ProfessorBainbridge.com

Wildest Guitar Heroes

Classic Rock magazine has released it's list of 100 all-time "Wildest Rock Heroes." Here's the top 20:

01. Jimi Hendrix
02. Keith Richards
03. Stevie Ray Vaughan
04. Jimmy Page
05. "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott
06. Tony Iommi
07. Rory Gallagher
08. Eddie Van Halen
09. Chuck Berry
10. Kurt Cobain
11. Steve Clark
12. James Hetfield
13. Brian Jones
14. Jeff Beck
15. John Frusciante
16. Steve Jones
17. Johnny Thunders
18. Ted Nugent
19. Peter Green
20. Ace Frehley

Clearly, talent was not a dispositive factor. After all, any list of great rock guitarists that doesn't have Eric Clapton somewhere in the top three is immediately suspect. Conversely, if manic playing is the chief desideratum, where is Pete Townshend?

Sidekicks

How could EW leave Steve Van Zandt off their list of the top 50 entertainment sidekicks? After all, Van Zandt's been a side kick in both real life (to Bruce Springsteen) and on TV (to Tony Soprano). Nobody else on the list has that sort of twofer.

The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band?

My wife has been back East visiting family the last 4 nights, leaving the dogs and I to revive a tradition familiar to long time readers; namely, Bachelor Night. The menu is always more-or-less the same: red meat with an appropriate starch, a minuscule amount of the obligatory green vegetable, and a big red wine, followed by port or Wild Turkey Liqueur, a Dunhill Peravia or two, and a DVD. This time around we've been watching concert videos:

• The Who - Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
• The Who - Live in Boston
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Hammersmith Odeon London '75
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Live in Barcelona

There's no doubt in my mind that these are the greatest rock and roll bands ever. To be sure, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have their advocates, but for me they pale by comparison. The Who and the E Street Band have been the soundtrack of my life. (Besides which, if the Stones are so great, why does one of my posts about The Who rank #1 on a google search for "world's greatest rock and roll band", while the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's site for the Stones ranks #2?)

But how to choose between the two? At one level, it's an easy choice. The original line-up of the Who - Townshend, Daltrey, Entwhistle, and Moon - remain my choice as the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band and the Isle of Wight remains their greatest concert. (I was lucky enough to see the original lineup on one of their last US tours and it remains the highlight of my rock concert list.)

I'd also rank the 1975 version of the E Street Band higher than the current line-up, if only because of my memories of seeing them play at Bryn Mawr, and multiple tours in the late 1970s. Plus, back then Springsteen and Clarence Clemons acted in concert like they liked each other, with Bruce using Clarence as a foil all night, instead of just treating each other like parts of a money-making machine. (The Townshend-Moon relationship at Wight gives you some sense of what the Springsteen-Clemons relationship might have been if the latter had been telepathic.)

My dilemma is deciding whether Townshend + Daltrey post-Entwhistle/Moon outrank any iteration of the E Street Band. In other words, is The Who in Boston > The E Street Band at the Hammersmith Odeon?

After watching 4 concerts in 4 nights, I think the answer is that Townshend + Daltrey have to be ranked # 1 whether they have Entwhistle and Moon with them or not. Springsteen simply can't match Daltrey as a vocalist, neither Springsteen, Van Zandt, or Nils Lofgren can match Townshend as a guitarist, and even moments as great as Clemon's sax solo in Jungleland or Bruce's guitar solo in the extended introduction to Prove it All Night in the 1978 tour can't match Pete's guitar solo in Won't Get Fooled Again even as late as the Boston concert or Roger's penultimate banshee scream as that classic winds to its end.

More generally, going back to the initial question, nothing Bruce has ever done matched the moment when the Who played See Me, Feel Me at dawn at Woodstock (to be sure, I wasn't there, but I've seen the damn movie), or that amazing moment on the Isle of Wight when they duplicated the sunrise with a battery of search lights (ditto).

Having said all that, as a Sirius radio subscriber, if I had my druthers, Sirius would bring back E Street Radio on Channel 10 and convert Channel 11 to The Who 24/7. But if wishes were fishes ....

Townshend on the Politics of Won't Get Fooled Again

Pete Townshend comments on Won't Get Fooled Again being named the all time greatest "conservative" rock song:

... the song has no party-allied political message at all. It is not precisely a song that decries revolution - it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets - but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.

Two thoughts: Revolution and conservatism are not necessarily inconsistent. From one perspective, for example, the American Revolution was a deeply conservative act - an attempt by the colonists to conserve what they understood to be the ancient rights of Englishmen from Parliamentary tyranny. Second, is not the law of unintended consequences, at the heart of the conservative worldview?

Further, Townshend opines:

The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause. ... What I write is interpreted, first of all by Roger Daltrey. Won't Get Fooled Again - then - was a song that pleaded '….leave me alone with my family to live my life, so I can work for change in my own way….'. But when Roger Daltrey screamed as though his heart was being torn out in the closing moments of the song, it became something more to so many people. And I must live with that.

As for the political implications, note (1) the emphasis on there being an aspect of life which is not for sale, which echoes Edmund Burke's  references to "the unbought grace of life," and (2) the desire to be left alone by both politicians and revolutionaries, so as to work for change individually, which echoes Burke's references to the "little platoons" of society, of which the family is first and foremost. As Ann Althouse thus correctly observes: "A lot of conservatives will say that's precisely what is conservative."

Finally, isn't this a fascinating insight into the complex relationship between Townshend and Daltrey? (For his own part, Daltrey has said that "Nothing ... challenges him like a Townshend song. Everything else, even the acting career, is 'secondary'.") The act of performance creates an entirely new work of art, whose meaning may be entirely different than that intended by the author/composer. Like revolution, performance thus "can have results we cannot predict."

Anyway, regardless of Townshend's, Daltrey's, or the song's politics, Won't Get Fooled Again stands as one of the great rock anthems of all time and, like all great works of art, is subject to appropriation and reinterpretation by those who hear (or view or read it).

My Current Top 25

Kevin Drum asks (opines? comments?):

Everyone's pissed off over Jacob Weisberg's weird rant about Hillary Clinton's iPod, and they're right to be. He basically used it as an excuse to demonstrate that Hillary is exactly the conniving fake he always thought she was, and it's likely he would have written the exact same thing regardless of what songs had made her top ten list. It was a remarkably lazy piece.

But I'm curious about something else: How do people even come up with these top ten lists in the first place? I don't think I could do it. That's not to say that I don't have any favorites. I do, and it would be easy to prepare a list of ten pieces that I like a lot. But if you asked me to do the same thing next week, there's a pretty good chance that I'd choose an entirely different list.

Coming up with a list that has stood the test of time actually is quite easy for iPod users. iTunes automatically creates a playlist of your top 25 most frequently played songs. Open that Playlist. Under the "File" menu, click "Export Song List." This creates a text file you can then edit. Mine's below the fold. No comments about how I'm an old fogey stuck in "classic" rock & roll, please. Also, before you throw the first stone, remember that you probably have some guilty pleasures too.

Townshend on the Politics of Won't Get Fooled Again

Pete Townshend comments on Won't Get Fooled Again being named the all time greatest "conservative" rock song:

... the song has no party-allied political message at all. It is not precisely a song that decries revolution - it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets - but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.

Two thoughts: Revolution and conservatism are not necessarily inconsistent. From one perspective, for example, the American Revolution was a deeply conservative act - an attempt by the colonists to conserve what they understood to be the ancient rights of Englishmen from Parliamentary tyranny. Second, is not the law of unintended consequences, at the heart of the conservative worldview?

Further, Townshend opines:

The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause. ... What I write is interpreted, first of all by Roger Daltrey. Won't Get Fooled Again - then - was a song that pleaded '?.leave me alone with my family to live my life, so I can work for change in my own way?.'. But when Roger Daltrey screamed as though his heart was being torn out in the closing moments of the song, it became something more to so many people. And I must live with that.

As for the political implications, note (1) the emphasis on there being an aspect of life which is not for sale, which echoes Edmund Burke's  references to "the unbought grace of life," and (2) the desire to be left alone by both politicians and revolutionaries, so as to work for change individually, which echoes Burke's references to the "little platoons" of society, of which the family is first and foremost. As Ann Althouse thus correctly observes: "A lot of conservatives will say that's precisely what is conservative."

Finally, isn't this a fascinating insight into the complex relationship between Townshend and Daltrey? (For his own part, Daltrey has said that "Nothing ... challenges him like a Townshend song. Everything else, even the acting career, is 'secondary'.") The act of performance creates an entirely new work of art, whose meaning may be entirely different than that intended by the author/composer. Like revolution, performance thus "can have results we cannot predict."

Anyway, regardless of Townshend's, Daltrey's, or the song's politics, Won't Get Fooled Again stands as one of the great rock anthems of all time and, like all great works of art, is subject to appropriation and reinterpretation by those who hear (or view or read it).

The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band's Greatest Concert

The Who Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 on DVD. Are the songs finally in the right order? No. Are there still missing songs? Yes. Is the editing still choppy? Yes. But who cares? This is still a priceless look at the original line-up of my favorite rock band in their prime. Murray Lerner and Pete Townshend have collaborated to produce a concert that is visually and aurally superior to earlier releases, with the added bonus of a fascinating interview with Townshend in which he opens up on the band and its music to a remarkable degree.

One of my chief regrets is that I only saw the Who once with Keith Moon as drummer and, at that, near the end of his all too short life. This concert confirms that the band was never quite the same after his death. His playing is chaotic, to be sure, but the telepathic chemistry he had with Townshend is obvious. Their improvisations are nothing short of amazing. On a big TV and surround stereo, you get a sense of why Townshend thought these concerts were little short of a religious experience.

The greatness of this concert DVD is perhaps best summarized by my wife's comment that, after 20 years of living with a Who fan, she "finally gets it."

I was 11 when The Who played this concert. Anybody with an 11 year old who's addicted to Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, or the latest boy band ought to set their kids down and make them watch this DVD to see what real music was - and could still be.

Guess Who?

Did you know that the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band has been credited with writing the world's greatest conservative rock anthem?

The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band's Greatest Concert

The Who Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 on DVD. Are the songs finally in the right order? No. Are there still missing songs? Yes. Is the editing still choppy? Yes. But who cares? This is still a priceless look at the original line-up of my favorite rock band in their prime. Murray Lerner and Pete Townshend have collaborated to produce a concert that is visually and aurally superior to earlier releases, with the added bonus of a fascinating interview with Townshend in which he opens up on the band and its music to a remarkable degree.

One of my chief regrets is that I only saw the Who once with Keith Moon as drummer and, at that, near the end of his all too short life. This concert confirms that the band was never quite the same after his death. His playing is chaotic, to be sure, but the telepathic chemistry he had with Townshend is obvious. Their improvisations are nothing short of amazing. On a big TV and surround stereo, you get a sense of why Townshend thought these concerts were little short of a religious experience.

The greatness of this concert DVD is perhaps best summarized by my wife's comment that, after 20 years of living with a Who fan, she "finally gets it."

I was 11 when The Who played this concert. Anybody with an 11 year old who's addicted to Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, or the latest boy band ought to set their kids down and make them watch this DVD to see what real music was - and could still be.

Springsteen Live

I downloaded from iTunes Bruce Springsteen's new Hammersmith Odeon, Live '75 album (a DVD version of which, of course, has been available for a while as part of the special 30th anniversary Born to Run package). Great album; great show. Very reminiscent of the show I saw at Georgetown University in the Born to Run tour. Personally, however, I very much preferred the shows I saw during the Darkness tour a couple of years later. Those shows were longer, the song list was deeper, and, thanks to the years the band had to spend touring during the Appel litigation recording hiatus, incredibly polished.

Decency Excesses

I'm as much in favor of decency as the next guy (provided I'm not standing next to Howard Stern), but c'mon folks, let's not get carried away:

A pop culture controversy that has simmered for decades came to a head when a middle school marching band was told not to perform "Louie Louie."

Benton Harbor Superintendent Paula Dawning cited the song's allegedly raunchy lyrics in ordering the McCord Middle School band not to perform it in Saturday's Grand Floral Parade, held as part of the Blossomtime Festival. ...

"Louie Louie," written by Richard Berry in 1956, is one of the most recorded songs in history. The best-known, most notorious version was a hit in 1963 for the Kingsmen; the FBI spent two years investigating the lyrics before declaring they not only were not obscene but also were "unintelligible at any speed." (Link)

Sheesh. Lighten up. Get a grip. Find a little square of reality and camp out on it. If your town is so peaceful that Louie, Louie is the worst thing you have to worry about, chill out.

The original (non-dirty) lyrics to Louie, Louie are available here. Various alleged dirty versions are available here.

The definitive treatment of the controversy over the alleged dirty version remains Dave Marsh's wonderful book Louie Louie : The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n Roll Song; Including the Full Details of Its Torture and Persecution at the hands of the Kingsmen, J. Edgar Hoover, & A Cast of Millions; & Introducing for the First Time Anywhere, the Actual Dirty Lyrics, which surely must be one of the longest book titles on record.

True Story

There I was sitting in my office peacefully preparing for class and listening to Who's Next, when one of my senior colleagues wandered in and asked: "When are you going to grow up and give up that rock crap?" I was sitting there wondering the same thing when one of my junior colleagues wandered by a bit later, stopped, listened for a moment, and asked: "Boy, you really like that old shit, don't you?"  And then he too wandered off. Ah, the joys of being a late Boomer in middle-age, caught between Scylla and Charybdis.

E Street Questions

1. With three lead guitarists and a saxaphonist, how does the E Street Band allocate solos? My guess is some variant of the London Naval Treaty.
2. Do the band members get a percentage or straight salary? In either case, do they all get the same pay?
3. What did Nils think when Steve came back?
4. In the HBO special, Bruce and Clarence didn't make eye contact very often. My recollection from the shows I saw in the 70s and 80s was that they played off each other a lot more back then.
5. Which raises the question: Have the band members really forgiven Bruce for dumping them?