A.V. Undercover Is Back!

And so is GWAR. They’ve done Undercover eight times now, which must be a record. Below is my favorite AVU performance of theirs, Kansas’s “Carry On My Wayward Son.”

A.V. Undercover archives are up now too. Right here.

CB Savage

This was my initial choice for today’s Music League topic, but I decided to poison this blog instead.  Sorry.

Beatles’ Worst Moment?

Overall, I wouldn’t rate this as their worst track.  I don’t much like the song, but it goes well enough until that cheesy organ break comes along.  That break might be their worst moment.  I went back to All The Songs to refresh myself on just what they were thinking.  Turns out George played a fast-vibrato guitar part that John liked but George Martin rejected as too edgy.  So Paul recorded an organ solo worthy of a déclassé 60’s supper club.  Was he being funny on purpose?  Were they just ready to be done with it so thought, “fuck it, it’s filler anyway,  leave it there and let’s move on?”  

Of course everyone, no matter how great, steps in it every now and then.  Beethoven wrote Wellington’s Victory, an embarrassing piece of garbage celebrating, as the name suggests, Napoleon’s defeat. He’d once been a fan of Napoleon, dedicating his explosively innovative 3rd symphony to him.  He later removed the dedication in disgust after Napoleon crowned himself emperor, and subsequently wanted to rub Napoleon’s nose in it after Waterloo.  Defensive and touchy about the work, Beethoven probably knew it was trash. It seems to me that such music (i.e. written for overtly political or moralistic  purposes) is usually garbage.  John Lennon’s preachy songs  come to mind.  But I’d love to hear what pops into your bastardly heads in the Great Artist/Shitty Work category.

I’m Not Trying to Be Elvis

I noticed this was leaving the Criterion Channel, and figured I’d watch it. I never really knew much about Orion (Jimmy Ellis) or listened to him at all, dismissing him as an Elvis impersonator. I know y’all aren’t Elvis (RIP PBUH) devotees like I am, so I don’t know if you’d find it as fascinating, but I was transfixed. Also, there is a ZINGER about 3/4 in, that they focus on for about 5 seconds, that discusses who his real father is (you can guess), and why he may sound EXACTLY like Elvis when he sings. As someone who has listened to a lot more EP than you have, I mean Exactly.
Continue reading “I’m Not Trying to Be Elvis”

And Now For a Bassist Who Sucks

Who’s the opposite of Jamerson or McCartney?  Phil Lesh, of course.  I could not listen to all of this, I just sampled here and there.  What I did hear sounded like the noodlings of a tin-eared fifteen-year-old who recently took up bass.  There is nothing remotely interesting going on musically or technically.  What he needs is a nun to slap his hand with a ruler.

Har Har

I loved SCTV because nothing was too stupid, goofy, or weird for them to air.