I’d never seen this performance by The Clash on a 1977 French TV show until a few minutes ago. It’s cool to see them in a controlled environment, with no audience, no pumping PA system, and no concert hall reverberations. They’re presented in a fashion even more straightforward than on their simple, direct debut album. It’s life-size Clash! Enjoy.
Certainly, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. We know this to be true, or true enough that we do our part to pass this wisdom down to younger generations, but sometimes we do – judge a book, or record album, by it’s cover, that is. I’m sure I’m not the only Townsperson who’s bought an album based almost solely on the strength of its album cover.
Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, in its die-cut, round cover, was a no-brainer purchase many years ago. I took it home, however, and never fell for it. A few years later I sold it, only to buy it again because the cover was so damn cool! I still don’t like that album.
On the other hand, there are some albums I’ve bought almost solely because of a cool album cover that have delivered. I picked up the first Undertones album based on the cover shot of those cheery, aware teens wearing “floods” before I knew anything about them other than the fact that they were one of those new-fangled punk bands I’d was just getting into. (As an aside, this old Trouser Press article I ran across reminds me that it’s no wonder I still love The Undertones as deeply and as personally as I do!)
There are others, I’m sure (in fact, I had one in mind when I thought about this thread, but it’s slipped my mind), and I’m sure I’ll remember some more as you share your album covers that delivered!
Townsman trigmogigmo recently raised an interesting thought that may be blown out as its own thread:
To me, somehow Cheap Trick and The Smithereens, each in a completely different way, make me think “Beatles, but with Marshall stacks”. (There’s a fun question, what other bands are “Beatles, but with…”?)
I see at least two routes we can take on this: 1) bands that fit the “Beatles, but with [A TWIST]” perspective and 2) other bands that have added a twist to a classic template; for instance, “Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque is like ‘Big Star, with Marshall stacks.'”. Of course “Marshall stacks” does not need to be part of any of the possible answers.
I know most of you aren’t as mean-spirited as I am, and it’s great that most of you aren’t as tenacious and unforgiving about artists that bug you, but as you may know by now I’m no fan of Cheap Trick. Sure, they’ve got maybe 4 or 5 songs that I like, but for being a band with seemingly good intentions and a style of music that’s not too far removed from my wheelhouse they manage to bug me on a number of levels. A friend just passed along this clip by Fuse, a band Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson formed in the late-1906s, eventually recruiting remaining members of The Nazz and playing under either name, depending on which band was better known in a given region.
It figures. Yeah, yeah, it was “the times” and all that. Plenty of worthy artists went through their grandiose Deep Purple phase in 1968 and came out unscathed. But I’ve got multiple beefs with Cheap Trick, so I’m holding this part of their history against them.
This Fuse/Nazz alliance, however, does explain why some of those Cheap Trick guys landed in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. An old friend and music scene sage who still refuses to fly his freak flag in the Halls of Rock has told me about their stint tending bar at Artemis, a legendary Philly club from the early ’70s, where some of the founding members of Philadelphia’s late-’70s punk scene coallesced. So at least this exercise in continuing to collect dirt (ie, Fuse) on Cheap Trick has not been without merit. This is the life of a rock nerd.
I take it that Peter Gabriel covered this song on his recent album of cover songs, called I’ll Kiss Your Ass If You Kiss Mine, or something like that.
As one of the YouTube commentators said:
Please remember that Peter’s version would not EXIST without Lou’s vision and that Peter was INSPIRED by Lou to create his masterpiece.
However, that doesn’t mean you should disregard another commentator’s words:
This version sucks big time. I know he wrote it, so I give him credit. But seriously, this sounds horrible – like something William Shatner would sing. Peter Gabriel took it to a whole new level and Lou Reed’s version just sounds awful by comparison.
Whaddayaknow, here’s Peter performing the song live. Continue reading »
In a recent thread, Townsman misterioso posted a link in his Comment to the above Loggins and Messina video, with the following challenge:
If you can get through this clip, in which Loggins and Messina approach Mike Love levels of pseudo-playful loathsomeness, without wanting to punch someone, then mister you’re a better man than I.
A few Townspeople have already watched this thing and have confirmed misterioso’s apt description! I finally got time to view it, but not even I could make it all the way through. I had to bail around the 2:05 mark, when the camera catches Messina’s butt at an unnaturally protruded, Carl Wilson angle. I’m not a better man than misterioso. Are you?
Can you handle a competing version of this horrible song…after the jump? Continue reading »
I found this clip linked in a long and ultimately slightly interesting and wholly depressing article on former Padres pitcher Eric Show, who gave up Pete Rose’s record-breaking base hit and dabbled as a musician and a John Birch Society member. As jock-rock (and white-boy blues, for that matter) recordings go, this isn’t too bad. Enjoy.
What’s your favorite jock-rock recording that specifically was thrown together to celebrate a team’s championship season? (And beside Muhammed Ali and probably some other boxes, has any solo sport athlete, such as a golfter or tennis star, recorded a record in praise of his or her championship run?)
