As any musician can tell you, it’s tough to build an audience of any size. Can you imagine how hard it must be to churn out million-selling albums and release singles that become radio staples for the next 40 years?
Now, imagine building that audience, selling all those albums, and garnering all that airplay with 8-minute songs involving complex time signatures and multiple “movements” while being sung by an elfin flower child with a high-pitched voice, spouting off fastastic tales of chess and outer space. (And this elfin prince of rock ‘n roll may be the best-looking guy in the bunch, despite the shocking results of a popular rock blog’s fan voting for Sexiest Man in Prog-Rock 40 years into the future.) Imagine taking these ingredients and producing actual songs with parts that could be sung, whistled, and hummed from top to bottom by an average 12-year-old kid.Continue reading »
With this Sunday’s demise of the British tabloid The News of the World, it got me to thinking about Joe Jackson‘s “ode” to that form of journalism, “Sunday Papers.”
This tune is from Jackson’s Look Sharp, one of my favorite albums and a strong contender from 1979. But thinking about my time here at The Hall, I can’t think of many, if any, mentions of Joe Jackson or his music. I mean, this is a guy who initially appeared to be part of that holy trinity of English angry young singer-songwriters (alongside Elvis Costello and Graham Parker) and whose choice of footwear influenced a subset of the hip and happening. He writes some pretty clever lyrics, plays keyboards and a mean harmonica, was an early adopter of the music video form, and has worked with Francis Ford Coppola.
I’m trying to ascertain RTH’s disinclination to embrace The Man. Could it be his hairline? That he has worn an earring? That he plays the piano rather than a guitar. That he has embraced multiple musical styles that don’t always sync with the tastes of the time? That he cooperated on a cover of a Pulp song with William Shatner?
That string of albums, including Look Sharp, I’m the Man, Beat Crazy, and Night and Day, are some of my favorites. Why aren’t they yours?
In this week’s special Saturday Night Shakedown edition Mr. Moderator meets and greets beach revelers at Urges in Atlantic City. Then Lou Reed drops in for a brief interview. It’s a summer shore night to remember!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-36.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 36]
[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.]
In honor of a First Lady who knew it took more than just saying No, say Yes to rockers who’ve sobered the hell up for what seems to be the long run. (Straight-edge rockers who weren’t addicts in the first place do not count.)
I’m not one to toot my own horn, but for the benefit of all of us who take part in making Rock Town Hall the joyous time-wasting, truth-telling music-discussion blog that it is, I feel it necessary to claim appropriate credit for our collective role in encouraging spirited, personal rock blogging and other online communications. I feel it necessary to make the claim, since no other media outlets are doing so, that Rock Town Hall Is the John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers of Rock Blogging.
As Townsman junkintheyard hinted at in response to a recent piece by E. Pluribus Gergely and RTH Labs on the profound weakness of any man wearing an earring, Jimi Hendrix may have been immune to not only the debillitating effects of the earring but a host of questionable rock fashion choices.
Think about it. Hendrix may be the only rocker to get a pass for wearing a headband. It’s debatable whether fringe was ever cool, but no one calls bullshit on Hendrix for wearing it. You wanna cut up on bare-chested rockers wearing vests? Leave Jimi out of it. The kimono? Kimono Jimi’s house! I have not yet located a photo, but I bet Hendrix in a pancho would settle all debates over the potential coolness of that item of clothing.
Rock dudes bedazzled in jewelry? Jimi made it work. Floppy hats posed no hazards for the man. I bet the inside of that bad boy had been soaked in acid!
A Stars and Stripes jumpsuit for anyone not named Evel? Not even Elvis could pull that one off.
Sure, Jimi was black, but not even black guys are assured of pulling off the dashiki.
In terms of avoiding fashion faux pas Jimi had the good fortune to die young, and to die before the 1970s got underway. Jimi had already eclipsed the new decade’s attempts at achieving a larger-than-life Rock God persona. Similarly, Sly Stone, Miles Davis, and then Funkadelic would spend the decade chasing the man’s Psychedelic Pimp Look. Might he have flirted with asexual space-age glam fashions? Probably, and he probably would have picked up some cool backing singers along the way. Would Jimi have surprised us and opted for the down-to-earth denim ensemble of a singer-songwriter? Would he eventually identify himself with the punks and new wavers who owed something to him? Eventually Jimi would have been confronted with the satin siren call of disco. Although trecherous, somehow I think he would have made it work.
As a Rock Dandy who likely would have stayed that path, Jimi would have strutted a treacherous path as the decade came to a close and led into the 1980s. The long-term prospects of a Rock Dandy are fraught with pitfalls. For instance, black or white there’s only so much that can be done with long hair on a dude before he looks like he should be excitedly checking underneath his seat in the audience for a taping of Oprah. Could Jimi have found a way around Miles’ eventual downfall?
