May 062012
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
This week’s special guest edition of Saturday Night Shut-In comes to you from Hrrundivbakshi!
Hey, guys and gals — I come before you once again (a bit tardy — sorry about that) with a fine assortment of scratchy vinyl, culled from the dustbins, thrift stores and flea markets of our nation’s capitol. Well, almost. The music you’ll hear in this episode was actually found in West Virginia — but it’s all good, and it’s all here. Free of charge, as always — the pops and clicks cost no extra. Enjoy!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/01-SNSI-5-12.mp3|titles=01 SNSI 5-12][Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]
Thoroughly enjoyable show. We were making and eating dinner while listening. I could give you the play by play but won’t bore you of comprehending between mouthfuls of mozzarella. But here are a few comments”
1. The better known cover of the song you played is The Allman Brothers “One Way Out.” Mr. Royale kept repeating to me that I knew it (Mr. Royale: “Come on, it’s their best known song?!” Me: “You mean that Whipping Post song?” Him, “No, come on…” and plays me a YouTube version. I had to admit that I do know it but had parsed it away into the part of my brain associated with the high school boyfriend who had played it for me. But now with your version, it can be freely embraced again.
2. Mr. Royale’s comment on hearing “Excuses, Excuses:” “Wow, I have to hang my head in shame. I don’t have that.” It’s always good to hear new crackpots.
3. We had grand ol’ time determining which current bands are ripping off these sounds. See Vampire Weekend for your calypso number.
As a minimally-connected aside, today I was in a used bookstore and was browsing through the music section and came across a potential gem: Two of three volumes of the complete “Encyclopedia of Pop Music” published in weekly installments by some British mag I hadn’t heard of. Pros: all sorts of great photos, comparisons of British and American charts, interesting take on band histories, in-depth analyses of bands of the time. Cons: No Volume 3 available, no index or table of contents, ends around 1974.
Anyone want me to pick it up for him/her? It was a temptation…I might need to get it just to be able to garner further anecdotes for future posts.
Is that the “Story of Pop”?
If so, it was a weekly part-work published in the early 70s, one of the first over here. I had them when they came out but they went the way of most of my stuff when I left home.
I found another set at a jumble or boot sale a few years ago, in their black binders which I couldn’t afford at the time, and they are still really fascinating. They were clearly aimed at the pop market, but taught me all I needed at the age of eleven or twelve to become a music nerd.
There were only two volumes printed, 52 weekly issues, so if it is those it’s a full set. If it is the same thing and they’re not very expensive then they come with my recommendation. People offer them for sale over here for about $70 per volume, but whether anyone ever pays that much I have no idea, I wouldn’t pay that much for them. I got my replacements for about three or four dollars.
There was another published in the eighties, The History of Rock, which was aimed to be far more worthy, and while they were interesting, they weren’t nearly so much fun.
I own a tattered copy of that “History of Rock” book, complete with teenage scribblings in the margins about albums I had to get, once I moved to a part of the world where such things were get-able.
Thanks for your insta-review, Ladymiss!
On the topic of “Excuses, Excuses” — yes, I’m actually very surprised that track has escaped the notice of the song-poem completists. It’s a good one, for sure.
In my experience, song-poem records are rarer than hen’s teeth — I’ve only ever found two of them, including this one — but that may have something to do with where I do my shopping. I would imagine they turn up more frequently at radio station inventory auctions and so forth.
I think it was “The Story of Pop.” I’ll go back to the store in the next couple of days and check to be certain.
GREAT show, HVB. Thanks for answering the question that kept nagging me about the horn part during the chorus of that first song. The double-headed single by Crockett or Tubbs, or whatever his name was, was indeed excellent. Loved the loopy lead guitar in the first song, and who would have thought there was any merit in that song related to the Allman Brothers’ turd.
The R. Stash booty track was really impressive for how slow the band maintained that song’s tempo. It was a cool groove, and it needed to be that slow both for the bass to resonate just so and to reflect the nature’s true tempo of booty watching. Very scientific!
Thanks for working through your technical difficulties and DELIVERING!
BTW, my favorite moment in this broadcast was when you, HVB, announce that you’re going to play a song by a guy who “usually annoys me,” or however it was you characterized Aaron Neville. The disdain in your voice was palpable and really spoke to me. I had a good laugh in the car over that.
I meant to write something here Sunday morning, but got distracted by a dog walking by my window, or something…Yes, thoroughly enjoyable show, HVB! I especially liked “Mademoiselle Ninette”, “I’m a Lonely Guy” (cool rhythm gtr. sound) , and “Booty March”. “Ninette” kinda sounds like Jamaican Bubblegum ( ‘The1910 Spliff Factory’ ? ‘The Kasenetz-Katz Jerk Chicken Irie Orchestral Circus’?), but I looked up The Soulful Dynamics, and they were apparently from Liberia, though based in Germany! Kooky…Great stuff.
I, too, am a fan of those later period Chilton albums – I really liked the fact that he didn’t make any attempt to sing the material with any sort of affected “black-cent”. Maybe he had his fill of being forced to do things that way when he was a kid in The Box Tops, or maybe he just couldn’t sing that way any more, but I like to think he just had enough respect for the quality of the source material to not feel the need to do the usual pandering vocal minstrelsy. It made for a nice change of pace from the usual predictable approach we white folks take in covering R & B and Soul material. The cat had great taste…as do you.
Awww… what a wonderful thing to say, Bobby! Thanks for making my rock nerd day, and… back atcha!