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(Gimme Some of That) Ol' Atonal Music - Merle Hazard


BassTractor
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1 minute ago, Muzz said:

Not even funny once...the 'Look how clever and funny I'm being' expression on a man dressed like a concussed 8-year old's drawing of Roy Rogers on Gay Night had my teeth on edge after ten seconds...

Come on now, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think.

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51 minutes ago, Muzz said:

Not even funny once...the 'Look how clever and funny I'm being' expression on a man dressed like a concussed 8-year old's drawing of Roy Rogers on Gay Night had my teeth on edge after ten seconds...

I think I get where you're coming from. To me, the first part is more annoying than anything else, but I stuck with it because of my source, and they took me with the "Ahaa" over the banjo, the producer and engineer dancing, the closing of the piano lid so as to perform some "atonal" Cage, and the "emotion is for simple folk; art should be arcane".

BTW, I suppose this is just some innocent having fun.
If they wanted to make fun of anyone, it's not the avant-garde that's the "victim" of the mockery here.

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17 minutes ago, lowdown said:

They even chucked in a half step, key change, after the 'Cage' Piano solo...Brilliant spoofing and very well done.

:lol:

Am I deaf? I hear that as a whole step, but saw the same half step claim in the YT comments. 
But yeah, lovely spoofing, putting in the key change after a bit of Cage.  :lol:

Edited by BassTractor
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39 minutes ago, BassTractor said:

Am I deaf? I hear that as a whole step, but saw the same half step claim in the YT comments. 
But yeah, lovely spoofing, putting in the key change after a bit of Cage.  :lol:

It all Starts in 'D'......

Then, "Give 'em some Alison",  up a half step for the Banjo solo. :lol:

Then a half step again, after the 'Cage' solo...Excellent.

 

Edited by lowdown
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20 hours ago, Rocker said:

Sorry guys but I don’t get it. Very capable musicians but it sounds all wrong to me. Perhaps it is meant to sound all wrong......

Does everything sound wrong to you or just the atonal bits played on the banjo or just the bits that are not the banjo solo? 😃
Without studying the score, I'm convinced the banjo player just plays some random notes to illustrate (I know there's a better word) what "atonal music" is perceived to be by many.
The rest of the song sounds all wrong to me personally for quite different reasons, and in my ears it's written either as a spoof of bluegrass* music, or written by someone unable to write a good song in that style.

*) I'm using the term bluegrass without checking whether this song might fall into that category. 

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23 minutes ago, BassTractor said:

😃
Without studying the score, I'm convinced the banjo player just plays some random notes to illustrate (I know there's a better word) what "atonal music" is perceived to be by many.
 

someone says in the comments that it's an actual composition by Webern :biggrin:

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1 minute ago, oZZma said:

someone says in the comments that it's an actual composition by Webern :biggrin:

😃 Now THAT would be great, if true.
I'm not bothered enough to play Webern's complete works (just 6 LPs IMS) in order to check, but I hope this is true.
Must say I remain sceptical though.

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1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

This is where it gets hardcore...

Ah. That there Derek Bailey fellow who plays pretentious stuff just because he's unable to write anything of value?
The Derek Bailey that Merle Hazard was able to look through in mere milliseconds?
That Derek Bailey?
😁

Seriously though, IMS, Derek Bailey knows every style intimately, and can be asked to do just about anything. I hope I'm not mixing up with a different person of roughly his calibre, but if I do then the point still remains:
When guys like him choose to make plink plonk screech music, more than anything else, it's their love for music that makes them choose that. They do not throw away their time on pretence or pretentiousness, and why should they...

Merle Hazard made a unique and funny vid, and I love it. It really is in the dark to me who is being "spoofed" here, and I believe it's about having fun rather than making fun of. 
Hazard was being a bit sly with this one, and that's part of the charm for me.

The underlying themes though, generally about taking the fun out of music and exchanging it with pretentiousness, while long-lived and probably eternal outside this particular vid (also here on BC), if taken seriously, are simply wrong.
Guys like Bach, Webern, Penderecki and Bailey simply exchange simple fun with more demanding fun  -  fun for different humans with different reference frames and... dare I say it?... different abilities.
Nothing wrong with that, even when enough pretenders do exist amongst composers, players and listeners alike.


 

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