Music You Love

[Robusto]

I hope we will all lob stuff in here over time.

I could write loads, but I'll start with two musics I love.

T.REX



T.Rex - and Marc Bolan - were the first group I got into when I was about 13. I still listen to them a lot in the car because they excite me and cheer me up.

I know they are not the most sophisticated of groups, but I am hooked on them for several reasons:

• Their music made me pick up an acoustic guitar and learn the essential chords to strum along. (A lot of E and A - accessible stuff on the guitar)
• I love the high pitched vocals and warbling. Lots of this was from two guys from The Mothers Of Invention, SBoy!
• I adore the heavy use of low strings
• The rhythm section are really sound
• Favourite tracks - 20th Century Boy, Children Of The Revolution, Telgram Sam, Get It On

I could keep analysing their stuff - but it's simpler to say - I LOVE IT!


Elton John


I worked out the piano bits to Rolling Stones albums and Elton John.

Whether you love him or loathe him, EJ is a very good player who - across his work - plays in all the keys and isn't just trapped in C!

As A kid, I worked out the piano licks in Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting and was off! The group friends and I made when I was about 14 used to do a mean Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding. That track was really hip at the time!

Like T.Rex, I am cheered up by selected EJ tracks. I worked backwards through Tumbleweed Connection and the black Elton John album with Your Song on it.

Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across The Water are my real favourites, both as music to listen to, and as pieces it's good to sit at the piano and knock out.

I'll leave it there for the moment - because I could write all night - and will address my love for Ian Brown's stuff at a later point.

[Stevieboy]

I love the high pitched vocals and warbling. Lots of this was from two guys from The Mothers Of Invention, SBoy!

would that be Volman and Kayman?? I'm not a big fan of their vaudeville input when they were in The Mothers Good singers/performers but I always felt Zappa wrote for them and the music suffered from being a wee bit silly...Billy The Mountain anyone!?!?

[G-man]

See all 55 pictures
Play Stevie Ray Vaughan Radio
Stevie Ray Vaughan
American Made Legand Few and far between !

[yankeefan]

i myself like to listen to rock and roll from the 50,s 60,s and the 70,s

[Robusto]

would that be Volman and Kayman?? I'm not a big fan of their vaudeville input when they were in The Mothers Good singers/performers but I always felt Zappa wrote for them and the music suffered from being a wee bit silly...Billy The Mountain anyone!?!?

The very same, Stevieboy!

So when you hear squawking an octave up over Bolan on

Automatic shoes
Automatic shoes
Gave me 3D vision
In the California Blues

...it's those two!

The black soul girls were in by 20th Century Boy.
Clever Tony Visconti!

I've never heard those two guys doing anything else.
Recommendation?...

That Charlene Spiteri multi-tracks the same tricks like this.

[bigbarneyhotdog]

Usually playing in my car is music from the producer Martin Hannett - He of the Factory Records family. His work with Joy Division is the stuff of legend. One track that springs to mind is 'Isolation' on the Closer album
His magic was also worked on the Happy Mondays' Bummed album - a masterpiece! The track 'Performance' is a timeless classic.

Another of my favorite producers is Keith Hudson - another genius. His album 'Flesh of My Skin, Blood of my Blood' has ruined many a set of speakers!

[Lascaux]

I've been hugely into female vocals for the past year.

Currently on rotation:

Edith Piaf



She really has to be the best female singer of all time.
Misericorde and Mon Dieu my favourites.
What I love is that these are some of the best songs ever written, written for the best singer.

Joanna Newsom



Unique voice, brilliant lyricist, and she has plenty of melodies that almost hurt ya when you listen to them!

Milk-Eyed Mender is her first album, mainly solo vocal and harp.
The Book of Right on, This side of the Blue, Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie.

Ys, my fave album has orchestral arrangement. Long 9-16 minute songs that unfold into bizarre stories. Just found out it was recorded completely analog.
Emily and Only Skin are my fave tracks on that.


Diamanda Galas



I have yet to see her live, but I can imagine it to be so incredibly powerful.
Quite hard to listen to at times. She wails and screams and speaks in tongues and smashes the piano about. Nothing else I listen to has that power except maybe Piaf (although in entirely different way)

Fave tracks:
O Death, Heaven Have Mercy (cover of Piaf's), Let My People Go, Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down, Gloomy Sunday.


Imelda May




Rockabilly. Another incredible vocal, best live. Such a solid band. Fave tracks, Feel Me, Big Bad Handsome Man, Knock 123.

Laura Marling is also heavily on my playlist. Fave tracks, Your Only Doll (Dora), Shine, Old Stone, Tap at my Window.

[deltawhisky]

Interesting reading, gentlemen. I myself would love to get into more guitar music, especially rock music and rock & roll. I've listened to different stuff on Radio 2, and in the company of my friends who know much more about these genres.

A good friend of mine is a big big fan of the Manic Street Preachers, and their music has real meaning, I think. The lyrics are witty and punchy, and the tunes are well put together. For those of you who have not heard their cover of Umbrella, check it out -- it is more pleasant than I initially feared!

Personally, though, I got hooked on Celtic music from an early age. The energy with which some Celtic bands play is phenomenal. I think the best stuff is the new material produced, which on the one hand is a direct hark back to trad Celtic, but on the other is inspired by jazz and contemporary genres.

Lunasa and the Battlefield Band are a must if you're into that stuff.

Best, Deltawhisky

[SteveGriff]

I'm a bit all over the shop when it comes to music.

As any kid who was a teenager in the mid 90's I grew up a diet of Brit Pop (I was a Blur guy), then around '95 got hooked into Beck and then spread my musical wings. I went all crazy - got into Beefheart/Zappa.

From my trading of live Beck bootlegs I got into the whole Jam Band scene - Grateful Dead, Phish, String Cheese Incident.

Somehow got into New Wave after my Grateful Dead/Zappa period - XTC, Devo, The B-52's, Talking Heads etc. And in between that idolised Neil Young, the whole Country Rock thing - CSN, NRPS, The Band and many more.

Discovered along the way that a lot of the stuff I got to love was all the unpopular stuff - Rush, Supertramp, Yes, ELP etc. But screw 'em I say!

Around early 2000's got into Zevon's stuff then and blah blah blah

I enjoy anything that has a beat or at least something that makes you sit up and listen. Recently I've gotten heavily into Heavy/Speed/Hair Metal, don't know how the hell - Motley Crue, Scorpions, Metallica, Quiet Riot, Skid Row etc.

[skyhigh]

as like most i have various music tastes and can listen to almost anything but i have a fondness for the late 70's and early 80's being as thats when my teenage hormones were at their most prevelant..

love the ska stuff like The Specials, bad manners ,madness (currently listening tho their new album "the liberty of norton folgate") and also like the likes of desmond decker , toots and the maytals..

punk also has a place in my collection , the clash, ramones,pistols etc.

can also be seen banging ones head to some what heavier stuff from older ones like Ozzy to newer stuff from the likes of Seether and Evanescence (amy lee has a ovely voice )

all of the above together with others such as Sting , Eva Cassidy i can appreciate equally.

[Pantomimehorse]

For me Suede were such an eye opener live, the music was fantastic but the sense of togetherness and passion Brett Anderson gave every gig made them special for me... the little things I loved which sound tacky but where cool at the time like the way he would drop kick his water bottle into the crowd and swing the mic around like a cowboy fantastic stuff..

[Boss Hog]

Over the years I've listened and collected a wide range of styles from Robert Johnson to Lilly Allen, Country, Opera, classical, Ambient the list goes on even Inuit throat singers and Morrocan Hip Hop,


I've always tried not to be a musical snob as I call it and say that I wont listen to a certain type of music because I think it's crap. I'll listen to everything, It all about expression, stirring your emotions and giving you a certain feeling and if someone tells me "have you heard of this band...." I'll listen to it. It might not be something I'll listen to again but you never know it might just be a song the provokes the right emotion when you hear it.
That's what happened to me back in the late 80's when a friend of mine said have a listen to this and from that moment on I was totally hooked. Possibly due to the fact of being a failed guitarist they played exactly the songs I wanted to do myself and still do.

That band was........ Thunder..... never heard of them most people say.
Originally called Terraplane in the early to mid 80's they reformed and became thunder a classic no nonsense british blues based rock band. Despite since releasing 9 studio albums, 11 live albums and had 20 top 40 hits, toured with acts such as Bon Jovi, Heart, Def Leppard, headlining the Donnington Monsters of Rock for a number of years they remained one of the UK most famous rock bands never to make it as big as they should have been.


As they were then...


As they are now....



Many classic rock reviewers comment on the the vocals of Danny bowes beings on par with the likes of joe cocker and paul rogers. Combined with songwriting talents of Luke Morley it's something that every rock afficianado should have in their collection.
Sadly after 20 years they have recently called it a day and played their last gig last weekend and after watching them for the last 20 years I was lucky enough to be there.
If anyones interested in listening further, PM me and I love to provide links to a selection of tracks.

The other part of my musical appreciation is Freddie Mercury. Nuff said there!

[Robusto]

Mark

You posted some llinks to these guys a while back on another music thread a while back and I was impressed. I can take Cock Rock (or however it might be called) only so far, but this was fine because they have a very good keys player on board, and that makes a big difference to me. I'd never heard of them before.

[celsis]

Billy was a mountain, Ethel was a tree growing out of his shoulder!! Oh god, I remember that! "Just another band from LA" if I'm not mistaken.

As for Volman and Kayman, in another life they were known as The Turtles. Songs that come to mind are Eleanor & She'd rather be with me.

Personally, I liked Bolan before T Rex when he was still the acoustic pixie and I still like prog rock. I would also have to throw in Maggie Bell. What a voice.

In the car, at the moment, it's Warren Zevon's Transverse City and Neil Young's Weld. Oh yeah, the SAHB also.

[Deano]

I'm only repeating what I've said a dozen times over, but my absolute primary love is Nick Drake. I can not find anyone near him in the capacity that I have love for his music. John Martyn is different, and I love his music, but nothing comes close to Nick.