For reasons I hope to make clear later this year, I’ve been thinking about songs featuring the phrase “all right.” The “And it was all right” coda in The Velvet Underground’s “Rock ‘n Roll” is one of the two “all right” songs that most often run through my mind. I’ll let you list my other favorite featured “all right” in a song and all the other instances that may follow in this sure-to-be comforting Last Man Standing!
The time is yours…
#1 With a...?
The old Yahoo Groups version of Rock Town Hall putters along with a weekly industry comment or two from our old friend Links Linkerson. His latest entry, which he actually typed (rather than cut and pasted from a Billboard.com ULR), is pretty interesting:
This week’s #1 album is by Cake. It sold only 44,000 records. An all-time new low for a #1 record. At least they self-released it, so they should actually make money of those sales.
Say "Cheese!"
It just occurred to me that we missed the opportunity to celebrate our 4th anniversary of Rock Town Hall in blog form. We launched this open-forum on January 12, 2007. Membership ranks and daily visitors have mushroomed since that time. Most importantly, I think a lot of folks have found this place a useful outlet for stuff not easily shared in the office and other “respectable circles.”
Of course the Hall stretches back a few years prior to that, as a private Yahoo Groups list. That was a blast, too, but it was time to push things forward. There’s been a lot of blogging over the last 4 years; tons of spirited, knowledgeable comments; new music friendships established; and only the rare, totally nasty and personal flame war that can make these places a drag. There’s not much to say that I don’t say on a daily basis. Congrats and thanks to all of you, new and old. We welcome your push into our 5th year.
Guilty of one too many ding-a-lings?
We know there is a solid history of nonsense syllables in popular music, from Mairseydotes and Ragmop to Ob-La-Di and De Doo Doo Doo. Some of this usage is intentional or wordplay, but some of it is basically lazy lyric writing by a composer, who can’t seem to find better words to replace the ones that were ad-libbed.
On this front, is there any greater offender than Phil Collins? I know that ABACAB is a reference to musical structure, but let’s dispense with that lame defense because ABACAB is not a word. What is a “Paperlate” and a “Sussudio?”
I recall an interview with Paddy MacAloon, the man behind Prefab Sprout. He relayed a conversation he had with Paul McCartney about the song, “The King Of Rock and Roll,” which has the chorus lyric: “Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque,” which is really intended to be a parody of mindless pop song lyrics. The irony was that this was Sprout’s big hit, thus McCartney told MacAloon that the song was his “My Ding-A-Ling” and that every songwriter gets to have one “My Ding-A-Ling.”
Thus, Phil Collins, in writing at least three nonsense songs, has vastly overshot his “My Ding-A-Ling” quota, which I believe is grounds for charging him with a Rock Crime, and surely he’s guilty of others. But the Cocteau Twins aside, is there anybody more guilty of lazy, nonsense, my-dingalinging than Phil Collins?
Ill timed.
I believe we did a thread once on the worst-timed departures, by reasons other than death, for musicians right before their newly former band broke big (eg, Pete Best‘s departure from The Beatles). The question in today’s poll regarding whether Chris Stamey deserves a Rock Wedgie (perhaps for leaving The dB’s when he did, perhaps for other acts, such as abuse of the 128-string guitar or his anal series of contributions to Tape-Op) as well as recent news reports of a new album by The Jayhawks with Mark Olson finally back in the fold got me thinking about the converse: the worst-timed departures of key band members in the eyes of the band members left behind.
For instance, how bad must the timing of Olson’s departure, hot on the heels of Tomorrow the Green Grass, have been for Gary Louris and the rest of that band? It must have been terrible, terrible timing, as far as they were concerned, at least in terms of them milking all the commercial and critical glory that was just beginning to flow into their collective challice!
What other key band member departures (not including those who left this mortal coil) suddenly left their mates high and dry?
The other day a Townsman recalled my long-held belief that Graham Parker & The Rumour could have done a killer version of Maxine Nightengale‘s “Right Back Where We Started From.” This is one of probably 2 dozen nerdy thoughts, suggestions, or questions for favorite artists that I’ve carried around since my teens. In my ridiculous world, the thinking is, Should I ever run into beloved Artist X, I’m going to have this one potentially interesting thing to say to him or her. I figure, wouldn’t it be cool if I could meet a favorite artist and actually have a sincere conversation starter lined up? Chances are I’d still come off as big a salivating fanboy as if I had nothing ready to say, like the time a friend introduced me to dB’s’ drummer Will Rigby, but a fanboy can dream.
Shortly after being reminded of my One potentially interesting thing to say to Graham Parker, I contacted Friend of the Hall—and friend and dedicated guitarist to Parker—Martin Belmont to make my suggestion. Graham and some other members of The Rumour played a small show at New York’s Lakeside Lounge last October to celebrate a documentary being made on the band. (Martin talked about this in his excellent Rock Town Hall interview!) In case they play together again, I figured my suggested cover might be taken into consideration.
I don’t think Martin will mind my sharing his reply: Continue reading »
I just stumbled across this 1980 clip of a song called “Better,” by a once-popular Phoenix, AZ band, Blue Shoes. Was this band 30 years ahead of its time? I propose hipsters The Fiery Furnaces cover this song and re-create this video shot for shot.
(You’re welcome.)
