Rock Town Hall • Rock Music Discussion

The Worst of the Best

Nov 212011

I’m pretty sure we’ve discussed “Worst Beatles Song” before. Who hasn’t? I’m curious to know your selections for Worst of the Best of 3 of your favorite artists (beside The Beatles), that is, THE SINGLE WORST SONG from the “classic” era of 3 of your favorite artists. A few important limitations/guidelines follow.

To keep the mission ahead productive and informative, focus on the worst possible songs from the prime years of your artists.
To ensure that the outcomes of this survey are even more significant and telling, you must rule out songs from an artists’ prime-era universally acknowledged turd. That means no songs from Elvis Costello & The Attractions‘ Goodbye Cruel World, released toward (but not at) the tail end of their great run of albums. (If Townsman 2000 Man is wondering, songs from The Rolling Stones‘ Their Satanic Majesties Request are similarly ineligible, although tracks from Black and Blue are eligible.)
Mostly to ensure that the Stones’ 10-minute live filler track “Goin’ Home” is ruled ineligible for consideration as Worst Stones Song, all LIVE tracks are ineligible.
Songs written and/or sung by drummers or other third-line contributors are NOT eligible. For instance, the Worst of the Best by my beloved Clash cannot include “Ivan Meets GI Joe” (written, I believe, by Topper) or any of Paul Simonon’s croaked contributions.
For purposes of discussion, we will agree that The Kinks‘ prime era ends with Muswell Hillbillies.
For purposes of reality checking, Townspeople will reserve the right to call bullshit on another Townsperson’s belief that, say, The Beach Boys‘ Sunflower or Neil Young‘s Landing On Water qualifies as a “prime-era” release. Townsman Hrrundivbakshi, for instance, is expected to draw a reasonable line at the end of ZZ Top‘s prime era.
Backwards tracks, reprises, and other clear “F-U!” cuts (eg, The Clash’s “Mensforth Hill,” The Beatles’ “Revolution #9,” The Stooges’ “LA Blues”) are not eligible.
Hidden tracks on early CDs are not eligible.

I may be forgetting other limitations I had in mind, but I will reserve the right to make them up as we go along.

See Me, Hear Me

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 212011

"You had me at Dick Clark as Hitler."

Once a year I try to listen to my lone Devo album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! I want to love it. I begin to chuckle over it before I even drop the needle. Once I do, however, musically there’s not enough there for me to care about, no matter how much I try. I inevitably skip ahead to get my requisite laughs out of the song “Jocko Homo” before logging onto YouTube to marvel at their videos. Devo videos are amazing!

As an impressionable college freshman I got into The Residents. I bought Third Reich ‘n Roll and Meet the Residents as soon as I saw the album covers, without ever hearing a note of the band’s music. (Actually, come to think of it, I stole both records before ever hearing a note of the band’s music, but that’s a long story I might have shared once and I will probably share once more in the future…) The Residents’ album covers and concepts are amazing! I dig their “classic” albums enough to actually feel compelled to rank their musical output and cite “turning points” in their development, but without the record covers and overriding concepts, what would be the point of ever listening to The Residents? Without the medium of the 12-inch vinyl album cover could The Residents have ever existed? I don’t think so. What 18-year-old kid is going to log into the iTunes Store to sample and download a Residents album?

I’ve never liked KISS, but I’ve got to give them credit for their visual appeal. Sans makeup and pyrotechnics would KISS have been anything more than a “1-hit wonder” like Brownsville Station?

What artists are you attracted to primarily for their visual appeal, even long after you’ve bought and dug their records?

Previously: Music That’s Better With the Sound Turned Off: Devo…

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: Thankful Thoughts Turn to a Mild Attack on Buddy Miles

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 192011

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

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In a thankful Mr. Moderator plays a varied mix of old, not quite as old, and even fairly new, reflecting along the way on electronics and Jimi Hendrix, who would have had a birthday later this month.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-54.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 54]

[Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]

Last Man Standing: Happy Hour

Posted by cdm

Nov 182011

"not eligible"

Ahhh Friday… As we run down the clock to Happy Hour, I would like to hear suggestions for songs which mention specific brands of beer, wine, and liquor.

A few rules:
Once the song is used, it is off the table. So, for George Thorogood’s “I Drink Alone” you can pick Budweiser or Jim Beam but not both.
I’m looking for brands, not types of cocktails, so answers like the Harvey Wallbanger and the Pousse Café do not count.

As always, one entry per post.

And let me suggest that this would be a golden opportunity for lurker to emerge from the shadows and claim the championship belt, if only fleetingly.

I begin with the only Humble Pie song that I really like: “30 Days in the Hole” – New Castle Brown.

Josh Groban’s Representatives Ask Mr. Moderator, “What’s Your Beef With Our Client?”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 182011

Representatives for Josh Groban contacted Rock Town Hall’s Back Office last night to complain about the unfair treatment they felt their client received in a recent post we ran on a performance by Groban from a tribute concert to Neil Young. In part, their note read:

Why Josh’s heartfelt tribute to one of his musical heroes, Neil Young, a close personal friend of the artist, we might add, with whom Groban has performed at the artist’s fundraiser for The Bridge school, was posted for your community’s mockery is beyond us. And what does Josh Groban have to do with Jim Nabors, who surely was or maybe still is a great man? What’s the Moderator’s beef with our client?

Fair enough. Let me explain. One evening in the mid-1980s, while my bandmates and I were grabbing a bite between soundcheck and showtime a black guy stopped me on the street and asked the following question—and I only specify the man’s race in hopes that the hurtful thing he had to say was a matter of a possible “All white people look alike” mentality:

RTH Labs Uncovers Possibly the Most Disturbing Footage of White Youths Rocking to an Uninspired Cover of “Electric Avenue” Ever!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 182011

So much troubles me about this clip: the anachronistically grainy, washed-out look of it and the in-your-face camera angles for starters. The band must have been terrified to have some kid jamming his Hipstamatic video phone device in their faces. And what’s with that Deadhead backdrop? Does this thing take place in a club, a frat, a shrine to Jerry? No one in the crowd seems capable of generating any real energy, even after the main singer announces around the 3:30 mark that he wants to see more energy. Yet the crowd keeps dancing (badly), singing along (out of key), raising their plastic beer cups to the camera. The whole thing makes me nauseous, yet I can’t turn away from it. See if you can make it through. RTH Labs believes this may be the whitest crowd ever captured on video. I don’t think this is what Eric Burdon had in mind…

Dude, You Have Got to Join Rock Town Hall!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 182011

Sometimes it’s fun to go back into the RTH archives, back a few years to a date almost to the day. Today is just such a day, but before I got back as far as “November 18, 2008” I stumbled across this self-congratulatory post. See if you can’t appreciate its continuing relevance. Better yet, why not forward this to a friend in need, a friend who should take advantage of the Halls of Rock as an outlet for his, uh, interests. Rock Town Hall’s recruitment for 2012 begins now!

This post originally appeared November 22, 2008.

This is why we must must uphold our high standards of rock ‘n roll discourse at Rock Town Hall. I thank you, Townspeople.

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