Comments on: A Tenuous Link to the Real Thing http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/ Our Top 40 Past . . . in the Present Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:12:54 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Dw Dunphy http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-947 Dw Dunphy Sat, 12 May 2007 00:52:58 +0000 http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-947 The reunion is a money-making cache in and of itself now. I personally love Squeeze and am planning to see the reunion show this summer even though it may well only have two original members (that those members are Difford and Tilbrook goes a long way). However, if I was a Smashing Pumpkins fan and the news that the 'new' Pumpkins resembles more a reunion of Zwan, I'd feel burned. What the Pumpkins has over Squeeze is this: Corgan and Chamberlain are releasing new music. Squeeze is promoting the umpteenth Greatest Hits package. One is trying while the other scores points simply for being. I'm not certain of the fairness of this. As for Pete Townshend, I saw The Who last year and they put on a good show, but he vacillates between being Roger's partner and biggest supporter to cutting him down and being the worst of enemies. It's hard to imagine feeling comfortable with the man in a working relationship never knowing if he would play you a tune or clock you over the head with that guitar. DwD The reunion is a money-making cache in and of itself now. I personally love Squeeze and am planning to see the reunion show this summer even though it may well only have two original members (that those members are Difford and Tilbrook goes a long way). However, if I was a Smashing Pumpkins fan and the news that the ‘new’ Pumpkins resembles more a reunion of Zwan, I’d feel burned.

What the Pumpkins has over Squeeze is this: Corgan and Chamberlain are releasing new music. Squeeze is promoting the umpteenth Greatest Hits package. One is trying while the other scores points simply for being. I’m not certain of the fairness of this.

As for Pete Townshend, I saw The Who last year and they put on a good show, but he vacillates between being Roger’s partner and biggest supporter to cutting him down and being the worst of enemies. It’s hard to imagine feeling comfortable with the man in a working relationship never knowing if he would play you a tune or clock you over the head with that guitar.

DwD

]]> By: alfiala http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-925 alfiala Wed, 09 May 2007 11:43:41 +0000 http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-925 I remember reading a Rolling Stone interview with Pete Townsend earlier this year, he was talking about The Who tour this year. He was just ripping Daltry saying that it was Roger who wanted to go out on the roud again, that Roger still thinks teenage girls love him, that the record companies were thrilled (he was being sarcastic) that The Who but out another record. Then said their was no way that he would pay the high-ticket prices to see these older-versions of stars from back in the day like Dylan, The Stones or The Who. The he had a great line about people say they see all these young people at these shows - Pete said, it's a curiousty factor and they only see one show, just to say they saw this group or that group. - pretty interesting stuff I remember reading a Rolling Stone interview with Pete Townsend earlier this year, he was talking about The Who tour this year. He was just ripping Daltry saying that it was Roger who wanted to go out on the roud again, that Roger still thinks teenage girls love him, that the record companies were thrilled (he was being sarcastic) that The Who but out another record. Then said their was no way that he would pay the high-ticket prices to see these older-versions of stars from back in the day like Dylan, The Stones or The Who. The he had a great line about people say they see all these young people at these shows – Pete said, it’s a curiousty factor and they only see one show, just to say they saw this group or that group. – pretty interesting stuff

]]> By: Jeff http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-922 Jeff Wed, 09 May 2007 01:50:34 +0000 http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-922 So what are the Outlaws doing waiting for a record deal? What's keeping them from releasing it themselves? So what are the Outlaws doing waiting for a record deal? What’s keeping them from releasing it themselves?

]]> By: Ed Darrell http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-921 Ed Darrell Tue, 08 May 2007 22:48:59 +0000 http://jabartlett.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/a-tenuous-link-to-the-real-thing/#comment-921 First, Ellen Langer, the Harvard psychologist, did an experiment once where she took old men from a nursing facility for a weekend outing. The weekend was touted as 'back to the high school days.' For a couple of weeks before the event, it was promoted with music from the time. The men were asked to wear appropriate clothing to their high school days. The bus to the event featured a string of hits, and the music kept coming from time appropriate sources all weekend long. The experiment showed that this treatment effectively improved morale, decreased depression, increased heart function, decreased blood pressure, and in other ways proved quite beneficial to the health of the men involved. In a very real sense, as you noted, when we listen to that music, we become the people we used to be. (Langer's stuff is discussed in her book, <i>Mindfulness</i> And the news? Well, yeah, radio had news. By FCC regulation, even the rock stations carried five minutes of news every hour. I think that was one of the key influences on public policy in Vietnam. I well remember summers at the pool, with a top 40 station on the P.A. system, and the silence that fell every top-of-the-hour when ABC Radio broadcast the latest catastrophe from Vietnam, with casualty counts. One couldn't tune out the war and just go about one's business. At least, that's my recollection. I'd be real interested to hear some archival tape of, say, 1969 through 1973, to analyze song selection and the news that went along with the war. If you know of some sources, send 'em along. First, Ellen Langer, the Harvard psychologist, did an experiment once where she took old men from a nursing facility for a weekend outing. The weekend was touted as ‘back to the high school days.’ For a couple of weeks before the event, it was promoted with music from the time. The men were asked to wear appropriate clothing to their high school days. The bus to the event featured a string of hits, and the music kept coming from time appropriate sources all weekend long. The experiment showed that this treatment effectively improved morale, decreased depression, increased heart function, decreased blood pressure, and in other ways proved quite beneficial to the health of the men involved. In a very real sense, as you noted, when we listen to that music, we become the people we used to be. (Langer’s stuff is discussed in her book, Mindfulness

And the news? Well, yeah, radio had news. By FCC regulation, even the rock stations carried five minutes of news every hour. I think that was one of the key influences on public policy in Vietnam. I well remember summers at the pool, with a top 40 station on the P.A. system, and the silence that fell every top-of-the-hour when ABC Radio broadcast the latest catastrophe from Vietnam, with casualty counts. One couldn’t tune out the war and just go about one’s business.

At least, that’s my recollection. I’d be real interested to hear some archival tape of, say, 1969 through 1973, to analyze song selection and the news that went along with the war. If you know of some sources, send ‘em along.

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