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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 18, 2022 14:49:03 GMT -5
Back in the summer of 1972, some friends of mine essentially kidnapped me to go with them to see a concert in decidedly unhip Paramus NJ. Like Kirby, they said, "Don't ask!" Of course I didn't and found myself at the Bergen Mall Playhouse watching a transcendent performance by the Divine Miss M, Bette Midler. Her pianist and bandleader was Barry Manilow, and her three Harlettes backup singers included Melissa Manchester that summer. We loved her for her love of kitsch, camp, old songs with new and heartfelt interpretations, her Sophie Tucker jokes, her beaming smile and bawdy style, and her undeniable love for what she was doing up there.  She was just a few months removed from her long artist-in-residence stint at the old Continental Baths on the Upper West Side in NYC, but was still working second-line concert halls. Her first album wouldn't be released till the fall, but by New Year's Eve of '72, she was playing Lincoln Center... and blew the roof off there, too. Betyerass we went! We saw Bette a few more times over the next couple of years, and she was always surprising, always sang as if it were her last time on stage, breaking your heart one minute with John Prine's "Hello in There," then getting you standing on your seat dancing to "Higher and Higher." (As I remember doing at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic NJ in the spring of '73.) Still love her, but her career took a different turn musically, which was fine; she was more than entitled and talented enough to move on, and the kitsch could only carry her so far, but those first couple of years were lightning in a bottle; she made you feel as if she were singing just to you. Her smile is still sweet and innocent, her mind sharp and salacious and I have to shake my head when I realize she's closing in on 80. I'll always treasure my memories of those first couple of years of her stardom, the fun I had with my friends, and the joy she brought to us and to everyone who watched her perform.  Oh, and another great concert memory just cam back to me. mid-80s and we got to see the Temptations (well, one or two of the originals), and they were very good, but for us, the real attraction was that they opened for the Four Tops, who were still the original and only four. Holy Shiitake Mushrooms, Batman! It might as well have been 1965 again. Levi Stubbs' silky, sultry, thunderous growl of a voice was simply one of the best ever, and the Tops and he were like the vocal equivalents of the Avengers in one of those "Christ, what perfect teamwork!" sequences in the movies. But the Avengers need computers, stand-ins and special effects. The Four Tops had been singing together since they were teenagers, and they made it all look easy without making it look practiced. True professionals and man, did they put on a show! |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 18, 2022 23:00:04 GMT -5
Roxy Music for me. I missed them the first chance I had, in Memphis 1975, although my two best friends went, but I didn't like them at the time, anyway. Got hooked in 1980, and they've stayed favorites ever since. I know their entire catalog intimately, note-for-note, I can reproduce their arrangements in detail in my head. I saw their lead singer Bryan Ferry solo in Atlanta, 1994, then finally got to see the band itself reunited in Atlanta, 2010 (with their original drummer, The Great Paul Thompson, who codystarbuck mentioned playing with his favorite band, Concrete Blonde). Saw Ferry again in Nashville, 2019, and now I'm contemplating a trip to Dallas to see Roxy reunited for a 50th Anniversary performance later this year. About 12 years ago I managed to...I'm not sure quite how to explain it, it started as an intellectual exercise in curiosity which then turned unexpectedly into genuine appreciation, but I somehow found myself consuming funeral doom metal. One of the bands I was listening to, a drone metal band called Sunn O)))) did a putative "cover" of a black metal song called "Cursed Realm of the Winter Demons" which led me to check out the original, a vastly different sounding song by a band called Immortal. Immortal sounded like absolute trash, and I couldn't imagine why anyone would listen to them, so I played some of their albums just to marvel at how bad they were. "Listening ironically" I guess the kids call it. And then I played them again. And before long, I was listening because I wanted to hear it, and suddenly they were on my constant play list, and I'd become intimately familiar with their entire catalog. So I've still got a lot of funeral doom and black metal playing to this day. My music tastes are usually characterized by deep dives into whatever artist I'm interested in: if I like it, I want to hear it all. Cocteau Twins, The Who, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Suicide, Ahab, Evoken...I've obtained or listened to everything they've released, if I could get hold of it.
Great to see Roxy Music getting some attention in the thread. Their first 5 albums especially are up there with my all time favourite music. I like the comeback stuff too, Flesh and Blood, Avalon, and even the often disparaged Manifesto, but those early 70s records are on another level.
I've never seen Roxy themselves but have seen Ferry twice, once in around 1989 or 1990 and then again around 5 years ago. he played a lot of my favourite Roxy material both times.
I kind of came to Roxy Music late. That wasn't getting played, in my area, then MTV had a video for Avalon, then Ferry was out on his own. However, I kept seeing Roxy Music mentioned as an influence with a lot of New wave bands that I ended up backtracking, a bit. They got a little out there for my tastes (And I love most of Bowie's stages); but, I liked it. I've really only recently listened to a wider range of their stuff, as I have been getting more into 70s British Glam Rock and went down a Youtube rabbit hole. My favorite, so far, has been Mud... That led me further to some I was acquainted with, but never really listened to, like Alvin Stardust (saw clips on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, before, but not whole songs), more into T-Rex and Marc Bolan (I had heard "Bang a Gong") and even Showaddywaddy (who were doing retro 50s60s-esque stuff, much like Sha-Na-Na)..... and to what at first glance I thought was Roxy Music; but, turned out to be Sailor...... And, no that isn't a prop; it's an instrument the singer invented , which he called a Nickelodeon, mixing piano, synthesizers and a glockenspiel to duplicate sounds that they made in the studio, while doing live performances. Oh, and if MC Hammer thought his fashion was original, I've got news for him.... |
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Post by berkley on Apr 19, 2022 0:08:43 GMT -5
Roxy Music I heard through my older brother and his friends, who were into a lot of music that wasnt played on our local radio in the early to mid 70s, not sure how they heard it, to be honest. So I think the order of my exposure was Country Life, then the first album, then Siren - those three my brother bought. Then I got For Your Pleasure and Stranded. As often happens, the first thing your exposed to makes a huge impression, so Country Life was for a long time my favourite: I thought it was the greatest thing since the Beatles, and without the Beatles being an obvious or direct influence, as they were with, say, Badfinger or ELO. But those first two albums with Eno are probably the ones I'd rate at the top now.
I'd have to say that Ferry's and Eno's solo stuff is up there too, especially Ferry's first one or two and Eno's first four or five. Again, I like most of what I've heard of their later stuff too - I haven't listened to all of Eno's ambiant music or his many collaborations - but that early burst of creativity on records like Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain was incredible. And Ferry's first couple of solo records cemented my love of the pre- or non-rocknroll pop music I knew from watching old movies on tv - and made a connection between all that and the rock stuff I was into that I hadn't been aware of before. I think I had kind of unconsciously kept them in separate compartments in my mind up to then - and now here was a guy doing all of it on the same record: tin pan alley, country, early rockabilly and pop, you name it.
One of these days I'll try to explore some of the bnds Codystarbuck mentioned and the whole UK glitter scene in general. Some I know well - I'd rate Mott the Hoople and T.Rex as favourites - but there's a lot I don't, including Mud and Showadaddy.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 14:43:35 GMT -5
On the non-metal side of the world, my favorite vocalists are Elvis, Diana Ross, Liam Clancy, and Tommy Makem. Clancy and Makem can bring me to tears.
I got to see Liam as part of the mid-90s incarnation of the Clancy Brothers.
For guitar, metal or not, Buddy Guy is the man. I got to see him five years ago. I was worried with him getting up in years that he'd indulge in even more vamping than playing than usual, as I've heard him do through-out his career in bootlegs. But no, there was very little of that, and a whole lot of awesome.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 18:48:41 GMT -5
just got this on Sunday. .and early Bday gift to myself:
(only reason I didnt' have it was the pricetag - a bit steep since i had a lot of the material included as bonuses. . . but Amazon dropped the price + a $50 gift card? easy sell to me) |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 19:08:36 GMT -5
(only reason I didnt' have it was the pricetag - a bit steep since i had a lot of the material included as bonuses. . . but Amazon dropped the price + a $50 gift card? easy sell to me) It's like "KISSmas"  Beyond cool!! |
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Apr 24, 2022 16:27:14 GMT -5
The Fall is one of my all-time favorite groups. I first saw them sometime in the 1990s in Cambridge, MA. It wasn't a particularly memorable show. But in 2005 I got the chance to see them in Brighton, England and it was absolutely fantastic. I had to leave before the final number to catch the last train back to London. But, hey, it happens to have been posted on YouTube:
RIP MES
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Post by badwolf on Apr 25, 2022 12:49:16 GMT -5
The Fall is one of my all-time favorite groups. I first saw them sometime in the 1990s in Cambridge, MA. It wasn't a particularly memorable show. But in 2005 I got the chance to see them in Brighton, England and it was absolutely fantastic. I had to leave before the final number to catch the last train back to London. But, hey, it happens to have been posted on YouTube: RIP MES I love "Telephone Thing."
I have been checking them out on streaming, very interesting group (such as it was--"Even if it was just me and your gran it would still be The Fall" - Mark E. Smith).
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Post by berkley on Apr 25, 2022 21:46:22 GMT -5
The Fall is one of those bands I never became aware of until quite late in the game - I think I first heard about them on the old CBR music board, which would make it around the early 2000s. I really like them now, although I've never gotten a handle on their history or discography, in the sense of having a feel for which particular albums or eras of their long career I like best. I've only managed to pick up a few cds here and there over the years since then and they all sound good to me.
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Post by commond on Apr 26, 2022 8:36:28 GMT -5
The Fall is one of those bands where I can listen to any record by them, even the lesser rated ones, and still enjoy it. There are artists where you only want to listen to their highest rated albums, and artists where you want to listen to everything in their discography, and for me, The Fall definitely fall into the latter category.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2022 14:08:40 GMT -5
Record Store Day was April 23, did any of your favourite artists put out anything on vinyl?
I think there were crickets from Duran Duran this year.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197 
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Post by Confessor on Apr 26, 2022 21:36:52 GMT -5
Record Store Day was April 23, did any of your favourite artists put out anything on vinyl? I think there were crickets from Duran Duran this year.
Nah, there was nothing I was particularly interested in this year. |
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Post by MDG on Apr 28, 2022 20:11:47 GMT -5
I think if I had to pick one, it would have to be Howlin' Wolf.
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Post by Duragizer on Jun 10, 2022 18:57:37 GMT -5
I recently became a fan of Meg Myers.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 25, 2022 21:29:59 GMT -5
The Beatles would always be my all-time favorite band. They arrived in the U.S.A. just as I was beginning to pay attention to music on the radio. First group that i was interested to know the individual members. I started a Beatles Thread somewhere on the Community Discussion board about 6 years ago
Unfortunately never had the opportunity to see them as a group live. But I did see each member seperately later
Paul McCartney- I beleive I seen him twice, in the 70's with Wings aa well as the 80's
George Harrison- I saw him at Madison Square Garden in the mid 70's when he was on tour for his Dark Horse album. Ringo Starr joined him onstage
John Lennon- I was fortunate enough to see his benefit concert, also at the Garden, in 1973 (methinks). Caught the afternoon first set. Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack also opened for that show. The man appeared live in concert just a few times before he left us
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