WTF? Deep Purple?

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I admit that I don’t pay a lot of attention to who gets inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.

As with any cluster of humans trying to determine what is good or socially relevant or important to a sport or genre or discipline, the subjectivity of said homo sapiens is always beyond puzzling to me. And, it isn’t that I don’t understand that KISS or Steve Miller were enormously popular, but neither of those artists ever put anything out as interesting or challenging as Moby Grape’s debut album, which still sounds great although the band broke up over 40 years ago meaning no group could be further from HOF consideration. (I was looking for a vid of the song Omaha and found this great and funny live bit from the Mike Douglas Show, believe it or not.)

I do, however, like watching the Hall of Fame induction concert that HBO shows after the ceremony, and when I flipped the channel on the other day to see what part of the concert was on, there was Deep Purple getting inducted.

Huh? Deep Purple, who owned two hits–Hush, and Smoke on the Water–and never released a complete album worth owning or listening to? Deep Purple over Roxy Music? Or, Yo La Tengo? Over Steve Earle, or Richard Thompson, or Mick Ronson, or Marc Bolan, or the Dolls or even fucking Turbonegro who are a lot more fun and interesting than Highway Star will ever be?

Putting Deep Purple in the Hall is like saying Mark Kotsay is HOF worthy (and, I love Kotsay, a good and steady player, but hardly one who should live in the archives among the best or most influential ever).

At this point, I am no longer interested in even seeing the live excerpts from the show, as the Hall is there with the Grammies and Oscars.

Note, it wasn’t even worth posting a Deep Purple video. We know their hits: we don’t care about the rest. Good thing the R’n’R HOF wasn’t started in the early 70’s or Up With People might have been voted in.

 

Song of the Week – Trip Hoppin’, Aerosmith

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Great bands are capable of putting out very good music throughout their careers. For some reason most fans latch on to the first few albums by most groups and then move on. There are exceptions of course. I can happily listen to any album by the Beatles all the way through and most any by the Stones or Springsteen. But there are records by some of my favorite bands, like the Kinks for instance, that get a little tired late in the discography. However, even their worst is pretty damned good and probably has at least one or two gems hidden within.

That brings me to today’s SotW – “Trip Hoppin’” by Aerosmith.

Aerosmith had a great run of 4 or 5 classic hard rock albums in the 70s then let substance abuse run them off the rails. By 1980 band stalwarts Joe Perry (lead guitar) and Brad Whitford (guitar) had left the band.

In 1984 the original band members reunited and found their second wind with another group of commercial and critical successes including Permanent Vacation (1987), Pump (1989) and Get a Grip (1993).

The band’s biggest hit (measured by sales) was the single “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” This 1998 power ballad was from the soundtrack to the movie Armageddon. It was written by Diane Warren and was Aerosmith’s first #1! (Frankly I find it an embarrassment to their roots.)

In 2001 Aerosmith released Just Push Play that included today’s SotW – “Trip Hoppin’.” Although the album reached #1 and had a Top 10 hit with “Jaded”, it wasn’t a huge critical success. (The Blue Army loved it but I doubt it brought in any new fans.)

“Trip Hoppin’” kills it! It’s a typical Aerosmith rocker but with a bit of a 60s era psychedelic twist (especially in the chorus). They even pull out the psych phasing trick. The title and lyrics are a throwback to the 60s too.

And if my karma suits you
Cross the line into another place and time
Tell me how pretty she is
When she turns the colors of the rainbow

One more day with you…trip hoppin’… yeah
One more night with you…no stoppin’
Ain’t no smokin’ fantasy
‘Cuz lovin’ you is trippin’ to me
You got me psychadelicized
You got my situation bone-a-fide

So keep on digging. You can find gems hidden everywhere in their catalog that includes 12 multi-platinum, 18 platinum, and 25 gold status albums.

Enjoy… until next week.

Guy Clark Has Moved On.

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Guy Clark is in the Country Music Songwriters Hall of Fame and was a beloved artist during his long career. At the same time, he was a big star. His talent was big, but his shadow was small and intense.

I saw him at Joe’s Pub in NYC a ways back, before he got sick. It was a terrific show, full of gee whiz moments when songs you knew took you by surprise, and songs you didn’t know made themselves feel familiar and important.

Like this one.

A Punk Album You Need

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Whenever I listen to these guys, I think perhaps they’re the best punk band ever – or at least they may have been in their prime. You need either The Unboxed Set CD or the Back From Samoa album and the Inside My Brain EP.

To steal from Tom:

Fuckin’ sheep I’m on the rag
They got my balls in a plastic bag

Best minute you’ll spend today:

La URSS all hands on deck

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Yesterday’s post about Blackball lead to this Andulucian punk band. I love this music, because it starts with the Clash’s London Calling as its aesthetic baseline.

If I lived in Andsalucia/a>, I bet it would hit more notes for me. For me, the Clash hit the same notes more immediately, because of the English thing mostly. Home is where the heart is.

But maybe you should listen to the whole thing. It’s really good, if a bit familiar.

Song of the Week – Too Much Monkey Business, Chuck Berry, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob Dylan, Pump it Up, Elvis Costello, Wild Wild West, The Escape Club

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Over the years I’ve written several posts in what I refer to as the “Evolution Series.” It consists of two sub categories. The first highlights the development of a single song over time by different artists [say, Train Kept A-Rollin’ by Tiny Bradshaw (1951), Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio (1956), The Yardbirds (1965), Aerosmith (1974)]. The other traces a certain song style – i.e. a rhythm or lick – as artists borrow from the past to make it their own (the Bo Diddley beat to Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” to “Magic Bus” by The Who to Springsteen’s “She’s the One” to U2’s “Desire”).

Today’s SotW is another collection in the second category. It starts with Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business” (1956).

Berry’s 5th single introduced an unusual rhythm for the vocal delivery of the lyrics. He spits out words to simply describe the frustrations of everyday life, like losing your money in a pay phone (that is, if you know what a pay phone is).

Pay phone, somethin’ wrong, dime gone, will mail
I ought to sue the operator for tellin’ me a tale

Bob Dylan picked up on Berry’s lyrical delivery and raised the bar on “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965).

In 2004, Dylan told the L.A. Times’ Robert Hilburn of “SHB,” “It’s from Chuck Berry, a bit of “Too Much Monkey Business” and some of the scat songs of the 40s.”

It became even more iconic with the D. A. Pennebaker directed scene, from the documentary Don’t Look Back. of Dylan flipping through a series of cue cards with key words from the song, including one of Dylan’s most quoted lines:

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”

Next in line is “Pump It Up” (1978) from Elvis Costello’s second album, This Year’s Model.

“Pump It Up” has some of Costello’s best lyrics from his early days as the angry young man.

She’s been a bad girl
She’s like a chemical
Though you try to stop it
She’s like a narcotic
You wanna torture her
You wanna talk to her
All the things you bought for her
Putting up your temperature

Lastly is “Wild, Wild West” (1988) from the one hit wonder, The Escape Club.

In 1988 I was the DJ at a Christmas party at the famous Cask & Flagon near Fenway Park in Boston. The friends that hosted the party were mostly into the “alternative” rock of the day (Style Council, English Beat, etc.) which was right up my alley. I still remember seguing from “Pump It Up” into “Wild, Wild West” and how nicely it worked – the true test being that no one left the packed dancefloor.

I can think of a couple of other songs that might be close relatives to this series – maybe U2’s “Get On Your Boots” or R.E.M.’s “The End of the World as You Know It.” Can you come up with any others?

Enjoy… until next week.

More Spotify Fun with The Stone Roses, Ace Frehley, The Mekons, and Mojo Nixon

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Not much secret how much fun I am having listening to my Spotify Weekly Playlist. Although, I would like to know the guys that program how our likes and preferences are bounced, and then built the algorithm that crunches my liking Yo La Tengo and Pink Floyd and the Kinks and Bill Frisell, and figures out that I might like the New York Dolls, or Love, or a bunch of other bands I never hinted at?

More interesting, is that over the past two cycles of songs–Spotify drops 30 a week onto a Monday playlist based on the how the company projects what I would like–I have not only loved just about every song, especially in context, but tunes have appeared that I did not know that I am sure would appeal to my Remnants mates.

I was always a Raspberries fan, and I know at least Steve and I were both fans, but how Spotify knew and dropped I Wanna Be With You on the playlist last week, though, is beyond me. But, the next track on that playlist was the ultra fantastic Love Spreads, by the Stone Roses. How that made the equation is even more obscure, though the Roses were a favorite (their debut album might have made my essential 50) but I had not thought of the band in years.

There were more, but this week’s craziness included a song by Ace Frehley, the KISS guitarist whom I would normally dismiss, but this tune, New York Groove, is a pretty good guitar driven pop tune. And, again, I am guessing Steve, who is more traditional in his music listening habits, would at least chuckle at the irony behind this.

This week also gave me a Tom Verlaine tune, Kingdom Come, I did not know and I suspect both Peter and Gene would (if they don’t already) love, and then for fun, the killer (and also new to me) Where Were You by the Mekons, a fave band of Peter’s, came blasting out.

This was with Do You Feel Like I Do, Just Dropped in to See What Condition (my Condition Was in), Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, The Shape I’m In, peppered into the mix, along with this somewhat obscure gem from the past.

 

 

 

Moldy Peaches, Jorge Regula

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While you were hating Nirvana and Pavement and actual crap indie bands in the 90s, the Moldy Peaches advanced.

A suburban rock guy with a love of noise meets a socially challenged preschool teacher who is a great song writer, what can happen?

Great songs can happen. (Though the record that made their names, as it were, wasn’t out until 2001.)

This video was made by fans, which makes it especially valuable. But I like the song.

Song of the Week – Hesitation Blues, Janis Joplin & Jorma Kaukonen

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

This week a new Janis Joplin documentary, Little Girl Blue, was broadcast on PBS’ American Masters. I had a chance to watch it and think it was worthwhile. It wasn’t the best documentary I’ve ever seen, but it earned some kudos for access to family letters and discovery of some previously unseen archival footage that the filmmaker provided to us.

There were also a few interesting bits of information that were new to me like her romance with David Niehaus, an American she met while she was on a “detox” holiday in Rio in early 1970.

Another bit of information that grabbed my attention was the existence of the “typewriter tape” – a recording she made with the pre Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen in 1964. The tape got its name because you can hear Kaukonen’s wife typing a letter in the background as Janis and Jorma tape a rehearsal in his Santa Clara home when he was still a senior at Santa Clara University (prior to moving into San Francisco’s Haight district).

Today’s SotW is “Hesitation Blues” from the Typewriter Tape.

The fidelity of this recording isn’t great (it wasn’t a true demo) but the performance and historical value makes it worth a listen. Joplin’s command of the blues and Kaukonen’s finger picking guitar style are both very impressive for their age and experience. “Hesitation Blues” would remain a standard in Kaukonen’s repertoire. It was the first cut on Hot Tuna’s first album in 1970.

If you would like to learn more about the Typewriter Tape, check out KQED’s Gabe Meline’s recent interview with Kaukonen.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/05/03/jorma-kaukonen-on-janis-joplin-and-recording-the-1964-typewriter-tape/

Enjoy… until next week.