Thursday, August 27, 2015

Tales From the Mystic East (An Occasional Series): Special The Blues Came Down From the Tokyo Delta Edition

Upon the recommendation from kind(?) reader Logan Waters yesterday, I checked out this 2013 performance of "Midnight Rambler" by a Japanese Rolling Stones tribute band.

More specifically -- an actual Japanese Rolling Stones 1972 American Tour tribute band.



Not only do words fail me -- in this case, the entire concept of language is inadequate to describing what you witness in that video.

That said, the guy doing Mick Taylor is actually really good, now that I think of it.

9 comments:

Brooklyn Girl in Queens said...

Yikes. I can't unseen or unhear that. :-)

But yes, "Mick Taylor" is actually pretty good.

Brooklyn Girl in Queens said...

"Unsee" --- coffee hasn't kicked in yet. :-)

steves said...

I hate you for that.

Some things just can't cross cultural lines, I suppose.

Mark said...

Hard to watch, cultural lines or no, though it does fall into the general category of tribute.

On the topic of tributes, I remember the first time I saw Aerosmith, in early September 1974 at the then Schaefer Music Festival in NYC's Central Park.

Aerosmith opened for Rory Gallagher (whose name I learned MANY years later is pronounced GAL uh her), and while I was a big Gallagher fan, Aerosmith caught my attention because earlier in 1974, the second Aerosmith album, GET YOUR WINGS, had a version of Train Kept A-Rollin' on the album, and either Steven Tyler or Joe Perry pointed to The Yardbirds as an influence, which got points in my book.

When Tyler and Company hit the stage, Tyler was doing what I thought was a PARODY of Mick Jagger, and was wearing a long scarf wrapped around his neck as well, which at the time I viewed as a Jagger stage trademark. Tyler did the entire Jagger repertoire of moves and wide-mouthed grins, and despite the accuracy of his performance, no one was laughing!

Tough crowd, I thought. But in all honesty, they were good.

Today, while riding my bike around and later sunning in Prospect Park, I listened to two wonderful recent albums. One is ZERO, by The Rezillos, and the other is GIVE UP YOUR DREAMS by New Zealand's The Phoenix Foundation.

From the Rezillos, take a listen to Out Of This World at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhOK0QXM9Us. It cooks.

From The Phoenix Foundation, you can hear the title track at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eiy9legEW-U. At 2:56 in, there's a spoken word part that says everything there is to say about how self-efficacy trumps self-esteem, and what it is to get over yourself.

Anonymous said...

They borrowed their gear from the Stones now that this weeks' world tour is over.

The lead singer learned the lyrics phonetically. (So does Mick!)

Once they got out of their costumes and took off their wigs they snuck out before the crowd could tear them limb from limb.

No worse then the other Stones cover bands I've seen (except for the vocals.)

Finally, lose the lead singer and they sound pretty good instrumentally.

Capt. Al


Vicki: What do you think of their fashion sense?

Anonymous said...

These guys are terrible. And that goes for "Mick Taylor" as well. They just play notes. There is no mojo behind them.

Lead singer is laughably horrible for the first 30 seconds or so. Then he becomes tiresome. He needs to take a pants stuffing 101 course too.

I never understood the whole tribute thing. Guess it started with Elvis impersonators. Doesn't do much for me. Though, in a youthful lack judgment, I slept with the lead singer of what may have been the first Zepp tribute band. What can I say, he was pretty charming and sexy at the time. Did him twice at my place, one of those times with Sandy. He was an alright fuck
but not nearly as good as he thought he was. He wanted me to go to his place where he had a video camera and the necessary bright lights in the bedroom for him to memorialize our union. I humored him when I knew all along I was gonna leave that dick high and dry and humiliated in the spotlight. It was the best sex we never had.

But I digress. When I first hooked up with my cocaine beau, we rented a Town Car and, in a switch, picked up a trunk load of blow near Oxnard. I barely knew him then. He said he dealt drugs, but I had no idea of the magnitude. Even though it freaked me out, I played it very cool.

We checked into a hotel in Ventura, broke into one of the keys, and had a three day blowout. Now, I've never been one to do line after line of coke and babble ceaselessly. I like to do a decent rail and then have sex. It was the perfect opportunity for me to see if this guy was worth stealing from his current girlfriend. He couldn't have been more obliging and virile. He was amazing. Coke seemed to have the same effect on his libido as it did mine. Seriously. Because of all the free time we had, we spent the better part of the next four years in bed having sex and doing blow. I've got a hole in my nose to prove it. We were animals. Then I decided to get pregnant.

Anyway, after three days fucking our brains out in Ventura, he needed to head to homebase to take care of biz. But on the way, in a spur of the moment decision, we stopped in Hollywood and saw Beatlemania at the Pantages. Neither one of us liked it at all. The only thing that kept us awake during the show was the lines we were cutting on the back of a pint of V.O.

The late 1970's seemed to be when this whole tribute thing began in So Cal. First ones I remember were the Rolling Clones, who were kind of a joke. Even so, they still exist, along with a plethora of tribute bands that have grown like a malignant cancer over the years.

I was in a mixed gender band that had to take The Rolling Clones' place at an Orange County biker venue when the band couldn't keep the commitment. The billing that night featured an Alice Cooper tribute band, followed by the Clones, followed by the White (the Zepp tribute band whose singer I boned).
We filled in, but only had a few Stones songs in our repertoire. And they were vastly rearranged. Plus there were two chicks in the band. The biker crowd was having none of this and began shouting for the White. When a beer bottle nearly struck our bass player, he grabbed the beer off of his amp and bullseyed a biker in the forehead. It became a riot and we had to run out the back with our guitars. Cops were called and our roadie was holding a bunch of coke which made for an exceedingly tense night.

So yeah, not fond of tibute bands. I've been given free tickets to see The Fab Four, Rain, Wild Child, the Atomic Punks, Zepperella and countless others. Somehow, I always found something better to do. I accidentally saw a Sabbath tribute band at a venue in Hollywood. The guy who was supposed to be Ozzy was super overweight. The band was even more dreadful than Sabbath at their most drugged out and uncaring. The only thing I found entertaining was when the fat Ozzy's wig came off during Fairies Wear Boots. The look of panic on his face was priceless.

VR

Anonymous said...

The only band I've seen do a good tribute is Great White doing Zeppelin. I hear Jason Bonham's band is pretty good too, but wouldn't pay money to see them.

VR

Mark said...

Two things. I always thought that Dread Zeppelin, and especially their first album, UN-LED-ED was great, and I once saw the Elvis Brothers at Milwaukee's Summerfest (circa 1991), effortlessly play Led Zep standards as intros to their own original material throughout the course of a set that to this day reminds me of how the right band + the right day + the right mind set can make you glad that you're alive.

God, were the Elvis Brothers good!

Anonymous said...

BTW, Capt. Al is very funny this week. Love your comments:-) You're crackin' me up.

Mark: No serious surf party in the late 80's early 90's was without Dread Zepp. The ultimate live party band in that era. Still got my cassette of Live On Blueberry Cheesecake:-) But they're not a tribute band in the sense that they want to sound alike, which helps.

Also, the best part of Beatlemania was the plush burgundy art deco couch in the ladies room. Me and my baby headed there when the faux Beatles donned their Sgt. Pepper garb. I didn't have a clue at the time, but apparently the guy playing John Lennon was Marshall Crenshaw.

VR