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Classic Rock Discussion thread, including Catfish's Top 20 Lists.
catfish1957:
Classic Rock Album of the Day- Stevie Ray Vaughn- Texas Flood- (1983) *** 1/2
I discovered SRV at an Austin bar on 6th street back in what was I guess either 1980 or 1981. I think it was like $3 cover, but man was the place packed. What I saw was a wizard who IMO was doing nothing more than emulating Hendrix, with a massive blues twist. I watched for an hour, and saw nothing but Hendrix, maybe a couple of old Delta type Willie Dixon tunes, among others. At the time, I thought he was just a incredibiy talented cover guy.
A couple of years later, a friend sprung Texas Flood, and I have vivid memores and yelled "I saw that dude..... He plays like Hendrix." And was subsequently treated to one of the best blues albums I'd had seen in at least a decade. I am not a huge blues fan, but when I do hear some that have a rocking edge, and that have had those mad skills, it sure gets my attention.
SRV, is an incredibly sad tale of of a life cut short way too soon, and a immense talent who let his chemical demons get to the best of him Vaughn only made sadly 6 studio LP's and his career midpoint was especially marred by his problems. They aren't bad, but from my taste, SRV did his best licks and stuff on this initial album. What compounds to the tragedy, is that SRV broke through, and did some of his best live work right up to his tragic helicopter crash in Wisconsin in 1990. What a great loss. The Blues / Rock fusion as a genre never recovered.
Fun Fact: In 2018, SRV's first Strat (1951) sold at auction for $250K. I have read that if his bastardized 62/63 hybrid Strat (He called it No.1) would ever come available, it might fetch $1M.
Side 1-
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Love Struck Baby- Big hit, and a great tune that nicely augments shredding blues licks with an almost 50's rock-a-billy sound. Even though I am not into rock-a-billy, I sure like this one, as the bluez runs are amazing- 3
Pride and Joy- Kind of a nod toward delta blues, but no less expansively covering what comes across as an a blues blast with some innovative orchestrative stripes. SRV had a great supportign crew, but he is so talented he steals 98% of the spotlight by design. 2
Texas Flood- Maybe one of the last great rocking blues songs made? There might be exceptions, but his is almost the perfect blues number for your average rocker. SRV is so precise, so crisp, and has the phrasic value so perfectly timed And the solos? ..... Amazing... Amazing. 1
Tell Me- Another delta blues remake from Howlin' Wolf. Nice job, and more great very fresh solos.. 6
Testify- A little venture into Double Trouble land which dominated his latter style. Nothing like how the Isley Brothers did it, that's for sure. 8
Side 2-
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Rude Mood- Blues, boogie woogie-ish instrumental that shows the talents, but more of an example showpiece than an actual song. 9
Mary Had a Little Lamb- Decent, but nothing as far as a higher tier on the LP. 7
Dirty Pool- Slow roller that I almost felt a little Trower vibe too. Fancy fret work shows some of the more difficult playing on the set. Believe me, high gauge strat strings aren't easy to tweek in what sounds like a freaked out mandolin. 4
i'm Cryin'- Was always puzzled that SRV basically and blatantly cloned and rehashed Pride and Joy- Docked accordingly 10
Lenny- Guessed this was inspired by Little Wing- Very off base with rest of the LP, but there are some good bits. Sure relaxing for a blues song. 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OoXpAORlE
catfish1957:
Classic Rock Album of the Day- Weezer- Weezer (Green Album) (2001)- *** 1/2
Weezer was always one of the bright spots as the late '80's and early '90's started ushering in gaping wide holes, and an vacuum of not only good rock bands, but rock bands in general. At this point in history of the rock era, it was being dominated by grunge/alternative bands. Weezer as a genre slot has often been placed in the alternative camp, but I think this is more of hapinstance, of residing in that time frame. From my POV the band was more of a pop-punk act, with a tinge of Pumpkins distort. But this is an excellent band that makes the most of the vinyl, and usually doesn't disappoint the fans.
One huge point of parsing their good catalog, that it is (was) no accident that their two best were the self-titled Green and Blue albums due to Rick Ocasek's productin. He did a 2014 prduction stint with less success, but.... Again, this wasn't an accident in that these have such popular outreach. Rivers Cuomo in solo, was already a great hook-meister, but then add Ocasek? You knew you were going to get a top notch effort.
What I really also like on Green versus others was that very stealthly, the band did some numbers that had a def. Beatle-ish feel to them, No..... Not silly-ish shit like Oasis, but with the feel, and still comes with enough chops and differences not to look or sund like a cover. This is nicely consistent album, with minimal filler.
Fun fact: The Green Album started a nice streak fr Weezer, allowing the band to have 8 consecutive top 10 charting albums (2001-2016)
Track No.
-------------
1. Don't Let Go- as that Blue Album feel, and style. Even to the point of that early 80's UK pop feel- 5
2. Photograph- 1st of those mid '60's almost Beatles / Who sound, sans added fuzz. Nice job. 3
3. Hash Pipe- Bad Ass metal, fuzzed chaotic bombastic, and yeah, it was rightfully a big hit. 1
4. Island in the Sun- Light tune, that you can tell Ocasek had his hand in. Rick always did a great job, of pulling out a nice melodic curve ball out of the blue. Works well as a change of pace. Weezer did less and less of these during the years, and is one of the better in that criteria 6
5. Crab- Standard stuff, and good, but lesser ranked on this good album. Most traditional sounding rocker on the CD. 9
6. Knock Down, Drag Out- If there was any semblance of Grunge, this was the example. And still better than 90% of the alternative shit being flooded upon the airways- 7
7. Smile- Closest thing to filler in this one. 10
8. Simple Pages- Sleeper on this one- Unique phrasing, and great Weezer fuzz, just see to like this one. 2
9. Glorious Day- Another sleeper. Hard rocking with the best punk hue on the song. 4
10. O Girl Friend- Better than filler. Needless love song, in the vein of the theming of the LP. 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqJgh6wgXWU
catfish1957:
Classic Rock Album of the Day- Led Zeppelin- In Through the Out Door (1979) ****
Kind of mixed emotions today with this review. This one completes the LZ discography, and of course was the last studio effort by one of the all time greats. I had previously panned (wrong word- maybe docked) the band for a lot of the provocatives toward the experimental. There is no doubt that under Led Zeppelin standards, Presence was an utter disaster, and since the band had such a short time left, is a travesty of waste of vinyl of what could be, in terms of their standing among the all time greats.
Well, LZ did it again with their 8th and final effort, In Through the Out Door. But instead of making the experimental feel forced, and funky, the band almost hit a Home Run. The eccentricites of this album though not mainstream Zep, did a great job of cutting a notch in the fabric rock, that LZ was not a bit a one dimensional hard rock/blues behemoth. This album is a lot of ways is even more off the rails than Presence, but without it sounding almost like an off-cranked genre parody. What many fail to realize that even in a lot of this genre bending, is not only a band that exceeds the stuff they are emulating, it is an exercise....wait a better word is "lesson" of what happens when you gather a group of talent that is so good at their craft they can send "smack" to the industry, and say.... 7 great..... now it is time for us have a good time showing off a bit.
A lot of rock pundits have claimed that Page's influences and efforts were minimized on this LP. I really think that it more was an industry trend of adding synth to the equation. Example? This is about the same time that Rush did the same. And Yes, too from a volume perspective. No, LZ was not Prog, but '70's sternum rattling 4/4 rock and roll had changed in deference to New Wave influences. Yeah, that sucked... I know.
With all the accolades, this is still not a perfect album, like most of their discography of their first 4. There also is not what I would call an epic Classic Rock standard song that lives in perpetual greatness. Back in '79 when I first unwrapped this LP, I was at first in the same opionion I had with Presence. More stuff that was not what made the band great. But unlike Presence, this one gradually grew on me, with the realization that this had some really innovative undercurrents that not as much as that the 1970's were dead, the album was a testament an event of branching out from the base rock/blues into somewhat of alter-ego of a band that rightfully called themselves the best. Funny... I always wondered if the band would have taken this direction if had known this was their last.
Not that history as treated post Physical Graffitti LZ well. To a great majority of the hard core fans, the band had drifted off to a narrow dark corridor of experimentation, and fear that the critics would call them stale and dated. I'll grant that as accurate representation for Prescience, but with a deep enough thoughtful listen, you can tell that there is a lot going on behind the mic and amps here. And I think a lot of it kind of self manifested in some of the better later solo work from Plant, and Page with his time with the Firm. Was it commercialization based? Was it rebranding? Was it an effort to expand fan base? Sadly, with Bonham's and Led Zeppelin's death in 1980..... We will never know.
Fun Fact: John Paul Jones has credits on 6 of the 7 songs. Impact on quality? From my POV, yes and no. Seems we got the best and worst of the 3rd wheel of the Led Zep song writing locomotive.
Side 1-
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In the Evening- Zep starts the show with one of their better latter career efforts. Eastern influenced instrumental breaks out into an all hell breaking lose rocking number. I love how the understated synth on this one is a great add, than a distraction. There are even parts that this thing almost breaks into a 3 part melodic bluezy mash. Classic Zep. 2
Southbound Suarez- Barrel Roll rocker, I guess the intent was right. But again, not a reason I plunked $6.99 on the record counter in 1979. Not a bad tune, by any means, but more is expected from Zeppelin. Searing solo does help save some, but by this time we again realize that 1971 was a heck of a long time ago. 6
Fool In the Rain- Originally I hated this song. Talk about ultimate rock parody. The greatest hard rock band of all time had declined into a latin salsa band. BUT.. after a few thousand more listens, you come to realize that the musical chops on this one is genius. The slow genre morphing and phasing of the tune is unique. And if you listen closer, from a musical difficulty point, this is pretty complex. Ane when the whistle sounds? Besides a "WTF" and again a few thousand listens, you realize that this is Zeppelin at thier utter most Avante Garde. Can you imagine Page playing this in 1970? That's growth folks. 1
Hot Dog- Another barrel house almost country effort. Again not bad, but .... Oh and bonus points for using dungarees in a song. :silly: 5
Side 2-
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Carouselambra- Awesome use of synth and guitar. So strange to hear Page's licks support a synth line. Song had a great degree of complexity within the simple repeptive riffs that strike the listener. This is also the one on the LP that has some of Bonham's best drum work. Low key, but fine way to allow the main strengths of the band (drum/ax solos) outifght provide a foundation, for the ridiculously silly and repetitive synth rolls. The mid song transition into a standard rock/blues rolling thunder does a nice job of contrast. Then listening to it as an exercise of dueling synth? 11 minutes well spent. 3
All of My Love- The hit, and most recognizable one of an album that has faded from view. Very mainstream from LZ standards, and enough hooks to lure the listener. Song also has maybe what may be the only pure synth solo in the band's career. Song in a lot of ways is kind of a cumulative sum of the entire intent of the LP. Synth, Wierd, and absent Page. 4
I'm Gonna Crawl- Hate to say, but this one song may be the worst songs in Led Zeppelin's history. Everyone knows that Page had to have one obligatory hard bluez number. This one has no sound of inspiration, and the cringe-worthy added synth almost makes it a joke. Contrast this with "Since I have Been Loving You" to amaze you that this is the same band. It's a crime that one of the greatest rock bands of all time ended their career with this one, but it is, what it is. 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRkTo3WbMMQ
catfish1957:
No commentary needed. So many of us miss Tom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qvHyFVm20
deb:
--- Quote from: catfish1957 on May 11, 2024, 08:38:29 pm ---No commentary needed. So many of us miss Tom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qvHyFVm20
--- End quote ---
Stunningly beautiful song. Thanks for posting it.
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