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

"Cattle Call" is cowboy shoegaze.

Maybe not shoegaze but definitely some instant dream transportation going on during the verses and that sick butter-slick lapsteel solo.

"Hocus Pocus" seems a bit like a youtube viral hit, it's all about the unexpected jump cut to someone's really well-done silliness.

OTM, could easily have done a "Harlem Shake" deal with this, maybe cross-wired with Hamster Dance.

Yodeling was invented in Europe, dudes. Bloody Americans.

I was being just a little bit ironical...

And I wasn't actually annoyed. Humour really doesn't travel well on the internet.

A testament to the strength of rockin' yodel instrumentals, to speak without words on both sides of the Atlantic.

^__^

"Hocus Pocus" is amazingly crude for a prog classic.

otm. imo The drumming in the live clip almost had a proto-hardcore feeling to it

something about it feels like it should have run in the credits for a show like Catweazle or something...it's just so strange & awesome

never heard it before, but Hocus Pocus not really changing my mind about majority of this list being garbage. eurololz tho.

"hocus pocus" was one of the least surprising entries, to me, on dc's list. i heard it on occasion growing up without ever knowing what it was or who it was -- it was just that weird instrumental with the yodeling in it -- but i'm pretty sure i hadn't heard it in many years before this thread. otm about its youtube viral potential, though.

also, a shame that krokus never covered it.

correction: i said yesterday that "hocus pocus" was one of three dutch songs on our unheard classic rock playlist. in fact, it's the only one. all of us here at WUCR apologize for the error.

next up, the first of four songs from the great classic rock city of boston, straight outta the berklee school of music.

SONG #5: BILLY SQUIER "EVERYBODY WANTS YOU"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9mQVKsMcLk

Ha, I didn't know Squier went to Berklee. I'm curious how many artists from the big list went to (post-secondary) music school. Styx and Steely Dan are the only ones that come to mind offhand.

"The Stroke" is the high water mark of the Schillinger system iirc

lol

"Everybody Wants You" is sick! Really well mixed too.

I'm glad it's Everybody Wants You & not STROKE STROKE STROKE

Hate this song so much. It was a constant on Chicago radio when it was new, and it only hit #32! It wasn't a big enough hit to warrant the rotation it got!

Ha, I didn't know Squier went to Berklee. I'm curious how many artists from the big list went to (post-secondary) music school. Styx and Steely Dan are the only ones that come to mind offhand.
--EveningStar (Sund4r)

Elliot Easton also a berklee guy

tarfumes u crazy - billy squier circa don't say no and emotions in motion RULES

I don't mind other Squier songs, just this horrible, horrible turd.

I like "Lonely Is The Night" enough as a faux-"Nobody's Fault But Mine," and "Rock Me Tonite" isn't bad. But this is strictly dullsville.

Of his singles The Stroke is the one I can't defend. Agree Zep-lite Squier is the best Squier.

Everybody Wants You is the only A+ in a repertoire full of A's and B's from Squier's first few albums. Dude was a solid artist, but EWY is where everything came together, the clouds broke, and Jesus looked down and played air drums.

Looool this thread is beautiful. I was a teenager in the 70s so I've lived with these songs forever.

This thread is gold.

True story - I have a friend who was Billy Squier's bass player at the height of his career (1982). He was touring with Foreigner and when they did "The Stroke", they'd get some of the guys from Foreigner and crew guys and any friends of the band to come onstage and sing the "stroke me, stroke me" part and do this very exaggerated jerking off hand motion. I got recruited in Pittsburgh, Philly, and Cleveland. They were my shining moments.

awesome!

"Everybody Wants You" is playing right now in the supermarket I'm in.

Ugh.

Everybody Wants Yoohoo

I've never had any use at all for "The Stroke" - god is that grating. "Lonely Is The Night" at least has a kind of atmosphere and space to it, kind of a bite-size "Nobody's Fault But Mine." As for Everybody Wants You: Unfortunately, though I hate to derail a Twofer Tuesday, on reaching the chorus, I can say that I have indeed heard this, though not often. It's only the delivery of the title line that makes it familiar at all - the rest is your basic high-gloss sleaze rock thing.

Never realized how early Squier's hits are; I kinda took them for mid-80s arena rock when they're actually (along with Bon Scott, whose vocals I think Squier's kind of aping here) templates for that stuff. On another tip, I never noticed before but I think Paul McCartney nicked the "you're giving the game away" bit of "The World Tonight" from this. And speaking of the Beatles, Wiki got me excited by proclaiming that Squier has performed this song with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band; unfortunately, this does not mean Ringo genially chuckling out "Everybody wants you," but Squier singing with Ringo on drums. On the plus side, being a dad-rock live-for-DVD type recording, it at least has a more laid-back, less gross sound.

haha just saw tarfumes post about Nobody's Fault But Mine, and lol at Sandy's post.

Still having fun with this thread though - my only worries were that it'd pre-empt some of the discussion on some dude's results thread (though hopefully, "Everybody Wants You" won't place), and that it'd be some self-indulgent wanky thing, but if y'all are into it, I'm having fun and getting a rock education...

this thread is the most fun I've had all day!

I've heard most of this stuff with the exception of the Bad Company tunes. Never got the appeal of those guys or was aware of any hits of theirs beyond All Right Now and their silly self-titled song. They always felt like the epitome of boring jean jacket rock.

Feel Like Makin' Love is all time!

Listening again to parts of "Everybody Wants You," another one: did "Sharp Dressed Man" pick up on the "you see 'em comin' at you ev-er-y night"? Or is "Everybody Wants You" just such a dense sediment of cliches that everything kinda sounds like it?

I can imagine an almost-good version of this song, if it were either done as straight new wave (throwing a little ice water on the grody sex fiend lead) or even a tightened-up unfunky-funk Talking Heads kinda thing, speaking of "Life During Wartime." Hell, closer to Squier's wheelhouse, I bet Robert Palmer (another "rock" type singer who knows his way around new wave stuff, see Clues) coulda oiled this down in the right place and really had something.

I think I just really hate Squier's voice and guitar tone. Not good enough describing things to explain what's wrong with the drum sound, or maybe other (digital?) things that are overlaid on the drums, but that sucks too.

any hits of theirs beyond All Right Now

That was Free, pre-Bad Co. My memory ain't the best either; I thought "Feel Like Makin Love" was on the debut.

I'm a huge fan of "Feel Like Makin' Love's" boneheaded lyrics

"Feel Like Makin' Love" and "Don't Bring Me Down" are I think the only things from some dude's list I've ever tried to cover or even learn to play.

'feel like makin' love' to me is the epitome of "drunk lonely guy dancing in front of the jukebox" songs

;_;

present company excluded, lonely or otherwise :)

its "another think comin"

Frank Black said that the Pixies got their whole quiet-loud-quiet thing from "Feel Like Makin' Love."

(no he didn't, but I wish he had)

Revisiting a lot of classic rock for the poll, I've realized that a lot of the less-beloved bands have far worse rhythm sections in reality than they do in my memories. Bad Company's tracks definitely were more plodding and less punchy than I remember.

Want to emphasize that I'm talking mostly about the bands that aren't as critically canonized--your Bostons and your Bad Companies, not your Zeps and AC/DCs

Shooting Star is still great, i'm not huge into much else of Bad Company though tbh

and re Billy Squier, his riffs are so meaty but the couple of singles that I know are just bleeeehhhhhhh as far as the rest of the song goes

like Stroke, first time you hear it it's like THIS RIFF IS AWESOME YEAH ROCK OUT--wait...stroke...what...ugggh gross no

Revisiting a lot of classic rock for the poll, I've realized that a lot of the less-beloved bands have far worse rhythm sections in reality than they do in my memories. Bad Company's tracks definitely were more plodding and less punchy than I remember.

― intheblanks, Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:03 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally, and it's probably the saddest thing about the genre. Even more glaringly awful viz. what was going on elsewhere in the rock universe in the 70s. Funk probably changed lives for those white bar band drummers who were willing to listen, but by a certain point, That Way Lies Disco, And You Know What That Means.

Veg sums up my Squier perfectly, yeah, at some point, I think for about half of one listen, I thought "The Stroke" was cool. Eminem bringing it back recently only upped the groaning awful gross factor. At least he didn't take a song I like and turn it into straight-ahead jock rock.