Random Music Talk CXXVIII: Cobbler's 42 Hat Sucks

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Is anyone up for a DI to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of our pandemic DI?
 
I'm up for a mini as well. Part of things reopening means I'm suddenly getting busier again.
 
Let's do a mini version, as the point is to get more people to participate. I don't really recall the mini rules (like length), but I'm sure someone remembers.

I just saw that the sign up thread last time went up in early April last year. So we are on track.
 
With the coming of warmer weather and an overall sense optimism creeping in, I think I'll do a sunshine pop/psychedelic pop list. I had a full one on an old hard drive that also mixed in psych rock, Brazilian folk and jazz fusion, so I can probably pare down from that.
 
With the coming of warmer weather and an overall sense optimism creeping in, I think I'll do a sunshine pop/psychedelic pop list. I had a full one on an old hard drive that also mixed in psych rock, Brazilian folk and jazz fusion, so I can probably pare down from that.



I am working on a Tropicalia list!
 
This is absolutely blowing up in Australia. Our 'youth'/alternative publicly-funded radio station, Triple J, runs an enormously popular weekly series called Like a Version where they get artists in to do covers, and this is just absolutely elite.



It, plus an original and interview, are the top 3 videos trending on YouTube right now. I'm not sure if the algorithm shows me only Australia (would love one of you to check?) but yeah, this is going off.
 
Yeah, it must be regionally trending, the top videos here are 2x Drake and Bruno/Anderson.

What's really great about this Wiggles video, if you happen to know, and maybe they talk about it in the interview, is that Murray and Jeff are in it. They've been retired for quite a while now.
 
Yeah, it must be regionally trending, the top videos here are 2x Drake and Bruno/Anderson.

What's really great about this Wiggles video, if you happen to know, and maybe they talk about it in the interview, is that Murray and Jeff are in it. They've been retired for quite a while now.



The original Blue Wiggle, Anthony, is also in the clip of their original song.
 
The original Blue Wiggle, Anthony, is also in the clip of their original song.

Ah, but Anthony has never left the band. He's the only remaining OG Wiggle still on the show.


The things you know having children is interesting, gang.
 
Ah, but Anthony has never left the band. He's the only remaining OG Wiggle still on the show.


The things you know having children is interesting, gang.

My kid was only marginally into The Wiggles when he was young, would watch them but never quite got hooked like lots of kids. I have friends/coworkers whose kids were obsessed with them.

Mine ended up into The Imagination Movers more.
We ended up seeing them live a handful of times, they were tolerable as a parent, threw in some regular songs to keep parents entertained (even did a snippet of U2's One once, as well as always throwing in something Aerosmith when here).
Princes Stephanie will probably end up getting you to go to some of these kind of concerts in short order.
Funniest one was when we took him to see Dan Zanes, vastly different experience from when I'd see him playing clubs in the Del Fuegos 20 years earlier.
 
Looks like we have a new song from Wolf Alice. New album Blue Weekend will be out June 11th

 
There's a part in the excellent "Heatwave" from Julien Baker that reminds me soooooooo much of The Antlers' "Palace", one of my favourite songs ever made.

"The gruesome beauty of your face in everyone I meet..."

"The day we wake inside a secret place that everyone can see..."
 
Also, Phanan was talking about some of the best album runs that don't get mentioned as much; I think Billy Joel's six-album run from Turnstiles in 1976 to An Innocent Man in 1983 deserves a mention. We don't talk about him much here, and I think at least one of you is actively not a fan, but I think he's one of the great songwriters ever, and this is his classic period.

Turnstiles(1976)
The Stranger(1977)
52nd Street(1978)
Glass Houses(1980)
The Nylon Curtain(1982)
An Innocent Man(1983)

While I think Turnstiles, The Stranger, and Glass Houses are bona fide classics, 52nd Street, The Nylon Curtain, and An Innocent Man each have a few tracks that I could do without, so I don't feel as strongly about this run as you do. It's a very good run, no doubt, but not an all-timer.
 
I'm over a week late here, but I've been meaning to comment on the Stevie Wonder talk a few days ago, and I'm glad that some attention was drawn to a couple of the albums outside the "big 4". But I guess I have a bit of a contrarian opinion in that, while I have all these albums from his peak era and enjoy the hell out of them, I do think it's a bit damning that his creative well dried up so quickly and never really returned. And it's baffling in that he was a legitimate genius who, like Prince, could sing and write so well, and play a multitude of instruments, a one-man music factory.

The difference is that Prince did this across 5 decades, whereas Stevie's classic album run lasted less than 10 years. So there's a reason why he might be "underrated" and it's because he didn't really have much staying power. I guess one could say the same of Brian Wilson, but he has the excuse of a mental breakdown.

Even if we just judged Prince on his first 10 years, compared to Wonder's run from 1970 to 1980, you're looking at:

For You
Prince
Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Purple Rain
Around the World in a Day
Parade
Sign O' The Times + Crystal Ball
(The Black Album)
Lovesexy

Sorry, but even without the 3 Album of the Year Grammys, that blows Wonder out of the water IMO.

And while the consistency and overall quality of Prince's albums may have flagged by the mid-90s and 2000s, and his popularity would fluctuate over the years, he was still cranking out a fuckload of stellar material, year after year after year, and was still going when he died.

Now obviously that's a high standard to hold any other artist to. But even beyond Prince, if we look at other solo legends with long careers, like Dylan, Bowie, Van Morrison, Lou Reed, Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young...hell, even Madonna...they all had their ups and downs and fallow periods, but they all rebounded from them, some numerous times. You didn't see that with Stevie, unless you consider Conversation Peace or A Time To Love notable comebacks, which I don't.

By comparison, he appears more like Sly Stone, who had an explosive run and then fizzled out, never coming close to that level again. Or, to be more fair, Brian Wilson as I mentioned above. Which still is an impressive distinction. But it does put him below these other artists who had a lot more left in the tank and gave us 30+ years of good-to-great music.

Agree with all of this. Stevie definitely hit a wall after Hotter Than July. Or more specifically, after the four new tracks on Original Musiquarium, which range from decent (That Girl) to classic (Ribbon In The Sky). But after that, it's tough to compile even a single CD length of great tracks from him. Really, only Overjoyed and Go Home come to mind, maybe a couple of things from the Jungle Fever soundtrack. And he hasn't nearly released as much either, which makes it even more surprising. Prince may have had some valleys in his career, but with the amount of output he had, that's not surprising. Stevie has released what, six albums after 1982? You'd think with that much time in between he could have put together something substantial. Makes Prince that much more of a wonder.

I blame Ebony & Ivory.
 
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