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Post by wallden on Aug 1, 2016 9:04:33 GMT
Francis said in an interview, must have read or heard it from one of many links being posted here, that when they did Acoustic he discovered that many of the old songs has some nice little melodies hidden behind all arrangers and this has been stuck in my mind since then. What does he mean?
In Acoustic you can hear how most songs are "peeled off". Intros are shortened or removed. Songs are shortened and bits are removed.
How can you believe that this will make the song better? I don't get that. The song will loose it's identity and become boring. What he says is more like Industrial production optimization. Remove everything unnecessary. But this is music and this so much more complex.
So why does a musician want to do like this?Has he gone bored and just want to get over with it?
Francis, please try to remember what it was that made music great. It is not certain chords in a specified order. It is sweat,energy, attitude together with brilliant songs.
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Post by Victor on Aug 1, 2016 9:07:47 GMT
Yep. And don't forget the heart and soul in the songs... it often does sound like he's bored
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Post by wallden on Aug 1, 2016 9:11:50 GMT
Yep. And don't forget the heart and soul in the songs... it often does sound like he's bored yes of course. That should also be added. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2016 9:47:02 GMT
He is correct what he says. He has always had a good ear for melody.
But then they all have.
Alan might have caricatured himself as the rock hard man of the band back in the hey-day, but countless songs of his showed a great combination of rock energy, subtlety and melody. Over And Done is one glorious example, The Wild Ones is another, and Over The Edge yet another. There are obviously loads more.
Francis ideas however have increasingly lost touch with numbers of the Quo faithful. In fact unfortunately he seems to have had the increasing knack of alienating himself, and the band he leads, the further and further he heads into his dotage.
It can't all be simply boredom - I just think he has lost touch with what made Quo the success they initially were. Maybe its more the case that he doesn't care. But that isn't the same as boredom. His is very adept at tinkering and creating. Just not necessarily in ways that all his audience are in tune with these days.
He got it right, in my opinion, with his solo project. Right place and right time.
He got it wrong in that canary coloured suit during the 90's. Less amusingly, he got it most wrong following the reunions. His obsession with The Everlys and melody doesn't always jive with all things Quo. |
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Post by Gaz on Aug 1, 2016 11:03:26 GMT
He is correct what he says. He has always had a good ear for melody.
But then they all have.
Alan might have caricatured himself as the rock hard man of the band back in the hey-day, but countless songs of his showed a great combination of rock energy, subtlety and melody. Over And Done is one glorious example, The Wild Ones is another, and Over The Edge yet another. There are obviously loads more.
Francis ideas however have increasingly lost touch with numbers of the Quo faithful. In fact unfortunately he seems to have had the increasing knack of alienating himself, and the band he leads, the further and further he heads into his dotage.
It can't all be simply boredom - I just think he has lost touch with what made Quo the success they initially were. Maybe its more the case that he doesn't care. But that isn't the same as boredom. His is very adept at tinkering and creating. Just not necessarily in ways that all his audience are in tune with these days.
He got it right, in my opinion, with his solo project. Right place and right time.
He got it wrong in that canary coloured suit during the 90's. Less amusingly, he got it most wrong following the reunions. His obsession with The Everlys and melody doesn't always jive with all things Quo. And don't forget he said that he didn't 'get' what the crowd saw in the band during the F4 Reunion. Isn't it amazing to think that, even back in the 70s when they were kings, that Francis most probably didn't 'get' what put them up there. To him it may have been just another gig for more money in the bank and more cocaine whereas for us it was 2 hours of ecstasy. |
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Buzz
Rocker Rollin'
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Post by Buzz on Aug 1, 2016 11:25:16 GMT
He is correct what he says. He has always had a good ear for melody.
But then they all have.
Alan might have caricatured himself as the rock hard man of the band back in the hey-day, but countless songs of his showed a great combination of rock energy, subtlety and melody. Over And Done is one glorious example, The Wild Ones is another, and Over The Edge yet another. There are obviously loads more.
Francis ideas however have increasingly lost touch with numbers of the Quo faithful. In fact unfortunately he seems to have had the increasing knack of alienating himself, and the band he leads, the further and further he heads into his dotage.
It can't all be simply boredom - I just think he has lost touch with what made Quo the success they initially were. Maybe its more the case that he doesn't care. But that isn't the same as boredom. His is very adept at tinkering and creating. Just not necessarily in ways that all his audience are in tune with these days.
He got it right, in my opinion, with his solo project. Right place and right time.
He got it wrong in that canary coloured suit during the 90's. Less amusingly, he got it most wrong following the reunions. His obsession with The Everlys and melody doesn't always jive with all things Quo. And don't forget he said that he didn't 'get' what the crowd saw in the band during the F4 Reunion. Isn't it amazing to think that, even back in the 70s when they were kings, that Francis most probably didn't 'get' what put them up there. To him it may have been just another gig for more money in the bank and more cocaine whereas for us it was 2 hours of ecstasy. Some interesting choices there Gaz, cocaine vs ecstasy... |
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Post by Gaz on Aug 1, 2016 11:37:10 GMT
And don't forget he said that he didn't 'get' what the crowd saw in the band during the F4 Reunion. Isn't it amazing to think that, even back in the 70s when they were kings, that Francis most probably didn't 'get' what put them up there. To him it may have been just another gig for more money in the bank and more cocaine whereas for us it was 2 hours of ecstasy. Some interesting choices there Gaz, cocaine vs ecstasy... haha yes I did notice that. ;-) |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2016 14:24:13 GMT
He is correct what he says. He has always had a good ear for melody.
But then they all have.
Alan might have caricatured himself as the rock hard man of the band back in the hey-day, but countless songs of his showed a great combination of rock energy, subtlety and melody. Over And Done is one glorious example, The Wild Ones is another, and Over The Edge yet another. There are obviously loads more.
Francis ideas however have increasingly lost touch with numbers of the Quo faithful. In fact unfortunately he seems to have had the increasing knack of alienating himself, and the band he leads, the further and further he heads into his dotage.
It can't all be simply boredom - I just think he has lost touch with what made Quo the success they initially were. Maybe its more the case that he doesn't care. But that isn't the same as boredom. His is very adept at tinkering and creating. Just not necessarily in ways that all his audience are in tune with these days.
He got it right, in my opinion, with his solo project. Right place and right time.
He got it wrong in that canary coloured suit during the 90's. Less amusingly, he got it most wrong following the reunions. His obsession with The Everlys and melody doesn't always jive with all things Quo. And don't forget he said that he didn't 'get' what the crowd saw in the band during the F4 Reunion. Isn't it amazing to think that, even back in the 70s when they were kings, that Francis most probably didn't 'get' what put them up there. To him it may have been just another gig for more money in the bank and more cocaine whereas for us it was 2 hours of ecstasy. Gaz - yh, precise as usual  |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2016 18:02:25 GMT
Hi All, Couldn't it be he just listens to them these days and even though they sound perfect he always thinks:- "I could of done this,that or the other to make it sound that little more piece of perfection" or is he simply to critical of his work ?.............. 
Geoff. |
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Post by wallden on Aug 1, 2016 19:03:02 GMT
Hi All, Couldn't it be he just listens to them these days and even though they sound perfect he always thinks:- "I could of done this,that or the other to make it sound that little more piece of perfection" or is he simply to critical of his work ?..............
Geoff. I think he over analyses the song and only looks at the one detail at a time and forget about the total. |
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Post by Mrs Flittersnoop on Aug 2, 2016 10:04:03 GMT
My guess is that someone who didn't normally listen to Quo music said something nice about the melodies and he was passing it on for the benefit of people reading about the project, give it a chance it's much prettier than you think.
Quo music has always been good for melodies and they were never obscured by the arrangement or anything else. (Hence why it was so radio-friendly.)
I don't know how he got alienated from the classic band style of music, but he was saying in the 80s that he was getting tired easily. And he's always been someone with a thin skin about criticism, he puts a defiant, self-deprecating face on it, but it affects him. They tried to diversify at a time when IMO they didn't need to for any commercial reason (unless it was all to do with the phantom of success in the USA, but Francis was never passionate about that) but that is not where their real talent lay, so it wasn't very successful.
It's also pretty clear that the trolling and slagging off him and the band have been getting on various message boards have helped to alienate him as well. Not fair, no way because the majority of fans are cool, but the bad stuff always has a disproportionate effect.
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Post by frozenhero on Aug 3, 2016 10:02:05 GMT
Francis said in an interview, must have read or heard it from one of many links being posted here, that when they did Acoustic he discovered that many of the old songs has some nice little melodies hidden behind all arrangers and this has been stuck in my mind since then. What does he mean? In Acoustic you can hear how most songs are "peeled off". Intros are shortened or removed. Songs are shortened and bits are removed. How can you believe that this will make the song better? I don't get that. The song will loose it's identity and become boring. What he says is more like Industrial production optimization. Remove everything unnecessary. But this is music and this so much more complex. So why does a musician want to do like this?Has he gone bored and just want to get over with it? Francis, please try to remember what it was that made music great. It is not certain chords in a specified order. It is sweat,energy, attitude together with brilliant songs. I think it has to do with Francis being rooted in pop music. At heart, most of his songs are melodic pop just like POMM, dressed up with loud guitars and complex interludes. In general, the acoustic idea made sense from that angle. That the results mostly didn't do the compositions justice is another thing entirely. |
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Post by frozenhero on Aug 3, 2016 10:03:55 GMT
Hi All, Couldn't it be he just listens to them these days and even though they sound perfect he always thinks:- "I could of done this,that or the other to make it sound that little more piece of perfection" or is he simply to critical of his work ?..............
Geoff. Rick is the same. Read his comments in the deluxe reissues, about songs like All the Reasons (before Aquostic: "We could do it so much better these days") or A Reason for Living ("I'm glad we did it on the Aquostic album"). |
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Post by Mrs Flittersnoop on Aug 3, 2016 10:31:23 GMT
Hi All, Couldn't it be he just listens to them these days and even though they sound perfect he always thinks:- "I could of done this,that or the other to make it sound that little more piece of perfection" or is he simply to critical of his work ?..............
Geoff. Rick is the same. Read his comments in the deluxe reissues, about songs like All the Reasons (before Aquostic: "We could do it so much better these days") or A Reason for Living ("I'm glad we did it on the Aquostic album"). But they can't. It's to stay away from that terrible illusion that I stay away from Aquostic now. Some of the bits are quite nice, but they lead down a primrose path to syrup and accordions. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 17:48:23 GMT
Hi All, Couldn't it be he just listens to them these days and even though they sound perfect he always thinks:- "I could of done this,that or the other to make it sound that little more piece of perfection" or is he simply to critical of his work ?..............
Geoff. Rick is the same. Read his comments in the deluxe reissues, about songs like All the Reasons (before Aquostic: "We could do it so much better these days") or A Reason for Living ("I'm glad we did it on the Aquostic album"). Hi All, FH, I think Rick is talking from a purely technical view rather than Francis thinking I could put a tweek here and a tweek there constantly re-evaluating his work all the time, so in real terms Francis will never be happy with his output....
Geoff.
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