February 2013 Archives

Cheer-Syncing (aka Crowd-Syncing)

Feb 112013

It’s become commonplace now at giant events like Super Bowl halftime shows and awards shows to see an artist perform to an audience of a couple hundred beautiful, enthusiastic, coordinated fans-for-hire doing what I call cheer-syncing (or crowd-syncing), a term I propose adding to our RTH Glossary. Sometimes the camera pulls back to show the crowd rushing the stage as they are set free from their holding pen. In the case of The Rolling Stones’ 2006 halftime show the cheer-syncing professionals were actually enclosed in a pen within the band’s stage. Talk about a captive audience.

Everyone is beautiful. Everyone’s got their hand raised to the heavens, like they’re in a Pentecostal church. There can’t be that many Pentecostal churchgoers at televised rock performances, can there?

How far back does this practice of hiring an audience to crowd the foot of the stage and essentially pee their pants in unison does this practice go? Was this idea spawned after choreographed rock performances in Jesus Christ Superstar and Tommy? No one really cheers like that do they? How often does an audience actually rally around a performer the way they do on these televised spectacles?

Oh, My C Chord!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 102013

Where’s this episode of The Brady Bunch been all my life?

The above photo reopens my childhood adoration of Marcia Brady. There was nothing special between us, like the bond I felt with my first TV crush, Room 222‘s Karen Valentine. I didn’t choose Marcia; she demanded my adoration, as she did the adoration of any red-blooded American boy of my generation. Even though Jan would make a late run for my pre-teen affections, Marcia was perfect in that unattainable way drives boys to master the fingering of a C chord or some other skill in vain effort to rise above.

This image came to me courtesy of Robbie Rist‘s Facebook page. Only Greg got to play guitar on the show. Not Robbie’s Oliver. Not Marcia. Guess our little heads would have been blown had they let her strap on an SG.

Have you come across a shocking photo of a non-musical celebrity playing an instrument that you previously had no idea he or she played? Share it here. Thank you.

Tape Your Wife to the Ceiling [or Anti-Valentine’s Day Songs]

Posted by funoka

Feb 092013

Before the big heart day — I thought I would share this little number called “Tape Your Wife to the Ceiling.”

Here’s another kind of anti-valentine song from Tom Petty.

A personal aside: The biggest rock band in the Twin Cities in 1980-81 was not Husker Du or The Replacements or Prince. It was a large ensemble group called The Suburbs, who had a couple of minor hits (“Music For Boys”, “Love Is The Law”), a 1-record major-label deal, and then kind of faded away into local lore. The ‘Burbs packed ’em in — I saw them outside at Navy Island in St. Paul with R.E.M. — and R.E.M. wisely opened for these guys, because the ‘Burbs were always a tough act to follow. (That concert is also memorable because I saw some of my sister’s 14-year-old friends at the show, which freaked me out, because I was an old man of 19.)

Personal aside II: Petty’s “Long After Dark” is due for a critical upgrade.

So, anyway, what’s your favorite anti-Valentine song?

Once and For All: What’s the Greatest White Afro in Rock?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 092013

You know you’ve been waiting for this one! The People have asked for a decision on this, and we will work together to supply the answer—once and for all!

What’s the greatest white Afro in rock? It can be natural or the result of a perm, but no wigs! It can be an artist’s running Look or a 1-time affair. The nominees and the RTH People’s Poll follow…after the jump!

Cha-Cha-Changes…For the Better

Posted by sammymaudlin

Feb 082013

I’m not sure exactly where I heard this tidbit of George Harrison lore but half-assed Googling indicates that it comes from his autobiography. He said something to the effect that in The Beatles song I Want to Tell You, penned by Harrison, that he wished he had reversed the lyric,

But if I seem to act unkind
It’s only me, it’s not my mind
That is confusing things

to be something more like

But if I seem to act unkind
It isn’t me, it’s just my mind
That is confusing things

I admit that I could be butchering this story but I’m pretty sure that I have the gist of it. It stuck with me because I used to think that about that part of that song before I heard Harrison thought it too. It’s kinda obvious isn’t it? “Me” is so much more than “mind.” Anyhoo… Here is the only version I could find where it is sung by Harrison in this reversed way.

Unfortunately it is a pretty crappy version of the song, IMHO. It doesn’t help that Eric Clapton, I think, is part of this performance as well. Feel free to Pince Nez me Townsfolk.

Provincial Rock Biz Verite: Canada 1973

Posted by Suburban kid

Feb 082013

This 1973 TV documentary from Canada can be diverting. Rock-A-Bye gets you up close and dirty with shaggy bands and ill-dressed record company people, as a stentorian narrator describes the Business of Rock in very serious and occasionally cynical tones.

It is pretty random. We have clips of the Rolling Stones on stage, an interview with Ronnie Hawkins, an A&R man called John David Churchill Poser, the Canadian dude from the Lovin’ Spoonful, Muddy Waters, Alice Cooper mobbed at the airport by a group of gay guys, lots of obscure Canadian bands, and extremely bad hair.

BTW the fashion in 1973 was to be as ugly as possible.

Hat tip ——–> Voices of East Anglia

More of this fascinating documentary…after the jump!

Stevie Wonder: The Missing Link Performance?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 082013

This 1970 performance of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder shocked me on a few levels. First, it never occurred to me that the song was released in 1970. I grew up with that song and all of Stevie’s big hits, but as a greatest hits/anthology-type Stevie Wonder fan I’ve never gotten to know the ins and outs of individual studio albums. I would have pegged that single for a couple of years earlier, like 1967 or 1968, the era when Smokey Robinson & the Miracles were cranking out similarly sleek, driving productions like “Tears of a Clown.”

Older Entries Newer Entries