Entertainment For Lively Minds
Let me explain...
Posted by Uncle Wheaty on 12 September 2011 - 8:26pm.
Asuume you have to explain a musical genre to someone who has never heard it before using only one You Tube video.
What would you choose?
Let's start with classic heavy metal (many sub genres are available).
I would suggest this:
Cliched lyrics, a great riff, a short but memorable guitar solo (Prince take note) and leather.
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Warty Rock 'N' Roll...
No finer example than Motörhead with Ace of Spades.
Love that song
and love that video too. It's a pop song really.
Folk Blues
If I had to describe the entire acoustic folk blues movement of the mid-60s in just one clip it would be this one.
Jimmy Page, Donovan, John Martyn and every other acoustic guitar player in the land were watching this and furiously taking notes.
Bert Jansch - Blackwaterside
Yes...But
only because there are no video clips of Nick Drake.
I think it's fair to say
that without Bert Jansch and (especially) Davy Graham, there would be no Nick Drake albums
But it's not about who came first
It's about who you think best defines folk/blues.I'm less familiar with Jansch and Graham's music (but massive respect to both- in fact it was only last Sunday night that I recommended Davy Graham to someone learning to play acoustic guitar) but when I think of a folk artist with the blues it has to be Nick...IMHO.
I love Nick Drake's records
but I feel his music was far too self-contained and narrow in its scope to be representative of anything else, much less an entire genre.
I don't think Nick "defines" much of anything, beyond his own troubled genius.
Jansch and Graham on the other hand kick-started an entire movement of acoustic guitar playing which filtered through in rock and endures to this day.
IMHO, naturally ;-)
Humble Opinions Rule OK?
1st ever Rock & Roll record
Move It On Over - Hank Williams (1947)
IMHO
The blues
My Blues...
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.
Isn't that "blooze", rather than "blues"?
I can't imagine encapsulating the blues without invoking an ancient black man in a suit with a battered acoustic (or archtop electric) guitar. To me, that's what the blues is. As fine as the Rory Gallagher clip is (though tbh white-boy electric blues isn't generally my cup of tea), I'm not sure it's the most representative example of the actual *blues*, is it? More of a subgenre. Anyway. When I think "blues", I think "Smokestack Lightnin'".
Or possibly Blind Lemon Jefferson:
Multi Media Pop
Lady Gaga "Born This Way" (76 million views and counting)
76 million you say!
who would have thought that-that many people ....... (insert your own thoughts here -
That's Jazz!
before Colin goes all fusion on your ass, here's something altogether more refined
Fusion...
...in one track? I can do it with 'One Word':
This was always my Mahavishnu moment
Does anyone remember Train Time by The Flock featuring Jerry Goodman on violin?
This may come as something of a shock to regulars...
...around here, but I've never been wild about 'Dance Of Maya' - nor, to a lesser extent, 'Meeting Of The Spirits' - and those were the two 'big numbers' in their live repertoire from mid 71 to late 72, before the Birds Of Fire and Between Nothingness & Eternity material kicked in and dominated the live set till their implosion on New Year's Eve 1973. (For trivia buffs: almost every Mahavishnu Mk 1 concert opened with either 'Meeting Of The Spirits' or 'Birds of Fire', but the two pieces never appeared in the same set list to my knowledge - which is about 46 concert recordings and counting!)
I've come to appreciate them more, through live recordings, but neither would be a first choice for 'definitive Mahavishnu moment'. There is, though, an intriguing few minutes of professionally shot multi-camera film (as opposed to TV shot video) of a show at Hunter College, NY, on youtube - synced to FM radio audio of 'Dance Of Maya' from the same show - which was apparently made by Columbia Records for promo use. To think that deep in Sony/Columbia there may be a whole Mahavishnu concert on film (sigh)...
Here it is:
Where do you stand
on the Jean-Luc Ponty line-up Colin? I saw them at the RAH with JLP in 1975 and the general consensus seems to be that they were never as good after Jerry Goodman left.
Interesting question, Moje...
...(well, probably not to anyone else!)
I love 'Visions Of The Emerald Beyond' - which has always seemed to be the MO's 'pop album', or as near as they got to being accessible to the masses - and the other Ponty LP, 'Apocalypse' (produced by Goerge Martin of course), is definitely a slow burner, but it's improved with age to my ears. I imagine at the time it must have been a bit of a curveball in being the first album after the three MO Mk1 records.
The fabulous film of the Ponty line-up live at Montreux in 1974 - 50 mins of which (frustratingly! bafflingly!) was released on official DVD recently, but the whole 2+ hours of which circulates unofficially and is mostly on youtube - really enhances one's appreciation of that version of the band. The Apocalypse LP material is played in full (without the LSO) and stretched out to about three times its length - looser, funkier, more accessible and more akin to the MO Mk1 in being vehicles for soloing/extemporisation as opposed to the necessarily tight, orchestrated (literally) structures of the LP.
There's also an unofficially circulating film of the Ponty line-up playing a festival in France in 1974, again with Apocalypse material but adding versions of 'Sanctuary' and 'Dawn' from the MO Mk 1 repertoire.
Curiously, live audio or video from the 1975 era (Visions Of The Emerald Beyond material) is very rare - no film that I know of at all, only a few low quality audio recordings so far circulating. However... Dinky Dawson, the far sighted soundman who taped so many of their shows in 1972-73 (many now available at wolfgangsvault.com) also taped many of the shows on their 1975 US tour as support to Jeff Beck. So far these aren't available on wolfgangsvault (though a couple of the Beck shows are), but soon, one hopes...
Intriguingly, Dawson recalls lots of sound issues in the MO Mk2 due to the increased use of electronic gizmos onstage. He recalls telling John McL one day that it was getting too OTT. At which point John's double-neck custom made guitar - robustly propped up - fell over, with no explanation, breaking its necks. It was repaired but never the same again. Dinky and John reckoned it was a sign - that it was time to stop the electronic music. Soon after this he formed all-acoustic Shakti. (There was, though, a little-remembered and thoroughly anti-clamactic 4 piece residual version of the MO - without Ponty - which staggered on into 1976. I have a live recording: dreadful. John had obviously lost interest at that point.)
If anyone's really interested in this stuff (!) I've just had an unpublished version of my 1997 interview with John McL, commissioned by an Irish magazine, uploaded to my website, wherein he talk about the MO - even revealing that he tried for years after it split to regroup the Mk1 version. Jan Hammer was the only sticking point, alas...
But they're still all with us. They COULD still do it if the will was there...
Lovely stuff
as usual Colin. I always luxuriate in the wealth of information you provide for us.
I figured that it wouldn't last with Ponty. Any man who can outdo Zappa in the ego department is not going to last in a blissed-out setup like MO.
I've not much else to add, except I had dealings with Dinky Dawson briefly in 1969 when he worked for Fleetwood Mac.
He turned up at a free concert I was involved with in Sheffield and provided the entire Fleetwood Mac PA system for the use of the entire mini festival line-up, gratis. It wasn't a huge system by today's standards, but it was still around 10 times the size of the average Transit van band PA back in those days.
Nice guy, too.
And, as always, Moje...
...I luxuriate in your tales from the front line!
Before the Dinkster got involved with wolfgangsvault - who have purchased his incredible (and incredibly well recorded) archive of concerts - he licensed one of his Fleetwood Mac 1969 recordings to, I think, Rykodisc. 'Shrine '69' I think it was released as. Chances are he recorded your festival! His sound recording set up was apparently revolutionary for its time. The quality of the MO recordings at the vault constantly amazes and delights!
Dinky's first encounter with the MO was in Lenox (Missouri, i think) in mid 72. Having not been able to hear themselves on stage before the MO members were in awe of Dink's sound - and hired him for certain later dates in '72 and then pretty much the whole of their US dates in 1973. Thank God they did! Posterity has benefitted enormously. Walter Kolosky subtitled his MO biography ('Power, Passion & Beauty') 'the story of the greatest band that ever was'. I wouldn't disagree with that.
First generation rock'n'roll
Early Elvis is OK. I'll give you that. But Little Richard gets my vote.
Soul
from the Godfather
and the Queen
British Psychedelia
This has got everything: phasing, backwards guitar and drums and, of course, the obligatory bicycle reference, so beloved of British psych merchants (along with grannies [taking trips] and cups of tea [the drinking thereof]).
Future Yes-man Steve Howe plays guitar and Keith West of Teenage Opera fame sings. Twink, later of the Pretty Things and the Pink Fairies is on drums.
None more psych!
Tomorrow - My White Bicycle 1967
American Psychedelia
Not as twee or pop inclined as the British take on psych, the American version was far less structured. It did away with all the bicycles and grannies whimsy and got straight to the heart of things.
Country Joe and The Fish - Section 43 (April 1967)
Can't really get on with...
...Amerian psych myself (all of those Airplane/Country Joe/GDead/Love etc people) - I suppose I feel the same way about all that stuff as many others feel about UK/European prog.
But where do we stand on AUSTRALIAN PSYCH?
Here's the prime example, Russell Morris. He is, apparently, the real thing:
I'm confident that Shane Pacey will pop his head round in a day or two and confirm that he's played on stages with the fellow!
An Aussie classic
undoubtedly, but there's an interesting story behind it.
The Real Thing was written by Johnny Young and produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum.
In UK terms that's like saying it was written by Cliff Richard and produced by Noel Edmunds.
Johnny Young was an Australian pop singer and children's talent show host who brought new meaning to the term insipid. A few years ago he was arrested in the Philippines under charges of involvement in running an illegal AIDS clinic, which kind of dented his long-standing family friendly image somewhat.
"Molly" Meldrum is a bumbling DJ and pop pundit who has carved a 40 year career in Aussie TV/radio out of liking everything. He's the cowboy hat-wearing Aussie DLT in spades and something of a national laughing stock. He's also very good friends with Elton John.
How that pair ever came up such a fine record remains one of the great mysteries of Aussie pop.
You certainly know your stuff, Moje...
...have you seen the ABC series 'Long Way To The Top' from a few years back? A 5 part series on Aussie rock from the 50s onwards which led to a stadium tour of loads of the key acts. A friend n Oz sent me the TV show on VHS and I was captivated - a whole parallel universe of music from the golden era, largely unknown in the Western hemisphere. I've since bought the version on DVD and the DVDs from the stadium tour. Anyway... Russell and Molly talk about making the record in one of the episodes. It's enough to make one fairly certain that Molly is one of those people who can make careers out of no obvious talent but a great deal of swagger and bluff! Plus, what's with the hat? Imagine if DLT had worn a stetson since 1968. What's going on there?
Molly
is a textbook example of the big fish in a small pond syndrome. He was in the right place at the right time and has remained there ever since.
His sexuality has long been a topic of debate in Australia. I couldn't possibly comment on that. However it is on record that Molly was ejected from a 1964 Beatles' concert in Melbourne for 'screaming like a girl'.
I bet that's never happened to DLT ;-)
I've posted about this before
but was roundly ignored (as ever).
I think The Real Thing is a masterpiece. Love his song Rachel too, about the Vietnam nurse. I'm a big fan of Aussie rock of all ages, and it's definitely worth seeking out A Long Way To The Top if you have an interest in the music that made other countries tick.
Where do we stand on the Masters Apprentices?
Sounds like we have a lot to talk about, Fivemeister!
I'm not 100% sure about the Masters - a bit cheesy ('Turn Up Your Radio'), though I do have a soft spot for their early 70s proggy guise. 'It's Because I Love You' is a classic - and I do like Billy Thorpe's solo version of it on the acoustic live album he recorded shortly before he died. Apparently he didn't rate the Masters until they toured together on the Long Way To The Top arena tour, and the song certainly suited him.
I have the recent deluxe edition of the Masters first album plus extras (from their era as the 'Aussie Pretty Things' - before their key songwriter left through illness. A nice period piece, that set, if not wildly original.
But that's the great thing about Aussie rock in the 60s/70s - there are more-or-less Aussie equivalents to most UK/US acts. And some are very impressive, sometimes better than 'the real thing'. That doesn't, however, hold for McKenzie Theory (the Aussie Mahavishnu Orchestra equivalent)!
As you say
It's a fascinating parallel universe. All this was going on and Easybeats and Seekers, we had no idea. And they were all so keen to make it here too. Shame, as there's so many gems I can't even count them all.
I love this. Starts off poppy but ends up Tullish.
Speaking
of Aussie rock, here’s my copy of the 1965 debut Easybeats’ LP Easy. The little bloke with the Hofner Club 40 caressing his Adam’s apple is George Young, elder brother of Angus (you can see the family resemblance).
Over on the left with the red Gibson 345 is Harry Vanda. After the Easybeats folded, the Vanda/Young partnership became legendary in Australia where they wrote and/or produced dozens of records for artists such as AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Cheetah, The Angels and John Paul Young.
Their best known song in the UK is probably John Paul Young's disco smash Love Is in the Air which was a worldwide hit in 1978, then again in 1997 as part of the Strictly Ballroom soundtrack.
Another member of the Young musical dynasty is Alex. He played (under the name George Alexander) with the Beatles-endorsed band Grapefruit .
The Easybeats' biggest hit by far was Friday On My Mind, a truly great single which is often cited as the best Australian record ever.
Ironically, not a single member of the Easybeats was born in Australia, Friday On My Mind was recorded in London at Abbey Road and it was produced by the American Shel Talmy.
But it's still the best paean to teenage angst and frustration you'll hear this side of My Generation.
Oh and here it is
The best Aussie record of all time:
The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind (1966)
Classic 1970s dub
Laydies and gennelmenn, I give you:
Augustus Pablo: "Kings Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown"
Often imitated, never bettered.
Western Swing
Yacht Rock
Thrash.
(Slayer - Angel Of Death)
Decent call
but maybe with overtones of speed metal. I'd suggest
British Freak Beat
American Garage Band Rock
The KINGSMEN - Louie Louie - 1963
Landfill indie
Field Music...
River music
Live in a town with a river?
This is the song for you...
Hip Hop:
(Eric B & Rakim, I Ain't No Joke)
Electropop:
(Visage, Fade To Grey)
Early '80's LA anyone?
They're stupid like I told you, they're stupid like a song
(The Gun Club - Sex Beat)
Paisley Underground
(The Dream Syndicate - Then She Remembers)
Tower Records Sunset Blvd July 1982
British Blues Boom 1968
Peter Green: a guitar sound (and a voice) to die for
Fleetwood Mac - If You Be My Baby
All that is good about prefab chart pop:
'God Rock'...
...it can only be - yes, you've guessed - Quintessence:
and while we're on the spiritual plane
how about Cheese Rock, courtesy of Bert Camembert and the Pot-head Pixies
Mid-16th Century polyphonic masses
Missa Papae Marcelli by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Top stuff.
I've got Grebo wrapped up
PWEI - Def Con One
Antmusic!
Played this before posting. F**k me it still sounds great:
(Adam & The Ants, Antmusic)
1980s Post-Punk
(The Wolfgang Press, Cut The Tree)
Punk
As good a starting point as any:
Damned - New Rose
and maybe a bit of this too:
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Trip hop?
Massive Attack - Protection
Downbeat combination of electronica and hip hop. I think so.
Or you could have:
Tricky - Black Steel
Wet rock
Coldplay - Fix You
Big soppy singalongable anthem that is ideal for use with reality TV for seemingly elevating minor, insignificant boo-hoo moments into epic tragedy and pathos.
Southern Soul...
Small Town Talk by Bobby Charles.
Really?
Great great track but as an explanation of Southern Soul?
Recorded in the north by Bobby (from the bayous) with most of The Band. I agree it has a groove but I don't hear Southern Soul
Southern Soul has to be recorded in the south. The musicians should be both black and white skinned. Dan Penn must be in the studio, somewhere. Best if he is also a writer of the song. Would you believe I can't find a youtube of James Carr doing 'Dark End Of The Street'?
I think you're right...
I don't think my brain was working when I posted that.
New Romantics(ism)
New Musik - Were they prophets of the digital age?
Classic British pub rock
Classic British pub rock
Classic British guitar boogie
Surf Guitar
Dick Dale & The Del Tones: Misirlou (1963)
Dick is cool enough with his left-handed Strat strung upside down Albert King-style (ie with the bass strings at the bottom) but in 1963 the Del Tones looked like the squarest guys in the world.
And TWO rhythm guitarists, keyboards, sax, bass and drums, plus Dick's lead guitar, seems like overkill.
Oh, and that's some mighty fine twisting, lady at the front with the blonde hair.
Madchester
Perhaps there are some more obvious choices (Fool's Gold, Step On, The Only One I Know), but for me this is what 'Madchester' was about. This version was the one I loved best - the Vince Clark remix on the 12" of Wrote For Luck by Happy Mondays.
I love that re-mix
but I would like to suggest Flood's re-mix of "Come Home" by James as a contender
Krautrock
Obvious, I know, but isn't that the idea here?
Roots Reggae
The whole Burnin' album by The Wailers would work as well!
Eurotrance
I love Eurotrance.
Minimal
Korg DS-10 Chiptune
Punk
There can only be one.
Wot, no (shhhhhhhhh) Folk-Rock
Wot, no (aaaargh) country-rock
Glam Rock
It's a toss up between this and 'Rock And Roll Part 2'. The latter is more conceptual - according to producer Mike Leander it's a blend of Dr. John The Night Tripper and Gary US Bonds! - but I keep hearing echoes of Rocky Horror in the guitars and chords on 'Ballroom Blitz', so double glam points.
And, wot (for completeness sake) no jazz-rock
(Just to show some of us recall the list of genres in the original virgin records inky mail-order ads in Melody Maker. What was soft rock, then? I was always confused by "cut-outs", myself)
Country and Western
Several candidates in this department, from Ring Of Fire to Jolene. But this one has everything C&W should have - the peerless Tammy Wynette, and the quintessential country and western lyrics.
The comments on this video are pretty amazing - music definitely has a power!
90's hair metal
what came to be known as "Acid Jazz"
Second wave of British Acid Jazz
SWOBAJ...wow..can I claim that please
Weird but..
..whilst listening to this tune on the train last year I had the (nearly) the exact same thought. If one wanted to explain heavy metal in one song this would be it. I think it covers the bases for lots of types of metal, with a riff closer to 'trad' metal than anything they had done before. Altogether now, "DUH-nuh, ner-ner-ner, DUH- nuh, ner-ner-ner...
Mountain Music
Also known as The Dog's Bollocks
Boy Bands
The genre that puts pretty boys, aspirational videos and modern-age doo-wop songs in perfect symmetry.
AMERICAN:
BRITISH:
Wot no funk?
(Picture quality poor but worth it for the footage)
(Sly & The Family Stone, Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)
Mersey Beat
Has there ever been a more gloriously infectious song?
Complete with false start and studio chatter, here's Gerry.
Gerry & the Pacemakers - I Like It (1963)
Unique Dead Drummer Rock (any old excuse)
Only Moonie could have brought this drumming to this song.
Psychobilly
That old scallywag Lux Interior - oft imitated, never bettered.
Psych-folk
or
or
Oh..just give them Unicorn
Always thought of Bolan/Took as Hippy Dippy (in a nice way)
This is more my idea of Psych-Folk
Minstrel music
Binky bonk rhythms and gimpy dancing
Depeche Mode - New Life
70's singer songwriter era...
it's got to be Carly!!!
More Carly from 1971 Central Park
This aired on American Television in 1972.
It's just struck me what an extraordinary resemblance...
...Carly Simon has to modern-era troubadour Sarah McQuaid. There's some pics on Sarah's website with a red dress and back lighting which look incrediboly similar to Carly in those clips above. Here's a vid of Sarah, talking about the influence of Mickey Mouse record players:
Stoner Doom
Relentless forward momentum; heavy as hell; the bit around the 4:40 mark, where the great chiming guitar chords advance out of an avalanche of frenzied drumming, sounds like the sky falling on your head. This clip adds 6 minutes of silence to the song's 7 minute length, presumably so that you can get over the awesomeness of what you've just heard.
late 70s heavy rock'n'roll live - the very best
Music to air-drum along to
Best use of Vocoder
To demonstrate vocoder
I would go for Herbie Hancock 'I thought it was you' 'cos it's brilliant. He shows us some jazz funk while he's at it - 2 birds with one stone: