Mal ,'War Stories'
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
Interestingly, I was coming in here to ask y'all how to explain or describe Punk to Mal, and who to play for him. I tend to reach for Ramones and Dead Kennedys and Milkmen, but clearly Sex Pistols...
What makes something punk? Why do they throw themselves off the stage? Why do they dress like that? These are the questions I get.
(Also, "Why don't you like country music?" but that's another topic.)
What makes something punk?
It's the "No!" that means "Yes!" (rejecting false affirmatives, destruction as an aspect of creation, "turning away in disgust is not the same thing as apathy", if the game is rigged don't play by the rules)
Why do they throw themselves off the stage?
Because: (a) it's reckless; and (b) they know somebody will catch them. Two core tenets of punk. Risk and community.
Why do they dress like that?
It's cheap and it makes a statement (see above for "No!").
He should clearly join Duran Duran.
But that would make things confusing.
But that would make things confusing.
Only hilariously so!
Besides, it fits the whole dynamic of X number of pretty boys (is it three or four now? is Roger still back in the band? I lose track.) + one kinda fug dude with a massive ego.
What makes something punk? Why do they throw themselves off the stage? Why do they dress like that? These are the questions I get.
I was asked those very questions today! Well, not about stage diving, I don't think she knows about stage diving.
Only hilariously so!
I take it back. They don't have Andy any longer. Andrew Eldritch must join. Then the band might not be all original members but it will have all of the original member names accounted for and that's funny to me.
Also Roger was not the cute one.
Slate did a series on the history of prog last year:
Heh. That looks more like a history of Keith Emerson.
Check out this 60-minute concert (5 songs) of Genesis with Peter Gabriel from 1973:
That was fantastic, in all senses of the word. And occasionally hilarious. I found it to be quintessentially British. (Perhaps not surprisingly, since Peter Gabriel at one point dresses up as Britannia, and the songs are from the album Selling England By The Pound.)
Going back to the Slate series, it's pretty easy to understand the charges of pretentiousness, and I can see prog rock basically collapsing under its own weight. What I don't understand - ok, so prog rock these days gets treated as something of an embarrassment in music history. How did Pink Floyd avoid that fate?
Yes was prog, right? I always forget that early Genesis was, too.
How did Pink Floyd avoid that fate?
Because Pink Floyd is awesome?
I can see something like "Animals" being called prog, whereas "The Wall" was more concept. If that makes a difference.
How did Pink Floyd avoid that fate?
Roger Waters was writing great songs born out of his personal bitterness over his father being killed in WWII. Lot more grounded.
By the time that Dark Side of the Moon came out in 1973, they had moved on from many of the prog-rock conventions (that they helped invent), in favor of shorter, more radio-friendly songs.