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

Roundabout: Woah. Not what I was expecting so far, from the awesome stoner space painting of the Youtube thumb. Like the long slow build and... woah! Get funky!

So uh yeah. Digging it. This is busy as all hell, stuff going every which way, almost to the point of feeling sloppy despite the very precise production. And shit...now it's another part. In and around a lake, mama's come out of the sky and you stand there, doodley doodley doodley... okay. ...actually I think this song kinda breaks the 'liveblog' approach - there is just way too much going on and too many parts happening to respond to them as they come (also I'm a little drunk), not in a bad way actually and OMG the squiggles at 2:25! This is great!

hahaha the total sonic barrage in the 3:20 range - oh and now these chanting people at 3:45, and just how many percussionists are getting paid for this? I like how kinda random and unrehearsed a lot of this feels, it's a trippy journey into the land of gnomes from outer space but I could believe that a lot of this was done on the first-take, it doesn't feel like every single note has been carefully placed there in a MIDI editor, yknow?

And yet for however motley and wonky the composition is, there's - - - oooh, rockin time again !!! (6:00), someone needs to tranquilize the organist in my right ear though.... just... y'know, simmer down a little. This totally OTT busy guitar part rules and ohhh shit, now everybody's starting to lock in together (6:30), keep on rockin', guys! And keep beating the organ guy out of the picture.

But yeah like I was saying, for however motley it is, this assemblage of things, there's definitely stuff that comes back, the "in and around the lake" segment and other stuff - - acting as anchors - - - "hooks," they could be called, but don't tell Rush about them. Daah da da da.... And it's over!

Well. That was a blast. I really gotta hit the sack otherwise I would totally be dedicating the next eight minutes of my life to listening to that again. Is this what prog rock was in 1971? So much less arch and arty than what I associate with the genre - much more just like drunk stoned rock goofery given even more room to spread out. But so bright and lively too, like we've shaken off the really sweaty, cloudy drag side of psychedelia and people are actually just really happy to make this kind of weird-ass music. Starts to pull together the turn of the 70s musical map a little more for me. Is it weird that it mainly makes me want to go listen to the Attila album again? Maybe it's just the organ.

Chronology is way off but I kinda want to compare it to Elfquest, not just because of the "burgeoning science fiction/fantasy bookstore scene" visuals but really more for the sensibility. Feels like they're really painting this little music world in miniature with teeny little brushes, but with open, serene smiles. So amazing that "Owner of the Lonely Heart" is where this journey leads - I do hear it in the abrupt changes, at least.

Thumbs up!

Yes to Yes, no to Rush

;_;

Yes were absolutely a rock band - if you ever feel the need to dive deep, check out their live album, Yessongs. They crank it up.

I'm gratified by this turn of events.

The live version of Roundabout rips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZoQFYYx8U

1. I love that song so much.
2. CAPES
3. Jon Anderson is half elf.

Awesome review!

I like how kinda random and unrehearsed a lot of this feels, it's a trippy journey into the land of gnomes from outer space but I could believe that a lot of this was done on the first-take, it doesn't feel like every single note has been carefully placed there in a MIDI editor, yknow?

Yeah, in a way, I feel like this quality actually shows what good musicians they were. They could pull off really these busy and complex things live, with a loose sense of groove.

gnomes from outer space

Actually, that's Jon Anderson.

I know so little about prog. Had always thought it kinda came later in the decade and was more "technical" or musician-ly, people fretting about time signatures and Concepts, but yeah, this is recognizably a rock band, just one with a rubber-band approach to composition and a willingness to toss in a lot of little flourishy breaks. Certain segments of this could easily be tied back down as - or have grown out of - a very conventional three-minute rock song with verses, a refrain, and two 'weird' parts showing up as the mood-setting intro and the going-zany part of the solo.

That is - I mean tons of very straightforward rock-type songs in this era have some rhythmic oddity thrown in at a kinda unexpected moment, even like, I dunno, the topsy-turvy horn break in "Spinning Wheel," or the way "Sky Pilot" or "Magic Carpet Ride" get kinda completely taken over by long stretches of groaning guitar noises and someone frenetically attacking a Hammond organ and then abruptly get back to the song just in time to fade out. Further into west coast freak-out territory, with more jazz, lies Zappa; this isn't hairy in the same way but it seems very natural as a direction rock might go, particularly after psychedelia. And hell, who didn't want to do a 'medley' or an ambitious 'suite' or two? I can just imagine "Roundabout" reorganizing itself like a Transformer and coming out as this relatively taut kinda song.

And - oops! Wiki says the single edit got to number thirteen!? This I gotta hear.

Well, that was also pretty good! I'm sure to a die-hard fan the seams are painfully obvious and it's obviously missing the kitchen-sink silliness I loved about the long one last night, but I do think it substantiates the "rock band" reading.

"roundabout" was one of the songs on your list that i was most surprised you had never heard. it was such a staple of the rock radio i grew up with, and that mood-setting intro is burned into my rock dna every bit as much as the intro to "stairway to heaven." plus, yeah, it's a really good pop song.

another yes song kinda sorta in the same vein but that didn't get as much play is "long distance runaround," which is very much worth checking out if you don't know it. (it's on the official classic rock poll ballot, but it wasn't on some dude's initial list.)

Oh man, I didn't even think about updating this thread based on the full list, that's probably sensible, though it will prolong the experiment!

"Roundabout" feels way too weird for the classic rock radio I grew up with. The same types who would deride it as music you can't have sex to would probably also call in outraged to find it taking up airspace.

Oh man, I didn't even think about updating this thread based on the full list, that's probably sensible, though it will prolong the experiment!

ha, i wasn't thinking about that at all! but if you want to...

Might be dicey I guess - some dude was a good editor but I do think some stuff slipped in that isn't really considered canonical CR and thus might kinda throw off the premise here. Maybe for the deluxe anniversary re-issue of this thread.

The same types who would deride it as music you can't have sex to would probably also call in outraged to find it taking up airspace.

ideally, though, there should be enough pot smokers calling in and requesting it to offset the outraged sex people.

some dude was a good editor but I do think some stuff slipped in that isn't really considered canonical CR and thus might kinda throw off the premise here. Maybe for the deluxe anniversary re-issue of this thread.

fair enough.

(and i wasn't trying to sneak "long distance runaround" in as an addition to this thread. just thought you might want to check it out on your own time!)

meanwhile, how about foreigner featuring thomas dolby and junior walker?

SONG #17: FOREIGNER "URGENT"

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

^ key

I feel like "Roundabout" was more of a staple when I was growing up. I don't hear it so much these days.

There's no Foreigner on my ballot atm. I should probably do something about that.

btw, big thanks, FCC - this is a super fun project and I'm totally stoked to expand my mental library of this stuff, get some new favorites, etc.

I just listened to "Long Distance Runaround" and it was cool! Unfortunately, I opened it up in Spotify search results (which automatically keeps playing other search results after the current song finishes), and wasn't paying close attention; in fact it played three different remasters of the same song without me noticing. So I was like, man, this is good, but getting kind repetitive, does it really need to be eight minutes long?

xposts oh no! Urgent I actually walked back during the tailgate thread, along with "Wonderful Tonight" - I know, and dislike, both. My comments, for posterity:

hahah i am down for this experiment but you may be right about at least some of them. I checked "Wonderful Tonight" at least - I totally know that (boring) song. "Urgent" - I got up to the chorus going "yeah, don't know this, but it's pretty cool at least until dude starts singing, I like the spacy creepy sound, sorta Sunglasses At Night, would be a good dystopian sci-fi soundtrack song" - and then he starts going URRG ENT URRG ENT and I realized I heard this on an XM station a few months ago or something. Definitely did not hear it growing up though.

Of the Foreigner songs I know, the only one I actively like is "I Want To Know What Love Is," which I just don't see as CR in any meaningful way. Would have thrown "Feels Like The First Time" a point somewhere down in the 230s of a 250-vote ballot though, that fits well in a playlist and the spirit seems right.

Listening to "Urgent" again, the menacing keyboard-and-slap-bass quality of the verse is still pretty compelling. The chorus just seems so blah. It's Urgent! ......... Urgent! ..... Wait, what were you saying, sorry, I dozed off there... Doesn't really sell me on the urgency. Maybe the band should drop out more to change up the texture, give us the sense of this voice just hanging on the line declaring that something is urgent - or some new element should come in, maybe that sax that waits until later to do anything, have a little riff that comes in there. You can see Gramm trying to fill the space later on with "Urgent, emergency!" and he's on the right track, IMO.

big thanks, FCC - this is a super fun project and I'm totally stoked to expand my mental library of this stuff, get some new favorites, etc.

thank YOU!!! your reviews are so well-written, insightful and hilarious. and they're completely spot-on even when i disagree with them! i'm kinda shocked at how much you seem to be absorbing in on just one or two listens. it's taken me years, literally, to puzzle out some of these songs. (but then again, i have the attention span of a tiny insect.)

You can see Gramm trying to fill the space later on with "Urgent, emergency!" and he's on the right track, IMO.

otm.

i had marked down "wonderful tonight" as a previously-known-to-you song but somehow missed your pre-knowledge of "urgent." as a replacement, here's a whole 'nother kind of urgency.

SONG #17B: THE PRETENDERS "MIDDLE OF THE ROAD"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDeHAM93fuc

i meant to add that the pretenders, like foreigner, had roots in both the u.s. and england.

"Urgent" is the ur-AOR-dabble-in-New-Wave, isn't it? The hysterical emoting over the robotic rhythm is hysterical (in the other sense of the word)

Awwww shuuuuucks. I'm really just tapping into my basically 14-year-old level of musical sophistication which enables me to make really rash judgements with very limited vocabulary.

Ranking so far, halfway between "most played" and just "most glad I now know" (within categories, best->worst). The top few are really close together.

GREAT

Flirtin' With Disaster
Eminence Front
Roundabout
Rock and Roll Never Forgets
Hocus Pocus
Rosalita

GOOD TO MIDDLING

Renegade
Call Me The Breeze
I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
Jane
The Spirit of the Radio

BAD

Fire Down Below
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Roadhouse Blues

It's been a long time since I listened to Yes. These are the 5 songs from them I have in my ipod and they're awesome:

Sweetness
Survival
Starship Trooper
Roundabout
Long Distance Runaround

i would have thought "fire down below" had earned at least a "middling" based on your review, no?

(xp)

Urgent is the #1 track on my ballot, and one of a small number of pop/rock songs I view as compositionally perfect—I wouldn't change one note or cue, the production style, anything.

Dear Dr C: something awesome happens right before the harmonica solo on this song

(Re pretenders)

oh no doubt

Hmmm....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxhivy_qOFQ#t=48

"Fire Down Below" might be suffering by comparison with the other boogie songs, I can get that kinda thing without the bad taste in my mouth from the narrative. If I did this like a video game review and broke out 0-10 scores for graphics, sound and gameplay it'd probably do much better than several of the 'middling' cuts.

Will return for the Pretenders in a minute, am rocking Don't Look Back straight through at the moment (cracked it open at some point in the noms thread but don't think I got all the way through it). Yes I'm gettin' ready to cruise, and if you got something for me, I got something for you! I'm sad to say that this nixes "Feelin' Satisfied" for our experiment - blew right by me without me taking notice of it as a specific song versus another slab of shiny sweet Boston-ness. If there was any Third Stage in some dude's list, that'd surely be a safe replacement here.

That is - I mean tons of very straightforward rock-type songs in this era have some rhythmic oddity thrown in at a kinda unexpected moment, even like, I dunno, the topsy-turvy horn break in "Spinning Wheel," or the way "Sky Pilot" or "Magic Carpet Ride" get kinda completely taken over by long stretches of groaning guitar noises and someone frenetically attacking a Hammond organ and then abruptly get back to the song just in time to fade out.

Ha - I was just thinking about these 70's mid-section freak outs listening to "Smokin'" by Boston a few days ago.

I'm sad to say that this nixes "Feelin' Satisfied" for our experiment

noted. though i'm going to have check that one out anyway. not sure i've ever heard it either.

Middle of the Road: Like the drum intro, kinda feels like a demo warmup with nobody there or the start of a Microsoft Songsmith or "shreds" video. Woah, this wooh-ooh-ooh thing - - - was this ripped off by some recent corp-indie band or was it just a quickie cover for a Youtube ad or something? Really familiar in that way. Maybe I'm thinking of the Eagles of Death Metal or something.

Anyway - the verse is cool, kickin' along, that twangy guitar and loud clean snare just keepin' us moving. This is cool - I don't really dislike any Pretenders I've heard, but I know 'em mainly for the slow swagger of Brass in Pocket and the beautiful, wistful ambivalence of Back on the Chain Gang. This is totally convincing, danceable Eighties Rock strongly rooted in New Wave - and man, this long solo, that's fun stuff! The kinda 'a little bit softer, now' segment around 2:30 brings back the kinda aimless feel of the intro, not in a bad way but it does feel like it's waiting to be snipped right out for a shorter edit. I can see why this would get picked up as a classic rock station standby, even though it sounds not the slightest bit like 'classic rock' to my ears. I mean, that drum sound, and the guitar tone of the main riff...

Love Hynde's delivery on this, really whipping the band forward - AHHAHAA, the "Brr-neowww!" bit! Er but yeah, love all those syllables packed in there. Now that's "urgent," Mr. Foreigner.

This is getting a little long for this kind of thing - not sure it needs a harmonica solo, like at all? It's cool only for how it skronks all over the heavier guitar when that comes in. Wonder if Timbuk 3 were listening to this.

Overall, thumbs up - but I could kinda see myself getting worn out by this if I listened to it too many more times. Maybe rides that one riff a little too hard.

awww, i like that harmonica solo. it fits right in with the '80s bar-band (...meets new wave, obviously) vibe of the whole thing. and, conveniently, it comes at the end, giving DJs the option to cut out of it anytime they want. this is a four-minute song that could easily play on the radio as a three-minute song.

this sounds to me like new wave night at the stone pony in asbury park, or whatever the equivalent of that was in ohio, and it's totally fun, but also grown-up and pissed-off and defiant in a way that so much of that stuff was not. the key line is "i got a kid/i'm 33, baby," which i remember coming across as shocking and brave and cool when i first heard it. "33" might as well have been "63." and "got a kid" was not something i was used to pop stars screaming about in 1984.

that "little bit softer now" segment, on the other hand -- that sounded very very 1984.

That line was so unusual for a long time I was positive it said "I've gotta get a .33" as in Chrissy's got a gun.

Oh, wow, I blew right by it thinking she said ''I'm not a kid, I'm 33,'' which is still defiant enough but definitely not as distinctive.

Suppose I should give this one at least one more listen with an ear out for the lyrics...it occurs to me that I didn't really take in the plot at all!

"Standing in the middle of life with my PANTS behind me" is what I heard 30 years ago

^^I still hear that line as 'Pants', tbph.

Me too

Chrissie Hynde's most Elvis Costello-y song, I think. "I can't get from the cab to the curb without some little jerk on my back" could've come right off of Armed Forces.

I used to think that line was about carrying her baby on her back.

The baby on my back
The buh buh buh buh baby on my back back back back