the 5th dimension c/d

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (84 of them)

So you saw it? You went to a private screening with her?

If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:43 (one year ago) link

Yes, well not with her, but she screened it at Bell House in Brooklyn, 7 or 8 years ago I guess. Bobby Hart was there and spoke on stage. Peter Tork was also there, signing stuff.

Josefa, Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:48 (one year ago) link

Cool, I'm a big Boyce & Hart fan.

Fronted by a bearded Phil Collins (Tom D.), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:52 (one year ago) link

B-b-but how do you feel about The 5th Dimension?

If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:59 (one year ago) link

And William Windom?

If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:59 (one year ago) link

What exactly am I looking at here? Is that a fake retro introduction to a 5th Dimension-inspired television show that never existed? I'm completely confused.

Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 19:29 (one year ago) link

No you’re not.

Misirlou Sunset (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 19:31 (one year ago) link

B-b-but how do you feel about The 5th Dimension?

"Magic Garden" is a great album apart from that shitty of the shittiest Beatles cover. Jimmy Webb was always pulling that shit, so Thelma Houston's "Sunshower" has a version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on it and Glen Campbell's "Reunion" has a Lowell George song on it (which isn't bad per se but it doesn't fit and is obviously the worst song on there).

Fronted by a bearded Phil Collins (Tom D.), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 20:09 (one year ago) link

I feel like I knew the answer to this at one point, but I think the label is more likely the “put a shitty cover smack dab in the middle of the album” culprit than Webb was.

No you’re not.


No I am – because I’m not sure I understand the point/aesthetic? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for imaginary alternate histories and that early-70s era of television in particular. But doing it with members of a band whose members were—at best?—semi-known fifty years ago is a little bizarre and nonsensical. It also kind of feels like Rachel just slapped stock Adobe filters onto YT clips (the “Music by Dave Grusin” was admittedly a nice touch).

Anyway, that’s why I was wondering if there was something I was missing. Sorry if I’m harshing everyone’s mellow. I continue to love this band and have no problem with fellow obsessives fashioning imaginary 70s cop shows about them – or baking shows on PBS for that matter.

Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 18:56 (one year ago) link

It's an eccentric kind of humor for sure, but I think the fact that we don't often see the names of the members of the 5D or even know them at all is part of what makes it funny. It wouldn't be quite as funny if the fake TV show starred Led Zeppelin, for example. And it playfully conjures a fantasia of early '70s Los Angeles in which the lines between the pop music field and the field of scripted TV are completely porous. It's like a dream a retro obsessive might have. What I see a lot in Rachel's humor is her taking a semi-forgotten name or thing from our cultural subconscious, and showcasing it, suggesting that it's somehow relevant - so that now we have to acknowledge it consciously.

Josefa, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 21:04 (one year ago) link

Otm. For me I was into this one from the get-go and the detail that really drove it home was “William Windom.”

Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 October 2022 01:03 (one year ago) link

Damn, that "Age of Aquarius" arrangement is probably the best thing I've ever heard lol

Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 6 October 2022 01:16 (one year ago) link

xp Exactly, and “Raymond St. Jacques,” I mean this is some deep digging

Josefa, Thursday, 6 October 2022 01:18 (one year ago) link

Assuming this is an imaginary spinoff of the episode of It Takes a Thief they were on.

Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 October 2022 01:42 (one year ago) link

I could’ve sworn there was a post by Aero somewhere about one of the other male singers besides Billy being the secret weapon of their sound but can’t find it.

Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 October 2022 02:10 (one year ago) link

Assuming this is an imaginary spinoff of the episode of It Takes a Thief they were on

Wait what

Josefa, Thursday, 6 October 2022 03:16 (one year ago) link

📹
Check it out. Featuring Bones Howe himself in the control booth. From an episode of _It Takes A Thief_.

Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 6 October 2022 03:18 (one year ago) link

ten months pass...

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.