Mr. Moderator

When not blogging Mr. Moderator enjoys baseball, cooking, and falconry.

Cast in Bronze

Feb 032010

No way!

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently determined that Andre “The Hawk” Dawson will enter the Hall and be memorialized on his plaque as a member of the Montreal Expos. Years ago players elected to the Hall of Fame could determine which team they would represent. I believe the Hall decided to take more control in this decision after George Steinbrenner began offering millions of dollars to Dave Winfield and other well-traveled inductees to enter the Hall wearing a Yankees cap, even if they played just a few years with the Yankees compared with longer, more accomplished stays in other cities. Dawson, who starred for the defunt Expos for the first 10 years of his career wanted to go in as a member of the Cubs, for whom he won an MVP award during his 6 years and actually played in front of enthusiastic, English-speaking crowds. He said he’s going to figure out some classy way to pay homage to his Cubs fans while respecting the Hall’s decision to cast his likeness in bronze wearing an Expos hat.

What’s all this have to do with jeans – I mean rock ‘n roll? I was thinking about some well-traveled musicians who’ve been inducted in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and, if that Hall had such rules, making it necessary to determine one band lineup or instrument to cast in bronze. As it is, the R ‘n R HoF allows for artists to be inducted as both a member of one band and a solo artist. I don’t think they make a Pete Townshend, for instance, choose a single guitar to represent his display. But what if they did?

What single guitar would the R ‘n R HoF choose to represent Pete Townshend, the Rickenbacker of his Maximum Rock ‘n Roll days or the Gibson SG of the band’s breakthrough festival years?
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The Dos and Don’ts of Rock Jeans

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 022010

Mom threw me out ’til I get some pants that fit.

Wearing the right jeans at the right time have long been a crucial element to rock ‘n roll stardom. It may have been a passage from Clinton Heylin‘s excellent oral history of proto-punk, From the Velvets to the Voidoids, that’s stuck with me all these years, but I recall cracking up at a comment by David Thomas of Pere Ubu regarding his inability to ever fit into cool jeans, not to mention his parents’ complete lack of interest in keeping him dressed in the current Levi’s fashion trends. He was talking about the humorous teen angst behind “Final Solution” when he bemoanded an adolescence stuck wearing the “BoBo” brand Big Yank jeans. As we knew then, as we know now, some brands don’t cut it in rock ‘n roll.

To ease the development process for aspiring young rockers as well as to revisit and perhaps gain closure on some of our denim growing pains, I thought it might be helpful to conduct a frank, candid forum on The Dos and Don’ts of Rock Jeans.
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How Little We Know: Hoagy Carmichael

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 012010

Ain’t that the truth!

I don’t know much about Olde Tyme Musik, you know, all that pre-rock, not-even-blues-or-otherwise-proto rock stuff that some Townspeople, such as Hrrundivbakshi, hank fan, and cdm, dig. For years I didn’t want to get near that stuff. Very, very slowly I’ve accepted that it can be very good, even great. Ella Fitzgerald continues to be the Olde Tyme Musik figure I enjoy most. I like how precise and direct she is. Rosemary Clooney is cool too. Of the guys, I get a kick out of Tony Bennett and Dean Martin, but half of the pleasure is from laughing at them. They’re loveably goofy, like some of my Italian-American uncles. I’ve noticed that Nat King Cole is easy for me to dig when he’s fronting his small combo. On the other hand, I can usually leave the legendary Frank Sinatra. As I’ve stated before, he sounds like a dick.

Last night I watched To Have and Have Not for maybe the 10th time. It’s one of my favorite Olde Tyme Films. I really identify with Bogie’s character…Nah, I wish! There’s so much that I love about this film, and each time I watch it one of the things I love more and want to know more about is Hoagy Carmichael, who appears as the bandleader in the club in which most of the story is set. I can only do justice in expressing how I feel about him in my circa 1973, 5th grader terms:
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Last Man Standing: Helpful Songs

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 012010

To help give a final push to Townsman Hrrundivbakshi‘s efforts at providing aid to Haiti, I thought it might be helpful to conduct a Last Man Standing challenge on Helpful Songs. The songs should contain the word “help” in the title or a word synonymous with help (eg, “aid”). As is often the case, who knows how far this challenge can go. I can only think of four songs that would fit the bill off the top of my head, including this one:
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For Those Who Really Like Tom Waits OR Captain Beefheart BUT Are Lukewarm About the Other…

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 312010

The title of this thread is more specific than it needs to be, but in an All-Star Jam comment on the current SHOWDOWN poll (ie, SHOWDOWN: Tom Waits or Captain Beefheart?), Townsman geo began to get at some of the issues I’m hoping we can explore:

I voted Captain Beefheart in the current poll, but I also really like Waits. Despite their apparent surface similarities, big, deep hollering voices and a tendency toward the aggressively harsh sound, they really come from different places. Waits is much more of a traditionalist. He brings a junkyard’s worth of musical detritus to what is, at heart, a traditional approach to songcraft. Beefheart, at his best, almost completely obliterates the most basic conventions of the electric blues based music that he started out in.

I’ve been revisiting Tom Waits recently, through his new live album, Glitter and Doom. The song selection is pretty good, the band sounds great, the recording is nice and live sounding… There’s a lot to like about this as a live album, including a second CD entitled Tom’s Tales, which I’ve yet to spend time with and which I suspect may be the best part of the concert. However, I can’t help but thinking that, compared with Captain Beefheart, an artist I love and an artist who must have been influential in Waits’ early-80s refashioning of his musical arrangements along “junkyard” lines, I am lukewarm on Waits.

For me, as geo notes, Waits is still a traditionalist at heart. I find his vocal style and all the junkyard trimmings to be a little distracting. “You don’t have to work junkyard,” I want to tell him.
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Imagine a Sober Keith Richards

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 282010

I’m sure you’ve heard this story by now: Keef has been sober for the last 4 months. Can you handle this, Stones fans and general fans of vicariously living through any “Bad Boy?”

I say, from all accounts the guy has partied enough for a few lifetimes. If he decides to stick with this, he’s got nothing to lose. Imagine how much work it takes for him to get a buzz after all these years of saturation?

What really should be at issue is what this means for Keef’s creativity. Can there be a Rolling Stones led by a sober Keith Richards? Do The X-Pensive Winos become Ex-Pensive? Will passing around a bottle of root beer suffice while gathered around a mic, doing backing vocals with Mick and a couple of backing singers? Will Keef remember that it takes two hands to play guitar?

Free your mind, Townspeople, and share with us your thoughts on a world with a sober Keef. Thanks.

Dugout Chatter

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 282010

The following questions are meant to elicit a sense of your rock ‘n roll values and experiences. As you know, not all questions are directly related to rock ‘n roll or even music. Your candid answers to them may open new avenues of rock dialog. Let’s get it on!

When you think Still photograph from a rock concert, what’s the first photograph that comes to mind?

What’s the most recent band you’ve had to consider you may have dismissed for the wrong reasons (eg, Look, their legion of numbskull fans, a particular fan in middle school who kicked your ass while wearing their three-quarter sleeve concert t-shirt)?

Have you ever been at a concert and then, as the band too the stage, been immediately turned off by one of the musician’s choice in gear only to find that the aesthetically offensive piece of gear was played beautifully by said musician?

Cobra or mongoose?

Example: Too much of Tom Waits’ vocal schtick annoys me, but when listening to his music I imagine the satisfying possibilities membership in his band would afford me as a supporting musician (guitar, in my case). Question: Is there an artist you don’t fully embrace that you imagine might nevertheless afford you a satisfying role as a supporting musician?

Is any constantly praised musician less interesting than Sade?

I look forward to your responses.

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