Entertainment For Lively Minds
Best song about being in a band?
Paddy's day, sun is shining and I've got a day in London, HMV Oxford St., a few Guinnesses and a historic lunch with my mate. Apropos of nothing this blasted out of the car speakers yesterday. I've loved this song for 35 years and barely a week goes by without me playing it. Written by the drummer (one of his few so Eric Carmen, the main writer must have been pissed off), the greatest ending to a song from the 70's ever and, and here's my point ('about bloody time' I hear you say) this is my all time favourite song about being in a band. We'd all love to think its about the music, the camaraderie, the schlepping up and down the motorway in a transit but I think most honest musicians would love a 'hit record'(whatever that means these days). Anyway, as I leave to get the train, I give you the wonderful 'Overnight Sensation' and ask oh great and wise Massive, favourite song about being in a band?
Good day to you.
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Torn and Frayed
I may be wrong on this, and I've read the lyrics, but it always seemed to me to be a sly comment on the state of the band itself.
Off the top of me head, those not mentioned so far...
What A Waste - Ian Dury
Gangsters - The Specials
Rock B Roll Star - Barclay James Harvest
Gonna Make You A Star - David Essex
What am I thinking?
I did, of course, mean this...
Hat duly doffed
Lucas, 10th Avenue is, of course, the greatest song about being in a band, ever and this performance of it is my favourite of all time. I thank you from the heart of my bottom. Hat doffed, coat got. (Late for my train now, doh!
I can't find it on YouTube
But "I've Had It" by Aimee Mann is probably my favourite song about being in a band.
My thoughts exactly...
it just catches it perfectly.
Before Dave Amitri gets here
I should point out that the answer is, as always, his favourites. Drunk in a Band by Del Amitri.
Pat is the guy with a record shop
and John sells fruit but wants to be a cop
and Paul deals speed in a celtic top
but I'm just a drunk in a band
Good work Captain
This is the only version I could find on Youtube, sing along everyone!!!
Grease Stop
The Macc Lads
"Do you remember the Saturday Gigs?
.. We do, we do"
Mott the Hoople's finest.
Oh, and how about Bob Seger's "Turn the Page", too.
I was going to suggest
All The Way From Memphis
My second choice is this
Another vote for Saturday Gigs
for telling the story of the band as well.
"69 was cheapo wine, have a good time, what's your sign..."
Bonus points for the line "And then we went to Croydon"
Look no further ...
I was quoted out of context, it was great.
One of favorite lines from a song.
We're a garage band.....
Surely it's Turn the Page by Bob Seger
Obvious? Yes.
Do I care? No.
The first song on their first album, it summed it all up beautifully
Art Brut Formed A Band
"We're just talking...to the kids!"
Fabulous record, or at least the version I'm familiar with is. Wonder why this is the only one available on Youtube?
One step...
ahead of me there Mr Radio - a brilliant song and funny album to boot.
J. x
What about
Running On Empty? More or less a whole album about being in a band.
I'd have said The Load Out from the same album
But I take your point.
You both beat me to it.
Running On Empty is probably my favourite album of all time. So much so that I've resisited buying any other Jackson Browne in case it disappoints me by comparison.
He's coming to Cornbury Festival this year, though, so I'm going to take the plunge and familiarise myself with some of his other material beforehand. Does anyone have any recommendations? Albums to avoid?
If you only buy one Jackson Browne album...
I'd love to be able to help, but I'm with you on this one, although I hear The Pretender is the closest thing to an essential JB LP.
No, no, no
The essential Jackson Browne albums are the first three: Jackson Browne, For Everyman and Late For The Sky. The Pretender ain't half as consistent as any of these, and neither is Running On Empty. Honestly.
If just one...
"Late for the sky" is beyond perfect. But Lucas is right, all three are superb.
Twang speaks the truth
If push comes to shove, it has to be Late For The Sky.
Thanks Guys
I shall add all three to my list for the next visit to Fopp or The Record Collector.
Just realised I have a vinyl copy of the Pretender that I've never listened to.
What about JB's version
of Danny Korchmar's 'The Road' on the same album?
As usual (for me) the answer is The Ramones
The Ramones - Touring.
And surely?
.
And the brilliant 'Listen To The Band' by the Monkees.....especially when they played it at the end of the '33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee' special.
As is often the case for me these days, the answer is Felt
Ballad Of The Band
"Ain't got no money, ain't got no fame
And that's why, I feel like giving in".
If that's the answer
then I really like the question.
The world is a better place with Lawrence around.
Written as
a giant "fuck you" to former band member Maurice Deebank, apparently...
"Where were you when I wanted to work?
You're still in bed
You're a total jerk"
If you're interested, there's a Felt fanzine on the way....
http://foxtrotecholimatango.blogspot.com/
And pretty soon by the sound of it
Great Lawrence interview there from earlier this year by the band Girls.
I'm off to play Denim On Ice...
Ashton Gardner And Dyke - Ballad Of The Remo Four
The Hellacopters
I'm in the band
Song for the Road
David Ford (have I mentioned him before? I think I might have.)
The sun set fire to the heavens
On the hills over Sheffield tonight
I will sail over this countryside with new friends and old
We are nowhere but man, we're all right.
My favourites
have been suggested already, so I'm going for the worst one that I can think of offhand, which is 'We're An American Band' by Grand Funk Railroad.
Dunno if it's really about being in a band
but White Knuckle Express by the Fatima Mansions
"we're tuneful cute and giving
you know that's how we make our living
in a hall full of corpses we'd smile and bounce on.
Some say it's aimless bullsh*t
But they come from big houses and budgets
And, although I don't look it, I'm getting really f**king old"
Generally though I wish indie bands would stop writing songs about being in bands and their own scene (I blame Pavement) and try, I don't know, making smething up?
Autobiographical, surely
...if you like country with a boogie beat.....
Road Cases
The Drive-By Truckers
They're usually all by Mott the Hoople
aren't they?
Most of 'em, yeah
Ballad Of Mott
Hymn For The Dudes
All The Way To Memphis
Saturday Gigs
Creedence
How has this not been mentioned?
I'm sure Dave and Fraser would choose this...
The Who ~ Success Story
Frank Zappa ~ Joe's Garage
Heads Hands And Feet Warming Up The Band
It's got to be this one for me...
about the time they spent in communal living at The Angel, Little Hadham.
Another CCR classic
Vine Street by Randy Newman
Can't find it on You Tube. Done by Van Dyke Parks and Harry Nilsson. Starts with my favourite line:
"That's the tape that we made,
but I'm sad to say it never made the grade."
One foot in the door...
The other one in the gutter.
Ladies and gentlemen, The Replacements.
Van Morrison's 'The Story Of Them'
about, errr... the story of Them.
"Now people say, who are or what are them
That little one sings and that big one plays guitar
With a thimble on his finger
Runs it up and down the strings
The bass player don't shave much
I think they're all a little bit touched"
Monday by Wilco
.
'To be rich and have lots of fans....
...have lots of girls to prove that I'm a man,
and be Number One
Liked by everyone"
good choice
and pogo boy half way through adds some period charm to the clip
Did you see
how he kept pogoing as he was being led off stage? Hilarious!
And has Weller ever looked any better than he did during that period? I love the man dearly but please, that frightwig he sports now....
I'm sorry
but I love this; everybody does, even though we all know it's cack, really.
Cack? Definitely not
The Reckless and Into The Fire albums were absolute crackers - as was the associated Live album.
He was subsumed into the maw of the Mutt Lange hit machine after that and, to me, lost whatever it was that made his music work for me.
And while I'm at it
what about this. The first pop record to be about nothing more than itself and the people who play on it.
If this is post-modernism, gimme more...
The Clash
wrote several songs about being The Clash - 'Radio Clash', 'Guns On The Roof', 'Complete Control', 'We Are The Clash' - to name but a few. This, I think, was their best:
The answer of course is Frank Zappa
(as noted by James Blast above with "Joe's Garage")
FZ wrote lots of songs about being in a band, here's one of my faves from "Chunga's Revenge" - ladies and gentlemen "Road Ladies"...
Y thankee Mousey
I thought I had become invisible
As usual
The answer is -
Best? Worst?
Don't know but those Canadian lumberjacking heavies Bachman Turner Overdrive have done a few as well.......
Taking Care of Business
Rock is My Life And This Is My Song
Welcome Home
The Undertones - More Songs About Chocolate & Girls
"Here's more songs about chocolate and girls
Its not so easy but it will be heard
A lot less time but a lot more care
So here's more songs about chocolate and girls"
About a band's follow-up album.
Sixty posts in
and no mention of the wild shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher, or the competent drum work of Don Brewer? For shame!
Mary Chapin Carpenter...
looks a bit dated but...
leo sayer- one man band .. i
leo sayer- one man band .. i dont think its any good obviously but someone had already mentioned the who- success story and i regisetered just to put that up...
Just out of interest
Why is it 'obviously' not any good?
It's got a great lyric and is well played by some classy musicians (James Litherland, Dave Markee, Barry St John, Lisa Strike).
What's not to like?
it's 'orrible
and the skat bit gave me headaches back then, I don't intend to click it now
Mercury Rev - Holes
Bands
Those funny little plans
That never work quite right
Perhaps for the only time ever
the answer is The Moody Blues - "I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band".
(The similarity between this and "Love Machine" by The Miracles is pretty uncanny too)
Maybe Not The Best Ever...
but I really love this. The Presidents of the United States of America : We Are Not Going To Make It.
Luke Haines
Future Generation.
The Fall
Noel's Chemical Effluence
Which details the difficulties encountered by Noel, the band's tour bus driver, having to empty a PortaPotty during a journey through the Alps.
Wes McGhee - Back on the Road
Lyrics (IIRC) like:-
Oh Sh*t, I back on the goddam, Mother****in' road again,
I got a new piece of wire comin' from my amplifier so it goes again,
I got a bottle of Reds and a bottle of Blues,
I got 2 pairs of socks and one pair of shoes,
It's no fun picking' when your underwear is stickin'
I'm back on the road again
I'm on the road again, and there ain't nothing to it,
I'm just beatin' out my brains on the bandroom walls
I'm on the road again, and there ain't nothing to it,
but you can't play the ballgame when you've got no balls.
etc.............
"We were the first band to vomit in the bar...
...find the distance to the stage too far..."
It has to be this, from the Who. Watch out for Pete falling into the drums at 1:56 or thereabouts... :-)
Sultans of Swing. Surely?
I think it's been said before but it often seems that the editors of the magazine and The Massive go out of their way to ignore Mark Knopfler's contributions, both as a guitarist and songwriter. It amazes me that this string can be 70-some deep without anyone evoking Guitar George and Harry with his daytime job and altogether one of the greatest lyrics ever about playing in a band. It can't have been far from mind with Charlie Gillett's passing last week; most of the obituaries mentioned that he had been the first deejay to air the Sultans. But no, nary a mention. Shame.
written by one living (at time of writing) legend
sung by another (sadly passed on)
seedy, needy and very close to the mark.
Success Story
by T'Who