Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
On tonight’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In your host, Mr. Moderator, pulls records from the last bin in the “go-to” rock ‘n roll section of his vinyl collection, which spans from somewhere in the middle of his Roxy Music collection through The Zombies. Along the way he dreams of a mating of two versions of a Lou Reed song, wonders how anyone can like the songs by T. Rex that don’t sound like “Get It On,” and forgets to announce the one pretty good track off an otherwise blah Richard and Linda Thompson album. He ends the show analyzing the moment “cool” Who fanboys would deeply regret.
RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 90
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Good show — mixed feelings in Twins Territory about the Revere trade to the Phils. Maybe he will hit his first major league home run for you guys.
Also, listening to “Low Spark” I turned a page in the paper to see that Steve Winwood is opening for Rod Stewart on a big tour this spring . . . and Fleetwood Mac is rolling out another big tour, too. Dinosaurs do roam the earth. Arenas are their meat.
While listening to “Christmas” by The Who, I started thinking about other songs that mention Christmas but aren’t “Christmas songs”. The only other song that came to mind was Neil Sedaka’s “Calender Girl”. Would this be a good Last Man Standing topic?? I’ve also thought of a new Category which challenges the knowledge of Townsfolk. It would be called “Mission Impossible”. Unlike LMS where you could a hundred answers, Mission Impossible would have only a handful of answers. This Christmas challenge would fall under that category. Another possible topic would be bands whose debut album was a live recording.
Good music to decorate the tree by. Thanks, Mod!
NO other T-Rex songs? Not even I Love to Boogie? Such a nice simple, classic rhythm.
We looked in to seeing Fleetwood Mac: $250 a ticket. No thank you. I’m switching my focus to those nimbler velociraptors.
Judging by the title it sounds like it follows the “Get it On”/”Mambo Sun”/”Jeepster” model, which means it must be pretty good. There are a couple of other songs on that album I own (misidentified as Slider) that follow that model and are, therefore, not bad. If it’s a fey ballad about starchildren, however, you can be pretty sure *I* think it sucks.
Great to hear the Turtles song–haven’t heard it for years.
I’m 90% with you on T-Rex. I can make allowances for a few more songs but basically we’re talking Bang a Gong and Jeepster, which both make me want to jump around a lot. Jeepster, in particular, having received so much less airplay, always is a treat to hear. Incidentally, those are from Electric Warrior not The Slider. Rock on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-G7-yLFmCQ
Even after all these years, I’ve yet to hear anything from Tom Waits that does even the slightest, small thing for me.
I hear you, more or less, on the Pete moment in Tommy. But, really, the studio recording as a whole is barely a shadow of the live performances of 1969-70. I so rarely listen to the lp and when I do I am struck by many poor choices of production and arrangement, none of which exist in the performances.
Right, Electric Warrior is the lone T. Rex album I own.
I agree with you regarding live vs studio versions of those songs, even though I still don’t like many of the album’s motifs. Is there any lp more hampered by the time in which it was made than Tommy? “Pinball Wizard” works, but too much of the album lacks the requisite Power & Glory to prop up such grandiose content. It’s an album that was crying for a ’70s production, not the ’60s sound that worked so well for Sell Out. Are there other albums like that, albums that were made before recording technology could do them justice?
Good question on production — I always thought I would enjoy Cream albums more if they were made in 70s. I think they sound a bit flat when you play them next to Led Zep records.
GREAT example!
Who’s Next is only 2 years later and its sound is light years ahead, but is that a function of technology or of having a competent producer?
I think the production of the early Who albums was incredibly effective for that era’s music. I think don’t think the technology could have allowed a ’70s-sounding record at that time, regardless of producer.
What’s the first remotely ’70s-sounding record, maybe The White Album in 1968? It’s dry. The drums are IN YOUR FACE. The instruments sound “in the room,” not enveloped in compression and reverb. The Stones’ Let It Bleed also has such qualities.
Even Led Zeppelin’s first album still has a “’60s” sound, which I know is why my close personal friend and ’60s head Andyr considers it by far the best Zeppelin album.
Well, good question. I would say some of Let It Bleed and most of Sticky Fingers has a “70s sound.” I agree about Zeppelin I but II is a whole other matter, and it was only recorded 6 months later! So again it seems to me it is a matter of approach rather than entirely one of technology.
The early–as in really early–Who recordings mostly work but by 1969 they badly needed someone at the helm who could translate their sound into a decent sounding record, not Kit Lambert.
T Rex Mark Bolan sp? struck me as a David Bowie want to be. The glamorous androgeny appeal. F. it Don’t know where my dictionary is. David Bowie was the master and Bolan the student.
Just caught up on this one…. Roxy to the Zombies? How could one not listen with those two bookends.