t write “Hound Dog”, and the Beach Boys didn’t write the music for “Surfin’ USA”,
“Come for the comics . . . stay for the liner notes!”
“And Joan Jett didn’t write “I love Rock and Roll”, and Elvis didn’t write “Hound Dog”, and the Beach Boys didn’t write the music for “Surfin’ USA”,”
True, but they did sing the lead vocals. As noted, George contributed vocals for Here Comes the Sun. And Paul was lead vocalist for two of the songs on the list. The joke would have been better if all the songs were strictly Lennon.
But the songs of the poor Lemon are a thing not fit to sing.
@Downpuppy, nice matching of the line’s prosody!
“The joke would have been better if all the songs were strictly Lennon.”
They’re all Lemon.
Is the Portrait/Landscape one from the New Yorker?
Maybe New Yorker and maybe not, beckoningchasm: it was just left on my doorstep like Skeezix.
I believe Portrait/Landscape was from Private Eye, a fortnightly satirical and also serious investigative journalism mag in the UK (there is a National Portrait Gallery in London) that has been going since 1961. Link to the artist’s website here, where he will sell you an original redrawing of that cartoon for £100: http://rgjcartoonist.co.uk/blog/
(scroll down a smidge)
As painful as it may be to admit, I think the Lennon joke is entering Geezer territory. Not full-blown Geezerdom, like a reference to Pat Boone would be, but I’m thinking fewer of the kids today would get that. I was just a wee lad when the Beatles broke up and they were a staple on rock radio, but now any kids young enough to be my grandchildren (about 12 or so) probably haven’t had a lot of exposure to them.
Radio stations around where I live play Beatles songs frequently. WXRV “The River” mixes up the latest hits with classics from as far back as the 1960’s, and an occasional Sinatra record.
@ Mark in Boston:
How many kids even listen to the radio? Today’s 12 year-olds probably know radio as that thing mommy does in the car. As they get older they’ll hear some Beatles songs on one of those IOM (Inoffensive Office Music) stations that play in the background in workplaces. But even if they could name the band, many wouldn’t be able to name any members.
Kids today continue to be subjected to their parents’ choices of music.
The Beatles’ “1” album is currently available for sale, on vinyl, at Target stores.
Beatles songs continue to pop up in movie soundtracks.
“Kids today continue to be subjected to their parents’ choices of music.”
I’m not 100% sure they’re subjected to it, rather than than choose it. I work in a high school and the amount of kids who are into Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin would astound you. One kid in music class did a re-mix of Kraftwerk as a project. I even saw a kid wearing a King Diamond t-shirt the other day. I asked him about it and he said he was “Awesome!”
I say ‘choose’, as these kids have a lot more access to music much more easily than we ever did but still, Paradise City rocks their world. It would seem odd to me that teenagers, who notoriously think their parents are not cool, would be influenced to this extent by mom and dad when there is a wealth of other artists at their fingertips for them to annoy their parents with.
Yes, I’m sure it’s not all kids, and there may be an element of confirmation bias on my part here, but there’s a significant minority of kids who are into the ‘oldies’ for sure, parents be dammmned.
During my time as high school (9-12) Assistant Librarian, ‘my’ music was popular with the students. Especially the Doors; when I’d tell them I was at their last US concert before Jim Morrison went to Paris and soon thereafter died, they’d look at me in astonishment and disbelief. Sorry, kids . . . I was young once, too, ya know!!
” It would seem odd to me that teenagers, who notoriously think their parents are not cool, would be influenced to this extent by mom and dad ”
The kids are subjected to the parents choices of music, and pick out the parts of it that are cool. My dad was a C&W man, and had an extensive collection. From that, I get my appreciation of Johnny Cash, and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, and pretty much nothing else; Riding round in the car with me my daughter got her choice of the one radio station I listened to.
I think it’s an application of Sturgeon’s Law. Radio stations (and other media outlets) keep playing the 10% of popular music that is at all good, and as time goes by, they ignore the 90% more and more often. So Led Zeppelin still gets played, and Pink Floyd still gets played, and (insert band) still gets played… but Milli Vanilli, not so much.
I have to admit that I was VERY influenced by my parents’ music choices: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance . . . but they also appreciated folk, ‘new’ music (Beatles, Doors, Tom Waits, everything in between), New Age. In short, eclectic. Which my music collection definitely is, with the addition of New Country (because of years of line dancing) and Jimmy Buffet (whom my dad loathed, but that was only ’cause *I* like him).
John Lemon is saving “Hey, Food” and “Yellow Tangerine” for another night.
The notion that music should be generation-specific is itself quite a bit more generation-specific than music is.
That may be true of the notion that music SHOULD BE, but it isn’t of the observation that it is.
All the (old) people commenting on how The Beatles are still totally relevant to the kids today keep talking about how influential a parent’s musical choices can be on a child. This ignores a simple fact that, as oldsters. we probably don’t like to face: The Beatles is not “parents’ music”.
It’s grandparents’ music. It’s damn near close to great-grandparents’ music.
While The Beatles certainly have some recognition with younger people, simply knowing that a group called The Beatles existed and being able to recognize a few of their songs doesn’t mean they can name anybody in the band. I know The Glenn Miller Orchestra (grandparent’s music for people of my age) existed and might be able to recognize a couple of records, but how many band members can I name beyond Glenn Miller? One. And that only because yesterday I read something that mentioned Tex Beneke.
You’re right – if I’d remembered to have kids, I could’ve been a grandparent by now (horrors!), as I’m 70 and The Beatles came into being in the early 60s. YIKES!!
” The Beatles is not ‘parents’ music’. It’s grandparents’ music. ”
Fact check: I am not a grandparent.
75% of the Beatles have appeared in “The Simpsons”. Eternal 7-year-old Lisa is vegetarian because Paul McCartney asked her to be. But Ringo was Marge’s favorite.
With Big Band bands there are a heck of a lot more members to keep track of than just the Fab Four. In high school I got into Big Bands and didn’t look into the individual musicians. Perhaps if the internet was around then I might have.
I recognize a few names in Spike Jones’ City Slickers, but I couldn’t name more than one or two of them offhand.
The geezer thing can cut both ways. How many of you know the hot pop artists of today?
Similar to Andréa my parents – especially my dad – have very eclectic tastes in music. Lots of big band, Sinatra, and such, Gilbert and Sullivan, Broadway musicals, but also other types of music.
My mom had pneumonia when I was in junior high and they had concert tickets so I got to go with dad instead of mom. It was a balika and dombra society concert. Dad took us to a Monkees concert – complained about the music the entire time, but was smiling and bouncing my sister on his knee so I knew he was joking about the complaining. Broadway shows and local versions of same – saw my two Broadway plays before I was 5 – and Lucille Ball got sick in the middle of her performance at one of them. Concerts in the (local, not Central) parks. He would also make jokes about country music, but knew all the songs – he could even yodel – and would sing along. Now remember – I come from a family of tone deaf listeners! My parents even joined the Sheet Music Society and would go to the Songwriters Hall of Fame annually for some years.
Robert’s dad played the piano so he grew up with similar music – if not as wide an assortment – also. Big difference is I heard them all on records (a number of them 78 collection sets from plays) and he heard them when his dad played them. The result of this is that Saturday night we were home and of the all shows on cable and Roku – and with hundreds of movies on Beta, VHS and DVD what did we watch? Well it was “This is the Army” – a movie we each have seen so many times – but Irving Berlin is actually in it and performs towards the end – plus “look who that it is” .
Grandparents music – The first time we went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA much of the music playing was Geo M. Cohan and similar. My comment to Robert was that it was music of our grandparents’ time. As time went along and we were still going there the music changed,but always seemed to be that of the grandparents of the time. Not sure if it was aimed at same, it was off copyright or just tended to be more family oriented (much country music last time we went) than what was current.
Congratulations, James.
You’ve proved that The Beatles existed and that you, an older man know who they are. You must be very proud of yourself, winning the argument that nobody was having.
@ SingaporeBill – I think he sometimes needs sparring partners to stay in shape for courtroom shenanigans when his caseload is low. Perhaps we should all send him a class-action invoice for support services.
“You’ve proved that The Beatles existed and that you, an older man know who they are. You must be very proud of yourself, winning the argument that nobody was having.”
You seem to have gotten up rather grumpy this morning. At 4:24, no wonder.
” I think he sometimes needs sparring partners to stay in shape for courtroom shenanigans when his caseload is low.”
I think he’s an IT professional.
I don’t.
I’m pretty sure. Right now, I’m studying to take a certification exam, on configuring Windows 10 devices.
And lemon dancers, too . . .
https://assets.amuniversal.com/4ee9a2702bfb01378b10005056a9545d
My ‘I don’t’ response was in reply to “The geezer thing can cut both ways. How many of you know the hot pop artists of today?”.
@Grawlix: While many of my friends do not, I do have some knowledge of current popular artists. This is deliberate. As I am a music fan, I am interested in finding interesting new acts. Most of the ones at the top of the charts are of little interest to me. There is plenty of good new music being made, but I find most of it isn’t making the charts. It is cool that, with streaming services, I do have access to try new music easily. Most friends are in the “there’s no good music anymore. It’s all just noise and all sounds alike” camp.
SingaporeBill: My 9-year old, who gets limited screen time, listens to the radio. When his 16-year old babysitter came over, she was basically like “This is weird, ugh, we just have to listen to whatever they decide to play?” (She wasn’t an idiot, she knew what a radio was. But she clearly hadn’t used one in a long, long time.)
I find it bizarre when people say there’s no good music being made anymore. It’s understandable to not like the top 40 music, but we live in an amazing age where we people are making virtually any style of music, old or new, and letting us listen to it whenever and wherever we want, for free. How can anyone pine for the olden days?
OTOH, all the best music was made when I was between the ages of 14 and 30. Sadly, there’s no getting around that.
I’m aware of a number of current pop musicians. They often appear on talk shows, besides being in the news for one thing or another. Some of them I enjoy and listen to their music.
“I find it bizarre when people say there’s no good music being made anymore.”
Start by assuming Sturgeon’s Law.
Now… is it worth your time and effort to muck around with the 90% in order to find the 10%?
If your answer is yes, you say “there’s lots of good music being made today. I just found some recently…” But if your answer is no, you say “there’s no good music being made today. I stick with the music I already like, such as…”
The tech companies are trying, but as yet there’s no reliable system for matching up new music to people who want to hear it. OTOH, there IS reliable techniques that work to match up people to music they already like.
If I want something that sounds kind of like “Dark Side of the Moon”, a computer can’t pick out a tune that will make me happy. But if I want something that sounds EXACTLY like “Dark Side of the Moon”, they can do that.
“I’m aware of a number of current pop musicians. They often appear on talk shows”
Saturday Night Live passed the tipping point a long time ago… the vast majority of musical guests are people I’ve no interest in, so they get a VERY limited window to capture my interest before the “skip commercial” button comes into play. Which is an advancement I also appreciate.
Some savvy humans who worked at a record (CD) store hit a high percentage hooking me up with new music I liked. But that doesn’t scale well.
“Some savvy humans who worked at a record (CD) store”
what’s a record store, grampa?
Currently, a record store is where pseudo-audiophiles buy music on a medium that degrades every time it’s played.
Since so many of you are fans of current music, do you have any suggestions for currently popular songs that would sound really good if played on a pipe organ? I am looking for ideas for a recital. (I arranged Bohemian Rhapsody for piano and organ duet and performed it with a friend of mine. Someone else made and arrangement for organ solo and I’d love to find the sheet music for it.)
https://www.google.com/search?q=bohemian+rhapsody+organ+sheet+music&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
“Since so many of you are fans of current music”
Totally UNcurrent, but the Ode to Joy always sounds good.
The Simpsons had a bit where Bart slips the sheet music for “in-a-gadda-da-vida” to the church organist labeled as “in the garden of eden”, and that sounded pretty good.
Thinking of a pipe organ made me think of “Hello, I love you”
And, of course, Iron Man.
Speaking of records, I have been listening to my old vinyl records and I notice that there are so many variables and dependencies. I bought a brand-new Ortofon OM-30 stylus and that makes a big difference in the sound. My turntable is extremely steady in its speed and has no noticeable rumble, but if I walk around the bouncy floor it makes the record skip. Some records sound really good but some are indifferently recorded and some are cheaply pressed. Some have skips and pops but very few as I know how to take proper care of records — the previous owners of the records I bought used, not so much so. Some have swishes or other noisy surface sound. Many have inner-groove distortion. Some have an off-center hole. Some have pre-echo when one groove distorts the next one. I have bought a few brand-new (as of this or last year) vinyl records and some of them have similar problems. On the whole when selecting a record at random I have maybe a 50-50 chance of a completely satisfying auditory experience. With CD’s most of those variables and dependencies don’t exist. The sound is close to the original recording without wow, flutter, distortion, pre-echo, swishes, clicks, pops and the horrible sound of a worn-out diamond stylus. In addition, recording technology really has improved since the 1980’s, improbable as that may seem. Listen to the recent Boston Symphony releases of Shostakovich symphonies for examples. (But some of my favorite old vinyls have never been re-issued on CD and perhaps never will be.)
I have a piece of hardware that lets me record MP3’s out of cassettes.
The record companies wanted me to buy CD copies of all the cassettes I already owned, but I didn’t… partly because some were held out, partly because some weren’t popular enough, and some that got different versions on CD than on the cassettes. But the conversion process is…not quick, so I have a bunch that still haven’t been converted. Someday…
Andréa, that search yields many different arrangements of Bohemian Rhapsody but not a single one for organ. Watching someone play it on the pipe organ does not help me play it on the pipe organ.
See if I trust google search ever again! Sorry ’bout that! How did those who ARE playing on pipe organ transcribe the music?
It ought to: now you know it can be done ;) .
I can’t find a post from me about this, so I hope I did not just miss it (apologies if duplicate post) –
Robert bought some sort of device which lets him hook his turntable to the computer and copy the records to CD/hard drive. He plans to copy records that are not currently otherwise available. (Plan was delayed in implementation as the the device was ordered just before/arrived just after Robert’s shoulder & arm were in pain. He managed to get it to work, but was in too much pain to do wholesale copying – and has not gotten back to it, despite feeling fine now.