I actually warmed to Clarkson on this show. I liked his analogy of "loyalty" to bands like people are to football teams. I was a Pink Floyd girl and would never, ever have listened to or championed Led Zep because of that. I realise now how daft that was/is and would no longer do it, but it made perfect sense at the time.
You weren't on your own, it happens to some with each generation, There's nothing wrong with having favourites. But "loyalty" can go too far, it's easy to get "tunnel vision" when it comes to genres and different artists.
Over time within pop I've collected, Carole King, Robert Palmer, ELO, Chicago, The Eagles, etc., but I've a varied modern jazz collection from the forties to the present day.
I'll listen to anything that has a good tune or a singer with a good voice. I'm not impressed with anyone in an expensive video.
I subscribe to a few musician's message boards. Contributors find different singers and post comments about them. They are only impressed by artists who can sing without any digital enhancements, often playing to small audiences, there's so many out there who get little recognition. Like this one,
I actually warmed to Clarkson on this show. I liked his analogy of "loyalty" to bands like people are to football teams. I was a Pink Floyd girl and would never, ever have listened to or championed Led Zep because of that. I realise now how daft that was/is and would no longer do it, but it made perfect sense at the time.
Yes, I do admire an eclectic music fan who can love equally the diverse music in Who's Next AND Crime Of The Century.
A Supertramp album will never be allowed past the portal of my music den. :mad:
for me a lot more entertaining than the rock episode. Grace Dent is a hoot and Boy George is always good value. For the record my 3 would've been Dare by the Human League, Super Trooper by ABBA and Kraftwerk's Man Machine.
Yes, tremendous telly. I love shows like this - good-natured discussion based on knowledge and personal experience, and you feel almost like you can join in.
Also, older people feel they can relax and give their real opinions, rather than trying to look cool or edgy.
'Sure I used to love the Sweet or T Rex, but I'd walk around with Led Zep 2 under my arm'. We've all been there, eh?
And nice to see ol' George looking and sounding so perky again.
Interesting stuff. I was one of those who was quite sniffy about pop in the 70s and 80s but looking back now there were some fantastic memories - even though I didn't admit to liking them at the time. Debbie Harry is possibly the first woman on the planet I fancied.
I wonder what anyone under 20 thinks about this show? Probably think it's pre-historic.
I’ve had my issues with Grace Dent but if it weren’t for her contribution tonight we would barely have gotten out of the 70s. Baker bigged up Like a Virgin but that aside it was Dent’s namechecking of The Smiths, FGTH and The Sisters of Mercy that kept this from being a show all about pretending the last 33 years never happened.
Having said that I can’t take any programme about pop albums seriously that doesn’t even mention one of the greatest of all time, definitely the greatest of the eighties, ABC’s Lexicon of Love. I don’t even recall seeing it pinned to the wall in the background. Laughable really.....
I’ve had my issues with Grace Dent but if it weren’t for her contribution tonight we would barely have gotten out of the 70s. Baker bigged up Like a Virgin but that aside it was Dent’s namechecking of The Smiths, FGTH and The Sisters of Mercy that kept this from being a show all about pretending the last 33 years never happened.
Having said that I can’t take any programme about pop albums seriously that doesn’t even mention one of the greatest of all time, definitely the greatest of the eighties, ABC’s Lexicon of Love. I don’t even recall seeing it pinned to the wall in the background. Laughable really.....
Agreed on ABC's Lexicon of Love. In fact too many of the choices weren't really pop at all, eg,Joni Mitchell. And surely Off the Wall should have been kept for tomorrow's soul/RnB episode.
I've only just got round to watching the first one on iPlayer. I thoroughly enjoyed it on many levels, not the least because it was refreshing to have a genuinely entertaining, one hour programme that consisted almost entirely of talking.
Perhaps surprisingly, Clarkson came out with one of the most telling points in the entire programme; quite a devastating observation of how people have changed in such a short time. I had actually forgotten that back in the vinyl album days, you would put an album on and listen to it in its entirety without doing anything else at all. Can you imagine anyone doing that these days, without treating it merely as background music while skipping through websites on their phones or updating Twitter? I feel like going on a nostalgia trip and making a point of doing it.
Is Kate Mossman also Louise Mensch in her spare time?
p.s. For anyone curious enough to want to listen to the list, In The Court of the Crimson King now sounds very dated and with very silly lyrics. The title track still retains its grandeur and 21st Century Schizoid Man is still sounds one of the most extreme tracks you will hear - enough to scare the wallpaper off the walls. If you want to buy a Crimso album though, it simply has to be Red.
I've only just got round to watching the first one on iPlayer. I thoroughly enjoyed it on many levels, not the least because it was refreshing to have a genuinely entertaining, one hour programme that consisted almost entirely of talking.
Perhaps surprisingly, Clarkson came out with one of the most telling points in the entire programme; quite a devastating observation of how people have changed in such a short time. I had actually forgotten that back in the vinyl album days, you would put an album on and listen to it in its entirety without doing anything else at all. Can you imagine anyone doing that these days, without treating it merely as background music while skipping through websites on their phones or updating Twitter? I feel like going on a nostalgia trip and making a point of doing it.
Is Kate Mossman also Louise Mensch in her spare time?
p.s. For anyone curious enough to want to listen to the list, In The Court of the Crimson King now sounds very dated and with very silly lyrics. The title track still retains its grandeur and 21st Century Schizoid Man is still sounds one of the most extreme tracks you will hear - enough to scare the wallpaper off the walls. If you want to buy a Crimso album though, it simply has to be Red.
That, or you would pick the needle up and try clumsily to catch the thin groove inbetween tracks to listen to a fav track again, and cause countless scratches in the process! And yes yer right, I wouldn't do anything else aside from pretend to be the lead singer or stare at the vinyl going round!;)
Perhaps surprisingly, Clarkson came out with one of the most telling points in the entire programme; quite a devastating observation of how people have changed in such a short time. I had actually forgotten that back in the vinyl album days, you would put an album on and listen to it in its entirety without doing anything else at all. Can you imagine anyone doing that these days, without treating it merely as background music while skipping through websites on their phones or updating Twitter? I feel like going on a nostalgia trip and making a point of doing it.
I still sit down in the evening, put on my headphones, and listen to albums in their entirety while doing nothing else - and that includes CDs. I hate the idea of skipping tracks on an album - if you don't listen to the average tracks, how do you have anything to judge the good tracks against?
I still sit down in the evening, put on my headphones, and listen to albums in their entirety while doing nothing else - and that includes CDs. I hate the idea of skipping tracks on an album - if you don't listen to the average tracks, how do you have anything to judge the good tracks against?
Good tracks stand out on their own, they don't need average tracks to give them a boost. I used to be a bit of a completist, but as I've got older, I've realised that life's too short to waste on listening to average tracks when I can be listening to good or great ones.
I still sit down in the evening, put on my headphones, and listen to albums in their entirety while doing nothing else - and that includes CDs. I hate the idea of skipping tracks on an album - if you don't listen to the average tracks, how do you have anything to judge the good tracks against?
This progamme really has inspired me to dig out some old albums and listen to them all of the way through. I can't remember the last time I did that other than a compilation CD in the car.
The thing about listening to an entire album over and over is that sometimes one of those "average" tracks eventually becomes one of your favourites.
I do agree that one of the problems of the second episode is that it stopped too early. I know they are going covering the LP era but they could at least made it to the mid-80s.
I thoroughly enjoyed this programme too. It was intelligent, entertaining and informative, wish there was more like it.
Have to agree with Straker though, glad there was someone there to offer a more recent pick of great pop albums, otherwise it might have been a bit of an old man's club, focusing way too much on 60's and 70's.
Though I was glad to see a nod to Kraftwerk and more importantly Kate Bush's Never For Ever, which in context of great pop albums vastly exceeds her more popular Hounds of Love (IMO).
Didn't entirely agree with their final 13 but it was refreshing to see a pop top 10 (or in this case 13) that wasn't dominated by the usual suspects ie, Radiohead, Oasis, though we did get a bit of The Beatles, which I guess was inevitable when discussing pop. What was really refreshing was just how much it highlighted the subjective nature of pop, there really isn't any definitive greatest pop album.
Two hours really isn't long enough to cover all aspects of rock and pop, though I think they did a fine job, it would be nice to see this extended to a full series.
In regards to top 3 pop albums, from me it would have to be Kate Bush's Never For Ever, Lou Reed's Transformer and probably Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's.
I've long passed the days when I can be bothered to pull out a few CDs or LPs just to listen to a few tracks on each as there was always a lot of dross on many LPs.
As a jukebox enthusiast I've recently embraced modern technology and we now have a jukebox wall box selector in our front room which is connected to an adapter/iPod/vintage tuner amp and big speakers. I load the iPod with 160 tracks (the maximum my wall box will select) with a diverse selection of mp3 recordings from CDs or iTunes downloads (or from wherever) of all genres that we like, from the forties to the present day.
We can then scroll through the title cards I've put on the wall box and select any number of recordings which will then be played in the order they are selected.
If I swop the iPod to another one, it gives us another 160 choices. I can add or remove any tracks whenever we choose.
If you're not ancient enough to remember buying albums in the Seventies, you might not appreciate how revered they were at the time. You actually believed that the bands had spent countless hours pondering over the running order, so that the final result was something you dare not interfere with (in actual fact, they probably went to the pub and left it to the roadie). Back in the prog-rock days, I even thought there was something wrong with an album if I liked every track - I thought they weren't taking any risks :-)
If an album sounded brilliant all the way through on first listening, I probably went off it after a couple of plays. A good example of this was This Is The Sea by The Waterboys. First listen: best album I'd ever heard; totally fed up with it two days later.
I made some terrible mistakes though. Bedside Manners Are Extra by Greenslade - anyone?
For me one of the greatest albums was Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. The original album had those brilliant paintings in the centre that went with the album and NOTHING ever beats hearing Richard Burton's voice at the start and then the intro music.
Comments
You weren't on your own, it happens to some with each generation, There's nothing wrong with having favourites. But "loyalty" can go too far, it's easy to get "tunnel vision" when it comes to genres and different artists.
Over time within pop I've collected, Carole King, Robert Palmer, ELO, Chicago, The Eagles, etc., but I've a varied modern jazz collection from the forties to the present day.
I'll listen to anything that has a good tune or a singer with a good voice. I'm not impressed with anyone in an expensive video.
I subscribe to a few musician's message boards. Contributors find different singers and post comments about them. They are only impressed by artists who can sing without any digital enhancements, often playing to small audiences, there's so many out there who get little recognition. Like this one,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOQefqwajxM
Yes, I do admire an eclectic music fan who can love equally the diverse music in Who's Next AND Crime Of The Century.
A Supertramp album will never be allowed past the portal of my music den. :mad:
Also, older people feel they can relax and give their real opinions, rather than trying to look cool or edgy.
'Sure I used to love the Sweet or T Rex, but I'd walk around with Led Zep 2 under my arm'. We've all been there, eh?
And nice to see ol' George looking and sounding so perky again.
I wonder what anyone under 20 thinks about this show? Probably think it's pre-historic.
Having said that I can’t take any programme about pop albums seriously that doesn’t even mention one of the greatest of all time, definitely the greatest of the eighties, ABC’s Lexicon of Love. I don’t even recall seeing it pinned to the wall in the background. Laughable really.....
Agreed on ABC's Lexicon of Love. In fact too many of the choices weren't really pop at all, eg,Joni Mitchell. And surely Off the Wall should have been kept for tomorrow's soul/RnB episode.
Perhaps surprisingly, Clarkson came out with one of the most telling points in the entire programme; quite a devastating observation of how people have changed in such a short time. I had actually forgotten that back in the vinyl album days, you would put an album on and listen to it in its entirety without doing anything else at all. Can you imagine anyone doing that these days, without treating it merely as background music while skipping through websites on their phones or updating Twitter? I feel like going on a nostalgia trip and making a point of doing it.
Is Kate Mossman also Louise Mensch in her spare time?
p.s. For anyone curious enough to want to listen to the list, In The Court of the Crimson King now sounds very dated and with very silly lyrics. The title track still retains its grandeur and 21st Century Schizoid Man is still sounds one of the most extreme tracks you will hear - enough to scare the wallpaper off the walls. If you want to buy a Crimso album though, it simply has to be Red.
That, or you would pick the needle up and try clumsily to catch the thin groove inbetween tracks to listen to a fav track again, and cause countless scratches in the process! And yes yer right, I wouldn't do anything else aside from pretend to be the lead singer or stare at the vinyl going round!;)
I still sit down in the evening, put on my headphones, and listen to albums in their entirety while doing nothing else - and that includes CDs. I hate the idea of skipping tracks on an album - if you don't listen to the average tracks, how do you have anything to judge the good tracks against?
Good tracks stand out on their own, they don't need average tracks to give them a boost. I used to be a bit of a completist, but as I've got older, I've realised that life's too short to waste on listening to average tracks when I can be listening to good or great ones.
This progamme really has inspired me to dig out some old albums and listen to them all of the way through. I can't remember the last time I did that other than a compilation CD in the car.
The thing about listening to an entire album over and over is that sometimes one of those "average" tracks eventually becomes one of your favourites.
I do agree that one of the problems of the second episode is that it stopped too early. I know they are going covering the LP era but they could at least made it to the mid-80s.
Have to agree with Straker though, glad there was someone there to offer a more recent pick of great pop albums, otherwise it might have been a bit of an old man's club, focusing way too much on 60's and 70's.
Though I was glad to see a nod to Kraftwerk and more importantly Kate Bush's Never For Ever, which in context of great pop albums vastly exceeds her more popular Hounds of Love (IMO).
Didn't entirely agree with their final 13 but it was refreshing to see a pop top 10 (or in this case 13) that wasn't dominated by the usual suspects ie, Radiohead, Oasis, though we did get a bit of The Beatles, which I guess was inevitable when discussing pop. What was really refreshing was just how much it highlighted the subjective nature of pop, there really isn't any definitive greatest pop album.
Two hours really isn't long enough to cover all aspects of rock and pop, though I think they did a fine job, it would be nice to see this extended to a full series.
In regards to top 3 pop albums, from me it would have to be Kate Bush's Never For Ever, Lou Reed's Transformer and probably Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's.
As a jukebox enthusiast I've recently embraced modern technology and we now have a jukebox wall box selector in our front room which is connected to an adapter/iPod/vintage tuner amp and big speakers. I load the iPod with 160 tracks (the maximum my wall box will select) with a diverse selection of mp3 recordings from CDs or iTunes downloads (or from wherever) of all genres that we like, from the forties to the present day.
We can then scroll through the title cards I've put on the wall box and select any number of recordings which will then be played in the order they are selected.
If I swop the iPod to another one, it gives us another 160 choices. I can add or remove any tracks whenever we choose.
If an album sounded brilliant all the way through on first listening, I probably went off it after a couple of plays. A good example of this was This Is The Sea by The Waterboys. First listen: best album I'd ever heard; totally fed up with it two days later.
I made some terrible mistakes though. Bedside Manners Are Extra by Greenslade - anyone?
Or was that just me
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Ian Dury - New Boots And Panties!!
ELO - Out Of The Blue
Just stunning.
...or dash off to iTunes(*) to download that.
(*) - other download services are available.