Hey Hey My My

Whoever thinks rock and roll is dead should take the matter up with the 17,000 fans who crowded around me, whooping it up at a recent concert I saw featuring Death Cab For Cutie and The Tragically Hip.

Rock and roll can never die.

Attack Of The Killer Mirror Balls

In the 10 Songs That Prove Disco Didn't Suck article, posted a while back by Gibson, we are invited to entertain the notion that Disco didn’t almost kill contemporary pop music and culture.

To quote: “No genre in the history of contemporary music has been more thoroughly maligned than disco has. But the music – and its impact – shouldn’t be dismissed in one fell swoop. Many terrific artists dabbled in or even embraced the genre, and emerged with their musical integrity intact. Below are 10 songs that give credence to that assertion.”

Well, here’s the list: Good Times (Chic), Hot Stuff (Donna Summer), I Was Made For Lovin’ You (Kiss), Miss You (Rolling Stones), Heart Of Glass (Blondie), Tears Are Not Enough (ABC), Rock With You (Michael Jackson), Stay (David Bowie), Fire (Ohio Players), Goodnight Tonight (Wings).

Listen: I’m wary of generalizations, and I don’t like the phrase “such-and-such sucks.”  But disco was awful, and this list does not prove the article’s point.

For example:

1)    As much as I adore The Stones and Paul McCartney, and respect Messrs. Bowie and Jackson, these songs are hardly their best efforts.

2)    Yes, it got played in discos, and in hindsight sounds like disco, but Blondie was viewed as a New Wave act.  On second thought, was Blondie copying the disco that came before or presaging the resurrected 80’s synth pop rubbish that was to come afterwards?  Nevermind.

Don’t get me wrong.  Dancing is fun.  A great beat and an infectious, upbeat tune is the stuff of happiness.  But for rockers like me, disco was hard to take.  And the list just proves the point.

Oh My My

I saw Ringo in concert a while back.  It was pure joy from start to finish.

Can’t vouch for the rest of the crowd, but for me it wasn’t about seeing a former Beatle.  It was about Ringo.  Who cares if With A Little Help From My Friends isn’t as inspirational as Let It Be, if It Don’t Come Easy isn’t as deep in your consciousness as Nowhere Man, if – if you’re jaded enough to say it – he’s an also-ran in the vocal department?  Who cares?

What matters is watching a 72 year old bounding around stage acting like a 16 year old, having a ball, flashing peace signs – and meaning it.  He’s been doing this for over half a century, and it shows.  I mean: he’s not tired.  He’s professional.  He’s into it.  He’s still having fun, and it’s contagious.

Ringo is all about peace and love and rock and roll.  That’s a damn fine combination, and that’s what matters.  He just might be the coolest guy on the planet.

Twisted, Sister

How do people even come up with this stuff?  Rolling Stone did a reader’s poll on 10 Artists Who Should Return As Holograms.

The poll was taken after Snoop Dogg had a hologram of Tupac Shakur during a concert, or something.  So, the morbid question is “Hey kids!  What dead people do you want to see on stage?  Cool!  Fun!  Woot!” 

And the list is: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Notorious B.I.G..

Hey kids!  Anybody not guess who would be on the list?  OK, I guessed Keith Moon instead of Notorious.  Drummers never did get enough respect.

More than a little sick, and absolutely pointless.

Oh, and apparently there is some ongoing tour out there featuring an Elvis hologram.  Talk about the heebie-jeebies!

I liked it better when they just sold those Elvis-on-black-velvet paintings at corner gas stations.  When it comes to cheese, I’ll take low tech.

Don’t Pass Me By

I know the Beatles had more than their fair share of hits singles, but you know what?  They could have had more.

They wrote so many great songs, and actually seemed to pull back starting in late ’65.  You know, so that they only had one or two songs on the charts at a time, instead of the three or four that was customary during the first couple of years.  They definitely could have maintained that dominance with the following songs:

No Reply  - B side I’m A Loser

You’re Gonna Lose That Girl  - B side It’s Only Love

Hide Your Love Away – B side Another Girl

Drive My Car – B side Norwegian Wood

You Won’t See Me – B side The Word

Got To Get You Into My Life  - B side She Said She Said

Here, There and Everywhere – B side Taxman

Back in the USSR  - B side While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Hey Bulldog – B side It’s All Too Much

Here Comes the Sun  - B side Oh! Darling

Judging by the Classic Rock radio playlists and revisionist history, many of these songs are now actually treated like singles. 

I know, I know: 27 number one hits is enough, plus another dozen or song right up there.  Then another dozen or so post breakup releases in the early days of compilation mania (yes, I know: including Got To Get You Into My Life and Back in the USSR).  But check out the list.  They had even more hits in their arsenal.

They sure were something.

Invisible Suns

Fender has a list of Top 10 Unsung Guitarists.  Not everyone can be Eric Clapton and be lionized from (what seems) birth.  Or Steve Cropper and get noticed for being the perfect sideman for like a zillion acts.  So this is a cool list.

Which is:  Doyle Bramhall II, Tyler Bryant, Jim Campilongo, Bill Frisell, Greg Koch, Michael Landau, Buddy Miller, Paul Pigat, Pillip Sayce, Alex Scally.

Can’t say I have heard of all of them, which I guess is the point.  But the write-ups sure prove these are accomplished guys.

Not sure where you would cross the line from “unsung” to “not sung enough” but I might nominate Joe Bonamassa, Buddy Whittington and Coco Montoya.  All masters who coulda/shoulda been bigger.

So what separates these guys from the Claptons, Becks, Pages and SRV’s of the world?  Singing?  Songwriting?  The right band?  Management?  Fashion sense?  Luck?

We’ll never know, of course, or else we’d all go out there and be superstars.

Anyway, play on, dudes.  Your sun may yet shine brighter.

p.s. – I was just kidding about the fashion sense.  I think.

Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys

I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert a while back.  What a treat.

He is still a hippy.  Self-deprecating, but not apologetic.  Sincere, but not cynical.  Kind of like, “ya I guess we were kinda naïve, but we were on the right track, don’t you think?”

It can’t be easy being Arlo Guthrie.  A legendary father, a luminous host of friends and mentors.  A past he can’t walk away from, even as he moves steadily forward.

Well, he did a fine job.  Great tunes, funny stories, honesty and integrity all wrapped up in a real nice vibe.

Attaboy, Arlo.  Keep chasing that happy feeling all over the world.

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.

Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

The formula for a hit song is simple: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, chorus again, out.

Other than songs based on 12 bar blues, the above pattern is ubiquitous, predictable, universal.  One of these formulas applies to all your favourite songs.

That is, until you get closer.  Then you notice The Beatles starting a song with the chorus (Nowhere Man), or stretching a 12 bar blues pattern into 14 bars (Revolution).  Or The Animals using two different turnarounds on a 12 bar pattern (See See Rider), or The Doors going verse-verse fragment-chorus-bridge-verse fragmant-chorus-verse (Love Her Madly).  Or ZZ Top refusing to be consistent in how many times they play the intro/hook in between verses (Sharp Dressed Man), an attitude employed by The Stones on Brown Sugar.

Maybe these dudes didn’t know the rules they were breaking.  Maybe they didn’t care.  Or maybe, the rules aren’t creative straight jackets at all.  Maybe they are ignition switches.

On a Night Like This

Best Concert Movies of All Time list takes on a whole new dimension.  Here’s the list:

 1. The Last Waltz – The Band et al

 2. The Song Remains the Same – Led Zeppelin

 3. Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads

 4. Woodstock – everyone who was big at the time, and then some

 5. Rattle and Hum – U2

 6. Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones

 7. Live at Pompeii – Pink Floyd

 8. Shine a Light – The Rolling Stones

 9. Sign O’ the Times – that guys whose name keeps changing

10. Bullet in a Bible – Green Day

It’s fitting that the Stones get on the list twice, as it is that Scorcese directed two of these gems.

I wish that Led Zeppelin had made another film, though.  Or maybe I just wish there were none of those lame fantasy sequences.  Zep was fantastic in concert, and so they need to be on the list.  I just wish …

Speaking of wishing, a few shows I wish I’d been at and would therefore nominate for this list:

The Concert for George

AC/DC Live at Donnington

Queen Live at Wembley

Bonnie Raitt’s Road Tested

Anyway, no quarrel with The Last Waltz topping the list.  A superb performance from a great band – a smart band who went out on top - aided by an all-star guest line up.  R.I.P. Levon