Ridiculously incorrect beliefs you had about music and musicians while growing up

Not to mention bands and fans as well.

I definitely avoid using the word 'song' when talking about instrumental music (or even groove-based music that may have vocals and words, but where that isn't the focus). It just sounds kinda dumb and wrong. Track, tune, piece (also pretentious if not in the classical or jazz-related world), composition, thing, etc.

But I didn't expect that classic rock stations would eventually stop playing Cream and start playing "Cherry Pie" by Warrant (which our classic rock station did just over an hour ago).xp

Ok, yes, although when you thought that was true it WAS, at that time. Like I thought "oldies" stations would play Vera Lynn forever.

Yes, these were not ridiculous misconceptions! How could we have known…

I mean, as a kid you can't be faulted for thinking the same things that many music business professionals did at the time.

"track" always for club, IDM etc

i still think of "classic rock" proper as being mostly AOR stuff released between 1964–1981, though i know that differs from what self-described classic rock stations actually play nowadays

The first time I heard the term “classic rock” was in 1986 when a new FM station in Chicago (WCKG) called itself that. I was confused, and soon annoyed: why doesn’t “classic rock” mean Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley? Or Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown? Then they’d play something recent-ish by Journey and back-announce it by saying “It doesn’t have to be old to be a classic!”

But I don’t recall anyone saying, if asked, that their favorite music was “classic rock” — it seems like that was strictly a marketing/industry term until relatively recently. It would be like someone declaring “I really love album-oriented rock!” or “I’m super into adult contemporary!” (Which, I dunno, maybe people do/did say that.)

I've definitely heard people say their preferred music is adult contemporary.

i thought oldies/older music sounded bad because people didn't know how to play instruments very well back then, and not because recording mechanisms were more primitive

There's this charming one from Carl Perkins, not realizing Les Paul had invented tape echo, thinking he must be creating the echo through finger picking, so that's just what Perkins figured out how to do.

https://www.all-about-vinylrecords.com/rockabilly-guitar-licks.html

But I don’t recall anyone saying, if asked, that their favorite music was “classic rock” — it seems like that was strictly a marketing/industry term until relatively recently. It would be like someone declaring “I really love album-oriented rock!” or “I’m super into adult contemporary!” (Which, I dunno, maybe people do/did say that.)

I definitely went through a phase around ages 12-16 where I would have said "classic rock" was one of my favorite genres of music, as I was just diving headfirst into Zeppelin, the Who, Hendrix, Floyd, etc. at that time and discovering that music for the first time (this would have been in the mid-90s). As a proud young rockist, I thought of my love of classic rock in direct opposition to contemporary pop music. At some point I very explicitly stopped listening to the Top 40 FM station and switched to the classic rock one; I think in the era when people listened to terrestrial radio a lot more, you might've been more likely to define your tastes using the terminology that the commercial stations would feed you. I started coming back around to hip hop around age 16, and I guess pop at some point after that.

it’s like the classic rock poll never happened. tears.

It's not as if "pop" is really a genre anyway, as much as a radio format. I guess some people will say they listen to "pop" (or "Top 40," maybe in older times)... I've heard "classic rock" too.

link to the classic rock poll? don't think i've ever seen it. however, one of my gateways into ILM/ILX was the thread where Dr Casino listened to all manner of classic rock mainstays that he had not knowingly heard - I think maybe it was a spinoff of that poll

CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL parking lot tailgate pre-party -- nominations, discussions, parameters, etc.
CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL voting thread -- deadline July 15 -- VOTING CLOSED

thx!

As a young-un I had assumed that the theme songs for the sit-coms of the day were always sung by the show's stars, i.e. in my mind Cindy Williams sang the "Laverne & Shirley" theme song, while it was John Ritter imploring us to come-a knock on his door at the beginning of "Three's Company." And so on. It made sense to me since the songs were written in the voice of the characters, if not voiced by them.

I think I got stuck with a similar notion that it took a while to shake.
I think there are a couple that do exist but yeah did seem to get that feeling elsewhere.
Am I remembering right that Minder is Dennis Waterman?

The "All in the Family" theme was actually sung by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton, though, right?

^that is correct, could be that was the reason I felt all other sit-coms followed suit.

There's an urban legend that Richard Sanders (Les Nessman) sang the WKRP theme.

Am I remembering right that Minder is Dennis Waterman?

Yes.Hence the (overdone) Little Britain sketch about him insisting on singing (and writing) the theme tune for whatever TV series he appears in.

Linda Lavin sang the theme to Alice, so that's another one from that period. Funnily enough the theme to The Jeffersons was sung by a cast member of Good Times, Ja'Net DuBois.

I’m certain there’s a thread specifically for this but when I was a little kid I was certain that Spiral Staircase’s “I Love You More Today..” and Todd’s “Hello It’s Me” and “I Saw the Light” we’re sung by women doing contralto(??)

Brady Bunch is another one where cast sang theme song

Pretty sure I thought it was Woody singing the Cheers theme when I was a kid

^A friend of mine insisted that the vintage photos at the opening of Cheers were “baby pictures“ of the cast members.

Interestingly, prolific sitcom themesmith Alan Thicke neither wrote nor sung the Growing Pains theme (you can hear him on the Diff'rent Strokes theme, tho).

Hence the (overdone) Little Britain sketch about him insisting on singing (and writing) the theme tune for whatever TV series he appears in.

Waterman also sang the theme tunes for New Tricks, On the Up, and Stay Lucky. He did not write any of them, though: the arch-feminists and definitely not lazy writers behind Little Britain just saw his wife’s credit for lyrics on the first one and stopped there.

I was so fascinated by the Cheers intro as a kid

i wrote a parody when i was like 9 or 10, i don't remember most of it but it started

"staying alive in a bar today takes all the brawn ya got"

I think when I was a kid I thought that every TV theme song had a longer full length version with multiple verses and stuff

After I got over the whole "cast members always sing the theme songs" thing, I thought that the Cheers theme was sung by Gilbert O'Sullivan.

Loool!

Has anyone posted yet one of the biggest of all: that session men were hacks?

aww, Lavator, i'm touched that the Dr. Casino listening thread (credit to fact checking cuz) was an ilx gateway for you! good to know it had a good impact. it's funny because i was already gonna respond to your post before that about getting into classic rock as a teen in the mid 90s, our stories are similar!

Has anyone posted yet one of the biggest of all: that session men were hacks?

I always figured the opposite - that you couldn't just be called in to nail a take of whatever unless you were a real pro who had really put in your time with the method books. The people you could be called in to replace in the studio might be hacks, though.

I think I did have the misconception that this was, like, a job that you could apply for and get outside of three or four big cities.

Yeah, I thought they were all mid-level hired hands who didn’t give a fuck about what they were playing.

I thought the bass on sgt pepper was played by Ringo on a series of tuned bass drums. I was 5.

_Has anyone posted yet one of the biggest of all: that session men were hacks?
_


I always figured the opposite - that you couldn't just be called in to nail a take of whatever unless you were a real pro who had really put in your time with the method books. The people you could be called in to replace in the studio might be hacks, though.

Actually I have a passing acquaintance with one of the NYC Brill Building session men. I sometimes bug him with fanboy questions, and sometimes he even answers. I sometimes feel self-conscious about this but then again, James Redd is gonna James Redd.

That guy is kind of one of my heroes for various reasons. I probably posted about him here before but am a little self-conscious about going into further detail now.

i was disappointed that the 'electric guitar' patch on my keyboard did not sound like a guitar solo

Ha!

lol. is any set of standard keyboard sounds more universally disappointing?

I thought the bass on sgt pepper was played by Ringo on a series of tuned bass drums.

This would have been really cool

Still laughing about the sand trombone