I’ve never been a fan of The Jam‘s “Eton Rifles” (or any of Paul Weller’s soccer-chant songs, for that matter), but its middle eighth, which first appears at about the 1:24 mark of this clip, is—for me—the song’s saving grace. This song would be a constant needle-lifter on my favorite Jam album, Setting Sons, if not for that part. I like it that much.
Is there a song you would never listen to again if not for one worthwhile moment?
Sorry Townsfolk. My cat disappeared last week. My debit card was canceled last week as well. Coincidence? My cat is back and according to his calculations the winners of the Rush DVD are:
If there are challenges, let them be heard here. If not, the winners need to email thebackoffice[at]rocktownhall.com with their mailing addresses and we’ll send your shit out when we get around to it.
Greetings, fellow Townspeople!
As many of you know, I’ve been out of the country for the last few weeks, enjoying my, uh, well — my honeymoon!
Yes, I finally found a woman foolish enough to hitch her wagon to my sputtering star, and a happier man I could not be. She’s great, and I thank you in advance for all your kind thoughts and congratulations.
Anyhow: the missus and I actually spent our honeymoon in old blighty, traveling through the United Kingdom, from the Southwest to the far north — and in the course of the journey, I couldn’t help but get a few Olde Englande-related tunes running through my head. Your job is to READ MY MIND, and tell me what you think was on my mental soundtrack during our journey.
Here are the places and things we visited where a specific song got stuck in my head. Can you guess what songs they were?
I warn you: some of these are less obvious than you might think. In fact, I was kind of surprised by the un-obviousness of my mental soundtrack as we made our way through the country.
Lastly, however, a real stumper: in Glasgow, we visited a great museum which, in the interest of keeping this challenging, I won’t name. Upon exiting, I looked across the green and saw the following building. Out came the camera, in a photographic move of exceptional rock nerdiness. Can you identify this building, and tell us why I felt it was worth capturing on film?
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
The great Glasgow rock pictographic mystery!
After a long, rainy Thursday in the Philadelphia area, I’ve got nothing to say that you want to hear this Friday morning. Instead, I’ll let some tunes do the talking. Enjoy.
Popul Vuh, “Morning Sun”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/06-Morning-Sun.mp3|titles=Popul Vuh, “Morning Sun”]Don Everly, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/01-Tumbling-Tumbleweeds.mp3|titles=Don Everly, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”]Slapp Happy & Henry Cow, “Strayed”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/09-Strayed.mp3|titles=Slapp Happy & Henry Cow, “Strayed”]Fairport Convention, “Sloth”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/03-Sloth.mp3|titles=Fairport Convention, “Sloth” (live)]Roy Roberts, “You Ain’t Miss It”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/11-You-Aint-Miss-It.mp3|titles=Roy Roberts, “You Ain’t Miss It”]Burning Spear, “Black Wa-Da-Da”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/13-Black-Wa-Da-Da.mp3|titles=Burning Spear, “Black Wa-Da-Da”]Alton Ellis, “Breaking Up”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/01-Breaking-Up.mp3|titles=Alton Ellis, “Breaking Up”]Originally published January 30, 2007. (I’ve since acquired an iPod but stand behind these views.)
A lot of my friends ask me why I have held out on the iPod revolution. “Hey, Mr. Mod,” I hear almost weekly, “why are you still holding out on the iPod revolution?”
They tell me I can carry 85,000 songs with me wherever I go. They tell me I can hit Shuffle and not hear the same song twice for the next 3 years. They tell me the iTunes store has almost everything. They tell me I can just delete the songs I’d have to skip on vinyl or a CD. They tell me about the weird and wonderful combinations of songs that just happen to pop up in random order, say Funkadelic’s “Can You Get to That” followed by Glen Campbell’s “Galveston” followed by something from that Outkast soundtrack album, which really wasn’t that bad.
Truth be told, whenever I hear about one of these fantastic random sequence experiences a friend had, I don’t know what to say. It’s an I had to be there moment. I had to be in my friend’s head. My friend’s bopping along in his or her little iShuffle, headphones helping to mainline the grooves, and there’s little room for me in the equation. I can’t dislodge an earbud from my friend’s ear and share in the iGroove, can I?
It used to be, when faced with the faraway eyes of an iProselyte, I’d go on some rant about how I didn’t want to be beholden to the Apple Empire, dammit! That never quite cut it. I don’t know if it was my delivery or what. Then I tried blaming the earbuds, but someone was bound to point out other headphone alternatives that were much more comfortable, that had better sound quality, that blocked out all surrounding noises. “If there’s one thing I can’t stand,” they might say, “it’s hearing the damn pilot tell me we’re now flying over Lake Michigan when I’ve got some Mothers cranking.”
I regret the years I tried to convince people of the reasons for my not wanting an iPod based on some socially or technologically relevant grounds. These days I’m up front about it:
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I think you can top the pre-teen dance moves by this girl appearing alongside James Brown in this performance of “Hell.” How I used to love listening to this album when I was about 10 years old, hanging out in my uncle’s bedroom and digging his 8-track tapes! I couldn’t dance as well as this girl back then, as now, but I bet some kid other than Michael Jackson and his siblings and “special, little friends” have topped her work. Which kid dancer in will come out on top?
Last night my 13-year-old son asked my wife and I if The Grateful Dead were any good. I quickly answered, “They’ve got some good songs, but generally they were really sloppy with lots of pointless improvisations and bad singing. We’ve got some friends who like them a lot.”
“I know you love ‘Bertha’!” said my wife, and that I do.
My wife, who’d been to 10 Dead and Dead-related shows in her college days, couldn’t give them a much better explanation. She objected, however, to my later characterization of them playing no more than 30 minutes of coherent music during a 3-hour set. “‘Drums and Space’ only took up 45 minutes of a set!”
“But what about songs like ‘St. Stephen,'” I replied, “which start out on fire for 20 seconds before veering off into a few minutes of Jerry’s mellow improvisations before returning to the main theme?”
“So they’re like Pink Floyd?” my son interjected, referring specifically to a short film of the Syd-led band playing “Interstellar Overdrive” at some famous Happening that was shown prior to the screening of that recent Doors’ documentary.
Obviously I’m not going to be of great help in setting up the Dead for a fair listen by my boy. I’ll play our son the half dozen songs I like a lot by The Dead as well as some of those long jams and terrible cover songs, but help me put into words what this musically attuned 13-year-old boy might expect. And please, don’t attempt to corrupt the kid. Thank you.
