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Post by curiousgirl on Jun 2, 2021 10:47:20 GMT
you got me mortified - I would have looked down on Benny Hill too.  Was that the trees a-rustlin' or the 'inges of the gate? Or Ernie's ghostly gold-tops rattlin' in their crate? They won't forget Ernie Bl00dy hell, I still remember the lyrics!  Well, it was no.1 for about a year. But I'm not proud of myself  And we say music now just isn't like it was back then  I only remember Ernie. But it was his sexist tv show which I remember and cringed at. |
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Post by paradiseflats on Jun 2, 2021 10:49:00 GMT
I remember a 'gig' I went to in the era - it was sixth form boys playing a few cover versions at their school and it was so exciting! That is when I first heard Whisky in the Jar and Smoke on the Water. Other friends at that time liked ACDC. No-one liked Quo though they were happy to do the dance at the youth club disco. We didn't all sit down when they played Quo. I have always hated pretension and snobbery and that is part of my love for Quo. They were down to earth and very funny, in a South London way that I'd grown up with. They didn't want to be cool. And their lyrics were not deep and meaningful either, whether they wrote them or not. Francis has often talked about their struggle with lyrics or taken the piss out of RAOTW. Instead, they wrote a lot about loneliness in various forms rather than love or existential angst. Its still not cool even now to admit to being lonely. To be fair and to provide some balance, I was just as capable of musical snobbery back then as anyone else. I was a teenager. Everything was black and white! And I don't just mean some of the telly While prog fans looked down on Quo, I looked down on all manner of stuff. Anything remotely 'novelty' like Benny Hill or Clive Dunn or anything I considered 'pop' got it tight while my mum and dad probably just rolled their eyes I detested reggae and soul at the time as well. However, I grew up. As you do. And your focus of appreciation widens. I've grown to really like reggae and ska. I could never expand it wide enough to include Yes or Gentle Giant though. Just the way things are Now novelty songs opens a whole bucket of worms. But at least they have the get out of jail free card, of not being taken seriously. Depends where you draw the line but Quo have their fair share of novelty songs as do Queen. |
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mortified
4500 Timer
Posts: 5,825 
Favourite Quo Album: Hello!
Favourite other bands.: Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Gary Numan, Alabama 3, ZZ Top, Paul van Dyk, Jeff Beck, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty, Band of Skulls, UFO, S.A.H.B
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Post by mortified on Jun 2, 2021 13:21:17 GMT
With 'novelty' songs I tend to also include soap stars who make/made records. The snobbery comes in when I think of Joe Dolce keeping Vienna at number 2 for weeks and Nick Berry's Every Loser Wins doing likewise with Quo. "Neighbours" was the worst but at least one small modicum of talent actually came out of that (sorry, Jason Donovan fans, but it's not him ). Of course, there is a place for everything and I should never have been as po-faced as I was. Probably still am. If we take music seriously - I always have but the vast majority of people don't - then we're going to create some sort of elitist standard in our head or styles that we think should be adhered to. The Goombay Dance Band and Black Lace need not apply It's all bollox of course. It was bollox when Quo were given rough music paper treatment in the 70's and its bollox now when they're told their legacy has been tarnished. Their legacy remains. That's the thing with legacies. They don't just disappear. |
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gerh
Grizzled Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 2,944
Favourite Quo Album: 'Hello' [and 'Quo Live']
Favourite other bands.: Zappa, Kansas, Rush, Deep Purple, Yes, Richard Thompson, Horslips, Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest etc etc. [ANYONE but Kiss!]
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Post by gerh on Jun 2, 2021 18:15:52 GMT
I'm here to defend the Prog loving amongst us! Gentle Giant should have been as 'big' as Yes - maybe with more canny management they might have been - doesn't detract from any of their music though. I will concede tho' that they are something of an acquired taste.
Here's a wee example of how I veered away from Quo in a serious way post-B2B... There was a 2nd hand record store in Dublin that I used to browse thru [this'd be about 20+ years back!] and one time I came across AL's 'Life After Quo' [turns out it was the original cd release] At the time I'd never heard of it and [tbh] it looked a bit 'boot-leggy' so I put it back and kept browsing 'til I found GG's 'Acquiring the Taste' cd. I bought the GG cd - and, barring some curiosity-value, haven't regretted not buying LAQ. "Different strokes for different folks" - again!
Sometimes, hearing 'Don't waste my Time' still sends me into ecstasy and sometimes 'Close To The Edge' does the same thing. I'm just glad that I can equally enjoy both and LOADS of other music forms too. |
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Post by azza200 on Jun 2, 2021 20:45:33 GMT
When i was younger in my teens i had a mate who liked Chas and Dave which at the time i found funny as fuck as i did not take them seriously at all. Fast forward a few years i'm going too an annual car festival weekend at Santa Pod raceway. I roll up with my Dad and his friends and others from our local area get too the gates pay i get a program for the weekend. As i am checking out the entertainment Chas and Dave will be playing one night. I tell people in the car with us they all go "oh awesome great we will have too see them" etc
Anyway we go and watch their set i was front row and had a brilliant time the whole main stage area everyone was loving it i even got a nod acknowledgement from Chas Hodges during a song. From that gig on i liked Chas & Dave and it stopped my music snobbery towards them. This was in the early 00's
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Jun 2, 2021 22:45:56 GMT
When i was younger in my teens i had a mate who liked Chas and Dave which at the time i found funny as fuck as i did not take them seriously at all. Fast forward a few years i'm going too an annual car festival weekend at Santa Pod raceway. I roll up with my Dad and his friends and others from our local area get too the gates pay i get a program for the weekend. As i am checking out the entertainment Chas and Dave will be playing one night. I tell people in the car with us they all go "oh awesome great we will have too see them" etc Anyway we go and watch their set i was front row and had a brilliant time the whole main stage area everyone was loving it i even got a nod acknowledgement from Chas Hodges during a song. From that gig on i liked Chas & Dave and it stopped my music snobbery towards them. This was in the early 00's For a pianist, Chas was a top bassist! This thread about Quo and Rock fans reminded me of how as a teenager there would be plenty of bragging with our peers if our parent's had allowed us to stay up and watch The Old Grey Whistle Test in the mid 70s. A bit of a litmus test at the time in terms of a band's credibility and relevance. Chas with 'Heads Hands and Feet' appeared on TOGWT. I've seen Chas & Dave just a few times but as support: At Knebworth '79 (Led Zep) At Quo's Crystal Palace 'End of The Road' At a virtually unknown warm up gig supporting The Everly Brothers at the Lakeside Country Club, somewhere around the late 80s or very early 90s. At NEC supporting Mark Knopfler a few years ago. Spot Mr Hodges on bass |
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Post by gentlemanjoe on Jun 5, 2021 18:27:20 GMT
Never met any fan of classic rock who didn’t like Quo. Maybe that's what pulled us together?, I just caught maybe last 4 years of the so called Quo army from WYW to NTL, after Never Too Late and the disaster of Margarita, it started to fade very quickly. There was and still the hardcore, of which I consider myself a lapsed member. You remember if you were in a pub or even on a bus or whatever, if you met a fellow Quo fan (pre ITAN), you felt great, a kindred spirit, you could talk all day about the band. I couldn't now talk 5 minutes about AC/DC although I thought they were the business back in the same day(s). |
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Post by frozenhero on Jun 8, 2021 16:31:53 GMT
You can't just like what you like in popular culture. You have to have a reason for liking or disliking it Hence my signature. I run into these people on other forums too. They just see Quo as Spinal Tap. Not to be taken serious. I do despair at how little open-minded some of them are, but of course there is no accounting for taste (as the sometimes dramatic infighting even between us Quo fans shows). |
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Post by frozenhero on Jun 8, 2021 16:34:52 GMT
I thought I’d put in google, bands similar to Status Quo. It surprised me that the 3or4 sites that came up, do pretty much have a consensus. They pitched them where I would on the melodic pop bluesy rock bands. www.bandnext.com/bands-like/status-quoDoing the same thing on Spotify yields these results: Slade Nazareth Sweet Suzi Quatro Uriah Heep Free Thin Lizzy Smokie (?) Golden Earring Mott The Hoople UFO Dr. Feelgood 10CC Showaddywaddy (?) Manfred Mann (?) Rainbow Manfred Mann's Earth Band Dave Edmunds The Rubettes The Georgia Satellites |
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Post by frozenhero on Jun 8, 2021 16:38:24 GMT
I remember buying a 2nd hand LP copy of [wait for it...!] 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' [feckin' brilliant cover art!! ] and playing it while my best mate was in our house. He was a total nut-job for Maiden and TFTO went 'pfffft'... over his head - I remember thinking to myself 'fcuk, there goes the old street cred for me (again!)" The great thing was tho' it didn't matter to him, or me - we just accepted it [and played in a band together not too long after that too] As has been said a few times here - we all [well, many of us] develop and add to our musical tastes along the way - to be fair, some don't, they stick rigidly to what first floated their boat - and that's ok too👍 Btw, add 'Thick As a Brick' to your sense of superiority list too!! I wouldn't introduce anybody to Yes via TFTO. But The Yes Album and Fragile are hard to beat, if I may say so... (of course prog also went through that stigma, even when a band like Marillion made it successful again...) And of course the band ceased to be Status Quo due to line up changes They were in reality two completely different bands. in reality the band became a Jive Bunny style actGive me a fucking break. |
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Post by frozenhero on Jun 8, 2021 16:50:38 GMT
I tried a bit. It’s not what I listen to much but can see the influence on Primus. The vocals are seemingly a required taste. The musicality is of a high standard. Gentles Giant (who developed out of a band called Simon Dupree & the Big Sound - just like Quo, they had one "psychedelic" hit before radically changing their sound, and a young Elton John played with them!) were probably more influential than successful. Jethro Tull toured with them and then made their most complex album, "A Passion Play". Michael Sadler of Saga always says "Three Friends" by Gentle Giant was what made him want to be a musician (and some Saga songs show that influence). Spock's Beard and their offshoots, as well as a young band like Haken were influenced by their use of stacked vocal harmonies. Steven Wilson is also a big fan, having remixed several of their albums in stereo and surround. But like Van der Graaf Generator and a few others, they were the kind of thing to check out when you already had everything by Yes, Genesis, Tull etc. As an aside, Ray Shulman later became a producer, Derek an A&R guy who signed lots of famous bands! |
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Well, it was no.1 for about a year. But I'm not proud of myself 
