If the Beatles’ Revolver was released today the song John wrote about his trippy conversation with Peter Fonda would be entitled “She Was Like, She Was Like.”
Sep 102015
Mr. Moderator
Sep 082015
You may know already that I’m a big fan of the late guitarist Robert Quine, who was first known to me as the guy behind the unbelievable short solos on Richard Hell & the Voidoids‘ “Blank Generation” only to blow my mind a few years later on Lou Reed‘s The Blue Mask. I just stumbled on this little clip of a guy playing one of Quine’s guitars, bought from his estate in 2004. It’s kind of poignant, at least to me (especially with the text accompanying the post, copied below), so let it be the start of this week’s All-Star Jam, where you bring to the table whatever musically relevant topic is on your mind.
This guitar is one of three I purchased as soon as the collection went public after his passing in 2004. I purchased them in 9/05 and have owned all three in the videos. He had 2 triple sunbursts and each one is totally different. The Barcelona triple sunburst has a fixed bridge, tremolo but bridge was anchored so I left it that way. The other, which is the one in the video, had a floating Quine feel and was amazing. The tone and ghost of Robert is all over it. I bought these becuase he used Fernandes Stratocasters with Lou Reed on tour, and on Blue Mask. I saw Quine in 1984 with Lou and am a true fan. Talk to Rudy Pensa on 48th Street in NYC about Bobby if you have a moment. Thank you Charles in Tokyo for the purchase of this instrument. Hope you hear Robert Q when you hold it.
Sep 052015
Do it again.
Do you ever listen to a song and think, “Mmm, I wish they could have done that part over.” It could be a particular verse or solo or middle eight, as is the case whenever I listen to an old favorite I spun on this week’s Saturday Night Shut-In, XTC‘s “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages.” I still love that song, but I used to love everything about it, even the bridge—so much so, in fact, that leaned on it as a model for quickly exiting a tricky bridge on a few of my own songs. I don’t remember exactly when I started to wish for a do-over on that bridge, but at some point in recent years the way it ends—”…and it’s breaking my back!”—started to feel a bit forced, as if my man Andy Partridge was laying heavy on that closing line to shut the door on any feeling the listener may have of him having abruptly exited that exciting, unexpected part of the song. (Andy, if you one day Google yourself in this piece and start getting worked up about this pathetic cretin who is trying to read your thoughts, etc, please know that I love your body of work, including this song, which is one of my favorite songs on the planet. This is a Rock Town Hall discussion, where we allow ourselves to pick apart even our most beloved songs and artists.)
Your rock ‘n roll do-over may be an entire album or stylistic shift, a Look, whatever, but keep it to subjects you really care about. For instance, unless you’re a die-hard Styx fan, some snarky comment about “Mr. Roboto” won’t fly. I’ll ask YOU for a do-over.
Let’s do it again, shall we?
Sep 012015
Mom!
This week, Mr. Moderator revisits records that made a deep, lasting impression on him from the first time he dropped the needle (or pushed PLAY or clicked a link). What records stuck with you and wove their way into particular moments in your life?
RTH Saturday Night Shut-In 144
[Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital library by subscribing to the Rock Town Hall feed.]
Aug 202015
Those crazy lads from Cream leave ’em in stitches once again! What’s causing canned laughter in your neck of the woods?
Aug 182015
The House That George Bought.
Here’s your chance to live in the Newark, Delaware house that George Thorogood once owned and drank—alone—in!
On its face, this home looks like your standard single suburban home. Three bedrooms, a sizeable (0.60 acre) lot and a couple of baths.
The 1,500-plus square-foot property has been fully renovated, including a gourmet kitchen with radiant heat flooring and all new appliances.
But there is a large, blue sign just out front of the driveway gate that reminds potential buyers that this place is unlike many other Newark, Delaware homes on the market. It announces the former owner-occupant: one George Thorogood (he of the Destoyers and “Bad to the Bone” fame).
“This humble home was the first residence of Blues Hall of Fame guitarist ‘Lonesome’ George Thorogood purchased on July 1, 1981 after his national rise to prominence,” the sign reads.
Come on, you know you’re interested!
Aug 172015
Driving home today I finally got sick of listening to sports-talk radio and flipped the dial until landing on my local classic rock station. I became slightly entranced by the bassline in Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love,” a part I’d never focused on before. I’ve gotten many laughs out of “Feel Like Making Love,” once performing it at the end of one of my band’s shows in a drunken duet with my band’s bassist at a frat party in the mid-’80s. Our singer moved behind the drums. Then a song I’ve always hated started up, Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.” I decided to listen intently through the big drum fill, to see if there was anything I could ever like about that song. There was not.
To relieve the boredom of trying to listen intently to “In the Air Tonight,” my mind wandered to possibly the most unintentionally hilarious hook in rock, the part in Collins’ “Mama” when he does the rhythmic evil laugh. Does anyone not laugh in anticipation of that part of the song, even fans of Phil Collins?
Has anyone ever done an in-depth interview with Collins to ask him to describe the process behind writing that part of the song? In retrospect, does he find it unintentionally funny?
Another songs with an unintentionally funny hook is that Rush song where Geddy Lee follows up a gentle reggae section by screaming “Salesmen!” Or is it the singular, “Salesman!” Either way, it’s worth my time listening to that ridiculous song just so I can laugh at that part.
What song’s hook makes you giggle, probably unintentionally, as far as the songwriters are concerned?
