Rock Town Hall • Rock Music Discussion

The Wilson Choice

Sep 082010

As any heterosexual guy who grew up in the 1970s can tell you, maybe the toughest fantasy sex choice that could be made was whether, if given the choice between Heart‘s Wilson sisters, you would sleep with Ann or Nancy. Which one of Charlie’s Angels you’d sleep with was another challenging question, but with a trio to choose from (not including the Fourth Angel, Cheryl Ladd) most guys could at least feel like they were making some progress toward a resolution by eliminating one.

Some of you may remember how the conversation started in schoolyards, lunch rooms, and ballfields across America:

Q: Ann or Nancy Wilson?

A: [Pause]

Sometime in the mid-1980s Townsman chickenfrank finally determined the appropriate answer to this delicate question, an answer we’ll term the Wilson Choice: Continue reading »

Rock’s Best Blonde Guitarists

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 082010

Great guitarist, natural blonde.

Blondes may have more fun, but brunettes play more guitar solos. Beside Duane Allman and Johnny Winter how many blonde guitar greats come to mind?

Let’s not confuse this thread with a future thread on rock’s hottest blonde guitarists. And let’s rule out rock’s obvious bottle blonde guitarists. Some guitarists’ natural hair color may be open to debate. Clearly Billy Zoom bleached his hair, but is it possible his natural hair color was a shade of blonde? Does his bleached collar more or less match his cuffs?

Most likely I’m overlooking a dozen obvious blonde guitar greats, but 10 minutes of research and reflection tell me I’m onto something.

RTH Labs Investigates: Rick Buckler’s Crash Cymbal

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Sep 072010

DOWNLOAD LINK: Rick Buckler Crash Cymbal Quotient Analysis, edited source material

I pass along a note I received today from RTH Labs’ Senior Music Engineer, Milo T. Frobisher:

MEMORANDUM

FROM: Milo T. Frobisher, Senior Music Engineer, RTH Labs
TO: Townsman Hrrundivbakshi, Senior RTH Labs Liaison
RE: Rick Buckler’ Crash Cymbal Quotient/Numerical Crash Analysis, “Away From the Numbers”

Townsman Hrrundivbakshi, I send this quick note to summarize our recent research findings in re: Rick Buckler’s Crash Cymbal Quotient (CCQ), as found in “Away From the Numbers,” by the Jam.

Our methodology was simple, though far from easy: over the full four minutes (exactly) of this song, our junior engineers counted the exact number of times Rick Buckler deployed his crash cymbal for rhythmic emphasis. Please note that we did not undertake the low-frequency extraction from his snare as you requested, nor a pattern analysis of his tom fills to determine their similarity to, or substantive difference from, those of KISS’ Peter Criss, aka “Cat Man.”

I should warn you that by listening to the edited source material above, in which we replaced each instance of Buckler hitting his crash cymbal with a spoken word marker, you run a significant risk of never being able to listen to this song in the same fashion again. I should specifically point out that my nephew, James Frobisher — an intern in RTH Labs — needed to physically remove himself from the Laboratory premises after being asked to do the CCQ analysis in the instrumental break in the middle of this song, so profound was its effect on his young mind. You have been warned.

The results of our investigation are startling. Over the course of this four-minute song, Rick Buckler hits the crash cymbal — importantly, he seems to hit the same cymbal every time — a total of 137 times. By our base-60 calculations, that amounts to, roughly, one cymbal crash every 1.8 seconds. We leave it to you and your more contextual thinkers in the Hall to determine the subjective value of this datum.

Thank you for your time in this matter. I look forward to working with you further in the future.

MTF

This Is Your Rock Town Hall

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 072010

Significant developments are underway in The Back Office! Soon we expet to roll out some new features that will make your rock bull-session time with us even more satisfying, if you can imagine that. Meanwhile, some of us are busier with behind-the-scenes work than usual. As we continue our efforts to bring Rock Town Hall to The People, we invite Townspeople to share the load. Check it out:
Continue reading »

Dogs of Rock

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 072010

Prove it all night!

In a recent thread Townsman bostonhistorian referred to Bruce Springsteen as the “Golden Retriever of rock…Eager to please, tireless, good looking, and dumb as a post.” This is a keen observation. We may learn more about our rock legends by seeing them through the lens of the canine world. What breed of dog would you assign to the following artists, and why?

Bob Dylan
Paul McCartney
John Lennon
Patti Smith
Robert Smith
Bono
Paul Weller
Rick Buckler
Billy Gibbons
Prince
Jeff Lynne
Seger

Any other rockers as breeds of dog come to mind?

Consult the Orockle: Cool or Uncool?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 062010

The wisdom of The Hall continues to amaze me. For as many knowledgeable individuals who dazzle with their rock knowledge, it is the collective wisdom of our participants that I find most dazzling.

It is in this spirit that I want to allow for further amazement—not only for the people but by the people. I was going to try to turn this into my own original post, maybe even do a few minutes of research on the Web, but then I thought better of it. Instead, I’d like to pose a question to the collective wisdom of The Orockle.

The question I’d like to pose – and one that I hope will inspire other questions we’d like to have asked when we had more time to find the answers ourselves – will follow a little bit of background. Read on, please. Continue reading »

All-Star Jam

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 052010

Here’s where you tell us where it’s at. Do your own thing. What have we missed on this final holiday weekend of the summer?

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