Do any of these names ring a bell?

[Cartoonist]

Benny Goodman
Count Basie
Jack Benny
The Lone Ranger
The Green Hornet
Bruce Lee
The Shadow
Duke Ellington

I was talking with a co-worker who surprised me by saying he never heard of any of them. The past is forgotten sooner than you think.

[redwitch]

1. So sad!

I know all of them.

[Sherman A1]

2. Only The Shadow

Knows.

[empedocles]

3. I know of a number of people under 40 who have never seen any Godfather movies

[Arkansas Granny]

4. I had an Uber driver the other day who didn't know Heart.

I had told her we were going to a Heart concert and she gave me a blank stare. I said:

"Ann and Nancy Wilson?"
"Dreamboat Annie?"
"Dog and Butterfly?"
"Barracuda?"

Nothing, no recognition at all.

[unblock]

5. i know people who consider themselves "into music" but have never heard of led zeppelin

[Ptah]

6. Tel them to sing, sing, sing!

[Cartoonist]

19. Here's a version someone put together

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. I'm from so-called Gen. X. I do know each and every one of those names. Even

Last edited Tue Oct 15, 2019, 03:07 PM - Edit history (1)

though most of those are from "before my time". Then again, I also know how to read roman numerals.........

[mwooldri]

25. I think a lot of UK Gen X-ers know how to read Roman numerals.

Copyright date on most BBC programmes are in Roman numerals. Have been since MCMLXXVII.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Betcha he never heard of Gershwin, either...

How about Duke doing Rhapsody in Blue

And here's Oscar Peterson, respected by the Duke himself

I met Oscar, among many others, in the many NYC jazz clubs. His live playing was magical, and after the club closed a bunch would go up to a loft and play until sunrise.

Just jammin'

[MurrayDelph]

14. The Nethercutt Museum

in Sylmar (north Los Angeles) has a recording player piano that plays back, note-for-note, emphasis-for-emphasis, pause-for-pause, Rhapsody in Blue as performed by George Gershwin. It's like attending a ghost concert.

[MuseRider]

20. I wondered where that was!

We just played a couple of Gershwin pieces, RinB and I've Got Rhythm with a soloist a few weeks ago. One of the solos he did was to play a short part of the music transcribed from that player piano.

My section is back far enough I don't always hear much of the conversation that takes place up front so when they mentioned it I got enough info to know about it but not where.

Cool coincidence for you to post this now. Thanks!

[MurrayDelph]

21. My pleasure

I love that place. I was there a few months ago (ironically, I used to live less than 2 miles away, but didn't find out about it until I moved away).

They also have a great antique car collection and a giant Mighty Wurlitzer.

And admission is free (The Nethercutt family owns/owned the Merle Norman cosmetics company. Mr. Nethercutt was her nephew).

[TreasonousBastard]

22. Sounds great-- If I ever get to LA I'll try to check it out...

I had an album of Leonard Bernstein conducting Rhapsody in Blue. The Gershwins were not appreciated by the proper New York aficionados of classical music. Their pointy noses were far too high in the air to appreciate the talents of those nervy Jews who hung out with Harlem jazz types.

Rudolph Bing of the Met Opera, who would not allow the Jewish Beverly Sills to sing at the Met, certainly would
pass out at the thought of Porgy and Bess at the Met. Besides being written by that Jew, it had songs! An opera with songs? Such a thing was unheard of!

Anyway, Bing is long dead and Sills didn't miss a beat while missing the Met debut-- she ended up running the Met and the whole Lincoln Center and is one of our most beloved New Yorkers.

And this other nice Jewish boy Bernstein (who may have written West Side Story just to piss off Bing) and who certainly knows a bit about music, celebrated the Gershwins as true American geniuses. Or at least damn good musicians.

My favorite Duke Ellington quote "If it sounds good, it IS good."

[LanternWaste]

9. I imagine our grandparents were gobsmacked that we're ignorant of Ada Brown

I imagine our grandparents were gobsmacked that we're ignorant of Ada Brown, Stephen Foster, Bert Lahr, Dan Leno, et. al.

I also imagine that in seventy years, the elderly will be surprised that Britney Spears, Sir Mix-A-Lot and the Spice Girls will be little more than answers in a trivia game.

Pop culture is just that... popular culture-- simply examples, illustrations and window-dressings of history, but none a necessary mechanism of the discipline itself; and ignorance of the those specifics doesn't necessitate an ignorance of the general.

[edhopper]

12. I was born in 55

and knew of most movie stars back to the silent era. I also knew the Swing bands from the 30s and 40s.

[Sneederbunk]

10. Music will endure. Radio shows will not.

[mwooldri]

23. There are exceptions...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/thearchers

Been going since 1951.

[Cartoonist]

30. Plenty of shows available

There are several old time radio apps. Funny how radio shows from the early days are available, but almost all of the early TV shows failed to survive.

[albacore]

11. "Remember Quasimodo..?"....

"No, but the name rings a bell."

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, and be sure to tip your waiter....

(Seriously, how can people NOT know some of these things. Count Basie was in Blazing Saddles, fercrissakes. Oh... wait.... 38% of Americans think the world is less than 10,000 years old. Shit. Never mind.)

[Leith]

29. And Jack Benny was the punchline in a joke in Back to the Future

But... uh... The coworker probably never heard of that movie, either.

[gratuitous]

13. I don't even know what I don't know about contemporary music

I've heard of Adele and Lady Gaga and a handful of others, but if you held a water pistol to my head, I couldn't name a song in current rotation and its artist. Some guy* wrote a song with the lyric "every generation throws a hero up the pop charts."

*Okay, it's Paul Simon.

[ScratchCat]

15. I was watching a game show(America Says)

And one group of contestants was four college students and they were completely unfamiliar with...... Clint Eastwood. None had ever heard the saying "make my day", which was one of the answers. They got two of the seven answers, and if you are not familiar with the show, you get the first letter and a blank equal to the word length on the screen for each response they are looking for. I was flabbergasted. Clint Eastwood. You had "M___ M_ D__" and "D____ H____" on the screen and they didn't get them.

I am very into music an it is very disheartening to find that many, many people under 40 have no clue about music pre-1980's. I helped teach a music history course to teens/college age African-Americans back in the late 1990's and it was sad how many had no knowledge of the pioneers of "black music" from Delta Blues to Motown. I fear all this will be lost and forgotten as time moves forward.

[MurrayDelph]

16. Heard of all of them

Ann's growing up in L.A., had the opportunity to meet many.

[Blue_Adept]

17. As a GenX person, I know pretty much all of them. But, times have changed

There is simply so much content produced today compared to when I was growing up in the 80s that it's ridiculous.

we're not living in a time with five TV channels and a handful of radio stations that all play the same thing.

I'm sure here at DU we could pull together a list of people that are just as well known as the list above was in their day and half the membership at least wouldn't have a clue who any of them are.

[Cartoonist]

37. I'm not so sure

I don't like country music at all. I can still name a lot of country performers. While I never listen to modern pop music, I can still name a lot of pop stars. I've never heard even one note of Lady Gaga, but I know she exists. I think.

[IcyPeas]

18. the other way 'round....

I was getting my hair cut and in chatting with the stylist and she mentioned she was going to New York city soon. and I asked when (what season) and she said she wasn't sure yet.... they were going to a concert with Harry Styles and there's no date yet and that's what they are going for.

At least I did know who Harry Styles is (from the brit band One Direction).

Watching late night musical guests keeps you up to date with these young 'uns.

(and yes, I've heard of all of your list)

[Mosby]

24. How old is this person?

I could see not knowing the shadow, that goes back a ways. Same with some of the jazz people you listed.

I read a list of the top influencers and only recognized maybe 5 out of 20.

[Cartoonist]

31. 20's

I didn't expect a no-hitter. The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet were recent movies.

[not_the_one]

26. Anita Ward

Well, I thought it relevant, in a tangential way...

Ah, dancing at the disco...!

[qazplm135]

27. takes a lot to cut through the fog of time

how many musicians do we remember from say the 800s?

How many leaders from the 1000s?

1000 years from now...I'm not sure how many 20th and 21st century folks will be remembered.

Hitler, Stalin, FDR, maybe JFK and Khrushchev if that's the only time we come close to nuclear war...a few others of course, but I bet if we were transported to the future, a LOT of folks we'd think would be remembered won't even be in the history books/tapes/data cubes/lightrecorders/partofthecollective.

[Cartoonist]

32. No videos from the 800's survived.

Beethoven lives. So will the Beatles. Not sure about Britney Spears, who is his favorite.

[sdfernando]

28. Every single one of them does.

I had the great pleasure of seeing Benny Goodman live with his quartet on one of his last tours. What an absolutely amazing talent that man had!

...and Bruce Lee was the Green Hornet if I remember correctly....of course I only saw those shows in re-runs.

[Kid Berwyn]

33. John F. Kennedy

Nixon nixed naming the Apollo 11 mission after him.

Reagan’s toadies re-renamed Cape Kennedy to Cape Canaveral.

The Reich want the American people to forget someone who did something something and wanted us to stay out of Vietnam. That’s why they do all they can to destroy public education.

[Cartoonist]

34. We should name the moon after JFK

Not really, but he should get some honor.

[FakeNoose]

35. *Rec* for Billie Holiday

[lunatica]

36. I know all of them

But I’m old, so it makes sense.

[Roland99]

38. The 40s SiriusXM channel is programmed on one of my car radio presets

Love it

[Roland99]

39. Back when Napster was the thing, I downloaded TONs of old radio shows

The Shadow
Lights Out
RCA Theater
Amos n Andy
Jack Benny
Duffy’s Tavern

[Cartoonist]

40. Cheap laughs

That characteristic of Benny was played to perfection.

I also love Jack's show because of the contributions by Mel Blanc.