Category Archives: steve

Don’t Drink Coffee: 2 Songs, 1 Lyric

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Been listening to a lot of Blue Oyster Cult lately. Specifically, the “black & white period” BOC, which is the first three albums – the real BOC. They followed with a great live album, which was essentially a review of the b&w period. Then they followed with Agents Of Fortune which was the transition album from the excellent, mysterious, fascinating BOC to the commercial, obvious, boring BOC. Then there was the album with Godzilla on it. Then they made about 10 more albums I don’t know or care about. (Kind of like the excellent early ZZ Top as compared to the boring beards and spinning guitars ZZ Top.)

I’ve always thought the debut album trails the masterpiece second and third albums, and I still do, but it’s been climbing lately.

But the reason we’re here is to highlight the genius of this track from the debut:

which uses the same lyrics as this track from Tyranny And Mutation. (Take note that Lamb does hint at Red And Black at the end.)

Notes:

1) What other two almost completely different songs share the same lyrics (not counting traditional lyrics or something like that)? The only thing I can think of are the two Thank You songs from Sly Stone, although that’s not quite the same as this.

2) Buck Dharma sure is a helluva lead guitarist. I had kind of forgotten about him. He sounds like a country chicken picker amidst a hard rock symphony, but it definitely works. I gotta do a Steveslist of my favorite lead players sometime. Pretty sure BD would make the cut.

3) There’s nothing else quite like the early BOC. If you know something else that sounds a lot like it, do tell. I did listen to the classic first Captain Beyond album the other day and there are some similarities there. Both bands arrived at the same time so if someone was copying, I don’t know who it was.

4) Can’t go without mentioning the best BOC album, the third – Secret Treaties. It’s the highlight of their mystique. Can’t tell you how many hours I spent as a young teen looking over that album cover with the Nazi overtones, particularly the slaughtered German Shepherds in the snow on the back, trying to figure out what the hell the words were/meant. Who needed love songs?

5) The Minutemen loved early BOC and so do I.

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:

Gnip Gnop: The End Is Here

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Breaking news – Hans Condor is not available on CD. You have to download it. That’s the only option.

Meanwhile I involuntarily heard that godawful Taylor Swift song THREE times in its entirety yesterday while tooling around various locales.

It’s official – Music Has Passed Me By.

Played Dwight Yoakam and Entombed yesterday in desperation.

Snow Shovel: More Off!

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No one will watch this whole thing, but just watch until they start playing if nothing else. I’m struck by two things:

1) Keith Morris’ combover radical dreads hairstyle. (Perhaps it’s time to go skinhead, Keith.)

2) Something about Keith’s voice, mannerisms, etc. during the preamble remind me of. . .LAWR!

Bonus) Nice Mott shirt, bass player.

Palate Cleanse: It Didn’t Matter To Me

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With the exception of Jones/Costello, things have been on a dismal streak here at RR, from Beaver Brown (seriously? John Cougar-copy Beaver Brown?) to Super Bowl po(o)p and related other pop shit (does anyone actually click on those songs?). Proud to say I still don’t know the lady who sang the national anthem and I didn’t know who Missy Elliot was when she showed up either – I thought she was a man.

What I give you here is from the album I listened to on the way to my Super Bowl party yesterday. A lesson in iambic pentameter, the way the title rolls off the tongue makes the song all by itself.

Just say no to Shit Pop Remnants.

Quack Quack: You Knew This Couldn’t Be Far Behind

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OK, who’s gonna post The Stooges?

1) Unfortunately/fortunately, this is that “greatest concert ever” footage we’ve seen before.

2) Bet Clapton can’t shake his ass like that.

3) How ridiculous is it that MC5 aren’t in the Hall of Fame? Unless you wanna dig back to John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry, everything I think is great about rock starts here – Slade, early KISS, punk, Hellas, Supershit. Everything.

4) And, hey, there’s that daffy chick again at the abrupt end. Deja vu all over again.

Two Words Together: Travelin’ Blues

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Got up at 4 and left at 7 this morning, taking two days in West Virginia to try to help my confused high school senior Harmony figure out what she wants to do. We saw Fairmont State today, tomorrow WVU and Pierpont (a community college).

Picked all Beatles and Stones (and Graveyard Hisingen Blues, lest you think I’ve gone Salfino) for the 10+ hours I’ll be driving by the end of the day Sunday.

Had some real personal experiences with the listening on the way down.

First up was Rolling Stones Some Girls. Let me preface with this:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/police/mc-upper-mount-bethel-child-porn-20150116-story.html

Tom Conroy graduated with me in 1982 from Moravian College. He lived on my floor my two years in the dorms and remained a guy I’d say hi to when he spent his final two years in a frat and I lived off campus.

Tom was a boisterous alpha male. He’s the guy who looked at the Sex Pistols poster I put up upon arrival and cracked, “You don’t really like them, do you?” and coined my college nickname “Punker.”

And it was in his room where we’d play hours of pinochle, always to his 8-track tapes. The ones I remember most are ELO’s Greatest Hits and Some Girls. I’m not certain the reason I picked Some Girls this morning had something to do with thinking a lot about Tom lately, but I’ll bet it is. It definitely hit me on the ride down.

I last saw Tom at a random Vet Stadium Phillies game years ago. His news story last week shocked the hell out of me. With all the similar news stories one reads these days, I thank God frequently that my sexual tastes run as common as can be – pretty faces, big tits and shapely asses on grown-up women. What a blessing.

Life is strange.

The song I remember Tom singing obnoxiously and often:

Next up, the Beatles For Sale.

Hadn’t listened to this for many years. I always gravitate toward the very early stuff or Rubber Soul/Revolver.

What struck me today (live version with Nicke Andersson singing):

I do believe this was the first rock ‘n’ roll song to light my fire. I was kindergarten age at most and I remember a considerably older next door neighbor boy (he later became a cop and eventually committed suicide if that makes the story more interesting) played this on his mom’s console stereo. Gun to my head (sorry), I can’t remember if it was Beatles or the Chuck Berry original.

But I do remember thinking, “Whatever-five-year-olds-think-instead-of-shit! This kicks the stuffing out of nursery rhymes and Sunday School songs!” Made me wanna do the boogie-woogie for the first time.

Finally, I ended the music portion of my drive with the Stones’ Exile.

For some odd reason, I hadn’t listened to this in many years as well. When I was most into it was the time in my life that I lived closest to a rock star. I was in a top local cover band, my girlfriend and I had broken up temporarily and I was dating a brunette hottie with a blond hottie friend who I think liked me as well. Meanwhile, my ex-girlfriend was constantly calling me trying to get back together and doing things like baking cookies and slipping them in my mailbox for me to find when I got home from work.

I keenly remember eating breakfast at a late-night diner with the two hotties and feeling completely on top of the world.

The soundtrack to one of the sweetest periods of my life: