Do you count 1945 through 1963 as part of the Golden Era?

[FedoraFan112390]

Lizzie, what about Jazz and the Blues? Duke Ellington, Count Basie etc?

 

[jamespowers]

Well, who do you think wrote their songs? In the Era, music was less about any specific performance than it was about the song itself -- there was none of this "cover version" nonsense you have today. Any performer could do any song and give it their particular treatment, but the song itself remained the dominant thing. The songwriters were the great artists in the music of the Era.

To take an example, there were many, many recordings of "The Way You Look Tonight," possibly the single greatest song of the 1930s, and even though Fred Astaire introduced it on film, it could still be performed by anyone -- and it still is, to this day. It's become immortal, due to the artistry of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields in creating it.

Maybe they wrote it but the artists made the tune. Not just anybody could sing it right. lol lol I can just imagine Ethel Merman singing Java Jive. :eeek: I suppose it could be used to get mice out of the basement though.

 

[jamespowers]

I don't know why they called them the Fab Four.
btw, which one is Ringo?

The Dung Beetle with the big horn.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

To take an example, there were many, many recordings of "The Way You Look Tonight," possibly the single greatest song of the 1930s, and even though Fred Astaire introduced it on film, it could still be performed by anyone -- and it still is, to this day. It's become immortal, due to the artistry of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields in creating it.

Now I've heard that song before, lol. My indulgence in the Golden Era only begins and ends with hats, and to a lesser extent, some of the fashion, I guess this is why I am totally clueless about the people being mentioned here!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ellington certainly belongs on the list of great American composers -- he's on the same plane as Gershwin in that respect -- and Fats Waller I already mentioned. But most jazz performers drew their songs from the general run of popular music, it's just a matter of interpretation. I like some types of swing-era jazz, but I can't stand most postwar jazz, all that be-bop/modern/beret-and-goatee type stuff, and the stuff that came after that even less. Blech.

Blues is a whole different category -- in the Era most people didn't know anything about it, the recordings were for the most part not widely sold or widely known outside of the South until after the war, which is why the original 78s are so rare today. It's not a type of music that particularly interests me, it's not a type of music that I can in any way relate to, so I don't have anything much to say about it.

 

[GHT]

So nobody liked the Beetles?

In the UK, you are made to feel like a Philistine if you dare to say that sixties music, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, et al, are not to your taste. You don't have to say that you don't like them, just daring to suggest that there might be other popular music is seen as a sacrilege.
For what it's worth I much prefered Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Tim Rice and all the other songwriters of 60's musicals, than I did The Beatles. But that's only my own preference, I'm not knocking that which a great many enjoy.
But you would think so. I find it best just to keep quiet and say nothing.

Have to agree with Lizzie about musical tastes for the Golden Era, although I would add Oscar Hammerstein, and The Golden Era wouldn't be complete without a nod to Fred & Ginger and their ilk. Django Rheinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the exponents of Gypsy Jazz should also get a mention. The movies of that era were also something else, an age when the cinema was known as The Silver Screen.

And for what it's worth, look at the recent posts in the Excessive Posting thread, re-Cadillacs. The Marque, back in the 30's, came up with example after example of aesthetic and exquisite, beautiful cars. The 1930's was also the age when Art Deco reached it's zenith. Just look at the entrance to any of Paris' metro stations. Look also at the last steam trains that America built, they were in a class of their own.

There is something though that the Golden age couldn't give me. I'm a baby-boomer, born in 1946. I have never been called up to do compulsory military service, and I have never been exposed to war, (although I was convinced that WW3 would start in the 1950's.)
There has to be something said for that.

 

[1mach1]

Lizzie, you should give "newer" music a try. Perhaps, start with Elvis, and work your way forward. Much great music has been made since the 40s. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton? You know you like something post 1945.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie, you should give "newer" music a try. Perhaps, start with Elvis, and work your way forward. Much great music has been made since the 40s. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton? You know you like something post 1945.

Feh. I worked in radio thruout the eighties and nineties, and heard all the postwar music I ever want to hear. And we host all kinds of modern music concerts where I work now, and every single one of them sounds exactly the same to me, and produces exactly the same response: Feh.

I don't like the beat of modern music, I don't like the arrangements, I don't like the structure, and I don't like the instrumentation. The only electric guitars I ever heard that didn't make me want to claw my ears out from the inside were played by Alvino Rey and Charlie Christian. And most of the lyrics strike me as the sort of thing a sixteen-year-old boy comes up with when he's trying to convince his girlfriend he's, like, really really profound.

I figure it this way -- I've been listening to prewar music all my life, everything from Billy Murray to Benny Goodman -- and I still haven't heard it all. So why should I waste my time on stuff I already know I don't like when there's so much out there left to be found that I know that I will? No thanx.

 

[jamespowers]

Lizzie, you should give "newer" music a try. Perhaps, start with Elvis, and work your way forward. Much great music has been made since the 40s. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton? You know you like something post 1945.

Whoa, whoa, whoa there! Stop after Johnny Cash man! You are getting into hippie territory!:laser:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Blues is a whole different category -- in the Era most people didn't know anything about it, the recordings were for the most part not widely sold or widely known outside of the South until after the war, which is why the original 78s are so rare today. It's not a type of music that particularly interests me, it's not a type of music that I can in any way relate to, so I don't have anything much to say about it.

For some reason among the people I know I seem to be the only one who's not into blues. [huh]

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's a law. Every middle-aged white person in America *has to* be "into blues."

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I don't like the beat of modern music

Problem is modern music is ALL beat and little else.

 

[1mach1]

Whoa, whoa, whoa there! Stop after Johnny Cash man! You are getting into hippie territory!:laser:

No hippies here, I assure you.

 

[jamespowers]

It's a law. Every middle-aged white person in America *has to* be "into blues."

Not me. Maybe rhythm but not blues.

 

[1mach1]

Feh. I worked in radio thruout the eighties and nineties, and heard all the postwar music I ever want to hear. And we host all kinds of modern music concerts where I work now, and every single one of them sounds exactly the same to me, and produces exactly the same response: Feh.

I don't like the beat of modern music, I don't like the arrangements, I don't like the structure, and I don't like the instrumentation. The only electric guitars I ever heard that didn't make me want to claw my ears out from the inside were played by Alvino Rey and Charlie Christian. And most of the lyrics strike me as the sort of thing a sixteen-year-old boy comes up with when he's trying to convince his girlfriend he's, like, really really profound.

I figure it this way -- I've been listening to prewar music all my life, everything from Billy Murray to Benny Goodman -- and I still haven't heard it all. So why should I waste my time on stuff I already know I don't like when there's so much out there left to be found that I know that I will? No thanx.

Noted, and understood. I feel that way about other issues.

 

[jamespowers]

No hippies here, I assure you.

I dunno. You were about to mention Country Joe MacDonald.....

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

[video=youtube;Jj-2Tcuzy0I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj-2Tcuzy0I[/video]

 

[jamespowers]

Problem is modern music is ALL beat and little else.

Yeah and they drive it around and share it with you---like it or not!

 

[1mach1]

I dunno. You were about to mention Country Joe MacDonald.....

Aren't you closer to hippies than I? Being from the Bay area and all....

 

[jamespowers]

[video=youtube;Jj-2Tcuzy0I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj-2Tcuzy0I[/video]

Yeah, why didn't they stay there.