hrrundivbakshi

My Sweet Lord: the Rock Spiritual

Sep 222009

Those who know me well know that my father passed away a few years ago. Those of you who know me *really* well know that my pop was — in addition to being the man with the best phone manners on the planet — a genuine musical talent, able to pick up just about any good musical thang being laid down, and proficient on many instruments. A man of Tom Dowd-ian spirit *and* talent, and a man to whom I have always been proud to claim kinship.

Anyhow, when sweet, talented Conrad drifted off this mortal coil three years ago, he left me a wonderful instrument: his 1959 Gibson Southern Jumbo acoustic guitar, purchased while he was in the Air Force and under the sway of righteous folkies like Pete Seeger.

The Gibson “SJ” is a peculiar animal: round-shouldered, but not one of those fey little 3/4-sized acoustics you see today’s folkies delicately plucking away on. It’s a full-sized instrument, meant to be strummed, HARD — but it’s not engineered to provide big, booming bass and twinkle-twinkle high-end like the acoustics in favor these days. No, it’s a throw-back to an era when there was a market for high-quality *folk* instruments; ones that could be heard banging away on the opposite end of the fire house or the church hall an’ meetin’ room. All mid-range and bang-whang-a-lang — that’s the Gibson Southern Jumbo.

(Actually, if you want to hear a 1950s Gibson Southern Jumbo in action, listen to the early Everly Brothers hits. Before they could afford the big, Everly-namesake Gibson rock star acoustics with the fancy inlays — like you see on their publicity stills from the day — they played the Appalachian yeoman’s guitar, the Southern Jumbo… and *that’s* what you hear on most of their hit records.)

Anyhow: I sat down this evening with Papa’s old guitar, just bashin’ away, and I noticed that there were certain chord voicings that just sounded *amazing* on the old Jumbo. In particular, a good, old-fashioned E major raises the hair on the back of my neck. A7 sounds pretty good, too. In any case, as I went through all my “cowboy chords,” I found myself playing a song that not only sounded great on Papa’s old Southern Jumbo, but that was a big favorite of his, too: “My Sweet Lord,” by you-know-who. (Extra nerd demerits for reminding me and everybody else who supposedly *really* wrote that number. Who fucking cares?!)

This got me thinking: man, how many “rock spirituals” are there? And how many of them are actually *good*? I know we often correct each other ’round here, insisting that we remember all the proud, prodigiously talented and deeply influential African-American artists that laid the groundwork for all the pimply-faced white kids whose music we seem to disproportionately prefer — but I suppose I’m actually playing a bit of a “race card” in asking this question. I’m looking for “spiritual” songs that you might have heard on FM rock radio back in the day — or just songs of a deeply spiritual bent that don’t share that sunday-go-to-church-meetin’-and-git-sanctified vibe that we all love, but that most of our fave White bands actually suck at.

Is there one that tops “My Sweet Lord”? I’m just askin’.

I look forward to your responses… and I know Papa’s curious, too. Actually, I’m betting he knows the answer to this one already, where he’s at these days.

HVB

Rock Report Cards

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Aug 282009

As many of you with kids know, the school year is about to begin again. Across the land, teachers are hunkering down, preparing lesson plans and hiding that secret stash of whiskey and cigarrettes to tide them through the coming academic season.

At this point, I’d like to inaugurate a new running series on Rock Town Hall, in which Townspeople can don the gown and mortarboard, stroke their beards thoughtfully and begin handing out GRADES to rock artists that have been in need of honest, substantive feedback for years now. Remember, you have a responsibility to guide these precocious performers towards artistic maturity. Be gentle, but firm — “tough love” is the rule of the day. Feel free to be brief if you feel the student is well aware of his or her specific shortcomings already — but if you feel they need to know *exactly* what’s preventing them from getting an “A” from you, you should tell them! Standard grading systems apply: A, B, C, D and — yes, even the dreaded “F” where it’s called for. Feel free to also assign “Incompletes” to those artists who need to deliver more material before they can judged. Also remember: it is the goal of the Rock Town Hall Academy to produce well-rounded performers, so please consider all areas of concern — creativity, discipline, tidiness, appearance/hygiene and how well they play with others — when preparing your report cards.

Following is a list of artists in this grading session:

Paul McCartney
David Lee Roth
James Brown
Keith Richards
Keith Moon
Colin Moulding
Paul Westerberg
Prince
Robbie Robertson
Bob Seger

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

RIP, Lester Polsfuss

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Aug 132009

Guitar wizard and elder statesman of guitar-driven pop music Les Paul twanged his way off this mortal coil today at the age of 94. He led a good life, as far as I know, and certainly enjoyed more than his share of Mad Props from the rock and roll community.

One interesting thing about Lester is that he always understood the impact his *technical* creation had on the world of music — but I’m not sure he really cared about how *cool* it made people look. Like Leo Fender, he was a complete gearhead, and as he aged, he designed increasingly UN-cool guitars that sounded and looked less and less interesting as they became more and more “perfect.”

Anyhow, I thought we might take a moment to honor Lester’s supreme gearhead geekery by acknowledging the fashion statement his guitars and others have made on the stages and screens of rock’s past and present. Feel free to take this half-baked thread in any direction you want, but at least answer the following challenge:

Please rank the following guitars in order of coolness/mach schau factor, with “1” being the coolest, and “10” being the visual/sonic equivalent of a buttered saltine cracker. Note, I’ve added a few examples of famous players for said instruments, for those who are guitar model-challenged):

Gibson Les Paul (Jimmy Page, Slash)
Fender Stratocaster (Hendrix, Dick Dale)
Gretsch Country Gentleman (Chet Atkins, George Harrison)
Gibson SG (Angus Young)
Vox “Teardrop” Phantom (Chesterfield Kings, Brian Jones)
Fender Telecaster (Bruce Springsteen)
Paul Reed Smith (Present-day Santana, countless new rock bands)
Gibson ES-335 (B.B. King, Alvin Lee)
Gibson Flying V (Albert King, J. Geils)
Gibson Firebird (Johnny Winter, Brian Jones, Bob Seger)

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

RTH Exclusive — Andrew Lloyd Weber Admits: I Wrote All That Dragonforce Shit

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Jul 182009

July 17 — London, England — Longtime Broadway musical composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber admitted today that he was the “mastermind” behind numerous faux-metal hits purportedly written by melody-speed metal band Dragonforce. In interviews conducted at Weber’s Chelsea residence, the composer of numerous hit musicals confessed: “Maybe it’s the brandy talking, or maybe I’m just missing Elton like crazy, but… for goodness sake — couldn’t the music-listening world spot a late-20th-century ‘Lion King’ melody when they hear one? I mean, seriously… just listen to that song ‘Through the Fire and the Flames.’ It’s like ‘Cats’ or something.”

Weber went on to point out that though he had hired “pretty boys” to play the astonishingly fast guitar solos that undergird the band’s repertoire, “I want the whole world to know, those two really can play that fast. I truly think today’s youth could learn a thing or two about discipline, determination, and — yes — athleticism from those two youngsters.”

Perhaps the evening’s most telling moment unfolded when a representative of online music blog Rock Town Hall asked Weber why he had bothered writing music for the speed-metal band. After spilling his brandy alexander, Weber confessed that he “relished a challenge,” and added that he wanted to “do his part to finally and fully break down the conceptual walls between what is considered musical theatre and what is considered ‘heavy metal,'” adding, “I mean, really: that fine line between Judas Priest and ‘Les Miserables’ was just begging to be smudged, wasn’t it?” He then mumbled something that couldn’t be deciphered about the tastes of 15-year-old boys and the Broadway musical genre, and fell abruptly under the table.

Approximately 5 minutes later, the songwriter excused himself, saying he was overdue for a foot massage, and directed all follow-up questions to his personal chef, Jacques. Jacques immediately left the room, and the briefing was brought to a close.

E. Pluribus Gergley Gets It Right!

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Jul 172009

I gotta thank you, E. Pluribus Gergley. I’d been meaning to post this video for months, and kept falling down on the job. Your recent comments (and those of Townsman Mockcarr), however, have finally spurred me into action.

I recently found a beat-up old single of the first of the two tunes featured in this clip, namely, “Ooh Poo Pah Do,” and it was pretty good. (Ike and Tina Turner, maybe? I forget.) But — MAN — there’s just something about seeing the schoolyard bully version of the Who belting it out in a sweaty nightclub somewhere in London town in 1964. I mean, shit — you can see just about everything that would make the Who such a great band, at least in terms of their superb Mach Schau factor… and they’re just pimply faced punks!

I just love this clip. Love, love, LOVE it. Hope you and Mockcarr do, too.

Your pal,

p.s.: send me an e-mail about this jazz collection. I have no interest myself, but if you need a favor, maybe we could work something out in terms of me picking them up for you. You got any cool old music gear you don’t want?

Let’s See You Pipe-Tamp, Brandy-Snift and Leather-Elbow-Patch Your Way Out Of THIS One, Dr. John!

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Jul 092009

Recently, Mr. Mod asked the assembled multitudes of RTH to choose between:

– ALL of Michael Jackson’s solo output EXCEPT for his four best songs

…and

– Pat Benatar’s two best “hits”

Now, like the Velvet Foghorn, I actually *like* at least one Pat Benatar song. But I posited to the group that — even if I found Pat Benatar’s entire solo ouvre completely without merit — the choice between listening to TWO songs I hated and having to listen to 70 or 80 godawful MJ non-hits was an easy one to make. I just chose the path that required me to listen to less crap. On a quantitative basis, I mean.

Well, Dr. John wasn’t convinced. Or maybe I didn’t make my point clear enough with my elephant dung vs. dog shit metaphor. That’s okay. I’m prepared to meet the good doctor on his own preferred field of battle, and furnish him with a non-top-four MJ single that I believe he’ll concede would be far more painful to endure than a Pat Benatar hit. I’m prepared to leave aside the fact that — according to Mod’s Big Choice Poll question — Dr. John would have to listen to not just this one MJ song, but literally 70 or 80 more that are not much better, rather than listen to *only* “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and, say, “Heartbreaker.”

So how about it, Dr. John? Can you explain to me why this song is better than “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”?

I look forward to your response.

HVB

Get Out Your Blue Books: Creative Rock Mythology 101

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Jul 062009

Townsman Chickenfrank‘s excellent coulda-woulda-shoulda enhancement of the BTO/pizza guy myth has me thinking there are more interesting Rock tales yet to be told — and I’m betting YOU have the creative writing talent to tell them! The general idea is simple: find a noteworthy sound or sight from Rock history and explain it in a sensational fashion that virtually guarantees the Internet will pick it up and run with it. Actual, true stories are discouraged. References to BTO and pizza gain you extra points.

Here are a few sights and sounds that could use more interesting explanations. You may also, of course, furnish your own:

1. Paul McCartney‘s bare feet on the Abbey Road cover
2. The distorted guitar in “You Really Got Me”
3. The false start in The Clash‘s “Wrong ‘Em Boyo”
4. What Led Zeppelin were *really* doing with that fish and that groupie in Seattle
5. Why “Cocksucker Blues” was never released — i.e., the stuff nobody has ever seen

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

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