After a marathon REM CD-A-Thon last weekend (aka many hours working in the garden w/my iPod boom box) The song “I Believe” from Lifes Rich Pageant jumped to the front of the pack. (I never considered this song one of their best or one of my favorites until now.)
I especially like the line “I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract”
and later … “I believe my throat hurts”
So my Last Man Standing Challenge is: Songs with “I Believe” in the title or a line in the song.
Townsman chuckflack, seemingly inspired by our recent anatomy-themed Last Man Standing, asked that we consider the following:
Bruce Springsteen, upon inducting Bob Dylan to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said, “Bob freed the mind the way Elvis freed the body.” A pretty succinct summation. Given the premise, how do you fill out the best of rock’s body?
When guarding a man in basketball, they always tell you to watch the guy’s stomach: it’s not going anywhere the man isn’t. So, starting with the gut, the center of gravity, obviously the latter-day Elvis is the one. And of course, early Elvis is the pelvis. From my anatomical perspective, Dylan’s the brain, The Beatles the heart, The Stones the balls, Jimi Hendrix the cock, Madonna the pussy, and Ray Charles the soul.
Argue, or continue filling out the body parts. Spleen? Feet? Jowls? Larynx?
We here in the Halls of Rock Town are sometimes taken to task for being overly negative, snarky, hyper-critical, and all too often, just downright rude. As part of our collective efforts to bring a bit of sunshine and light to the world wide web, we occasionally make an extra effort effort to find something *good* to say about, you know, stuff that is clearly godawful.
It is in that spirit that we embark on yet another effort to bring some positivity to our proceedings. Please spend some quality time with the video above, then — if you can — please find something *nice* to say about it. You’ll feel a whole lot better, I promise you.
I look forward to your comments. Just remember, if you can’t say anything nice about this video… please don’t say anything at all.
HVB
“This quartet has never been so tight.”
Critics often point to The Clash singing “No Elvis, Beatles, or The Rolling Stones” in “1977” as some spot-on representation of the mood that fueled punk rock, but I think this 1977 promotional clip for the Pablo Cruise song “Whatcha Gonna Do” says a lot more about the times and the need for the already-ongoing punk rock reaction. What do you think, is there a more accurate representation of the nation’s mood, in rock terms, circa 1977?
A number of our Founding Townspeople migrated to this Rock Town Hall blog from our humble, spirited origins as a Yahoo Groups list. Although it’s no longer well trafficked, the old list is still active. I refer to it as “The Basement,” out of respect for our Rupert Pupkin-like origins, while a disgruntled handful of RTH founders call the old list the “Chess” edition to our current “Mercury” edition and still refuse to join us in the brilliant light of day. Regardless of all that nonsense, a few Townspeople still feel comfortable drifting from one spot to the other, dropping notes of upcoming releases and wiseacre responses, when appropriate. I check in there now and then to see what raw power still ferments. The other day I found the following nascent thread, which I think needs to see the light of day. First the initial post:
1. Re: Springsteen to perform more albums in entirety
“[name removed]” wrote:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091104/music_nm/us_springsteen_1
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Bruce Springsteen is dusting off his catalog once again, as he and the E Street Band have announced two more full-album performances this coming weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York.
On Saturday (November 7), the group will play the Boss’ 1973 album “The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle” in its entirety for the first time; on Sunday (November 8) they’ll tackle the 1980 double record “The River” from beginning to end for the first time.
And the follow-up, posted shortly thereafter:
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You may recall my unexpected gift of 50 bonus downloads from eMusic a couple of weeks ago. I was 9 selections into my bonus downloads when I realized that I couldn’t figure out what to download next.
I’m constantly unimpressed with the indie rock selections eMusic suggests that I try, like all those bands with album covers featuring a folk-art painting of a sparrow perched on a branch. Man, that thumb-sucking, hushed-tones crap really needs to be banished to the same eternal $1 bins alongside discarded copies of Asylum Choir II.
Thanks for your suggestions. A couple of Townsmen suggested I add to my scant Sun Ra collection. Geo, I believe, recommended “Disco 3000,” a long, swirling track that he thought would satisfy my late-blooming enjoyment of Krautrock. I downloaded it, and it’s pretty good, but it started to lose me when it got into a ’60s jazz trick that really turns me off: the “A Love Supreme”-style jazz chant! Some of the more concise tracks suggested by Geo and BigSteve, however, are very cool. Here’s a cool Sun Ra track from Jazz In Silhouette. It reminds me of the fully arranged yet loose qualities I like in the music of Charles Mingus.
More goodies…after the jump!
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You’ll recall our recent poll concerning rockers in need of a new hairdo. Your choice of Queen guitarist Brian May was inspired. According to Rock Town Hall Salon’s stylist Toby Wetland, “Brian’s facial structure and skull shape present so many options. It’s a wonder he didn’t change hairstyles every few months!” In fact, Wetland and his staff envisioned so many options that they used a specially develop RTH Labs computer modeling program to determine the best option. Before we tell you what exciting new Look was decided upon, how about you tell us which option you would have chosen?
Digital modeling by RTH Labs and The Back Office.
