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Posts Tagged ‘Rolling Stones’

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Desert Island Discs: Dan Wilson and Hugo Burnham

Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, solo artist)

Okay Darren, here are my picks! I’m sure if I thought about it more I’d only come up with a bunch more bonus picks, so I’m sticking to these.

Joni Mitchell’s Hejira album. If it were one song I’d say “Hejira” — there’s something so heartbreaking about Jaco Pastorius’ bass melodies intertwining with Joni’s lyrics. And the song is about love, travel, the temporary fixes of modern life, and the quest for something lasting. What more could you ask for in a song? (more…)

Tags: Beatles, Cat Stevens, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Dan Wilson, Darren Robbins, David Bowie, Free, Gang Of Four, Hugo Burnham, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Mitsuko Uchida, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, the Who
Posted in Desert Island Discs, Music | Comments

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Spooky Songs: The Rolling Stones, “Beggars Banquet”

by Matthew Bolin

Last week I talked about the Beatles’ 1968 masterpiece, The White Album; this week, I’m talking about the Rolling Stones’ masterpiece from the same year, Beggars Banquet. A good deal of credit for the album’s feel needs to go to its producer, the late Jimmy Miller. Banquet was actually one of the first albums he produced, and would be the first of the four consecutive records he would helm which also formed the peak of the band’s career (along with Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street), in the years proceeding Mick in Keith’s full transformation to the Glimmer Twins, and eventual full parody of themselves from the 1980s onward.

Back in 1968, though, the Stones were a different band, fully absorbed in American blues and country, and Miller helped generate a sound that played to those strengths. And actually, he helped create a sound that also played to their greatest weakness at the time: namely, that the band’s founder and multi-instrumentalist, Brian Jones, was in bad shape. Heavily into drugs by this point, Jones was as much a band liability as a contributor. Film footage of album sessions show him out of it at times, and limited to the most minimal levels of participation: slide guitar on one track, harmonica on three others, and a bit of keyboard here and there. Thus, Miller often had only a four-piece combo to work with, and the arrangements that could be brought out of them play directly into the final mix: Stripped down to something more acoustic, murky and lo-fi throughout much of the proceedings, the album sounds at times like it could have been recorded after hours at a Louisiana gin joint.

(An added serendipitous reason that the album may sound as menacing as it does is that it was originally mastered at a speed just slightly slower than it was recorded. This made the record in total only 30 seconds longer than when it was finally corrected for a CD re-release in 2002, but did set things just off-key enough that things would not seem quite “right” to the listener’s ears.) (more…)

Tags: Matthew Bolin, Rolling Stones, Spooky Songs
Posted in Music | Comments

Friday, September 19th, 2008

CHART ATTACK!: 9/20/69

by Jason Hare

One of the questions I am occasionally asked by readers, other than “Are you sure you’re straight?,” is “Why don’t you write more?” (This is also the question I am asked most often by our Editor-in-Chief.) Without giving you the long lame-ass explanation about the various balls I’m juggling on a daily basis (yes, I’m sure), I’ll just say that I happen to be a very slow writer. CHART ATTACK! and other posts, like last week’s Earmageddon entries, take me days and days to write. I imagine they’d take even longer if I was actually funny.

And this is just one of the reasons why Jeff is my personal hero, folks. Not only does the man write articles of substance, but he churns ‘em out like babies on a polygamist compound. This week’s guest writer punked out with less than two days to spare; Sir Jefito came to my rescue and turned in this entire post in just over two hours. Yes, his kids went hungry, but that’s just the kind of guy he is — anything for Popdose.

So those of you who have been clamoring for another oldie chart, I’m happy to present this one to you. Enjoy, because we’ll be hovering around the ’80s until November. Give thanks to Jeff as he presents us with September 20, 1969! -JH

When Jefitos Attack!

10. I Can’t Get Next to You — The Temptations Amazon iTunes
9. Little Woman — Bobby Sherman Amazon iTunes
8. Jean — Oliver Amazon iTunes
7. Get Together — The Youngbloods Amazon iTunes
6. (It Looks Like) I’ll Never Fall in Love Again — Tom Jones Amazon iTunes
5. Easy to Be Hard — Three Dog Night Amazon iTunes
4. A Boy Named Sue — Johnny Cash Amazon iTunes
3. Green River — Creedence Clearwater Revival Amazon iTunes
2. Honky Tonk Woman — The Rolling Stones Amazon iTunes
1. Sugar, Sugar — The Archies Amazon iTunes

Howdy, gang! Good to see all of you hungry Chart Attackers again — it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I didn’t mean to be away for so long, but Jason’s got the CA! schedule booked pretty solid, and whenever I volunteer to take over for one of his weeks, he waves me away for some reason. I can’t figure it out. (It’s usually because you’ve just farted. -JH)

But this week? This week, Jason had no choice. Our old buddy Kurt — who you might remember from his on-again/off-again blog, Kurt’s Krap, and his appearances at Chartburn — was scheduled to lead you through this chart, but he slipped and sprained his vagina, forcing him to ~~punk out~~ cancel at the last minute. Never one to pass up an opportunity to attack a chart, I quickly agreed to take over, at which point I realized I was -5 years old when these songs were popular. Shit! (more…)

Tags: Archies, Bob Marley, Bobby Sherman, Chart Attack!, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jason Hare, Jean, Jeff Giles, Johnny Cash, Rolling Stones, The Temptations, The Youngbloods, Three Dog Night, Tom Jones
Posted in Chart Attack!, Meta, Music | Comments

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Song-Off: Describing a Person as a Rolling Stone

by Popdose Staff

Bob Dylan – “Like a Rolling Stone”

Robert: Rolling Stone magazine named Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965) the greatest song of all time in 2004. It certainly contains the best Rolling Stone product placement of all time — it predates the magazine’s existence, making it a truly impressive example of forward-thinking marketing — but is it really the best song ever? For the purposes of this edition of Song-Off, you bet your ass it is! Some say this immaculate kiss-off to a privileged bohemian girl who wants to be a starving artist (but without all that icky starvation) was blown in the direction of Edie Sedgwick or Joan Baez. But others say it’s Dylan turning his poison pen on himself, that he’s the one “with no direction home” after embracing electric guitars and alienating his folk-music fans. But as he says in the song, “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” Dylan goes for broke in “Like a Rolling Stone” and comes up with a song for the ages.

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Tags: Bob Dylan, Mojo Flucke, Robert Cass, Rolling Stones, Song-Off, The Temptations
Posted in Music, Popdose, Song-Off | Comments

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

White Label Wednesday: The Rolling Stones, “Too Much Blood”

by David Medsker

People are making a big deal out of Fatboy Slim and Soulwax doing remixes of tracks from the Rolling Stones’ back catalog, but this is truly much ado about nothing. The band, after all, was one of the first rock acts to play the remix game with “Miss You,” and beginning with their 1983 album Undercover, they would commission remixes of nearly every song they released as a single. Few bands understand crossover potential like the Stones. Whether you were at the concert hall or in the club, the Stones loved you. And your money.

The remix genre didn’t have much of a personality when “Miss You” was made, but it definitely had one by the time Undercover arrived. The band went the ‘extend the album version’ route with the album’s first single, “Undercover of the Night,” but when it came time to issuing remixes of the third single “Too Much Blood,” the band chose New York freestyler Arthur Baker to man the boards. The difference between the remixes for “Undercover” and “Too Much Blood,” to borrow an expression from comedian Larry Miller, is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.

While the modus operandi of remixers today is to strip a song of all of its definable characteristics, Baker did the opposite; he would keep the track more or less intact, and would add a couple elements to punch things up. In this case, punching up the track meant two new keyboard lines – one of which, a Funkadelic-style synth bass, doesn’t appear until after the third chorus – and a whole mess of percussion. What was once a song is now a party, and now that everyone is feeling festive, Baker decides to have a little fun.

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Tags: David Medsker, Popdose, Rolling Stones, White Label Friday
Posted in Music, Popdose, White Label | Comments

Friday, February 8th, 2008

The Year in Rock: 1978

by Darren Robbins

Although released in late 1977, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack would be impossible to ignore for much of 1978, with the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive,” as well as Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You,” all reaching #1. At several points during the first half of ‘78, the soundtrack album was selling over 1 million units a week.

Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive
Bee Gees – Night Fever (w/ More Than a Woman) (more…)

Tags: 1978, Alice Cooper, Bee Gees, Blondie, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, Cars, Cheap Trick, Darren Robbins, Devo, Elvis Costello, Gerry Rafferty, Journey, Kenny Rogers, Kiss, Patti Smith Group, Queen, Rolling Stones, Steve Martin, Television, The Police, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Van Halen, Year In Rock
Posted in Music, The Year In... | Comments