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The Radio 3 Boards > General Chat > The Coffee Bar > Old Grey Whistlers
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Author Topic: Old Grey Whistlers  (Read 246 times)
calum da jazbo
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« on: 14:30:15, 03-06-2007 »
when the old grey whistle proggy started a million years ago, the crack was that if an old grey could whistle it, it wasn't rock and roll. well times have changed, and a cold rain is falling.

kids are deemed cool - google the stuff on superbrands and cool studies by yuogov. i wanna say something, todays kids can't whistle. media and communications obssessed, celebrity and appearance fixated, lemming hordes for the next diversion.

when cool was cool you had to pay yer dues, get your mind around it, and keep doing it. lester young defined and still does define the hip and the cool. no one will replace that hat for a start. cool was angry critique that was worked on, at least the left wing induced rigour as well as rigor. mastery was acquired, it wasn't the result of a make over on tv, or the outcome of a purchase.

the name of the game is what now passes the old grey whistler's test; what is still IT? what has arrived that is IT?

For example i think Stan Tracey, David Hockney and Finzi are IT. Cullum, Stockhausen, Birtwhistle Hirst Gilbert & G are not, simply media simulacrums of the real thing.

Any offers from Old Grey Whistlers?
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BobbyZ
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« Reply #1 on: 14:54:43, 03-06-2007 »
I thought the old grey whistle test was a Tin Pan Alley expression, meaning if the old grey could whistle it, it would be a hit. Like Schoenberg's famous quote, people will be whistling my tunes in the street, or whatever it was.

As to what is hip or not, the danger is of it becoming like one of those Sunday supplement list things. What's in and what's out. Lennon, hip, McCartney terminally unhip. That sort of thing. But you do sort of automatically know. I've been guilty of following the hip and cool and it does sometimes produce problems. Take Louis Armstrong, who I have always struggled to take seriously despite knowing how important he was to jazz development. But all that mugging, Hello Dolly etc. Then there's Elgar, wonderful melodies but how to get past the awful Last Night of the Proms stigma ( that must be THE most unhip event on the planet ).

Have today's kids produced anything hip or worthwhile ? Dunno is the short answer. I consciously try not to sound all disapproving like my dad. To a certain extent it would be unnatural for me to find anything brilliant produced by a teenage rock band ( Cameron / Brown digging the Arctic Monkeys, yeah right. I haven't ever knowingly heard a note of the Arctic Monkeys ) There are obviously still young kids who can play superbly classically and even in a jazz field, the days of some sort of proficiency in rock musicians seems a thing of the past.

I'm not getting anywhere with this so will stop but it is interesting to ponder. 
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Kittybriton
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« Reply #2 on: 15:01:56, 03-06-2007 »
Personally, I worry that we have lost so much in so few generations: nobody sings work songs any more. I am sheltering (and driving, and doing laundry for) a young man whose idea of recreation is "vegging" on a comfortable couch playing video games, but in his defence I will say that he has recently discovered basketball. As far as I know, my grandkids haven't been taught any nursery rhymes by their parents (although I take such opportunities as arise).

Token Old Grey.
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calum da jazbo
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« Reply #3 on: 18:32:18, 03-06-2007 »
i think it is an odd inversion; in the 50s & 60s not many old greys 'could whistle'; knew what it was mr jones and the young who did, more or less. now the kids know nowt and the old greys are everywhere in the arts and culture generally. except geeks and technology; but even they are consumers.
attention spans, reading listening versus the couch tv and playstation?

i know that for sure i have become a grumpy old git; but i do think the world is turning differently; and dangerously for culture and society; too many unminded empty skulls bedecked in diamonds.
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #4 on: 18:37:24, 03-06-2007 »
There are no grey people anymore. I look at women and they are all young.
No grey hair to see now days. Men are not grey too.
We live in a good time (over all).

And some of young people are really good. In old times not all people were intellectuals or classical music lovers.
Now every body can get an education (there is good and bad in it). All people develop differently and some mature late. They can start learning when they are 40 or something.

I nope I understood this thread correctly. I am more optimistic now than I was in years. I can see good young people and plenty of them. The smart children are in vogut again, though there are plenty young people that are not trying.
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #5 on: 18:41:05, 03-06-2007 »
The explanation that Bobby Z gave is the one I've always understood as the origin of the phrase. Except that the "grey" referred not to old people but the colour of the overalls the cleaners and such like wore. If they liked it enough to whistle it, then the song had popular appeal.

And why don't we have butchers' boys whistling tunes and riding bicycles with baskets on the front any more?
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