Will your Mystery Date be a dream or a dud?
Jan 132009
Dec 052008
HVB made a great point when this post first ran: The Who don’t get dragged through the ringer of Rock Town Hall with half the frequency of some other titans of rock around here. Maybe it’s because we’re mostly dudes and because The Who was so vital to our sense of budding dudeness as teenagers. Could there be Rock Town Hall without the rite of passage that was the Stages of Who? Rather than get too heavy, I say we revisit HVB’s hard-hitting questions on ’70s-era Who AND go one step further: add our own previously unasked question about this band.
This post initially appeared 10/17/07.
Ah, that lovely little band from Shepherd’s Bush: The ‘Oo. I’ve long been puzzled by the lack of pissing contests, name-calling and prissy, fists-thumping-on-your opponent’s-chest nerd-fights on the topic of this band. Sure, all the closet prockists in this Hall can agree that there’s something perfect and inviolate about pre-Tommy Who, but — after that? There’s loads of stuff we haven’t come to blows over. Yet.
In order to start the healing process even before the conflict has begun, I suggest you all take a moment out of your busy day to answer at least a few of the following questions. As always, feel free to take any one of these issues and really get serious with your answer.
1. Show of hands: let’s leave aside the issue of lip-synch’ing for a moment: rate the Who’s BBC “Join Together” clip as a source of rock entertainment. Scale of 1 to 10: how much do you enjoy watching it?
2. Our Moderator has said he finds Who By Numbers disappointing. I think that’s a mealy-mouthed way of ducking his responsibility to declare the thing a “turd” or a “treasure.” Where do you come down on this album?
3. Name the worst — and the best — album covers in the 1970s Who canon.
4. ‘Fess up: how many times have you actually listened to Live At Leeds from start to finish? Speaking for myself, I can barely make it through one track of that album at a time.
5. Once again, I ask: should the band have called it quits when Moonie died?
6. SHOWDOWN! Who’s Next or Quadrophenia?
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
Oct 172008
Sorry to post and run, but it’s late, and I have a two-bourbon buzz on. I had to get a couple of drinks down my gullet to withstand the jam-tastic wankathon that confronted me at a Little Feat show I got backstage tix to tonight. I want you all to know that the only reason I went is because a number of you — including many whose musical opinions I otherwise respect — swear by these guys.
It wasn’t terrible. I mean, it wasn’t even 20% as bad as the Phish show I got dragged to once. Or 5% as bad as I imagine Dead shows used to be. But it wasn’t really my cup of tea. Fair enough and “big fucking surprise,” I hear you guys moaning as you roll your eyes and lunge for the bong. But, seriously, do me a favor and tell me why you like Little Feat so much. What I heard was an extremely competent roots-rock/jam band, with very, very little of interest to say. Here’s a way to get at what I want to know: why do I love Lynyrd Skynyrd so much, yet find Little Feat so uninteresting?
Before you throw rotten tomatoes at me for trying to get you to say (once again): “because it’s jam-band hippie shit, and you don’t like that stuff, HVB!”, let me just say that there were a few bourbon-fueled moments where I was actually able to nod my head sympathetically to lead guitar player dude’s sextagenerian stratocaster bliss-out, and I was actually mightily impressed with drummer dude’s game. But, really, what the fuck are these guys singing about? Why do I love “Get Up, Stand Up” by Marley so much, yet find Little Feat’s version so lame?
If ever I needed some serious RTH Healing, it’s now. Please explain, so that I may grow and mature as a music listener.
Thank you all, and I look forward to your responses.
HVB
Aug 162008
I came across this Holy Grail – for me – of a YouTube clip today.
I’ve long been in awe of the elements that went into the funky space-rock of “Amazona”, from my favorite Roxy Music album, Stranded: Manzanera’s cool rhythm guitar part and otherwordly (especially on the album) solo, Ferry’s humorous delivery, and Paul Thompson’s rock-solid drumming, in particular. The song, like the best of early Roxy Music, both tickles my sense of psychic unrest and makes me laugh thanks to a tongue-in-cheek tone that extends from Ferry’s lyrics and vocals through the musical arrangements. (Phil Manzanera, on the first few Roxy Music albums and his appearances on Eno albums, is rock’s funniest guitarist.)
The first song I remember hearing by Roxy Music was “Love Is the Drug”, which was a hit just as I was entering my teen years and getting a sense of what needs I might have that this drug might fulfill. That song was easy to like thanks to its tight, funky/reggae groove and sly vocals. I may not have heard much by Roxy Music for the next few years, excepting a minor hit single from one of those later ’70s albums like Manifesto, until freshman year in college, when a friend/”spiritual advisor” turned me on to the first Roxy Music album. That album went down real easy – and still does to this day.
This was just around the time, I’m sorry to say, that I finally got to sample that love drug, if you know what I’m saying. By the end of freshman year I was in love with an actual girl that I could, you know, grope. Powerful stuff, for a first-time user. I hope you’ve all had a chance to experience this drug in multiple formulations.
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Jun 282008
Thanks, Slokie! I sense there are more than a few Townspeople who will benefit from a peaceful viewing of the following clip.
Jun 232008
I was out at a baseball game with fellow Townsman Mockcarr the other day, and, as the beer began to flow, we both decided that things at RTH had gotten a bit contentious. What we needed, we agreed, was to find common ground — you know, to find the things we know we can all agree with. We also realized, however, that attempting to find common ground on things we all liked was a fool’s errand. That’s what got us into all this trouble to begin with! A more likely path to peace and harmony, we thought, was finding unity and one-ness in the things we know we all hate.
Townsman Kilroy started things off rather nicely by citing the Rolling Stones’ output, post-Tattoo You. I’m going to suggest Dennis DeYoung. Is anybody here willing to stand up for either of these things and claim they’re not as bad as we think they are? If not, perhaps you’d be willing to help promote the healing by finding something else we can all agree to hate — utterly and completely — together.
Come on, RTH — can’t we all just get along?
HVB
Feb 052008
Like most of the rest of you RTH old-timers, I’ve been waiting *years* for our Moderator to explain his feelings about Stevie Wonder. At first, I thought his hostility only focused on Stevie’s sprawling “Songs In the Key Of Life” — we all know of the Moderator’s deep misgivings about real musical *ambition*. But after reading this brief aside about the song “Tuesday Heartbreak,” I’ve finally realized that there may be much that needs explaining — and I feel doing so may result in some much-needed Healing for our Moderator’s soul:
Hrrundi, is “Tuesday Heartbreak” one of those sappy love-songs-to-Jesus-masquerading-as-praise-for-coke-off-a-backing-singer’s-nipples numbers that Stevie’s been known to crank out?
Please, Mod, if only for your own good: share.
HVB
