Favorite old song, and I mean OLD

[AGA]

There;s a song I love that's 60's like, what a wonderful world. It's not the Louis Armstrong.
The lyrics go like..
don't know much about algebra
don't know much ..ecc

Sam Cooke.

[evenwolf]

Seems a surprising lot of us enjoy Sam Cooke.   I pasted Sugar Dumpling earlier but there are so many other songs I love of his.   


Talk about a tragic death. 

[Dualnames]

There's a Harrison Ford thing about it.

[Ozzie]

Yeah, Sam Cooke.

I listen to some old music, of course. Beatles, Doors, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Family,...

But there's also so much great modern music, like Sufjan Stevens, Mars Volta or Mother Tongue (sadly outside of Germany, where Mother Tongue has a loyal following, they're not too popular).

I never escaped in to the past to find great music. Instead I looked harder what's new out there.

[evenwolf]

I get what you mean about "escaping in to the past" I guess.   But the beauty of sound recording is that everything is on an equal playing field except for the distribution factor... sure, modern music will always get more airtime because of corporate interests.    But ALL music will eventually be old music.   Its just a matter of what ages well and what doesn't.   

What frustrates me about following the mainstream is how much credit you give the artist for originality... then years later you discover a song 80 times better that was the "inspiration" for that song you thought was so good.   Just look at how many fanboys and girls wrap around the block to go see bands like Limp Bizkit... a shitty artist who idiotically  remakes Townshend's "Behind Blue Eyes" with the lyrics "L-I-M-P" in a Microsoft Sam voice for no reason, insulting the author.

Yeah I guess some people will find The Who because of Limp Bizkit.  A few people at least.  But mostly you end up with idiot kids walking around saying "Oooh!  Behind Blue Eyes! Yeah I love Limp --- oh he didn't write it?  Well I like his version best!"   .... no.

[Bluke4x4]

This'd have to be my favorite old song, from the '30s: Sittin' Around by Coon-Sanders' Orchestra.

Other than that I agree with pretty much all of what Eggie said, and there's also this group called Dion and the Belmonts that did a lot of great songs back then.

[evenwolf]

I'm so sick of The Beatles, they're not REALLy good songs you know. They just all have good bits in them.

Woah woah woah.   You can say this about the albums "Revolver" and "White Album"? Those albums stand up against ANY contemporary album on a musical level.     Were they released today (no one having heard them before) they would receive just as much praise if not more than back in the day.  Especially if we remove the Beatle's influence on the music industry throughout history (totally inconceivable).

Helter Skelter,  She Said She Said, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Not to mention the goddamn lyrics!   Forget about it.

I'll agree with you that after many years the songs get tiring.  They're overplayed to the point of saturation.  But that doesn't effect the actual quality of the music.   Come on... to call them good bits, and that only?   Crazy talk.   For instance, I think Aerosmith has been overplayed to death... I can't stand hearing them anymore but I'm willing to admit the songs are OK.   But forget Aerosmith - you'd be hard pressed to name a band that musically outmatches the Beatles.

[Ozzie]

Yeah,  The Beatles are amazing.
But you have to listen the whole albums, not just the kinda lame hits compilation "1".

[Dualnames]

Evenwolf couldn't agree with you more...

Well , behind blue eyes is my brother's favorite(the who version)

[LRH]

Gotta love 'Here Comes the Sun' as well

[Ultra Magnus]

I'm so sick of The Beatles, they're not REALLy good songs you know. They just all have good bits in them.

Woah woah woah.   You can say this about the albums "Revolver" and "White Album"? Those albums stand up against ANY contemporary album on a musical level.     Were they released today (no one having heard them before) they would receive just as much praise if not more than back in the day.  Especially if we remove the Beatle's influence on the music industry throughout history (totally inconceivable).

Helter Skelter,  She Said She Said, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Not to mention the goddamn lyrics!   Forget about it.

I agree with Eggie, The Beatles are way overrated.
I mean, sure Revolver is still a great album, and The White Album has some great parts in it, but most of the rest of their catalogue is very mediocre.

The lyrics are no great shakes, either. Sure, some of them are poetry, but for every "Something in the way she moves" there are a half-dozen "I am the walrus"s.
You yourself posted links to a song about a fairground ride and one about a guy who works in a market and talks gibberish, and I just don't find either particularly inspiring.

And you can't give them too much credit for their "influence", either.
The mid 60s onwards was an era of constant musical evolution and experimentation where bands' ideas were almost freely shared with each other.
The Beatles took as much influence from their peers as they gave, they just had more publicity because they'd already made a name for themselves as a pop band in their early days.

Most of their best stuff came from George Harrison, anyway. 8)

you'd be hard pressed to name a band that musically outmatches the Beatles.

The Who.
Higher class of musicianship and Pete's a better, more consistent songwriter.

[EldKatt]

I'd be hard pressed to name a band that musically outmatches The Beatles simply because I think the whole notion is stupid. Music isn't about who outmatches whom. Nobody is the best anything ever. I realize that not everyone has my perspective on this, and I'd be an idiot to expect them to, but having spent much of my time studying music as a craft, and studying the work of great artists objectively and soberly (and "escaping into the past" a great deal, out of practical necessity--often a past way more past than the 60s...), the inherent lack of perspective in a discussion like this really stands out to me.

[evenwolf]

Weird response.   All I was trying to do was corner Eggie into saying "Nickleback" or "Creed".     And you are correct, that neither of those 2 bands can be said to be "worse than the Beatles".  *smirk*



Ultra-  I agree with you on the Who.   But the bigger point is that the Beatles are overrated.  Not that they can't write decent stuff.

[AGA]

The Who.
Higher class of musicianship and Pete's a better, more consistent songwriter.

Hooray.

[Ozzie]

Sorry, but The Beatles didn't release such a boring and uninspired mess like Quadrophonia. Maybe The Who ist just not the right band for me, I didn't like Tommy either, apart from Pinpall Wizard. I mean, I could smell and feel the ambition, but somehow they couldn't fill the album with songs I cared about. It's somehow a nice album to play in the background, but it bores me when I listen closely to it.

Contrary, I love everything from The Beatles, Rubber Soul upwards.

They have a wild assortment of styles, experimented a lot, yet most of their experiments worked out fine (compare that to Pink Floyd...). They are a band who probably inspired more musicians than any other.
There's nothing mediocre about their other albums, I still have to find another pop album like Abbey Road that has the same pop appeal and variety.
Hm......Peeping Tom may come close, but not all songs are that good.

[evenwolf]

I listen to Pete Townshend quite frequently, so I won't be joining any sides one way or the other.   Eldkatt would be quite correct in the sense that you couldn't simply compare the musical talent of both bands.  At least, I think I'll choose not to.

boring and uninspired mess like Quadrophonia.

I don't know about "uninspired".... it might not be inspirational to you... but I'm fairly sure it was inspired.

I love Townshend's rock operas for the reason you mentioned.    I play them while I work... the music effects me but the lyrics aren't too overbearing to distract.      I end up listening to Psychoderelict about once a week on my ipod.   Townshend's rock operas are so awesome but I can understand if someone doesn't take to them.   His operas including Quadrophenia & Lifehouse were pretty ambitious, risky musical endeavors.  I think that's why I love Townshend so much. 

[Paper Carnival]

I suppose classical and opera music counts, so yeah, even though I'm not too much into that. This "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" song is wonderful, thanks for the link!

[AGA]

It's actually possible to like more than one band, surprisingly. I own and enjoy every Beatles album from Rubber Soul onwards, but I also adore The Who and have something like 30 Who or Who-artists-gone-solo albums. It's silly to compare two such different bands because of a brief overlap of time during which they were both recording.

[Ozzie]

Yeah, of course, I also like many different musical styles, but I never did get into The Who.
Well, I only listened to Tommy and Quadrophenia, maybe I should look into some of their other works.

[AGA]

Who's Next is probably more approachable, since the rock opera elements are barely noticeable unless you know where to look for them. Who Sell Out is awesome, but it took a while to grow on me, so you might not like it.