So, what have you been listening to lately?

[westen44]

When it comes to Bill Haley, it's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" which I like as much or more than anything.  That song captures a lot of things, especially the essence of the 50s.  It is transcendent.  Here is a quote from SongFacts.

Bill Haley and his Comets recorded this song in 1954 as the follow-up to their single "Thirteen Women"/"Rock Around The Clock." This version was a hit, going to #7 on the Billboard charts. Haley reworked the most overtly sexual lyrics in the song for the sake of airplay, replacing "You wear those dresses, the sun comes shining through. I can't believe my eyes all that mess belongs to you" with "You wearin' those dresses, your hair done up so nice. You look so warm but your heart is as cold as ice." The "one-eyed cat peekin' in a seafood store" stayed in, since that one went over the heads of most white listeners.

[Dave W]

I had this one on 45. Not a hit but it did get airplay and I liked it.

[westen44]

I've probably heard that one, too, somewhere along the line.  I can see how those lyrics might especially appeal to adolescent boys at the time.

[Basvarken]

This girl must have vocal cords of titanium 

[Dave W]

Written by Michael Martin Murphey and based on a real character named Dean Kirk who played at the train station in Silverton Colorado.

[uwe]

Mark's heartthrob David B together with the boys in a rare lip-synced (yet very earnest) performance of their perennial dance floor stomper (back in the day when people still danced to hard rock) ...



Kerslake's shuffle playing is a dream of a feathery swing.

[uwe]

Bunch of Vikings doing their appropriation of Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American a Canadian Band" ...



BTO weren't what I would call 'cerebral', but they sure made you feel good.

[gearHed289]

Mark's heartthrob David B together with the boys in a rare lip-synced (yet very earnest) performance of their perennial dance floor stomper (back in the day when people still danced to hard rock) ...



Kerslake's shuffle playing is a dream of a feathery swing.

Always loved that tune. Was a challenge to play as a teen. Maybe more so now! 

And Jerry Bryant is a legend around these parts. https://www.robertfeder.com/2022/04/29/38-years-tv-music-icon-jerry-bryant-still-big-plans-rock/

[uwe]

He looks like a member of Heep today himself!

You probably never heard this version here ...




Which, listening to it now, makes me wonder if a couple of Swedes gave it a close listen ...

[Dave W]

[gearHed289]

He looks like a member of Heep today himself!

You probably never heard this version here ...

WOW! 

[uwe]

That was very common/de rigueur in Europe - taking an Anglo-American song, rerecording it and giving it a new set of national lyrics gave you claim to half the respective national royalties of the translated version.

Some examples (I believe you will recognize the original in each and every case - answers on a postcard ...):









Even reputable acts did it, albeit under a fake moniker, Klaus and the boys said they needed the money at the time, the Scorps were up-and-coming, but also broke in the mid-seventies, to continue touring and build their career they had an idea, possibly after having opened for Brian, Steve, Andy & Mick on a German tour ...

[4stringer77]

That Cindy und Bert cover of Black Sabbath almost sounds like a Deep Purple cover with the hammond. Cindy looks like she could use a glass of orange juice. 

[uwe]

Actually, that particular track - very early days for them - was not so bad at all, I like the Hammond too and their vocal harmonies. In the early 70ies, Deep Purple had become a household name in Germany - you couldn't escape the In Rock cover - and Hammond sounds became much more prevalent in all kinds of music. The almost as popular Uriah Heep left an organ imprint too. It wasn't really until Punk when traditional rhythm guitar saw a resurgence. In the first half of the 70ies in Germany, a proper rock band had a guitarist AND a keyboard player.

Alas!, much greater horrors would follow ...



Yet Cindy's complexion grew tanner (her and Bert's Paranoid version had a goth horror lyric, so maybe their make-up was to make them look pale) and she had a solo career (adding her surname Berger) - still with the old recipe of covering Anglo-American stuff, here some Cheap Trick ...

[uwe]

I went and saw Pearl Jam last night (my wife dragged me along). I guess some thirty-years-after-the-fact, Grunge and I have found an uneasy truce. (It was the first gig of a committed Grunge band - some people would even doubt that with Pearl Jam of all Seattle bands of that era, I know - I've ever been to, wild horses couldn't have dragged me to Nirvana or Soundgarden.) It was a good gig, the audience lapped it up and Vedder (starting to look a bit Don Henley'esque) is a fine singer and (slightly evangelical, which is not my thing) front man.

Pause ... 

But I can't help myself, the guitar interplay in this type of band is - as separation of duties and complementing each other or even simply reinforcing a unison riff (not that there are many) go - not to the engineering standards of, dare I say it, Judas Priest, yes?  I'm serious, any half-baked heavy metal band is "neater" in its guitar arrangements, let's not even talk about the kind of sophisticated guitar interplay you have in Wishbone Ash or the Allman Brothers. Now do stone me.

I know I'm just old.