The AM Forum

by Jim Elliott, KA3UNQ

Remember the good ole days of Rock'n'Roll? I mean that finger poppin', foot tappin' Rock'n'Roll that started it all back in the mid-50s. Music that filled the AM airwaves, blared from the speakers of '55 Chevy convertibles and squeaked from the tiny speakers of those brand-new palm-sized transistor radios from Japan. Rockin' tunes performed by real artists with real names like "Dion and the Belmonts", "Buddy Holly and The Crickets" and Duane Eddy.  Back in 1956, a sister act had a hit song called "Tonight You Belong to Me" on the Liberty label. They were only 11 and 14 at the time and were backed by their father Mark McIntyre and his orchestra. They were called "Patience and Prudence" and were pretty much one-hit wonders as their follow-up singles never really made it up the charts...

http://www.eng.mu.edu/~usi/ka3unq4.html

Well, to each his own.  I think that's when rock music came alive.  Those old 50's 2-minute teeny-bop cuts are quaint and nostalgic, and fun to listen to today, but nothing to compare with the music that followed during the mid to late 60's and early 70's.  That music was creative and reflected a society that was much more optimistic than to-day's, and much of it is still popular, even amongst high schoolers. 

Of course, some of that old 50's music helped to inspire the Beatles and other next generation musicians.  Naturally some of their stuff was crap, but many of the lyrics from that era belong with the great poetry of all times.

To me, music over the airwaves died with the advent of punk crap, and grunge "I  want to eat your cancer" rubbish.  The coup de grace was rap "music" (an oxymoron) and "boy band" fag music.

I very rarely listen to commercial FM or AM anymore.  Occasionally an oldies station or AOR/classic rock when I am on a long trip, but to-day's airwaves, to quote Newton Minow, are largely a vast wasteland.  And the endless strings of commercials infuriate me.  About the only jazz, classical or blues you will hear on the radio comes via NPR and the university stations.  Streaming audio over the internet has become a far better source of music than the radio.

"When the mode of music changes, the walls of the city shake" -Plato

Aint that the truth......as far as rap is concerned, I hope all those a$$ holes kill each other.

Lots of the so called boy band fag music is more like the 50's stuff than what came later. Really there's been little good music made since the 40's. When Big Band and Swing faded, music died. 99% of what followed was pure crap. So today's music is just a continuation of the same crap. As for poetry, none of it qualifies. Nothing from the 60's era compares or should be mentioned in the same breath with real poets like Byron, Shelly, Shakespeare, etc. Comparisons are laughable.

Hmmmmm....this thread otta get interesting........music......poetry......whats good...whats bad.......its all in the ear of the beholder... ::)

Continuing with the Big Band area...  For about 25 years years now I taken a keen interest in jazz. My favorite music is the classic songs that are  improv'd by a jazz orchestra and a female vocalist doing her own rendition. There's so much good music out there with this spin. You can take a great song and spin it in so many ways.  Songs that stand the test of time from the 1920's all the way to present can be good material.

I mean you can mix in some Samba, Caribbean steel drums, sax, fluglehorn, violins, vibes, trombones, mellotrone and much more...and of course add some great vocals like the harmony of NY Voices, Manhattan Transfer, Susanah McCorkle, Diana Krall and others. Everyone has their own version. There's so much to like. 

Taking old favorites like "Caravan", Green Dolphin Street, Waters of March, music by Burt Bacharach, Mancini, Cole Porter, etc and remixing it into a new spin is exciting to me. It's taking the familiar chords and tune of a great old song and revitalizing it with new arrangements and vocals.  The song nevers grows old to the point of being too predicable and boring. That's why I love jazz.  When I hear a new song  that I like, I want to hear it in every different way I can. The latest one, "So Many Stars", originally by Sergio Mendes/ Brasil 66 is one that got by me until recently. As it turns out, it has been done by perhaps fifteen different vocalists and orchestras of varying complexity. I just can't get enuff of it as I hear new versions.

T

Don said:
You hit that one right on the head Don. I thought I was the only one that that thought like that.

Of course none of it compares to Jimmy Buffet tunes with zither accompaniment.   ;)

Yeah but you left out Fourier, LaPlace, Fermat, Euclid, Vandermonde,  Stirling, LaGrange and Coulomb.

For sure! Fourier and the J-Omegas rock!

Franklin was ahead of that sniviling, frog eating Volta, and what did he get named after him????   A stove that Descartes could not fit into....

 ;D ;D ;D

.....Ohhhh, Socrates himself is particularly missed, A lovely little finger on the bottle when he's pissed!!! ;)

I had a R&R band in college about when the Beatles first came out.  The old Rock was easy to play and fake.  The new stuff was hard to learn and took a lot of practice, both with the instruments and vocals.   The old stuff was a lot more fun to play.   The Beatles first allbum was original music, but the second one they had was just a rehash of 50's R&R done their way.   There used to be a lot more jazz on FM than there is now.  Around here you have to stay up late on weekends to hear any jazz on the local PBS radio station.   I purchased software that allows you to do a timed recording directly to MP3.   I record the 2 hours a week onto the computer and then to a CD when I have about 6 hours recorded. 
There is an FM station somewhere in western PA that is a true oldies station.  THey still have their collection of 45's.   Every other song they play is from their collection and many of them I have never heard before.   I pick it up when camping but can't get it from home.   A lot of the 50's music rights were purchased by foreign record companies.  There is a vast bunch of 50's music you will never hear on the radio, that is why most oldies stations sound monotonous.    If you sample some music on Amazon, check out the Teen Beat series,  you willl hear some oldies never heard on the radio.

I used to occasionally listen to a show on NPR called Schickele Mix back in the late 80s' or early 90's.  I recall one show titled something like "The Beatles do the classics" where he would first play
some obscure classical piece documented with the composer's name and other information, then a Beatles recording with almost identical melody.  It appears that the Beatles didn't always compose their own original tunes, but sometimes plagiarised obscure compositions from the past, re-did them in their own style, and added lyrics.

I once heard a singer-songwriter mention that unknown poetry is a good source for song lyrics.

http://www.schickele.com/mix/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schickele

I might take music back considerably further than that.  Think of today's "Sebastian Bach."  Compare his $hit to the incomparable beauty of (Johann) Sebastian Bach's works.  Or even think of today's "Engelbert Humperdink," and compare what he does to the original Engelbert Humperdink's operata, Hansel und Gretel.  How dare these fools adopt the names of the greats, and then present us with such stuff? ???

vH

There's a modern day musician who goes by the name of Sebastian Bach?  Never heard of him (or her).

I have heard of P.D.Q. Bach, a parody composed by Peter Shcikele (http://www.schickele.com/)

And don't forget Peter Lemonjello!

There sure is, Don.  And It's a him (with a her's hair--longer than the original ever had).  In my humble opinion, the most beautiful piece of music ever written was Bach's Air on the G String.  (Now let's see how many dumb comments that title can generate.) :(

vH

Let's not leave out the mother of all rock 'n roll...the great blues that came up from the Delta...names too numerous to mention, except to say that if you're ever in Chicago, don't even think of not going to a blues club.

Without the blues, there's no jazz or rock 'n roll.

Speaking of NPR (mentioned a while back) did anyone ever catch something called "word jazz" they did sometime in the eighties?  I heard it on WNYC.

But then there's Bach.....


Ahhhh, Bach.

And not only J. S. , but C.P.E and W.F.

His son C.P.E. more or less carried on his father's work but with less imagination...but it was W.F. who really had that talent.

But he also LOVED his wine & women.....