1st place is a worthy winner. Due to the Democratic debate I haven’t listened to many songs. Overall I didn’t hate the reveal, I was just indifferent to it.
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@ChrisV, I have a few questions. As a piano fan, who is your favorite pianist? How would you rate something like this (straight solo piano jazz) by one of the all-time goats? I feel like Gershwin got robbed–except you’re correct ain’t nobody got time for 17 minutes of piano, something those old-time fancy bois never seemed to understand. But my favorite pianist of all time (Monk) knew to keep that shit to a minimum. Solo Monk is a must-own piano album if you don’t have it.
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I didn’t include the personal meaning with my submission because I didn’t think it was all that interesting. Anyway, for completeness sake I will remedy this: I used to listen to this song when I was (close to) tilting when playing poker. I just couldn’t stay mad, tilt was instantly gone. So for me that song is closely associated with long poker sessions. I almost submitted it for the mood changing category but I really wanted to also submit that other song, too.
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This is a great question and part of the reason (other than my lack of musical knowledge) that I picked a pretty mainstream song. I’m just not a big piano guy and had no idea where to go.
I should have used this as my political song. There was an Inca city called Chan Chan which was wiped out by Pizarro.
Er I guess it was built by the Chimú and wiped out by the Incas first, then looted by Pizarro.
I have translated the lyrics of this song and still have zero clue what it’s about. A lot of stuff is definitely lost in translation. But it’s the saddest song I’ve ever heard - so lets just assume it’s about sad things happening to a once great city.
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Most likely would have gone with a Fiona Apple song for piano
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chrisv throw out a mercy ranking estimate for this piano submission if I had made it, lovely song, gutting lyrics
or don’t: just catching up on other entries probably not enough piano here, carry on
Yeah, possible you have a legitimate gripe. I bounced around a bit on how I felt about it and it ended up probably the lowest I had it at any point. Like I said, I just have to go with a snapshot of how I feel at reveal time. You may get madder at me given that next category I’m planning to use a 7:40 long song without all that much musical progression as my “what would you have submitted” :)
Yeah, on a first listen would rate well, I like this, never heard it before. I’ve never liked Fiona Apple I’ve heard before. I really don’t like Criminal.
Side note: Category winner WesleyC used to have a Fiona Apple t-shirt he would wear out. Although it was a Fiona Apple t-shirt, it didn’t have anything identifying on it, rather it was simply a plain black shirt with “I’ve been a BAD, BAD girl” on it. Wes is a 6’3" man.
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I feel this is good for your musical development. At least now you’ve heard bits of Hunky Dory and After the Goldrush.
If I had my time over I’d make things a bit clearer - what I love is the sound of the instrument and the feel it can lend to songs (as examples see the #1 and #2 songs, the Shearwater song I posted, etc). The fact that I love piano doesn’t mean I’m heavily into virtuoso piano, jazz, classical, etc. any more than people who are into the sound of electric guitar are necessarily heavily into like Steve Vai or whatever. I like jazz/classical fine, but I tend to enjoy them more as live music and don’t really sit and listen to a lot of them at home.
The Monk track is OK but I prefer something with a bit more swing; out of the well-known jazz pianists I’d name Oscar Peterson as an exemplar of the kind of thing I like, but it’s not like I have albums of his at home that I put on on the reg.
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I feel obligated to say a few words as a victory speech because this is the first, and likely last, time that I’ll ever secure the top spot in a walrus. I’m lucky that Chris banned EJ because I would’ve submitted an early Elton song and lost horribly.
I can also answer the question that @Lawnmower_Man’s posed but Chris delicately avoided…
ChrisV’s favourite pianist is Ben Folds.
In fact I suspect he secretly wants TO BE Ben Folds. He knows all the words to all of his songs and regularly sings them loudly. He even tried to teach himself the piano from a Ben Folds song-book… 
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9th place twice.
I have no idea what to expect for the rest of my submissions.
lol, Ben Folds is not my “favourite pianist” in that I think his playing is amazing1, the fact that I’m a fan has more to do with his songwriting. This was not a secret you dunce, Ben Folds = 0 is right there in the category rules, because I didn’t want to have stuff submitted that I’ve heard like 100 times.
I don’t think I could afford that many divorces.
1. The piano isn’t even his first instrument, his musical training was on drums. Maybe if you were more of a fan, you’d know that.
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Pretty sure I’ve secured last spot given how it’s gone so far. Never mind. Just be glad I didn’t also submit half an hour of Keith Jarrett as I was close to. The man’s a god (imo and that), but I figured very long songs weren’t in the spirit. I prefer his stuff with sidemen, but that album (Koln Concert) is the best selling piano album of all time. Along with Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds it was obligatory to own it in the 70s, I think.
I saw Ben Folds just a couple weeks ago in Sacramento. He is touring with Cake and I’d never seen his live set.
Was incredible. Tons of fun, really engaging, interacts with the crowd like crazy. We were sat next to a group of 8 rednecks who HATED him though. “Why’s this whiny librul tellin stories? When’s he gonna play Brick?”
He didnt play Brick. Lol, whiny fuckin rednecks.
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I had a dream last night that some dude put my playlist on at a party but was playing it at 2x speed. I went back and asked him what he’s doing and said it sounds like shit. He got very pouty and morose like I just ran over his dog or something - and then all my friends starting saying I was an asshole. I was like “It’s two times speed! It sounds like the freaking Chipmunks!” But they just kept piling on me.
I blame this thread.
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I first got into Lana Del Ray by listening to her on youtube. Little did I know that it was a hack channel that had sped everything up by 1.25x to avoid copyright or something. When I finally went back and listened to a proper recording, it all sounded like it was in slow motion and I couldn’t get into it. 
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Lana Del Rey at 1.25x sounds intriguing.
I listen to Chapo Trap House at 1.5x. The first time I heard the theme song at regular speed I was totally thrown–sounds totally different and I don’t like it nearly as much.