Now and Then

We're talking about 50 years or more!

Recently, upon watching some interviews with well known folks, for this area at least, they made a point that is really scary, and is something that should, somehow, be addressed, however, I'm not sure that we can agree on anything in regards to that idea, which is another problem that will endup being a personal generational thing.

At least 3 folks, have stated something that we do not take in consideration in regards to some of the comments and choices made by several members on PA's threads. The most prevalent of them is their children ... they found their kids did not care who the band was, or had much of an idea about the band ... they just wanted the song, and got another song tomorrow, and the day after another, because their friends had it.

This makes, for a lot of the "subjective" discussions here, since many of those folks would only mention their favorite songs, and some of those folks might have gotten a little better at listening to things for a band, but in general, you see a lot of discussions are about a song, not an album, in general.

This was massively different 50 years ago, and it is too easy to say that we were better versed and educated about a lot of music, than our children seem to be ... it's a hard thing to say, but one day, I intenionally played my stereo louder, to interrupt one of the kids from my sister's daughter (heck if I know what the term is!) ... and it worked. At first she said it was too loud and she couldn't hear anything on her ear buds. Ten minutes later, she goes, why you playing that so loud? Because it's pretty and better than what you are listening to. She made a face, but shut off the portable player and sat there looking silly as if paying attention to the loud music from the speakers.

Who is it and what is that?

So I told her. 

But that's so busy that we can't keep up with it.

That's a simple one, and I can play you a really busy one that will blow the ear wax off.

Nah, that's OK. Which song is that so I can hear it later?

No song. It's a full side on an LP, or about 20 minutes.

Why so long?

It varies ... do you do your reading for school? 

We rarely get reading assignments. We got one to find what Wiki said about something or other. I think it was about "bridge" in music.

How many songs you got in that thing?

About 300.

Do you listen to them all? 

Mostly, though they are on shuffle. 

Do you know the names of the bands?

What for?

...

The whole thing died down after that as it was dinner time.

This was scary and got me thinking, since the three folks that said this on various interviews were 2 very well known musicians, and one podcaster with an attitude, but he was right.

Music listening has changed in 50 years, and the majority of kids these days, don't know the bands, and don't want to know them, because the only thing they are interested in is one song, as long as their friends also has it ... and spending 99 cents, is easier on their budget, as opposed to 10 dollars, which means they could get at least 9 songs for their device!

We didn't know much about the bands in those days either, specially in America with no periodical dedicated to the music properly. One was a star kissypoo thing, and a couple of other magazines with nice pictures, were quite obviously a music company's baby and 4 of their bands were illustrated with nice pictures, even if the music was garbage, but the articles made it seem better! I guess they were wearing clothes by then, and not diapers! England had MM and it was OK in general, but it had a massive back section that listed all the concerts in the area and when and a few reviews of some shows, even though those reviews were (as Mike says) just blurbs. But you could see that there were a lot of European bands goofing around in London, and I wish I was there sometimes. What bothered me the most is that NY did not have anything like it, and it was hard to believe that NY did not show a music scene that had exciting things happening, beyond the Velvet Overrated Ground! 

Some things might have made it through and eventually we heard a bit of it, but in general, most of it was left behind, only to be found years later, by a few folks on PA ... weird that we find more of that music today, than we ever did then!

In general, for me, in 1971/1972, when I heard something on late nights, from LA mostly (we could get the 2 big FM stations and the PBS station well enough on clear nights) ... we could not look it up, but we ended up going after it, and a lot of it ended up in Space Pirate Radio from January 1974 on. By then , between Guy and I, we had already piled up a nice set of things, that could go a long way, and both or our record collections were used on the air for his main show. The regular air times for him, when they happened were more of a mix bag and also had other things, and more American stuff, which the main show would not do, though in the early days it had to, things like Paul McCartney, for example.

But now, even without a periodical we had a way to find out about the bands, and we were already familiar with a few things ... Black Sabbath being one for sure, and Uriah Heep, and a few more things. There was enough here, that we could quickly learn about them, and it really wasn't until 1974, perhaps, that we came across the Canterbury stuff, and it was mainly Robert Wyatt's 2nd album (Rock Bottom) that gave us a link to more stuff, by the number of folks that played in his album ... there wasn't a single person in their that we did not follow up, and eventually it led to GONG and CARAVAN ... which we came across when I heard during the half time show between Man and Hawkwind (LA 1974 I think) played something I like and went to find out what it was (Caravan's C'thlu Thlu from "For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night) ... and immediately I got the album and that was it, a couple of the previous Caravan albums right away, and the following week the next Caravan album came out with that neat cover of the tailor and his client in front of the mirror. A very neat cover by Hipgnosis, that suggested what you see is not exactly what you get ... which is very Caravan, with a slight edge.

But, at least, we finally were able to follow things up some, and learn more, though by that time we had already switched allegiances to the Europeans, as we got more and more interested in Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and so many others from Europe. I was, for example, already aware of Aphrodite's Child and Alan Stivell, as two of my sisters had spent time in Europe and they brought those albums with them. Stivell went on immediately to SPR and AC went to it when we got the 666 album. We, at that moment, were starting to have a nice view of Europe, with some Germans and other Europeans ... and in very little time during 1974 and the SPR show, Ange, Banco and Le Orme, became present and a very valuable part of all the shows.

1962 or so ...In our house we had a stereo that dad bought in Araraquara, when we lived there for 3 years (we came to America in 1965), and he listened to many of his operas and other classical music he had on LP's ... and in due time, we purchased the Rolling Stones, and Beatles and played them on that stereo, though we had to play them low so it wouldn't bother dad or mom. However, our listening and a lot of the things I had heard on the radio (the stereo unit had a radio portion as all those units did at the time), and already we knew Maria Bethania, Roberto Carlos, Antonio Carlos Jobim (Girl from Ipanema was huge hit), Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto ... and all of them were in the airwaves, in some way or another, and though we had no recordings of any of them, we heard many of these things, and remembered them well.

When we came to America in 1965, the first thing I heard was Blonde on Blonde Bob Dylan) at the house of the gentleman in Madison WI where we stayed for a month before we got our own place.

You can see that at 15, we already knew the artists and the bands, when the case was there ... it wasn't like we didn't already know the Beatles or Rolling Stones. I spoke no English but could name all of their members!

Now, as we compare this to a lot of the folks that frequent PA, for example. the tough thing is seeing that a lot of folks don't have a reasonable historic view of the different places and time, which were very visible in our family as we went from Portugal to Brazil and then to America! And the though side of this is seeing comments that completely take the music from 50 years ago, as if they were just another song from today, with one really bad side  ... it would not be listed on favorites because it was from many years ago, and therefore, it was assumed many times that the material wasn't any good, or important. And no one, can teach them anything about the different times and places out there, and often those folks will say something on their favorite this and that, but the comment lacks what I would call "perspective" and this is very visible in quite a few threads, and so clear on one place ... the Abbey Road vs Sgt Pepper's thread.

We can help. but PA has to add/create a better description of the times and places, so that some folks can have a chance to learn more about a lot of this history ... instead of ignoring it ... and kinda try to keep the idea of "progressive" and "progrock" alive by clothes pins outside on a wire across the yard.

There is no specific "reason" why today's young ones do not have any history in their minds, and I suppose the educational system is a serious issue around America ... and I remember one California governor cutting a lot of the PBS moneys because he thought that their work was too liberal and hurt conservative causes. This has been happening for over 50 years now, and (basically) it looks like education about the arts, is no longer useful or important in so many school system that would rather save their moneys for their benefit, than it is to educate the students a bit better. The funding for a lot of this is simply gone, and expecting the young ones to pick it all up by themselves from their friends and the songs they like, is not a good educational choice, but no school system in America is going to do anything about it ... and this is the sad reality of a lof of the younger fans these days.

PA, if it wants to generate more time for its efforts in the Progressive and related areas, has to do more, within a somewhat more educational ability ... to help define and keep the movement alive, though if Music History is any indication most periods of music do not last 50 years, and that would suggest that our specialty has already had its best days, and would likely face a massive decline. I kinda think that we can stop this if we add some historical content, so the new music fits better and is more than just a monthly number or a minor hit in Left Balling Neptune!

I'm not sure that this will happen ... I have, for many years, always posted with a lot of details about yesterday many years ago, in my experience, and sadly, it's like no one wants to bother with it, since no one has a comment ... but one person cleared it up with me ... he said ... goodness, you just destroyed my ideas about music ... and I said ... nope ... I am adding to your study and ideas so you might have some help in figuring out why some of that stuff came alive ... things like "Foreign Son" and "Ohio" are not exactly a huge finger to the establishment, but they are a huge bunch of words about how we felt ... while today, not a lot of music is as valuable and important in terms of guidance for many of us, regardless of how we look at some things as better and more important, as they are not even a valuable listen compared to 50 years ago ... I kinda think of many of these new old things here, as just "MOS" the term that we gave the new FM stations in 1980 after the great American Radio Rape buy the FCC and such. Folks are creating stories and concepts for the sake of ... something that could be entertaining and interesting for one or two of us, but in general, they are not even valuable in that area, and it's hard to not think of these things as pulp fiction in rock music, and this is something that we should not allow in "progressive" and "progrock" as so much of it going back 50 years was a revolution ... we did not like the empty messages ... we wanted some truth, and while fun listening to it, in the end, it was not about the Masked Marauders having to tell us about it at all ... we depended on many of these artists for it all ... and since the Internet days? The only thing we can depend on is, them all falling down and departing for another cosmic address ... and hope that their music can survive so we can learn something about our own history, instead of ignoring it!