Yesterday I found out that my best friend thinks that ABBA is just noise. I would have told him that he has no taste, but he already knows that, since I must have told him that approximately 500 times already.
TIL: Today I Learned
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Timsup2nothin
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Heresy or not I mostly agree. Not quite to "least favorite," but there are better tracks for sure. Can't claim to really have a favorite either, though Time would be a good candidate. Solid album, start to finish.
On the other hand, I mostly agree with your friend here. Maybe not noise, but about as flavorful and memorable as a stick of baseball card gum.
Berzerker
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You endorsed Crime of the Century so I trust your taste in music... We're about the same age so we grew up on the same music.
I'll have to admit liking ABBA, they have a few good songs.
Berzerker
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Great group... The Chain made it into the 2nd Guardians of the Galaxy
Their best known album with many of their most successful songs was made over the course of 2 divorces resulting from 4 of the band members sleeping with other band members not the band members they were married to at the time.
If you wrote the movie of it, no one would believe that it was true.
Timsup2nothin
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Indeed a great group. I dunno if they fit the "lyrics about marital upset and divorce" part. That was more their lifestyle than their lyrical theme. Talk about a soap opera in the greatest traditions of a rock and roll concert tour. Lindsay Buckingham is a candidate on my 'greatest guitarist ever' ballot, for sure.
"Dreams" and "Go your own way" were Stevie's and Lindsey's songs about their breakup from different ends.
Timsup2nothin
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Point.
I think I am a bit removed from most Fleetwood Mac fans in that I paid very little attention to the lyrics. Man could they play.
I just googled the release date of that album, and in March of 1973, I was 9 years old and not into anything remotely like that. I was living with my dad's girlfriend's family, and the oldest daughter was into Terry Jacks - obsessed, actually, and I have "Seasons in the Sun" impressed into my brain even now, because she figured out how to play it on the piano and did not care that anyone else might be trying to sleep (she had a habit of practicing either early in the morning or after the two younger kids - one of whom was me - were in bed).
I heard a miscellaneous batch of songs on the radio, few of which I remember, let alone like. The one that I do recall hearing and liking (and still like) is "Wimoweh".
But Pink Floyd? That's in the category of "vaguely recall hearing the name many years later, couldn't associate it with anything I've heard if my life depended on it."
The Beatles is another of those 'heard of them, don't recall much about them." I didn't get even a little bit interested until 1988, when a Russian ice dancing team (Klimova & Ponamarenko) skated their long program to a medley of Beatles songs. Since then, I've heard more, like some of it, and of course I was just as surprised and appalled at John Lennon's murder as everyone else. PBS had an interesting documentary about them earlier this year.
But please realize that when you grow up with grandparents who have their own ideas of what acceptable music is, you're not exposed to much of what your age-peers are listening to. My choices in music were definitely more influenced by my grandparents and parents than by my peers. So that's why I still enjoy old-time waltzes, polkas, Marty Robbins, the Irish Rovers, and Stompin' Tom Connors. I was introduced to Gordon Lightfoot's music in Grade 7, when the music class learned two of his songs. My grandmother was delighted when I learned to play them on the organ, and she would often ask to hear "Early Morning Rain".
Add in certain Broadway musicals that we studied in my junior high music classes and even a bit of opera (the teacher was ambitious; she had us learn the songs from "Carmen" and make a laughable attempt to put on a concert for our families), and fast-forward to the years I worked in a couple of theatre groups (mostly musicals and Shakespeare). I learned a lot of new songs, since I learn best by ear rather than by reading music. My grandmother was happy when I learned songs like "Wunderbar" (from "Kiss Me Kate") and "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music." Working on productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" introduced me to rock opera. And there was the time when we went back to the farming community where my grandparents used to live, for one of their dances... the band played "Lara's Theme"/"Somewhere My Love"... I sat there and listened, and when we got home later, I sat down at the organ and played it.
I've since branched out to explore other kinds of music, of course. There are specific songs I might like, though that wouldn't necessarily make me a fan of everything that musician or group has done. Sometimes it depends on how it's introduced.
That said, I've jumped in wholeheartedly to music by Roger Whittaker, Yanni, Enya, and Zamfir. I am still kicking myself for not going to the Roger Whittaker concert when he was in Red Deer a long time ago. He's retired now and no longer does concerts.
I like ABBA; whatever the lyrics are, the melodies always cheer me up.
I recently discovered a couple of musicians from Ecuador, on YouTube, and have been listening to their videos. How this happened is that someone on FB kept posting a link to a video of "The Sound of Silence" played on a zither. That video is interesting, but I noticed one with that song played on pan flutes. And that one... was instantly relaxing.
I poked around a bit and discovered that these two have done covers of several ABBA songs along with many others.
No. No. NO!
Alex Lifeson should be on your "Greatest Guitarists Ever" ballot. What is wrong with you? Lindsay Buckingham is just adequate, not a musical superpower.
Timsup2nothin
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No. No. NO!
Alex Lifeson should be on your "Greatest Guitarists Ever" ballot. What is wrong with you? Lindsay Buckingham is just adequate, not a musical superpower.
On the ballot doesn't mean got the vote. I have too many candidates to cast a vote really. And at this moment I have just drifted YouTube across a Dire Straights benefit concert from 1988 where Mark Knopfler just explained that his rhythm playing normal bandmate had to cut out and they brought in a last minute replacement... "he's never played here, but he has played a little bit: Eric Clapton."
I couldn't pick who is best on that stage, much less a best ever.
EDIT: Mind boggling. It's actually clear that the man just walked onto a stage at Wembly Stadium with a band he had never played with before and said "yeah, just play, no worries I'll pick it up as we go."
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Ajidica
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I'm no fan of ABBA, but Waterloo was and will remain a good song.
Plus, Rowan Atkinson and the Not The Nine O'Clock News did a good ABBA parody back in the day.
Berzerker
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No. No. NO!
Alex Lifeson should be on your "Greatest Guitarists Ever" ballot. What is wrong with you? Lindsay Buckingham is just adequate, not a musical superpower.
I love Rush, but Alex was the 3rd best musician in a 3 man band... Neil Peart and Geddy Lee were the driving force behind Rush.
Here's a list from Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-guitarists-153675/thurston-moore-39681/
They got Lindsey Buckingham at 100 and Alex at 98, Knopfler at 44 and Clapton at 2 and ofc Jimi at 1. I dont recognize half the names so I'm no expert.
My favs include Tommy Iommi of Black Sabbath, Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple, David Gilmour, and Eddy Van Halen but thats because I like the bands and their music. But this guy from Jefferson Starship - Craig Chaquico - would be on my list:
3:30 in, have a listen...
here's a live version from 35 years later
AFAIK you can crawl around a variety of Egyptian sites in Assasins Creed Origins. It even has a free roam mode without the stabby bits.
Hes wrong, its not just noise, its deeply irritating noise.
And you, madam, are a philistine!
Pandemic robs views of Belgian bluebells
BY RAF CASERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HALLE, Belgium — When nature is at its brightest this year, it needs to be hidden from sight.
Parks in Belgium, like in much of the rest of Europe, are a riot of color and scents in springtime, many so magnificent they would draw far too thick a crowd during a pandemic.
So some are closed, or parking areas are offlimits and nonlocals are banned from visiting. Many tourists are sent back and some are even fined if they won’t take no for an answer.
The extraordinary measures are felt deeply as bluebells are in bloom in the Hallerbos forest, about 10 miles south of Brussels. In a good year, up to 100,000 tourists come to gaze in wonder at its vast purple carpet under the beech trees.
“This pains the heart badly,” Halle Mayor Marc Snoeck told the Associated Press. “This goes against anything that we normally work for.”
During the annual April Bluebell Festival, the throngs on weekends or sunny days are so big that social distancing would become impossible along the walking paths. During their three-week stretch of flowering, the bluebells attract tourists from as far away as China and the United States.
Now, a local can walk there, soaking in the morning scents almost alone at dawn, while in normal years photography fans would already be blocking the best views while cyclists whizz by.
Snoeck appreciates the lack of crowds.
“Up to now, it has been pretty well respected,” he said of the measures.
The bad news for visitors is good news for the bluebells themselves. Ever more, they get trampled by tourists during the season, and many of them don’t recover for the next year. Now, the fragile flowers stay intact.
For Halle, a city of 30,000, though, the restrictions make the coronavirus crisis even more painful, because bluebell season is impossible to postpone. To rub it in, the weather has been unusually warm. The economic cost especially hits bars and restaurants, Snoeck said.
Bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, bloom in the Hallerbos forest in Halle, Belgium, on Thursday. ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY RAF CASERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HALLE, Belgium — When nature is at its brightest this year, it needs to be hidden from sight.
Parks in Belgium, like in much of the rest of Europe, are a riot of color and scents in springtime, many so magnificent they would draw far too thick a crowd during a pandemic.
So some are closed, or parking areas are offlimits and nonlocals are banned from visiting. Many tourists are sent back and some are even fined if they won’t take no for an answer.
The extraordinary measures are felt deeply as bluebells are in bloom in the Hallerbos forest, about 10 miles south of Brussels. In a good year, up to 100,000 tourists come to gaze in wonder at its vast purple carpet under the beech trees.
“This pains the heart badly,” Halle Mayor Marc Snoeck told the Associated Press. “This goes against anything that we normally work for.”
During the annual April Bluebell Festival, the throngs on weekends or sunny days are so big that social distancing would become impossible along the walking paths. During their three-week stretch of flowering, the bluebells attract tourists from as far away as China and the United States.
Now, a local can walk there, soaking in the morning scents almost alone at dawn, while in normal years photography fans would already be blocking the best views while cyclists whizz by.
Snoeck appreciates the lack of crowds.
“Up to now, it has been pretty well respected,” he said of the measures.
The bad news for visitors is good news for the bluebells themselves. Ever more, they get trampled by tourists during the season, and many of them don’t recover for the next year. Now, the fragile flowers stay intact.
For Halle, a city of 30,000, though, the restrictions make the coronavirus crisis even more painful, because bluebell season is impossible to postpone. To rub it in, the weather has been unusually warm. The economic cost especially hits bars and restaurants, Snoeck said.
Bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, bloom in the Hallerbos forest in Halle, Belgium, on Thursday. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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