old music

Jethro Tull. I've seen them in concert twice. Really love Ian Anderson. And today Youtube served up the "official" video of Aqualung. Way ahead of it's time. Not a typical "here the group is performing on stage" video. Much more like the "Take on Me" video by aha from 13 years later. My understanding is that it's about a homeless guy but the images, with the vultures seemingly ready to attack, feels so much more like DeSantis and Abbot and their hate toward immigrants. And I'm curious who the suit is. Since Ian was British I assumed he was the prime minister at the time but he doesn't look like Edward Heath, the PM at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyZ...q7aEA7bFKtZ-oA

When son was about 3, he would lay on the floor, put on the headphones and listen to Jethro Tull and FALL ASLEEP!!! Ha! Haven't thought of that in a long time!

Jethro Tull takes me back to high school, living in New Jersey and going to the beach every day.

I really like Jethro Tull, especially the Aqualung album. I saw them in concert at the Boston Gardens many moons ago.

Both times I went to see jethro Tull live they did like 20 minute extended versions of aqualung that were amazing. Definitely among my top concert experiences.

So this week I went looking for my inconsistent "song of the week." Praise You by Fatboy Slim. One of my favorite coworkers when I first started at my previous mega corp job back in 2009 absolutely LOVED this song, which was already 10 years old by that point. She was a marketing person and had a company car because most of her work life was driving around to appointments with insurance brokers bringing underwriters to tell the brokers about whatever new and exciting commercial insurance products we were offering. One day, maybe a year into that job, I was in the car with her going to an appointment and the song came on the radio and she squealed with delight and turned it up full blast and started seat dancing as she was driving. It was reminiscent of the solo dance party I had while working from home four years ago when the song High Energy came on pandora. Anyway, it was such a fun moment that now every time I hear the song Praise You I think about that afternoon. A few days ago I was listening to the radio while working and it came on. So of course I turned the volume all the way up and had a one person, three minute dance party remembering that day.

I've not seen the video before five minutes ago. It's pretty renegade and low budget, but I am in love with the guy in the striped shirt with the glasses. I wish I could dance as well as him. Since I can't I'll probably stick to solo dance party work breaks from time to time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruAi4VBoBSM

I hadn’t heard this song Praise You. It is a catchy tune and fun. This seems like something that would be performed in churches all over the country with in churches that have dance ministries. I didn’t know there was such thing as a “dance ministry” until some years ago. That might cause me to go to church.

Gosh - I haven't heard that song for ages! It is a great song. I'll put it on my play list.

I've heard that song, but I have to admit, I looked up the launch date, and, shoot! That song should be in the "new music" thread! :) I could come up with plenty of "old music"--

Seriously, the 90s was the decade I started to re-enter the music scene, after being totally out of it in the 80s, while I was raising 4 young kids. But in the 90s, my kids became teens and turned me on to songs by Nirvana, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Now that they are grown up, I'm back in the Billboard black hole.

So, a couple of weeks ago I was down in LA for work and took thursday off before coming home to hang out with my best friend. He had bought a complete remake by the Moody Blues' of "Days of Future Past". I don't have links but it was quite enjoyable to first listen to the new one and then listen to the original and compare and contrast them. Overall I thought the new one was better, but not by a wide margin. Much of the improvement had to do with improved recording technology making everything just a bit crisper and the mixing of the tracks a bit more interesting. One of the notable quirky differences was that on the new version they paid much more attention to diction when singing. On "Another Morning" the new version diction was crazy crisp with ending T's and D's that just POPPED, versus the diction in Nights in White Satin, where the end consonants were all swallowed up. I assume that was intentional since people are alert and "crisp" in the morning and in the evening not so much, especially if an alcoholic drink or two is involved. The other thing that was notable to me was that the orchestra on the original seemed to be tuned to A 440 whereas the orchestra on the recent redo seemed to be tuned to A 442, ever so slightly higher. Not surprising since pitch inflation is a real thing because higher standard pitches generally have a "brighter" sound. I don't have perfect pitch so that impression may just be me hearing the music as more crisp because of the improved recording techniques.

It was also a joy to listen to because my friend has an absurdly expensive stereo system with speakers taking up the entire area that was intended for the dining room in his 900 square foot 3 bedroom house. We also listened to a remastered version of the Beatles' White Album that he'd gotten which was amazing. At one point I was standing in the sweet spot between the speakers where the effect was the same as headphones and the drum set went from one side to the other and it happened in the recording! Astounding the quality and thoughtfulness that gets put into these things.

(If you want to understand what I was talking about about the Beatles' drums listen to Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night" on headphones)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8

Ok, so apparently there are videos for the original Days of Future Past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58mvV_JWYXM And the diction in the original is also pretty crisp, but just not at all on the level of the remake.