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+---- Thread: First song you learnt to play? (/showthread.php?tid=3265)
First song you learnt to play? - Jerome - 16-11-2010
Great track - and a better master you could not have chosen. Have you listened to 'I love you much too much' from the Zebop album?
First song you learnt to play? - repeater15 - 18-11-2010
No, I haven't. I will check it out for sure.
First song you learnt to play? - Jerome - 26-01-2011
Also 'Bella' from 'Blues for Salvador'
First song you learnt to play? - JTRiff - 02-04-2011
Aw, you poor guys. We had no option to bang out pop tunes, we hadda learn from the book, so that when I learned 'Wildwood Flower' in 1960, it was the exact same song as Chet Atkins or others would have learned as their first song - 30 years previously!
This is why it became such a great instrument, everyone played the acknowledged great songs, by recognized actual composers.
Then came Bob Dylan and the chord bangers appeared. Don't become one. )
First song you learnt to play? - Jerome - 02-04-2011
Maybe - but at least we started hearing some intelligent lyrics. Chord banging or not.
First song you learnt to play? - JTRiff - 02-04-2011
OK, Bob rant. ).... Man, when he first appeared, pre-Beatles remember, it was nothin' like you might expect. The older girls, my aunt etc. got excited, and the reason was - Dylan was a young guy. That's it. That's how different things were back then, no teeners were up there, unless they were exceptionally talented, which Bob was not. So there was sensation over that. Forget what you read anywhere, that's the company line on Mr. Zimmerman.
His lyrics are arguably no better, in fact no different, from a chain of artists going way back. His appeal was youth, period. Some of the radio songs were good, some people didn't believe he wrote them. Some people thought he was actually a retarded kid they had trained and put up there. Crazy, crazy stuff like this circulated. But then, boom! - everything took off, Bob was suddenly the spearhead for everyone- Beatles, Clapton, the whole rock empire formed right at that moment, so he became an monster icon overnight and was suddenly the coolest thing going. Since then - no change, just the usual popstar moves every step of the way. Drugs, religion, yawn.
Bob came in at the end of the vocal era, thousands of groups that could sing like crazy (often because they couldn't afford instruments)- so I can't see how his lyrics are special othern' he happened to hit a certain age group at a certain magic marketing moment.
That's a musician viewpoint, though, where lyrics are by far the least signifigant part of the music. Many, many players share this viewpoint, and Bob was sent up like crazy by some. Check out a song called 'Like a Dribbling Fram' by Race Marbles,(?) mid-sixties, a hilarious hack at Like A Rolling Stone. So, old news 45 years ago now.
Bob contributed a couple songs to Jimi, though, Watchtower and a couple others, and they are all-time classics, no argument.
First song you learnt to play? - gryphon - 02-04-2011
Well JTRiff ..................have to disagree with you there...................Bob seems to have attracted the attentions of one or two universities and highly learned people who have given him honorary degrees on the strength of some of his lyrics being regarded by the leaned ones as some of the greatest poetry of the 20th century..................You don't fool that kind of people with empty words....................
Bob has a true link back to Woody Guthrie and as such was wise enough to take what Woody had been involved in and present it to new audience. Bob has a little more to offer than " Just youth"
Having lived through Bob's rise to fame ....................The thing about Bob was that he could not deliver his songs in a form that allowed many to have access......................this left the door open to others who could and did. Sad for Bob in a way, but on the other hand he did get exposure............................
Can you name the " Many, many players who share" your view point ?
First song you learnt to play? - Music Head - 02-04-2011
His lyrics are arguably no better, in fact no different, from a chain of artists going way back
You gotta be kiddin' me
First song you learnt to play? - JTRiff - 03-04-2011
Sorry boys, Bob's corporate from the word go. He's a huge pop star, he's an institution, may as well go pick a fight with the cops as Bobs gang. ) You can't pop the lid on anything that big. If he didn't write the tunes, or the lyrics.... but of course he did. Sure.
The first defense of a lousy musician is always 'but listen to the lyrics!"
Still, he has done some great stuff - so would you with the support of the company. In the final analysis, he is as far away from rootsy real folk (as he has always been billed) as anyone can get!
Now.... Jimi, and Eric, and everyone praised Bob, so we know he is OK,as a human being, but what he represents is not so cool.
The guy can sling words, (BTW I am a published author), enjoyed his books, but.... this is MUSIC, and I am tireless in my attempts to correct the improper(though well-intentioned) beliefs of those who, for whatever reason, think that Bob is any kind of musical force.
First song you learnt to play? - Tiggi - 03-04-2011
A muso's opinion if ever I saw one...
You and I love some of the same music, but I have little time for arguments that say that anyone needs to be a good musician to make good music. For many people, the art of lyric writing is fundamental to their enjoyment of music, and that's as it should be,
Many of my favourite artists have limited musical ability, but still manage to make incredibly powerful music.
I can't play music at all, and that doesn't stop me being drawn to talented technical musicians, or musical buffoons who have great ideas. I think sometimes that musicians who concentrate on technique can become blinded to the importance of the creative side of the equation.
There are many gifted technical musicians who can't write their way out of a paper bag. The example I always offer up is Jeff Beck. Brilliant guitarist, but shit song-writer.
Technical proficiency often equates with dull as ditch water...
And Bob Dylan was hyped as real rootsy Folk for only a very brief period at the start of his "career". You've stated elsewhere that you don't appreciate much in music since the early '70s (if memory serves), but your statements above are largely laughable.
Peace...