wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] bas from brooklyn September 23, 2008 - 02:05PM

  Sadly, for a program about music- you sometimes play very bad copies of recordings- I can hear the particular crackle

  of poor digital downloads in snippets you play on your show. How could you! Of all shows! Buy a CD or an LP to get a proper recording to play on your show! Think about it! Today you started your show playing a bit of that poor digital Lo Fi .

  Thanks

  
  
• [2] mombi from NYC September 23, 2008 - 02:15PM

  I turned 17 in 1974 so I should agree with Thompson but happily my daughter keeps enough new music on my iPod to pay back me making sure she heard, and has on her iPod, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc.

  
  
• [3] Art from Brooklyn September 23, 2008 - 02:16PM

  Pathetic. Put any one of the three of these opinionated fools in front of a mic to sing and we'd all run out screaming.

  You have no clue about music, the making of it and even less respect for people who feed you - ie the musicians who create the music you demean with your ignorance,

  
  
• [4] david in nyc from NYC September 23, 2008 - 02:20PM

  Rolling Stones -- Sorry, but they've produced absolutely nothing worth listening to since Exile on Main Street. Is it any coincidence that Mick Taylor dumped them after that?

  The ONLY decent music produced in the '70s was from the Grateful Dead, Leo Kottke, and ESPECIALLY Ry Cooder. (And John Lennon, but most of us never appreciated him at the time).

  Wise up.

  
  
• [5] Jamie Prince from manhattan September 23, 2008 - 02:22PM

  I was in high school and loved rock and roll, but looking back, I think most of the music was horrible! I rarely listen to it now (maybe some Led Zeppelin). I'm 46 now, and what I really love is alternative rock- Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Lit - I don't understand why people cling to the old music or still go to Rolling Stones Concerts - they all look and like dancing corpses.

  
  
• [6] MichaelB from UWS Manhattan September 23, 2008 - 02:25PM

  Another inane and pandoring Soundcheck show. Who needs WNYC to do this smarmy stuff? There are thousands of "pop" stations that already do it.

  
  
• [7] kp from NJ September 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  I came of age in the 70's and I, like most people, think the soundtrack of my youth is the best. I can't think of a great album recorded after 1980. Do they even record 'albums' any more or is it just about hit singles?

  
  
• [8] Brian from Manhattan September 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  This is infuriating. Mr. Thompson cannot be serious. To state that "soul went out of music" at any point seems an act of psychological projection more than a fact to be proven by pointing to modern music. This is so ludicrous. I'm at a loss for words. How presumptous and just plain wrong.

  
  
• [9] David from Morningside Heights September 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  The problem with rock -- all rock, classic or new -- is that it's old. It's our parents' and grandparents' music. All the tours are people in their 60s. It's old fashioned. And the people who like it are old. It didn't ruin itself. It just grew frail.

  
  
• [10] Rachel September 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  I'm 25 and I hate today's rock. It sucks. What sort of world do we live in where Nickelback can win the same awards that the likes of some of those giants won?

  I'm not missing anything by not listening to the radio.

  
  
• [11] Frank Grimaldi from New York September 23, 2008 - 02:29PM

  The current artist that comes closest to Queen is MIKA - Vocal wise.

  David Bowie did most of his greatest work in the 70's. Yes, Moody Blues, Led Zepplin, Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Kiss, etc.

  
  
• [12] Elizabeth Stillwell from NYC September 23, 2008 - 02:34PM

  I am really enjoying the pre-80s music lovefest of today's show because every time my husband asks me "Where is the Led Zeppelin of today?" I dont know what to say.

  I say I also don't know where the Mozarts and Chopins are. I try to explain that I think there are bands like Nirvana in the class of great bands. (and he agrees), I also say that music genres have divided and subdivided but still that there are too many styles for one band to appeal to as many people as the Beatles. But these answeres are ultimately unsatisfying. Usually I have to concede that there are now really no galvanizing authentic bands, that the artists everyone recognizes (like Briney Spears and the like) are essentially fed to teenagers for image and style but not for musical creativity or talent. So the quesiton always remains, "Where are today's Beatles?"

  Thanks for your program!

  Elizabeth

  
  
• [13] Dennis from Bronx September 23, 2008 - 02:35PM

  Mr. Thompson may have a point that the 70's was the last period were popular rock was largely critically worthwhile, but I'm not sure that's a reflection on the quality of all modern rock. To contend that is just a sad, lazy generalization.

  It makes sense that someone who grew up having great music served to him on the radio isn't going see anything he likes in this post commercial/arena rock landscape. It seems like going out and finding it just takes more effort than he's capable of putting in.

  
  
• [14] dave from Brooklyn September 23, 2008 - 02:36PM

  Wow... I just learned that greed was not a factor in the record industry until the 70s! How fascinating! Apparently, prior to that, record companies were charitable enterprises.

  [sigh]

  That ridiculous assertion aside...

  Add my vote to the "it's a generational thing" chorus. I might be open to the idea that the percentage of lousy recordings has generally been trending upwards - but so what? There is good music, and there is crappy music. It has always been so, and always will be. And those labels are completely subjective, so that it's likely no two people will ever agree completely. I try to keep an open mind about such things, as I have several friends who are fans of, say, the Flaming Lips (a band that makes me cringe). I have, however, decided on one possible litmus test that I might employ: anyone who does not like Squeeze is not someone I want to know.

  
  
• [15] Roger from Chatham NJ September 23, 2008 - 02:42PM

  One thing that I think had a lot to do with the "quality" of music from that 70's decade was the limitations of the LP record format. Once CD's came on the scene and musicians had an hour to fill, they did just that - filled time.

  22 minutes per side - Ah!, The good old days.

  
  
• [16] Brian from Manhattan September 23, 2008 - 03:54PM

  This was quite possibly the worst Soundcheck I've ever heard. It was divisive in a way that wasn't insigntful or playful. It just caused people to wax nostalgic and make wholly unsubstantiated claims about "their" music.

  There was a time, before electricity, when you had to travel to hear music. Then there was a time, when radio existed, that you could hear music in your home, and a lot of it was quality. Now, there's the internet and too much radio, so we have to travel, in a figurative sense -- by way of research, getting word of mouth recommendations, etc. -- to find good music, which is still out there, and, arguably, in greater quantities than it ever has been before.

  All of you people who listen to popular radio stations and then complain about the dearth of good music today are only showcasing your ignorance.

  Today's episode was a complete bust.

  
  
• [17] AR from Brooklyn September 23, 2008 - 04:20PM

  I listen to the classic rock stations whenever I'm on summer vacation. It's great music and it puts me into a nostalgic, great summers of the past state of mind. But if I listened to classic rock exclusively I would be a dinosaur and I would be missing out on a lot of great music. I listen to everything from bluegrass to hot jazz to cesaria evora. it's small-minded to try to pit one generation of music against another's.

  
  
• [18] Bob Babcock from Morristown NJ September 23, 2008 - 11:27PM

  I'll give you Hey Negrita, but Memory Motel is on the same album. And the seventies was a decent decade for the Stones overall- Sticky Fingers thru to Some Girls, alot of good stuff you just can't write off, dude.

  Seventies- how about Clapton? Santana? The Who? sure they all got a little bloated by the end- but the next crowd was around to show them out- The stones were upstairs at electric ladyland doing Emotional Rescue while Topper was downstairs with mikey Dread (R.I.P) laying tracks for Sandinista. And everyone trying to look like Travis Bickle.

  How about Bob Marley? Peter Tosh? Shite- he was doing concerts with Mugabe and had the CIA on his ass he was soooo big...

  And I still have The Night Chicago Died on 45, a real cool song I thought in Ms. D'Allesandro morning Kindergarten (biggup to all you Belmont Hills Elementary School alumni-represent!)