No muss, no fuss. Your gut answers are all that are required.
Other than Nuggets, name a compilation album that opened your eyes to a genre of music
What came first, The Monkees‘ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” or Simon & Garfunkel‘s “Mrs. Robinson”? If the answer is the former, could that have been an influence on the latter?
Is there any musical activity you would find yourself less likely to be doing than listening to a Bruce Hornsby album in the car, by yourself?
Have you ever listened to a record that you suddenly realize best fits a certain location you’re visiting? Conversely, have you ever listened to a record and then realized that its vibe is running strongly counter to the place you’re visiting? On which side of this experience do you think Nirvana‘s “Heart-Shaped Box” showing up on my iTunes shuffle while driving on a rainy night along the coast of Maine fell?
What artist that you truly love do you not know well or like the most songs by? (For me it’s got to be Dylan. There are a number of songs I own on his first few albums that make no impact on me, that I couldn’t hum if you spotted me the opening 3 notes – and then there are a few other stretches in his career where I’ve barely heard his albums.)
I look forward to your answers.
1. “Pleasant Valley Sunday” came first by around nine months. I hear no relationship other than both being vague deprecations about modern life and I just can’t see Paul Simon being much influenced by the Monkees (or even Goffin/King who wrote the song). By the way, you’re lazy for not looking up the release dates on Wiki. Slacker.
2. Singing Bob Dylan songs.
3. Er, what? I remember once we were listening to Yes’ Topographic Oceans LP while doing bong hits. Some stoner bumped the stereo causing the tonearm to skitter, but it landed just as Jon was singing “…but I never lost my place.” Does that count? As for “Heart Shaped Box”, the best place to listen is sprawled out on the floor on really evil drugs. Or maybe during oral surgery.
4. Van Morrison. I very much enjoy his albums from Astral Weeks to St. Dominic’s Preview. Then his output became spottier and I know next to nothing about his albums since 1978 or so. That’s a lot of ground and what little I’ve heard doesn’t drive me to further exploration.
1. Does the Soundtrack to “American Grafitti” count?
2. Probably not. Who knows when the songs were actually written?
3. The latter.
4. The Kinks – there are a number of gaps -early non-single album cuts, Lola Vs The Powerman/Arthur/anything post 1979 that I really couldn’t identify beyond the hits
1. “Poptopia” A Rhino comp sold as 3 individual disks (70’s, 80’s, 90’s) which I still think has a higher quality / filler ratio than the Nuggets box.
2. S & G are movies. Prestige product where quality and content can be controlled for quality. The Monkees are TV. Content knocked together by committee for mass consumption.
3. Flossing with a narrow gauge e-string?
4. I was outside on a sunny day by the pool, my friend put on some 80’s tunes. “Disintegration” by the Cure.
5. Dylan and Van are good answers. Too much material to catch up with. I love me some Elvis but I’ll never plow through all his 60’s – 70’s stuff
1. The No New York compilation that documented the No Wave scene of NYC
2. Weren’t Goffin and King part of the Brill Building machine and wasn’t Simon part of that machine early on as well?
3. Method acting the death of Bobby Fuller is about par to listening to Bruce Hornsby alone in a car.
4. It happens a lot I am sure, but I have to think about specifics. Will follow up after I drink this coffee and listen to Dave Dudley records about staying awake and driving trucks,
5.Tom Waits
THANK YOU, petesecrutz, for making the Brill Building link to Paul Simon! I truly have no idea if Simon had any interest in “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” but I think its rhythms as well as its lyrics can be seen as stylistic precurssor’s for “Mrs. Robinson.”
Other than Nuggets, name a compilation album that opened your eyes to a genre of music
An oldies double album from a local radio stationmy mom had. It had Doo Wop and Buddy Holly and I loved the hell out of that thing.
What came first, The Monkees‘ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” or Simon & Garfunkel‘s “Mrs. Robinson”? If the answer is the former, could that have been an influence on the latter?
I’m guessing Mrs. Robinson. I don’t care which turd pulled the other turd out with it.
Is there any musical activity you would find yourself less likely to be doing than listening to a Bruce Hornsby album in the car, by yourself?
Putting a Bruce Hornsby album on the turntable, in front of someone else.
Have you ever listened to a record that you suddenly realize best fits a certain location you’re visiting?
Sort of. The Black Keys fit Akron and Cleveland so well it’s kind of amazing.
Conversely, have you ever listened to a record and then realized that its vibe is running strongly counter to the place you’re visiting?
Cleveland Punk is great in Alabama because it just doesn’t fit.
On which side of this experience do you think Nirvana‘s “Heart-Shaped Box” showing up on my iTunes shuffle while driving on a rainy night along the coast of Maine fell?
I think that’s a really great rainy night song. If you’re getting out and about a lot these days, check out this guy’s website:
http://www.rottenrecordcollector.com/
He likes bootlegs and hard rock, but you can tell by his pictures where the fun places for you would be.
What artist that you truly love do you not know well or like the most songs by? (For me it’s got to be Dylan. There are a number of songs I own on his first few albums that make no impact on me, that I couldn’t hum if you spotted me the opening 3 notes – and then there are a few other stretches in his career where I’ve barely heard his albums.)
Bowie. I love his 70’s output, but prior to The Man Who Sold the World and after the Stage album, I really have no idea what he was doing. I know some of the hits, but I know songs that aren’t that important to me, like The Prettiest Star or Fascination like the back of my hand and I can’t remember which album Stevie Ray Vaughan played on.
1. I’m a big fan of clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, who worked with a lot of different people over a long career. You can learn a lot with a lesser star like that when looking at the liner notes, and while I was enjoying the bass sax work of bandmate Adrian Rollini, I saw he had a different abbreviation by his name which equated to something called a “goofus”. Now I ask any of you, could you resist trying to find out more about that? I naturally bought a comp of music by the Goofus Five. This led to getting a whole bunch of corny 20s jazz which I really enjoy, but which I probably would have dismissed 20 years ago as stuff accompanying some pasty-faced ham in silent movie pitching woo.
2 – Mrs. Robinson came before Pleasant Valley Sunday, just like there were whatever animals living before dinosaurs that probably laid lots of eggs before there was ever a chicken. There had to be a Mrs. Robinson around to beget Jack so we’d have than handy unit of time in which something can be done. That being so, I think her son Jack was an influence on the Monkees, since they were always speeding up the tape on tv to make themselves look faster.
3 – Comparing Pleasant Valley Sunday and Mrs. Robinson. No, I think grooving to John Tesh might be even less likely. I don’t think I could even do that ironically, just moronically. At least, I would certainly have had to lose a bet.
4- Doesn’t this happen about once a month with an ipod? I know it’s a wet blanket response, but I don’t even remember these types of coincidences anymore. I know TMBG’s Minimum Wage is going to come up on the shuffle eventually here at work.
5.The Buzzcocks. I think I only have comps, no albums or singles. Maybe it’s all I need, but usually I would get more obsessive about a band I like that much and buy things until I was disappointed.
1. The first Indestructible Beat of Soweto compilation clued me into the sound of township jive after Paul Simon piqued my interest, and that set me off on my obsession with African sounds that continues to this day. I still think it’s one of the best compilations I’ve ever heard.
2. They’re both ‘social commentary,’ though PVS is a little more ham-handed lyrically. I think it’s more suburban, and Mrs. Robinson is more urban. Or maybe it’s just that, despite being written by Goffin/King and supposedly being set in New Jersey, the sound of PVS is totally California.
3. I know it’s not hip to say so, but I like Bruce Hornsby.
4. I used to drive all over the eastern US, and listening to stuff in the car has had the effect of associating certain records with a location I was driving through at the time. I don’t always remember this until the record plays now and the landscape comes flooding back into my memory. You can’t force it though — I remember trying to play the Pere Ubu album called Pennsylvania while driving in western PA, and it just didn’t work.
5. Johnny Cash. He’s an artist that’s so huge, I’ve mostly avoided him because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get my head around him. I have a comp of Sun material, but the prospect of trying to grapple with his discography has scared me off going further.
1. There’s another garage rock compilation called “Wild Thing” that was a available as a TV offer back in the early 80s. I bought and listened to it way before I heard any Nuggets releases. I think it’s better than the original Nuggets–although it didn’t have the Electric Prunes. I had to buy a 45 of that.
2. Not sure which came first, but Ray Davies was doing that type of suburban social commentary before either the Monkees or Paul Simon. I still like both songs though.
3. Can’t see myself ever wanting to listen to Bruce Hornsby anywhere, but I guess Barry Manilow would be even less likely.
5. I might have to say Dylan here too. I haven’t listened to much of his 70s-present output and have no strong desire to do so.
Other than Nuggets, name a compilation album that opened your eyes to a genre of music
Viva Ibiza 3 disc house music compilation
What came first, The Monkees‘ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” or Simon & Garfunkel‘s “Mrs. Robinson”? If the answer is the former, could that have been an influence on the latter?
i’m sure 1 influenced the other. i like both. Mrs Robinson is one of the few examples of a cover version ruining the original for me a bit. i can’t hear it now without thinking of dickhead Evan Dando(maybe that’s a good idea for a thread)
Is there any musical activity you would find yourself less likely to be doing than listening to a Bruce Hornsby album in the car, by yourself?
watching Idol.
Have you ever listened to a record that you suddenly realize best fits a certain location you’re visiting? Conversely, have you ever listened to a record and then realized that its vibe is running strongly counter to the place you’re visiting? On which side of this experience do you think Nirvana‘s “Heart-Shaped Box” showing up on my iTunes shuffle while driving on a rainy night along the coast of Maine fell?
When I first visited San Francisco in 1993, everything I heard there went with the place then and forever after. Bone Machine, Henry’s Dream, Del Rubio Triplets, Buck Naked, Neil Hamburger, Cramps, Portishead, Sky Cries Mary, MC 900 ft Jesus, DJ Muggs remix of So Whatcha Want?
What artist that you truly love do you not know well or like the most songs by? (For me it’s got to be Dylan. There are a number of songs I own on his first few albums that make no impact on me, that I couldn’t hum if you spotted me the opening 3 notes – and then there are a few other stretches in his career where I’ve barely heard his albums.)
Lou Reed
1. Ethiopiques Vol. 1
2. I think their connection is mainly coincidental: two pop songs about complacent suburbanites, and how they just don’t get it, man!
3. Listening to the Hold Steady or Titus Andronicus.
4. I could not get into Portishead’s most recent, critically adored album because I bought it during an especially sunny summer, and that is all wrong!
5. The Dream Syndicate. All I own is the first album and that’s all you need as far as I’m concerned. Most of the solo Steve Wynn stuff I’ve heard is just okay, and not terribly essential.
Have you heard Dream Syndicate’s Complete Live at Raji’s? That’s some good stuff. A lot of the first album is on it, and just the best of the rest. I tend to like Steve Wynn more in theory than in practice, but that live album is terrific.
Ever heard the Booker T & the MGs version of “Mrs. Robinson”? It’s awesome — one of the great bass-player showcases in pop music history.
Yes, that’s a winner.
Compilation: SST’s Blasting Concept.
Pleasant Valley Robinson: these two songs are related how?
Less likely activity than Hornsby in car? less likely to be listening to Christopher Cross??
Song / Location / Heart Shaped Box in Maine: too many songs come alive in specific locations to name here. Heart Shaped Box would have nothing to do with Maine for me.
Beloved Artist I don’t actually know that well: Lou Reed. Aside from the obvious early gems, I can’t finish listening to a single song from his solo work. Same with Iggy, besides “Lust for Life.”
Have you seen World’s Greatest Dad? At one point it involves driving around listening to Bruce Hornsby.
Is that a movie or something? I will make sure to avoid it. I’m sorry that Bruce Hornsby troubles me so, but he does.