"Stop Children, What's That Sound?"

The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. You know'em. You love'em.

In two separate conversations this week, with two dear friends who also happen to be two wonderful bass players, the topic of who was better, The Beatles or the Stones, was discussed. One friend simply said, "Apples and oranges." The other? "It's not apples and oranges. They were two rock and roll bands who came out of England at the same. One was better. Simple."

My intention this week is not a Beatles VS. Stones debate, though feel free to weigh in, if that's what will float your boat.

Some friends and I were listening to "Kaleidoscope" by Siouxsie & The Banshees and we all offered a similar opinion. Few bands, if any, sounded like Siouxsie & The Banshees before Siouxsie, and though many "goth," "punk," and "new wave" bands tried after Siouxsie, it was the Banshees who created the sound. A sound we feel was propelled by the drumming of Budgie and delivered with the evil grace of Siouxsie Sioux. Very special, like it or not.

Two others bands, from two somewhat different genres, seemed to have cornered the market on that special sound. AC/DC and The Cars. There were hard rock bands before and aft, as well as new wave bands. But the sound of AC/DC and The Cars is distinctive. It's nothing to shake a stick at. It was their own.

Even The Beatles and the Stones had peers doing the same exact thing at the same time. Not as well, but they were there with the same sound. As years went on, bands from the 60s right up to the present, emulated the Beatles harmonies, chord changes and overall sound. With the Stones, it's only rock and roll, so that sound was hard to avoid.

So your headstart---Siouxsie, AC/DC, and The Cars-

What successful band truly had an original sound, a sound that seems to have been created with the release of their first LP?

Your Best Records Of 2012

It's that time of year, folks. Time for making lists. Best this. Worst that. Most whatever.

So how about you?

What are your favorite records of 2012?

I have 20 that I hope to post by Wednesday morning.

Feel like posting yours.  One, ten, or twenty.  Feel free!

(The photo has nothing at all really, to do with anything. Just records on my floor.)

Grrrrrrr!

 ----Intro: Sympathy For The Devil
01. I Wanna Be Your Man
02. Get Of Off My Cloud
03. It's All Over Now
04. Paint It Black
05. Gimme Shelter (with Mary J. Blige)
06. Wild Horses
07. All Down The Line
08. Going Down (with Jeff Beck)
09. Out Of Control
10. One More Shot
11. Doom And Gloom
12. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) (with Bill Wyman)
13. Honky Tonk Woman (with Bill Wyman)
----Band Introductions
14. Before They Make Me Run
15. Happy
16. Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor)
17. Miss You
18. Start Me Up
19. Tumbling Dice
20. Brown Sugar
21. Sympathy For The Devil
----- Encores
22. You Can't Always Get what You Want (with full choir)
23. Jumpin' Jack Flash

 

Well, there it is. Last night's set list from the Rolling Stones first show of their 50th Anniversary Tour. 

With the exception of "I Wanna Be Your Man," and of course, the addition of Bill and Mick, what about this "special" set list is so special? Maybe it's the brass balls addition of "Out Of Control," a song from "Bridges To Babylon," or Mary J. Blige, the most overrated and inept R&B singer to ever fool the masses taking Merry Clayton's role in "Gimme Shelter?"  What I see here is one of the most standard set lists of the Stones' last 10 tours.

I think about the hype and of course, the exorbitant ticket prices---for the hell of it, I tried for a single at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and pulled the very last section on the floor, about 150 yards away (probably smarter than sitting close enough to see Keith), all the way to the right for a grand total of $831---and it just gets my knickers all tangled. Is this truly the best Mick & Keith can offer on the last go around?

I won't begrudge the boys for playing both new songs from the new ripoff hits collection. That makes sense. But considering the depth of this band's material and the fact that they have always thrown no less than 5 nuggets into each tour, this set seems very pat to me.

Is it me? Am I just a cynical crank? Am I jaded? Please say no.

CAN YOU RECALL YOUR OWN PERSONAL "WORST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK" CONCERT EXPERIENCE?

 

 

Time It Was, It Was

A couple of years ago, my friend Jeff told me I should listen to The Galaxies, a power pop band that was really knocking him out. I did and I loved it. Great melodies, solid harmonies, and enough hooks to snag a flounder.  But one song in particular did something to me.

I had been riding a train home from Jersey, iPod on shuffle, and "An Ocean Between Us" started to play. By the end of the first chorus, I found myself blubbering. Second and third times through were no better. I had to slink down in my itchy seat, fearing an unnecessary concern from a conductor and worried I might have to explain. I didn't want to. I just wanted to listen to the song again, if you can believe it.

 



Might have been my frame of mind at the time, but I found that subsequent listens, while not as powerful, still left me weak. Time has passed and this song found its way to last week's "Weekend Mix." During playback of that set, it happened again. That song and that chorus triggered that ride, among other things inside of me. I guess that's the way it will forever be with "An Ocean Between Us."

I wrote to Jeff simply to thank him for suggesting The Galaxies and I told him what I just told you.

He replied:

"Great idea for Burning Love? Songs that really get to you in ways that are really wonderful or really awful."


Another one for me is Simon & Garfunkel's "Old Friends/Bookends," a masterpiece of music and storytelling if there ever was one.  Of course, the backstory of Paul & Art adds to the drama. Their happiness, their sorrow. Everyone can relate. But it's the strings that really say it all, beginning at the very end of "Old Friends" and continuing into "Bookends." That moment of chaos, the swelling of emotion that slowly and sadly winds down and resolves, is one of the most powerful stretches of pop music ever recorded. In less than a minute and without one word sung, we live a lifetime. It never fails to tear me up.

Any songs and stories you'd like to share on this subject? Wonderful or awful, feel free.

Who's Irreplaceable?

I am a little more than halfway through the recently released Pete Townshend memoir. Nothing too revelatory as of yet, but it has been very entertaining. One thing though that has been mentioned a number of times was Townshend's on again/off again affair with Keith Moon's playing. A recent documentary about the making of "Quadrophenia," which aired chopped to bits on VH-1 last week, shows Pete expressing the same feelings.

Basically, Roger loved Keith as a drummer and Pete thought he overplayed. While Pete was constantly hearing "boom BAP boom BAP," Keith was forever playing "boom da TING biddily BASH BOO BOOM, dugga-dugga-CRASH." (Actual Townshend quote, I swear.)

I've been on a Who kick for what seems like months now, playing everything from the early records to Roger Daltrey's lame solo work to bad sounding bootlegs. I also managed to find a soft-spot for some of the material on "It's Hard," particularly the Entwistle tracks. But, the difference between the band with Keith Moon and with Kenney Jones is like the difference between firing a bullet and throwing one, as the expression goes.

 (I do want to give props to Zak Starkey, who I think is closer in spirit to Keith Moon than Kenney Jones. I guess it helps when Keith Moon is your teacher.)

This is not to say Kenney isn't a fine drummer. Just listen to the Small Faces and the Faces. Stellar. But the two records with Jones, "Face Dances" and "It's Hard," the former released just a little over two years after Moon's death, have a vibe-change that is hard to ignore. Can one man make that much of a difference?


Are there other bands you consider completely different animals after replacing just one member?

Lead vocalists should not be considered, or bands like Foreigner, a band touring with NO original members.

Life & Depth

It's fair to say that the pages of Burning Wood aren't always kind to new artists. I try occasionally to get "with it," but the fact remains, I am rarely impressed with what is it out there. I don't feel any pressure to like what has been hyped. I do try, though.  I go in fresh and excited, but I usually come out nonplussed.

"Really? 4 STARS?"

Recent suggestions have been new records from Tame Impala & King Tuff, both of which sound like records with half-baked ideas, but lack depth and ultimately go nowhere, at least to these ears. I enjoyed both of these records until I didn't. I made it through almost all of Tame Impala, but gave up when King Tuff got under my skin about 4 songs in.

On the other hand, I've just discovered how wonderful Andy Fairweather Low's early records are, thanks to a suggestion by our friend BuzzBabyJesus. Yeah, "Spider Jiving" and "Le Booga Rooga"  are 30 years old, but they are new to me and both are solid displays of that loose and ramshackle style of rock and roll, when bands didn't take themselves too seriously and still managed to make serious music.

It starts with the song. Somewhere underneath the bells and whistles, low or hi fi, there has to be something to sink my teeth into. Unless of course, you have a whole package. The Ramones, immediately come to mind. Not exactly Rodgers & Hart, but man how it all worked!



So...that being said...

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE BEST NEWISH BAND

or, in the case of Andy Fairweather Low

SOMEONE YOU'VE BEEN LISTENING TO FOR YEARS THAT HAS REMAINED UNDER THE RADAR

David Bowie, Or How I Need To Be Careful What I Wish For

I have been thinking about David Bowie's latest stretch of inactivity, which is going on for about 7 years now. I am a fan, and at times have been fanatical, especially when defending his output since 1995, which I think is criminally underrated. I keep hoping I hear something other than the occasional Bowie "sighting" on the streets of New York, which is starting to become on par with the Yeti. I really do need some new music, and at least some positive news regarding his health, as this hiatus began soon after his heart attack and subsequent surgery.

I also never not think of my pal Steve Simels when thinking of David Bowie. For you regular readers of Steve's indispensible blog Power Pop, you will be familiar with his somewhat legendary disdain for The Thin White Duke.

So I had an idea.

Wanting to start a discussion about Bowie, with positive points being made about his ever-changing styles and fantastic records other than "Ziggy Stardust," I thought it'd be great to have a point/counterpoint intro, with me showing the love and Simels vehemently disagreeing, setting the stage for more thoughts and dialogue.

I asked and I received this, a gift from Steve, whose following words are just too marvelous.

Before you continue, I want to stress, I sincerely love what he wrote, even if I disagree with a lot of it. I've removed nothing.


Sal -- I should preface this by saying I've mellowed on the subject of the Thin White Duke, to the point I will even admit that there are occasional Bowie songs == Heroes, Golden Years, Rebel Rebel -- that, should they come on my radio unbidden, I wouldn't change the station. In any case, most of these opinions were formed during his 70s heyday; I was a self-righteous twenty something at the time, so such opinions were justifiable. Today, of course, less so.

That said here's a list.

1. The early records (post the Lower Third, but pre-Ziggy)

Impossible to distinguish from the work of noted rocker Anthony Newley, and if I wanted to listen to Anthony Newley, which I never have, I would listen to the real thing, not Bowie's thin gruel.

2. Ziggy Stardust

Or as we call it at Casa Simels -- "Flash Gordon and the Gay Guys From Outer Space." Possibly the most asinine concept in the history of rock concept albums, and with one or two exceptions -- possibly "Hang on to Yourself" and "Suffragette City" -- the songwriting is absymal.

3. The singing

If Bowie isn't the least soulful vocalist ever, I don't know who is; worse, that pre-rock crooning style of his has provided the template for generations of unlistenable singers on both side of the pond.

4. Pinups

One of the three worst covers albums ever made. The other two, of course are Bryan Ferry's "These Foolish Things" and

Duran Duran's 1995 Thank You.

The former, I think, is an utterly appaling concept record in which Ferry, nitwit that he is, advances the concept that Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" has something in common artistically with Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" other than the fact that both were originally recorded by sentient mammals.

The latter, on the other hand, is merely a sloppy mess in which one of the world's most useless bands pays tribute to its non-roots and tries, unsuccessfully, to convince the world that Simon Le Bon has any business performing a Public Enemy song.

Pin Ups, however, I think is exponentially worse. At the time it came out, somebody who hadn't yet heard it (Lester Bangs, actually, who quoted me without attribution in his subsequent review) asked what it sounded like and I replied "Like twelve versions of 'Let's Spend the Night Together' on Aladdin Sane." (At the time, of course, Bowie's "Let's Spend the Night Together" was generally conceded to be the single lamest version of a Stones song evah).

What I would have added, time permitting, is that the entire attitude that Pin Ups exudes (reeks of, might be a more accurate phrase) is a Look at Me I'm Wonderful contempt for the material. The album, IMHO, is the work of a guy who's convinced that these silly little songs and the people who recorded them are ever so trivial and ridiculous, so thank god that he -- The Greatest Star -- is deigning to give them a little undeserved, reflected, acclaim in his trademark bullshit campy ironic way.

Not to mention that the singing is flatout awful; the affectless, emotionless, pretentious pseudo-operatic bleating Bowie subjects the songs to is light years removed from the punkish snarl and passion that most of them (with the possible exception of The Mersey's "Sorrow") require.

Have I mentioned that I hate the goddamn album?

5. Young Americans and the fake soul period

Unlistenable on every level, and "Do you remember President Nixon" is so bogus and stupid I don't even know where to begin.


Ahem....

Soooo.....

It was "Aladdin Sane" and not "Ziggy Stardust" that first introduced me to David Bowie, and being a kid and a Rolling Stones fan, I went right for Side Two, Track Three. I was blown away. I heard punk rock even though it hadn't existed yet. I heard "Let's Spend The Night Together" like I had never heard it before. Fresh and exciting and insane and with great playing on top of it all. I still love it and I still don't understand the "lamest version of a Stones song evah" moniker.

I also love "Pin Ups," and I don't feel any of the words Steve used above to describe it. Bowie had been and still is friends with Ray Davies, Pete Townshend and David Gilmour, just some of the artists covered on "Pin Ups," so the feeling that Bowie regarded these songs and their creators as silly seems wrong. Are any of the covers on "Pin Ups" better than the originals? Maybe "Sorrow," but otherwise, no. But on its own, Bowie's collection is again fresh, if a bit bombastic.

Steve and I do agree to some extent on Bowie's soulless crooning, though I am obviously more forgiving. It's just one of his styles, just as Dylan had his "Nashville Skyline" voice and Ray Davies his "Arthur" voice. Bowie's crooning can be wonderfully affective, especially on his masterwork "Station To Station," which I am hoping is not included as part of the "fake soul period" Steve mentioned.

I've always thought Bowie was one step ahead of the game, even through the nadir of his existence, from 1984-1990. That period of releases, though mostly dreck, still had moments of originality. It saddens me to think that after such a fantastic string of releases starting with 1993's "Black Tie, White Noise" through what I feel his one of his very best pieces of work 2002's "Heathen," David Bowie has possibly hung it all up for good.


If I had to pick 5 --

1. Station To Station
2. Hunky Dory
3. Low
4. Aladdin Sane
5. Heathen

If I had to pick 5 more...

6. The Man Who Sold The World
7. Ziggy Stardust
8. Diamond Dogs
9. Black Tie, White Noise
10.Heroes