Cloudy, etc.

Dear Jamelsa,

I just wasted my convalescence editing the blog so that we now have a long ungainly list of recording artistes to our right, with ACDC in an unfortunately prominent position. This brought to my attention that we've only mentioned Simon and Garfunkel once in six months, so I'm righting that right now with some hipster grooving from the sixteeees.





I'm most impressed with the Kraft Hall Concert find, although it has to be said that the boys take the name of the venue too literally and go a bit cheesy. Overs has got to be one of my all time favourite songs of all time, even though to this day I have yet to find anyone with such an intake of saccharine that could be described as a habit. Here it is again in fine technocolor with added tache.



Want more tache? You got it.

Friday on my Mind

Dear James,

In case anyone needs further evidence of all the other songs on Pin-Ups being rubbish, here's the original for Friday on my Mind by the Easybeats and here's Bowie's version. While we're here, here's the original Sorrow by the Merseys. Better!

The Easybeats were Australia's answer to The Monkees. What's that? Hang on...

The Easybeats were Australia's answer to The Beatles. You will of course notice ACDC's big brother George Young (he of the ironic dancing) and blond guitar-playing Dutchman Harry Vanda, who went on to form Flash and the Pan. You may not notice the guitar line that System of a Down borrowed for Kill Rock n Roll, set here for reasons known to its auteur to a Gorillaz video. SOAD might have heard the song via axe-god Gary Moore, essaying his version here and coming across as a Spinal Tap tribute.

No Reply At All

Dear Daniel,

See? I can't be a music snob. I've posted Genesis. It's impossible to be a music snob and publically admit knowledge of their post-Gabriel work. Although clearly the only time it is acceptable to listen to this song is when you are making the point: I haven't replied to you because Virgin are too busy to plug me in before Thursday. Did you notice I wrote "work" before? I did that because I bet they call it work. Except Phil. Phil doesn't call it work. It's all just a joke to Phil. Tiny Phil. You see how small he is next to a regular-sized rack tom? You think it's a trick of perspective or some 80s bluescreen wizardry until Phil playfully knocks his floor tom at 21" to prove it's no lie. He doesn't care. It's all a joke to Phil. (Except homelessness.)

Dear James,

Good to have you back. I thought you were going to post a Lamb Lies Down on Broadway clip there. Should've known with you. I would've thought Little Phil would call it work more than the other two. Probably because the other two now have real day jobs to support their post-Genesis poverty. How do you know he doesn't use special extra-large toms? Can you imagine if other bands' singers had left and the drummers had taken over lead vocals? Roger Taylor? Lars Ulrich? It would've been carnage.

Oh, sweet bass playing, Mr. Mechanics. (Is he Mr Mechanics or is the other one?)

By the way, you can reply to the other posts below by logging in and clicking on that little pencil. Yesterday my co-writer Pablo told me he'd been listening to ACDC and Flash and the Pan for years and never knew they were related. The power of this blog! Of course, I told him that trivia junket myself. He doesn't read this blog.

Hey Saint Peter

Hey Saint James,
Ever heard of these people? Australian twosome Flash and the Pan (George Young and Harry Vanda) and 1983 one-hit wonders with "Waiting for a Train". George Young was the elder brother of the Angus and Malcolm Young, which may explain the penchant for playing the guitar while wearing shorts. Never a good look. Not even that nice boy in Vampire Weekend pulled it off at Leeds.

Young and Vanda played in the Easybeats, who had a big hit with "Friday on my Mind", which David Bowie covered on Pin-Ups. Another of there songs "Good Times" featured Steve Marriot on backing vocals and was later covered by INXS, featuring on The Lost Boys soundtrack. They wrote and produced John Paul Young's "Love is in the Air". They also wrote Meatloaf's "Running the Red Light". I'm scraping the barrel there, I know.

I like how this song combines the better elements of late 70's rock, namely The Motors' "Airport" and ELO. Is sounding like ELO a good thing? I'm no longer sure. They spoil the effect slightly with their attempts at comedy (the cork hat, the hitting the tall man with a hard hat, the skeleton producer) but at least no one dresses up as a schoolboy for the best part of 30 years.