Mom!
Tonight’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In is bigger, better, and longer than ever! The roughly 33 minutes and 33 seconds of a typical episode can’t contain our year-end festivities. We’ll look back over the past year of growth and rock analysis. About midway through the program Mr. Moderator will conduct an exclusive telephone interview with a former Beatles’ associate and Apple Corps division head! Then Mr. Mod will make one final effort at interesting even a single Townsperson in the humble delights of Be-Bop Deluxe. All along the quest to reach 100,000 distinct visitors to Rock Town Hall in one month rages on. Tune in and see if you can’t do your part to push us past this goal!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-9-2.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 9][Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatically download each week’s podcast.]
Mod, a friend sent me some Be-Bop Deluxe material. I played one of them and thought it was a bit off: 70s prog rock with a big, overproduced sound and unclear, maybe even clumsy goals. But I didn’t hate it, so if you want me to give their music another shot, I will, but tell me how to go about it. What should I be listening to?
Catch the Man on the Rise is one of my favorite Sir Douglas Quintet songs ever! It always seemed like on of those things where Doug said to the band “Key of D …Watch my hands … 1-2-3-4!”
The Bebop Deluxe stuff was interesting, not as I remembered it. I think ‘Bowie with more guitar solos’ sounds about right. The rock&roll lifestyle doesn’t much interest me as subject matter for songs. Technofuturism either for that matter. It seems to me like he’s very smart, one of those people who actually had too much technical facility, both on the guitar and on the recording console. Kind of like Zappa without the lame sense of humor.
I think I had heard mostly his post-BBD stuff, which was more experimental/ambient, and that’s what I associate him with, not the glam/Tubeway Army material here.
Love the full version of the RTH theme. That guy needs to open a studio or something.
In this episode, mwall, I attempt to walk listeners through a quick overview of their career. I hope you find it helpful. For me they embody a set of aspirations from that period that would never be fulfilled. You probably know by now that I’m a big fan of unfulfilled cultural aspirations. Happy New Year!
Need to dig into this further, but a cursory trip through 30-second bits of the BBD stuff made me go “ugh,” as usual. But I promise to cue it up in the car, now that I’ve figured out how to get it on the iPhone. As to the kind words about the RTH theme — that was written and recorded LONG before any studio got built. Please don’t think music recorded at my place of business sounds like that! But thanks just the same.
That reminds me — BigSteve, I still owe you my Christmas song, don’t I?
Yes, I had to resort to David Bowie and Bing Crosby to keep my Xmas spirits up.
100,000 distinct hits! Geez, I’d better start wearing a tie or shaving more often, or wearing pants, even, at least when I post a comment. Thanks for the heads up.
Looking forward to hearing the Big Interview.
SPOILER ALERT:
Sadly we fell 2 hits short of our target, but I’m confident we’ll top that mark this month.
Your boxers look fine, misterioso. No need to spiff up!
Be-Bop Deluxe. Yeah. Always thought I might like them. Never really happened. Based on what I just heard, this isn’t going to be the year. It seems to me that what is missing is really good songs. Not completely terrible when they sound like Bowie, extremely dull when drifting into Yes territory.
As far as I can tell, sometimes they sound like much better and more innovative artists and at other times they sound like other equally uninteresting artists.
Tough when the selling point is “paved the way for Flock of Seagulls,” but, heck, somebody had to do it. I guess.
Your efforts are appreciated. To me, they fulfill all the promise, relatively speaking, of mediocre ’70s rock, the kind of turf that was instead claimed by the likes of Styx, Kansas, et al. That’s not saying a lot, but to me they should have been ’70s Arena Rock’s humble, loveable equivalent of a pub rock band, as a pub rock band might have been to a comparable rock ‘n roll titan like the Stones or the Faces…if that makes any sense. And I dig Bill Nelson’s guitar playing.