LithoJazzoSphere Top "50" Albums - surprise #7 - enjoy the...

[TAC]

Litho, my apologies, but I'll jump in here in a bit. I haven't had time to really go through all of the posts, but it looks interesting.

If you don't mind me asking, how old are your parents?

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Late 60s and mid-70s.

I haven't had time to really go through all of the posts

That's ok, I know you've been auditioning for historical/mythological/literature research assistant. 

[TAC]

Late 60s and mid-70s.

I haven't had time to really go through all of the posts

That's ok, I know you've been auditioning for historical/mythological/literature research assistant. 

OK, cool. Thank you.



Yeah, I love brain teasers.

[Indiscipline]

Dann Huff is a giant. The guitars on the Like a Hobo Here I Go Again single are his.

[wolfking]

Huh, I'll have to check that Amy Grant song to hear Dan Huff.

Dann Huff is a giant. The guitars on the Like a Hobo Here I Go Again single are his.

Shit, really?

[wolfking]

Guessing this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW7u1v_rmM

I have heard that before actually.

[TAC]

Guessing this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW7u1v_rmM

I have heard that before actually.

WTF is this shit?

[TAC]

I've literally never heard of Dan Huff.

[wolfking]

I've literally never heard of Dan Huff.

The band Giant.

[wolfking]

Guessing this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW7u1v_rmM

I have heard that before actually.

WTF is this shit?

I remember hearing this on a rock compilation one day I think.  Not sure where I heard it, but it was just random 80's rock songs and when the song started like this I had the exact same reaction.

[TAC]

Guessing this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW7u1v_rmM

I have heard that before actually.

WTF is this shit?

I remember hearing this on a rock compilation one day I think.  Not sure where I heard it, but it was just random 80's rock songs and when the song started like this I had the exact same reaction.

Goddamn, that version fucking blows.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Dann Huff is a giant. The guitars on the Like a Hobo Here I Go Again single are his.

I see what you did there.  He's not quite Lukather-level prolific, but he shows up in all kinds of unexpected places, and rarely misses. 

Huh, I'll have to check that Amy Grant song to hear Dan Huff.

Someone made a compilation of a few of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ervNxZ8UIU

Shit, really?

Guessing this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW7u1v_rmM

I have heard that before actually.

Yep, that's it, I love both versions of that song. 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I've literally never heard of Dan Huff.

The band Giant.

Exactly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-alguzfBJI

[wolfking]

Dann Huff is a giant. The guitars on the Like a Hobo Here I Go Again single are his.

I see what you did there.  He's not quite Lukather-level prolific, but he shows up in all kinds of unexpected places, and rarely misses. 

Dan Huff >>>>> Lukather

[TAC]

I never bothered checking out Giant. Seems kind of generic.

[wolfking]

I never bothered checking out Giant. Seems kind of generic.

Wouldn't be your thing at all mate.  If it didn't have some nice guitar work, I'd write it off as wussy bullshit.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Dan Huff >>>>> Lukather

I agree, though it'd only be one ">", I dig a lot of his stuff. 

[HOF]

I think the single edit of Here I Go Again is what's on the greatest hits album that I have, so I'm actually slightly more familiar with that (even though I think I've heard the other one on the radio more - not sure if the single edit gets played or not).

[nick_z]

I like both Huff and Lukather but, yeah, the guitar work on the first couple of Giant records is fantastic.

Tim, I'd suggest checking out their second, Time to Burn. Really good.

[hefdaddy42]

Huff is incredible, but I would still rate Lukather above him.

[jingle.boy]

Now that's an interesting batch of tunes!

My thoughts exactly.

[Indiscipline]

Huff is incredible, but I would still rate Lukather above him.

Pretty much this.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Roots and Influences:

D - classical/piano:

This was really the point at which I was just starting to explore music on my own aside from what my parents had in their collection.  I don't remember how exactly I came about it (perhaps my grandmother, as I inherited her collection later on), but I acquired/received a 10-CD compilation of the various periods of classical music with a famous short work apiece from dozens of different composers.  I also started to take piano lessons when I was 11, and consequently I found myself drawn especially to classical works that heavily featured the piano.  To this day I still find it far easier for me to listen to classical (often concertos and such) that is primarily driven by individual instruments like piano or violin leading an ensemble than more balanced orchestral compositions. 

Ludwig van Beethoven - "Piano Sonata No. 14 in C#m, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight" I. Adagio Sostenuto"

For some reason children often enjoy this piece, and I was no different - it was a major part of what me interested in learning piano.  Our car had caught on fire while my mother and I were in it, and fortunately escaping this harrowing circumstance, the insurance payment left enough over to decide it was finally time to purchase a quality keyboard to learn on.  Back to the "Moonlight Sonata", students of my teacher would learn the simplified version transposed to Em.  This would not do for me - it didn't sound right that way, so I had to seek out the sheet music for the C#m original.  I had this crazy idea that the secret to finding the Loch Ness Monster was to bring a grand piano onto a boat there, play it at midnight, and Nessie would surface.  Still unconfirmed whether this would work or not.  I've included the Glenn Gould recording of the "Moonlight Sonata" since I've enjoyed some of his other interpretations of various composers (particularly Bach), though I don't really know which ones I was listening to the most at the time.  On the final listen through I'm starting to feel the tempo might be a bit too hurried, contra my comments in another thread recently that it isn't normally an issue for me about songs, but it isn't a deal breaker anyway.  I also had this bizarre idea that I should pick up each compilation that included the "Moonlight Sonata", so I wound up with half a dozen or more Beethoven "best of"s this way. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550: I. Molto allego"

You've gotta love the naming conventions of classical works.  Cataloguing and finding them on Rate Your Music is a continual nightmare.  Especially when I had a binge a few years ago where I was listening to almost nothing except classical for a few months in a row.  Anyway, this was a standout composition for me on that 10-CD compilation.  I enjoyed the upbeat yet a bit melancholic violin-driven feel of it.  I don't think the original recording I had of this is available on streaming, but the Le concert de la Loge orchestra version with Julien Chauvin as principal violinist has a bit more energy and dimension than many recordings of it, so it's a splendid showcase for it.  There is also a bit of an oboe highlight, which is another instrument I've always found intriguing.  Classical works with a full orchestra are just about the hardest genre of music to listen to in the car, since the dynamic range is so vast, requiring constant riding of the volume knob.  This one isn't so bad, with a range of dynamics, but not to the extremes of other works. 

Claude Debussy - "Clair de lune (Movement III of Suite bergamasque)"

Another quite famous piece, this was my grandmother's favorite, and she would play it on CD when I was visiting, and I came to really cherish it.  Again, I have no idea now which pianist I originally heard play this, but I've enjoyed some of Angela Hewitt's other interpretions, so this one fits nicefully.  I relish the delicacy of the impressionistic style, with cascading and flowing streams and clusters of notes.  I don't think I ever quite finished learning to play it myself, but probably should. 

Tracks #11-#13:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0T4IGrbCzG3ZV4128ZKOl5
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLISicXPLSax9twb8XnAQzmWSaoESqHpUc

Ludwig van Beethoven - "Piano Sonata No. 14 in C#m, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight" I. Adagio Sostenuto"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550: I. Molto allego"
Claude Debussy - "Clair de lune (Movement III of Suite bergamasque)"

[Indiscipline]

Ludwig van Beethoven - "Piano Sonata No. 14 in C#m, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight" I. Adagio Sostenuto"

For some reason children often enjoy this piece, and I was no different - it was a major part of what me interested in learning piano.  Our car had caught on fire while my mother and I were in it, and fortunately escaping this harrowing circumstance, the insurance payment left enough over to decide it was finally time to purchase a quality keyboard to learn on.  Back to the "Moonlight Sonata", students of my teacher would learn the simplified version transposed to Em.  This would not do for me - it didn't sound right that way, so I had to seek out the sheet music for the C#m original.  I had this crazy idea that the secret to finding the Loch Ness Monster was to bring a grand piano onto a boat there, play it at midnight, and Nessie would surface.  Still unconfirmed whether this would work or not.  I've included the Glenn Gould recording of the "Moonlight Sonata" since I've enjoyed some of his other interpretations of various composers (particularly Bach), though I don't really know which ones I was listening to the most at the time.  On the final listen through I'm starting to feel the tempo might be a bit too hurried, contra my comments in another thread recently that it isn't normally an issue for me about songs, but it isn't a deal breaker anyway.  I also had this bizarre idea that I should pick up each compilation that included the "Moonlight Sonata", so I wound up with half a dozen or more Beethoven "best of"s this way. 

And your ear was right. While Cm is profoundly sad, C#m is dignified melanchonic, a very lunar mood.

Em is heroically decadent sad, it would not fit.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I smell the whiff of tongue in cheek, but I actually am often rather picky about keys, to the bewilderment of my roulette victims.  Cm is normally one of my favorites, actually.  But C#m often works better than Em in many styles. 

[Indiscipline]

I smell the whiff of tongue in cheek, but I actually am often rather picky about keys, to the bewilderment of my roulette victims.  Cm is normally one of my favorites, actually.  But C#m often works better than Em in most styles.

I couldn't be more serious, pal.   

[Jamesman42]

I only can play the opening line of MS and I learned it in Cm on the piano. Love your description, Indiscipline, funny how changing keys of notes separated by the same steps makes them sound sad in different ways.

[hefdaddy42]

All killer no filler in this batch.

[ariich]

I smell the whiff of tongue in cheek, but I actually am often rather picky about keys, to the bewilderment of my roulette victims.  Cm is normally one of my favorites, actually.  But C#m often works better than Em in most styles.

I couldn't be more serious, pal.   

Might be some degree of absolute pitch, or a hint of synaesthesia. I'm reading a really interesting book at the moment about music and the brain (Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks) and am finding it really interesting learning about the different ways that people experience music and some of the neurological underpinning of it. I don't really experience that myself, other than sometimes if I hear something I know very well pitch-shifted, it doesn't sound quite right but I couldn't tell you why. But other pieces I don't even notice.

Anyway, not my favourite pieces from those composers but definitely iconic ones that make sense as roots and influences.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Yeah, Musicophilia is a great read, I finished it awhile ago and should probably reread it again some time.  Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain On Music was also a fascinating read, among others. 

I have a form of pitch memory that can appear to other people like perfect pitch, but it's not as accurate or fast as people who actually have perfect pitch.  It's helpful in that I can often transcribe riffs and such without an instrument in sight, but also annoying in how I'm so frequently consciously aware of it when listening, and wish I could turn it off sometimes. 

I'm generally just trying to pick the songs that actually influenced me the most at the age I discovered them, but occasionally when I'm unsure I do give favoritism to ones I like most now, and/or mention other particularly salient tracks.  And to some extent I might be giving the particular styles and artists I'm selecting more weight than they had at the time, since I now have decades of listening to additional music to see how the influences have played out. 

[Indiscipline]

"When you hear Dm they are still shooting, on Cm they're already dead" - Ennio Morricone.

Jokes aside, classical composers selected pitches mainly for the qualities a peculiar set of frequencies involves. It's not accident Chopin's Funeral March is in Cm, or Beethoven's Hymn to Joy movement in the 9th Symphony is in D, and so on. Tradition then consolidated the practice, reinforcing the use.

With jazz, pop, and then rock music, the pitch selection process shifted progressively towards a "X-instrument friendly" approach. 

[TAC]

I picked the wrong day to check the thread.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

"When you hear Dm they are still shooting, on Cm they're already dead" - Ennio Morricone.

Jokes aside, classical composers selected pitches mainly for the qualities a peculiar set of frequencies involves. It's not accident Chopin's Funeral March is in Cm, or Beethoven's Hymn to Joy movement in the 9th Symphony is in D

, and so on. Tradition then consolidated the practice, reinforcing the use.

With jazz, pop, and then rock music, the pitch selection process shifted progressively towards a "X-instrument friendly" approach. 

See, this sort of discussion is why I held off a few months to start this thread.  I was waiting for you and didn't even know it.    Except Chopin's "Funeral March" is Bbm. 

I think a lot of rock/metal bands pick tunings and keys more around the vocalist's voice and range though, since with extended range instruments, different string gauges and such you can pretty much be in whatever
key you want to be. 

[wolfking]

I picked the wrong day to check the thread.

Don't worry, Iron Maiden want none of this Cm/C#m discussion either.

Seriously though, I like the neoclassical guitar shit, but I've never ever been interested remotely in listening to any classical music.  The composers are fucking geniuses but I have never felt the urge to sit down and crank some Beethoven.

[Indiscipline]

"When you hear Dm they are still shooting, on Cm they're already dead" - Ennio Morricone.

Jokes aside, classical composers selected pitches mainly for the qualities a peculiar set of frequencies involves. It's not accident Chopin's Funeral March is in Cm, or Beethoven's Hymn to Joy movement in the 9th Symphony is in D

, and so on. Tradition then consolidated the practice, reinforcing the use.

With jazz, pop, and then rock music, the pitch selection process shifted progressively towards a "X-instrument friendly" approach. 

See, this sort of discussion is why I held off a few months to start this thread.  I was waiting for you and didn't even know it.    Except Chopin's "Funeral March" is Bbm. 

I think a lot of rock/metal bands pick tunings and keys more around the vocalist's voice and range though, since with extended range instruments, different string gauges and such you can pretty much be in whatever
key you want to be. 

I am really happy to talk about this stuff with you.

Anyways I meant op35, not op28.