Some of you out there will remember Todd Snider’s “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues.” It would be sooooo funny if it weren’t sooooo painfully accurate.
The part where he sings about blowing away the people at the Grammys by not playing and not even going really strikes home. I went to the Grammys one of the two years the Presidents were nominated (two-time losers!). Pearl Jam won a Grammy that year. Ed Vedder got onstage said, “I don’t know what this means. I don’t think it means anything.” WTF?! Why the hell did you show up, then? Why not give me the damn Grammy?
While building a playlist of my punk favorites for my last blog post I had to sift through two, three or more versions of certain songs, thanks to the useless reissues record companies put out to try to take your money.
Enough already! The first version of London Calling was perfect! Smart, creative people made smart, creative decisions to create a great work of art. We don’t need all the demos, alternate takes and other crud, which only compromise and dilute the original.
IMO, the most egregious reissue of all time is the 1997 remix of Iggy and The Stooges’ 1973 Raw Power album. They didn’t reissue it with a bunch of junk you don’t need, they remixed it so that it sounds completely different from the original. One of the weirdest, most intense records of all time, with guitars, drums and vocals totally out of balance (relative to “normal” practices) was mediocritized into a much less interesting and more pedestrian rock record. Bummer. From greatness to so-what.
Would Raw Power have been such an influential record if the original were as milquetoast as the reissue? We’ll never know, but we do know that the original spawned a generation of admirers and imitators, including many of my Seattle compatriots.
Which makes no sense at all, because the guitar player mostly just makes annoying buzzy noises, unless maybe that guitar player’s name is Jimi Hendrix. And that’s coming from me, a guitar player.
Even a super guitar player sounds like a schmuck if the drummer sucks.
The GREATEST bands have only two things in common with each other:
1. At least one great singer
2. A truly great drummer — not only swinging and powerful but with an IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZABLE style
The Beatles: Two great singers and two pretty good singers; Ringo on the traps
The Stones: Rock’s greatest showman on vox; Charlie Watts (rare interview link) brings his jazz and swing
The Who: One great singer, one good singer; Keith Moon was a force of nature and utterly inimitable
The Band: Three great singers; Levon Helm was one of those singers and also possibly the funkiest white person ever to play the drums
Led Zeppelin: Mr. Golden God on the mic; John Bonham IMO greatest drummer ever in any style…so much of Zeppelin would be 2nd-rate without him
AC/DC: A great dead singer and a great singer still living; Phil Rudd brings his bitchin’ Camaro four-on-the-floor 16 oz. tallboy of whup-ass
Fleetwood Mac: In their prime, three great singers; Mick Fleetwood pounds out a tom-heavy low-beat groove all his own
The Police: Love him or hate him, Sting is mega alpha; Stewart Copeland bangs an on-the-beat stomp groove with unexpected cymbal and rim shot accents borrowed from reggae and, possibly, outer space
Nirvana: The voice of a young genius falling apart; Dave Grohl IMO the greatest living rock drummer — power incarnate plus limitless musicality
Try it yourself. Here are some borderline test cases:
Guns N’ Roses: WOW, what a singer; first album will live on in greatness because of greasy Steven Adler drum groove, later recordings suffer from stiffer feel of super-rock-stud drummer Matt Sorum (to his credit, Sorum is a monster player and more likely to show up at the gig sober enough to play)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: One of the best rock singers ever; IMO one of the GREATEST bands until the departure of first drummer Stan Lynch, who’s in my list of top 10 fave musicians…hard to imagine “Refugee” without his super-swinging groove…he’s sort of like a Ringo on steroids…
I was reminded of the great singer-songwriter Todd Snider today when I stumbled upon his hilarious song about Dock Ellis pitching a no-hitter while under the influence of lysergic acid. For the record, I advocate strongly against all psychoactive drugs, as they’ve certainly never done me any favors.
While building a