Rare footage was uncovered of Booker T & The MG‘s performing live in 1968 at Urges in Atlantic City. This is smokin’ hot stuff, too hot to place anywhere but after the jump…
Sep 032012
Sep 012012
The Holy Trinity of '60s Living Room Pop (left to right): Hal David, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick.
RIP Hal David. My Mom’s record collection turned me onto your work at a young age. Your lyrics combined with Burt Bacharach‘s music and Dionne Warwick‘s voice helped me navigate the adult waters stirring around me.
Here’s a good obit from The New York Times.
Sep 012012
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
On tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator mourns today’s death of lyricist Hal David, reflects on the instructional film Easy Rider, and calls for the arrest of Clint Eastwood. Should be a pleasant show.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-87.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 87][Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]
Sep 012012
As a high school teacher, I am privy to the latest adolescent viral video and music long before many of you. Rebecca Black’s “Friday”? Carly Rae Jepson? Been there, seen that, vomited, long ago.
So, I must warn you of the latest rage among the Driver’s Ed set, and test your ability to accentuate the positive.
Observe:
Sep 012012
David Johansen is a talent of limited means but huge brass balls. His huge brass balls have always been the driving force in a career that has straddled underground cred and occasionally somewhat anonymous public adoration. Mach schau!, David, and more power to you for delivering through the guises of drag queen, lounge lizard, and bloozologist.
Despite his limitations as a singer, I was always intrigued by the “real” David Johansen, the wannabe Jagger under all the make-up and nylon firing up songs in The New York Dolls, the guy who came out of the gates on his first solo album with the excellent single “Funky But Chic” and who had a minor hit with a live medley of Animals songs. That Johansen was a guy I could best identify with. He was still putting across his meat-and-potatoes rock ‘n roll with style and fun, certainly, but doing so in a straightforward manner, without the rock star bullshit that had gotten out of hand in the late-’70s. I was trying to find a way to do something like this with my friends and our little band. This possibly imagined Real Johansen was leading the way toward a rock scene in which I could fit.
Aug 312012
Shock me, Townspeople, with some buried secret from your rock ‘n roll past. Not small-potatoes stuff like the fact that you kind of like Supertramp or the time you and a friend once stole 70 record albums from a suburban mall record store. Not the time you were hanging with another friend who convinced you it was all right to break into his friend’s parents’ house while they were on vacation so you could listen to the Elvis Costello & the Attractions‘ Imperial Bedroom while getting high! No, I mean really shocking stuff, like the fact that you have simply got a soft spot for David Bowie‘s Let’s Dance.
It’s RTH Confessional time, my friends. Shock me.
Aug 312012
I paid very little attention to the 2012 GOP Convention. I plan on paying about as little attention to the Democrats’ upcoming pep rally as well. In the little bit I’ve watched, however, I have been attuned to the event’s musical references.
The first night I only watched my adopted homeboy, New Jersey’s Chris Christie. He made a reference to The Boss within his opening sentence or two. Mad props—and respect—to the new Big Man for citing Darkness on the Edge of Town rather than a popular choice like either of the Born… albums. Man of the People and would-be popular guy Christie sure as hell wasn’t going to cite some loner critical darling like Nebraska. Good opening move by the Republicans, if you ask me: +8 points.
Tonight I watched Clint Eastwood make threats against our President. I didn’t notice any music associated with his speech. The Clint of Play Misty for Me seemed long gone: -2 points.
Next I watched way too much of Mitt Romney‘s speech. Politics aside, that guy bores me. It’s as if John Kerry came back to life a Republican. During the 40 minutes of fluff and 4th-rate SNL jokes I heard Mitt made some reference to his iPod playlist being better than running mate Paul Ryan‘s. Something tells me a comparison of their playlists would not be a Clash of the Titans, nor even include a lame Clash song like “Should I Stay (or Should I Go).” The whole “playlist” thing gets on my nerves too: -7 points.
I did hear Michael Jackson‘s “Man in the Mirror” playing while Mitt took the stage. I kind of like that song when the chorus kicks in, the way I kind of like “Kokomo.” I felt good for Michael. In the afterlife he has achieved acceptance as a white person: +4 points.
A friend on Facebook said that Romney also played James Brown‘s “Living in America.” Supposedly Al Sharpton was pissed about that. I’ve always thought Sharpton was an opportunistic fraud, and I always thought “Living in America” was an opportunistic, fraudulant JB record, so much so that it’s not worth worrying over: 0 points.
What did I miss (musically)? Please rate the GOP Convention’s musical moments on a +/-10-point scale. We will hold the Democrats to the same degree of scrutiny.
