Years 16 thru 21--The angst period

[dwillis45]

Okay here goes...

During what years were you age 16 to 21, and what was playing in the background while you let your hormones loose on mankind? Was this music formative or influential? Was it the best music ever or has your view of it been supplanted by maturity. Did you primarily listen to music of this period or a mix of older songs? If you were also playing older music, how far back did it go?

And if you're still age 16-21. It's past your bedtime. You have school tomorrow.

 

[gecko zzed]

Between the ages of 16 and 21 my musical influences, and consequently the songs I played, came from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dylan, Donovan, John Hammond, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, then King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

I still regard those acts as being, if not the best, close to it. That could be because of the exposure to it at the time. These days, the music I listen to most is the music that I have recorded, either that of people who have come in, or my own.

 

[witzendoz]

Between 16 and 21 I joined a band (at 17) that was playing 5 to 6 shows a week, I had no life outside the band, no birthdays, no new years except working (I worked out I played or mixed 20 NYE's in a row), great times.

Alan.

 

[mr average]

Okay here goes...

During what years were you age 16 to 21, and what was playing in the background while you let your hormones loose on mankind? Was this music formative or influential? Was it the best music ever or has your view of it been supplanted by maturity. Did you primarily listen to music of this period or a mix of older songs? If you were also playing older music, how far back did it go?

And if you're still age 16-21. It's past your bedtime. You have school tomorrow.

Mostly I don't recall songs or TV from that time as I was at the uni and it sucked up all my time.
But it would have mostly been songs from the late 50s and early 60s if I did hear any on the car radio.

The 50s was the peak of everything including popular music. It has been all downhill since then.

 

[miroslav]

The 50s was the peak of everything including popular music. It has been all downhill since then.

You're on a downhill roll!

If you were at the university during the early '60s...where were you during the late '60s, '70, etc...asleep?
Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the music from the '50s and early '60s...but to say that everything after was "downhill"...sounds to me like you're one of those people who locks into music they hear during their teens and early 20s...and then that's all they know for the rest of their lives.
You're not one of the 60-70 year old guys who sing Elvis songs while in the shower, are you?

 

[mr average]

You're on a downhill roll!

If you were at the university during the early '60s...where were you during the late '60s, '70, etc...asleep?
Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the music from the '50s and early '60s...but to say that everything after was "downhill"...sounds to me like you're one of those people who locks into music they hear during their teens and early 20s...and then that's all they know for the rest of their lives.
You're not one of the 60-70 year old guys who sing Elvis songs while in the shower, are you?

i cant sing at all

but i do have a lot of elvis cds as well as cd collections from 50s and 60s
after that the stuff became unlistenable for me and kept getting worse in the 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s

 

[miroslav]

Well I like Elvis...but c'mon, you have to be pretty close-minded to say everything just got worse after him and that period.
And what are you talking about...the styles of music or the quality of the recordings?

 

[mr average]

Well I like Elvis...but c'mon, you have to be pretty close-minded to say everything just got worse after him and that period.
And what are you talking about...the styles of music or the quality of the recordings?

the music itself

now it is just how loud can you play and keep screaming the same line over and over

or its some sort of hiphop nonsense that all sounds alike

 

[gecko zzed]

I find that every era has its mixture of gems and dross.

I can find heaps to like in every decade, as well as stuff I find painful

 

[dwillis45]

I find that every era has its mixture of gems and dross.

I can find heaps to like in every decade, as well as stuff I find painful

I think that's probably close to the truth. Although I find that as I age, I much less tolerant of current popular forms. I can generally handle pop music from most decades up until about 1990 or so. But even I have my breaking point. And like Mr. Average, it becomes crap and I become intolerant. Take Cher, for example, if I was trapped in a dentist chair, I could listen to Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. But I have to get out of the chair when she stars dancing with sailors and using too much autotune.

 

[dwillis45]

The 50s was the peak of everything including popular music. It has been all downhill since then.

Wow. I didn't know they had college (as we yanks say) back in the 50's.

And you gotta love a man steadfast in his beliefs. You're even more of a curmudgeon than I am.

 

[dwillis45]

Have to agree with Miroslav on this one. It's really hard to dismiss the 60's and to a lesser extent the 70's and 80's. Rock and roll, at least, was born there but wasn't completely fleshed out as a genre until perhaps 1980 or 1990. I would argue sometime during the period 1974 to 1979...when I was 16 to 21.

 

[dwillis45]

When I was in my angst years, I was hit with a dizzying array of songs and styles. I had an older brother and sister. So I heard everything that they played from the 1960's I still remember my sister in a Beatles sweatshirt listing to 45's and that was probably around 1964 or so. My brother listened more to Dylan and I picked up that influence along with the rest of the early folk music. So by the time I reached 16, my ears were pretty full. Then comes an avalanche of classic rock which reached it's zenith in the mid 70's. But that's not all. Classic rock got mixed with everything from disco to country rock (Outlaws, Marshall Tucker, Allman Brothers, etc.). And right in the middle punk began. By the time new wave hit, I was 21 an knew not to dress in spandex.

 

[dwillis45]

Between 16 and 21 I joined a band (at 17) that was playing 5 to 6 shows a week, I had no life outside the band, no birthdays, no new years except working (I worked out I played or mixed 20 NYE's in a row), great times.

Alan.

Damn! That's harsh. A musical equivalent of the Triangle Shirt Factory. And I thought the Aussies had child labor laws.

 

[TalismanRich]

The angst years?... I don't think there was a lot of teenage angst.

I can't say that the those 5 years are the real focus of my listening today. By 1969, I was already heavily into Hendrix, Cream, Buffalo Springfield, BST, but I had plenty of older stuff by then. Johnny Rivers, Beach Boys, Duane Eddy, Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds Kinks.

I still remember listening to my mom's Floyd Cramer and dad's Santo and Johnny records. By 16 I had been playing guitar for 5 years. By '72 I was working at the college radio station, so there was no problem finding new and different stuff. Also took a few classes on classical music, mostly preferring the Romantic and early 20th century modern stuff over the three Bs and Mozart. A good Prokofiev or Debussey is more to my taste.

Today it was Gin Blossoms and Altered Five Blues band, Monday it was Brian Setzer Orchestra, last week was Eagles and Tommy Emmanuel. Yesterday I was trying to work out Steely Dan's Josie (playing those 9th chords is a b*tch).

I tend to prefer good vocal performances with real harmony.

The great thing about music today is that there is so much available, but that also makes it tough to weed out all the junk from the real treasures. Now that EVERYONE can buy a computer and microphone and start programming their "beatz" and cut and pasting samples there's a LOT of junk. Thankfully there are still some musicians out there.