In Which Doctor Casino Listens to Classic Rock Classics for the First Time

Yeah, okay, I'll give you that, it's the anticipated fortune that he won't let go.

Xpost I meant I insist on "couldn't care less" over the increasingly dominant "could care less"

Ah.

i think the lyric is fairly straightforward, in its own clunky way. but this, from dr. c, is a way better lyric than the actual one:

Lettuce ride, here is Will, the Talking Heads / well listen miss, tonight there will be some action spent

also, i love how the actual lyric goes totally fleetwood mac on the bridge:

In this world we're livin' in we have our share of sorrow
Answer now is don't give in aim for a new tomorrow.

Always liked Priest. Rob Halford a metal guy us short-hairs could identify with.

There were manys yuks had by DJs intro'ing this song in the weeks after Rob Halford came out of the closet.

Priest def coasting in "don't derail the gravy train" mode here but f it it's still Priest

this one is a cover of a cover of a cover, and is by the far most popular version. shoutouts to tiny bradshaw, johnny burnette and the rock and roll trio and the yardbirds.

SONG #32: AEROSMITH "TRAIN KEPT A-ROLLIN'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EvGn22Mplg

I think the idiom is actually "Train Crept A-Rollins"

Rob Halford's lyrics are weirdly ESL for a sharp guy from England. I've interviewed him a couple of times, and he's a fantastic person to talk to, because unlike many rock singers, when you ask him a question, he pauses, thinks about it, then answers in paragraphs. So how his lyrics get so garbled and nonsensical is beyond me. I guess it's just about compressing ideas into a rhyme scheme. I don't know, I've never tried to write a song.

I'm not a Priest fan, but I recently watched Dream Deceivers, and found him to be exactly how you described him, thoughtful and articulate. I wasn't surprised by that, but it was cool to see because you know that thoughtfulness completely fucked with the prosecution's heads. I'm sure they thought, "ha ha, we'll get these troglodyte metal guys on the stand and they'll just come off like monosyllabic dumbfucks," and Halford ruined it for them.

I think the idiom is actually "Train Crept A-Rollins"

― Now you're messing with a (President Keyes), Friday, September 26, 2014 8:15 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, you got another train rollin'

I grew up in Aerosmith country and never heard this song on the radio.

I don't think I have either.

Rob Halford is awesome.

Just thought that was worth reiterating

re:Priest lyrics

Ohhhhh so hot, no time to take a rest, yeah!

I always parsed this as "no time to eat a Triscuit!"

Train Kept A-Rollin': Classic-era Aerosmith covering Johnny Burnette Trio (know them, don't know the song) should be a recipe for success - let's see! Good start. Warmin' up to shred here. Oooh yeah. Verse is cool, nice and mean. I don't know the other versions but I know Johnny Burnette and I totally hear that in this riff, though they've tied it down to their greasy dark smoky rock machine. This is the kind of mid-tempo groovery that I want from my hard-rock bands. The ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting percussion is a little annoying but basically these guys know how to hold the pace... it doesn't feel like a trudge, and whatever flourishes the lead guitar and Tyler's keening weave in are welcome varieties and entertainments.

Woah, so it's live now? Huh. Switchin' it up, where's this gonna go? Hopefully not a cover of "Stay." Oooh, they just kinda made it rougher and louder and live-r. I dunno if this helps anything though - why not just pick the one that they liked better? It still sounds good though. Bah-dah-dun! Bah-dah-dun! Dare you to go one more measure. Ooooh and it took off again. These are pretty sweet solos and stuff. I'm pretty short of things to say honestly - I'm enjoying it, not paying close enough attention to the lyrics to really engage the story or anything (it's a cover anyway), kinda just taking it as a performance. It's cool but I'd rather have just the studio one I think, hits harder and I love when bands have like a 2:30 throwaway song tossed in the middle of the album.

Hrm, seems I repeated myself in there. Appropriate!

Best "Trains":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXeXmFolI2I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg3rO-w6gbo

Wow, the Zeppelin one really thunders forward, don't it? I kinda miss the clarity of the riff itself although you can't fault them for just rockin' sturmundrang. I like the funky stuff John Paul Jones is bringing in, as on their very last records, yeah? Aw man, was just about to ask how this could be nine minutes, even if they pulled the Aerosmith trick - but of course it's just another song entirely. As established upthread, I totally love "Nobody's Fault But Mine," never really checked them out live before. Sounds pretty good but not really better than the record (even if maybe it POUNDS harder).

Yardbirds... haha i love how everybody's standing stock still. A toe-tapper though. This is funny, what is this from?

Antonioni's Blow-Up.

Some of the only existent Page/Beck Yardbirds footage.

The story I heard is that Antonioni went to the Who first, who turned him down. Then he asked the Velvets (!), but they couldn't get over to the UK. So he settled on the Yardbirds.

Wow, the Zeppelin one really thunders forward, don't it?

I know, right? This was during Zep's "Punk?! Hey, we used to do that!" phase.

never really checked them out live before.

I always thought they were insanely inconsistent live. You could assemble a motherfucker of a live album from their best moments, but I have yet to hear one full concert that doesn't have a built-in nap time.

i've never seen "blow-up." what an awesome scene.

The story I heard is that Antonioni went to the Who first, who turned him down. Then he asked the Velvets (!), but they couldn't get over to the UK. So he settled on the Yardbirds.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, September 26, 2014 6:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And right before the Yardbirds, they cast Tomorrow (w/Keith West & Steve Howe), who got as far as some rehearsals and demoing two original songs for the film before being dismissed. The guitar that Jeff Beck smashes in the film is a actually a prop copy of the guitar Howe was playing at the time. The two Tomorrow songs were added as bonus tracks to the cd reissue of the soundtrack.

"Am I Glad To See You" (written in the style of "We've Got To Get Out of This Place" for the club scene): http://youtu.be/x3sjeMvcu94

"Blow-Up" (rejected title theme): http://youtu.be/d9ivkRcjzNo

Supposedly Jimmy Page overdubbed the lead on this version (the explanation being he befriended Scotty McKay when the latter opened for the Yardbirds when they came through Texas, and McKay later sent the tape to England to cash in a favor)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoEs-9NtpU8

Wait w this you've gotta nother THINK com

Coming, stupid phone, are you guys joking I've never heard that

"Think coming" sounds like someone's cutesy riff on "another thing coming"

It's a cutesy expression from the get-go, though - embracing "think" is just embracing the cock-eyed old-timey parents' logic wherein "think" becomes a noun (indeed, a thing) and the proposal is to replace your think with another one. "Thing" is either vague, or straight up menacing - the "thing" coming can only be the switch or the belt.

yeah, I always assume the "thing" you have coming is a metal hammer to the face

in the Priest song that is

re:Priest lyrics

Ohhhhh so hot, no time to take a rest, yeah!

I always parsed this as "no time to eat a Triscuit!"

― Darin, Friday, September 26, 2014 2:24 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No Time to Eat a Triscuit would be a good rock and roll biography title, maybe not of this band though.

Related: "No Time To Eat A Biscuit" sounds like a Kinks title from the RCA years.

mmmm, biscuits.

i've got another thing comin', i think. it's the last song in our mini-set of songs that end with i-n-apostrophe. this one is the apostrophe king.

SONG #33: JOURNEY "LOVIN', TOUCHIN', SQUEEZIN'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTkHFQC3wow

Related: "No Time To Eat A Biscuit" sounds like a Kinks title from the RCA years.

Haha otm. Somehow, Ray convinced the suits at RCA to fund his triple-album/touring musical ode to English food.

Journey were the kings of build up, build up, build up, huge chorus in the last minute of the song

na na na na na na
na na na na na
na na na na na na
na na na na na

IT WON'T BE LONG, YEAH
'TIL YOU'RE ALONE WHEN YOUR LUH-UH-UH-UH-VUH

Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin': I'm not going to be lucky enough for this to be a cover of "Wizard of Finance," am I?

Startin' off okay. Don't expect this kinda bluesy, bad-to-the-bone thing from Journey. Oh wait, that vocal sounds kinda familiar. Maybe the tune. Is this like an old Motown thing? It sounds so familiar but I don't associate it with this big beefy arrangement. Man, I really can't tell if I've heard this before.

It's okay though. I don't like the BLOOZY side of classic rock as we've determined, but one thing I'll say for Perry's eagle-cry vocals is that they do slice right through that and create something distinctive. I guess that's a common move - Robert Plant, Steven Tyler - but if Perry has any skill it's giving just a tiny hint of vulnerability to that sound, so no matter how huge Journey sounds, it's possible to insert yourself at the center as the mortal hero, pure of heart, who finds the courage to strive on.

Na na na na...Oh, yeah, I definitely have heard this. Sorry, y'all. Not enough times that any aspect of it really sticks out to my memory though. The na-na part's not bad! It's not sold too hard with the vocals themselves, could basically be a loop, but the instrumental attack builds up underneath them, kinda inventing a power ballad or arena anthem out of this generic workout, all of a sudden. That little tinkly moment from the piano was a welcome toss-in, ditto the increasingly busy lead guitar. Even the acapella sounds great, recording-wise! Though I don't think the "live" ending adds much at all.

Y'know, though, I wonder about the suitability of "na nas" for a lovin' touchin' squeezin' kinda song. Maybe they're just so locked in by "Hey Jude" as signifiers of universal brotherhood - especially in a massed chant like this - that it's weird for them to be about individual lust or consummation or whatever. I could roll them back to "Land of a Thousand Dances" I guess - "na nas" just mean it's a party, everybody's joining in - - - but the pace of the song is too steady and anthemic for that.

Sideways thumb I guess - for all its skill, it's just still kind of grating and overbearing - can't see it slotting comfortably into most listening sessions without taking over the whole room.

Perry's eagle-cry vocals

Sam Cooke yo

I hate Perry/Journey with a passion, so the first time I ever saw the Cooke comparison (probably on ilm) I was like ohhhhh...... I totally got the Cooke-isms from Rod Stewart, never made the connection wrt Journey. And now I can't unhear it.

Song is based on Cooke's "Nothin' Can Change This Love"

Ohh HMMM. That might have contributed to its general feeling of familiarity to me though now I can't tell if I've ever heard this particular Cooke song. It's lovely, much better than Journey's. The Cooke vocal comparison more generally is going to take me a while - I've been chewing on that since it got discussed upthread and while I catch it in moments it isn't quite computing to me just because I think of Perry as so goddamn bombastic. Maybe more his melodic sensibility than his singing style? I can totally hear Cooke "doing" just about any Journey song, quite fluidly ("Just a small town girl...") but not sure I can hear Perry doing most Cooke songs without flailing into their delicate surfaces and smashing them all into bits.

all those whoah-whoah-oh extended vowels is totally from Cooke

^^^ the way Perry bends "when I'm alo-oh-one" for one. It's the melisma thing.

Oh, wow, that melisma thing is totally on point. Hold on to that feel-ay-ee-ay-ing, honest you do, honest you do...

There are several youtube videos dedicated to arguing who was the better singer, Cooke or Perry.