meters: C/D

------

From the "Bands that EVERYONE Loves" thread:

I could totally live without the Meters (and I like lots of New Orleans r&b! They always seemed like funk for jam band fans to me.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...), March 15th, 2006.

Weird. I find the Meters to be one of the least jammy funk bands -- especially since all their songs were so short.
-- Abbadavid Berman (Hurtingchie...), March 16th, 2006.

Well, their songs usually just never seemed to me to have SONGS attached, which was the problem, I guess. They always just seemed like clinicians to me, laying down Funky Grooves in a workmanlike fashion I couldn't imagine why anybody particularly cared about (better for sampling, I guess, than for actually listening to.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...), March 16th, 2006.

(then again, admittely, it's been a while since i tried listening to them. maybe i'd think differently if i listened to them today. but when i've tried before, they seemed way less fun than people said.)
-- xhuxk (xedd...), March 16th, 2006.

i was playing a meters tape in my car once and a friend asked "is this the grateful dead?"
-- o -- (...), March 16th, 2006.

"better for sampling, I guess, than for actually listening to"
this has occurred to me, too. so good for sampling that it's probably true even if you like them.
-- Lee F# (fsharpashar...), March 16th, 2006.

Apart, from a few notable exceptions, I don't like their songs (i.e. those with vocals) all that much. First album is my favourite, I think it's a total classic. Never really been all that bothered about their 70s stuff.

I guess I like workmanlike funky grooves.

In 1979, "Sophisticated Sissy" went top 40 for one week, peaking at #34, then "Cissy Strut" went top 40 for three weeks, peaking at #23. And that's it, top-40-wise. Were they much bigger on the r&b chart? Given those songs short staying power, I'm wondering if even those two were mainly regional.

http://www.realgonemusic.com/news/2016/7/16/the-meters-a-message-from-the-complete-josie-reprise-warner.html

Inspired by this revived thread, I looked up some Meters discography. Counted 16 versions of The Meters out there, including Josie LPs and various reissues. I remember a good collection of the Josie singles that was around in the late '80s, when a lot of people were rediscovering their early stuff. It was probably taken from vinyl sources. The late-'90s Sundazed reissues are the ones I've got, and honestly, as much as I love the Josie instrumentals--in particular, "Dry Spell" and "Pungee" and a few of the tracks where Modeliste really gets abstract and the band creates an amazingly spacious anti-groove--I think a reasonable person could get by with The Meters and esp. Look-ka Py Py, which I think's their best album. You could probably get both of them for under 20 bucks somewhere. The Real Gone set does look great, remasters and all, but I'd go with the original configurations and pick up Rejuvenation, the only other Meters record I like. Their vocal shit is not good and they lost something when they became a regular group as opposed to an instrumental band kicking around some ideas with Modeliste doing his thing. I love their work on Lee Dorsey records, too, and now I've gotta check if Yes We Can on Polydor is still in print.

Three versions of Dorsey's Yes We Can--Polygram, Raven (with Night People, and 2015, on Fever Dream.

I talked to George Porter Jr. about the different versions of the Meters a couple of years ago.

The god Art Neville has left us.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_4059d432-ac9f-11e9-9615-9f5f01d9ebd6.html

RIP. Figured this was coming sooner rather than later, but still, losing him and Dr. John in the space of a few weeks really feels like the end of the great New Orleans R&B era. Hang in there, Irma...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jr03casHKM

Yeah and Dave Bartholomew in between. What a sad time.

Yeah, Dave was 100 though, so that came as no surprise. So happy I saw all of them in New Orleans while I could.

RIP Art

I've never heard Trick Bag before and I wish I hadn't. It's truly awful, irredeemable shite.

The previous 6 go from good to great, so how did they end up making this?

Luckily the last album New Directions is much better.

Is it? I don't think I've ever heard it. Lack of significant commercial success led them to grasp at straws by that point, imo. "Disco is the Thing Today" indeed. I love Allen Toussaint, but he was certainly not immune to over-arranging and schmaltz.

Compared to Trick Bag it is!

https://www.offbeat.com/news/recently-unearthed-album-by-leo-nocentelli-from-early-70s-released-by-light-in-the-attic-label-2/

Cool!

was just reading an article about "walk this way" and apparently joe perry was listening to the meters a lot at that time and it was inspired by them

https://www.offbeat.com/news/recently-unearthed-album-by-leo-nocentelli-from-early-70s-released-by-light-in-the-attic-label-2/

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 21 October 2021 19:23 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wait whaaaaaaat

Cabbage Alleytook Ziggy Modeliste's very own rehearing of strict LA tempo, through bursts and tight corners and flexible reflections through originals like "Fade Away" (which kept bouncing back) mellow reverb harmonies of Neil Young's "Bird," lots more--think it might have been the first album where they sang, and worked for me and my friends, for quiet listening and at parties, though not for everybody (like xgau). Don't know if or how it is on CD, but got a clean vinyl copy many years later, and it still sounded right, not dated atall.
I've heard others from that era in passing (mostly at loud parties), and they seemed good. Bummed that Ziggy wasn't with the others backing LaBelle's Nightbirds, but what the hell it's another distinctive, creative, arty, fun album of the 70s, sort of glam funk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightbirds Bowie prob liked it.
They, incl. Modeliste, also worked w other Toussaint clients, like omg Lee Dorsey, as noted here:
https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Lee+Dorsey
Cissy Strut collected a lot of their early prime instrumentals, and of course, Funkify Your Life, which has its own poll thread, is a good career overview.

Shit! strict NOLA tempo I meant; El Lay should be so lucky!

Neil Young's *"Birds"* of course on my god

There was a CD collection of pretty much everything called "Getting Funkier All the Time" which has the 8 albums and singles etc. that came out a couple years ago. It's all pretty ace to me.