Thursday 6 May 2010

Music Facts



A slightly condensed version of the questionnaire designed by Meaghan over at Wild Celtic: http://wildcouture.blogspot.com/2010/05/music-facts-tag-youre-it.html

Name your top 5 favorite bands/musicians of all-time.
I'm going for 10. Bob Dylan (overlooking the nightmarish Christmas in the Heart and a few others), The Beatles, Tori Amos, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Iris DeMent, The Doors, The Band, June Tabor, Richard Thompson. And the list could go on ...Joni Mitchell, Loudon Wainwright, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Led Zeppelin, Nina Simone...

Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by?
A toss-up between Dylan, Morrison, Amos, Wainwright, Harris and Tabor.

What was the last song you listened to?
"St. Dominic's Preview" by Van Morrison. Favourite moment: "And the restaurant tables are completely covered/The record company has paid out for the wi-i-ine..."

What was the greatest decade for music?
I'd say 1967-1977.

What is your favourite movie soundtrack?
Tough one. Philadelphia, possibly.

What’s the most awful CD/record/etc. you’ve ever bought?
Probably something produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman in the late 80s...

Rolling Stones or The Beatles?
The Beatles, without a doubt, though there are a few Rolling Stones songs I love.

What is the one song you would most like played at your funeral? Your birthday? While on a romantic date? Funeral: "After You're Gone" by Iris DeMent, or some good gospel. Birthday: "Birthday" by The Beatles. Date: some Sinatra or Ella, and you can't really go wrong.

11 comments:

  1. Fantastic list! Love Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Morrison, The Doors, Sinatra (Ol'Blue eyes melts me everytime) and Ella!! Fantastic list indeed.

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  2. Couldn't stick to just five for number one eh? How High Fidelity of you. Good list.

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  3. the last question I had to laugh!!!
    I thought you had written sinitta rather than sinatra!

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  4. Thanks guys. This was fun to do; nice idea Meaghan.

    John - perhaps Sinitta is *your* idea of good date music?!

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  5. Greatest decade? Oh well, some good stuff did come out of those days I must agree. Check out my answers: http://dtmmr.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/music-facts/

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  6. Well, Alex, you had 10 and so will I!!
    Dylan, Natalie Merchant (+ 10,000 Maniacs), Van the Man, Iris Dement, Jackson Browne, early Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Kate Rusby....but of course, could go on....Baez, Springsteen, Joni, early Nanci Griffith, The Eagles.

    Tonnes of Dylan on vinyl (but more Van Morrison on cd)

    Can't stop listening to new Natalie album 'Leave Your Sleep'....'If No-one Ever Marries Me'....greatest moment in this song "When I am getting really older, 28 or 9, I'll buy myself a little orphan girl and bring her up as mine, if no-one marries me, if no-one mar-ries me...."

    Greatest decade: 65 -75 -takes in all the best Dylan albums -(If you start at 67 you miss out Blonde on Blonde!)

    Movie soundtrack: Coalminer's Daughter

    Most awful record: Best of Bananarama (In my defence I was only a mere slip of a girl!)

    The Stones...without a doubt

    Funeral song: 'Keep on the Sunny Side' by Mother Maybelle Carter (love 'After You've Gone'...but everyone would be sobbing....I would want people to feel uplifted!) Birthday: 'Kind & Generous' by Natalie Merchant. Romantic date: 'Thunder Road' (slow, live version Hammersmith Odeon 1975)

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  7. Excellent choices: Springsteen and Natalie should have been on my list as well. Forget 5 names; a shortlist of 50 is more realistic!

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  8. Name your top 5 favorite bands/musicians of all-time.

    5 is really difficult, but 10 won't make it much less so, I'm afraid. OK: Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, The Cure, Aphex Twin, Sex Pistols.

    Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by?

    Beatles, 12, and just behind them Cure with 11. In fact, I own 13 Aphex Twin CDs, but some of these are singles and EPs, so that doesn't count, does it?

    What was the last song you listened to?

    "Doctor Blind" by Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. I'm beginning to enjoy Metric and I'm exploring Emily's solo album now.

    What was the greatest decade for music?

    1966-1976. That way, I get to squeeze "Revolver" and "Never Mind the Bollocks" at either end, with all major Zep albums snugly in between.

    What is your favourite movie soundtrack?

    There's one that I have physically, and that's "The Man with a Movie Camera" by the Cinematic Orchestra (one of a few soundtracks to the film, in fact). There's also one that I don't have but I will buy it, eventually, and that's the goofy, irresistibly cheerful "Juno" soundtrack.

    What’s the most awful CD/record/etc. you’ve ever bought?

    Back in primary school I bought lots of crap, of course. Possibly CC Catch was the nadir, some horrific German synth pop female singer that the rest of the world was blissfully unaware of, but in communist Poland you'd get German imports. Nowadays I stay alert, but I did manage to buy an awful album with a very long title by Panic at the Disco, after a friend of mine convinced me they were terrific. I never got past the third track, though, and have traded it recently for a 1997 pressing of the "Silent All These Years" CD single (the luckiest trade ever!).

    Rolling Stones or The Beatles?

    Nowadays, the Beatles, but it wasn't so easy once. Beatles were there for me between the age of 13 and 18, after which the Stones took over for about a decade (that's during my band's most active years, and for a while we wanted very much to be the Stones circa 1973). Now I rarely reach for any Stones albums, but the idea of the "Exile on Main Street" remaster thrills me, and I'll get it as soon as I can. The Beatles, however, have come back to me big time, and they're here to stay - especially now, with the whole catalogue reissued! I've been buying them like crazy.

    What is the one song you would most like played at your funeral? Your birthday? While on a romantic date?

    Funeral: "No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire (off the Funeral album, fittingly!) - one of my favorite songs ever.
    Birthday: definitely Beatles' "Birthday"! High five, Alex!
    Date: Joni Mitchell, "Talk to Me". With Jaco's warm bass. Yea!

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  9. Great stuff. No classical, though? Dylan - unsurprisingly enough - is turning out to be one of the most popular choices. Somewhat ironic given that his last release must be one of the worst records ever made ...

    The Beatles were my first musical crush, when I was about 8 and we did some kind of project on the 1960s at school. Totally obsessed, especially by their early stuff. Then didn't listen to them for ages, and now - rather like yourself - smitten again. It's easy to take so much of their output for granted, due to over-familiarity, but it's an astounding body of work. (Just been listening to ABBEY ROAD today.) And their amazing stylistic range, The Stones just can't match.

    Now, wasn't "No Cars Go" on THE NEON BIBLE? Still fairly fitting, though! ;)

    Thanks for contributing!

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  10. Ah, wait! Of course, "No Cars Go" *is* on The Neon Bible but the original version is on The Arcade Fire EP. Of course, none of them are Funeral. :) My bad. It just fit so nicely I got carried away!

    Classical music would have filled another list of this sort, and more, so I stuck to rock and jazz, and actually mostly to rock...

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