Mr. Moderator

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

Mr. Mod Releases the List of 30 Bowie Songs He Loves

Nov 292007

It’s long been known that I’ve had trouble warming up to David Bowie despite loving 30 of his songs. That’s probably more songs than I love by a bands like The Rascals and The Turtles, both of whom I’m quick to defend at “underrated.” It’s less songs than I love by Iggy Pop, whose music with The Stooges I can say “I love,” excluding half of the Bowie-produced Raw Power, of course.

What I’ve kept to myself all these years is the list of 30 Bowie songs that I love. Today, at the request of Townsman Alexmagic, I am coming forth with this list. Thank you, Alexmagic, for encouraging me to publish these long-held secrets. Already I feel a weight lifting from my soul.

Dugout Chatter

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 292007

How ’bout we stir up some Dugout Chatter on this late-November day? Your candid, immediate answers will be most appreciated.

Candy Slice or Jennifer Jason Leigh’s title character from the film Georgia?

I would imagine that even those who don’t like Dylan like the copycat Steeler’s Wheel hit “Stuck in the Middle with You”. Is there a copycat song that you like better than almost any song by the originator of that sound?

Excluding the likes of Paul McCartney and Geddy Lee, who are key singer/songwriters in their bands, who is your Most Valuable Bassist in a band? This excludes a great studio cat like James Jamerson and friend of RTH, Lee Sklar. The bassist can write and sing an occasional song, but I’m looking for band-oriented bassist credentials exclusively. You may ask yourself, Which band would suffer most from the loss of its bassist?

What cliched rock-crit modifier (eg, “classically trained”) could you do without having to ever read again?

Which album would you most like to see a documentary on the making of, with the producer/engineer and band members breaking down track by track at the mixing board?

Is there a pattern of 3 or 4 notes or chords – not the specific notes or chords but their intervals – that you’re a sucker for? For those with less musical lingo than even myself, an example would be the 3-chord structure that’s at the root of “Louie Louie” and “Wild Thing”. You don’t need to report this pattern in musical terms; in fact, we’d all have a better understanding if you provide an example from a part where it stands out in a song you love. Mad props to any Townsperson who takes a crack at this one!

The Blame Game

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 282007

Mention was made in an earlier thread of the critical beating David Bowie took for his ’80s solo releases and Tin Machine. My first thought was, “It was about time!”

To clarify, I’ve long loved a good 30 songs by Bowie while for the longest time refusing to embrace the guy and say, “Bowie is a great artist!” I still stumble over the word “great” if I try to say that today, but I’ve come a long way. Believe me. The reason I snapped back into thinking “It was about time!” was because I felt Bowie was primarily to blame, first,for ruining Iggy Pop, and then for all the music I hated in the post-1983 ’80s: Duran Duran and the assorted New Romantics, Thompson Twins, Berlin, maybe even Paul Weller’s Age of Wussiness… Long before the Internet, in a little Xeroxed fanzine I issued with bandmates, I led the conviction of David Bowie on a Rock Crimes charge for his profoundly negative influence on ’80s music and fashion. I was taken to task for assigning blame to an artist for his possibly unintended influence on later generations of musicians with possibly lesser talent. Perhaps. But I still feel the way I do, just like some of you take “points off” the Velvet Underground for inspiring thousands of lesser bands.

Before you get all high and mighty, answer these questions:

1. Have you ever felt this way about an artist? (Specify.)

2. Is there actually the slightest bit of justification for having felt this way?

I truly hope there’s a good answer to question #2.

Takin’ it to the Main Stage: Getting Over the Fanbase

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 272007

Townsman alexmagic asked:

Which act has the worst fans? Maybe to clarify – since I can think of a few terrible bands with bad or worse fans who would end the discussion early – a useful follow-up question would be: Which band/performer has a fanbase that has kept you from potentially embracing/exploring their work more fully.

I think if we focus on the roadblock issue and how we’ve at least attempted to deal with it, rather than some rash characterizations of, say, the grooming habits of a particular fanbase, we might have some good ground for discussion.

Don’t Look Back, Indeed

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 262007

Before the Pearl Jam concert became my football game commercial flip of choice I was flipping to the classic Dylan documentary I’ve been known to rave about along with many others here, Don’t Look Back. Have any of you watched that thing since aging from 22 to 44? I appreciated how much of a dick Dylan was when I first watched it, and to some extent I still like seeing him in full-on dick mode, but I’m now an adult. Large chunks of the film are nauseating and embarrassing. How ’bout that scene in which he dresses down the blond, tortoise shell glasses-wearing “scientist?” Or the one above, with the guy from Time? On a developmental level, these are necessary stages in the modern notion of adolescence and young adulthood, but really, who’s Dylan think he is, Richard Lloyd? Two other questions emerged from the scenes I’d revisited after all these years:

Is it any wonder Dylan bypasses this part of his life in Chronicles, Vol. 1?
Although I’ve long loved Dylan, I’ve never spent any time investigating his crowd of hangers-on. Who’s the guy who looks like a cross between Roger McGuinn and Robert Pollard? Is that Bob Neuwirth? Man, what an ass kisser! Who’s the black dude who’s often sitting quietly in the background, not seeming to engage in any of Dylan’s shenanigans?

The concert scenes are still strong, but I’m thinking we should file this documentary under Watch before you’re grown up.

Rock’s Great Efforts

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 252007

My football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, just came up short against the mighty New England Patriots. It was a great effort! During commercial breaks I flipped over to an old VH-1 Storytellers episode featuring Pearl Jam. I don’t know that there’s one Pearl Jam song I like even a little, but they give a great effort! They’ve got all the Classic Rock structures, the private lyrics made public, the stickin’ it to The Man business… Great effort, but not a single song that lives up to those aspirations. Are there any bands or albums you’d award a E for Effort?

Last Man Standing: Ways in Which Bono Annoys the Crap Out of You

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 232007

You may cry “No fair!” but I sense that a good deal of Townspeople have found Bono to be as annoying as anyone in rock at some point. Let’s get it off our chests once and for all, then find a way to admire the guy for what he is, within reason.

Those of us who feel this way may easily agree on the whole package of annoying behavior that could lead to screen-length rants, but for today’s Last Man Standing, I ask that you attempt to detail specific things about Bono that annoy the crap out of you, from his Holstering techniques to elements of his Look. Save the rants; state your beefs, one at a time. Let’s see what it adds up to.

Remember, Last Man Standing drills require the submission of no more than one (1) entry per post. When all ways in which Bono annoys the crap out of you have been exhausted we will take a moment of silence to celebrate the awarding of the RTH non-prize!

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