{"id":1437,"date":"2008-05-20T12:09:15","date_gmt":"2008-05-20T16:09:15","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-02-16T11:06:51","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T11:06:51","slug":"surprisingly-effective-unexpected-overdu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/surprisingly-effective-unexpected-overdu\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprisingly Effective Unexpected Overdubs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been listening to John Entwistle<\/strong>‘s Smash Your Head Against the Wall<\/em>, an album I hadn’t heard since high school or college days and thought I should own. So a few weeks ago I rectified that situation. The purchase verified why I didn’t spend my precious extra cash on that album all those years ago, but now I’m a hard-working adult with the extra cash to occasionally risk $7.99 on what would have been a good, scratchy, $1-used bin pickup circa 1980. This is one of those albums that could only have been made by a bassist in a hugely successful band in the early ’70s. It’s no Who’s Next<\/em>, but it’s got enough of what’s cool about early ’70s Who to make the album better than something I might pick up by, I don’t know, Head East<\/a><\/strong>, or some other cutout bin orphan from that period. But all this is not why I write of this album and include the following tracks for those of you who’ve never heard it.<\/p>\n

John Entwistle, “Heaven and Hell”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

John Entwistle, “Ted End”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

John Entwistle, “You’re Mine”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The real reason I bring up this album is because the following bonus track, a cover of Neil Young<\/strong>‘s “Cinnamon Girl”<\/strong>…
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\nJohn Entwistle, “Cinnamon Girl”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Entwistle’s use of handclaps during the song’s main instrumental theme follows from Young’s version. In terms of Young’s music, specifically, the handclaps strike me are a surprisingly effective unexpected overdub on this song. I usually think of handclaps as being useful in a song with a dance beat, whether a ’60s pop recording – from Motown to bubblegum to Beat group song – to range of ’70s dance styles – whether a funk track, a Grand Funk<\/strong>-type rocker, a glam single, or a pogo-ready punk song. I don’t associate Neil Young’s music with dancing and much in the way of rhythmic overdubs. Does he even use tambourine on his recordings? Could that Crazy Horse<\/strong> drummer have kept a regular enough beat for a percussionist to follow?<\/p>\n