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Post by erik on Dec 27, 2012 15:51:19 GMT -5
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Post by sliderocker on Dec 27, 2012 17:11:10 GMT -5
"Rescue Me" was covered by a lot of bar bands which featured a female vocalist (or two) in the group. And it was a tune I got to a point where I couldn't stand listening to repeatedly. Funny thing: I never knew Fontella Bass as the singer of the tune. I always thought it was Aretha Franklin! When the DJs would play the tune on oldies radio, very few of them would mention that it was by Fontella Bass and I wasn't into listening to the radio as much in 1965 when I was just a kid. I had a late friend who was a musician - a great guitarist - who was in a few bands, including one with his ex-wife. "Rescue Me" was one of the tunes their band covered. Interestingly, their band was quite good - two guys (guitar/bass) and two girls (vocals/keyboards/drums) and they should've had a record deal but they were never signed. Such was the fates of fortune. I couldn't believe how incredibly good they were or how they never managed to attract the interest of the record companies.
Speaking of the fates of fortune, also noted that a lesser known name had also passed: Ray Collins, who cofounded the Mothers of Invention with some guy named Frank Zappa. I saw his name, scratched my head and thought "Ray Who?" I recognized the name as that of an actor from the old "Perry Mason" tv series and from old movies in the 1930s and 40s, but never remembered a musician with the same name, much less one associated with Zappa and Mothers of Invention. But, it turned out that Collins the musician had cofounded the group with Zappa but left the group over the group doing "comedy" songs rather than serious rock songs. The article on his death didn't say it but I wondered if he was one of those pretentious 60s rock musicians who felt that every song either had to be a work art or/and have a message of "wisdom" in it to be passed along to the audience?
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 27, 2012 19:04:03 GMT -5
The article on his death didn't say it but I wondered if he was one of those pretentious 60s rock musicians who felt that every song either had to be a work art or/and have a message of "wisdom" in it to be passed along to the audience?
I dunno. I think I could appreciate that in an artist. So much music is schlocked together like fast food it can make you ill.
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Post by sliderocker on Dec 27, 2012 21:40:19 GMT -5
The article on his death didn't say it but I wondered if he was one of those pretentious 60s rock musicians who felt that every song either had to be a work art or/and have a message of "wisdom" in it to be passed along to the audience? I dunno. I think I could appreciate that in an artist. So much music is schlocked together like fast food it can make you ill. I used to appreciate the artist when the idea was that they wanted their songs to be works of art. But, I started seeing the other side of that coin too: that rock and roll music had started out being music that was fun to listen to or fun to dance to, your choice. I also got into the message songs for a little while but what made me lose interest was the idea that a musician couldn't just make music for the fun of making music. It had to be a work of art or it had to have a message and if you did neither, you were basically worthless as a singer or musician. To me, some of the most artsy music is some of the most boringest music on the planet, especially if it's a superlong piece of wallclimbing music. I once listened to an eighteen minute piece of music that had a very slow section that was about six minutes long that could put you to sleep midway through the section. Any music that is extremely long should be fluid and always changing and not so dull it puts you to sleep without too much trouble. |
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