Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Count Lucanor]

[Sy Borg]

Count, Child in Time is a childhood favourite :)

I find it interesting how popular hard rock is in Latin America. It seems a long way from traditional percussion-based music from those areas. I've tended to assume that, with a long history of sophisticated music-making, Latin American music fans are more likely to appreciate instrumental talent than most young westerners, who mainly focus on lyrics and if the beat is danceable. Is that reasonable or am I off the mark?

[Pattern-chaser]

Count, Child in Time is a childhood favourite

Me too! I heard Deep Purple in Rock when it came out, in early 1970, when I was 15. Purple were, as a result, the first band I discovered for myself, not on Top of the Pops. Led Zeppelin followed soon after, and my music journey began... Soon after, I drifted into progressive- and jazz-rock. [We didn't call it "prog" then.] A lot later still, I finally drifted into jazz, in all its variation, and that's where I am today. Deep Purple began that journey for me!

[Count Lucanor]

Count, Child in Time is a childhood favourite

I find it interesting how popular hard rock is in Latin America. It seems a long way from traditional percussion-based music from those areas. I've tended to assume that, with a long history of sophisticated music-making, Latin American music fans are more likely to appreciate instrumental talent than most young westerners, who mainly focus on lyrics and if the beat is danceable. Is that reasonable or am I off the mark?

You're entirely right. My first love was The Beatles, long before I started to understand what the lyrics said (in fact, even today I don't really pay that much attention to what they say).

I think most people outside Latin America tend to underestimate its diversity. Even local traditions that might have a common base across countries, evolved in ways that made us all different. In all areas. I once was in Switzerland and the hosts, very nice, educated people, told us they would take us to a Spanish restaurant. Turns out it was sort of a Mexican restaurant, but they wouldn't have a clue.

[Sy Borg]

Count, Child in Time is a childhood favourite :)

I find it interesting how popular hard rock is in Latin America. It seems a long way from traditional percussion-based music from those areas. I've tended to assume that, with a long history of sophisticated music-making, Latin American music fans are more likely to appreciate instrumental talent than most young westerners, who mainly focus on lyrics and if the beat is danceable. Is that reasonable or am I off the mark?

You're entirely right. My first love was The Beatles, long before I started to understand what the lyrics said (in fact, even today I don't really pay that much attention to what they say).

I think most people outside Latin America tend to underestimate its diversity. Even local traditions that might have a common base across countries, evolved in ways that made us all different. In all areas. I once was in Switzerland and the hosts, very nice, educated people, told us they would take us to a Spanish restaurant. Turns out it was sort of a Mexican restaurant, but they wouldn't have a clue.

Ha! Spain, Mexico, what's the difference? Like Australia and Austria :)

The Beatles were my first musical love too. Still, I always prefer music with great instrumentation. Being on the spectrum, I have much trouble deciphering lyrics unless the singer's diction is spot on (same issue with movies and real life) so, if a track has repetitive music to leave leave room for lyrics, chances are I will not be interested.

Sticking with hard rock of the early 70s, this track always reminded me of a B-grade horror film. I am in the Zappa camp of horror fans - the cheesier they are, the better.

[Count Lucanor]

Loved all of Black Sabbath line-ups and loved that they could make songs like that with very slow tempo and still sound heavy.

When it comes to pop and rock music, what makes it for me are the riffs, sound of instruments, song structure, etc. Lyrics are like 10%. Guitars are by far my favorite instruments, bass and singing come second and drums the last, unless it is Dave Lombardo, of course.

[Count Lucanor]

Talking about Latin America and understanding English lyrics, there's a funny and kind of cute story involving the lyrics of Twisted Sister's We're not Gonna Take it, which for us sounds like "huevos con aceite...y limón" (eggs with oil and lemon). So Mr. Dee Snyder learns about it and goes on to please the crowd in Chile:

[Sy Borg]

I love guitars, basses, organs, pianos, violins, sax, cello, bassoons.

But most of all I love drums and Ringo is one of my favourites. He kills it in this track - whatta sound!

[Pattern-chaser]

I love guitars, basses, organs, pianos, violins, sax, cello, bassoons.

But most of all I love drums...

Me too! It's the explosive nature of the sound. Many (plucked) string instruments are quite explosive too. I always liked standing outside (under cover) and listening to a thunderstorm. That incredible sound when the lightning strikes!

My first experience of hi-fi was an acetate, cut by the guy who played it for me, on his mono, valve-powered, horn loudspeaker. The music was Ted Heath and his orchestra, from a live FM broadcast in 1953. The first song began with a snare-drum roll. I staggered backwards in shock and amazement! I'd never imagined that such a sound was even possible, by man-made means. And that was it; I was hooked on hi-fi for life!

[Count Lucanor]

I like RIngo's playing in many Beatles songs. This is one of them:

[Papus79]

[Pattern-chaser]

I've finally found the steel to prune my treasured music collection! [It hasn't been easy! ] I've got rid of a few where the recording quality was too bad, and the music not good enough to justify keeping a poor-quality recording. I've also been pruning metal; not that I had that much metal! Recently, I have divested myself of Voivod and Enter Shikari.

I retain my liking for heavy rock — Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, in my day! — but metal goes too far. All the individual noises have so many other noises surrounding them that the result has no space left in it. Everything is louder than everything else, then they turn it up. From now on, my closest approach to metal is Punishment of Luxury's Laughing Academy (which is probably heavy rock, not metal anyway).

[Sy Borg]

I retain my liking for heavy rock — Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, in my day! 😉 — but metal goes too far. All the individual noises have so many other noises surrounding them that the result has no space left in it. Everything is louder than everything else, then they turn it up. From now on, my closest approach to metal is Punishment of Luxury's Laughing Academy (which is probably heavy rock, not metal anyway).

I feel much the same way. The only metal band I ever liked was Black Sabbath.

One of my favourite hard rock bands was a local group, Midnight Oil. I saw them live many times at a time when the Oz Rock scene was at its best, with many terrific live acts, and the Oils were head and shoulders above the rest IMO.

[Sy Borg]

Or if you like the idea of prog punk, this is about as good as it gets. The Tubes were outstanding players, especially the drummer Prairie Prince, and they had a ton of imagination.

[Pattern-chaser]

I retain my liking for heavy rock — Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, in my day! — but metal goes too far. All the individual noises have so many other noises surrounding them that the result has no space left in it. Everything is louder than everything else, then they turn it up. From now on, my closest approach to metal is Punishment of Luxury's Laughing Academy (which is probably heavy rock, not metal anyway).

I feel much the same way. The only metal band I ever liked was Black Sabbath.

I always called Sabbuff heavy rock. When they started, I don't think the terms 'metal' or 'heavy metal' had been adapted for use in music. But no matter. I do remember enjoying Sabbuff's 'Paranoid', soon before I heard DP for the first time. Good times!