Thursday, October 15, 2015

Original Rock n Roll: A Continuing Series

Sure, the music I find most satisfying and interesting is classical, but there is the occasional pop song that, yes, rocks my world. Here is one of my favourites:


For some reason I never encountered that when it came out in 1971--probably because I stopped listening to pop music from sometime in 1970 until the early 80s. I heard this song for the first time on an episode of House, MD. Great song for a lot of reasons. It is truly original. It doesn't sound like any other song, even ones by The Who. It is a brilliant early use of a synthesizer.

8 comments:

Christine Lacroix said...

Wow! That was fantastic!

Bryan Townsend said...

Isn't it! Pop music doesn't have to be dreary and repetitive. Though sometimes I suspect that the dreary and repetitive makes more money, which is why they do it.

Christine Lacroix said...

They were talking about this on the radio in France the other day. I had never heard or iit. Apparently it became a hit in early 80s. Weird and repetitive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2x5pARGdE

Bryan Townsend said...

I was a bit of a Laurie Anderson fan back when this came out. Apparently it was partly inspired by an aria from a Massenet opera. But Laurie Anderson is NOT pop music.

Anonymous said...

Correction: There's no synthesizer in this tune.

Bryan Townsend said...

Not according to Wikipedia, but yes according to the notes to the album The Who: The Ultimate Collection. Mind you, I suppose it depends on how you define synthesizer. He certainly didn't use a Moog, instead a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 organ using its marimba repeat feature. It is an early example of a sequenced track, however it was created.

Christine Lacroix said...

I don't know a lot about music but I knew Laurie Anderson wasn't pop! I was just reminded of it because you said you didn't know how you had missed the Who piece....and I wondered how I'd missed the Laurie Anderson piece, though it's not so surprising since I hate the radio and I don't have a tv. Anyway I'm amazed that you liked it. I thought it was perfect for the musically challenged like me!

Bryan Townsend said...

Wait, did I say I liked O Superman? I guess I did. Laurie Anderson has a certain uniquely eerie quality that is hard to put into words. But it is definitely interesting. Laurie Anderson was never that widely known, though I probably heard about her first on CBC radio.