Aug 172009
As many of you know, I loves me some Brian Jones-era Stones and I loves me some boogie, but prepare yourself for boogie gone bad.
Really, if you’ve never seen this before, take it from me and don’t get your hopes up.
Mar 012007
Fridays are “jazz casual” on Rock Town Hall. I thought you might like the following clips of Sonny Rollins with Jim Hall.
While you enjoy these clips, perhaps you’d like to ponder the following questions. Your candid, “gut” answers will be appreciated.
- Have you ever heard Al Anderson’s band from the time before he joined NRBQ? I think they were called The Wildweeds. I heard them the other day for the first time, and they were really good. Much more to my tastes than “the Q.” They sounded a bit like The Rascals or Ian Gomm’s songs with Brinsley Schwarz.
- Speaking of people named Ian, please pick one of the following: a) Ian Hunter, b) Ian MacKaye, c) Janis Ian, d) Ian Anderson, e) Ian Drury.
- If you could trim off the fat, which ’70s prog-rock band would have made the best ’60s pop band?
- Have you ever had an idea or concept for a song that you’ve never been able to nail down and write? If so, why don’t you describe it to us?
- What’s the coolest record/artist you’ve turned a “straight” (ie, “normal” or “square”) person onto?
- What’s the word on Samuel L. Jackson’s slide guitar chops in Black Snake Moan?
Now back to our jazz casual Friday…
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24 Responses to “Fridays Are Jazz Casual”
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I love Acid Casual Fridays. Ian Dury is my choice even though I secretly loathe the intrepid “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”, because of how many times I’ve heard the darned thing. I love how camp and entertaining they are!
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I also go for the Dury Ian. And it strikes me as noteworthy that he didn’t come up in the humor discussion. Nor, for that matter, did Sonny Rollins, one of the only jazz greats to be seen smiling while creating Great Art. That vid is beautiful. That song is from “the Bridge” (might be the title cut?) and I didn’t listen all the way through just now, but that is a fave album. Jim Hall always kicks ass. His stuff with Jimmy Giuffre, his “Undercurrents” record with Bill Evans, he’s always a blast. Someone will Pince Nez this for me, but I think “the Bridge” was named for the period when Rollins had dropped out of playing in front of people, and spent nights honing his chops on some bridge or other (59th? Tribeca?) and came back badass as all get-out. That’s the apocrypha, anyhow.
I think the prog 70s/pop 60s for me would be Crimson, in that their first album was pretty much a 60s pop record with “fat” on it.
I don’t know about how “cool” they are, but I have definitely spread the gospe; of Penguin Cafe over the decades since Mr. Mod turned me on to them (how “square” was I?! Don’t answer.) -
I got that Wildweeds compilation a while back. That’s a good call on the Rascals influence. Their song No Good To Cry was apparently a huge record in New`England but nowhere else. The album has lots of good stuff on it, and there’s a website (wildweeds.net) with lots of info and even a psychedelic promo video from 68. And btw I read that NRBQ is playing a couple of gigs (I think this weekend in Northampton) with the current band plus Big Al Anderson.
And even though I think Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick is one of those pure genius records, I think I’ll choose Ian Gomm as ‘my’ Ian. The Brinsleys’ album Silver Pistol was a revelation when I bought it as a cutout in 76, and I always thought Gomm’s post-Brinsleys solo records were underrated. He had a song called Man on a Mountain that should’ve been in a hit in a better world.
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I’m gonna take Ian Anderson and throw Ian McCullough in there, because I said so.
Re: Trimming the Prog fat, there are a bunch of 3-minute radio edits of YES songs out there that I think fit the bill even with all the extra instrumentation and the bombast.
Re: Turning on the squares, I’m pretty much the squarest person I know, haha.
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Boy, do I LOVE Jim Hall. Talk about a guy who knows when *not* to play. The same can’t be said too often of Old Sonny, who can be quite an irritating caterwauler in my book. (That first video is particularly noisome in that regard.) I can’t help it — most show-off jazz saxophonists really give me a headache. Something about the combination of the raspy tone and the incessant honking.
More on your Big Choice Poll later — just wanted to send out mad props to the most tasteful jazz guitarist I can think of, Mr. Jim Hall. Yay, Jim!
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I agree with Citizen Mom – Yes definitely had pop potential. They made good use of vocal harmonies and hooks, and had some interesting instrumentation when Wakeman was subdued. King Crimson never had pop potential. Jethro Tull could occasionally come up with a catchy single like “Living In The Past”.
I’m surprised at all the props for “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”. I’ve always hated that song.
And I do dig Jim Hall, especially on “Undercurrent”.
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Have you ever heard Al Anderson’s band from the time before he joined NRBQ? I think they were called The Wildweeds.
Oh, yes. They were quite good, I think. There are *two* things you need to check out at the wildweeds Web site: the extremely cool psych video BigSteve refers to, and an .mp3 of the WWs playing “No Good To Cry” backed up by a slammin’ high school band. very cool!
Speaking of people named Ian, please pick one of the following: a) Ian Hunter, b) Ian MacKaye, c) Janis Ian, d) Ian Anderson, e) Ian Drury.
b.) Ian Anderson. Love that guy’s singing voice, affectations and all!
If you could trim off the fat, which ’70s prog-rock band would have made the best ’60s pop band?
I’m going to say Rush, because when they *did* trim the fat, they *were* a great poop band.
Have you ever had an idea or concept for a song that you’ve never been able to nail down and write? If so, why don’t you describe it to us?
I’m working on a #1 hit single right now that’s meant to be a sensitive Coldplay-meets-James Blunt piano-based ballad… but to my ears it keeps sounding like “Easy” by the Commodores. (Note: this song is for resale, not for proud, ego stroke display.)
What’s the coolest record/artist you’ve turned a “straight” (ie, “normal” or “square”) person onto?
Hm. I once worked with an extremely “normal” plebe who I turned on to Perez Prado’s mambo masterpieces — as well as a comp of Morricone soundtrack stuff. Really weird how he got into that stuff.
What’s the word on Samuel L. Jackson’s slide guitar chops in Black Snake Moan?
Dunno. In unrelated movie news, I finally watched Scarface (the Pacino version) last night, and it was a stone turd — worse than a TV movie. Next time you watch it, pay careful attention to the refugee camp riot scene, and the extras “rioting.” I swear they just passed out 2x4s to guys on the street, put ’em in a cage, and said, “walk around wiggling your sticks every now and then, please. Oh, and shout things once in a while, too.” The results are unintentionally hilarious. Like most everything in that movie.
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Have you ever heard Al Anderson’s band from the time before he joined NRBQ? I think they were called The Wildweeds.
No – haven’t heard them. I only own the two disc “Peek-A-Boo” NRBQ CD set. There is a lot of good stuff on that though.
Speaking of people named Ian, please pick one of the following: a) Ian Hunter, b) Ian MacKaye, c) Janis Ian, d) Ian Anderson, e) Ian Drury.
Ian Hunter. (Mosh the Hoople was a stroke of genius Mr. Moderator!)
If you could trim off the fat, which ’70s prog-rock band would have made the best ’60s pop band?
I’ll go with an old favorite of mine – ELP. Greg Lake has/had a great voice.
Have you ever had an idea or concept for a song that you’ve never been able to nail down and write? If so, why don’t you describe it to us?
Still working on the guitar chops to pull off “any” song…getting there though…
What’s the coolest record/artist you’ve turned a “straight” (ie, “normal” or “square”) person onto?
I introduced GBV/Pollard to a friend who is quite the “Crapton”, Hendrix, 70’s rock fan.
What’s the word on Samuel L. Jackson’s slide guitar chops in Black Snake Moan?
I haven’t heard him play or of this movie..
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I’ll play!
Have you ever heard Al Anderson’s band from the time before he joined NRBQ? I think they were called The Wildweeds.
Yes, just the other day. I like the way you describe what you heard, Mr. Mod.
Speaking of people named Ian, please pick one of the following: a) Ian Hunter, b) Ian MacKaye, c) Janis Ian, d) Ian Anderson, e) Ian Drury.
Ian Hunter for me.
If you could trim off the fat, which ’70s prog-rock band would have made the best ’60s pop band?
Yes is my choice. Sans fat they would be a cooler version of The Hollies.
Have you ever had an idea or concept for a song that you’ve never been able to nail down and write? If so, why don’t you describe it to us?
Nixon’s Head has long toyed with a couple of essentially goofy songs that we can’t quite get out of our heads: “Here’s One for the Little Man”, what’s supposed to sound like a cross between a blistering Yardbirds song and something from Muswell Hillbillies; “Sweet Life”, our take on funky mid-70s Stones, which we even played out a couple of times in the late-80s but never really finished… Sometimes these songs that never really get completed get stripped “for parts” for use in other songs that do end up working. That’s a good feeling.
What’s the coolest record/artist you’ve turned a “straight” (ie, “normal” or “square”) person onto?
Mmmm. That’s a tough question. Turning on the ultra-cool Andy Bresnan to Penguin Cafe Orchestra does not count. That’s the opposite: turning on someone you think is cooler than you to something… Ah, back in college I had a Northeast Philly prog-rock-loving friend who I turned onto English Settlement. That was pretty good, but he was still in his formative years. I’d feel better if I ever successfully turned on an “old dog” I work with now, for instance, to a band I always think will translate for fans of ’70s rock, like Television.
What’s the word on Samuel L. Jackson’s slide guitar chops in Black Snake Moan?
I heard he’s smokin’. Love that Pops Staples Look he’s sporting in the ads. Much better than having to see Adam Sandler as Syd Barrett every 12 minutes.
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Glad folks are digging the Jim Hall stuff. I don’t know that I’d ever heard him play before. I stumbled across these videos while searching for bad Hall & Oates deep cuts. Great stuff. I was initially attracted to Jim Hall’s proto-Robert Quine Look.
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Someone will Pince Nez this for me, but I think “the Bridge” was named for the period when Rollins had dropped out of playing in front of people, and spent nights honing his chops on some bridge or other (59th? Tribeca?)
This is probably not the pince nez you were expecting, but there’s no bridge called the Tribeca. It’s just the name of a neighborhood. With that said, I’d be curious which bridge he really did play near (man that sounds so dirty) if anyone knows the answer.
Ian Dury is my choice even though I secretly loathe the intrepid “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”, because of how many times I’ve heard the darned thing.
Sorry for the pince nez (again), but surely you must mean insipid and not intrepid, right? The former means silly and the latter means fearless. I know because I used to drive a ’94 Dodge Interpid. 🙂
Speaking of people named Ian, please pick one of the following: a) Ian Hunter, b) Ian MacKaye, c) Janis Ian, d) Ian Anderson, e) Ian Drury.
Ian MacKaye for me and I’m probably the only RTH’er who’ll pick him aside from maybe Art, though I have to throw in an honorable mention for Ian McCullouch and Ian Dury as well.
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Speaking of people named Ian, please pick one of the following: a) Ian Hunter, b) Ian MacKaye, c) Janis Ian, d) Ian Anderson, e) Ian Drury.
Sorry for forgetting the tag before. Anyway here’s what I wrote: It would have to be Ian MacKaye for me, though I have to throw in an honorable mention for Ians McCullouch and Dury as well.
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Again, here’s a corrected version of what I wrote above:
Ian Dury is my choice even though I secretly loathe the intrepid “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”, because of how many times I’ve heard the darned thing.
Sorry for the pince nez (again), but surely you must mean insipid and not intrepid, right? The former means silly and the latter means fearless. I know because I used to drive a ’94 Dodge Interpid. 🙂
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I’m going to say Rush, because when they *did* trim the fat, they *were* a great poop band.
That may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read on RTH.
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Ian Hunter. (Mosh the Hoople was a stroke of genius Mr. Moderator!
A hardcore Mott the Hoople cover band? 🙂
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With that said, I’d be curious which bridge he really did play near (man that sounds so dirty) if anyone knows the answer.
From the wikipedia:
First sabbatical
By 1959, Rollins was frustrated with what he perceived as his own musical limitations and took the first – and most famous – of his musical sabbaticals. To spare a neighboring expectant mother the sound of his practice routine, Rollins ventured to the Williamsburg Bridge to practice. Upon his return to the jazz scene he named his “comeback” album The Bridge at the start of a contract with RCA Records.
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And all this time I thought that Rollins album was in reference to dental work!
Mosh the Hoople was a 1-off (2-off?) mating of members of The Dead Milkmen and Nixon’s Head in 1989 or so. We were a Mott the Hoople “tribute band,” so to speak. The songs were not done in hardcore style, just sloppily. We played with another 1-off tribute band, Heavy Indigo, who did all Deap Purple covers. Heavy Indigo was, essentially, another local band, Sir Dot, getting their ’70s ya-ya’s out. They were actually fairly awesome that night.
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Sorry – just catching up now after being at work…
Sorry for the pince nez (again), but surely you must mean insipid and not intrepid, right? The former means silly and the latter means fearless. I know because I used to drive a ’94 Dodge Interpid. 🙂
I meant it like – that particular song keeps coming back! It’s on one of the CDs that we have to hear at work every day too (and on the stiffs covers comp – which i love, just not that track because that song drives me bananas from hearing it so much). I guess I didn’t choose the exact right word to get what I wanted to say across, but almost like dauntless or haunting, but not haunting… oh, anyway.
Have you ever had an idea or concept for a song that you’ve never been able to nail down and write? If so, why don’t you describe it to us?
I have a song melody that’s in my head like a countrified Teenage Fanclub doing something similar to Star Sign… It’s driving me nuts because I can’t seem to get it to go to the chorus with the verse that I have already. Frustrating. Did that just make sense?
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I’ve had an idea for a song for about 8 years. It was going to be sung by a girl who started dating a cool, incisive, humorously inclined rocker and is ditching him because he has lost his edge and his once charmingly clever songs have deteriorated to the point where he writes a song called “Big Drum Sound”. Oh shit, did I say that in a public forum? Well anyway, I’ve got the bass line, slightly reminiscent of an old Coasters song, Mohair Sam it might be called, and I’ve had some lyric ideas, but I never really caught a melody that I could hang the whole thing on. Gotta get back to that one for sure.
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If the song never clicks, George, move right on to the film script!
Hey, what’s your take on that Wildweeds collection I heard the other day? I’m going to see a close drummer friend of yours tomorrow. Curious to hear what he has to say about it.
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Maybe I can get the guy that did the music for “That 70’s Show” to score it.
I got that Wildweeds stuff on tape from Pat Feeney. I like it but I still think Tom Staley era ‘Q is the shit. And I like Steve Ferguson better than Big Al. You need to pick up that Columbia Collection called “Stay With We.
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If the song never clicks, George, move right on to the film script!
I have to agree! Sounds like a cool song to me.
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Anyone looking for CD/book/music shelf dividers? Came across these really neat ones tonight, although from the UK:
http://www.mojolondon.co.uk/homegarden/
indoors/living/cd_dividers.htm -
Geo, what’s with all the Ben Vaughn references? Is he on here someplace? God damned protective anonymity! Who are you people?! Who am I talking to? I feel like Bruce Dern in Silent Running, except it’s more entertaining, and I’m at home right here on earth, and, of course, there’s all these people here, but still, somehow…
Chris in Junior Mints wrote a piece for a stadium of amps aiming up and dropping a wireless guitar from a helicopter, but it couldn’t be realized for straightforward reasons.
Also, I had a dream once where I was invited on an expidition to find the wreck of a sunken paddle-wheel riverboat, and they were going to put contact pickups on the exposed ribs of the hull and record the river playing the dead boat. That one is problematic as well as far as realization is concerned. But in the dream, how mournful the sounds!
Speaking of boogie, I got the news this weekend that James Luther Dickinson passed away. I wonder if world boogie is still gonna come…
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/popvox/archive/2009/08/16/jim-dickinson-1941-2009-farewell-to-the-original-north-mississippi-all-star.aspx
Rock on, East Memphis Slim.
TB
It makes me sick to my stomach to see something as sacred as the boogie handled so half -assedly. And as far as Marriott is concerned, no human being on Earth has ever went from great to terrible in such a short amount of time.
Sincerely,
E. Pluribus
I lasted 1 minute and 12 seconds.
And overalls for chrissake!?!?
“Boogie”? I don’t think so. Boogie-ing implies some sort of groove; something that makes you want to, you know, “boogie.” This just makes me want to take a dump. Awful!
And can I be the first to call bullshit on Alexis Korner? What did that guy ever do that I should care about?
That was fuckin awesome!
Hey Hrundi,
That’s certainly a first : music that makes one want to take a dump.
Thanks for the laugh!
Sincerely,
E. Pluribus
It’s called death metal. A few years ago, some idiot working at the TLA Video on Locust St. decided to put some on. Had to get out of there quick!
I can honestly say that I’ve never heard a single piece of music that served as a laxative. More power to those that have and can avoid questionable chemical concoctions.
E. Pluribus
P.S. I think I can speak for all regarding the need for more scientific research on this subject.
This is my *second* least favorite style of white guy blues (the too stoned to play, let’s pick two chords and jam)
FYI- My *actual* least favorite white guy blues is the “Blues Brothers are my favorite band, my CD has a picture of two kittens wearing sun glasses, the bass player is a math teacher at the high school and the guitar player wears a T-shirt with 20 guitars on it and uses the x-brace style guitar strap”
You’ve gotta give props to Marriott for adapting his Look for the 70s.
Ah, the dreaded late ’60s/early ’70s “let’s take a good rock song and slow it down” bullshit move. If you’re looking for the real reason punk rock took off, don’t blame Bread – look right here.