hrrundivbakshi

RTH Idiotorial: A Welcome Return To Good, Clean Fun

Dec 182007

This kind of wanton, animalistic, perverted physical contact will no longer be tolerated in the Hall!

I thank God — and Townsman Dr. John — that our spirit-numbing, seamy journey through the filthy underbelly of rock and roll has mercifully come to an end. Now, as we COCK our ears to new music, let’s REACH AROUND and shake one another’s hand in a gesture of good, honest friendship. Let’s not reward any JERK OFFering to take this fine blog back DOWN THE DIRTy ROAD from whence we’ve just COME. Yesterday’s posts point down the road to perdition. BUT PLUGGING ourselves into a higher, purer source of content will be our surest bet to stop this site from SUCKING. DICK Vitale, sportscaster-CUM-visionary, once said, “That’s what it takes to win, baby!” He might have been talking about accurately SHOOTING basketBALLS, but he could just as well have been talking about COUNTry, Rock, or any other kind of popular music.

Forget T-shirts — *this* is what this year’s fashionable RTH Townsman and Townswoman will be wearing

Oh, sure, I hear a TITter COMING up from the cynical nay-sayers among you; but I believe a DEEP PENETRATION of this kind of positive attitude at RTH will result in a GOLDEN SHOWER of blogging riches. And just because S-E-X is off limits shouldn’t throw a WET blanket on things around here. There’s LOADS to talk about! You can talk about which washed-up artists have SHOT THEIR WAD, tease Townsman G48 until he’s forced to UP THE ASSpirin quotient in his daily meds — almost anything goes! And remember, with the Internet at your command, you can SHOOT YOUR quick upLOAD of video and music to RTH any time you like. So get crazy — use your imagination! Argue the merits of a clumsy Ska solo played on a RUSTY TROMBONE; discuss the merits of Katrina & The Waves’ “GOING DOWN to Liverpool”; come down HARD ON the Ron Wood-era Stones album of your choice. Just don’t make the mistake of, you know, talking about fucking or anything.

I look forward to your comments, as long as they’re clean,

HVB

Last Man Erect: Pornified Album Titles

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Dec 172007

Not a porno album title per se, but the goddamn sexiest album cover in the history of rock and roll music!

Are you ready to get into the swing of things? Continue reading »

Ike Turner, R.I.P.

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Dec 122007

Ike Turner died today. Of his life, I say: was there another artist whose reputed assholishness was so purely, inversely proportional to the wonderfulness of his music?

To the spirit of Ike Turner, I say: thank you, and may you rest in peace, if that’s possible. May God have mercy on your soul, as I would have Him have mercy on mine.

HVB

A Sunday Diversion: Johnny Winter Versus the Rolling Stones

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Dec 092007

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this guy

I was going to make this a post themed somehow after the notion that — for achieving momentary rock fame as an, um, albino blues guitar whiz — Johnny Winter sure seems to have had all the right friends in all the right places. After all, the prevailing rock lore tells us that he had not one, but *two* songs written for and/or about him, by none other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (“Silver Train”) and John Lennon (“Rock and Roll People”). But the more I delved into these factoids, the more they smelled like shit to me.

It is true that Johnny’s version of “Silver Train” came out a few months before the Stones’. But then I read hither and yon that the song was originally demo’ed by the Stones in 1970 and shelved. And the notion that “Silver Train” was actually written *about* Johnny Winter (another oft-repeated bit of apocrypha) just seemed retarded. So what’s the truth? Well, by all accounts, Johnny is/was a really nice guy who seems to have been in the right places at the right times — and he wasn’t shy, actually going so far as to ask Lennon if he had any “rock songs” to give him when he was recording his “John Dawson Winter III” album just downstairs from Lennon, who was working on “Walls and Bridges” at the time. In the case of “Rock and Roll People,” Lennon is quoted all over the place saying that he wasn’t satisfied with his version of the tune, so he was happy to let Winter have a go. I have no idea how Winter got his mitts on “Silver Train,” other than reading in a bunch of places that he heard an early take of it and loved it. I guess the Glimmer Twins were in a good mood or something.

I won’t bore you with a comparison between the Winter and Lennon versions of “Rock and Roll People;” they both suck. But the comparison between the two versions of “Silver Train” is a lot more interesting. I happen to *love* the Stones’ version — it’s one of the Great Stones Deep Trax. But I gotta admit that Johnny brings something really cool to the table as well. See what you think.

Here’s Johnny’s version.

And here’s the one you all know and presumably love.

I look forward to your comments.

HVB

For All You Rick James Fans Out There: The Mynah Birds

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Dec 092007

Mr. Mod inquired whether any RTHers had actually heard the “legendary” trax recorded by Neil Young and Rick James, when they were in a band together in the mid-’60s. Well, as it turns out, thanks to a generous RTH inter-library loan from townsman cjdawson, I have — and now you can, too!

According to the liner notes found in The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966, Neil (who had apparently only just joined the band, and had nothing to do with writing either of these tracks) said in 1984: “We went in and recorded five or six nights, and if we needed something, or if they thought we just weren’t strong enough, a couple of Motown singers would walk right in and they’d just *Motown us*. If someone wasn’t confident or didn’t have it, they didn’t say, ‘well, let’s work on this.’ Some guy would come in who had it… and an amazing thing happened… we sounded hot.”

Judge for yourselves.

HVB

It’s My Time

Go On and Cry

RTH’s 1st Annual Walter Becker Think-power Concours de Elegance and Fish-Fry

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Dec 082007

The Donald looks on enviously as Walter’s Beard is awarded an honorary degree

Whether you enjoy contemplating his beard or not, this is your chance to exercise your formidable, rippling brain muscles in pursuit of a special Walter Becker-edition RTH No-Prize, created to honor truly awesome displays of sheer brain power. This space is being intentionally left blank so that you might fill it with some creative, innovative, Becker-caliber thinkery; something that would really make Walter proud. Apply the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to the career arc of Black Oak Arkansas! Write a one-act play from the perspective of Neil Schon’s hair, ca. 1973! Examine the connections between Jacques Derrida’s “Of Grammatology” and Bad Company’s first album!

I look forward to your responses, not that I expect to actually get any.

HVB

A Moment Of Healing: Mod, Do You Agree?

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Dec 062007

Mod, I want to end this senseless Thorogood/Top blood feud before any real harm is done. Can we at least reach across the aisle to agree that the lead singer of this band may be sporting the Worst Current Look in rock?

Also, note the hilariously gigantic rhythm guitarist on the left. He makes that Les Paul Custom look like a freaking ukelele! Guffaw!

Your pal always,

HVB

Older Entries Newer Entries