VT’s Music Chat

[Xann]

24 minutes ago, il_serpente said:

My daughter plays harp, but her teacher is male and the person we bought her pedal harp from is male.   The data from my admittedly limited sample size are at odds with your observation.   I'm going to look for some mariachi music for her to play now....

Try this... https://harpcolumn.com/music/all-music/categories/artists/

This is amazing...

 

[mjmooney]

Harp, you say? I'm not generally big on Welsh stuff, but I went to a gig by this lot last year, and they were fantastic. 

 

[Seat68]

In the America thread there was a short back and forth between Bobzy and Sidcow regarding iTunes. It has made me question the point of iTunes. For a dollar and a half you have a digital copy of a tune that you can play when you want. Surely a streaming service will allow that. I can’t understand how the business model of iTunes means it still exists. Has anyone during the streaming era bought digital music? To be contradictory for a second. I have, lots outside of it, to help out artists or rare things that will never be put on Spotify. But iTunes, over all the years I have bought one song and that was because it was the only place I could locate it. 

[chrisp65]

I know Oxfam has a bit of an eye for the records it sells.

But I was in an Oxfam and they had the usual record tapes and cd’s corner. Each record had the little sticker in the top right corner of the sleeve. Written up in tiny writing would be something like:

record plays well, some clicks on run in and run out side A some background hiss generally across side B but not intrusive VG

99p

Every one of them, they were all crap, all the usual Cliff Richards and Harry Belafonte and Best of the Classics. But someone had clearly played each one right through, written up the notes and graded them. All for 99p or £2.99, I found one for £4.99. Incredible devotion to an Oxfam record corner. Surely if someone is going to buy the Best of Brass for £1.99 in Oxfam they aren’t being swayed by the condition notes? But good on ‘em anyway. 

[bickster]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

I know Oxfam has a bit of an eye for the records it sells.

But I was in an Oxfam and they had the usual record tapes and cd’s corner. Each record had the little sticker in the top right corner of the sleeve. Written up in tiny writing would be something like:

record plays well, some clicks on run in and run out side A some background hiss generally across side B but not intrusive VG

99p

Every one of them, they were all crap, all the usual Cliff Richards and Harry Belafonte and Best of the Classics. But someone had clearly played each one right through, written up the notes and graded them. All for 99p or £2.99, I found one for £4.99. Incredible devotion to an Oxfam record corner. Surely if someone is going to buy the Best of Brass for £1.99 in Oxfam they aren’t being swayed by the condition notes? But good on ‘em anyway. 

Our Oxfam isn't so clued up, even now, they mainly have shite but sell most of it for 30p. I came back the other week with about 10 James Last albums for £3. All in pretty good nick but they just get dumped in the dreadful record pile that I'm accumulating

I do still find the odd bargain though like this which I had to buy just for the cultural reference. I honestly had no idea what that line in the Prefab Sprout song was about until I saw that. Not worth much (but more than the 30p I paid) but it's great to have because of the song that mentions it

Here's another one for 30p. It's really good and there's a bit of a story behind the recording, recorded in 67 but never released until 73 (on budget label Pickwick which just adds to the sillyness) and it fetches quite a bit more than 30p. More like a tenner

[mjmooney]

11 hours ago, bickster said:

I do still find the odd bargain though like this which I had to buy just for the cultural reference. I honestly had no idea what that line in the Prefab Sprout song was about until I saw that.

Whereas... I know the Faron Young song well - it was a big (#3) UK hit single in 1972. And Prefab Sprout are one of those bands that obviously I'm aware of, but made zero impression on me. Couldn't name a song by them. 

The Sandy/Strawbs thing I'm totally familiar with. 

But why the hell are you buying James Last albums? 

[bickster]

2 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

But why the hell are you buying James Last albums? 

For shits and giggles but ....

 

[Xann]

3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

But why the hell are you buying James Last albums? 

'Voodoo Party' is James Last's take on Santana.

Friends call him Hansi, he has an emoticon...  

[chrisp65]

Feels like we are close to merging two threads here. Just needs someone to post up Mike Flowers original of Wonderwall that Oasis ripped off.

 

[blandy]

On 12/03/2023 at 09:45, Seat68 said:

In the America thread there was a short back and forth between Bobzy and Sidcow regarding iTunes. It has made me question the point of iTunes. For a dollar and a half you have a digital copy of a tune that you can play when you want. Surely a streaming service will allow that. I can’t understand how the business model of iTunes means it still exists. Has anyone during the streaming era bought digital music? To be contradictory for a second. I have, lots outside of it, to help out artists or rare things that will never be put on Spotify. But iTunes, over all the years I have bought one song and that was because it was the only place I could locate it. 

I've bought, maybe a couple of hundred iTunes/Apple Music downloads over the years, and including since streaming was invented. Tend to do it for something like (most recent example) Amyl and the Sniffers, where I like one or two songs on an album, but not the rest. The artist gets some actual money and I get to put their song onto my iPod and phone. I've also used it, for where I've bought an album on vinyl and there's been no download code inside and I couldn't be bothered to use the music importing software I have to capture it from the Vinyl (think the last one was a double album by Hey Collossus).

The iPod sits in the alarm and has all my music on it. It's on shuffle and so when waking up time comes around, there's a random sequence of tracks played. The phone plugs in or bluetooths to the car radio, and I also use it on my bike, so I want the actual music on there, not some crappy streaming thing where you either get a "station" or a complete album, or songs by a single artist, or have to keep asking Siri to play [whatever]. Siri isn't great on a bike, because of the wind noise - either she can't hear me, or I can't hear her.

[Genie]

Just heard this banger on the radio, haven’t heard it for years. It’s amazing how a song can take you back to a point in your life in an instant.

 

[Xela]

On 15/03/2023 at 16:07, lapal_fan said:

I've always said that I have a really fussy taste in music, to the point I only really like Oasis (and usually get quite rightly caned for it).

However, for my father in laws 60th birthday, my wife and I's gift to him was to take him and his mates (6 of them) to a huge house in Derbyshire (Aire B'n'B thing) for a weekend.

For this, I said we should get a playlist of his era's music (late 70s, early 80s was his "peak" years musically I guess), so I've been trawling through the Youtube and have gotten around 250 songs I think would be suitable. 

It ranges from the 1950s to the 2010s (although the pre-1960 & post 1990s+ is really sparsely populated!) and I've got to say, there are some really awesome songs I've not heard for absolutely donkey's years, but I really actually like! 

So I've got them all on a playlist (which I've never done!) and I've got something that ISN'T a Gallagher, but yet I love 85%+ of them  

One of the best things about Spotify and YouTube for me, is that its enabled me to listen and discover a lot more music than I would have previously, if I had to buy an album. 

Working my way through the back catalogues of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin has been great. 

[Xela]

7 hours ago, Genie said:

Just heard this banger on the radio, haven’t heard it for years. It’s amazing how a song can take you back to a point in your life in an instant.

Cracking tune. 

Embrace had some decent tunes, but they were never really taken seriously from memory?

[villa4europe]

On 17/03/2023 at 20:31, Xela said:

One of the best things about Spotify and YouTube for me, is that its enabled me to listen and discover a lot more music than I would have previously, if I had to buy an album. 

Working my way through the back catalogues of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin has been great. 

Same, finding old music is far more interesting than discovering new bands IMO

Been on otis redding for a while now, might go James Brown after but if I'm honest I've never seen the fuss, could go Jackie Wilson cos I know one song by him and that's it, spent most of 2021 trawling through the bee gees back catalogue after enjoying their documentary (which is excellent) their pre disco stuff has some cracking songs 

Wet Leg, Yard Act etc just do nothing for me, all my "new" music is 40+ years old 

[Seat68]

I have a good mix but find myself favouring old music. In my current car batch it’s music from the 70s mainly aside from the new Miley Cyrus album. 

[chrisp65]

Personally, it’s definitely mixing both.

Right now, I’m listening to something I bought 32 years ago, earlier it was the Beach Boys and The Kinks. But I’ve also got a couple of new releases stashed for me that I’ll pick up at some point in the week. I set myself a goal of supporting at least one new Welsh artist release every month, it’s proved surprisingly easy, in fact, strictly speaking I’m already up to June!

 

[maqroll]

On 08/03/2023 at 15:10, Xann said:

Try this... https://harpcolumn.com/music/all-music/categories/artists/

This is amazing...

 

That sounds like the harp was overdubbed on it years later. It's so high up in the mix that everything else almost fades away. Cool tune but weird mix.

[maqroll]

3 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Personally, it’s definitely mixing both.

Right now, I’m listening to something I bought 32 years ago, earlier it was the Beach Boys and The Kinks. But I’ve also got a couple of new releases stashed for me that I’ll pick up at some point in the week. I set myself a goal of supporting at least one new Welsh artist release every month, it’s proved surprisingly easy, in fact, strictly speaking I’m already up to June!

 

The Kinks had a thing for the Beach Boys. In fact, they nod in their direction on two songs off Give the People What They Want: Around the Dial and the title track. 

[chrisp65]

7 hours ago, maqroll said:

The Kinks had a thing for the Beach Boys. In fact, they nod in their direction on two songs off Give the People What They Want: Around the Dial and the title track. 

I think (but this might not stand up to close scurtiny), there was some healthy competition pretty directly between a few bands back then. They’d grab each other’s latest recordings and try and take that and move another step beyond it. Beatles for the technology, Kinks for the lyrics. I’ve always had a soft spot for a band that can do a bit more storytelling than just ‘I love you, yeah, yeah, yeah, oooh’.

[veloman]

11 hours ago, villa4europe said:

 might go James Brown after but if I'm honest I've never seen the fuss, 

 

I know what you mean re. James Brown, he was very popular in the 60's; such numbers as "I Go Crazy" Papa's Got a Brand New Bag " etc. But something that he and The Famous Flames promoted was something called "The One" where the first beat of the bar was accentuated. This possibly gave his music a differnt sound. Incidentally, his stage act might have been pinched fron a bloke called Screaming Jay Hawkins who I was fortunate to see at "The Crazy E" which was on the corner of Navigation Street.