Do I blame this Florence + The Machine cover of Buddy Holly‘s “Not Fade Away” on Tom Waits and his percussion and production crew from the early 1980s? I think so, and it’s time musicians stop dicking around with junkyard percussion, already!
I didn’t know about this ad campaign until I noticed it this evening, while holiday shopping in Center City. For the record, it doesn’t bother me that Bryan Ferry is now in H&M ads with his son. It just seems odd to me; really, Bryan should not be appearing in ads for clothes that I can afford.
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
This week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In begins innocently enough with Mr. Moderator remembering a long-gone friend before taking a sudden, unplanned turn that your host, minutes after completing his broadcast, fears will turn off his frequent ally, misterioso. Let’s hope the healing powers of music come through to save this alliance.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-56.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 56][Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]
Our recent wake for Andrea True and her disco classic, “More, More, More,” exposed one of the finer things about the song: its use of the cowbell. This lowly instrument has been the butt of Saturday Night Live skits but over time has made a resounding impact on the rock world. I ask you, can we list all songs that feature a cowbell? And can we determine, once and for all, what was the first song to highlight its use?
I’ll start us off with Ian Drury‘s “Reasons To Be Cheerful”
A few months back I was trawling the net for something to take the edge off the pointy bits of life and stumbled, after nearly a quarter-century of looking, upon someone’s vinyl rip of Frank Sidebottom Salutes The Magic of Freddie Mercury and Queen and Also Kylie Minogue (You Know, Her off Neighbours). I tried to make the family listen to it while we were driving around Wales in the summer, the kids loved it, but Mrs H had views. This song was re-released as a single last Christmas, and reached number 66 in the UK charts. I am fairly confident that it will divide opinion in the Hall, indeed I would be keen to learn whether anyone present will join me in its defence.
Frank Sidebottom was the alter-ego of Chris Sievey, who started his musical career in The Freshies, and moved on to find precious little fame and even less fortune while trying to change the world by wearing an enormous papier mache head and singing his own compositions and idiosyncratic cover versions to the accompaniment of a rinky-tink Casio keyboard in a northern nasal whine.
His persona was that of a rather insular and naive teenager, trying to play music and record in his bedroom or shed while trying not to attract the attention of his Mum, with interruptions and occasional assistance from his ventriloquist puppet Little Frank, comprising a smaller papier mache head and a body cut out of a cardboard box, with neither of them able to move their mouths. Life mainly revolved around his home village of Timperley, and was either “fantastic” or “bobbins” (bobbins of cotton = rotten).
Thanks to Townsman cherguevarra for passing this baby along. Somebody must have had an ax to grind with The Boss.
Can you believe it, we’ve got a second Mystery Date in 1 week. What is it, rock mating season? Today’s date comes courtesy of a Townsperson in good standing.
Let’s review the ground rules here. The Mystery Date song is not necessarily something I believe to be good. So feel free to rip it or praise it. Rather the song is something of interest due to the artist, influences, time period… Your job is to decipher as much as you can about the artist without research. Who do you think it is? Or, Who do you think it sounds like? When do you think it was recorded? Etc…
If you know who it is, don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyone who knows it can play the “mockcarr option.” (And I’ve got a hunch at least one of you know this one.) This option is for those of you who just can’t hold your tongue and must let everyone know just how in-the-know you are by calling it. So if you know who it is and want everyone else to know that you know, email Mr. Moderator at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. If correct we will post how brilliant you are in the Comments section.
The real test of strength though is to guess as close as possible without knowing. Ready, steady, go!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Mystery-Date-120211.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 120211]
