h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good girl! Want some ?
Remind me to tell you what the music scene in the late seventies was like.
Some things never change.

Brian May, Brian May, Brian May, Brian MAy,Brian May!

? Oh wonderful. to go with it?

Go for it. People call me old fashioned, but hey. It's better than now!

Too right! Anything must've been better than now!

Well, the seventies was a confusing time.
Disco had inserted it's tentacles into every orifice of the music scene. Quasi-reggae was popping out all over and dribbling into the Police, Joe Jackson, and Elvis Costello, while Kate Bush and Peter Garbriel were making forays into "world beat" with an almost drunken passion.
The Sex Pistols were the Monkees of the seventies, don't let anyone tell you different. Bow-wow-wow were famous for a photograph and not much else. The Talking Heads crept in while the Band crept out.
The Ramones were schmoozing with Patti Smith and Lou Reed while Iggy Pop tried to decide which body part to slice next after playing golf with Nixon at the Betty Ford center.
Aerosmith and Queen made a show where the Stones used to make like a genteeler version of the Animals, while both were hoping to be as big as the Beatles, while the Kinks couldn't a cared less, so they, as well as Roy Orbison, were very happy when Van Halen shoved 'em some royalties with some poorly rendered covers.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Eurovision contest did the usual, dumping a hit machine in the midst of all the Carpenters, Captain and Tennille, America, Bucks Fizz, Athletico Spizz and Jim Croce...called Abba, whose productional and stylistic ripples are still being felt today in the ear of any buyer of Britney Spears CDs.
Pink Floyd were floating like a pig above the masses, Genesis were proving that excess could and would exceed itself, and Kiss were proving that 10,000,000 fans could be wrong, but who cares as long as they have money.
Then there was the Punk/New Wave thing.
There it was.
Say good bye to it.
It's gone.
Queen, Jethro Tull, and The Who did what they pleased, sold records, held concerts and avoided the whole thing.
Nick Lowe and Tom Robinson did their best, which wasn't enough, but a quick listen to their work shows a maturity that even Jonathon Richman could only wish for.
And then there was George Thorogood and the Destroyers. T-shirts, workboots, long un-coiffed hair and one of the best attitudes rock has seen since Bo Diddley or Ian Drury.
Thudding away insistently in the background is Iron Maiden, Quo, Motorhead, and AC/DC, not to mention later editions of Sabbath and the ever-popular Nazareth, followed insistently by Hawkwind, Uriah Heep and Blue Oyster Cult, while Rainbow and Zeppelin tried to stay aloft and Judas Priest proved that it was possible to shatter glass and put youto sleep at the same time.
Noodling away in another corner is Can, Wire, Tangerine Dream, Devo, and Kraftwerk.
And sitting over there by themselves, hoping the Pretenders will leave them alone, the CARS, who are also hoping to see Skyhooks tonight.

And sitting in a skylight, dangling his bare feet and playing on a poorly tuned mandolin, is Marc Bolan, who knows something we don't and we hope he won't tell us, cause David Bowie is listening and he'll tell everyone that we didn't get it.

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes are out in the parking lot having a few friendly beers with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band while Billy Joel is whinging away on a tissue and comb in the back of a pickup truck that Janis Ian is trying to sleep in while Bonnie Raitt tells her stories.

This is, of course, leaving out Rush, Boston, Styx, Journey, Santana, REO Speedwagon, Supertramp and Toto and Yes, but not really.

And I truly mean to leave out Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush and Wild Cherry.

But I don't want to leave out Parliament/Funkadelic and Frank Zappa, yet it also would be fair to include them, because they were in their own universes.

! Thanks for that at this time of the morning tonsil!

I feel far better educated!

undt now, "Bohemian Rhapsody", played by the Prague Retired Gymnast's Symphony, under the guidance of Major Sergei Bolderrov, Minister of Cultural Diversity and Fish and Chips Quality Control.

What a hideous thought...

Quite.

*realises he's becoming rather fond of replying with the one-worded-answer, "Quite.".. *

aka (",)

I have found myself over the years working in places where you really shouldn't swear, like when I was a janitor in a church.
As a substitute for my favorite string of sailor-blushers, I say"How Absolutely Fascinating!" with the appropriate tone of derision or sarcasm...

Yup. Sarcasm works wonderfully.

Do I detect a hint of it there, VIP?

Actually, no. Scary. If it was sarcasm it could have been FAR more over the top!

My spousal unit is fond of "Really?"...with variations of tone and incredulity.
Unofortunately, when not in a thoughtful mood, she uses it as punctuation.

'Yeeeees....' often has the same effect...

I dug out some of our old videos the other day and the kid's been watching Highlander I,II, and IV over and over again.
Talk about getting some mileage out of some Queen songs. Nothing like getting associated with a franchise...

HMmmm.....

Oops Sorry!



ANyone for ?

Oh yeah...



?

Cuts up her nad hands it round