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

I'm a recent convert to Yes for about a year. Obsessed with Yes Album/Fragile/CttE, plus Yessongs and the new live box. What should I try next, Tales?

Yeah, Tales, Relayer and Going for the One are all you need IMO. But if you wanna go fucking nuts, here's a massive guide I wrote back in May.

that massive guide is epic and pretty much heroic.

Yeah, /Tales/, /Relayer/ and /Going for the One/ are all you need IMO. But if you wanna go fucking nuts, here's a massive guide I wrote back in May.
--the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱)

Thanks! I look forward to reading!

Watching The Doors today, I had many thoughts, and many of them led me back to this thread. Indians scattered on Donuts Highway.

hi dr. c!!! hi scattered indians of this long-dormant thread!

this would be a perfect time to welcome y'all back with a doors song, but i'm afraid we've already played all the doors songs in our box. so let's stay in la, jump ahead a decade and see if anyone's still listening out there.

SONG #45: VAN HALEN "(OH) PRETTY WOMAN"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spvhWQh61fM

the fact checker in me hates, hates, hates that they re-punctuated this cover from "oh, pretty woman" to "(oh) pretty woman" for no apparent reason.

sidebar i have always hated that the song was not just called pretty woman from the getgo

it appears, based on quick and totally not thorough google research, that it was in fact originally called pretty woman but the oh was quickly added and was there by the time the original became a hit.

Feel like you almost HAVE to have the version with "Intruder" at the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9t9kxm-s6Y

Feel like you almost HAVE to have the version with "Intruder" at the beginning.

do classic rock stations play it that way? (i have no idea!)

The one I listened to growing up used to.

That was one of the ones we had two versions of - just Pretty Woman and the one with Intruder above.

The Intruder one was used mostly on weekends or when the PD was going for a "deep cut" but also playing a hit at the same time.

(Some songs were never split, like Sirius/Eye in the Sky).

I remember the DJs using "Intruder" as a pre-song blather soundtrack.

Very very glad to see this thread back. I've got some mixed-up stuff going on in my life right now, and posts may come in spurts, but it's always been a good time in here, y'all. Thanks, fcc.

Before I start in on Van Halen's Orbison cover, I should say that in general I like Roth-era Van Halen, but I only own the first two LPs, and really only know the first one, which I got into around 2003 and played a lot, even attempting a very abortive cover of "Runnin' With the Devil" after I learned the solo (and almost nothing else) on keyboard. I put "Atomic Punk" on a mix-tape even. They're a real hot, fun band, great playing, and I think a good eye for material. Their "You Really Got Me" never struck me as any kind of revelation versus the Kinks', but it's pretty rockin'. The only track from II that's ever really made it into my canon is "Dance The Night Away" - I've enjoyed the record every time I've put it on but there just aren't as many obvious standout classics. But the records after that have all remained totally unknown to me except the big singles off 1984 of course.

As for "Oh, Pretty Woman," it strikes me off the bat as a good choice of something to cover. Of all of Orbison's hits, it's maybe the least dependent on Roy Orbison specifically. Don't get me wrong - his "rrrrrowr!" and "Mercy!" are really essential to his recording, but the hook isn't his ethereal, unmistakable voice the way it is on "Only The Lonely" or so many other cuts, but something available to any halfway-competent garage band: that riff, in tandem with the building rhythm section behind it. Lyrically there's almost nothing there. Van Halen having a reliably lockstep rhythm section and a big-deal frontman, it seems like a good template for them to play around with, with the x factor being where the heck does their star freakout guitarist fit in? I'm assuming it's too much to hope that "Intruder" will be a Peter Gabriel cover, so let's just plunge in and see....

Ha, "Intruder" almost might as well be a Peter Gabriel cover in a way - spooky, scrapey soundscapes. This is maybe where their trustworthy roadhouse rhythm team lets them down a little bit - here you don't need a bedrock to give structure to the guitar theatrics but for the drums to become part of the freaky adventure, adding tension and suspense rather than the certainty of the backbeat. I guess it'd work as a curtain-raiser at a concert, with the laser light and smoke machine going... when will they take the stage??

And here they are! Well, the riff sounds awesome. The vocals though - this is weird. The way they're overdubbing it almost sounds like they're really trying to sound Orbison for the one line "Pretty woman," but it's a funny fit for the rest of their sound and I really prefer it when it's Roth by himself. Decent job on the "mercy" and the "rrrrowr" if not quite as electrifying as the banshee shrieks from the first album. OTOH I think Eddie finds a nice role for himself here, filling all the miscellaneous bits and pieces of space with more activity than you'd expect but not to the point where it's just uncomfortably busy. The little "ah!" thunka-thunka break there was pretty cool.

Second listen through. I dunno, this is pretty punchy radio-rock for its period, but sort of lacking enough specialness to justify the exercise. Feel like an original generic bar-blues number might have done just as well - Roth isn't able to stretch and transform the bare-bones lyrics or lend them a new meaning really. You'd expect him to somehow sex them up, add hints of fire and excess but maybe there's something fundamentally limiting about the song's scenario, which actually is pretty well-tuned to Roy Orbison's persona. I just don't picture DLR going "well, if that's the way it's gonna be, okay." "Okay" is right.

er, "trying to sound LIKE Orbison," excuse me!

Is it not generally understood, by the way, that a lot of DLR's screams were electronically assisted? The a cappella Running With the Devil vocal track shows this pretty clearly. That's a Harmonizer, that is.

The way they're overdubbing it almost sounds like they're really trying to sound Orbison for the one line "Pretty woman," but it's a funny fit for the rest of their sound and I really prefer it when it's Roth by himself.

agreed. and i usually love VH's gang vocals. but i do think the harmonies work really well here on the "pretty woman stop awhile" bridge.

perfectly ok single, never did a whole lot for me, kinda think it might've been better totally camped up as a DLR solo track.

Also, the video makes exactly 0 sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQRDI7mTyw

try to imagine axl rose singing this one.

SONG #46: AC/DC "SHOOT TO THRILL"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gDch1p4c_M

Wowwwwwwww at that Pretty Woman video. Oscillates between offensively awful and more wtf, like how sometimes video-booth karaoke will throw up this random weird B-reel footage from god knows what direct-to-video shoot. What does any of that have to do with anything? So strange.

(AC/DC response to come tomorrow!)

That's sure some 1981 thinking of "Sure seems a bit rapey... I know! Let's make her a guy in drag. That'll make it more funny than rapey."

you say 1981 thinking, I say cocaine, let's call the whole thing awful.

I just heard "Shoot to Thrill" on the car radio and made the connection. Shit.

Well, so, "Shoot to Thrill," ladies and gentlemen... it's an AC/DC song. During the intro - not the opening growls of guitar but once the groove gets going - I almost thought it was "It's A Long Way To The Top," but this song is less interesting and reminds me of why I don't like a lot of their most-played songs: just a lot of repeating the big slogan-like chorus that basically just declares that the lead singer guy (either one) is a really wild dangerous tough guy or whatever. He shoots to thrill, he's got big balls, he's TNT, he's back in black, he's on the highway to hell... like ugggggggh sing about something else for fuck's sake! I'm over it.

Nonetheless the band still rocks really great - very punchy production without losing a sense of grit and oomph, or sucking the life out of that rhythm section; again the drummer is essential here, with like the little swing thrown into the "gonna take you down" part. I also like the sorta spacier breakdown, which anticipates "For Those About To Rock" (which I've always liked, partly for not sounding so much like their usual fare) while getting quickly back to the driving beat. The "shoot yeah! shoot yeah! Aaa! Aaa!" part is reasonably cool and I like what the lead guitar is doing after that - this is a hot, live band, and if you go see them you'll get rocked. Would make a very good opening track for the set, but boy would it be a better song without that boring chorus.

In the end, thumbs up I guess, it does rock and sounded good in the car (better than it does in my hotel room tbqh), but I wonder, if they hadn't released it, would anyone notice? Or if they released it instead of one of those other big ones, would it be accepted as a stone-cold classic in its place? If they'd been a one-hit wonder with, say, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," (my favorite of theirs) would that have basically been all the world needs of AC/DC?

But then we wouldn't have "Jailbreak".

Boring chorus??

BORING

CHORUS

Doc

buddy

we need to talk

sure, the great wall of china would have been fine at a few feet long, people would have got the general idea. it's a wall, call it a day. but what makes it GREAT is that it kept fucking GOING

right but for your average invader, one perpendicular encounter with a small slice of wall tells you all you need to know. anyone really want to walk the length of the thing?

it's also like, y'know, you can be a sexy confident awesome rock star frontman and not have to just sing about that all the time. mick jagger sang about all kinds of shit! i don't think the stones would be more great-wall-like if "satisfaction" had been him shrieking "I'M SO SATISFYIN', THERE'S NO DENYIN', I GET SATISFIED, IT AIN'T NO LIE!" for five minutes. or like, "I'M A STREET FIGHTIN' MAN! YOU UNDERSTAND! SING FOR A ROCK AND ROLL BAND! GOT AN ACE IN MY HAND!" or whatever.

ac/dc - who at times do bring more rockin' thunder to the table than the stones ever muster - at other times just feel so redudnant. even their name is sort of repetitious. probably if they'd only put out a couple albums and it was clearer to me, hey, there are these two perfect slabs of this one sound and this one type of song, they're wall to wall classics, go buy them, but somehow their catalog seems to drown out what's good about them through sheer quantity of it.

I think Bon Scott's lyrics had more variety to them: busting out of jail, being a hitman for hire, loving an overweight woman, ...

... having big balls

Yeah, the lyrics definitely went downhill after Scott died, and that's mostly due to the Young brothers taking over a lot of the writing - Brian Johnson was literally just the voice for decades, hardly contributing anything. I also blame Mutt Lange for the change in the band; starting on Highway to Hell, their songs got a lot slower: less boogie, more stomp.

exactly how i pictured dr. c throughout this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGTaA6d3BXQ

I can't even begin watching that video because

Who the hell wears a Braves hat with a Yankees poster on the wall?

he's just a classic Yankees-Braves-Steelers-Tar Heels fan

No way a Braves/Tar Heels fan is hearing Skynyrd for the first time.

I ff'd to 7:52 where it kicks into gear and wasn't disappointed.

Though I never thought I'd hear the words "N_____! Skynyrd!" until now.

Ok that vid is p lolz

“this a casual break up right here”

lol

'reacts' videos are very charming and fun, got a major soft spot for those

Yeah, I like watching dudes listen to Rush for the first time in particular.

i cherish this thread btw

'reacts' videos are very charming and fun, got a major soft spot for those

this was a "reacts" thread! not having dr. c do all his posts via video was possibly a mistake.

I love react videos because I wish I could be that enthusiastic about anything. Man, the part where the guitarists start soloing (or overdubbing, I have no idea) in unison ...

aw. miss this thread.

Xp to josh, it’s def overdubs, Allen Collins plays all the guitars during the solo

heck of a solo

this is a much shorter thread than In Which Doctor Casino Sees Old Hollywood Classics that Fall Short of 21st Century Political Acceptability for the First Time would be.