I would think most of you will have some thoughts on this matter, or at least give credence to the notion that heavy metal ran out of gas at some point. I stumbled across this entire Black Sabbath concert from 1970. I find it especially interesting in how simple and direct the band’s performance is. They’re just, like, dudes…with good equipment.
As interesting as this concert is, I propose that the gauge on heavy metal first neared “E” sometime during this gig.
In a recent discussion of the band Alabama Shakes, whose recent appearance on Austin City Limits surprisingly impressed Townsman Al and yours truly, Townsman Hrrundivbakshi asked a wholly appropriate question:
Seriously, why do us old white folks require “second coming of…” acts to really give us rock boners?
It’s a good question. These days, do I only pop a boner for the “second coming” of Farrah Fawcett and whatever other actresses turned me on when I was a teenage boy? Of course not! My dick, to keep this discussion regrettably crude, has adapted to the joys of new, good-looking actresses with their own contemporary style. What is the deal? Does new music lack tits and ass, or whatever turned us onto music in the first place?
I have no answers, at this point. Let’s discuss HVB’s question.
Edie Brickell, eat your heart out! It’s gonna take a lotta love to get us through this crappy day. Bring it on.
Give it away.
I didn’t know until today that Judy Collins first covered Bob Dylan‘s then-unreleased song “I’ll Keep it With Mine” in 1965. I’ve never heard her version, but whoever got the song on the road to the version that I first learned through Fairport Convention‘s chilling take had both ears and vision.
Fairport Convention, I’ll Keep It With Mine
Next, sometime in sophomore year in college, I heard the Nico version, clearly guided by the sensibilities of her producer John Cale. I believe this preceded Fairport’s version, so Mad props! to Nico.
Finally, a few years later, I heard Dylan’s demo. Like a few other Dylan demos that were turned into great covers (eg, “Quinn the Eskimo,” by Manfred Mann; “One Too Many Mornings,” by the Beau Brummels), I was stunned anyone could hear anything of great worth in the song. It’s OK, but his performance indicates little focus or drama. Can you imagine hearing this acetate and wanting to run with it the way Fairport Convention and Nico did? Check it out… Continue reading »
A recent little review of a singles compilation, in The New Yorker, got me going about another of the bands I champion.
One of the inescapable qualities about A.R.Kane is that they were black, and they were not making the music you’d expect from them, given their image.
Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)
Back in A.R.Kane’s heyday, when The Jesus and Mary Chain were squalling with feedback and Cocteau Twins were building cavernous hypnogogic spaces, the reticent, difficult, and yes, arcane members of this duo cited only Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew as influences. It was a reference that, at the time, had me scratching my head and straining to make connections, but enjoying that pursuit nonetheless. Such assertions opened up a different area of exploration for “black rock” in a portion of the spectrum whose only representation came from the band Living Colour.
A.R.Kane’s moment in the sun came as part of a collaboration with fellow 4ad recording artists Colourbox, a one-off called M.A.R.R.S. that spawned the club hit “Pump Up the Volume.” That scratchedelic dance fest sampled Eric B & Rakim, among a thousand other things, and bore very little of the studio contributions of A.R.Kane. The bulk of their sound exists in its own world, an immensely vast and yet microcosmic interior. I hear the acoustics of Pink Floyd and dub at the same time. It’s an opulent and menacing space filled with equal parts distortion and subtlety, familiar and yet very alien.
ACTUAL S.W.A.T. ACTOR CHIMES IN WITH HIS MEMORIES OF THIS HISTORIC SHOOT! CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY BEHIND THE AMAZING OPENING SEQUENCE OF THIS LEGENDARY SHOW!
The television show S.W.A.T. debuted in 1975 and lasted just 2 years. Somewhere near the show’s brief run the school that Townsman andyr and I attended celebrated its 275th anniversary. To commemorate this occasion a reproduction of the school’s original one-room log cabin school was constructed. The windows were either smashed out immediately or the little log cabin never had glass windows installed. I remember the window frames being wide open—and not that high off the ground.
The windows were set low enough so that a group of 6th grade boys were capable of jumping through the windows and rolling into the building (a la Rod Perry at the 48-second mark of the show’s opening) while they hummed the theme from S.W.A.T. For a solid 3 weeks this recess activity took precedence over all other recess activities: football, soccer, kickball, “smear the queer”… Then the adults caught wind of our rough-and-tumble tuck-and-roll play. They thought it was dangerous—and disrespectful to this monument to our school’s humble Quaker roots.
For the next week teachers chased us from the log cabin on a regular basis, but we persisted. Then one night some local high school kids, maybe our own school’s kids, partied in the log cabin and set fire to it. There were empty cases of beer and ashes. There would be no more games of S.W.A.T. for recess. We resumed our slow-motion highlights reel reenactments to the theme of Monday Night Football.
View Director’s Cut…after the jump! Continue reading »
This is a longshot, but has anyone in the Halls of Rock ever appeared on a dance show along the lines of American Bandstand? As someone who rarely dances in any situation, I find it really odd to imagine what it much be like dancing to lip-syncing musicians. What does it sound like in the studio? Can you hear the musicians banging their unamplified instruments? How can you focus on dancing with the nonsense in progress onstage?
I’ve been watching a number of old Who videos lately and also wondering if the Who was the first band that went over the top in providing “exciting” lip-synced performances. Have any of our musicians ever lip-synced for a live audience? How weird was that?
