Berlyant kindly sent me a copy of Prince’s Dirty Mind album, an album I thought I’d heard and liked a bit in college years ago when, in fact, it was Controversy I’d remembered hearing and liking as much as any Prince album I would hear in ensuing years. I surely did not forget the cover shot of Prince in his state of semi-undressed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Pole Dancer Look. Thanks, Berlyant! Thanks, too, for the other goodies in my care package!
Dirty Mind is interesting. I’m getting a sense of why Prince is such a darling with so many music nerds. This album, with its stripped down, minimalistic sound and insular world view, has all the earmarks of a great bedroom power pop album made by a guy who’s in love with both Earth, Wind & Fire and The Rolling Stones. Dirty Mind may be the Black Vinyl Shoes of post-funk. Do you know that weird, little gem of the Shoes first album, recorded on a 4-track in the brothers’ parents’ living room, or something to that effect? I’m not saying that Prince’s Dirty Mind sounds anything like Shoes, but he shares a similar, almost unhealthy dedication to some special world in which The Artist is both king and his court. Creepy, yet familiar to the Mother’s Basement side in so many of us.
Caution: Entrants inside my mind might experience some of the effects illustrated in the above video.
While listening to some early tracks by a favorite band on the ride into work this morning, a number of rhetorical – for me – questions popped into my head. Rather than use this experience as an opportunity for me to get on my soapbox and rant and rave over these thoughts, I thought I’d share the questions – perhaps not so rhetorical, in this case – with you and allow you the chance to get inside my head. I look forward to your answers.
What three types of music that I love (two bands and one entire genre) suck on CD?
Who is the worst lead guitarist, technically speaking, that’s ever been featured in a successful, major-label band? Continue reading »
You might recall the glee with which I posted a YouTube video of Pere Ubu performing “Birdies” live from the Urgh! A Music War film. Thanks to Townsman Berlyant for pointing out that tracks to Urgh! A Music War have been posted at Lost Turntable.
As suggested by 2000 Man and BigSteve, the latter who wrote:
“The other day 2k said: ‘Parvenu may be the least rock n roll word ever used in a supposed rock n roll song.’ I’ve been meaning to mention that this sounds like a ready-made thread.”
So it is written, so let it be done! In fact, this calls for a Battle Royale! Strap on your Rock Armor and proceed to the Comments section!
While I fight off a headache and crushing deadlines, consider the career of producer Ted Templeman. From Harpers Bizarre to Van Morrison to The Doobie Brothers to Captain Beefheart to Montrose to Carly Simon to Van Halen, somehow it all makes sense, don’t you think? I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t he the guy who produced the Wayne’s World soundtrack? Bingo!
Among Templeman’s many contributions to the Van Halen sound is this one, part of another day’s work on the Fair Warning track “Dirty Movies”:
Eddie couldn’t reach high enough up the fretboard, so he had Ted Templeman hold the guitar’s lower horn while he sawed it off with a hacksaw.
The thing I keep coming back to, however, is Ted’s obvious role in the Van Halen to Van Hagar transformation. It was almost as seamless a lead singer switch gets (maybe only second to the AC/DC handoff, caused by death), and I’ll be Ted was the pointperson for the hiring of his old Montrose buddy, Sammy Hagar. VH fans, has Ted ever gotten the credit he deserved for this? (How’s that classic Van Halen tour going, anyway? Is there a Townsperson with tickets for this historic tour?)
Driving into work this morning I heard a couple of tracks off the new Steve Earle album, Washington Square Serenade. The DJ, perhaps my least-favorite local radio personality, provided the backstory that Earle and his fellow musician wife (I could look up this woman’s name and stick it in here, but I’d just be spitting out information insincerely and without regard to what’s really on my mind) now live in New York City and that the album was produced by Dust Brother John King. The two songs she was about to play were songs in which Earle was “looking back” on his life. I’ve noticed, since peeking around this morning, that one of the promotional themes of this album is that it’s more personal, less political. I can’t tell you if the “p” in personal is supposed to be upper or lower case, but the first song the DJ played was called “Oxycontin Blues”. It started with an Appalachian acoustic guitar hoedown that seemed ready made for Rene Zellwegger‘s character in that film with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law to take a swig from a bottle of moonshine, hike up her skirts, and do a little jig. It was promising alright until Mr. Dust Brother pressed Play on the drum machine. From that point forward, the ominous canned beat made a mockery of the song’s Southern setting. The almighty beats, in this song, these blessed beats that critics will point to as a feature of this album, are the equivalent of that 3-note riff that signifies an “Asian” setting in bad ’60s movies and the cartoon Hong Kong Phooey. No wonder a Southerner still has trouble catching a break up north.
The next song was “Tennessee Blues”, a very pleasant look back at the Steve Earle of Guitar Town. Not a difficult song to like, but there’s this nagging feeling that Dust Brother John King put about a 10th of the effort into the song’s beats as did the guy who pressed Play on Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” all those years ago. Come on, man, it’s 2007. You’re telling me this simple Steve Earle song needs the whitewash of a drum machine in the background? Are people incapable of hearing a song without the gentle stroke, stroke, stroke of a drum machine beat? Christ, were electronics also involved in the making of this album?
Here’s another track from Washington Square Serenade, a cover of Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole”. One quick question: Is this necessary?
If you go to Steve Earle’s MySpace page, you can hear a couple more songs, “City of Immigrants” and “Satellite Radio”. Two more songs wiped clean of any potential personality by the producer’s beats. Two more examples of a country boy getting dazzled and duped by his first extended taste of The Big Apple. Go ahead, Steve, bite the Big Apple. Don’t mind the maggots!
