RIP: Steve Foley

We at PowerPop wish to recognize the passing of Steve Foley, who drummed for The Replacements on their last tour. Foley died over the weekend in Minneapolis, apparently from an overdose of prescription drugs.

Weekend Listomania (Special Bend Me Shape Me! Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental rentboy amanuensis Hop-Sing and I are off for the Republican National Convention, where in a gesture of solidarity with the Republican base, we'll be staying in that parking lot owned by adulterous senile gigolo John McCain's wife. John himself doesn't remember it, but we here it's very tastefully appointed and that the office fridge is well-stocked with six packs of Bud.

In any case, posting by moi will thus be sporadic for a few days.

But in the meantime, here's a fun project to tide us all over:

Best Slide Guitar Work On a Pop, Rock or Blues Song Under 10 Minutes Long!!!

Okay, here's my totally top of my head Top Eight:

8. Canned Heat -- Let's Work Together



The great Alan Wilson.

7. Smashing Pumpkins -- Spaceboy (audio only)



Anybody counting how many consecutive Listomania's I've managed to work Billy Corgan's angst-in-your-pants routine into? Frankly, I've lost track. Worse, I'm not even sure why I bother.

6. The Beatles -- For You Blue



George: "Elmore James' got nothing on this baby!"

5. John Hiatt -- Riding With the King



With the unbelievably amazing Sonny Landreth on slide. Seriously -- I've seen these guys do this live, and it was the closest thing to a psychedelic experience I've ever had without drugs. Those notes seem to literally hang suspended in time and space.

4. Leo Kottke -- Louise



The definitive version of this oft-covered folkie classic, I think. Actually, If the slide solos don't make you cry, I don't want to know you.

3. Mick Jagger -- Memo From Turner



That's the very young Ry Cooder on guitar, absolutely dripping menace and mystery. Incidentally, I recently discovered who the rhythm section is (courtesy of Rhino's 2007 Jagger solo best-of): turns out it's Stevie Winwood and Jim Capaldi. Who knew?

2. Joe Walsh -- Rocky Mountain Way



Walsh may be, in Don Henley's famous phrase, "an interesting couple of guys," but one of them is clearly an absolutely monster slide player.

And the numero uno most concise slide guitar work on a pop record,, hands down it's so totally obvious if you try to argue with me I swear to god I'll harm you so just don't, is ---

1. The Rolling Stones -- I Wanna Be Your Man



There's tons of slide all over the Stones catalogue, obviously, but this cover of the Fabs song was the first use (1964) of slide on a pop hit ever so I think it deserves the top slot.

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania (special Blade Runner For Morons Edition) is up at Box Office. As always, if you leave a comment over there, an angel gets its wings.]

A Slightly Earlier Than Usual Clue to the New Direction

From 1977, here's The Pretenders, featuring all-time coolest rock woman Chrissie Hynde, and a brief snippet of their fabulously sexy "Cuban Slide."



As always, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded the first reader who divines its relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.

Spinal Tap: The Lego Years

In honor of tonight's history making Democratic Convention, I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a video of Sha-Na-Na's hilarious "Vote For Me."

Decided to post this instead, and to be honest, I can't tell you exactly why it cracks me up. But it does.



Apparently, there's some underground subculture of filmmakers whose thing is to reshoot iconic movie scenes with Legos. There's such a fine line between clever and stupid...

No Problemo

I may have mentioned this earlier, but for me, the big rock reunion of 2007 wasn't Led Zeppelin or The Police. For my money, it was the get-together of Any Trouble, the first generation Stiff Records band whose 1980 debut Where Are All the Nice Girls is one of the absolute gems of the era -- thirteen concise, gorgeously melodic guitar driven original pop gems with a punk edge and heart to spare, plus "Growin' Up," still my favorite Springsteen cover ever.

The reunion album (on the newly active Stiff, where it belongs) still hasn't been released in the states, so I finally took the plunge and ordered the import here. Turns out I shouldn't have waited -- it's an absolute gem on the level of the debut.

Here's the opening track...



Seriously -- if that doesn't make you smile, you're trying way too hard to be difficult.

Incidentally, lead singer/songwriter Clive Gregson tells a wonderful story from back in the day. Seems Any Trouble were doing a gig with first generation power pop gods The Searchers, who were touring their wonderful eponyous Dave Edmunds produced comeback album. Gregson, who idolized them, went back to the Searchers dressing room, stuck his hand out and said "Hi, Clive Gregson, Any Trouble." To which Searchers guitarist/singer John McNally, barely looking up, responded "No thanks, everything's fine."

Did You Ever See a Jew Jitsu? (Well, I Did)

[Posted about this over at Box Office, but it's too good not to share, especially as I've been looking for the album cover for years -- god bless Google Images!]

From today's New York Times:

More than 40 years after the Beatles first proposed a concert in Israel, a date has been set for Paul McCartney to play there, The Times of London reported. Mr. McCartney’s show in Tel Aviv, which had previously been announced with a date to be set, is now scheduled for Sept. 25. Earlier this year Israel officially apologized to the remaining members of the Beatles for canceling a concert tour in 1965. At the time Israeli officials cited financial problems, and some there had argued against the concert, suggesting that the band’s performance would corrupt Israeli youth. Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Britain, said the country wanted to “rectify a historic missed opportunity.”

Well, obviously, this is great news for Israeli Beatlemaniacs, but we can only hope it's also a chance to rectify another even greater historic missed opportunity. We refer, of course, to the possible release of the great lost Beatles album, Rabbi Saul. Originally scheduled for release in 1967, RS was a result of the Fab Four's brief (hidden from the public) flirtation with Orthodox Judaism after their "divorce" (John Lennon's phrase) from The Maharishi; songs -- some of which have been bootlegged over the years -- included "The Shul on the Hill," "Mocky Raccoon," "P.S. I Owe You," and (my personal favorite) "Your Mother Should Only Know."

Suicide is Painless

Absolutely hellacious technical problems today -- hence this brief, pathetic blogpost is all I can manage until they're resolved or I kill myself, which ever comes first.

In the meantime, you might get a kick out of today's Box Office -- check out the totally groovy geriatric hippie psychedelic band rocking out in a the clip from an obscure but really amazing early Spielberg sci-fi TV effort from 1971.

Weekend Listomania (Special Mandrake Gestures Hypnotically! Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental rentboy amanuensis Hop-Sing and I are off for another weekend in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. We'll be putting our asses on the line in the fight against tyranny there by joining the Robert Kagan/William Kristol Brigades. As we mentioned previously, it's sorta like the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, except that Kagan and Kristol won't be joining us, despite the fact that unlike Lincoln they are actually alive.

In any case, posting by moi will thus be sporadic for a few days.

But in the meantime, here's a fun project to tide us all over:

Best Post-Elvis Pop/Rock Record Whose Title References the Supernatural!!!

Totally arbitrary rule: The actual word "supernatural" in the title is okay.

Okay, here's my totally top of my head Top Seven:

7. Smashing Pumpkins -- Glass and the Ghost Children



Proving once again that there isn't a Listomania topic I can come up with that doesn't have a relevant song featuring Billy Corgin's pretentious bald noggin.

6. Redbone -- Witch Queen of New Orleans



These guys -- by which I mean twins Pat and Lolly Vegas -- ran one of the best r&b-influenced rock bands of their day. Never really gotten their due, alas....

5. Duane Eddy -- Ghost Riders in the Sky



Actually, the song predates Elvis (Vaughan Monroe had the first hit version in the late 40s) but it's inspired a zillion covers. Duane and his trademark twangy guitar is an excellent fit, obviously.

4. A tie:

Jimi Hendrix -- Voodoo Chile



and

Godsmack -- Voodoo



Devolution in action, I think.

2. Bruce Springsteen -- The Ghost of Tom Joad



You know, somedays I think Bruce would have been really happy to be Merle Haggard.

And the numero uno coolest rock song about the supernatural, hands down it's so totally obvious if you try to argue with me I swear to god I'll harm you so just don't, is ---

1. Roky Erikson -- I Walked With a Zombie



The fact that this man is alive, touring, sounding great and apparently enjoying himself in the process has got to be one of the nicest musical stories of the last couple of years.

Awright then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania, Marquis de Sade edition, is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to leaving a comment over there, an angel gets its wings.]

A Somewhat Early Clue to the New Direction

Off to NYC for yet another not-so-mysterious assignation.

In the meantime, from 1975, and Ken Russell's execrable film version of The Who's Tommy, here's Elton John and his thoroughly bogus version of "Pinball Wizard."



As always, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded the first reader who divines it's relation to tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.

School of Shlock

My review of Rainn Wilson as the Pete Best of 80s hair metal in The Rocker is now up over at Box Office.



Short version: The Citizen Kane of failed 80s hair metal rocker comedies.