Just what's with the over 50s? They are into heroin, mysticism, atheism, questioning their sanity and schmaltz.
Or so a poll of their favourite songs would seem to suggest.
Lennon's turgid 'Imagine' leads - 'No Hell below us, above us only sky' - There's the atheism.
Second, Lady in Red - There's the schmaltz.
Third, 'Stairway to Heaven. Awful, just awful. Give me 'When the Levee Breaks' any day. Mysticism, arrant nonsense and lyrically fuelled by a lot of hash.
Fourth - Stand By Me. Harmless enough.
Fifth - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley, not Cline). Seems to be about insanity.
Sixth - Lou Reed's Perfect Day. Yes, it is about heroin. Accordingly, the Children in Need version provided a huge amount of wry amusement.
Seventh - Good Vibrations. Hmm...
Eighth - Bridge over troubled water. Also widely believed to be about heroin.
Ninth - Closest Thing to Crazy. I'm beginning to worry about them now...
Tenth - Whole lotta love. They could at least have chosen the Muddy Waters 'You need love' that this wasripped off derived from.
Still, no Beatles, so it isn't ALL bad.
Lennon's turgid 'Imagine' leads - 'No Hell below us, above us only sky' - There's the atheism.
Second, Lady in Red - There's the schmaltz.
Third, 'Stairway to Heaven. Awful, just awful. Give me 'When the Levee Breaks' any day. Mysticism, arrant nonsense and lyrically fuelled by a lot of hash.
Fourth - Stand By Me. Harmless enough.
Fifth - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley, not Cline). Seems to be about insanity.
Sixth - Lou Reed's Perfect Day. Yes, it is about heroin. Accordingly, the Children in Need version provided a huge amount of wry amusement.
Seventh - Good Vibrations. Hmm...
Eighth - Bridge over troubled water. Also widely believed to be about heroin.
Ninth - Closest Thing to Crazy. I'm beginning to worry about them now...
Tenth - Whole lotta love. They could at least have chosen the Muddy Waters 'You need love' that this was
Still, no Beatles, so it isn't ALL bad.
Labels: opinion polls
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on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 9:33 am.
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*coughs*
Never mind Nick you were not about to be a guest on Yoof ATTACK init Channel 4s Urban posse ..big up to the norty Norf London Massif , .........entertainment
One of two goodies in there C.
" Ah I love the colouful clothes she wears
And the way the sunlight flits across her hair..."
C, is it possible we have breezed past your 1st anniversary without offering up due felicitations?
What miserable ingrates we are
or was that the notorious piss-up we read so much about...
Nick, I decided to keep the anniversary under my hat - there's rather too much blogging about blogging going on these days.
Anything by The Beach Boys is good enough for me. "Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Babara Ann" is one such. "She'll Have Fun, Fun, Fun 'Til Her Daddy Takes The T-Bird Away" is another'
I always wondered whether Mark Chapman shot John Lennon for writing "Imagine". Even by inter-galactic standards, it is one of the most irritating songs ever written.
If you fancy laughing so hard you perforce stop reading because your eyes are blurred with tears, get hold of Dave Barry's 'Worst Songs Ever Written'. He's the humourist for one of the Miami papers and a very funny writer.
He actually wrote two columns on pop songs. In the first, he named all the songs that make him want to jump off a high building and the other is the result of an invitation to his readers to send in their own nominations. It's amazing how strongly the public feels about bad pop songs. I advise buying the book, because the other pieces are good too, although not as funny as the pop song pieces.
There is an awful lot under that hat: but you are a modest fellow, C
as befits a gentleman of this august borough
Singing along is good - even in German, better in English.
VERITY - I never imagined you as a Beachboys fan V somehow they seem insufficiently disciplined for you. LOve them myself although Pet Sounds has to be one of the mpst overrated albums ever recorded.
Newmania - I think those harmonies were pretty disciplined!
Anyway, they were great!
Beach Boys - very small doses on summer days only. I too made the mistake of thinking that I ought to own 'Pet Sounds'
John lennon was in fact shot by a young heather mills in the pay of yoko ono.
The Hitch - Hmmmmm. Did Mark Chapman do a backflip on the American version of Strictly Come Dancing? I DOUBT IT!
Heather did. (Although, actually, she didn't. The man she was dancing with flipped her over and held her - what a gent!)
Chapman was not irritating. OK, he murdered John Lennon, but John himself may have seen the bigger picture. No hell and above him only sky.
I take your point about Heather Mills, though. She is as bizarre as Yoko. Your twisted analogy is interesting. Please expand on it. It sounds like a lot of fun.
You're not wrong, Croydonian. This is one of the topics I do in a big way over here - the coming generation war, beginning around 2012-2015 and how the boomers have sold out themselves and their children's inheritance.
I'm running a post on this, this evening, if I'm alive.
The only Beatle I had any time for is Harrison, and that was because he bankrolled the more creative end of the British film industry in the 70s/80s, thus part paying a fine for past collective sins.
James - Indeed. I think there is a huge amount of resentment among Gen Xers of Baby Boomers - they had all the fun, did not have to pay for it at the time and now we are picking up the bill. Meandering back to music, I had the deeply surreal experience a few months back of talking to a teen / 20 something about the music I was into at his age and his being quite slack-jawed in admiration that I had seen bands he knew only from recordings. It made me feel like Methuselah.
A couple of years ago in the office I was idly humming a Paul Robeson tune to myself when a colleague asked what it was. So I told him what it was and who was famous for singing it. "Never heard of him" was the response. That encouraged me to undertake a brief survey of my colleagues with the question: Have you ever heard of Paul Robeson? When they gave their answer, I asked their age. It was very odd that only folks over 38 knew who I was referring to. All those under that age had no idea. Does that make me an old fart or has something been omitted from the ejerkashern of the younger generation? My own collection of music stops around the late 1960s as my preferred poison is the swing era, ragtime, trad jazz etc. I cringe every time I go into a shop to hear Celine Dion screaming away tunelessly, deafening all and sundry for 50 yards all round.
Nomad - pretty dispiriting, isn't it? I imagine it would be inadvisable to test further with say Count Basie, Cole Porter, Guthrie etc.
If my experience is anything to go by, cultural education does not really exist in this country, and is down to one's parents or one's own curiosity.
I do not think it is being snotty to suggest that anyone with the hope of being a rounded and informed individual should have some idea about the roots of high and popular culture within our civilisation.
Mr C, I could not agree more, although I imagine one would have some success with Cole Porter and his classic (as in Nat King Cole etc) tunes. At a party I met the (aging) parents of one of the young whippersnappers in question and for some reason the conversation got round to Bunny Berrigan - who turned out to be one of pop's favourite bands! So I let him borrow my collection to listen and lo and behold his son liked the music so much he taped them and also became a fan - so there is still some hope for the yoof of today!
Post on you is now up, old chap.
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