As I frequently tend to do when out in the world, I will ask this question-“Without thinking about it too much, who is your favorite rock band ever?”-Answers are usually something like- “errr, I don’t know, I like lots of music” -this, in most cases, is an outright lie. Everyone has a few favorites but not everyone will admit to it. I guess that is fine. You don’t want some part of yourself out in the public highway to be tread on and run over until you are ready. Music can be a deep and personal experience that some won’t share. Who wants to come out as a Def Leppard fan unless they are of the rabid fanatic variety and cannot help themselves? Because then you are going to have to deal with the follow up questions from the newbie self-proclaimed rock music dude on WordPress like- “That is interesting, you got any of those Union Jack sleeveless tee shirts still in the dark closet you pulled that band name out of?” —yeah…something profound like that, when I should say- “Wow, that is interesting, there must be a story to go with that answer?”…Because there must be a story to go with that answer if out of all the choices of rock bands since the beginning of time Def Leppard is the answer. There has to be a story. It has to be meeting the nice guys from Sheffield who played the best show ever, then stopped the tour bus to help get my cat out of a tree…yes, the bass player climbed up the tree and saved my little fussy paws from certain doom. Def Leppard-Best Band Ever! …you know, a story like that-because the story on the choice is always more interesting than the choice itself.
Comfort music for troubled times
Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Phillip Phillips…even the names have a comfort level to them. They are all over pop radio with this simple folk sound that echoes the roots of all acoustic music. Ever since someone stretched some strings over a hollow block of wood many moons ago, making stories and feelings come to life by a warm fire; we have been doing this. From the surface stuff I have heard, this is not protest folk music of the 60’s coming back. Pete Seeger is still doing that, even though he must be about 100 years old by now. This is something else. This new roots music does share some of the vibe of old Irish folk music but the angst and isolation is more inclusive as we make our shared way through uncertain waters. This is about people wanting music that makes them feel better instead of worse. This is music that warms the soul instead of starting it on fire.
My Morning Jacket-Hipster dancing and a good scream.
Nothing like a good scream in a rock song…they just make everyone feel better. And nothing like hipster dancing to give away the location of a hipster band. In the video of “Wordless Chorus” you can see “hipster dancing” going on…hipsters are too cool to let go but they have to move something to let the other hipsters know that they know this is good music. It is sort of a restrained shuffle that is careful not to invade the private space of any around you. A very civilized gentle movement indicating an enjoyment of the proceedings at hand but nothing overboard…I mean you have to be in cool-edgy style while you enjoy cool-edgy style.
This song has a quality rock scream to close it out…it is both surprising and fits in…it also goes through different tones and octave stretching. It contains emotion that spills over to the audience and screams how they would scream if only they could break out of their shells and join in.
I like this song and I like this band. That means you can basically drop any pretense of hipster-ism away from them. Well…almost. The dancing gives them away.
AC-DC joins iTunes
This must be the last hold out in the digital revolution. Yes, the war is completely over now. There is no such thing as a few major record labels running the music world with a bunch of little independent labels acting as “training” until bands can hit the big time. There is only one….The Great Machine Apple now runs the entire world. “Welcome my son, welcome to the machine” as Pink Floyd once prophetically said. And really, the war has been over for a while now…The digital generation is running everything. Is that a bad thing?
Spanish Moon- A brief Interpretation
Shifting through the dirt in the cave and looking around at the destruction that drugs has caused to the history of Rock I found a Little Feat Record “Waiting for Columbus” –this is possibly the best “live” album ever recorded during the great – Double Live Album Era of Rock. I think Peter Frampton started it off with ‘Frampton comes alive” …then it seemed like everyone and their mother joined in to release one. Speaking of mothers…a former member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention is coming at you today. There is not a weak song on this record and the one I want to shine the cave flashlight on is “Spanish Moon” —on the surface it seems like just a fun song about a seedy little bar on the edge of town. But listening now and thinking back on that era it seems more like a song on the cycle of addiction. He knows this place is bad news but like the proverbial “moth to the flame”, he is going back anyway. The beauty of a great song is that it can be interpreted many different ways.
“Don’t care who you are, you wake up ruined, you can lose it all at the Spanish Moon”
Spanish Moon
Phish Food and Lowell George
Since I made the claim that Phish were nothing more than the evil spawn of the Grateful Dead –the music gods seem to be lined up against me. I keep receiving evidence that disproves that comment. It might be a friend posting a Phish version of “Oh Atlanta” on their wall- -What?, Phish covers Little Feat songs?- Little Feat was/is a great band-Lowell George was one of the great icons of “swamp” rock. There is the argument that he glorified drugs in his music…Yes, he seemed to have a love for cocaine and all its derivatives- and yes he would write about it often- And if you do something like that and die early- they are going to say “another druggie rock star crash and burn”. Let me say that Lowell was a rare special inspired talent – his music had so much life and intensity and humor that it is tough do cover versions. And back to Phish…their version does lack that spark…but Lowell George is an impossible spark to replicate so I can’t hold that against them. Phish also does a great Spanish Moon that I found by accident this week-the music gods again?
And while driving a couple weeks ago the radio played a cover of the Gorillaz “Clint Eastwood” –I love that song and apparently so does Trey Anastasio because this was his band doing a cover of it. I had not heard this before but if this Trey Dude loves the same music as me-then I can’t be a Phish hater anymore. And lastly, if Trey and band stay alive and healthy long enough to keep going and keep surprising me –they might make a new fan…I am almost there after completely being the opposite a couple months ago.
This is cool..art inspires music which inspires art again.
Top 5 Rock songs with a whistle involved.
5. Patience-Guns and Roses-Axel starts with a whistle and a nice melodic whistle at that…”see I am not really a bad guy after all” type of whistle. How many PBR’s do you think have been downed to this song! (PBR=Pabst Blue Ribbon-a quintessential American beer favored by the working man)
4. Jealous Guy-John Lennon- The best time to hear this is on a car radio at 3am driving down a lonely highway in the pouring rain. Lennon at his best had a way of letting you feel his pain as your pain because we all have the same experiences and all do stupid stuff.
3. Pumped up Kicks- Foster the People– Catchy tune about shooting bullets at your mates for play time fun. Only California can produce a band to make this sound so cool.
2.That Smell –Lynyrd Skynyrd – Ronnie Van Zant throws in this great “calling in the dogs” whistle to usher in guitar solos and hounds that will be right on your ass if you keep messing around with illicit substances and take that slow boat out into dark oblivion. It is short but it makes the point that he is used to calling in all the dogs. Lynyrd Skynyrd- great rock band!
1. Dock of the Bay -Otis Redding –You can call this soul if you want and say I’m stretching a bit but..Man!…what a song. He sung his heart out and died young in a plane crash…nothing more Rock n Roll than that. I officially proclaim this an honorary rock song if it wasn’t already.
Top 4 Worst Rock songs about Rock…too painful to add a 5th one!~
1.Kiss – Rock n roll all night- it’s warm with an instant flavor packet of melodic stadiumness. It is the Ramen noodles of a rock song….no substance, but it will take the hunger away and fool you into temporarily thinking you had something, you had nothing.
2. Bob Seger -Old time rock and Roll -“just take them old records off the shelf, I’ll sit and listen to them by myself’…why don’t you do that Bob- Horrible song which may have faded away had it not been for Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear in “Risky Business” .
3. Billy Joel -Still Rock n Roll to me– This song actually made it to number 1 for two weeks in 1980- What dark days these were…Bette Midler released “The Rose” which is better than this(Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of Bette, but if I happen to end up in a Mexican prison and they give me a choice of these two songs to listen to, not knowing what implications making this choice will lead to, I will take “The Rose” and hope for some “wind beneath my wings” to get the hell outa there!) Also in 1980 Michael Jackson was the still untarnished “king of pop/good angel” with “Rock with You” at the top of the charts (he had yet to hang babies out the window, marry Lisa Marie Presley for a couple weeks and sleep with 10 year olds) I am not judging here…I am just saying… he had some quirky habits.
4.Jefferson Starship– We built this city (on Rock and Roll) -Bernie Taupin was in on writing this??? Is this the same Bernie that wrote the great songs with Elton John? How do you go from “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” to this?- And Grace Slick was part of this mess? “one pill makes you change the name from airplane to starship and sing on one of the most insipid tracks of all time”. (that is a reference to Jefferson Starships’ “White Rabbit” for those that may not know-a great rock song)…What happened here? San Francisco must be some kind of city for people to produce this crap in an effort to keep paying the rent so they can stay there…that is the only reason that makes any sense.
Cave of Fame 