Welcome! Log In Create A New Profile

Advanced

Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up

Message List New Topic Print View
MrFab
In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 16, 2021 08:40PM
-Why did the Vietnam vet cross the road?
-I don’t know, why?
-You don’t know, because you weren’t there, man!

That’s OK, we have a number of rock ‘n’ roll historians here to fill you in on the days of past scene glory, in case you weren’t there:

- Tom Tom Club “Downtown Rockers”
-Wayne County “Max’s Kansas City”
-Stan Ridgeway “Talkin’ Wall of Voodoo Blues”
-Mojo Nixon “Positively Bodie’s Parking Lot”
-Neil Young “Buffalo Springfield Again”
-Jonathan Richman “Velvet Underground” (not his band, but he was definitely there)
-George Harrison “When We Was Fab”

And the best of the bunch:

-The Minutemen “History Lesson pt.2”
Reply Quote
Bip
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 12:48AM
Hey… nice idea!

Only thing I can quickly come up with to add to your list: Just-Ice and
KRS-1’s “Going way back”.
Reply Quote
breno
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 12:55AM
Alejandro Escovedo - "Chip & Tony"
Every third song Ian Hunter ever wrote
Wilco - "Heavy Metal Drummer" (eh, maybe not - I just revisited the lyrics and it's more about Tweedy hanging out around the St. Louis music scene as a kid, nothing much about being a part of it)
Jonathan Richman - "Monologue About Bermuda"



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2021 01:04AM by breno.
Reply Quote
MrFab
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 07:26AM
There's another song on that Alejandro Escovedo album called "Chelsea Hotel '79" about hangin with Sid n Nancy at the namesake hotel, but don't know if it's from Escovedo's personal experience or not.

Hmm, someone on the (ever-reliable!) Youtube claims that "It's actually a true story... He used to be a studio musician and hung with a lot of the early NY punks...including Sid Vicious." Maybe...
Reply Quote
Michael Toland
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 07:33AM
That whole album (Real Animal) is autobiographical, recounting his pursuit of his rock & roll dreams in the late 70s and 80s. There's also "Nuns Song," about his time in the Nuns, and "Sensitive Boys," which is about the True Believers.

He wasn't a studio musician, per se. But he did join Judy Nylon's band when he got to NYC. He told the story of his first gig with her at his ACL Hall of Fame induction - they played Max's Kansas City, and John Cale, Brian Eno and Chris Spedding were sitting at the front table. That's not intimidating at all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2021 07:37AM by Michael Toland.
Reply Quote
Philippe
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 04:15AM
The Fleshtones: "Remember the Ramones"
Reply Quote
Delvin
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 09:38AM
"Spirit of '76" – The Alarm
"Monterey" – Eric Burdon & the Animals
Reply Quote
MrFab
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 17, 2021 12:16PM
Delvin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Monterey" – Eric Burdon & the Animals

Which reminds me of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock." Research reveals that she did not attend it, but it became the anthem anyhow. (Did any actual attendees write a song about it?)

The quite factually accurate "Walk on the Wild Side" might fit in here, too. Not about a music scene per se, but certainly music-adjacent.
Reply Quote
Delvin
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 18, 2021 07:16AM
"Against the '70s" – Mike Watt
Reply Quote
Bip
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 18, 2021 10:07AM
the elephant in the room:

“We didn’t start the fire”
Reply Quote
breno
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 18, 2021 11:58AM
The Clash were never part of the UK indie music scene, but "Hitsville UK" is a swell little chronicle of it.
Reply Quote
Delvin
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 18, 2021 12:00PM
These other songs talk about more specific scenes that the singer witnessed or participated in, first hand. "We Didn't Start the Fire" rattles off a list of historic events and history-making persons from around the world that anyone Billy Joel's age (or older) probably remembers, or at least recognizes.

Of course, any song that sucks as badly as that one probably is an elephant in the room.
Reply Quote
Bip
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 18, 2021 01:05PM
Ah HA!! The mere mention of that song actually does start fires!
Reply Quote
Aitch
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 19, 2021 11:18AM
Um, White Riot?
Also, Alejandro Escovedo introduced Chelsea Hotel '79 when I saw him and it's very much first hand.
Also also, apparently Billy Joel wrote WDSAF after a conversation with Sean Lennon and his unnamed friend who said to BJ "You were a kid in the '50s, and everybody knows that nothing happened in the '50s" As he started naming people and events, he realised he had a (very bad) song on his hands, a song the guy himself has referred to as "a dentist's drill".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2021 11:19AM by Aitch.
Reply Quote
Delvin
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 19, 2021 02:17PM
Dude likens his own song to a dentist's drill, and yet he records it? I'm thinking he reacted to those five words that every mainstream pop star dreads hearing from a record company executive: "I don't hear a single."
Reply Quote
dkhazzam
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 21, 2021 09:05PM
Delvin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dude likens his own song to a dentist's drill, and yet he records it? I'm thinking he reacted to those five words that every mainstream pop star dreads hearing from a record company executive: "I don't hear a single."

and speaking of "I Don't Hear a Single" has anyone (except for about five people somewhere on this forum) heard The Major Labels song with that exact name?

[buddylove.us]
Reply Quote
Bip
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 20, 2021 03:40PM
… then maybe we could add “we built this city” to the canon?

We weren’t there to see how they built the city, and they explain the process.

folks, I’m sorry. I have a really cornball, lowbrow sense of humor. Sometimes I just CAN’T help it.
Reply Quote
MrFab
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 21, 2021 07:01AM
Hey, I chuckled!
Reply Quote
Five*Words
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
December 20, 2021 04:19PM
“….days of past scene glory…”
Phil Lynott - “Talk In ‘79”

[Um…can we forget about Billy Joel again now?]
Reply Quote
MrFab
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
February 19, 2022 10:46PM
Then there’s the style-damaged Rob Tyner of the MC5 playing an, er, autoharp..? Singing about the Grande Ballroom and the Detroit scene:
[m.youtube.com]
You’ve been warned…

Speaking of Detroit, how factual/autobiographical is “Dum Dum Boys”?
Reply Quote
BCE
Re: In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
February 21, 2022 01:48AM
Venus & The Razorblades - "Punk o Rama"
Reply Quote
Newer Topic Older Topic
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login