Music and Motor Sport,

[charleselan]

Seeing as there has been such an interesting discussion on the subject music in the Czech MotoGP thread I thought that it might be good to begin a dedicated one all of its own here.

It has always been the case that music and motor sport have seemed to be intrinsically linked for many, many years. In fact I seem to remember there being a feature on the subject some years ago in Motorsport magazine, but that was more centred on musicians who raced or had race teams.

I have always had an equal interest in music and motor sport, music being an equal passion for me since a very young age. In fact it was during my Primary School years that I became interested thanks to a Head Teacher at my village school who introduced us all to classical music. So my early records were of that genre, including the good old 78rpm records as well as 33rpm long players (makes me feel old now). Soon afterwards I got into Pop Music thanks to my cousin (Scott's great aunt) who was a year older than me and she was well into things in the early 60's.

The Beatles and Rolling Stones came on the scene and we were ardent fans of the rival bands, she The Stones and me The Beatles. In the early days my favourite was John, but into the late 1960's/ early 70's I gravitated towards George who really came of age as a writer and performer. Always like Paul as well but he was much more Pop orientated than the somewhat deep John Lennon.

Moving to the different topic of female performers, Debbie Harry was indeed a very attractive lady with incredible bone structure, and her appearance on the BBC's TOTP program in circa 1979 wearing just a long "T" Shirt was like seeing the Lotus 79 for the first time.

I always loved Stevie Nicks, as I did Fleetwood Mac, she had a mystical quality about her which I think she used to great affect. I had the privilege of seeing her and the band at Bingley Hall, Staffs in 1980 and they did not disappoint that evening, one of the best concerts I have been to.

These days i have a huge digital music collection that i have amassed over the past 18 years, in fact i have so much I don't know what i have got . Nothing however compares to my life long collection of vinyl albums which I treasure as much as my motor sport books; models and magazines.

As an aside, just before going to college in the September of 1970 I bought two albums together, one was "Abbey Road" by The Beatles and the other "Stand Up" by Jethro Tull, fabulous albums both which are played regularly today.

[chrisb]

i love music - just adore it - from pure rock n roll to the blues to opera to folk to almost anything, soul, 60's pop, heavy rock - there is of course once exception rap - which i firmly belive is mispelt and missed the c to begin with,

i am with spotify and have amassed something like a 10000 hours of music on top of my CD collection and like you JC my treasured Vinyl collection that i will not be parted from - favourite amongst them is an Italian import Beatles LP circa 1967/8 with the definitive John record Revolution - the loud version, pure rock, pure John and dear George with two of the greatest tracks ever written - here comes the sun and something- if there ever was an LP that needed editing and that is the beauty of spotify, Abbey Road was it, taking out two tracks that i felt were amongst the worst they ever recorded and one of which was apparently a source of immense frustration from the other three as Paul spent more time on this track then any other on the LP and of course i refer to Max's silver hammer and the other song that never worked for me an Octopus's Garden- but on my spotify version they are both edited out 

what i am trying to do is compile two driving albums, one for chill pill time, [ie driving on the M25] and one for 'let's go for it mate' for those roads we all love so would welcome your suggestions- the chill pill one would start with dear George's hear comes the sun, but after that I'm going to have to wade through a 1000 songs, the other one would have to start with Cliff [yes Cliff] - Move it - but then i would let rip the cords of ACDC and tear up the tarmac!

with regards to the ladies i liked so many - favourite singers tended to be from Aretha to Sandy Dennis but pin up wise? not so sure 

[charleselan]

Now you are talking Chris; Sandy Dennis..... "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" one of the greatest female vocal renditions ever!!!

Aretha......Yeah!

And one of the best female rock singers Scotlands own Maggie Bell.

[Jamie]

Great thread Charles, music and a love of cars / racing really do go hand in hand.

My own music tastes are pretty catholic but my favourite is hard rock and 90’s indie stuff. I really love the classic late 60’s into the 70’s stuff....the Beatles are magnificent of course but then you have the stones, led zep (oh moma, so good), sabbath, deep purple, the yardbirds, the kinks, Clapton.....could go on all night.

Favourite contemporary bands are Kasabian, Spoon, Courteneers.....blimey so many.

Chris, one for your chill pill comperlation would have to be the George Harrison classic ‘while my guitar gently weeps’ , a fantastic track with the added bonus of Eric on guitar.....

And one for the Rev it up selection would be ‘mistress mable’ by the Fratellis......a real 100 miles an hour sing along stomp 👍

You both mentioned Abbey Road and this is right up there as one of my favourite Beatles albums. I do know what you mean about MSH etc and I never liked the ‘niche’ records they made although it’s part of their cannon. What I adore about this album is the somewhat melancholy feel to a lot of the tracks.....especially in George’s songs, it has that feeling of a group of people who knew this was the final act and were sad about that, but had accepted the inevitable.....
And one of my all time favourite vocals are within golden slumbers...

‘Golden slumbers fill your eyes, smiles await you when you rise....sleep pretty darling do not cry....and I will sing a lullaby..’

Just brilliant. Those words were framed and hung above my sons cott when they were babies.

[Carl]

To be honest, I wasn't familiar with Sandy Denny, whose voice was truly marvelous. Sadly, the circumstances of her death were eerily similar to that of Prince, hugely popular but someone I never liked.

Chris, I made the same comparison of rap to crap, even, with a smile, to my black friends.

The brilliance of Paul McCartney's lyrics were one aspect of his central importance. The most important one was the affect he and John Lennon had on each other when they wrote together. McCartney's preference for popular music was expanded by working with Lennon just as Lennon's radical inclinations were tempered by working with McCartney . The magical genius of the Beatles was in this collaboration and although both were geniuses in their own right, neither could achieve quite the same greatness afterward. Always basically a solo songwriter, George's music just kept getting better.

"Octopus's Garden" was one they should have tossed, a token song for Ringo that annoyed everytime he would pronounce "coral" like my name. I resented the suggestion that I lay beneath the waves.

Jamie, I agree with every band you mention from the classic era, although my reverence for Led Zeppelin was diminished when I learned that several of their song essences were simply taken from others. Jimmy Page is one of the great guitarists and extraordinary at arrangement, but less extraordinary as a songwriter.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_and_Confused_(song)

[Jamie]

Yes, there’s been quite a lot made of LZ stealing other peoples material, (stairway to heaven being the other one always mentioned) some of it I’m convinced by and some I’m not.....but my god what a sound that band had 👌

When the opening bars of ‘the immigrant song’ kick in it makes me what to launch my own Viking raider and go a conquering..... 😆
Actually, there’s another one for your hard driving list Chris!

They made so many brilliant songs...,,the lemon song, the battle of evermore, babe I’m gonna leave you, when the levee breaks, what is and what should never be, Achilles last stand, nobody’s fault but mine........it’s an endless list...

With the sort of back catalogue they’ve got I can forgive them the odd bit of plagiarism, if indeed that’s what is was; I do think that it was a process of osmosis sometimes, so many influences where around back then.
Dazed and confused definitely wasn’t theirs originally though, granted 👍

[Carl]

There are many musical sounds in racing.

Beethoven's powerful crescendos compare favorably to a Ferrari or Matra V-12 at full song. I remember hearing Pedro Rodriguez's BRM as it accelerated onto the short infield straight at Ontario Motor Speedway early in 1971, his V-12 engine sounding like an ominous and powerful prehistoric beast...with perfect pitch.

One of the most musical sounds in motorsport is a DFV off-throttle (at 1:05 and elsewhere on this video taken at Road America)





A problem is the difficulty of attending a Historic F1 concert compared to a Symphonic Orchestra event...

[Jamie]

Oh yes Carl the Matra V12 is musical all right 👍

Even Led Zep would have trouble ripping that off and improving on it 😆

[Carl]

Aug 5, 2018 21:24:44 GMT Jamie said:

Yes, there’s been quite a lot made of LZ stealing other peoples material, (stairway to heaven being the other one always mentioned) some of it I’m convinced by and some I’m not.....but my god what a sound that band had 👌

When the opening bars of ‘the immigrant song’ kick in it makes me what to launch my own Viking raider and go a conquering..... 😆
Actually, there’s another one for your hard driving list Chris!

They made so many brilliant songs...,,the lemon song, the battle of evermore, babe I’m gonna leave you, when the levee breaks, what is and what should never be, Achilles last stand, nobody’s fault but mine........it’s an endless list...

With the sort of back catalogue they’ve got I can forgive them the odd bit of plagiarism, if indeed that’s what is was; I do think that it was a process of osmosis sometimes, so many influences where around back then.
Dazed and confused definitely wasn’t theirs originally though, granted 👍

I agree, Jamie.  The Immigrant Song had me wondering whether Viking raiders had more fun than rock stars.  The monks on Lindisfarne and besieged Parisians a century later would undoubtedly decry my casual lightheartedness about real terror.

I took a beautiful young woman to see Led Zeppelin in the early 70s and somehow managed to get 9th row center section seats.  I've never sat closer.  At one point, the notes being played by Page came right into my ear and reverberated briefly, an amazing experience and a fantastic concert.

[Jamie]

I’m jealous Carl, you saw them at their zenith 👍

I find them a fascinating band as they are a great mix of blues and rock, indeed a lot of their songs are reworked blues / folk records......hell they even gave writing credits to the original authors on some of them 😂😂

I meant to add to my earlier post that you were dead right in that they (Page/ Plant) were not the best songwriters, though they had their great moments. The real skill of the band was fantastic musical arrangement 👍

[Carl]

Aug 5, 2018 21:52:54 GMT Jamie said:

I’m jealous Carl, you saw them at their zenith 👍

I find them a fascinating band as they are a great mix of blues and rock, indeed a lot of their songs are reworked blues / folk records......hell they even gave writing credits to the original authors on some of them 😂😂

I meant to add to my earlier post that you were dead right in that they (Page/ Plant) were not the best songwriters, though they had their great moments. The real skill of the band was fantastic musical arrangement 👍

Very well said.  It's sad that Page wasn't satisfied to be already great in so many ways and they remain one of the great bands on record and in concert. 

[Jamie]

Aug 5, 2018 21:58:44 GMT Carl said:

Aug 5, 2018 21:52:54 GMT Jamie said:

I’m jealous Carl, you saw them at their zenith 👍

I find them a fascinating band as they are a great mix of blues and rock, indeed a lot of their songs are reworked blues / folk records......hell they even gave writing credits to the original authors on some of them 😂😂

I meant to add to my earlier post that you were dead right in that they (Page/ Plant) were not the best songwriters, though they had their great moments. The real skill of the band was fantastic musical arrangement 👍

Very well said.  It's sad that Page wasn't satisfied to be already great in so many ways and they remain one of the great bands on record and in concert. 

Jimmy Page was areal odd character wasn’t he....reinforced by the weird period of being obsessed with Alistair Crowley and occultism.

[charleselan]

I never ever thought of Led Zeppelin as plagiarists, if they are then so are most other pop/rock bands, as the saying goes nothing is ever original, or words to that effect.

An absolutely brilliant band; I was hooked from the moment I bought Led Zeppelin 2 in 1970. The stereo effect on some tracks were amazing as the guitar riffs went from one speaker to the other.

At a similar time I also found Carlos Santana with the wonderful "Abraxas" album, my best mate and I listening to the whole record in a booth at our local Boots store one Saturday afternoon. Those were the days when one could do that, only surpassed when at college in Birmingham and then listening to albums in the then new Virgin  record store which was in an old church building in the city centre.

[Carl]

Aug 5, 2018 22:19:16 GMT Jamie said:

Aug 5, 2018 21:58:44 GMT Carl said:

Very well said.  It's sad that Page wasn't satisfied to be already great in so many ways and they remain one of the great bands on record and in concert. 

Jimmy Page was areal odd character wasn’t he....reinforced by the weird period of being obsessed with Alistair Crowley and occultism.

I hadn't known about his allegiance to someone so weird.  

[Carl]

Aug 5, 2018 22:48:01 GMT charleselan said:

I never ever thought of Led Zeppelin as plagiarists, if they are then so are most other pop/rock bands, as the saying goes nothing is ever original, or words to that effect.

John Charles,

                      Your statement is quite true, but the essential difference is one of degree.  Led Zeppelin is one of the greatest bands, but one that depended, beyond accepted norms, on other's creations in some of its songs. 

www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/led-zeppelins-10-boldest-rip-offs-223419/