Prog guilty pleasures and true confessions

[yodathedog]

You know, we're often rather ignorant towards American culture here in Europe. So we don't always catch on while it's happening.

Thus I hadn't actually heard the original Glen Campbell version of "Wichita Lineman" until the ending credits in that episode in season 2 of Ozark, and I thought - Wow! This is like hearing "God Only Knows" for the first time all over again!

I think it's an absolutely fantastic tune, and with a mutha lyric to boot; there are Keith Reid'ian assets to the levels of thought in it. Completely gorgeous!

Love this! Heard it on the 60s channel on Sirius just yesterday.

[Jerjo]

I don't consider most of my hard rock faves a guilty pleasure but I must admit that many of those bands are pretty much knuckleheads when it comes to lyrics. Then again, most prog is no better. They just use different subject matter.

My wife plays mostly singer-songwriter and pop shit. I will admit that some of it has some great hooks. Katy Perry's "Roar" is a great anthem, even though musically it's everything I am normally aghast about. My fave pop music moment though was when I was suffering through my wife's DVD of N'SYNC at MSG and when the boys walk off the stage while the band is still playing, for about thirty seconds the band TEARS into the central riff for "YYZ". Best moment of the whole damn show.

[JJ88]

But Donna Summers’ I Feel Love... well, there’s a bit of a ‘coming out of the closet’ quality to admitting that on PE. It’s like walking into a biker bar and requesting a K-Pop tune.

A truly great record. I rate some disco (Summer/Moroder, Chic etc.), just not the stupid novelties, bandwagon jumpers or ropey Eurodisco (Boney M, say- don't get them at all!). That's the sort of stuff I can't handle.

I think this thread is really more about music you like which isn't prog or maybe not even rock, rather than anything to be 'guilty' about. Although I'm not one for 90s onwards boybands, I must admit!

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Oh, another one I love - Desmond Dekker's "The Israelite".

And, you know what? I have a soft spot for songs that are too earnest for their own good, like "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and "One Tin Soldier (Theme from 'Billy Jack')".

[Progatron]

of N'SYNC at MSG and when the boys walk off the stage while the band is still playing, for about thirty seconds the band TEARS into the central riff for "YYZ". Best moment of the whole damn show.

Okay, didn't see that coming!

[Udi Koomran]

This

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...ou3qTxKL8HJkJi

[MJBrady]

And it's not even finished. Campbell took Webb's work-in-progress and ran with it.

Many are not aware of what a fantastic guitarist Campbell was, check out these solos!!

[progmatist]

Tesh -- so far as I know -- never put out a straight-face album.

The albums he did before switching to the gospel stuff with vocals actually aren't half bad.

[Jerjo]

Okay, didn't see that coming!

My wife says it was more like ten seconds - she might be right. But I know I heard Rush. On YT I found a video of Katy Perry's band covering a bit of Cygnus X-1 to end a tune. I take it that these guys play behind pop stars to pay the bills but it feels good to rip out a little riff or two that demands something more.

[rcarlberg]

Many are not aware of what a fantastic guitarist Campbell was, check out these solos!!

Well, he was a card-carrying member of The Wrecking Crew. Some of the most recognizable licks on record are his.
https://www.onlineguitarbase.com/gle...-songs-played/
https://theboot.com/glen-campbell-se...usician-songs/

[GuitarGeek]

Well, he was a card-carrying member of The Wrecking Crew. Some of the most recognizable licks on record are his.
https://www.onlineguitarbase.com/gle...-songs-played/
https://theboot.com/glen-campbell-se...usician-songs/

Yeah, but most people have no idea about that, since most records didn't have musician credits. Most people have no idea that on any given rcord that was made in LA during the 60's, the hot guitar licks are frequently either him or Tommy Tedesco, regardless of who was pictured on the cover. Back in those days, relatively few bands played on their own their own records, outside of the lead singer. Sometimes, "the band" itself didn't even exist when the record was made. The producer would hire some studio musicians, they'd cut a couple tracks, put out a single, if it did well, they'd cut a few more songs, put out an album, and if that did well, the producer would hire a bunch of kids to go out and play the songs in concert.


Similarly, most people have no idea that many of the records made in LA during the late 70's and 80's are essentially Toto records. Someone once told me that She's A Beauty by Toto was basically "Toto pretending to be The Tubes". And even if it's not quite "Toto pretending to be...", there's good odds at least one member of the band playing on the record. We've talked before about the list of credits that Steve Lukather has on his website, everything from Cheap Trick to Michael Jackson, etc. And I remember it being suggested there's some sessions those guys played on, they can't even talk about, because they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so that the public wouldn't know that at least one of the guys pictured on the cover didn't really play on the record.

[Lopez]

Oh, another one I love - Desmond Dekker's "The Israelite".

You might like the album that Desmond Dekker did with the Specials in 1993, King of Kings. Great stuff.

[Baribrotzer]

Similarly, most people have no idea that many of the records made in LA during the late 70's and 80's are essentially Toto records. Someone once told me that She's A Beauty by Toto was basically "Toto pretending to be The Tubes". And even if it's not quite "Toto pretending to be...", there's good odds at least one member of the band playing on the record. We've talked before about the list of credits that Steve Lukather has on his website, everything from Cheap Trick to Michael Jackson, etc. And I remember it being suggested there's some sessions those guys played on, they can't even talk about, because they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so that the public wouldn't know that at least one of the guys pictured on the cover didn't really play on the record.

Anything produced by David Foster. There might have been other producers who used them as well, but Foster was noted for it.

[GuitarGeek]

Anything produced by David Foster. There might have been other producers who used them as well, but Foster was noted for it.

It wasn't just Foster. The guys from Toto were part of the so called "A-Team". Just as you had the Wrecking Crew in the 60's, in the late 70's and 80's you had the A-Team. There's at least one A-Team musician on pretty much every mainstream pop, rock or R&B record made in L.A. during that era. And quite often that included the Toto guys. We're talking every producer from Quincy Jones to Larry Waronker. Lukather and Jeff Porcaro even managed to make it onto an Eric Clapton record (when Warner Bros decided that Behind The Sun "didn't have enough singles" when he initially delivered it to them, so they sent him to LA and he recorded three songs with a bunch A-Teamers)

But it's like that in each of the "music centers". In NYC, London, Nashville, Muscle Shoals, etc you have a crew of musicians in each city who play on virtually everything. Also, I seem to recall at least some of the musicians who were responsible for all those oh so avant garde French progressive rock recordswere also session guys. Apparently, there's a lot of 70's and 80's pop records that have people from Magma, Heldon, etc on them. I remember someone telling me he got burned a couple times buying records because he saw some of those records, thinking he was gonna get some lost zheul record or something, and ended up with lots of chansons sung by Serge Gainsbourg wannabes.

[progmatist]

Another guilty pleasure of mine: I love country music. I love prog from the country of Sweden, the country of Italy, Russia, Japan, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany....just to name a few.

[Baribrotzer]

Wow! This is like hearing "God Only Knows" for the first time all over again! I think it's an absolutely fantastic tune, and with a mutha lyric to boot; there are Keith Reid'ian assets to the levels of thought in it. Completely gorgeous!

No less than Bob Dylan once called it "the best song ever written", and it's not hard to see why: The lyrics say volumes in just a few plain-spoken lines, whereas Dylan sometimes used far more words to not say as much. And, while Dylan could write decent simple folk-styled music, he (IMO) hadn't nearly Jim Webb's level of compositional craftmanship, subtly yet gloriously on display here.

Webb's music to "Wichita Lineman" is simultaneously dead-simple, yet sophisticated within that simplicity and complex in its implications. There's just one strain, repeated three times, with no middle-eight. On the last verse, Glen plays the first half of the melody on baritone guitar, to serve as a breather. So little is there, yet what is there is stunning - the verses start in F major, unexpectedly modulate to D major, then just as unexpectedly go back to F; those two tonic chords F and D are only occasionally heard in root position; and the first half of the verse occupies seven bars and the second half, ten. It's music that Aaron Copland would have been proud of, and its avoidance/subversion of musical cliches gives it the power to stand up to repeated listenings. And yet, somehow, unless you're a musician listening analytically, it just sounds like country music and almost anyone can connect with it.

Intro: ........ | Fmaj7 ..| Fsus4 | Fmaj7 .| Fsus4 ..|

Verse Pt I: ||: Bbmaj7 | F/A ...| C7sus4 | Dm A ..| G ......| D ........| D ........|

Verse Pt II: .| Csus2 ...| Csus2 | G/B ....| Gm/Bb | D/A ...| A7sus4 | Bbmaj7 | C ........| Bb .....| Csus4 ......:||

[Buddhabreath]

Glen was indeed a great musician and a fine singer as well. I didn't see it mentioned (maybe I missed it)? but Glen was uncredited as the lead singer on the minor hit from the studio contrived group Sagirttarius back in 1967 and this one is quite comparable to an elaborate Beach Boys production. One might even accuse them of trying to cop their sound. Regardless, a fine effort IMO.

[JJ88]

^Great record, I think it was on the original Nuggets double album. The original version was actually by a UK vocal group called The Ivy League. (One of its writers John Carter was a member of this band.)

http://www.45cat.com/record/7n35348

Talking of Glen Campbell, here's a pre-fame single which was produced/co-written by Brian Wilson and is as brilliant as you'd hope for.

http://www.45cat.com/record/5441

All of those Campbell/Webb singles have great instrumental intros/outros.

[miamiscot]

I saw Minor Threat's final show at the Punk Funk Throwdown at the September 23, 1983, at the Lansburgh Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., sharing the bill with go-go band Trouble Funk, and Big Boys.

Attachment 13345

Big Boys were criminally under appreciated. What a great band that played with feel. We opened for them once and were completely blown off the stage. (That didn't happen too often.)

[simon moon]

For the most part, I can't go there with you guys.

I really don't have any guilty pleasures. Sure, if a well written pop song comes on the radio (many such songs have been mentioned in this thread), I will listen and enjoy. Last week, PBS had a special about Motown, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. But, I will not go out of my way or spend any time listening to it.

But, If I am sitting down for a listening session with my home audio system, there is nothing that I listen to that is a guilty pleasure.

If I am not in the mood for any of various subgenres of prog, I will listen to jazz and fusion. If I am not in the mood for any of the various subgenres of jazz or fusion, I will listen to classical (exclusively mid to late 20th century and contemporary). If I am not in the mood for any of the above, I am just not in the mood to listen to music.

My listening is about 40% prog, and 30% jazz and 30% classical.

I have zero interest in any other type of music. Call me an elitist or a music snob if you think it fits, and I will proudly where the mantle.

[rael74]

Guilty Pleasure: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys

True Confession: I once had an affair with a prog loving lady, whereby I 'played' the part of Rael, and her the Lamia... No shit guys, it was that good.

[GuitarGeek]

Guilty Pleasure: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys

What?! That's not a guilty pleasure!!!!!

[Halmyre]

Guilty Pleasure: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys

True Confession: I once had an affair with a prog loving lady, whereby I 'played' the part of Rael, and her the Lamia... No shit guys, it was that good.

She died after biting you and you then ate her?

[Guntrip]

re: Magma's Merci
with the damn drum machine and the "ooh ooh baby" refrain must have made a lot of fans just go "What...the...FRELL?!"

Been watching Farscape lately?

For me most of the rest of the album is actually much better than that opening track. Notably, I still think I Must Return is brilliant.

I'm definitely fond of I Must Return, and the beautiful, subdued way its theme is reiterated in The Night We Died really closes the album on a 'dreamy death' like feeling. Eliphas Levi is also a really strong, trance inducing track. Plus we've got Otis, which is an absolute beast played live and one of their grooviest songs. It does take some time to adapt to the English lyrics in general, which aren't always as refined / coherent as one might hope, often sounding like a subpar translation. But the subject matter (death, transcendence, cosmic oneness) are all the things I imagined the Kobaian language was meant to be expressing already, and so none of it was as jarring to me as it was to other Magma enthusiasts I spoke with. But I completely understand why Merci just does not work at all for the majority of the fanbase, which is why I consider it a guilty pleasure, especially since it may have been created for less than artistically watertight reasons.

I wonder what Chrisian Vander has to say about it? Were there any interviews or notes that explained his and the band's thought process at the time?

Really glad to see there's some folk that find things to dig about Merci. Makes me feel like slightly less of a loon.

[rcarlberg]

The clip from Sagittarius above caused me to investigate & download the album. Playing it yesterday, I was reminded of the two great(?) lost psychedelic disasters of Chad & Jeremy, "Of Cabbages and Kings" (1967) and "The Ark" (1968). Reading further I discovered why: producer Gary Usher was behind all of them!

Revisiting them made me want to hear Chad & Jeremy's earlier pop hits again, so I started downloading them off YouTube.

I quickly discovered that several songs I remembered as being by Chad & Jeremy, were actually by Peter & Gordon. Seems that Peter & Jeremy & Chad & Gordon were all mixed up in my head. Both groups featured a guy in black glasses, both groups did a half dozen hits and a ton of dreck, both duos seem to have been singing over tracks by anonymous studio musicians.