What makes you sentimental? Men in brightly colored slacks playing Maj7 chords get me every time!
Jun 152011
Mr. Moderator
Jun 152011
Nothing good’s ever come of…
- All-Star Jams on “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”
- Artists updating a hit song and retitling the updated song with the year of update
- Musical opinions centering around a reference to Bobby (as opposed to Bob) Weir
See where I’m going here? Feel free to add to this list.
Jun 142011
One of my long-unfulfilled rock performance dreams is to have a gig in which my band sets up and “performs” in rehearsal mode: that is, facing each other, playing for each other, having the right to stop songs in midstream, adjust part of an arrangement, and criticize each other. We would completely block out the crowd and just do our thing, the way our thing is meant to be done.
Every once in a while I stumble across a video of an artist rehearsing for a gig or studio recording. I LOVE THIS STUFF! As a music lover, I’m as interested in experiencing what goes on behind closed doors as I am listening to or making music myself, also behind closed doors. Don’t get me wrong, the thrill of playing out or seeing a band out in the wild can be tremendous, but there are less opportunities for catching knowing glances, intimate gestures, and tossed-off asides and fills.
If this video is labeled accurately, it’s The Who rehearsing for the first time with former Small Faces/Faces drummer Kenney Jones, who replaced the deceased Keith Moon. Talk about big shoes to fill! There’s much to examine as the band works through this new dynamic on a Classic ’70s Who–style rocker. For me, the big test is how Kenney handles the extended drum fill, beginning at the 3:15 mark, into Townshend’s noodling, which brings the song to a close. It’s not just what Kenney plays. It’s not just what Kenney doesn’t play. In replacing Moonie it’s also how Kenney doesn’t play while Pete does his thing.
What does Kenney’s performance and his new bandmates’ reaction to it foreshadow? There’s a lot more more going on here than learning the chord changes and honing dynamics!
We’re not talking about a game…The Who continue to practice…after the jump!
Jun 132011
Carl Gardner, original lead singer of The Coasters, has died at 83. They just came up the other day. Well, it’s hard to argue with 83 years, having retained ownership of the band’s name through multiple lineup changes, all those excellent songs, all the excellent covers of those songs…
Too bad that, for a band that was so animated on record, that there seems to be few live performances captured on film. How ’bout you close your eyes and let “Shopping for Clothes” paint its own pictures.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/06-Shopping-for-Clothes.mp3|titles=The Coasters, “Shopping for Clothes”]For all the great covers of Coasters’ songs, here’s one we can bury in a potters’ field…after the jump!
Jun 132011
I can do without the lousy chorus in The Who‘s 1972 oddball single “Relay,” as lip-synched here on Old Grey Whistle Test, and I can do without Keith Moon’s mugging for the camera in this particular performance, but after years of completely dismissing this song I watched this clip and wondered if I needed to reconsider.
The Entwistle-Townshend funky bass-guitar action is excellent! Considering that “Eminence Front” is my least-favorite Who song ever, and one of my least-favorite songs in the history of rock what I’m about to say might damn the song with faint praise, but the funky bass-guitar action in “Relay” is all that “Eminence Front” could have hoped to be.
Then there are the intangibles, including
- Daltrey’s perfect sideburn:curly locks ratio, which may eclipse the best ratios achieved by the likes of Joe Cocker and Rob Tyner
- The Medieval bass Entwistle plays (the headstock could kill a one-eyed giant!)
- The dog-ugly Who patch on The Ox’s dog-ugly denim jacket
- Daltrey’s really into it, for god knows what reason
I’m on the fence about Pete’s peasant shirt, but let me know what you think about this possibly overlooked piece of rock costume jewelry.
Jun 112011
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
This week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In has been pre-recorded to allow Mr. Moderator to fly out to Los Angeles to visit sammymaudlin for a healing weekend of unadulterated Mandom! To prepare for his trip—his first ever trip to L.A. proper—your host meditates on the meaning of the trip to the accompaniment of the soundtrack album from Alan Rudolph’s 1976 film Welcome to L.A.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-32.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 32][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.]
Jun 102011
Because of the series in which this post is being framed I run the risk of being perceived as inflammatory for no good reason—or naive or even outright idiotc. I like my share of Phil Spector‘s works; own his box set, Back to Mono; and know more than enough about his influence on The Beach Boys and beyond, including the reach of his studio cats, The Wrecking Crew. That said, I am tempted to call bullshit on Spector and his Wall of Sound, or maybe more accurately the degree to which it’s praised.
I unabashedly like probably a baker’s dozen Phil Spector productions. The Ronettes were the best of the bunch who worked under him. Ronnie Spector has personality out the whazoo. The Crystals had some winners. He cowrote “Spanish Harlem,” which is, as Lenny Bruce put it, “so pretty, man!” His Christmas album is charming, although a couple of years ago I had my fill of it and have done my best to leave the house whenever my wife wants to play it by the yuletide. Like a lot of Spector’s work, it grows cloying over repeated listens.
