I know this is more of a music sharing thread, but I think it's still the best place to post this. 14 months ago I began a journey through the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list, and I've finally finished it. This list was first published as a book in 2005, and the version I went through continued on to 2020, bringing the total to something like 1080 albums. It starts in 1955. It was quite eye-opening to take a deep dive into music history. All kinds of genres, like rock 'n roll, bossa nova, soul, jazz, funk, psychedelia, country, metal, alternative, krautrock, industrial, hip hop, electronica, pop, and on and on and on. It's mostly Western-centric, though there are several records from outside of the US and Europe. Oh, and there's some dreadful, fart-sniffing avant-garde "art" nonsense on this list. Those ones could really be a chore sometimes, but I pledged to listen to every second of every one of these records. There were plenty of nice surprises, and I have some new favourite records and artists. I think the most fun aspect of going through this list was hearing songs I've heard dozens of times before, but never knowing who wrote or performed them. While listening, I usually browsed through the Wiki page for the record, and sometimes for the band or individual performers as well. I learned a lot and had a great time. I recommend it to music and history lovers alike. I wrote a quick review for each and assigned a rating out of 5 stars. At the end I decided to check how many words I'd written about these records, and it's something like 75,000. Wild how it can add up like that. I'm still adding data into a spreadsheet because I am curious how I've rated these records by genre and decade. I'll probably share some graphs in a few weeks just because I find the data interesting. I'm not a shill or "influencer" for Amazon, but if anyone is interested in going through the list, an Amazon Music subscription is the way to go. In Canada it's $8.99/month. I was surprised to find that probably 98% of everything on the list is available there. The rest you can find on YouTube. I had done some maths a few months ago and learned that I'd been listening at a rate of 11 cents per record. No wonder it's hard to make it as a musician these days !
That's impressive. I've never even read through the whole list. Judging by the first couple hundred and the last couple hundred, though, I'm guessing I've heard about half of the original list. I just looked up the additional 80, and it made me feel a little old. I haven't heard a single album in the last 25, lol. (And I can't believe they left out Twenty One Pilots!) There should be a supplementary list of compilation albums of earlier artists for folks who want to deep dive all the amazing music that came out before the LP was invented. I mean, there's not a single Louis Armstrong on there, and the Ella and Billie albums are hardly their best work. There's no Robert Johnson or any other blues prior to Muddy Waters, no swing, for crying out loud. Modern music of the western world really starts somewhere in the 1920's and gets great by the mid 30's, in my opinion. There just weren't any albums for the most part until well into the 50's. An 88 year old song I love: (And yes, that's Benny Goodman on the clarinet.)
Whoah... this is some really sweet music. I guess it qualifies as smooth jazz or something, and the singer is really unbelievably good. Plus bonus boobs: It's hard to believe because it sounds so perfectly produced, but this is being perfomred live.
I don't think it is, but definitely made to look so. I'm not seeing the amps, monitors, or mics needed to record it. Tiny ass phone screen, though, so who knows? Very nice jam, though. ETA: vocals could be live. Those go direct-in and aren't recorded ambiently.
Quand je menai les chevaux boire. When Man does not suffer, or suffer too little, he finds ways to suffer more.
I see we have a feline chest-burster. What's the facehugger look like? ETA: wait, there it is. The man in the middle like you said.
Breakfast in America makes me very nostalgic for a very interesting time in my life. The music of REO Speedwagon figured prominently as well. I played this when I was younger and at a summer band camp. The director was an honest to god Knight Commander of the British Empire. Sir Francis Vivian Dunn, Leftenant Colonel in Her Majesty's Royal Marines and director of the orchestra on the Royal Yacht. The last eight bars after the final key change are my favorite classical ending flourish.
Wow, I really enjoyed that. Thanks so much for sharing. I especially took note of the conductor's role. Sorry, couldn't help making a connection to writing. Writers are like conductors, bringing all the instruments into harmony.
Oooh.... God, I love "Jupiter." All of The Planets, really, but "Jupiter" most of all. That middle section, the one that all the epic fantasy movies try to emulate in their score -- sheer perfection. One of the greatest melodies ever written. Here's a wonderful flash mob rendition of it (are flash mobs still a thing?) And we can't bring up Holst without rocking out to the suite's first movement, the epic heavy-metal-before-there-was-heavy-metal "Mars: The Bringer of War"
And as long as we're posting classical pieces, how about some Liszt? The absolute best part of this video is the joy on pianist Valentina Lisitsa's face as she performs. She's a master of her instrument performing one of the most delightful, fun songs ever written for it - this really is play for her!
Ooh, good call. They definitely both share that real love of performing. Dang, I need to watch some Marx Brothers' movies. They've been at the top of my to-watch list for too long.
I recently bought I think all of them, which required getting two collections, from two different film studios. I recall liking all of them, to varying degrees. They do the opposite of what we were talking about in the musicals thread—each time one of them gets a gag (plays his instrument or does his schtick) the plot comes to a crashing halt until it's over. Good fun though.
Not sure I should like, but it's for the cueball slide guitar solo. Hope you aren't feeling it in a depressing way. EDIT—I can't even find the original video I remember now, where they were in a bar and the guitarist picked up a cueball and used it as a slide.
I've seen the flash mob. It has actually choked me up. I played the Euphonium, which I got pretty good at and insured I graduated high school a virgin.
A comment on the director in the Holst piece above. Anyone who has played in an ensemble like that knows all that arm waving and expression is really just a show for the audience. The real work of the conductor happens in rehearsals; "Oboe a little louder, trumpets bring it down a little." All of this happens while they are tapping the rostrum with the baton like a metronome to keep time. Occasionally they will throw the baton at the euphonium player for flubbing that high C during his solo.
I kind of thought so. They put on a big show of being a magician conjuring the music up out of thin air. That lady above looked pretty pissed off.
There's some joke, which I probably won't get right because I'm not really knowledgeable of music but it goes something like: What do you do with someone in the orchestra with little musical talent? Give them two sticks (drums ) What if they still have no talent? Take one away.
