Entertainment For Lively Minds
Time-transcending tracks
Posted by Bruised Mike on 13 October 2010 - 6:41am.
The iPod shuffle came up trumps the other day when it thre 2-4-2 Foxtrot (The Lear Jet Song) by The Byrds at me. It really struck me that this song has stood the test of time better than most of their other material - it fist appeared on 1966's Fifth Dimension LP.
Does anyone else know of any 30-ish year old tracks that possess the same timeless quality? Like if you played 2-4-2 to kids today they could well be astonished by the funky guitar and unusal lyics.
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Really?
Nothing says "60s filler album track" quite like it, to my ears anyway. Don't get me wrong, I do love this band. I would counter the most of Sweetheart of the Rodeo has stood up better, if only because it is the cornerstone album of Americana. It's not so much that it hasn't dated, but nobody has changed the template.
Yes Really
I thought for many years "filler" and that is probably what it was. Nevertheless when I heard it the other day, WOW!
I will listen again
Any excuse to play the album!
If I read 'timeless quality' in the same way as you...
then I would suggest that Medicated Goo by Traffic could be beloved by the yoof.
Nick Drake's
albums have stood the test of time probably because they were not immediately a commercial success on release. There are a few tracks that stand out as being dated, usually the more jazz-influenced ones like Poor Boy but the Robert Kirby arranged tracks seem to have fared well.
Mid-period Kraftwerk
Has wrongfooted me several times into thinking it was something much more contemporary. I'm thinking specifically of Trans-Europe Express, The Man Machine and Computer World.
Rock n Roll by Led Zep
No son of mine could dislike that.
Safe As Milk
Pretty much the whole album sounds like it's been beamed in from the future.
Out Of Thin Air
The sound of a music and a culture being pulled from the air. FORTY FOUR YEARS AGO. L&M were barely in their mid-twenties. Released today it would still make jaws drop.
Curiously, I heard a 1970 Chicago track...
...on last night's Radcliffe & Maconie. I'd never heard it before and it was only announced afterwards - I thought it was something totally new, something from a bunch of 20 year olds in 2010. Albeit, something with a deliberately retro feel. But the production ideas felt remarkably 'modern'. Only hint at ancientness was, I suppose, the 'approximate notes' in the guitar solo as Stuart put it. I was really quite surprised it was on oldie...
Beggin'
by The Four Seasons. There was a remix recently but all that did was emphasise what was already there really.
I can't get to Youtube thanks to the firewall, but the original is seriously funky if you don't already know what it sounds like.
I suspect it's the breakbeat that makes it so timeless. Years of breakbeats being sampled convinces the ears the track is more modern that it actually is.
Funnily enough the production on Sgt Pepper always sounds odd to my ears, it sounds far more modern than anything else in the Beatles catalogue. It might account (alongside it's legend) for why that seems to reach more people quicker than some of the others. Revolver is a far superior album to my ears but sounds like it's being beamed from another time.