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Thread: Listography-Your life in playlists

  1. #321
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    As far as least favourite album covers Pet Sounds is the worst. Amatuer hour; any album cover with the song titles listed looks like a compilation & the photo is cringeworthy. I also agree that the album is overrated. I also agree about Tusk, but I also don't like the Fleetwood Mac & Rumours covers.

    Automatic For The People - REM

    Some say this is their greatest album. It is nowhere near; Out Of Time is. Both albums have dreadful covers but Automatic is just horrendous.

    Tattoo You - Rolling Stones

    I love this album but I hate it when only one band member is shown on a cover (Keith is on the back; that doesn't excuse it). I don't like the Some Girls cover much either.

    Making Movies - Dire Straits

    I know it's supposed to be a frame from a reel of film & I should like it because it's mainly red. But it's my second favourite album & it should have a more interesting cover.

    The End Of The Innocence & Strange Weather

    The Innocence cover is awful, plus he has a cigarette dangling from his hand. The colours are drab (so is Building The Perfect Beast). Strange Weather just doesn't work & is a horrible disappointment for such a great album. Oh, and then there is Glenn Frey Live. It looks like it was designed in five minutes.

    Invisible Touch - Genesis

    Superb album. Very 80s cover. See also Bob Dylan's horrible Empire Burlesque.

    Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen

    If you can have an overrated album cover, this is it.

    Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young

    Yeah. Grunge. I don't care. It's horrible.

    I think I listed my favourites earlier in the thread.

  2. #322
    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    Good point about the Pet Sounds cover, I hadn't looked at in a while and forgot about the tracklisting. I agree it's odd for a regular studio album. Guess I was too busy thinking about the naff image of The Beach Boys at the petting zoo.

    Come to think of it, the Pet Sounds cover is just begging for a parody by some hard rock or heavy metal band featuring the band members at a similar petting zoo feeding lions/tigers/crocodiles/other dangerous beasts in the same fashion!

    I personally disagree about Automatic For The People and Out Of Time although this is partially down to my utter loathing of Shiny Happy People. I've always hated it and have never been able to sit through the whole thing - I've tried listening to a few times just to be sure and always bail out after hearing the chorus - and I can't think of a song I hate as much relative to my opinion on the artist (I usually quite like R.E.M.). I think Automatic is slightly overrated and stuff like Star Me Kitten isn't very good IMO, but I'd still rather listen to the worst tracks on that than SHP (I might have mentioned that I'm not a fan of that song ). I tend to agree with you about R.E.M.'s album covers though, they've never been much good. Can't think of one I like from their collection. Then again what do you expect from a band which called an album 'Green' which had a yellow/brown cover?

    I think there is room for 'functional' album covers in music - ones that aren't great pieces of artwork in themselves, but fit the album well - and I feel that the Making Movies cover is an example of this. For example, Pink Floyd's The Wall album cover isn't that much to look at but is exactly perfect for that album and its music, and I think I'd put The Long Run with its predominantly black cover in the same category.

    I'm surprised you dislike the Rust Never Sleeps cover so much, I saw a T-shirt of it on sale when I saw Neil Young last summer and was quite tempted to buy one, but didn't. If there's one Neil Young album cover that feels grungy to me then it's Ragged Glory (although again I think that's quite a good fit).

    I'm not a great fan of The Smiths myself so hadn't heard of Frankly Mr Shankly until it was mentioned on here 2-3 months ago (part of the issue is that The Smiths come from the wrong city in northwest England. The rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester extends beyond football!). I'll probably give it a listen though.

  3. #323
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    Oh, I know the Making Movies cover is functional & fits the theme. I hated to mention it.

    I have iTunes open so I can look at the artwork & I thought of another cover I don't like which is Presence. Very 'mysterious' & everything. It has nothing to do with what Led Zeppelin is about.

    Another cover which has a good concept which isn't very well executed is News Of The World by Queen. It's 'of its time' as my husband says.

    One more - Playin' It Cool by TBS. Perhaps if he'd left out the fake animal print stuff....

  4. #324
    Stuck on the Border NightMistBlue's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    Timothy is a gorgeous man, but he should never ever cut his hair short. Like Samson, it robs him of his power.

    I don't quite get all the Pet Sounds cover hate. That cover is of its time - very innocent and pedestrian. The band looks uncomfortable but that's part of its charm. Plus, I dig goats.

    Rush's Permanent Waves is a really cool cover.
    Last edited by NightMistBlue; 06-12-2015 at 09:42 AM.

  5. #325
    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    Songs that are better live

    I am sure most if not all of us can think of cases where we have listened to both the studio and live versions of a song by a given artist and have preferred the live take. I myself can think of several and have posted a list of songs where I feel that there is at least one live version which is clearly superior to the original studio version.

    I think there need to be two criteria:
    1) The song must have been recorded in the studio originally by the artist (so for instance you cannot have Seven Bridges Road as the Eagles never released a studio version of it).
    2) There has to be something about the live performance that raises it above the studio version (not simply 'it's better because it's live'). I just think this makes it a more interesting game. What I'm most interested to hear is cases where, if the live version was re-recorded in the studio with the same arrangement and performance, you would still prefer it to the original cut.

    I've specified the version I like best for each, except for I'm So Afraid where virtually any live performance beats the mildly disappointing studio cut in my view (I heard the 1997 live version first which I think spoiled my enjoyment of the studio version, if I had to give a particular version then I'd choose the take from The Dance).

    I'd be interested to hear reasons for your preference, but this isn't essential.

    - A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Coldplay (Live 2003)
    Coldplay's songs tend to be better in the studio than live from a performance point of view IMO, but this is an exception. The addition of a slide solo in the middle improves the song greatly as it occupies what felt like empty space in the original and made the song a bit more powerful.

    - Six Blade Knife - Dire Straits (Live At The BBC)
    I really like the original, but this highlights the excellent bass on this track more, and I like the guitar sound on Live At The BBC in any case.

    - Once Upon A Time In The West - Dire Straits (Alchemy)
    The original studio version is great but I really like this extended version with Mark Knopfler's guitar complementing the keyboard parts . It's different from the original so I can listen to both very happily.

    - Why Aye Man - Mark Knopfler (Lyon 2005)
    I love the original version as well but I think the extended outro just gives this live recording the edge, with Mark at his best on his guitar. I also like the prominence of the organ on the chorus.

    - Tryin' - Eagles (Voorburg 1973)
    I like the studio version but I think it works better live and the extended jam section means I prefer the live cut.

    - Outlaw Man - Eagles (Seattle 1976)
    Again I love the original version but the combination of Glenn's piano with Felder and Walsh's great guitar take it to a new level, the only slight shame being that Randy's bass solo was shortened (although fortunately still present).

    - I'm So Afraid - Fleetwood Mac (any live version will do)
    I have spoken elsewhere of my dislike of the high vocal on the studio version so I prefer the live versions in that regard, but I also think the guitars on the live recordings are much better.

    - Big Love - Fleetwood Mac (The Dance)
    The original is overproduced and I hate the, ahem, 'noises' in it (finding out Lindsey did all of them didn't help either...), I absolutely love Lindsey's fiery and passionate guitar and vocals in this 1997 live version. Stripping back this song was a great idea and allowed the song's potential to be fully realised.

    - The Song Remains The Same - Led Zeppelin (Celebration Day)
    I really like Page's guitar on this version and I prefer Robert Plant's normal voice to the sped up vocals on the original (I still really like the Houses of the Holy version but I am not crazy about the vocal, why make a singer as great as Robert sound like a cartoon character?).

    - The Loner - Neil Young (Live Rust)
    I consider the Live Rust version, which reinterprets the original as a grungy rocker with Crazy Horse in the vein of the songs from the latter half of Rust Never Sleeps, to be the definitive version of this song, rather than the more production heavy version on his first self-titled album.

    - Careful With That Axe Eugene - Pink Floyd (Ummagumma)
    The original studio version on Relics is okay, but is blown out of the water by this superior live cut from the live half of the Ummagumma album. The guitar rocks harder live and Roger's screams are much scarier!

    - Any Colour You Like - Pink Floyd (Wembley 1974)
    The original version works better as part of the Dark Side Of The Moon album, but this more bluesy live take is the superior performance in my view. I love the combination of Rick Wright's keyboards and David Gilmour's guitar, as well as the way the song builds towards the end to a powerful climax.

    - Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 - Pink Floyd (Pulse)
    In some ways I actually prefer having the female backing singers on the second verse rather than the children's choir on the original. I think the extended guitar solo and organ solo also add a lot to the song. I also thought it was very cool how part of the guitar from ABITW Part 1 (which I love) was incorporated into the song's intro.

  6. #326
    Stuck on the Border NightMistBlue's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    Quote Originally Posted by Jonny Come Lately View Post
    [SIZE="3"]
    - Careful With That Axe Eugene - Pink Floyd (Ummagumma)
    The original studio version on Relics is okay, but is blown out of the water by this superior live cut from the live half of the Ummagumma album. The guitar rocks harder live and Roger's screams are much scarier!
    Thanks for the recommendation, that was trippy. I love Gilmour's guitar work, he is brilliant.

    My "better live" list is very short: "How Long" by the Eagles from Voorburg, 1973. It's just a shame that the levels are much too low when Don and Randy are singing, but that seemed to happen a lot (especially with Don) back in the olden times.

  7. #327
    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    I've not done one of these for a very long time. I've always enjoyed this thread and thought I'd reboot it with an idea I came across from the earlier pages.

    Moments In Music That You'll Never Forget

    I'll start with a couple of important events that I cannot put an exact date to:
    - First listen to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, my parents say that they used to play it to me as a baby so I have no idea of when I first heard it. My parents also played James Taylor’s Greatest Hits when I was a small child, as well as Carly Simon’s Coming Around Again album.
    - Some time when I was looking through my parents’ CD collection, I discover an album with a black cover featuring a cow skull. At the time, this is just another CD in the rack, so I don’t think about it again, until 2013 that is…

    ~2002-2003 – First regular exposure to non-child orientated music. This includes Rumours and James Taylor, but also I’m Alive by Jackson Browne and The End of the Innocence.

    April 2007 – My Mum buys Don’s Actual Miles, and I hear Boys of Summer for the first time.

    ~2007 – After reading something about Dire Straits, my Dad introduces me to a song called ‘Sultans of Swing’, which I immediately love.

    2008-2010 – It sounds funny now, but in this era I wasn’t all that interested in music. There were definitely albums I still enjoyed listening to but I really didn’t think about it much.

    December 2010 – One of my Christmas presents is the 2 CD edition of the Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. I get absolutely hooked on it and I listen to it extremely frequently over the next six months. Looking back, it is clear that getting this album truly ignited my interest in music.

    February 2011 – Introduced to the work of Bob Dylan with Blood On The Tracks.

    August 2011 – I am given The Beach Boys Greatest Hits for my birthday. I enjoy this quite a lot.

    December 2011 – I receive an iPod for Christmas. I have to admit I really wasn’t sure I wanted it at first (how wrong was I?), but after a few days I realised it was a good idea. I initially uploaded just a handful of albums (including, inevitably, the Very Best of Fleetwood Mac).

    April-May 2012 – Start to begin to purchase my own music on iTunes. IIRC, Crystal by Fleetwood Mac was the first song I downloaded.

    August 2012 – Thanks to a bar band in Portugal I am introduced to Comfortably Numb and Money, and then hear Wish You Were Here in the Olympic closing ceremony…

    December 2012 – … I then receive the Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here albums for Christmas. The rest is history!

    July 2013 – On the lookout for music to listen to for a holiday, I listen to a couple of very famous songs. One is Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven; the other is Hotel California. On returning, I then check out the full Hotel California album. I love it! (Slightly later, I do the same with Led Zeppelin IV, with the same result).

    September 2013 – I return to the ‘cow skull’ album and listen to the One of These Nights album in full. I love it and then go on to explore the rest of the Eagles catalogue. I then hear Take It Easy, which cements my love for the band.

    February 2014 – My first album purchase on CD (The Wall by Pink Floyd). Increasingly, I begin to prefer to buy CDs rather than downloading music.

    May 2014 – Thanks to a very generous family friend I am properly introduced to the works of Neil Young and quickly become a huge fan.

    July 2014 – I then attend my first proper rock concert, Neil Young & Crazy Horse in Liverpool. A fantastic night!

    December 2014 – I receive the Eagles Studio Albums box set for Christmas. Of course, this is also the month I join The Border.

    February 2015 – I complete my collection of Eagles studio albums by purchasing Long Road Out of Eden.

    December 2015 – Having selected Cass County as my prize in the HOTE quote competition, I receive my copy of the album from Soda and Dreamer on the other side of the Atlantic. I can’t thank you enough, it really does mean a lot to me.

    19th January 2016 – I hear of the passing of Glenn Frey.

    These aren’t the only notable events (I could go into more detail about my early years – 2002-2010 – if I thought about them, for instance), but I had to keep it to a sensible level. Given that I haven’t got around to posting my full story on here, I wanted to try and give a reasonable overview to see where I come from. There were a few events I could have chosen from the last twelve months or so that didn’t make the list, but I feel that it is too recent to judge which ones were most important with the exception of the two I did mention.

  8. #328
    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    Quite fancied doing a new list now - I've decided to adapt an idea I saw earlier in this thread regarding those songs that drive you crazy... so here goes!

    MUSIC YOU'D LIKE TO PUT IN ROOM 101

    This is where you can put down all the music that you just can't stand! This may seem like a 'negative' idea but let's face it, most of us have songs or artists that we just can't stand, and I don't want to take this too seriously. All this of course is just my opinion, and I'm not offended if anyone else isn't offended by this stuff!

    I'll start with a few that I couldn't wait to list, this is the stuff that I know I just can't stand:

    - The entire Rap genre
    - Any Pop/'RnB'/Hip Hop Song that features a Rap Section
    - Anything by or featuring Rihanna
    - Anything by or featuring Jay-Z or Kanye West (In case they are somehow not included in the Rap genre)
    - Umbrella by Rihanna (Just to be sure, in case it somehow slips through the net!)

    Umbrella is quite possibly my least favourite song ever. It's almost like it was deliberately designed to annoy me as much as possible! It ticks pretty much every one of my 'pet hate' boxes.

    Some more songs I'd want to put in there:
    - Any dance remixes of classic rock songs (e.g. I recently heard a horrific remix of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams. Just awful!)

    - Shiny Happy People - R.E.M. (I honestly can't listen to this one to the end! An absolute sickly dessert of a song IMO)

    - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift (All of her big pop hits really annoy me, and this is the dumbest and most annoying!)

    - Princess Of China, A Sky Full Of Stars and Hymn For The Weekend, all by Coldplay. All collaborations with pop artists I don't like. What happened to the band that made Parachutes? When I hear any of these I can't quite believe I used to like them. I don't really like their recent albums at all, but these songs are the worst.

    I found this more difficult than I originally thought because I wanted to get stuff that I actually hated in first - those songs that, I'd be scrambling to change the station if I heard them start on the radio. That's why there isn't really anything by any bands I'm sure there's loads more songs I could list but mercifully I've forgotten about most of them!

  9. #329
    Border Rebel RudieCantFail's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    In response to: MUSIC YOU'D LIKE TO PUT IN ROOM 101

    JCL, do you absolutely dislike Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys? I'm not much of a fan of rap either, but I like those groups because they mixed rock instrumentation into their songs. I'll admit that some Beastie Boys songs aren't that good and can be deplorable for their immature lyrics. I haven't listened to a lot of Run-DMC's catalog, but I like the songs that I've heard of so far, like King of Rock and Rock Box. However, I totally understand why if you don't like rap and hip-hop as a whole because of the industry's disgraceful lyrics about women, drugs, money, and other criminal stuff that they rap about as well as the excess amount of swearing. I tried to listen to NWA once, and I couldn't really get through it due to how many times they swore. Some say that it's appropriate for what they're trying to say, but it's just not my thing. I'm not trying to convince you at all of changing your opinion on music, but it seemed draconian that you didn't like any rap at all. If you really don't, then ok, I was just checking.

    Anyways, I'll try to bring up music that I can't stand:

    Pop Punk - I absolutely can't stand the tenors of these groups. They all sound the same and whiny to me, so that's also why I can't stand that genre. Blink-182 is one of the few exceptions I have for this genre. I'm neutral to that band. Because The Clash are one of my favorite groups, I hold the punk genre to a standard and pop punk is below that for the most part. I'm also not too keen of all punk b/c I don't like screaming or shouting in singing and I don't like simple songs, like from the Ramones. I know that The Clash's 1st album had the simple punk songs, but I'm glad that they branched off into their music and just kept the sentiment in the lyrics.

    Rap/Hip-hop - I don't mind the older stuff from the 70s and 80s, but after that, the genre falls off the cliff for me.

    Ok, this next one is probably going to get me in trouble, but I just don't like Bob Dylan because he doesn't sing that well, IMO. The folk genre and his voice don't do that much for me. His lyrics are well written, but that's why I tend to like covers of his songs more.

    I also tend to not like pop music of the last 5-7 years with all the Katy Perry, Bieber, 1D, Ariana Grande, and whatever is popular this week, the last, and the next. To me, they lack actual instruments and it's like all done by a computer. I know that the 80s experimented with synthesizers, drum machines, and other electronic enhancements, but I like that sound. I just don't like today's sound for the most part. It's like they're not trying to put real guitar, drums, and bass. It's too drum sound heavy and hardly any guitar. That being said, I don't mind Daft Punk b/c you know what you're getting into when you listen to that genre.

    One final thing, would be metal that has screaming singers and also Norwegian Black Metal. The only reason why I even know of the latter b/c I stumbled upon it on the Internet. That genre is filled with crazy people. They have burned down churches, killed other band mates, and convinced a band mate to commit suicide, but this is just from one band, Mayhem. Aside from the crazy history, I don't like the singing and the instrumentation is too fast for me to enjoy.

  10. #330
    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Listography-Your life in playlists

    You've raised some very good points about rap music. I wasn't being overly serious when I said the 'entire Rap genre', I don't hate every single rap song ever on principle but I can't say I've ever heard one I actually enjoyed either. I've never actively listened to rap but due to its popularity I have heard a fair bit of it, usually on TV (in sporting montages or things like that), or when I was at school when people were playing or playing on radio or music channels on TV when I was in sixth form. It probably doesn't help that the rap songs that get the most attention are the ones I most strongly dislike, i.e. the egocentric 'you are watching the biggest rock star in the world' Kanye West type stuff (is there a proper description for the style they do? My limited knowledge is showing!). I also agree about NWA and music of that ilk, although I can acknowledge that they are trying to make a statement so I'm not quite as against it though it's not what I'd choose to listen to. With the rap-rock crossovers The Beastie Boys don't appeal to me, although I'll admit that's partly down to the lyrics and themes, and I only really know Run-DMC for their Aerosmith cover. I remember seeing Rage Against The Machine on TV and while I don't hate that sort of thing the way as much as the drum and bass, but again it's not something I personally enjoy listening to. I don't have a problem if other people do like it, it's just a style of music that has never appealed to me in any form.

    I am a Dylan fan myself, but I understand why not everyone likes his vocals. I think it is great that so many different artists have covered his work and introduced his song and lyrics to new audiences, even if, with the exception of All Along The Watchtower, I personally prefer the originals. I guess it's like If you don't mind me asking, which period of his music are you most familiar with?

    I agree about contemporary chart music, and I'm sure there's loads of really songs from these artists that I've mercifully forgotten about that I'd be all too happy to put on my list. However I'm conscious that most of them are 'bubblegum pop' acts and I'm not their target audience so it's probably not surprising that I don't like them. There have been groups or singers like this going back to at least the 1970s (Bay City Rollers etc.) and probably before that, and it's cyclic because their audiences tend to eventually outgrow them and the new generation finds a different set of favourites. The current crop is particularly bad as the use of computers and especially auto-tune has reduced the talent level required, so it's even more about having the prettiest faces and less about ability - it's kind of depressing how unimportant being able to sing well actually is now.

    That Norwegian Black Metal stuff sounds downright scary. If I ever see the band name Mayhem come up, I'll make sure to steer clear.

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