What music did our parents listen to when we were younger, and what was the first music we ever owned? Find out right at the start of this week’s show. Also find out if either of us ever played a musical instrument. After the trip to the past, we leap to the future, discussing the musician or band that never lets us down…and the band that, when on it, is as good as it gets, but has also recorded some of the worst music out there.
From there, we delve into dislikes, leading off with the band or style of music it seems everyone says one must like, but we don’t like. Then: it’s time for a moment of hate…find out what band or musician we could do without. (And yes, we said hate. Normally, not our kind of thing, but once Christopher opened his mouth and discussed is irrational hatred for a particular musician, things took a bit of a dip into Negativeland.) You know we usually lean toward positive, though…to the point of ridiculously positive at times. We leave the dislike and hate behind and talk about music’s effect on our writing.
Music is a time machine of the mind — we then talk about the musician or band that transports us to the time we listened to them most. Find out what songs we can’t help but like, as well as our guilty pleasure tunes. (Not that we are ones to really care what people think of our musical choices, but we all have those songs that are considered bad that we instead love.)
What do we listen to most these days? How has our tastes changed — what musicians or bands did we once listen to all the time that we have simply left behind? Find out our biggest music 180s, the bands we once couldn’t stand that we came to love. Then it’s time for the one-minute lightning round as we rattle off some of our favorite songs (and forget so many others)! The episode closes with what effect music has on us.
We’d love to hear your answers to any of these questions in the comments.
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When I was a kid, my grandma had Alvin and the Chipmunks records, and that’s what I would listen to at her house. At home, I’d listen to my mom’s hippie records – mostly The Beatles, the Moody Blues, and Janis Joplin.
Later on, I loved Air Supply. 🙂 Then it was all the 80s bands. In high school, I was a U2 fanatic (BTW U2 sucks now). Also: DEVO, Culture Club, Tears for Fears, AC/DC, Adam Ant, Def Leppard, Duran Duran. The hair bands and the synth bands. 🙂 I went through a Led Zeppelin (all their songs except Stairway) period and a Chicago period. Queen, Donovan, and The Moody Blues have been constants. In college I got into XTC, the Cure, the Smiths, Erasure, and… The Monkees. 🙂 Then kd lang. After that, 90s hip-hop (the good stuff). I’ve always loved Steely Dan / Donald Fagen, I saw them in concert. 🙂 Love UB40 and reggae.
Onto the opposite end of the spectrum. If I could punch any band in the face, it would be The Kingston Trio. Also, anybody who sings “Stars and Stripes.” Can’t stand Toby Keith / God Bless ‘Merica country music, and I refuse to listen to today’s kiddie pop.
Somebody hates the song Layla??
Here’s my 1-minute list: Klaus Nomi. (Nomi is worth the full minute.)
Oh yeah…
I’ve seen a million faces, and I’ve ROCKED THEM ALL!!
CMS: Alvin and the Chipmunks hold a place in my heart for similar reasons. My step brother had a record with “Witch Doctor,” (http://youtu.be/cmjrTcYMqBM) and so many other tunes that were on the edge of legit music, but also [kinda] for kids, that floored me. Alan Sherman’s “Camp Granada,” Charlie Drake’s “My Boomerang Won’t Come Back,” Napoleon XIV’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away,” (for a rather LOUD and TWISTED version of “They’re Coming to Take Me Away”…LARD!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ0VMDmGdx0&feature=share&list=PL6091B977A800BED8)and so many other goofy songs. I’m not sure an album had a bigger effect on me than that one. It was the gateway drug to Dr. Demento, which was the gateway to DEVO’s “Mongoloid.” (I THINK that was the first DEVO tune I heard…the early, before-the-album version (http://youtu.be/T9cg-1HwhO4)).
Speaking of DEVO…our neighbor kind of…worshiped them. As in, one day at the grocery store where he worked as a cashier, he rang up potatoes for my mom…and he went on and on about how spuds have many eyes and see all. How boiling them only gave them powers. He was eventually fired. One afternoon, he was found dancing to Adam Any on the hood of the car his brother said he planned to restore, and I kind of thought, “Man, he’s on to something…” Then there was the morning (3 a.m.) he woke us all up mowing the lawn in his underwear while shouting the lyrics to Rush’s “Subdivisions.” He once told me he could see TV waves…said he could see the biggest TV ever…so big, that it took up the entire horizon…and how it all sickened him with the advertising. Another time, he chided friends for liking Jimi Hendrix because they were stuck in the past, and how the future was where it was at! (Speaking of DEVO and Hendrix: http://youtu.be/qonTIZGu27w)
I thought he was the coolest person I ever met at the time, but…he went away for a bit…and his family stopped speaking about him…
Regarding the stuff you liked…Adam Ant, to this day…I love some of those tunes. Sure, Goody Two Shoes and Strip were cool — I LOVED that ending to the “Goody Two Shoes” video (Hey…puberty!), but it was stuff like “Whip in My Valise” and “Prince Charming.” (Hokey as it may sound, I found a lot of strength in those lyrics…the line about ridicule not being something to be scared of, and the lines about respect and not lower one’s standards. That song still gets me.
Klaus Nomi…his version of Lightning Strikes…I recognized the tune and was captivated by that video. On the level of being struck by Herbie Hancock. Klaus was like 80s music and Max Headroom to me…I wasn’t quite sure about it all, but I was fascinated.
Damn, music is cool!
Moody Blues…only band I’ve seen where a joint was passed down the line and…well…I wasn’t driving, so why the fuck not?!
I should also mention that ELO holds a place in my heart. My step brother loved them so much. And as far as “Layla”…I once spent DAYS listening to it, building up a tolerance to it in the event friends discovered my hated for the song’s ending and played it to try bothering me. I can now stomach that and Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You.”
Also, these songs:
http://youtu.be/VN32kQUHBK0
http://youtu.be/YievWIX9AKk (“Something ’bout the way you taste, makes me wanna clear my throat!” may be my fave line from a song.)
http://youtu.be/uqoH4rvXxpU
Shifting gears: http://youtu.be/9PH0chh5QWg
Another Shift: http://youtu.be/AQ2wTCdwBtY
Somewhere in my mind, all these songs are linked…
Queen! How did I not mention QUEEN?! I was obsessed with them when I was younger, and I still love 99% of their catalog.
Also, I failed to mention much David Bowie in the podcast. I failed a lot this episode. 🙂
Cool videos, thanks for sharing! Here’s one, you *might* see me if you don’t blink: http://youtu.be/26iXUFxvO7c Rockin’ out on a 2-day video shoot in Boston. 🙂
OK I’ll give you a hint – 2:30 !
And R.E.M!
for shame, Shawn! 😉 ok, you can’t help your first impression / exposure.
Queen redeems you, sir.
I first heard banjo when my grown second cousins would jam bluegrass for hours, once a year at my great grandmother’s birthday party. Recently rediscovered, there’s something about the sound of a fast banjo that turns on some deep genetic code. Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, phenomenal.
Agree with you guys on too many bands, but my hate trio:
Aerosmith – Everything after Dream On 🙂
ZZ Top – all sounds the same, and somehow representative of Tx
Eagles – you’re country! shut up and be country! effin desperado
Hated genre, any English dude playing ‘blues’ (Clapton)
– (holy…. wrote this before I finished the podcast!!!)
I should really finish a cast before posting. Best Brittney song: Hit Me Baby One More Time.
My ‘take me back’ band: Cure
Guilty pleasure….
….
….
….
bangles (can I put this in a smaller font?)
No shame for the Bangles. None whatsoever.
Premature commenter! 😉
No shame in the Bangles. At least you, Shawn, and me will battle all who don’t agree!
I like that ZZ Top exists…or, at least those beards. But yes, there’s something about them that never stuck with me. I blame Kerry Von Erich! (He used La Grange before this: http://youtu.be/_6GNHLEk-dI and then he went at Rush.)
The mere mention of Desperado or Eric Clapton is painful…