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bear

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  1. Actually, a little more back story, before Bartlett was teamed up with the rest of Ram Jam, he'd done another version of Black Betty, with another group he lead, 'Starstruck', which included David Goldflies, who later played with the Allman Brothers. Musical circles, eh?
  2. Ok, then. And awaaaay we go. The year was 1977. At the movies, Star Wars blasted into space with cutting edge special effects, the Bee Gees provided a brilliant soundtrack for John Travolta to dance to in Saturday Night Fever, Burt Reynolds and his mustache charmed the pants off of my first crush, Sally Field, in Smoky and the Bandit, and Roger Moore tried again (and failed, IMO), to be the James Bond in The Spy who Loved Me. On the Boob Tube, Bill Murray replaced Chevy chase on SNL. American Bandstand turned 25, (Dick Clark might still be 25). Roots changed the way people looked at people. CHiPS started off silly and stayed that way. Fantasy Island told tales of Paradise Found & Lost. Jack Chrissy, and Janet took non-sex sexual situation comedy to new heights. The music world loses Elvis. On the charts, Rod Stewart's 'Tonight's the Night', and Andy Gibb's 'I just Want to Be Your Everything' battled it out for the top spot. Meanwhile, topping out at #18 on the charts, Ram Jam's Black Betty clubbed you over the head with crunchy guitars and a tribal beat. The band members were: BILL BARTLETT lead guitar and vocals HOWIE BLAUVELT bass and vocals PETER CHARLES drums MYKE SCAVONE vocals and percussion Ram Jam's 1977 recording Bill Bartlett had an earlier one hit wonder, with the Lemon Pipers (Green Tambourine). The song was boycotted by the NAACP, citing it was degrading to black women, even though the song was done in the 1930's by black men. this is where my history is a bit muddled. From what I've read, Huddie 'Leadbelly' Ledbetter wrote the song. However, upon more research, i've found that John and Alan Lomax recorded an a capella version in 1934 by either Leadbelly or 'Iron Head' James Baker, depending on where you get your information. It's a mystery to me, and, actually, I kind of like that the song's exact origins are unknown. Huddie 'Leadbelly' Ledbetter I could have sworn I had a recording of Leadbelly doing the song with his guitar, somewhere here in this computer, but I simply cannot find it. So, I scrounged up: allegedly Leadbelly's 1939 a capella version the song, however, has been covered several times. 1960s: Odetta Harry Belafonte 1980s: Nick Cave 2002: Tom Jones 2004: Spiderbait Ram Jam released one more album, in 1978, never to be heard from again. but, they will always have the most kick-ass version, IMO.
  3. Greetings everyone. I'm going to start this thread, wherein each week, I will post a One Hit Wonder from the 70's. It's always been my favorite part of the seventies music scene. while the Fleetwood Macs and Elton Johns and Doobs and Eagles were maintaining their places at the top of the charts, along come those odds and ends, on the fringes of the music world, to unseat the perrenial chart toppers for a while. Sometimes they would hit the top ten, maybe even number one. then, just as quickly, they were gone. It always fascinated me. And, there a lot of them. Really, really good songs. So, hopefully, I'll get it right. Hopefully, I won't make a fool of myself. Most of all, hopefully, people will click on the link and listen to the song for the first time in decades, or maybe even for the first time ever, and think, yea, that's groovy. If I get facts wrong, straighten me out. If I leave something out, fill it in. And finally, I am going to say, even though it's my intention to make this a 70's one hit wonder thread, I may take liberties. There are a lot of two hit wonders, too. Too many i love for me to ignore. So, I'll include some of those as well. Also, I may bleed over into the 60s, as well as the early 80's, because, again, there are some that are simply too good to ignore. Anyway, my mild OCD dictaes that I do a little more homework for he first song I've picked out. I should be posting it sometime over the weekend. It's a good one, too! Namaste, friends.
  4. The thing about Rock, as a whole (not the sub-genre thing), is that musically, it's all about the hook. A couple of guitars, a bass and drums, will only go so far if they aren't doing something interesting. Something catchy. Musically, it's not intricate or difficult to learn, so it needs to catch your ear melodically. Lately, most music out there has been pretty blah. There are some new bands I like. Panic At The Disco, Yellowcard, and bands like that are catchy, even though it might lack the balls of the classic rock I grew up with. But then again, classic rock is something that was around in the late 60s to the mid 70s. I don't know when it started being called classic rock, but it is a genre in and of itself. People keep waiting for it to 'come back', but the thing is, it won't ever come back, because it was a part of the evolution of music. For all the bands out there to start sounding like that would be a step backwards for music. I remember everyone getting all excited about the Black Crowes. "Ooh! Classic rock is coming back!" Huh? Uh, no, It's impossible for it to come back. Bands can sound like that, because that's what influenced them, or they can flat out rip off the sound, but classic rock can't 'come back'. Anyway, I am going to be late for work now. :rolleyes:
  5. Herb Alpert ~ Taste of Honey BTW, Dokken's 'Just Got Lucky' is a great song. I saw them back in the 80s, when they opened for Aerosmith at the Spectrum in Philly.
  6. bear

    Beatking MugShots

    Ah. That makes sense. Har har.
  7. bear

    Beatking MugShots

    I was just coming out of a five hour nap. I don't get the answer to the age old question thing. Must be an inside joke.
  8. Well, i didn't know if it'd been covered already. I'm somewhat of an afficionado of 70's one hit wonders. :rolleyes:
  9. I don't know if this has been told in here, and I wouldn't know where to begin to look. So, I'll just tell it, and if it gets zapped, it gets zapped. The band Paper Lace, as you all know, had the hit in the US, 'The Night Chicago Died'. But did you know, they also had a hit in the UK, 'Billy Don't Be a Hero', which was a hit in the US for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods So, Papaer Lace has the distinction of being a one hit wonder on two different continents with two different songs, while 'Billy Don't Be A Hero has the distinction of being a one hit wonder...twice. if that makes any sense.
  10. I hate to say it, but even enlarging them, i can't read them without my glasses. Is Skynyrd's Live Cover of CrossRoads on there? Because that's aces. Also, great call on Manfred Mann & Blinded. Top Notch cover.
  11. No, not really. Some things just make better sense when you look at them from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. More resonance if you start at the core.
  12. Not to change the subject, but is ther a thread for the BEST cover out there? I have a few.
  13. I think the more tender the nerve that's touched, the more 'timeless' a song will be considered. (through time, of course) Take a song by one of those 80's hair bands. Think of any one of those sappy power ballads. If you grew up in that era, those songs might have touched a nerve back then. But today? Will you still feel the same sharp, raw nerve being poked? Maybe, but just a little. You'll also have some nostalgia for that time, and laugh about the clothes and whatever other goofy thing you wore or said or did back then. But the song itself is a small fraction of it. And let's face it, it's kind of tough to see the deep meaning of the words when you have to automatically have the video image drilled into your brain as well. MTV mde it so your thoughts about a song move in a certain direction because of what you've visually been fed. i say "every rose has it's thorn", and you think of long hair pretty guys walking around in slow motion, drunk onstage. Your mind isn't free to paint your own picture any more. Having the images accompany the lyrics is to (IMO) cover the fact that most times, the lyrics are weak. To get an everlasting some, you have to go back. Before MTV. Bill Withers says "Ain't No Sunshine when she's gone. Aint no sunshine when she's away. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, and this house just ain't no home anytime, she goes away" He just says it. Plainly and to the point. I miss my woman. Men will always be that hangdog depresses at one time or another about his woman leaving him. And this song will play and he will get it's amplitude and its breadth and width and he'll be enrapt, an actually living part of this song. That's what makes this particular song timeless. You could play it for a 12 year old who just had his first girlfriend say she liked so-and-so better. He'd get this song.
  14. I may be in the minority, but I can't stomach Roseanne. Everyone talks about how groundbreaking her show was. A poor family in middle America. Excuse me, but she stole that from 'Good Times', right down to the one girl being an artist like J.J. They hit the lottery and suddenly they're the rich rubes. Excuse me, but she stole that from 'The Beverly Hillbillies'. Nothing original or talented about her. Annoyingly loud, abrasive, crass and rude. I don't know how she's managed to pull the wool over everyone's eyes for so long. As far as her 'giving away more money than anyone in her position', that's a claim I doubt she could prove. Even if she could prove it, how incredibly egotistical to make claims of charity publicly, anyway. True charity is anonymous. The second you announce you've given money to this or that, you make it about you, not the cause. Bah.
  15. Yes, that's really true. Gone are the days of choice on the radio. I rarely listen to it anymore, simply because it's people in suits who decide what gets played. The internet is a great tool to find good music. Of course, I'm somewhat of a dinosaur in that respect. There's not a lot out there that interests me, and I think that's because of my age. What I grew up with is what I enjoy. And, for 'new' music, I look backwards. The 40's is rife with great music.
  16. Well, I think (and my thoughts are worth exactly what you pay to hear them) music evolved steadily from the 'birth' of rock and roll, with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley, and Elvis, until the early to mid 60's, when women began to get some real attention. The Shangri-Las, Martha and the Vandellas, etc, were all part of the growth of rock and roll. Up until the early 60's, it was a male dominated genre, and all those males (except, ironically, the ones I mentioned above), were clean cut teen idols. Not the least bit edgy or different, unless you count the differing degrees of 'dreaminess'. LOL. The reason the Beatles were so wildy popular is because they were different. In less than 10 years, R&R had already become stagnant. Then, here are The Beatles. Hair longer than it should be, Italian boots, tight cut trousers. Rebels, for sure, and everyone knows, kids love whatever their parents see as a threat. The Beatles captured the imagination of an entire generation. The kids of the 50s were now parents in their mid to late 20's, and a new generation of teens were looking for something fresh, and the Beatles came along at the right place and time and captured lightning in a bottle. The artists of the 60's saw their music as a vehichle for social commentary, and weren't afraid to use it. Music grew from just being about love to being about hate, war, rights and wrongs and 'where is youe conscience?'. Still, though, it wasn't a 'change', inasmuch as it was simply more growth and evolution. R&R was getting bigger. The end of the 60's saw the explosion of color, with Motown being accepted into white society, crossing over. Sure, there have always been popular artists of color, but by the mid to late 60's, and especially into the early 70's, color was less and less of an issue where music was concerned. Good music is good music, you know? By the late 70's, disco and punk came along, two more branches of the music tree. Just my opinion, but I think the reason their popularity soared at that time was because yet another generation was looking for something besides their parent's music, something of their own. Fleetwood Mac, Boston, Led Zep, Elton John, and company were okay for those kids, but again, their parents hated disco, and really hated punk. I guess the reason disco and punk flared up and faded so quickly was because they were pretty localized genres. If you didn't like to dance, disco scked, you know? And punk is a product of anger. Not enough angry youths to keep it at the forefront here in America, I guess. The 80's saw the evolution of music to technology. (when you think about it, music has mirrored technology through the years). I'll state this as my own opinion, and anyone can agree or disagree, but here it is: The worst thing to ever happen to music is MTV. Suddenly, you not only had to sound good, you had to look good, as well. Artists began writing songs with videos in mind, sometimes at the risk of compromising musical integrity. MTV was cool at first, because the videos were already made beforehand. Once artists starting making videos along with their albums, music went into the crapper. The techno explosion was interesting, but not really earth shattering. Another branch of music. The techno-punk-pop melding had begun, with androgenous pretty people everywhere. The genre that truly suffered the most from this was metal. 80's big hair metal is the one genre that contributed absolutely nothing to music. Sure, there were a few gunslingers on guitar, but other than that, it was 'let's party and have a good time and write poppy metal about it'. Nothing more. About this time, rap was coming in to it's own as a genre, and picking up steam. The thing about rap, though, is the 20+ year argument as to whether it's music or not. For some it is. To me, it's an art form, an expression, but I wouldn't call it music. It hasn't evolved since it's inception, except to get more violent. It's probably the truest form of music, as an extension of the person rapping. Rappers most live the lifestyle they rap about. Then, in the early 90's, Nirvana stopped evolution dead in it's tracks. They didn't grow from anything else, they were brand new, full of the angst the next generation was looking for. I didn't follow them, but I have a brother 12 years younger than me, and he was really rocked by Cobain's death. Apparently, Cobain spoke for an entire generation. After Nirvana and the whole Seattle grunge thing, music was really left flat-footed, with no real direction. That's why it's been such a melding of country, pop, rap, dance, metal, etc. No one really knew what to do next, so it's all been kind of jumbled into one big wad of blah music. That's just my opinion, of course.
  17. No, just south, in Delaware. An old timer. The first show I ever saw at the Spectrum was KISS, in the mid 70's, and their openers were Judas Priest, on their first American tour, I think.
  18. The best 'hall' I've ever seen a show at was Red Rocks Amphitheater, in Denver, Colorado. It's an outdoor theater, literally dug out of the side of a mountain, with an awesome view in any direction. I saw U2, Heart, Santana, and Iron Maiden there (not all at once), and each time was a great atmoshpere and a party. Lots of positive energy in that place. Here are some photos of it, if anyone wants to look. Red Rocks
  19. I just read an interview in Blender, today as a matter of fact, and Mellencamp's reasoning for giving the rights to his song to hawk trucks is, he's not mainstream any more, and his stuff won't get played on the radio. How that fits into him 'selling out', I don't know, especially since he was so outspoken against Bob Seger doing exactly the same thing, maybe 20 years ago with 'Like A Rock'. I don't know all the ins and outs of corporate rock, but surely the corporate dollar funds tours up front, in exchange for the music being heard in the ads. I remember being sick to my stomach the first time I heard Aerosmith in a tv ad. (I forget for what, an auto company, I think) It's a catch 22 in some cases, I suppose. You cut a record, and don't have the dough to go out on tour and promote it, you know? Then again, there are some acts who could surely afford to foot the bill up front. The Stones are a perfect example. They could probably finance their own tour, and still make a huge profit in the end. But, why do that, when you can have someone else pay your way? At what cost? A couple of your songs in a diet soda commercial? Some would argue artistic integrity and all that. But, we're not the artists, are we? If I enjoy group A, I'll go see them when they come around, whether they have a song in a Gap ad or not. On a final note, I think the biggest crime in music history isn't even on that list: Michael Jackson outbids Paul McCartney for Beatles tunes, and the next thing you know, they're in TV ads.
  20. I didn't mind LB's cover of behind Blue Eyes. Knockin' on Heaven's Door, I saw GnR do live, when they opened for Aerosmith at the Spectrum in Philly years ago. It wasn't too bad. Some guy jumped on stage and swiped Axel's hat during the song, and he dove in after the guy. I kinda think it may have been staged, though. Madonna should be number one. American Pie should never be copied, and she just brutalized it. What a hack job.
  21. 114. Muskrat Love ~ The Captain and Tenielle (sp?) 115. Billy, Don't Be a Hero ~ Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods
  22. 112. Wildfire ~ Michael Martin Murphy 113. Run, Joey Run ~ David Geddes
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