Music.

[Brian]

Reading Oscar and Marks subject of "Guitars" made me extremely envious. I would love to be able to play a musical instrument or even sing but it is not to be. My fingers do not do what my brain tells them to and my voice has been likened to a Fordson "N" under load! Saying that however I still love music. We have a program on National Radio called "Desert Island Discs" in which a celebrity is asked "If you were marooned on a desert island with a record player, what music would you want with you"?

So I am putting that question to you chaps! What 10 pieces of music would you take to a desert island?

Mine would be, and not in order of preference.

1.The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Verdi.
2. Symphony from the New World by Dvorak.
3. Spirit of New Orleans by Willie Nelson.
4. Bat out of Hell by Meatloaf.
5.Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
6. Anything at all by the Seekers with Judith Durham.
7. Distant Drums by Jim Reeves.
8. Hymns by the Treorchy Male Voice choir.
9. Boy named Sue by Johnny Cash
10. Mississippi by Pussycat

[Dom]

You reckon your voice is bad Brian.

When I was in primary school, 5th class, about 11 years old, our teacher, who was also the Principal at the school, would every thursday afternoon take both the 5th grade classes at the school, about 60 to 65 pupils up to the combined library / music room (an unusual combination come to think of it) where the only piano in the school was located, for singing lessons. Man did he love to play that piano and boy could I sing.

About 3 months into the year and about half way through one lesson, I think he'd had enough, he knew something just didn't sound right. He put us into 3 straight lines and told us on the next repetition of the song he was going to stop playing the piano half way through but he wanted all of us to keep singing as he was going to come around and listen to our voices.

If you could just picture him as he slowly walked down the lines slightly bent over so that his ear was exactly at our mouth level and with his eyes closed so he could really concentrate on each child’s voices as come to it, where he would stop just momentarily, smile and continued down the line.

As he approached me I was so looking forward to that smile of approval not only from my teacher that year but from the school principal no less and I can tell you I was in fine form when he got to me. Talk about wiping that smile of his face. He stopped and without moving a muscle of his hunched over posture, whipped his head around opened his eyes as wide as he could, stared right into my eyes and bellowed at the top of his voice "DON'T SING".

Man he was so in my face, I can still smell his cigarette breath and to this day I haven't spoken a word let alone sing .

On a positive note I did watch man walk on the moon for the first time in that same room some 12 months later. (Shame I couldn't speak to tell them how excited I was to see it )

A fine mixture of music by the way.

Kind regards.......Dom

P.S. You should see me dance!

[Mark]

Brian,
Can you pick out 10 more to go along with those? I'm not as cultured as you Brits are, although the one by Andrew Lloyd Webber would suffice if I had to choose. You left out the Beatles, Elvis, and many more.
If I had my choice, I would rather here my daughter sing Amazing Grace. You should here her sing, like an angel.
Best Regards
Mark

[Meanderer]

Mark,
They are HIS ten. He wants us to make a list of our own ten.
I haven't had time since I read it last night. Right now I'm leaving to take my wife to Canberra, (National Capital), to have dinner and see James Blunt in concert!
I gave her the tickets on her 50th birthday in March. As well as that, we are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary which was 2nd May.
I have such a variety of likes in music it will take me time to generate a list, but I'll be giving it some thought.

Rick
nowwww I have to

[JC]

Willie Nelson and Meatloaf in the same list. I never thought I'd see that!
I don't know if I could pick 10 songs. I'll have to give that some thought.
Don't feel bad Brian and Dom, I sing every bit as well as you do.

[Brian]

Rick,

We live about 20 miles from where James Blunt was brought up on the Norfolk coast!

Sorry chaps, not into the Beatles, they wrote some good music but it is better performed by other artists (IMHO). Elvis? Yes I like some of his songs but I limited myself to 10. (But then slipped in the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber show, the social comment in the words is so funny, and the Male Voice Choir makes the hairs on my back stand on end).

If you asked me today it would be slightly different but the Verdi, Dvorak, Willie Nelson and Meatloaf would feature for certain. Oh and the Seekers and Joan Baez and Elvis and..............

[Kiwi Kev]

Surely the purring of a Fordson is music to your ears!!!!!!!!!!!

Kiwi Kev

[Oscar]

I'll let you all know my favorites once I get back from France .

[henk]

That's not easy folks,

Better make a list of my ten favourite bands or performers.

Most songs of:
Joe Cocker
Eric Clapton
Dire Straits
The Band (Levon Helm) Saw the flick The last Walsz
Right now while I'm writhing I listen to Robert Gray - Buddy Guy and EC with the number I had my fun.
Yes (John Anderson)
The Eagles
Simon & Garfunkel
Jim Croce
Pink Floyd (Wish you were here)
Mostly I listen to bleus

Congratulations Rick. How many years still to go?

[henk]

Hello music lovers,

Today it's liberation day. it's 53 years ago that the 2e ww ended for the Netherlands. There a lot of festivals all over the country.
I’m going to one at Vlissingen. A famous local band will be playing called, The Juke Joints. So that will be Bleus.

[Brian]

You would just love our local blues singer then Henk. Lucas Goodaddy who played the piano with his toes!

[Brian]

Getting back to the important things in life. Guitar music in my collection.

1. John Williams .. Theme from The Deer Hunter.
2. Dwayne Eddie.
3. Fleetwood Mac .. Albatros
4. The Shadows with Jet Harris, Tony Meehan and Hank Marvin.
5. Sarah Jury (A local girl who is on the country music circuit. She plays slide guitar).
6. The rif in "Goodbye to Love" by The Carpenters
7. A really old timer! Bert Weedon.

I am now going to upset a lot of people but I met Jimi Hendrix and I cannot stand his music (?). Bit like Oscar and Pussycat!

[Mark]

Brian,
I take it you must not like country pickers to much. I went to school with Ricky Scaggs, and Dwight Yoakem came from Floyd County which is just up the road a bit, and Patty Loveless is from Pike Co. which is just a bit futher up the road. We also have Loretta Lynn, and her sister Crystal Gayle, that used to live not more than 20 miles from my house. We have the late Keith Whitley just to the west of us a few miles, and down toward Ashland we have the Judds, Naomi, and Wynona, just a little past Ashland is a town called Flatwoods which is home of Billy Ray Cyrus. In Carter Co. just a few miles from me we have the legendary Tom T Hall. We also have the Goins brothers, Ralph Stanley, I know these boys are bluegrass, but they're legends in the business. We also have Kathy Mattea over in West Virginia which is only 20 miles from my house. And I know I'm leaving some out. We are literally surrounded by talent. I wish you could here my daughter sing, you would be amazed at her voice. She got married to soon and had 3 kids is why she hasn't pursued her singing ability. She's only 29 she still has time. We are going to make another CD this year I hope, she will be able to send this out to people in the business.
They call the part of Kentucky I live in "the country music highway" if you'll google it you can read what I'm talking about.
Best Regards
Mark

[Brian]

Mark,

I LOVE most country music! Not all of it though, some of the modern stuff is a bit repetitive and with a thump type beat. But Chrystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn, Slim Whitman et al are great. The skill in that guitar and banjo picking is phenomenal.

There was a Slovakian group on local radio last week that played violin, guitar, keyboard and bass who could play anything from country to classical to gypsy and make it all sound perfect. I had to stop soldering whilst they were being interviewed.

I tend to like the story songs and listen to the words. That is why I like "Spirit of New Orleans" (we had it on the stereo last night at full volume)!! and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals written with Tim Rice. The later ones were not quite as good.

I am a bit surprised that we don't get many Joan Baez records played on our local radio. We have a CD which is very very good. She covers a lot of country songs and she really has a great voice for them. I think that some of her protest songs had a message too but like Jane Fonda she became very "political" and consequently got "black listed".

My problem is I like so much music! I get carried away with things like Beethoven's "1812 Overture" because again it is the "story" of Napoleon's Russian campaign in music. I had it all explained to me whilst it was being played many years ago and it hooked me in.

That is why I am not into most modern music. If it has a story it gets lost to me in the volume it is played.

[Mark]

Brian,
I agree with you fully, I'm a fan of all kinds of music, but like you said it is becoming repetitive and loud. I would like to read what that person explained to you on Beethoven's 1812 Overture, that sounds interesting, maybe one day we can read it in your memories section. I liked Beethoven's 5th Symphony really well. I also like the classic music to. I was raised in the 60's and there was a lot of great music that came out of that era, and there was some bad stuff too.
Wish Ann a Happy Mothers day, I don't know if you all have the same holiday that we have, tell her none the less.

I play some country, bluegrass, and the old style rock and roll, but mostly I play gospel music now.

[Oscar]

There's two kinds of music: good and bad. Other than that, I don't believe in genres. Genres are just labels, they mean nothing to me. To me, any piece of music made while someone's heart and soul are into it is good music. Music where people are merely going through the motions is ususally bad.

Here some of my favorite musicians and/or groups, in no particular order.

1. Tommy Emmanuel - an amazing fingerstyle acoustic guitarist from Australia. Plays over 300 solo dates a year all over the world. The most accomplished player on the planet, bar none.
2. Van Halen's early records with David Lee Roth are magical. They had the songs, they had the vibe, they had chops to burn. Their recordings never took more than a few days to complete. Awesome stuff.
3. I've always been into ABBA. Not necessarily their hit singles, but the hidden gems such as I Let The Music Speak, When All Is Said And Done, Eagle, etc etc. Those two guys are amazing composers and arrangers. They still drop my jaw.
4. Buddy Guy is the last surviving real bluesman (BB is still around too but he seems to have become.... a bit regal). Unbelievable stuff.
5. Brian Setzer's post-Stray Cats solo stuff is fantastic. His big band records are unstoppable. Brian is a absolute guitar virtuoso too.
6. Pretty much anything that AC/DC ever did is worthwile. They and the Stones are the only true rock and roll bands left on the planet, though they sound completely different. Some people think of AC/DC as heavy metal - they're not. This is true rock and roll.
7. I love gypsy swing, the Django Reinhardt kind. My two fav artists in this area are the Rosenberg Trio from Holland and John Jorgenson from the US. I can listen to that stuff all day - such virtusosity.

There's much more but I will leave it at that.

[Brian]

Oscar,

You surprised me! ABBA? As you say, some are very good and the scenery when they performed was great. I used to watch the light show in amazement and try my hardest to get the stage lights at Ann's school to do the same things. (The girls were not too bad to look at either). The music was a bit "plastic" though. Razz

The Spanish Gypsy music is great and we are getting a number of Eastern European groups into Norwich. They do "previews" on local radio and their skills with stringed instruments is phenomenal.

My oldest friends, Steve and June, are into opera and go on "Opera Tours" to Spain and Italy. I am afraid that is one form of music I cannot get into. I like the words, story and phrasing side of the music so to spend hours listening to something I cannot understand leaves me cold. Strange that one of my all time favorite pieces is by Verdi, but the voices and the power and "theatre" in it just knock me out.

[Oscar]

ABBA is the band that got me hooked on music. I don't like most of their earlier work - that was rather simplistic (songs like Ring Ring and Mama Mia come to mind). They got better with each album and their last 3 records are nothing short of stunning (Voulez Vous, Super Trouper and The Visitors). After ABBA folded, the men went on to write the musical Chess. I adore musical theatre (at least when it is done right) and Chess was marvelous. Together with Alain Boublil's Miss Saigon and Les Miserables, Chess ranks right up there with the best of musicals. Björn and Benny are musical geniuses - some of the songs they've written are so incredibly well arranged and composed, it's just awesome.

[Brian]

Have you seen "Starlight Express" Oscar? Ann and I saw it in London. We had seats in a sort of round area right at the front of the stage area. The lights went down at the start then from total blackness, the noise of a train, then a train headlight seems to rush towards you from the centre of the stage. We were getting worried as it was coming straight at our seats! Then suddenly the lights went on and dozens of actors on roller skates are rushing past you on either side about 2 to 3 m away. The runways are all over the theatre, right up in the "Gods" and they are rushing along these tracks to the music. The lighting and the engineering is fantastic.

I also worked with a local man who had helped build the ship for the musical "Mutiny on the Bounty" with David Essex. The ship was nearly a full size unit on stage and had to perform as if it were in a hurricane. He said the computer control and the hydraulics were very complicated. (We were fitting electric control and hydraulic controls to a six row Armer Salmon self propelled beet harvester at the time).