I keep getting distracted from the desire to wish Chuck Berry, one of rock’s few surviving founding fathers, a happy 86th birthday! I know you’re reading, Chuck, I won’t give away your RTH handle.
While Chuck browses today’s content, why don’t you tell him what your favorite Chuck Berry song is? I’ve always had a soft spot for “Almost Grown,” thanks to its appearance on the American Graffiti soundtrack and the change-up to his usual sound it presents.
As for songs Berry wrote but others covered, I’ll take The Rolling Stones’ version of “Around and Around.” The Master could be eclipsed with his own material now and then.
Ike and Tina Turner’s Ikettes raised the bar for groovy backing vocalists. They may indeed be the grooviest ever, but let’s consider whether any set of groovy backing vocalists has come close, especially, for purposes of this discussion, groovy hippie backing vocalists.
The sight of the half-dozen long-haired, bare-footed, overalls-wearing backing vocalists primed at the 26-second mark of the following Joe Cocker live take on “The Letter” must have been a great inspiration to 1960s-era choir kids gone to pot.
Based on my tastes in music and novels, you might say I’m a bit of an Anglophile. Sadly, as I near the half century mark, I’ve never been on English soil. Spending a few hours between flights at Heathrow doesn’t count. I need to get there someday.
For every 2 things I love about my father’s people’s contributions to rock ‘n roll, there’s something I find funny. Culturally, historically, and politically—on a level predating Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry—the English and continental Europeans have every right to shake their heads and tsk tsk at our naivete, but when it comes to rock ‘n roll, they’re the babes. For instance, I find the Brits’ love for American soul music both adorable and often highly appreciated. In our own country, specific periods of African American popular music are often left in the dust. You don’t see a whole lot of young African American musicians, for instance, forming Motown-style bands or Stax-style bands. (Yeah, I know it happens a little more frequently these days.) The beat goes on, baby. Gotta keep with the times. White rockers keep the flame burning for the Memphis sound, which their kin had a hand in from the beginning, but large swaths of urban soul styles are ignored by all but some music obsessives who hang around places like the Halls of Rock.
In England I get the idea that our discarded forms of soul music are constantly in high demand. For all the good intentions the island’s music lovers bring to the music—and for all the worthwhile acts of preservation and often-overdue props English artists provide—each generation puts a sparkling, fresh, cheeky take on the music. Often this comes in the form of a cherubic young woman whose booming voice sounds years more experienced and skin tones darker than could reasonably be expected. Despite the pain and suffering evident in the singer’s voice, her image is always of girl-in-the-flat-next-door variety. Adele,of course, is the latest and greatest of these soul stylists.
Most of these English pop-soul belters, male and female, adopt the Look and mien of the cast members of To Sir With Love. I hope Happiness Stan and other friends from across the pond have time to fill us in on the cultural significance that film plays over there. I bet it would explain something regarding the pep and vigor England’s soul singers bring to the genre.
Let’s take a few minutes to review the brief peak of Lisa Stansfield‘s career. I can’t say I know anything about her, and a brief read of her Wikipedia page wasn’t that interesting, but I first heard her music and saw her videos the year my wife and I lived in Hungary, the year when EuroMTV meant so much to me. When I stumbled across this video for “Never Never Gonna Give You Up,” in which the cat had already been dropped as the video begins, I was immediately brought back to a time when it was slightly exhilarating to know that anyone still dug the Barry White records of my teenage years.
Cheap Trick‘s “Surrender” is the greatest late-’70s pure power pop/new wave song ever. This from someone who also believes it’s possibly the “Secretariat’s 30-length Belmont Stakes victory” relative to any other song in any band’s career. This is a testament to the song’s strength as much as it is my lukewarm appreciation for anything else Cheap Trick has released.
Mr. Mod said this in the recent power pop song argument, which was funny to me, because I’d been thinking about examples of this in my own music appreciation and thought there might be a post in it. Consider this a new RTH Glossary term, which we’ll call One Song Awesome or the Cheap Trick Effect.
Examples, that is, of that one exception to the rule of personal taste. To be clear, I’m not talking about one-hit wonders: artists that really did only have one good or one successful song. I’m talking about substantial groups with a dedicated following who I really don’t like at all – except for one totally awesome track that kills. Everyone’s list would be different, of course. People might even have the same group on their lists, but not the same song (see Cheap Trick, “Surrender” vs. “I Want You to Want Me”).
Friend of the Hall Andy Shernoff speaks for many of us with his latest video, “Let’s Get the Band Back Together.” Consider this a Rock Town Hall near-exclusive!
Has anyone read the excerpts in Rolling Stone from Pete Townshend‘s forthcoming autobiography, Who Am I? Has anyone yet read the book itself? Man, based on the excerpts what a bore! If any rocker could put together a great autobiography I thought it would be Townshend, who’s let us into the deep corridors of his mind through both song and rambling interviews as well as anyone. At least based on the excerpts, however, he writes about his own life with less spark than the well-meaning but pedestrian Who biographer Dave Marsh. Again, based on excerpts alone, it’s as if he took a standard Who biography or Mojo feature and switched the personal pronouns. I expected something more lyrical. Maybe the full book will deliver.
Cheap Trick‘s “Surrender” is the greatest late-’70s pure power pop/new wave song ever. This from someone who also believes it’s possibly the “Secretariat’s 30-length Belmont Stakes victory” relative to any other song in any band’s career. This is a testament to the song’s strength as much as it is my lukewarm appreciation for anything else Cheap Trick has released. But that’s another story. There’s nothing I’d like least than to distract you with my thoughts on Cheap Trick.
I would guess we’re all pretty much in agreement that The Records‘ “Starry Eyes” is the second-best late-’70s pure power pop/new wave song that made a dent in the US charts. (An important distinction for purposes of this discussion that rules out some of our personal favorites, such as my favorite song of this genre ever, The dB’s’ “Big Brown Eyes.”) That point settled, the time is long overdue that we settle—once and for all—a related topic that’s long stumped deep thinkers in the world of rock:Continue reading »
