I read the news today, oh boy. Neil Hefti died! Neil Hefti was, of course, one of the greats in the world of TV theme composition. Among his stellar accomplishments in that field was the theme for “Batman.”
In addition to the tune just being a flat-out *rocker* of the first order, I’ve always felt it possessed one of the greatest drum sounds on *any* recording, teevee theme or not. This factor pushes it up to the top of the list of teevee themes, sez me. So I’m sending my loving memory of Neil Hefti into the ring to claim the belt for the theme to “Batman.” Who’s got a challenger? Who thinks there’s a TV theme song that rocked harder than Hefti’s “Batman”?
Greetings, seekers of the unusual, the out-of-the-way, the off-the-beaten-track… the downright cheap!
In these troubled economic times, it’s comforting to know that there’s still a world of wonderfully weird music to explore, at practically no cost, right around the corner at your local flea markets, thrift stores and garbage dumps. Please, Townepeople — won’t you give these tunes a home?
Today, I return from “Red Tag Day” in Purcellville, Virginia — a day when the whole freaking town sets its crap out on the curb with price stickers affixed. In addition to driving home with the weirdest chair I’ve ever seen in my life — a plain old folding metal chair that somebody decided to “pimp out” with racing intakes, cooling exhaust pipe and a spoiler (see below) — I also spent a few dollars on a few discs I thought I’d share.
Or, rather, discs I thought I’d share as part of a general shout-out to two of our most faithful Townsmen, Oats and 2000Man.
The first of the three tracks is from an album called “You Turn Me On!” by Ian Whitcomb. Ian Whitcomb had one minor hit with the title track from this LP, then vanished into obscurity. Before he vanished, he penned an editorial screed for the Los Angeles Times that I would love to read, as it reputedly assured his banishment from the halls of late-60s pop hipsterism. Why, you ask? Because in it, he took all the pompous, overblown pop “artistes” of the day to task for their self-important sillinesses, specifically singling out some of the most popular bands of the day and asking why they insisted on replacing good old-fashioned pop music with, you know, the likes of Procol Harum. Anyhow, as a result of this, Ian Whitcomb became dart board target #1 for the emerging “counterculture” inteligentsia. Or, at least the ones who were also music nerds.
I wish I could say that his music shows how foolish the world was for passing him over, that the “You Turn Me On!” album was his great, lasting revenge over those who shunned him. I wish I could say the album I found for 50 cents was a shimmering emerald city of pop magnificence — but I can’t. In truth, it’s pretty much awful, from one end to the other. A real turd. BUT! Hold on a second — buried in the middle of this colossal dump is a really pretty little song, that sounds to me like a long-lost out-take from the Kinks’ “Village Green” or something. Entitled River Of No Return, I present it to you all — but especially to Townsman Oats, who we all know has a huge boner for the Kinks in this era. Tell us what you think, Oats — but please leave your boner out of it.
Next up are two tracks I thought I’d post for our resident Stones obsessive, 2000Man. The first is Del Shannon’s take on Under My Thumb. To my ears, I hear nothing special — but I know (I think I know) that Del has some big fans in this Hall, and this, the InterWeb tells me, is a particularly rare track of his. So here it is.
The last of the tracks, once again posted in 2000Man’s general direction, is a foot-stompin’ cover of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction. Or, rather, it’s a foot-stompin’ cover of a cover of “Satisfaction,” because the performers — South Carolina frat-rockers The Swingin’ Medallions — clearly took their main inspiration from Otis Redding’s smokin’ cover of this fine tune. I gotta say, though, there are a bunch of things that work in the Swingin’ Medallions’ favor as this track compares to Otis’. Number one, it’s LOUD. Everything is LOUD on this track. The horns are loud. The screamin’ vocal is loud. The drums are loud. And — most especially — that crazy, totally out-of-tune guitar that makes an appearance after the first chorus, then again as the song fades… is really LOUD. Awesome!
Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy these three tracks. As always, your feedback — especially from you, Oats, and you, 2000Man — is gratefully appreciated.
Newcomers to the hallowed Hall may sometimes become a bit disoriented by the frequent, peculiar insider-ism in the RTH vocabulary. Thankfully, there’s a handy Glossary to keep you nodding your head in understanding, if not necessarily agreement.
One term you’ll see thrown around here is “mach schau.” Fans of the Beatles will remember that German rock and rollers would frequently shout this admonition to “make show!” at the boys during their marathon, pill-and-booze fueled performances at the Star Club in Hamburg, to get them to work harder to entertain the audience. Lord knows the Germans have been wrong about a lot of things over the years, but that was one thing they got right. They knew that a weedy young band of precocious — if nascently talented — upstarts needed a swift kick in the ass to realize they still needed to *work* for their supper.
Around these parts, “mach schau” is sometimes used as a noun: “I’ll tell you one thing — Van Halen has a hell of a lot more ‘mach schau” now that Diamond Dave is back”; sometimes an adjective: “I like Stereolab just fine — I just wish they were a little more, you know, ‘mach schau.'” But the principle is the same as it was at the Star Club in 1962: Make show!
Anyhow, this late addition to the RTH glossary is really just an excuse to publish an extremely compelling vuh-deo by an artist who does a stellar job illustrating just what the heck we mean by this term. I used to love this song when it came pouring out of the jukebox at the embassy pool, and, 35 years later, I like it even more, now that I’ve seen it delivered with a *shitload* of “mach schau.”
While undertaking some fascinating online research for RTH Labs recently, I came across the following song, from a collection of tunes I’m sure every RTHer is familiar with. I ask you: was there ever a more clueless cover than this one?
Please closely examine both of these videos (make sure you watch the first one all the way through), then answer the questions. I look forward to your responses.
Question: every band has one — what’s YOUR drummer horror story?
Question: Please share the most heinous misappropriation of ethnic/multi-cultural music you can think of.
I passed by a sign advertising an upcoming show in town here, went online to verify the identity of the artist(s), and was inspired to paste a photo. My question to you: who’s coming to Virginia next week to rock the house?
I just finished a nine-day drive across this great country of ours, and spotted a couple of things worth taking pictures of. Hopefully, these will amuse and/or inspire:
First, spotted in a roadside fireworks store in Indiana:
Southern boogie rock cruises to the Bahamas? No fucking way! But *this*? *This* is what I call an ass-kickin’ cross-promotion. HELL, YEAH!
Next, a fine dining establishment on the outskirts of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin:
If you don’t know why this restaurant is relevant to us here, consider your license to rock officially revoked.
