Golden Oldie but not forgotten...

[flagreen]

Crossin' the highway late last night,
He should'a looked left and he should'a looked right,
He didn't see the station wagon car,
The skunk got squashed and there you are

You got a dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven

Well, pardon me but that ain't no rose,
Roll up your windows and hold your nose,
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory

You got a dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven

Well you got your dead cat and you got your dead dog
On a moonlit night you got your dead toad frog
You got your dead rabbit and your dead racoon
The blood and the guts they gonna make you swoon

You got a dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven

Ah yes, the 60's were indeed a time of immense social progress brought forth by the "love generation" who were inspired by fine music such as above. Can anyone name the Artist?

[Tannin]

My spelling is wrong, but yes: Louden Wainwright Jnr. He toured over here a year or two ago, I heard him and his guitar do a radio interview. For all that he is only known for that one song, he is a superb musician, and that rarity amongst entertainers, a thoughtful, sensible man.

You're talking my generation, grandpa! :)

[CougTek]

My favorite song from the 60's is without the shadow of a doubt this one :

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once and
Explode into space

I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once and
Explode into space

Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

Born to be wild
Born to be wild

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once and
Explode into space

Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

Born to be wild
Born to be wild
It's a biker classic.

[flagreen]

I was lucky enough to see Stepenwolf (SP?) perform "Born to be wild" in concert back in the early 70's. Great song, brings back good memories.

[Tea]

Two "p"s, grandfather Bill. Who did I see in the '70s? Um ... Frank Zappa and the Mothers of invention, Jethro Tull, Skyhooks, Nureyev and Fontane, Itzac Pearlman .... must have been lots of others, can't remember now. Getting old, I think. Pretty soon I'll be older than you.

[flagreen]

Well I also saw the Rolling Stones around 72' or so. Stevie Wonder opened for them along with Gladys Knight (and the Pips of course). I also saw America (twice in fact) and Chicago. My two favorite concerts I went to though were the Allman Brothers (When both were alive and with Dickie Betts) and on the opposite end of the spectrum, Gordon Lightfoot. I saw Gordon several times and to this day I'm a big fan of his. He's a great "Live" performer.

[flagreen]

Good lord! How could I have forgotten The Boss? Saw him in the mid 70's. Also an excellent live show. No one plays Rock and Roll "live" quite as well as Bruce and the E Street Band!

[Tea]

I didn't see the Stones till about 1990 or so. The Voodoo Lounge tour. They were past their best by then, of course, and without the best musician of them all (Bill Wyman) (except for Keef and Woodie, of course) but they still turned it on. Two or three pretty damn hot sidemen too: Bobby Whasisname played sax - the same guy who has played sax on and off for them practically forever, you'll know who I mean - and their keyboard player was none other than ChuckLevall (sp?) - the one-time Alman Brother.

But the most memorable concert I ever saw, at least in a way, was one I didn't want to go to at all. My girlfriend draggged me along, kicking and screaming: "what do I want to see that do-gooder old has-been who never was for?" I said. But she insisted, and insisted, and insisted, and damn me if that old has-been wasn't one of the best, most professional, most energetic, and all-round entertaining musicians it has ever been my pleasure to see perform. Absolutely top-drawer stuff.

His name? Cliff Richard.

[Mercutio]

My list: Maxim Vengaroff, Christopher Parkening, Pavarotii, Samuel Raimey, Thomas Hampson, YoYo Ma, Cheryl Struder, George Solti. Others, no doubt.

My single rock-concert experience: Last year as a present I got Amy tickets to see Melissa Etheridge's only Chicago concert on her most recent tour, with the stipulation that I not be dragged along. I got dragged along anyway - Amy decided she'd rather have me along confirming her sexual orientation than one of her (female) friends. It was a good idea. Since I'm not what you'd call a Melissa Etheridge fan, I spent my time trying to count how many male concertgoers there were. In an auditorium that seats 6600, I counted 15 guys. Everyone else, girl... and at least three quarters of them were gay. I'm not trying to sound like a pig, but girls were kissing and groping, undergarments were thrown, and despite my being at Amy's side, she was still hit on a half-dozen times. It was a very charged environment. After the show Amy got Melissa Etheridge to autograph a T-shirt, even. I thought it was all pretty surreal.

[Tea]

Id love to have seen Solti.

[Mercutio]

Wasn't Cliff Richard the statistical deviant who managed to get a #1 single in Britain in every decade since the 50s? Not a common name to we who reside in the US. I only know 'cause I'm a trivia buff.

Me? I would've loved to see Copland or Bernstein or Horowitz while they were alive. Or Samuel Barber (though I'm a bit young for that). Among the living, I'd love to visit Skallas' hometown to see Avro Pärt (who, say far as I know, neither performs nor conducts, but whose music I enjoy anyway).

[i]

Well I also saw the Rolling Stones around 72' or so. Stevie Wonder opened for them along with Gladys Knight (and the Pips of course). I also saw America (twice in fact) and Chicago. My two favorite concerts I went to though were the Allman Brothers (When both were alive and with Dickie Betts) and on the opposite end of the spectrum, Gordon Lightfoot. I saw Gordon several times and to this day I'm a big fan of his. He's a great "Live" performer.

It was Dave Barry who once pointed out that rearranging the letters in "Gladys Knight and the Pips" produces "I spy naked thigh pit glands".

Hope that helps. :wink:

[me]

Oh, hah hah. You're hilarious.

Personally my favorite "golden" oldie is this classic:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
If you pee yellow,
That's too bad for you.

[myself]

me ... what can I say.

We really need to find you a good therapist.

[Mercutio]

I ache for the touch of your lips, Dear,
But much more for the touch of your whips, Dear.
You can raise welts like nobody else,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

Let our love be a flame, not an ember,
Say it's me that you want to dismember.
Blacken my eye, set fire to my tie,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

At your command, before you here I stand,
My heart is in my hand. Ecch!
It's here that I must be.
My heart entreats,
Just hear those savage beats,
And go put on your cleats
And come and trample me.
Your heart is hard as stone or mahogany,
That's why I'm in such exquisite agony.

My soul is on fire,
It's aflame with desire,
Which is why I perspire
When we tango.

You caught my nose
In your left castanet, Love,
I can feel the pain yet, Love,
Every time I hear drums.
And I envy the rose
That you held in your teeth, Love,
With the thorns underneath, Love,
Sticking into your gums.

Your eyes cast a spell that bewitches.
The last time I needed twenty stitches
To sew up the gash that you made with your lash,
As we danced to the Masochism Tango.

Bash in my brain,
And make me scream with pain,
Then kick me once again,
And say we'll never part.
I know too well I'm underneath your spell,
So, Darling, if you smell
Something burning, it's my heart.
Excuse me!

Take your cigarette from its holder,
And burn your initials in my shoulder.
Fracture my spine, and swear that you're mine,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

Tom Lehrer, Masochism Tango

Frequently hummed by me whilst working for a certain client.


... and this little gem I learned from the old hands at Honeywell...

I went to buy computers and they said a million bucks.
For a brand new mainframe IBM; now that price really sucks.
So I looked at all the pictures and I chose to build my own
For you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home

Refrain:

Oh IBM Dec and Honeywell, HP DG and Wang.
Amdahl, NEC and NCR, they don't know anything!
They make big bucks from systems, so they never want it known...
That you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home.

Now take the CPU, you see it's only just a box.
With blinking lights and whirring fans and lots of cable slots
So I spent an evening working with some wire and bolts and pins
then I hauled it to the basement and I plugged the freezer in.

(Refrain)

Well next I needed tape drives, my tape drives were a steal.
I climbed into the attic for my Dad's old reel to reel
some cable and some binder twine and soon it was complete.
my CPU and tape drives at a price that can't be beat.

(Refrain)

So then I looked for disk drives but it didn't take me long
Function follows form they say or have I got it wrong?
So I found a drive with five new modes that blows the rest away:
Cottons, linens, wash-and-wear, rinse and lingere!

(Refrain)

I had to have a console just to make my system run
Without a fancy console then my system wasn't done.
So I tied to a ten buck typer to a broken TV tube
And now I've got a console that can write the evening news.

(Refrain)

I've had my system running - I'll admit it's not the best
The data isn't right and the response time is a mess
It crashes every hour and it isn't worth a damn
But I'm satisfied because it runs just like an IBM

... and just to make Tannin jealous, I'm going to mention that, when I saw Solti conduct the CSO, it was in a performance of Dukas' "Soceror's Apprentice", some short works by Dvorak, and, for the finale, Scherezade. Of course, I was all of 10 years old at the time, but the opening notes of that piece were like a peal of thunder. Amazing.

[Tea]

Tannin is jealous. :mrgrn:

[Bartender]

I've been standing here, cleaning a few glasses, and reading over the previous comments by Mercutio, Tannin, etc. I enjoy classical music and opera (Giuseppi Verdi, Vivaldi, Johann Strauss, and Mozart are some of my favorites), but what about other music. No, not pop music, or the regular American music (which I enjoy too), but Caribbean music. Yup, that’s right, Calypso, Soca, and Ras Mas. Have any of you listened to that type of music? Presently, I’m listening to Andy Narell, and music composed by Ed Watson, and Austin Lyons. I do not expect those names to ring any type of bell for you, nevertheless, I know so few people who actually listen to this type of music where I live, and yet it is very pleasant to listen to.

Just a Bartender thought spoken aloud.