Stone vs. Stone

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit A: Bob Dylan’s, Keith Richards’ & Ron Wood’s gloriously ragged “Ballad of Hollis Brown” from Live Aid (couldn’t find this song without the cringey sing-a-long at the end).  Exhibit B: Same festival: Mr. Showbiz, Sir Mick, preening and prancing, desperate for your approval of him as a solo act.  My point?  I think it’s interesting that if you take Keith out of the Stones, you still have the coolest guy on the planet.  Take out Mick, and he just looks ridiculous.  Keith saunters out and owns a stage; Mick has to shake his ass and do calisthenics for it, but even then he needs Keith around looking cooler.  Interesting dynamic.

Hard Pass

Confession… I’m a bit of a horror movie nerd, and I actually like some of what Rob Zombie has put out there. This… this looks awful. I can’t believe that people gave him the go ahead to drop $30 million to produce this. Go ahead and watch this trailer, and let me know if you think this guy ever makes another “film.”

 

George & Martha

Something reminded me of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, which in turn reminded me of this parody.  Benny Hill’s Richard Burton is spot-on.

Born Fighter

Not his greatest song, but it has one of the funniest first verses I’ve ever heard and a Dave Edmunds solo (2:00) that curls what’s left of my hair.  When I searched YouTube for this song, I ran across a ’79 documentary of the same name.  Here is a clip where Lowe and Edmunds talk a bit about Phil Spector, then work on takes of that same solo.  I haven’t watched past where the solo recording ends at 15:00, so I don’t know if the rest is worth watching.  Nick Lowe seems rather, um, “relaxed.”

Moe Tucker Doc

I came across this somewhat recent documentary on Mo Tucker, and it’s really interesting to see how her playing evolved and the weird kit configurations she used. Fortunately, it makes no mention of her late life conversion to kook.

Speaking of Singing Families…

I’ll one-up the Osmonds with the Cowsills, who could be very good.  The real-life inspiration for the Partridge Family series (and the Osmonds too, I’d guess), they were dismissed as bubble-gum by those who would be cool.  And they were sometimes bubble-gum, but they could also do what I’d consider advanced baroque pop as well as anyone.  No time to hunt down the hidden gems on YouTube today, but they had some very good songs (and plenty of cheese) in addition to their hits.  Below is a live-TV version of their first big hit, preceded by the studio version for reference.   Note how well they nail their vocal harmonies live.  It’s a pretty amazing feat.

Yes, It Is As Simple As It Sounds

Play in a Day the Flock of Seagulls Way!

All 4 Original Members show you how to play I Ran (So far Away).

There may be a lot of Youtube videos on how to play 80s classic “How To Play I Ran” out there…. but did you ever wonder how it is really done? All four original members Mike Score, Ali Score, Frank Maudsley and Paul Reynolds show you how.