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

btw, doubling back a bit, this is great:

billy could easily have written most of the styx lyric (i mean, c'mon, "you've got it all in the palm of your hand/but your hand's wet with sweat," that lyric belongs somewhere on "the nylon curtain"), but he would never have done the "get up" part. that's where the two path from which they came totally diverge. that's where styx let down their hair while billy realizes he will soon be losing most of his.

welcome back!!!

Already a little bored by the piano intro... I guess this would be fine as part of an album but as a radio staple this would be a real "time for a bathroom break" cue to me even though the song's not actually that long.

for me that intro was always an antici...pation thing, made infinitely better by the fact that you knew what was coming.

beavis: "come on, butt-head. this is folk music. change it."
butt-head: "no way. this song gets cool later."

I know this band has a flautist as part of the permanent lineup but it's still surprising and weird for this pippy little fellow to come desperately puffing and hooting into the mix.

this pippy little fellow is the frontman! the mumford to their sons!

i've always liked the guitar sound on this one, and i think the scratchy one in the left channel does a good job of being the song's locomotive engine.

I could see the anticipation thing... just wasn't happening for me on those listens. I'll leave it in my playlist, see if it starts to feel more like a satisfying familiar moment. As for Mr. Jethro Pips, well, yikes. He should split the band and move on. I hear Firefall is holding auditions.

I know what I'm always anticipating in that song hells yeah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPCzIt4eXPk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Aqdjtvp7o

perhaps an "answer song." more my speed really. love the thoroughly uninterested marriott ballroom audience.

that is fantastic!

BTW, another credit to this thread and fcc: grabbed a $3 copy of Fragile a while back and have been totally digging it now that my turntable's back online and I'm finding space again in my lifestyle for not-entirely-instrumental music. Sweet record, across the board it's all the things I liked about "Roundabout." So: thanks! And: assuming I want to get totally yessed out, where should I turn next?

I'm glad you asked.

oh awesome! bookmarked for reading during my next listen. just discovered it came with a pretty sweet booklet so that deserves some attention too, but it's mostly pictures.

that stereogum piece is heroic. well done!

let's make this a twofer -- of songs about trains, with flute solos.

SONG #44: THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND "CAN'T YOU SEE"

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

aw yeah - my #68!

my uncle bob's favorite band

so good

I heard "Heard It In A Love Song" at my dentist's office recently, hadn't thought about that one in ages.

Man, Can't You See is a classic

@BestBergerEver
Just had a fun night out at a Marshall Crenshaw concert.

i try to be careful with biasing the doctor's listens with commentary before the fact but awww yeah

:: suspense ::

Can't You See: So, this is one I've been looking forward to since some dude's poll; in my mind at least, it got some love back then, and I've always been a big stan for "Heard It In A Love Song," which I put at #24 in my ballot. There, for sure, is a song whose flute has a reason to be there, both reinforcing the sense that our protagonist is skipping without regret onto the next town, but yet suggesting some wistfulness, the regret, the knowledge that the jauntiness is forced or comes at a cost. Let's see what we've got here!

Strong opening. Very strong. Well-recorded, too - feels like I'm right up in the guitar strings. Tonally kinda close to "Midnight Rider" actually but maybe a bit more interesting. Flute's working. Vocals are working too. Nice setup - the train stuff is stock, but the idea that he'll jump off a mountain and nobody will know is unexpected and already sets up a more interesting story.

Boy, there's a lot in this mix actually if you pay attention. Piano, organ... I'm waiting for a harmonica to join in. But it's all enriching it for me, I love the rhythmic variations that start showing up around 1:50 with the saloon piano. The solo is good too - as in "HIIALS" this band seems to have a handle on how the energy of the performers can stand in for the emotion of the song. He doesn't really say all that much about what that woman has in fact done to him, but the ineffable in-betweens of such a condition are sketched out. If I picture a band playing this, at least somebody has their eyes closed and head turned down, rocking from side to side as they pluck the strings - not uptight but feeling it, man.

Darn, another one of those dopey fade-out endings! Really similar to "Midnight Rider" in that sense.

Second listen: digging the bassist this time around, or maybe it's just that's the element that most benefits from this very warm, live-in-the-studio recording. The solo is sweet - short but manages to convey something seared without totally breaking the acoustic old west bar band feel. If I have any gripes, they're that the ending is disappointing, the chorus isn't really that hooky or interesting (though it fits the vibe), and the lyrics really are super off-the-shelf without really thoroughly establishing what it is this woman has been doing. I guess she left without saying goodbye? But it makes it sound like whatever she's doing it's ongoing... cheating on him? Putting him through the wringer? At times it almost seems like they got mixed up with a song about a woman who's been bringing him some good good lovin'... so, to be honest, Marshall, I can't see. But I think I'm on your side anyway? Thumbs up.

i just heard this on the radio yesterday for the first time in forever. it ruled.

(and yeah, def the same lazy groove as midnight rider. maybe even the same chords, iirc, give or take a minor third. but midnight rider rules so.)

The bassist is awesome on this -- he does something here that few do and fewer do well (John McVie comes to mind) -- he's playing front-of-the-beat shuffle rhythm in a song that could easily have been a slow dirge, and keeps the whole thing not just moving but urgently moving.

btw finally sat down and chewed on that Yes countdown list, holy fuck is that a lot of inessential-sounding live and post-heyday albums. yikes. but at least now i know my instinctive move towards close to the edge at the record store was not mistaken...

You might like The Yes Album. It was just before Fragile and is a little more song-oriented than Close to the Edge. Has a lot of softer, folkier material. Close to the Edge is my favourite, though. I rank them something like:

Close to the Edge > Relayer > The Yes Album = Fragile > Going for the One > Tales of Topographic Oceans > a bunch of stuff I don't listen to or think about

That's quintessential Yes

sad confession: i somehow, years ago, convinced myself "i've seen all good people" was actually by kansas. which, listening to it, is obviously nonsense now that i've been listening to fragile on the regular and have a stronger sense of their sound and especially anderson's vocals. anyway that track might tip the balance in favor of the yes album but i could see myself getting pretty into this band. not "live albums by bands containing bizarre recombinant permutations of people who might have once been members of a band called yes," but still. we'll see. there's some good shit at the record store across the street.

does marshall tucker band have a strong must-have album?

first four Marshall Tucker Band albums are great--ST, A New Life, Where We All Belong, Searchin' For a Rainbow

sweet, thanks! i've started rocking close to the edge though so that may keep me occupied for a bit... great stuff.

Regarding the Outfield - Youtube just suggested their "Say It Isn't So" when I was looking for Hall & Oates's, and I took a chance thinking it might be an interesting cover. In fact it's a totally different song, which I would have pegged as a soundalike followup for "Your Love" but in fact it came out first (off the same album). And... it's pretty good? This time the opening owes less to the Cars than to "In A Big Country" though the former are definitely still in play. I dunno, pleasant sub-McCartney 80s pop-rock number, doesn't deserve eternal fame but it's got a good hook that it doesn't wear into the ground, and I do love the delivery of opening lyric: "You got me all screwed up!"

finally bought The Yes Album and it rules. kinda forgot these guys for a second but this might be a week where all my listening is the three records of theirs ive got. record store also has a five-dollar Yessongs, tempting for the nutso gatefold if nothing else.

yes to the yes album!

ok, i have finally accepted that summer's over, and so this thread will be coming back full steam next week. please rest up, dr. c, and turn off your radio, lest you should inadvertently hear a classic rock song you're not authorized to hear yet.

record store also has a five-dollar Yessongs, tempting for the nutso gatefold if nothing else.

It is indeed the doobie-rollingest cover in history.

yesssssssss

Why late at night does Doctor Casino get all yessed out

Yessongs is fucking amazing. It was my intro to the band. By all means grab it.

I'm a recent convert to Yes for about a year. Obsessed with Yes Album/Fragile/CttE, plus Yessongs and the new live box. What should I try next, Tales?

Yeah, Tales, Relayer and Going for the One are all you need IMO. But if you wanna go fucking nuts, here's a massive guide I wrote back in May.

that massive guide is epic and pretty much heroic.

Yeah, /Tales/, /Relayer/ and /Going for the One/ are all you need IMO. But if you wanna go fucking nuts, here's a massive guide I wrote back in May.
--the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱)

Thanks! I look forward to reading!

Watching The Doors today, I had many thoughts, and many of them led me back to this thread. Indians scattered on Donuts Highway.

hi dr. c!!! hi scattered indians of this long-dormant thread!

this would be a perfect time to welcome y'all back with a doors song, but i'm afraid we've already played all the doors songs in our box. so let's stay in la, jump ahead a decade and see if anyone's still listening out there.

SONG #45: VAN HALEN "(OH) PRETTY WOMAN"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spvhWQh61fM

the fact checker in me hates, hates, hates that they re-punctuated this cover from "oh, pretty woman" to "(oh) pretty woman" for no apparent reason.

sidebar i have always hated that the song was not just called pretty woman from the getgo

it appears, based on quick and totally not thorough google research, that it was in fact originally called pretty woman but the oh was quickly added and was there by the time the original became a hit.

Feel like you almost HAVE to have the version with "Intruder" at the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9t9kxm-s6Y

Feel like you almost HAVE to have the version with "Intruder" at the beginning.

do classic rock stations play it that way? (i have no idea!)

The one I listened to growing up used to.

That was one of the ones we had two versions of - just Pretty Woman and the one with Intruder above.

The Intruder one was used mostly on weekends or when the PD was going for a "deep cut" but also playing a hit at the same time.

(Some songs were never split, like Sirius/Eye in the Sky).

I remember the DJs using "Intruder" as a pre-song blather soundtrack.

Very very glad to see this thread back. I've got some mixed-up stuff going on in my life right now, and posts may come in spurts, but it's always been a good time in here, y'all. Thanks, fcc.

Before I start in on Van Halen's Orbison cover, I should say that in general I like Roth-era Van Halen, but I only own the first two LPs, and really only know the first one, which I got into around 2003 and played a lot, even attempting a very abortive cover of "Runnin' With the Devil" after I learned the solo (and almost nothing else) on keyboard. I put "Atomic Punk" on a mix-tape even. They're a real hot, fun band, great playing, and I think a good eye for material. Their "You Really Got Me" never struck me as any kind of revelation versus the Kinks', but it's pretty rockin'. The only track from II that's ever really made it into my canon is "Dance The Night Away" - I've enjoyed the record every time I've put it on but there just aren't as many obvious standout classics. But the records after that have all remained totally unknown to me except the big singles off 1984 of course.

As for "Oh, Pretty Woman," it strikes me off the bat as a good choice of something to cover. Of all of Orbison's hits, it's maybe the least dependent on Roy Orbison specifically. Don't get me wrong - his "rrrrrowr!" and "Mercy!" are really essential to his recording, but the hook isn't his ethereal, unmistakable voice the way it is on "Only The Lonely" or so many other cuts, but something available to any halfway-competent garage band: that riff, in tandem with the building rhythm section behind it. Lyrically there's almost nothing there. Van Halen having a reliably lockstep rhythm section and a big-deal frontman, it seems like a good template for them to play around with, with the x factor being where the heck does their star freakout guitarist fit in? I'm assuming it's too much to hope that "Intruder" will be a Peter Gabriel cover, so let's just plunge in and see....

Ha, "Intruder" almost might as well be a Peter Gabriel cover in a way - spooky, scrapey soundscapes. This is maybe where their trustworthy roadhouse rhythm team lets them down a little bit - here you don't need a bedrock to give structure to the guitar theatrics but for the drums to become part of the freaky adventure, adding tension and suspense rather than the certainty of the backbeat. I guess it'd work as a curtain-raiser at a concert, with the laser light and smoke machine going... when will they take the stage??

And here they are! Well, the riff sounds awesome. The vocals though - this is weird. The way they're overdubbing it almost sounds like they're really trying to sound Orbison for the one line "Pretty woman," but it's a funny fit for the rest of their sound and I really prefer it when it's Roth by himself. Decent job on the "mercy" and the "rrrrowr" if not quite as electrifying as the banshee shrieks from the first album. OTOH I think Eddie finds a nice role for himself here, filling all the miscellaneous bits and pieces of space with more activity than you'd expect but not to the point where it's just uncomfortably busy. The little "ah!" thunka-thunka break there was pretty cool.

Second listen through. I dunno, this is pretty punchy radio-rock for its period, but sort of lacking enough specialness to justify the exercise. Feel like an original generic bar-blues number might have done just as well - Roth isn't able to stretch and transform the bare-bones lyrics or lend them a new meaning really. You'd expect him to somehow sex them up, add hints of fire and excess but maybe there's something fundamentally limiting about the song's scenario, which actually is pretty well-tuned to Roy Orbison's persona. I just don't picture DLR going "well, if that's the way it's gonna be, okay." "Okay" is right.