Music in the Cafes at Night; Revolution in the Air

Beale Street, Bleeker Street, Haight-Ashbury, Sunset Strip, Music Row and Motown.

These are the streets that changed music history, according to Rolling Stone - or is it Chrysler?  And of course, by Motown they mean West Grand Boulevard, but we’ll let that slide, shall we?

Elvis, Dylan, The Dead, The Doors, all those Motown hits, all that Country … no one’s gonna argue that some pretty important music came off these streets – and still does.

Here’s another one, though, that’s kind of a glaring omission:  Abbey Road.  A little band called The Beatles made a few hit records there, and I’m told they enjoyed a bit of influence in their day.  Oh, and The Hollies, The Shadows, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Oasis.

Oh wait a minute!  Guess they don’t get many Dodge Challengers driving around London.

Hey Mr. Fantasy

As the intro points out, the number of reunions that have taken place since Traffic first did it in 1970 are too numerous to list, but the Readers’ Poll on Bands That Should Reunite is still kinda sad.

We’ve got the usual suspects: Pink Floyd, Oasis, GNR, The Smiths, Genesis, The Kinks  …  but most of the write-ups say something like “it ain’t going to happen ‘cause xx hates yy” or “zz isn’t interested, so dream on.”

So it’s sad.  Or worse.  I mean, Led Zeppelin can’t reunite because their drummer is dead.  Ya, the 2007 show was amazing and Jason Bonham did a great job, but shouldn’t we move on?

Can’t we treasure what’s come before and still give a shot to the host of current acts out there that deserve a listen?  Isn’t “the new” what attracted us to those old acts in the first place?

How High

Do you know the Charlatans?  If not, you should.  Trippy riffs, funky bass, great harmonies and killer organ.

It’s as if Oasis had put a little less Beatles into their music and substituted Traffic – oh, and a healthy dash of Stones.

Sound cool?  It is.  It’s the kind of music that should be forever.

I’ll Cry Instead

A rock band can be like a romantic relationship.  So says Rolling Stone Magazine in The 10 Messiest Band Breakups.  Here’s the list:

Guns N’ Roses

The Everly Brothers

Oasis

The Police

The Eagles

The Clash

Smashing Pumpkins

Rage Against the Machine

The Pixies

Queensryche

So, we’ve got all the ingredients.  Out of control egos, drugs, betrayal, rivalry, verbal and physical abuse, smashed guitars, lawyers.

What we don’t have, however, is the biggest, messiest breakup of all: The Beatles.  It was all captured in a butt-ugly, downer of a film!  The lawsuits went on for years!  They wrote nasty songs about one another!  People are still mad at Yoko!

Hell froze over for The Eagles, and the re-union tour has now lasted longer than the original band.  The Everlys and The Police also patched up and cashed in.  Shouldn’t one of these bands be pushed aside?

I mean, this is not a list about honour and glory, but The Beatles gave us more than enough drama - and stupidity - to “earn” a place on this particular list.  It’s all too much.

Eruptions

So Rolling Stone has its own list of 100 Greatest Debut Albums, proving once again that there is less room for controversy in a shorter list.  Here’s their top 10:

Beastie Boys – Licensed to Kill

The Ramones

Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced?

GNR – Appetite for Destruction

The Velvet Underground – and Nico

N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton

Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bolllocks

The Strokes – Is This It

The Band – Music From Big Pink

Patti Smith - Horses

A 40% overlap, but the gap is actually bigger than that.  Led Zeppelin I, for example, comes in at #72 on the RS list, despite the fact that they turned the world upside down, and as RS itself admits “the template was here.”

Just a little confused by RS’s logic.  They claim it’s about debuts “that gave you the thrill of an act arriving fully-formed, ready to reinvent the world in its own image.”  But they also said they deducted points if an act went on to far greater achievements.  OK.  No argument that Zep had many great albums after, but Zep I is arguably their best.  The impact was immediate, the excitement off the scale.  They certainly were “fully-formed.”

Similar gap with The Doors, by the way.

Scanning the longer list, one thing that strikes me is the number of times you could say, “they could have stopped there.”  This is acknowledged in a quote from Elliot Easton saying The Cars’ first album could have been called The Cars Greatest Hits.  You could say the same for The Band, Boston, Oasis, or even Hendrix.  They all went on to make some great music, but did they ever really match that first effort?

The impetus for both Gibson’s and Rolling Stone’s lists was the 50^th anniversary of Please Please Me by The Beatles.  In this case, you gotta wonder if the album is on the list because subsequent masterpieces dictate the debut had to be included.  OK, forget I said that.  But it could be true for Pink Floyd. 

Lovely Debutantes

Gibson’s list of 10 Great Debut Rock Albums makes the point that most bands need two or three records under their belt before the masterpieces show up, then provides a list of exceptions, which are:

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

Hendrix – Are You Experienced?

Oasis – Definitely Maybe

The Doors – The Doors

The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks

The Velvet Underground - … and Nico

The Clash – The Clash

The Beatles – Please Please Me

Led Zeppelin – I (as in the Roman numeral)

Oh, did the Sex Pistols actually make more than one album?

Gibson’s introductory argument stands up.  Most of these bands went on to create more enduring, influential records (incontestable in the case of The Beatles, arguable in the case of Hendrix, irrelevant in the case of Sabbath), but these albums definitely made their mark.

I remember how people went nuts over Led Zeppelin and Hendrix.  Based on the strength of those reactions, I would have included the debut albums from:  The Band, Chicago, The Police, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and The Cars.  Everyone seemed to notice.  Your own list will no doubt differ.  You know, depending on your appetite, or experience.  Definitely, maybe.   Never mind; you don’t have to please me.

Oh, Just Nevermind

Well, they say your musical tastes are pretty much chiseled in stone by the age of 16, so no big surprise that I only knew the names of 27 of Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the 90's, the decade when I left my 30’s – still kicking – and entered my 40’s, more or less screaming, I guess.

I mean, I probably recognize 80 or so of the artists by name, but the actual album names?  A paltry 27.  And that’s based on, you know, name recognition on the radio (possibly before I changed the station) or browsing for CD’s in the record store.

Remember CD’s?  In stores?

27.  Recognized.  By name.  Ownership?  Well, less than that.  A lot less.  And I bought a ton of CD’s in the 90’s.  A boatload.

Look:  I wasn’t entirely out of it.  I had some Nirvana, Petty, Oasis, Neil Young, REM, U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers.  That’s not so bad, right?  And, you know, I kinda liked Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Radiohead and Metallica.  That’s good, isn’t it?

And of course I love Dylan and Springsteen and The Stones, and they’re on the list (although come one, RS, Bridges To Babylon and not Voodoo Lounge?  Really?) – so, I was, like, not in a cave or anything.

But 27% sort of makes it official: I had given up.  I had grown old.  My score on the Top 10 (60%) is cold comfort.  Crap.

I always knew that rock/pop is for young people, but retreating to “well the music was better in the 60’s (or 70’s (for the most part), or the 80’s (at least for a time)) – even though it was – is, is, is oh nevermind.

No point in raging against the machine.  I’m not ready to die and I know I’m not out of time.   OK Computer, how we gonna handle this?

Frankie Didn’t Come To Hollywood

I usually think of myself as more sympathetic to British than (North) American viewpoints, but New Musical Express's Top 100 Tracks of the Last 60 Years bit me in the backside.

Here’s the Top 20:

1. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
2. Pulp – Common People
3. David Bowie – Heroes
4. The Beach Boys – Good Vibratons
5. New Order – Blue Monday
6. The Stone Roses – She Bangs The Drums
7. The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
8. The Specials – Ghost Town
9. Dizzee Rascal – Fix Up, Look Sharp
10. Oasis – Wonderwall
11. The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
12. The Ronettes – Be My Baby
13. Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
14. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen
15. The Beatles – A Day In The Life
16. The Cure – Boys Don't Cry
17. Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone
18. The Beach Boys – God Only Knows
19. Madonna – Like A Prayer
20. The Stone Roses – I Am The Resurrection

Wow.  A ton of 80’s Brit Pop, only one Beatles, only one Stones.  A thin and curious collection of American acts.  Wow.

I know Americana, Roots, Whatever is my home base, but I always preferred to have it delivered by the English.  I thought I got the English.  I thought they got America(na).

Differing perspectives is what makes the world go round, but at the moment it’s my head that’s spinning.

The 45 Masters

Gibson’s 10 Greatest Singles Bands reminds you why radio used to be do darned good.  Here’s the list:

 1.  The Beatles

 2.  The Rolling Stones

 3.  Creedance Clearwater Revival

 4.  The Smiths

 5.  The Who

 6.  The Eagles

 7.  The Kinks

 8.  Oasis

 9.  The Guess Who

10. The Dave Clark Five

The singles from these bands makes for a pretty good playlist and a decent party.  With the exception of The Dave Clark Five, who understood their market and gracefully retired with the advent of FM radio, all these bands were pretty good on the album front too.  A key point, I think.

The article points out that although 45 RPM singles gave way to albums (then CD’s), in this digital age we’re back to buying singles.

Well, the singles were always there and were always the way to get attention and exposure.  So what sends the bands on this list apart?  For me, it’s a combination of volume and balance.  A multitude of hits to distinguish themselves from the one-hit-wonders, plus the ability to appeal beyond the constraints of the 3 minute pop song.  Each album had a few hits on it, plus some great album rock that proved these bands had depth.  That distinguished them from the pop groups who could churn out singles, but disappeared with the next fad.

The music from the bands on this list will not fade away.

Dream On, Dudes

Gibson has this list of 10 Power Ballads That Don't Suck.

Well, ya know, these are some pretty good songs:

Dream On – Aerosmith

Day After Day – Badfinger

Ballad of Dwight Fry – Alice Cooper

Bringin’ on the Heartbreak – Def Leppard

Don’t Look Back in Anger – Oasis

Learn to Fly – Foo Fighters

We are the Champions – Queen

More Than a Feeling – Boston

All the Young Dudes – Mott the Hoople

Purple Rain – Mr. Squirckle

The premise of the article is that power ballads “have gotten and undeserved bad rap,” that the “gaudy, bombastic videos” of the 80’s caused this otherwise charming genre to fall from grace.

Nonsense.  The videos just added visuals to the gaudy, bombastic music.

If you’re a fan of rock music (a dying breed, I know), you may point to the rise of rap or the laziness of grunge as the moment when the decline of rock began.  But a good case can be made against the power ballad.  Sorry, dudes, but the bad rap is deserved.

Re: the list.  They aren’t bad tunes, but they aren’t all really power ballads.

The Lists Get Grungy

So here's a list I almost didn't look at, given I'd almost given up on new music by then: the Gibson Top 50 Albums of the 90's

It surprised me, because I knew a lot of them, even bought a bunch. Here's the Top 10:
1. Nevermind, by Nirvana
2. OK Computer, by Radiohead
3. Achtung Baby, by U2
4. Definitely Maybe, by Oasis
5. Automatic For The People, by R.E.M.
6. Ten, by Pearljam
7. Metallica
8. Time Out Of Mind, by Bob Dylan
9. Grace, by Jeff Buckley
10. The Bends, by Radiohead.

Gee. Good for Radiohead. Nevermind is a no brainer. I would have swapped What's The Story (Morning Glory)? (#23) with Definitely Maybe, but it really doesn't matter.

Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic by RHCP almost squeaked in to the top 10 (#11), and I would have let it. Glad to see Shake Your Money Maker, by The Black Crowes as high as #24. Sad to see Clapton's Unplugged at only #44, but whatever.

Mainly, it's very cool - and maybe telling - that Bob Dylan managed a top 10 appearance in his fourth decade of recording, influencing and reflecting our souls. 

Good on ya, Bob.