Battleships died because they could put (on average) about 2% of shells fired on an opponent. At a range of 10 miles.
Aircraft carriers could get a far higher percentage of hits at 250 miles. From the top. Where battleship armour was thin. Or below the waterline where there was none.
An attempt to design a battleship with 12” deck armour was abandoned when it became clear that it would only float upside down.
So apart from the guns and armour being useless….
We all agree they became obsolete. However they were rarely (actually never?) able to show what they could do.
Probably for the best.
Battleships were obsoleted because the threats to them, namely aircraft dropping bombs and torpedoes, advanced much faster than the technology required to counter those threats.
There's a reasonable argument to be made in favour of a updated Battleship concept. Missiles can be jammed, decoyed and shot down. There's not much you can do against a dozen 16" shells moving at twice the speed of sound. Guided shells and modern sensors should ensure any warship getting within about 30 miles of the Battleship would regret it.
Lots of space an a 50,000 ton hull for defensive missiles, too. A couple of hundred VLS cells would be quite useful.
But it would cost a fortune, so nobody will build one when they could have half a dozen frigates for the same money.
We should just bear in mind that we spent half the war trying to sink Tirpitz using submarines, torpedoes and bombs, even though in the warmer waters of the Pacific and Mediterranean, carriers more easily came out on top. Although the Tirpitz sank no ships, it did a good deal of damage to the war effort, and allied relations after the PQ17 catastrophe (see Jeremy Clarkson's documentary which iirc was based on controversial historian David Irving's research).
It's always a good day on PB when you get classic sentences like this:
"Swift is comparable to Bach and Shakespeare as one of the most successful and prolific artists on the planet, known as a household name around the planet, with a legacy that is likely to endure for centuries"
Remember the day you read that. Then, in 500 years time, where there are stages and auditoriums across the solar system, dedicated to replaying the songs of Taylor Swift, to vast, million-strong audiemces of delighted humanoids, all revelling in the immortally poetic chorus of "I knew You Were Trouble" or basking in the incredible emotional profundity of "Look What You Made Me Do" you can point to this and say "I was there when @BartholomewRoberts predicted exactly this"
And in the corner will be @NigelB saying "I told you I'd forget Donald Trump by 2029!"
You're repeating yourself, somewhat more tediously this time. If you can't understand the point which I explained to you at some length, then please obsess over something else. And will you please drop the @ - it auto-generates a completely unnecessary notification.
It doesn't for me - it's often days before I notice I've been @ed.
I think Leon's point about pop music getting simpler is hard to argue with, but I'll give it a go on two fronts: 1) We're comparing the simplest stuff today with the best stuff from the 60s. As I said, DDDBM&T weren't exactly Dylan but were tremendously successful. 2) Pop music has fragmented. There is all sorts of good, complex, interesting stuff today. But because we can pick and choose which bits we can consume in a way which wasn't true 60 years ago, much of the really good stuff only gets niche attention.
Also, surely, surely we are at the point now where everything worthwhile on the subject of romantic love has been said in pop music. I want more albums about aliens and cricket.
Dreadlock Holiday said what needs to be said about cricket.
Young people should be going out, getting hammered, dancing like crazy and then copping off with people they then laugh about the next day. And doing it all over again the next week.
That's what being young is FOR.
No, they should be overthrowing the class system. If they can also squeeze in a few laughs, fine, so long as it doesn't detract.
All over the land, the kids have finally startin' to get the upper hand They're out on the streets, they turn on the heat And soon they could be completely in command Imagine the sensation of teenage occupation At thirteen, they'll be learning And at fourteen, they'll be burning
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
It has been scientifically proven that the best music TV and film was when you were aged about 16 years old, however old you are.
As someone born in 1982 its just a coincidence that I was 16 when such legendary music as Vindaloo, Viva Forever and When the Lights Go Out came out. Anyone who disagrees that's the best music can lick my Chocolate Salty Balls.
I wouldn't say 1998 was the best year for music. Iris is one of the few songs from that year that's still on my playlist today.
The late 90s were surprisingly shit for pop. There was a series of top of the pops from the 90s on BBC4 a few years ago. It was notable and a bit sad how tge quality tailed off. 90-95 were pretty strong,and then a steep decline thereafter. This wasn't just because of my age - I was 15 in 1990 - because once you get into the noughties things pick up a bit again.
Britpop was awesome up until 1998. 1991 to 1996 being the peak.
You then got the dance acts moving in from 1998 through to 2002, which I liked, but if you throw in Bewitched and the Spice Girls on top in 1998 or 1999, it wasn't quite the same.
I believe a minor band that I doubt anybody on here has heard of called Radiohead brought out their OK Computer album in late 1990s....
Which was at least partly about aliens - so that'll please Leon.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
It's always a good day on PB when you get classic sentences like this:
"Swift is comparable to Bach and Shakespeare as one of the most successful and prolific artists on the planet, known as a household name around the planet, with a legacy that is likely to endure for centuries"
Remember the day you read that. Then, in 500 years time, where there are stages and auditoriums across the solar system, dedicated to replaying the songs of Taylor Swift, to vast, million-strong audiemces of delighted humanoids, all revelling in the immortally poetic chorus of "I knew You Were Trouble" or basking in the incredible emotional profundity of "Look What You Made Me Do" you can point to this and say "I was there when @BartholomewRoberts predicted exactly this"
And in the corner will be @NigelB saying "I told you I'd forget Donald Trump by 2029!"
You're repeating yourself, somewhat more tediously this time. If you can't understand the point which I explained to you at some length, then please obsess over something else. And will you please drop the @ - it auto-generates a completely unnecessary notification.
It doesn't for me - it's often days before I notice I've been @ed.
I think Leon's point about pop music getting simpler is hard to argue with, but I'll give it a go on two fronts: 1) We're comparing the simplest stuff today with the best stuff from the 60s. As I said, DDDBM&T weren't exactly Dylan but were tremendously successful. 2) Pop music has fragmented. There is all sorts of good, complex, interesting stuff today. But because we can pick and choose which bits we can consume in a way which wasn't true 60 years ago, much of the really good stuff only gets niche attention.
Also, surely, surely we are at the point now where everything worthwhile on the subject of romantic love has been said in pop music. I want more albums about aliens and cricket.
Dreadlock Holiday said what needs to be said about cricket.
Probably the best song of 1978.
Terry Valentine: Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. *That* was the sixties. [pause] Terry Valentine: No. It wasn't that either. It was just '66 and early '67. That's all there was
At the full Council meeting this afternoon, Reform took control of Warwickshire Council with its group leader Rob Howard (absent from the meeting) chosen as leader of the council with the backing of eight of the nine surviving Conservatives.
The Conservative Group Leader apparently claimed they recognised Reform had won the right to form an administration but they (the Conservatives) weren't supporting it despite empowering the minority administration to take full control.
The LD and Green leaders had put themselves forward but both were defeated by the Reform/Conservative combined votes.
Cornwall's full Council meeting on Tuesday morning should be very interesting.
Young people should be going out, getting hammered, dancing like crazy and then copping off with people they then laugh about the next day. And doing it all over again the next week.
That's what being young is FOR.
No, they should be overthrowing the class system. If they can also squeeze in a few laughs, fine, so long as it doesn't detract.
All over the land, the kids have finally startin' to get the upper hand They're out on the streets, they turn on the heat And soon they could be completely in command Imagine the sensation of teenage occupation At thirteen, they'll be learning And at fourteen, they'll be burning
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
I’d always assumed it was a sample, with agreement, like HippyChick sampled The Smiths ‘How Soon is Now’.
Didn’t Vanilla Ice wank off a pig with Rebecca Loos on a reality show. He had a bull and a cow with Paul Daniels too.
It's always a good day on PB when you get classic sentences like this:
"Swift is comparable to Bach and Shakespeare as one of the most successful and prolific artists on the planet, known as a household name around the planet, with a legacy that is likely to endure for centuries"
Remember the day you read that. Then, in 500 years time, where there are stages and auditoriums across the solar system, dedicated to replaying the songs of Taylor Swift, to vast, million-strong audiemces of delighted humanoids, all revelling in the immortally poetic chorus of "I knew You Were Trouble" or basking in the incredible emotional profundity of "Look What You Made Me Do" you can point to this and say "I was there when @BartholomewRoberts predicted exactly this"
And in the corner will be @NigelB saying "I told you I'd forget Donald Trump by 2029!"
You're repeating yourself, somewhat more tediously this time. If you can't understand the point which I explained to you at some length, then please obsess over something else. And will you please drop the @ - it auto-generates a completely unnecessary notification.
It doesn't for me - it's often days before I notice I've been @ed.
I think Leon's point about pop music getting simpler is hard to argue with, but I'll give it a go on two fronts: 1) We're comparing the simplest stuff today with the best stuff from the 60s. As I said, DDDBM&T weren't exactly Dylan but were tremendously successful. 2) Pop music has fragmented. There is all sorts of good, complex, interesting stuff today. But because we can pick and choose which bits we can consume in a way which wasn't true 60 years ago, much of the really good stuff only gets niche attention.
Also, surely, surely we are at the point now where everything worthwhile on the subject of romantic love has been said in pop music. I want more albums about aliens and cricket.
Dreadlock Holiday said what needs to be said about cricket.
It's a good song - but it's not ALL that needs to be said, surely? I do enjoy an attempt at an unusual topic in pop. For an opening gambit, Cloudbusting by Kate Bush - broadly a (true) song about a boy whose dad tried to build a machine to make it rain but then the government came to take him away: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbusting
I have the book that inspired that song, " A Book of Dreams" by Willheim Reich I think... had it years and haven't read it, like so many other books in my house. Bush played the son and Donald Sutherland the father in the music video
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
There has been an actual study done on this which shows that music has become less complex. Both Chord changes and key changes have reduced dramatically
The study that was done in 2022 looked at every number one hit listed on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958 – more than 1100 songs.
About a 25% of those songs from the 1960s to the 1990s included a key change.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of number one hit songs including a key change was.... 1
Yes, it's not disputed. Music has got less complex, less interesting, less varied, and the lyrics have similarly got simpler and cruder. It's a known, measurable thing. We are not imagining it
This happens in art forms. Who gives a fuck about modern poetry, or the latest opera? Art forms come and go, they rise and peak and fall
Popular music peaked 1965-2000
But other forms of art replace them, as they rise in turn. Who expected TV drama to become so sophisticated and rewarding? There was no hint of the Golden Age to come in 1980
Meanwhile videogames are a whole new artform - not to my taste, but I accept they are now highly creative and imaginative
I can confidently state that 1979 to 1984 were the greatest years ever for pop music. Anyone who disagrees is an idiot.
As someone born in the middle Sixties, I endorse this message.
Young people should be going out, getting hammered, dancing like crazy and then copping off with people they then laugh about the next day. And doing it all over again the next week.
That's what being young is FOR.
No, they should be overthrowing the class system. If they can also squeeze in a few laughs, fine, so long as it doesn't detract.
All over the land, the kids have finally startin' to get the upper hand They're out on the streets, they turn on the heat And soon they could be completely in command Imagine the sensation of teenage occupation At thirteen, they'll be learning And at fourteen, they'll be burning
That's quite good, Taz. You should put a tune to it.
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
There has been an actual study done on this which shows that music has become less complex. Both Chord changes and key changes have reduced dramatically
The study that was done in 2022 looked at every number one hit listed on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958 – more than 1100 songs.
About a 25% of those songs from the 1960s to the 1990s included a key change.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of number one hit songs including a key change was.... 1
Yes, it's not disputed. Music has got less complex, less interesting, less varied, and the lyrics have similarly got simpler and cruder. It's a known, measurable thing. We are not imagining it
This happens in art forms. Who gives a fuck about modern poetry, or the latest opera? Art forms come and go, they rise and peak and fall
Popular music peaked 1965-2000
But other forms of art replace them, as they rise in turn. Who expected TV drama to become so sophisticated and rewarding? There was no hint of the Golden Age to come in 1980
Meanwhile videogames are a whole new artform - not to my taste, but I accept they are now highly creative and imaginative
I can confidently state that 1979 to 1984 were the greatest years ever for pop music. Anyone who disagrees is an idiot.
As someone born in the middle Sixties, I endorse this message.
Late 60s early 70s is probably my favourite period but it's a little bit mood dependent.
Thinking Taylor TayTay Swift will be remembered for many decades longer than President Donald J Trump is an interesting sub-symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome
People who viscerally hate Trump WANT to believe this, because the idea he gets to live on in history is so intolerable: he doesn't deserve it
But it doesn't make it correct. It is clearly wrong, and asinine
Who's better remembered by the general public, Lennon & McCartney or Harold Wilson?
Artists often outlast politicians.
Trump is far more than the average politician, often in really bad ways
Honestly, this argument is dumb. I am obviously right
Who looms largest now, Dylan or Nixon?
You're simultaneously underestimating Trump's cultural footprint and overestimating Swift's.
It's an interesting question, and my gut is that Trump will be remembered more, in the same way that Kennedy, Churchill or Hitler or Roosevelt is remembered.
On the other hand, more people can probably name the top bands of the 1960s than -say- Lyndon Johnson.
There are therefore two questions:
- Is Taylor Swift as big a cultural phenomenon as bands like the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan? - Will Trump be as remembered as Kennedy or will he be more like a Nixon?
I think the answer is that Taylor Swift probably isn't as big a phenomenon, but I'd also guess that 50 year olds in 1968 probably didn't think the Rolling Stones would be that big. So, there's definitely cognitive biases playing a role.
And I think that Trump, for good or ill, is going to be well remembered. Not to the level of a Kennedy (who did manage to get himself assasinated), but certainly more than a Bush or Ford.
All good points, which I will add to by providing a thought experiment: how many characters from news and hiw many from popular culture from 100 years ago can you bring to mind? .
Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams all composed music still popular today. The BBC first broadcast The Proms.
Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Woolf, Sassoon, Conrad, Lawrence, Frost, Eliot, Pound, A.A Milne, Agatha Christie .... The last Sherlock Holmes stories were published.
That's scratching the surface.
Which proves his point however not the point you think you are proving. There were thousands of writers and composers and bands in every age. Generally people now know a handful of those thousands the rest are forgotten and who the hell is vaughan williams never heard of him…
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
There has been an actual study done on this which shows that music has become less complex. Both Chord changes and key changes have reduced dramatically
The study that was done in 2022 looked at every number one hit listed on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958 – more than 1100 songs.
About a 25% of those songs from the 1960s to the 1990s included a key change.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of number one hit songs including a key change was.... 1
A key change is a cheap trick to enliven an otherwise uninteresting piece of music. It's hardly a marker of musical sophistication, imho.
Its not just key changes. It is chord progressions and lyrical complexity as well. By pretty much all the measures music has simplified and, IMO, dumbed down.
And that is before you even start to look at autotuning to make crap voices sound good.
I have been listening to a podcast called A History of Rock Music in 500 songs, by Andrew Hickey recently, and would recommend to anyone interested in the details of songs, albums, and the stories behind them.
After the basic horror of being imprisoned for something you didn't do, surely one of the greatest insults to rub salt into the wounds is that some prisoners when found to have been wrongfuly convicted can lose up to 25% of their compensation because they are charged for the room and board for while they were in prison.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
I’d always assumed it was a sample, with agreement, like HippyChick sampled The Smiths ‘How Soon is Now’.
Didn’t Vanilla Ice wank off a pig with Rebecca Loos on a reality show. He had a bull and a cow with Paul Daniels too.
He narrated a BBC Sounds show about the disappearance of Shergar, that was odd enough for me
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
(c) wrote Sinatra's favourite love song (Something)
Oh and 8 note sequences, even if you only counted each note as just one note and not all the different lengths/ways you can play that note is not 8! as a combination since 8! is based upon you only being able to use each note once. You can use the same note repeatedly in a sequence.
So an 8 note sequence is actually 8 ^ 8 = 16, 777, 216 possible combinations.
Each note though can have different lengths/styles/tempos etc
Even if you only include crotchet, semi-quaver and quaver (though there's far more than that) you're now looking at 3 ways to do each of the 8, so your possibly combinations go up to 24 ^ 8 = 110,075,314,176 possible combinations.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
It was always my experience spring and summer canvassing on fine evenings was always much easier. People were often out in the front garden and willing to engage and even if they didn't support your politics, you could always say something nice about their garden or the weather and you'd part on good terms.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
There has been an actual study done on this which shows that music has become less complex. Both Chord changes and key changes have reduced dramatically
The study that was done in 2022 looked at every number one hit listed on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958 – more than 1100 songs.
About a 25% of those songs from the 1960s to the 1990s included a key change.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of number one hit songs including a key change was.... 1
A key change is a cheap trick to enliven an otherwise uninteresting piece of music. It's hardly a marker of musical sophistication, imho.
Its not just key changes. It is chord progressions and lyrical complexity as well. By pretty much all the measures music has simplified and, IMO, dumbed down.
And that is before you even start to look at autotuning to make crap voices sound good.
I have been listening to a podcast called A History of Rock Music in 500 songs, by Andrew Hickey recently, and would recommend to anyone interested in the details of songs, albums, and the stories behind them.
This guy does something similar on YouTube. I'm not particularly a music fan, but I enjoy listening to the stories behind the songs. Although his clickbaity titles annoy me - I'd rather he just name the band.
Oh and 8 note sequences, even if you only counted each note as just one note and not all the different lengths/ways you can play that note is not 8! as a combination since 8! is based upon you only being able to use each note once. You can use the same note repeatedly in a sequence.
So an 8 note sequence is actually 8 ^ 8 = 16, 777, 216 possible combinations.
Each note though can have different lengths/styles/tempos etc
Even if you only include crotchet, semi-quaver and quaver (though there's far more than that) you're now looking at 3 ways to do each of the 8, so your possibly combinations go up to 24 ^ 8 = 110,075,314,176 possible combinations.
And that's without looking at keys.
But you do not start with 8! - because many combinations are discordant... your basic musical melodies are a fraction of the mathematical maximum. You can play with key changes and rhythm changes but EMI lawyers are going to own you.
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Layla's coda was written by Rita Coolidge and stolen by her ex, Clapton's matricidal drummer Jim Gordon
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
"Wonderful Tonight" and "Something" were also about Patti Boyd... she must have been some gal in her day
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Good on you. It can't be easy. I'm thinking of throwing my hand in first time on my local council in 2 years all up elections. Not labour but Libdems though. Our council is mainly independents, we can do with some party people.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
I don't think I've ever heard that one. The peak French and Saunders parody has to be their take on Abba. It's actually a good song that you could imagine being a hit if Abba recorded it:
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
Young people should be going out, getting hammered, dancing like crazy and then copping off with people they then laugh about the next day. And doing it all over again the next week.
That's what being young is FOR.
100% right. Some of them still do. I spent all night on the tube a few months ago after my hotel booking went wrong, and at about 4 in the morning on Friday night there were still a fair number of them around but I guess you'd expect that in a city of 10 million people.
One of my favourite memories from hard clubbing days in London was getting the first tube home surrounded by commuters. I like to *think* I wasn't an obnoxious twat, but wouldn't back that sentiment with a particularly large stake.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
"Wonderful Tonight" and "Something" were also about Patti Boyd... she must have been some gal in her day
She was a model in her youth.
Didn’t realise Wonderful Tonight was about her.
You only have to watch a few seconds of the music video of Something to realise that was.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
I don't think I've ever heard that one. The peak French and Saunders parody has to be their take on Abba. It's actually a good song that you could imagine being a hit if Abba recorded it:
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Compared to 1983 I expect the response you're getting isn't so bad.
Oh and 8 note sequences, even if you only counted each note as just one note and not all the different lengths/ways you can play that note is not 8! as a combination since 8! is based upon you only being able to use each note once. You can use the same note repeatedly in a sequence.
So an 8 note sequence is actually 8 ^ 8 = 16, 777, 216 possible combinations.
Each note though can have different lengths/styles/tempos etc
Even if you only include crotchet, semi-quaver and quaver (though there's far more than that) you're now looking at 3 ways to do each of the 8, so your possibly combinations go up to 24 ^ 8 = 110,075,314,176 possible combinations.
And that's without looking at keys.
But you do not start with 8! - because many combinations are discordant... your basic musical melodies are a fraction of the mathematical maximum. You can play with key changes and rhythm changes but EMI lawyers are going to own you.
As I said, 8! is wrong since you can use each note more than once.
Yes many combinations are discordant (though sometimes people deliberately want/use that) but there are so many different ways of writing, let alone recording, the notes into unique combinations that you end up with beyond trillions of potential combinations, not tens of thousands.
And a fraction of beyond trillions is still a very large number, not a small one.
Fun fact is that music was originally considered a branch of mathematics.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
It's always a good day on PB when you get classic sentences like this:
"Swift is comparable to Bach and Shakespeare as one of the most successful and prolific artists on the planet, known as a household name around the planet, with a legacy that is likely to endure for centuries"
Remember the day you read that. Then, in 500 years time, where there are stages and auditoriums across the solar system, dedicated to replaying the songs of Taylor Swift, to vast, million-strong audiemces of delighted humanoids, all revelling in the immortally poetic chorus of "I knew You Were Trouble" or basking in the incredible emotional profundity of "Look What You Made Me Do" you can point to this and say "I was there when @BartholomewRoberts predicted exactly this"
And in the corner will be @NigelB saying "I told you I'd forget Donald Trump by 2029!"
You're repeating yourself, somewhat more tediously this time. If you can't understand the point which I explained to you at some length, then please obsess over something else. And will you please drop the @ - it auto-generates a completely unnecessary notification.
It doesn't for me - it's often days before I notice I've been @ed.
I think Leon's point about pop music getting simpler is hard to argue with, but I'll give it a go on two fronts: 1) We're comparing the simplest stuff today with the best stuff from the 60s. As I said, DDDBM&T weren't exactly Dylan but were tremendously successful. 2) Pop music has fragmented. There is all sorts of good, complex, interesting stuff today. But because we can pick and choose which bits we can consume in a way which wasn't true 60 years ago, much of the really good stuff only gets niche attention.
Also, surely, surely we are at the point now where everything worthwhile on the subject of romantic love has been said in pop music. I want more albums about aliens and cricket.
Dreadlock Holiday said what needs to be said about cricket.
It's a good song - but it's not ALL that needs to be said, surely? I do enjoy an attempt at an unusual topic in pop. For an opening gambit, Cloudbusting by Kate Bush - broadly a (true) song about a boy whose dad tried to build a machine to make it rain but then the government came to take him away: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbusting
You could pick almost anything from Kate Bush. How about the topic of nuclear war experienced from the perspective of an unborn foetus?
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
That’s the same joke but I’m sure it’s not it. Maybe I just imagined it. Thanks though
They definitely dressed up as spiky boob Madonna from her 'In Bed With Madonna' film. I've not seen it but maybe the Vogue parody was from that.
I have seen them do that, the "blow dry" scene is great, but can't find the "Vogue" parody. Maybe it was Smith & Jones, but I would have sworn Sid Little and Rolf Harris were in the one I heard
Loved the S&J sketch when they had Jones as Roger Whittaker singing "I'm Gonna Leave Old Durham Town" at Durham Station, until his train got cancelled and he started singing "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
Perhaps one could consult the feedback of ones' own conscience.
It's always a good day on PB when you get classic sentences like this:
"Swift is comparable to Bach and Shakespeare as one of the most successful and prolific artists on the planet, known as a household name around the planet, with a legacy that is likely to endure for centuries"
Remember the day you read that. Then, in 500 years time, where there are stages and auditoriums across the solar system, dedicated to replaying the songs of Taylor Swift, to vast, million-strong audiemces of delighted humanoids, all revelling in the immortally poetic chorus of "I knew You Were Trouble" or basking in the incredible emotional profundity of "Look What You Made Me Do" you can point to this and say "I was there when @BartholomewRoberts predicted exactly this"
And in the corner will be @NigelB saying "I told you I'd forget Donald Trump by 2029!"
You're repeating yourself, somewhat more tediously this time. If you can't understand the point which I explained to you at some length, then please obsess over something else. And will you please drop the @ - it auto-generates a completely unnecessary notification.
It doesn't for me - it's often days before I notice I've been @ed.
I think Leon's point about pop music getting simpler is hard to argue with, but I'll give it a go on two fronts: 1) We're comparing the simplest stuff today with the best stuff from the 60s. As I said, DDDBM&T weren't exactly Dylan but were tremendously successful. 2) Pop music has fragmented. There is all sorts of good, complex, interesting stuff today. But because we can pick and choose which bits we can consume in a way which wasn't true 60 years ago, much of the really good stuff only gets niche attention.
Also, surely, surely we are at the point now where everything worthwhile on the subject of romantic love has been said in pop music. I want more albums about aliens and cricket.
Dreadlock Holiday said what needs to be said about cricket.
It's a good song - but it's not ALL that needs to be said, surely? I do enjoy an attempt at an unusual topic in pop. For an opening gambit, Cloudbusting by Kate Bush - broadly a (true) song about a boy whose dad tried to build a machine to make it rain but then the government came to take him away: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbusting
You could pick almost anything from Kate Bush. How about the topic of nuclear war experienced from the perspective of an unborn foetus?
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
Perhaps one could consult the feedback of ones' own conscience.
I'm canvassing and getting to hear from people, most of it was really local issues, flytipping, kids playing football on the street too late at night, drivers breaking the 20mph limit. Stuff that the local councillors can sort out. My conscience is completely clear, I just have a different opinion to you.
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
The sitting in the garden drinking wine does have a certain appeal though.
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
Given the percentage of global production which comes from China now, actually it is.
Huge strategic error by the West.
One of many. The wonders of free trade, huh?
No one practises “free trade” without compromise. It’s just that western interventions have ignored strategic consideration for the last couple of decades.
After ‘winning’ against the Soviets, we’ve been somewhat blind to the implications of the rise of China. Until recently.
This is potentially consequential for US national politics.
They’ve accomplished something very unusual in San Francisco which is to get money and organization aligned around a common sense slate *all up and down the ballot* rather than counting on a mayor to single-handedly fix things. https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1923444334638100593
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
Good for you Andy. Its such a good way of seeing different people's garden ideas/planting schemes and most people are still very polite and humorous regardless of whether they are one of yours/ours!
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
Given the percentage of global production which comes from China now, actually it is.
Huge strategic error by the West.
One of many. The wonders of free trade, huh?
No one practises “free trade” without compromise. It’s just that western interventions have ignored strategic consideration for the last couple of decades.
After ‘winning’ against the Soviets, we’ve been somewhat blind to the implications of the rise of China. Until recently.
"Peace has cost you your strength! Victory has defeated you!"
Thinking Taylor TayTay Swift will be remembered for many decades longer than President Donald J Trump is an interesting sub-symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome
People who viscerally hate Trump WANT to believe this, because the idea he gets to live on in history is so intolerable: he doesn't deserve it
But it doesn't make it correct. It is clearly wrong, and asinine
Who's better remembered by the general public, Lennon & McCartney or Harold Wilson?
Artists often outlast politicians.
Trump is far more than the average politician, often in really bad ways
Honestly, this argument is dumb. I am obviously right
Who looms largest now, Dylan or Nixon?
You're simultaneously underestimating Trump's cultural footprint and overestimating Swift's.
It's an interesting question, and my gut is that Trump will be remembered more, in the same way that Kennedy, Churchill or Hitler or Roosevelt is remembered.
On the other hand, more people can probably name the top bands of the 1960s than -say- Lyndon Johnson.
There are therefore two questions:
- Is Taylor Swift as big a cultural phenomenon as bands like the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan? - Will Trump be as remembered as Kennedy or will he be more like a Nixon?
I think the answer is that Taylor Swift probably isn't as big a phenomenon, but I'd also guess that 50 year olds in 1968 probably didn't think the Rolling Stones would be that big. So, there's definitely cognitive biases playing a role.
And I think that Trump, for good or ill, is going to be well remembered. Not to the level of a Kennedy (who did manage to get himself assasinated), but certainly more than a Bush or Ford.
All good points, which I will add to by providing a thought experiment: how many characters from news and hiw many from popular culture from 100 years ago can you bring to mind? .
Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams all composed music still popular today. The BBC first broadcast The Proms.
Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Woolf, Sassoon, Conrad, Lawrence, Frost, Eliot, Pound, A.A Milne, Agatha Christie .... The last Sherlock Holmes stories were published.
That's scratching the surface.
Which proves his point however not the point you think you are proving. There were thousands of writers and composers and bands in every age. Generally people now know a handful of those thousands the rest are forgotten and who the hell is vaughan williams never heard of him…
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Absolutely effing pathetic if true. Why do pensioners like my Mother and Stepdad need it. They live in a nice house, they own outright, have a very comfortable lifestyle. They are not struggling at all.
At this rate they’ll be paying slavery reparations and giving the WASPI women a handout by the summer.
If they fold this easily on this they will never make a tough decision and see it through.
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
Perhaps one could consult the feedback of ones' own conscience.
I'm canvassing and getting to hear from people, most of it was really local issues, flytipping, kids playing football on the street too late at night, drivers breaking the 20mph limit. Stuff that the local councillors can sort out. My conscience is completely clear, I just have a different opinion to you.
Just been out with the little hound, a beautiful evening and spotted 4 hares, with my dog being rather optimistic in pursuit.
20 odd teenagers on our park, socialising, snogging, playing football and drinking vodka and coke, as well as a rather ghastly looking rose in the football dug out. A bit rowdy, but harmless. Isn't that how life should be as a teenager?
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
The point I was making is if you can sucessfully sue over an 8 note sequence in a song being the same as in your song then effectively that limits the number of potential tunes without plagiarise to 8! which = 40320 and many of those sequences in addition will be discordant
Not really because there's more than one way to make a note, and more than one length of a note etc etc
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Heard a song the other day, it came up on Spotify shuffle, and it was one of the most outrageous lifts from another song I'd ever heard... can't remember it now though! I will come back to this
It's called interpolation. Dua Lipa is notorious for it.
I can't believe how much this is bugging me!
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
The phrase "voice of the customer" always makes me think of "voice of the Mysterons"...
Just did my first session of canvassing for ages. Surprisingly positive on the doorstep.
For which Party ?
Labour, I'm still hanging in there even though SKS finds new ways to disappoint me even week. I did my first leafletting in 1983 and they aren't getting me to quit.
Fair play to you for that.
Is it fair play to him?
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes, it is in my view.
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
The phrase "voice of the customer" always makes me think of "voice of the Mysterons"...
Currently being screened by Talking Pictures TV.
Voice of the Customer was one of those awful American corporate sayings I’m glad I’ve left behind.
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
There has been an actual study done on this which shows that music has become less complex. Both Chord changes and key changes have reduced dramatically
The study that was done in 2022 looked at every number one hit listed on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958 – more than 1100 songs.
About a 25% of those songs from the 1960s to the 1990s included a key change.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of number one hit songs including a key change was.... 1
A key change is a cheap trick to enliven an otherwise uninteresting piece of music. It's hardly a marker of musical sophistication, imho.
Its not just key changes. It is chord progressions and lyrical complexity as well. By pretty much all the measures music has simplified and, IMO, dumbed down.
And that is before you even start to look at autotuning to make crap voices sound good.
I have been listening to a podcast called A History of Rock Music in 500 songs, by Andrew Hickey recently, and would recommend to anyone interested in the details of songs, albums, and the stories behind them.
This guy does something similar on YouTube. I'm not particularly a music fan, but I enjoy listening to the stories behind the songs. Although his clickbaity titles annoy me - I'd rather he just name the band.
Thought: Reform are just two gifted politicians from government
The polls are pretty clear now. The people have had enough of Lab and Con. They are absolutely hacked off with ALL immigration - a lot of them want remigration
The only party positioned to benefit from this is Reform. BUT Reform have one massive problem - they are entirely reliant on Farage. With him gone - and he’s not a young man - they’d be screwed
However if they can find just a couple of good, younger politicians - a Sturgeon to Farage’s Salmond - then they will be well set
My mind turns to Jenrick. He’s increasingly capable. He’s excellent on social media. He’s sharp and punchy and he agrees with Reform on the culture war issues
In return he must be tempted to defect if Reform look like winning. He’d go straight to the top (under Farage) and be the likely next prime minister if/when Farage goes
Then they need one more. A spare for the heir
Sorted
Farage won't tolerate a rival, Jenrick included. Tice would also fancy himself as heir apparent for Reform if Farage ever did go again, after all Tice was Reform leader until Farage returned.
Jenrick's best bet is for Farage to fail to become PM at the next GE and Kemi if she survives as Tory leader or Stride or Cleverly if she doesn't to also lose, then he is best placed to become Conservative leader and unite the right again. Ideally against a Labour and LD government so he has opposition to himself
And what if the polls in 2027 are the same as now? Reform around 30 or more, Tories in the teens
Then Jenrick is fucked and he needs to defect
Farage by then will need an heir. He's a cunning politician and presumably cunning enough to know he's gotta secure a legacy, he can only do that by recruiting younger politicians able to take over
Why? Jenrick would neither replace Farage as leader or Tice as heir and there are younger councillors in Reform like Jaymey McIvor who also have longterm ambitions.
If the Tories are in the teens by late next year either Jenrick replaces Kemi as Tory leader anyway, or Tory MPs replace her with Stride or Cleverly and Jenrick becomes heir apparent as Tory leader if they too lose and if Farage again fails to beat Starmer and become PM he can also start to pick up Reform votes
You don't seem to understand
My thesis is that the Tories might be permanently fucked. Doomed. Destroyed. We can but pray
The polls - and the recent elections - are pointing that way. What does an ambitious political man like Jenrick do then? And he is nothing if not ambitious. What's the point in being leader of the next Lib Dems? The rump of a once great party which will probably never see power again?
He must bide his time for now, but if the polls look terminal for Tories in 2027 - and great for Reform - then his best bet might be: defect. There must be many Tories thinking this, especially if they look doomed to lose their seats, as Tories - as quite a few do, as things stand
There must be a great many blue shire and red wall MPs alike looking at the polls and wondering when the most opportune time to jump ship is. Too soon is a risk in case Nige self destructs before the election. Too late perhaps even riskier, if events move beyond you.
There’s definitely a scenario where Reform end this parliament with a coach load of MPs, if not quite the third largest party.
Keeping Chagos and reinstating the WFP? It'll be bringing back the Rwanda policy next.
Transwomen are not women either now. Is there anything he can stay true to himself on?
Get those flip-flops out!
It's interesting to compare media reporting of U-turns of the last government to this one.
You put your left leg in, your left leg out. In, out, in, out, you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Cokey and you turn around. That's what it's all about.
I arrived in Pézenas this afternoon, and I think that it might be my favourite place on earth
It’s ancient and beautiful. It’s full of classy and interesting shops; I’ve seen more than ten shops selling just art within three hundred yards of my Airbnb apartment (50€ a night, it’s the first floor room on the right in the pic, above a clothes shop called Bobo Leon! The arch at the end of the street is the entrance to Jewish Street - Rue Juiverie - the Jewish ghetto from the late 13C until they were expelled from all of France in 15C)
There’s a shop that sells biscuits and lemonade, and they’ve sold lemonade for 150 years. There are loads of fancy clothes shops, ice cream parlours, a shop that just sells an enormous range of spices from big jars. There’s a free museum of doors - I’m definitely going there tomorrow
The place is packed with good restaurants; I had a fantastic dinner tonight, and can’t wait to go out again tomorrow. I’ve found where I’m going to be buying my lunch. There’s a patisserie that makes the town’s specialty - Petit Pâté de Pézenas, a pastry based on keema naan brought to Pézenas by Clive of India - with the same recipe that they’ve used for 247 years. There’s a craft brewery shop opposite the patisserie - maybe the town loves me
I’m so glad I decided to book three nights here. I’d originally thought that I’d just stay two nights, but then I’d have to leave on Sunday which is always more complicated. I’ve definitely saved the best until last
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Something is quite possibly the very best Beatles song of all. (And Here Comes the Sun is right up there too.)
I arrived in Pézenas this afternoon, and I think that it might be my favourite place on earth
It’s ancient and beautiful. It’s full of classy and interesting shops; I’ve seen more than ten shops selling just art within three hundred yards of my Airbnb apartment (50€ a night, it’s the first floor room on the right in the pic, above a clothes shop called Bobo Leon! The arch at the end of the street is the entrance to Jewish Street - Rue Juiverie - the Jewish ghetto from the late 13C until they were expelled from all of France in 15C)
There’s a shop that sells biscuits and lemonade, and they’ve sold lemonade for 150 years. There are loads of fancy clothes shops, ice cream parlours, a shop that just sells an enormous range of spices from big jars. There’s a free museum of doors - I’m definitely going there tomorrow
The place is packed with good restaurants; I had a fantastic dinner tonight, and can’t wait to go out again tomorrow. I’ve found where I’m going to be buying my lunch. There’s a patisserie that makes the town’s specialty - Petit Pâté de Pézenas, a pastry based on keema naan brought to Pézenas by Clive of India - with the same recipe that they’ve used for 247 years. There’s a craft brewery shop opposite the patisserie - maybe the town loves me
I’m so glad I decided to book three nights here. I’d originally thought that I’d just stay two nights, but then I’d have to leave on Sunday which is always more complicated. I’ve definitely saved the best until last
I was in Paddington Station t'other day and in the food bit atrium there was a "Leon" sign. I didn't take a photo because I didn't have a happy dog to provide scale.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Something is quite possibly the very best Beatles song of all. (And Here Comes the Sun is right up there too.)
The latter is possibly the only one I really like.
Near the fish market in Cadiz last Wednesday week was a busker playing Sultans of Swing on a Spanish guitar. Now, what struck me was the song was released in May 1978 - 47 years later, it's still being played and referenced.
I'm not saying people will remember Dire Straits or every song they ever created or covered but Sultans is an iconic tune and people play it and remember it.
Even on the ship it was part of the Pop Quiz and while the 21 year old hosting the quiz wasn't born when it came out, she knew it just as people know some of the Beatles songs 60 years on.
That's the classical music of the 21st Century and perhaps beyond - it's not a question of competing with Bach, Mozart or Elvis but there will be songs which will be remembered and the vast majority which won't.
Yes, I agree with that
And I've noticed the same phenom around the world. Pop music 1965-2000 is becoming the classical music of our time. The default, the standard, the accepted best, and the go-to. A bit like Renaissance art 1400-1600?
Which throws new light on TayTay. I agree she's really good, but I would argue if she was around in 1969, 1976, or even the early 90s she would not be a tenth as famous, or even a hundredth, because she is not THAT good, and she would be competing with many more brilliant artists writing brilliant songs
TayTay has done really well because she's a genuinely talented young woman - and cute - with a definite ability to write shimmering and catchy tunes, but she is not Bob Dylan, or even Joni Mitchell. She's done so well because she exists in a musical nadir where there is a lack of competition - and also because of a new musical ecosystem which rewards just one or two and ignores everyone else
And, I repeat, I like her music
I think you're just old and looking back with rose-tinted glasses. People always think older stuff is better and that modern stuff doesn't compare. There were people saying that in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s too.
There has been an actual study done on this which shows that music has become less complex. Both Chord changes and key changes have reduced dramatically
The study that was done in 2022 looked at every number one hit listed on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1958 – more than 1100 songs.
About a 25% of those songs from the 1960s to the 1990s included a key change.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of number one hit songs including a key change was.... 1
Yes, it's not disputed. Music has got less complex, less interesting, less varied, and the lyrics have similarly got simpler and cruder. It's a known, measurable thing. We are not imagining it
This happens in art forms. Who gives a fuck about modern poetry, or the latest opera? Art forms come and go, they rise and peak and fall
Popular music peaked 1965-2000
But other forms of art replace them, as they rise in turn. Who expected TV drama to become so sophisticated and rewarding? There was no hint of the Golden Age to come in 1980
Meanwhile videogames are a whole new artform - not to my taste, but I accept they are now highly creative and imaginative
The weird thing I find is that young people are no longer going out clubbing. Or drinking.
Why the fuck not?
Young people have been dancing together to rhythmic sounds since the Stone Age.
I can offer two reasons: 1) Young people don't court that way. They do it online and are slightly uncomfortable with the sort of IRL flirting which give clubs some of their frisson. 2) Pubs are open later. Think back to the 90s: you went to a club whether you wanted to or not because the pubs shut at 11. Interestingly, Edinburgh's clubs were actually a bit shit for a city of its size because the pubs stayed open longer and provided less impetus to move on.
No doubt there are others.
I don't see it as in number two, even for a time at Uni or whatever.
Why go to a club whether you want to or not - why be a sheep? Perhaps think for yourself or get some more interesting friends.
Go home and get some sleep (with your pullee if that is your game) and have a better day the next day?
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Something is quite possibly the very best Beatles song of all. (And Here Comes the Sun is right up there too.)
The latter is possibly the only one I really like.
This plagiarism stuff is ridiculous when you look, for example, at the early years of what became country music.
When comparing songs of yesteryear with the current batch, you have to remember that all of the good notes have been taken.
Mathematically there are only so many combinations of 8 notes that can be played before some young music industry exective starts shouting 'plagiarism'...
Indeed men with out hats were sued over 8 notes for plagiarism only about 40k ways to arrange 8 notes over an 8 note sequence
Jethro Tull claim that one of their songs inspired some of the guitar work on Hotel California by The Eagles.
George Harrison was sued for plagiarising He’s so Fine by the Chiffons. His song, y Sweet Lord from his majestic Album ‘All Things Must Pass’.
John Lennon, being a wanker, basically sided with the suing party.
Although George had the last laugh.
George Harrison:
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
The Matt Monro version of ‘Isn’t it a Pity’ is pretty decent.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Something is quite possibly the very best Beatles song of all. (And Here Comes the Sun is right up there too.)
Determining the best Beatles song of all is an impossible challenge. All you can say with certainty is that it's a very strong field.
Comments
On iplayer at:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03n3297/pq17-an-arctic-convoy-disaster
They're out on the streets, they turn on the heat
And soon they could be completely in command
Imagine the sensation of teenage occupation
At thirteen, they'll be learning
And at fourteen, they'll be burning
Terry Valentine: Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. *That* was the sixties.
[pause]
Terry Valentine: No. It wasn't that either. It was just '66 and early '67. That's all there was
At the full Council meeting this afternoon, Reform took control of Warwickshire Council with its group leader Rob Howard (absent from the meeting) chosen as leader of the council with the backing of eight of the nine surviving Conservatives.
The Conservative Group Leader apparently claimed they recognised Reform had won the right to form an administration but they (the Conservatives) weren't supporting it despite empowering the minority administration to take full control.
The LD and Green leaders had put themselves forward but both were defeated by the Reform/Conservative combined votes.
Cornwall's full Council meeting on Tuesday morning should be very interesting.
To give the example I gave before, it's bleedingly obvious that Ice Ice Baby ripped off Under Pressure. It's not a 1/40320 coincidence.
Didn’t Vanilla Ice wank off a pig with Rebecca Loos on a reality show. He had a bull and a cow with Paul Daniels too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2JlDnT2l8
And this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6pEIHtffqQ
Give it a go.
After the basic horror of being imprisoned for something you didn't do, surely one of the greatest insults to rub salt into the wounds is that some prisoners when found to have been wrongfuly convicted can lose up to 25% of their compensation because they are charged for the room and board for while they were in prison.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66324801
(a) had the best selling solo album from an ex-Beatle (with -as you say- the majestic All Things Must Pass)
and
(b) the last number one single from an ex-Beatle (with his cover of I've Got My Mind Set on You)
So an 8 note sequence is actually 8 ^ 8 = 16, 777, 216 possible combinations.
Each note though can have different lengths/styles/tempos etc
Even if you only include crotchet, semi-quaver and quaver (though there's far more than that) you're now looking at 3 ways to do each of the 8, so your possibly combinations go up to 24 ^ 8 = 110,075,314,176 possible combinations.
And that's without looking at keys.
Eric Clapton’s Layla, which features a fantastic instrumental Coda as used in Goodfellas, was about Harrison’s wife Patti with whom he was intimately acquainted.
I’ve said before, the gaining of wisdom comes with the realisation George is the best of the Beatles.
Possibly New Order/Electronic plagiarising Teardrop Explodes? Something along those lines anyway
Something else bugging me... I would have sworn in the 90s I saw French and Saunders parody Madonna's "Vogue", and instead of "Grace Kelly, Jimmy Dean" etc they sang "Sid Little, Rolf Harris" and other more mundane celebrities who were famous in the UK. I have never been able to find it, and recently asked an F&S expert on insta if she had it, and she had never heard of it. Anyone know who did it?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorofRock
https://youtu.be/ge-z5tXeQwk
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7uhqbe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge-z5tXeQwk
Didn’t realise Wonderful Tonight was about her.
You only have to watch a few seconds of the music video of Something to realise that was.
Great song too.
If someone is in Government, and they aren't governing according to how one passionately believes the country should be governed, is it right to support them?
I sort of flit between the Tories (my natural home) and Reform, but if Sir Keir turned around and started putting in place the solutions I believe in, I'd drop those parties like a hot brick. I'm a voter - I'm loyal to my country, not a rosette.
Yes many combinations are discordant (though sometimes people deliberately want/use that) but there are so many different ways of writing, let alone recording, the notes into unique combinations that you end up with beyond trillions of potential combinations, not tens of thousands.
And a fraction of beyond trillions is still a very large number, not a small one.
Fun fact is that music was originally considered a branch of mathematics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Will_Eat_Itself
https://mediacat.uk/pop-will-eat-itself/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1178278.Will_Pop_Eat_Itself_
Incidentally, for anyone who hasn't seen it, this rework of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is genius. Though NSFW...
Getting up of his backside and going out canvassing for his party on a glorious summers day. Presumably gauging people’s views and feedback.
I’ve been sitting in the garden drinking homemade raisin wine.
If you don’t canvass you don’t get feedback, or ‘voice of customer’ as the place I used to work called it, and you cannot change accordingly.
Very underrated and no DVD release. They also played Dalziel and Pascoe on screen before the more successful Warren Clarke version
https://youtu.be/Qqhhn1i9UJI?si=wVrvmC8_bxzaUR1M
Loved the S&J sketch when they had Jones as Roger Whittaker singing "I'm Gonna Leave Old Durham Town" at Durham Station, until his train got cancelled and he started singing "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel
"Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe. "
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14718749/China-secretly-installed-kill-switches-solar-panels-sold-West-Beijing-plunge-enemies-darkness-event-WW3.html
@SirSunnyMoon
1 month ago
Love it! Searched for this for ages labouring under the mistaken belief it was French and Saunders that did it. 🤦🏻♂️
Huge strategic error by the West.
It’s just that western interventions have ignored strategic consideration for the last couple of decades.
After ‘winning’ against the Soviets, we’ve been somewhat blind to the implications of the rise of China. Until recently.
They’ve accomplished something very unusual in San Francisco which is to get money and organization aligned around a common sense slate *all up and down the ballot* rather than counting on a mayor to single-handedly fix things.
https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1923444334638100593
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMyUOLrDyhE
EXC: Sir Keir Starmer is poised to reverse changes to the controversial winter fuel payment cut possibly as soon as next month
Talks in No 10 about abandoning the policy have accelerated this week
https://x.com/kitty_donaldson/status/1923403409190748301
Get those flip-flops out!
Have I missed something?
edit: oh I see, to avoid a "toxic backlash"
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/chagos-islands-deal-mauritius-diego-garcia-5r2zxjvmn
At this rate they’ll be paying slavery reparations and giving the WASPI women a handout by the summer.
If they fold this easily on this they will never make a tough decision and see it through.
20 odd teenagers on our park, socialising, snogging, playing football and drinking vodka and coke, as well as a rather ghastly looking rose in the football dug out. A bit rowdy, but harmless. Isn't that how life should be as a teenager?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeIxJzdPD0A
Voice of the Customer was one of those awful American corporate sayings I’m glad I’ve left behind.
There’s definitely a scenario where Reform end this parliament with a coach load of MPs, if not quite the third largest party.
In, out, in, out, you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey Cokey and you turn around.
That's what it's all about.
It’s ancient and beautiful. It’s full of classy and interesting shops; I’ve seen more than ten shops selling just art within three hundred yards of my Airbnb apartment (50€ a night, it’s the first floor room on the right in the pic, above a clothes shop called Bobo Leon! The arch at the end of the street is the entrance to Jewish Street - Rue Juiverie - the Jewish ghetto from the late 13C until they were expelled from all of France in 15C)
There’s a shop that sells biscuits and lemonade, and they’ve sold lemonade for 150 years. There are loads of fancy clothes shops, ice cream parlours, a shop that just sells an enormous range of spices from big jars. There’s a free museum of doors - I’m definitely going there tomorrow
The place is packed with good restaurants; I had a fantastic dinner tonight, and can’t wait to go out again tomorrow. I’ve found where I’m going to be buying my lunch. There’s a patisserie that makes the town’s specialty - Petit Pâté de Pézenas, a pastry based on keema naan brought to Pézenas by Clive of India - with the same recipe that they’ve used for 247 years. There’s a craft brewery shop opposite the patisserie - maybe the town loves me
I’m so glad I decided to book three nights here. I’d originally thought that I’d just stay two nights, but then I’d have to leave on Sunday which is always more complicated. I’ve definitely saved the best until last
"Artificial intelligence and energy security
Advanced technology can be a double-edged sword.
By Stephanie Baxter"
https://www.newstatesman.com/sponsored/2025/04/artificial-intelligence-and-energy-security
Why go to a club whether you want to or not - why be a sheep? Perhaps think for yourself or get some more interesting friends.
Go home and get some sleep (with your pullee if that is your game) and have a better day the next day?
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5304529-florida-serial-killer-glen-rogers-trump-maga-casanova-killer/
“President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go,” Glen Rogers, 62, said just before he died by lethal injection for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two who he stabbed to death 30 years ago...