Posts by Biobbs
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Jonathan Ganley,
I worked in printing / litho shops for many years. The ever-blaring commercial radio was as much of a health hazard as the chemicals, solvents and badly-ventilated darkrooms. I have retained a loathing for classic rock that rocks, no repeat workdays, and the hits of the 70s 80s and 90s. It's enough to send you postal.
Oh yeah, snap. In my case it was a research lab in a country town in Oz in the late 80s, which meant incessant high rotation repeats of this:
Apologies if someone's already posted it earlier - haven't kept up with the whole thread. But God I hate that song. Hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Hate every bar of its simpering, reactionary, fake superficial kumbya-tolerance. Hearing it four times a day for weeks on end...aargh...
Still don't know how I managed three years in that lab with that radio station blasting away in my ears, without doing something desperate with all the syringes, compressed gas cylinders, conc acids, phenols and scalpels readily at hand, to put all of us out of our misery.
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Not Barry ‘Dr Rock’ Jenkins?Jenkin, without an s if I recall correctly. I also remember him interviewing, was it Buster Stiggs(?) from the Reptiles, on Radio With Pictures. The Doc wore one of those razor blades around his neck for the occasion, and generally encouraged Mr Stiggs to reassure the viewers that no, punks didn't really bite the heads off babies. And I found myself thinking, well shit, if it was me I'd want my money back.
I have to give Dr Rock's late-night 1ZM programme credit for switching my musical tastes on to punk and new wave. I used to pretend to be asleep on a school night with my tiny red transistor radio under the pillow, and one of those little white earphones with the curly leads snaking around under my neck and inserted in the ear that wouldn't be visible if mum or dad looked in. There were two songs he had on high rotation that changed my life. This one:
and this one:
Howard Devoto has aged so well!
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to JacksonP,
I do, albeit vaguely. They obviously liked Simon Gallup circa Faith.
Nice version this.
Alternative versions like that really let you appreciate good songs even more. Like this one - which proves how much better songs are when they don't have saxophones on them:
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
That's the first time I've ever found Rolf Harris funny.
Even funnier - the Rolf version was the hit in the UK.
As the top-rated comment on the YT video says, is there any song that can't be improved by a wobble board? :-)
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
We're well aware that Bruce Springsteen is a 62-year-old gentleman farmer from rural New Jersey but we also expect him to persuade us that he is a hormonal twenty-something grease monkey on a runaway American dream.
With his latest album Wrecking Ball, I liken it to the grizzled veteran who's come out of retirement to get angry again.
Great album. I really love his laid-back stuff from his later years too, "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" just has one of those 'timeless singles' feelings about it.
I really just don't get opinions like the "The Word" one Geoff quoted above. It's not like Bruce was always 62 years old and wealthy, he really did grow up amongst the oil refineries of New Jersey, the son of a bus driver and a secretary. Whether people like his early albums or not is a matter of opinion, but it's a lie to say they weren't honest and authentic descriptions of his background at the time he recorded them. Yes, OK, he became wealthy because people liked his music, but he also changed his style after that and recorded other kinds of songs.
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Ross Mason,
Led Zep Rules!!!
And no Stairway!!!!
Don't speak too soon.
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Those of us of a certain age will remember how inescapable this wrist-slashingly awful song was on the radio in 1974:
Those 20 Solid Gold Hits albums have a lot to answer for.
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Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Hate Mull of freaking Kintyre all you want - and Silly Love Songs, and a huge number of other shitty bits but vast portions of the McCartney solo years have been pretty darn fine too.
Sorry, but I'm not going to give a pass to the man who inflicted this excresence on the world:
It cancels out the whole rest of his career.
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Legal Beagle: Police: "Ambrose not guilty", in reply to Russell Brown,
Nek minnit:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6641462/Key-turns-other-cheek-over-tape
How magnanimous of him.
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Hard News: Fame Friday, in reply to Lilith __,
And on the subject of country-ish music, I love this single from First Aid Kit's The Lion's Roar. It's my pick of the album.
Lilith, you are a star for posting this, I hadn't heard it before. Now I've been spending all afternoon watching/listening to First Aid Kit videos on YT.
Have just read in the comments that the video was filmed at the place in Joshua Tree National Park where Gram Parsons' friends cremated him in 1973 - the cross and shrine they're kneeling at is the one maintained by his fans at the exact spot where it happened. Awesome...