@f00l yeah, I was going to say that I’ve never actually owned a record player. Next quiz should ask if we’re more likely to someday buy an 8-track tape deck, a mini-disc player or an LP turntable.
I own a bunch of this stuff and think a bunch of it is great.
So I went back to the original q:
Supposed I owned a Thorens table or something. And suppose I had all these in vinyl. Not streaming. LP’s. Old Skool.
What would I get off my butt and get off the shelf and put on the turntable? By hand. Take the record out of the sleeve. Quietly let the needle down.
A action of beauty.
Not using the phone or the tablet. Not from across as the room. Not using some voice activated cloud remote.
@f00l oh hang on a tic. An action of beauty…Is that the Fuschian attic standard we’re aiming for here? Because if that’s the case I’m going to go with U2’s Boy. Like your Sex Pistols pick (about whom I know darn little, but boutique cultivation of soundscapes never seemed like their thing, but that’s between you and me), it’s more appropriate to the vinyl era and I’m more likely to want to have cloistered afternoon absorbing Boy than Flood. Flood is hilarious genius and all, but… Well anyway, I appreciate the chance to reconsider.
If you grew up with vinyl and reel-to-reel, and then went to 8-tracks, cassettes, cd’s, ripped cd’s, downloaded, streamed,and then streamed by spoken command - then you know what I mean, I think.
Each comes with a setting. 8-tracks were for cars. Cassettes were for cars, wearables, boom boxes and decks; you slide the clunky plastic cassette in, press play, go.
Downloaded and ripped music is for software and commands. Then comes the MP3 player, the smartphone, the voice command device.
Each one of these is a step back from the music. Each step forward in technology moves us further from the centrality of the music. It becomes closer to ambient, even if it’s excellent. It’s only rock and roll, and we like it, yes we do, and we code to it, we garden to it, we do surgery to it.
People may have played reel-to-reel stuff for long-form musical ambience to a degree - but they didn’t put records on that way. Records were much more central and personal to the moment. You watched what you were doing as you took them out of the sleeve, put them on a turntable, gently set the needle down. You have to get up and choose on - you knew them by the colors on their narrow spines, they were way too skinny for printed words on the edge.
And because you physically looked at and touched your musical sources in the act of playing playing them, and you had to look through your collection to find stuff, you didn’t forget what you had. No searchable catalogs, and it all takes up space and time and care. So you know what you had and why you loved it.
Even if you had a changer, you didn’t do “playlists”, you selected each records. The exact records you wanted to hear. That’s why it matters that the entire record be good, not 2/3 filler. And something about the turntable is mesmerizing and hypnotic. You focus.
And there is the warmth. And there is the deliberately choosing to listen. Even with a shitty system: shitty speakers, headphones, amps, turntables, everything: the music somehow meant more. Mattered big.
Part of that was youth. Part was vinyl. Part was less competing media and less need to be modern-detached-witty-ironic.
I love U2 and there are a ton of good choices in that list. But what would I play, if I were taking down 1 record?
Once I had someone staying w me who had 1000’s of records of obscure reggae. Never heard of any of the bands except a few big names. But every fucking record was a joy. You could just grab anything. No bad choices.
So
If I had a nice setup and a buncha nice vinyl, Sex Pistols wouldn’t be the only thing I’d play.
Bit of @JasonToon’s list, it would be the first: at least if I didn’t have other people’s preferences to consider.
The title track of “Dare to be Stupid” has some of the most uplifting lyrics of anything I’ve heard:
“Take, some wooden nickels.
Look, for Mr Goodbar.
Get, your mojo working now.
I’ll show you how:
Dare to be stupid.
You’d better squeeze all the Charmin you can
When Mr Whipple’ not around.
Stick your head in the microwave and get yourself a tan…”
@DocBJ I too love Dare to be Stupid. It’s my favorite Weird Al song. His pieces that are in the style of other artists are sublime, much better than his straight up parodies of songs. Too tired to look it up, but his fake Cake song is also wonderful.
@DocBJ
how @Jasontoon picked yoda for the selection from this album over this is… I don’t even know…
heck this was even featured in “Transformers the Movie”(1986)
Of this list, I own A Night at the Opera, Aqualung, Flood, and Tommy. It’s hard to decide between Flood and A Night at the Opera for #1. They are both very important albums to me for very different reasons. Queen was a huge part of my growing up but They Might Be Giants has been my favorite band for almost 30 years. So I’m going to say it depends on my mood.
When I was in high school I had such a crush on TMBG. Went to have my Lincoln tape signed, I couldn’t even speak. Now, I see the Hank and John fan base, it’s the same. Intellectual troubled teens/ young adults. It’s cute, but slightly disturbing.
U2 has had a bigger impact on music. They really changed the landscape with social conscience and music . Not just protest, they added awareness. And they encouraged political participation,
U2’s newer stuff is not great, it’s really messed up their legacy.
@naropa to quote Henry Rollins, “The Clash is the band U2 wishes it could have been”. U2 simply took their torch and jogged on with it a bit. The Clash were the ones who made the impact.
@cjswag
Love em both. Seen both of them live plenty. They do different things tho.
If I had to choose to see the Clash vs U2 I’d go see the Clash every time tho.
I voted Queen because the question was about my Turntable. However, I am just as likely to play Weird Al, TMBG, Queen, or The Who. Jethro Tull less so, but I own the CD.
They’ve been such an important band for me my whole life and while I guess I can’t compare them to the monolith of U2 (although I CAN say their recent offerings are still great which maybe can’t be said for the others on this list ) they’re my number one forever.
They’ve helped me when I was down (I love Join Us Because it came out when I was working at a job I hated and it was huge comfort), I’ve loved them since I was a kid.
They helped me get out of credit card debt even (when I sold a design to them for a limitied run t shirt last year)
I’ve seen them live 5 times and it’s always like going to see an old friend.
Doesn’t matter if you’ve been listening a lot lately- you can always pick right back up where you left off, they’re always a comfort, but they never stop suprising you either.
TOON! DUDE! Why ya’ hatin’ on Tull?
The Guitar lead-in to Locomotive Breath alone ought to give this album at least a 9 out of 10.
Usually love yer stuff but lost 1/2 of whatever respect I used to have for ya’.
Sorry bro’ but ya’ got this one totally wrong.
@OldFart I agree. Locomotive Breath is a great song. I’ve owned Aqualung on 8-track & LP. I still have the LP…
I also own Rock Opera Tommy LP, the only other LP I own on the list.
I taped Weird Al onto my kids video tape. So it goes kids playing, weird al video, kids playing. Why? I figured he would be long gone when they grew up and it was so funny. Now it is 30 something years later, and he is going strong! We met him at the first video store opening in our neighborhood! He was the guest star! A really nice guy! I swear, if his manager wasn’t with him, he would have come home with us for coffee!
Yup! I too saw TMBG on the Flood tour in San Fransisco. I was a college radio DJ and went with a couple of other DJs and the music director. We talked security into letting us back stage after the show and ended up hanging out with John Linnell for over an hour just talking music. I still have that autographed Flood album cover. My #1 concert experience ever.
A surprisingly not-obscure list this time! I think I technically have over half the list on vinyl. Kerplunk! is the most listened to of the lot, though (regardless of format).
Liquid swords is my top album of all time.
No turntable now. But a buncha good stuff on that list.
@f00l yeah, I was going to say that I’ve never actually owned a record player. Next quiz should ask if we’re more likely to someday buy an 8-track tape deck, a mini-disc player or an LP turntable.
@f00l omg, wait! I had one of these:
Not sure if TMBG has a version of Flood in this format, tho.
@UncleVinny
I own a bunch of this stuff and think a bunch of it is great.
So I went back to the original q:
Supposed I owned a Thorens table or something. And suppose I had all these in vinyl. Not streaming. LP’s. Old Skool.
What would I get off my butt and get off the shelf and put on the turntable? By hand. Take the record out of the sleeve. Quietly let the needle down.
A action of beauty.
Not using the phone or the tablet. Not from across as the room. Not using some voice activated cloud remote.
Which one?
Ok, now it’s easy.
Sex Pistols.
Damn I wish I’d seen 'em live.
@f00l oh hang on a tic. An action of beauty…Is that the Fuschian attic standard we’re aiming for here? Because if that’s the case I’m going to go with U2’s Boy. Like your Sex Pistols pick (about whom I know darn little, but boutique cultivation of soundscapes never seemed like their thing, but that’s between you and me), it’s more appropriate to the vinyl era and I’m more likely to want to have cloistered afternoon absorbing Boy than Flood. Flood is hilarious genius and all, but… Well anyway, I appreciate the chance to reconsider.
@UncleVinny
Attics, huh?
If you grew up with vinyl and reel-to-reel, and then went to 8-tracks, cassettes, cd’s, ripped cd’s, downloaded, streamed,and then streamed by spoken command - then you know what I mean, I think.
Each comes with a setting. 8-tracks were for cars. Cassettes were for cars, wearables, boom boxes and decks; you slide the clunky plastic cassette in, press play, go.
Downloaded and ripped music is for software and commands. Then comes the MP3 player, the smartphone, the voice command device.
Each one of these is a step back from the music. Each step forward in technology moves us further from the centrality of the music. It becomes closer to ambient, even if it’s excellent. It’s only rock and roll, and we like it, yes we do, and we code to it, we garden to it, we do surgery to it.
People may have played reel-to-reel stuff for long-form musical ambience to a degree - but they didn’t put records on that way. Records were much more central and personal to the moment. You watched what you were doing as you took them out of the sleeve, put them on a turntable, gently set the needle down. You have to get up and choose on - you knew them by the colors on their narrow spines, they were way too skinny for printed words on the edge.
And because you physically looked at and touched your musical sources in the act of playing playing them, and you had to look through your collection to find stuff, you didn’t forget what you had. No searchable catalogs, and it all takes up space and time and care. So you know what you had and why you loved it.
Even if you had a changer, you didn’t do “playlists”, you selected each records. The exact records you wanted to hear. That’s why it matters that the entire record be good, not 2/3 filler. And something about the turntable is mesmerizing and hypnotic. You focus.
And there is the warmth. And there is the deliberately choosing to listen. Even with a shitty system: shitty speakers, headphones, amps, turntables, everything: the music somehow meant more. Mattered big.
Part of that was youth. Part was vinyl. Part was less competing media and less need to be modern-detached-witty-ironic.
I love U2 and there are a ton of good choices in that list. But what would I play, if I were taking down 1 record?
Once I had someone staying w me who had 1000’s of records of obscure reggae. Never heard of any of the bands except a few big names. But every fucking record was a joy. You could just grab anything. No bad choices.
So
If I had a nice setup and a buncha nice vinyl, Sex Pistols wouldn’t be the only thing I’d play.
Bit of @JasonToon’s list, it would be the first: at least if I didn’t have other people’s preferences to consider.
A Night at the Opera is the lone CD in my car right now, for when I drive out in the woods, beyond reach of radio stations, and my phone dies.
Nothing against the others, because there’s a lot of good music in that list. But the only one I’ve actually purchased is Weird Al’s.
The title track of “Dare to be Stupid” has some of the most uplifting lyrics of anything I’ve heard:
“Take, some wooden nickels.
Look, for Mr Goodbar.
Get, your mojo working now.
I’ll show you how:
Dare to be stupid.
You’d better squeeze all the Charmin you can
When Mr Whipple’ not around.
Stick your head in the microwave and get yourself a tan…”
Man, they don’t write songs like that anymore…
@DocBJ I too love Dare to be Stupid. It’s my favorite Weird Al song. His pieces that are in the style of other artists are sublime, much better than his straight up parodies of songs. Too tired to look it up, but his fake Cake song is also wonderful.
@DocBJ
how @Jasontoon picked yoda for the selection from this album over this is… I don’t even know…
heck this was even featured in “Transformers the Movie”(1986)
@Fuzzalini by "fake Cake Song"
do you mean “Close, But No Cigar” :
video animated by John Kricfalusi, of Ren & Stimpy fame.
@earlyre Yes! That’s it. I’ve never seen that video. I love John K. too. That was sweet.
Of this list, I own A Night at the Opera, Aqualung, Flood, and Tommy. It’s hard to decide between Flood and A Night at the Opera for #1. They are both very important albums to me for very different reasons. Queen was a huge part of my growing up but They Might Be Giants has been my favorite band for almost 30 years. So I’m going to say it depends on my mood.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060614083844AAyxBp5
When I was in high school I had such a crush on TMBG. Went to have my Lincoln tape signed, I couldn’t even speak. Now, I see the Hank and John fan base, it’s the same. Intellectual troubled teens/ young adults. It’s cute, but slightly disturbing.
U2 has had a bigger impact on music. They really changed the landscape with social conscience and music . Not just protest, they added awareness. And they encouraged political participation,
U2’s newer stuff is not great, it’s really messed up their legacy.
@naropa to quote Henry Rollins, “The Clash is the band U2 wishes it could have been”. U2 simply took their torch and jogged on with it a bit. The Clash were the ones who made the impact.
@cjswag
Love em both. Seen both of them live plenty. They do different things tho.
If I had to choose to see the Clash vs U2 I’d go see the Clash every time tho.
I voted Queen because the question was about my Turntable. However, I am just as likely to play Weird Al, TMBG, Queen, or The Who. Jethro Tull less so, but I own the CD.
None of the above! My choice for slow burn big seller is “Give Up” by The Postal Service.
@melonscoop that’s a pretty good choice!
@linnry I remember when they went platinum because the band reunited and played on the Colbert Report.
Tmbg now and forever.
They’ve been such an important band for me my whole life and while I guess I can’t compare them to the monolith of U2 (although I CAN say their recent offerings are still great which maybe can’t be said for the others on this list ) they’re my number one forever.
They’ve helped me when I was down (I love Join Us Because it came out when I was working at a job I hated and it was huge comfort), I’ve loved them since I was a kid.
They helped me get out of credit card debt even (when I sold a design to them for a limitied run t shirt last year)
I’ve seen them live 5 times and it’s always like going to see an old friend.
Doesn’t matter if you’ve been listening a lot lately- you can always pick right back up where you left off, they’re always a comfort, but they never stop suprising you either.
Anyway. Yeah.
@linnry Plus, Twisting name-drops both the dBs and Young Fresh Fellows
Personally, I will always have a soft spot for Birdhouse in Your Soul.
@brendles Twistin’ is one of my favorites. Bitter and so dance-y still. A true Flansburgh pop banger.
Does Weird Al on an iPod count? I like to sing along as I drive.
TOON! DUDE! Why ya’ hatin’ on Tull?
The Guitar lead-in to Locomotive Breath alone ought to give this album at least a 9 out of 10.
Usually love yer stuff but lost 1/2 of whatever respect I used to have for ya’.
Sorry bro’ but ya’ got this one totally wrong.
@OldFart I agree. Locomotive Breath is a great song. I’ve owned Aqualung on 8-track & LP. I still have the LP…
I also own Rock Opera Tommy LP, the only other LP I own on the list.
I taped Weird Al onto my kids video tape. So it goes kids playing, weird al video, kids playing. Why? I figured he would be long gone when they grew up and it was so funny. Now it is 30 something years later, and he is going strong! We met him at the first video store opening in our neighborhood! He was the guest star! A really nice guy! I swear, if his manager wasn’t with him, he would have come home with us for coffee!
When we met, we talked about this .
I have none of these on vinyl, oddly enough, but I do have Flood on CD.
Yup! I too saw TMBG on the Flood tour in San Fransisco. I was a college radio DJ and went with a couple of other DJs and the music director. We talked security into letting us back stage after the show and ended up hanging out with John Linnell for over an hour just talking music. I still have that autographed Flood album cover. My #1 concert experience ever.
None, because I don’t have a turn table.
I’ll pick Jethro Tull because I’ve actually held that record in my hands.
A surprisingly not-obscure list this time! I think I technically have over half the list on vinyl. Kerplunk! is the most listened to of the lot, though (regardless of format).