TS: the Eagles reconsidered VS the death of rock criticism

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courtesy of Idolator here's a link to a NY magazine-sponsored "blog" about best-selling 70s rock band the Eagles. Since I've been rediscovering country-rock of late I gave this a read, figuring my lifelong aversion to Henley/Frey LLC could be dissipated if not reversed by a well-reasoned restatement of this band's enduring appeal.

WRONG.

instead here's a capsule summary of everything bogus about current music writing -- the smug insiders tone, the insistence on superficiality, the knee-slapping joeks. "Oh yeah Don Henley's 'fro' is cool/ironic/funnylooking so ya gotta love those Eagles..." whaetver

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/why_the_eagles_are_the_best_ba.html

discus

― m coleman, Friday, 11 May 2007 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

It's reminiscent of that Casper Lllewlyn-Smith piece on Prince that was linked to on here the other day, insofar as it goes to show that getting Proper Journalists to write blog-style is an even dumber idea than asking bloggers to do full-scale print articles.

― Dom Passantino, Friday, 11 May 2007 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

The list schemata put me off reading it straight off.

Properly constructed, coherent, well-argued music writing reguired generally, urgent and key.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

Well, it seems the "rockist haters" on ILM aren't ready to quite rehabilitate The Eagles yet. I guess, mainly because they hate anything that appeals mostly to grownups.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:02 (nineteen years ago)

I'm very happy to rehabilitate the Eagles Geir! Actually I never dehabilitated them in the first place, being a Brit I only know "Hotel California".

― Groke, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

See, Tom, an article by you on the Eagles would be about 8 million times more readable.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

Well, it seems the "rockist haters" on ILM aren't ready to quite rehabilitate The Eagles yet. I guess, mainly because they hate anything that appeals mostly to grownups.

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:02 (19 minutes ago)

This is the single most asinine, contemptuous lack of even pretending to read anything any of the previous posters contributed I've ever seen.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

i've always loved the eagles. i've never understood the hate.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:30 (nineteen years ago)

Really, Geir, ring the authorities in Majorca and take the kid back. You'll get a fair trial.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

I really am sick and tired of these list "articles."

― QuantumNoise, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:38 (nineteen years ago)

the list was compiled in response to an article on radar, wherein New York mag is compared to the Eagles, i.e. "a technically flawless assemblage of expertly crafted elements that look, on paper (as it were), as though they ought to translate into a superb magazine, and yet somehow still manage to suck."

http://www.radaronline.com/features/2007/05/adam_moss_new_york_magazine_1.php

― Veronica Moser, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

guess I feel dumb for not knowing about that ^^ but it sorta proves my point about the inside-dopesters. soooo maybe this was a parody? I can be overly earnest at times, wouldn't be the first time I missed the pt.

― m coleman, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

i don't think it's so bad. is it really that smug? i mean, the tone is just generic rockfan dude. speaking of which, i actually kinda liked klosterman's piece on rush/spirit of radio in this month's esquire. it's that kinda tone. "why do they rule? dude, it's RUSH. Neil motherfuckin' Peart! By-Tor & The Friggin' Snow Dog! Say no more."

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

Heard "Hotel California" on the radio the other day and was very impressed with the bass playing on it.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

yeah "HC" isn't so terrible

― m coleman, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

It is when it's played 40 million times a day on the radio, OK I know, I don't have to listen to the radio, but still &c.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

"Hotel California" may have been played 40 million times a day on the radio in 1977, but not today.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

26. They ripped off Ian Matthews incessantly.

― QuantumNoise, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

It is played 40 million times a day on Radio 2, Heart FM, Magic FM, Capital Gold and Virgin Radio, all of which are radio stations in Britain, which is another country.

Were you unaware that there were other countries on this planet, apart from Spain?

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

The Eagles are the shit. OOooh, withcy woman!11111111111!!11

― jim, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

In fact the whole first album is pretty great. Most of us are sad is the amazeo. A song called Chug all night! What could be better?

― jim, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:25 (nineteen years ago)

i just feel like the eagles are a slippery slope from which there is no crawling out of

― strongohulkington, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:35 (nineteen years ago)

Oldie stations don't play the same oldie several times a day. Besides, why would you listen to Radio 2 when they aim their policy at an audience obviously different from your musical taste?

(Well, OK, I guess you're just jealous because Radio 2 has become more important than Radio 1 lately when it comes to actual album sales)

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

the Eagles had about 4 good songs and Joe Walsh. Other than that, fuck em.

I guess they signify something, but I think it's weird that people who weren't even alive when they were HUGE still use them as whipping boy for bloated, ego-driven AOR.

― will, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

Oldie stations don't play the same oldie several times a day.

WELCOME TO AMERICA MORK

NANOO NANOO

― David R., Friday, 11 May 2007 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

'course, as Marcello said, they do still get played A LOT, which can be right annoying. Especially when so much of it is so mediocre.

― will, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

it being Eagles' songs.

― will, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

i just feel like the eagles are a slippery slope from which there is no crawling out of

Everyone get that man the drink of his choice, as no truer words etc.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:01 (nineteen years ago)

I just heard "I Can't Tell You Why" at the cafeteria! My eyebrows were singed.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

the Eagles had about 4 good songs and Joe Walsh. Other than that, fuck em.

They started out by releasing two constantly excellent albums. Then the quality dropped, but the vocal harmonies were still excellent and they were sometimes able to come up with wonderful harmony-pop gems such as "Lyin' Eyes"

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

jealous = the new godwins

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

awesome harmonies=do not a good song make

― Mr. Que, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

and the only reason the Eagles seem to be liked by "adults" now: as teenagers those adults listened to the Eagles instead of Dylan???

― Mr. Que, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

in the u.s. anyway, they have always been soooooooooooo huge, it's kinda hard to stereotype a fan. country fans LOVE the eagles. in the 70's they were as ubiqitous as linda ronstadt, fleetwood mac, jackson browne, steely dan, etc. all the people who fit pop AND rock radio formats.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, for 85% of the country they are the perfect band

― gff, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

ahhh that is pretty true.

― Mr. Que, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

though they came from that shaggy L.A. cowboy and drugz atmosphere, they became something much more uber-amerikaner.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

like fleetwood mac, they have always had a pretty even male/female audience too.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

i bet if you woke me up in the middle of the night and made me do "hotel california" karaoke, i'd do pretty good, and i don't like the eagles! kind of amazing to think about, as songwriting/production/sustained cultural terrorism etc

― gff, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

all the clean-cut kids at my high school dug the eagles. jackson browne was a girls thing, though. remember frye boots? nah you're too young.

― m coleman, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

though they came from that shaggy L.A. cowboy and drugz atmosphere, they became something much more uber-amerikaner.

plus, they embody the whole from-the-midwest-to-california/transplant thing.

― QuantumNoise, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.fryeboots.com/subpages/images/87385BLK.jpg

Frye Boots still alive and kicking

― will, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

i dug the eagles when i was a kid in the 70's. and my dad had frye boots, but not me.

you were golden if you could get the girls AND the guys to buy your records. both my sister and my brother loved queen. for different reasons.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

that LA cowboy thing seemed phony in the 70s but I can sorta see it now. always hated how jock-y the eagles looked, tho, wearing football jerseys on stage and shit GET SOME PLATFORM SHOES & MAKEUP YA FAGZ

― m coleman, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

i think i'm just brainwashed from birth. i have an infinite capacity for eagles/steve miller rock radio.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, well that's the thing, they BECAME that sorta arena-rock mid-west fantasy cliche after their initial arrival.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

i really wanted to go see linda ronstadt and the eagles at the yale bowl when i was a kid.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

GET SOME PLATFORM SHOES & MAKEUP YA FAGZ

:D

― will, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

but even after they became bloated coke-faces i liked them. i can't deny that heartache tonight big beat.

― scott seward, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

Although they deny they ripped it entirely off "Never Let Her Slip Away" by Andrew Gold.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:12 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 141 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

And in North Africa. Other than that, Africans and Native Americans didn't have a word for music, they were just dancing. And dance isn't music. Music was invented by a bunch of maths experts in ancient Greece, and then spread to most of Asia and Europe.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

"Other than that, Africans and Native Americans didn't have a word for music, they were just dancing. And dance isn't music."

OMG, read a book!

― scott seward, Monday, 14 May 2007 01:56 (nineteen years ago)

Music was invented when the Asiatic branch of early Homo Sapiens interbred with a now-extinct race of Yeti. I mean come on, people.

― Jon Lewis, Monday, 14 May 2007 02:05 (nineteen years ago)

i don't accept any definition of music written after mankind started banging on trees with rocks. Humming, whistling, and various glottal "clicks" are the only REAL music.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Monday, 14 May 2007 02:49 (nineteen years ago)

x-post

In the latest Entertainment Weekly a writer named Chris Nashawaty in his review of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky says about Jeff Tweedy, "he sounds like a bicentennial-era Don Henley--raspy, rich and right in the happy zone. This may be the best Eagles album the Eagles never made." A-

― curmudgeon, Monday, 14 May 2007 02:57 (nineteen years ago)

hey geir, do you ever listen to any recorded audio that isn't music per se, but that you find pleasure in hearing? do you choose to listen to it or do others play the recordings for you?

― lfam, Monday, 14 May 2007 03:14 (nineteen years ago)

Uh, Native Americans have a very old song tradition. SONGS. i.e., things that are sung. have melodies.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 14 May 2007 03:41 (nineteen years ago)

that's why i told him to read a book. tribes used music for ALL kinds of stuff. healing, rituals, history, etc. and the melodic and harmonic elements could be EXTREMELY complex. DANCING? that's the shit that gives geir a bad name. got me mad, and i don't give a shit about nothing.

― scott seward, Monday, 14 May 2007 03:47 (nineteen years ago)

getting mad at someone who thinks that the greeks brought music to asia is pretty silly though.

― scott seward, Monday, 14 May 2007 03:54 (nineteen years ago)

One reason the Eagles are resented is because they were a counter cultural archetype from the 1960s (the long-haired, debauched rock and roll band) who made a complete jump to the mainstream and were ridiculously popular, yet they were not really part of the counter culture. On the contrary, they took an element of the counter culture and forever took the edge off of it.

They're the Pat Boone of 1970s rock and roll. They made something previously considered dangerous safer for church-going white kids, and for that they'll be hated (or at least until the inevitable time when the general public starts liking them ironically, at which point hipster and critical favor will swing and they'll be revised).

― Cunga, Monday, 14 May 2007 04:46 (nineteen years ago)

Popular rock and roll was dangerous in late 70s America and the Eagles made it safe? I don't think so. Cunga you're exaggerating a bit I'd say in your comparison of them to Pat Boone. The Eagles were one of many bands that dominated album rock radio at that time.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 14 May 2007 04:58 (nineteen years ago)

Well it wasn't the late 70s when they started having hits and I wouldn't say that it was so much about them making it happen so much as them being in the right place at the right time. I'd think that at the beginning of the early 70s, when sixties counter culture was entering the mainstream, that there was a door left open for a big rock band to sort of "normalize" previously stigmatized trends by marrying those trends with more traditional forms of pop. The Eagles sort of fit that bill in my opinion.

There's also this factor:

yeah, for 85% of the country they are the perfect band

Epitomizing mainstream taste = instant death for most

― Cunga, Monday, 14 May 2007 06:25 (nineteen years ago)

hey geir, do you ever listen to any recorded audio that isn't music per se, but that you find pleasure in hearing?

I don't know. Orbital and 2 Pac are obviously music as both have a lot of melodic and harmonic elements. Same about most of the rest of the electronica I actually like.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 09:57 (nineteen years ago)

that's why i told him to read a book. tribes used music for ALL kinds of stuff. healing, rituals, history, etc.

But never for just sitting down and listening to it. And they didn't have a word for it either (the link above even states they still haven't, which is kind of weird considering they have been exposed to music for hundreds of years now)

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 10:00 (nineteen years ago)

There are lots of cultures with no specific word for "music." Not sure what your point is - they nevertheless had music and used it. "Sitting down and listening to it" is one use for music.

No harmony, no music.

Ergo, traditional middle eastern music is not music, indian classical music is not music, gamelan is not music, etc.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

Of course not, since none of them is composed or performed by white Europeans!

I've been struggling to establish the point of Geir for the last six years, so you're not alone in that respect.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

some of Geir's points are interesting sometimes if you break them down a little but I mean the Greek understanding of music (they're the ones who coined the word, after all) was 1) not about "sitting down and listening," which is a pretty intensely European concept as far as I know and 2) very intensely rooted in rhythm and dance. So the whole "definition of music" schtick can't survive closer scrutiny; one should rather say "I have a limited definition of what constitutes music, and it's rooted in the growth of the European musical tradition." To insist that the word itself is somehow static, or bears a particular non-dance-connected meaning rooted in its own etymology, is either ignorant or disingenuous.

Dance is music - music is there for people to dance to, really, and was throughout the classical age as well; it's only around the rise of the romantics that the two become separable in the public imagination, and then only with a small segment of the public. For the most part, music has always been about dance; anything outside of that framework is an interesting development for sure but certainly not "the definition of music" nor any such nonsense.

― J0hn D., Monday, 14 May 2007 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

can I just abuse the word "intensely" some more here, thanks

intensely intensely intensely

― J0hn D., Monday, 14 May 2007 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

Anybody remember that Poco "comeback" record in 1989 (for which Richard Marx wrote and produced a couple of numbers)?

Y'know, Furay recently came out of retirement (he's a minister), because he thought Poco were getting overlooked in the who-invented-country-rock sweepstakes (which is such an overcooked debate, isn't it?) Anyway, I saw him at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festical last summer and man oh man, he fucking rocked. His band was super sweet.

― QuantumNoise, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Don't forget that Poco is also Ornette Coleman's all-time favourite rock band!

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

The guitar solo in "Hotel California" is great. Melodic and nice.

funny story about that. joe walsh and whoever the other guitarist was (don felder?) were in the studio listening to the playback of the solo they'd just recorded. don henley comes in, listens for a while, and says, "this is shit! we are not releasing a record with that solo on it! what the fuck are you guys playing?!" and DEMANDED they record a new solo. henley went off to get stoned, walsh and felder sat around NOT recording a new solo. henley came back, heard the exact same solo again and said, "oh man, that is SUCH an improvement! you guys really got your shit together!"

― Lawrence the Looter, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:43 (nineteen years ago)

whatever anybody says about the eagles, their anecdotes rule. what book is the best bio????

― QuantumNoise, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

the book I cited above, Marc Elliot's Take It To the Limit, is poorly written, contains numerous howler-prompting errors, and is cowardly with respect to the teenage prosititute OD matter. But its still the Eagles bio of record. Has lotsa good anecdotes, and Henley, who is deferred to by Eliott to the extent that some of the other Eagles reminiscences are not included, nonetheless absolutely despises it.

― Veronica Moser, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Dance is music - music is there for people to dance to, really, and was throughout the classical age as well; it's only around the rise of the romantics that the two become separable in the public imagination, and then only with a small segment of the public.

Except there were several centuries in the medieval/renaissance eras where all the hot action was in religious music, both avant garde and conservative. Some of the craziest + most intricate Masses (like Ockeghem's) from that time took their basic thematic material from popular songs but what was done with it was very un-dance.

Though I guess a view of the music of those centuries is naturally biased to the stuff that survived in written form-- who knows what innovations were going on with no one transcribing them.

Anyway, just saying (or bloviating, sorry if so) that there had already been vanguards in Euro music divorcing themselves from the dance long before some of the Romantics went there.

― Jon Lewis, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

Don't forget that Poco is also Ornette Coleman's all-time favourite rock band!

Is this for real Marcello?? (I suspect that your use of the exclamation point means you're being sincere, but I'm never entirely sure...)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

...but didn't Ockeghem work with Henley on "All She Wants to Do is Dance"?

― QuantumNoise, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

No, you're confused, it was Josquin Des Prez, and he played the synth hook on Dirty Laundry. That whole LP features a crack team of Antwerp session hitters.

Ockeghem produced a couple of Windbreakers albums in the late 80's though.

― Jon Lewis, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

should challenge geir's statement about africa, too. there's the possibility that some melodic instruments (the xylophone and some string instruments) found throughout the continent do originate with asian influence, but i've never heard anyone say that the whole concept of melody in african music comes from outside.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 14 May 2007 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I would think that because of the natural harmonic series just about any civilization would be likely to discover melody for themselves (or be discovered by it if you like).

Whether they theorize the idea and make pictures of cosmic dulcimers or not.

― Jon Lewis, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:04 (nineteen years ago)

they didn't have a word for it either (the link above even states they still haven't, which is kind of weird considering they have been exposed to music for hundreds of years now)

they were exposed to cholera, too.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

Dance is music - music is there for people to dance to, really

Music is there for lots and lots of purposes, out of which dancing is just a small and extremely unimportant part. The most important purpose is the use that is music in itself as a geniune intellectual process.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

Except there were several centuries in the medieval/renaissance eras where all the hot action was in religious music, both avant garde and conservative.

In fact it isn't unlikely that the instrumental music that existed alongside the vocal music of the medieval era was meant for dancing.

In the renaissance there was also instrumental, non-religious music, but as much of it was silent and moody solo guitar music it probably didn't fit dancing very well.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Geir Hongro, hardcore Platonist

also roflz @ "silent" music (esp coming from somone who hates John Cage, doesn't consider him "music" etc)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

Ergo, traditional middle eastern music is not music, indian classical music is not music, gamelan is not music, etc.

There is a sense of harmony in Indian and Middle Eastern music, even though less complex than in European music (on the other hand, the melodies are more complex)

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:56 (nineteen years ago)

Music is there for lots and lots of purposes, out of which dancing is just a small and extremely unimportant part. The most important purpose is the use that is music in itself as a geniune intellectual process.

You should tour the world and convert those savages to Christianity. That would be a perfect job for you.

― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:19 (nineteen years ago)

I keep clicking on this thread and remembering while it's loading that it's another Hongro coconut shy.

― Groke, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

the massive amount of made-up shit that geir relies on to make points is mind boggling

― deej, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

Don't forget that Poco is also Ornette Coleman's all-time favourite rock band!

WAHT?

― J, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

Geir Hongro, hardcore Platonist

I just pictured Geir with a Lil' Jon grill in a toga. ROFFLES.

"The overseers must . . . . must throughout be watchful against innovations in music and gymnastics counter to the established order, and to the best of their power guard against them, fearing when anyone says that that song is most regarded among men 'which hovers newest on the singer’s lips' [Odyssey i. 351], lest it be supposed that the poet means not new songs but a new way of song and is commending this. But we must not praise that sort of thing nor conceive it to be the poet’s meaning. For a change to a new type of music is something to beware of as a hazard of all our fortunes. For the modes of music are never disturbed without unsettling of the most fundamental political and social conventions."

Republic 424b-c

― J, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

dancing=rhythm--some say the latter's a big part of the musical experience. I wouldn't know because I always sit down and just watch the pretty girls out on the floor. y'know, Eagles' "The Long Run" has sort of a catchy guitar hook but it works mainly as a stop-start, er, dance number, not that I'd ever dance to it because I'm too busy thinking all the time.

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

as for that Plato quote--I mean Athens, Greece was what, about as big as Dickson, Tennessee or something? there might be a few more "modes" not to mention "social orders" these days and perhaps have been for a while; the Plato quote has good sense to it, in a way, but it's just elitist and we all know how American that is. if making people feel good and dance upsets a social order, how healthy can that order have been?

― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

maybe geir is an alias for guiliani.

― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

I think that quote demonstrates that Plato was full of shit w/r/t music. That's why I posted it!

― J, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:36 (nineteen years ago)

if making people feel good and dance upsets a social order, how healthy can that order have been?

Cut footloose!!!

― Jon Lewis, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

my jaw is on the fucking floor.

geir's view of african music:
http://themot.org/gallery/d/62121-2/cannibals.gif

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

really, there's just so much that's so wrong with what geir's saying that i'm rendered speechless.

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

nearly....

if anyone is on the facebook and would like to join a group i've been part of for a bit, here is the link to "The Eagles: Worst Band Ever" group. http://oberlin.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2200142124.

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

Someone set up a Geir Hongro faecbook group.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

There is a sense of harmony in Indian and Middle Eastern music, even though less complex than in European music

Indian classical music has a drone. The tamboura has the equivalent of the tonic and the fifth in the Western scale. Having that omnipresent drone doesn't conform to the Western musicological definition of "harmony." Traditional Middle Eastern music is monophonic - even with ensembles, it's everyone playing the same melody (with maybe the bass playing fewer notes). So no, that's not "harmony" at all.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

Someone set up a Geir Hongro faecbook group.

-- Dom Passantino, Tuesday, May 15, 2007 10:10 AM (1 hour ago)

yes plz

― deej, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 16:36 (nineteen years ago)

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