Renesongs wrote:
Excellent analysis Bob the only thing I think you overlooked is the growing trend to use cheap electronic synthesisers.
Synthesizers became cheaper, more reliable and also more powerful. And easier to use. Old Moogs and ARPs and even right up to things like the Prophet had loads of things to twiddle. And on some of the early models the oscillator circuits could be unstable.
The problem for me is that the way that synthesizers were used changed. Instead of being used to create new sounds they started being used to recreate existing sounds. And they came pre-programmed so instead of having to twiddle things until you got something that had possibilities and was interesting, you could push a button and get that cheesy string section sound or that cheesy rhodes sound or that cheesy marimba sound.
Anybody out there got the live Little Feat album "Waiting For Columbus"? Bill Payne plays some great solos on the synth, but not using it to sound more or less like lots of other things and thus save space on the stage, but he has created a unique sound works well for him. Because it's not trying to sound like a clavinet/rhodes/hammond/string section it's interesting.
Renesongs wrote:
They certainly got pumped at us ad neusiam during the 70's remember Saturday night fever . Mind you SA radio was always a bit behind the times. Abba and the Bee Gee best work? Matter of taste - My wife likes the Bee Gees I generally hold my ears and run for cover thank Clapton she doesn't like Abba
I would be more inclined to mount a vigorous defence for Abba than for Night Fever-era Bee Gees. I thought the Beegees had some interesting songs early on. Night Fever effectively relaunched them, but in a very different guise and, I thought, less interesting songs. They moved the emphasis from the harmony singing to Barry Gibb's falsetto. I'm sure their bank manager was happy.
Abba... there was real intelligence at work there (despite the cheesy costumes) and the productions were amazing. You don't necessarily have to like Dancing Queen, Super Trooper or Does Your Mother Know, but you should respect them for the craft that went into them. Dancing Queen has a pretty naff lyric, but Frida and Agnetha do a great job of the vocals. Agnetha was one of the great pop vocalists of the era.
That said they did some real crud as well - Fernando anybody? How about I Have A Dream? But their best numbers were really good. I wouldn't buy an album - too much filler. But the greatest hits compilations are a lot of fun.
OTOH I can hardly listen to what Clapton puts out these days. I think it's been pretty much downhill all the way since Money And Cigarettes. The stuff he did with Simon Climie producing was terminally yawn inducing. But he did do great things in the past - played with fire and inventiveness. These days he sounds like he needs a largish firecracker up his backside. I think he can still deliver, but needs something to push him. I saw him duet with BB King on the Grammies a couple of years ago - marvellous stuff. Largely, I suspect, because he wasn't surrounded by hired hands with orders to not show the boss up.
