Apr 232007
I’m going to start with an obvious one, Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug”. Into the ring I’m throwing Heart’s “Straight On for You”, the verses of which I’d argue may whoop the obvious favorite. What say you? Take it from here.
I’m going to start with an obvious one, Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug”. Into the ring I’m throwing Heart’s “Straight On for You”, the verses of which I’d argue may whoop the obvious favorite. What say you? Take it from here.
You really think Love Is the Drug is reggae-influenced? I’m not hearing it at all, but Roxanne never sounded reggae-influenced to me either. God, was Ferry camp in that video or`what? I saw them play during the`era when he wore that uniform. Shiny knee-high boots were involved too.
I immediately thought of the Stones, So I’ll throw these into the ring. Oh Cherry Oh Baby and Cracking Up are probably disqualified because they’re actual reggae songs, but how about Luxury (from Goat’s Head Soup)? Possibly disqualified because of the fake patois. A better one is Hey Negrita from Black & Blue, because the influence is there but they do something else with it. Maybe it’s not as great a record as Love Is the Drug, but I like the groove and the guitars sound nice and dirty.
D’Yer Maker. It took years to realize they were trying to do reggae, but once you hear it, it makes a lot more sense.
Also, what drug(s) do you think Ferry was on? He seemed to be trying to channel forties Marlene Dietrich, and his facial expressions change drastically from syllable to syllable, without ever leaving the neighborhood of oblivion. What a nutcase! I think is utter alienness helped their music be likable to me. Simulacrum of pop star.
They didn’t have reggae per se when Chuck Berry’s “Havana Moon” was made, but it’s dlearly some kind of precurser going on there. Calypso even, perhaps.
Roxanne isn’t reggae, but you can hear the influence, as in the breaks, the lazy rhythm of the melody, and even Sting’s condescending accent.
I don’t know if this qualifies as “Rock” but Paul Simon’s “Mother & Child Reunion” is awesome.
or how about
Graham Parker – “(Hey Lord) Don’t Ask Me Questions”
Good suggestions, so far, but I still see the Wilson sisters chewing on turnbuckles in defense of the verse of “Straight on for You”.
By the way, The Police don’t count because they’re related to the punk era, as hard as that may be to remember.
In trying to be fair to BigSteve’s question, is “Love Is the Drug” reggae influenced, or do we just say that’s the case whenever we hear syncopated upstrokes in a rock song? Same goes for my newly beloved “”Straight On for You”. I hope these songs count, because otherwise we’re going to be left with the likes of “Hey Negrita” wearing the belt.
How ’bout one of those songs from Dylan’s Infidels album? I’m thinking of what I believe was the opening song. That was a good one, and I think it made subtle use of reggae rhythms.
Re: What Drugs Ferry Was On
I would think coke, no? And is Andy MacKay’s mullet one the overlooked mullet in rock history?
Mother and Child reunion is awesome, but it was recorded in Jamaica with Jamaican musicians (the main reason for its awesomeness), so I think it would have to be disqualified.
I thought that someone would have mentioned Watching the Detectives by now. It’s not a cover, but is it a reggae song or a rock song?
I thought I had a good one — Nick Lowe’s version of Heart on Nick the Knife, but I checked and that’s from 1982. Pure Pop for Now People has a reggae influenced song called No Reason that’s pretty cool, and it was released during the 70s.
Dylan’s Infidels was released in 1983, and the rhythm section was Sly & Robbie, which is kind of cheating.
Great reasons for disqualifying “Mother and Child Reunion”. The judges concur.
Elvis Costello, The Clash, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, and other “New Wave” artists are also disqualified as having been, at least loosely, part of the punk movement, which liberally borrowed from Jamaican music. Likewise, The Specials, The Clash, et al are disqualified.
Finally, the judges also concur that BigSteve has presented two strong, obvious reasons why no song from Infidels should be allowed. Who was the idiot who suggested that opening song, “The Jokerman”?
Carry on!
Listen, white man, I remember your diatribe of the mid-eighties in which you said you couldn’t stand reggae. But that, paradoxically, you liked UB40. You played me “Earth Dies Screaming”, which is indeed a good song. But overall it doesn’t surprise me that you seem to be reaching far afield to find reggae where there is mostly four-on-the-floor with a funk guitar. Both the Roxy and the Heart (“Roxy Heart?”) songs are nowhere near reggae, to my ears. (I just went online, and before you could say “intellectual property”, I was listening to Straight On For You. Calm down Mr. DHS, I paid royalties on the lp, which is still in the room…) Musically, reggae to me is all about the avoiding of the one, the emphasis on the three, the semi-arhythmic melodies, the off-beat and slightly disjointed basslines and overall the contrast between sounding upset or driven and sounding completely relaxed at the same time. These songs do have little guitar blips that are a similar sound to that ubiquitous reggae sound, but that’s a very myopic view. In the macro sense there’s none of the unstated yet omnipresent groove there. Sometimes in reggae you’ll go for half a minute with nothing at all *but* the backbeat, and the rest is only implied. Both of these songs do what every young white band does when the sit down to imitate reggae wrongly: four pounding bass drum beats per measure, without fail. Where’s the relaxed, pot-obscured feel? They sound most like the Al Green mid-tempo rhythms from the same period.
Townsman General said:
Listen, fellow white man, if I wanted to set up a BATTLE ROYALE asking for the best reggae song I would have done so. I’m asking for the best reggae-influenced, non-punk ’70s rock song. Unfortunately, as some of you hep cats might see it, that may include some stuff that’s barely reggae. I stress may owing to my large heartedness and open mind. I may be wrong in including Roxy Music and Heart in this BATTLE ROYALE, but while we’re excluding rock artists who used actual reggae rhythm sections, do we want to also rule out any rock band that got its influences “wrong,” as you might see it? How many real reggae albums were sold because white rock fans first tuned into “Love Is the Drug”? Let’s be large hearted and open minded, Townspeople. Please follow my example.
By the way, General, your memory of drunken conversations from 20+ years back is outstanding. Were you slugging from a whiskey bottle filled with iced tea back then while I drank the real stuff? What gives? It’s good to know that whatever you remembered me saying was on the up-and-up. No skeletons in my closet!
Mr. Mod, If my original choices are nixed, how about “Give It To Me” by the J Geils Band. Or can you find something non-existant to disqualify them too?
Why do i get the sense that only bands from Canada, with two sisters, who band name is an organ, can win?
Hey, look. I’m as white as they come, and make no bones. And I was one of the offenders in the awkward attempts at aping raggae while missing so much of what was central to it. The first incarnation of Junior Mints had a number which was only titled “The Reggae Song”, which featured Chris Pastore and I singing Gregorian chant backing vocals while Christine Razler read the Spanish directions on the side of a box of Mrs. Smith’s apple pie. I’m sure we had our bashing accents all pell mell in there, but you could easily discern where we were aiming at.
Mr. Mod misfires:
I may be wrong in including Roxy Music and Heart in this BATTLE ROYALE, […] do we want to also rule out any rock band that got its influences “wrong,” as you might see it? How many real reggae albums were sold because white rock fans first tuned into “Love Is the Drug”? Let’s be large hearted and open minded, Townspeople. Please follow my example.
Large-hearted and open-minded, I’m with you. But small-brained and tin-eared, I’m not! I don’t think *they* got their influences wrong, I think you did. I don’t hear reggae in there at all. And I would be surprised if even 1 reggae album were ever purchased (other than by you) because someone said, “Oh. ‘Love Is the Drug’ is great! I’ve got to check out more of this reggae music.” And Heart? That song was doubtless played into many a grass-smoked room, yet I would be surprised if anyone ever heard reggae in it. I’m not saying they’re not reggae songs. Of course they’re not. I’m saying I don’t think any of the people playing them was thinking at all of reggae when writing or playing them. Influenced? Who knows? But it’s no more reggae to me than Foghat. I’m not hearing “influence.” Am I the only one who hears the Emperor’s New Dub? Speak up, people. Where’s Sally during all of this? Is she still hiding under the desk for fear of getting a mix CD in the mail?
Mr. Mod romanticizes:
By the way, General, your memory of drunken conversations from 20+ years back is outstanding. Were you slugging from a whiskey bottle filled with iced tea back then while I drank the real stuff?
I soberly recall:
Most of those exchanges took place on the green fields of Temple University, and were fueled only by quarts of beer from the Twist Bar on Broad Street. Which, I am sad to say, is now a vacant lot. Their sign, with the alluring neon girl, is no longer there. And the absence of her broken tubes and rusted metal puts at an even further remove the imagined cheery sway of her skirt, which, flickering from one side to the other in yellow, must have beckoned winos in the days when even bums wore hats. (Two parkas and a ski cap in July are of a different world.)
Townsman Andyr wrote:
Oh, so the entire country of Jamaica was nonexistent while Simon recorded there? “Give it to Me” is a good one. Now, make the case why it’s better than “Love Is the Drug” or the verse in “Straight on for You”! Don’t just stand there, J. Geils Band!
Are the Heart sisters Canadian? I thought they were from the Pacific Northwest, but in the US of A. Perhaps The Great 48 can clarify.
The General wrote:
Regarding your first statement, come on, no else heard “Love Is the Drug” for the first time in the mid-to-late-70s and thought, “I dig that reggae groove in a rock song!”
As for my thoughts on the verse of this Heart song, I do not mean to suggest that anyone until this day has suggested that it was in any way influenced by reggae. I claim this thought as my own. History, please take note.
Yes, the Wilson’s are from Canada. They mentioned that in the beginning of that video of Magic Man we had up here. They’re from Vancouver, I think.
Duh. All during that intro I think I was too dazzled by the beauty of the young Nancy.
‘D’yer Maker’ and ‘Give It To Me’ are much better songs that fit your criteria than ‘Love Is The Drug’ and the Heart song! They’re each more influenced by reggae and they each rock naturally. Move the latter to the second bill. Move the forward to the main event. Now we’ve got the beginnings of a Battle Royale!
Townsman Meanstom wrote:
Do Townspeople agree? Is this where we should focus our efforts at crowing the best reggae-influenced, non-punk ’70s rock song? I can live with this match up. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to give the nod to “D’Yer Maker” on the strength of it allowing more space.
Meanstom is right — but you already know how strongly I feel about “Give It To Me.” That song RULES!
Hand over the belt!
No one is going to believe me now, but I wrote up a post suggesting Give It To Me, but I left it there without hitting the send button when I went off for some meetings. Great minds etc.
Anyway, D’Yer Maker, despite its title and the fact that it’s one of the few LZ songs I can actually enjoy, seems only very distantly reggae-influenced. It doesn’t have any of the characteristic instrumental features — emphasis on the three, rhythm guitar upstrokes, free melodic basslines. In fact, the riff the entire band plays is kind of what might be the bass riff in a real reggae song. I guess that’s the main thing that triggers the reggae sensors in listeners’ brains. Plus that’s the one that’s got the fast middle section, which is more salsa-influenced, right? So I think the song ends up with just a vaguely Caribbean vibe.
No one has yet mentioned King Floyd’s Groove Me. The Blues Brothers version (1978) plays up the reggae feel with a fake Jamaican accent, but the original version (1970) has such a strange rhythm arrangement, it almost sounds reggae-influenced. That may be doubtful, but it could be a vestigial remnant of the original link between New Orleans R&B and reggae.
If we don’t watch out we’re going to end up with nothing but Clapton’s version of I Shot the Sheriff, which is really not bad at all. It’s a good song, and I never really liked the version on the Wailers’ Burnin’ album.
BigSteve wrote:
No, I think you’ve got “Fool in the Rain” on the brain. Is it raining down there?
OK, I’m cool enough with “Give it to Me”…The People have been working the Comments section on that song’s behalf more than any other suggestion. I even got a phone call a few minutes ago in support of that song getting the belt. Of course, these are my assumptions based on a limited number of responses. Do we hand it over that easily?
I know what you mean about “Groove Me”, but I left it out of the ’70s rock equation thinking it was not a ’70s song. Is it “rock” enough? Sadly, you probably know what I’m really asking.
Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff” (another song that probably boosted US reggae sales noticeably and, as a result, might be a more significant cover than any blues song EC turned the white world onto) is not bad, but as a cover it can’t be considered “influenced” by reggae, can it?
Correction: Fool in the Rain is one of the few LZ songs I can actually enjoy. That’ll teach me to comment outside of my comfort zone.
I just mentioned I Shot the Sheriff for laughs, and because Clapton doesn’t try to mimic a reggae rhythm section. He just turns it into a rock song.
“Fool in the Rain” is one of the first songs by them that I loved. Who else claims In Through the Out Door as their first Zeppelin purchase?
Certainly there is laughter behind the suggestion of Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff”, but I want to make sure that people acknowledge the cover’s importance in popularizing reggae in the States.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned “Hotel California.”
Hey Andy R,
8 “New and Improved Rock Town Hall” fans can’t be wrong! From the looks of things, it’s readily apparent that I’m not the only one who sees the damage from the mercury poisoning.
One more thing. Where do you stand on those early Stones covers? Your opinion means a lot to mean because you’ve managed to retain your balls. Otto is coming off more and more like one of those emasculated GI JOE dolls.
Aaahh, don’t sweat it, Mr. Mod. I always enjoy our favorite troglodyte’s peculiar blend of insulting assholishness and periodic insight. If you know what’s good for the growth of this site, you’ll let him rant as much as he damn well pleases. I suffer the brunt of his seemingly idiotic attacks with pride, for the good of the Hall. I know what makes for good entertainment! Trust me, he’s harmless.
Dr. John wrote:
Cool nominee; horrible song. What do those of you with titanium ears say? To me, this song has similar reggae influences as Heart’s “Straight on for You”. Not like I’m still wanting that song to win…
We’ll have to take this question to another forum, but I’d love to hear the reasoning about Hotel California as a “horrible song.” Here in southern California, it’s the absolutely essential song for defining the whole pop culture of the place. I look forward –I mean this really–to hearing what’s horrible about it. I want this question to go MAIN STAGE.
The question has been moved to the Main Stage. We look forward to your answers almost as much as Townsman Mwall does.
E. Plurius asked –
I’m actaully 50/50 on their covers. In gneral I like the stuff of off “12X5” more then “Englands Newest Hitmakers” although songs like “Not Fade Away”, “I Just Want to…”, and “Carol” are great. I also love “Come On”. However, “Can I Get A Witness” is horrible.
Are we still friends?
So it’s been decided, right? The verses of “Straight on for You” wins?