My daughter has performed at local open mic nights as well as being hired for events. She's not one of the bad sound brigade bands. But as parents, we were supportive and would go listen to all the performers.
I keep in mind open mic has some etiquette. You didn't hire some kid (or retiree) to play at a wedding. It's not a poetry slam. If someone talented gets on stage, great. Some need more practice, maybe a LOT more. We win some, we lose some. So you're supposed to go with the flow, if possible.
One night I realized there were two bands I could not listen to. Too loud & something else that made me feel ill. I walked out to the lobby & talked to the door person.
I looked at a promo poster and realized one musician was in the two bands that caused me physical distress, as well as a third I didn't care for. He was full of enthusiasm. I'll grant him that. Maybe my ears were the problem.
So, no need to name any unknown bands. I bit my tongue, lacking a pencil to jab in my one working ear. I really hated to be that person who couldn't be respectful at open mic night. I did slip out quietly & returned when it sounded safe to do so. But I still wonder how that guy managed to play with such
consistency.
I keep in mind open mic has some etiquette. You didn't hire some kid (or retiree) to play at a wedding. It's not a poetry slam. If someone talented gets on stage, great. Some need more practice, maybe a LOT more. We win some, we lose some. So you're supposed to go with the flow, if possible.
One night I realized there were two bands I could not listen to. Too loud & something else that made me feel ill. I walked out to the lobby & talked to the door person.
I looked at a promo poster and realized one musician was in the two bands that caused me physical distress, as well as a third I didn't care for. He was full of enthusiasm. I'll grant him that. Maybe my ears were the problem.
So, no need to name any unknown bands. I bit my tongue, lacking a pencil to jab in my one working ear. I really hated to be that person who couldn't be respectful at open mic night. I did slip out quietly & returned when it sounded safe to do so. But I still wonder how that guy managed to play with such
consistency.
Women sans intellect never appealed to me. That really narrows the field.
Don't make me post the dirty lyrics!
I grew up in Miami and lived in south Florida until 2014 when I retired and moved north. Disco was popular among the Spanish speakers from the late 60's, though it was just called dance music. My brother and I made and sold a lot of speaker cabinets containing just one 15 inch Olson Electronics branded speaker. I worked at the largest Olson store in the country which was next to frat house row at the University of Miami. The Olson speaker was made by Eminence and could not be blown up by anything available in 1970 short of a Crown DC300. They would throw down a mean dance beat, but nobody heard the lyrics or anything else, but no one cared. This was sort of an indoor version of those thumpa - thumpa cars that were quite popular in south Florida 10 to 20 years ago.
I left Olson for Motorola in 1973 where disco was already quite popular. The plant was mostly factory workers in the 70's and it was easy to tell the Disco F!%^ers from the Rockers by the clothes they wore. Lets just say that I never owned any polyester clothes and wore K-mart jeans and a T-shirt to work. I did not know who ABBA was, and the Bee Gees were just another hippie band from the 60's.
I knew a maintenance worker at the plant named Joe Alaimo, who had a brother named Steve. Steve had a recording studio in Hialeah, a suburb of Miami, I had been there a few times in the early 70's. I think there was exactly one gold record on the wall in the office, George McRae's Rock Your Baby which was possibly the seed for the madness that ensued. That all changed when some disco people decided to see how many hit records they could create from the same beat and melody lines.
In my opinion they may not be the worst band ever, but certainly the most annoying, and since they were local, the most overplayed and inescapable. For this reason, the brown record of the year award goes to KC and the Sunshine band!
I left Olson for Motorola in 1973 where disco was already quite popular. The plant was mostly factory workers in the 70's and it was easy to tell the Disco F!%^ers from the Rockers by the clothes they wore. Lets just say that I never owned any polyester clothes and wore K-mart jeans and a T-shirt to work. I did not know who ABBA was, and the Bee Gees were just another hippie band from the 60's.
I knew a maintenance worker at the plant named Joe Alaimo, who had a brother named Steve. Steve had a recording studio in Hialeah, a suburb of Miami, I had been there a few times in the early 70's. I think there was exactly one gold record on the wall in the office, George McRae's Rock Your Baby which was possibly the seed for the madness that ensued. That all changed when some disco people decided to see how many hit records they could create from the same beat and melody lines.
In my opinion they may not be the worst band ever, but certainly the most annoying, and since they were local, the most overplayed and inescapable. For this reason, the brown record of the year award goes to KC and the Sunshine band!
Reading about the incident made my think about how I felt during that era. Now in 1979 I was working in New York and yes I did go to the discos and it wasn't for the music or drugs. But I was still close to my1970s Chicago South Side working class roots. By 1979 I was wearing a suit to work every day so I felt comfortable. But when I was in high school, there was nothing I hated more than putting on a pair of real pants. Except for funerals, weddings, and the rare Sunday when my father succeeded in dragging me to church, I wore jeans everywhere. Hell, you could get beat up in my neighborhood for wearing a pair of slacks to school. I felt downright embarrassed in a pair of Man Pants, like I was selling out or something. Mind you I was a teenager at the time.
The thought of putting on pressed slacks - or horror of horrors, a suit- to go to a social function where there were girls, was beyond the pale for me. In high school it was no way. So going to a disco in a pair of slacks that (to me) should have been worn by my mother, was downright intimidating to me. It seemed at the same time elitist and superficial. I simply couldn't picture myself being sophisticated enough to go to a disco.
This should tell you something about my roots.
The thought of putting on pressed slacks - or horror of horrors, a suit- to go to a social function where there were girls, was beyond the pale for me. In high school it was no way. So going to a disco in a pair of slacks that (to me) should have been worn by my mother, was downright intimidating to me. It seemed at the same time elitist and superficial. I simply couldn't picture myself being sophisticated enough to go to a disco.
This should tell you something about my roots.
I grew up listening to the AM pop radio stations in Miami. Both played the popular surf, hot rod car, and other 4 piece guitar band music. When a guitar found its way into my hands at a young age, that's what I played too. I created my own "HiFi" stuff out of junk and sometime in the mid to late 60's I discovered FM radio. It seems that the University of Miami had its own radio station that played whatever they wanted to, and it was often a totally new sound. There was also an "old geezer" station that played "underground music" after all the old people went to bed. A full time "underground music" station popped up in the late 60's and a progressive rock station appeared in about 1970. That's the music that I liked at the time and still do.
I forgot to mention that there were three distinct "in crowds" at Motorola in the 70's. When I went to the plant for the first time it was in response to a full page "technicians wanted" ad in the Miami Herald newspaper in November of 1972. I took the Florida Turnpike north to the prescribed exit and headed west On Sunrise Blvd. After a few miles I was on a two lane road driving through cow pasture. A short time later I came across a large concrete building with the appropriate address. it was surrounded by cattle on all sides. There was a third and smaller group at Motorola that wore boots and listened to Country Music. Motorola did hire technicians locally, but the majority of the newly hired techs came from a "tech school." About half of the factory techs came from Tampa Tech or UEI which was in Louisville Kentucky. Both areas had a good supply of country boys.
I worked the 3:30 PM to Midnight shift, and as many of the night crew did, I often wandered to one of the local "watering holes" after work. There was a place for the country crowd, and a couple disco bars, but the Holiday Inn right across the street from the plant blasted rock and prog music until 4 AM......until one night when the "music died" and there was a mirrored ball hanging from the ceiling. The lounge in that hotel remained a disco bar well into the 2000's, though it catered mostly to the hispanic crowd and much of the music was in Spanish. When I left Motorola in 2014 there were no cattle anywhere in the county which stretched from the ocean to the Everglades swamp. All available land had been built out.
Those three groups had somewhat different lifestyles, and rarely intermingled. Sometimes the "name calling" got ugly.
I forgot to mention that there were three distinct "in crowds" at Motorola in the 70's. When I went to the plant for the first time it was in response to a full page "technicians wanted" ad in the Miami Herald newspaper in November of 1972. I took the Florida Turnpike north to the prescribed exit and headed west On Sunrise Blvd. After a few miles I was on a two lane road driving through cow pasture. A short time later I came across a large concrete building with the appropriate address. it was surrounded by cattle on all sides. There was a third and smaller group at Motorola that wore boots and listened to Country Music. Motorola did hire technicians locally, but the majority of the newly hired techs came from a "tech school." About half of the factory techs came from Tampa Tech or UEI which was in Louisville Kentucky. Both areas had a good supply of country boys.
I worked the 3:30 PM to Midnight shift, and as many of the night crew did, I often wandered to one of the local "watering holes" after work. There was a place for the country crowd, and a couple disco bars, but the Holiday Inn right across the street from the plant blasted rock and prog music until 4 AM......until one night when the "music died" and there was a mirrored ball hanging from the ceiling. The lounge in that hotel remained a disco bar well into the 2000's, though it catered mostly to the hispanic crowd and much of the music was in Spanish. When I left Motorola in 2014 there were no cattle anywhere in the county which stretched from the ocean to the Everglades swamp. All available land had been built out.
Those three groups had somewhat different lifestyles, and rarely intermingled. Sometimes the "name calling" got ugly.
I listened to AM radio in the 1960s and early 70s. FM didn't have much in the way of programming back then. I listened to WLS in Chicago. They played various genres at any time of day. Rock, pop, soul and R&B would all be played in the same set- the Who and Aretha Franklin back to back wasn't unusual. Disco hadn't been invented yet. I still miss that kind of programming today; of course the bean counters would have none of it.
About 10 years ago I was listening to night radio- some kind of quasi-rock station long gone- and I called in and talked to the DJ. We talked about Government Mule and the DJ really dug them. He praised them for a couple minutes. I thought for sure he was going to play some Mule but he said he was verboten from playing anything not on his short list. So even a small, obscure radio station MUST play exactly what the Ones Who Must Be Obeyed tell them to play.
I wonder if an "underground" station would even be possible. I dreamed of building a rogue radio transmitter and broadcasting when I was a child. Now I have the technical acumen to actually do it, but I'm all grown up and quite frankly I'm afraid of the consequences, which would probably entail a huge fine (goodbye house) and possibly a prison term.
About 10 years ago I was listening to night radio- some kind of quasi-rock station long gone- and I called in and talked to the DJ. We talked about Government Mule and the DJ really dug them. He praised them for a couple minutes. I thought for sure he was going to play some Mule but he said he was verboten from playing anything not on his short list. So even a small, obscure radio station MUST play exactly what the Ones Who Must Be Obeyed tell them to play.
I wonder if an "underground" station would even be possible. I dreamed of building a rogue radio transmitter and broadcasting when I was a child. Now I have the technical acumen to actually do it, but I'm all grown up and quite frankly I'm afraid of the consequences, which would probably entail a huge fine (goodbye house) and possibly a prison term.
The "in crowds" at my first Real Job were a lot wierder than this. The biggest "In Crowd" was the majority that pressured every single new recruit to join the John Birch Society. This was (and still is) the antithesis of who I was, and probably prejudiced me for good against corporate America.
The other crowd was people in the closet about hating the John Birchers. I was in that crowd. I was the kind of guy they hated but sorely needed because of my talent. It ought to be against the law to push politics at work. It makes for a harassing workplace. Mind you this was (still is) one of the largest and most well known corporations in the USA, and working there was considered very prestigious. They would probably eliminate me ( I mean kill me and my body would disappear) to this day if I outed this dirty little secret from their past.
It's too bad I didn't apply there in the 1970s. They would have hired me in a hearbeat and I would have been happy there. But no, my father insisted Motorola was beneath a person of my talent, and pushed me to work for The Other Company, where you're sentenced to a lifetime of corporate ramrod up your butt.
Of all the bad advice I've taken, that's probably the worst.
From Chicago I remember Fred Winston and Larry Lujack from when I was a kid and teenager (and WCFL). Since the 70's stations like WLUW, WZRD, and WNUR (all college stations) play stuff that I can't really describe for you.
MSG
Tempted by an offer from ex-UFO guitarist Michael Schenker, Bonnet continued his progression to a heavier musical style and joined the Michael Schenker Group (MSG) for the Assault Attack album.[1] However, he was fired from the group after a single concert, at Sheffield Polytechnic (now called Sheffield Hallam University), when he drunkenly exposed himself on stage.[13]
Not the worst but not exactly representative of the list. Steely Dan only broke the weekly top 10 twice, highest with "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (a song justifying them here) at #4. It placed #51 for the year 1974, crushed by:
1 "The Way We Were" Barbra Streisand
2 "Seasons in the Sun" Terry Jacks
If it's any consolation they were still better than Journey.
I won’t enter this one for more than this one post as if anyone considers Steely Dan on this list you either haven’t listened to them or you have a strange taste, and are a poor judge of music.
Highly talented
Thought provoking
Good story telling
and…
Oh wait, I just got sucked into this. No one thinks Steely Dan is a bad band.
My bad, you got me.
lol
Highly talented
Thought provoking
Good story telling
and…
Oh wait, I just got sucked into this. No one thinks Steely Dan is a bad band.
My bad, you got me.
lol