Lou Reed vs. David Bowie

[Guy E]

It really was dire and the stench was so poisonous that it's only been in the last few years that I could go back and enjoy groups like the Dead, Allmans and Skynyrd without wanting to crawl out of my skin. I can't say that I actively hate somebody like the New Riders of the Purple Sage, but there weren't too many options in those neo-Norman Rockwell times.

There were other negative ingredients; AM radio had pretty much died after CCR's bi-monthly subscription of hit records came to an end and FM Radio had its own strict set of rules (at least where I lived). Luckily, Al Green and Stevie Wonder were making great records and like you say Jeff, the funk stuff was good on the ears by the mid-70's... that stuff saved the radio. I was lucky in that I went to a big University in 1972 and got to see good people in clubs and in on-campus recital halls and chapels, so that was a blessing. The big Assembly Hall shows during those years were the Dead, ELP, Joni Mitchell, Beach Boys, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, J. Geils... not a terrible cross-section, but...

[Jeff K]

A question posed to Guy...

Do you think you'd be as interested in music as you are now had your batteries not been re-charged by punk?

I probably wouldn't be.

[Phil T]

The arrival of the punk era, no matter how you define it, was a life-saver.

Amen.

[king feeb]

I have to concur with Guye and Jeff. The American rock music scene in the mid-seventies was a wasteland. It was also quite polarized- you had your hard rawk or your grunchy granola folkie songwriter types. Anyone who didn't fit the mold fell through the cracks (ala Big Star). In those years, I listened almost exclusively to British or German rock bands, with the odd American artist oozing in occasionally (Blue Oyster Cult, The Dolls, The Dictators, Lou). Like Guye, I started buying a lot of jazz at that time.

I definitely wouldn't be as interested in music if not for the advent of punk, and I doubt I'd still be playing it if I hadn't internalized punk's never-say-die stubborn attitude.

[Jeff K]

I think the last few posts are proof that punk did matter to some of us and wasn't just a trend that we jumped on. I get irritated when someone younger than me says it was just a fad and the music had no real substance. As Guy said, it was a life-altering experience.

[Sneelock]

the main thing I liked about punk was that it blindsided a lot of people. now, it's true that it wasn't the cash cow many thought it would be but the fact remains, people who thought they knew it all, didn't know SHIT.
that really needed to happen right about then as far as I was concerned.

who knows how many Laurel Canyon plumbers David Geffen would have poured into denim pants if not for being blindsided by punk. it made some very settled people lose their balance. yay.

[Jeff K]

I think the last few posts are proof that punk did matter to some of us and wasn't just a trend that we jumped on. I get irritated when someone younger than me says it was just a fad and the music had no real substance. As Guy said, it was a life-altering experience.

Yeah, but look at your life.

Go back to your 'inspired amateurism', you record company lapdog you

[king feeb]

Like Guye, I started buying a lot of jazz at that time.

it's always a damning indictment of any music scene when the kids start listening to coltrane and mingus.

*hides Kenny G albums*

[Jeff K]

Like Guye, I started buying a lot of jazz at that time.

it's always a damning indictment of any music scene when the kids start listening to coltrane and mingus.

*hides Kenny G albums*

Come on, feeb. Kenny G wasn't even around during the 70's.

Here's who you were really hiding....

[Sneelock]

I think the last few posts are proof that punk did matter to some of us and wasn't just a trend that we jumped on. I get irritated when someone younger than me says it was just a fad and the music had no real substance. As Guy said, it was a life-altering experience.

the great equalizer is that the same thing will happen to them soon enough. I saw the hippy thing close enough to feel a similar frustration when bellicose young Republicans want to tell me how hippies lost the war in Viet Nam. I mean, doesn't that opinion seem deranged to anybody who actually lived in those times? well, it's an opinion I hear from young people a LOT.

It was weird when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame started inducting some 'punk and new wave' bands how offended so many people were by it. maybe those bands made us lose a war or something and I missed it.

[king feeb]

Like Guye, I started buying a lot of jazz at that time.

it's always a damning indictment of any music scene when the kids start listening to coltrane and mingus.

*hides Kenny G albums*

Come on, feeb. Kenny G wasn't even around during the 70's.

Here's who you were really hiding....

No man. Really. It was Kenny G. Back before he started to suck.

[The Modernist]

Well this was a lively read!

[Bungo the Mungo]

Lodger is shit

I am however, a little bemused by the assertion that Aladin Sane is weak...


What has man got to do?????

I have since reassessed Aladdin Sane and now think it's a very good album.

Lodger still sounds like Eno-ish 'funk' - nasty.

[Insouciant Western People]

I have since reassessed Aladdin Sane and now think it's a very good album.

Mm, I think it's probably my favourite non-Berlin Bowie lp. With Hunky Dory and Scary Monsters close runners-up.

[Goat Boy]

Lodger is fantastic. Clean your ears out for crying out loud!

[Moleskin]

Should have had this thread 20 years ago, when I was still listening to their records.

[Brin]

Bowie.

[Jeff K]

This thread was fun to read through again. I still stand by everything I wrote too.

[Matt Wilson]

Gee, Jeff. We didn't know that...

[der nister]

Gorts, I think we need to close this thread.

Oops wrong forum