The first few times I heard “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band as a kid I thought it was really cool. It seemed to come on the radio no more than 3 times a year. It was An Event, loaded with the hippie credibility I got turned onto as a young boy. A few years later, well before some Hair Metal band covered it in the 1980s, the song had worn out its welcome. It was emblamatic of the embarrassing sides of hippiedom. I severely regretted ever liking it.
You may consider the type of song I’m looking for in this thread the opposite of a guilty pleasure. What’s a once-pleasurable song that you now feel ashamed for ever having liked—and leave your favorite Sesame Street songs out of it, OK? We’re talking rock ‘n roll.
It’s funny how you can be very happily married to somebody and still have significant behavioral differences that ought to drive you ape-shit crazy.
My wife, for example, is perfectly happy to sit and stare out the car window for hours at a time — whereas I require a fairly steady stream of conversational blather to stay happy (and awake). In order to bridge the gap between our preferences, and give us something to talk about, I frequently insist that we play a stupid game as I drive. Many of these, you probably know: “20 Questions,” “Ghost,” a non-Rock version of perennial RTH favorite “Last Man Standing.” But I am the proud inventor of another, lesser known, particularly idiotic game, somewhat awkwardly entitled “Guess What Song I Have In My Head for 20 Dollars.” It’s this game that I bring to RTH today, under the slightly cooler brand “Read My Mind.”
Here’s how the game works when my wife and I are on hour 6 of a 9-hour drive:
HVB: Hey, Catherine, guess what song I have in my head!
C: Sigh. Do I have to?
HVB: Come on, guess. I’ll give you 20 dollars if you guess without a clue!
C: How on Earth am I supposed to know what song you have in your head?!
HVB: That’s why it’s worth 20 bucks! If you don’t get it on the first guess, I give you a clue, and the prize money gets cut in half. You guess again. If you guess right, you get 10 dollars. You guess wrong, you get another clue, and the prize money gets cut in half, to five dollars. And so on.
C: Groan. Seriously?
HVB: Come onnnnnn… I gotta keep my eyes open. Come on, guess!
C: Okay, “Love to Love You Baby.”
HVB: (affecting best Alex Trebek impersonation, much to Catherine’s irritation) Oh, no, I’m soh-ryyyyy. For 10 dollars… this song was popular in the 1970s.
C: Uh… “Torn Between Two Lovers.”
HVB: Good guess, but NO. For five bucks: this song was an unexpected foray into disco music by a major rock artist.
C: Hmm… Oh, “Some Girls” by the Rolling Stones!
HVB: (barely concealing scorn) I think you mean “Miss You,” but (cheering up) wrong again! For $2.50 — this band starred in their own TV movie.
C: Oh, come on! How am I supposed to know? I don’t obsess over that stuff like you do!
HVB: Guess, come on!
C: I don’t know, the Partridge Family.
HVB: Now you’re not even trying.
C: Honey, I don’t know!
HVB: You give up?
C: (rolling her eyes) Yes, I give up.
HVB: (gleefully) It’s “I Was Made for Loving You” by KISS!
C: That’s nice dear.
Now, in fairness to my ever-tolerant wife, she frequently sticks it out until the very end of the game, when the “prize” goes down to 12 and a half cents or something, and the clues get ridiculously easy. I reckon you guys will be a bit more eager, and a lot more rock trivia-savvy. But the prize remains the same! I promise to mail you however much money you win by being the first to guess the song inside my head. Each clue will halve the prize money — so be smart with your guesses. One guess per Townsman, per clue round.
Are you ready? For 20 dollars — and no clue, in this first round — can you guess what song is inside my head?
Ever wondered what it really sounded like to hear Lou Reed‘s music the way it was meant to be sound? Now you can. Reed and audio manufacturer Klipsch have collaborated on the limited-edition Klipsch Signature Audio Edition Lou Reed X10i headphones, available next month. These headphones will enable listeners to hear Lou’s music as it was meant to sound, as only he can hear it!
With an unwavering passion for live music and a legacy of iconoclastic sound that’s influenced rock musicians around the globe, The Velvet Underground star knew Klipsch was the only brand that aligned with his vision and expectations for a headphone he would be proud to call his own.
The timing of the release of these limited-edition, “Louphones” coincides with the release of Lulu, Reed’s long-awaited, inevitable collaboration with Metallica, the band Reed was meant to collaborate with. “If you’re not listening to Lulu on my cans,” says Reed, “you might as well skip this album altogether and wait for my next one, which should really capture the way my music was meant to sound.”
Reporting on this story was provided by bostonhistorian.
Yesterday came word of the passing of Mark “Moogy” Klingman, one of the most prolific but “undersung” figures in our rock universe. I had heard the name “Moogy” Klingman pop up here and there, usually in the Todd Rundgren-Utopia camp. A follow-up with the usual suspects Wikipedia and All Music yielded quite a storied history. I was completely surprised of his wide-ranging accomplishments as a producer, songwriter, and musician. His getting expelled from high school after a jug-band performance with Andy Kaufman during a controversial civil rights concert is a story needed to be explored in more detail. He managed to cross paths over the years with all sorts, from Dylan and Hendrix to Midler and Manilow. His contributions to side 4 of Todd’s Something/Anything are invaluable (most notably the organ on Hello It’s Me). RIP.
I invite members of the Hall, more familiar with his work, to share their thoughts on the man.
I had never heard of Jackie Leven, who died of cancer today at 61, let alone heard a lick of his music until a few years ago, when KingEd turned me onto Control, an obscure 1975 album he released under the name John St. Field. KingEd and I listened to it all the way through, leaning forward and grinning at all the right licks. The next day I downloaded the whole thing off eMusic. I can’t speak for Ed, but I never downloaded another song by the guy. That one album was surprise enough, straddling very English hippy-dippy folk and pub rock. It’s nice to find some oddball album and simply enjoy its oddball pleasures.
I tried to contact Leven a couple of years ago for a chat with the Hall, but I never heard back from him. That was cool. Who was I, a guy who never bought more than a single record by an artist he’d never heard before, wanting to drag him into our scene? Like so many who have and who will die, he led an interesting life with unexpected twists and turns. There’s still music to be explored, rock knowledge to be explored. For instance, I didn’t know until reading his obit that he did a duet on “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” with my man David Thomas. I also learned, by reading his obit, that we shared the same birthday. See how this stuff can all make a little sense? I’m glad I happened across Jackie Leven and that one album’s worth of songs.
I was flipping channels last night when I saw that there was going to be some Neil Young tribute on Palladia. This seemedl ike a godsend of television programming for your Philadelphia-born, sports-starved Moderator. I’d just watched the final 10 minutes of a Flyers’ hockey game (8 more minutes of hockey than I usually watch in one sitting), and the prospect of watching the Flyboys’ postgame show until I could get to the local sports-news coverage of the Jonathan Papelbon press conference was not enticing. Watching Neil Young and friends celebrate his long, interesting career was a much better option…or so I figured…
I don’t know why, but recently it occurred to me that Brian Eno may give off the most pleasant odor of all rock ‘n rollers. Although early photos of him find him in poses worthy of Channel and other great perfumiers, I doubt early Eno smelled anywhere near as fresh as I imagine modern-day Eno to smell. By some accounts I’ve read young Eno was living on the edge. Despite a likely liberal use of artificial fragrances that would rival those of the protagonist of Huysmans‘ Against Nature, he probably reeked of smoke and groupies’ sweat.
It’s the early ’80s Eno, the ambient Eno, the Talking Heads‘ producer Eno, who I imagine developing advanced bathing techniques, extracting herbal oils, and even modifying his diet to ensure an around-the-clock, seasonal blend of pleasing, understated aromas. A morning ritual of, say, a rosewater bath, a dab of rosemary oil behind each earlobe, and a light brunch of fennel and braised squid before heading off to a day’s recording with U2 may have added as much to the magic of the band’s sessions for The Unforgettable Fire as Eno’s Oblique Strategies deck of cards. Eno probably kept a pot of chamomile tea steeping at all times to help drown out the more, uh, pungent odor of engineer/coproducer Daniel Lanois.
I bet Chris Martin of Coldplay appreciates the ambient scents that Eno brings to a session. A dank, musty studio is no place for Gwyneth and the kids to drop in. The girls love it when Eno smells like a chai latte.
So, I’ve made my case for Brian Eno as the Rocker Most Likely to Give Off a Pleasant Odor. Can you think of any other rocker who may smell even more delightful?
