The Townspeople have spoken. Queen guitarist Brian May is badly in need of a new hairdo. Highly trained staff from the Rock Town Hall Salon have begun planning the rocker’s new hairstyle. We’re confident it will freshen up his Look to lead the remaining Queen members’ continued efforts to commemorate their deceased frontman, Freddie Mercury.
Ladies, linger over this shot while it lasts. You’re about to be blown away!
Townsman chuckflack sent the following thoughts to The Back Office to pass along for us to ponder.
Patti Smith once said she wanted to come back to life as a guitar solo. Beautiful idea, though I of course want specifics: which particular solo, Patti? For me, I’d happily come back as Garth Hudson’s organ solo in “Apple Suckling Tree.” Or maybe Warren Zevon’s “Huh, draw blood,” exclamation in “Werewolves of London.” Or maybe Neil Young’s big sideburns. Or maybe Mississippi John Hurt’s fingers. You?
If you don’t know the drill by now, that’s no reason not to learn it quickly and take part in our occasional “gut check” on some of rock’s hardest-hitting-yet-rarely-asked questions! Don’t take too much time on the following questions, but answer candidly and in as much depth as you feel necessary. There are no wrong answers, but “right” answers have been known to crop up.
Has the disparity between craftsmanship and content ever been so great as that in Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody?” (That is, “What a waste of time that song is, but boy do I admire the work that went into it!”)
Has anyone in rock had a more elegant approach to baldness over the course of his career than Brian Eno?
Beside Jefferson Starship, what’s the most recent example of music you never cared for that you’ve now begun to appreciate?
Beside Queen, if applicable, is there an artist whose music you don’t like yet whose album productions you do like a lot?
If Sting characterizes the e-mail compliment of an NPR listener as “nourishing,” what does the guy shit?
I look forward to your responses.
This Last Man Standing competition may be wide open: we’re looking for songs with lyrics that spell out one or more words in the song’s title. The reason we’re limiting this to words within the title is to create at least some difficulty for this challenge. Three songs immediately come to mind for me, led by the following and its amusing video clip:
Yesterday, while flipping stations in my car, I was faced with an extremely challenging Morton’s Fork; that is, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. All of the stations I had programmed in were on commercial break except for our local Oldies station and our local Classic Rock station. The Oldies station was playing Billy Joel‘s “Still Rock and Roll to Me”; the Classic Rock station was playing Boston‘s “Rock and Roll Band.” I really felt like listening to something on the radio with a beat. That’s right, the local AAA station, which is commercial free, was playing some acoustic thumbsucker with a whiny voice: “N/A.”
Usually, when faced with any Joel vs Boston choice I’d go with the well-crafted but not smug Boston selection, unless it was Joel’s “Uptown Girl” on the radio, the one Joel song I kind of like. I’d never considered that any other Joel song could have a chance when stacked up against any mediocre Boston song until this match up. Continue reading »
As we’ve contemplated Rock Town Hall’s MVJRP, some of you may have recalled our examination of the series of legendary Japanase tv ads starring Charles Bronson for the deodorant/talcum powder/sex aid Mandom. Well, at least that’s where my mind wandered. An extensive YouTube search for further Mandom ads turned up this most-shocking find, a hit song (in Japan) centered around the concept of Mandom. Check it out…after the jump!
Continue reading »
Well, the World Series is over, and I send out my condolences to all you Philly Phans in the Hall. Speaking for myself, I felt like the Series was a mediocre one; I dunno, it just sort of sat there.
One bright spot for me was the selection of Hideki Matsui as World Series MVP. I like sports that actually have a global reach — sports where when the winning team says “we’re world champions,” the world actually cares. So I was happy when a Japanese dude kicked major, Mr. October-caliber ass and was able to hoist the MVP trophy up high. And I can only imagine how totally ape-shit crazy the sports media in Japan must be going right now.
This got me thinking: rock and roll is certainly an international game. I think we’d all agree that the World Series of Rock trophy basically gets passed back and forth between England and the United States year after year — but there have been valuable contributions from other nations.
But I don’t want to start a “United Nations of Rock” thread here. I want to focus on something a bit more specific. In honor of Hideki Matsui’s achievement, I want to know: Who’s the Most Valuable Japanese Rock Player?
Note: Native-born Americans (or English dudes) with Japanese features or surnames don’t count — sorry, James “William B. Williams” Iha!
Just tell me the answer is *not* Tetsu Yamauchi!
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
