Post a controversial music opinion

The aforementioned "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" featured prominently in _The Dancer Upstairs_.

Wow flamboyant tie, I admit I am a little surprised you hadn't seen it!

Enjoy.

I liked What Happened, Miss Simone? a lot, but I don't believe I really "got" her (whatever that means) until I saw her performance in Summer Of Soul

For a long time it seemed a lot of her stuff was available only as cheaply put-together German CDs that mixed studio and live material from lacklustre 80s performances in Europe. She felt genuinely underrated in those days.

iirc this lead to her going to Charley Records with a gun because they weren't forking out royalties

It might be a completely uncontroversial opinion, but Nina Simone's cover of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" is one of the greatest recordings ever.

Then again, maybe that is controversial.

To add to this, this version of her cover of Suzanne is exquisite.

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

The arrangement is beautifully simple and the last verse has these incredible moments where her voice seems to harden in a subtle but unmistakable modulation to convey some sense of brittle resilience, a stern, bittersweet joy.

The first, self-titled Boston album is the equal of Pet Sounds in terms of arrangement, production, songwriting and emotional resonance.

I put on Nina Simone's cover of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes", then halfway through was just about to go downstairs to get something, when I remembered her haranguing the audience member at the Montreaux festival (as shown in the Netflix doc) so I respectfully sat back down till it had finished.

oh boy I loved that "Suzanne" cover!

I think Bojack Horseman introduced a few people to her with this ending:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WWXsTOw_Tk

the whole concept of overrated/underrated feels really tired to me

feels like it's just a way to say "i don't like this but i have no significant thoughts about it" without saying that

underrated is fine imo, it works well to attract a certain type of listener to check someone out or give them a second listen

overrated becomes less useful as monoculture recedes further and further into the past, because...overrated by whom?

in the context of ilm, calling something "overrated" feels a little like one of those videos where someone throws a ping pong ball on some mouse traps.

It comes down to the quality of the conversation imo.

Like just listing overrated/underrated artists without real context comes across as "taste preening", but it can be interesting to examine the factors that caused some acts to become huge that might be tangential to the quality of the music as well as what causality might have held back another artist.

Problem is too often the conversation often never actually goes further than the initial statement

as monoculture recedes further and further into the past

citation please

The waning popularity of pretty much all generalist media, from newspapers to tv stations to traditional radio?

I am not btw saying a non-monoculture world is better.

it does feel like ppl's myopia is more apt to be about 'entertainment silos' rather than some kind of overarching Popular Culture

Meanwhile I have decided that Stevie Nicks is underrated (despite being globally famous, widely adored, and probably rich).

listening to dave van ronk is like having my skin slowly peeled off my body. watching him sing is like having my body boiled in a cauldron of dave van ronk's fiery-hot sweat.

ewww, did i just say that out loud...

fiery hot sweat hot sauce now comes in a bottle and can be purchased at yr local guy fieri approved location

Guy Fieri is apparently a real mensch

in the context of ilm, calling something "overrated" feels a little like one of those videos where someone throws a ping pong ball on some mouse traps.

― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, October 24, 2023

LOL. Underrated post.

it’s really important work, judging people for liking stuff too much

it is, quite literally, God's work.

Why'd you have to go and make things so overrated

https://i0.wp.com/tracklist.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/avril-lavigne-e1494207145154.png?fit=523%2C350&ssl=1

Plopped it on the turntable and confirmed my teen feelings: Highway 61 Revisited is really dragged down by those slow ones. Kinda surprised they're still a slog for me, but they are.

morton feldman is boring as fuck

so is dylan but at least his songs and albums are over quicker

Which are the slow ones? I think it generally moves along fairly snappish.

I guess Ballad of a Thin Man is slowest.

I count "Ballad of a Thin Man" as 1) typically (of '65/66) brilliant; 2) historically important; 3) my least favourite song on Highway 61. Just don't like the way it sounds, and can't remember a time when I ever did.

(Brilliant conceptually...as an idea, as a comment on the moment, as a set of lyrics; as a piece of music, no.)

Yeah it’s always been a song I felt like I was supposed to like more than I did. Probably my least favorite on the album too. The plodding pace doesn’t help.

I started out on Burgundy, but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they're right behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even to call my bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough

Contender for Dylan's best ever verse in one of the slow ones, imo

that whole song is nigh perfect, the vocal is the most seductive he's ever done.

Oh yeah that one is an all-time classic.

Highway 61 Revisited is his most perfect album - not my favorite, but his most perfect.

Prefer Morton Feldman.

i mean i prefer bob, but highway 61 is a few incredible songs and a bunch of rambling crap so fuck this argument.

Someone should do a doom metal cover of Ballad of a Thin Man.

If you like Just Like Thumbs Blues, don’t sleep on If You Ever Go To Houston. It sounds like a belated sequel.

*Tom* Thumb’s Blues

it is totally proto-doom

Rolling Stone, Tombstone, Buick and Highway 62 always work for me, the rest I get impatient with. Maybe I conditioned my young self to be impatient with the rest. Don’t think I’d given the album a full listen through since 1985.

At the time I got it, say 1983, I was knee deep in The Who and Kinks and Cream what frustrated me was the lack of riffs— it felt like it was all lyrics. I actually picked it up because I’d gotten into Johnny Winter’s cover of Highway 61. The original seemed much less rocking. But at least the motoring ones did motor along. The other made me antsy. This doesn’t happen with “lesser” Dylan albums I’ve subsequently heard, chock full of methodical ballads, but I didn’t really try any Dylan again until I was out of my teens.

Morton Feldman’s piano works, especially “For Bunita Marcos,” are sublime.

"Tom Thumb's Blues" = A+++.

another in my line of "yeah if that got memory hole'd i'd be a happier person"-
zappa

i'm sure we've covered this before, but anytime the topic gets revived, how terrible that music is just hits me all over again. i wasted so much time with that music. ugh.

Someone should do a doom metal cover of Ballad of a Thin Man.

If you like Just Like Thumbs Blues, don’t sleep on If You Ever Go To Houston. It sounds like a belated sequel.

― o. nate, Tuesday, November 14, 2023 3:54 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

*Tom* Thumb’s Blues

― o. nate, Tuesday, November 14, 2023 3:54 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is totally proto-doom

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Tuesday, November 14, 2023 4:11 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nazareth's "Ballad of Hollis Brown" cover is totally proto doom! one of the greatest covers ever, esp halfway when it gets totally unhinged

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dw-MvBnlFg

lol

My buddy Jan just proclaimed: “no good music was released in 1987. Except the second David Behrman album.”