So, what have you been listening to lately?

uwe · July 05, 2022, 06:52:53 PM

REO - like a lot of the AOR greats - were severely underrated as a band. Their ballad hits would eventually dwarf everything else.

Related: I'm currently listening to Journey Greatest Hits Live - a live compilation from 1998 consisting of material from the Smith/Valory line-up at three gigs in Houston, Norman and Tokyo in 1981 and 1983. It went under the radar at the time and the band didn't take an interest in its release (they weren't on speaking terms, Perry had just refused to tour with them following the Trial By Fire reunion album due to his hip injury), but the quality of the old gigs is undeniable. Perry's voice just soars, Valory can be heard extremely well and throws in a lot of nice melodies, Schon's guitar (with much dirtier distortion than in the studio recordings) has feedback in places or even sometimes drops out, but he's on fire throughput. The sets are played raunchy, but with great heart, drive, energy and impeccable chops - you can envisage them smiling while at work. Nothing was added/corrected in the studio - it's basically well-produced (Kevin Shirley has done a brilliant job) soundboard recordings. On the basis of these recordings, Journey between 1981 and 1983 were just incredible as a live band.

I'm really impressed. Would have loved to have seen them back then, but they never toured Germany at the time, the home market kept them busy enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjzHMhBtf0&list=PLY_9P4i2TIReJBNM8MhQasCQP0kJHCTZw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-EYS1LV10o&list=PLY_9P4i2TIReJBNM8MhQasCQP0kJHCTZw&index=2

Given the quality of their music and their performances all the derision that was heaped on them is criminal.

gearHed289 · July 06, 2022, 09:07:59 AM

REO was a great band up until that Hi Infidelity album where they got all syrupy and drenched in reverb.

I had a strong dislike for Journey when they were at their peak (my high school years), but in hindsight, the Gregg Rolie years had some pretty strong stuff.

Pilgrim · July 06, 2022, 10:44:21 AM

For those who remember the Cold War, I highly recommend the Cagney movie "One, Two Three". A great comedy set in West Berlin, mocking the Soviet Union (especially its corrupt officials) and with a story that accelerates beautifully as it goes. It's a wonderful movie that has been mostly forgotten.

The plot revolves around Cagney as the ambitious head of the European division of Coca-Cola, located in West Berlin. The head man of Coke sends his wayward daughter from Atlanta to visit, in the hope that Cagney's character can keep her under control. Instead, she goes to East Berlin and falls in love with a Communist lad played by a young Horst Bucholz. Ca

This clip is from the key sequence as all the plot lines come together and they head for the airport to meet the head of Coca-Cola who is coming to see his daughter.

morrow · July 06, 2022, 11:41:09 AM

Three weird old Stax tunes to pick up . They had a knack for coming up with bizarre beginnings or middle sections . I think they were smoking too much pot .

and this one's almost normal

uwe · July 06, 2022, 04:08:58 PM

Quote from: Pilgrim on July 06, 2022, 10:44:21 AM
For those who remember the Cold War, I highly recommend the Cagney movie "One, Two Three". A great comedy set in West Berlin, mocking the Soviet Union (especially its corrupt officials) and with a story that accelerates beautifully as it goes. It's a wonderful movie that has been mostly forgotten.

The plot revolves around Cagney as the ambitious head of the European division of Coca-Cola, located in West Berlin. The head man of Coke sends his wayward daughter from Atlanta to visit, in the hope that Cagney's character can keep her under control. Instead, she goes to East Berlin and falls in love with a Communist lad played by a young Horst Bucholz. Ca

This clip is from the key sequence as all the plot lines come together and they head for the airport to meet the head of Coca-Cola who is coming to see his daughter.

Mostly forgotten?! Not in Germany, it's an adored Billy Wilder classic. Film academy students are raised on this stuff. Don't tell me that Billy Wilder is forgotten too in the US?

Pilgrim · July 06, 2022, 06:50:47 PM

Unfortunately mostly yes. Directors who have passed away (other than John Ford and a few others) are mostly unknown.

I haven't met anyone in 20 years who had heard of One, Two, Three...but I agree it's a classic, and I'll bet most of those here are old enough to remember the Cold War. I find that movie hilarious, and the pacing leading to the end practically leaves one breathless.

Not surprised that it's appreciated in Germany. The biting satire in the characters from the USSR is pervasive. They are all corrupt, and most of them are pretty dumb too.

One of my favorite bits is Schlemmer, the assistant who clicks his heels at each order and insists he wasn't a Nazi...although he's revealed near the end. And the entire secretarial pool, who all stand every time the boss passes through - then he yells "Sitzen machen!"

Dave W · July 06, 2022, 10:51:48 PM

uwe · July 07, 2022, 06:31:43 AM

Quote from: Pilgrim on July 06, 2022, 06:50:47 PM
Unfortunately mostly yes. Directors who have passed away (other than John Ford and a few others) are mostly unknown.

I haven't met anyone in 20 years who had heard of One, Two, Three...but I agree it's a classic, and I'll best most of those here are old enough to remember the Cold War. I find that movie hilarious, and the pacing leading to the end practically leaves one breathless.

Not surprised that it's appreciated in Germany. The biting satire in the characters from the USSR is pervasive. They are all corrupt, and most of them are pretty dumb too.

One of my favorite bits is Schlemmer, the assistant who clicks his heels at each order and insists he wasn't a Nazi...although he's revealed near the end. And the entire secretarial pool, who all stand every time the boss passes through - then he yells "Sitzen machen!"

Among cineasts, Wilder is revered in Germany. Depending on your definition, he (born Samuel Wilder in Krakow, his mom nicknamed him "Billie" as a child, he anglicized it to "Billy" when moving to the States, yet always pronounced his last name as "Will-der" in German/Yiddish fashion, not as in wildlife) was Polish, Austrian, German and American. In that order - and Jewish all the time. His parents were murdered in the Holocaust, he was working in Berlin when the Nazi's took power, yet made it to America. His work is etched in German collective memory for the first documentary film on the concentration camp horrors and crimes "Death Mills/Todesmühlen" from as early as 1945 (be warned, it's a very tough watch):

It was mandatory viewing (the beginning of re-educational de-nazification) for the German population in the US Occupation Zone and both my parents (aged 13 and 14 then) saw it in the local small town cinema - it left an indelible mark on them. When my mother spoke of the concentration camps, it was always the footage from that film she had in her head. Though I saw the film only much later (it is still occasionally shown on German TV - as a whole or in parts), I could recognize certain scenes from her descriptions, the starving man eating spilled food from the ground for instance.

The film has inaccuracies and generalizations plus draws the wrong conclusions from anecdotal observations in places (while not mentioning even greater horrors that only came to light later). Of course the Konzentrationslager system has been documented since then in much more comprehensive and focused fashion - historic research continues to this day, there are still criminal trials against concentration camp personnel (in their 90ies or 100s now) being conducted in Germany. But this is the film that brought the horror home to a German population for the first time and had a huge impact in instilling what can probably best be described as a national/generational feeling of collective shame and guilt. An eyeopener in the truest sense of the word.

Wilder's positive reception in Germany is therefore not just built on well-directed satirical comedies or great drama:

BTW, he was approached to direct Schindler's List, but passed due to his age and recommended Spielberg to do it.

Pilgrim · July 07, 2022, 09:28:22 AM

Thanks for sharing that story. It's a look at post-WWII Germany that we in the states have not seen.

uwe · July 08, 2022, 07:52:37 AM

It was exactly the right thing to forcibly confront the German population with those horrors that had happened while most of them had looked the other way. Holocaust deniers or "what about"ers are therefore a thankfully rare breed in Germany today and you automatically put yourself outside any acceptable and sensible mainstream if you even start along those lines. With the last survivors/eye-witnesses dying away in the next few years, it's important to preserve the memory.

Pilgrim · July 08, 2022, 10:49:19 AM

I strongly agree. The words "Lest we forget" come to mind.

Pilgrim · July 09, 2022, 08:19:23 AM

Found this in a Dick Dale mix from YouTube: Danelectro sighting!

uwe · July 10, 2022, 07:14:33 AM

Yes, with some very concentrated playing/hitting the right notes.

gearHed289 · July 11, 2022, 08:58:48 AM

Reverb unit as a "stomp" box. Nice!

uwe · July 13, 2022, 07:04:48 AM

This song has been done to death a zillion times, but this is a version of it that really cptures the Chuck Berry sound without aping it, yet paying tribute (as intended) to Edgar's brother as well.

The whole album is a cracker and recommended, a true labor of sibling love.

Not everything that Edgar has done, especially more recently, is great, but this album shines. He really had an ear for what his elder brother was doing.