It’s Cold In Oz

In the guilty pleasures department, one of my favourite bands, who just fell out of favour and dropped out of our consciousness, is Three Dog Night.

It’s curious: not one but three talented lead singers, a terrific band featuring solid keys and good guitar work.  Maybe a tad on the poppy side as compared to, say Led Zeppelin, but they had a long string of hits that you would think should hold their own against some of the over-played stuff on classic rock radio.

Maybe it’s because most of their material was written by other people?

They spread some solid joy to the world.  Too bad they still aren’t embraced by the family of man.

Are the Kids Alright?

OK, so readers’ polls can result in some weird stuff.  Take, for instance, Rolling Stone’s Best Rock Documentaries, and – as George would say – spot the loony.

  1. The Last Waltz

  2. Woodstock

  3. This Is Spinal Tap

  4.  Gimme Shelter

  5.  The Kids Are Alright

  6.  Pearl Jam 20

  7.  No Direction Home

  8.  The Beatles Anthology

  9.  Beyond the Lighted Stage

 10. It Might Get Loud

Aw, come on, people!  Spinal Tap is wonderful, but can we check the dictionary here?  It’s brilliant.  It’s an accurate reflection of the culture.  It’s funny.  And it’s fake! 

Documentary:  noun, providing a factual record or report

Mockumentary:  brings up spellcheck

Do these same people also believe Sacha Cohen is a real journalist from Kazakhstan?  Help!  I mean, a joke takes the place of Rattle and Hum or Standing in the Shadows of Motown?  Mercy!

By the way, otherwise, great list.

Tired of Waiting

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Why have I taken so long to write something about The Kinks?

Maybe that’s my pattern.  I noticed them during the first British Invasion, of course.  And they seemed to hold their own during the transition from rock ‘n’ roll to psychedelic.  I remember playing Well Respected Man in my band when I was in Grade 8.

But then they got pushed aside during the second invasion, displaced by the likes of Cream, Zeppelin, Hendrix and Deep Purple.  Yes, I know Hendrix was American, but he arrived from England, didn’t he?

Like so many others, The Kinks just didn’t register on the new hard rock scale.  After Lola, they were gone and forgotten.

Ah, but they weren’t gone.  While everyone was dicking around with Prog Rock and Metal and Disco, they were out there, staying (mostly) true to their rock ‘ n’ roll roots.  And somewhere in the late-ish 70’s, when Punk had said “enough!” and radio stations began giving airtime to the likes of Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt and Tom Petty, The Kinks resurfaced.

And, longing as I was for something less pompous and silly.  I finally, really noticed them.  A string of great albums, beginning with Misfits, helped them ride the New Wave well into the 80’s when, along with rock ‘n’ roll, they faded again.  Having finally become a fan, I hoped they might resurface one more time during the all-too-brief Garage Band thing in the early 90’s, but to no avail.  That wish turned out to be a rock & roll fantasy.

Now they’re gone, un-rescued by the local village green preservation societies.  Maybe that’s a good thing, ‘cause at least we’re being spared one more fossilized group out on tour.  I dunno.

Listen: I know I’m doing some revisionist history here, suggesting The Kinks were fabulous from start to finish.  They disappeared from most of our radars in the late 60’s and early 70’s because their dabbling in the emerging styles was unsuccessful.  But when they went back to what they did well, they gave us a big batch of terrific music.

They may have been surpassed by others in terms of both impact and longevity, but there are times when I could listen to their music all day and all of the night.

Please Release Me

Rolling Stone published a fun list for Valentine’s Day entitled 20 Love Songs We Never Want to Hear Again.  Their intro nicely sums it up:  “Steer clear of these romantic cheddar bombs, all of which give love a bad name.”

Amen to that.

Just quickly scan the list.  You are going to moan, maybe grunt, possibly hold your breath like there was a bad smell in the room.

Scan it quickly or worse things could happen.

How Many More Times

There are some strange cats at Rolling Stone Magazine.  They publish a reader’s poll ranking the Best Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time, the intro of which acknowledges that Zep fans are easily fired up, implying they are maybe even a little crazy.

So then what do they do?  They get some editor dudes together to come up with their own 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time list.  Who’s crazy here?  The comments on Rolling Stone’s website prove their point.  The fans are all riled up.

Who cares if the reader’s list has only 10 songs and the editor’s list has 40?  It doesn’t matter that the editors included more songs.  It’s not relevant that there is a nice write-up on each song stating why it’s cool and explaining why it’s important.  The editor’s list is wrong.  All it takes is one song improperly ranked and you’re an idiot.  Just ask the fans who are, as predicted by the editors themselves, fired up.  Read their comments.

I mean, either list works for me.   Here they are:

            Reader’s List                                               Editor’s List

 1.        Stairway to Heaven                                     Whole Lotta Love

 2.        Kashmir                                                         Stairway to Heaven

 3.        Achilles Last Stand                                     Blackdog

 4.        Since I’ve Been Loving You                      Kashmir

 5.        When the Levee Breaks                            Ramble On

 6.        Whole Lotta Love                                        Good Times Bad Times

 7.        The Rain Song                                             Immigrant Song

 8.        Ramble On                                                   When the Levee Breaks

 9.        Ten Years Gone                                          Rock and Roll

10.      No Quarter                                                    Misty Mountain Hop

There are just so many fabulous songs, you’ll never get it right.  So why kick the hornet’s nest?

I know lists are fun because they get you thinking – and arguing – and all that, but talk about living dangerously!  These guys could get trampled under foot.

Let’s Work Together

Today is Robert Ernest Hite’s 70^th birthday – at least it would have been if he hadn’t died of a heart attack in 1981.

And who was Robert Ernest Hite, you ask?  He was aka Bob The Bear Hite, one of the singers and guitarists in Canned Heat, a truly great boogie rock blues band from the late 60’s.  Oh, and he played flute on Going Up the Country, the unofficial anthem of Woodstock, where they also played.  And some harmonica.

This is the band that gave us On the Road Again, the trippiest blues song ever.  But it was their cover of Wilbert Harrison’s Let’s Work Together (originally Let’s Stick Together) I love best.  Straight ahead blues rock and a sentiment that pretty much summed up the way most folks felt at the time.

I mean, why not work together?  ‘Cause:

            Together we will stand and divided we’ll fall

            Come on now people let’s get on the ball

            And work together, come on, come on let’s work together

Maybe it’s good that Bob The Bear died at the tender age of 38.  He’d be pretty sad with the state of things today.

Happy birthday, Bob.  I’m sticking with you.

For Your Life

I always worry about what I’m going to find in reader’s/listener’s polls because they tend to reflect the conditioning and narrowness of corporate radio.  But Rolling Stone’s Best Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time is a happy exception.

Here’s the list:

 1. Stairway to Heaven

 2.  Kashmir

 3. Achilles Last Stand

 4. Since I’ve Been Loving You

 5. When the Levee Breaks

 6.  Whole Lotta Love

 7.  The Rain Song

 8.  Ramble On

 9.  Ten Years Gone

10. No Quarter

While these songs are common on current radio playlists, most of them are not songs that were big when their respective albums were new.

When Zep IV came out, Black Dog and Rock and Roll were played far more than Stairway to Heaven.  When the Levee Breaks?  Forget it.

When Houses of the Holy was released, Dancing Days and The Song Remains the Same were the popular numbers, not No Quarter and The Rain Song.

On Zep III, Since I’ve Been Loving You was passed over in favour of Celebration Day and The Immigrant Song.

The big exception on the list is Whole Lotta Love, which is a big exception of a song.

The article points out that 78 different songs were nominated, and that’s not surprising.  For most of their existence, Led Zeppelin was just about the biggest thing going.  A ton of great songs didn’t make the list.

But it’s nice to see the fans in charge for a change, you know, not getting trampled under foot by their friends in the boardroom.

Love Interrupted

Wow.  I can’t pretend to really understand what he was doing, but I do know Jack White's 2013 Grammy performance was:

1.  Real

2.  Refreshing in what was a typical, overly sanitized TV show

3.  The only exciting performance of the night

Keep it up Jack.  Never compromise.

Don’t Bring Me Down

So, Sir Paul has recently said – not for the first time, actually – that Yoko didn't break up The Beatles.

You know, at the time I viewed her as a terrible annoyance, but I blamed Paul for the breakup.  You watch Let It Be and you can’t help but see how Paul’s arrogant bossiness was strangling the life out of the best thing that ever happened to music (and a few other things, for that matter).  This followed by publicity thievery when McCartney and Let It Be were released, followed by a decade or so of self-serving I-was-the-one-it-was-all-me horror.

Don’t get me wrong; he put out some terrific music.  He was still Paul McCartney, and you had to love him.  But he ticked me off, and I know I wasn’t alone.

But I was in the minority.  Everyone else blamed Yoko.  It was easy.  She was weird.  She made (a weird) John even weirder.  She arrived on the scene just as things were falling apart.  You can’t blame Paul, for goodness sake!  He’s Paul!  Blame Yoko.

Paul has been making nice with Yoko ever since John died, and the David Frost interview referenced above is hardly a revelation.  What it is, is irrelevant.  No one cares what Paul thinks.  They’ve made up their minds.

I was at a Tom Petty concert a couple of years ago and saw someone wearing a tee-shirt that said “Still Pissed With Yoko.”  That about sums up the situation, Paul.  Good for you for being nice and everything, but you’re gonna have to carry that weight alone, ‘cause we all know she’s so heavy.

Disappearing Acts

Sometimes ideas for lists must seem good until you try to populate them.  Take Rolling Stone’s 13 Rock Stars Who Disappeared list, for example.

Not all rock stars burn out.  Some fade away.  Some gracefully withdraw.  And when they command our attention for so long, we do want to know what happened.  So cool idea.

Then Rolling Stone tries to add an additional twist by measuring people against the (Syd) “Barret Scale”, using him as the benchmark for rock star dropout reclusive weirdness.

Cool idea, but it weakens the argument for including many names on the list.  The article admits that Fats Domino is “more retired than reclusive.”  After making a big deal of what sounds like the mysterious departure of David Bowie, it then admits “it's hard to be a true recluse while you're posing for red carpet photos with your supermodel spouse.”  OK then.

Billy Joel, Grace Slick, The Everly Brothers  -  these people are retired.  John Deacon knew that Queen died with Freddie, so he is smart.  John Frusciante definitely registers on the “Barrett Scale,” but not many of the other names do.  If they really wanted to use this “Barrett Scale,” why didn’t they include Peter Green?  He’s been lurking in the shadows so long the scale could be named after him!

But Joni Mitchell?  She’s always done her own thing.   Sly Stone?  Maybe he sensed he had overstayed his welcome, or used up more than his fair share of public consciousness.

An interesting variation on the list might have been rock stars that walked away while on top:  Little Richard, Conway Twitty, Dave Clark, Linda Ronstadt.  Barrett, Green and Frusciante definitely belong on that list.

Postscript: since the list came out, Bowie actually released a new single and announced a new album.  Not terribly reclusive, then, is it?