{"id":4499,"date":"2010-11-30T13:55:22","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T17:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=4499"},"modified":"2010-11-30T13:55:22","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T17:55:22","slug":"instant-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/instant-offense\/","title":{"rendered":"Instant Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sydney "The Macrowave" Greenstreet?<\/p><\/div>\n

The Detroit Pistons used to have a guy named Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson<\/strong>, nicknamed\u00a0for his ability to come off the bench and provide “instant offense.” I love the concept of instant offense, and I’ve taken to using it to refer to a quality in certain character actors, whose mere presence onscreen\u00a0instantly raises the\u00a0energy in a film. Sydney Greenstreet<\/strong>, who would have needed to be nicknamed “The Macrowave,”\u00a0is just such a character actor in my book. Even the\u00a0classic Casablanca<\/em> manages to get better when he shows up in a scene. (That film, by the way, is loaded with instant offense types,\u00a0including Claude Rains, Peter Lorre,\u00a0S.Z. Sakall<\/a>. It’s a wonder director Michael Curtiz had enough “rock” to go around.)<\/p>\n

Rock ‘n roll musicians typically don’t move around as frequently as Hollywood character actors or NBA role players, but I’m wondering what journeyman or studio musicians you feel provide “instant offense” to whatever session they touch. The first who comes to mind for me is studio drummer extraordinaire Hal Blaine<\/strong>, who made not only the great hits he drove but the fade-outs of the most pedestrian MOR fodder worth turning up. Following, Hal even makes Peggy Lipton<\/strong> worth giving a try.<\/p>