Satisfaction -- 50 year anniversary

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This article about the Rolling Stones, the beginning of Satisfaction, and the Fuzz-Tone, (which changes the sound of a guitar, and which I had never heard of until I read the article) was written by the guy who taught the History of Rock class and the Beatles class I took on Coursera a couple of years ago.

One of the things I liked about John Covach's classes was the way he layered information about the music with background details.  He talked about what else was going on in the world, advances in technology (from guitars to recording technology to radio), and about the influences on the musicians and song-writers (usually not the same individual, until rock was well established).

He teaches a class on the Stones, too, but I didn't take that one.

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Music's Big Bang

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Yet another interesting Coursera class -- Music's Big Bang:  the Genesis of Rock 'n' Roll

If you are thinking "ANOTHER class?????" you are absolutely right.  I'm "only listening," but still...........

It is, however, interesting to see another person's take on all the things I heard in A History of Rock and Roll.

This new guy is a much straighter shooter -- no beating around the bush for him.  "The popular music business was all about making money, NOT about art.  The performers were just commodities."  This is not substantially different from what I heard before, but is said in a much more direct and polarized way.....

So -- it's interesting, and I expect I'll listen to the lectures.  Those of you in the audience who listened to A History of Rock might find this interesting as well.  This class is really on "the birth of rock" rather than on rock itself.  It ends in 1960.

He does actually play us some music.  Fragments, rather than whole pieces, and, so far, only the really old ones.........

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November 22

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On Friday the 22nd, my daughter had a morning meeting near the Deli.  The netbook and I went along, so I could get some charity work done while she was busy, and then she and I did our usual Saturday-at-the-Deli things (as she would be working on Saturday).

I love the three-dimensionality of these signs..........  See the shadows of the letters?

I was able to get some work done that had been waiting on me for a while, so that was good.  I would have gotten more done if I had remembered that the netbook has a hardware switch that toggles its ability to connect to wifi.  It just will NOT connect, when the switch is in the "off" position.  I think I need some screen wallpaper that says "Turn it on, first."..............  (Though, really, wouldn't you think it could have the courtesy to TELL me that the switch is off, when I click on "refresh available-network list"???)

I got done some of what needed doing, after I thought to flip the switch. 

As I sat sipping Iron Goddess tea, working on describing recently-rescued corgis, I realized I recognized the music on Next Door's sound system.  They played several tunes I'd heard during A History of Rock, from the days before Rock.  A song from a yodeling cowboy, when Country was still separate from Western.  Something Country, from a group I remember hearing (but couldn't name).  Elvis, singing "That's All Right, Mama."  Without A History of Rock, I wouldn't have recognized any of that music.  I liked realizing that I had heard it before, and I liked that I knew its context in re rock&roll.  (Hooray for learning new stuff!)

After a while, my daughter joined me.  Iron Goddess is happy to be infused twice, so I got some hot water to re-infuse my tea.  I shared her pastry (those Bostoks -- scroll down, if you click through -- really are very good indeed.....)


When we were ready to move on, we bought some bread to take home.


It was a rainy day.

Wet patio tables, made from old signs.

We'd parked north of Zingerman's on Detroit Street (right by the Treasure Mart, Mom). 

Some of the houses in that block of Detroit Street are seriously spiffed up.

I don't think I'd ever seen this sort of slaunchwise chunk taken out of a house for an entry.  I wonder why they didn't build the roof out over a stoop, rather than taking a chunk out of the house.  It's interesting, but....  Living, as I do, in a house with a chunk taken out for a front porch, I think it's better to have a porch sticking out of the house rather than ... sticking into the house!

Love this blue.....

Cool front yard, too, with interesting rocks and small trees.  I wonder if the flat red rock's carved-out depression is meant for a bird bath, or if it's too deep for that.

Here's the house next door to the blue one.

(See the white house?  I think I looked at that one, when I was looking at houses before I bought my first house.......   I don't remember why I wasn't interested, but I bet it needed serious work.  All of these houses are pre-1900, I'm pretty sure.)


I love looking at this, and I'm so glad I don't have to maintain it..........

If you click on the image to embiggen, you can see that the window surrounds were carved and then painted.  The downstairs windows had the same sort of work done around them.  Cool.

Detroit Street, right by our car.  Love these old brick streets!

A collection of bricks stamped with the manufacturers' names.

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Ventures -- "Walk Don't Run"

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Is it just me, or does it sound like this is where the Blue Man Group got their inspiration?




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my History of Rock teacher talks about MOOCs and about teaching one

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Here's an article from my History of Rock class, about MOOCs and about teaching a MOOC.

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Rock and Roll -- "Peggy Sue"

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Ok.

This is the oldest song we've listened to for The History of Rock that really sounds like Rock and Roll to me.  (Not the vocals.  Don't know what's up with that "Peggy Sue-hoo-hoo-hoo" style of singing.....)

I've been noticing that percussion is much more forward in R&R than it was in music before the 1950s.  When I listen for the percussion in a big band, for example, it's there, but it's not driving the show.  "Peggy Sue" has that driving percussion, and also has the electric guitar I associate with R&R......... 



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rock and roll "White Christmas"

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Love this............



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Pentatonix -- a history of music in four minutes

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Someone in my Rock class posted a link to this video.  I like it.




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country, then and now(ish)

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This week in The History of Rock & Roll we are learning about three types of music from the beginning of recording to 1955:  mainstream pop, country & western, and rhythm & blues.

I really liked a bunch of the mainstream pop.

Yesterday I listened to the lecture on country & western (and learned those two were two separate categories, until WWII).

Everything was much more regional in the beginning of the 20th century.  Essentially no cross-fertilization across regions.  Communication across any distance was so difficult that there wasn't much of it, compared to now.

(Digression:  this  is one of those things that makes perfect sense, but I never really thought about it.  The difficulty of communication meant that you were only aware of what was happening near to you.  In Maps and the Geospatial Revolution, we learned Tobler's First Law -- "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."

In a time when communication across space becomes increasingly impossible as the distance increases, how much more true that is!  EVERYTHING is about what is next-door to you.  What happens several states away might as well not happen at all, because you'll probably never know.........  Especially with the kind of thing that needn't be synchronized to try to keep a country together, like music, or food...............

End of Digression)


The "country" region was Appalachian and deep south.  (The "western" region was Texas and Oklahoma, and California.  Which, now that I think about it, doesn't make sense as a "region" the way we've been talking about regions! -- California is rather far away from OK and TX!!!  Hmmmmm......)


Anyway.   Country music from the beginning of recording sounded like this:



We were told Jimmie Rogers was the first really big country star. 

Our prof told us Lynyrd Skynyrd covered that same "T for Texas" song..........



I have never listened to Lynryd Skynyrd, ever (before today).  I was interested to find that I could identify with this version of "T for Texas" in a way that I couldn't connect with the Jimmie Rogers version.  It's as though the LynSkyn version is the same language as rock&roll, but a different dialect, where the Jimmie Rogers version is a different language from anything I would normally listen to....  (And yet both versions of this song would be called "country"......)

I can really see what our prof meant about the HUGE difference made by the cross-fertilization that happens all the time, now.  LynSkyn performing "T for Texas" sounds a LOT like rock&roll from the same time period.  Early 20th-century country doesn't sound anything like early 20th-century mainstream pop!


One of the things I'm finding frustrating is that our prof doesn't talk about the music itself.  (He can't play the music for us; he'd have to buy it, and it would be grotesquely expensive.  We have to find and listen to the music by ourselves.)  I really wish he could play the music for us, and then talk about it...........

I am not learning any vocabulary for talking/thinking about the music, so I'm making up my own, and I don't find that satisfying.  If the purpose of language is communication, I'd rather learn the generally-accepted language for talking about this stuff than make up my own......

I have checked his textbook out of the library, but haven't read it.  I need to pull myself away from the music and go find it.  I hope there is discussion about actually listening to the different songs/performances in the book!

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The Andrews Sisters -- "Shoo Shoo Baby"

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I am not fond of the lyrics........  ("big tall papa"???  really?)

But I love the vocals................




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Rhythym Boys & Paul Whiteman`s Band: "Happy Feet"

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I think this is really fun.



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Is You is or is You Ain't My Baby?

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Bing and the Andrews Sisters........

One of the things we have learned in The History of Rock is that mainstream pop, rhythm and blues, and country and western were pretty separate.  Different performers, different audiences.

This must be one instance of exceptions that prove the rule..............




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Les Paul and Mary Ford -- "Bye Bye Blues"

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This isn't one of the songs he recommended we listen to, but I like it. I'm not that fond of having a ton of tracks overlaying each other, but I like their sound and I love the guitar work!



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History of Rock and Roll

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My History of Rock and Roll class started on Coursera today.  He began by talking about the huge impact of radio on mainstream popular music (radio created a national audience, where there had been regional audiences before).  He went on to talk about pop music stars before rock&roll.

Here's one of the songs he recommended we search out and listen to:




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