Townsman dbuskirk sent me the following clip, which I believe addresses some of the simmering concerns that have arisen from the open forum in tribute to The Minutemen. Mad props to db, Alan Watts, and the South Park creators for identifying this common RTH dynamic.
Isn’t I know what you’re thinking: No, it’s not Watts the guy whose voice is was used on Fripp’s The League of Gentlemen album? but J.G. Bennett.
As if often the case, I’m a few years behind in my rock-doc watching. I just watched The Minutemen documentary, We Jam Econo. As Laugh-In’s Artie Johnson character would have said, Verrrrrrry innnnnteresssting.
For about 25 years I’ve been interested in and respectful of the music and ways of The Minutemen. There may be a half dozen songs by them that I actually like on a visceral level, probably a little less, but I’m not complaining. Tonight I tried real hard to like their music more than I have, but no dice. Their vocals rarely did anything for me other than on the songs in which they talk-sang, and the linear nature of their songs, as always, brought to mind some of the same things I’ve always found unsatisfying in early Wire. That’s cool, though, and it was cool that Colin Newman spoke of his band’s influence on The Minutemen in this doc. Very interesting.
Along with who they were, which always seemed VERY COOL, there were things about the music of The Minutemen that should give me a toehold in eventually liking their music, perhaps that day will yet come. I’m attracted to their physicality, for instance. D. Boon‘s burst of guitar soloing was always cool. George Hurley’s lock of hair was amazing, for another example. They talked a great game about Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Common Man. All cool stuff.
But the point of me sharing isn’t so much about me expressing my unsatisfied interest but, instead, hearing from YOU on what the band meant/means to you. I know some of you saw them. Did that physicality – in person – make up for the lack of vocal hooks? Did the physicality justify all the chopped up, short songs? Did the scene itself play a big part in what you were seeing/hearing?
Do Townspeople under 35 dig The Minutemen? What do they mean to you, Younger Townsperson? Would I get them more readily had they been British and from an artier background? What the hell is my problem?
I’m sure there are answers to questions I’ve not even answered. This rock doc was very well done. Watt’s total lack of eye contact didn’t bother me one bit. Modern-day Hurley was amazing! What an embodiment of a drummer!
I trust you know what I’m getting at here. Are you up for some free-form chatting over the legacy of The Minutemen? And while we’re at it, how are those fIREHOSE records holding up? I remember kind of liking the music musical vocals but being put off by the REM-isms that Ed guy brought to Watt and Hurley.
Very interesting. I want to feel more.
Townsman Trolleyvox suggested the following Main Stage point of discussion: Rock Zen Koans. I’m digging the thought; you might too.
First up, Bryan Adams:
It cuts like a knife
But it feels so right
The conundrum: How can it cut like a knife, yet feel so right? The girl breaks up with him and he didn’t see it coming. He’s in pain. Yet, somehow it simultaneously feels so right.
Meditate on rock koan until mind goes blank.
Disregard, if you are able, the greatness of the above Neil Young song and the even greater audience shots of passionate mandancing. Certainly, there’s been a whole heap of Mandom shaken over this crowd! For now, however, I ask you to focus on drummer Ralph Molina.
Is there a drummer in the house to help me answer the following questions? But first, as always, I ask of our drummers to cast their well-trained, dispassionate eyes toward these questions, not getting hung up on cliched responses, like “It’s only rock ‘n roll, man!” or “What do you want, every drummer to play like Neil Peart?” Those of you who’ve kept a close eye on this feature can verify that for every Rick Buckler who goes under the microscope there’s a Billy Cobham. In the name of musicology, we will examine today’s puzzling drummer.
I look forward to your analysis.
One of the benefits of spending time in the Halls of Rock is the opportunity to air petty grievances. For those of us who love rock ‘n roll, there are moments in a day when a thought comes to mind that no normal person who ever consider nor feel the need to share. Here, we do and we do.
This morning I was searching for something decent for my wife and I to hear on commercial radio. As I flipped to a station playing U2’s “New Year’s Day”, I became quickly and mildly annoyed at the fact that any time I do run across a U2 song on the radio it’s rarely one of the half dozen or so well-known U2 songs I’d rather hear, that I could tolerate for a few minutes. It always seems to be the hit song from whatever album that I don’t get any pleasure from hearing! My wife told me that this is typical of me, claiming I only like any band’s obscure songs over their big hits. The she told me that it’s for this reason she’s always amazed that I consider The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” to be the greatest song in all of rock ‘n roll. I explained to her that it’s just a coincidence that my great taste sometimes coincides with the taste of The Masses, but I digress. Yes, my wife suffers on an almost daily basis with hearing me express some beef along these lines.
Anyhow, following are songs by U2 that commercial radio chooses to play followed by hit songs I’d rather hear from the same album containing the track with radio programmer staying power. I could make a similar list for The Who, a band that I really do love yet for whom commercial radio programmers typically display equally bad taste in songs fit for broadcast. You may have your own examples regarding a band you either like mildly or love.
Continue reading »
I was going to make this a post themed somehow after the notion that — for achieving momentary rock fame as an, um, albino blues guitar whiz — Johnny Winter sure seems to have had all the right friends in all the right places. After all, the prevailing rock lore tells us that he had not one, but *two* songs written for and/or about him, by none other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (“Silver Train”) and John Lennon (“Rock and Roll People”). But the more I delved into these factoids, the more they smelled like shit to me.
It is true that Johnny’s version of “Silver Train” came out a few months before the Stones’. But then I read hither and yon that the song was originally demo’ed by the Stones in 1970 and shelved. And the notion that “Silver Train” was actually written *about* Johnny Winter (another oft-repeated bit of apocrypha) just seemed retarded. So what’s the truth? Well, by all accounts, Johnny is/was a really nice guy who seems to have been in the right places at the right times — and he wasn’t shy, actually going so far as to ask Lennon if he had any “rock songs” to give him when he was recording his “John Dawson Winter III” album just downstairs from Lennon, who was working on “Walls and Bridges” at the time. In the case of “Rock and Roll People,” Lennon is quoted all over the place saying that he wasn’t satisfied with his version of the tune, so he was happy to let Winter have a go. I have no idea how Winter got his mitts on “Silver Train,” other than reading in a bunch of places that he heard an early take of it and loved it. I guess the Glimmer Twins were in a good mood or something.
I won’t bore you with a comparison between the Winter and Lennon versions of “Rock and Roll People;” they both suck. But the comparison between the two versions of “Silver Train” is a lot more interesting. I happen to *love* the Stones’ version — it’s one of the Great Stones Deep Trax. But I gotta admit that Johnny brings something really cool to the table as well. See what you think.
Here’s Johnny’s version.
And here’s the one you all know and presumably love.
I look forward to your comments.
HVB
Mr. Mod inquired whether any RTHers had actually heard the “legendary” trax recorded by Neil Young and Rick James, when they were in a band together in the mid-’60s. Well, as it turns out, thanks to a generous RTH inter-library loan from townsman cjdawson, I have — and now you can, too!
According to the liner notes found in The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966, Neil (who had apparently only just joined the band, and had nothing to do with writing either of these tracks) said in 1984: “We went in and recorded five or six nights, and if we needed something, or if they thought we just weren’t strong enough, a couple of Motown singers would walk right in and they’d just *Motown us*. If someone wasn’t confident or didn’t have it, they didn’t say, ‘well, let’s work on this.’ Some guy would come in who had it… and an amazing thing happened… we sounded hot.”
Judge for yourselves.
HVB
