Let’s try another 1-2 Punch, shall we? Top 10 lists are too much; Top 5 lists invite too many opportunities for throwing in a hipster, obscuro choice to distinguish oneself from the raging masses. What I’d like to know is what TWO (2) songs you would choose from an artist’s catalog to say as much about that artist that you believe represents said artist’s core as possible? In other words, if you could only use TWO (2) songs from an artist’s catalog to explain all that said artist is about to a Venusian, what TWO (2) songs would you pick to represent said artist’s place in rock ‘n roll?
I’ll pose two artists, one of whom YOU asked for, and you—love ’em or leave ’em—give me each artist’s representative 1-2 Punch. Dig? Here goes!Continue reading »
OK, so this wasn’t the most challenging Mystery Date ever, but BigSteve stumbled close enough to the Mystery Date’s identity in an honest way. It is indeed Daevid Allen’s band Gong, with Allen sounding the way BigSteve expected him to sound! The mystery song is entitled “I Never Glid Before,” from 1973’s Angels Egg. Here’s another track from that album, with the exquisitely hippified title “Love Is How You Make It.”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Gong_11_Love-Is-How-You-Make-It-Original.mp3|titles=Gong, “Love Is How You Make It”]
Many moons ago I spent a weekend checking out the Gong collection of a Deadhead girl I was dating. For the first few weeks we dated I assumed she owned nothing but Grateful Dead albums and Dead bootlegs. That was all the music she ever played. Then one day I found a half dozen Gong albums in her collection. I thought I’d hit paydirt on an underground band I’d only heard about but that promised as many Cool Points as stumbling across a collection of Hawkwind albums, but instead I’d hit nothing but a dime bag of dirtweed. Man, those were some goofy albums, loaded with pixie imagery and the most giggly pothead jokes ever committed to vinyl. You’d think they got high for the first time, but they maintained that first-time high feeling over the course of a half dozen releases, including a couple of double albums. More power to them for keeping it fresh. They were bad, but in an interesting way.
Let’s review the ground rules here. The Mystery Date song is not necessarily something I believe to be good. So feel free to rip it or praise it. Rather the song is something of interest due to the artist, influences, time period… Your job is to decipher as much as you can about the artist without research. Who do you think it is? Or, Who do you think it sounds like? When do you think it was recorded? Etc…
If you know who it is, don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyone who knows it can play the “mockcarr option.” (And I’ve got a hunch that some of you know this one.) This option is for those of you who just can’t hold your tongue and must let everyone know just how in-the-know you are by calling it. So if you know who it is and want everyone else to know that you know, email Mr. Moderator at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. If correct we will post how brilliant you are in the Comments section.
The real test of strength though is to guess as close as possible without knowing. Ready, steady, go!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Mystery-Date-031111.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 031111]
We’ve got a hot new t-shirt for you, the long-awaited German True Stereoshirt. While your rock-nerd friends are content to experience the world in regular old stereo or, at best, Japanese gold, remastered 5-D surround sound, you can proudly let them know where you’re coming from. The German True Stereo shirt is available here.
Also new to the Rock Town Hall store is the Pince Nez mug. What better way to start your day in the Halls of Rock but with a cup of coffee and a humbling reminder of the limits of our rock expertise? The Pince Nez mug is available here.
On a related note the RTH Booooooks link has been updated with many of the rock bios discussed earlier this week. Check ’em out and fill your head with new bits of, outside this place, useless information!
I’ve always had a hard time getting into Billy Bragg. It’s because of his very heavy accented singing. It almost sounds like he’s mugging to the audience (even in the booth) with every line.
I don’t seem to mind other artists who do this—Andy Partridge has a bit of this wink-to-the-audience tone to his voice—but Mr. Bragg is too much for me.
