Hacked-to-death songs

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

....can anyone still enjoy listening to songs that have become all-time-classic-Dave-Marsh-Heart-Of-Rock-n-Roll-classic-hits-radio classic rock classics? i mean, "I Heard It Thru the Grapevine" or "I can't get no satisfaction", those're actually good songs, right?

― duane zarakov, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

They are still good and its goo d to just hear versions of them by new ande exciting people. Its good to make them abstract, like Wolfgang Press doing "Respect">

― Mike Hanley, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Not those two so much. Hacked to death is right. But in a similar vein, "I Say A Little Prayer"'s appeal just never seems to pall. I think less rocky, lighter classics are more immune to overplay.

― Nick, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I do find myself preferring the less overexposed singles by bands of that generation ("See My Friend" by the Kinks, "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby ..." by the Stones). Whether I'd still prefer them *if they were the overexposed ones*, I'm not sure.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Dave Marsh man, jesus. I'm reading that bk right now ("Heart Of Rock & Soul") - Top 5 : I Heard it thru the etc, johnny B. etc , papa's got a brand new etc, reach out i'll etc, you've lost that lovin' etc, you can't guess the next 2 i bet. i mean those are all good songs & if i haven't heard em for a long time & i tune in in the right state of blank lucidity on my own in a car at night or somethin i think i'd still get a buzz off any of em. but then i'd get real depressed thinking of how what i'd just heard is now filed away with all these other fossilised traces here in 600-something pages of plod plod plod with never a single fuckin step landing anywhere unexpected. he's like the anti-Chuck Eddy.

― duane zarakov, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I listen to classic-rock radio of that sort so rarely these days that those songs come on as a welcome surprise, like meeting a long-forgotten friend.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

yeah , same actually. maybe the question i was really asking was "Dave Marsh's Heart of Rock & Soul - Dud or Dud".

― duane zarakov, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I think Dave Marsh's Heart of Rock & Soul is fine for what it is -- namely, a categorization of Dave Marsh's tastes in music which is very much informed by his youth and his political views. He has some gaping blindspots (Bowie, the Kinks, Eno/Roxy Music, post-punk generally, to list some that spring out in my mind), which seem to be shaped as much by his peculiar "keep it simple, stupid" approach to music. He also doesn't get rap and what it's inspired (I can't imagine that he'd like electronic music all that much). And there's no need rehashing his views on Springsteen.

Still, it's hard to fault much of what appears in "Heart of Rock and Soul." Most of it certainly isn't bad stuff, however overplayed some of that music might be and however crabbed Marsh's musical philosophy (and his writing about same) might be.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

'brown eyed girl' is the most overplayed song in the history of popular music yet it is also utter dogshit! work that one out.

― michael wells, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

In more doomed frames of mind I wonder if it's inevitable that all such songs will find themselves hacked back to life for brief turns in car and soda commercials, in a type of morbid ventriloquism. I am thinking of the way the head evil clown in Killer Klowns from Outer Space uses the policeman as a human sock puppet.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

In defense of Dave Marsh - the reason Heart of Rock & Soul doesn't feature much hip hop is that the book was completed back when that style was still in its infancy . But his admiration of it is made clear in the Rock & Rap Condidential newsletter he edits. Punk and post-punk are largely disregarded because it was the intent of the book to focus on the blues-based rock and r&b traditions which started out (pretty much) with Chuck Berry and James Brown and which, it would have appeared at time of writing, had just about run their course, thus making them ripe for overview. Despite this circumscribed scope, the impression many people have that the book deals mostly with over-obvious trad rock from the likes of Springsteen and the Stones is completely mistaken as it also includes literally hundreds of lesser known gems and obscurities from Doo Wop to girl groups to Stax to country, a great many of which I'm glad to have been poited in the direction of.

― scott, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

POINTED in the direction of

― scott, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

......yeah it's not just that the songs he includes are all yawningly obvious (by no means all of them *are* - the fact that his top 5 is so fuckin predictable , i was just using as an example of a more general stodge-thing) - you can do all kinds of stuff writing about *obvious* stuff, just look at Mark Prindle on "classic rock" albums or any # of people round here on chart pop - the reason the book sucks is 'cause it's a smug too-neat summing up of rock's (yawn) rich (yawn) tapestry , y'know all wrapped up to fit a predictable agenda...those songs i mentioned don't suck 'cause of anything intrinsic, but guys like marsh (actually i can't think of anyone quite *like* him, i would 've used to've counted Christgau as a similar big-fuckin-square but he's tons more insightful & interesting) have just built a mausoleum (sp?) for the music & stuck all those songs in there.

― d.z., Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I read across Marsh's book (just typed it as THOROS which is a grate metal name) at just the right time, i.e. very new to soul and doo-wop music and needing a guide. He seemed to like the stuff I was liking so I got on board, even though I disagreed plenty of times the book strayed off those musics. But Duane is totally right about the writing - argh! Returning to it a few years later it just seemed so flat and where he does get metaphorical it's always at the expense of insight. THAT SAID his historical research always seems good if you're into that sort of thing and every now and then he'll pull out a Dave-listening-to-the-radio-aged-14 story and the book suddenly comes to life a bit.

― Tom, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Don't know the book you guys are on about... I like 'Grapevine', not so much 'Satisfaction' (prefer other Stones), and don't like 'Little Prayer' either.

But there is a larger point, I think, which is that this stuff is more endlessly played, or more continuously often-heard, in the US than in the UK. That's the impression I've got, anyway: Americans are always telling me 'well, we grew up with the Stones on Classic Rock radio every 15 minutes, so it's boring'. I don't really hear Brits saying that (whether they like the Stones or not).

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Yes, pinefox, yes. A turgid canon has congealed. An ossified rock monument carved and hollowed by waves more of lethargy than mutilation. American radio looked back over its shoulder and turned into a pillar of salt... I for one am tired of lickin it.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.