Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1985 - (page 203)

Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Yep. I could have chosen most tracks off it. If I choose the opening one, remember that I had heard nothing whatsoever by them, and indeed had not heard of them. Think of the aural shock! Marr's peremptory Rickenbacker chords striding in…
By the way, I've always understood that that closing sound on “Well I Wonder” is rain. If you listen to it on good cans, I think it becomes obvious. Heavy rain, but rain. It's also more poetic, more Morrissey-like, it seems to me. Matches his melancholy mood.
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I aways thought it was a tap left running into a sink!
 
threespires said:
Ah but that track was never on the UK release only the US one. As @Lovebitesandeveryfing has gone for a different (also excellent) track you're spared me banging on about how Marr created that opening sound and how no one would go to that level of trouble these days :-)
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And as I mention in 1984, the song was first released in that year as the b side to Heaven Knows….. ;)
 
Thread Management Notice

Somebody has pointed out that we don't yet have anybody to write up 1988. Is anybody interested? Particularly anybody who hasn't yet done a write-up?

Related to that point - do people want a week or two break over Christmas with this thread or do we just want to plough on regardless?

Majority vote wins - just drop your preference in a note on here.
 
RobMCFC said:
Thread Management Notice

Somebody has pointed out that we don't yet have anybody to write up 1988. Is anybody interested? Particularly anybody who hasn't yet done a write-up?

Related to that point - do people want a week or two break over Christmas with this thread or do we just want to plough on regardless?

Majority vote wins - just drop your preference in a note on here.
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I've done 2 in the eighties so think giving someone else the opportunity is good. A two week break is not a bad idea. Folk will be busy with other things.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Completely off topic, hard to believe, but I watched Almost Famous for the first time last week. Mrs S and I were entranced taking us back as it did to our youth. Brilliant film, cast and soundtrack.
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Good film. It's pretty autobiographical, as I suppose you know (i.e. about Cameron Crowe's youth as an aspiring rock journalist). And by heavens, Kate Hudson was easy on the eye at that point! (Still a fine-looking woman, mind. Not surprising, considering her genes). The groupies were apparently loosely based on the L.A. Queens — those made famous by Led Zeppelin.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Good film. It's pretty autobiographical, as I suppose you know (i.e. about Cameron Crowe's youth as an aspiring rock journalist). And by heavens, Kate Hudson was easy on the eye at that point! (Still a fine-looking woman, mind. Not surprising, considering her genes). The groupies were apparently loosely based on the L.A. Queens — those made famous by Led Zeppelin.
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Yes I knew the background pretty well. Just never sat down and watched it. I was surprised just how good it was and I thought Kate Hudson played the role with a great deal of beauty, freshness and grace. Unsurprisingly she got an Oscar off the back of it. It was fun watching Philip Seymour Hoffman as leister Bangs was fun too.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
It was fun watching Philip Seymour Hoffman as leister Bangs was fun too.
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I'd watch PSH read the telephone directory. I saw him in poorish films, but I never saw him turn in anything other than a sterling performance, even in them. And in very varied roles. Watched Boogie Nights the other night. Nailed it. Arguably the greatest actor of his generation, with Daniel Day-Lewis (and just perhaps Phoenix).
Anyway, back on topic. What was it we were talking about, again?
 
RobMCFC said:
Thread Management Notice

Somebody has pointed out that we don't yet have anybody to write up 1988. Is anybody interested? Particularly anybody who hasn't yet done a write-up?

Related to that point - do people want a week or two break over Christmas with this thread or do we just want to plough on regardless?

Majority vote wins - just drop your preference in a note on here.
Click to expand...
I’d go for a two week break at Xmas.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Yes I knew the background pretty well. Just never sat down and watched it. I was surprised just how good it was and I thought Kate Hudson played the role with a great deal of beauty, freshness and grace. Unsurprisingly she got an Oscar off the back of it. It was fun watching Philip Seymour Hoffman as leister Bangs was fun too.
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As blue2112 pointed out recently, there’s a cut scene that is worth watching if you still like Stairway to Heaven. It is on YouTube and features the whole song.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
I'd watch PSH read the telephone directory. I saw him in poorish films, but I never saw him turn in anything other than a sterling performance, even in them. And in very varied roles. Watched Boogie Nights the other night. Nailed it. Arguably the greatest actor of his generation, with Daniel Day-Lewis (and just perhaps Phoenix).
Anyway, back on topic. What was it we were talking about, again?
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It was mainly about rock history I think.
I agree about the actors you quoted btw.
 
I am going down the cover version route yet again for my next playlist pick.

I bought my second album by Jeff Beck in 1985 when he released the album "Flash", which contains a cover of a Curtis Mayfield penned number originally recorded 20 years prior to that by The Impressions.

According to Wikipedia: "People Get Ready" is in a long tradition of Black American freedom songs that use train imagery, such as "Wade in the Water", "The Gospel Train", and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". The idea comes from the spiritualist idea that once one dies the soul goes in a journey to the afterlife.

Beck's guitar work is beautifully restrained. To sing the song he enlisted the services of his old pal Sir Roderick David Stewart; plain Rod Stewart back in those days. Rod contributes a lovely vocal that gives it a gospel feel.

The song charted as a single in the US.

Jeff Beck: People Get Ready
 
If Maria Mckee had, at the point of writing it, also recorded a version of A Good Heart I might have nominated that but I won't be going with Fergal's way too slick version. I bought his debut solo album, and was more than a bit underwhelmed by his change of direction but then I still went to see him live anyway. I think in my head I was convinced he'd rip his trendy jacket off to reveal a pullover and start singing about fur lined sheepskin jackets; didn't happen. Another person who had gone down the slick 80's pop route at this point was Alison Moyet who I think was still touring her Alf album. She must have already been less that keen on that album as I seem to recall half the set was old soul songs; she's always been pretty ropey at remembering the words to songs and I remember thinking who the hell manages to forget the words to a classic like What Becomes of The Broken Hearted?

1985 was probably my most random year for gigs, along with my normal diet of fey indie types I saw quite a bit of reggae, some pop acts and I even went a bit progy and saw IQ, The Enid and Marillion, though mercifully indulging in that kind of risky behaviour as a youngster didn't result in any lasting damage other than a liking for KC, which tends to flare up when the weather's damp :-)

I'm half tempted to waste my last nomination on some of the mad things from 1985. This was the year that Russ Abbott covered JD but put too much of his own spin on it for my liking. Never been sure what a Toot Toot, messed with or otherwise, actually is so can't nominate that. If it was the much misunderstood Laibach's version of Life is Life rather than the pallid Opus original from this year then that would be getting a spin, but it's not.

On the basis that I've just noticed the new housing development nearby is called Cromwell's Wharf and they may not get another nomination and this was their biggest hit I think; I'm going for something more sensible with...

New Model Army - No Rest
 
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OB1 said:
Beck's guitar work is beautifully restrained. To sing the song he enlisted the services of his old pal Sir Roderick David Stewart; plain Rod Stewart back in those days. Rod contributes a lovely vocal that gives it a gospel feel.
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Never was a great fan of old Rod (“Maggie May” is a good tune), but I've got to admit: Rod's voice and Beck's guitar is a marriage made in heaven.

…dogs begin to bark, all over the neighbourhood…


Afterthought: "yokels… in wigs and fake noses”
 
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Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Never was a great fan of old Rod (“Maggie May” is a good tune), but I've got to admit: Rod's voice and Beck's guitar is a marriage made in heaven.

…dogs begin to bark, all over the neighbourhood…
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Mention of Sir Roderick has triggered me in relation to this year...

Has there ever been a more undeserving overshadowing of the original version of a song than Stewarts utterly crass rendition of Downtown Train?

In the context of Tom Waits Rain Dogs album from this year, Downtown Train is a great song about missed chances, the indifference of the city to its damaged people, melancholy and desperate yearning. In Stewart's hands its a glossy romantic ballad with more than hint of self-satisfaction. It's more than just pish, it's an abomination.

@Saddleworth2 can you change my last pick to Tom Waits - Downtown Train as a protest vote, thank you.
 
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threespires said:
If Maria Mckee had, at the point of writing it, also recorded a version of A Good Heart I might have nominated that but I won't be going with Fergal's way too slick version.
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McKee wrote that as a shot at her ex Benmont Tench, keyboard player in Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. He responded by writing You Little Thief about her, and got Sharkey to record that too. :-)

McKee is an excellent artist, especially live. Sadly retired now. Saw her many times, from her Lone Justice days to her final tour with her then husband in the band. They since split up, and she now bats for the other side apparently.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I've done 2 in the eighties so think giving someone else the opportunity is good. A two week break is not a bad idea. Folk will be busy with other things.
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Sounding like the votes are in for a break over the holidays, which is a good thing.

The bigger question is who can do 1988? I know someone wanted '86 from me, surely there's one for two years after? I'd love to hear from someone who hasn't had a turn yet, but I also know Rob has a good Plan B option that doesn't require him to do back to back years after '87 either.
 
MCFCTrick said:
McKee wrote that as a shot at her ex Benmont Tench, keyboard player in Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. He responded by writing You Little Thief about her, and got Sharkey to record that too. :-)

McKee is an excellent artist, especially live. Sadly retired now. Saw her many times, from her Lone Justice days to her final tour with her then husband in the band. They since split up, and she now bats for the other side apparently.
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Yes though Tench subsequently denied it was about her but I'm not sure anyone believed him.

McKee is/was excellent in a slightly mad but very engaging way (a Real Gone Kid as Deacon Blue would have it) think she came from quite an 'arty' family I hadn't realised till recently that she was a half sister to Love's Bryan Maclean. Never saw her in the Lone Justice days which is something of a shame.
 
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