Off Topic Saints Not606 Music Thread

Nice, reminded me of this a bit:

 

Some short Steve Hackett anti coronavirus acoustic tunes followed by a fantastic firth of fifth solo.

 

Steve Hackett is one of those artists who I've always wished I had more time to sit down and listen to. Everything I've heard from him has been pleasurable, yet I still pretty much have never had a clue to pursue his music. Really weird. I will put that right one day. I'll make a point of going through his back catalogue with Spotify. Might even buy a LP Vinyl or two. Always fun to buy records!

The one other artist I can say I had the same situation with was Nick Drake. I first heard his music when someone put on an album at a house we'd regularly all go back to after the pub to play some "sounds." [and possibly "build"]. Drake's music didn't stand out because it was surrounded by a welter of astonishingly creative stuff at the time. Much later I re-discovered it, and today it totally does stand out. Sadly, much too late for Nick. But Steve Hackett ploughs on, and I will make an effort to follow that furrow.

 

All that Steve Hackett talk got me thinking about progressive music again [it doesn't take much]. I was going to post the full Relayer album by Yes, but that's far too esoteric. Only diehard fans like it, so I chickened out and am posting possibly the most accessible Yes album of their great era - Close To The Edge. If you don't like this, you just don't like classic Yes. Me? It still gives me goosepimples:

 

I saw Steve Hackett down at Portsmouth Guildhall a couple of years ago. I have seen many bands over the years but I have to say musically it was one of the best shows I have ever been to. He played his own stuff for the first half and Genesis favourites in the second. He is a great guitarist and he surrounds himself with great musicians, everything about it was just right.
This got me thinking about how you see things over time. Last year I saw Seasick Steve in Southampton, it was probably at the other end of the scale of style from Steve Hackett but I came out thinking "that was also one of the best bands I've seen". It made me wonder if you forget how good some of the bands were in their day and the later ones only seem better. I think it may be because, in my teens and twenties, there was so much choice of great music, obviously there were the super groups but the rest were good too. Nowadays anyone who is any good stands out like a sore thumb.
Either that or as my memory diminishes with age everything seems like a new experience.

 

I think you hit upon it right there. There was and still is some excellent music undiscovered by us in those eras when creative [rock] music seemed to be at its peak. Easy enough to have another good look.

 

“Play some sounds”, and “build”?

If this was Southampton, and the Sounds were either Gong or Pink Floyd, I must know you. The pub wasn’t the Bay Tree was it? Or The Onslow?

 

I think that the reason "popular music" has diminished in quality is down to the fact that sampling and rap allowed a lot of non-musicians to produce records. There was no longer a need to have any musical knowledge or ability to make music and the culture of DJs effectively has taken control of music away from musicians. On top of this, the whole logic of downloading music is focused in people having a limited attention span and pop music is now even more disposable.

As someone who got in to jazz first, I have always felt that the best artists always owed something to jazz or at least were inspired by it. I do not have a lot of pop records and certainly nothing by what you would call rock groups in my collection. I like bands /artists like Earth Wind & Fire, Prince, Sting, Bjork, Kate Bush,etc who either are influenced by jazz or who have made records where they employ jazz musicians. There are other artists I enjoy but who do not really tick the boxes for me like jazz. There is so much jazz to listen to and explore it seems a diversion to listen to pop music.

I will throw my hat in the ring with the suggestion of two contemporary artists who I think are world class. The first is the singer Laura Mvula whose record with the Metropole Orchestra is pretty sensational and the other is Michael Kawinuka who is like a latter-day Bill Withers. I am shocked that MW is so little appreciated yet he sounds to me like someone who is producing genuine music as opposed to something fabricated by people with little musical talent in a studio. I have heard Kawinuka talk about his musical influences and experiences and it was immediately clear that he really knew what he was on about. Unfortunately you sense that what he is producing is probably too challenging for many younger listeners who I sometimes feel are not really listening to the music. Pop music has always been about "product" but I think it has now sunk slow that any vestiges of art have largely disappeared. I don't think people often appreciate how single some music is - a lot of stuff is just vamping on one chord.

 

If you love electric guitar, you'll love this. No Carlos but amazingly not everyone loves him like I do, implausible as that sounds.
Listening to this makes me want to get the records out (especially Steely Dan).

 

Beautiful. I might just have to stick Foxtrot on now!

P.S. Anyone else think he must dye his hair?

 

All my hair has died.

 

This offering from 6 music pricked my ears up.

lead to

 

I love Carlos too.

EDIT: I can understand his selection. He has stuck to the music genres he likes most, so there is no soaring guitar opening of Jimi's House Burning Down [Or basically anything off Electric Ladyland]. And there's none of this either:

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I can understand that as well. Neil Young's guitar work isn't the most technically accomplished. But by goodness does it have passion and feeling.
As one wag wrote: In this song, Neil Young plays the second best guitar solo ever. Sings a bit, then plays the best guitar solo ever.

 

Couldn’t agree more with the wag! Cortez the Killer is pretty incredible too, I’ll post it up when I have a minute.

There were some astonishing omissions from that list, but then that’s what lists are for. Page and Gilmour top 2 perhaps, but not the solos he picked.

And no Frank Zappa?

 

As much as I love Jimi's version of All Along the Watchtower, I goofed. I meant his opening guitar work from House Burning Down. Oops! Never mind, it gives me the excuse to remedy that...

 

A friend just posted this on Facebook, 2 incredibly talented Irish girls with a fabulous rendition of a Radiohead classic. The singer is just 12!

 

As promised earlier, here’s Neil Young at his absolute pinnacle. Grab the poison of your choice, lean back, and play it very loud:

 

Oh boy, that made me get the whisky out. He may not have the technical chops, but he has real feeling.

 

Goodnight all