Some of you may remember me telling this story before, but I’ve never had the chance to tell it as I plan to do now. You may want to click on the following song as you begin reading this tale. It’s a pretty number that sets the initial tone of Psychic TV’s 1983 release, Dreams Less Sweet. Go ahead, check out “The Orchids”. It’s really pretty.
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While doing my annual re-evaluation of The Small Faces’ Odgen’s Nut Gone Flake album this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about how much mileage and forgiveness the album has probably garnered among rock fans thanks to the cool, die-cut cover sleeve in which it originally appeared. I’d show you a picture of it, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, but any 2-dimensional, digital image I can find doesn’t do it justice: the sleeve was die-cut to a circle, perfectly containing the album itself with no extra space around it. Very cool, and the motivation for saving up the spare pennies from my bookstore clerk years to buy an expensive used copy in the mid-80s!
Surely, I ran home that night, dusted off what seeds and stems I could gather, scraped out some resin from my bong, and braced myself for what would be one of those psych-rock fanboy moments a young music geek chases until he’s reached the end of the rainbow and has paid good money for one too many Idle Race albums, eventually hitting rock bottom with a desparate grab at the collected works of SRC.
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Before a term makes it to the Rock Town Hall Glossary, it must first be identified and understood. This morning, while driving into work, listening intently to the music of The Small Faces, the term Proctomusicology popped into my head. It seemed like it meant something. Did this word apply to activities that go on here at Rock Town Hall, around the turntables of our Townsmen and Townswomen, in the grooves of the records we spin?
A hard day’s night later and Proctomusicology is still knocking around my head. For the next 24 hours, I ask for your help in defining this term as well as the related Proctomusicologist and, possibly, a subgenre of rock ‘n roll that could be characterized as Prock.
What is this field of study? Who is conducting these studies? By what means is research conducted? What artists might be considered exemplars of Prock music?
I look forward to your help in constructing this working definition.
This week our good friends at Pitchfork do, for us, the work of presenting Lou Reed…As His Music Was Meant to Sound. Enjoy!
MySpace…as it was meant to be experienced!
I’ve grudgingly come to the belief that headbands, although very cool in concept, were among the major fashion flops of all-time. For a brief time in the early ’70s, they were promising. Lakers’ center Wilt Chamberlain was at the vanguard of the headband movement. With his long sideburns, his Van Dyke, and that muscular 7-foot, 2-inch frame barely covered in a gold and purple uniform, the flexible, terrycloth headband was the coup de grace of the man’s Look. Of course, the headband also had a practical use, keeping sweat out of basketball players’ eyes.
Dating back to the late-60s, rock ‘n roll culture also began flirting with the headband. Hippies, as the cutting-edge of that era’s youth culture were then called, tied colorful scarves around their head, for a sort of Native American/pirate Look. Jimi Hendrix was rock’ best-known early proponent of the headband. These headbands also served a practical function: keeping the user’s long, unkempt hair out of the way when lighting joints and in Hendrix’s case, according to rock lore, serving as a delivery device for massive doses of LSD that would enter the pores of his sweaty forehead!
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When debate over the alleged ham-fistedness of John Bonham came up the other day, it became clear to me which drummer I would first place on the examining table in a new feature I’d like to call Is There a Drummer in the House? I know we’ve got a couple of drummers checking in regularly, and I know we’ve got a number of self-appointed drum consultants on hand. As much as I value the role of the drummer, I don’t know enough about the instrument to articulate what it is I value without the aid of shooting dirty looks at a drummer and speaking in vague impressionistic terms that few drummers can understand. I’m counting on you to help me articulate what sometimes confuses me in the role and execution of drummers.
Bev Bevan, drummer for The Move and ELO. If you’ve already gotten the impression that Mr. Moderator loves The Move, you’d be right. I also grew up liking the hits of ELO as much as any Beatles-loving, lonely, love-starved teen in the ’70s, although I’m not one to spend much time filling in the paperwork toward a Critical Upgrade of their output.
In both the music of The Move and, as I listen to them with more discerning ears, ELO, I’m frequently perplexed by Bevan’s drumming chops and choices. The guy could bash like a mofo, and his bashing added an element of excitement to the records, but I can never tell exactly where the line is between heavy rock chops and poorly executed, overplayed choices.
Following are three examples of the Bev Bevan style, each of which are from late-period Move albums, that period when Jeff Lynne had joined the band and they’d fully embraced The Power and Glory of Rock, so these factors probably play a part in the resulting arrangements. Nevertheless, see if you can help me out.
The first example is “Chinatown”, a Roy Wood song not out of character with his whimsical pop numbers from the years before he’d fully committed to The Power & Glory of Rock. I love this song, but from the opening fill through the end of the song, Bev Bevan seems like he’s not paying attention to the song’s core vibe. He’s bashing away and laying into the kick drum like he’s in a street fight. Do I love this song, in part, because of or despite Bevan’s drumming?
Next, the original version of “Do Ya”. I’m not sure which version I like better, this one or ELO’s hit, but on both versions, Bevan seems a bit sluggish. It’s almost just right – or is it? Could the song have been even better with a slightly more sympathetic, nimble drummer (eg, the heavy yet not ham-fisted Bonham)?
Finally, a song on which Bevan’s drumming sounds wholly appropriate: “Feels So Good”. This, by the way, is a prime example of The Power & Glory of Rock. See if you agree that it best suits Bevan’s style. Then tell me if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Then tell me what you think of this FACT: Continue reading »
Contributed by Townswoman Carly.
Perusing through the Rock Town Hall Glossary, and coming across the amusing and very apt definition and description for practitioners of Holstering, I was reminded of live shows that I’ve seen, or rather musicians that I’ve witnessed, on the fantastic Road to Rock Recovery during a show.
Instances of Great Rock Recovery that I’ve personally witnessed include the stellar Plimsouls performance at The North Star Bar in Philly in 2006, where in great rock n’ roll fashion, during the song “Million Miles Away”, Peter Case strummed his guitar so hard that the strap on his guitar came unfastened and he had to hold it to his thigh throughout the rest of the song until he could get the strap onto his guitar again – he was rocking that hard – forget the strap! Play that song! Had this happened in Valley Girl too before they got the right cut?
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