Admit it, this is the kind of live prock experience you wish you could have witnessed in person! At least I wish I coud have been there to see a beret-wearing Tom Verlaine playing one of my favorite songs from my favorite of his solo albums, Dreamtime! Love the chops-wielding drummer! Dig the other guitarist’s huge, unbuttoned cuffs. And is that Fred Smith on bass?
In recognition of the opening of the major motion picture The Day the Earth Stood Still, a special guest, Klaatu, has entered the Halls of Rock to pose 5 questions for earthlings. These questions can only be answered after listening to the following songs.
Klaatu, “Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Life)”
Question 1: If this was supposed to be The Beatles, who was supposed to have been singing lead, an infant Carl Newman?
Question 2: If “California Jam” had appeared on any of those post-Brian Wilson breakdown albums that the brave pop fans among you can stomach, would it have been considered a “triumph of the post-Pet Sounds era?”
Question 3: Is the above song’s title worthy of the world-renowned standards of “Canadian humor?”
Question 4: For you, does the sound of the bass at the beginning of “Sub-Rosa Subway” nearly single-handedly justify the entire song’s existence?
Klaatu, “Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III”>
Question 5: If you were casting the major motion picture version of Klaatu’s 3:47 EST album on behalf of Robert Stigwood – and death was not a factor – who would you cast in the role of Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III (remember, appropriate singing ability should be considered)?
On behalf of Klaatu, thank you, earthlings.
After a year and a half of research, analysis, and discussion, Rock Town Hall has arrived at what might be its most important Glossary entry to date, Proctomusicology and its related terms, Proctomusicologist and Prock. We have identified a unifying principle in modern music that cuts across genres. A simple, concise definition follows:
Proctomusicology: Music up its own ass about its musicological means of creating music, inching forward the aesthetic principles of whatever style/s is/are being mined.
See also: Proctomusicologist, Prock
The research and development that went into the validation of this term is detailed in the links below. It was a true team effort, with Townsman Saturnismine responsible for the exact phrasing of our definition. Meanwhile, the author of our Glossary entry Kentonite, Townsman Hrrundivbakshi, noted the difference between a Kentonite and a Proctomusicologist:
A Kentonite is obssessed with the technical componentry of music, and cares not whether the music is looking forward or backward; the Prock-ist is obsessed with the subject matter’s musicological componentry, and always defines it in terms of its antecedents.
Of course, there’s a Rock Venn Diagram thing going on here, as well. Some artists are both Prockists and Kentonites. Donald Fagen springs to mind. I’d add that — slicing even more finely — there are Prock bands (eg, XTC) that contain Kentonite members (eg, Dave Gregory), and so forth.
Read back through the term’s Working Definition period of development, in the following links, and I think you’ll agree that no group of music lovers was better equipped to define this term. For more reading on this subject see here, here, and where it all began, here.
Veterans of the Halls of Rock may recall our enthusiastic, hard-working sessions discussing the working definition of Proctomusicology and that aesthetic discipline’s resulting music, Prock. The goal was to develop a validated, universally accepted notion of these terms, which could be used to shift the paradigm of rock criticism. Alas, we may have crawled up our own collective ass. Another post or two would follow this Working Definition, but eventually Townspeople threw up their hands and were content to use the term “Prock” without fully understanding its full implications. Perhaps revisiting this topic will inspire new research and debate. Perhaps not.
This post initially appeared 2/26/07.
Before a term makes it to the Rock Town Hall Glossary, it must first be identified and understood. A few weeks ago, we began work on defining the term Proctomusicology and its related terms Proctomusicologist and Prock. In the course of our investigations, it was determined that Prock, as a musical subgenre, might be the missing link that will unite previously segmented artists across rock subgenres.
During our initial examination, bands such spanning as wide a spectrum as Steely Dan, Apples in Stereo, XTC, Jellyfish, Adrian Belew-era King Crimson, Paul Simon, and Lindsey Buckingham were suggested as possible practitioners of Prock. Along the way, we tried to determine what united these musicians, what characteristics both they and their fans might have had in common.
One characterization of Proctomusicology and Prock practitioners, as offered by a Townsperson, that we could agree on was as follows:
Music that’s almost exclusively built on styles and attitudes fom Rock’s past, without making any claims of overt revivalism.
There was also the suspicion that Prock music is, as one Townsperson put it:
Music for AND by the tight-assed.
Is there a drummer in the house?
What’s the deal with Jellyfish drummer Andy Sturmer playing standing up? It’s not a drummer standing up in itself that nags at me, but a power pop drummer. What’s going to supply the POWER if not a drummer’s haunches coiled on a drum throne?
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Mr. Mod, if memory serves, you’re one of those guys who has a really hard time saying anything nice about Jellyfish. I’m betting that your reasons for being disdainful about this band are minor, largely Look- and style-obsessed — and may even be tinged with a hint of career envy. If that’s not so, then please explain: why do you hate these guys so much?
Eagerly looking forward to your response,
HVB
p.s.: just to show I’ve got my cards on the table — I think “Spilt Milk” is one of the most wonderful American pop/rock records ever made. And I use that term “wonderful” for a reason; it’s dizzyingly rich, crazily ambitious, hyper-Kentonite — yet it’s still ultimately a tuneful, finger-snapping, timeless celebration of *song*. I love it, and you should, too! Why on Earth don’t you?!
Yes! YouTube comes through with the next best thing to my #1 behind-the-scenes peek, which would be the making of XTC‘s English Settlement. Here’s the band in the first of a 10-part series of YouTubes on the making of “Towers of London”, or as I’ve read, the re-making of “Towers of London”, the released version of which had already been recorded. Nevertheless, I invite XTC and studio nerds to unite!
You know you want more!
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