BassTractor

Oh, I hate you so much right now, Frank Blank! This is gonna cost me money! Luvverly.

Norse pop singer Dagny (Dagny Norvoll Sandvik) to me is one of several people standing well apart from yer everyday pop dreck. Here a 7yo song that has matured nicely, IMHO. "Backbeat"

The OP is right, and I have the scientific evidence - through testing that you can repeat and/or peer review: Buy a Galton board and use it 1024 times. You won't even need to write down the results, as you'll easily see that, these days, the distribution of the beads is strongly skewed to the left side of the board. When I grew up, the beads still were "normally" distributed, as in: approximating the Gaussian distribution. No longer so ... Similarly, in the old days, average music was just average and I hated it. These days, however, average music is crap and I hate it. 😉 ... and no, it's not about me having become a grumpy old git. It's the Galton board, I tells ya! 😁

Strictly speaking off-topic, but still: another one about fandom: Gentle Giant members were having a nice weekend with fans in 2002 when one 50yo fan approached drummer John Weathers asking him to autograph some albums, and to dedicate as well. - "OK", says John, "what's your name?" - "It's Paul van Daal, but could you please write 'to my dear friend Paul van Daal '?"

Well ... it does keep the aliens away from our planet, so ...

As you mention B.B. King, I remember him having an IMO healthy approach to levels of musicianship and what individuals get inspired by. I've told it before (and sorry for my struggling with the English here), but: Answering the question what music he listened to, he said something along the lines of "blues, but not blues that my fans recognise as blues. My fans get inspired by me. I can't get inspired by musicians on my level, but get inspired by people on a higher level" ... etc. To me, that's a good way of thinking, and thus I can't for the life of me understand some people's need to drag down stuff they don't get. I hastily add that I'm not at all thinking of this thread, but in general, like the "just noise; everybody can do that!" comments on say Arne Nordheim's music.

Two stories: 1) Yes, as a 17yo or so, and by classmates. They'd made a fan club dedicated to me, and asked for my autograph. I axed them the question: "WHY? You don't know my music and probably wouldn't like it. So WHY?" Answer: "But you're gonna be a famous musician, and then WE will have the low club member numbers!..." That taught me all I need to know about fandom. 2) No, not asked, but still funny: When some famous jazz dudes visited our city, I was allowed to play with them as part of my training ... but was warned beforehand: "Don't behave like a fanboi; they don't like that." So I meticulously ripped some dirty pieces of paper into particularly rough shapes, and equipped those with my autograph. Handed them out the moment I entered the room where these folks were, and just waited for the obvious question: "What's this?" Me, innocently: "Oh, that's my autograph; I thought you probably were dying to get yer hands on it." Laughter broke out, ice was broken, and no awkwardness ensued. That taught me something about jazz musicians.

@miles'tone, how about if you test a few works and report back here? Seeing the vastness of eight centuries of music, it might be an idea to narrow it down, and I'd guess we could manage to adapt our advice to what you happen to like. In the mean time, I'd like to draw your attention to, and possibly to hear your comments on, stuff like: - Stravinsky: Firebird Suite and/or The Rite of Spring. Part of the Firebird has been used by Yes as intro music to their gigs, so may be known, - the Bartok mentioned earlier. Bartok had an immense impact on Keith Emerson, - Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, - Satie: Gymnopédies or similar piano music, as played by Aldo Ciccolini or Reinbert de Leeuw (very, very different). If you do like Zappa's later work like Civilisation Phase 3 (yes, I've translated it for you ☺️ ), then please tell, and I'll try and find 20th century music that might fit.

Nice call. That pedal part should also interest bass players. Me, I stupidly played it with two feet. Very hard work. (This was before I saw the wisdom in opting for a 34'' scale thingie in a bass case rather than carrying around an organ with 32ft. pipes.)

@miles'tone, do you happen to know Dalbello's song "Black on Black"? It starts with a looped phrase from Gregorio Allegri's "Miserere mei, Deus", a wonderfully beautiful late Renaissance / early Baroque piece. (To me this is late Renaissance music, but I'm aware modern scholars have better opinions.) Here's a hastily found version I haven't compared to other versions, but it sounds alright at first impression:

I hold life too dearly to click on that link.

Wow! That sounds like an experience with a big impact. I'd love to have been there. I've not heard the piece live at all, but now feel compelled to tell you about the first time I heard about it - and about Sorabji at all. Around 1980 I was drinking coffee with the guys at the college of music when Geoffrey Douglas Madge (whom I vaguely knew) entered the room and yelled: "Guys! I just got permission to play OC!" I guess I was somewhat happy for him, but was mainly stumped. Many hours of explanation, reading and listening later, I started a quest to get hold of as much Sorabji as I could, but it was nearly impossible back then. In the mean time, Madge performed it live in Utrecht and that performance was sent live on the radio and was released on vinyl. That performance, to my mind, was much better than his later recording of it. I've never found the LPs and must just feel lucky I got hold of the Ogdon version after some time. Wow, I think we're on a roll here, providing @miles'tone with exactly the information he craves ... 😁

Whoah! This is only the second time someone has mentioned that work on BassChat (hence why I felt the need to comment). You know, with Zappa as his reference frame, I'd not even be surprised if @miles'tone could like that, even though normally it's not to be expected - my point being: you don't need to understand or analyse in order to enjoy. BTW, I must've played that piece hundreds of times by now - only in my own tempo and with the notes in my own order ... 😐

Yeah, and I hope that that indeed is the background for my mistake. Other, less agreeable, explanations may exist.

Yeah, sorry about that. I've corrected my post.

With Zappa as your reference frame, I'd say: keep to the biggies first, and take it from there. Bach has been mentioned already, and forgetting the play-along bit, some names I'd add could be, starting with older music so as to hear music developing: Palestrina and Monteverdi for yer renaissance and early baroque. Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli Monteverdi: Orfeo, Scherzi musicali (with that glorious song "Non cosi tosto" a.o.) Bach: what has been mentioned already plus say the Mass in B minor, the St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio and the Brandenburg Concertos. Also give "Bist du bei mir" a listen. It was traditionally, wrongly, attributed to Bach (but he simply couldn't have written it) and is absolutely gorgeous despite its awkwardness. If you play Haydn (say Die Schöpfung (The Creation), piano sonatas and a symphony like no 104) and Händel (operas like 'Julius Caesar' and 'Oreste' and oratoria like The Messiah for example), then do absolutely not forget Henry Purcell - a great composer. My brain refuses to remember pieces right now, but he's up there with the very best. Mozart: late works like his Requiem (which turns away from the perceived lightness of many an early work, and reflects Mozart's understanding of and love for Bach). I'd do the "light" stuff later. That's all for now. Brain is closing down, so best hit the Submit button. Enjoy! Edit: rectified a few wrong entries.

That's good. I think it wasn't 5 minutes for nothing.

Hahaha, so recognisable! Prod to be on your site, and BTW, in Norway, to this day we have "brodder": spiky things mounted onto shoes and used when walking on ice.

Happily it's not psychology. It's maths! (bassamount + 0) / (guitaramount + 1) < (bassamount + 0) / (guitaramount + 0) You have found how to downsize through sheer ratio. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I fear it was the other way round. Recently, the mayor's name has finally been revealed .... as being Ian Fraser ... 😉

Yes, I can. There's an empathetic resonance in my brain. ☺️

If Paul McCartney was me, he'd definitely release it as his new album. ☺️ Great title as well.

Demn! Ordered one from the previous run, which never turned up, and now of course I'm skint. That sound! That sound! Which sound? THAT sound.

This is what I did twice in similar circumstances as @Mickeyboro describes, so it sounds like good advice to me.

Not all the time, but sometimes indeed. Happily though, they never need to listen to "my" music as I'll normally be happy to listen to theirs. From the early innerwebz I remember the Gentle Giant mailing list, and virtually each new list member wrote a first post along the lines of "I thought I was totally alone but then found the GG website and this mailing list ... I am soooo happy right now!".