(no subject)

[ceebeegee]

I acquired some new music this weekend, including a bunch of songs Mike and I discussed on Friday. (Doug and I joined him and Heidi at Moran's late Friday night.) Man, there was some awesome music out in the early-mid '70s. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (BTW, Mike, listening to it I'm not sure if it's "there goes Robert E. Lee" or "there goes the Robert E. Lee"--I have the Joan Baez version and she adds a syllable at the end of "goes" that may or may not be an actual word.) "Ode to Billy Joe," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"--some kickass songwriting. It makes me cry.

Comments

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

You remember me telling you about that collectible card game I design for, right? A while back we did a semi-serious 70's-themed set for the game called "Boom Chaka Laka." As part of my "research" into the era, I started listening to some all-70's music internet radio stations. You're right, the 70's produced some fantastic music. It also produced some really dreadful music as well. A bunch of songs and song lyrics ended up working their way into the cards themselves.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Well, there was a lot of crap coming out at the end of the '70s--not crap actually so much as they weren't songs, they were anthems or dance tracks, with such deathless lyrics as:

D'ya like it?
D'ya like it like this?
D'ya want it?
D'ya want it like this?
Push, push, in the bush
Push, push, in the bush

The early-mid '70s was better for actual songwriting (although "Dixie" came out in '69)--the political and cultural explosions of the late '60s-very early '70s had played themselves out and everyone was much more thoughtful and turning inward. This was when writers like James Taylor and Cat Stevens came to fore.

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

You know, somehow, I missed that song.

The 70's generally gets trashed when it comes to music (and most everything else), when in fact, some fantastic music came out of that decade (better than the 80's, to my mind, anyway). Lots of great classic rock, prog rock, and funk. And while it's true that the 70's produced a ton of crap, I tend to think that falls under Sturgeons Law, and is not unique to the 70's.

Of course, I used to really like the song Afternoon Delight by the Starlight Vocal Band, but I was 4 years old at the time, so I deserve some slack for that.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

"Afternoon Delight" is a nice concept, although its execution is shaky.

My favorite pop song when I was a kid was "Delta Dawn" which is either based on or strongly referential to the Faulkner short story "A Rose for Emily."