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[akaCG]

As of the last two days or so, I've been bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by Fiona Apple's version of "Why Try To Change Me Now?". I'm almost pretty sure that I'm almost ready to decide that I almost like her version of it better than Frank Sinatra's.

...

Aw, heck. Enough pussyfooting. 'Far as I'm concerned, hers blows Frank's version away.

So, without further ados, ...

Here she is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uf1n1wUfxE


Anyways, ...

Question(s):

Have you been "obsessing" about any songs lately? If so, care to share?

[droop224]

I've been listening to the "Gangsta" rapper Kendrick Lamar and his new album "Damn." Powerful stuff for the socially conscience as the little brother spits his truth. He did a collaboration with U2 which was an odd mix, but I find the excerpted lyrics from his song "XXX" appropriate giving my latest debates with my fellow Americans on (especially my conservative counterparts)

[Chorus: Bono]
It's not a place
This country is to me a sound of drum and bass
You close your eyes to look around

[Verse 2: Kendrick Lamar]
Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph
The great American flag
Is wrapped and dragged with explosives
Compulsive disorder, sons and daughters
Barricaded blocks and borders
Look what you taught us!
It's murder on my street, your street, back streets
Wall Street, corporate offices
Banks, employees, and bosses with
Homicidal thoughts; Donald Trump's in office
We lost Barack and promised to never doubt him again
But is America honest, or do we bask in sin?
Pass the gin, I mix it with American blood
Then bash him in, you Crippin' or you married to blood?
I'll ask again—oops—accident
It's nasty when you set us up
Then roll the dice, then bet us up
You overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us
Gang members or terrorists, et cetera, et cetera
America's reflections of me, that's what a mirror does

Hit 'em up boy!! We call that FIRE!! "Close your eyes to look around" now that line, it definitely applies to the "Liberal media" thread where "Why the news keep telling me about myself in a way I don't want to see myself" keeps resurfacing.

[Gray Seal]

I bought a CD. I think it is the second one? It is Abba. The album is The Visitors. 'Tis only 30 years old. I had not heard most of the songs before.

Quite enjoying the tunes and lyrics.

These four have some talent. I would think some of these songs would be hits today but that is probably my opinion more than the public's.

[Trouble]

I'm turning to a bit of blues with Otis Taylor.

[net2007]

Nice tunes guys, some of that I'm familiar with!

I have something that's practically never played on the radio. I've been a huge Fleetwood Mac fan since I was little but this is a live performance I hadn't heard about until just recently. It's the live version of Big Love with Lindsey Buckingham on the guitar.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZp76M4NGc

I don't say this lightly when I say that I very rarely think a live performance compares with the studio recorded version, but this is one of the few songs I can say was actually better than the studio recorded version. It almost sounds like an entirely new song with how intensely he's able to play the guitar. I bet the members here wouldn't be disappointed hearing this one, though it's possible with how subjective music can be for everyone.

Droop224

Have you heard much Bono or primarily through the song you shared?

[AuthorMusician]

Ran across this while browsing music-related vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVME_l4IwII

The observation made is that sound compression tech is used on purpose by commercial recording outfits to basically strip music of its -- what might be called character but what I call flavor. The tech gets rid of sonic outliers that for many people make music interesting, and this is more often than not a subconscious thing. So when the oddball volumes and frequencies are eliminated, people tend to notice subconsciously in that they don't like the results but don't know how to express it.

Another way to describe this is making the overall sound muddy.

Huh, and here I thought it was just my age making me not appreciate much pop music since 1995 or so. Turns out that a lot of it sucks on purpose, as has pop music through the ages but for other reasons, such as being made for bad automotive AM radios.

Yet there's a lot of demand for musical instruments, and there's a wealth of instruction, along with a cheap platform for publishing, on the Internet. Could it be that people are turning away from commercial pop music to what they can make themselves, alone or in groups?

Anyway, this is what happens whenever I'm playing the guitars -- all electric this time rather than acoustic. Once I'm dialed into the zone, it's like a religious experience (but okay, not as good as quality sex), and I'm keeping an open mind on later-date pop melodies just in case something of interest is in there.

Hal Leonard Publishing has a series of books, each one covering a decade of music, each one with 100 pop tunes. It's pretty much all I'm listening to, other than jazzy stuff from relatively unknown guitarists. It's the search for melodic ideas that can be used in so-called improvised jazz/blues/what-have-you. And I'm doing this just because it feels right.

[Mrs. Pigpen]

Our oldest son took up guitar about a year ago.
He is kind of a savant type...he has an OCD personality so he has become very very good quickly by just playing all of the time.
My husband got him into the guitar.
He played in a few bands and his father (our sons' grandfather) played in bands and was a bit of a savant too (he could hear a song on the radio and then play it on the piano or guitar within a few minutes, though he never actually learned to read music in his life).

At any rate, we joke that our son (who is 19, and just finished military field training) is a bit of an old soul, by the music he listens to and plays.
His favorite musician of all time is Mark Knopfler, next favorite Johnny Cash.

He likes this guy too.
I think he's really good so I thought I'd share:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxrOUCKNR1E

BTW, AM, we are moving to Colorado next! Think I remember you live around there? Or maybe you've moved...Looking at the Evergreen or Conifer area.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Pigpen: Jun 9 2018, 05:44 PM

[AuthorMusician]

Our oldest son took up guitar about a year ago.
He is kind of a savant type...he has an OCD personality so he has become very very good quickly by just playing all of the time.

They didn't call it OCD when I started learning guitar in 1962. It was called concentrating. Both Lydia and I have the take that music and tech require a form of OCD that enables the banging of the head against stone walls until either the ah-hah moment arrives or the wall comes tumbling down.

I'm also a big believer in the nervous breakdown moment, which is when the enormity of what's not known crashes any hope of ever mastering anything. Today I'm perfectly comfortable with not knowing much about anything.

My husband got him into the guitar.
He played in a few bands and his father (our sons' grandfather) played in bands and was a bit of a savant too (he could hear a song on the radio and then play it on the piano or guitar within a few minutes, though he never actually learned to read music in his life).

My father cursed me with guitar too, and I've never regretted his handing over what would give a lot of pleasure, instill fear so thick it'd stop a freight train (gigging stage fright), get me laid a few times -- flukes of the 1970s -- and drain my finances quicker than a drunken Saturday night.

At any rate, we joke that our son (who is 19, and just finished military field training) is a bit of an old soul, by the music he listens to and plays.
His favorite musician of all time is Mark Knopfler, next favorite Johnny Cash.

I like those guys too. Currently I have no guitar hero or favorite performer. Seems to be another excursion down the road of musical ideas more than personalities. Not sure where this is going to take me, maybe nowhere. Which is fine by me -- just happy that I'm getting the guitar hands back.

One of the reasons I'm all-electric now is to keep the sound down. I use headphones almost all the time and a light touch on the Godin jazz box, which has some acoustic projection without amplification.

Anyway, it's a great time to be a guitarist. Decent rigs are less expensive than ever, mostly due to tech in manufacturing and lots of competition. Gibson still gets away with charging phenomenally high prices, one of those market anomalies, but even Taylors are reasonably priced. And there are kits out there for dirt cheap. I'm thinking of getting one of the Les Paul kits, since I'd be changing the pickups anyway. But then an Ibanez look-alike isn't much more, so . . . who knows.

He likes this guy too.
I think he's really good so I thought I'd share:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxrOUCKNR1E

Good old folk music! Takes me back to the haunts of Minneapolis when Max and I were trying to get a duo acoustic act together, guitar and harmonica. At the same time, this guy formerly named Prince was getting attention.

BTW, AM, we are moving to Colorado next! Think I remember you live around there? Or maybe you've moved...Looking at the Evergreen or Conifer area.

Nice country thereabouts and close to Denver. We're still in the little cow town above Colorado Springs. We've talked about moving to Grand Junction -- it's less expensive and lower altitude than here, and we're not getting any younger nor more wealthy. Sold the shack last year, renting now -- so it's a matter of, um, what is it today? Health? Wealth? Whatever, we're free to move if we want. Leaving CO isn't a consideration.

Remember: It's the thinner air that makes the sun so brutal at times, not being a few thousand feet closer to our star, which is what, 93 million miles away? Yet a lot of people think a mile or two closer would make a difference.

Anyway, it's good to hear your son has taken up guitar. I think everyone should play something besides recorded music, but there's a strong prejudice in my thinking. Imagine that

BTW, feel free to PM me. I might be able to answer questions or do something else to make your move easier.

Fair warning: Once here, you might never want to leave. It's an old Indian curse, so I've heard. It was supposedly about Boulder Canyon, but it seems to have leaked out some.

Or it's just that interesting in the hills. Opinions differ.

[Mrs. Pigpen]

BTW, feel free to PM me. I might be able to answer questions or do something else to make your move easier.

Fair warning: Once here, you might never want to leave. It's an old Indian curse, so I've heard. It was supposedly about Boulder Canyon, but it seems to have leaked out some.

Or it's just that interesting in the hills. Opinions differ.

Thanks AM! I am excited to live there.
I will probably PM you in a few weeks with questions.

Mike's Southwest hub is in Denver, so we are pretty committed, but he is getting discouraged with the house hunting.
Last night we found a good home in the hills (11 acres) but the HOA won't allow chickens.
Why on earth?!?
I hate for that to be a deal breaker, but I've wanted my own chickens since I lived in Italy 15 years ago. Fresh eggs rock.
Now I'm moving somewhere permanent and I want chickens, damnit!
That's like forbidding dogs over 50 pounds, seems to me (we want a large dog too, right now we have two very small ones)...on 11 acres of my own property?
[/rant]

This post has been edited by Mrs. Pigpen: Jun 15 2018, 12:56 PM

[Gray Seal]

I am listening to John Denver as part of my pandora mix as I write this...

---------

I have two kids living in Colorado now. One is in Lake City. The other is in Colorado Springs.

I will run in the Rocky Mountain Games in July in Colorado Springs.

Avoid the HOA s. I looked at them when my daughter was house hunting. Who wants your neighbors in charge of what you do on your own property?

The nemesis for Colorado is the influence of Texans who buy property in Colorado as their summer home. Land values are pushed up because of this demand.

[AuthorMusician]

BTW, feel free to PM me. I might be able to answer questions or do something else to make your move easier.

Fair warning: Once here, you might never want to leave. It's an old Indian curse, so I've heard. It was supposedly about Boulder Canyon, but it seems to have leaked out some.

Or it's just that interesting in the hills. Opinions differ.

Thanks AM! I am excited to live there.
I will probably PM you in a few weeks with questions.

Mike's Southwest hub is in Denver, so we are pretty committed, but he is getting discouraged with the house hunting.
Last night we found a good home in the hills (11 acres) but the HOA won't allow chickens.
Why on earth?!?
I hate for that to be a deal breaker, but I've wanted my own chickens since I lived in Italy 15 years ago. Fresh eggs rock.
Now I'm moving somewhere permanent and I want chickens, damnit!
That's like forbidding dogs over 50 pounds, seems to me (we want a large dog too, right now we have two very small ones)...on 11 acres of my own property?
[/rant]

First off, music -- I'm listening to a lot of backing tracks in various genres and layering my stuff on top. Good old Hal Leonard publishing put a bunch together in one book/thumb drive, which greatly reduces the trial/error of Internet finds. Although I did find the book online, so . . .

Lydia raised chickens for eggs/meat in Lakewood many moons ago. The suburb grandfathered livestock in -- so if you owned the property before the ban of livestock, you could still do your chickens, goats, cows, sheep, llamas, horses, mules, burrows, beefalo (hybrid) -- which points to why HOAs and state/county laws banned livestock on residential land. It can get out of hand, and even with 11 acres, you've still got people who would abuse the situation and thereby reduce property values.

But if you buy a ranch, you're good to go. State law has to do with what is and isn't a ranch. Seems the cutoff is around 35 acres, below which you've got residential property -- I think. Not certain, as it hasn't been important to us.

There's another thing here that's strange -- every freaking drop of water is owned by somebody (so it seems), and you might not be able to use water on your land, even rainfall, as you want. Because somebody else owns it, because of water rights, because of dry climate and lots of long vertical things known as creeks flowing into lakes made by humans, and of course politics.

Best of luck with the house shopping. On the upside, pretty much anything bought in the hills will increase in value better than stuff below the foothills. And it's harder to stumble into sliding soil that's quite common as gravity does its thing along the Front Range. Very hard on foundations.