Showing posts with label Fuzz Tone Guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fuzz Tone Guitar. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2016

DESDINOVA'S FAVORITE PRINCE SONGS


I was attracted to Prince, not just because of his music was great, but because he was considered "evil" by adults. Most people seem to have forgotten about this in the passing years. Of course, the right-wing arm of the media is trying to remind us of this, while scandalizing his death. I notice they leave out the name of the person, who brought Prince's erotic hits to public scrutiny: Tipper Gore, ex-wife of former Vice President Al Gore Jr.

I spent most of one summer trying to tape a perfect recording of "When Doves Cry" from the radio. I loved the opening fuzztone guitar solo.

Remember these are my personal rankings, not anything official.

1. "When Doves Cry"
2. "Little Red Corvette"
3. "Let's Go Crazy"
4. "Peach"
5. "Delirious"
6. "Darling Nikki"
7. "U Got the Look"
8. "1999"
9. "Raspberry Beret"
10. "Purple Rain"
11. "Kiss"
12. "Take Me With U"
13. "I Would Die for You"
14. "I Wanna Be Your Lover"
15. "Controversy"

Saturday, July 12, 2014

PUSHIN TOO HARD IS A COOLER SONG THAN CHICKEN FRIED

I realize the last "cooler than" post probably lost some people, but it was a personal vindication for me. Now comes another apples to oranges "cooler than" but I it is a point I feel I have to make. The Seeds 1966 hit "Pushin Too Hard" is cooler song than "Chicken Fried." I posted about my disdain for the song "Chicken Fried" on the old blog.


Why this comparison? These are two totally different songs. True, but there was a time in the recent past when these songs were part of a battle at the local location of a popular chain restaurant. I began going there after I would get off from work. It was a stressful time for me at my job. Part of the stress was due to the fact that some of the people, who worked at the radio station where I was employed, didn't like that I frequently made fun of a competing radio station. I'll let you think about the absurdity that situation. It was kind of like the CEOs at K-Mart not wanting anyone to disparage Wal-Mart.

Back to the subject of the post. I would go to The Buffalo Wild Wings location on Battlefield Road in Springfield to blow off steam and because it was near my apartment. One reason I liked to got there was they had a Touch Tunes jukebox. This jukebox isn't bound by a limited number of CDs or records, but you can find just about anything in one of these (with a few exceptions). It is kind of like a giant Ipod on a wall.


I find when I'm in a bad mood, there are certain songs that I want to hear that make me feel better.  So I was pleased to find that one of my all-time favorite songs could be played on the Touch Tunes jukebox: "Pushin Too Hard" by the Seeds.

I discovered the song when I was eight years old on a compilation LP of my older sister's called 24 Original Happening Hits (above). When I was eight years old, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Torquemada (not her real name), hated me. She treated me like dirt. One day, I decided to play this record to see what it sounded like because I had always been intrigued by the cover art of dancing people without faces. I heard a song with a guy snarling these words:

"All I want is to just be free
Live my life the way I wanna be
All I want is to just have fun
Live my life like it's just begun
But you're pushin' too hard
Pushin' too hard on me (too hard)" 


This song summed my life at eight years old, and pretty much the rest of my life. I also loved the fuzztone guitar solo in the middle of the song, which I always described as giving me the same sensation as chomping down on a piece of tinfoil while sticking your tongue in the prong on a 9 volt battery. Every time I hear it, I have to play air guitar to it.

So I was thrilled to find "Pushin Too Hard" in a modern jukebox. I began playing The Seeds only Top 40 hit every time I was at  Buffalo Wild Wings. The Touch Tunes jukebox had a section that listed the most played songs at that location and I had succeeded in making "Pushin Too Hard" one of the most played songs at the Battlefield Road location of Buffalo Wild Wings. That also made me some enemies.

At that time, there was a group of regulars that would be at BWW when I would be there. The nicest way I could say it is the group was made up of redneck goober guys in their late teens and early 20s, one or two attractive girls and a foursome of marauding fat girls.

This last group were the worst. If they saw you put money in the jukebox, they would run up and ask you what you were playing. When you told them what you were selecting, they would scream in your ear, "DON'T PLAY THAT! PLAY "CHICKEN FRIED"!" The nerve of these young women to ask me to play THEIR FAVORITE SONG with MY MONEY was maddening. Obviously, there were some people just stupid enough to comply with their demands, because "Chicken Fried" would play usually about four times in the two hours between the time I arrived after work and closing time. If you refused they did something that I called "song jumping." The jukebox has a feature where if you pay extra money you could "hear your song next." They would use their own money to "jump" my selections, including "Pushin Too Hard."
  
Why do I believe "Pushin Too Hard" is a cooler song than "Chicken Fried"?  One word: conformity!  "Pushin Too Hard" is in-your-face rebellion at it's best. It is the musical equivalent of a middle finger. It is Brando saying "I don't know. What ya got?" when the girl at the soda counter ask what he is rebelling against in The Wild One, it is Peter Fonda tying up the preacher in Wild Angels, it is Jack Nicholson telling the crabby waitress to "hold the chicken between your knees" in Five Easy Pieces, it is the Delta House gang disrupting the homecoming parade at the end of Animal House, it is Andy Travis putting the KISS Spirit of 76 poster over a funeral home calender in the pilot of WKRP in Cincinnati, and, for that matter, it is The Seeds performing "Pushin Too Hard" on The Mother-In-Laws (watch the adults faces).  The Seeds "Pushin Too Hard" paved the way for The Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen," Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," The Beastie Boys "Fight For Your Right" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

"Chicken Fried" is a checklist for people wanting to live the small town, redneck, square in the post 9-11 America (or is it Murica). It is the equivalent of those dumb memes posted every day on Facebook by the people you didn't like in junior high school. I'm surprised it doesn't mention watching The Waltons or Little House on The Prairie reruns on satellite TV.


Which brings me to another reason I don't like "Chicken Fried." I hate most country music anyway, but "Chicken Fried" is part of a trend I dubbed the "cut-and-paste" country song. All of these songs have identical lyrics. I was surprised to find out that Zac Brown, himself, has criticized this trend.
Granted, there were several songs of the same theme as "Pushin Too Hard" in the late 60s, i.e: "Let Me Be" The Turtles, "I'm Not Your Steppin Stone" The Monkees, "Talk Talk" The Music Machine, "Satisfaction" The Rolling Stones. The difference is the lyrics are different not exactly the same.

Every crappy country song these people played on the Touch Tunes jukebox was indistinguishable from "Chicken Fried."  They may have called them "Country Boy" by Aaron Lewis or "Dirt Road Anthem" by Jason Aldean, but they are basically "Chicken Fried." I will go further that these songs are barely removed from "Dixieland Delight" by Alabama. 

As I mentioned, my love for the song "Pushin Too Hard" by the Seeds goes back to childhood. When I was younger, I heard a longer version of  "Pushin Too Hard" on oldies stations. I cannot seem to find a version of this. It was not on the original LP. Sadly, most oldies and classic rock station no longer play the song. Even worse, Touch Tunes has removed The Seeds masterpiece rock anthem from their jukeboxes. Unfortunately, "Chicken Fried" remains in the jukebox and is only a one credit play. There is some horrible injustice about the disrespect for a song as cool as "Pushin Too Hard" and idiots liking "Chicken Fried."

RIGHT, CASEY??


 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

WILD ANGELS IS COOLER THAN RED DAWN


Sometime in high school, I rented Roger Corman's Wild Angels at the local video store. I thought this was one of the coolest movies I had ever seen (next to the 1980 Flash Gordon movie). I thought "I've got to tell everyone at school about this." Of course, as was common with my classmates at Lebanon High School, they were uninterested in what I thought was a cool movie. Everyone that weekend had seen a movie at the local theater called Red Dawn. When I asked what Red Dawn was about, I was told it was about "a high school football team defending their community from an invasion by the Russian army." I replied "That sounds stupid!" Naturally, this lead to me being punched or kicked or something.

Let me proceed to explain why Wild Angels is a cooler movie than Red Dawn. First off, you have one of the coolest opening sequences in any movie. A mother watches her little boy on his tricycle ride down hill at break neck speed. She runs to stop him before he rides into traffic. She stops him and then looks around to see the head Angel, Blues (Peter Fonda), on his chopper lighting a cigarette (maybe a joint). She has a look of disgust and fear on her face a the sight. Fonda then revs up his bike and takes off down the road to the Fuzztone drenched theme song, "Blue's Theme" by Dave Allen and the Arrows.

Blues goes to a construction sight to tell his friend, Loser (Bruce Dern), that they found his stolen bike in Mecca, California. A co-worker (Dick Miller) starts lecturing Blues on wearing an Iron Cross, so Blues and Loser threaten to pull out his teeth with a wrench. Loser's supervisor yells at him, so he throws the wrench at him, which gets Loser fired.

Yes, she does wear boots in this movie.

The Angels try to retrieve the bike and get into a fight with a group of Mexicans that they believe stole it. The Highway Patrol shows up and Loser tries to get away on a patrolman's cycle. He is shot in the back by a patrolman. Later, the Angels, with the help of Blues' Mike (Nancy Sinatra), break into the hospital and take Loser back to their clubhouse, where he dies.

During the funeral, Blues lashes out at the minister. The minster ask Blues what he and the Angels "want." Blues yells, "We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! ... And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time... We are gonna have a party." Parts of that speech were later sampled as part of Primal Scream's hit song "Loaded." There has never been any of the dialog from Red Dawn sampled in a song, unless it is crappy country song by Toby Keith, Daryl Worley or Zac Brown Band.

What sets Wild Angels apart from Fonda's other biker movie, Easy Rider, is that Wild Angels doesn't weigh us down with message and characterization. Instead Corman gives scenes of the bikers outrageous partying with beer, bongo playing, loud music, grabing women, fights and even "bull fighting" a biker. Easy Rider is cerebral, where Wild Angels is just mayhem on film. However, Easy Rider is a masterpiece and also has a better soundtrack.

Wild Angels spawned the whole biker genre. Red Dawn didn't inspire any high school football player hero movies. What kind of doofus would watch a high school football player hero movie? Maybe one that looks like this:

A doofus who liked the movie Red Dawn

I guess I should point out. I've never watched Red Dawn. I thought the plot sounded stupid in high school and I still think it sounds stupid. Why waste my time with that, when I can watch Wild Angels again on DVD. Besides, I've never heard of the director, so he must not have made anything else.

Of course, opinions like these are why I'm considered the super villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!







Sunday, July 28, 2013

YOUR DAILY ALLOWANCE OF FUZZTONE GUITAR

Recently, I was watching commercials from the 80s and 90s on You Tube. They reminded me of something I forgot about from that era: the obsession with bran. Every cereal boasted "Your daily allowance of bran."

At the time, I was one of the student DJs on the "Midnight Snack" on KSMU-FM. I would say, "Have you gotten your daily allowance of fuzztone guitar?"

A little quick trivia before I give you an Ipod playlist of "Your daily allowance of fuzztone guitar."
While it is commonly associated with psychedelia and heavy metal, fuzztone was created by accident by COUNTRY MUSIC PEOPLE IN NASHVILLE. Something was not hooked up right during the recording of Marty Robbins "Don't Worry." Not long after that, Chet Adkins decided to create his own version on a record for Ann Margaret called "I Just Don't Understand."

The Ventures then contacted Red Rhodes, who worked on the Marty Robbins hit about recreating that sound for an instrumental called "The 200 Pound Bee." Rhodes worked out the first pedal for fuzztone. They went on the market in 1962, but didn't sell well because the admen decided to market the fuzztone pedal as a device to make a guitar sound like a violin or horn.

The next year, Keith Richards used it on a Rolling Stones song called "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." From that moment on, fuzztone was a major part of rock and roll.

Here is a daily dose of fuzztone guitar for you readers. Note: this is not a "best" or "greatest" list. Don't argue with this list. It is a prescription; a health dose of fuzz tone guitar to make you feel better. I may prescribe another dose latter.  

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - The Rolling Stones
"Pushin Too Hard" - The Seeds
"To Die Alone" - The Bush
"Talk Talk" - The Music Machine
"Spirit In The Sky" - Norman Greenbaum
"She's Fallen In Love With a Monster Man" - Screaming Lord Sutch
"I Can See For Miles" - The Who
"I Heard Her Call My Name" - Velvet Underground
"I Can Only Give You Everything" - The Troggs
"Blue's Theme (From Wild Angels)" - Dave Allen & the Arrows
"House of the Rising Sun" - Fryjid Pink
"Your Auntie Grizelda" - The Monkees
"Heart Full of Soul" - The Yardbirds
"Bad Little Woman" - Shadows of Knight
"Addicted To Love" - Robert Palmer
"When Doves Cry" - Prince & the Revolution
"The Nile Song" - Pink Floyd
"Cowgirl In The Sand" - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
"Deflecting Grey" - The Pretty Things
"Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits
"I Take What I Want" - James & Bobby Purify
"Beat It" - Michael Jackson
"I'll Make You Pay" - The Shady Daze
"No Fun" - The Stooges
"Whole Lotta Love" - Led Zeppelin
"You Don't Love Me" - Kaleidoscope
"Foxy Lady" - Jimi Hendrix Experience
"No Time" - The Guess Who
"Think For Yourself" - The Beatles
"San Francisco Girls (Return To The Native)" - Fever Tree
"A Girl Like You" - Edwyn Collins
"Shadows" - The Electric Prunes
"Hurdy Gurdy Man' - Donovan
"Paranoid" Black Sabbath
"Smoke On the Water" - Deep Purple
"Bluebird" - Buffalo Springfield
"Who Is Gonna Mow Your Grass" - Buck Owens


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