i'm totally with you on this, but what i've noticed is that as you talk to older fans the divide starts to show a lot more.

the challenge with improvised music is that the listener normally has to dedicate at least 2 playings to start 'really' getting it.

then again it also depends on how you define the improvisation / lack of structure. for me, playing a proper head to a piece then taking turns improvising solos is NOT full-on free jazz / improv. only when the whole thing is made up on the fly, the rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and magic is when i call it truly free or improvised.

Boston's self-titled debut is the epitome of Rock N Roll.

When it comes to Morcheeba, Charango (2002) > Big Calm (1998).

I'm not a fan of classic rock, but Boston is still great and very listenable...

Boston is the epitome of formulaic, connect-the-dot-rock.

Which is basically what I said.

I still find it highly enjoyable.

Pssst, I only like "so long marianne". You can keep wel... everything else :D

Heh, I think you should go for Tender Prey and Henry's Dream :p:

I'd say Prayers on Fire is just as good as any Nick Cave album.

Marillion are the best band in the universe.

I resent the implication that Primus are a bad band.

Similarly with the above. I think I'd need a Somebody Else's Problem Field and a large bucket of pink paint were I ever to try and hide my "shameful music" section from MB members...


I would find it hard to disagree more here, though I realise that this could stem from a difference in definition of "structure". If you mean Free Jazz as in anything that doesn't ascribe to the very specific Rigid structures of early Jazz, then I would say that I do enjoy listening to Free jazz, but, to quote Wikipedia:

To say "no structure" is to say that the musicians are basically all doing their own thing without thought for the other musicians. Playing in the same key is a structure, a weak one, but a structure nonetheless. Music without any structure at all just pisses me off, because you've left music at that point, and gone back to noise (by definition: noise is a collection of unrelated frequencies).

Louis Jordan, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Ry Cooder... all these guys would be considered mostly "structured" Jazz, and their music is fantastic. "Free" jazz, as defined by jazz with no structure whatsoever, to me just sounds like 4, 5 guys on a stage soloing, which is not interesting. To me, music is all about harmonies, cadences, interactions between lines and notes in order to create a whole that is greater than the parts. Structured music may be standardised, it may get boring at times due to excessive use of a certain system, but it has a beauty to it that a group of soloists will only ever find by chance.


Foreplay/Long Time is up there in terms of my favourite songs. In fact, I'm gonna have to go listen to it now...