When You’re a Little Strange

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Apr 112010
 

This past Friday night I got to see most of the new Tom DiCillo documentary on The Doors, When You’re Strange. I say “most” because the DVD being used to project this film in Philadelphia’s cool, hip outdoor Piazza at Schmidt‘s condo gathering space crapped out twice for long stretches. It was a pretty cold and windy night, and after the second run of technical difficulties, with just the fat, bearded period of Jim Morrison and The Doors’ life left to tell, my son and I felt like we’d had enough of a great night out, talking music and life and all that good stuff. We listened to – and talked about – Pink Floyd and Yes on the ride home. It was a beautiful time, man, and although I regret not seeing my favorite period of The Doors covered, we’d gotten more than our money’s worth.
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I Dig Your Wig: The Outsiders Collectively Sport the Worst Hair in Rock Prior to the 1980s

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Apr 092010
 

Despite the fact that I’ve loved The Outsiders‘ “Time Won’t Let Me” since I was a kid, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of the band before today, let alone a clip on YouTube of the band in action. I can’t say I ever sought one, but now I know why images of the band aren’t flooding the web and showing up unexpected when I’m searching for topics like cool bands from the 1960s.

Prior to the 1980s, when bad hair suddenly was in style, has any band collectively sported worse hairdos than The Outsiders? In rock ‘n roll terms, there’s something wrong about every hairdo in that band.

The lead singer’s ‘do is obviously the inspiration for sports journalist/inspirational memoirist Mitch Albom‘s mannequin’s feathered rug Look.

The guitarist who first appears at the 16-second mark has the least-objectionable hair in the band. His hair simply grants him the anonymity of whichever rhythm section member of The Undertones whose name you most frequently forget.

What the hell is the guitarist who first appears at the 22-second mark aiming for? This is what I’d imagine Ray Liotta‘s character in Hannibal would like like if you tried to stick a wig over his leveled-off head.

At the 28-second mark we’re introduced to my favorite failed hairdo in The Outsiders, that of the bassist. You can be assured that the day actor Michael J. Pollard decided he should never grow a pompadour was the day he saw The Outsiders on whatever show broadcast this performance.

The producer of this television performance knew what he or she was doing by making the audience wait until a minute into the song to show a close-up of the most puzzling of all the hairdos in The Outsiders. It’s bad enough that the drummer has the beefy, bemused visage of Buddy Hackett, but he tops it off with the broken-bowl haircut of Jerry Lewis’ Nutty Professor.

The Supreme Court of Rock will hear no arguments as to why the makers of this brilliant single were not better known for their efforts.

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Early Led Zep Recordings

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Apr 092010
 

MusicRadar.com reports that Led Zeppelin‘s earliest known live recordings have surfaced.

Follow the link for the whole article and some YouTube audio. It’s a terrible recording, but still of interest.

Led Zeppelin, in 1968, back when they were still being called “The New Yardbirds” by some…

Led Zeppelin’s earliest known live recordings have surfaced on YouTube for the first time. The three audio clips, recorded during the band’s maiden voyage to America, are taken from their fifth US show, which took place at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington on 30 December, 1968.

They were opening for groups like Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge and Country Joe And The Fish at the time, and Led Zeppelin, their eponymous debut album, was still weeks away from release when they embarked on a rather ambitious 34-show run that took them from Denver, Colorado to North Miami Beach, Florida.

US rock fans were familiar, to some degree, with Jimmy Page from his work with John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers and The Yardbirds, but it’s interesting – and downright quaint even – to hear Robert Plant announce the name of the brand-new band to the barely receptive audience. Read more…

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Songs You Play in Music Stores to Test Out Instruments (and, let’s face it, impress other customers)

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Apr 092010
 

Here’s a personal favorite from a few years back. I’d never heard this song before it was mentioned by a Townsman. The resulting video that I uncovered is astounding on at least 25 levels. Plus I’m still fascinated – and intimidated – by the practice of playing a flashy song on an instrument in a music store. I’m way too clumsy and way too self-conscious to ever pull this off. I don’t even know what I’d play if I could play anything substantial and flashy. As it is I’m most likely to play the riff to The Kinks’ “Gotta Get the First Plane Home.” That’s easy, and it’s a good test of the low strings, which I favor.

This post initially appeared 3/29/07.

Very simple set up: Yesterday General Slocum mentioned a Stanley Clarke tune called “School Days” and the theme from Barney Miller than any bassist of a certain age felt compelled to play when testing out a bass in a music store. He likened this to guitarists playing the intro to “Stairway to Heaven”. What songs to you play on your instrument of choice when giving an instrument a test run in a music store? What do you play in hopes of turning on the other customers?

And while you’re at it, please see if you can’t help me list 25 things that are so wrong they’re right in this video.

I look forward to your responses.

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Thrifty Music, Vol. 20.5: Relationship Advice From the Soul Generation

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Apr 082010
 

From left: Townsmen mockcarr, hrrundivbakshi, Rick Massimo, chickenfrank.

“Super Fine,” The Soul Generation

Greetings, seekers of the rare, the weird and the incredibly cheap! Here’s today’s installment of Thrifty Music for your thoughtful consideration — a dynamic chunk of funk from The Soul Generation entitled “Super Fine.” In it — over one of the slammin’est, most groove-a-licious tracks you’ll ever hear — this four-piece vocal combo (seen above in their flyest of superfly pimp finery) offers you some sound relationship advice, to wit:

If you love a girl
(If you love a girl)
And she’s super fine
(super fine, super fine)
BLOW HER MIND!
(Why don’t you blow it — hey, hey, hey… YEAAHHH! WOOOOO!)

The next line concerns the need to also be sure to “know her sign,” and so forth.

Look, like a lot of tunes from this era, the lyric is a bit silly, but the sheer enthusiasm of the vocal performance — and the way you can really feel the band sink their gold teeth into that mighty, mighty groove — well, it makes for a Great artefact of a bygone musical era, sez me. I just love this song.

But here’s my probing Thrifty Question: I think we’d all agree that if you love a girl, and she’s super fine, you really ought to blow her mind. But is there any other lyric that contains what you’d sincerely consider good relationship advice? I know we make a lot of fun of the loincloth-wearing misogyny of a lot of retardo-rock — but there must be some good bits of advice that rock has to offer, as well. Share your favorites.

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

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