Comments on: Week 39: Memorable Quotes 2, Steely Dan’s Letters

By: ramona

ramona — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:57:00 +0000

let’s answer the acerbic first – let’s see, according to Chappele’s Rock N Roll is Here to Pay’s map of the history of music and politics, I’m screwed because he stopped his little map at 1974. So, it’s either out of Instrumental R&R, which then led to surf, which the British Invasion built off of, which then led to hard rock, then heavy metal and glitter rock. I’m guessing it’s that one. ha! There’s Mountain right before Jethro Tull. My favorite is Shlock Rock which starts off with Pat Boon in the 40s and ends with Paul Anka and Olivia Newton John. I’m guessing that’s the history of yacht rock, though schlock rock sounds better.
Anyway, you’ve got me there Cramer. I did take Jazz History but dropped out to help run a punk rock bar.

By: The Sparrows of Happiness

The Sparrows of Happiness — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:17:00 +0000

Well Ramona, you make my point for me — you like jazz and soul, neither of which I ever really developed much of a taste for. Your tastes in music are probably broader than mine, so something like Steely Dan you have a context for and enjoy, whereas I just hear a bunch of 9th chords randomly strung together and am thinking, “When will this be over so I can hear some Mountain?”

I mean, don’t get me wrong – I love a 9th chord when it’s blasted through a 100watt Marshall by, say, Robin Trower or Jimi Hendrix – but at lower volumes I lose interest.

I think that the punk ethic was basically to do loud, simple, rock & roll and strip out some of the embellishments that had been infused into the genre in the late 60s and early 70s. Some bands did this better than others; I think the Ramones did some things right but, for my tastes, they de-emphasized the blues too much and ended up sounding more bubblegum than punk. But that’s just one man’s opinion. Obviously they did enough right that they influenced a lot of other bands, especially in England, etc.

By: John Cramer

John Cramer — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:51:00 +0000

Ramona, your line of reasoning doesn’t necessarily mean the Ramones are suffused with blues. Unless you were trying to claim that ‘all rock is an extension of the blues, and thus all punk is as well.” That would just be silly.

By: Head Stapler

Head Stapler — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:38:00 +0000

"Didn't rock come from the blues? And isn't punk just an extension of rock?"

Blues come from Hell.

Punk and Rock are still trying to get t-shirts made.

By: ramona

ramona — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:12:00 +0000

sparrow – are you trolling? like, I totally grew up on blues and soul. I owned the ‘white boy blues’ double album. In addition to my other first love being The Rolling Stones. And for some reason my college group only listened to this stuff all four years I was there. (strange, really.)
So, I’m also into jazz. And I like that stuff DD, I think it is, sometimes plays on the napcasts.
And I still like the Ramones.
Didn’t rock come from the blues? And isn’t punk just an extension of rock?

By: Matthew Thurman

Matthew Thurman — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:58:00 +0000

Sorry, the Anon earlier was me…been awhile, I forgot to write my name. But I did want to clarify my earlier slag of AC/DC…I like some of their songs I guess, they just never blew my mind like other people say…but I was always impressed by the fact that they found a new singer and released BACK IN BLACK literally less than 6 months after Bon died. That’s pretty amazing. Funnily enough, I saw that same PBS special on the Dan, and I remember being a bit disappointed…it just didn’t thrill me at all, but I finally got to see them live, recently, and it was absolutely fantastic. The whole audience was dancing, and singing along, and I was without a doubt, one of the youngest people there. It was quite a new feeling.

By: Head Stapler

Head Stapler — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:06:00 +0000

Stockholm Syndrome. Good analogy. Hostage to the sound, and as the years go on, it becomes landscape.

By: The Sparrows of Happiness

The Sparrows of Happiness — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:24:00 +0000

Mari, I think that experience would drive a lot of people to punk rock. And I *like* rush and was one of those guys who would take the belt off the record player and try to figure out the solos. I was just never good enough to actually play them right, which is how I found my own way to punk rock.

By: Mari

Mari — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Hey, just wanting to chime in here with my personal Rush experience: I absolutely hated them with a white hot passion in high school. They embodied everything that I abhorred (at the time), meaning my older brother, because he was "that guy" in high school. You know, the one with the Steve Perry haircut who played the guitar in the band that played primarily Rush covers. Everybody thought he was an awesome guitarist. I had to listen to Rush, a band he still worships, over and over again emanating from his overly powerful stereo as it reverberated through the thin walls at my parents house. I had to listen to him play Rush songs over and over again until he got them precisely right, note for freaking note. He pretty much forced me into punk rock and new wave. (He also forced me to go see a Rush concert so that I could understand and see for myself how amazingly awesome they were.) At the time, I hated my brother, and he hated me.

Twenty years later (or more, actually, ahem), I'll hear a Rush song from that era, and for some reason an unexplainable sentimentality will come over me, and I'm able to listen to the whole song and freaking sing along. I know all the words--they must have bored their way into my brain, like Journey songs with their ubiquity at the time. I don't really understand this, maybe it's a Stockholm Syndrome thing.

I want to add that today, I like my brother just fine. He's a good guy, if a little too righteously conservative. However, he still thinks Rush is the BEST BAND THAT EVER EXISTED and that they still put out excellent music.

By: Carlos Anaconda

Carlos Anaconda — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:47:00 +0000

No John, this argument is AS dumb as the one that followed your post. Apparently dumb debates of the x vs y format are the preferred form of expression of this blog. long live us!

Can the movie Idiocracy really be that far off?