RIP, Mike Smith, 1944-2008.
A wonderfully soulful singer, and like his band, vastly underrated.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Weekend Listomania (Special Bang on a Can! Video Edition)
Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental amanuensis Hop-Sing and I are off to a Japanese tuna boat somewhere in the South Pacific, where we'll be catching up with National Review's first annual William F. Buckley Memorial Fuck the Dolphins Cruise. Which means, of course, that posting by moi will necessarily be somewhat fitful for a few days.
But until then, as always, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:
MOST EXCITING, INVENTIVE, OR JUST PLAIN COOL WORK BY A DRUMMER ON A HIT SINGLE OR ALBUM CUT OF THE SEVENTIES!!!!!!!!
Totally arbitrary rule: No prog-rock or fusion need apply, unless I decide otherwise. Which means, I'm sorry to say, that Bill Bruford and Tony Williams can, uh, you know, blow me.
That said, here's my totally top of my head Top Eight:
8. Devo -- Satisfaction (1976)
That's the unheralded Alan Myers playing that brilliantly spazz mutation of the Stones' original straight four. Sound simple? Let's see YOU do it, bub!
7. Al Green -- Let's Stay Together (1972)
The late great Al Jackson pretty much invented the particularly sinuous Memphis groove that the Reverend Green rides here. Sheer bliss.
6. Faces -- Stay With Me (1972)
This live clip is a real find I think, but it ends before the recorded version did and thus misses some of Kenny Jones' most wonderful drum fills. Go get the album, pronto.
5. Elvis Costello and the Attractions -- Pump It Up (1978)
Pete Thomas makes that tiny little drum kit sound like an apocalypse on this one, which remains one of the all-time great rock n roll dance songs largely because of his primordial pounding.
4. Rolling Stones --
(a tie) Tumbling Dice (1971)
and Rip This Joint (1971)
Charlie Watts, natch. When Mick Jagger noted (on "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out") that "Charlie's good tonight, isn't he?" he really meant "Charlie's good every night." On the studio versions (no less than here) of these two Stones classics, Charlie absolutely lays 'em in the aisles.
3. Bruce Springsteen -- Rosalita (1973)
That's the studio version, featuring Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez, the guy manager/producer Jon Landau kicked out of the band because he played too imaginatively. Not so oddly, the wonderful out of control almost jazz feel that informed Springsteen's music at the time immediately vanished with him. Yes, now it can be told: I think Max Weinberg is a great drummer with his own band on Conan O'Brien -- with Springsteen, not so much.
2. The Raspberries -- Tonight (1973)
The ultimate Beatles Meet The Who synthesis, and drummer Jim Bonfanti covers himself in glory as both Ringo and Keith Moon.
2. Led Zeppelin -- Fool in the Rain (1979)
A truly monster groove from the late John Bonham, and as my dear friend and drummer extraordinaire Glen Bob Allen puts it, "Bonzo's feel on the tune and the roll he does coming out of the Latin break back into the refrain is just beee-uuuu-tiful."
And the number one, nobody even comes close, coolest drum performance on a 70s song is ---
1. The Who -- Won't Get Fooled Again (1971)
Four guys playing and singing at their absolute peak, but guess who steals it? Once again, as Greil Marcus famously remarked: "Keith Moon playing lead drums -- after all these years, the audacity of it still takes your breath away."
Alrighty now -- what would your choices be?
[h/t the aforementioned Glen Bob Allen -- if you're in the vicinity of Manhattan, go see him tomorrow with the French Cookin Blues Band at B.B. King's!!!!]
But until then, as always, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:
MOST EXCITING, INVENTIVE, OR JUST PLAIN COOL WORK BY A DRUMMER ON A HIT SINGLE OR ALBUM CUT OF THE SEVENTIES!!!!!!!!
Totally arbitrary rule: No prog-rock or fusion need apply, unless I decide otherwise. Which means, I'm sorry to say, that Bill Bruford and Tony Williams can, uh, you know, blow me.
That said, here's my totally top of my head Top Eight:
8. Devo -- Satisfaction (1976)
That's the unheralded Alan Myers playing that brilliantly spazz mutation of the Stones' original straight four. Sound simple? Let's see YOU do it, bub!
7. Al Green -- Let's Stay Together (1972)
The late great Al Jackson pretty much invented the particularly sinuous Memphis groove that the Reverend Green rides here. Sheer bliss.
6. Faces -- Stay With Me (1972)
This live clip is a real find I think, but it ends before the recorded version did and thus misses some of Kenny Jones' most wonderful drum fills. Go get the album, pronto.
5. Elvis Costello and the Attractions -- Pump It Up (1978)
Pete Thomas makes that tiny little drum kit sound like an apocalypse on this one, which remains one of the all-time great rock n roll dance songs largely because of his primordial pounding.
4. Rolling Stones --
(a tie) Tumbling Dice (1971)
and Rip This Joint (1971)
Charlie Watts, natch. When Mick Jagger noted (on "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out") that "Charlie's good tonight, isn't he?" he really meant "Charlie's good every night." On the studio versions (no less than here) of these two Stones classics, Charlie absolutely lays 'em in the aisles.
3. Bruce Springsteen -- Rosalita (1973)
That's the studio version, featuring Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez, the guy manager/producer Jon Landau kicked out of the band because he played too imaginatively. Not so oddly, the wonderful out of control almost jazz feel that informed Springsteen's music at the time immediately vanished with him. Yes, now it can be told: I think Max Weinberg is a great drummer with his own band on Conan O'Brien -- with Springsteen, not so much.
2. The Raspberries -- Tonight (1973)
The ultimate Beatles Meet The Who synthesis, and drummer Jim Bonfanti covers himself in glory as both Ringo and Keith Moon.
2. Led Zeppelin -- Fool in the Rain (1979)
A truly monster groove from the late John Bonham, and as my dear friend and drummer extraordinaire Glen Bob Allen puts it, "Bonzo's feel on the tune and the roll he does coming out of the Latin break back into the refrain is just beee-uuuu-tiful."
And the number one, nobody even comes close, coolest drum performance on a 70s song is ---
1. The Who -- Won't Get Fooled Again (1971)
Four guys playing and singing at their absolute peak, but guess who steals it? Once again, as Greil Marcus famously remarked: "Keith Moon playing lead drums -- after all these years, the audacity of it still takes your breath away."
Alrighty now -- what would your choices be?
[h/t the aforementioned Glen Bob Allen -- if you're in the vicinity of Manhattan, go see him tomorrow with the French Cookin Blues Band at B.B. King's!!!!]
Thursday, February 28, 2008
An Early Clue to the New Direction
From 1972, here's Gary Glitter and band miming to their charming ode to child pornography glam classic "Rock n Roll Part 2." You'll note that it takes two drummers to simulate the part played on the actual recording by producer/writer Mike Leander.
A coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who divines the clip's relevance to Friday's Weekend Listomania.
A coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who divines the clip's relevance to Friday's Weekend Listomania.
The Present Day Sixties Soul Chick Refuses to Die
Well, this isn't a big surprise, but it seems that in the wake of troubled pop diva my fiancee Amy Winehouse the Brit music industry has coughed up another really good ultra-retro white girl soul singer.
Ladies and germs, we give you Duffy and her quite gorgeous "Rockferry."
I know next to nothing about this woman (aside from the fact that she's Welsh) but from the evidence of this clip somebody seems to be marketing her as a sort of Dusty Springfield/Lulu good girl alternative to Winehouse's Ronnie Spector bad girl. On the other hand, maybe she already has a substance abuse problem and a husband in the slammer.
In any case, this is a really good record -- it sounds like nothing so much as Dusty/Lulu backed by the Rolling Stones in 1965.
[h/t John McPartlin]
Ladies and germs, we give you Duffy and her quite gorgeous "Rockferry."
I know next to nothing about this woman (aside from the fact that she's Welsh) but from the evidence of this clip somebody seems to be marketing her as a sort of Dusty Springfield/Lulu good girl alternative to Winehouse's Ronnie Spector bad girl. On the other hand, maybe she already has a substance abuse problem and a husband in the slammer.
In any case, this is a really good record -- it sounds like nothing so much as Dusty/Lulu backed by the Rolling Stones in 1965.
[h/t John McPartlin]
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and How People Like James Dolan Are Ruining New York City
My old pal Sal Nunziato, formerly of NYCD (the world's greatest indie record store) and now of the Huffington Post, was at a certain Big Concert Event last night and can't quite let the music do the talking.
I wanted to write about how seeing Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood perform one of my favorite songs of all time, "Can't Find My Way Home," last night at Madison Square Garden has made it into my top ten live performances.
But I can't. I can't write about any of that. I am too distracted. Not by the fact that at last night's concert at MSG, a cup of room temperature Stella Artois beer cost $8.25, the same as a cold six pack. (No one was under any obligation to purchase any.) Or that a foot long, undercooked phallus of encased baloney in a damp roll that MSG loosely referred to as a hot dog was $6.75. (I didn't want one, but someone did.)
I was distracted by James Dolan, that lovable philanthropist and CEO of Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the once beloved Beacon Theatre, and how he has not only turned the New York Knicks into the laughing stock of the NBA, but has also turned some of New York City's best concert venues into the worst. (especially on those nights when his band, J.D. & The Straight Shot, a third rate bar band of wealthy businessmen who sinfully play "A Change Is Gonna Come" in their set, opens the show. There is NOTHING more offensive)...
As Bob Dylan famously observed, money doesn't talk -- it swears. Read the rest here.
I wanted to write about how seeing Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood perform one of my favorite songs of all time, "Can't Find My Way Home," last night at Madison Square Garden has made it into my top ten live performances.
But I can't. I can't write about any of that. I am too distracted. Not by the fact that at last night's concert at MSG, a cup of room temperature Stella Artois beer cost $8.25, the same as a cold six pack. (No one was under any obligation to purchase any.) Or that a foot long, undercooked phallus of encased baloney in a damp roll that MSG loosely referred to as a hot dog was $6.75. (I didn't want one, but someone did.)
I was distracted by James Dolan, that lovable philanthropist and CEO of Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the once beloved Beacon Theatre, and how he has not only turned the New York Knicks into the laughing stock of the NBA, but has also turned some of New York City's best concert venues into the worst. (especially on those nights when his band, J.D. & The Straight Shot, a third rate bar band of wealthy businessmen who sinfully play "A Change Is Gonna Come" in their set, opens the show. There is NOTHING more offensive)...
As Bob Dylan famously observed, money doesn't talk -- it swears. Read the rest here.
The Point Is Probably Moot
For those of you who (for good reason) don't watch a lot of daytime teebee, here's seriously underrated rocker/soap star Rick Springfield blowtorching his way through "Jesse's Girl" (for my money one of the most memorable hits of the 80s) on Oprah yesterday. Somebody once called the tune "Othello With Guitars" and I actually don't think that's too far off the mark.
BTW -- earlier in the show Springfield let on that he was never in fact introduced to the real Jesse's girl (a woman who was going out with a guy he was taking a ceramics class with, if you can believe it) and that to his knowledge she never had any idea that she was the inspiration for the song. The mind boggles....
BTW -- earlier in the show Springfield let on that he was never in fact introduced to the real Jesse's girl (a woman who was going out with a guy he was taking a ceramics class with, if you can believe it) and that to his knowledge she never had any idea that she was the inspiration for the song. The mind boggles....
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday Maureen Dowd Bashing
You know, for whatever reason, when I read one of Dowd's
blithering idiot misogynist columns about Hillary Clinton, I usually find myself thinking that Mick Jagger wrote this song about her -- Dowd, that is.
Prescient inspirational verse:
"Who would believe you were a beauty indeed
When the days get shorter and the nights get long
Lie awake when the rain comes
Nobody will know, when you're old
When you're old, nobody will know
that you was a beauty, a sweet sweet beauty
A sweet sweet booty, but stone stone cold"
Hey Maureen -- the come-hither looks, the breathy vocal stylings and the casual hair flipping aren't working like they used to, are they?
blithering idiot misogynist columns about Hillary Clinton, I usually find myself thinking that Mick Jagger wrote this song about her -- Dowd, that is.
Prescient inspirational verse:
"Who would believe you were a beauty indeed
When the days get shorter and the nights get long
Lie awake when the rain comes
Nobody will know, when you're old
When you're old, nobody will know
that you was a beauty, a sweet sweet beauty
A sweet sweet booty, but stone stone cold"
Hey Maureen -- the come-hither looks, the breathy vocal stylings and the casual hair flipping aren't working like they used to, are they?
Great Lost Singles of the Sixties
From 1967, it's Alan Price (who had just quit The Animals for a solo career) and the hilarious "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear."
Incidentally, the song was written by the then little-known Randy Newman; I believe it was his first significant chart hit.
"Now who'd believe a boy and bear/could be well accepted everywhere?/It's just amazing how fair people can be......"
Incidentally, the song was written by the then little-known Randy Newman; I believe it was his first significant chart hit.
"Now who'd believe a boy and bear/could be well accepted everywhere?/It's just amazing how fair people can be......"
Hello, Sailor!!!!
Lots of interesting stories in the new issue of MOJO this month -- as always, none of them really available online, alas -- including a list of the Top 50 greatest UK indie records of all time.
Guess what comes in at Number One? (Hint: Have I mentioned that I cried?)
I must admit to a certain ambivalence about The Smiths, although "This Charming Man" (1983) has always struck me as a splendid example of what can be done with some chiming guitars and the beat from The Supremes "You Can't Hurry Love." In any case, the MOJO piece has lots of fascinating backstory bits about how the song and record came together; I had no idea, for example, that said chiming guitars involved 15 overdubbed acoustic and electric tracks -- the latter played on a 1954 Fender Telecaster, NOT the Rickenbacker Johnny Marr is picking in the above video.
Guess what comes in at Number One? (Hint: Have I mentioned that I cried?)
I must admit to a certain ambivalence about The Smiths, although "This Charming Man" (1983) has always struck me as a splendid example of what can be done with some chiming guitars and the beat from The Supremes "You Can't Hurry Love." In any case, the MOJO piece has lots of fascinating backstory bits about how the song and record came together; I had no idea, for example, that said chiming guitars involved 15 overdubbed acoustic and electric tracks -- the latter played on a 1954 Fender Telecaster, NOT the Rickenbacker Johnny Marr is picking in the above video.
Monday, February 25, 2008
They Say It's Your Birthday, Part Deux
Here's should-have-been-65-year-old birthday boy George Harrison -- with future Rutles Eric Idle and Neil Innes -- and "The Pirate Song."
Who's my favorite Beatle? Sorry -- not telling...
Who's my favorite Beatle? Sorry -- not telling...
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