E. Pluribus Gergely and I had a brief but productive discussion earlier today on the correct tone settings for your home stereo. Leaving out fancy EQ settings that no lover of rock ‘n roll really needs to be concerned with, “Plurbie,” as both friends and detractors (often one and the same) have been known to call him, suggested the following:
Balance: center Treble: 7.5 Bass: near 10
He may be onto something. Before we definitively announce the correct tone settings for your home stereo, we feel it’s important to run this proposal by you. Please share your current settings, as follows:
Balance: Treble: Bass:
Remember, leave the fancy-pants, scientific EQ settings for your friends on Audiophile Town Hall.
“Fifty years from now you’ll wish you’d gone ‘wow’.”
– Captain Beefheart, conscious of his visionary powers, in a 1980 NME interview.
As I read through and participated in Townsman Sammy‘s candid Bullshit On: Captain Beefheart thread, I sensed some members of Rock Town Hall willing to give this admittedly difficult artist a fair shake. It’s a new day at Rock Town Hall – Your Rock Town Hall – so I’ve put together mix of decreasingly accessible Beefheart songs that may allow those of you who are getting anxious with only 22 years left on that 50-year “wow” clock that’s quoted above to find a way into this guy’s music. Do you get what I’m saying? Have a listen, and say “wow,” somebody!
First, a recording that makes me wonder why anyone wastes their time on ZZ Top, even at their best. I like my boogie refried.
Next, an uncharacteristically tender Beefheart song that you probably know from The Big Lebowski. Close your eyes and think of Julianne Moore‘s translucent skin if you start finding yourself troubled by this naked sound file.
I know you like hearing a guitarist cut loose now and then. On this next track, Beefheart steps aside, shuts up, and lets his guitarist do the talking.
Now steel yourself for a plodding, grumpy tale of devolution. This is the point where we oh-so-slowly head way back toward Mirror Man, where it’s just a few turns across the border to Trout Mask Replica.
The following Clear Spot song is a good example of the benefits of Beefheart picking up on his fractured blues approach from Trout Mask Replica with more accomplished musicians and a fairly conventional studio sound. Plus it’s funny. I’m surprised, when I read of a Townsperson’s inability to dig Beefheart, how often folks fail to appreciate the man’s humor. I know, I’m sounding like The Great 48🙂
Now, let’s shift ahead to 1980’s Doc at the Radar Station, where I think Beefheart and/or his label once and for all gave up on the idea that he’d ever be a regular rock artist and sell more than 2000 albums and, instead, made an entire album as focused on his vision as was anything since the primitve Trout Mask Replica. (Maybe Lick My Decals Off Baby was the last one made with as much integrity and focus, as Geo suggested, I don’t know. I get a cold feeling from that album whenever I spin it. I’ll have to listen to it again.) This album opener always gets me dancing in my head. As a lover of dry recordings, this album can’t be beat. Place me between a sandwich of Doc and Gang of Four‘s Entertainment and I won’t ever grimace over some insecure use of reverb.
Here’s another one that recommits to Beefheart’s old Trout Mask Replica approach while still rocking. The imagery in the lyrics is pretty cool, too, for those of you who can closely follow that stuff.
Here’s a little ditty I’ve always loved. General Slocum and I had some really deep discussion over this track about a hundred years ago, if memory serves, although I can’t recall what wisdom we’d culled from the tune. If you happen to have similar deep thoughts, feel free to claim our forgotten insights as your own.
Did Foreigner ever express a single couplet of sincere emotion, creativity, or insight? I can’t think of one instance of anything but the most predictable, cliched “Rock-like” lyrics.
I had the misfortune of hearing “Juke Box Hero” over the weekend, while we were hanging at our pool club. I’d forgotten how much I’d hated this song, and following a discussion with my 11-year-old son about why I hated Pat Benetar‘s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, which he knew through Guitar Hero and thought “wasn’t that bad,” all that I hated about the Foreigner song struck home. In the second half of the ’70s, when bands like Foreigner and Benetar hit the scene, there was a rash of Rock lyrics about the so-called Rock life: “road” songs, songs about the price of Rock superstardom, songs about “gettin’ crazy,” and other songs about general “wild” living. Even previously established bands that really had achieved rock stardom, like The Eagles and Jackson Browne, got into the act. That stuff rang hollow. It bummed me out. It betrayed what rock ‘n roll was supposed to be about.
Hang with me, all right? I’m sure Townsmen Andyr and Chickenfrank already know what I’m getting at, but this may be an alien subject to many of you. I really like Deep Purple’s “Hush” although I don’t like much else by the band. For me, what makes “Hush” so much better than their big hits from the years following is that they sound like a ’60s band. “Hush” has a lot in common with ’60s blues-rock hits I love, such as Spencer Davis Group‘s “I’m a Man”, the best songs of Cream, and every one of Steppenwolf‘s greatest hits. “Hush” has a chunky midsection, with large traces of soul music – no matter how plodding – that later Deep Purple songs don’t have in anywhere near the abundance. As the band took on – even helped create – the sound of early ’70s heavy rock, they started losing that groovin’, chunky, soul feel and took on a more brittle edge. (As another point of reference, I’m sure Andyr will tell you the same thing happened with Led Zeppelin from their debut to their second album.)
Maybe you’ve heard the band’s 1968 take on “Kentucky Woman”. THIS is Deep Purple I can get behind. It sounds like Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Groovy, baby!
Here’s one of those oddities I sometimes happen across while researching other thread ideas. It’s a 1974 interview with an Australian band I’d never heard of before, Daddy Cool. Can we SUMMON the Thunder Down Under, Homefrontradio, for some background on this band? I’m sure our old friend Links Linkerson could provide us with some links to the history and importance of this band, but he refuses to play above ground. Despite not knowing a lick about the band, they tell an age-old story I think you’ll enjoy.
Following are some clips of the band in their prime! There’s something oddly catchy about this band. Check ’em out! Continue reading »
You may have heard this before, and if so you will likely hear it again. For newer participants in the Halls of Rock as well as veterans, it’s important to note that this is your Rock Town Hall. Use the Comments section to register your dissent. Take the discussion down previously unseen paths. Knock a Townsperson off his or her high horse, if need be. Request Main Stage privileges and start your own threads. Check out the Archives. Have fun.
As we celebrate Bastille Day on Rock Town Hall, let’s take a few moments to remember France’s greatest contributions to the history of rock. There’s one particular contribution in particular that stands out in my mind. See if you can guess it. The winner gets the coveted Rock Town Hall Non-Prize!
