ABBA

[Third_Density_Resident]

Thanks for starting this thread tom32071. I like Abba too and one of my favourites is "The Visitors". It's so different from the rest of their songs. When I was growing up, I was more into Cream, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Beatles, etc. These days into a lot quieter sounds. Mostly orchestra compositions like Howard Shore, Mozart, Strauss, Debussy, etc. :)

Yes, Abba's "The Visitors" (the song) is extremely unusual. Apparently it was in reference to dissidents in Soviet-bloc countries waiting to be captured by the KGB and other secret police services. I never actually heard any of their songs from this album until the 90s, but it's a good album.

I love some of the Bee Gees songs, but more of their later ones. Love "You Win Again". Also love the fact that the Bee Gees spent some of their early years living just "up the road" from me.

 

[Windmill knight]

I like ABBA's 'Eagle'. Not one of their most popular songs, but definitely one of my favorites! It made me dream of magic lands and heroes when I was a teenager - which does not mean that the song was released when I was a teenager! ;) Like with the Beatles, I became a fan of ABBA years after the fact.

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bawNSg0k0

"Flying high, high, I'm a bird in the sky..."

 

[Adaryn]

Not sure I like ABBA :/ As for Celine Dion, well… can't stand that kind of stuff. And as far as most others are concerned: Sandy Posey, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Donna Fargo: never heard of them

I don't know country artists at all, but there's two bands I just love, called 16 Horsepower/Woven Hand, led by David Eugene Edwards (singer and composer, using all sorts of instruments like banjo, bandoneon etc.). The guy is from Denver and he's the best (for me ). I've never been to a concert but his performances are said to be mesmerizing, verging on the mystical. Some people say it's like the guy is channeling spirits through his music. It can even look creepy at times. It's NOT traditional country, more like "alternative country" blended with rock/folk/native american and other styles. I really love it, and the lyrics - though some are a bit too Christian tainted (he's the grandson of a Nazarean preacher) - are deeply interesting and poetic (to me).
Some samples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIRQfzUjDBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ab8Wp65go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0dpHMRWAz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk6TiKmIA-s (a Bob Dylan cover)

 

[The Mechanic]

What a hoot! There was Dolly Parton as a teenager singing "It wasn't God who made Honky Tonk Women" and Kitty Wells doing "Ah Kain't Stop Lovin' You!" Every time she pronounced "kain't" I cracked up!

When a friend of mine returned from a vacation to the US he told me they had been listening to a lot of country music on the road. He said there were a lot of places where it was just the only thing the car radio would tune in to. I really cracked up when he let me hear "Jesus, Take The Wheel" by Carrie Underwood: _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4rfA_tebY

What a hoot indeed!

 

[Laura]

Some samples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIRQfzUjDBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ab8Wp65go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0dpHMRWAz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk6TiKmIA-s (a Bob Dylan cover)

Had a look and tried to listen, but it didn't pass the "Ark test." Ark - a Bach and Mozart lover - really makes an effort to enjoy some of my more "out there" music, like Pink Floyd, but I can tell when something really agitates his nerves and de-concentrates him. This stuff was pretty quick at doing that. I wasn't much impressed either, having been exposed to some really fine guitar and banjo picking which made this guy very mediocre. Can't say much for his singing not to mention his communication skills either. His comments about the Bob Dylan song came across as schizoidal or something. Very strange.

 

[Adaryn]

Had a look and tried to listen, but it didn't pass the "Ark test." Ark - a Bach and Mozart lover - really makes an effort to enjoy some of my more "out there" music, like Pink Floyd, but I can tell when something really agitates his nerves and de-concentrates him. This stuff was pretty quick at doing that. I wasn't much impressed either, having been exposed to some really fine guitar and banjo picking which made this guy very mediocre.

I couldn't tell, as my knowledge of music is as good as my knowledge of maths :/ I wasn't talking about the ability per se, more the overall thing. Granted it's not for everyone, but personally I have difficulty enjoying stuff that doesn't have some rock element in it (apart from classical music - some - and soundtrack composers like Howard Shore, or "ethereal" singers like Lisa Gerrard, etc.).

Can't say much for his singing not to mention his communication skills either. His comments about the Bob Dylan song came across as schizoidal or something. Very strange.

You got me thinking, coz I didn't see it that way at all :O, but I'm biased since I like the music. I admit the guy can be seen as a weirdo, though

 

[ana]

I couldn't tell, as my knowledge of music is as good as my knowledge of maths :/

Same here.... but at least while listening to music we can vibrate and feel it inside. I also like classical music and love these:

Beethoven's Moonlight sonata:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7TUYgHQTTE

and the Adagio by Albinoni:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4dpbk8YBs

 

[anothermagyar]

[quote author=Laura] Ark - a Bach and Mozart lover - really makes an effort to enjoy some of my more "out there" music, like Pink Floyd, but I can tell when something really agitates his nerves and de-concentrates him. [/quote]

I have to agree with Ark. Bach and Mozart wrote soul calming music and when I feel stressed out the music from Bach or Mozart can take me to somewhere when there is no time and no frustration. Chopin too.
Like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvxS_bJ0yOU&feature=related

I love Albinoni: Adaggio too!

 

[Tigersoap]

You got me thinking, coz I didn't see it that way at all :O, but I'm biased since I like the music. I admit the guy can be seen as a weirdo, though

Hello Luthien,

Maybe you'd enjoy another weirdo, who I really like, Michael Gira (he was in the Swans back then, check out some early release also maybe.) and his other band called The Angels of light. It's folk somehow with sombre elements in it.

_http://younggodrecords.com/index.asp?

Fwiw.

 

[manitoban]

and the Adagio by Albinoni:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4dpbk8YBs

This has long been a favorite of mine as well - so much feeling in the music, it is simply beautiful!

 

[mkrnhr]

Thanks Ana for Adagio! Awesome!

For rock fans, Sheherazade by Rimski/Korzakov :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr1c7Xa1AqM&feature=fvw
Do not pay attention to the pictures...
This music puts me in a funny state (I literally melt down) since I was a child.
And also this part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7GvU6ij_M0&feature=related
Playing this kind of sonorities on a stratocaster electric guitar is proceless :)

I like this interpretation : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBQEpFfVIXQ&feature=related
or this one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihh7Stn7HZk&feature=related
scuze me if I look like a fanatic hehehehe

 

[John G]

I couldn't tell, as my knowledge of music is as good as my knowledge of maths :/ I wasn't talking about the ability per se, more the overall thing. Granted it's not for everyone, but personally I have difficulty enjoying stuff that doesn't have some rock element in it (apart from classical music - some - and soundtrack composers like Howard Shore, or "ethereal" singers like Lisa Gerrard, etc.).

That reminds me of a couple of things, one from Tony Smith (a physicist friend of Ark's):

As Onar Aam is a composer of music,

he has remarked that

Western symphony instruments are linear, and
are easily added together into a coherent whole
that is a linear superposition of each part,

and that

many modern instruments (as rock guitar)
and instruments from other cultures (as sitar) are non-linear, and
have a greatly distorted sound that fills a large part of the spectrum,
making them almost incompatible with other instruments.

He then went on to say that a linear symphonic work (as a string quartet)
could AS A WHOLE be distorted in a non-linear way (as by a bad stereo system)
to produce
A WONDERFUL HOWLING GUITAR INSTRUMENTAL PLAYED WITH CELLOS AND VIOLAS!

THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL ANALOGY IN PHYSICS:

Quantum field theories of electromagnetism, the weak force, and
the color force can be expressed in terms of linear wavefunctions.
The reason these quantum field theories work is that the
linear wavefunctions have the property of superposition,
that is, you can superpose a lot of them and you get another
wavefunction that is a solution of the quantum field equations.
All this takes place in a flat spacetime.
So, quantum field theory of the first 3 forces is like a symphony orchestra.

The 4th force, gravity, is VERY nonlinear - so much so, that it
is hard to express it in terms of a quantum field theory, and
gravity (in most formulations) stands alone because of its nonlinearity.
Gravity is the nonlinear force.

HOWEVER, if you FIRST use the superpositions of linear quantum fields of
the first 3 forces to produce atoms, molecules, etc.,
and THEN apply gravity to the atoms, molecules, etc.,
you see that the atoms, molecules, etc., combine to form stars and
planets and galaxies, AND the flat spacetime is curved by the gravity
so that the stars, planets and galaxies move in orbits as we see them do.

In a sense, OUR UNIVERSE IS A DISTORTED SYMPHONY!

Also

A: Please put new music on; this a little disruptive. [Creation Chant]
Q: (L) How is this? [Celtic harp]
A: Better.
Q: (L) You don't like the Native American stuff?
A: It is okay but disruptive to vibrations.

So apparently something can be OK but also disruptive to vibrations.

I once took my parents to a Stevie Nicks concert in Denver and my Mom said as a complement that one of the songs sounded Native American. It did sound Native American but I also thought to myself that it was the song that my parents made me turn down the volume on when I was younger (they couldn't take the bass).

That Denver concert was at Fiddler's Green not the natural Red Rocks Amphitheatre but I took my parents to the empty Red Rocks anyways which wasn't empty, there were other visitors including a child playing bongos on stage that you could hear wonderfully everywhere. Probably was something from that, that one could not get from the rock concert.

Maybe what's good on someone's path can be bad on someone else's?

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Every since I saw a video of him in music class in grade 10, I've really liked Glenn Gould, the Canadian virtuoso most well known for his rendition of Bach's Goldberg Variations:

1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LTY7MLuzC8&feature=related

compared to the one he did before he died:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv94m_S3QDo

And here's just the audio of him playing Liszt's transcription of the first part of Beethoven's fifth symphony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjF3-fUfX3E&feature=related

Gould was a child virtuoso and was infamous for saying he never practiced. While not entirely true, he'd often just study the score and then play it. As you can tell from the videos, he's quite eccentric when he plays. He preferred playing in a recording studio to the "blood sport" of the "cult of showmanship and gratuitous virtuosity" as wikipedia puts it. He had perfect technique and yet also felt the music, which was for him more of a language.

 

[Argonaut]

Does anyone out there like ABBA ? How about Shania Twain ? Sandy Posey? Conway Twitty? Loretta Lynn? Donna Fargo? Celine Dionne?
Loreena McKinnett?

I love ABBA and Loreena McKennitt! Also think the others are okay, except Sandy Posey (but only because I've never heard of her). I tend to gravitate towards rock artists like Muse and Monster Magnet these days, along with some folk and classical and a little techno. But I grew up on all the stuff that was popular in the 1980's. I also gained an appreciation for old-school country and bluegrass, due to spending summers in Kentucky at my grandma's. Oh, and I also really like "Weird Al" Yankovic. :P Great thread, tom!

 

[Laura]

Well, if you can bring in Scheherezade, I can bring in my favorite ballet number: Balanchine's Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux, and a particularly stylish version at that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QfWXXfJt8M&feature=PlayList&p=1443EE68DA296602&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=31

the original music video!

(and if a person is looking for "impressions" that feed the soul, there's nothing that beats ballet!)