Mr. Moderator

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

Producer Willie Mitchell Dead at 81

Jan 062010

Legendary Al Green producer/arranger Willie Mitchell died today at 81. Although I haven’t heard many Mitchell productions on par with the dozens of excellent recordings he made with Green, his style was so money that he even made solo Keith Richards sound pretty good.

Pretty good. It’s still burnt-out Keef on lead vocals, but those gently thumping drums, the warm guitar, and the chunky-but-never-overbearing horn punctuations were money in the bank. Feel free to lecture me on the wonders of Ann Peebles and other artists Mitchell helped, a large piece of the magic that is Al Green has left us.

NEXT: Rock Town Hall’s Official Eulogy…
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The RUFF TUFF Guitar Conundrum

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 062010

The following piece was submitted by Townsman hissing fauna, making his debut on The Main Stage. Way to step up, Townsman, and make this casa your casa!

RUFF TUFF rock n’ rollers here.

Somewhere deep in the forgettable mire of late-’60s Beach Boys albums is this ridiculous, hilariously misguided attempt to “rock out.” The song itself is a forgettable, fluffy pop song, but for some reason, being the lost souls they were at the time, the band decided to hire some chump named Ed Carter to overdub RUFF TUFF guitar parts into what is otherwise a goofy pop song.

Of course, there are other examples of the puzzling presence of RUFF TUFF guitar parts in pop music, be it “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Beat It,” or those weird pseudo-heavy metal riffs at the end of “Running Up That Hill,” by Kate Bush. The frequency of this strange conundrum is troubling, especially when one considers the motivations. Is this phenomenon the result of a misguided attempt by male artists to meet our culture’s self-destructive perceptions of masculinity? Is Kate Bush and other women’s similar use of RUFF TUFF guitar an attempt to bridge the gender gap in what is predominantly seen as a male genre? In short, is RUFF TUFF guitar symbolic of those disenfranchised by patriarchy?

What Makes for a Great Prog-Rock Song?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 052010

What makes for a great prog-rock song? It’s too easy to answer this question by saying something like, “I don’t know, man, whatever sounds good to me…” At Rock Town Hall we’ve moved way past such defeatist responses. We gather here to make sense of things, or at least to communicate. As part of our 2010 mission to enriching the discourse of rock, I suggest we tackle this difficult question. I’m pretty certain that we can determine the components that go into making a great prog-rock song!

Some of the components are probably obvious, but to what degree do the following factors play into this most-difficult form of rock composition?

Chops
Ambition
Wizardry
Wardrobe
Movements
Song length
Key changes
Instrumentation
Classical training
Unusual (and multiple) time signatures

Have I missed anything? Does tunefulness count for anything? Can sexuality play any role in prog-rock compositions? Please discuss, using specific examples.

Hear Factor, deux: Spit it Out

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 042010

Even more poptones for you to take into your home – blindly – and comment on. Enjoy!

Spit it Out (~23 MB)

What’s Hear Factor?

This Is Your Rock Town Hall!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 042010

Townspeople,

This is your Rock Town Hall!

If you’ve already got Back Office privileges and can initiate threads, by all means use your privileges! If you’d like to acquire such privileges, let us know. If you’ve got a comment that needs to be made, what are you waiting for? If you’re just dropping in and find yourself feeling the need to make your voice heard, don’t hesitate to register and post your thoughts. The world of intelligent rock discussion benefits from your participation. If nothing else, your own Mr. Moderator gets a day off from himself. It’s a good thing for you as well as me!

My Favorite Stone

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 032010

Not pictured…

I’m a little surprised at the early votes rolling in for Keith Richards (4 of the first 6 respondents) in our current poll requesting your choice for second-favorite member of The Rolling Stones. I thought for sure that Keef would not get many votes on account of being the obvious favorite. Perhaps Townspeople misread the question and thought they were voting for their favorite. Perhaps Keef was voted as second-favorite Stone behind the choice that only my most cynical brain cells could imagine rock nerds voting for as Favorite Stone: Mick Taylor. Perhaps – and this is hard for me to imagine, but it would be nice – these Townspeople who voted for Keef as #2 Stone agree with my choice for Favorite Stone: Continue reading »

If I Knew Then What I Know Now

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 032010

Townman BigSteve‘s recent re-telling of the 1971 Stooges–MC5 show he attended before he had any idea of the significance of the event he was witnessing made me wonder if I ever saw a band live before being able to comprehend the majesty of a seminal band that I would not comprehend until a few years later.

And some of you have heard me tell this story before, but I actually saw the Stooges and the MC5 play on the same bill one night in 70 or 71, something like that. I might brag about it, especially to impress some young punk rocker, but I would never go so far as to claim I understood what I saw. The music I had grown up on did not prepare me for that night’s spectacle. – BigSteve

I believe the answer is No, I don’t think I ever had an experience like the one BigSteve describes. My band opened for some eventually successful bands that were early into their development, but 23 years later would anyone call Flaming Lips or Goo Goo Dolls seminal? OK, there’s a younger generation that may find the Lips seminal, but they would not arrive at their seminal sound until a few years later. It’s not the same as what BigSteve saw yet did not appreciate, and it’s different than seeing a big band and simply not liking them, right?

Like BigSteve, did you ever see a previously unknown (to you) band in its prime that, a few years later, made you wish you knew then what you know now?

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