Ease of Recognition
Dec. 6th, 2006 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningThe other day, I switched on the radio, and heard maybe two chords of a guitar-based tune. I turned to my wife and said, “George Thorogood”. Two chords – two beats; and I was right.
This freaked me out a bit; I can’t think when I last heard a record by George Thorogood. I saw them play a couple of times – the Music Machine, I think it was (later, it became the Camden Palace; no idea what it is called now) – but that was thirty years ago.
I have no idea why I recognised his playing. It must have been something in the way he played the chords – the distortion, the timbre of his playing. It was weird.
There are some songs and players I recognise easily: for instance, two drum beats from Springsteen’s Streets Of Philadelphia and I know it (and that is definitely not a favourite tune or anything).
Tunes I know well, I usually recognise quickly.
But I find it strange that I can identify musicians that I haven’t listened to for decades.
This freaked me out a bit; I can’t think when I last heard a record by George Thorogood. I saw them play a couple of times – the Music Machine, I think it was (later, it became the Camden Palace; no idea what it is called now) – but that was thirty years ago.
I have no idea why I recognised his playing. It must have been something in the way he played the chords – the distortion, the timbre of his playing. It was weird.
There are some songs and players I recognise easily: for instance, two drum beats from Springsteen’s Streets Of Philadelphia and I know it (and that is definitely not a favourite tune or anything).
Tunes I know well, I usually recognise quickly.
But I find it strange that I can identify musicians that I haven’t listened to for decades.