This one goes to zero!
Rock Town Hall has a long and honored tradition of rock video analysis, with Townspeople often incorporating the distinctive technique of commenting on videos with the sound off. In honor of alexmagic‘s recent analysis of a video of Tom Jones performing with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, we are instituting a new feature, Sound Off!
The way a Sound Off! thread works is simple:
- A video is posted for us to view with the sound off.
- We comment on what we’re seeing with the sound off.
- We most likely share in the sense of wonder that there’s much to learn about music with the sound off.
You will be entrusted to view the following video with the sound off. If we could disable the video’s sound we would, but something tells me the copyright holder of the video might object to that. Trust us, for the purposes of this thread the sound will get in the way. Beside, you may be viewing this at work, in which case coworkers will only be distbured by your giggles; you won’t have to worry about the artist’s music leaking into their cube.
After the jump, why don’t you turn the sound off and watch the following video!
Two minutes in I have no idea which song they’re playing.
If you ignore the guitars, it looks like a load of seedy drunk old blokes wandering around the park on a summer evening, with a goodly number of them trying to find the toilets or a bush to go behind, while Jagger looks as if he’s refereeing a ball game of some description.
The end, still no idea what that was meant to be!
… and occasionally auditioning for one of those Bum Fights video compilations …
Priceless.
Early on I like how the first and second guitarists, respectively, seek each other out and work to establish complimentary stances, with Angus engaging Keef in a squat-off and Ronnie and Malcolm lining up for some dick-waving action.
At the 1:14 mark Angus and Keef walk over to Ronnie and Malcolm. Angus is ready to roll with his new guitar mate, getting himself into a deep squat that Keef fails to follow. It’s cool, though, because Keef is pairing off with Malcolm, feeling him out the way one wrestler feels out another early in a tag-team match.
1:48: Gotta love Angus’ shimmy-squat with Mick. Where’s Brian Johnston in all this? After Angus does his take on the patented no-hands move, he ambles back to Keef, who seems to have won over Malcolm to his team’s side. Malcolm nods to confirm acceptance of the new order around the 2:07 mark.
2:19: As Keef steps forward to take his solo, watch how Ronnie and Malcolm guard his right flank. I wonder if this performance will culminate in a Rock ‘n Roll Iwo Jima moment.
2:24: Ronnie jumps into the left side of the frame in a defensive position, going back to back with Keef. This TOTALLY fires up Keef, who fires off a couple of boxes of ammo – whatever it is they call those things soldiers pop into their machine guns. Angus is ready for action, while Malcolm guards against any attacks from behind the drum riser. Then at the 2:29 mark Ronnie pulls off the deepest rock squat in the history of rock prior to the emergence of Suicidal Tendencies/Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo’s awesome “Wide 9” D-line stance. Mick seems oblivious to the carnage around him, like Richard Mulligan’s Custer in Little Big Man.
2:59: Freeze the frame and tell me you don’t want a poster of this shot.
3:37: I like how Ronnie responds to Angus’ modified duck walk with a modified modified duck walk of his own. There’s a lot of learning going on in this performance. Too often in this jam sessions we see musicians competing against each other. Shortly there after we see Keef spellbound by Malcolm’s moves. Then Mick jumps into the Angus-Ronnie dance to offer encouragement. Ronnie follows by getting down into a “shooting craps” position.
3:56: All four guitarists come together to demonstrate what they’ve learned from each other. Mick is stoked! At this point I wonder how badly the bassist-for-hire wishes his contract allowed him to join in on this fun.
4:21: Is Ronnie trying to instigate a Rock ‘n Roll Iwo Jima pose? It doesn’t quite stick, but at least it fires up Charlie Watts to play a drum fill and stop doing that stupid thing where he refused to hit the snare and the hi-hat at the same time.
5:26: What do you make of Keef backing up Mick’s point to the crowd with a point of his own before leaning on Mick’s shoulder with a big grin? Getting back to Happiness Stan’s referee comment, was Mick trying to give some hipster in the second row a yellow card for his bad attitude?
Gotta love Angus walking over the shake the bassist’s hand at the end. Who’s that guy, Darryl Jones, or something like that?
Relating this to another thread, clearly Angus loses whatever rock superpowers he may have if he’s not playing his usual Gibson SG.
Bravo!
Like Mod, I was instantly struck by the strange physical feeling-out period that Keith and Angus go through early on. Mod’s amateur wrestling feel-out description is probably more accurate, but my first thought was of two potentially friendly animals circling each other to make sure they could fully trust each other.
Ron’s yellow jacket combined with Mick’s purple shirt makes it look like the Stones have suddenly gone back to their Dirty Work look, which made me think this might have been an instance of that “Turn Back The Clock Night” phenom we were hoping to see a few years ago. But it may just be that Ron went too far up the color scale, since Keith is more conservatively dressed. And the Stones really stand out here considering how dressed-down Angus is. In fact, Charlie seems to be dressed just like Angus in the back, which makes me think he might try to slip out with AC/DC later like a Russian gymnast defecting during the Olympics in the ’80s.
At 1:34, Malcolm looks kind of jacked in the back and he’s happy to show off the guns with his sleeveless tee. Rick notes above that this could be a Bum Fights pre-show, and I think based on visual evidence, Malcolm would slaughter the Stones in a Round Robin tourney. Even though I could probably pick him up with one arm, Malcolm Young might be the guy in classic rock I’d be most wary about fighting in an alley, if just because he has that scraggly, do-whatever-it-takes, possibly-a-zombie look.
2:24 – Mod, what’s really happening here? What *I* see is Malcolm and Ron doing a tag team version of something between the Chuck Berry Duck Walk and the Angus Young Strut at around 2:16. At 2:19, Ron goes into the ultra squat thrust, but Malcolm turns and gives him a look here like “You fell for it, mate!” before turning on his heel and walking away, leaving Ronnie hanging out there.
Finally, at 2:23-2:24, we can see that Malcolm is positively sashaying away with Merrie Melodies animated character confidence. Ron turns back around and waves an arm at him, trying to get him to come back, then quickly tries to do a quick riff on the guitar to make it look like he wasn’t caught off guard (like pretending to look at your watch when you realize you’re going the wrong way on a street) before fleeing off camera. At this point, Malcolm has ended up right between Keith and Angus. If you ask me, the Young Brothers planned this out in advance. Angus distracted Keith, leaving Malcolm to pull a fast one on Wood. But to what ends? Just some cheeky AC/DC fun? Or the Youngs setting out to prove they’re the better combo?
Going by my interpretation, now watch at 2:27, when Ronnie realizes he’s been had and literally runs back into frame with a furious look on his face, chasing Malcolm out and getting right between Keith and Angus.
Mick has finally noticed what’s going on at 2:34 and steps in to break things up. I’d score the whole exchange in this order: Malcolm, Angus, Keith, Mick, Woody.
2:40: Angus and Keith go off to the side again, and Angus leans in to say something to Keith, who throws back his head in a laugh. I think Angus just told him about what the AC/DC team just pulled and Keith loves it.
3:05: Mick Jagger, rock’s greatest stage director, has just given Angus the go-ahead to do his thing. Historic! This is a total comic book team-up moment by now.
3:10: A nearly feral Ron Wood stalks behind Angus, matching his movements.
3:19: An almost certainly feral Malcolm Young gives an insane smile to Keith when they pair up.
3:27: Ron has come to terms with things and goes over to make amends to Angus, who graciously accepts. I’m thinking Mick had words off-screen with Ron in those 17 seconds neither were visible, or maybe Keith communicated telepathically with him, as I assume Keith and Ron do.
3:47: Mick steps in and declares the Wood/Young rift to be healed. I’m not really crazy about the Planet of the Apes shuffle Wood is doing here to maneuver back into Wood/Young/Richards/Young formation, but Ron has proven he’s the most limber guy out of the four by far.
Right past the four minute mark, Mick goes crazy and drifts all the way over to the other side, where poor Darryl Jones has been standing by himself all this time. Watch verrrry carefully at 4:06-4:08, as Jones sees an opportunity and very slowly makes his move to the pile. Intentionally or not, Mick gave him the opening to get in on the action. At 4:17, Jones is now standing alongside Angus, and Mick gives a point back in approval, which would confirm in my mind that Mick was aware that Jones was getting shortchanged and orchestrated that whole move to his left to give Jones the chance to go party with the rest of the boys. My respect for Mick’s underrated skills as a master of human chess continues to grow.
4:34: Ron does a one-armed hug to a delighted Malcolm. The Young Gambit has paid off completely.
5:26: Mod notes Keith coming in to lean in on Mick with a smile. I think it’s Keith acknowledging Mick’s hustle in helping manage a dual Stones-AC/DC performance. This was clearly a Keith/Wood/Youngs affair with very little of Mick singing (at least on camera, which is all that matters with the sound off), but Keith’s exhausted grin seems to be for Mick, acknowledging the work the CEO does for the band.
5:44: Angus closes things down. First, he times his strut so that the final turn and leap takes him directly at Charlie’s drum riser to give Watts his due. Charlie loves it, he actually starts beaming in Angus’ direction. Angus then goes over and shakes Darryl’s hand and then scampers back over to give Keith a nod, bow and then some weirdly complex handshake that I can only assume is Secret Guitarist Code, having once been taught the secret handshake of a band central to RTH.
At 6:04, it looks like Angus is going to intentionally leave Wood hanging (check out poor Ron, hand swaying in the breeze as Angus shoots past), but it’s a fake-out, as Angus shakes Mick’s hand and then spins on his heel to show Wood some love at the last moment, the perfect way to end things.