Music News

[Jeff Wrangler]

Just now read from the Hollywood Reporter: Randy Meisner, one of the founding members of the Eagles, died Wednesday at the age of 77. He sang lead vocals on "Take it the Limit."

[Jeff Wrangler]

It hardly seems possible, but 42 years ago today, at 12:01 a.m. August 1, 1981, MTV went live.

Forty-two effen years. ...

[serious crayons]

It hardly seems possible, but 42 years ago today, at 12:01 a.m. August 1, 1981, MTV went live.

Forty-two effen years. ...

Wow! Forty-two years before I was born, WWI hadn't started. Forty two years before I graduated from high school, the Depression was only half over and WWII was years away.

My theory is that recent time spans seem shocking not only as you get older, one year represents a smaller portion of your life -- so 1/65th of my life instead of 1/17th or whatever -- but also because culture and technology changed much more drastically between the early 20th century and the mid- to late 20th century than it has between the '70s or so and now.

Maybe because I'm most interested in music, entertainment and culture, I think of the 1960s as the turning point. Look how much our culture changed just in the five years between the Beatles first arriving in the United States in 1964 and Woodstock, 1969. Now what has changed in the past five years? Five years ago, Trump had already been in office more than a year! With the exception of newly developed AI, we all had approximately the same technology, the music was more or less the same as it is now. Hip hop started almost 50 years ago, and most recent rock could have been made just about anytime since the 1970s.

So if we say it's been 42 years since [event that seems relatively recent] it's more of a surprise.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Just read that Jimmy Buffet has passed away. 

[CellarDweller]

Jimmy Buffett dies at 76

James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 ? September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He was best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle.

Jimmy and his band (the Coral Reef Band) scored Top 40 hits, and they cultivated a massive fan base that was referred to as "Parrotheads" that would follow him on tour.  From 1976 to 2023, Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reef Band have gone on tour almost every year, a total of 44 times, each tour a success.

Aside from his career in music, Buffett was also a bestselling author and was involved in two restaurant chains named after two of his best-known songs; he owned the Margaritaville Cafe restaurant chain and co-developed the now defunct Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain. Buffett was one of the world's richest musicians, with a net worth of $1 billion by 2023.


Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles of Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reef Band.



Year              Song Title                       Peak Position on Billboard Top 40 Chart

1974  -           "Come Monday"                                                #30
1977  -           "Margaritaville"                                                 #8
1977  -           "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes"       #24
1978  -           "Cheeseburger in Paradise"                                #32
1979  -           "Fins"                                                              #35
2003  -           "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere"                               #17  (duet with Alan Jackson)

[Front-Ranger]

THanks, Chuck. I also read in the New Yorker about his housing development for retirees in Florida. It was very interesting.

[Jeff Wrangler]

THanks, Chuck. I also read in the New Yorker about his housing development for retirees in Florida. It was very interesting.

I read that, too.

I never would have imagined that those first four songs went back that far. "Margaritaville" still gets airplay. I haven't heard the others in a while. I expect the others are getting airplay again right now.

I remember him making two guest appearances in the reboot of Hawai'i Five-0.

[serious crayons]

I referred to "Changes in Latitudes" recently, before his death. I was trying to remember which are latitudes and which are longitudes, and I reasoned that Jimmy Buffet would have more reason to talk about latitudes than longitudes.

[serious crayons]

Chuck, I thought about you today. I was watching one of those FB Reels that show a series of half-second video clips of certain stars over the years, starting in 1997 or whatever, accompanied by their age at that time, repeated year by year until the present. The soundtrack is a song whose words ("time goes by so slowly") and increasingly urgent beat seem to depict time moving slowly in one's youth, then speeding up as you get older. I've often been left with it in my head but didn't know what it was. I figured it was some recent pop song and decided to look it up.

It was this!

i=1j8kIgttlochN7O6[/youtube]


(The featured stars themselves, of course, barely change between the first image and the final ones.)

[CellarDweller]

Ah yes, "Hung Up".

That was a big song for Madonna.  It was the lead single from her "Confessions on A Dance Floor" album.  Her prior album ("American Life") was not a commercial success, and many were saying that Madonna's time as a hit maker were over.

"Hung Up" was massive, and it became a Guinness World Record setter as the song to hit #1 in the most countries, 41 in total.

It samples the Abba hit "Gimme Gimme Gimme", and Madonna had personally contacted Benny Andersson and Bj?rn Ulvaeus for permission to use it. This is one of the few times Andersson and Ulvaeus have given permission to sample one of their songs, following "Rumble in the Jungle" by the Fugees and "Fly With Me" by 98 Degrees.