General music discussion (split from Rock Revelancy)

Hey Devil, did you ever hold a tape recorder up to the radio as a kid to record songs and make your own mix tape?

III said:

Hey Devil, did you ever hold a tape recorder up to the radio as a kid to record songs and make your own mix tape?

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Yes!

I recorded albums the same way.

Devil Ledbetter said:

I welcome the technology. The internet and MP3s have chopped the former musical gatekeepers off at the shins. I still have yet to hear My Morning Jacket on local radio, and I don't watch MTV but I doubt they're on there either. Yet I was introduced to them through a message board, ordered their albums online (because the local chain record store didn't have them), converted the CDs to MP3s and loaded them onto my Zen. I can listen to them anywhere, anytime, without phoning some loudmouth DJ to beg for it.

I'd have given anything for this easy access to new music as a kid. I'm just glad it arrived during my lifetime.
...
And my PC organizes my album files in alphabetical order.

This probably shows my age, but I still buy CDs and keep my music organized in album collections. I don't buy single tunes.

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I hate MP3s with a passion. I don't mean to take this off on a tangent, but the quality just isn't there, however more than that, I hate that it chops up the songs. On album or CD there are so many songs that are continuous and flow from one song into the other, but when I create MP3s to listen on my player it chops them up and puts in unnatural breaks that the artist never intended to be there. DSOM is like that, on the album "On the Run" blends seamlessly with "Time." But when I put that onto MP3, it puts a stop in there that annoys the crap out of me.

And as a kid we ALL had easy access to new music, it was called AFFORDABLE PRICING. Albums cost all of $3 (and cut-outs were even cheaper!) and I'd go in every week and buy as many as I could afford. And because they were so cheap, that's how I found music that wasn't on the radio. That's how I found Pink Fairies, Dust, Gentle Giant, Nektar, Captain Beyond, Atomic Rooster, Budgie, Jade Warrior, Elf, Man, The Residents, Armageddon, The Dictators, Hawkwind, and so on.

Now, new music costs $12 or more. What kids can afford that? $30 got me 10 albums. Now you might get 2. And the industry wonders why it's dying.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Rock has always been relevent to YOUNG people.

Maybe you guys are just too old to recognize what the current relevent trend in rock is.

Ya bunch of old farts.

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Can we ban this embryo? Maybe offer his carcass up to that cryogenics...or whatever it is...DEEP FREEZE...

maestrowork said:

How about Barry Manilow?

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That's it!
Yo! Mac! Zap him into a Teletubby...the fat purple one...WITH the handbag!!!

Shadow_Ferret said:

And as a kid we ALL had easy access to new music, it was called AFFORDABLE PRICING. Albums cost all of $3

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No offense Ferret, but I'm thinking I might a have been a kid just a little bit later than you were a kid, because albums were generally in the $8 to $15 dollar range when I was a kid. $15 for a double album like The Song Remains the Same.

And boy, did that one rock!

I agree with you about MP3 sound quality. Not everyone can hear the difference, but I usually can. We still break out vinyl and pop it on the old turntable around here on occasion.

My first rock album: Peter Frampton, Live and More

Purchased at: Licorice Pizza...


*sighs*

Those were the days...babysitting money...and albums...

Sorry, DL, I assumed you were older because you kept talking about vinyl and groups that I enjoyed growing up.

My first rock album, not counting say, The Archies, or The Beatles, or Rare Earth, or Stephenwolf, I mean the first album that punched me in the nose and said, "Here! This is what matters!" was Black Sabbath Vol. 4. And I realized there was more to music than happy harmonies and pop sensibilities. (Don't get me wrong, I still like the Beatles, Rare Earth, Stephenwolf, and yeah, I'm not embarrassed to say, I love Sugar, Sugar.)

Shadow_Ferret said:

Sorry, DL, I assumed you were older because you kept talking about vinyl and groups that I enjoyed growing up.

My first rock album, not counting say, The Archies, or The Beatles, or Rare Earth, or Stephenwolf, I mean the first album that punched me in the nose and said, "Here! This is what matters!" was Black Sabbath Vol. 4. And I realized there was more to music than happy harmonies and pop sensibilities. (Don't get me wrong, I still like the Beatles, Rare Earth, Stephenwolf, and yeah, I'm not embarrassed to say, I love Sugar, Sugar.)

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That's understandable. And kind of my point. I grew up with a group of kids that hated popular music so much we resorted to raiding our older siblings' collections. My oldest sister was 7 years my senior - she was the one bringing home Abbey Road and Get Yer Ya Yas Out before I'd lost my baby teeth - and a lot her stuff is still a staple of my vinyl collection (shh, don't tell her).

Ooh. We should start a first album thread.

I can't remember mine, though. I was working in a record store when I was about 6-7. I got paid in albums. Some of my first were: Beatles, Guess Who, Frampton, Marley, Zep, Zappa, Doors, etc, etc, etc. When I was young I remember being such a crazy T-Rex fan...like out of control. But Bowie really blew me away too. This was one of my first:

I had two by the time I was 11, and I don't remember which came first. But each were payment for doing the dishes on one of my sister's turns. I loved them both.

I had those two too. The Yellow Brick Road was fantastic. I also had Captain Fantastic...and it came with this HUGE poster I had up on my wall. Cartoon boobies. For a 7 year old, that's pretty spectacular.

I got all the posters I wanted from the record store, so I always had my walls covered with rock posters. Until later when I muraled all my walls.

KTC said:

I had those two too. The Yellow Brick Road was fantastic. I also had Captain Fantastic...and it came with this HUGE poster I had up on my wall. Cartoon boobies. For a 7 year old, that's pretty spectacular.

I got all the posters I wanted from the record store, so I always had my walls covered with rock posters. Until later when I muraled all my walls.

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Captain Fantastic was the first new release album I ever bought. I got it in the basement at Kresge's, a downtown dimestore.

I still have it, too.

Kresges! Man...I miss that store! We had one close by. I loved the milkshakes there. Ahhhhhhhhh.

KTC said:

Kresges! Man...I miss that store! We had one close by. I loved the milkshakes there. Ahhhhhhhhh.

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The basement of ours was great. There were toys, a record display, and small pets. Yep, they had a lunch counter too.

Devil Ledbetter said:

The girl across the hall from me in college brought her Cure LP into my dorm room and demanded I play Close To Me, which she called "the breathing song." You could say we bonded over Head on the Door. All these years later, she's still my best friend. And I may even let her stay my best friend, if she'll hurry up and finish beta reading my novel.

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lol. Head on the Door was an incredible album. One of those albums where every song is gold. Then again, I was already incredibly hooked by the time HOTD came out. Still...I think it was flawless. I get the 'breathing' comment too.

OK, I'll say it.

Elton John is not rock.

Elton John has written some of the catchiest songs on the planet, but he's always been pop. Not rock.

Sorry. Back to your regularly scheduled Kresge's nostalgia.

KTC said:

lol. Head on the Door was an incredible album. One of those albums where every song is gold. Then again, I was already incredibly hooked by the time HOTD came out. Still...I think it was flawless. I get the 'breathing' comment too.

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HOTD was my first Cure album and will always be a favorite, but Disintegration is the holiest of holies, to me.

The first album I bought was Elton John's Madman Across The Water. To this day, Tiny Dancer gives me chills. I played it so much that eventually you could ever so faintly hear the other side of the LP running backwards during breaks between the songs. Try doing THAT with an MP3

And I totally agree with how annoying it is when converting to mp3 puts breaks between tunes that weren't there to begin with. Some mad coder somewhere has to fix that.

Other albums I had early on: Led Zep II, Abbey Road, Are You Experienced?, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Dark Side of the Moon, Abraxas, E Pluribus Funk....

falls into nostalgic catatonia....

mikeland said:

OK, I'll say it.

Elton John is not rock.

Elton John has written some of the catchiest songs on the planet, but he's always been pop. Not rock.

Sorry. Back to your regularly scheduled Kresge's nostalgia.

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Much of the time, yes. But he can rock out on occasion. Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road springs to mind. I saw a bar band open their set with that once and it royally kicked ass.

I was taking guitar lessons when Dark Side of the Moon came out. My teacher was a crazy Mik'maq hippy who was CRAZY for that album. (It helped that my grandmother was a Mik'maq...but she refused to believe that there were Mik'maq hippies. HA!) We used to listen to it all the time. He had this huge head of hair that went right down his back. He'd be spinnin' his head goin', "Okay. Listen to this. Listen to this!" Gettin' all excited. He was an amazing guitarist too...

Kevin, also falling into nostalgic catatonia...

Shadow_Ferret said:

Sorry, DL, I assumed you were older because you kept talking about vinyl and groups that I enjoyed growing up.

My first rock album, not counting say, The Archies, or The Beatles, or Rare Earth, or Stephenwolf, I mean the first album that punched me in the nose and said, "Here! This is what matters!" was Black Sabbath Vol. 4. And I realized there was more to music than happy harmonies and pop sensibilities. (Don't get me wrong, I still like the Beatles, Rare Earth, Stephenwolf, and yeah, I'm not embarrassed to say, I love Sugar, Sugar.)

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Was that that song that went something like: ah, sugar sugar, you are my honey girl...

I LOVED THAT SONG!!! I was the dorky 5 year old that would jump up and start dancing when that song played. Pity the fool that owned the record....it had to be played over and over and over and over...

My only other musical addiction like that was Crocodile Rock....I know...I've no pride...

Remember when Stars on 45 did the Beatles medley. Good God!