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Re: American Music - Shallow? & Rock Is Dead



Mark T commented:
>Hmmm. I think you're right about the cycles. There are a few things in the
82 -  89 period I would regard as worthwhile, but there always exceptions to
any rule.

Of course! Townshend was doing quite good work during that period. My
favorite PT solo album is WHITE CITY, for instance. Nothing is a complete
vacuum as far as Rock music is concerned.

>Interestingly enough, Steve Marriott and Phil Collins  were child actors. 

That is interesting.

>Anyway, I'd be interested to know  more about your roadie experiences.

I've already posted some of them, which will be in the next Digest I guess.
Maybe not that interesting, but factual at least.

>I mentioned ELP and Rick Wakeman (solo) because I believe they're talented
British musicians who struggled in the content department, perhaps because
they >were trying to stretch it too far.

Well, Daltrey accuses Townshend of no less than trying to stretch Rock music
too far...but I agree with you. And don't with Daltrey. I think QUAD was
well handled, and it's a great shame that Pete pretty much gave up
stretching (with The Who, anyway) after that.

>Actually, I think you're right about the Dancehall/Music Hall element. The
Kinks are indeed a fine example, as perhaps is  Steve Marriott with the
Small Faces. There's a lot of cockney "knees-up" in both  of these acts'
work. Is that what you were getting at?

Yes, that's it. The Small Faces are a good example. "Won't it be nice/To get
on with me neighbors..."
I believe firmly that all British Rock bands of the `60s were thus
influenced. Take a song like Cobwebs And Strange...a bit Dancehall, no? A
bit campy and over-the-top. A lot of the earlier Who music was over-the-top,
and I believe that tradition came from Dancehall. Some of the commercials on
SELL OUT show this element, filtered through (no doubt) the advertising
style which came from DH and so it goes around and around...
Herman's Hermits were perhaps the most influenced...at least, of the bands
I'm familiar with. THEY might be the "British Monkees."

>Could the lack of awareness of the new stuff be in part due to an
inadequacy of American music magazines?

There are so many American music magazines that I can't answer that. I've
given up on them all. No doubt there are some that deal exclusively with
Indy music, and some Alternative...and I can't think of any that cover all
types of music (anyone know?). The older bands, like The Who, are covered in
the large ones (Rolling Stone, which about ten years ago became more like
People if you're familiar with that one), but until a band "makes it" and is
therefore dubbed worthy...they get no coverage.

And Jack asked:
>Did Ramones listen to Pete when they were kid's?? Check it out). 

The proof is in the pudding...The Ramones covered Substitute for their ACID
EATERS album, so we can assume (I think) that they were indeed listening to
The Who early on.
Substitute is (as far as I know) the single most covered Who song.





                   Cheers                   ML


"For three generations, Pepsi has trying to make people to believe it's `The
Pepsi Generation.' This is the first one dumb enough to believe it."
                                                                    Unknown