John Mayer: Sob Rock and a Pink Silver Sky

bacchanalian

I spoke to some young people about this and it will definitely be one of the tracks of their summer.

One of my musical regrets is being too cool to listen to contemporary music in the 80s.  I was digging on Rush, Led Zeppelin, the good Stones albums.  In my view, Neil Young was about the only one from that generation of artists doing anything interesting.

Then, Live Aid revived many careers that were in the doldrums. This was followed by some great albums that were both contemporary and had an appropriate level of  credibility for me to listen.

When I look back now there were many incredible albums that I should have listened then but have caught up on now. 

As soon as I heard the JM single I thought of 'Behind the Sun' and was transported back.

If you think 80s music was bland then you are probably like me and didn't listen to it. 

I don't know who Mary Spender is, nor do I know how I would be able to take the time out to find her and, then  form an opinion.
Referring to anyone as talenless, however, is, at best, a very limited critical appraisal.

TeleMaster

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs. 

In regards to the mean-spiritedness I agree. Calling her talentless is very strange. I don't care much for her music at all, but as you said shes a classically trained musician. I don't care for a lot of bands and artists but I wouldn't call them talentless just because I don't like them. That just seems like a baseless attack. 

Dominic

I spent the 80s listening and dancing to Disco ,Lionel Ritchie , Luther Vandross etc
If I listened to Pop/Rock it was Nik Kershaw, Level 42 , Toto etc
Anybody I knew considered people who listened to heavy 70s Rock to be sad losers like Neil from The Young Ones

fretmeister

I thought I'd have another listen after a good nights sleep.

It didn't get any better.

Pink colour on the guitar is great. I like that.
Keys player probably wants the director dead for wanting the keys so far apart for the stretchy-arm playing shots.
Using hex drum pads and Shure 55SH mic does not mean retro-chic.

I can well imagine that he sent the demo to Pino first (I mean, why wouldn't you?) and he was probably so embarrassed for JM that he went back to hide in the valleys or pretended he was dead.

Cookiemonster

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

I'm not a big Mayer fan myself, but the guy can certainly play.  The sort of modern blues stuff he does has never proved very popular in the UK (he is huge in the US, and if you could choose one market...) but actually this new cod-80s stuff he's doing could do very well, the latest 80s revival seems to have brought back the soft-rock ballads, that Miley Cyrus song "Midnight Sky" was huge.

None of us can like everything, but the existence of music I don't really care for has never bothered me, not as an adult.  I just tried listening to some Mayer again and still don't like him much, but who cares, lots more music out there.

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs.  She has followed the modern career path through social media with significant success.  I suspect that she can actually count on a high-five figure income in any given year from music (directly or indirectly) and very few of us can do that.  She built that all by herself, that's at LEAST worthy of respect.

Yes, she's also pretty, it doesn't hurt, certainly being attractive to the opposite (or the same) sex has never hurt anyone in the entertainment business.

Like it or not, social media has changed the world.  A lot of people on instagram make a lot more money than Mary does by doing nothing except wearing clothes and make up and posting pictures of themselves doing so.  Any moderately attractive woman can rake it in on OnlyFans, by not wearing clothes.

The Billie Eilish song genuinely is great IMHO, at least Mary's (admittedly slightly cynical) instant cover was half decent, unlike most of the 50,000 others on YouTube.

TeleMaster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs. 

In regards to the mean-spiritedness I agree. Calling her talentless is very strange. I don't care much for her music at all, but as you said shes a classically trained musician. I don't care for a lot of bands and artists but I wouldn't call them talentless just because I don't like them. That just seems like a baseless attack. 

I literally have no idea who Spender is.

fretmeister

Cookiemonster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

I'm not a big Mayer fan myself, but the guy can certainly play.  The sort of modern blues stuff he does has never proved very popular in the UK (he is huge in the US, and if you could choose one market...) but actually this new cod-80s stuff he's doing could do very well, the latest 80s revival seems to have brought back the soft-rock ballads, that Miley Cyrus song "Midnight Sky" was huge.

None of us can like everything, but the existence of music I don't really care for has never bothered me, not as an adult.  I just tried listening to some Mayer again and still don't like him much, but who cares, lots more music out there.

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs.  She has followed the modern career path through social media with significant success.  I suspect that she can actually count on a high-five figure income in any given year from music (directly or indirectly) and very few of us can do that.  She built that all by herself, that's at LEAST worthy of respect.

Yes, she's also pretty, it doesn't hurt, certainly being attractive to the opposite (or the same) sex has never hurt anyone in the entertainment business.

Like it or not, social media has changed the world.  A lot of people on instagram make a lot more money than Mary does by doing nothing except wearing clothes and make up and posting pictures of themselves doing so.  Any moderately attractive woman can rake it in on OnlyFans, by not wearing clothes.

The Billie Eilish song genuinely is great IMHO, at least Mary's (admittedly slightly cynical) instant cover was half decent, unlike most of the 50,000 others on YouTube.

TeleMaster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs. 

In regards to the mean-spiritedness I agree. Calling her talentless is very strange. I don't care much for her music at all, but as you said shes a classically trained musician. I don't care for a lot of bands and artists but I wouldn't call them talentless just because I don't like them. That just seems like a baseless attack. 

I literally have no idea who Spender is.

She's one of the new breed of Youtube musicians who seem to be attacked for "self promotion" even though without a label who else is going to do it for her? This is the modern world of a music career whether us oldies like that or not.

She's a pretty good guitarist and she has an excellent voice even if the songs she writes are not to my taste.

Good luck to her.

TeleMaster

Cookiemonster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

I'm not a big Mayer fan myself, but the guy can certainly play.  The sort of modern blues stuff he does has never proved very popular in the UK (he is huge in the US, and if you could choose one market...) but actually this new cod-80s stuff he's doing could do very well, the latest 80s revival seems to have brought back the soft-rock ballads, that Miley Cyrus song "Midnight Sky" was huge.

None of us can like everything, but the existence of music I don't really care for has never bothered me, not as an adult.  I just tried listening to some Mayer again and still don't like him much, but who cares, lots more music out there.

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs.  She has followed the modern career path through social media with significant success.  I suspect that she can actually count on a high-five figure income in any given year from music (directly or indirectly) and very few of us can do that.  She built that all by herself, that's at LEAST worthy of respect.

Yes, she's also pretty, it doesn't hurt, certainly being attractive to the opposite (or the same) sex has never hurt anyone in the entertainment business.

Like it or not, social media has changed the world.  A lot of people on instagram make a lot more money than Mary does by doing nothing except wearing clothes and make up and posting pictures of themselves doing so.  Any moderately attractive woman can rake it in on OnlyFans, by not wearing clothes.

The Billie Eilish song genuinely is great IMHO, at least Mary's (admittedly slightly cynical) instant cover was half decent, unlike most of the 50,000 others on YouTube.

TeleMaster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs. 

In regards to the mean-spiritedness I agree. Calling her talentless is very strange. I don't care much for her music at all, but as you said shes a classically trained musician. I don't care for a lot of bands and artists but I wouldn't call them talentless just because I don't like them. That just seems like a baseless attack. 

I literally have no idea who Spender is.

She's big on YouTube. A big spender. 

Sorry. 

Cookiemonster

Dominic said:

I spent the 80s listening and dancing to Disco ,Lionel Ritchie , Luther Vandross etc
If I listened to Pop/Rock it was Nik Kershaw, Level 42 , Toto etc
Anybody I knew considered people who listened to heavy 70s Rock to be sad losers like Neil from The Young Ones

I was probably more mid to late 80s in my teens and nobody I knew liked anything like level 42, we were all into 80s rock which in itself now sounds horribly dated, (not much of it was on the radio or TV though here) that 80s thing definitely gives things a digital vibe.

In the uk it was Wonderstuff etc for indie, NME was still obsessed with the Smiths, the Pixies came along and sounded amazing. 

Dinosaur Jnr, Sonic Youth, buffalo Tom maybe. Retro Rock was things like the Crowes, first Kravitz album 

As a guitarist first learning, I think I got into the sixties stuff a lot, and would buy all the vinyl at second hand stores, Bugaloo in Leicester. 
VU, Doors,Stones, Beatles,Kinks then all the Stooges, Garage Rock and punk 

At the time the charts were full of Kylie, Sonia, Wet Wet Wet, Curiosity killed the cat. Now that might have been very popular but it doesn't mean it was any good. Seems like a lot of the stuff that now sounds like 80s is more the pop/rock bands, at least back then some of it was fun with mad lyrics now a lot of it's just tame AOR, interesting the Mayer stuff sounds a lot like the disgraced Adams music that got put on hold

Did people really listen to Nick Kershaw ! What next the John Farnam revival 

Maybe it will move onto the late 80s and some Rock bands will immerge or indie bands that don't just sound like 80s pop

The ironic thing is we did a track that started as a JAMC thing and ended up quite 80s with people saying it sounded like Psychedelic Furs and Middle English ( who I had never heard of) maybe that 80s thing is just ingrained

This Mayer track is like that 1985 song minus the jokes

It feels like the trend is to create the middle of the road stuff, it's like someone creating a 70s sound, missing Punk, Prog, Rock and instead creating something that sounds like Bread or marmalade, or DR Hook or wherever they are called

darthed1981

Cookiemonster said:

I literally have no idea who Spender is.

Quite forgivable.

I have to google 90% of the "guitarist's guitarists" talked about on here, I still think "Bernie Marsden's Beast" is what he calls his penis on internet dating sites.

Cookiemonster

darthed1981 said:

Cookiemonster said:

I literally have no idea who Spender is.

Quite forgivable.

I have to google 90% of the "guitarist's guitarists" talked about on here, I still think "Bernie Marsden's Beast" is what he calls his penis on internet dating sites.

Lol

TeleMaster

Lots of theze YouTubers are successful session musicians and hired guns, like Pete Thorn & Phil X. Phil X is the guitarist for Bon Jovi but I would say he's more known for being that hyper vintage guitar guy who slays Led Zeppelin tubes. Same with Pete Thorn, who toured with Chris Cornell, and now he's got his own signature, which I own. 

Rick Beato!has his own Gibson signature and by his own admission he only started playing guitar properly again after 25 years of barepy playing. 

Mary Spender is good for young female guitarists. It's a male dominated arena and more young women for other young women to look up to is an excellent thing. 

StormshadowGuitars

Cookiemonster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

I'm not a big Mayer fan myself, but the guy can certainly play.  The sort of modern blues stuff he does has never proved very popular in the UK (he is huge in the US, and if you could choose one market...) but actually this new cod-80s stuff he's doing could do very well, the latest 80s revival seems to have brought back the soft-rock ballads, that Miley Cyrus song "Midnight Sky" was huge.

None of us can like everything, but the existence of music I don't really care for has never bothered me, not as an adult.  I just tried listening to some Mayer again and still don't like him much, but who cares, lots more music out there.

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs.  She has followed the modern career path through social media with significant success.  I suspect that she can actually count on a high-five figure income in any given year from music (directly or indirectly) and very few of us can do that.  She built that all by herself, that's at LEAST worthy of respect.

Yes, she's also pretty, it doesn't hurt, certainly being attractive to the opposite (or the same) sex has never hurt anyone in the entertainment business.

Like it or not, social media has changed the world.  A lot of people on instagram make a lot more money than Mary does by doing nothing except wearing clothes and make up and posting pictures of themselves doing so.  Any moderately attractive woman can rake it in on OnlyFans, by not wearing clothes.

The Billie Eilish song genuinely is great IMHO, at least Mary's (admittedly slightly cynical) instant cover was half decent, unlike most of the 50,000 others on YouTube.

TeleMaster said:

darthed1981 said:

This thread has gotten a little mean spirited don't we think?

Why do so many people have a problem with Mary Spender?  The idea she is talentless is ludicrous, she's a classically trained musician who can play guitar well and sing well and writes decent songs. 

In regards to the mean-spiritedness I agree. Calling her talentless is very strange. I don't care much for her music at all, but as you said shes a classically trained musician. I don't care for a lot of bands and artists but I wouldn't call them talentless just because I don't like them. That just seems like a baseless attack. 

I literally have no idea who Spender is.

Jimmy Nail in a Blue Sierra Sapphire Cosworth

Bellycaster

The 80's were Fantastic (No Wham pun intended).

In 1980, I was 8, only worry was whether I was going to get another bag of crisps with my second glass of Pop while sitting on the Pub step.

By 1989 I was only concerned whether I was going to get my end away at the Weekend.

Ahhhhh, Happy Days ( No, that was the 70's).

  

Loobs

This can get tae absolute fuck. 

Loobs

Only someone like Mayer would pay tribute to someone as big of a turd as Clapton. 

Kylef

Loobs said:

This can get tae absolute fuck. 

Don’t hold back, say what you feel 

tone1

I thought Jimmy Nail was Spender....

https://i.imgur.com/4NCuVup.jpg

LPManic

Is he still pretending to play the PRSs?

Loobs

Kylef said:

Loobs said:

This can get tae absolute fuck. 

Don’t hold back, say what you feel 

Of course

Redlester

I’ve never knowingly heard this yank’s music, but this thread is a good laugh. 

But why on earth would he pen a homage to mid 80s Clapton, as this is described as? Whatever next? Giving speeches in favour in Enoch Powell?