The Slightly Obscure Music Discussion And Quizzy Thread

Interesting breakdown, thank you!
 
After hearing Colin's musical history, I had to toss in a bit of my own.

When I was learning organ, I had many styles to try to emulate. I determined that Earl Grant had a style I liked a lot and he was my first keyboard idol. Although I respected him for his skills, I didn't like the style of Jimmie Smith because you could never figure out what he was playing due to his excessive improvisation. I later learned some things listening to Art Neville of the Funky Meters. A lesser-known but really nice artist I liked a lot was Eddie Baxter. He was the other guy who talked me out of a musical career - not by saying "Don't do it" but just by telling me what his life was like, and I didn't want to bounce around that much. Eddie recorded on Dot Records for a while and did concerts for the Lowrey Organ company.

I recorded a few disks as a background (or studio) artist. Never featured, but you could hear me if you happened to have one of the records. By now, NOBODY has any of them. I had a couple of copies but they were destroyed when a cabinet collapsed due to flooding by Katrina, and the guy who mastered the records was deceased by then. My professional musical career pretty much ended when I graduated with my doctorate because I was making real money and concentrating on getting established in the "real" world of industrial chemical & computer applications.
 
Interesting Doc. Shame you lost your copies - no hope of anything you did is on Spotify I suppose?
Col
 
One of my numerous "mondegreens" comes from Neil Diamond's song "Forever in blue jeans". When the chorus is sung, what I hear is: "reverend blue jeans", not "forever in blue jeans". Then there is Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets". Instead of hearing "electric boots", I hear "electric boobs" ;)
 
Interesting Doc. Shame you lost your copies - no hope of anything you did is on Spotify I suppose?
Col
Given that the recordings in question never caught on and "music on the Internet" hadn't become a thing at that time (and wouldn't for another 25+ years minimum), I'd have to give that a "very high probability NO."
 
This is one of the greatest movie songs ever. Why it was never reprised in the new Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick seems unfathomable.
 
Given that the recordings in question never caught on and "music on the Internet" hadn't become a thing at that time (and wouldn't for another 25+ years minimum), I'd have to give that a "very high probability NO."
Wow! Sorry I spoke.
Col
 
Actually, not a problem. I've recorded a few things in-studio as backup to a vocalist or duo and also as part of the "garage band" of which I was a member, but you know the music industry. If nobody buys it and the DJs don't play it, nobody remembers it. I cannot say that at the time I was a stellar artist anyway. I was competent but not enough to stand out in the crowd.

These days, I still make no claims of brilliance but at least I still enjoy playing now and then for funsies.
 
Now I don't expect many (any lol) of you to actually like this song as it's pretty strange (check the lyrics if you want a chuckle) and aggressive, but the drumming in it is just mind blowing so thought I'd share anyway. Since there is no decent footage of the actual Tool drummer performing this, here is a more than decent cover by some other very talented guy.

From Wikipedia:
"Rosetta Stoned" is a song by the American progressive metal band Tool. It was released on May 2, 2006, as the eighth track off their fourth studio album, 10,000 Days.

Structurally, the song contains complex fast-to-slow drum fills, performed by the band's drummer Danny Carey.[1] The song uses 4/4, 5/8, 5/4, 9/8, 11/8, 3/4, and 6/4 time signatures[2] and is characterised by its aggressive riffs.[3] The song also features unconventional percussion instruments[4] and polyrhythms.[5]

The name of the song is a reference to the Rosetta Stone.[3] Lyrically, the song deals with a man's encounter with aliens, spiritual realizations, and his state of a coma after a DMT trip.[6] The song is written in a stream of consciousness style.[3]

 
Have to admit, of all those time signatures, the only one I've never seen before is 11/8 - though I've only seen 9/8 perhaps once or twice in 60 years.
 
Not a big Tool fan...but that was just damn impressive! Drummers are so "accidently" cool - and they aint even tryin'...
 
Now I don't expect many (any lol) of you to actually like this song as it's pretty strange (check the lyrics if you want a chuckle) and aggressive, but the drumming in it is just mind blowing so thought I'd share anyway. Since there is no decent footage of the actual Tool drummer performing this, here is a more than decent cover by some other very talented guy.

From Wikipedia:
"Rosetta Stoned" is a song by the American progressive metal band Tool. It was released on May 2, 2006, as the eighth track off their fourth studio album, 10,000 Days.

Structurally, the song contains complex fast-to-slow drum fills, performed by the band's drummer Danny Carey.[1] The song uses 4/4, 5/8, 5/4, 9/8, 11/8, 3/4, and 6/4 time signatures[2] and is characterised by its aggressive riffs.[3] The song also features unconventional percussion instruments[4] and polyrhythms.[5]

The name of the song is a reference to the Rosetta Stone.[3] Lyrically, the song deals with a man's encounter with aliens, spiritual realizations, and his state of a coma after a DMT trip.[6] The song is written in a stream of consciousness style.[3]


Very impressive and fun to watch, thank you for posting!

In my younger years up until about 10 yrs ago I was a drummer, albeit very much in the "mediocre" category, compared to anything halfway professional that you see. But I sure enjoyed it. I played in a couple bands that did small things (like rich people's backyard parties they threw for their high school grads, or coffee shops), but primarily enjoyed drumming for small churches. It was a perfect combination, because the songs were very moving to me (as a drummer, in some slower musical styles especially religious music, you really get into and indeed help call out the feeling of the song at any given moment) ... And, as a bonus, they were struggling small churches and not overly picky - if you could create a decent and appropriate rhythm and follow the leader, they were grateful. For free, of course. It's been many years since I was in a Guitar Center drooling over the latest splash cymbal but brings back great memories.
Strange how you think back to the things you thought you needed money for back when you were broke (I think of my children, now-raised), and when you finally have plenty you no longer need or want the things you did then! AND you realize you didn't really need some of them back then at all (I'm thinking of toys for kids who were perfectly happy without the expensive stuff!)

Anyway I've always taken great offense (trying to be a good sport!) about the drummer jokes, like "the drummer is the guy who hangs out with the musicians". I think it's just a matter of perspective. For example I was a fluent pianist in my years <25, but perhaps that was unusual for a person who ended up drumming. Also, drummers do intricate rhythmic stuff that the average person couldn't dream of doing, save those with that intricately built-in sense of rhythm. Further - and something I never hear anyone say - in some styles of music (church stuff bring chief among them), the drummer interprets the emotion of the song at any given moment and reacts accordingly to bolster it....It's actually a very sensitive, perceptive sort of thing that may not be considered "playing music" but has a hella lot to do with the perception and knowledge of music, regardless.

That drummer is awesome - mostly for remembering the time signatures IMO.
 

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