Category Archives: Scott

Scot/Scott: Midnight Moses

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Don’t know if we’ve mentioned Sensational Alex Harvey Band at all here at RR. Don’t know why I got to thinking about this gem that I covered in a hard rock band years ago.

SAHB did some other good stuff, but there’s also a lot of nonsense on their albums. This is their masterpiece, for me at least, a song that would likely make my all-time Top 25. It’s clearly the blueprint for Bon Scott AC/DC, up there with just about anything else in my book. (My favorite rock singer of all-time, Bon admitted mimicking Alex Harvey’s vocal style. As always, everything’s a copy of something else.)

It’s also a great example of how, for me, vocals are way more about melody and flow and iambic pentameter and sounding good together than about what’s being said. Do you know what the hell Alex is singing about? I have no idea. But it sounds great.

Alex Harvey died suddenly of a heart attack, now long ago in 1982. His birth date is before my dad’s.

This video is about as cool as a lip-synch can get:

Pianowski: My Top 10 Rolling Stones Songs

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By Scott Pianowski

This is awfully, awfully hard. There are a slew of tremendous songs I’m leaving off, like everyone else. And if I did this list in 48 hours, I could have a lot of changes. The Rolling Stones catalogue is ridiculously deep.

(The number is how many points each song gets, with 30 points allocated for 10 songs.)

5 – Gimme Shelter – Not necessarily my favorite Stones song, but I think it’s their best. I recognize that’s a nebulous point. For me, it’s how I consider Pulp Fiction the best film I’ve ever seen, but it’s not necessarily my favorite (though it rates very well, too).

4- Rocks Off – To me, the quintessential Stones number. The lyrics are a perfect kick-start to Exile (also kicking off the fourth album in what is probably the best Rock and Roll run in history, Banquet to Exile), but what really gets me is everything going on behind Mick, especially the horns and Hopkins piano. Mick could sing about Peanut Butter & Jelly and this is still fantastic.

4- Bitch – Yeah, it’s been played into the ground, but rock doesn’t get any hookier than this.

3- Can’t You Hear Me Knocking – Mandatory for Marty’s mob pictures.

3- Ruby Tuesday – I loved it at first listen, but I’ll admit I loved it a little more when it turned up in the key scene of The Royal Tenenbaums. (I also hated to leave out I Am Waiting, which framed the most melancholy 90 seconds of Rushmore.)

3 – Moonlight Mile – Japanese Thing

3 – Under My Thumb – Sarcasm font didn’t exist in the 60s.

2 – Waiting on a Friend – The Stones don’t get enough credit for the 80s. Maybe they weren’t hitting 100 on the gun then, but they still cranked it up into the high 90s.

2- Brown Sugar

1- Little T & A – Long Live Keith Richards