{"id":444,"date":"2007-04-02T23:05:47","date_gmt":"2007-04-03T03:05:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T22:44:39","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T22:44:39","slug":"thrifty-music-classic-rock-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/thrifty-music-classic-rock-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrifty Music, Vol. 4: Classic Rock Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Folks, it’s time again for another edition of the RTH Thrifty Music<\/strong> series, hosted by yours truly. As you can read in greater detail here, this is the place where we discover — and, today, perhaps rediscover — interesting and timeless music that we might not bother with had it not been thrown away by somebody before we acquired it.<\/p>\n

Today’s focus is a simple one: Classic Rock<\/strong>. There are times when I’m not even sure what the term means, but — like the art critic once famously said — I think we all know it when we hear it. Today’s triptych presents one vital<\/em> tune I rediscovered; one questionable tune that, well, begs questions; and one new discovery that may help us define yet another Rock Niche that’s not really in need of further definition.<\/p>\n

On to the show!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\nFirst up: “Rat Bat Blue”<\/a><\/strong>, from Deep Purple<\/strong>‘s otherwise execrable Who Do We Think We Are<\/em> LP. I found the album for 99 cents, saw that it had “Woman From Tokyo” on it (one of my all-time DP faves), and thought it might have a few undiscovered treasures buried deep on its grooves. Wrong!<\/em> This album sucks! However: I was downright startled to hear one song — “Rat Bat Blue” — for the first time in almost 30 years, and to be reminded of just how totally boss it is. Yeah, yeah, the “lyric” is retarded, but the band cooks, the riff is to die for, and the production is hard-rock perfection. Seriously — I admit I’ve got a huge boner for the Vanda\/Young AC\/DC studio sound, but this<\/em> may be the greatest-sounding hard rock album in history.<\/p>\n

I was also startled to realize that this song must have marked a major<\/em> milestone for me as a young music listener, because as soon as I heard that riff come pounding out of the speakers again, I realized it’s one of those riffs that I’ve always had stuck in my head, and as crazy as it sounds, I almost mean that literally. Perhaps other musicians here will understand what I’m trying to say. It’s like the drum intro to the Clash’s “Revolution Rock”, or the opening fanfare to the theme from “Rocky”<\/strong> — it’s always been on instant recall in my head, so strong was its original pull. A riff by which all other riffs are measured. In this case, I had completely forgotten who wrote it, and where I’d heard it, until I plunked this dusty vinyl on the turntable. But now, the prodigal riff has come home at last. Slaughter the fatted calf and prepare to make merry, for the riff that was once lost is now found!<\/p>\n

So this calls for answers to two questions:
\n
\n1.) True or False:<\/strong> “Rat Bat Blue” is the most perfectly produced\/engineered hard rock record of all time. (If false, provide alternative choice<\/em>)<\/p>\n

2.) What are your deeply embedded, “instant recall” riffs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Side note:<\/em> you’ll thank me for pulling out the old tape splicer and dumping about two and a half minutes of Jon Lord keyboard Glory<\/strong> in the middle there. Trust me, the Hrrundi V. Bakshi radio edit is much<\/em> preferable to the original.)<\/p>\n

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\nUp next, in the “maybe this song is a lot better than I gave it credit for as a teenager” category: “All About You”<\/a><\/strong>, from the Stones’ Emotional Rescue<\/em> album. Once again, I found this el-pee for 99 cents in a bin somewhere, saw it was in pretty good condition (with the giant poster, which I had completely forgotten about!), remembered a few tunes from it I liked as a kid, and thought I’d take a chance. Well, the verdict is in, and the album is about as good as its reputation suggests — no idiotic, 21st-century Grand Funk Railroad<\/strong> revisionism here, it really is pretty mediocre from one end to the other. But buried at the very end of side two is a funny little song that we focus on today: a Keef showcase entitled “All About You”. What a weird number! Shambolic and burned out, even for a 1979 Keith Richards, it’s about being let down, tired, pissed off and disgusted — and it’s perfect, as far as that goes. But just when I started getting impatient with all of that, in walks a beautiful<\/em> chorus: “Whoooo told me those lies… made me think they’re truuuue…”<\/em> Wow! That’s downright pretty!<\/p>\n

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The point is: when I was a teenager, this song was the album’s number one needle-lifter. Now I’m having second thoughts. So the question for you is:<\/p>\n

Is “All About You” due for a critical upgrade?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\nLast up today, the only real new discovery I have to offer: “Little Cog In a Big Wheel”<\/a><\/strong>, from Chris Youlden<\/strong>‘s City Child<\/em> album. Who’s Chris Youlden, you ask? Well, it turns out he was the lead vocalist for Savoy Brown. This track is from his second solo LP, which it turns out is pretty solid throughout. What I found interesting about it was that it is definitely of a particular style, but a style that I don’t think anybody has bothered to label yet. That’s where you come in! So my question is:<\/p>\n

What do you call this early- to mid-70s male vocalist stuff, that kind of sounds like a perfectly good (but not really great) Van Morrison or Boz Scaggs album?<\/em> You know what I’m talking about: the kind of material Robert Palmer<\/strong> delivered before he went all Hollywood on us, back when his albums had grade-A ass on the cover. Eric Burdon <\/strong>kind of dabbled in this “soulful” material, too, but he was too f*cking crazy to actually deliver. The production is sweet — but takes pains not to be too “slick.” The English, white boy singer is determined to deliver some fine soul vocal chops, but has graduated past aping old Otis Redding tracks. What’s this stuff called?<\/p>\n

Come on, RTH, I need some answers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Folks, it’s time again for another edition of the RTH Thrifty Music series, hosted by yours truly. As you can read in greater detail here, this is the place where we discover — and, today, perhaps rediscover — interesting and timeless music that we might not bother with had it not been thrown away by […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[13,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}