I like both The Fiery Furnaces and The Dead Milkmen, and I recently learned that the former made a video based around the most-influential movie of my childhood (and, possibly, entire life), Easy Rider. Each video follows for your review. Leaving the music out of it if you must—because if you’re like me you might find that the song in one of these two videos is not anywhere near a favorite in the band’s catalog—which band made better use of its source material? Choose one…after the jump!
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator attempts to more fully explain the, uh, humble delights of Humble Pie to the questioning Townsman misterioso by playing the band’s 1969 Town and Country album in its entirety, with accompanying commentary. If this doesn’t help mistorioso value the good in Humble Pie, perhaps no effort will.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-37.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 37][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.]
It was mentioned by a Townsperson earlier today that Jimi Hendrix supposedly left the master mixes for side 1 of Axis: Bold of Love in a cab, making it necessary to quickly remix that side in time for the album’s release. Similarly there’s the story about the master tapes for Graham Parker & The Rumour‘s master tapes for Stick to Me being left somewhere, necessitating a quick re-recording of the entire album and the need to bring up that story whenever someone remarks on that album’s clearly subpar quality among Parker and the band’s first 4 albums. Finally, at the risk of using up rock’s only 3 examples of “the dog ate my homework” tales, there’s the story of Bono‘s stolen briefcase of lyrics that he’d intened to sing on the U2‘s sophomore album, October. What I didn’t know until researching this subject was that the briefcase was returned to him in 2004. Do any U2 fans know if the band has or plans to re-record the vocal tracks using the original lyrics?
There must be other dog eats homework tales in rock ‘n roll that we could add to the record. As always, limit yourself to one entry per post, to avoid “bogarting” the topic. Thanks!
Another day, another year older. Happy birthday, hrrundivbakshi! My gift to you is this inspirational performance by Hutch, who with the encouragement of some close friends took a chance, took the stage, and hit his stride as…David Soul, natural blond icon and international singing star! Don’t give up on us, baby. It’s time you hop up on stage, Townspeople, and show us what you’ve got.
Hell, HVB means so much to the Hall that I’m giving him a second present…after the jump! Continue reading »
It’s been an intense week, no? Why don’t we bring things down a notch with a sober, mature discussion of our favorite late-period Van Morrison albums? By “late-period” I am referring only to releases post-1978’s Wavelength. It goes without saying that reissues of albums originally released from (or recorded prior to) 1978 or earlier do no count.
I look forward to your responses.
Playoff beards not included.
The following images are not close to a comprehensive collection of rock ‘n roll beards, but see how you can do with the following identification game.
OK, I’m the wiseguy who put Jimi Hendrix‘s Axis: Bold as Love in the current “best post-peak album” poll. Although there are some keepers on his subsequent albums and although his playing did not diminish, I actually do feel that Hendrix peaked on Are You Experienced? His next 2 albums with the Experience would have benefitted from a visit by The Cutter (ie, editing). Once Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding split all bets are off. I’m a huge fan of “Dolly Dagger,” for instance, but my enjoyment of the song rests solely on the joy of that main chord riff that runs under the verses.
As with “Dolly Dagger,” there’s enough great guitar work on Axis and Electric Ladyland that I can get over the fact that a lot of the songs blow, but as my close personal friend E. Pluribus Gergely and I were discussing over plates of “shit on a shingle” at a famed Roxborough diner this morning, Axis, in particular, would have benefitted from a serious reduction.
EPG suggests it should have been edited down to a single of “Little Wing” b/w “If 6 Was 9.” I suggest an EP, including those 2 songs along with “Castles Made of Sand” and “Wait Until Tomorrow.” I’m a sucker for any Hendrix song that’s in the “Wind Cries Mary” vein (ie, the former) and any Hendrix song that sounds like it could have been done by Otis Redding (ie, the latter, “Remember,” “Crosstown Traffic”). You may be able to twist my arm into including “Up From the Skies” for a 5-song EP, especially since I had to study it a few months ago to prepare for arrangement ideas on one of my bandmate’s new songs. I can do without all the sub-par “Purple Haze” workouts.
So what do you think, single or EP?
