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Thread: My problem with listening...

  1. #1
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    My problem with listening...

    Hello There Everybody!

    The two threads on the Main Topic page regarding the band Thinking Plague - had me give a quite modern day pleasant listen to In Extremis and Decline and Fall.

    Typical listening session here at the Buckley Place... a buzz, popcorn and a flavored seltzer, and a couple hours of absolute listening bliss.

    Something(s) in a way of thought - occurred to me this evening. First, what a wonderful last 50 years of recorded music that appeals to me. Second, I personally started 'serious' listening around 1970 or so. I stated the second, just as a means for the reader to make perspective.

    As much as I have thoroughly enjoyed Thinking Plague .... and all their releases, I just don't think I listened to or absorbed the mentioned two releases in the same perhaps complete way as I may have the releases from my youth and earlier on. Don't get me wrong, I absorbed what I listened to quite well with TP indeed but I sense that 'something is missing'.

    Here's what I came up with. I think this may lead to interesting discussion. And certainly.... let's talk about what may be going on overall.

    I'm going to use Mr. Jean Luc Ponty in example. Here's a kid in 1975 or so, a kid playing quite well in some school and local Orchestras, and had cut some 'listening teeth' with any and everything I could find on a transistor radio. All of a sudden this Ponty musician somewhere crosses my listening. WOW!

    I was hooked big time! hooked enough in whatever year my memory serves, to find out everything I possibly could about the artist Ponty. Same happened with Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Return to Forever .... and a host of usual and perhaps not usual suspects. Somewhere in this time era I had also begun assembling decent quality stereo equipment. Once in place, whenever that was and with whatever JLPonty releases were available, I wanted each release on vinyl going backwards. I found out about his association with Frank Zappa ( that was a gift in itself) I went to record stores and looked at the covers front and back. I learned absolutely everything I could about the musicians, the cover art...and eventually the music itself. At that point, again whenever that was - I went right along with Ponty and each of his releases, had the great opportunity to see him and band live several times over the years, and peaked out at one of his live performances in Cleveland Ohio where I met the man and thanked him for his music contribution.

    Alright! Back to Thinking Plague...and Thinking Buckley

    As much as I think Thinking Plague is also a TOP TIER band, satisfying one of my musical interests, and agreeing with Mr. Scrotum S., in my adult life I have never quite adequately absorbed everything about TP the artist..... Never mirroring those same way of relaxed exposure and discovery like those years ago. There plain and simple has not been enough time around my OTHER interests - and perhaps a worse problem...

    Too Much Good Music - I'll NEVER get to it all. Nor especially in the same way again!

    It has effected my overall full enjoyment of the current era(s) music.

    Chris Buckley
    Last edited by winkersnufs; 02-18-2015 at 11:03 PM.

  2. #2
    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    Interesting. Time is definitely a factor for me too. I don't have time to listen uninterrupted very often anymore. The car is probably the closest I get, and I hardly drive at all (5-6,000 miles per year at most).

    I'd agree with you that I probably don't know Thinking Plague, or many other bands I've discovered since I got back into Prog in the 1990s, as well as a lot of those 70s greats I grew up with. But here's an odd thing...

    I didn't really get into Gentle Giant, Banco, PFM, Area, or even (gasp) King Crimson or Genesis that much until the 90s either. But I feel I know their albums as well now, if not better than, the Yes, ELP, Tull and others I grew up listening to. I'm not sure why that is, and why it would be only 70s bands that I feel this way about. I think it might have something to do with accessibility, the way they blend recognizable material with more complex/progressive material. Maybe it's the similar "70s sonics." I'm not sure. But as much as I like a lot of post 1990 Prog bands, I don't feel I've gotten as deeply familar with their music as these 70s greats.

    That said, I need to spend much more time with Thinking Plague's Decline and Fall. I realized from that Thinking Plague thread I haven't spun that one in a long time and I think it deserves much more attention.

    Bill

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    Member adap2it's Avatar
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    Don't forget to bring some of that stuff you are smoking with you, on your next visit....
    Dave Sr.

    I prefer Nature to Human Nature

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    Member Brian Griffin's Avatar
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    Interesting post

    I'm a victim of the time issue as well, and I have clearly over-collected

    So many times someone will ask about a disc and I'll think that I have it, but not remember much about it

    There are hundreds and hundreds I played once or twice and filed away unless I was floored, or if posts here or in other forums sparked a re-visit

    I suppose in my younger days, I listened to music every night but the past 10 years or so it's really limited to the weekend, and it's a good part of Friday night through Sunday afternoon but when the time frame is that limited, some of it is taken up on "sure things" and not re-visits or experiments

    That I still collect "everything" from my favorites only complicates it even more

    The mid 90's were an unbelievably great time for me personally, as it was when I first converted all the libraries of my "top 10" bands or so from LP to CD, and from there realized how much more was out there that I missed.

    Hundreds of RPI alone and exciting discovery after exciting discovery from all over the globe PLUS all the Yes activity, top whatever re-issues, band reformations, etc

    I hit it hard, and I don't think I missed much but I'd still loved to be surprised - I haven't been floored by something old that I somehow missed in some time and I tend to not like anything recorded post 70's though lord knows I've tried and I have the discs to prove it

    My fervent hope is that within a couple of years, my company will offer me a retirement package and weed will be legal, and thus my days will be taken up with baseball and digging deeper into my collection

    BG
    "When Yes appeared on stage, it was like, the gods appearing from the heavens, deigning to play in front of the people."

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    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Cleveland? You're not related to the recently retired Gary Buckley, are you?

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    Member Plasmatopia's Avatar
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    I can very much identify with the OP. I just don't have as much time to just listen. I recently had a few good days at work where I could put some music on while working and while I was grateful to have that opportunity, it just isn't the same. One album in particular I was thinking (after hearing it twice while working) that it just wasn't that great. Hearing it again later while driving in the car I was really able to focus on it and thought it was brilliant.

    I realize everyone is different. We all process things differently and there are always exceptions to whatever generalizations we try to make about how people experience music, but the sort of experience I describe above is why I don't really believe people when they say they listened to an album once while working (or whatever) and they know they don't like it.

    Considering there is often more to the music that will reveal itself over time, I don't think it's that easy to listen to something once and say you've really given it a chance. Which does not bode well for being able to truly absorb any significant amount of the available music out there...
    <sig out of order>

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    Boo! walt's Avatar
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    I'm retired and i have the time to listen to my cd's and i have a wide variety of music to choose from.What surprises me is when i just don't feel like choosing a cd to play;option paralysis sets in.It doesn't happen very often but when it does i'm fortunate to live in a city which has a couple of over the air FM stations that play a variety of music(s).

    I let the radio dj's set the musical menu for me.I switch from WKCR to WFMU to WQXR.

    Life is good.
    "please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide

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    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by adap2it View Post
    Don't forget to bring some of that stuff you are smoking with you, on your next visit....
    You have a one track mind, Dave.

    However, my train is on the same track.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  9. #9
    Member adap2it's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by progeezer View Post
    You have a one track mind, Dave.

    However, my train is on the same track.
    I think the points are frozen right now Steve. He'll run out of good smoke before he runs out of good music.
    Dave Sr.

    I prefer Nature to Human Nature

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by winkersnufs View Post
    Hello There Everybody!

    As much as I have thoroughly enjoyed Thinking Plague .... and all their releases, I just don't think I listened to or absorbed the mentioned two releases in the same perhaps complete way as I may have the releases from my youth and earlier on. Don't get me wrong, I absorbed what I listened to quite well with TP indeed but I sense that 'something is missing'.....

    As much as I think Thinking Plague is also a TOP TIER band, satisfying one of my musical interests, and agreeing with Mr. Scrotum S., in my adult life I have never quite adequately absorbed everything about TP the artist..... Never mirroring those same way of relaxed exposure and discovery like those years ago. There plain and simple has not been enough time around my OTHER interests....

    It has effected my overall full enjoyment of the current era(s) music.

    Chris Buckley
    Hi Chris. We're pleased as punch that you've enjoyed TP's music. As for your problem...that missing something that seemed to be more prevalent for you in the old classic prog era, I can say, as a serious listener who lived through all that, that with repsect to TP and certain other bands that might be working in the same bein, the music "progressed" (I'm NOT starting the old 'what is porg' arguement!). It evolved. We evolved; I evolved as a listener and then as a composer. The music is much more tonally dense and "dissonant" than most any of the 70s prog. Rhythmically, it tends to be more complex as well. In terms of these elements, the only comparable band(s) I know of from those days were Henry Cow and Art Bears... early Universe Zero somewhat, even some of the more outside Zappa music. Much of the "complex" music nowadays is of the hyper math rock, or extreme metal core type, which Impersonally don't find very pleasureanle. Imcan understand what's going on. I just don't like it - find it one dimensional.

    But there is other music out there that has complexity, but not for the purpose of wowing of overwhelming you. Rather, it allows more subtlety, more shades, ultimately more depth. And thus!, the main thing is lots of listening. If you don't like something enough, after several listenings, to keep spinning it, then it probably just really isn't for you...at least not at this time.

    But if you like, say TP, but find something missing, well....firstly, it's not intended to be as musically emotionally obvious as, say, Yes or Crimson. And not every track will be as rich as the other. But, and I truly believe this, if you dig deep enough, listen enough over a good period of time (years?), then a whole new aesthetic realm can open up, which has more shades of color, more possible emotions and images. It did for me....still is, really. But it has been a long road. It's just not easy. The only way to get there is lots of listening to harder-to-get music - you don't even always have to focus on it. You can have it on while reading or working. Things will get in your head that you didn't hear before. In my case, this harder music has always been 20th century "classical" music. Some of those guys (and a few gals) are true "masters", and I've been trying for 35 + years to translate some of what I've gotten from them into my 'rock' music. Some people, apparently, think I've had some success, so there must be something to this idea I'm advocating. ?? 😁

  11. #11
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    imo, no adult who is still interested in music (smaller and smaller % every year) listens as intently and as 'excitedly' as they did when most likely a teenager with more time and more raw emotions, when first discovering the music that will influence their tastes into the future.

    So, yeah, Chris. I hear you. But you are not alone at all.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    imo, no adult who is still interested in music (smaller and smaller % every year) listens as intently and as 'excitedly' as they did when most likely a teenager with more time and more raw emotions, when first discovering the music that will influence their tastes into the future.

    So, yeah, Chris. I hear you. But you are not alone at all.
    Speak for yourself, Steve! ....................................(Kidding! 8^> )

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    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MJ-Plagued View Post
    Speak for yourself, Steve!
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  14. #14
    Member Brian Griffin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    imo, no adult who is still interested in music (smaller and smaller % every year) listens as intently and as 'excitedly' as they did when most likely a teenager with more time and more raw emotions, when first discovering the music that will influence their tastes into the future.
    Not sure I agree Steve

    In the 90's I was, (arguably) an adult and had a pretty much complete renaissance with music

    Disgusted with the direction of my favorites, I'd taken most of the 80's off, but what started with interest reborn with ABWH, led to a collecting obsession in the 90's

    I went from 200 or so LP's in the 70's to thousands of CD's

    I don't think I'm alone in that respect, I think a lot of people had a re-awakening then

    BG
    "When Yes appeared on stage, it was like, the gods appearing from the heavens, deigning to play in front of the people."

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    Thank You to every-one who replied! I just wanted to suggest an aspect that is occuring with me...Knowing full well that I certainly cannot be the only one experiencing these thoughts. Thought it would be an interesting thread if it took off!

    Mr. Astley - PPfffffftttttttt!
    Moe - I am recently retired, have a connection with Ohio, but my first name is Chris! Hmmmmmm
    Mike J. - Thanks for piping in here. I'm certainly NOT unhappy with anything that my comments suggest. Things are just 'different'...

    Chris Buckley

  16. #16
    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
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    My major issue is that I'm (primarily) a bass player, so my ears automatically go to the rhythm section first and foremost. Although I am also a vocalist and enjoy singing and harmonizing, there are times when my musician-self can listen to a piece of music with vocals on mute. Occasionally, I hear just the bass parts if I happen to slip into that zone. This unintentional biasing often colors the true nature of a song and sometimes my P.O.V. tends to be skewed from the non-musician ear.

    I have gotten this under more control as I have aged, now able to listen to a song for its entire composition instead of the dissecting way I did so often when I was younger.

    I will say this much: When I do listen with my "bass bias", I still have the same fire to listen to basslines that I did when I first started playing all those decades ago

  17. #17
    Member adap2it's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=winkersnufs;375542]Thank You to every-one who replied! I just wanted to suggest an aspect that is occuring with me...Knowing full well that I certainly cannot be the only one experiencing these thoughts. Thought it would be an interesting thread if it took off!

    Mr. Astley - PPfffffftttttttt!

    And good morning to you Chris! It appears that retirement was a positive step.
    Dave Sr.

    I prefer Nature to Human Nature

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