Joseph Brenner wrote:
> Tiny Human Ferret <ixnayamspay_klaatu@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>
>
>>Attrition kills a lot of people in their early adult years.
>>Songs and movies don't seem to have much effect in preventing
>>this.
>
>
> I read an interview with someone once who was saying that he
> had felt like he had to get into using heroin because of all
> those cool "Velvet Underground" songs.
>
> It always amazes me how many people manage to avoid hearing
> their favorite songs.
"Ain't that the truth."
--Barney Rubble
Seriously, recently I've been listening to a lot of music from when I
was much younger, which means what I was listening to when I was 18 or
so, which means stuff from the mid-1970s and thereabouts. A couple of
things strike me: first, in a lot of ways, for a lot of the music, I can
now better appreciate the musician****p and/or the production values. At
the time, I'd tend to say "whoa, love that song" and continue to party
on. But actually I'd say that about almost anything I happened to like
at the time, and some of the stuff I really liked back then is likely to
make me cringe if I hear it now. Otherwise, I might be stunned by the
banality of the lyrics, or practically knocked off of my feet by
consummate musician****p that I somehow never noticed.
Here's one for all of the meth fiends out there who've just spent the
night sitting there having a nice little solo binge:
http://lyrics.duble.com/T/thunderheadlyrics/thunderhead25or6to4lyrics.htm
<quote>
Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
Fla****ng lights against the sky
Giving up I close my eyes
Sitting cross-legged on the floor
Twenty-five or six to four
Staring blindly into space
Getting up to splash my face
Wanting just to stay awake
Wond'ring how much I can take
Should I try to do some more
Twenty-five or six to four
Feeling like I ought to sleep
Spinning room is sinking deep
Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
Twenty-five or six to four
Twenty-five or six to four
</quote>
The guitar work on this Chicago Transit Authority (Chicago) song is
infamously good and in modern terms gave them incredible rock cred which
lasted through several albums mostly on the basis of their horn section,
also featured in this song. But really, it's the guitar... and the
lyrics, which I never made any sense of until years after the song
wasn't much on the charts, and the epidemic that had spawned it had
passed for that generation.
Another simple little song, in terms of lyrics, came from Deep Purple,
and I always thought it was typical blues and a bit dim even for the
blues:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/deep-purple/38769.html
<quote>
You’re lazy just stay in bed
You’re lazy just stay in bed
You don’t want no money
You don’t want no bread
If you’re drowning you don’t clutch no straw
If you’re drowning you don’t clutch no straw
You don’t want to live you don’t want to cry no more
Well my trying ain’t done no good
I said my trying ain’t done no good
You don’t make no effort no not like you should
Lazy you just stay in bed
Lazy you just stay in bed
You don’t want no money
You don’t want no bread
</quote>
Now, if I'd paid any damned attention and had any sense, after the first
time I'd heard that song I'd have been getting up before dawn every day,
busting my ass and making something of myself. But no: I was listening
to the exceptional guitar work, IIRC by Alvin Lee.
And then there was one which isn't quite a warning, except possibly to a
generation of teen gals' moms, and judging by the number of teen gals
who fell into my own teen arms while listening to it, none of those moms
had ever listened to the song, or their daughter chose not to heed their
warnings (praise $DEITY):
http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/magicman.htm
Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" -- for all that it has only two songs on it
that are really worth mentioning -- remains one of the better-produced
albums of all time, at least for those two tracks, and the tightness of
the musician****p is astoni****ng in comparison to most modern acts, the
moreso for the youth of all involved.
--
nam primi in omnibus proeliis oculi vin****ur.
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