Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: Standing the Test of Time (or Not)

 Posted by
Mar 102012
 

Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator addresses the one album in his collection that has aged worse than any other album he’s ever purchased. Hearing the 2 prime cuts from the album bums him out. Later, he makes things better and takes us all out with an entire album side from The Pretty Things‘ Parachute. Other stuff happens before and in-between. Enjoy.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-70.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 70]

[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.]

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The hardest working singer in showbiz is…

 Posted by
Mar 092012
 

Film study.

Excuse me if this thread has been talked over ad nauseam.

I was driving back from a meeting the other day when “Sympathy for the Devil” came on the radio. Now, I dig this song for a number of reasons, mostly the guitar solo (number 2 in my book) and the general direction of the “evil Stones” lyrics.

But what struck me on this listen was how hard Mick was working that song vocally. Here’s the band just churning away, nothing too special, but Mick is literally putting the whole band on his back to bring out all that song has to offer.

Which got me thinking…is Mick the best lead singer in rock? He certainly doesn’t have the best voice. Here’s my hypothesis. Since the Stones play a lot of blues-saturated music, they often don’t stand out too musically and melodically as say…Zeppelin. So Mick has to work twice as hard. And he does on almost every Stones song I can think of.

Ok, now stay with me. I’m no means a Stones fanatic, and I’m sure the Hall will school me here. But the Stones play great stripped down, sloppy rock. Same drum beats, same bass lines, and we’ve already talked about whether they even need a second guitar. (Yes, I’m generalizing.)

So what makes most Stones songs what they are owes 90% to Mick, no? Which got me thinking of other lead singers. Surely the Who and Zepp had more in their arsenal than just their lead singers. And even lead singers I love — Costello — had back-up musicians which more than filled the holes and brought on smiles in their own right.

So, who worked harder than Mick? Discuss.

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Stumbling In: The Best Artist You Just Happened to Catch in Concert

 Posted by
Mar 092012
 

Here’s a topic I picked up from Facebook friend yesterday: Who’s the best artist (solo or band) you just happened to catch in concert? I’m talking about an artist you knew nothing about but simply stumbled into seeing as an opener, as a chance encounter on a night out with friends, or whatever?

My answer is The Embarrassment, a band I’d never heard of but saw as the first of 3 bands on a Public Image Ltd show in Chicago in 1981 or 1982. The Embarrassment were these nerdy guys with Oxford shirts, sweaters, and horn-rimmed glasses who put on a short set of incredibly high-energy, guitar-driven, fun (and funny) pop songs. They blew away the next band on the bill, The Effigies, and gave PiL (with John Lydon and Keith Levene playing half the set offstage, in the wings) a run for their money. In the early days of Nerd Rock, The Embarrassment delivered Nerd Rock at its finest!

A few years later I’d see Big Dipper for the first time and realize that the familiar-looking high-octane guitarist/singer from that band was Bill Goffrier, from The Embarrassment!

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I Sure as Hell Don’t Call Him “Luke”

 Posted by
Mar 092012
 

Seriously, is there something about being a “musician’s musician” that makes one seem more likely to come off like an asshole—not everyone in this clip, mind you—or is it the fact that they’re the ones most likely to be asked to appear in these videos that gives us the opportunity to see them that way? In other words, if we were filmed playing “No Fun” or “Gloria” or whatever “cool,” rudimentary song we knew how to play on guitar would we tend to come off looking just as self-absorbed?

Or am I simply an asshole for thinking this way at all?

Is there’s anything to what I’ve been thinking when I watch this clip, is there an instrument on which players with “chops” are least likely to look silly playing in such a video? Do piano players, for instance, come off any better when captured showing off their chops?

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This Is Your Rock Town Hall

 Posted by
Mar 082012
 

Clip courtesy of a should-be Townsman.

This is your Rock Town Hall!

If you’ve already got Back Office privileges and can initiate threads, by all means use your privileges! If you’d like to acquire such privileges, let us know. If you’ve got a comment that needs to be made, what are you waiting for? If you’re just dropping in and find yourself feeling the need to scat, don’t hesitate to register and post your thoughts. The world of intelligent rock discussion benefits from your participation. If nothing else, your own Mr. Moderator gets a day off from himself. It’s a good thing for you as well as me!

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Shrink Me!

 Posted by
Mar 072012
 

Fellow Townspeople, I come before you again with an aching pain deep in my soul, and I fear I am in desperate need of rock counseling. My problem is a simple one: for the last 24 hours, I have not been able to get Boston‘s “Don’t Look Back” out of my head. My question is why?

I have no serious regrets about lost youthful opportunities, I don’t “see myself in a brand new way” except in a normal, healthy, grown-up fashion. I don’t envy Sib Hashian his astonishing, rock hair category-winning giant Afro. So why? Why is this song stuck in my head?

Clearly, I need your help, people. And so I say, with more earnest longing than I might otherwise mean:

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

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