Anyone who knows me or follows this blog (and, honestly, is there anyone who follows this blog and doesn't know me?) knows that I'm a big Dave Edmunds fan.
There's something I've been wondering about for a while...Dave's guitar.
For the longest time, Dave was associated with one specific guitar -- IIRC it was a Gibson ES335. It wasn't the only guitar he played, but it seemed to be his go to instrument, and that view is supported by numerous comments in interviews. It's what he's playing in the clip below:
But in recent years -- and I mean for more than a decade -- I don't see him plaing that guitar.
In videos, or concert footage it always seems to be something else.
Here, performing with the Refreshments, he's playing a Telecaster:
And here, in the video for "Again," it's a Stratocaster:
So, what happened? Did his taste change? Or did the Gibson get lost or stolen? Did he fly United with it?
My son and I take a science fiction/horror film history class. It's taught by local film historian, Keith Crocker. Keith has directed a couple of features (The Bloody Ape and Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69). He also teaches cinema history classes at one of the local community colleges, lectures at libraries, runs programs in schools, etc.
At any rate, the class generally runs in groups of four sessions -- each with a theme. Such themes have been foreign-made films, drive-in trash, and 1950's sci-fi. The class format is simple. Keith talks about the week's movie -- the context, the people involved, other interesting facts, then we watch the movie and discuss.
This summer we experimented. For a special five-week session, each of us in the class picked a movie to show, and introduced it. Five weeks because there are five of us in the class. I went first, and chose The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I wanted to go with something that spoke to me, a movie that matters to me. And within the constraints of the class, TRHPS seemed like my best bet.
I am under no illusions that TRHPS is a great movie. Or even a good one. But I love it anyway. The two primary reasons for that are (1) I saw it at just the right point in my life for it to work its way into my head; and (2) The music.
There are, what, a dozen songs in the soundtrack? And not a bad one in the bunch. Sarandon's lustful "Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me," And Tim Curry's equally lustful "I Can Make You a Man." And, during the floor show, there's the longing when Tim sings:
What ever happened to Fay Wray? That delicate satin-draped frame? As it clung to her thigh How I started to cry. 'Cos I wanted to be dressed just the same.
And, while he's singing that, I'm tempted to call out comments about Ms. Wray being buried in ape shit.
I love the clever wordplay so evident in "Dammit Janet" and "Sweet Transvestite," and the energy of "The Time Warp" and "Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul."
Keith noted that the movie musical had, as a form, reached a dead end, and TRHPS, love it or hate it, guided the form into a whole new direction.
I can't say that the others in the class loved the movie, but they were glad to have seen it. The consensus was that the music was great, but the plot was lacking and it was hard for the guys to identify with the characters.
I can't really argue with that.
Next year I'll show Shock Treatment, the non-sequel.
Last night was the album release party for Bobtown's A History of Ghosts.
It was a favorable crowd. I was standing -- I wasn't planning on buying food, so it didn't make sense to reserve a table. Unfortunately I was a bit too exhausted to fully enjoy the show. And my friend, Meep, who was planning to join, begged off pleading exhaustion.
Good show, albeit a bit short and rushed. They ran through all eleven songs from the new album, plus a one-song encore of a song from their first album. I wish I could remember which song it was, but alas I can't. Charlie Shaw joined them onstage as a guest drummer on a couple tracks. And Efrat Shapira joined them on violin.
Tonight I'm going to the album release party for Bobtown's A History of Ghosts. It's at Hill Country in Midtown Manhattan. I can't wait.
This, their third album, is their best yet. Of course, ince it includes "Kentucky Graveyard," which is my favorite song from their live show, I can hardly think otherwise. But, seriously, the harmonies are smoother, and the album has a fuller sound.
A friend posted a link on Facebook, asking what was the band that first got me into Rock and Roll. I answered, "Ducks Deluxe."
It was a bit of a difficult answer. I was into the Monkees years before Ducks Deluxe. But I realize that The Monkees got me into the Monkees. My musical interest wasn't moving on from there. With Ducks Deluxe it was different. I came upon an album of theirs (technically, a compilation album) called Don't Mind Rockin' Tonite. I got really into that record, and from there there was an explosion. From the Ducks I moved on to Dave Edmunds. Then Nick Lowe. Then Rockpile, the Motors, Graham Parker & the Rumour, Dr. Feelgood, Wreckless Eric. I could name lots more pub rock bands. And then other non-pub bands that I got into as a result of them. Suffice to say it kind of exploded out from there in many directions. In a manner of speaking, Ducks Deluxe was my big bang of music fandom.
That's not to say that everything I like can be traced back to Ducks Deluxe. There were some small bangs too. The Monkees, I guess, were a small bang (that, as I said, came long before the big bang). So was Twisted Sister (which I got into because of a girlfriend). And Simon and Garfunkel.
But the big bang that opened my world was Ducks Deluxe. I've posted it before but here's a clip of them at their sweaty best:
A few months back, I went with my two older kids to see Avenue Q. We thought it was on Broadway, but it was actually Off Broadway; that's another story.
Anyway, I loved the show. But...
Here's the thing. The story line is thin. Maybe not nonexistent, but thin. The characters are not believable. I will admit that the use of muppets with their puppeteers being visible (you're supposed to ignore them) worked better than I expected. But the characters were inconsistent -- often making me think "no, (s)he wouldn't do that."
Now, the good part. The music. The songs, often ...irreverent... were great. "Shadenfreude," "The Internet is for Porn" and "It Sucks to Be Me" are wonderful sendups.
This is not a play that will go down in the annals as a classic. But, given my musical taste, it was loads of fun.
I was thinking about the Captain and Tennille hit, "Do That to Me One More time." Specifically, the two lines, "Do hat to me one more time. Once is never enough with a man like you." Seems to me that's not exactly a compliment.
So apparentkly one of the "things" now is Kanye West fans tweeting about how Paul McCartney's career is going to take off now that they've done a duet. They are also hitting the note that it's great of Kanye to help out an unknown like McCartney. See the article here.
It's easy to make all sorts of smug comments about how kids today know nothing. Or tro make some snarky comment about how he was in some band called "Wings" a while back. But I'll resist. Partly because I think most of the tweets are jokes. I saw a bunch of them, and ity seems to me that these are not things that people would actually say if they really thought McCartney was an unknown.
Aargh. I've been ripping my CDs onto my wife's computer, and in so doing I misplaced the case and liner notes for Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
I won't buy another copy just for the liner notes. Actually, I won't ever buy another Pink Floyd CD, since I don't want to support Roger Waters, the anti-Semitic piece of shit. It's for that reason that I give a thumbs down every time Pandora plays one of their songs.
But as long as it's my CD and collection, I'm not above listening to it...
I happened to find this little snippet of interview. Dave Edmunds is talking about the song, "Sweet Little Lisa," from his Repeat When Necessary album, and Albert Lee's guitar lead. For some reason, I can't seem to paste the video into my blog, so here'a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLwbFY_9WF0
But it reminded me of a section from the British TV special, "Born Fighters." See the first five and a half minutes or so of the following:
"Born Fighter" was a British TV special providing an inside look into the Rockpile's recording process. Rockpile was co-led by Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. But because of contractual commitments they couldn't release records under the group name. Instead, they would record as a group, but release records under Nick's and Daves' names. "Born Fighters" caught the band recording what would be Dave's fifth solo album (Repeat When Necessary) and Nick's second (Labour of Lust). You can watch it in four parts on Youtube. But the first half (or so) of part four (above) includes footage of Albert Lee recording the guitar lead for "Sweet Little Lisa." See the expression on Dave's face -- at once orgasmic and jealous -- as he hears Lee play.
OK. Maybe not the worst. But I give it extra points because I'm such a big Dave Edmunds fan.
As far as I can tell, this was from a British show called "Disco," and it aired in 1971. Great sleuthing on my part -- that's what it says on Youtube.
Anyway, first of all, notice how the women are dancing. A good example is at around 1:22 in. These women look stoned. Or confused. In all fairness to them, it may be because this is not really a good recording to dance to. But this looks like some kind of Brady Bunch slumber party.
Second, Dave himself looks like he's on something.
And what's with the beginning. You see people milling around on the side, waiting for a cue that they can enter the dance floor. And Dave strolls through the crowd, guitar in hand while the guitar part that he is supposedly playing has already started.
But the biggest thing? What's with bowtie guy? There's a guy who's occasionally visible, wearing a yellow shirt, furry vest and a big black bowtie. At 0:29 you can see him in the background doing some exaggerated walk. At 1:17 you can clearly see him playing air tambourine with a huge grin. At about 1:50 he's in the background playing air guitar.
I think the only thing that worked right is that this shows Dave alone -- no band. That, FWIW, is appropriate since he made the recording himself -- producing, engineering, doing all vocals and playing all instruments.
Nearly a month ago I got together with Allan Backer and Charlie Shaw, two local musicians whose work I admire, to discuss the possible production of demos. We went through a few songs -- the rewritten version of "Music No One Else Can Hear," "Jackpot," "Five Missing One," "Do You Think of Me (Now and Again)?" and "Funny in My Head."
We talked about possible arrangements, did some very minor wordsmithing, and and talked about the logistics of making demos. Also, Allan asked me to email him the lyrics to "Jackpot" -- he likes it enough that he could see performing it. Anyway, I emailed some informatuion to Allan -- the lyruics to "Jackpot" and some questions about pricing. But I hadn't heard back. I should have followed up, but haven't.
Today I realized that my email got bounced back -- I'm not sure why -- and I never realized it. So I have to resend. But I feel somewhat stupid, since now Allan thinks I'm remiss...
I noticed that the Weekly Standard has this item about Weird Al Yankovic's new album Mandatory Fun and single "Word Crimes."
"Word Crimes," to remind, is a parody of Robin Thicke's single, "Blurred Lines." The khop is that it attacks the common abuses of the English language. According to the item in the Standard there are a bunch of linguists objecting to this kind of linguistic piety on the grounds that it's racist and classist.
World, meet end.
Following are the videos for "Blurred Lines" and "Word Crimes."
By way of background, I should note that I suffer from grammar rage. It annoys me when I hear people say things like "If you can, please get back to Vicki or myself," "I feel badly for him" or "That's a picture of my father and I."
So tonight I was at a production of "Guys and Dolls" in upstate New York. I've never seen the show before, though I did buy the Broadway soundtrack album in preparation.
Anyway, at the beginning of the number, "Marry The Man Today," Adelaide sings something about being able to "rely on you and I." I muttered "and me" under my breath. Half a second after that, Sarah sang "and me." And I felt vindicated. The offending-and-vindicating portion is at about 28 seconds into the video below:
At some point in the last two years, Billy Bremner and Sean Tyla got together and formed a band called "Trouble Boys" after Billy's song of the same name. They released an album, Bad Trouble, which I resisted buying for quite a while. Both Tyla and Bremner have done a lot musically that I love. Each was in one of my favorite bands -- Bremner in Rockpile and Tyla in Ducks Deluxe.
But my experience with their work outside of those bands has been somewhat mixed. Tyla did a great solo album, Sean Tyla's Just Popped Out, with a killer single, "Breakfast in Marin" (see video). But his second solo album wasn't nearly as good. I never got to hear the third album. And I never really got into his band, Tyla Gang. There was too much of a rough edge (I don't really know how to put it better). Bremner had a great single, "Meek Power," but his albums weren't great. His first one, Bash! had some catchy tunes, but I thought it lacked energy. The second, A Good Week's Work, was boring. I never bought the third and fourth albums. Of course, I see that allmusic.com gives Rock Files a good review.
So when I did buy Bad Trouble, I wasn't sure what to expect. But it was really great. Power Pop with catchy hooks. It's got a bunch of really solid pop tunes on it. It seems that Tyla's rough edges have been softened, and Bremner has been toughened up.
It kind of reminds me of Rockiple -- Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe had complementary interests and together they softened each other's excesses.
I ordered the Dave Edmunds Live at Rockpalast CD. It came today. The fourth and tenth tracks are "Loud Music in Cars" and "Trouble Boys" sung by Billy Bremner (who was touring as part of Dave's band). In my database do I indicate that Dave is the peformer on those tracks? Or Billy?
Someone sent me a link to an article in vulture.com (which, admittedly, I hadn't heard of) about some unreleased Weird Al Yankovic parodies. The article is here. I was a bit skeptical of the chances that these are real, since there are lots of song parodies out there that people think are Weird Al, but aren't really. "Cat's in the Kettle" and "Baby Got Jack" come to mind.
But these seem to be legit. Maybe if Al had devoted some more work to these they could be good parodies. But they're not there yet. The best (by far) of them is a parody of The Beatles' "Taxman"
A funny thing happened on Amazon. After going to amazon.com, I typed in "Dave Edmunds" just to see if there were any new discs that I wasn't aware of. I do that sometimes -- type in the names of bands or musicians that I like -- just to make sure I'm not missing anything.
Lo, I found something -- Live at Rockaplast, a live album of a concert from 1983. It was released this year. I was interested, but the price -- over $40 seemed steep. Amazon had scanty information about this one, so I had to do a little snooping. There seem to be a couple reasons for the high price (other than that it's a new product): It's an import, and it contains both a CD and a DVD.
Well, I'm not much interested in the DVD, so for me it seemed kind of high. I balked. I came back the next day, still mulling it over in my head. Lo, the price had dropped by about $10. At $30 or so, it was still high. But low enough that I was willing to buy it.
So, the question. Was this just some weird event where prices changed? Or did Amazon's AI price it high (having determined that I'm likely to buy it at a high price) and then lower it when I balked? Am I beuing paranoid? Or are online vendors getting really good at manipulation to wring the most money out of me?
Moish wants to know.
At any rate, here's a video that I think is from the concert on the disc. Enjoy:
Twisted Sister recently made an appearance on the Today Show (or some other network morning talk show). I don't know what all was involved, although apparently they did a short concert outside the studios. I didn't see the appearance live, but I did watch it on the intertubes later in the day. What I saw was a brief interview and then a performance of "Stay Hungry." Something struck me.
Four of the guys look like one might expect. Kind of the prototypical aging heavy metal rockers. They have some combination of tattoos, long hair, and rough or intimidating looks. But Jay Jay French looks different. With short, well-groomed hair, and relatively staid dress, he looked more like a lawyer than a rocker. He also seemed to be the most sedate of the bunch -- almost like he's not really into it and just going through the motions.
I don't know if it means anything, but I found it interesting.
Here are a couple videos from recent performances (I couldn't find the one that I saw and am was referring to above -- sorry). Judge for yourself.
