For me, the punk spirit has been evident in music that was being played before some of the punks were even born. Jazz was very much the punk of its day. Then bebop was. Then free jazz especially was. It still is. It's more punk in just about every way than actual punk rock. What we generally accept as the punk attitude and spirit was already for grandmas and grandpas by the time punk caught on. Blondie to me were a nicely varied band who, like quite a few other artists of their time leapt onto a bandwagon that enabled them to have a home. Some people would view that with contempt. I don't. Like many in the punk era, they were quite articulate and arty and "punk" became a car park for them that would enable their particular car to rest somewhere before driving off on interesting adventures.But, at heart, I call them a punk band. Everything they've recorded is done in the punk spirit
Vega, hands down. A friend of mine tried to turn me on to Suze and succeeded. Another friend around the same time tried to turn me onto Laurie Anderson because she knew I was a sucker for violins in a jazz and rock context.....and failed. She's one of those artists I should love, a bit like Traffic. She ticks all my boxes. Off the wall, creative, violin player. But Vega's, well, predictable, oeuvre won out !Suzanne Vega or Laurie Anderson
For me, the punk spirit has been evident in music that was being played before some of the punks were even born. Jazz was very much the punk of its day. Then bebop was. Then free jazz especially was. It still is. It's more punk in just about every way than actual punk rock. What we generally accept as the punk attitude and spirit was already for grandmas and grandpas by the time punk caught on. Blondie to me were a nicely varied band who, like quite a few other artists of their time leapt onto a bandwagon that enabled them to have a home. Some people would view that with contempt. I don't. Like many in the punk era, they were quite articulate and arty and "punk" became a car park for them that would enable their particular car to rest somewhere before driving off on interesting adventures.
More power to them.
Vega, hands down. A friend of mine tried to turn me on to Suze and succeeded. Another friend around the same time tried to turn me onto Laurie Anderson because she knew I was a sucker for violins in a jazz and rock context.....and failed. She's one of those artists I should love, a bit like Traffic. She ticks all my boxes. Off the wall, creative, violin player. But Vega's, well, predictable, oeuvre won out !
Life and love are not logical !!
I wasn't a real fanboy of either...though while Vega got the radio play, you're right...kind of predictable, and I never really though any of her songs were interesting. Her big "hit", "Luka"...got to a point where it was annoying to listen to after awhile...not sure why...maybe because at the time, I/we were into totally different music.
I always thought Anderson was more interesting musically, even though I didn't sit around listening to her stuff all day long, and she really wasn't ever Pop-radio friendly.
I mean...Anderson was on a similar music level as someone like Adrian Belew, who I listened to more than Anderson, mainly because of his work with Bowie, but he also had some good songs that kinda made it into the mainstream...though not really...and he was also a guitar guy, as extreme as he was with how he played it.
I've got 2-3 of Belew's albums...none by Anderson or Vega.
That was something like the mid-80's right when they worked together...?...and there was a movie she did around that time, where was also the guitar player.
I never saw it, just remember reading about it.
The mid-'80s was one of the periods where I kinda dropped out of recording and pretty much wasn't paying much to music.
I had been a big Bowie fan in the mid/late /70s and into the early '80s...went to see him in Madison Square Garden when he was doing his "Serious Moonlight Tour " tour.
Anyway, during that time I was in a band and I was also doing a lot of home recording, having put together a small setup, back when the term home recording didn't even exist....and then the band broke up, and I ended up moving out of NJ to Upstate NY in '84, and for awhile there, I just stopped playing and stopped paying attention to any new music...I just needed a brake...so I went skiing, for a bunch of years......before I got back into the music around '88.
I didn't really "discover" Belew as a solo artist until the early-90s, which I think was when he had some really good success with 2-3 albums during that period.
I mean... I knew of him from back in the Bowie years...but it wasn't until then that I really listened to a lot of his solo work...which I thought was really good.
Funny...just recently I pulled out a couple of his CDs and listened to them again after a long time.
You guys got me watching Suzanne Vega's 1986 Live Cracking, which led me to this cool video from Ray Manzarek. Ten minutes of how it was created :
RAY MANZAREK-RIDERS ON THE STORM - YouTube
You guys got me watching Suzanne Vega's 1986 Live Cracking, which led me to this cool video from Ray Manzarek. Ten minutes of how it was created :
RAY MANZAREK-RIDERS ON THE STORM - YouTube
AXS TV
"Mr. Mojo Risin' - The Story Of L.A. Woman"
It was done in 2012...it's been on a couple of other channels.