Sometimes it’s just about the music

OK, I am game.

I recently ran across this French song on youtube, and I smiled every time I listened to it. I thought about posting this in an old thread about love songs, but well, it can go here too.

Please excuse the poor translation that follows. I am not a French-speaking native, and in fact have not spoken French in decades (I hope someone will correct my translation).

La Godiche / The Clumsy Oaf

Un garçon comme ça / A guy like that
Dit qu'une fille comme moi / Say, a girl like me
Au style élégant / With elegant style
Mais qui marche pas droit / But who cannot walk straight
Les épaules en dedans / With drooping shoulders
Le geste maladroit / And clumsy gestures
Ca s'appelle comment? / That's called how?

Une godiche ça s'appelle / A clumsy oaf, it's called
Faut m'aimer sacrément / Must love me religiously
Pour trouver que godiche / To find such clumsy oaf
Ca me va comme un gant / That fits me like a glove

Un garçon qui conçoit / A guy who can see in
Qu'une moitié de fille comme moi / Half a girl like me
On ne s'en contente pas / People don't just
C'est un tout ou c'est pas / It's all or nothing
Une fille simple qui l'est pas / A simple girl who's not
Ca s'appelle comment? / That's called how?​

Sandrine Kiberlain - La Godiche - YouTube
 
I will add some later when I have some time. I do agree with the premise - as much as I enjoy trying to get great sound from my equipment, it is the performance and heart and soul that matter, and that can often come through even with a poor sound system (especially if we already are familiar with the tune, I think our brain 'fills in' what is missing, and ignores the bad).

But I'd still rather experience a great performance WITH great sound than a great performance with poor/mediocre sound.

-ERD50
 
Nice. Tried to get the audiophile folk to talk about favorite good sounding CDs and no one seemed interested.

Radney Foster, Jerry Douglas and Ally Bain from the legendary Transatlantic Sessions series from the BBC.

 
I got the CD "Here we go again" from the library. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis play the songs of Ray Charles with help from Norah Jones. I especially loved this one

 
I listen to more Jazz, easy listening music, and instrumental pieces than rock music. I particularly love the classical guitar, and one of the compositions I never tire of listening to is Asturias (1892) by Isaac Albéniz. It is named after the northern region of Spain that I have not been to, but will some day just because of this music.

All classical guitarists perform this piece, but I found that I liked John Williams' performance the best. Then, yesterday I ran across the following performance by Sharon Isbin. And this is my current favorite! She's an American guitarist of some repute as I later found out, but why did I not hear of her before? Oh well, for me, better late than never to run across her name.

The following video was very nicely made. Watch her fingers working the strings. The music is so beautiful, it almost makes me cry.

Note: I thought I heard a couple of flaws in the audio, but not being a musician, I suspected that they were technical errors in the file. Or was it my imagination?

Sharon Isbin - Asturias - YouTube
 
Meadbh said:
Jeff Beck, Imelda May, Darrel Higham and friends, in a tribute to Les Paul from 2010, but just posted on YouTube. Settle in for an hour and a half of great rock and roll.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting. Jeff Beck is just so amazingly versatile and goes from sublimely subtle to rock-and-roll screaming. Very cool to hear him doing old rock-a-billy stuff, and so much more. 'Cry Me a River' was a standout for me.

As much as liked the singer, the digital harmony she used for "How High the Moon" got tired after a few phrases. In the Les Paul, Mary Ford original, she over-dubbed each line, singing along with the previous recordings so there would always be slight variations, and that creates interest. But done digitally live, you are getting a harmonized digital copy that is far too robotically 'perfect', and that gets boring on the ears very quickly. But it was still fun, and overall a wonderful set.

-ERD50
 
NW-Bound said:
I listen to more Jazz, easy listening music, and instrumental pieces than rock music. I particularly love the classical guitar, and one of the compositions I never tire of listening to is Asturias (1892) by Isaac Albéniz. ...
Click to expand...

Beautiful piece of music, and great performance.

Note: I thought I heard a couple of flaws in the audio, but not being a musician, I suspected that they were technical errors in the file. Or was it my imagination?
Click to expand...

But yeah, these youtube videos often seem to have glitches (I heard some crackles). I never know if it is my playback software in the browser, but I suspect the compression they do during the upload is pretty extreme. And in this case, by the time I got near the end, I had to stop it - the sound quality was just getting annoying for me. With a single acoustic guitar, I find I need good quality because there isn't anything else to 'hide behind'. Part of that is because the speakers hooked to my computer are not great, but I bet if I played that on my 'system', it would sound (technical sound quality) worse, as that system would clearly reproduce the defects.

-ERD50
 
HFWR said:
Speaking of Jeff Beck...
Click to expand...

I'd love to hear some guitarists tell me about Beck's playing style. I've noticed on these and other videos, he rarely (never?) uses a pick. It sure seems to give him a lot of flexibility, his other fingers are right there to pluck or selectively mute strings rather than locked into gripping a pick. And of course, a thumb/finger can 'work' a string in ways a pick cannot.

So why don't more players use this style?

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
...But yeah, these youtube videos often seem to have glitches (I heard some crackles). I never know if it is my playback software in the browser, but I suspect the compression they do during the upload is pretty extreme. And in this case, by the time I got near the end, I had to stop it - the sound quality was just getting annoying for me. With a single acoustic guitar, I find I need good quality because there isn't anything else to 'hide behind'. Part of that is because the speakers hooked to my computer are not great, but I bet if I played that on my 'system', it would sound (technical sound quality) worse, as that system would clearly reproduce the defects.

-ERD50
Click to expand...

What I noticed was at least a couple of instances where I thought a few notes were missing, and at least one instance where a plucked note was suddenly louder than the ones preceding and following it.

I noticed that the guitarist's pose varied during the video - she was sometimes reclining in the sofa, and other times sitting in a chair. I believed that the video segments were edited and spliced over an audio track that was originally a single continuous performance. And perhaps in the editing, some audio flaws crept in due to the editing and not the artist's performance.

I will definitely get her CD to listen to, independently of the above apparent flaws. That would answer my questions. And then, I will pay more attention to see if I can detect the sound quality problem that you described.
 
springnr said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nodak View Post
I notice this says it's a fretless bass cover. However the picture clearly shows frets on the guitar neck.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing inlaid or painted frets leaving a smooth fingerboard.
Click to expand...

That threw me at first too, but listen and watch around 25-35 seconds in, and it is clear that he is sliding along the fingerboard and it is a portamento (an even glide from one note to another).

So those 'frets' are just reference points, not physical frets.

-ERD50
 
Kotzen

Alright, rejoice in the splendor that is Richie Kotzen. AMAZING guitarist, and what a voice!

 
springnr said:
Hi Fidelity scmelody, just enjoyed this tune played through my computer speakers...

Classical, folk, jazz, rock, county, blues… share what you’ve enjoyed listening to lately
Click to expand...

Yes, sometimes I stumble across some pieces that are so great, I do not need to play them through my stereo to enjoy them. But I would put on the headphones at least. My laptop's built-in speakers are a joke, as they all are.

The following song "Belle" is part of the musical "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Listening to it gave me a shiver; it was that good.

 
.
NW-Bound said:
Yes, sometimes I stumble across some pieces that are so great, I do not need to play them through my stereo to enjoy them. But I would put on the headphones at least. My laptop's built-in speakers are a joke, as they all are.
Click to expand...

One winter day whilst sitting in a BOQ room in northern Japan I decided trudging around in the snow, 105” annual snowfall, beat sitting around. My aimless wandering ended at the BX, where I discovered a fantastic markdown sale on…. a Bose SoundLink II, Bose the audiophile horror of horrors, what the heck, why not. (Don’t tell anyone)
The High End Store - YouTube
I was able to hook up the Flat Screen’s audio by cable input and played tunes from my laptop over Bluetooth. Acceptable sound, great sale price, and just toss it in the suitcase when deploying, the SoundLink turned out to be a worthy purchase.

Blue tooth though not Hi-Fi, has proven to be more enjoyable than laptop speakers.
 
Nice. Donovan got DH's attention, and he wandered in to see what I've been listening to. I was listening to Linda Ronstadt for a while I was painting today, because she's great to sing along to (as long as I crank her up loud enough that no one can hear me). In the interest of it's about the music, but not necessarily the quality of the recording, I think this is just a really nice version of this song. Found this YouTube. I don't usually listen to it from YouTube, tho...

Linda Ronstadt - Desperado (Simple Dreams Tour - Atlanta 1977) - YouTube
 
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