Mr. Moderator

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

GREAT!

Jul 132008

Here at Rock Town Hall we often make claims for a record or artist or album cover or concert or producer or what have you as being GREAT [caps and italics for emphasis]! But what do we mean by this term? We nod our heads or disagree vehemently, as if we understand what it means, but until this RTH Glossary entry, suggested by Townsman Mwall, I’m not sure that we’ve ever been able to reach agreement on what the designation GREAT means. Listen to this Lou guy, in the following clip. I think his recounting of a GREAT concert he attended – and the telling of his experiences – clearly illustrate once and for all what’s meant when any of us proclaim something in the world of rock as GREAT!

Ron, Don’t Go!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 112008

It is, of course, possible for a ageing rocker to conquer his addictions, as Eric Clapton has proved. But one of Wood’s friends said yesterday: ‘I don’t know that Ronnie will ever straighten out.

‘For him, drinking goes hand in hand with having fun, and he’d rather be dead than be boring. I remember him saying to me when he went into rehab, “The thing is, I don’t want to end up being a boring b*****d like Clapton”.’

Here’s a pretty sad tale regarding the Stone whose fans need not apply to our hallowed Hall. I like Stones-related dirt as much as the next guy, but damn…they shoot horses, don’t they? Ron, don’t go!

E. Pluribus Gergely, this clip’s for you.

Previously, in the News!

Rock Town Hall and Little Jackie Explode on AM Radio!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 112008

The Great 48 dropped a fun line and radio snippet the other day that I thought you might dig. The Great One wrote:

I emailed the hosts of that AM radio show I mentioned in the Little Jackie piece, which resulted in a lengthy discussion including this plug of the board. I’ll take credit for any infusion of new blood.

As you should, Great One. Thanks! Here’s the clip:

Rock Town Hall Is On the Air! (excerpt of on-air discussion from Too Beautiful To Live)

“You know what I hate about iPods/iTunes…”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 112008

Although Rock Town Hall has partnered with the Apple Empire and iTunes and values them greatly, there are days when we suddenly find ourselves simply hating something about our iPod/iTunes experience. For me, that one of those days was Monday night, when I was burning CDs that my young son sequenced and wanted to give his friends at his 7th birthday party.

I might have told a few of you about my boys’ getting into ELO over recent months and my realization that I owned exactly 0 ELO albums. To rectify that situation and acquire 15 ELO tracks I thought would be healthy for my boys to enjoy, I went on iTunes and legally bought the band’s best material – what I consider their best material, because lord knows they’ve got a spotty run of Greatest Hits albums in their catalog. The boys have been digging this hand-picked Best of ELO CD ever since.

So Monday night I’m working on my boy’s ELO-heavy compilation CD for the 8 friends he’s invited to his birthday party. iTunes has burned the first 7 CDs efficiently. What a marvel of modern technology!, I thought to myself. Then, when I pop in the 8th CD I get a message to the effect of, “You are only licensed to make 7 copies of music purchased from iTunes.”

BASTARDS! Apple’s put a digital fence around the 15 ELO tracks I purchased from them. I’m sure this was all spelled out in the User Agreement that I insincerely clicked Yes to when asked if I’d read it, but come on! This was supposed to by my sons’ ELO, as selected with care by their rock snob father. At that moment I cursed the Apple Empire. A couple of days later and I’m still reluctant to use any of the Apple software on my Mac. I’ll get over it and return to singing the praises of iPods and iTunes, I’m sure, but today I’m still feeling the hate.

How about you? Please complete the phrase in the title of this post. Tell us what you hate about iPods or iTunes. In those rare times when you’re feeling the hate, that is.

Rock Town Hall’s Top 5 Rock ‘n Roll Artists of the ’50s

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 102008

The other day we set out to determine Rock Town Hall’s Top 5 Rock ‘n Roll Artists of the ’50s. Although we were not sure how our suggestions would be arbitrated, our faith in the process of discussion and dissent probably implied our reaching concensus. It was not that easy.

Lou Reed…As His Music Was Meant to Sound!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 092008

“Not everyone does…”

The Correlate of Soul?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 082008

In a positive sense, what is the correlate of soul?

Let’s be frank, as we look into this question: the term soul is strongly associated with qualities found in African American music. It’s considered a positive quality and a quality that is bound to impress when attained by rock ‘n roll musicians. However, it’s not the be all and end all of rock ‘n roll. Rock ‘n roll can have soul, but we’ve seen it also succeeds through the expression of other qualities, some of which we characterize as “white” musical qualities.

As painful as it may be to process these ideas, you do understand what I’m saying, right? For instance, The Beach Boys are considered a very “white” group – and a great one at that. They took a vocal group tradition that was based partially on what would be considered some of the building blocks of what would lead to soul and made it their own. They came up with a great approach to music, but if it doesn’t have soul, in the sense that we commonly use that term, what does it have? What is the correlating, positive term that can be used to describe musical attributes we typically ascribe to white people?
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