Jan 152009
What’s the unlikeliest band to have ever jammed on record? The first that comes to mind for me is The Kinks, on the relatively long solo that closes one of my favorite songs from Arthur, “Australia.” I’m sure there are more unlikely bands that have jammed. Does the expanded Odessa, for instance, contain free jazz scat singing by the Brothers Gibb?
Note: The 1971 featured above, in which The Beach Boys joined The Grateful Dead on stage for a cover of “Okie From Muskogee,” may not count because it’s only from some Deadhead archival release. However, it’s a most unlikely jam!
the buzzcocks
Good call on “Why Can’t I Touch It,” shawnkilroy. Handle the belt with care.
Johnny Was by the Stiff Little Fingers. Fork it over, Shawnkilroy!
Does “In The Crowd” by the Jam count?
It may count, but is it beltworthy? On the other hand, how unlikely did it seem for longtime fans of The Jam (and even Style Council fans, as unlikely as that entire fanbase was) when solo Paul Weller started firing off long guitar jams. I know I was shocked.
“My Sharona” has a hell of a jam part on the album version (most of which is not on the version you usually hear on the radio) You never think of The Knack as a Jam oriented group.
I have a Hall & Oates CD from a concert in 2007 (the CD that you can buy right after the show..) they did a 19:35 version of “I Can’t Go For That” not an official release, but it is available from their website
I once stumbled across an earlier Hall & Oates prog-style jam on YouTube. It was hard to comprehend. However, I don’t know if that song, whatever it was, was released in prog-jam form on record. The long version of “I Can’t Go for That” would probably be declared an early winner had it been released commercially!
People were pretty surprised when Sleater-Kinney started jamming.
I don’t think “My Sharona” has a jam, just a very long guitar solo that probably heavily arranged and planned-out.
What was Mike Love’s role in an extended Beach Boys/Dead jam session? Did he break out the sax? Did he try on a variety of random hats offered by the audience?
“My Sharona” contains no jamming. Neither does “In the Crowd.” “Books are Burning” by XTC, however, features a mighty long, surprisingly tweedly-tweedly guitar jam — it’s the band’s “Freebird.” (And it’s unlistenable, at least to these ears.)
Hand over the belt!
HVB
How can you say that My Sharona contains no jamming? It has that huge middle section that has nothing to do with the rest of the song and just exists to provide a backdrop for some Tastee Lix.
I don’t consider that jamming. There’s nothing in that middle section that sounds improvised, either the solo or what the other players are doing. It doesn’t even sound improvised. Every note in that solo sounds like it was agreed-upon by everyone before they ran tape.
I’m fine with the concept that it has to at least sound like it was improvised, but then just to be clear, Free Bird is not jamming either, correct?
I think I agree, cdm. “Freebird” was not jamming. The end of “Books Are Burning” is, though. I stand proud, in the center of the squared circle. The King of the Ring!
I’ve been thinking all Jamuary that we needed a definition of jamming. When I use the word it implies improvisation. But the Glenn Branca piece that kicked off the celebration was through-composed.
this distinction between jamming and planned is blurrier than you’re all making it out to be.
i think there’s a large portion of my sharona’s middle section that isn’t at all dependent on “agreement” beforehand, and is probably improvised. but by the time we get to the triplets that the drummer and the guitarist play together, yeah, we’re in planned territory.
the notion of a bunch of guys “agreeing upon” whatever notes the guitarist is going to play over an instrumental section is silly where the backing players are simply playing chords or keeping the rhythm, as they are in “sharona.”
it’s not silly when we’re talking about all the parts that steve howe and rick wakeman play on an epic like “close to the edge,” however.
besides, even solos that sound integrated with the other parts probably came out of improvisation early in the process.
also, a guitarist could have such a keen ear for phrasing, melody, and its narrative capacity (i.e. its capacity to be composed) that he improvises in ways that sound composed. that doesn’t mean he’s not improvising.
you guys act like it’s black and white. it’s definitely not.
just sayin’ is all.
I was being a little snarky with the “agreement” statement, razzing obliquely on Winner Rock’s ideals of order, discipline, hierarchy, cleanliness, etc.
I agree with you that the line between planning and jamming is blurry, but I think “My Sharona” is not a good example of the blur. I think that song leans very heavily on the planned side of instrumental sections, in the same category as, say, the instrumental section of a latter-day Genesis song.
Yes, XTC’s “Books Are Burning.” I am the WINNER of this Battle Royale! The rest of you are the LOSERS. WINNER=me; LOSER=you.
Sincerely,
WINNER
Hrrundi’s been unusually quiet today. I hope he’s all right and can get back to posting in RTH tomorrow.
Hey Hrrundi, this is a Battle Royale, not a Last Man Standing so the best example, not the most recent one, gets the belt.
I’ve reviewed the “jamminess” to “Likelyhood” ratio of the entries so far, crunched some numbers, and it turns out that I’m still ahead with Johnny Was by the Stiff Little Fingers. So, please hand over the belt… Oh, never mind, I still have it right here.
(And by the way, I suspect that you will plead your case to the many XTC fanboys on this site in hopes of bolstering your position, but don’t even try it. This isn’t about emotional appeals, this is about cold hard facts. Remember, I’ve crunched the numbers.)
Good points, cdm. Thanks for reminding us of the formula that we need to apply in this Battle Royale. That said, I’m going to have to say that NOTHING is unlikely about SLF’s “Johnny Was.” Isn’t that their version of “Police and Thieves?” Did SLF do ANYTHING on their first couple of records that wasn’t an attempt to step into the footprints left by The Clash? Since *I* was the one to specify The Buzzcocks’ “Why Can’t I Touch” it, I could claim sole credit for holding the belt in this Battle Royale. However, I’m a bigger man than that. I’m granting Kilroy use of the belt. Oats was onto something with Sleater-Kinney, but he too lacked specificity.
I’d like to point out, as the *inventor* of the RTH Battle Royale, that I am well familiar with the rules and regulations concerned with its governance. The reason I should be declared WINNER is because — as this weeks Big Choice Poll should make clear — XTC is on the short list of bands generally acknowledged to be an entirely un-jamming enterprise. They are uptight, prockist, Kentonian, hyper-structured and addicted to tightly managed rock form. Yet they did jam, once, on “Books Are Burning.”
Hand over the belt!
Sincerely,
WINNER
Sorry, Mr Mod, I thought it was Most Unlikely Band to have jammed. I didn’t realize that the category was actually Band Most Unlike the Clash to Have Jammed. I stand corrected.
Hrrundi: On a high level, XTC simply can’t win against the Buzzcocks (or SLF, but I digress).
I’m not expert on XTC having only heard a handful of songs of theirs but my understanding is that they are regarded as having big Beatles/psychedelic pop influences. There is a direct line between jamming and psychedelic music from the 60s. So even if XTC is a bunch of tight-ass soulless pop merchants, it is hardly surprising that they would eventually follow the thread of their influences and take a crack at jamming.
Punk, on the other hand, especially first generation punk, was a repudiation of “classic rock” values, not the least of which was jamming. At the time, the spectacle of punks jamming had to seem like high treason
It was a valiant effort but please hand the belt over to Shawnkilroy for the Buzzcocks (or me for SLF).
Actually XTX did an earlier jam, which can be found on the 12″ of “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages:” “English Roundabout” and “Cut It Out,” recorded live in 1981.
Nice work, Dr. John. This also reminds me of two things: Partridge wanted “Travels in Nihilon” to be an album-long song, like a Steve Reich piece. Whether this would have been considered a jam or not is now a matter of debate, understandably. Also around the time of Black Sea, XTC spent a drunken night JAMMING on Zeppelin and Zeppelin-like blooz workouts. I used to have that stuff on CD. I’m sure you can still find it out there on the web somewhere. In short, XTC’s little, pathetic jam on “Beds Are Burning” was NOT as unlikely as HVB may have thought.
XTC NERD ALERT
Mod, I also had the drunken Zep sessions at one time — that wasn’t “jamming”! That was just the band trying to replicate the Zep thing in the studio, with silly lyrics on top. (I have to admit, I found Andy’s on-the-fly rewrite of “Whole Lotta Love” into an anthem for nursing home residents pretty funny. “Wayyy down insiiiide… GERIATRIC! You neeeeed…,” etc.)
HVB
XTC NERD ALERT
Anyone ever hear any of the live versions of “Battery Brides”? On the version of Transistor Blast, there’s a long extended intro, with Andy extemporizing on top of a minimal riff. That’s the kind of jamming they once excelled at. I read somewhere that he used to love stretching out on that song, and often needed Dave Gregory to yell at him to wrap it up and get to the vocal part.