Unforeseen musical preferences

[RichardB]

Richard Barrett I Open and Close

I can't understand why it's not on everyone's list!

Returning to the Carpenters, "Close to You" is beautiful but for me first place goes to "Goodbye to Love".

[ahinton]

I can't understand why it's not on everyone's list!

Returning to the Carpenters, "Close to You" is beautiful but for me first place goes to "Goodbye to Love".

Can't argue with that! If I recall correctly, Richard C wrote it, whereas Close to You was a Bacharach number...

[cloughie]

I can't understand why it's not on everyone's list!

Returning to the Carpenters, "Close to You" is beautiful but for me first place goes to "Goodbye to Love".

Particulaly where the guitaist goes off piste - I understand eo far out - they kept it in! I also think their arrangement of ‘Ticket to rde’ is superb!

[Serial_Apologist]

Mine would be contemporary Christian soft rock (though I have mentioned in passing before )

Plenty of such simpering stuff on Sunday Worship these days, probably down to that American evangelist influence partly via The Alpha Course that seems to be taking over CofE worship. I led the school choir by the time I left to form my own views about life and death. The old hymns (English Hymnal), anthems (Dyson, Howells) and carols were the one thing, along with the backing rituals, I liked about Christian observances.

[RichardB]

Particulaly where the guitaist goes off piste - I understand eo far out - they kept it in!

Actually it was Richard Carpenter's idea for the guitarist to play in what was then an unusual style for a ballad, as he (Tony Peluso) describes it:

In the middle, Richard says 'That's where you play'. I'm thinking: 'What would be right?' I played something that was very soft and easy, I tried to stay out of the way. Obviously, it didn't happen. Richard said: 'No, no, no, not like that. Play the melody for five bars and then burn it up! Soar off into the stratosphere. Go for it!'. He wanted an aggressive, sawtooth guitar solo in the middle of this Doris Day easy-listening-style record. I thought, 'he can't be serious'," the guitarist recalled in 2002 of the two fuzz-enhanced solos he added to the bridge and the extended coda. "Inadvertently, Richard had broken new ground. No one had ever really mixed the elements of rock'n'roll and easy listening. Totally crazy. I take a tiny bit of credit for being there and playing it, but it was Richard's great idea. From then on, it became very commonplace for a big power ballad to have a raging guitar solo."

[Ein Heldenleben]

I can't understand why it's not on everyone's list!

Returning to the Carpenters, "Close to You" is beautiful but for me first place goes to "Goodbye to Love".

Yes the summit of their all too brief oeuvre .,I’ve often thought the chromaticism of the opening phrase in particular the D,Dflat,C of “bye to love” eerily reminiscent of Tristan which plays into my theory that this is their Liebestod . The track also benefits from a quite superb guitar solo complete with tasty distortion - something that might have livened up parts of Wagner’s Gesamtkuntswerk..

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Plenty of such simpering stuff on Sunday Worship these days, probably down to that American evangelist influence partly via The Alpha Course that seems to be taking over CofE worship.

I was sacked as church organist for refusing to play that stuff.

[Pulcinella]

I was sacked as church organist for refusing to play that stuff.

Good to read of a person with principles and standards!
(You, I mean, not whoever sacked you!)

[Pulcinella]

I'm a bit confused by the title of this thread: unexpected rather than unforeseen, perhaps?

[RichardB]

The track also benefits from a quite superb guitar solo complete with tasty distortion - something that might have livened up parts of Wagner’s Gesamtkuntswerk..

(see above for the story behind it)

As for Wagner and the electric guitar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWsTONEvjsU

[hmvman]

[QUOTE=MickyD;902946... I also have a weakness for musicals and vintage dance bands![/QUOTE]

I'm also a fan of vintage dance bands. Another 'weakness' is 'light music' - the sort written by Eric Coates, Leroy Anderson, Charles Williams et al.

A very Merry Christmas to all Forum members!

[Joseph K]

(see above for the story behind it)

As for Wagner and the electric guitar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWsTONEvjsU

Nice 8-string he's got there.

[kernelbogey]

'Snowflakes are dancing' (Isao Tomita) - introduced me to Debussy's piano music!

[RichardB]

'Snowflakes are dancing' (Isao Tomita) - introduced me to Debussy's piano music!

Same here! and by sheer coincidence I have it playing now.

[Ein Heldenleben]

(see above for the story behind it)

As for Wagner and the electric guitar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWsTONEvjsU

Excellent .
A propos of Karen Carpenter - never done it but it’s always struck me as singing and playing the drums at the same time is an exceptionally difficult thing to do. Which leads me to another unforeseen enthusiasm :
Phil Collins