How Come We Don’t Talk Much About Ronnie Lane?

 Posted by
May 262008
 

Actually, I mostly wanted to work the title of the following Ronnie Lane and Slim Chance song “How Come” into the title of this post, but how come we don’t talk much about Ronnie Lane? I’m game.

Lane’s first couple of post-Faces albums have some very strong moments of “small rock,” especially Anymore for Anymore, and his lead turns work with both Small and regular-sized Faces was always a treat. The album he did with Pete Townshend, Rough Mix, has its moments as well. Had multiple sclerosis not sapped his energy and cut his career and then life short, he seemed to have what it would have taken to age like one of those fine wines Hrrundivbakshi, described the other day.

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Rock’s Most Valuable Drum Parts

 Posted by
May 242008
 


There are different schools of thought about the awarding of a Most Valuable Player in any sport. Some think the MVP should go to the “best” player. Some think it should only be awarded to a player who led his or her team to the playoffs. Some believe there are cases where the MVP can come from a team that didn’t make the postseason, provided that the player accounted for an inordinately large percentage of the team’s relative success. I’m going to apply this last line of thinking to what I consider Rock’s Most Valuable Drum Part (MVDP) of its time, Steve Gadd‘s distinctive, highly technical march rhythm that is the key to the success of Paul Simon‘s catchy but otherwise slight “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”.

It’s hard to break down how much the success of that song depends on Gadd’s part, but I’m willing to say that it accounts for 70% of the song’s success. The “make a new plan Stan” lyrical device accounts for most of the rest of the appeal of the song, say 25%, with Simon’s delivery and the bass guitar accounting for the remaining 5%. That’s a lot of weight supported by a drum beat!

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Like a Fine Wine… Or Like a Wedge of Smelly Cheese?

 Posted by
May 232008
 

Fine Wine

Smelly Cheese

Recent plans and offlist discussions with fellow Townspeople have once again brought the issue of “aging well” to my mind. Being the Schau-obsessed person that I am, when I decided to dabble my 43-year-old toes in the world of live performance again, I officially hung up my rockin’ shoes and joined a ska band instead, being quite certain that the sight of me rockin’ out on stage would likely be a Very Embarassing Thing indeed.

Fine Wine

Smelly Cheese

Other Townsmen have told me that while they have no self-consciousness about doing the rock and roll thing at age (cough), they get irked when their musical efforts are automatically lumped into the category of the weekend rock and roll party warrior/Georgia Satellites and George Thorogood cover band member — as in, “oh, you play in a band? So does my husband — him and his friends played at our beach house a couple of summers ago; it was *great*!”

Fine Wine

Smelly Cheese

But some folks manage to pull the aging thing off with great aplomb, avoiding the need to slather on the Rock Of Olay, or chickening out to join a ska band, fer chrissakes. My question to our current musician townspeople is, how do you stay looking so young? What’s your secret? To those who have no stake in that game: what do *you* think makes certain rockers age like a bottle of fine wine, while others merely putrefy?

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

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Key Message

 Posted by
May 222008
 


The exercise I’m about to propose may assume that you agree with my premise, that the accumulated wisdom expressed in the songs of some long-running, beloved artists boils down to one Key Message. Of course, as I roll out this idea, you are most welcome to disagree with my premise or any of the particular examples that I pose. First let me make sure you understand what I’m getting at.
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Clinic Do It! Again

 Posted by
May 212008
 

An appealing sense of revenge and antisocial impulses run through the music of Clinic, the surgical masked quartet from Liverpool that’s been making pretty much the same passively sinister album since their first long-player in 1999. On Do It! the band does it again, and why not? Every psychological horror movie is worth a sequel or four. Do fans of The Omen series bother complaining that the third installment was not as good as the first one? I think not. Such films work within a narrow frame and provide a balance of tingles and giggles. As children of children of the damned, Clinic work their mystic garage magic within the pentangle.

“Do It”

“The Witch (Made to Measure)”

Do It! introduces the Satanic skiffle of “Tomorrow”, which sounds like Donovan fronting Psychic TV. Singer Ade Blackburn‘s acidic tone recalls Malcolm McDowell‘s Alex character from A Clockwork Orange. Alex and his droog buddies would have gotten off on new Clinic songs like “High Coin” and “The Witch (Made to Measure)”, the latter with it rumbling beat, spring-reverbed guitar riff, droning melodies, muted cries from the attic supplied by organ and backing vocals. If you’ve got a chip on your shoulder but are not the type to outright kick some ass in the traditional rockin’ dude sense, Clinic’s music provides a soundtrack for your stunted idea of “acting out.” Trust me.


For all my rock snob life I’ve been hearing how great The Fall is. I’ve never bought it. “Shopping Bag” is how The Fall would sound if they lived up to the conventional wisdom of record store geeks. I listen to Do It! and wonder how much misery deceased Joy Division producer Martin Hannett might have had with this band. What’s cool about Clinic, however, is how they manage to keep things light and garagey on the surface while cooking up whatever strange brew they’ve got under the lid. Where Echo and the Bunnymen would have hammered and yelped a song like “Winged Wheel” into submission, Clinic’s measured approach is a sly grin that threatens to wreak more psychic havoc than anything The Cutter might inflict.

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