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16  Classic Rock / The 80s / Re: Favorite 80s ballads on: August 06, 2010, 01:51:11 pm
Favorite 80s ballads?

Chicago: Hard Habit To Break/Will You Still Love Me?
Alabama: There’s No Way
George Strait: Baby’s Gotten Good At Goodbye/The Chair/You Look So Good In Love
Ambrosia: Biggest Part Of Me/How Much I Feel
Garth Brooks: The Dance
Hall & Oates: She’s Gone
Richard Marx: Angelina
Peter Cetera/Cher: After All
Paul Anka/Peter Cetera: Hold Me Till The Morning Comes
Eagles: I Can’t Tell You Why
Toto: I Won’t Hold You Back/I’ll Be Over You
Eddie Rabbit/Crystal Gayle: You & I
Ronnie Milsap: Lost In the 50s Tonight (In The Still Of The Night)
Lee Greenwood: She’s Lyin’
Gatlin Brothers: I Almost Called Her Baby By Mistake
Restless Heart: New York Hold Her Tight/Bluest Eyes In Texas
17  Classic Rock / The 80s / Re: 80's radio's influence on music on: August 03, 2010, 09:46:34 am
Poem:

They were that hard rocking ballad band, which worked until Chicago Twenty-1... then tastes abruptly changed on radio, and Chicago was unable to adapt to the change -mainly because of management and the desires of the record label.

I'm sure you've read the interviews where the band complained about being driven out of their niche by younger, newer artists (who have since fallen by the wayside as well).

I think the biggest weakness was that Chicago's primary songwriters were coming up empty, or if they had anything, management/the decision makers thought it wasn't any good.

I know a lot of fans like Stone of Sisyphus, but I'm not one of them. I thought it had some promise -and it does have some good stuff on it- but to me it sounds like what someone does after they have just come out of rehab. It's a step back to normalcy, (so that effort should be applauded) but they still are a mess, and fall back into a lot of their old tricks (Here With Me/Candle For The Dark). Songs like "Gimmie Gimmie" and "Intensity" are much more of Chicago's sound  "clean and sober".

When I listen to SOS, David Foster's quote keeps coming to mind regarding the band c.1980: "I'm listening to them play, and the music is incredible... but the songs aren't any good."
18  Classic Rock / The 70s / Re: 70s Soul on: August 02, 2010, 10:18:03 pm
Too many to mention...

Here's a few:

Show & Tell -AL Wilson
I'll Be Around -The Spinners
You Make Me Feel Brand New -The Stylistics
Have You Seen Her -The Chi-Lites
Me & Mrs. Jones -Billy Paul
Always & Forever -Heatwave
Ooh Child -The Five Stairsteps
Let's Stay Together -Al Green
For The Love Of Money -O'Jays
Fire -Ohio Players
Get On Up (Like A Sex Machine) -James Brown
That's The Way Of The World -Earth, Wind & Fire
Back In Love Again -LTD
Sara Smile/She's Gone -Hall & Oates (a little Blue-eyed soul thrown in)
You'll Never Find A Love Like Mine -Lou Rawls
Marvin Gaye -Let's Get It On
Theme From Shaft -Isaac Hayes
Barry White -My First, My Last, My Everything
Thank You Falletinme Be Micelf Again/Dance To The Music -Sly and the Family Stone

19  Beyond the Horizon / Instrumental / Re: from movies on: August 02, 2010, 08:13:45 pm
The legendary Sam Spence of NFL Films fame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzHpn_VQMWE&feature=related

(With the voice of God, John Facenda):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1vKXmsIMKw

And Johnny Pearson's theme, "Heavy Action" which is far more familar under a different name...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ8f9LPks_4&playnext=1&videos=rCiDGYyp1tc
20  Beyond the Horizon / Jazz / Re: Favorite Big Band/Swing Classics/Standards on: August 02, 2010, 04:51:14 pm
I've got a working Victrola, Kath, if you ever want to play them...

Those are all good ones you all listed. I'm a Glenn Miller fan, but enjoy Louie Prima too...
21  Classic Rock / The 80s / Re: 80's radio's influence on music on: August 02, 2010, 04:45:52 pm
Well, Robert likes to invoke the spirit of Terry Kath as an ally to argue that both he and Kath wanted to do far more than just pop hit singles...

But keep in mind Guercio's demands:

Guercio would have the band record up in Caribou -let's say that takes five weeks in the winter, then they have some down time, then the spring/summer tour goes where the band plays an obscene amount of dates (well over 200) including a European and Asian tour, then an album comes out, there is the fall tour, then some down time with another trip back to Caribou to work on the next album.

In 1969/1970 the record/release Chicago II... by 1976, they have released Chicago XI. That's a hell of a lot of music to crank out within six years. They barely have time to catch their breath, much less consider the impact their decisions are having on their future.

As Terry's widow, Camela put it, it became a machine... a hit making machine.

Guercio might have been disappointed in what he got out of Chicago, but perhaps if he gave them more breathing space to compose and refocus on the music, instead of just printing money, perhaps the band could have accomplished more of what he wanted.
22  Classic Rock / The 80s / Re: 80's radio's influence on music on: August 02, 2010, 03:23:58 pm
Exactly, just imagine type of music they were capable of in the 80's. Especially when they had an Axe like DB on board they could have been every bit as rockin as anyone, but they just kept getting slammed by ballad lust. Not that I didn't enjoy the ballads. I too only felt they were scratching the surface of their potential. Which is pretty amazing when you consider just how good they were at a sub-par level compared to their ability.

Chicago made ballads because that's what sold for them... they would try uptempo tunes and record labels wouldn't release them because "it didn't sound like Chicago".

Chicago (as a band), Guercio and later HK management, Columbia and later Warner Bros., recorded/released ballads because that became the Chicago sound -just as it was increasingly obvious that Peter Cetera was the vocalist who stood the best chance of getting Chicago on the radio.
23  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate on: August 01, 2010, 10:27:25 pm
I thought Maroon 5 captured the late 80s sound with their hit single, "This Love"...

As far as Kravitz's work with Chicago... Jason was bad, but Robert's lazy lounge singer crooning "What's been going on..." usually has me pushing the skip button before he even finishes the first syllable.

Kravitz has a reputation as a control freak and has to include himself in songs he produces, and "The Only One" wasn't an exception.

Ironically, when he comes in at the end of the song, that's the part I actually enjoy.
24  Classic Rock / The 80s / Re: 80's radio's influence on music on: August 01, 2010, 10:17:22 pm
Agreed Saxman... but I'd say that James Guercio had a good ear for selecting the wheat from the chaff... and while he was just as guilty as the rest of the band for not know when to say when (when it came to lengths of songs and how much should be included on an album), he did understand what it would take for Chicago to become the mega success it became in the 1970s.
25  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate on: July 29, 2010, 03:58:12 pm
Well, admittedly I grew up on AM radio in the 70s -with my formative years really being the early to mid 70s, so I grew up listening to a lot of Bread, Barry Manilow, the Carpenters, Carole King etc. right along side the likes of Stevie Wonder, Barry White, the Stylistics, and so on...

So yeah, I like a lot of wimpy songs... but at the same time, just because it's a ballad doesn't mean I'll like it. There's quite a few that were very popular that I find dreadful.

But that 70s sound of strings, organ, the "what-cha-ka-ta" guitar sound (listen to "Love's Theme" as a classic example) is firmly embeded in my psyche... which is why I enjoy "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago... that sound fits right in with that 70s sound -which is why it was such a hit.
26  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists I hate that everyone else seems to love on: July 28, 2010, 02:08:36 pm
I despise Morrissey and his depressing music.

I don't particularly care for The Cure either.

Both were extremely popular with girls I knew during my high school/college years.
27  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists You Once Loved, But Now Dislike on: July 22, 2010, 01:24:58 pm
Classic rock radio does a great job in killing the love for just about any old song, because their format is so rigid.

Skynryd up next? Let me guess: Freebird, Gimmie Three Steps, Sweet Home Alabama or What's Your Name

Eagles? Hotel California, Life In The Fast Lane, Victim of Love or Take It Easy

Clapton? ****, Lay Down Sally, Layla, After Midnight (the original version) Sunshine On Your Love or White Room

Areosmith? Sweet Emotion, Dream On, Come Together, Walk This Way

and so on...

Album cuts? No way. Mellow songs? Are you kidding? Maybe the over-the-top hair band power ballads, but nothing like Lyin' Eyes, the slower, blusier version of "After Midnight" and so on.

They just play the same songs over and over and over again...
28  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists You Once Loved, But Now Dislike on: July 22, 2010, 10:55:50 am
I don't dislike Led Zeppelin, but I am pretty much sick of most of their music.
29  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists You Once Disliked, But Now Love on: July 22, 2010, 10:54:21 am
The band Rush

I've read the comments about Geddy Lee's vocals, and I used to agree with them... but what happened was I really just sat back and listened to the music and the lyrics, and became a fan.

I don't love everything they do, but the songs I do love, I love a lot:

Red Barchetta
Red Sector A
Big Money
Subdivisions
Force 10
YYZ
Losing It
Witchhunt
30  Beyond the Horizon / Cornucopia / Re: Artists I hate that everyone else seems to love on: July 20, 2010, 02:55:33 pm
As one who listens but is not a **** fan of Steely Dan, which of the following songs are sung by whom:

Reelin' In The Years
FM
Hey Nineteen
Peg
My Old School
Ricky, Don't Lose That Number
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