Coffee House Ambiance
 

Upon working on a project to file share with Cyclefrance, i ran the tests. (winrar, upload, link and download, play)

A particular song reminded me of the style of the early coffee houses depicted in movies and such.


What are yours? Audio/visual/literature

This link is one (a 50s' style doing a Beatle metaphysical rendering
of "Within you, without you")

(explanation: I thought it was clever on this version, the way the commercial song at the time it was produced, may have sounded years earlier.)

So,
Who's got links, pics, etc of the coffee house groove?

(i know it may sound weird, but I collect stuff... pics, songs, words.... etc, and make vids for virtual diaries)


Coffeehouse #1



Btw, I'm begging for an all inclusive view/genere of the groove... from way-back... to tomorrow.

Sincerely,
curious

Totally cool concept. I would love to see it's progress. That song is great, Coffeehouses are great. Don't know if the 50's were great 'cause I wasn't born yet but umm hey we arn't talking Fonzi are you? :D

I mean , humm 50's?? Maybe I should sleep on it.

ahahahahahah, no

the 50's seem to begat it. I meant "all inclusive"... post 50's to tomorrow.

(just curious, skysidhe, ... although I picked that styling with the song,.... do you know the original version it was a "cover" for? if not, no big deal, it was a concept album and I don't think many radios play it )

Big Daddy was a cover band that took the whole Beatles Sgt Peppers album and played it like early USA rocknrollers would have done.... Whereas George had sitar on his styling,... the Big Daddies used Bass, Flute, and Spoken word on this particular song.

:smack:


oh yeah , I am so sleepy.

I did read that too and I was going to say something clever about tomorrow.... I forgot.... lol

@ Tiddybaby

Not off hand I don't. Can I sleep on it?? :)

I might beable to come up with something .......tomorrow





Harrison

We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realise it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.





beautiful lyrics

It evokes the early 50's.....shades, berets, cigarettes......spoken word with minimal instrumental accompaniment.
The early 60's brought folk music and hippy garb to the coffee houses. :ivy:

Your vision was actually my first thought too before I lapsed. :)


@ Tiddybaby.

I like a good challenge yet I have a short attention span at times. I found a good list of Beatle covers you probably already know but found not 'The Big Daddys' to get a reference. Too bad too because I like a good concept album.:)
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~ratib/beatles/songs.htm

I also like covers. Thanks. Out of that list one caught my eye. I don't know why.
It's Bjork...Fool On A Hill. hummm I just can't marry to two in my mind. I am curious to what it sounds like .

sorry for the diversion.

Ok, I'll look for Bjorks "fool on the hill"

oooh yay! I tried SS but nothing. I got the Cars instead.

I think the real deal requires low lighting, men and women in sunglasses, black berets and turtlenecks, male goatee optional, strong black coffee served in small cups, the air heavy with the smoke of French cigarettes, with an vague, sweet, undercurrent of maryjane, a guy playing bongos, and mumbling incoherent poetry into a microphone. The audience sits back, and looks increasingly introspective to cover for the fact that they really don't have the smallest damn clue about what the beat poet is on about, but it's sure cool, man.

You know, just like this place.

haha!


I so see your vision wolf. :)





Low soft couches and small round tables. The place smelling of fine tobacco and expresso.
Open mic and large palms claiming the darkened corners,,,,,ah yeah

Oh how this thread strikes a nerve with me, and a good nerve at that.

I used to run a coffeehouse in St.Louis for a couple of years and as such, had carte blanche as far as atmosphere, decorating, music and such. Of all the things included in the "ambience", the music was the hardest to peg.

We had already opened and had purchased a satellite music system for background tunes. This system afforded us with 200+ different stations and styles of music. We would switch from light jazz to dixieland to slide guitar blues, each time trying to get a read on our customers who by this time were large in number.

Finally, one of our employees suggested that we let the customers decide on what music should be played. So we set the sound system up in the front of the house and situated 2 remote controls where the customers could switch channels. We placed a sign nearby encouraging "artistic expression" by changing channels and posted a musical menu for them to choose from.

It worked.

After a month, the consensus was as follows.

Conducive to coffeehouse atmosphere:
1. Straight jazz (Davis, Monk, Mingus, etc.)
2. Retro lounge (this sort of stuff)
3. 1950's vocals (Bennett, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, etc.)

Non-conducive:
1. Country (duh)
2. Rap (double-duh)
3. Rock (of any kind)

there is a neighborhood coffeehouse near my former apartment called The Bourgoise Pig." i love that coffee shop because they always let me bring my two small dogs in. :D

the irony of today's "coffeehouses" is that they are full of people on laptops ~ talking electronically ~ whereas before it was all about people getting together and communicating together as the experience itself.

*tugs at beret on head*

Ha! We actually toyed with the idea of banning laptops and...gasp...cell phones, but we relented. Too dictatorial. But it was disheartening to see 20-30 people sitting around, some 4-5 to a table and basically not communicating.

The real pisser was when these "mall" moms and "soccer" moms would come in with their ill-behaved progeny. They would turn our house into a day-care center. They'd sit in clusters blathering about their latest GAP purchase or something equally inane, all the while their screaming mini-beasts would be running around the shop bothering everyone else. We'd come out and give the kid a cookie or a bagel so that they'd have something else to do with their pieholes other than scream. Then the moms would get indignant like we were interfering with their parental skills.

...sigh...

This would be when I would go in back, grab the remote to the music system and crank up some Slipknot nice and loud. It didn't take too much of that to get the Stepford Wives up and out of my store.

@bigpeeler: What a nightmare! Sounds like you handled it nicely, though.