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Hellbent

Discovering classic music and artists retroactively--a unique experience

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It's odd to now take interest in many of the music legends of the 60s and 70s while when growing up I couldn't care less about them. Recently I've been looking for music to play at work (outdoor house painting) and I decided old folk and rock would fit the bill since my boss probably doesn't want to listen to Lady Gaga or Modest Mouse. Plus, at work I like to hum and make up folk-like songs--it makes passing the time pushing a paintbrush... dare I say.. fun! Well, in response to my humming and random singing at work my boss picked up an old guitar with two broken strings at a house we were painting (a rare indoor job--he usually only takes outdoor work in the summer, but there's been so much rain) and suddenly started playing and singing "Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan. This sudden and full-hearted (if half-serious) albeit very short performance made my day and put me in a very bubbly mood and I started hankering for Bob Dylan. The next day I got his daughter (a friend of mine) to lend me a Bob Dylan tape she has of his greatest hits and put it into the tape player at work. The tape started playing and I was in heaven when 30 seconds into the first song the tape player ate the tape. So I went on eBay and bought a two tape greatest hits of Dylan for $4 (free shipping) and some Arlo and Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger tapes which have yet to arrive. Over the weekend I picked up a tape of the Greatest Hits of the Beatles for $0.50 at a tag sale and listened to that at work today. I also downloaded a bunch of 1930's MP3s so hopefully I'll be able to find a working CD player to bring to work and burn those for work as well.

Today at work a song came into my head and I was trying to work out what it was since I wanted to look it up online and download it. I just now figured out what it was. To give you an idea of the level of interest I've taken (up until now) in the classic hits and the artists who sung them, it took me a few minutes to figure out what the song was based on my memory of it. My Google search went something like this: bandanna lyrics folk song. I eventually figured out the song: "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin. Since I have been taking interest in classic artists of late I decided to Google Janis Joplin only to discover that she is dead! I was struck by this.. the same way many were struck by the death of MJ. And then I learned she died at only 27 years old which saddened me even more! It's odd to realize someone is dead 40 years after the fact and then to be suddenly saddened by their death so many years after the fact! o_O I didn't know what she looked like either, so I googled images of her and it only made me more sad to see such cute/sweet pics of her. :( Anyway, random blog of sorts, but felt like sharing my unique experience of retrospection into classic artists I've always just taken for granted and never given a second thought to or appreciated. I didn't even know Janis Joplin was dead! I honestly thought she was still alive and for all I knew... making records.

Finally recognizing the problems in her life, Janis quit her drug use. She formed a third band, called Full Tilt Boogie Band, which evolved more professional popular sound. Janis felt she'd finally found her unique style of white blues. She was never happier with her new music. While recording her next album "Pearl," she chanced into using heroin again. Obtaining a dose more pure than usual, she accidentally overdosed in a motel in Los Angeles at the age of 27. Her third album was released posthumously to wide acclaim, launching the popular songs "Me and Bobby McGee" and Mercedes Benz."

http://www.officialjanis.com/bio2.html

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A good number of years ago now, I had a summer job when I was a student and I saw a full page advert for a 1950s Rock'n'Roll collection in a news paper that I was reading during my break. I don't know why but I sent away for it. That got me started me on a voyage which led me to discover many artists that were "before my time" and it is that thread which has kept me interested in music past, present and future from artists that I would both naturally be exposed to and those that I have to spend a bit more effort seeking out.

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Uh. I thought Janis Joplin overdosing was fairly common knowledge. How old are you? I'm 22. What's your excuse? :P

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Nomad said:

Uh. I thought Janis Joplin overdosing was fairly common knowledge. How old are you? I'm 22. What's your excuse? :P

it is common knowledge--that's part of the point of me making this post--just how out of touch I am with that era.... But, yeah, I have no excuse. I'm 29.

Enjay said:

A good number of years ago now, I had a summer job when I was a student and I saw a full page advert for a 1950s Rock'n'Roll collection in a news paper that I was reading during my break. I don't know why but I sent away for it. That got me started me on a voyage which led me to discover many artists that were "before my time" and it is that thread which has kept me interested in music past, present and future from artists that I would both naturally be exposed to and those that I have to spend a bit more effort seeking out.

Cool Enjay, which ones are among your faves?

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Jim Morrison died in Paris, France on July 3, 1971, in his bathtub at the age of 27; many fans and biographers have speculated that the cause of death was a drug overdose, or possibly an assassination by American government authorities. Morrison remarked several times near his death that he was "number 3". Referring to himself as likely to be the third person to die mysteriously; Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin being the first two. The official report listed "heart attack" as the cause of death. Morrison is buried in the famous Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in eastern Paris: because his fans there are generally perceived as nuisances, leaving litter and graffiti behind them, it has been suggested that a new burial site will have to be found.

http://home.att.net/~chuckayoub/Jim_Morrison_biography.html

Before Iraq, before the Bush Administration, before the Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, and Pearl Jam … there was John Lennon, the celebrated musical artist who used his fame and his fortune to protest the Vietnam War and advocate for world peace. In the new Lionsgate and VH1 documentary, THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON, filmmakers David Leaf and John Scheinfeld trace Lennon’s metamorphosis from lovable “Moptop” to anti-war activist to inspirational icon as they reveal the true story of how and why the U.S. government tried to silence him.

http://beatlesnumber9.com/usvjohnlennon.html

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Technician said:

So you also assumed John Lennon and Jim Morrison was alive as well?

hehe, no no. Just Janis.

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Heh, having grown up with this kind of music, I find it kind of odd and amusing that someone could know so little about classic rock and the like. I like a pretty wide variety of music, but truth be told, the only music station around here I can stand is the classic rock one. Anyway, I shall leave you with a few of my classic rock favorites...

The singer here isn't their normal lead singer. He only sang a few songs on their first album, this not being one of them. Donald Fagen didn't think he had a good enough voice when starting out, which may be right from a musical standpoint, but his tone really matches his lyrics. Now the trick with this video is trying to spot the actual songwriters. Fagen should be easy enough, but Walter Becker is a bit harder to catch.



Here's something from good old Woodstock.


And here's something you won't hear on the radio. He's really well known amongst music enthusiasts, but is seriously one of the most underrated musicians of all time on a popular level.

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I'm relatively impressed you were able to have the luxury of practicing on an old CP-70. But excuse my ignorance but could you provide some background that Lennon used one. I'm curious to learn more.

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I always love going onto youtube and watching old Fred Astaire numbers and showtunes from the era when it was truly pleasant to watch talent and it hadn't dissolved into bullshit theatre kids. Also those music videos from that period in the 70s where all you had to do was have your band play in front of a green screen and project some psychedelic colors behind it.

But for the life of me I can't stand the Beatles. I'll give them influential, I'll give them popular, but their music sucks. I mean it's just awful, every time I hear it I feel like it's something I'd play for a little kid. There's so much better music in the world to be lauding over the Beatles and their terrible pun of a band name.

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He used it on his early solo stuff. I am not sure if he did a version of IMAGINE on it or not.

But yeah. Lennon used the CP-70, Fender Rhodes and mellotron. It's never really documented but you hear it a LOT in his songs.

Ninjaedit: he did IMAGINE on an old POS upright. That Piano is now worth over 13 million dollars.

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I never got into the Beatles very much either. Though one of my closer friends is obsessed with them. He has every single Beatles release in mono and stereo editions, both the US and EU releases. He's also buying all of that again when it comes out remastered in September. That's a lot of money to be spent on music he already has...

Anyways, I'm no classic rock brain, but I do like quite a lot of it. Been listening to a lot of James Taylor and Nick Drake lately. I like Bob Dylan but his voice can get really annoying after a while and start to give me a headache. A lot of the time I just go back to my Led Zeppelin or my Pink Floyd (predictable, I know). I also love some of that Clapton!

Tears in Heaven at Madison Square Garden in '99:

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I read the title as "Discovering classical music"...

About a month ago I came across an MP3 I had of "Ode To Joy" and it occurred to me I had never heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety before. So I went to the YouTubes and found this (and part 2) and it was awesome. (Warning: both parts are over 30 minutes each.) I was so impressed I went out and bought a CD of a different performance by the same orchestra/conductor.

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CODOR said:

I read the title as "Discovering classical music"...

Re-visit this thread in 20 years - when Hellbent will be bemoaning Mozart's untimely death. ;-)

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