Category Archives: steve

Beatles List You’ve All Not Been Waiting For

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Obligatory Preface

This was so hard. So hard. So so hard. So so so hard. Harder than life itself. Makes “Sophie’s Choice” seem like paper or plastic.

Blahbitty blah blah blah.

Three Things About The Beatles

I went through my Beatles phase later in life, post-college even. But geez, they are great. And I have a difficult time respecting any musical fan or, particularly, musician, who has never had an extended period of discovering, loving and appreciating The Beatles.

On a related note, there’s no finer place to grasp the concept of background vocals than The Beatles. And you’d be surprised how many musicians don’t get background vocals. There are musicians who can’t sing. There are musicians who can’t sing backgrounds. There are musicians who think they can sing backgrounds, but don’t really understand them past the simplest form. What’s left is fine background singers and those are few and far between, at least on the regular guy/mortal musician level.

On an unrelated note, one of my favorite parts of the must-see rock doc “Lemmy” (the Motorhead singer) is when Lemmy explains that, although the Stones always got the credit as the tough guys, in fact, the Beatles were blue collar rough-and-tumbles from the wrong side of the tracks, while the Stones were a bunch of art school prancers. We stand corrected.

The List

#1 – 5 points – What Goes On – Debate always rages over Ringo’s greatness or lack thereof as a drummer, but I love him as a singer. His clear, sincere voice always cuts through whatever else is going on on the album, whichever that may be. In addition, I love the scratchy guitar. And I’ll never tire of Paul’s decision to walk the bass on just one chorus. So cool. How many bass players would walk it every chorus? Almost all of them. (Lawr would, because he told me.)

#2 – 4 points – She Loves You – The three-part harmony on the final “Yeah” is better than most songs all by itself. A helluva fun song to sing and play yet cover quantity is slim.

#3 tie – 4 points – You Won’t See Me & I’m Looking Through You – Can’t tell you specifically why I like these more than others; it’s just that Beatles thing. And I can’t tell you which one I like more than the other either.

#5 tie – 3 points – All My Loving, She Said She Said, I Call Your Name – Same thing here as the #3 tie, but just slightly less.

#8 – 2 points – Yellow Submarine – Verse gets a 5, chorus gets a zero, averages to 2. (Actually 2.5, but the rules call for truncation, not rounding.)

#9 – 1 point – Blackbird – I’m not one for wimpy songs of beauty, but I like this one. So does Charlie.

#10 – 1 point – Revolution – The poppy one. Q: Chairman Mao? A: Anyhow.

A Study In “Gimme Shelter” Live

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Let’s start with “the best version ever”:

Cool:

The fish (the instrument).
The best Rolling Stones song ever is in there somewhere I guess. I can’t get past two minutes and the song hasn’t even started yet.

Uncool:

Stupid runway long enough for a plane to use.
Black lady wailing stuff that’s not even in the song.
Nine minutes? Really?
This is why I have no particular interest in seeing the Stones anymore. I missed the boat (but not the runway).
Sometimes more isn’t more.

Now we’ll move onto the real Rolling Stones (the ones I’d pay to see):

Cool:

The fish (instrument).
Jagger’s vocals, dancing and general swagger.
Jagger’s foreign accent on the word “shell-tah” toward the end.
Charlie Watts’ bored expressions – sleeping, smiling.
Charlie Watts’ tit t-shirt.
Mick Taylor smiling and hammering away the rhythm.
Sometimes less is more.

Uncool:

They don’t show who’s playing the fish.
Is most of the music recorded and Jagger’s just singing over it? Geez, I hope not. If so, shame on me.

And finally (there’s been way too little Hellacopters on this damn site lately):

Cool:

The fish (instrument).
The fish player puts down the fish to kick the ball.
Four guitars!!!
Two keyboardists and you can’t hear one note of keyboard!
The Hellacopters’ bass player.
Nicke Andersson plays an MC5 lick during the solo.
Sometimes more is more.

Uncool:

I don’t know who Soundtrack Of Our Lives is (nor do I care).
How the Soundtrack Of Our Lives guys look compared to the Hellacopters guys.
Hellacopters drummer is absent.
Two drummers would’ve been better in this case.

Conclusion:

What the Rolling Stones lost between the good video and the “best version ever” can be found in the Hellacopters video.

Thank you and goodnight.

Moyer: Ten Songs From the Stones

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By Steve Moyer

Let me preface by saying the Stones don’t drive me crazy. I like them a lot and respect them even more, but I don’t know the entire catalog, nor have I ever seen them live. And, at this point, I probably never will. Not all that interested in watching a bunch of grandpas who are two miles away from me from a giant TV screen. I’d go if someone invited me for free.

#1 – 5 points – Rocks Off – Doesn’t get any more rock ‘n’ roll lyrically than “The sunshine bores the daylights out of me.”

#2 – 5 points – Gimme Shelter – Makes one feel bad like a rock song should. Kick ass Hellacopters cover. Nothing wrong with the Stones version either.

#3 – 5 points – Sympathy For The Devil – Lovely buildup song. Lovely Bryan Ferry cover.

#4 – 4 points – Dead Flowers – Three open chords – D A G. Just like all the best music. Next time you’re at Guitar Center and all the annoying little kiddies are wonking away, grab the most expensive Martin acoustic and let ‘er rip. Sing loud.

#5 – 3 points – Rip This Joint – Had to double-check that this was even a Stones-written tune. Sounds like it could be from some moldy old blues guy. Boogie woogie rock ‘n’ roll.

#6 – 2 points – Brown Sugar – The guitar’s gotta be alternately tuned to play this correctly and that gives it extra points (but only one). It’s cooler to say “Exile” is your favorite, but I’ll admit, mine’s “Sticky Fingers.” Take note that I’m with the masses on this one.

#7 – 2 points – Bitch – Arranged, played and sang this in a throw-together band for a festival at my church years ago, the only time I’ve ever worked with a horn section (part of the church orchestra). No one noticed the words.

#8 – 2 points – Shattered – What a weird little song, 70 percent studio production. Every live version I’ve ever heard of this is horrible.

#9 – 1 point – Hang Fire – Sort of a throwaway song from a throwaway album, but I always liked it, in a silly “perfect pop song” kind of way. Watched the “official” video as a refresher and Keith Richards still looks mostly human at this point.

#10 – 1 point – You Can’t Always Get What You Want – Here in great part because I would always sing this to my young kids when they were upset about not getting something they desired. Which made them cry more.

In Lieu Of Nothing

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Been too busy to even read Remnants most of the time lately. Have two Steveslists that I thought of weeks ago but haven’t written yet (5 Bands I Used To Like A Lot But Never Listen To Anymore and 5 Favorite Rock Books) and I owe Peter the beginning of a dueling review of the new Fucked Up album (which no one will care about besides Peter and I).

But here’s a band I read about in the Rolling Stone yesterday who seem interesting. I now read Rolling Stone monthly but never buy it. I find a chair at Barnes & Noble (enjoy it while it still exists, Steve) at the Lehigh Valley Mall while my kids waste an hour walking around and pilfer the content for free.

These guys sound like Jonathan Richman mixed with the Violent Femmes (among other things) to me, but the comments mention Richard Hell, so I figured you guys might be interested. I’ll be stuck on Fucked Up and Off! for a while, so go ahead without me.

I had half a memory of Peter writing about these guys before. Perhaps I was just too ignorant to find it.

Ladies and gentleman, The Parquet Courts:

Godzilla

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It must have been Remnants movie night last night. Even though this kind of thing is not my normal cup of tea in flicks, I was persuaded by some new friends to see the new “Godzilla” Friday night. It wasn’t bad, actually. Not to spoil it for you, but history definitely showed us again how nature points out the folly of man.

So you get the Fu version. While the BOC version is happy and kinda poppy, Fu Manchu’s (a distant second all-time at covers to the mighty Hellas) is sluggish and menacing, like Godzilla damn well should be.

I’m drawn to a sweet singing lead guitar over slow crunchy chords like a fly to shit. I guess that pretty much sums up the Black Sabbath formula.

Oh, and the crazy bass solo during the break part.

The Mighty Hydromatics

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I really don’t talk about The Hydromatics nearly enough on this blog. Listened them on the way to church this morning, which often requires a Hydromatics-like CD so I can manage to arrive only 10 minutes late instead of worse since I live 35 minutes away from the church.

Mighty Hellacopter guitarist/vocalist Nicke Andersson drums in this band and keeps his mouth shut for the most part, which is how Peter would have it. Love the way the verse vocal grinds against the instrumental part, which just keeps chugging along on its own.

Parts Unknown is one of those albums that everyone should know, but no one does. I have a bunch of those.

New Contest

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I’ve decided the Beatles were definitely best off breaking up when they did, lest they did themselves further damage.

What would the Beatles be today? My best guess is that McCartney would’ve found a way to secure all the rights and the other three would’ve quit long ago (Lennon first).

Current Beatles lineup:

Paul McCartney – Bass, vocals
Adam Levine – Guitar, vocals
Slash – Guitar
Phil Collins – Drums, vocals

Give me your best guess at the Beatles in 2014.

No prize, because I’m guessing there will be two more entries max.