Hocus Pocus, by Focus (from their hit album Crocus?):
First couple seconds, I'm sold - rock on, dudes! No blowsy New Jerseyites cluttering things up here, just riff on, riff on, keep riffin' on, do some more riffin' on.
OMG the yodeling
yessssssssssssssssssssssss
this rules
hahahahahaha
Wow. You can kinda see why this didn't exactly fly in the South, we like our yodeling to come from actual backwoods mountain men and/or passable facsimiles thereof - not from effete Europeans who learned it secondhand from Slim Whitman. I'm starting to get off the boat with the tickety-tackety Popeye-chuckle faux-scatting, as much as it brilliantly sets up the return of the PUMMELING WALL OF RIFFING. The drum solos are all a little less convincing tbh, dude's kinda just filling time there. At 3:30 I'm now kinda over this alternation between yodel and guitar attack, though the guitar attacks keep getting more and more satisfying. Thank god, they changed it up with this flute thing - I like that it sounds like you can hear them desperately gasping for air in between notes.
oh ffs, gtfo with this accordion thing, this is just goofy now
oh wait BRANNA DANNA DOW BRANNA DANNA DOW, DUNG DING, BRUNG, BRUN BRANG, okay, now just - -
- - - fire the drummer oh god, this guy - dude, your band's name is called focus, try it sometime.
I wonder how many people bought this/requested it just to LOL at the yodeling, but secretly loved it? The rockin' is so good (drums aside) that they really don't need the gimmick. Did they yodel on all their songs? Did they ever have words?
Overall, thumbs up, throwing this on my playlist though I have a strong suspicion I'll often end up skipping it because I'm just not in the mood for a yodel. Holy shit, though, really glad I heard that, feels like a major missing piece of the picture.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:20 (ten years ago) link
Slim Whitman was a god.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:41 (ten years ago) link
http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/Head-Explosion/mars-attacks_300.jpg
blowing my mind here
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:47 (ten years ago) link
j/k, you get no argument from me, he is ace for "rose-marie" alone, though one of those cursed artists where no dollar comp you pick up is actually the hit versions of anything.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:48 (ten years ago) link
I've never heard Hocus Pocus before! It's fucking incredible.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:49 (ten years ago) link
irl lol throughout your review DC. God bless this thread.
― intheblanks, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:50 (ten years ago) link
"Cattle Call" is cowboy shoegaze.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:58 (ten years ago) link
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.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:01 (ten years ago) link
OTM, could easily have done a "Harlem Shake" deal with this, maybe cross-wired with Hamster Dance.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:04 (ten years ago) link
Yodeling was invented in Europe, dudes. Bloody Americans.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:06 (ten years ago) link
I was being just a little bit ironical...
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:09 (ten years ago) link
And I wasn't actually annoyed. Humour really doesn't travel well on the internet.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:13 (ten years ago) link
A testament to the strength of rockin' yodel instrumentals, to speak without words on both sides of the Atlantic.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link
^__^
― emil.y, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:17 (ten years ago) link
"Hocus Pocus" is amazingly crude for a prog classic.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 16:04 (ten years ago) link
otm. imo The drumming in the live clip almost had a proto-hardcore feeling to it
― intheblanks, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 16:11 (ten years ago) link
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
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 18:48 (ten years ago) link
never heard it before, but Hocus Pocus not really changing my mind about majority of this list being garbage. eurololz tho.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 18:53 (ten years ago) link
"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.
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:16 (ten years ago) link
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
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:41 (ten years ago) link
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), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:49 (ten years ago) link
"The Stroke" is the high water mark of the Schillinger system iirc
― macklin' rosie (crüt), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:51 (ten years ago) link
lol
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:52 (ten years ago) link
"Everybody Wants You" is sick! Really well mixed too.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:54 (ten years ago) link
I'm glad it's Everybody Wants You & not STROKE STROKE STROKE
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:57 (ten years ago) link
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!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:02 (ten years ago) link
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
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:03 (ten years ago) link
tarfumes u crazy - billy squier circa don't say no and emotions in motion RULES
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:04 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:11 (ten years ago) link
Of his singles The Stroke is the one I can't defend. Agree Zep-lite Squier is the best Squier.
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:13 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:18 (ten years ago) link
Looool this thread is beautiful. I was a teenager in the 70s so I've lived with these songs forever.
― Sandy, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:27 (ten years ago) link
This thread is gold.
― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 20:44 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Sandy, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 21:02 (ten years ago) link
awesome!
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 21:08 (ten years ago) link
"Everybody Wants You" is playing right now in the supermarket I'm in.
Ugh.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 21:09 (ten years ago) link
Everybody Wants Yoohoo
― Incident At Spanish Harlem (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 21:30 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 21:47 (ten years ago) link
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...
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 21:50 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Darin, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:02 (ten years ago) link
Feel Like Makin' Love is all time!
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:05 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:08 (ten years ago) link
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.
― wild-eyed, high-volume bursts of pious indignation (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:20 (ten years ago) link
I'm a huge fan of "Feel Like Makin' Love's" boneheaded lyrics
― intheblanks, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:26 (ten years ago) link
"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.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:29 (ten years ago) link
'feel like makin' love' to me is the epitome of "drunk lonely guy dancing in front of the jukebox" songs
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:30 (ten years ago) link
;_;
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:57 (ten years ago) link
present company excluded, lonely or otherwise :)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:58 (ten years ago) link
its "another think comin"
― leave the web boys alone (darraghmac), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:59 (ten years ago) link
Frank Black said that the Pixies got their whole quiet-loud-quiet thing from "Feel Like Makin' Love."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 22:59 (ten years ago) link