Can You Overdose on Nostalgia?

 

Probably, but I am going to try anyway. I have started a new project.

I tried to make a list of the albums that I have listened to the most. I am up to about 50 albums so far, and almost all of them are from late adolescence and young adulthood. This means these are old albums I haven’t listened to in a long time. I listen to one of them every day while I am walking for exercise.

For a small monthly fee, I can listen to every album I have ever heard! The internet is an amazing thing. I have only done this three days so far, but it has brought back memories that might have been lost forever if I had not done that.

Of course, I never know if those memories are real.

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  1. Globalitarian Lower Order Misanthropist Coolidge
    Globalitarian Lower Order Misanthropist
    @Flicker

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Cross-checked this with the Boatwife/Cultural Curator:

    Globalitarian Lower Order Misa… (View Comment):

    …but one thing I noticed was that men don’t so much stand aside and let women pass through doors that they open for them, they take them by the arm and physically push them through.

    Has affirmatively not been observed

    And people touch each other more in common conversation (though I don’t know if this is a theatrical convention, it sure is different from movies today).

    Has not been noticed

    And people don’t lock their doors.

    I didn’t inquire: neither of us would notice, since we don’t lock our doors. (We are however, always struck when we see the opposite: people locking their doors.)

    And people carry their cigarettes in cigarette cases, and use wooden matches!

    The cigarette cases yes. Wooden matches? No. Only nice cigarette lighters.

    * * *

    Conclusion:

    Need more studies to eliminate a possible confounding effect due to sampling biases. (It seems Kate may travel in a better class of movies than you. Have you heard of a Cary Grant?)

    Why you writing with voice like Honorable Charlie Chan?

    • #31
  2. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    Globalitarian Lower Order Misa… (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Cross-checked this with the Boatwife/Cultural Curator:

    Globalitarian Lower Order Misa… (View Comment):

    …but one thing I noticed was that men don’t so much stand aside and let women pass through doors that they open for them, they take them by the arm and physically push them through.

    Has affirmatively not been observed

    And people touch each other more in common conversation (though I don’t know if this is a theatrical convention, it sure is different from movies today).

    Has not been noticed

    And people don’t lock their doors.

    I didn’t inquire: neither of us would notice, since we don’t lock our doors. (We are however, always struck when we see the opposite: people locking their doors.)

    And people carry their cigarettes in cigarette cases, and use wooden matches!

    The cigarette cases yes. Wooden matches? No. Only nice cigarette lighters.

    * * *

    Conclusion:

    Need more studies to eliminate a possible confounding effect due to sampling biases. (It seems Kate may travel in a better class of movies than you. Have you heard of a Cary Grant?)

    Why you writing with voice like Honorable Charlie Chan?

    Was trying for terse.  (We don’t learn how to write dialect till next semester.)

    • #32
  3. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    The thought that sometimes the individual remembers what had not occurred was born out by all the Baby Boomers in the 1980’s who were telling their kids “I was one of those hippies at Woodstock.”

    If that many people had gone to Woodstock, the ground at the concert venue would have been subsumed into the deeper reaches of the earth.

    • #33
  4. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    I tried to make a list of the albums that I have listened to the most.

    This is the one I’ve probably listened to the most in the last 50+ years. Heard it first in 1970 or so at the student union “listening room” (on 5-foot speakers) and still have it on LP, ITunes, CD, etc.

    Eric Clapton's Guitars and Gear

    Clapton left that band, due to how by some point into their fame, several band members were packing, paranoia ruled at the recording sessions and intra band rivalries were getting heated.

    Within a short time period after that, everyone but Clapton had been sent to prison or had died.

    On edit – it is one terrific album though!

    • #34
  5. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    I tried to make a list of the albums that I have listened to the most.

    This is the one I’ve probably listened to the most in the last 50+ years. Heard it first in 1970 or so at the student union “listening room” (on 5-foot speakers) and still have it on LP, ITunes, CD, etc.

    Eric Clapton's Guitars and Gear

    Clapton left that band, due to how by some point into their fame, several band members were packing, paranoia ruled at the recording sessions and intra band rivalries were getting heated.

    Within a short time period after that, everyone but Clapton had been sent to prison or had died.

    On edit – it is one terrific album though!

    Yeah, Carl Radle (who started with Gary Lewis and the Playboys) died in 1980, Jim Gordon died this year in prison while serving a life term for murdering his mother, and Duane Allman was killed in a 1971 motorcycle crash. Allman sat in on the recording sessions, though he was not a “member” of the short-lived band. Bobby Whitlock is still around, though.

    • #35
  6. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Last week I was informed by my music app that OMD had a new album out, marking their fourth decade. (And change.) Leftie lyrics aside, it sounds like something they could’ve made in 1991. Or 2003. It’s hard to be nostalgic for something that never goes away. 

    • #36
  7. Southern Pessimist Member
    Southern Pessimist
    @SouthernPessimist

    The album I listened to today was Laura Nyro’s second album that had all of the hits for The Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night and Barbra Streisand. That was an album I only listened to once before today. It occurred on a day when I was in college where I went over to Nancy’s apartment complex to play tennis with her. After we hit the ball back and forth for awhile we went to her apartment for a simple lunch. She said you need to hear this album. We were newlyweds but we were not wedded to each other. We almost surely drank some beer and we may have smoked some weed that afternoon but all I can remember is that we laughed a lot and shared a common bond that was tinged with sexuality that hinted at infidelity but was just simple friendship. We were friends for decades but I haven’t seen her in awhile.

    • #37
  8. DrewInWisconsin, Lower Order Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Lower Order Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    I think the music we listened to when we were younger will always tend to hold up over time, because it connects to us in a different way than books or movies or tv shows.

    • #38
  9. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    DrewInWisconsin, Lower Order O… (View Comment):

    I think the music we listened to when we were younger will always tend to hold up over time, because it connects to us in a different way than books or movies or tv shows.

    Hold up over time? Maybe not, but there are two songs that bring back memories that are not always pleasant. I guess the word is “bittersweet”. Don’t like either band; don’t particularly like the songs. REM: Man In the Moon. Sugarloaf: Green-Eyed Lady. 

    • #39
  10. Southern Pessimist Member
    Southern Pessimist
    @SouthernPessimist

    DrewInWisconsin, Lower Order O… (View Comment):

    I think the music we listened to when we were younger will always tend to hold up over time, because it connects to us in a different way than books or movies or tv shows.

    I suppose that is why I knew that this current project of mine might involve an overdose of nostalgia.

    • #40
  11. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Southern Pessimist (View Comment):

    The album I listened to today was Laura Nyro’s second album that had all of the hits for The Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night and Barbra Streisand. That was an album I only listened to once before today. It occurred on a day when I was in college where I went over to Nancy’s apartment complex to play tennis with her. After we hit the ball back and forth for awhile we went to her apartment for a simple lunch. She said you need to hear this album. We were newlyweds but we were not wedded to each other. We almost surely drank some beer and we may have smoked some weed that afternoon but all I can remember is that we laughed a lot and shared a common bond that was tinged with sexuality that hinted at infidelity but was just simple friendship. We were friends for decades but I haven’t seen her in awhile.

    I had that album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession? Her versions of the ‘hits’ were better IMO regardless of the talent that covered them. Her music was quite different.

    I listened to cuts from that a few years ago and it brought me back instantly to that time since I hadn’t heard it since those days.

    This song has no resemblance to modern song structure, it keeps changing, which takes a while to get used to but it became my favorite.

    • #41
  12. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    Music can really bring you back. Most of the music we love, we listened when we were young. so it’s natural it bring back nostalgia when we hear it.

     

    • #42
  13. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    thelonious (View Comment):
    It’s funny you mention technical work.  I was mainly a trombone player in my early 20s. I had the discipline to sit in a practice room and play long tones for an hour.  Really helped with my tone and endurance.  Today, I think I’d quit within 5 minutes.  I now mainly play guitar and I know I  should spend a couple weeks just doing technical drills. I get bored too easily and want to work on stuff that interests me. I think besides physical limitations, I also am becoming limited in my ability to focus and getting less disciplined because of it. I admire you for doing the real work of trying to become a better player. 

    Do it.  You never know – Several hit songs grew out of guitar players doing fingering exercises/drills in practice – Dust In The Wind and Sweet Child of Mine being two examples I can think of off the top of my head.

     

     

    • #43
  14. MWD B612 "Dawg" Member
    MWD B612 "Dawg"
    @danok1

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    thelonious (View Comment):
    It’s funny you mention technical work. I was mainly a trombone player in my early 20s. I had the discipline to sit in a practice room and play long tones for an hour. Really helped with my tone and endurance. Today, I think I’d quit within 5 minutes. I now mainly play guitar and I know I should spend a couple weeks just doing technical drills. I get bored too easily and want to work on stuff that interests me. I think besides physical limitations, I also am becoming limited in my ability to focus and getting less disciplined because of it. I admire you for doing the real work of trying to become a better player.

    Do it. You never know – Several hit songs grew out of guitar players doing fingering exercises/drills in practice – Dust In The Wind and Sweet Child of Mine being two examples I can think of off the top of my head.

     

     

    “Life in the Fast Lane” is another. Joe Walsh was doing a fingering exercise while the group was warming up. Glenn Frey heard it and said, “What was that you just played?” Walsh played it again. Frey and Henley took that lick and built the song around it and used it as the opening of the song.

    • #44
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