A lady, back in 1957, addressing the camera in an elegant evening gown, fit for some grand society ball, had this message for the oldsters: "Now, whatever you think of rock and roll, I think you have to keep a nice, open mind about what the young people go for." She then proceeded to announce Buddy Holly and the Crickets, who obligingly performed their hit
Peggy Sue for the ballroom dancers' pleasure and edification. That same Buddy Holly would've been quite the oldster himself, had he lived to see today, his 75th birthday. So, if you have a little time on your hands today, you might like to learn more about Buddy by viewing
The Real Buddy Holly Story 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9 and
10. Cause, hey, Buddy was not only one of the most unique and vital voices of the early days of rock'n'roll, but he wore the same glasses that every other hipster in Berlin is wearing
right now.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Sep 7, 2011 -
60 comments
"Having vaulted from the fringes of pop culture into the mainstream after a newly atomic America became obsessed with films about mutants and aliens, SF literature matured and flowered throughout the '60s and beyond, just as rock 'n' roll did the same.
It was inevitable that the two would mix."
posted by gman
on Jun 23, 2010 -
47 comments
My Beat Club has a whole ton of classic rock perfomance videos, mostly from old German TV shows
Musikladen and
Beat Club. Among the videos on offer are
Small Faces' Tin Soldier,
Chuck Berry's School Days,
Ike & Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High,
The Who's My Generation,
Country Joe McDonald's I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag,
The Everly Brothers' All I Have to Do is Dream,
The Ramones' Sheena is a Punk Rocker,
Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime,
T. Rex's 20th Century Boy,
New York Dolls' Looking for a Kiss,
The Byrds' So You Want to Be a Rock n' Roll Star,
Thin Lizzy's Whiskey in the Jar,
Slade's We'll Bring the House Down,
The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Purple Haze and so much, much more!
posted by Kattullus
on Jul 29, 2009 -
30 comments
NickCaveFilter: Fifty years ago this very day,
Nicholas Edward Cave [
previously] crawled from the womb and started to plot. At 16 he formed his first band which evolved quickly into the
Boys Next Door [
Shivers]. This in turn mutated into
the Birthday Party (1980) who terrorised the post-punk soundscape in Australia and the UK [
Release the Bats |
Nick the Stripper]. The
Birthday Party relocated to England and in 1984 the band imploded in an orgy of drugs and booze. Shortly after
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were born [The Ship Song -
video &
solo live | The Mercy Seat -
video &
live |
Where the Wild Roses Grow], and 23 years and 11 studio albums later (not to mention a
best selling book, a
great screenplay,
some acting and several soundtrack projects) he is still going strong. But, instead of sitting on his musical laurels he decided to get back to basics and, in 2006,
grew a huge moustache and formed
Grinderman – a four piece with a primeval hybrid Birthday Party/Bad Seeds sound [
No Pussy Blues |
Honey Bee]. Fellow Mefites, I ask you to raise a glass to
Mr. Cave… And, especially if you are not familiar to his work, don’t forget to “look inside” for my primer on the enigma that is Nick Cave, one of the
finest song-writers on the face of this miserable planet.
[more inside]
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar
on Sep 22, 2007 -
98 comments
Christs, Communists, & Rock 'n' Roll is an excellent introduction to a tradition of anti-rock writings and recordings by the Religious Right. In the 1960s, there was
David Noebel who wrote
Communism, Hypnotism, & the Beatles and
The Marxist Minstrels. In the early 1970s,
Reverend Riblett constructs a seven-foot cross out of rock music records and sets it aflame with gasoline. Michael Mills finds
hidden Satanic messages in Bow Wow Wow and the Grateful Dead, while Bob Larson valiantly
debates Mandy, a 13-year-old fan of the Cure. The motherlode is probably the
cassettes of John Todd, who traveled the fundamentalist circuit in the 1970s claiming to be a former witch and a member of the Illuminati, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. (more inside)
posted by jonp72
on Aug 20, 2007 -
31 comments
Cracked Pepper by ccc and ill chemist is a mash-up of The Beatles'
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and an amazing array of songs you know. While not quite on par with the focus and sheer audacity of DangerMouse's
Grey Album, Cracked Pepper is a smart, rich, and rewarding listen. Available track by track or as a torrent.
See inside for tracks sampled.
posted by saguaro
on Jul 30, 2007 -
35 comments
Vault Radio. Remember
Wolfgang's Vault? They've now started releasing the massive amounts of music that they discovered via FM-quality 128k stream. The
current rotation isn't huge (not much worse than commercial radio), but there's a lot of great stuff on there that you've never heard before, presumably.
posted by bigmike
on Feb 10, 2006 -
9 comments
Wolfgang's Vault :
Bill Graham, of
Fillmore fame, was born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin. He grew up to invent, more or less, the modern rock 'n' roll promotion industry. He also had an eye for the future, stashing away
posters,
T-shirts,
backstage passes,
tickets, and
photography for posterity (us).
Now, 15 years after his death, you have him to thank not only for
$350 Rolling Stones tickets but also for
$3800 Rolling Stones posters.
Purchased from
Satan at a crossroads Clear Channel a few years back, the vault also contains a bunch of audio and video
that Clear Channel didn't know it had and which we may or may not ever get to experience.
posted by bigmike
on Jan 6, 2006 -
13 comments
Bobby Fuller was a Texas based rock and roll singer best known for the immortal rebel anthem
"I Fought The Law,". Considered by many to be the heir to Buddy Holly as the king of Texas Rock, he built on Holly's style with songs like the aforementioned "...Law," "Jenny Lee," "Love's Made A Fool Of You," and the 2 1/2 minute masterpiece "Let Her Dance." And then it ended,
at age 22, in very
weird circumstances. Over the years, interest in Fuller and his work has ebbed and flowed, and plenty of
archival material surfaced, but the mystery of his death remains unsolved, although many have
speculated. Ann odd end for a footnote character in rick history, but who was bound for more
posted by jonmc
on May 7, 2004 -
16 comments
Spot The Essential, Seminal, How-Could-These-Imbeciles-Have-Forgotten? Popular Song: A well-made list, specially if it's authoritative and includes no less than 500 songs, is just asking to be cruelly inspected for omissions, ridiculed for certain inclusions and generally derided. This one is, admittedly, a toughy. But perhaps way too US-centric and too Rockist. I mean, honestly, sometimes you Yanks act as if you'd invented Pop music! ;) (
Via the newly-discovered Rivurcated Bifets.)
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Nov 19, 2003 -
67 comments
Rock n Roll! We know that Sex and Drugs ain't good for us, but researchers at McGill University are using very fancy devices to learn how our brains react to music. (Probably not much to discuss, but it's an interesting article)
posted by adamms222
on Nov 27, 2002 -
6 comments
