Favorites ?

[Kalalau]

So what are some of your favorite songs? Some of your favorite genres?

I like doo wop, songs like Earth Angel by the Penguins, In The Still of the Night by the Five Satins, Gee by the Crows. Also disco, I admit it, it was the most fun dance music ever, I guess my fave from that era would have been You Make Me Feel by Sylvester, I liked a lot of protest songs, The Times They Are A Changin', so many more by Bob Dylan, for surf music Feel Flows by the Beach Boys kind of captures the '70's surf mentality, Pride of Man by Quicksilver the peak of the '60's acid rock era, I liked so much Presley, Hunk of Burning Love for example, dozens of Beatles songs--The Night Before, Tell Me Why, Its All Too Much, so many more.

I went to a college Christmas party the other night, the DJ was playing songs like Johnny B. Goode, it cracked me up to see these bespectacled bald headed successful businesspeople rocking out like 17 yearolds.

Oh and a few years ago I was at a party at a house near San Diego State, owned by a gym coach & wife, nearing retirement. For music they had a band that had played together as kids 30 + years before in Mission Beach, and they were making a lot of noise. In wade the SD Police, just a typical rowdy college party call, they figure, and then they recognize some of the people in the band..."Would you mind turning down the gain, your honor."

[matapule]

Re: Favorites ?

I like doo wop, songs like Earth Angel by the Penguins, In The Still of the Night by the Five Satins, Gee by the Crows.

It's Just Like Heaven by Rosie and the Originals. Anything done by Richie Valenzuela and Buddy Holly.

Also disco,

Bubble gum for the mind!

I liked a lot of protest songs,

If you come to San Francisco by Scott McKenzie. Anything by Donovan Leitch (the Universal Soldier, e.g.) - he's a Scotsman, Lopeti (wink, wink)! Pete Seeger.

for surf music Feel Flows by the Beach Boys kind of captures the '70's surf mentality,

And don't forget Dick Dale (who lives down the street).

the peak of the '60's acid rock era,

Oooooooh Boy. Matapule used to hang at the Filmore Auditorium where the Jefferson Airplane played every weekend. The air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. And the common saying was "you can take a trip with the Airplane........and never leave the ground!" My high school buddy is now Gracie Slick's personal physician in the Bay area. He went to Stanford, Lopeti (wink, wink).

and then they recognize some of the people in the band..."Would you mind turning down the gain, your honor."

Too funny, rowdy senior citizen riff raff!

Lopeti, we are basically on the same page except I would add some Country and Western, anything by Patsy Cline and/or Waylon Jennings (Rainy Day Woman). Waylon was a former member of the Crickets and was supposed to be on the plane with Buddy that fateful night, but gave his seat to the Big Bopper. The rest is history.

And there is New Age by Enya.

Hey, what about chicano music - !oye vato! - Low Rider by WAR or Tequila by the Champs.

Anything by Pachibel, and classics like Moonlight Sonata.

And, and, and..........just about everything else too.

Besides Ta'ulunga, matapule can still do a mean Twist and Mashed Potatoes too.

[Kalalau]

Re: Favorites ?

YES!!! Patsy Klein, I Fall To Pieces, a song for all the ages! It helps to have a great band behind you, I don't have any idea who Patsy Klein's musicians were, but that steel guitar was beyond perfect. Presley had the Jordanaires. I don't think studio musicians get anywhere near enough credit, they often are the difference between a starring act and a forgettable performance. Once I was driving across the desert at night and I Fall To Pieces was echoing across the vast emptiness from a station in Oklahoma City, it was perfect.

I do apologize for liking disco. It was just fun to dance to, it was from a tremendously happy era. When did I ever sleep back then? Seriously.

The Fillmore...aah yes, something I totally missed. Alas. However my beloved attended often. In Eugene the Grateful Dead were pals with Kesey, they would do free concerts at the U of O with free refreshments thrown out to the crowd. The Dead...I liked them, of course, but not wildly, like Quicksilver or Jimi Hendrix. For kick a. rock I can't think of anything to top Stairway To Heaven by Zep. Another really good band was Its A Beautiful Day, they did the best concert I have ever seen, in Eugene, they dissolved in legal hassles, its been hard to find their music for decades. Their big hit was the very mellow White Bird, but when they did acid rock they were truly incredible.

Richie Valens, what a talent! I think he died at only 17 in that plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper in Iowa. There is no telling how far a talent like Valens could have gone if he had made it even another 10 years. The day after the plane crash, I remember it well, 6th grade, all the kids as usual waiting outside the school for school to start, but for the first time ever, silent and subdued. Truth is, it wasn't even that quiet in Nov. 1963 when JFK was assassinated. I guess it was our first brush with the reality of mortality.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Favorites ?

If you could look through the some 3,000 vinyl albums I still have, along with another 3,000-4,000 CDs, you'd have to call my tastes "eclectic" (or "confused").

I love progressive rock, contemporary classical, Hawaiian, cool jazz, modern singer-songwriters, new age, '70s California pop, Celtic, romantic orchestral, soulful vocalists, experimental computer compositions, etc.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Nick Drake
Leonard Bernstein
Michael Nesmith
Seals & Crofts
Al Jarreau
Jake Shimabukuro
Rufus Wainwright
Philip Glass
Enya
Monkees
Dave Brubeck
Aaron Copland
America
Anita Baker
Yes

...all have a permanent home in my jukebox.

[scrivener]

lame thread title

This is a rather far-flung topic, and a quick glance at music-themed posts here will show that many of us have wide-ranging tastes. HT's collective music knowledge is impressive for such a small community; I've been on music-themed message boards whose participants don't even approach the experience and savvy (not to mention mostly excellent taste) of HTers as a group.

I'm not going to list any favorites here, as I think my preferences have already been made quite clear. I will say two music-related things that have been on my mind this week, however.

1.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a farce; it doesn't make any sense, and I don't think being inducted is any real kind of honor. Every year, the ceremony is bally-hooed as a major event by Rolling Stone, a publication I generally have high regard for, but every year the whole thing reeks of self-promotion, as if it's not rock and roll that's being celebrated but the hall of fame itself. I loved it when the Sex Pistols refused to accept their induction, saying in an open letter, "We are not your monkeys." I don't understand why more musicians don't say the same thing.

On the other hand, I love that Paul Schaffer is the music director of the induction ceremony and that his band has been the house band for all these years. I just wish the whole thing was worthy of such talent.

Having said all that, it's nice to see Alice Cooper FINALLY getting his due props. It's ever so slightly less a farce now that Alice is in. If you're going to have a stupid rock and roll hall of fame, you gotta have Alice.

2.
I was listening to the radio on a late-night drive home, and I heard for the first time a song called "Reflections on My Life" by the Marmalades. You know, I've been listening to the radio for practically my whole life, but as far as I can remember, I've never heard of this band and I've never heard this song. What a great little pop song. I've listened to a few of the band's other tracks and they are a competent group, easily as good as the other British Invasion bands that crossed the Atlantic. Why have I never heard of them?

On a related note: After about seven tracks of good poppy rock, I was reminded of why I don't listen to a lot of pop. A little really goes a long way.

[Kalalau]

Re: Favorites ?

This has inspired me to dig out the 45s, they are not all favorites but see if you recognize...
Pretty Blue Eyes by Steve Lawrence
Stairway to Heaven by Neil Sedaka
Paradise Park by Freddy Cannon
Think by James BrownSilhouettes by the Rays
He's A Rebel by the Crystals
Believe Me by the Royal Teens
Wipe Out & SurferJoe by the Surfaris
Cathy's Clown by the Everly Brothers
Diamonds and Pearls by the Paragons
Maybe by the Chantells
Angel Baby by Rosie & The Originals
My True Story by the Jive Five
Playboy by the Marvelettes
We Belong Together by Robert & Johnny
Why Do Fools Fall In Love by The Teenagers featuring Frankie Lymon
Come Go With Me by the Dell Vikings
Try Me by James Brown
there are several others

How did they survive? Will I ever play them again? What quaint technology.

[matapule]

Re: Favorites ?

This has inspired me to dig out the 45s, they are not all favorites but see if you recognize....

I can sing them all!!!!!! You are sitting on a veritable king's ransom of 45's. Insure them!

[Kalalau]

Re: Favorites ?

Really, they could be worth $? Sad to say, they are worn, some have scratches, I played them a lot. I liked Art Laboe's Oldies But Goodies series, he used to have a show on KDAY from LA which really was only on daytime, a nice strong signal, Alan Fried who had been busted for payola off WABC did afternoons. Fried is often credited as the father of rock 'n roll. Supposedly he invented the term on WJW in Cleveland, after playing Gee by the Crows he said "that one really rocked and rolled", the rest is history. Fried was a hero, he still is, actually, having merged "black" and "white" music on his shows, it enraged nut case J. Edgar Hoover who thought of such racial mixing as dangerous to the Republic and contrived to destroy him--payola, evidently, was just the industry standard at that time, nothing unusual about it, but Hoover did succeed in destroying Fried, he died young, in his 40's. He did a lot more good for America than Hoover ever did! And so we see again, everything is political.

[mel]

Re: lame thread title

I was listening to the radio on a late-night drive home, and I heard for the first time a song called "Reflections on My Life" by the Marmalades. You know, I've been listening to the radio for practically my whole life, but as far as I can remember, I've never heard of this band and I've never heard this song. What a great little pop song. I've listened to a few of the band's other tracks and they are a competent group, easily as good as the other British Invasion bands that crossed the Atlantic. Why have I never heard of them?

This was a big radio hit in 1970 I believe. I have the track on one of the Rhino Records' "SUPER HITS OF THE 70s - HAVE A NICE DAY" CDs. Through most of the 1960s and 1970s there were a lot of one hit wonder (or a few more) songs played on mainstream top 40 radio (read AM radio back in the day). It was all fun, mixed up rock n roll, R & B and pop back then. Hawaii stations generally threw in a lot of locally produced records in the mix...

We've had discussion threads about this before.

Here is the Marmalade playing a familiar Beatles song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kev9hhI7V8

And here they are singing their famous hit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79NiN7ISW7E

As some people may know I spent most of my growing up years listening to a heavy dose of AM branded top 40 radio - which I always thought was a lot of fun with a great mix of music in addition to the many 45s I collected.

This has inspired me to dig out the 45s, they are not all favorites but see if you recognize...

(snipped)

How did they survive? Will I ever play them again? What quaint technology.

With the right hardware and software you can convert analog 45s and LPs to digital tracks (MP3, AAC) on your computer. I've done that with many of my old 45s and LPs.

I have a music blog and on that I have a page for some of my favorite oldies that I periodically update. Listen to streams here:

http://macprohawaii-music.blogspot.c...dies-page.html