The Beatles and Beach Boys meet Big Star. One of rock’s unrecognized classics. (MS)
Monthly Archives: June 2013
RIP Alan Myers
From the New York Times:
“Mr. Casale told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Devo would never have reached the heights it did without Mr. Myers, whom he called the best drummer he had ever played with.
“We were mostly in basements and garages writing songs. It was Alan that brought everything to life,” Mr. Casale said. “That was the catalyst where everything clicked.”
“People watching him thought we were using a drum machine,” he added. “Nobody had ever drummed like that.””
Essential Remnants: #46. Johnny Thunders, So Alone
In some ways the 2nd Sex Pistols album, Jones & Cook play on a lot of it, but Johnny does much more. Definitive, unfortunately. (GM)
Essential Remnants: #47. Nick Drake, Pink Moon
A suicide note of sorts. Sad, aching. Virtuoso acoustic guitar, too. (MS)
Essential Remnants: #48. The Heartbreakers, L.A.M.F
The best album of the punk era. It’s not really punk, it’s Eddie Cochran 1976. (GM)
Essential Remnants: #49. Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure
Art-rock is mostly a joke, but when it really rocks and it’s really art that’s a different story. (GM)
Essential Remnants: #50. Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?
I like the songs on this one. He made plenty of great music, but I think within this structure his leaps feel newest and largest. (PK)
We Made A List.
It was my idea. I thought it would be fun for each of us to make a list of what we thought the essential albums of rock were, then compare them and make an Essential Top 50 Rock Albums. My idea, the way I explained it to the lads, was that if Mork were to land on our doorstep, these are the albums we would use to explain rock and roll to him. Then we would create Amazon links and make a minuscule amount of money when people bought them.
The methodology was jury rigged. Each of the five of us made a Top 50. Some of us ranked them, some did not. Some of us limited our lists to only one album per artist, to give Mork a broader range of musics, while others felt free to list five or six albums by favorites like the Beatles and the Hellacopters because these are among the best albums of all time. Most of us seemed to enjoy the experience. One of us railed about the stupidity and un-rock and rollness of commonality. He was certainly right about that.
But I think the list we came up with together demonstrates the power of the classic music, and also the veins of taste and enthusiasm that course out of it. In any case, if you’re from Mars and want to know what rock and roll music to listen to, this is a good place to start. But first, before we start, here are the six albums that got votes in the final round, but didn’t make the Top 50.
We’ll be counting down the Top 50 over the next two weeks or so, right here. Feel free to comment.
56. The Crystals, Best of the Crystals
Listening to this set, I find myself trying to argue that this is the greatest rock music ever created. (PK)
55. Kanye West, The College Dropout
The world’s biggest asshole isn’t the story. He didn’t start out that way. This incredible music made him famous, and was just the beginning of an amazing run of innovative and challenging popular music that rocks. (PK)
54. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
All songs so well written, and then so wonderfully delivered by Lucinda. (LM)
53. Devo, Q:Are We Not Men?
A bunch of geniuses far ahead of their time. Often wrongly dismissed as a joke. (SM)
52. The Beatles, For Sale
I forgot this one. It’s the best of all. They rocked. (GM)
51. The Pillows, Happy Bivouac
Nirvana meets the Beatles and the Pixies at the Ramones’ house. You know who you are. (GM)
Song of the Week – Hello Hello, Sopwith Camel
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
In the second half of the 1960s, several pop songs were released that had a nostalgic, vaudevillian sound. “Daydream” (#2, Mar 1966), “Winchester Cathedral” (#1, Dec 1966), “Honey Pie” (White Album, Nov 1968), and today’s SotW, “Hello Hello” (#26, Jan 1967) by the Sopwith Camel. (You might throw the music of Harper’s Bazaar in there too.) Each of these songs had an old timey feel and vocals that sounded like they were being sung through a megaphone.
The song was later included on the soundtrack for the movie Milk (2008), that depicted the life of the San Franciscan who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in 1977.
The Sopwith Camel came out of the San Francisco psychedelic scene. The recording was produced by Erik Jacobsen who had recently moved to Northern California after having been fired by the New York based Lovin’ Spoonful. In fact, you can hear the similarities in their sound (not to mention that both recorded for the small Kama Sutra label).
The band broke up the same year that their eponymous first album was released. They reunited to record another album, 1972’s The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon, but never repeated the success of “Hello Hello”, leaving them as another name on the long list of “one hit wonders.”
Take That Dave Marsh
A little below this space, Mike Salfino put up Dave Marsh’s list of the 30 greatest rock’n’roll guitar players of all time, circa 1980, from RollingStone magazine.
I confess.
I love lists. In fact, I think we all do. And, I used to love Rollingstone, having subscribed since my birthday in 1969 (I was 17, and as a subscription bonus, I got a copy of 1+1+1=3 by The Sir Douglas Quintet, and which I still posses) until about ten years ago when fashion and politics seemed to me more of the focal point of the magazine, as opposed to music.
And, that is ok, for the nature of existence is change. But, by a decade ago, I was becoming a good enough guitar player myself that I began subscribing to Guitar Player sort of just to drool over the gear, for I am a gearhead, but also because the magazine wrote about things I was more interested in than The New Kids on the Block.
Anyway, in 2011, on my birthday no less, Guitar Player’s Darrin Fox placed his list of the 50 greatest rhythm guitar players of all time. Mind you most of the guys on the list we would think of lead players, but I think Fox is looking more a the context of how the guitar, as a rhythm instrument, works with the bass and drums and whatever else to help create the groove.
Because, without a groove, a song is nothing.
But, the list–which is simply alphabetical avoiding any border skirmishes on rank–is so vastly different from Marsh’s, though virtually all the players on it were indeed playing in 1980. And, I personally think the list is a better indicator of actual musicianship than Marsh’s anyway.
And, while we see the names we would expect, like Keef and Steve Cropper, the spread from Maybelle Carter to Joao Gilberto to Tom Morello to Earl Slick to Malcolm Young, represents not just great players, but players whose style influenced the context of their career, band, orchestra, or all of the above.
Here is the link to the Top 50, with Fox’s reasoning for each player.