Reader majordomo comments on my post about the Sat. Nite Duets/Fatty Acids:
What is with you and obscure bands, I don’t understand your obsession with nameless, obscure bands. You’re probably one of those guys who hate the Beatles because too many people like them, right ?
Actually, no. When I was 11 the only two albums I owned were Beatles best-ofs, the Blue Album and the Red Album. I thought the Beatles were the best band in the history of rock music. And I still think so!
But the Beatles have armies of people to write about their greatness. Who will blog about Sat. Nite Duets and Fatty Acids, or Yellow Ostrich, or Grammar, or Carsick Cars, or The Stevedores, if not me? These people work hard on their records, they give them away free or almost free — why shouldn’t they get some tiny signal from the world outside that somebody liked the songs they wrote?
By the way, I went to the show to see Sat. Nite Duets but Fatty Acids turned out to be great too. Here’s “Astrovan”:
I hope that was not annoying to majordomo. In case it was, here’s “I am the Walrus.” CJ watches this video a lot and I’ve fallen in love with the song all over again. How do they get so much stuff in there?
Good Lord, did you know Styx covered “I am the Walrus?” I did not. It is awful.
As it happens, I actually had a post about Styx in mind! I’ll put it up now. I hope it is mainstream enough for majordomo.
Quomodocumque 
majardomo — never criticize someone’s religion or taste in music!
Jordan — I’m glad your musical tastes reach all the way back to my generation! One of the interesting things about the Beatles is their uniqueness: that they never had anything but pale imitators. The same was true of their contemporaries the Jimi Hendrix Experience group. If you don’t know these folks, you should explore them. This was a three person band that had a full sound belying their size. Like the Beatles, not everything they did was great music, but check out Little Wing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBLDxgrDVO4&feature=related (live)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad2EPO_y0ps&feature=related (studio)
Also, Voodoo Child, All Along the Watchtower, Red House, etc.
If you’re on a laptop, use headphones. Same for anyone listening to the Beatles.
I don’t agree with the argument that just because these people work hard they should necessarily be encouraged. I am sure there are lots of people who work hard playing elevator music or the dreaded smooth jazz and don’t get paid for it, and these people definitely ought to be banned by law.
[Maybe their gene pool should not be allowed to perpetuate either? I hope Darwin’s law will see to it.]
But if you think the Sat. Night Duets are great, I don’t see why you shouldn’t say so. (I didn’t think they were, BTW.)
Oh, don’t worry, I’ve been to plenty of shows and listened to plenty of records which i don’t mention on the blog. As Wittengstein said, the bands that suck we must pass over in silence.
Lol JSE you really decided to stick it to me didn’t you. For the record I didn’t really think you hated the beatles (what sane person does?), I was just trying to make a point.
All I have to say is that there is a reason obscure bands are obscure. If they were any good, they’d probably be more popular.
In my experience, this heuristic works pretty well for math and novels, but not for pop music.
Also: can I just point out that I devoted an entire post to my love for the Black Eyed Freakin’ Peas?
The pop music one hears these days suggests that the heuristic
“if they were any good, they’d be popular” is true vacuously ;-)
Allan Sherman did claim to hate the Beatles, but one could claim that
Sherman — or at least the persona he adopted for this song — was not sane
(even if it was his daughter’s Beatlemania that drove him mad)…