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hiram.k.hackenbacker

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Posts posted by hiram.k.hackenbacker

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    41 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

     

    Quick and nasty:

     

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1NuAZjvTulcfGkLBk4bDiO?si=RX92utr6R0OlnDZJHpee9A&pt=67c4a8cd33fb51cc3f8963d165bd0322&pi=EH9du6j9SOuVH

    Great stuff mate. I'm not going to look at it until I've finished mine.

    I have to be honest, I'm finding it really tough.

    There's some old classics in mine and some contemporary.

    I keep looking at the list thinking I cannot put that in the same list as that.

    Driving me a bit nuts to be honest.

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

    Aah, the old tying me up in knots because of what I posted trick, eh?  Well played, old man!  Well played. 

     

    Bravo!

     

    😂

    Aah, condescension 😂

    I just don't buy the 'my taste is better than your taste' schtick, which is very much how you've come across.

    By your own admission, it's all subjective. You can't force people to like what you like and they're not wrong to like things you don't.

    I'd still be interested in hearing a Top 10 from you (or 20 - go as far as you want).

    Not because I want to knock it, but because it might lead me to listen to things I haven't heard.

    I wonder how many people commenting negatively actually voted.

    I know the P word is forbidden, but it is a bit like moaning about whichever party is in power when you haven't even voted.

    It's not going to change.

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well, something unexpectedly heartwarming has come of this.

     

    @NancyJohnson -  I can confirm I have now listened to one complete Alter Bridge album. I had no idea where to start. I couldn’t have named one song by them.

    So, I started at the beginning with One Day Remains.

    I get halfway through it whilst doing the housework (go me!) and my son comes downstairs to take the dog out for a walk.

    Now, my lad has never been heavily into anything music wise. He’s been to see Baby Metal with his mates and Kiss with both his aged parents.

    There have been a few others, but that’s about it. I don’t think he’s ever seen the same band twice.

    Anyhoo, I pause the Echo Studio to see him out with the dog and he says “I can’t believe you’ve stopped that - Broken Wings by Alter Bridge”.

    Honestly, you could have knocked me over with a feather 😂.

     

    As for me, yeah it’s OK. I really like the title track. There was one other that really stuck out to me. I’ll have to give it another listen.

    I’ll try and get through some of their other albums.

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

    Aaw come on W, I think you know more than enough where my musical tastes lie. 😏

     

    'Rock' music (along with all it's sub-genres) is simply too all-encompassing to capture within 500 songs, but you have to admit the inevitably of the tracks peppering the top 20/50.

     

    I have a mate called Pete (bass player too), lovely bloke, a few years older than me, who would look at that top 20 and all those wretched power ballads and go, 'Yep, yes, absolutely, yeah, Christ yes,' at pretty much everything in there.  He wouldn't be considering, or be remotely interested in Alkaline Trio or Fishbone or Jane's Addiction or The Beths or Momma or XTC or Steven Wilson or Pavement, Primus, Living Colour, Veruca Salt, Jellyfish, Smashing Pumpkins (and so on), as these bands simply aren't on his radar and to him they don't represent rock in it's purest - 1970s/1980s - form.  The stuff, as a guy nudging 70, he grew up with.

     

    The Planet Rock 500 is like those wretched NOW! compilations; it's the songs Neal Kay would spin before the lights went down for the headliners at Hammersmith Odeon.  It's awful populist rawk, filtered down to it's lowest common denominator; Queen (and I love early Queen), Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden.  The only one that suprised me was Rainbow's 'Stargazer at #3.

     

    The only reason Alter Bridge are at #8 is because the station probably play it a lot, because sure as hell, Pete wouldn't have just plucked that one out of the ether.

    I don't disagree regarding the bands you've mentioned. I'm a big Primus fan and bought LC's Vivid on day one, but have any of them written anything better than Stargazer, Stairway to Heaven or Bohemian Rhapsody? I think not.

    It was mentioned earlier that voters had up to 3 (I think) choices. It really doesn't explain how a lot of the very weak material got in at all. I mean Teenage Kicks - WTF?

    No Greta Van Fleet I notice 😂. No Blackberry Smoke. No Zappa either, which is criminal given what is in there.

    My next gigs are Kurt Elling at Ronnie Scott's followed by The Aristocrats.

    Music is the best!

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    19 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

    Stairway To Heaven (#2)
    Freebird (#5)
    Smoke on the Water (#13)
    Whole Lotta Rosie (#10)
    Sweet Child of Mine (#9)
    Bohemian Rhapsody (#1)
    Alright Now (#30)
    Enter Sandman (#14)
    Ace of Spades (#22)

     

    Like shooting fish in a barrel.

     

    Amazingly, only two songs from this effing century in the top 50.  Says a lot about Planet Rock and the listenership.

     

    Whilst I'll try not taking offence as I do listen to Planet Rock, what songs should replace them in your opinion?

    • Like 1

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Very interesting @rwillett. Thanks for crunching the numbers.

    I’m not surprised that the likes of Queen, Sabbath and Zeppelin are leading the way.

    It would almost be wrong if they weren’t there.

    I’m not knocking the content of the list because I do genuinely love most of what’s on it, but it can be summarised thus (IMHO)….

    Clutch (at present) have only one song in there - Electric Worry. 

    It’s the song everyone who doesn't really know them, knows them by. It’s OK, but the band are far far more than that.

    I will be stunned if any other of their songs are in the remaining 70 or whatever we’re up to now.

    It is what it is. Love the music, ignore the list.

    Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 06/01/2026 at 11:31, NancyJohnson said:

    The major problem with these Top <insert number here> things is that they're so subjective.  

    It can't be anything else but that - can it? Listeners voting for their favourite songs. The very definition of subjectivity.

    I quite like it, even if some of my favourite bands aren't in there.

    There's quite a few I've not heard before, so I'll be checking them out.

    There's also quite a few I would never listen to again and I'm quite glad I've dodged them.

    • Like 1

    Which Jazz bass?

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    On 23/12/2025 at 11:20, Twigman said:

    I'm in the market for a jazz bass.

    My current bass for everything is a EBMM USA Sterling 4HH - been number 1 bass for last almost 9 years.

    But I fancy a change.

    I've owned precisions and find the nut too wide - I have 2 precisions with jazz necks but I fancy a real jazz.

    I am leaning toward buying new.

    I don't want Mexican or Indonesian - call me whatever you like but I've decided Japanese or American only

    So I've narrowed the choices down to: - prerequisite RW boards only

     

    MIJ 'Hybrid' II £1,500 ish

    pros: price, colours, headstock end truss rod adjustment

    cons: basic bridge, no case only gig bag

     

    American Professsional II £1,900 ish

    pros: slim profile neck (I like that), option of top load or string through bridge, hard case

    cons: 5 bolt neck (limits choice of replacement necks if required) - not keen on any colour scheme, not keen on the tuners - prefer the large vintage open wheels,

     

    American Vintage 66 £2,200 ish

    pros: love the sea foam green colour with matching headstock, like binding on the fb, 66voiced pickups, hard case

    cons: price, never liked the vintage bridge

     

    Mod Shop £2,000 ish

    pros: choice of colours, block inlays available, choice of pickups, same bridge as Professional II with through body stringing and top loading available, hard case

    cons: no neck binding available, same tuners as Pro II, no matching headstock,  10 week lead time

     

    Custom Shop £4,000 ish

    pros: can have almost any spec you want

    cons: it'll cost both time (long lead time)  and big money

     

    I am leaning toward the MIJ Hybrid II in Noir but the Vintage66 in sea foam green is also tugging at my strings....

     

    If you were in the market for a NEW Fender jazz, which would you choose and why?

     

    There is a heck of a lot to unpack there.

    There are things I like in a bass that have no bearing on whether it's actually good or not.

    I'm partial to binding, lollipops, matching headstock and a slim neck with a smooth satin finish. I also like a sparkle paint job, but these things are irrelevant if I don't like playing it.

    You only have to look at some of the sale threads to realise that.

    I sat down with a bunch of new Fender Custom Shop basses the other day. I think I tried five in the end.

    The one I really liked the look of was the one I liked least in hand.

    The best one didn't have binding, lollipops or flashy paint, but wow! What a bass!

    Given your list of pro's and con's, there's compromises that need to be made unless you go the CS route.

     

    Here are 3 of the ones I tried.

     

    IMG_0149.jpeg.bddf3a44539e26143d75b6aae1cc089d.jpeg

     

     

    • Like 4
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