What Are You Listening to Right Now?

[zelda_pinwheel]

now i'm listening to the ever excellent "Honey Bee" by Diana Ross and the Supremes. sadly i could only find y'all a remixed version, but it's not too badly butchered. "honey bee, you stung the heart in me !" they just don't write lyrics like that anymore.

oh, now i'm listening to the Miracles : "Hoping The Pause Is Helping The Cause." it's on my old school playlist.

[RWood]

So you are a Motown fan? I remember a time that it was hard to hear good old Rock 'n Roll for all of the Motown version of soul music that was on the Top 40 airwaves when I was in high school.

Right now I'm listening to the original of "Not Fade Away" by Buddy Holly. (It was later remade by the Rolling Stones.)

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RWood

So you are a Motown fan? I remember a time that it was hard to hear good old Rock 'n Roll for all of the Motown version of soul music that was on the Top 40 airwaves when I was in high school.

Back when FM radio was first becoming established, a lot of AM stations owned FM frequencies as well, and weren't sure what to do with them.

My favorite FM "underground" station was the sister station of the top black top-40 station in the city. The AM station played Motown. The FM station played the Grateful Dead. The overnight DJ on the FM station was the son of the (white) station owner.

The top white top-forty AM station also had an FM underground rock sibling. That was an automated tape loop operation. Song, song, song, FCC mandated station ID break, song... but no announcer to tell you what it was they were playing. They had some amazing music, and moments of extreme frustration. "Wow! That's great! What it it? I want to buy the album! What is it? Arrgghhhh!"

Right now I'm listening to the original of "Not Fade Away" by Buddy Holly. (It was later remade by the Rolling Stones.)

And others.
______
Dennis

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RWood

So you are a Motown fan? I remember a time that it was hard to hear good old Rock 'n Roll for all of the Motown version of soul music that was on the Top 40 airwaves when I was in high school.

oh, yes, i am an enthusiastic (if not unconditional) motown fan. that is to say that i like some of it very much, and some of it i can take or leave. but when i'm in the mood for that, i really don't want to listen to much else. i also like motown covers : i have the soundtrack album to "standing in the shadows of motown" which is frankly brilliant. there's a version of "ain't too proud to beg" by Ben Harper which i can listen to over and over for hours. also an amazing version of "what becomes of the brokenhearted" by joan osborne. one of my other favorite original motown songs is "can i get a witness" by marvin gaye. that song rocks. in fact i think i'll listen to it right now. you know what else is a great song by marvin gaye ? "try a little tenderness." and this cover by aretha franklin is nothing to shake a stick at either.

Right now I'm listening to the original of "Not Fade Away" by Buddy Holly. (It was later remade by the Rolling Stones.)

hehe, i looked it up on youtube... the only version of that song i knew is the one by the Grateful Dead (my dad loves them, they were the soundtrack to most of my childhood). i didn't even know that it was a Buddy Holly song originally, or that the Stones covered it later... clearly my musical culture has some large holes in it.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The top white top-forty AM station also had an FM underground rock sibling. That was an automated tape loop operation. Song, song, song, FCC mandated station ID break, song... but no announcer to tell you what it was they were playing. They had some amazing music, and moments of extreme frustration. "Wow! That's great! What it it? I want to buy the album! What is it? Arrgghhhh!"

oh, that would have driven me completely crazy. before the days of online playlists i used to make lists of songs i heard on the radio that i wanted identified : "14h17, something something lalala petite fleur lalala... 14h23, lala baby baby lalala..." and then call the radio station. the one i listened to the most was Radio Nova (listen online !) and since (at the time, anyway) they were a smallish operation it was always the same guy who answered the phone (he was an intern, so he got all the crappy jobs). i drove him nuts because i would make him look up dozens of songs at a time, and he was occasionally quite rude to me, but since i took it as a joke and was quite sassy back to him we eventually became friends and would go out for drinks. i like to think that it's (at least partially) thanks to me that the site has the "what was that song ???" feature ("c'était quoi ce titre ?") which allows you to search the archives. (you're welcome.)

[Elsi]

16:18 CDT -- History Channel show "The Universe", Episode "The Biggest Things in the Universe", Tivo replay started by hubby.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

oh, yes, i am an enthusiastic (if not unconditional) motown fan. that is to say that i like some of it very much, and some of it i can take or leave. but when i'm in the mood for that, i really don't want to listen to much else.

Motown produced great music, but got brickbats for business practices. Founder/CEO Berry Gordy ruled with an iron hand, and brooked no dissent. Temptations lead singer David Ruffin wanted to leave the group and go solo. Gordy disagreed. Ruffin's solo career was largely torpedoed by Gordy for disobeying him. Stevie wonder once expressed frustration, after attending a meeting of Motown execs and presenting the material for his new album. They heard "Superstition", and weren't interested in anything else. That was the killer top 40 radio track, and that was all they cared about. Wonder was trying to produce an entire album, but they were firmly rooted in the single as the product.

Some of the Motown session guys have popped up lately touring as a group. They played on many hit Motown records, as largely anonymous session men. They didn't get rich, since they didn't get royalties and made standard union session fees, but there was a lot of work, and many got houses and boats from the income they made as session players. It's nice to see them step into the spotlight under their own names, and I think they've gotten more than a few comments at gigs along the lines of "Oh, yeah! You're the one who played that great popping bass line on that Temp's cut! I learned how to play bass because I wanted to play like that!

hehe, i looked it up on youtube... the only version of that song i knew is the one by the Grateful Dead (my dad loves them, they were the soundtrack to most of my childhood). i didn't even know that it was a Buddy Holly song originally, or that the Stones covered it later... clearly my musical culture has some large holes in it.

I credit rock with greatly expanding mine. I paid attention when rock bands began playing blues, country and jazz tunes, and said "Hmmmm. Let's go pick up albums by the guys these guys listened to when they were learning to play." 1,500 albums later...

oh, that would have driven me completely crazy. before the days of online playlists i used to make lists of songs i heard on the radio that i wanted identified : "14h17, something something lalala petite fleur lalala... 14h23, lala baby baby lalala..." and then call the radio station. the one i listened to the most was Radio Nova (listen online !) and since (at the time, anyway) they were a smallish operation it was always the same guy who answered the phone (he was an intern, so he got all the crappy jobs). i drove him nuts because i would make him look up dozens of songs at a time, and he was occasionally quite rude to me, but since i took it as a joke and was quite sassy back to him we eventually became friends and would go out for drinks. i like to think that it's (at least partially) thanks to me that the site has the "what was that song ???" feature ("c'était quoi ce titre ?") which allows you to search the archives. (you're welcome.)

I got to be friends with a couple of the late night DJs. One in particular said "I assume my audience is stoned, balling, tripping, or all three, and program accordingly." I think he liked me because I could call him at 3AM and have a coherent conversation.
______
Dennis

[JackieFrost]

I am relistenind to sticky pants (stones being a long time fav but one I seldom listen to anymore) and realizing how f...ing great these guys were, and thinking how exciting musically it must have been back in these days unlikely today.

[Ervserver]

Best of The Boston Pops

[montsnmags]

Reminded and prompted by this thread, I finally replaced my tape of The Whole Story (Kate Bush) with the CD.

So, at the moment, I'm listening to "Cloudbusting" (with the added local irony that, for some reason, we have completely lost water to the house. I think "the men in power" digging up the road at the bottom of the hill may have done some "Pipebusting").

Cheers,
Marc

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Reminded and prompted by this thread, I finally replaced my tape of The Whole Story (Kate Bush) with the CD.

So, at the moment, I'm listening to "Cloudbusting" (with the added local irony that, for some reason, we have completely lost water to the house. I think "the men in power" digging up the road at the bottom of the hill may have done some "Pipebusting").

We've had that here for the past several afternoons, as my building works on the plumbing.

What's more annoying is interruptions in internet service to to cable breaks.

"We're hunting backhoes! We're using fiber optic cable for bait! Works every time!"
______
Dennis

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

We've had that here for the past several afternoons, as my building works on the plumbing.
...

With this new house, from the flotsam and jetsam of the infants of passing tenants, I have developed a predilection for the naming and placing of the discarded and once-lost toys. Thus, there is Spidey, and Miow-miow, and Lady G-G, and Ronald, and then there's Pog...the Amazing Pog...oh, the stories Pog The Incontinent Adventurer can tell!

Anyway, Pog is a cute, yellow, squeeze-toy hedgehog, about the size of a cricket ball. I initially found him near the water meter out in the front garden, and so naturally found him a hidey-hole from the ravages of a hedgehog-intolerant society within the meter box. Well, Pog liked his little hollow for some time, until the other day I found him 20 metres down the hill on the road. I suspect that if Pog wouldn't come to the Mountain of Intolerance, then the Mountain of Intolerance came to him in the form of the Meter Man. I don't know how it went down, but I suspect The Man's easy, autopilot meter-checking was suddenly kicked into shock upon lifting the cover, and expressed itself in "WHAT THE #$%^ IS THAT? AGGH, ^&*!ING KIDS!" and a forehand scoop (or backhand, if lefthanded) down into potential obliteration upon the road, crushed, like just another one of us oppressed species.

...but he has been saved, and sits now in a little hollow at the base of a clump of bamboo palms by the pool, eye to the pool-bar, the water and mostly the sky, dreaming of a world without hedgehog- and gibbon-oppression.

Incidentally, the water is back on, and I'm on a second go through The Whole Story, currently listening to Hounds of Love.

Cheers,
Marc (Gibbons Unite!)

[montsnmags]

BABOOSHKA, BABOOSHKA, BABOOSHKA-YA-YA!

[montsnmags]

I'm accustomed to a smooth ride
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie's a lie's a lie
But I say why
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?

(The Obvious Child, Paul Simon)

[montsnmags]

I registered to vote today,
felt like a fool.
Had to do it anyway
down at the high school.
Thing about the second line -
you know, "felt like a fool" -
people say it all the time,
even when it's true.

following into...

I'm gonna stand guard like a postcard of a Golden Retriever
and never leave ‘til I leave you with a sweet dream in your bed

(Sure Don't Feel Like Love following into Father & Daughter, Paul Simon)

Cheers,
Marc
PS. The latter always brings a tear to my eye.

[montsnmags]

Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to,
Momma's gonna love you just as much as she can...and she can

(Love of the Common People (Extended version), Paul Young)