Music videos that feature Thunderbirds

[uwe]

Alan, here you are:

The song is based on a true story about forgetting to pack a guitar , panicking on the plane half way to Memphis, and having the instrument shipped by train to Oriole Kentucky. On collection the instrument is badly damaged (electric junk). The shame presumably comes from being treated with indifference by the black shipping clerk, and possibly from being responsible for it ending up in that condition. The guitar belonged to Mick Ralphs although Ian Hunter sings the song in the first person. The incident is referenced in 'The Ballad of Mott the Hoople': "Buffin lost his childlike dreams, and Mick lost his guitar"

Ian Hunter is an old geezer, born pre-WW II, back then "spade" probably wasn't the worst thing you could call a person of color in Ole Blighty. And certainly, the black GIs that began to populate the UK ahead of the Normandy invasion were surprised about the non-segregationist society they found. I'm sure he  never meant it in a denigrating way, he loved what Black Americans brought to wartime England.



These days when he sings the song the "spade" is replaced with "dude".

PS: I thought the same thing about Ace and Ariel. Being the Anglophiles they were, I'm sure Ace's inspiration for his "stutter guitar playing" helped him win the audition with Paul and Gene. They had actually already settled for Bob Kulick when Ace stumbled in as the last guy they auditioned.

[Ken]

PS: I thought the same thing about Ace and Ariel. Being the Anglophiles they were, I'm sure Ace's inspiration for his "stutter guitar playing" helped him win the audition with Paul and Gene. They had actually already settled for Bob Kulick when Ace stumbled in as the last guy they auditioned.

Interesting point.  I wonder how different their music and success would've been with Bob instead of Ace from the beginning.  I know Bob played with them later on.

[uwe]

Bob was/is a much more elegant player while Ace sort of lurches and stumbles around on the fretboard. KISS would have probably sounded a bit smoother, tasteful and accomplished, not that any of that was high on their agenda. Ace was idiosyncratic though I find his style an acquired taste. But it's 100% him.

Given Bob's premature hair loss, the "era of wigs" would have likely set in a few decades earlier with KISS. He did play with Paul Stanley's solo band later on.

Not that his look couldn't have been incorporated into the KISS image:



I first heard of him via this here:



Why did he never form a band with Tony Levin?



I had forgotten that he left us in 2020, COVID delayed a necessary heart surgery for too long, shucks, rest in peace.

[Ken]

I grew up listening to Ace, so his tone and style are like home for me.

Bob also recorded with Kiss later on, I guess when Ace was on his way out.

[TBird1958]

Alan, here you are:

The song is based on a true story about forgetting to pack a guitar , panicking on the plane half way to Memphis, and having the instrument shipped by train to Oriole Kentucky. On collection the instrument is badly damaged (electric junk). The shame presumably comes from being treated with indifference by the black shipping clerk, and possibly from being responsible for it ending up in that condition. The guitar belonged to Mick Ralphs although Ian Hunter sings the song in the first person. The incident is referenced in 'The Ballad of Mott the Hoople': "Buffin lost his childlike dreams, and Mick lost his guitar"

Ian Hunter is an old geezer, born pre-WW II, back then "spade" probably wasn't the worst thing you could call a person of color in Ole Blighty. And certainly, the black GIs that began to populate the UK ahead of the Normandy invasion were surprised about the non-segregationist society they found. I'm sure he  never meant it in a denigrating way, he loved what Black Americans brought to wartime England.



These days when he sings the song the "spade" is replaced with "dude".

PS: I thought the same thing about Ace and Ariel. Being the Anglophiles they were, I'm sure Ace's inspiration for his "stutter guitar playing" helped him win the audition with Paul and Gene. They had actually already settled for Bob Kulick when Ace stumbled in as the last guy they auditioned.

The cover you love to hate............But hey, at least they have a German on guitar!


I likes it!

[uwe]

It's not awful, but with all due respect to my blond countryman: He doesn't have the raunch to play something like that credibly. Tracii Guns' solo is shorter than Michael's but closer to the spirit of the song. Michael overplays terribly and sounds academically distanced at the same time. He has never been any good at doing anything other than his own music. I remember seeing him listlessly with the Scorpions on the Lovedrive Tour (his short-lived "return" to the Hannoverians) and you could feel his physical discomfort oozing from the stage having to play his brother's and Uli Roth's songs and solos - he made off soon after.

Even Paul 'Tonka' Chapman, Michael's initial replacement with UFO, could have done this song better. He had more sleaze in him.

[uwe]

Live Mott the Hoople, with a TB II providing all the low end rumble.

Alas!, Luther/Ariel still has all the sartorial splendor you could reasonably ask for ...



And that's Morgan Fisher playing piano on the left too! No idea who the guy with the brown no-name guitar upstaging everyone is though.

Here's the upstager again - mingling with a Bad Company guitarist and some guy from Blind Lion!

[uwe]

More cowbell!

[uwe]

The Faces Black Crowes with a Non Rev.

[TBird1958]

My Orville Thunderbird and I.

 

[Basvarken]

The Faces Black Crowes with a Non Rev.

And not just for the promo video.
Sven Pipien uses it live too.

Here's the CD release party gig:

[uwe]

My Orville Thunderbird and I.

 

Perhaps, allerliebster Mark, you should consider a stage name change to "Miss Fanny Fünquette"?

[uwe]

Herr Entwistle playing what is substantially (still) a Rev TBird,




but with changes to the body that would even make Scott's eyes bleed:




Look here under "Axe Bass" for details:

https://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass7174.html

Don't try this at home, please.

[TBird1958]

Perhaps, allerliebster Mark, you should consider a stage name change to "Miss Fanny Fünquette"?

I'm a lot of things, but sadly I don't "Funk" very well. 

[Basvarken]

People are dancing, so you must be doing something right!