Townspeople,
We hope you are healthy and abiding by your community’s social distancing practices. I’m keeping my hands as clean as Chris Martin’s.
COVID-19 has thrown us for a loop. I don’t know about you, but all this time shut in the house has made me long for an outlet that not even social media can satisfy. I need to mix it up with my most-intimate music-loving friends. I need to call bullshit with you on some things and, more importantly, have bullshit called on myself.
I’m not alone. A few of you have reached out to me and my close, personal friend sammymaudlin to ask if we could re-open the Halls of Rock, at least until we make it through this global pandemic. We’re brushing up things just enough to give us the rock-nerd shelter we may need to have the intimacy to kindly attack sacred cows, analyze the influence of facial hair on an artist’s musical development, and get a report on the Bill Wyman documentary on Netflix. This emergency trial re-opening of Rock Town Hall can even provide a safe haven for a discussion of Bob Dylan‘s new 17-minute song about the assassination of JFK, which I’ve been afraid to listen to without you.
Who knows where this goes? I hope it helps us through the coming months, if that’s what it’s going to take to get back out to clubs and backslap with friends.
Don’t hesitate to ask if you need a refresher on how to navigate things, how to post new content, simply how to log in. Of course, there is an auto-reset, if you’ve forgotten your password. Who could blame you?
Let me be the first to say Welcome Back RTH! You have been greatly missed by this Townsman. If only I had saved all the great threads I’ve thought of in the last 3 or 4 (or whatever it’s been) years.
And let it be known that I am ready to discuss “Murder Most Foul”.
Great to have RTH back. Wesley Stace aka John Wesley Harding tweeted how proud he was that Dylan had mentioned the first JWH album in the song.
At last, something good has resulted from all this.
It’s nice to have RTH back. I have reread some of the old threads the past few years, like the Stones v. Faces one & I did miss the discussion that ensued.
I dunno if I can listen to a 17 minute version of He Was A Friend of Mine
Perfect! Somehow over 2 computer changes, my login was still remembered. That’s the virtual dog bringing the pipe and slippers.
https://youtu.be/xJgb7c-UglQ
Shouldn’t these comments be farther apart just to be safe?
I think we’re ok as long as 10 people aren’t logged in at the same time.
How good to see some of you back! A few of you I run into in other electronic venues, but not all of you are on other forms of social media. Right before all this hit, I actually sat across from one of you at a bar and had plans in the works to sit across from another in your garage. Right on!
Here’s hoping that a few more Townspeople take general slocum’s posting of “Come in Stranger” to heart and we get this party started.
Speaking of getting the party started, this shut-in period has turned me onto something called Netflix Party. If any of you have used it or would be willing to try it, it could be a good vehicle for getting on Netflix together and watching a rock doc with the ability to text chat throughout in real time.
Here’s something that my friend Barrence hipped me to several years ago. It was probably the first ever cover of a Doors song & the backing band was the Strawberry Alarm Clock. This is from a show called Malibu U that was a summer show from 1967, hosted by Rick Nelson:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NV_pG1Vcuig
Boy! The upside is, al the old threads are just as viable since the material being debated is usually a decade or three behind the times. It’s like that well-worn pair of jeans: so comfy, if a bit ripe, and in the right light, they almost look like new-“distressed” jeans. Fabulous!
Know that the time off has allowed me to further scrutinize the mid Sixties Stones LPs. The thorough revisitation has brought me to this conclusion: Aftermath and Between the Buttons are filled with too many so so needlelifter tracks, making the reach for the shelf a chore. That said, Satanic Majesties still holds up. The nonsense tracks continue to have am enjoyable Spinal Tap like quality, ridiculous but having much sonic ooooomph!
Aftermath/Between the Buttons/ Satanic Majesties Request. Which one is kept and what two are dumped?
I look forward to your responses.
E. Pluribus Gergely
Here’s hoping this whole godawful thing has done a number on the Moderator’s Beefheart is God/Between the Buttons is the Stones’ Revolver/ I hate the Byrds/ There’s too many percussion instruments on Beggar’s Banquet/ The Lennon tracks on Rubber Soul are weak/Blah, blah, Blah hogwash.
How ’bout it, Moderator? In the words of that famous Philadelphia songwriter/ performer of yore: Let it go!!!!
2000 man? Where are you?
E. Pluribus Gergley
EPG, I’ll pick up with you tomorrow. I was looking forward to seeing how people have evolved since we last gathered. You may have devolved. Their Satanic Majesties Request…what are you, vaping these days?
I remember Mr. Mod saying that Exile In Main Street would have made a great EP. That’s how I feel about Satanic Majesties Request. Junk stuff like “Gomper” & it would be a better listen. In the alternative, you get rid of the indulgent crap & put the ” Dandalion/”We Love You” single instead & it’s a better listen. Between the Buttons is one of my favorite Stones albums, both the US & UK versions & has a lot of great songs like “Miss Amanda Jones” which sounds like it should be on Some Girls.
Now this is something nice that I didn’t expect. It’s nice to be back here and I look forward to new threaded, old threads, new threads that are basically similar to old threads and whatever else. I also run into some (but not all) of you on other forms of social media. I was even off FB for almost a year before signing back on recently. I’ll even defend The Sin of Pride (again) with glee if anyone wants that.
Welcome back, Mr. Mod and RTH! In the last few years, I have come to accept that I don’t like a lot of new music and prefer to endlessly listen to those albums from my younger days. So whenever you all are up for discussion of Mark Kozolek’s oeuvre, I’m your gal. I’m also ready to start reminiscing about those fondly remembered things called live shows, and share stories about running into musicians in the wild. (Paul Weller! Yo La Tengo! I’m still a fan girl.)
How great to hear that bell ringing out again above Rock Town Hall. Greetings and salutations from Melbourne, Australia. I may be more of a lurker than a poster, but then again, these days who knows what theories might pop into my head? For example, in the time we have been away from each other I seem to have developed a deep fascination for krautrock. I blame Julian Cope and the 1972 debut album by Neu! Look forward to hearing the chatter from RTH over the coming months.
mikeydread,
If you haven’t, make sure that you check out Faust. They don’t lean into the classic motorik Krautrock sound like Can and Neu, but they are my very favorite. Also the fairly recent Can Singles collection works better for me than any of their albums with the exception of Future Days.
Geo, I have the Can Singles collection, which I enjoy greatly, like a big tray of (admittedly weird) assorted chocolates. Will lend an ear to Faust over this period of, ah, well, isolation. Cheers.
I’ll have to revisit Faust. Amon Duul II continues to be my favorite band from that period.
Deep joy! Oh yes.
Life has been strange for quite a lot of the last eight years, I’ve often thought of happy days here at the Hall, how wonderful to see its doors opening again.
I’ve been out of love with music for a while, but over the last couple of years have been back in grooving mode again and even made it to Glastonbury last year.
Thanks Mr Mod for inviting us all back again, look forward to checking out what’s happening later.
Stay cool won’t you, if you can’t manage that at least all stay safe.
Hey Mr Mod, how about a rolling thread for artists playing live sets on social media during the lockdown?
John Otway played a set last Saturday on Facebook and is doing it again tonight, 8pm UK time, something else over in the us of a.
Last night the Smoke Fairies played in their living room for an hour, it was rather lovely and is on FBs version of listen again. There’s a great anecdote involving home made soup about three quarters of the way in.
Any others coming up?
Hello Old Friend(s) — Let’s Go!
Happiness Stan, great idea! I’ll set something up when I’m back on my laptop, later tonight or tomorrow.
Oh this is welcome news indeed.
If I can carve out a bit of time between important napping sessions and generalized freakout, I’m prepared to present a panoply of controversial opinions on how rock has eaten itself so many times that there can’t possibly be any flavor left, truth in localized capitalism, namely, that the majority of my recent purchases have leaned heavily ambient, new directions in Jazz (I know, right?), and the blossoming, some might say, infestation, of recent bands basing their entire sound and songwriting style on two chords from that Tame Impala song. I’m prepared to back up my arguments with facts.
Gergely: Between the Buttons because of Amanda Jones and Connection.
Hey, where’s the “latest comments” button?
Good to see more of you back in the Hall! cdm, the “latest comments” button and some other features were set aside for now, in the aim of quickly getting the Hall tuned up for basic usage. I think this is what tech people call “agile management.” If this goes on, we’ll do a proper overhaul.
God – up until now I had no reason to douse myself in Mandom and turn it up to 10! Looking forward to WINNING some of the jams this time…
My son got me David Bowie is INSIDE for chimpsmast. Quite the gnarly requisitteet.
Mr. Mod – ever get to use that Johnny Bench bat I sentchaz couple years back?
Telegasm, great to see you again. Hope all has been well. I did get to use that Johnny Bench bat in BP! It currently hangs on a wall with other favorite bats in my garage. It felt so right. Unfortunately, our team split up a few years ago. I miss that activity as much as I’ve missed moderating RTH.