Mom!
Tonight we dig a little deeper. Enjoy!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-3-2.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In 3]As last week’s episode of Saturday Night Shut-In should have made clear, I still dig the simple, sugar-charged confections of the rock ‘n roll I cut my teeth on: no questions asked. My musical Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups never get old! As rock ‘n roll and rock fans (myself included) matured it was hard not to look down our noses at some of the similarly sugary pop confectioneries of our late-teen years.
For my generation that would have been a band like the Saturday Night Fever–era Bee Gees. A little later there were bands from my youth that fell between the age of childhood innocence and my college years, the musical versions of Twix (introduced in the US in 1979), in my case, like middle-school discovery from a few years earlier, ELO. In my college years, as I yearned for music a little more sophisticated or passionate or political—or anything that might make me seem more interesting to women and rock sages—I questioned the value of the Twix bar. Was it too much a newfangled kid’s candy for me to be seen eating? Reese’s was old school, classic, even “cute,” in the eyes of a nuturing young woman. Twix, in the early ’80s, like the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and ELO, didn’t make a woman my age get all soft and gooey in my presence, at least not the women I wanted to get soft and gooey. And it goes without saying these newfangled pop bands held no weight with the older rock sages I was simultaneously looking to impress.
Then a funny thing happened, at least in my world: rock sages determined that Bee Gees albums from the ’60s were actually pretty cool! Next it was discovered that, prior to ELO, Jeff Lynne joined an obscure (to American rock nerds) ’60s band called The Move. They were definitely cool, with reports of them smashing TVs and cars on stage yet still not getting remotely popular in the States, unlike their instrument-smashing contemporaries, The Who and Jimi Hendrix.
By this period I was deep into buying somewhat obscure albums by ’60s artists, blowing a dollar here, fifty cents there on possibly overlooked gems by the likes of The Association and, yes, The Bee Gees. Then I got wind that The Beach Boys carried on for years without an even remotely sane Brian Wilson at the helm. I thought, A lot of pain and suffering had to have gone into those albums! They must have been, well, not better but more interesting than my childhood favorites, like “I Get Around.” The rock sages were all about pain and suffering, and I was beginning to learn that a number of attractive women dug those qualities too. Sure enough, although not chock full ‘o hit singles, late-’60s Beach Boys albums like 20/20 do deliver songs with unexpected depth and charmingly rough edges. We dip into one of these songs in this week’s episode.
Toward the end of this week’s episode, I ask Townspeople to help me clear up a shocking discovery on my presssing of Charlie‘s No Second Chance. I’ve either discovered the most unexpected growth in the shortest period of time in music (ie, in the time between sides 1 and 2) or I’ve stumbled across something akin to finding an original draft of the Declaration of Independence behind an old picture frame left behind in the attic by my house’s previous owner!
I write this not yet having listened to tonight’s hallcast (?) but funny that you mention early Bee Gees, only because I came across a bunch of BG stuff on youtube from the early 60’s and it’s fascinating stuff.
Here they are singing, “Please please me.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN3DLAvsz78&feature=related
Another great line up, Mod. And that mystery Charlie track is the bomb: the bastard child of Jamaican ska and African Township music. But that accent is sort of mysterious. They clearly went on to sire Vampire Weekend.
Never heard of Charlie. That second track sounds like there’s some calypso influence to me. I can’t imagine what they thought they were up to. Just the idea that there’s another drummer named Steve Gadd makes the whole proposition suspect.
My friend, I am not sure what you have there on side 2 of Charlie’s No Second Chance, but surely it is not side 2 of Charlie’s No Second Chance. Go to the amazon listing and sample the songs you think you were playing. Whatever you were playing was surely more interesting than these samples, but it wasn’t Charlie. Nice cover, though. Was Smell the Glove their follow up?
http://www.amazon.com/No-Second-Chance-Charlie/dp/B000005NNT
The pre-Stigwood BeeGees stuff is interesting. Not, strictly speaking, interesting in a way that makes me want to listen to it: but interesting just the same. I’ve got a collection called Brilliant from Birth, I think, that includes all or most of their recordings before their 1st “real” record. And, of course, the tv clips are priceless.
Townspeeps, high-tech guru that I am I have FINALLY figured out how to include simple links to .zip files of each SNS-I episide. If interested you can click on the linked “Download episode…” text and download away. I’ve added the .zip file for the first two episodes as well. Thanks for your patience.
misterioso, the mystery of side 2 of my copy of that Charlie album continues! It’s definitely not Charlie, as the first track I played off that album indicates. The pressing plant must have accidentally used the wrong tapes by some other band for side 2. I’ve combed through the Janus discography with the help of E. Pluribus Gergely, and so far we have not hit on a possible Janus release that was used by mistake. This is probably some great lost album side that I’ve got, like outtakes from Brian Jones’ Masters of Joujouka sessions. I’m hoping a former employee of Janus sees this post and helps solve the mystery.
good to hear some love for baskin. he was actually the musical guest on an early snl – maybe the only musical guest who didn’t have an album to his credit. he did a lot of soundtrack work for altman and his associates, which included rudolph. little known fact: he’s the son of the baskin of baskin-robbins ice cream. his mom, in fact, was the sister of robbins. in other words, young mr. baskin probably did all right despite not “making it” to the level we might have wished.
no idea, btw, on that charlie track.
Hey Mr. Mod, apparently among the Altman films Basking contributed music to was one of your favorites, Nashville.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Baskin
Yeah, I didn’t know that until I looked up what schneids was talking about! He wrote my favorite song from that film, the opening track, “200 Years”! I only knew of Baskin through Welcome to LA.
Can I just say that I really disliked the Beach Boys song. The vocals during the chorus suck.