Rutlefan

I think my favorite album cover ever.

Do you mean there are actually young people who never heard of The Beatles? I find that amazing, but a lot of time has gone by, and that type of thing must now be expected. He wasn't young. We were both in our mid-thirties. He, like me at one time (until college in my case), had avoided them. The hype and all, and not loving the hits that one can't avoid hearing (familiarity breads contempt), had kept him away. After hearing Revolver he had to hear more and they are now among his favorite bands. I was the same way. I think being forced to listen to the White Album and Revolver by a college buddy did it for me (a girlfriend who had me listen to MMT had been unsuccessful, though I now love MMT).

Three come immediately to mind. Each blew me away the first time I heard them, as in "This was recorded when?!?" Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows (esp the Take One version) Alex Chilton/Big Star - Kangaroo Re the early Tomorrow Never Knows, it's so cool. I introduced a friend to The Beatles with this track. Like me at one time, he was a big Floyd and Zeppelin fan who was prejudiced against The Beatles. He loved this though. He was actually disappointed in the Revolver version after this. But, Revolver still led him to the rest of their catalog and he's now a big fan.

Named after a warplane...worse ideas...but it does sound weird A "Foo Fighter" was what WWII allied pilots called a UFO. I've always thought the name kind of inspired, in part, because aurally, it does fit their particular brand of vanilla alt rock (not a criticism, they're really good at it), and the meaning is cool, historically.

But it suits their humour perfectly. I've always thought The Butthole Surfers one of the best names ever. It's hilarious, especially the story of how they got it.

"The stage was now set for the Alan Parsons Project, which I believe was some sort of hovercraft." (at 1:26) I love the name of the record store, "Suicide Notes, FORMERLY GOOD VIBRATIONS" :rfl: http://youtu.be/YXKmsvRXE4A

Bands better than their names: Goo Goo Dolls Toad the Wet Sprocket (not all Monty Python references work) Echo and the Bunnymen Echo and the Bunnymen is a great band with a kind of unfortunate choice of names. Their first four albums (through Ocean Rain) are excellent, esp Porcupine and Ocean Rain. The name though inclines one to take them less seriously, if you didn't know their music. Before becoming Velvet Underground at the recommendation of Andy Warhol (so I've read), Falling Spike and Warlock were considered for names. Ouch. I have to think they wouldn't have been quite as legendary with either of those. Also, in between The New Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, Page had considered some name that was really, amazingly awful, I just don't remember what it was. Dodged a bullet when Keith Moon suggested a more inspired name.

Of course you can, I’m really interested in what u choose, I’ll be watching out for them I may try "favourite bands" and do a brief summary on their discography, as I have a lot of love for bands and artists this forum isn't keen on Good list. I think Help! is underrated. Help! in fact was the album that really got me into The Beatles when I was in college. I knew their hits of course, and had started discovering their cooler "deep" tracks (deep being a relative term); then I heard Help! One great track after another, each one with great pop construction that really moved along briskly... IOW, a collection of really catchy rock/pop tunes. They weren't trying to be too deep or too complex, but rather they're more simple pop craft hit its apex. Rubber Soul and Revolver would get into slower, more complex writing (at times); Help! was all about having fun, but they were also REALLY good writers. I think if you're going to be a bar band playing catchy Beatles tunes, a good part of your covers are probably going to come from Hard Day's Night and Help!

And speaking of Latin Americans, I love these sisters, making up 2/3 of the School of Seven Bells. Unfortunately only made one album as a pair, after which one sister left: http://youtu.be/1An2pjS4mKE I guess I'm a sucker for this type of voice, in the vein of Elizabeth Fraser; Angela Conway, who appeared with Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis of Wire on a few projects in the '80s. This is Bruce and Angela teaming up as A.C. Marius (great album): http://youtu.be/bAcxQzl15LI

After Elizabeth Fraser, I'd list Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson of the B-52s, then Pat Benatar, then, going a bit obscure, Leticia Solari of Argentine band Mellonta Tauta. After that there's just a whole mess I like across a lot of different genres. The ones named stick out most to me. For what it's worth, a little Latin American Dark Wave/Ethereal. When bass kicks in at 0:39 the Cocteau Twins influence becomes very obvious, which is a good thing: Speaking of Dark Wave, l love this singer also, Thierry Sintoni of Rise and Fall of a Decade:

Funny, in a nearby conference room an AV guy was setting things up this morning, playing The Call's "When the Walls Came Down" at a surprisingly loud volume (not that I minded). That was a good pick me up.

Of the many pick-me-up songs I could choose, the one that really works for me is...XTC -- We're All Light Apple Venus Vols I&II was my go-to music in 2000/2001. I remember driving on a beautiful summer day blasting it thinking that it is the perfect music for a care-free summer day. I still think that and We're All Light has always been my particular favorite.

Nova Carmina: "The Call -- Let the Day Begin (I literally listen to this song every day)" Excellent choice!

19th Nervous Breakdown

There's something going on with Ged's voice on that track that I've not heard on any other Rush track, let alone live. Some magic warmth, almost doesn't sound like Ged. Rush usually Trump their studio cuts with live. SOR is the exception. Just can't beat the studio version of SOR IMO. I remember clearly first hearing TSOR. It was on the radio. First, I was shocked I was hearing Rush on the radio (that was a first, though I had seen them on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert once); where I lived Rush was an esoteric interest, shared by few. Second, I was shocked at the opening; it was like an aural Ginsu knife display. Third, by the time the song ended, I was in shock from how amazing was the song. I was used to Rush changing keys and tempos and themes with amazing musicianship all in one song, but to do that in a 5 minute energetic made-for-radio tour de force of a track was almost unbelievable. It was like the funny line in Amadeus, where the king says the composition has "too many notes," trying to sound insightful, as if a composition might have an ideal number of notes. Well, to my mind, TSOR arguably has the ideal number of notes; if you added to or subtracted from the song it would be lesser for it; it seems to me a perfect song.

Elizabeth Fraser Many more but she's at the top. Treasure was the first LP I heard of them back in '84. Two tracks in I thought she was two or three different singers. Loved that Jackson used her in the LoTR movies. http://youtu.be/gziD6feMRmA This cover of the Tim Buckley classic is amazing. Funny as she and Jeff Buckley (Tim's son) were romantically involved at one point. http://youtu.be/HFWKJ2FUiAQ

A friend recently clued me into this song, The Waterboys' The Whole of the Moon. Can't believe I'd never heard this. Understand U2 used it as the walkout song a couple years ago. http://youtu.be/pu7AR0-FRro Catching up on these guys' catalog. I was aware of Mike Scott's career without ever delving into his music; what a mistake. Making up for it now. Wow is Fisherman's Blues fantastic.

I'm a wealth of non-information when it comes to new music but I do love Fat White Family's latest, Serf's Up! Here they are being very silly in a very British fashion. The music starts at 0:45...

^^ I think this is part of the problem. Not saying Steve Martin wasn't great, he was, which is partly why I can't hear the song without picturing him. Kind of ruins the (Abbey Road) album experience for me.

Any particular favorites? I agree btw. Off the top of my head, She Loves You, Paperback Writer, Eleanor Rigby, I Want to Hold Your Hand, I Should Have Known Better, Hard Day's Night, I'm Happy Just to Dance With You, Help, Eight Days a Week, The Night Before . . . Their early albums are almost literally filled with them. A later notable track would be the triple harmony "Because." Cool story, Lennon wrote it after hearing Yoko play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on their piano. Lennon asked her to play it backwards and wrote the song around that.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer Maybe not "bad" by a non-Beatles standard but bad in the sense that if falls far short of the std set by the rest of the album, even compared to the equally silly but far more charming Octopus's Garden.

I Know I'm Not Wrong The Cure -- The Head on the Door

House of Cards from In Rainbows. Maybe a minority opinion but I think it's a nothing, go nowhere navel gazing snooze, like weak latter U2 (which is pretty weak). The first indication of what Radiohead was soon to become, in reality if not in name, The Thom Yorke Project, supported (occasionally) by the former members of Radiohead.

Red Lenses

AFTK? I get the love for AFTK and also, oddly, the dismissiveness. For me, from the first time I heard it in '77 as a breathless pre-teen, it was a one-sided album. I was obsessed with Xanadu, and though I didn't love the AFTK opener, I thought it set the table for Xanadu really well (I didn't confuse my lack of enthusiasm with thinking the track wasn't excellent, much like Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions). Re side 2, I was just never into any of the songs. But, I thought it flowed well as a side and I'd give it a spin now and then. I always thought that Cygnus X-1 was a great closer even though it's heavy-handedness wasn't my thing, and CTTH was great songwriting (if they could have written half that well their last twenty years), even though its wistfulness wasn't my thing. In short, I think it's a very good album if not quite great; a very respectable follow-up to ATWAS and good table setter for the incomparable Hemispheres. To me, it's their Houses of the Holy; uneven with some weak moments but also many moments of greatness. On the whole, does them proud, I think. While the second side has never been my thing (what did the pompous Mr. Christgau call it?-- "Medieval Pomp Rock" IIRC), I think it's very well-written and constructed. The first side of course is undeniably Epic.