No Faith in the Moral Standards of the Players as a Group

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

The original cover is very cool because as you slide it open, you can see what Farrah looks like in the boy cut, for example.

The most 1970s part of the story of the controversial cover is how Mick apologized to Liza when they bumped into each other at Studio 54. No word on whether they each did a line of blow off of the naked torso of an androgynous 17 year old club kid from Middle Village to seal their agreement.

"Dahling, I was so mad at Mick, until he apologized so sweetly."

"Yes, dear, welcome to my life."

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

Cheap Trick Live at Budokan



Maybe it was just me or maybe it was just Podunkville, but Cheap Trick came out of nowhere and captured an entire generation with this album. I mean, it goes from a point where literally* no one is talking about them, hearing them on the radio, or saying that they are their favorite band ("other than Zeppelin" being unnecessarily unspoken, of course) until one magical day that 97 Rock starts blasting "Surrender" on near constant rotation and everyone is wearing this t-shirt to school:




And by everyone, I mean everyone from Rick the legendary and mysterious pot dealer who should have been in 12th grade instead of 8th, to my friend Monica,** the cute daughter of the math teacher for the smart kids.

What did Not Bob learn from this? That popular rock music could be fun and could cross lines of taste and generations (my older sibling and cousins also liked the album - Not Nick had it on 8-track for his car and my cousin Robby used his cassette deck to record my copy of album). And that, like many good things in life, the phenomenon ended quickly. Within a year or so, the t-shirts disappeared and "Surrender" was only occasionally heard on the radio. And although many of us liked "The Dream Police," it just wasn't the same.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

*Yes, I really do mean "literally" and not "figuratively." Obviously. Sheesh.

**Monica, I am very sorry that I used to call you "Mono." I thought it was funny, but it really wasn't, was it? You were very cute and we were friends, but I wanted to be clever and it made the idiots in class laugh, so ...

I am sorry that gwinky things Cheap Trick are boring, because I love them very much. My first real rock show even, though I stupidly bought a shirt from the opener instead of the awesome Cheap Trick 82 shirt (Saxon, fwiw, in the awkward metal phase before I discovered punk rock).

As for new music by old guys, I'm digging the new Alejandro Escovedo record, recorded by Peter Buck right here in Portland, Oregon, where our rioting protesters don't bother to vote, making Hank and Flowers' heads explode, or something.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally Posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone

I am sorry that gwinky things Cheap Trick are boring, because I love them very much. My first real rock show even, though I stupidly bought a shirt from the opener instead of the awesome Cheap Trick 82 shirt (Saxon, fwiw, in the awkward metal phase before I discovered punk rock).

As for new music by old guys, I'm digging the new Alejandro Escovedo record, recorded by Peter Buck right here in Portland, Oregon, where our rioting protesters don't bother to vote, making Hank and Flowers' heads explode, or something.

Oh, they're not so bad -- just never did anything for me. I remember my friend* Sebastian Bierk (now Bach) used to sing "I want you, to want me" (just that line) a lot, and it was annoying. I was into other more girly stuff as a kid.

*not really a friend, just part of the group of kids whom I would walk to school together with.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone

I am sorry that gwinky things Cheap Trick are boring, because I love them very much. My first real rock show even, though I stupidly bought a shirt from the opener instead of the awesome Cheap Trick 82 shirt (Saxon, fwiw, in the awkward metal phase before I discovered punk rock).

C'mon. I still listen to this album:

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Did you hear me people I said Mose Allison is dead!!!!

[slinks off to listen to old 78 rpms ...]

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick

Oh, they're not so bad -- just never did anything for me. I remember my friend* Sebastian Bierk (now Bach) used to sing "I want you, to want me" (just that line) a lot, and it was annoying. I was into other more girly stuff as a kid.

*not really a friend, just part of the group of kids whom I would walk to school together with.

My ex-aunt is on this week's episode of Designated Survivor. You were a fan of hers IIRC?

[ThurgreedMarshall]

http://www.lawtalkers.com/forums/sho...postcount=4454

http://www.lawtalkers.com/forums/sho...postcount=4455

http://www.lawtalkers.com/forums/sho...postcount=4456

http://www.lawtalkers.com/forums/sho...postcount=4457

TM

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

Also, is anyone watching Westworld? I'm trying to catch up, so no spoilers. Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffery Wright are quite good.

You mean the "'Thandie Newton Walking Around Nude' Hour" on HBO every Sunday? I'm utterly unfamiliar with it.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

Everyone will mainly agree that I am mostly correct when I say that (1) Not Bob's musical taste is middlebrow and white bread, and (2) Triumph is by far and away the best power rock trio from Canada.

Suck it, Rush fans - sure, sure the maples scream oppression, blah blah blah. But Geddy Lee's nasally whine is almost as annoying as listening to a Rush fan wax poetic about Ayn Rand and objectivisim while smoking pot in a dorm room.

*I have a soft spot for "Subdivisions." Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself.** Suck it.

**ETA: That Walt Whitman line might make a good motto for the Politics board. Assuming we aren't all nuked into radioactive ash before we hit 4K.

"Spirit of the Radio" is one of the best four minutes in all of rock music. But yes, it's a blind squirrel finding a 300lb acorn.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

Some Girls



Flower already mentioned the usual criticism of "Some Girls" - it's disco, it's fluff, it's an insult to the Stones of "Let it Bleed" and "Exile on Main Street," etc.

Fuck the critics. This is my favorite Stones album. And it is the album that led me to like the Stones as a band instead of as a historical relic.

Maybe it's because it came out when I was musically aware? Probably some truth to that, I'll admit. But we are unavoidably creatures of our time. And although I think that many of the songs on this album are timeless, "Some Girls" is unquestionably a product of a very specific time and place -- late 1970s New York City.

Jagger is generally credited (or blamed) for the album. Yes, it is disco influenced - so what? It's also punk influenced and soul influenced. Deal with it. And Mick's lyrics (I assume most of them are Mick's, since Keith was too busy getting arrested for heroin) celebrate and embrace the chaos of a city where people wore plastic trash bags while the president's mother danced at Studio 54.

Not Bob had never been to NYC before (one trip to Shea Stadium while visiting an aunt in Levittown doesn't count), but this album made it come alive. And the idea that rock royalty could write in a Not Pretentious way (hello again, Zeppelin) was new to me. "Some Girls" was also my first experience with the hateful phenomenon of "I liked [insert band name] before [latest song/album] came out."

So, what did Not Bob learn from "Some Girls"? That rock music didn't have to be so fossilized and could move and adapt. That it could speak to a specific time and a place and still be universal and timeless, and that maybe some day a group of my friends are gonna come around at twelve with some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin' to meet me.

I'm with Flower. It's a decent record, but highly overrated. "Shattered," "When the Whip Comes Down," the title track... Has some solid stuff on it. But it also has "Beast of Burden," the worst song they ever did. And "Miss You" feels like it ought to move me, but never does ("Shattered" is the better disco tune).

"Let it Bleed" still holds up as the best overall record. A perfect little slice of hell, flooded with infectious hooks. And if "Gimme Shelter" doesn't hold all the resonance today that it held when it was released, you're in a cave on Mars.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick

Not Bob, I like your game (even though Cheap Trick is boring) and I much prefer FB Sebby to PB Sebby so I'll hang out here with you while I sit on this call. Since we are talking about music, I'm going to rank my favorite Leonard Cohen songs from most favorite to least favorite and you may have an opinion on that. (Also I saw Ani DiFranco walking to a protest the other day with a big sign and I gave her a thumbs up.)

A Thousand Kisses Deep
Waiting for a Miracle
Everybody knows
Chelsea Hotel #2
Closing Time
Dance me to the end of love
Anthem
I'm your man
Suzanne
Hey that's no way to say goodbye
Take this waltz
The future
First we take Manhattan
Hallelujah
Democracy
In my secret life
A street
Avalanche
You want it darker
The Partisan
Paper thin hotel

Still having a hard time knowing he's dead. When we saw him a few years ago, he was so spry and did six encores after a 3.5 hour show.

"Everybody Knows" and "Bird on a Wire" have been in my iPhone/iPod top 100 rotation for as long as I owned those devices. "Waiting for the Miracle" and "The Future" have veered in and out, but always been top 300.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'm with Flower. It's a decent record, but highly overrated. "Shattered," "When the Whip Comes Down," the title track... Has some solid stuff on it. But it also has "Beast of Burden," the worst song they ever did. And "Miss You" feels like it ought to move me, but never does ("Shattered" is the better disco tune).

"Let it Bleed" still holds up as the best overall record. A perfect little slice of hell, flooded with infectious hooks. And if "Gimme Shelter" doesn't hold all the resonance today that it held when it was released, you're in a cave on Mars.

Actually, I was suggesting the record was UNDER-rated because it was written off as a weak disco album when it actually had some real rockers on it. But I'm with you on the song-by-song. Some Girls as a song did not hit me when I was younger, but I love it now. Shattered I always loved. Respectable and Whip Comes Down are good, sleazy rock. I agree on Beast of Burden. I cannot stand that song. And Miss You always left me cold. All that falsetto crooning turned me off. I don't like Just My Imagination either. So it was never my favorite album or even close, but too many just dismissed the album as a throw-away fluke, or even the Beginning of the End for the Stones. Yeah, it's no Let it Bleed, but when it rocks, it rocks harder than a lot of other shit out there at the time.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

Actually, I was suggesting the record was UNDER-rated because it was written off as a weak disco album when it actually had some real rockers on it. But I'm with you on the song-by-song. Some Girls as a song did not hit me when I was younger, but I love it now. Shattered I always loved. Respectable and Whip Comes Down are good, sleazy rock. I agree on Beast of Burden. I cannot stand that song. And Miss You always left me cold. All that falsetto crooning turned me off. I don't like Just My Imagination either. So it was never my favorite album or even close, but too many just dismissed the album as a throw-away fluke, or even the Beginning of the End for the Stones. Yeah, it's no Let it Bleed, but when it rocks, it rocks harder than a lot of other shit out there at the time.

I am with you on Beast of Burden, but dammit, like November Rain, it plays a lot in my head. Pops up all the time and won't leave. Does that mean a song has at least some merit, because it's memorable?

These days it has competition with Rhianna telling me she likes the way it hurts.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick

I am with you on Beast of Burden, but dammit, like November Rain, it plays a lot in my head. Pops up all the time and won't leave. Does that mean a song has at least some merit, because it's memorable?

These days it has competition with Rhianna telling me she likes the way it hurts.

Just because a song is an earworm does not mean it has merit. The jingle for the midwest home improvement store Menards pops into my head with unbelieveable frequency at random times throughout my life, but I would not hold it up as a example of genius:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sweH1131Vw0

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

Just because a song is an earworm does not mean it has merit. The jingle for the midwest home improvement store Menards pops into my head with unbelieveable frequency at random times throughout my life, but I would not hold it up as a example of genius:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sweH1131Vw0

FFS, now that will be in my head.

I think my head just has really bad taste in music.