NAPSTER Memories

The university I went to had one of the highest rates of illegal downloading on Limewire in the country. Lots of students were getting charged. One weekend, we got an email from the university giving us 24 hours to stop doing it, with no repercussions if we ceased downloading at that point. No questions asked. A “flush whatever you have before we reach port on this cruise ship” moment.

Every computer in every dorm cranked at 100 percent power in a mad dash to get as much downloaded as we could.

 

Yikes! This one?

 

This thread calls to mind one of Norm MacDonald's all-time great lines.

 

I had never heard of that place until I saw it mentioned here. For a music junkie it was incredible. I couldn't believe the different genres covered and the traffic was insane. I saw some Sinatra and jazz threads that interested me but there's no way i am wading through thousands of posts.

 

Foghat must've been the Nickelback of its day. The only song I know of them is the live version of "Slow Ride" that still gets played on classic rock.

 

Okay, now I just want to know about a $900 pool cue.

 

It was a Balabushka. Eddie Felson gave it to him.

 

You'd get that. You'd get people saying "Sigh, another Beatles thread."

You'd get people arguing which songs could actually be played live. ("Man, I would love to hear "Because" live! Do you think they could dig up the original Moog they used on it? Cue 10 pages of responses.) You'd get people wondering if they'd sell out and have a horn section or orchestration. You'd get 50-100 pages on the veracity of playing their solo stuff. ("I do NOT want George Harrison tarnishing his legacy by playing on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey!")

You'd get people saying, "WELL, you can ONLY do pre-1966 Beatles because they stopped touring and their songs after that weren't meant to be played live." Then someone arguing that and on and on.

Then my "Spies Like Us" guy would show up and the hardcore fanatics are triggered.

Mind you, all of the above would happen on a similar Black Oak Arkansas or Yello thread too. That forum is not for amateurs.

I had a lot of fun a few years ago arguing with KISS fans. One dude in particular fought me to the death about whether "Christine Sixteen" was creepy. I'm like, dude, Gene Simmons is literally hanging around a high school in the lyrics. He defended it to the hilt.

 

I had no idea there was anyone over 8 years old who took KISS seriously until I started reading that forum.

If posters there voted on the top ten albums of all time I think you'd get seven from the Beatles, two by the Monkees, and "Music From The Elder."

 

"Music From The Elder", hahahaha! My KISS buddies in college used to go on and on about, "No, it's their CONCEPT album. This isn't the usual "Heaven's On Fire" shit, this is when they got SERIOUS! Give it a chance, you won't be sorry!"

While I can enjoy some, emphasis on "some", 70s KISS (80s KISS is beyond horrid apart from *maybe* "I Love It Loud" with the big drums) as relatively enjoyable hooky just-barely-outside-the-edge-of-power-pop, and I can dig Ace Frehley if I'm in the right mood, I didn't then and never will be interested in hearing a KISS concept album. Nor, apparently, is anyone else outside of the KISS Army, half of whom populate the Hoffman Forums.

Edit: I had to go find that exchange on "Christine Sixteen". I'm not going to get into the whole back-and-forth, but it began with:

"Why do you assume that Gene's character is "trolling high schools"? He could just have easily been walking by the high school if it were on his way home from work. Like with the Village People, maybe his character is a construction worker, U. S. Army recruiter, or a police officer. It's a really harmless song when one isn't trying to project negativity onto it that isn't actually in the lyrics."

That is the Steve Hoffman Music Forums in a nutshell.

 

FUCK YOU BUBS HEAVEN'S ON FIRE IS THE FUCKING SHIT AND SO IS TURN ON THE NIGHT I'LL FUCKING FIGHT YOU OVER THIS MEET ME AT PENN STATION (that's two Penn Station references this week, old-time SJ references FTW)

 

Imagine offering up "maybe he's an Army recruiter walking home from work" as a defense for "Christine Sixteen." People there are wild.