Reading the 20th Century discussion

A big part of the 20th Century was its music. I make no apologies for being a huge (rather nerdy and obsessive!) Beatles fan. However, I love most classic rock from the era of the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. Do you have a favourite band or style? From Swing to Jazz, Blues to Punk, the 20th Century has some of the best music - in my opinion anyway. I would be interested to read about your own favourites. Also, if you share our love of music books, this would be a great thread to point out any new books on our radar.

Susan wrote: "Do you have a favourite band or style? "


It's probably easier to say what I don't like but, I like to accentuate the positive, so here's a few examples of genres and artists that make me happy...

UK punk rock 76-78/Glam Rock/David Bowie/Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Northern Soul/Southern Soul/Brian Eno/The Velvet Underground/Motown/T. Rex/Reggae/Ska/The Beach Boys/Iggy and the Stooges/The Rolling Stones/Van Morrison/Kate Bush/Wire/Sparks/Nick Drake/PJ Harvey/The Smiths/Early hip hop/ELO/and on and on and on

This week, according to LastFM, I have mainly been listening to....

Lee Hazlewood
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band
Metronomy (who I saw live on Sunday with my kids and we all had a ball)
The Kinks
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile
Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls
Squeeze
Ghostpoet
Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch
Melanie
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra

I bet you wish you hadn't asked now

Not at all! I share your love of Northern Soul, UK punk rock, The Stones (with reservations - in that I love particular songs but don't like all the albums), Motown, The Kinks, etc. I read a biography of Ray Davies a while back, which was one of the funniest books I have ever read. I adore The Kinks, but really he came across as SO unlikeable and yet also quite vulnerable.

I listen to a lot of Jacques Brel, and through him Scott Walker and Rod McKuen, but also John Denver, who did a decent version of Amsterdam. But I also have the Kinks, Simon and Garfunkel, and Harry Nilsson. I have playlists on my iPod, but haven't quite mastered the idea of streaming!

Love Paul Simon and Harry Nilsson, Rosina.

I don't limit myself either and also love Nick Cave, Bowie, P J Harvey, Paul Simon, Jacques Brel, (love Scott Walkers take) Reggae, Punk, Post Punk, Goth, Trip Hop, Electronica, Classical and Early and nearly everything else. At the moment, a lot of Dead Can Dance, Massive Attack, Siousxie, (I prefer The Creatures to the Banshees) Nightmares on Wax and Nick Cave.
Nigeyb, I saw Ghostpoet at Womad last year and liked him, but don't know much about him. Is there anything of his you would particularly recommend?

Wonderful selections Tania


Tania wrote: "Nigeyb, I saw Ghostpoet at Womad last year and liked him, but don't know much about him. Is there anything of his you would particularly recommend? ."

He's only released three albums and all are fab so you can't really go wrong. The new one Dark Days + Canapés is as good a place as any to start your journey.

Thanks, I'll give that one a whirl then.

I could spend all day listing artists I like - I have pretty eclectic tastes but generally prefer things that are eccentric and ambitious to mainstream artists. Recent discoveries include My Brightest Diamond and Anais Mitchell, older niche favourites include Peter Hammill (and Van Der Graaf Generator) and Jackie Leven. I have plenty of more mainstream stuff too (Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny. I have to admit that I have listened to much less music of all kinds since joining GoodReads because I can't read to most forms of music (nothing with words and nothing distracting).

Dub reggae can be a good accompaniment to reading. Or perhaps some of Eno's more ambient works.

I am rather old-fashioned and prefer the works of the earlier part of the century. Puccini's operas are among my favorite works as are the works of Shostakovich, Ravel, Debussy, Janacek, Elgar, Vaughan-Williams, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, etc.

Broadway! I love Sondheim and the usual suspects--especially those from the 1920's-1970's.

Big Band! Glenn Miller, Artie James, Tommie Dorsey, etc.

Early rock
British invation
Folk singers

That's a great selection of favourites, Natalie. I don't know as much classical music as I should, but was at a concert of Russian music yesterday which included Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake (going back to the 19th century!)

I also love musicals and folk singers in particular.

Susan wrote: "A big part of the 20th Century was its music. I make no apologies for being a huge (rather nerdy and obsessive!) Beatles fan. However, I love most classic rock from the era of the Fifties, Sixties ..."

I am also a big Beatles fan Susan! Also The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Creedance Clearwater Revival, David Bowie, Dire Straits...

Southern rock such as Buddy Holly, Little Richard, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, George Thorogood & the Destroyers, the Black Crows

Nigeby mentioned ska -- I love Jimmy Cliff, The English Beat, The Specials, & Madness! I am also a fan of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & Reel Big Fish in the ska/punk crossover genre.

Motown & soul such as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett

Punk such as The Clash, The New York Dolls, The Ramones...

New Wave such as The Pretenders, Devo, The Cars, Talking Heads, the B-52s

Alternative & Indie rock such as Superchunk, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., The Posterchildren, Portastatic

Bluegrass such as Blue Grass Boys, Flatt & Scruggs, Bela Fleck

I also like some classical music such as Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Handel...

When I was younger, I used to listen to music while I read but nowadays I find that it's distracting so I don't listen to music much any more... Even in the car, which used to be a place I listened to music, I now listen to audiobooks instead.

Leslie, great list. I read Ray Davies biography a while ago and laughed all the way through - he was so utterly unlikable it was hilarious :)

My absolute fave rave are the Bay City Rollers, whom I like most in the following order:

Woody, Alan, Eric, Les and, finally, Derek.

My fave latter-day Rollers, in order of how much I like them, would be:

Ian, Pat and Duncan.

My fave Rollers song is Shang-A-Lang and my least fave is The Disco Kid.

My fave non-Rollers band is probably Lieutenant Pigeon, on the strength of Mouldy Old Dough.

Mark wrote: "My absolute fave rave are the Bay City Rollers, whom I like most in the following order:

Woody, Alan, Eric, Les and, finally, Derek.

My fave latter-day Rollers, in order of how much I like them, ..."

Bands like the Bay City Rollers weren't publicly admired within my circle at the time but I'm sure everyone secretly loved them really! ;-)

I think my favourite band of that period of that period was Sweet - very underrated. And Marc Bolan was top of my list for teenage heart-throb!

And as you know Mark I'm also a huge SAHB fan.

Ruth wrote: "..."

I love Sweet... their Desolation Boulevard being the first album I ever bought. I still listen to it, still dig it. My ears, though, have always detected a best-before date with Sweet... otherwise I’d be rushing to buy that forthcoming boxed set of their complete recordings.

As for SAHB, yeah, one of the best, and no two ways about it. Although, if I’m honest, Alex's 1977 spoken-word album about the Loch Ness Monster has yet to get that second spin round mine.

Bolan? Completely without peer.

I don't remember liking the Bay City Rollers, but I do recall having tartan trousers when I was about 7 or 8.... I was always a little out of step, musically, although I did like Wings, until my mother said, "do you know he was in another band?" and it was all over!

Susan wrote: "I don't remember liking the Bay City Rollers..."

It’s not too late, you know.

All together now....


B-A-Y-B-A-Y-B-A-Y-C-I-T-Y with an R-O-double-L, E-R-S, Bay City Rollers Are The Best

Thank you, Mark. It is never too late - I hope they appear in our Stuart Maconie book next month. I have started re-reading that and have already come across some fantastic stories.

: )) Shang-A-Lang!

Had a big poster on our wall of them...

Roisin wrote: ": )) Shang-A-Lang!

Had a big poster on our wall of them..."

I see from your profile that, like myself, the Rollers were your gateway to Killing Joke.

I've just seen a good concert featuring music from the Summer of Love, 1967 - amazing to think it was 50 years ago now. As well as a live band, the concert featured film footage from the time, focusing on protests over the Vietnam War. Very interesting.

The Rollers make an appearance in the Stuart Maconie book, which will be next months Moderator's Choice.

Yes, it is amazing that 1967 was fifty years ago now, Judy. I was only a baby at the time so, sadly, can't remember it - but the music certainly remains :)

Susan wrote: "Yes, it is amazing that 1967 was fifty years ago now, Judy. I was only a baby at the time so, sadly, can't remember it - but the music certainly remains "
That is what makes music in the twentieth century so different and diverse, compared to earlier times. We have methods of recording it and listening to it instead of being limited to live performances.

Yes, that's a good point, Val. I remember reading about the birth of recording equipment and it was designed for the spoken word, until someone thought of recording Caruso (?) and there being a sudden explosion of interest.

In 2011 I read a marvellous book detailing a lot of the history of recorded music.... The Long-Player Goodbye: The Album from Vinyl to iPod and Back Again by Travis Elborough - sadly before I habitually reviewed stuff on GoodReads. It's great though.

Val wrote: "That is what makes music in the twentieth century so different and diverse, compared to earlier times. We have methods of recording it and listening to it instead of being limited to live performances...."

That, in my opinion, is not always one for the plus column.

I'm saddened this morning to hear of David Cassidy's death - he was an idol for me in the early 70s. I'm of the age where girls all seemed to love either Donny or David, and for me it was David out of the two! He made some great records - for instance I Think I Love You and Could It Be Forever?

Oh, and How Can I Be Sure?

RIP DC - sad news


He loomed large for a year or so in the early 70s. And who didn't enjoy the Partridge Family as a kid?

And Rodney Bewes too. I loved The Likely Lads (sorry to go off topic). RIP RB

Yes, The Likely Lads were wonderful. Sad news as you say.

I had heard about David Cassidy this morning (I certainly watched The Partridge Family) but not Rodney Bewes. Loved the Likely Lads too. Very sad news this morning.

Sad about David Cassidy. I wasn't really a fan in the 70s, but I saw him play the lead in Blood Brothers in 1995 and he was brilliant. RIP.

Nigeyb wrote: "And who didn't enjoy the Partridge Family as a kid?"

Me, for one. My childhood was all about The Monkees. No contest.

Still, very sad news of his passing.

It is sad. I always hate to read when someone my own age is dead. He probably did a lot of drugs - being in the music business. Yesterday I saw a picture of him from 2015 and he looked terrible.

Jan C wrote: "He probably did a lot of drugs - being in the music business."

That’s not being just a wee bit presumptuous, it’s needlessly wrongheaded and judgemental.

Well, from the article I just read David had 3 DUIs - so that would imply we shared a drug, alcohol - and he apparently had a genetic dementia.

And, besides, almost everyone I know of in my age group did one kind of drug or another. Or else they had a confined life.

Right, but my point was that assuming somebody to be a drug user just because they’re in the music industry is like assuming somebody to be a paedophile simply because they’ve joined the clergy.

Good morning - understandably members will, occasionally, have disagreements, but can I just ask everyone to be polite to each other and, possibly, just agree to disagree.

Talking of drug use in the late Sixties, I came across an interesting title, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

You don't have to be mad to live here, but it helps

If you want to understand Trump's America, how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you have to go back to the very beginning and take a dizzying road trip across five centuries of crackpot delusion and make-believe from Salem to Scientology.

From the Pilgrim Fathers onward, America has been a place where renegades and freaks came in search of freedom to create their own realities with little objectively regulated truth standing in their way. To invent and believe what the hell you like is in some ways an unwritten constitutional right. Every citizen is more than ever gloriously free to construct and promote any vision of the world he or she devoutly believes to be true. That do-your-own-thing freedom - run amok since the individualism and relativism of the 1960s and later the unprecedented free-for-all world of the Internet, is the driving credo of America's current transformation where the difference between opinion and fact is rapidly crumbling.

Fantasyland is a journey that joins the dots between the disparate crazed franchises of true believers – America’s endless homespun rebooting of Christianity from Mormons to charismatics, medicine shows to new age quacks, conspiracy theorists of every stripe, showmen hucksters from P T Barnum to Trump himself, Creationists to climate change deniers, extra-terrestrial obsessives to gun-toting libertarians, anti-Government paranoia, pseudoscience, survivalists and satanic panic. Along the way Kurt Andersen has created a unique and raucous history of America and a new paradigm for understanding our post-factual world.

Thank you Susan.

Since the Monkees have been mentioned in this thread, people might be interested in this article which quotes Micky Dolenz recalling his friendship with David Cassidy and their tour together a few years ago:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...

I also see from the article that Cassidy wanted to move on to play more blues and rock'n'roll - I don't think I ever heard much of his later music, but will give it a listen.

They were playing his songs of R2 yesterday, when I was on the school run (I am hoping Steve Wright continues his show until my children are grown up, as I've been listening to him since I was a small child!) and I remembered a lot of them, but not sure if they were old hits or new songs.

David Cassidy - a life in pictures...


https://www.theguardian.com/culture/g...

Just started The Beatles on the Roof

Was listening to a podcast about Oasis yesterday, as they were interviewing a Beatles expert and the Oasis interviewer said he envies the sheer amount of books about the Beatles. So, my question is, which musician/record label/type of music/producer, etc. would you like to see have a really scholarly book written about them, which doesn't currently exist?

Half Man Half Biscuit.....


......which sounds like a flippant response but really isn't.

There's some amazing lyrics and a rich vein of clever references. So much to analyse and enjoy. Never going to happen though.

It was odd, as the guy on the Oasis podcast said he would really love a well written retrospective of the band and Ken Womack, who he was interviewing, urged him to write it, but he kind of backed off. There are a few Oasis books, but the one which looks the most interesting is Oasis: What's The Story?
Great title!

I have never heard of Half Man Half Biscuit, but I see they recorded "Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral," just proving there is no escape from the Fabs! :)

I just looked up a few bands at random to see if there were books about them; there are, I just haven't read them.

Nigeyb wrote: "Half Man Half Biscuit.....


......which sounds like a flippant response but really isn't.

There's some amazing lyrics and a rich vein of clever references. So much to analyse and enjoy. Never go..."
I second that Nige, a bamd massively underrated. I was guty myself of not givingthem respect for manyyears but ive happily corrected my foolish behaviour now.
Also harking back to earlier in this thread Rodney Bewes... alright he was the lesser half of the likeley lads but what a lesser half he was. And to drag muself back to the music thread i attempted to hijack the Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads theme tune is an all time classic, so let's hear it for Mike Hugg and Ian La Frenais for their grand work together.