Music Music Music

[Phoebe]

[Phoebe]

[poorpete]

Rock Hall snubs Go-Gos (and LaBelle, and Cher, and Tina, and Carole, and Kate Bush, and Dolly, and Loretta, and...)

Here's this years noms: Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Motörhead, Nine Inch Nails, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Soundgarden, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy.

Three ladies, which is more they've ever nominated in a single year, still shamefully small. I didn't care about the Rock Hall until recently and I kinda want to go back to not caring.

[Phoebe]

I'm pretty excited about the three ladies they picked, but you're right that the omission of others in favor of some on this list is pathetic. Patti LaBelle is apparently still touring around singing and helping the world, I don't know? Snubbing Carole and Tina is without excuse at this point. I can't go on.

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

In honor of the Doobie Brothers and Patti LaBelle, let's hope this one sticks in the mind, and if not, then the next one which is so underrated compared to their other songs still often played on radio:

[Phoebe]

Listening to Fear Inoculum a hundred ways, and earlier had a great experience of needing to drive in the country where trees were lining the road. On one leg of the four legged journey they played the main Fear Inoculum song on the radio, and the vehicle speakers were very good, so about 2/3 in the trees were moving around and speaking to me along the way. Each one was a different color, had its own branch pattern, and it all sort of came together. I am still finding the vocals slightly grating on all the songs except culling voices; I just want to fully hear all the things happening in the music without that layer; if I needed vocals I would, you know, vocalize something. But it's okay, it's all still good. The patterns are so great, you hear something new every time, and we are talking many a time by now.

[Phoebe]

My brain is just saturated with Good as Hell, and I was instructed (mocked mercilessly) by my poor children that it's hair TOSS and not hair tall. Hair tall made perfect sense to me; in the 80s that is exactly what we did, tall hair! If you were displeased obviously you might want to pouf up your hair further. Anyway it's a total earworm, that song!

[Phoebe]

Listening to Fear Inoculum in ze car, having traded my water bottle for a diet Coke because I was desperate for the caffeine, though I do not want to be drinking that crap because I love my teeth and stuff. We arrive at the part (one part?) where he says "inoculated" exactly as I somehow (?) managed to splash diet Coke in my eye. Hilarious and yet ...
If the song really works as advertised, maybe I can expel the diet Coke from my options.

[poorpete]

Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest singers of all time.


33 Things terrible about this list
1. Missing Roberta Flack. Seriously, why is Donny Hathaway (rightly) included but his regular singing partner not right next to him? Seriously. People have claimed Flack was only a good singer and nothing more, which itself isn't true, but at the very least if you are going to make that excuse, show me some evidence you believe it.
2. When did culture buy into this boomer-centric view that all great musical art began around 1955.
3. Vocal Jazz was the most popular thing of the 40s and yet this list gives it nothing.
4. Opera is actually kind of a popular art for a few centuries now.
5. You include some classic country artists, which is good, but ignore all but two of the female titans.
6. Bob Dylan at 7? Ok I agree that's absurd, but I also get their point that his voice is important to rock music and the sound of America. He should be at #100. That's where you make points.
7. Paul was a better singer than John
8. How did it happen that all the singers speak English?
9. Otis Redding at 8? Should be higher
10. Putting Aretha at #1 is right, which makes the list even more disappointing, that it doesn't live up to putting Aretha #1
11. Why is Joe Cocker a bad word now. That's mean.
12. Missing Chaka Khan
13. Missing Diana Ross
14. Missing Lauren Hill
15. Missing Amy Winehouse
16. Missing Linda Ronstadt
17. Missing Ella Fitzgerald
18. Dusty Springfield too low.
19. Missing Debbie Harry
20. Missing Crissie Hynde
21. Missing Loretta Lynn
22. Missing Tammy Wynette
23. Missing Sharon Jones
24. Missing Beyonce
25. Missing Celia Cruz
26. Feel a lot of this list is "I like their songs" and/or "they were instrumental in the creation and success of rock" but none of this is reason to be listed here. I love Buddy Holly, his songs are great, and he has a perfectly fine and interesting voice, but come on.
27. This list, like all lists, confuses popularity with good (except when it comes to being popular in a genre they don't like).
28. Elvis maybe shouldn't be #3, though I don't mind him in the top 10. To argue, as some on Twitter have, that he wasn't that good is silly. He was very good.
29. Missing Mirian Anderson
30. Missing Connie Boswell
31. Missing Sister Rosetta Tharpe -- I mean if you're going to make it rock centric, and hype the originators -- hold up.
32. How come the popular white rock artists from the 50s getting love, but not so much for white. Etta James an exception.
33. Makes me thing sexism is serious issue in music and critical circles. Look, i kinda understand when they make a list of the greatest guitarists of all time 90% of them are men (men have had more opportunity, and the most influential and popular guitarists are men, though that should change), and I kinda understand why 90% of best albums are by men (again, mainly through influence, and not their fault the Beatles were so good at making albums, but I think that should be closer to 60/40, IMO). But in all these things, women are most likely to be part of a group as lead singer, sometimes pigeon-held as only-good-at-singing ("oh she doesn't play her own instruments" "oh she doesn't write her own songs"), and then to go, AND when it comes to best singers we also think ~85% of the greatest singers are men, it's just giving up the ruse.

[Phoebe]

Totally agree. This list is one giant
Even for the men I can discern no coherent set of criteria that would have explained it.

You probably know more about the history of women in 20th century music than anyone who works for Rolling Stone right now, because you recognized the good and chose to make it your plan to learn about them. And if I recall correctly you have a daughter or at least some type of kid and now that kid is going to be the beneficiary of all this music, and that makes every minute of it so worthwhile. #&$+ Rolling Stone and their sad list, I say.

[akiva]

I agree that it's a problematic list.

Also, who is #97? Joe Strummer? If so, why does "Strummer" need to censored? Is there a Joe Fucker that I don't know about?

And of course, as is always the case with Rolling Stone, the list massively overrepresents that 60s and 70s. I think the people at RS don't listen to anything put out after 1980.

[poorpete]

It got a lot of traction the last few days, but people been noting that the list is from 2010. So I'll give that Beyonce didn't need to be on there yet, and maybe a list today would be a bit better. But then again 2010 was not that long ago.

[Phoebe]

It's just so oldster rock-centric plus a white boredom-rock fan's idea of which r&b singers should be recognized. It's not even an old white lady hard rock fan's idea of what makes a good rock singer - they somehow manage to squeeze in Steven Tyler, Paul Rodgers and Gregg Allman, but no Bon Scott or David Lee Roth? Not even Steve Miller. This is a weird list even by its own apparent ethos. They really don't like the 80s or electronica categories either, because if we are just talking Singing (whether in terms of sheer pipes or frontman/woman capability or both), where is George Michael, Pat Benatar, Boy George, or even Andy Bell? Or Dave Gahan or Trent Reznor?

[poorpete]

I think half who contributed thought: who was the best singer?
The other half thought: who are the lead singers of my favorite bands?

[Phoebe]

Error: thought of Andy Bell/Erasure and now all thoughts are of Erasure. I discovered they did a version of ABBA's Voulez Vous that I didn't even know about! This is when he's so young and his voice isn't what it's going to grow into later, but it's SO 80s, just hilarious. Not sure what all that stuff on the screens is about but at one point an answer to his question appears: crotchet! Obviously crochet, but who's counting? Crochet is the answer, darling boy! And a whole generation of high school girls lived by your songs, repeated on terrible speakers and a cassette tape!

Whoops, forgot to paste in the link:

[akiva]

Going to see these guys tonight. I hope they play this song.



The venue is close to the baseball stadium, and the World Series game 3 is in DC tonight, so it's going to be crowded as hell down there (and on the train to get there).

[poorpete]

Nice, have a great time! I've seen a recent setlist but I won't spoil ya.

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

Sigh, so jealous even if you see such things rarely, at least you are going! The only way I see concerts now is if I can convince my emo/classical loving teenager to go, which has happened once though we do see classical events often. The next kid is a pop/country fan, and I don't think the kid after that is going to eagerly attend concerts with his elderly mom. But you never know.

Report back so we can live vicariously here!