So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

More surprising still is however that Dave listens to something like Budgie at all (add his relatively recent Grand Funk Railroad confession to this!). Before heavy rock conquered the stadiums, he must have liked some of it! 

Did Budgie fill stadiums? Not here. I'd say they were very little known here. At any rate, it's just a track that popped up in my YT suggestions, no reason for you to get excited about it. 

What did I say about GFRR? I was aware of them very early on and liked the way Mel's bass drove the band. A roommate had the red cover album and I heard them a bit on what was called underground radio back then. Nothing more than that.

[uwe]

Budgie never filled stadiums anywhere except maybe in Poland which they toured when the Iron Curtain still stood - for some reason, they had a sizable following there and got invited once for a tour that blew their minds in audience attendance. Even the fact that the guitarist ill-advisedly wore a German WWII army jacket could not hamper their succe-SS there (he took it off and never wore it again after he saw the shock in the Polish faces when he proceeded to walk on stage with it). I always dug them for their musical weirdness and their strange LP covers.



You don't need to be so defensive, Dave, about liking music patterned for stadium success - it's quite alright, you are forgiven, all this happened very much in the past!

[Alanko]

I've been listening to a bit of Uli Trepte recently. That dude wasn't right, but he had a pretty cool rig.

[Dave W]

[uwe]

Not stadium - at all.

 



But I like his work too. 

[gearHed289]

Not stadium - at all.

My first concert had Johnny and Edgar on the bill. At Fulton County Stadium. 

[Dave W]

Not stadium - at all.

 



But I like his work too. 

You're being deliberately obtuse.

Playing a stadium doesn't make you an arena rock band. Paul McCartney, Luke Bryan (ugh!), Billy Joel, and Florida Georgia Line (ugh!) have played Target Field here in the past few years.  Does that make them arena rock bands? James Taylor, Shania Twain, Drake and Neil Diamond have all played Xcel Energy Center here in the past couple of years. Are they arena rock bands?

Johnny Winter was a blues artist, wherever he played. Johnny Winter And was a blues rock band that lasted a little over a year an did one tour. They did everything from Madison Square Garden to colleges and small clubs.

[uwe]

  You started it, Dave, you coined the phrase "stadium rock" (which to all intents and purposes is the same as "arena rock", right?). And of course musically it defies definition, any band popular enough will play a stadium if it can.

Johnny played the Blues, true. But not all the time and he wasn't a purist. During his 70ies heyday he wasn't any more Blues than his fellow stadium-inhabitants from Foghat were. He fell more into the "virtuoso axeman with backing band"-bracket (similar to Rory Gallager or Alvin Lee/Ten Years After or Robin Trower) and he sure looked the part as well.





None of this takes away anything from his music or your music taste (or mine for that matter, I have nearly all his recorded work through all eras), it just goes to show that "stadium rock" perhaps isn't the most scientifically exact term. 

PS: Shania Twain, at the height of her fame, just as Garth Brooks at the height of his would all qualify as "arena acts" ("arena country-flavored pop?") in my book, it's not an insult to me. And both Rush and U2 were/are "arena rock", though their music bears little in common.

[Dave W]

You started it, Dave, you coined the phrase "stadium rock" (which to all intents and purposes is the same as "arena rock", right?). And of course musically it defies definition, any band popular enough will play a stadium if it can.

.....

No, I didn't. I used the term 70s arena rock to describe the type of music that turned me off in the 70s. It was never about anything else and certainly never about any act that ever played in a stadium or other big venue.

[westen44]

I was watching a Golden Earring concert on You Tube or something like that.  This song popped up as a suggestion.  At first I found it kind of irritating.  Then it became a little amusing.  "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" Part Deux?  I don't know if Paul McCartney is trying to be edgy or if he just doesn't give a rip now.  Maybe some of both.  Personally, I think Paul McCartney proved himself long ago.  He can do whatever he wants.  Some will like it, some won't. 

I just read some of the You Tube comments.  Some of them were pretty witty.  Interestingly enough, the comments from younger people seem more positive than comments from the older listeners--in general, that is. 

[uwe]

Whenever Paul tries to be a little edgy or rough, he comes out sounding a little immature. It's not in him, there was only one sardonic Beatle (with less consistency in songwriting than Paul it has to be said).

That said, this particular song won't go into the pantheon of Macca's 100 best songs, but it's still pleasant. And lots of Macca's stuff is just that: pleasant. Just like the man.

Needless to say I ordered the album already a while ago.

[westen44]

Several years ago I saw on the news that Paul was refused entrance to some kind of party because they didn't know who he was.  I saw a clip and he was saying maybe he needed to go out and get some more hits.  He was just joking of course and I also think this song is lighthearted to the extreme.  Maybe slightly raunchy but so is part of "Penny Lane" if you know what to listen for. 

[D.M.N.]

Every day, on repeat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1KZwDkqeA&t=14s&ab_channel=carlygtr

[Dave W]

[Basvarken]

A couple of days ago I discovered a bunch of recordings that Kelly Holland did with a guy called Tim Perry. They were put on YouTube about two years ago. The recordings are very much in the vein of the album Brother that Kelly recorded with Cry Of Love. It is such a shame that Kelky Holland drank himself to death. He has to be my favorite singer of all time.