My lifelong fascination with Oliver Reed‘s appearance in the Ken Russell film Tommy gets this heaping helping of food for thought. Enjoy!
Jul 162013
Jul 152013
Check this out, E. Pluribus Gergely: An absolutely killer Magma performance from 1981, which I know you’ll agree is a highly underappreciated period in the band’s brilliant career.
Jul 152013
So on one of the classic rock stations the other day they were playing a three-some from the Allman Bros. I like them in a respectable sort of way. But the first song they played was the instrumental “Jessica,” which is a cool song, a definite showcase for the players — and probably the one instrumental song I don’t mind and was happy to listen to all the way through.
Typically I view instrumentals as just filler that bands throw in because they’re just too lazy to write lyrics, or it’s a song the bassist brought in that no one else wants to touch. They’re mostly just “jams” that go nowhere. Which is why I do like “Jessica” — it moves but feels structured like a real song, with different solos coming in at just the right time to keep me from getting bored.
I know the Stones and certainly Zeppelin are really guilty of this but they do these instrumentals in the name of “da blooz” right?
Any instrumentals (from non-jam bands mind you) that can top “Jessica”? I’m all ears.
Jul 152013
Today’s All-Star Jam is a clear shout-out to birthday boy Townsman Hrrundivbakshi. Feel free to shower him with your favorite video performances from his Holy Trinity of Rock (ie, ELO, Prince, and ZZ Top). My gift follows the jump…
Jul 122013
Please note: they were also Rockin’.
Greetings, seekers of good, cheap music! I come before you with a couple of songs gathered from local thrift stores that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Both are good examples of the kind of music I pick up just because the title appeals to me. And who could pass up the opportunity to give a spin to a tune called “Don’t Fool With Fu Manchu”? Here it is, as performed by Boston garage crossover artistes The Rockin’ Ramrods.
I swear, I have the best luck when I buy stuff just because the title sounds interesting. Money isn’t the only — not even the main — reason I do this, but a year or so ago I found a busted-down single in a thrift store. It was on the Dixie label (never heard of it), and it featured “Hangover Blues” on one side, and “Satan’s Wife” on the other. I had to buy it, despite the fact that it looked like it had been run over by a lawnmower. Turned out the damn thing was worth hundreds of dollars (well, maybe not in the beat-up condition my copy was in) — and with good reason; “Satan’s Wife” is a great song. Here’s Jesse Floyd performing the number for you. Please join me in imagining that Jesse and his gang of drunken hillbillies recorded this huddled around a Sears & Roebuck tape deck in the lantern-lit living room of a Tennessee mountain shack; the Internet tells me that the Dixie label was an offshoot of a larger concern that devoted itself to small-run vanity pressings for country folk who had home-grown tapes they wanted the world to hear.
As always, I look forward to your responses.
HVB
Jul 122013
Remember when the M in MTV stood for “music?” (How’s that for a rhetorical old fart question?) I was never the biggest fan of MTV, even at its birth or any subsequent high-water marks, but you could stumble across something unexpected late at night—involving musical instruments rather than kitchen utensils or whatever gets called into play during the station’s numerous reality skankfests.
Jul 102013
The device is not used that often, but I usually enjoy a song that begins with a fade-in. It adds a “cinematic” aspect to a song, as if I turned a corner and entered a cool party scene in progress, or in the case of what may be my favorite fade-in song, a Very Personal Moment of Reflection.
Fleetwood Mac‘s “Over My Head” is probably my favorite song by that band and perhaps my favorite song that begins with a fade-in. See if you can stir my memory regarding other songs that begin with a fade-in. What musical fade-in scene most excites you?
