We Built This City [On Rock an' Roll]

Second Jeff Beck Group record is meh, and the absence of Mickey Waller is largely why.

Truth is obviously all-time, and Zep wouldn't exist without it.

xp

The most offensive thing about "We Built This City" are Grace Slick's clothes on the single cover.

wtf are you talking about, her look is awesome!

Are "someone stole the stage" and "who rides the wrecking ball into our guitars?" supposed to be the lines that complain about techno pop? Like, I'm not even totally sure that this was unintended:

I hear unintended compositional irony: The song validates synclaviers as worthwhile foundation stones in this city of rock 'n' roll.

I meant musically.

Ha, so it was the guitarist from the band who was saying they were complaining? I'll defer to him then.

Another candidate (one I can support) is nominated.

Meanwhile in England...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GenPArDAdls

We Built This New Town (On Smack and Dole)

"The guitarist from the band" is Craig Chaqico and he was a total guitar stud from the day he joined JS as a 17 year old.

and I probably spelled his name wrong

He also seems to think that Guglielmo Marconi would have played or even listened to 'mamba' so I'm beginning to question my deference to his interpretation of the lyrical message.

Like, what I was trying to say earlier was that, before reading the article, I did not really think of the song as trying to make an anti-synth statement, ironic or otherwise. Did any psychedelic band explicitly object to synthesizers or electronic music technology in the 60s? (I know that some hard rock bands did later from the mid-70s onwards.)

Did any psychedelic band explicitly object to synthesizers or electronic music technology in the 60s?

No way, man, because in the '60s synths and electronic music were still totally far out and anti-establishment.

http://moreorlessbunk.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/tumblr_mjart3dSfz1qzhoqfo1_1280-1-2.jpg

^ Aw, sticking it to "The Man" with bleepy synths. How quaint.

yeah psych rocker attitude towards synths in the late 60s was probably like "whoa far out, man, look at all those wires.. listen to that shit, man, wow, groovy, where can i buy one?"

magic alex!

i could imagine jorma and jack from JA being hesitant about synths, though... just because for all their acid fried otherworldly shredding.. they had a pretty trad blues/folk background, iirc. i know they were taken aback seeing the Who destroy instruments on stage ("your guitar... that's a sacred totem, man, you gotta respect your instrument"). lots of weird noises all over airplane records, though.

I think the technology for early synths was so rare and studio time so precious that coming across them was probably quite novel.

To me the band that seemed to make a big deal about not using synths was Queen.

The big deal in Queen's case was less anti tech and more "No really, Brian May's guitar does sound like that!"

had no idea Mickey Thomas got attacked by a bandmate in a bar and that's why he needed facial reconstruction surgery.

omg this video

lol at him singing at Lincoln Memorial about to cry. i haven't seen this since i was 5

man I had no idea Grace Slick was 47 at the time

still looked and sounded vibrant as hell. that's why of the Starship material I prefer the cheesy "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". her voice is still sexy and powerful as hell on that, where it has no utility on We Built This City given how low in her register she has to sing it.

plus also Mannequin video lol

Everyone deserves a pop hit in their 47th year.

can't wait for my single about the Trump presidency to drop in 2028

“We Built This City” was written and recorded in stages, by an assembly line of songwriters. (Cancer, too, develops in stages.)

Fuck off, Rob Tannenbaum.

i am listening to this song right now and i like it

that "Planes" vid upthread is fucking hilarious

The song came on while I was eating at Taco Bell and it made the fact I was eating Taco Bell even more depressing.

We built this city on Taco Bell

Ma Coley drops the chalupa

Grace Slick = oldest woman to have a number one single, except for Cher ("Believe")

knee deep in the chalupa

Listen to the raving ho

I always hated this song.... until today.

That's good. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

Never too late.

Went to a big city festival in Bolzano, Italy and there were bands playing in every town square and one cover band tore into this and the locals went nuts and it was awesome.

Sorry folks, it’s a banger.

just the idea of going to a minor key and deciding that the line was 'Ma Coley plays the mamba' .. i need an oral history of this

I thought it was 'Marconi plays the mamba' (because it's followed by 'listen to the radio)? Though I guess that doesn't really make much more sense. Is there a person called Ma Coley?

I got a bunch of hoopla stuck to my shoe.

Also, a mamba is a snake.

The use of this song in the dead animal montage of Fall of the House of Usher was fantastic.

yeah i thought it was marconi!

it's Marconi. but it still doesn't make sense

Especially because he's playing a mamba.

a mamba can be an instrument, you can shake it and then emit a piercing yell when it bites the shit out of you

one of the all time great bullshit lines in pop history

xp That's metal

Thomas: Bernie didn’t say “mambo,” he said “mamba,” which is a snake. Marconi created the radio. Maybe Bernie meant to say “mambo.” Maybe it means: If you don’t like this music, some really angry snakes are gonna come out of the speakers. (...)

At one point I did start to sing “mambo,” to try and be more grammatically correct, and after a while I thought, “Fuck it,” and went back to “mamba.”