andy hardy time, or the sounds of old t. rex

[gurdonark]

Hey, kids....let's start a band! Get some guy who's a really dextrous keyboard player, buy him some really primitive synths, treat him as if he were the lead guitarist, give him a hundred solos, rearrange a buncha classical pieces as if they were rock songs, get some guy to write a buncha really grandiose, cynical lyrics so's folks will know we're intellectuals, get some guy with a really histrionic voice from an incarnation of some band like King Crimson to sing, and make sure the drummer has a huge gong behind his drum kit and more drums than an orc legion all around him, and make sure we have a piano which spins in mid-air. Wouldn't that be cool? Let's do it!

Oh, wait, they had a band like that....Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Never mind.

Comments

[ladyelisa.livejournal.com]

People have been known to spin an old idea in a new time with great success. My daughter heard Britney Spears singing "Satisfaction" and thought it was new -- I went to a used CD store and bought The Rolling Stones version, which she liked much better!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

:) I like that story.

I often tell the one about how years ago,when I was in college, I was playing a cover of the Kinks "You Really Got Me" done by the band 801. My roommate, a rather non-musical fellow, listened a moment, and said "Hey! That's a VAN HALEN song!".

What goes around, goes around. and around!

[geisa.livejournal.com]

haha!!!;)

that was good!!! i notice that you listen to 'karn evil 9' quite often. i remember loooooooong ago, my friends and myself, having a peculiar fascination with 'tarkus' and 'brain salad surgery' to a lesser extent. but kraftwerk soon saved us from all of that, and from that dreadful post-syd barret pink floyd, tangerine dream, etc., but i still have my vinyl copy of 'tarkus' shhhhhh...please don't tell anyone!!!;)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You know, the Tarkus stuff may be their best stuff.
My favorite, though, is "Hoedown", I just like that little synthy bit on it a lot....

but I still have't opened my Best of Camel CD.

[geisa.livejournal.com]

i have never even heard of 'hoedown'. i'm tempted to pull 'tarkus' out and listen to it again, after many, many years!!! but i get let down so often when i do that. i'm hesitant to crush my fond memories. i pulled something out recently...can't remember what it was, but i just thought "oh my god, WHAT was i thinking?!!" oh, it was ultravox-'rage in eden'. i only really liked one song, but even it just sounded horrible!!! some things just seem to stand the test of "time" better i guess, like kraftwerk, neu, can. i know curiosity will get the best of me though!!!

i love synthesizers. i found an ensoniq esq-1 in a pawn shop last week for only $100.00!!! i couldn't believe it!!! all that is wrong with it is the internal battery on the mother board needs replacing and that is just a 20 min. bench job by a tech. i have contacted the manufacturer, emu (same people that make the synths for the residents and many others) and they are sending an upgrade chip to take it up to an esq-5 with more sequencing features, and a cd-rom with all 880 soundbanks that i will send to the keyboard from my computer via midi output. i will have 10 tracks with full sequencing capabilities in one unit, so i am VERY anxious and excited about getting it up and going!!!

i don't think that i have ever even heard camel before, maybe (?) didn't they have "somebody" playing guitar, or something, that went on to some other band?!! i was thinking peter frampton, but he played in humble pie, again, i think (?)

my musical tastes, in general, are SO peculiar. i have been really hung up on my japanese cd pressing of ann-margret-'best selection' lately. my favorite song is "my last date(with you)". god, i LOVE that song!!! and yes...the GREAT floyd cramer plays piano on that version as well!!!;)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the guitarist, altho somebody in Camel went someplace else...they did progressive songs that went on until the cows came home, or the camels,as the case may be.

ELP live is still fun. But a lot of things do fail the test of time. I remember Gentle Giant as really relevant once....now they are hard to "get".

[geisa.livejournal.com]

i missed the "prog-rock" thing, thank god!!! but, i have gone back and listened to much king crimson, because i like robert fripp's guitar playing SO much...but i really get bored with all of that playing that goes on and on...i like yes-'fragile' a lot but that's the only one, it was fun and interesting, i thought. but much of that music just seems so self-absorbed or something (?) like they're showing off or something, and "songwriting" seems to get thrown out the window...too technical or something, i don't know.

i remember gentle giant also, but like camel, i really don't know that i have ever heard them. there are a lot of bands from the 70's that are like that to me. i'm probably missing something that i would really like. a friend of mine owns an independant record store, and he is a BIG 70's "prog-rock" person. he plays stuff that catches my ear occaisionally, but i have no idea what most of it is.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Prog started with the good idea of using modernist,
classical and jazz in rock to "progress", but pretension felled the beast and punk trod its ashes. I still like those bands, though.

[geisa.livejournal.com]

a little trivia question...

do you know what is considered to be the VERY first "prog-rock" record?!!

[geisa.livejournal.com]

whoops!!! sorry, i meant VERY first "jazz-fusion" record...which i guess is a sub-genre of "prog-rock" (?)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Wow, good question.

I would guess that Freak Out might be :).

Maybe Ars Nova?

or the first Pink Floyd?

tell me.....?

[geisa.livejournal.com]

wow!!! you were close!!! you got the artist!!!

frank zappa-'hot rats' recorded aug.-sept. 1969 and released in 1970. it was zappa's first record post "mothers of invention" and contained many guest jazz musicians and great guitar by mr. zappa. most memorable song "peaches en regalia" and "willie the pimp" with captain beefheart on vocals. this is just what i have always read (?)

it's funny that you mentioned 'freak out' because that is considered the first "concept" rock record, which actually pre-dates the beatles-'sgt. pepper' which gets the credit...but zappa was first...again!!!;)

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

welcome back my friends to the show that never ends we're so glad you could attend come inside come inside...

underneath the glass lies a real blade of grass

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

how frightening that I've known all the words for
28 years!

Re: underneath the glass lies a real blade of grass

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

For years I always confused their work with that of Yes. *ducks head*

take a straight and stronger course, move on back a square...

Re: underneath the glass lies a real blade of grass

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Lyrically, the difference is simple:

ELP sings lyrics that make sense, but are silly.
Yes sings lyrics that don't make sense, and are silly.

Musically, Wakeman wished he was some sort of Wiggy Bach for Yes, while Emerson wished he was any number of great pianists.

Both were fun, if excessive, bands.