As some of you know Rock Town Hall has its roots in an old Yahoo Group, which exists to this day. It’s often referred to in discussions here as either the “Chess” edition or the “Basement,” depending on the tint of veterans’ glasses. Regardless, Olde School RTHers still share the occaisional deep cut and rarity with each other, in private. It’s almost always cool stuff, and today I’m dragging a few of these tracks to The Main Stage. Thanks, old friends!

Along with some basement tapes that I’m hauling into the light of day, I’m posting a few room-clearer songs that were sent to me offlist. We discussed the concept of room-clearing records a few weeks back, and a few Townspeople wanted to share their go-to room clearers. More than Townspeople themselves, the tired mates of Townspeople will thank you for helping get the last nerdy guests to leave.

I’ve mixed the basement tapes with the room clearers. Some Townspeople may find one category of songs interchangeable with the other. Enjoy!

The Beatles, “She’s a Woman (Take 5, with extended jam)”

Henry Mancini, “Tipsy”

The Loud Family, “Rocks Off”

Monkey, “Heavenly Peech Banquet”

Blur, “Alex’s Song”

Ornette Coleman, “Midnight Sunrise”

Terry Riley, “Assassin Reverie”

Wolfgang Dauner Quartet, “A Day in the Life”

The Abbey Road medley is a common point of controversy among Beatles fans, both of the “regular people” Beatlemaniacs and the rock nerd variety. One one hand the medley is dazzling, especially, I would think, to young or otherwise impressionable ears. Of course, I’m giving away my bias: even when I was a kid I found it unsatisfying and a cheap ploy. Over the years, as I’ve matured and grown as a human being, I can better appreciate the craft of the medley–even its place in cementing the Beatles’ legacy. However, I’m not totally certain of how I feel. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this key late-period Beatles work. How should I feel about the Abbey Road medley?

After the jump…perhaps the most fascinating slice of Beatlemania I’ve seen in some time…and the final word?
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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. Even your input, Links Linkerson.

Bill Murray was on Late Night with Conan O’Brien last night. I’m a bit disappointed that, 11 hours later, no one has yet posted a YouTube clip of his appearance, but I did find another clip that will do the job of illustrating my concern. Go to around the 3:53 mark (or watch the excruciating if occasionally funny intro, if you want to hate white folks at Blooz festivals).

Conan must have been hipped to this performance. He brought up the fact that Murray can only play “Gloria” on guitar and asked if he would perform it with the Max Weinberg 7. Murray, ever the showman, readily complied. He kicked off the song playing at least one totally wrong-sounding chord. After about two rotations through the progression, Conan’s guitarist covered for him, and they pulled down Murray’s guitar in the mix. As is the case in this Blooz fest clip the second chord in the progression seemed to be the culprit. This has raised at least two questions:

1) Isn’t the chord progression to “Gloria” E-D-A? That’s how I’ve played it for the last 30 years.
2) If so, does Murray have no idea where to fret a D chord? I know his guitar at the Blooz fest isn’t perfectly tuned, but it can’t be that two different guitars have intonation problems around the D chord only.

A third question might be, Does anyone in the entertainment industry break the news to Bill that he doesn’t even know this one song on guitar?