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I’m sitting here thinking its 42 years since woodstock and this year in the park down the road from where I live in Essex the 2011 V Festival has just taken place.
Will Eminim Somebody Murs and Rhinnan (excuse my spelling) be remembered in 42 years time like Janis Joplin or Hendrix or Grace Slick, Richard Thompson etc are?
Maybe I’m just an old sod sitting here in my red wine timewarp but when I think that what I saw at the Bath blues festival (the forerunner of glastonbury) and at concerts like Blind Faith in Hyde Park and so on,I really don’t believe that what is dished up nowadays is anywhere near as good.
Anyone got any views about this ??
I do agree with you. However, you are making mention of all the good stuff from Woodstock. I’m sure there was some real dross as part of that festival.
That said, V Festival has to be one of the worst around….followed not far behind by Glastonbury! Unfortunately nowadays everything is driven by marketing. The BBC coverage of Glastonbury makes me cringe with that old bird Jo Whiley fawning over the latest bunch of indie kids!
There is good music out there but at festivals you have to sift through a lot of rubbish to find it. That’s why with the English weather, and thousands of unwashed, smelly teenagers….I give them a wide berth!
If you are looking for something to relight your grumpy old fire then September is a good month. New album releases from:
Wilco – The Whole Love
The Jayhawks – Mockingbird Time
The Gourds – Old Mad Joy (recorded at Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock)Im only 22 and even I know that Woodcock (forgive my spelling
) was one of the kind and has made live music and festivals into what they are today! But unfortunately i dont think too many people my age appreciate or are even aware of woodstock and its impact it had! I know its difficult for you to comprehend how any of these current artist can be remembered like Hendrix and I agree but at the same time there are a handful of current artist who are revolutionising or evolving music today!V, Glastonbury and their ilk mean absolutely stuff all to me musically, intellectually or emotionally. Neither, however, did Woodstock – albeit that is an appreciation, or lack of, that is necessarily retrospective as it took place over five years before I was hatched out in the sun.
I’m currently going to more gigs than at any other time in my life, so I can’t give any credence (never mind any clearwater or any revival
) to suggestions that there is nothing memorable or meritorious being made in the name of music nowadays.But then little else inspires such a subjective response as music. Per the speech to congress that Pop Will Eat Itself sampled at the start of their track "The Incredible Pwei Vs The Moral Majority";
"What is the truth about rock music? Music is a powerful and perhaps the most powerful medium in the world. Music. Plato says when the music of a society changes, the whole society will change. Aristotle, a contemporary of Plato`s, says when music changes there should be laws to govern the nature and the character of that music. Lenin says that the best and the quickest way to undermine any society is through its music…"
NB the rest of the speech descends into God versus Satan polemic, at which point this disciple of Pan smiles sweetly and starts to consider his belly fluff instead.
I digress. I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I bloody love going to Indietracks; I loved going to Tapestry Goes West before it ran out of money; and I’d have loved going to the Beacon Festival last weekend (despite fears of what effect it would have had on the Point-to-Point racing line at the Heslaker Farm venue) before flooding forced its late cancellation.
I don’t know how many acts at any of these would rate as especially "memorable" to a wider audience – probably none at all. All I know, though, is that I’ll still be humming their tracks 40 years hence rather than the likes of
White Rabbit
,
Me And Bobby McGee
,
Blowing in the Wind
, etc. etc.
Enjoy your music, everyone. And each other.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
) was one of the kind and has made live music and festivals into what they are today! But unfortunately i dont think too many people my age appreciate or are even aware of woodstock and its impact it had! I know its difficult for you to comprehend how any of these current artist can be remembered like Hendrix and I agree but at the same time there are a handful of current artist who are revolutionising or evolving music today!
) to suggestions that there is nothing memorable or meritorious being made in the name of music nowadays.- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.