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Post by chiyankee on Feb 20, 2022 18:48:29 GMT -5
I once convinced my niece that Randy Bachman was really a stutterer.   Mel Tillis somehow pulled it off. |
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Post by inger on Feb 20, 2022 19:07:32 GMT -5
I once convinced my niece that Randy Bachman was really a stutterer. Interesting because I recall reading about how that stutter came about on the recording. The short of it, one on Bachman’s brothers was a guitarist in the band and has stuttered his whole life. Though the line was written “straight”, the boys had been teasing the stuttering brother that morning. The group’s manager walked in while they were stuttering the line and told them to “leave it in”. So there is apparently a stuttering Bachman, though not Randy, and perhaps the song got a boost from the joking around… |
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Post by rizzuto on Feb 20, 2022 19:27:27 GMT -5
I once convinced my niece that Randy Bachman was really a stutterer. Interesting because I recall reading about how that stutter came about on the recording. The short of it, one on Bachman’s brothers was a guitarist in the band and has stuttered his whole life. Though the line was written “straight”, the boys had been teasing the stuttering brother that morning. The group’s manager walked in while they were stuttering the line and told them to “leave it in”. So there is apparently a stuttering Bachman, though not Randy, and perhaps the song got a boost from the joking around… My niece had flown to California, and Sarah and I were driving her to see San Francisco when the song came on my radio. I told her that the singer was originally hired to clean the studio immediately after the musicians left the building. When one of the members of the group returned for something he forgot, he heard the janitor singing the song they were just playing. Blow away, the band member asked the janitor to record the vocals and the rest was history. My niece, ever so gullible, believed me until my wife spilled the beans. |
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Post by inger on Feb 20, 2022 19:36:07 GMT -5
Interesting because I recall reading about how that stutter came about on the recording. The short of it, one on Bachman’s brothers was a guitarist in the band and has stuttered his whole life. Though the line was written “straight”, the boys had been teasing the stuttering brother that morning. The group’s manager walked in while they were stuttering the line and told them to “leave it in”. So there is apparently a stuttering Bachman, though not Randy, and perhaps the song got a boost from the joking around… My niece had flown to California, and Sarah and I were driving her to see San Francisco when the song came on my radio. I told her that the singer was originally hired to clean the studio immediately after the musicians left the building. When one of the members of the group returned for something he forgot, he heard the janitor singing the song they were just playing. Blow away, the band member asked the janitor to record the vocals and the rest was history. My niece, ever so gullible, believed me until my wife spilled the beans. Lol… I love gullible people. My ex sister in law was a good target. Damn, I miss that sister in law… |
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Post by inger on Feb 20, 2022 21:59:39 GMT -5
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Post by Renfield on Feb 21, 2022 9:00:01 GMT -5
I once convinced my niece that Randy Bachman was really a stutterer. Mel Tillis somehow pulled it off. The Coca-Cola Cowboy! |
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Post by pippsheadache on Feb 27, 2022 15:35:29 GMT -5
I just wanted to put in a word about the recent passing of Gary Brooker. He was lead singer, pianist, and songwriter for Procol Harum. To the extent that that group is remembered at all, it is almost entirely for their first release in 1967, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." They also had a hit with "Conquistador" which some of you may know. My personal favorite was their second release "Homburg," which I'm always surprised if anyone recalls. "A Salty Dog" was another good one from them.
I've mentioned before that I saw them at long-demolished JFK Stadium in Philly in 1967 along with about 100,000 other wastrels. AWSOP had just hit the airwaves, and to the extent that I could hear them I was amazed at how faithful to the recording they sounded under less than optimal conditions. Gary Brooker had a powerful voice, and organist Matthew Fischer pulled off the Bach-inspired keyboard riff beautifully. The guitarist was Robin Trower, who later went on to solo success.
Procol Harum is probably the best exemplar of the short-lived sub-genre of Baroque Rock. The Lefte Bank ("Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina") was another, as was the early incarnation of The Moody Blues with "Go Now" and maybe The Zombies ("She's Not There" and "Time Of The Season.") The Beatles dabbled in it with songs like "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby," as did The Rolling Stones with "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lady Jane." If anybody remembers a group called Merry Go Round, which did the most High Church version of Baroque Rock, "You're A Very Lovely Woman," your next round is on me.
Enough meandering from me. RIP Gary Brooker.
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Post by inger on Feb 27, 2022 21:17:00 GMT -5
I just wanted to put in a word about the recent passing of Gary Brooker. He was lead singer, pianist, and songwriter for Procol Harum. To the extent that that group is remembered at all, it is almost entirely for their first release in 1967, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." They also had a hit with "Conquistador" which some of you may know. My personal favorite was their second release "Homburg," which I'm always surprised if anyone recalls. "A Salty Dog" was another good one from them. I've mentioned before that I saw them at long-demolished JFK Stadium in Philly in 1967 along with about 100,000 other wastrels. AWSOP had just hit the airwaves, and to the extent that I could hear them I was amazed at how faithful to the recording they sounded under less than optimal conditions. Gary Brooker had a powerful voice, and organist Matthew Fischer pulled off the Bach-inspired keyboard riff beautifully. The guitarist was Robin Trower, who later went on to solo success. Procol Harum is probably the best exemplar of the short-lived sub-genre of Baroque Rock. The Lefte Bank ("Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina") was another, as was the early incarnation of The Moody Blues with "Go Now" and maybe The Zombies ("She's Not There" and "Time Of The Season.") The Beatles dabbled in it with songs like "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby," as did The Rolling Stones with "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lady Jane." If anybody remembers a group called Merry Go Round, which did the most High Church version of Baroque Rock, "You're A Very Lovely Woman," your next round is on me. Enough meandering from me. RIP Gary Brooker. Brooker retained his vocal power into his… well, whatever he was when he passed away. I’ve seen some videos of him that were done in the past couple of years. If you’ve ever heard the version of “Whiter SOP” that Billy Joel did on The Howard Stern Show a few years back, the range required for that song caught Billy with his voice broken at one point, causing a sour note. Billy does not have huge range within any one key but has proven to be expert at quickly changing keys to disguise that. Brooker didn’t need to change keys at any point even at 70, or whatever he was on the video I saw…Not that Billy isn’t in his seventies by now though. Damn. If Bill is getting old, I’m right behind him… |
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Post by inger on Feb 27, 2022 21:19:38 GMT -5
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Post by rizzuto on Feb 28, 2022 1:06:12 GMT -5
I just wanted to put in a word about the recent passing of Gary Brooker. He was lead singer, pianist, and songwriter for Procol Harum. To the extent that that group is remembered at all, it is almost entirely for their first release in 1967, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." They also had a hit with "Conquistador" which some of you may know. My personal favorite was their second release "Homburg," which I'm always surprised if anyone recalls. "A Salty Dog" was another good one from them. I've mentioned before that I saw them at long-demolished JFK Stadium in Philly in 1967 along with about 100,000 other wastrels. AWSOP had just hit the airwaves, and to the extent that I could hear them I was amazed at how faithful to the recording they sounded under less than optimal conditions. Gary Brooker had a powerful voice, and organist Matthew Fischer pulled off the Bach-inspired keyboard riff beautifully. The guitarist was Robin Trower, who later went on to solo success. Procol Harum is probably the best exemplar of the short-lived sub-genre of Baroque Rock. The Lefte Bank ("Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina") was another, as was the early incarnation of The Moody Blues with "Go Now" and maybe The Zombies ("She's Not There" and "Time Of The Season.") The Beatles dabbled in it with songs like "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby," as did The Rolling Stones with "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lady Jane." If anybody remembers a group called Merry Go Round, which did the most High Church version of Baroque Rock, "You're A Very Lovely Woman," your next round is on me. Enough meandering from me. RIP Gary Brooker. "Whiter Shade of Pale" will always be on my all-time playlist. How many rock songs make allusions and references to Chaucer? Shamefully, I did not know the name Gary Brooker, so thank you for righting that wrong. "Walk Away Renee" was also a song that caught my ear growing up, but I did not know the name of the group. The Zombies' "Time of the Season" is another gem - absolutely captures the feeling of the era known as the 60s in much the same manner in which "Fortunate Son" and "For What It's Worth" are permanent emblems of the Viet Nam "conflict." "We skipped the light fandango" is a marvelous lyric to begin a song, immediately throwing you into a memory. One of my favorite definitions is for the word Fandango: 1. A lively Spanish dance. 2. A foolish act. |
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Post by pippsheadache on Feb 28, 2022 13:54:28 GMT -5
I just wanted to put in a word about the recent passing of Gary Brooker. He was lead singer, pianist, and songwriter for Procol Harum. To the extent that that group is remembered at all, it is almost entirely for their first release in 1967, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." They also had a hit with "Conquistador" which some of you may know. My personal favorite was their second release "Homburg," which I'm always surprised if anyone recalls. "A Salty Dog" was another good one from them. I've mentioned before that I saw them at long-demolished JFK Stadium in Philly in 1967 along with about 100,000 other wastrels. AWSOP had just hit the airwaves, and to the extent that I could hear them I was amazed at how faithful to the recording they sounded under less than optimal conditions. Gary Brooker had a powerful voice, and organist Matthew Fischer pulled off the Bach-inspired keyboard riff beautifully. The guitarist was Robin Trower, who later went on to solo success. Procol Harum is probably the best exemplar of the short-lived sub-genre of Baroque Rock. The Lefte Bank ("Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina") was another, as was the early incarnation of The Moody Blues with "Go Now" and maybe The Zombies ("She's Not There" and "Time Of The Season.") The Beatles dabbled in it with songs like "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby," as did The Rolling Stones with "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lady Jane." If anybody remembers a group called Merry Go Round, which did the most High Church version of Baroque Rock, "You're A Very Lovely Woman," your next round is on me. Enough meandering from me. RIP Gary Brooker. "Whiter Shade of Pale" will always be on my all-time playlist. How many rock songs make allusions and references to Chaucer? Shamefully, I did not know the name Gary Brooker, so thank you for righting that wrong. "Walk Away Renee" was also a song that caught my ear growing up, but I did not know the name of the group. The Zombies' "Time of the Season" is another gem - absolutely captures the feeling of the era known as the 60s in much the same manner in which "Fortunate Son" and "For What It's Worth" are permanent emblems of the Viet Nam "conflict." "We skipped the light fandango" is a marvelous lyric to begin a song, immediately throwing you into a memory. One of my favorite definitions is for the word Fandango: 1. A lively Spanish dance. 2. A foolish act. Procol Harum often used vivid imagery that didn't always make logical sense (not sure what the 16 Vestal Virgins leaving for the coast was all about -- it's not like they had vacations or applied for other positions, but I appreciated the shout out to Ancient Rome), but 1967 was a good time for such lyrics, the year of Sgt. Pepper, "Purple Haze" and even the ludicrous but harmless "Incense and Peppermints." That was also a year when some albums started putting posters inside, and Procol Harum's first was one of these. I had that bad boy up on my dormitory wall in my freshman year at college, alongside that Jack Kramer tennis racket we talked about previously, a lobby card for "The Blob" (the original one, with Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsault, the actress who later played Andy Griffith's girlfriend Helen Crump) and an 8x10 of J. Pierpont Morgan I found in a thrift shop. I didn't have any particular affection for Morgan, that's for sure, and most people didn't know who it was (a few thought it was WC Fields, others assumed maybe it was my grandfather), but among those who did they either thought it was funny or got apoplectic at the idea of somebody sporting the archetypal capitalist so soon after The Summer Of Love. That was the reaction I was hoping for. Anyway, one of the best songs on that Procol Harum album was called "Repent Walpurgis." There was no chance I wouldn't like a song with that title. Turns out it was an instrumental, but still a nice dirge for those of us who appreciate a nice dirge every now and then. "For What It's Worth" was another of those 1967 songs -- an early rock use of artificial harmonics, by the way -- and you are correct that it is often held up as being music emblematic of the Viet Nam Era. And so it has become, although Stephen Stills said he wrote it about curfew protests on the Sunset Strip in which the proverbial "restless youths" clashed with police enforcing the curfew. I don't think it's much remembered today, but for a lot of blue collar or military families, songs like "Ballad Of The Green Berets" and "Okie From Muskogee" were as expressive of their outlook as "Fortunate Son" or "Woodstock" were for draft-age college students. Hah, I like the Fandango definition. I also noticed that another secondary definition was "tomfoolery," a cool word that has gone the way way of its cousin "tommyrot." |
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Post by inger on Feb 28, 2022 15:34:35 GMT -5
In my dumb little kid years I thought the skipped the light thing was about running a red light. In which case of course, if it really did, then I wasn’t such a dumb little kid in actuality… but it wasn’t, so there’s that… huh? …
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Post by inger on Feb 28, 2022 15:44:44 GMT -5
I’ve always made assumptions about “Whiter SOP” that it was descriptive of a drug induced journey. The Miller being one of several genus of moth’s with white powdery wings making me feel as though the drug of choice may have been cocaine.
As you follow through the song, there is little so white of a shade of pale that would be more pallid than a corpse, so the trip may have resulted in an OD or near death experience. This would depend upon if you hear the lyrics in first person or as a witness…
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Post by rizzuto on Feb 28, 2022 20:52:11 GMT -5
I’ve always made assumptions about “Whiter SOP” that it was descriptive of a drug induced journey. The Miller being one of several genus of moth’s with white powdery wings making me feel as though the drug of choice may have been cocaine. As you follow through the song, there is little so white of a shade of pale that would be more pallid than a corpse, so the trip may have resulted in an OD or near death experience. This would depend upon if you hear the lyrics in first person or as a witness… Nothing that psychedelic. Miller is a reference to Chaucer's The Miller's Tale. A Whiter Shade of Pale was a turn of phrase overheard at a party, in which a remark was made about someone in surprise turning not just pale, but "a whiter shade of pale." The phrase stuck in the mind of the eavesdropping songwriter and the rest is lyrical history. |
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Post by inger on Mar 1, 2022 14:02:25 GMT -5
And hey barkeep what's keeping you keep pouring drinks For all these palookas hey you know what I thinks That we toast to the old days and DiMaggio too And old Drysdale and Mantle Whitey Ford and to you youtu.be/9JGvFo9UyI4 |
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