{"id":2438,"date":"2009-11-23T13:53:20","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T18:53:20","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-11-23T13:53:20","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T13:53:20","slug":"topic-to-explore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/topic-to-explore\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Dead End: Sunny, Strumming Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E4r_HWWQyCs?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI was listening to <strong>Big Star<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Watch the Sunrise&#8221; the other day, a song that I know is not considered &#8220;cool&#8221; in the Big Star catalog, but I like it anyhow. I like the hyperkinetic acoustic guitar strumming and the song&#8217;s fresh-faced, Hostess brand hippie idealism. It seemed to me that this particular type of song was common in the mid-&#8217;70s. I think these acoustic-based songs are a little different than the related country-rock songs by the likes of <strong>America<\/strong> and others working in that post-Neil Young\/Eagles vein. <\/p>\n<p>What led to these sunny, strumming number? I hear early <strong>Crosby, Stills, Nash &amp; Young<\/strong>, like &#8220;Suite Judy Blue Eyes&#8221; and &#8220;Marrakesh Express&#8221; mixed with <strong>George Harrison<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Here Comes the Sun.&#8221; Is there some earlier template that I&#8217;m missing? Is it an English folk thing?<\/p>\n<p>This style of music never eclipsed that of its country-rock cousin, but I think it led to two musical dead ends: <strong>Boston<\/strong> (the band) and the <strong>128-String Guitar<\/strong> songs we&#8217;re frequently tempted to skip on <strong>Matthew Sweet<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Girlfriend<\/em>. Boston may not be so obvious, but there&#8217;s something about them, in songs like &#8220;Long Time,&#8221; that seem indebted to that style of early &#8217;70s song, despite the big electric guitars and other pompous trimmings. <\/p>\n<p>Does this make any sense, and has this style of music ever progressed beyond these perceived dead ends?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was listening to Big Star&#8216;s &#8220;Watch the Sunrise&#8221; the other day, a song that I know is not considered &#8220;cool&#8221; in the Big Star catalog, but I like it anyhow. I like the hyperkinetic acoustic guitar strumming and the song&#8217;s fresh-faced, Hostess brand hippie idealism. It seemed to me that this particular type of <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/topic-to-explore\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}