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Hi all,

Just wondering - what kind of old favourites do people turn to when they want something warm and familiar to listen to?

I'm just a bit stuck in the past myself - couldn't name a single record that's in the charts right now (or for about the last 10 years)!

Recent old favourites I've revisited include

JethroTull BENEFIT - there isn't anything else in rock that sounds like this, including everything else by Tull!  The band was still young and hungry, playing hard, fluid rock rhythms around Ian Anderson's weirdly tortuous, elongated melodies... it's so unique that, apart from some of the "trippy" studio sound effects, it doesn't seem to have dated at all.

Ten Years After STONEDHENGE - it's been a loooooooong time since psychedelics featured in my diet, but there's a handful of late 60s/early 70s albums obviously recorded under the influence which still convey that old, familiar electric crackle and buzz.  This one certainly lives up to its name... maybe the most oddly warped blues album ever, dated as anything but still good fun!

Traffic WHEN THE EAGLE FLIES - in 1974 this semed like a big downer, a dour final album by an obviously tired and disillusioned band.  30 years on it still ain't about climbing on the back of a giant albatross or even about being a freedom rider, but it's more obvious that the boys could still muster some great grooves.
(Afterthought: getting towards the home topic here, I kind of tie this album in with DSOTM: as the middle of the Seventies approached, more than a few of those fresh-faced, optimistic new bands of the late 60s were turning out darker, more jaded visions, with Floyd in the lead.  What's DSOTM about?  To me the lyrics boil down to "Life is hard and materialistic, and there's no way out except death or madness"... all brilliantly wrapped up in a gorgeous collage of sounds and melodies, but in spirit more nihilistic than most of the later punk bands ever were...)

FLOYD Saucerful Of Secrets - OK, so maybe it's the beginning of the band's long search for a new identity in the wake of Syd's departure, and maybe it's not the most coherent thing they ever did, but there are some lovely space grooves in there that I still get a big kick out of.  I'd love to here the Aussies tackle "Let There be More Light"!

And one new discovery that's really an old one in disguise...

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE  IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno - I'm generally more impressed by this wacky Japanese collective's choice of amusing retro song titles - "Interstellar Overdope", "Absolutely Freak Out", "She's Like A Rainbow In Curved Air" etc. - than I am by their music.  This one, though, is a non-stop 52 minute long workout on Gong's "Master Builder" (aka Steve Hillage's "Glorious Om Riff") and it kicks like a mule, alternating smoothly between hard driving riffing and trance moments.  Best 1970s album yet released in the 21st century, IMO!

Over to everyone else...

Cheers,
G

Hiya G !  great thread !

I like all sorts of music, as well as Floyd, but recently ive been listening to a lot of 70's stuff like Marc Bolan, Bowie.  Very recently ive been playing Richard Ashcroft 

Hi Diane,

Oh yes, Bowie turns up on my player pretty often... loved the Bowie At The Beeb album a couple of years back, my favourite has to be YOUNG AMERICANS, though!  He's done so many different styles... which ones work for you?

I checked Richard Ashcroft's new album, but it wasn't for me - I'm waiting for Morrissey's new one instead, and about the only remotely recent album I'm playing a lot at the moment is the Super Furry Animals Songbook, quality pop.

Right now, though, I'm downloading Kevin Ayers' SHOOTING AT THE MOON!

Cheers,
G

Kevin who lol?

Well, I'ma little stuck in a time warp myself....

right now i'm listening to sooo much Marillion, especially marbles and misplaced childhood....some things crop up in your life and make you retreat to music that conjurs up certain emotions.

Hate being sad---makes me reach for james Blunt lol... either love him or hate him!

but then again, i could mention thunder  ;D


xh

<sigh> The youth of today... ? Kevin Ayers, bassist in Soft Machine, lovely deep bass voice, first pro to hire a kid guitarist named Mike Oldfield who I hope you've heard of...? ;D ;D ;D

Listening to music because of the emotions it evokes... hmmm.? For me, most old albums and singles I know evoke specific times and places (and everything associated with those) rather than general emotions... as if all the music I have serves as hot links to a lifetime of diary entries and photos.? Some records I'll never listen to again because the associations are too painful (but I'll never get rid of them outright because that's part of my life too!), others make me smile.? And some... well, "Us And Them", for example, is a particular warm, mellow and sunny day in the Oxfordshire countryside.? I can see it even as I type this!

Does anyone else do this, or am I just peculiar? ;D

James Blunt - hate him.? Next?? ;D

Did someone mention thunder?? It has been raining all day...?

Cheers,
G

You've got me rifling through the back catalogue, g. Tull and Traffic most definitely, but having listened to some Ten Years After this morning, I have to say it hasn't time travelled too well for me.

The most frequent items on my turntable and CD player at the moment are:

Allman Brothers - particularly the Fillmore and more recent Evening With albums
Little Feat
Mick Taylor era Stones

and I've almost worn out my summer pops CDs.

Edit at 3:30 - I've now listened to Traffic - When the Eagle Flies all the way through and it is still absolutely amazing. As good as ever. Thanks for that reminder, g.