So, what have you been listening to lately?

[gearHed289]

WTF...?! 
I'm so astonished that I had never knowingly heard of Steven Wilson or Porcupine Tree or his production skills, especially regarding 5.1 and ATMOS, etc...
Slowly working my way through the canon of his work and making various (sometimes expensive) purchases...
I now realise I had known of his material but never connected the dots...
Whatever...

Big Steven Wilson fan here. Porcupine Tree's In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet, and Deadwing are some of the best prog albums since 80s Crimson IMO. And his earlier solo stuff is right on par with those. The first time my wife and I saw him live, he brought me to tears with the song "Routine". We're going to see him on 9/17.

PT -

This is a great jam from his solo catalog -

[uwe]

[Ken]

Noel to the rescue! 

I always loved Noel doing Don't Look Back in Anger solo acoustic.

[Basvarken]

RIP Mick Ralphs

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mick-ralphs-guitarist-bad-company-mott-the-hoople-dead-1235370273/

[morrow]

I just read that and was thinking of you guys.

[Ken]

[uwe]

Recycle in peace, Mick!

And that was his iconic guitar line intro to the song, not Bowie's:

His tour with David Gilmour in 1984 seems to have largely slipped off the radar, unjustly so, that was a great line-up with, inter alia, him, Mickey Feat (with a great-sounding WAL!) and Chris Slade.

[uwe]

A lot of people will know this in the version sung by Paul Rodgers from the Bad Co debut:

But Mick had already written it in his Mott the Hoople days and sung it himself. He left Mott the Hoople (to join up with Paul Rodgers who had supported Mott on tour with his trio Peace

where he played sole lead guitar as well, but wasn't scaling Free success heights with it) in part because out of songwriter's frustration that Ian Hunter didn't have the range to sing Ralphs' songs (nor did Ralphs have a strong enough voice to really sing them himself - something Ian Hunter would have been fine with).

When Mott the Hoople did those reunion shows with him, it was reinstated into the set.

[Dave W]

Bobby Sherman, gone at 81. It was announced a few months ago that he had kidney cancer.

Right after college, I had a roommate who played the shit out of this one. Catchy bubblegum.

[uwe]

He doesn't sing much, it's more like talking over the music with a melody phrase here and there, was that his prevailing style (not really bubblegum) or just on that song?

[Dave W]

Not sure what you mean, here's another of his big hits. You're right, not really bubblegum.

[uwe]

I'd say it's Easy Listening, nothing wrong with that, I like Neil Diamond and this guy ...

And Bobby actually sings on that second track too, I like that better.

What's the definition of Bubblegum, catchy simplistic pop with a chugging rhythms, danceable, naive lyrics, aimed at a teenage audience? Or is it "I know it when I hear it!"? 

I guess this was an example of very late US Bubblegum:

And this here of early 70s Brit Bubblegum (before that particular band turned glam and later on hard rock/power pop):

[uwe]

Whimsical blond pop folk disguising itself as real country?

Still nice. You can never have too much steel guitar.

[TBird1958]

 Imagine my surprise as I watch the opening minutes of episode 31 of "Clarkson's Farm" and I get to hear "MAMA WEER ALL CRAZEE NOW" by Slade............They finally broke in the U.S.

 https://youtu.be/TZJAFGPpXQQ

[uwe]

Meanwhile, Sparks advocate tried and trusted positions.