We’re a little late on this new item, but I’d forgotten all about this story. In light of Scott Halpin‘s passing, why not take a few moments to reflect on just about any young rock musician’s dream? Here’s a link to an NPR interview with Halpin, who was recruited from the audience at a 1973 San Francisco show to sub in for a wasted Keith Moon. Following is a clip of the young man’s trial by fire!
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OK, so even the Hall’s rabid Beatles fans were underwhelmed by the offshoot Beatles-tribute single I’d stumbled across while unexpectedly researching a relatively decent song I’d foggily remembered from my teenage years of flipping FM channels in hopes of hearing a new song that rocked. Remember, this was the time when the likes of Journey, Kansas, Toto, and the relatively rocking Boston ruled the airwaves. Recent “oldies,” which would form the foundation of the Classic Rock radio format, were always cool for me, but it was tough to find something new and exciting, like newcomers Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and The Police.
J. Geils Band, pre-Freeze Frame, and Thin Lizzy, could deliver an occasional, plodding, half-decent new single, and then there were oddities that would make it to FM radio for a couple of weeks, like the song I’ve posted from our most recent Mystery Date.
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While searching for a download of a song by a band I never knew anything about or heard another lick of music by other than a track I used to hear occasionally on FM radio circa 1980, I stumbled across the following Beatles-themed offshoot 45 release by said featured Mysery Date artist:
Take some time to enjoy these tracks. One of you might know who this is right off the bat; most likely someone will track down the artist’s identity. At the appropriate time, I’ll post the track that led me to this discovery.
Let’s get it on, shall we? As always, your gut answers to the following questions are what matter.
Is there a studio musician whose playing you so admire that you’d take a chance on buying an unknown album mainly based on his or her involvement?
What’s your favorite Paul McCartney album track (ie, not a single/Greatest Hits number) as a solo artist/Wings leader?
Which senior artist most needs to crank out one more great album for the benefit of rock and, more broadly, humankind?
Let’s say the government could provide a grant and both a team of therapists as well as a restraining order on Don Was to help coax said masterpiece out of this artist.
What instrument do you most wish you could hear more often in today’s rock ‘n roll music?
Who’s the Roger Corman-style, B-movie producer of rock ‘n roll?
What ’50s founding father (or mother) of rock ‘n roll do you feel has been most frequently forgotten or dismissed in recent years?
In these days of home recording and independently produced albums, who’s your favorite current studio musician?
Finally, Townsman Alexmagic suggested the following question for today’s Dugout Chatter:
On one of those blog music aggregator sites recently, I saw a bunch tracks by the ill-fated New Monkees and it reminded me that, at about the same time, there were also television shows for a “New Munsters” and “New Gidget” that were only slightly less disastrous than the New Monkees show/band. It got me thinking about which musical “brands” would be most/least successful if re-launched today as “The New [Insert Band Name
Here].”
I look forward to your responses!
True confession – and not one that I’m comfortable sharing: the first time I ever found myself even barely appreciating the music of Pink Floyd was when a friend dragged me along to see the movie The Wall. Maybe I’d heard “See Emily Play” and liked that song, but I had not yet bought Relics and spent any time contemplating how much more I liked Syd Barrett-era Floyd than the stuff that The In Crowd at both my school and in my neighborhood were digging on their hi-fi systems with 5-foot high speakers and all kinds of fancy components I was still years away from owning myself.
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May I begin by sharing with our Townspeople what a thrill it was for me to chat with producer/engineer Roger Bechirian! As a teenager, while intently studying the liner notes of the records that first made me feel as if I’d finally hit on “my” music, music made for me and my bandmate friends, his name kept cropping up. My friends and I never saw a picture of him, and we still don’t know exactly how his surname is pronounced, but this Roger Bechirian fellow was held in very high regard among our band of nobodies.
If I may, I’ll continue in the first person plural, because that’s how strong my love is over this guy’s work – and beside, my old friends and fellow Townsmen, Andyr and Chickenfrank, contributed to this interview. Our introduction to Bechirian was as the engineer on all those great Nick Lowe productions for Elvis Costello and The Attractions. Shortly thereafter, we saw he had his own thing going as producer of The Undertones, the band in our wildest, humble dreams we thought we could emulate.
With Costello, Bechirian produced the one Squeeze album we all agreed sounded great and steered clear of the stiff, awkward moments on their earlier albums. Then we noted his name on the credits for what we thought was The dBs‘ last great single, “Judy”. This guy not only engineered my all-time favorite album, Costello’s Get Happy!!, but he produced one of my favorite overlooked gems for listening to in my bedroom with the shades drawn, The Undertones’ Positive Touch. As Elvis would eventually have an album produced by George Martin engineer Geoff Emerick, we fantasized having an album produced by Nick’s right-hand man. Considering the likely disappointment (for him!) resulting from this fantasized collaboration, his taking the time to answer the tough questions from Rock Town Hall is more than enough wish fulfillment for anyone to bear… But enough of this ass-kissing, no matter how sincere it is! Let’s get on with the questions.
RTH: I’ve read that you were born in India and moved to England when you were a boy. When did you get into music and how did you get into recording?
RB: There was always music on in the house. My father was a big Jazz fan, and my sister would get all the latest hits from the UK and the States. I also played piano, and would spend hours making up my own tunes. We had a tape recorder at home, and I soon started making up my own sound montages by editing various recordings… I did the same thing as you, scouring album credits, looking for the engineering and studio credits. I got my first job training as a mastering engineer, cutting vinyl!
I was so opinionated, and couldn’t stop myself from telling people what I thought they should be doing!
Nick Lowe, “Hope for Us All”
I’m not thinking about this song from Nick Lowe’s latest album, At My Age, necessarily, although it’s a song I like hearing a second time whenever I spin it once. The reason it’s being used as a part of this post is because of two Academy Award-nominated films I’ve seen over the last month, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. It’s not even the movies themselves that I wish to discuss, but for fear of SPOILING any plot elements for Townspeople who have not yet seen these fine movies and would like to do so without knowing too much about them in advance, let’s pick up this discussion after the jump.
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