Somewhere on YouTube there’s a person who wrote the following comment following the posting of one of many Blood, Sweat & Tears‘ versions of my least favorite song in the world, Laura Nyro‘s composition “And When I Die”:
This is the song I told my family to play at my funeral—except my ‘One Child Born” is now “Four”
That’s kind of sweet that this person is thinking ahead. I have been too. Hear me out, Townspeople, and see that my family gets the word: This is the song I do NOT want played at my funeral!
Not this version:
Yeah, I’ll get in on the action, all right. It’s a shame the tuba player’s big moment had to appear between the hairy cheeks of David Clayton-Thomas.
Tonight a Townsman is taking his kids to see Foo Fighters. This will be the second time said Townsman, who will remain nameless until he outs himself, has seen “the Foos,” as he tells me The Kidz call ’em. He, like me, sees way less concerts than might be expected considering his encyclopedic knowledge of greatest hits albums and how opinionated—and right—he prides himself in being. We got to talking about it. Not counting cult and underground bands we’ve loved and seen multiple times (eg, Pere Ubu, Gang of Four, and Big Dipper, for myself), beside Elvis Costello it’s possible that neither of us has seen a national-level band more than one time. (By “national-level” I mean big enough to have been on commercial radio, have albums stocked in major chain stores, be big enough so that “regular people” at work are likely to know who you’re talking about if you bring them up in conversation.)
That’s right, he’s seen Nick Lowe twice, but the first time as an acoustic opener, so maybe that doesn’t count. I was supposed to go to that second show with him but had to stay home for, uh, security reasons. Tonight my Townsman friend will leave me in the dust, joining us tomorrow with what are likely to be spot-on comparisons between the two Foos’ shows he’ll have under his belt.
Can anyone beat my record of only having seen one national-level band more than one time? If not, what band have you seen the most times, not counting your friends’ bands or bands you’ve opened for? (I’ve seen Pere Ubu 6 or 7 times.)
Ian Anderson is just one of rock’s many practitioners of ka-raaay-zeeee eyes. Sometimes we like to believe our rock ‘n roll heroes are capable of actually peeling back society’s layers of civility and letting loose with just how ka-raay-zeeeee life is. Madness, I say! Anderson is one of many rock singers who have delivered on our expectations. What other lead singers come to mind who consistently roll out a pair of ka-raay-zeeeee eyes?
In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-InMr. Moderator welcomes a newly active Townsperson, then ponders life without REM… Not really, not the second part, but he does play two live tracks from the band, songs he can’t identify but hopes you can! It’s an odd show, as your host dips into some proto-post-punk and worries that he’s pissed off an old friend.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-46.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 46]
[Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]
I like some bands that get lumped under the “post-punk” banner, including at least three in particular that I object to frequently falling under that banner: Gang of Four, Public Image Ltd, and Joy Division. There’s a good chance that what I’m about to say is a case of me talking out my ass, at least in terms of the chronology of the term post-punk. I honestly don’t remember it being thrown around when I was a teenager getting into punk rock in the late-’70s/early-’80s. Do you? Do you actually remember that term carrying any weight in 1981, or is this a term that was, as I suspect and feel the blood rushing to my temples whenever I think about it, introduced years after the fact?
Maybe it was already in use in the then-legendary and completely annoying British music press at that time, but in the small world of US underground music fans, I don’t recall the term being applied to second-wave and lesser punk bands at the time. There were “No Wave” bands and other subgenres, but I remember them all being considered part of the broader punk (and New Wave) spectrum.
Life was simple then. There were fewer critical ghettos to annoy me.
I love Monty Python‘s old cheese shop bit. A small detail during the opening of the sketch sticks with me more than all the cheese-related stuff: the sign outside the cheese shop that reads Licensed for Public Dancing. Two men are then seen folk dancing behind John Cleese’s character, as he gears up for his futile bid to order some cheese. The following performance of Jethro Tull made me think of the incongruous dancing in the Python skit. Keep an eye on the dancers in the background.
Can you cite other instances of rock’s most incongruous dancers?
