Youth memories

[Art Blade]

 :-D

Oh man..

I just remembered "Stars on 45"  :)

Stars On 45 - Stars On 45 (The Original Version)

Stars on 45 - 70's disco mix

[Binnatics]

Very nice song, but before my musical conscience I'm afraid ^-^ :-D

[Art Blade]

stars on 45 was a series released on vinyl, it represented an overview of hits mixed in short succession, sometimes dedicated to a group (e.g. an ABBA medley) and I have original stars on 45 indeed on 45 (12" maxi single) here, in my vinyl collection ^-^

[Binnatics]

Paul Simon- Graceland

[fragger]

Re mandru's earlier post - I wasn't going to say anything because I attend the school of thought that teaches "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all", but since he broke the ice, as it were, he has encouraged me to commit a bit of truancy today.

Maybe it's a generational thing, I don't know, but I could never connect with rap or hip-hop or any of that stuff - in fact, I can't stand it. I'd rather listen to a malfunctioning hydraulic ram than inflict more than a second of rap on my already overly abused eardrums. Maybe it's because my father has been a life-long and truly beautiful pianist of no mean ability and maybe it's because when I was a young fella people had to be able to play actual musical instruments to have a successful musical career, but to me rap is just that - talk, and largely nasty talk. Enraged, potentially violent people with rotten attitudes who look like they'd stick a flick-knife in your ribs if you looked at them the wrong way sounding off about gang-wars and cop-killing with midi-generated noises accompanying their nihilist FTW angst is something I can live without.

I like lots of different types of music - classical, jazz, rock, whatever - as long as it's musical. I can effortlessly switch between Beethoven and the The Band, between Duke Ellington and The Doobie Brothers, between Tommy Dorsey and Tommy Bolin. I like music that is tuneful and melodious, and has been produced by way of strings, brass, wood, steel, and well-honed vocal chords, as opposed to something that's been spewed forth from a bunch of silicon while some hoodie-enshrouded, attitude-exuding gangsta thug revels in the urban decay he has helped bring about. There's enough ugliness in the world as it is without producing quasi-musical grotesqueness to promote it further.

Sorry for the ranting guys. If you like that sort of thing I'm certainly not going to try to convert you, and I respect folks' right to like what they like. But when it comes to music, that's something that's dear to me, and having been raised in a household that has always cherished music (my Mom was a singer, btw - that's how she met my Dad), to me, rap is to music what graffiti is to inspired architecture - an affront, and an ugly desecration of something precious and beautiful.

I know I can be opinionated, but only about things that really matter to me :) Hope I didn't come on too strong.

[Art Blade]

nope, just crystal clear  ^-^

[Binnatics]

Heheh, I can live with your comments. Don't worry. My dad would probably say the same thing about rap music, and I don't hate him for that.  ;)

I like you being honest about what you think of the stuff I post, and I don't feel offended. There's things I detest in the music spectrum, like Opera. That is something that is, although completely virtuous, a torture to my eardrums. I can understand that others like it, love it, go nuts when they listen to it in the right acoustic atmosphere; I'll just let them be enjoying themselves. Won't join them. :-D

There's one thing I'd like to bring up against your rant though, and that is my disagree with a one to one reference between rap music and violence. I fully accept you don't feel related to the kind of entertainment rappers produce, but stating that rap is violence goes a bit to far in my opinion. In many cases it's true, but there are loads of exceptions to prove there's actually music in it. I don't expect you to listen to and search for the good vibes between the gun blasting and smoke clouds; just believe me there are virtuous musicians in this whole spectrum of (gangster) rap.  :)

[mandru]

Re mandru's earlier post - I wasn't going to say anything because I attend the school of thought that teaches "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all", but since he broke the ice, as it were, he has encouraged me to commit a bit of truancy today...

...Hope I didn't come on too strong.

*Heh heh heh* OK Mr velvet glove. 

This thread's been up for a year without my jumping in and thrashing around on the premise of "if you can't say anything nice...".  Then our Aussie friend steps in and pretty much sums up my thoughts but in an ever so much nicer tone than I managed.  ;)

As a personal choice I am drawn to music that inspires and uplifts.  I like lyrics that tell the artist's story be it happy, sad and yes even express violence or anger at injustice but the overly saturated nasty enraged violent content being passed off as cultural enrichment from the rap and hip hop genres?  How is the anti-social behavior extolled by these artists a cultural ideal or prerogative?  And yet some choose to steep themselves in it at eardrum breaking levels like over soaked teabags.  How can that not affect a person's ability to become a functioning part of a healthy society?

*I'll hold up the jacket cover illustration for the "Ice-T  The Iceberg" posted earlier this thread as reference :( *

Excuse me for expecting that I could go through my life without being knifed, shot or looted when I'm away from home.  Even worse in the middle of the night when they know I'm home and they think I can be strong armed.  Or having my car's windshield smashed out because I thoughtlessly left an empty pack of cigarettes on the dashboard by someone who wants to take my stuff because they have been indoctrinated their entire lives that I'm the reason they can't get their own stuff and they are entitled to whatever they can get by any means.

I will say  that Dubstep (as a genre) has produced some numbers that I have thoroughly enjoyed recently.  It has the potential of allowing at least a chance of a much more uplifting message and yet grows out of the virtually same roots as rap and hip hop.  I'd like to see dubstep become a beckoning light at the end of the long dark tunnel that rap and hip hop choose to dwell in.


*I'm getting ready to hit enter and new posts have slipped in under me due to my typical overly prolonged editing process  ::) *

As to "virtuous musicians in this whole spectrum of (gangster) rap" has never described the blistering assault received from a boomcar parked 20 feet away under my bedroom window at 3:00 am.  Maybe it's just the habit of the listeners most willing to be an obnoxious pain in the a$$ to select the worst of the genre.  I wouldn't want to sit on a bus next to someone holding a boombox blasting rap but then I also wouldn't want to sit on that same bus next to Charles Manson who (he himself) did not directly participate in the horrific crimes his sponge-brained followers committed but yet his words inspired their actions.  :-\\

[Art Blade]

Just to be fair, hip hop / rap is NOT a synonym for gangsta / violence. The violent or crime-related content is just one out of various types of hip hop / rap.

Hip hop also isn't just noise. There are many examples that show roots in Jazz and other musical genres.

Oh, and I enjoy going to the opera, live acts, so to speak, with everything included.. atmosphere and all that, it's a different world altogether indeed, not my day-to-day type of music (neither is hip hop) but still.  :)

And you can chase me off with rock and heavy metal.  :-()

[Binnatics]

You beat me to that Art ^-^ :-X

I'd say; bring it on!

Mandru and Fragger, you just obliged yourselves to listen to the next track, by pushing me into proving you wrong. I don't expect you to like it, just give it a full try. It's only 3:19 mins of your time.

Just tell me how you feel about it:

Dr Octagon - "Blue Flowers"

[Binnatics]

I might as well go on with it:

Cypress Hill - Hits From The Bong

[Binnatics]

 ^-^

Wyclef Jean featuring Mary J. Blige - 911 ft. Mary J. Blige

[Binnatics]

Erykah Badu - Love Of My Life (An Ode To Hip Hop) ft. Common

[Binnatics]

LL Cool J - I Need Love

[Binnatics]

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

[Binnatics]

That was about 25 minutes of your time. If you managed to stay tuned, you might as well enjoy the next full version of the sugar hill gang:

The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight ( HQ, Full Version )

And if not, DON'T listen to this:

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m0wh0DnX00
One of my all time favourites 8)

8)

[Art Blade]

Jesus. You're making it a hip hop only topic.. posting half of the music history won't change their minds, anyway  ;) By the way, GMFlash/the message.. I posted that vid only a few posts earlier, already  :-()

I have youth memories that comprise a lot of Jazz. One of my all-time favourites here:

Art Blakey - Moanin' ( 1958 )

[Binnatics]

I really like that track. I should remember that artist! :-X

This is the first song I ever asked my parents to put on again, and again, and again :)

Big Country - In A Big Country

And this one is another of my childhood favourites:

Paul Simon- Graceland

You may think; "Where did it go wrong?" ... I don't blame you ^-^

[Art Blade]

this time it was you who posted a vid, Graceland, a few posts earlier, already :-D

The other vid, as quite a few before, are not available at all here.  :D

[Art Blade]

Also a nice piece of Jazz. I have admired Gerry Mulligan a lot :)
Gerry Mulligan & Johnny Hodges - Bunny

[Binnatics]

Damn, I should keep track of the earlier posted memories, lol

That track is also very nice :)

[Art Blade]

 ;) :-X

[mandru]

The jazz is cool enough, no complaints there.  Though I couldn't live on a pure diet of it.

Dave Brubeck - Take Five ( Original Video)

I've yet to meet a seriously schooled drummer who's eyes don't glaze over at the quintuple 5/4 meter timing pattern when I start playing the repeating notes of the drum solo break away from the keyboard line for Take Five on my bass.  It's like catnip for them.  Almost invariably they'll mutter the words "Comp me man. Comp me."


On to the Hip Hop tracks.  These were the enlightened uplifting examples?  ????

Wow.  Paint a dark world and convince an impressionable generation that this is the best they have to look forward to.  Even Death Metal may be a fun flirtation but it's not painted as the only option.

I'm not going to go one by one through the objections I have to each of these pieces but will illuminate my point of view with LL Cool J's "I Need Love".  An honest hard working father who has managed to climb above and escape the prevalent dependency/entitlement mentality into the middle class is trying to protect his daughter from a self proclaimed womanizing Player.

My personal read of the self-important lyrics compress and sum up as "Oh baby there have been so many easy girls before you but now it's time for me to pick one to be true to 4-evah!"

The father's depiction as a horrid unfeeling villain and not as a frightened loving protector who has seen this play out over and over seriously grieves me.  :'(



From what I can make out Dr Octagon's "Blue Flowers" seems to be about one of the strains of blue marijuana plant family something I'm sure I'd want 12 yr olds listening to.  If it had been sine voce  (Latin for without voice) l I would have liked that one for the unusual instrumental components of the arrangement.


People can listen to whatever they want.  They also can behave however they want but there are specific conventions within society about limiting your actions so that they are not harming or impairing the lives of others.  I do not detect any note of that code of ethics in either hip hop or rap.  That's just my take on it.

Here at OWG we can agree to disagree over things like taste in music but the ethos (character) behind the driving forces of these artists seems to be to tear down and destroy the culture I live in without suggesting anything like a better replacement.

[Binnatics]

 8-X

[fragger]

 :-D

I couldn't live on nothing but Brubeck's style of jazz either mandru, but I guess it's like food - a varied diet is good for you, as long as whatever you take in nourishes you in some way ;)

Binn, I tried, I really tried, but I just can't take to the clips you posted. Sorry mate, but they just don't do it for me. After listening to each one I felt that I had to go and do something to cheer myself back up.

Especially the Dr. Octagon one. I just can't see how an image of a skeletal doctor figure holding up a skull on the cover of an album which includes a song featuring lyrics such as "blood pouring down your mouth" equates to any kind of uplifting. I confess I didn't listen to all of that one - I switched off after the bloody-mouth part made me feel a bit sick.

I did try to have an open mind, but those samples you posted simply depressed me. It's all so downbeat and morose that I couldn't hack it.

Arguably I may have been a tad judgmental in equating rap with violence (but IMHO not entirely), however it just seems to me that so many of those performers put across an aura of "I'm a badass and that's a cool way to be" while buying into an apparent philosophy that the world is an inherently crappy and nasty place in which only the tough and mean will survive. I see and hear very little in the rap/hip hop world promoting love and compassion towards one's fellow humans.

But hey, we're all entitled to our own likes. I've no doubt that there is stuff I like that you guys would hate. Whatever you may choose to listen to, it certainly doesn't make me like you any less :) My opinions don't matter in that regard.