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

oh. yeah. no one listens to Muse here...

where do you live now?

I'm back in Pittsburgh, I came back two years ago after living in Seattle for 14 years. You?

grew up in cheswick/springdale up the allegheny, moved around a bit, now in brooklyn

i was not expecting to hear the phrase 'DiCesare/Engler' again in my lifetime tbh

Yes! I saw your shout-out to Michele Michaels and Herschel and the Electric Lunch on DVE in the Classic Rock poll thread!
DVE was the classic-rockiest station of all CR stations.
I'm from the South Hills.

it got real yinzery in here all of a sudden

Y'all going to start talking about gum bands in a minute.

Sandy, I love that your story happens in Richfield Coliseum, which was where I saw all my formative concerts in the 80s. A short list: Prince, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, Genesis, Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Eddie Money, Journey, Billy Joel . . . so many others I can't even remember any more.

Just ftr, i have not forgotten this thread! We had a little grillin' party yesterday kept me busy, and rockin' to all the hits. Works out anyway, as I'd rather Sandy's awesome stories have the spotlight for a bit! Will return shortly.

all good. hopefully there were no spoilers at your grillin' party!

The playlist was all mine B-)

Most fun was seeing how the classic rock classics synched up with the movies we had running projected in the background - Big Trouble in Little China, Living Daylights, Battleship Potemkin. The last was unfortunately cut off by the start of karaoke.

I think Skynyrd is mostly about "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" up here? I remember hearing others like "Give Me Back My Bullets", "Simple Man", and "That Smell"; not sure if it was when in the States that I heard those. I don't know this one, though. This is a radio staple in the South? It doesn't sound like a very interesting tune but there is some hot playing on it. The keyboard/horns break is my favourite part.

Skynyrd is pretty big on CR radio (I live in the South tho). "What's Your Name?", "You Got That Right", "Saturday Night Special" are other big ones.

"...when I was in the States..." Only the big two come up on Q107's 'top 500 of all time' list.

Gimme Three Steps

I've heard "Call Me The Breeze" much more than "Simple Man" on classic rock radio (in Atlanta)

And "Tuesday's Gone," in Cleveland.

I do remember a good old boy playing "Simple Man" at school on "play a song that describes you" day

Tbh, I might just know that one because someone wrote a paper on it when I was TAing in Buffalo?

Oh, Edmonton's station played "Simple Man" this morning.

And "Tuesday's Gone," in Cleveland.

and on "dazed and confused" sdtk.

Heard a ton of Skynyrd on my local station growing up. Never Simple Man, for some reason, but every other song mentioned in the last handful of posts were in heavy rotation. I grew up in a more rural area, which maybe leads to more Skynyrd airplay.

A-ha, Buffalo's station lists six (!) Skynyrd songs on their all-time '500 greatest' list, three in the top 20 : http://pro.wgrf-fm.tritonflex.com/common/page.php?pt=Final+Countdown+List&id=19184&is_corp=0

Since we're still talking about Skynyrd and Doctor Casino's taking a little break, I thought I'd share another picture if you don't mind.
Same night, my friends and I with Gary Rossington. There were seriously about 40 of us crammed into one hotel room drinkin' and hollerin'.
I was decidedly not a Skynyrd fan at that time... this was 1976, remember, and I was all about glammy English bands. A couple of my friends knew them, though, and were able to get a bunch of us on the guest list, and I went along just for the hoot of it. And they were such nice people and "Gimme Three Steps" kicks ass and so yeah, Skynyrd.

http://i58.tinypic.com/33lfl09.jpg

Oh hell yeah.

That is totally amazing.

YES

fantastic

<3

I still say you rule, Sandy.

Call me the Breeze: I'm now paranoid about already knowing some of these songs, so the intros are always fraught with a certain tension: is this something I know? Or am I just thinking of something that sounds like it? Then as the verses kick in, it's either a done deal or clear sailing. So my first to-do item here is to go back and listen to the intro again, because I was feeling the interplay of the guitars and horns sliding around but it was backed up by this personal stress.

So yeah, this song. Loping along decently. I wish Skynyrd's bigger hits were like this, just kinda effective filler rock songs, unmistakably "southern" but also pretty studio-slick - those multitracked handclaps around the two minute mark didn't fall off the back of a peach truck, ditto the squonking but pristine licks that pepper the second verse (although a couple kinda sounded like mistakes). I like how the fairly rote piano line is just kinda wandering in and taking up space, feels very much like a demo for a part where they were later going to dub in a solo or another verse. This is maybe the first song we've done where I really do think it'd sound meaningfully different (rather than just better) if played loud, filling up a whole van or party. What was I saying? Oh yeah, so I feel like some of their songs are just too insistent on their big title hook, kinda in your face with SWEEET HAUUM AL-A-BAMuh or SIMPUUUUUUUUUL KIND UH MANNN. This is more laid back, which fits the idea of people calling this guy "The Breeze" (first name, presumably: "One Oh Three Five:"). Here's a band. They play your bar, you can boogie to it. They'll collect their pay at the end and head on down the road. Put them on your jukebox.

Second listen: Opening definitely more fun. I like how the guitar that comes in at 1:20 or so is kinda fuzzed over itself, just sounds like one continuous loop of white noise with only a vaguely discernible doodley-doodley-dee kinda playing. When he gets around to your more basic solo stuff it's just fine, and doesn't wear out its welcome despite being pretty long. Nice trick having the percussion kick in a little more after that. I guess the guy is the breeze cause he travels all over the place, huh? Like the Wanderer...I'm gonna choose to hear it more like, they call him The Dude, or Speedo, or Daddy-O or something. Breezy like Sunday morning. As it is, unless he really loves bopping along to this band, cruising down the highway hanging his head out the window and singing along to their Southern-fried chops, being the breeze doesn't actually sound very breezey: he has to keep running, I guess from women, to the point where he actually can't enjoy his stay in Georgia. "They Call Me The Fugitive," more like.

Overall, kinda dumb basically but thumbs up, I would endorse any CR station adding this to the playlist for texture.

loving all of Sandy's posts btw, feel touched that this thread has prompted 'em!

I only just now stumbled into this thread and am wondering what the hell my problem was.

Sandy's posts = A+

the first reported side effects from this experiment! fear of recognition, and stress-related inability to pay attention to intros. interesting! will have to report this to the journals.

I feel like some of their songs are just too insistent on their big title hook, kinda in your face with SWEEET HAUUM AL-A-BAMuh or SIMPUUUUUUUUUL KIND UH MANNN. This is more laid back, which fits the idea of people calling this guy "The Breeze"

yes! this song -- which i didn't know at all when i was growing up and first being exposed to the rock canon -- sounds nothing at all like the skynyrd radio songs that i did know, with their gigantic pop hooks. this one's a straight-up blues jam. i would have hated it. i was all AM pop-rock, and i could not get with the blues at all. i did know the other two j.j. cale monster rock standards ("after midnight" and "cocaine") and didn't much like them, if memory serves. nowadays, "call me the breeze" is by far my favorite of the three. it's a freedom song, and the playing echoes that feeling. while i think there's a dark underbelly to pretty much any road song -- that's kind of the implicit idea of the genre, isn't it, that i'm rolling now but there's probably going to be a price to pay one day? -- i don't hear "call me the breeze" quite as darkly as doctor casino does. i think right now he quite likes being the breeze and will enjoy wherever he's running or staying or hiding or heading for. he's free as a bird now.

see also: bob dylan/johnny cash "wanted man." grateful dead "friend of the devil." both darker than "call me the breeze," imo.

everybody otm about sandy's posts.

skynyrd are so much more than their radio hits. i wanna drive around in a van with a loudspeaker testifying on this very matter

oh jesus christ good god yes. grownup me is happy to have learned this.

srsly anyone following this thread who hasn't dug into the skynyrd catalog

GO

NOW

DO IT

Well,then, since we're still on Skynyrd, and everybody seems to enjoy the pictures, I have two more. I'm kind of sad that I don't have any good stories about them... I only met them this one time. They were really nice guys. None of them smelled like garlic.
Here's one of us with the late Billy Powell. Notice that Leon's hat has moved to my friend's head.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2hmogua.jpg

but where's your hat? did leon run off with it?

and here's my friend Jennifer with Allen Collins and Leon.

http://i61.tinypic.com/11liyo2.jpg

Loool, Leon's wife was wearing my hat by that point. She was a hoot.

Billy!!!!!

Gorgeous piano player if ever there was one. RIP

Oh man, the Skynyrd guys almost look like kids in those pictures! Thanks Sandy.

Wonderful pictures, Sandy!

And Leon was hella underrated as a bassist.

how's life, was gonna say the exact same thing!

while we're on the subject of road songs ... america's birthday is nigh, and you can't get much more american than this one. a favorite of bruce springsteen circa 1984 (he covered it live frequently) and a favorite of senator rand paul in 2014 (if you can believe his tweets):

SONG #9: ZZ TOP "I'M BAD, I'M NATIONWIDE"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNDZ9Ve6n5U

as for The Breeze, it's not so much a dark undercurrent, just that the lyric doesn't quite come together as one convincing picture. Surely the Breeze could arrange to lengthen his Georgia weekend just a little, once he finds out how good the peaches are?

the breeze has a rather large fear of commitment. the better the peaches are, the faster he's gotta run. he knows this about himself, and he's ok with this. for now.