Comments on: Not Guilty

By: bigcitylib

bigcitylib — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:35:45 +0000

Got you all beat. “Wig-wam Bam” by The Sweet. Moronic, racist, and you can dance to it!

By: vivian

vivian — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:10:33 +0000

Hidari, that CD would really hit the spot at a different exchange rate :)

Little Feat is nothing to be ashamed of. Not sure what I’d do if the kids started singing “Fat Man” though.

By: novakant

novakant — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:14:02 +0000

I agree that Cliff’s music is awful throughout, but your extrapolation doesn’t make any sense, since Christianity has been a major inspiration for a good part of absolutely fantastic music, i.e. Renaissance, Baroque Classical and beyond. Also, while Bowie is a Buddhist, thankfully that hasn’t had much influence on his music. Nothing against Buddhism, but music isn’t really its strong suit. Before anyone attacks me for saying that, I dare them to listen to an hour of Tibetan throat singing.

By: Roy Belmont

Roy Belmont — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:28:42 +0000

bdbd:
Listen to the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought The Law”
then listen to Steve Miller’s “Take the Money and Run”.
Same song, through the artist and back into the living stream.
It’s immediate roots are in British folk i.e. viz. the Child Ballad “Geordie”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie_(ballad)

The Stones did that with “Street Fighting Man”, which is “Foggy Day in London Town” musically carried forward the same way, if not lyrically.

By: Tom Hurka

Tom Hurka — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:59:34 +0000

Re #33: weren’t some of the guys in the band on “I Fought the Law and the Law Won” survivors from the Crickets, as in Buddy Holly and? That makes it not a guilty pleasure at all. The sound is certainly reminiscent of “Peggy Sue.”

And the real guilty pleasures would have to be country songs or, even better, 60s folk tunes. Kingston Trio anyone? “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro?

By: Jason B

Jason B — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:58:48 +0000

Not to mention Stryper and Steven Curtis Chapman. Jesus Christ, they’re horrible.

By: Mordaunt

Mordaunt — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:04:35 +0000

#31

The problem with Sniffy isn’t his religion but the fact that his music is unrelentingly awful.

Frankly, you atheists would be on much stronger ground if you dropped all that Richard Dawkins guff and confined yourself to pointing out that if Christiianity was all that and a bag of crackers, how come the Buddhists got Bowie, the Zoroastrians got Freddy, the Muslims got Cat Stevens, the atheists (most tellingly!) got Matt Bellamy and we got Cliff.

Thomas Aquinas would struggle with that conundrum.

By: Dan Simon

Dan Simon — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:58:00 +0000

If only someone would start a guilty-burdens thread, about music we kind of like intellectually but hate to actually listen to. Actually, that thread goes back at least as far as the late 1800s.

By: MikeN

MikeN — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:01:35 +0000

Brandy, you’re a good girl
What a fine wife you would be…

By: ghost

ghost — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:34:24 +0000

“…music we kind of like intellectually but hate to actually listen to.”
“I feel this way about almost all classical music”

I recommend checking out Leonard Bernstein’s “The Joy of Music” and “The Infinite Varieties of Music” if you want to get jazzed (so to speak) about “classical” music.

By: Jason B

Jason B — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:13:34 +0000

vivian: If only someone would start a guilty-burdens thread, about music we kind of like intellectually but hate to actually listen to.

That’s the first time I’ve encountered that idea, but I guess it’s been with me for years. I feel this way about almost all classical music, but it resonates more for me in film:

I can’t stand Raging Bull. Can’t stand it. I know it’s a well-made film, and I know it deals deftly with deep themes, and I know it displays amazing acting from DeNiro and others, but I can’t get through the first half hour.

But, back to the thread: I entered Supertramp in my lastfm queue last night and quite enjoyed myself with all kinds of cheese. Alan Parsons Project, ELO, Genesis. Good times.

By: rea

rea — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:12:29 +0000

there’s a bloke who churned out tunes every week in Leipzig that you’ll want to ignore as worthless altogether

I hate to break the bad news to you, but he died.

By: nacky

nacky — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:58:53 +0000

Oh, bdbd, a few weeks ago I had to convince my son that the really “old” punk version of “I fought the law” he was listening to was not the original, but that said original was really “much” older. The question was, how did I know before looking it up? In the end I figured I knew it from the car radio way back when as a kid in Kentucky or Missouri. Kids listening to music associated with parents’ youth is not unusual, the same son was ferreting about for his Pop’s Iggy pop cds as well as for the Buena Vista Social Club cd (o.k. that one is not so old, but the musicians even older). A neighbor kid is nuts for the Beatles. I have a weakness for big band music, I never play it, but love to dance to it (thanks ballroom, standard dance class).
As for guilty pleasures, Journey – I have, however, absolved myself from guilt as I only recently found out who they are thanks to the bit of a song played at the end of a Cold Case episode. This lead to the aforementioned Pop finding the rest on youtube and my absurd fascination with them. I know I wouldn’t have liked them back then, and the Pop went “Journey…Journey..?” and dug out an LP he has from when they were alternative rock (pre-Perry). I am now the non-proud possessor of the greatest hits cd (€10). Yes, I have been out of the U.S. for a long time, and hadn’t a clue as to their somewhat controversial status.
Should I feel guilty when listening to the Blue Brothers when engaging in boring tasks? Is a fondness for Cock Robin something to be ashamed of?

By: chris armstrong

chris armstrong — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:20:08 +0000

As far as I’m concerned the point of the Ipod is to enjoy the pleasure without the guilt. Whilst my friends think I listen to serious, cerebral and occasionally depressive vibes, I can actually listen to not just Billy Ocean and Fleetwood Mac, but Kylie Minogue, Nelly Furtado, Sugababes and Tatu without anyone knowing about it!

Oops!

By: John

John — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:35:01 +0000

There’s a DJ on BBC Radio London who has been running a show called Guilty Pleasures for a few years now. Same premise as this thread. He also hosts club nights which are wildly popular: collective guilt.