Good song. I just like how he writes songs, and great lyrics to boot. 8/10.
The first song is one of my favorites by Steely Dan.
Good song. I just like how he writes songs, and great lyrics to boot. 8/10.
The first song is one of my favorites by Steely Dan.
To be pedantic, it's 'how they write songs'.Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi
I prefer the second of those two, but in any event it's a 9/10.
Taking the Beatles as read, there are days on which I think that Steely Dan are my favourite band. The only real competition is Costello, up to about 1985. So here's more...
When my son was very young, I made sure he was around a lot of intelligent and well-crafted music, because that stuff shapes you for life. When he was five, I was walking past his bedroom at about ten at night and I could hear him in the dark singing "And I'm going insane - I'm laughing at the frozen rain. Oh, and I'm so alone - honey, when they gonna send me home...?" When he was six, he auditioned for the part of Joseph in the school nativity play by singing XTC's Towers of London. (He ended up as Third Shepherd From The Left, but I try not to blame Andy Partridge for that.)
Fourteen years later, the kid's turned out pretty good, apart from an inexplicable devotion to techo-rave-psycho-dance crap.
Last edited by MarkBastable; 05-04-2011 at 10:16 AM.
Before doing a little Wikipedia research, I assumed that the songs were pretty much written solely by the lead singer, who I also assumed was named Dan (unless 'Dan' can be a nickname for 'Donald'). Obviously, I'm pretty new to their music, and only just started listening to it a few weeks ago, aside from when I heard my dad playing it. You do learn something new everyday.
I liked it, despite the use of "pina colada" in the lyrics. 8/10.
My dad did much the same with me. I grew up listening to a lot of jazz and jazz fusion (Al Di Meola, Pat Methany, Chick Korea, progressive rock (Yes, Genesis, etc.), and, of course, great stuff like The Beatles and Costello. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed that music until I was well into high school. Well-rounded musical taste is one of the greatest things my dad gave me. It was my cousin who veered me into the realms of heavy metal, and I then veered my dad into heavy metal, also. It's fun seeing metal bands with my dad (rarely do you see fathers and sons at metal concerts).
So as to not make this into an exchange of Steely Dan songs, I'll go a different direction. . . .
How about some avant-garde jazz hardcore fusion!
um. My neice once played percussion with the pots and pan she pulled out of the drawer under the oven.
alright. so here is mine. I can't stop listening to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8HNakhSp38
"...if you weren't smart enough to get a pedophile in a dress to put a small amount of water on the child’s forehead, then what the eff did you think was going to happen?
Since there's no rating, I assumed you loved it. Good for you, being open minded. I just find Naked City fascinating.
I can. I just don't dig that 80s sound. 3.5/10
This band continues to solidify itself as one of the most creative and innovative metal bands out there. (For those who hate metal [which, unless metal134 decides to show back up, is pretty much everyone], try to ignore the screaming and appreciate the technicality and complexity of the composition.)
I suspect they are solidifying themselves as a pre-emptive defence against someone trying to liquidate them.
See, there's the problem for me. Technicality and complexity are not in themselves appreciable. They're not ends; they're means. And in this case, I can't see what they're for - they don't tell me anything apart from the fact that these guys can play and they can remember a lot of time signatures.
So - y'know - no surprise, really, that this is a 3/10 for me. And it only got that many because it followed Morrissey, whom I despise to the depths of my blackened soul.
Declan covers Nick. I may have this as the 'everybody shuffles out of the chapel' music at my funeral.
Well, I don't know what it's for either. I don't really know what you mean by what they're "for," really. The only thing they're for that I can possibly think of is to produce a different type of sound. I like technicality and complexity--I become quickly bored with very straight and standard song structures (with exceptions, of course). I guess if if one wants to stick to formulaic (and I do not use that word pejoratively, at least not in this case) music because that's just what they enjoy, I get that. Well, not really--I rarely understand someone else's tastes.
I'm glad you appreciate the skill, though. Did you at least enjoy some parts of the song? It wasn't all screaming and complexity, after all.
I'm a Costello fan, but this isn't one of my favorite songs of his. 6/10.
I prefer his later work, and usually like his more subdued songs, like this.
It's not his, actually. It's Nick Lowe's. But as Lowe himself said, "Elvis has been doing it for so long and so well, I've kinda forgotten I wrote it."
I fell out of love with Costello somewhere around Spike, but of his subsequent work All This Useless Beauty is one of the best songs. In fact I was listening to it on the way into work today. 8/10
This was written by Allan Toussaint, who did an album with Costello a few years back. It's about as uncomplicated as pop music gets, really, but it works perfectly for me.
It actually works for me, too. 7/10. I like the horn section. And is that an actual 1967 live recording? It sounds amazing.
This is what is missing with current popular music, in my opinion, and the problem is I can't really define what this song has that current pop-songs don't. I guess it can only be described as heart, or soul. There just seems to be a genuine quality in old pop that has vanished.
When I can't think of anything to post (and I don't feel like being sadistic and posting a metal song) it never hurts to post a song by the greatest band to have ever existed.
I'm sure both Mutatis & Mark can agree that my judgment is impaired in this regard: the Beatles never do much for me. I don't "hate" them or anything. But when I hear their songs, I just get a feeling of. . ."meh..." So to honor the great mediocrity that I feel of the above song, I'll give it a 5/10
I'm in the mood for Fiona: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFOzayDpWoI
Last edited by The Comedian; 05-06-2011 at 02:17 PM.
“Oh crap”
-- Hellboy
Thanks for giving Mark and me something we can agree on, lol.
I'm in the mood for Fiona: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFOzayDpWoI[/QUOTE]
Well, I kind of feel the same way about Ms. Apple as you do about The Beatles. Not horrible, not really memorable for me. 5/10.
Bartok is awesome. Plus, kudos to Ritter for playing this without any sheet music.
On the subject of the Beatles, I'd say my own opinion is best expressed here, in the para marked 'Music'. (The bold type isn't mine. MySpace seems to have decided on it without consulting me.)
Here's my problem with Bartok. Ahem. Technicality and complexity are not in themselves appreciable. They're not ends; they're means. And in this case, I can't see what they're for - they don't tell me anything apart from the fact that these guys can play and they can remember a lot of time signatures. 3/10
At the other end of the scale of involvement in the process of production, Eno.
Last edited by MarkBastable; 05-06-2011 at 09:33 PM.
Wow! I thought I was flying through space, looking at the planets and the stars, or floating on a cloud, looking up at the big blue and white, or going into the light...10/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpSYulUFncE
Last edited by qimissung; 05-06-2011 at 11:41 PM.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
Do you like anything with technicality or complexity, Mark?
I disagree.
As qimissung's song. . . .
I kept waiting for it to kick in, and it never did, which was frustrating. But, the lyrics were good, so 5/10.
My favorite progressive death metal band doing a decidedly un-death metal song.
Well, depends on the complexity. So harmonic complexity, yes - bring it on. Rhythmic complexity, not usually, if it's the changes in rhythm that are complex, but I don't mind if the established rhythm is complex.
And on the technical side - everything I like is crammed to the gills with technical prowess, because technical prowess is simply the ability to play the piece precisely as it should be played. What I rarely like is a piece that appears to be written mostly in order to show how it should be played. Moreover, no amount of technical proficiency, however impressive, will make an unengaging piece of music engaging.
I hope that helps.
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