You’ll recall our recent poll concerning rockers in need of a new hairdo. Your choice of Queen guitarist Brian May was inspired. According to Rock Town Hall Salon’s stylist Toby Wetland, “Brian’s facial structure and skull shape present so many options. It’s a wonder he didn’t change hairstyles every few months!” In fact, Wetland and his staff envisioned so many options that they used a specially develop RTH Labs computer modeling program to determine the best option. Before we tell you what exciting new Look was decided upon, how about you tell us which option you would have chosen?
From the fertile desk of Townsman chuckflack comes the following thread.
Supposedly Peter Grant introduces himself as the manager of Led Zeppelin to Bob Dylan at a party. Dylan responds: “Look man, I don’t come to you with my problems, do I?”
Fresh off the stage, Neil Diamond goes up to Bob backstage at The Last Waltz concert and says, “You’ll have to be pretty good to follow me.” Bob replies, “”What do I have to do, go on stage and fall asleep?”
John McEnroe tells the story of going backstage at a Dylan concert in London in 1994. There are five people in the room: Dylan, Chrissie Hynde, George Harrison, Harrison’s son Dhani, and somebody McEnroe doesn’t recognize. McEnroe introduces himself to the unknown individual and asks who he is. Van Morrison responds: “I’m Bozo the Fucking Clown.”
After a show in Cleveland in the early 1990s, Grant Hart is talking to a few fans outside at his van. Someone asks him what he thinks of the Rock Hall being built in Cleveland. Hart says, “The only Hall of Fame rock needs is everybody’s individual record collection.”
Lester Bangs on Elvis Presley: “He was the only male performer I have ever seen to whom I responded sexually; it wasn’t real arousal, rather an erection of the heart, when I looked at him I went mad with desire and envy and worship and self-projection.”
In a recent threadTownsman jungleland2 had the following reaction regarding my report of Billy Joel‘s “Still Rock ‘n Roll to Me” being played on a Philadelphia Oldies station, WOGL 98.1 FM:
I can not have a record that I bought with my own money be old enough to be an OLDIE (so same goes with Mr. Roboto and Start Me Up)
A lot of us are getting old enough to start running into these feelings. Nobody told us there’d be days like these!
To his credit, jungleland2 quickly slapped himself out of his anxious feelings and turned the situation into a worthwhile topic for discussion:
The Townspeople have spoken. Queen guitarist Brian May is badly in need of a new hairdo. Highly trained staff from the Rock Town Hall Salon have begun planning the rocker’s new hairstyle. We’re confident it will freshen up his Look to lead the remaining Queen members’ continued efforts to commemorate their deceased frontman, Freddie Mercury.
Gone with the wind!
Ladies, linger over this shot while it lasts. You’re about to be blown away!
Townsman chuckflack sent the following thoughts to The Back Office to pass along for us to ponder.
Patti Smith once said she wanted to come back to life as a guitar solo. Beautiful idea, though I of course want specifics: which particular solo, Patti? For me, I’d happily come back as Garth Hudson’s organ solo in “Apple Suckling Tree.” Or maybe Warren Zevon’s “Huh, draw blood,” exclamation in “Werewolves of London.” Or maybe Neil Young’s big sideburns. Or maybe Mississippi John Hurt’s fingers. You?
If you don’t know the drill by now, that’s no reason not to learn it quickly and take part in our occasional “gut check” on some of rock’s hardest-hitting-yet-rarely-asked questions! Don’t take too much time on the following questions, but answer candidly and in as much depth as you feel necessary. There are no wrong answers, but “right” answers have been known to crop up.
Has the disparity between craftsmanship and content ever been so great as that in Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody?” (That is, “What a waste of time that song is, but boy do I admire the work that went into it!”)
Has anyone in rock had a more elegant approach to baldness over the course of his career than Brian Eno?
Beside Jefferson Starship, what’s the most recent example of music you never cared for that you’ve now begun to appreciate?
Beside Queen, if applicable, is there an artist whose music you don’t like yet whose album productions you do like a lot?
If Sting characterizes the e-mail compliment of an NPR listener as “nourishing,” what does the guy shit?
This Last Man Standing competition may be wide open: we’re looking for songs with lyrics that spell out one or more words in the song’s title. The reason we’re limiting this to words within the title is to create at least some difficulty for this challenge. Three songs immediately come to mind for me, led by the following and its amusing video clip:
