Shut Us Down: Elizabethtown Version

[golddustdrummer]

I don't get the deal with not liking HR or Don't Stop just because they are popular. For me, I love to know that people love Lindsey's songs or Fleetwood Mac songs. Just because they are popular and well-known doesn't make it less appealing for me. I can still appreciate the song for what it is, independent from what it is so often attached to. I can listen to HR and not think of Vacation, I can hear Don't Stop and not have Bill Clinton enter my head (thankfully). just because something is popular doesn't mean I have to automatically not like it. Its just the idea of the whole "everyone else likes it, so I can't like it" thing that bugs me.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by golddustdrummer

I don't get the deal with not liking HR or Don't Stop just because they are popular. For me, I love to know that people love Lindsey's songs or Fleetwood Mac songs. Just because they are popular and well-known doesn't make it less appealing for me. I can still appreciate the song for what it is, independent from what it is so often attached to. I can listen to HR and not think of Vacation, I can hear Don't Stop and not have Bill Clinton enter my head (thankfully). just because something is popular doesn't mean I have to automatically not like it. Its just the idea of the whole "everyone else likes it, so I can't like it" thing that bugs me.

I don't dislike it because everyone else likes it. There are some songs you can hear with virgin ears, even when they're familiar to you. I think GYOW is one of those songs. I think HR is not.

I just hear it too much or -- it just stopped having an impact on my brain. With Don't Stop, it's not just Bill Clinton. By the time I knew who Fleetwood Mac was in 1979, I already knew Don't Stop too well -- and I didn't even know who sang it really.

With Holiday Road, I just never judged it as a song. I was thrilled that Lindsey got exposure in a hit movie. I was insane about the video. I thought the woof, woofs at the end were cute. I thought it was a movie jingle and never judged it as a song. I would like to know what I would have thought about it if it had appeared on a Lindsey album and if that's where I'd heard it for the first time. I never got to form that kind of independent impression of it. He has other movie songs, but they were never as ubiquitous. So, I think of them in their own right. Not as soundtrack fodder.

Frankly, I'm proud that he has a song (other than GYOW) that the world knows. On the other hand, it's too airy to be something that I want everyone else to remember him by.

I can tell you that as his tour went on, I wouldn't have minded seeing HR dropped from the setlist. It was fine the first few times and I know the band and the audience got into the howling fun. I am always happy when Lindsey is being silly -- but I was kind of over HR live.

Michele

[Erin]

Originally Posted by michelej1

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I can tell you that as his tour went on, I wouldn't have minded seeing HR dropped from the setlist. It was fine the first few times and I know the band and the audience got into the howling fun. I am always happy when Lindsey is being silly -- but I was kind of over HR live.

Michele

This reminds of the opposite reaction of my friend's husband. When LB played Summerfest a couple of years ago I went off to see him, while my friend and her husband went to the Goo Goo Dolls. As an aside other friends went to see Lifehouse and Sarah Evans, talk about a nightmare trying to find everybody at the end of the night, but I digress. As we were driving home I played Holiday Road from the show on my camera, and my friend's husband's reaction was:"What the hell? Why didn't you tell me he sang that song? I would have gone to see him rather than the Goo Goo Dolls, again." My friend was none too pleased, but I thought it was funny. Lindsey's got to get them in any way he can!

[Nico]

I think Holiday Road is a great song, though, and I am proud to say it's by Lindsey. He deserves any kind of admiration he can get, even if it's for a simple 2-minute long poppy-style singalong that doesn't go too far in terms of lyrics. Great music is great music, but universally appreciated music is often quite misunderstood- even by me.

[TrueFaith77]

I think the song is sublime -- those oooa-ooooa's!
And rhythmically/thematically it's a masterpiece: "Jack be nimble / Jack be quick"
It's as American as Br'er Rabbit.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Erin

Lindsey's got to get them in any way he can!

I agree with that. That's why when we were talking about what albums to get first in that other thread, I was pulling for the most commercially accessible albums as an introduction. Once we lure them into our cult and have them prisoner, we can spriing Law and Order on them later.

Michele

[Nico]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I agree with that. That's why when we were talking about what albums to get first in that other thread, I was pulling for the most commercially accessible albums as an introduction. Once we lure them into our cult and have them prisoner, we can spriing Law and Order on them later.

Michele

I know, right? That's how it's done here in LB land. However, I did meet this peculiar fellow at an LB concert. Super nice guy. Claimed to me that Law & Order was always his favorite solo album and Under the Skin his least. I was just a little surprised, but pleasantly so (for L&O). It certainly is an album for acquired taste, but there are pure gems on it.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by Nico

I know, right? That's how it's done here in LB land. However, I did meet this peculiar fellow at an LB concert. Super nice guy. Claimed to me that Law & Order was always his favorite solo album and Under the Skin his least. I was just a little surprised, but pleasantly so (for L&O). It certainly is an album for acquired taste, but there are pure gems on it.

It had always been my favorite. Only recently have I begun to move toward GOS as being greater. I love the SOUND and inventiveness of L&O. But song for song GOS wins. For a cohesive album experience, they're about even.

[Nico]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

It had always been my favorite. Only recently have I begun to move toward GOS as being greater. I love the SOUND and inventiveness of L&O. But song for song GOS wins. For a cohesive album experience, they're about even.

It's so ridiculous to wonder about people's personal preferences anyway, but since it's not the norm to prefer Law & Order over the others I'm curious to know what it is about it that jumps out for you.