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Concrete toes and pigeons' feet
I hate the term "alternative," but that doesn't mean I get to dismiss other people's use of it.
When Christopher Weingarten sent his list of potential acts for Spin's '60s alternative roundup, I wrote back that they should get rid of the Velvets, Stooges, and Leonard Cohen and put Vanilla Fudge, Rare Earth, and Iron Butterfly in their stead. Was trying to rescue both the list and Velvets-Stooges-Cohen from respectability, I guess. Nonetheless I volunteered to write about the Velvets and Stooges, and the Holy Modal Rounders. Got two of the three. [UPDATE: The links below take me to the intro to the list but I can't find a way to get to the list itself or the write-ups – including my write-ups. This makes me angry, though I don't know what went wrong at Spin's end, or what's at fault. Anyhow, at the bottom of this post I've pasted in what I wrote, and I've pasted the entire list in the comments.] [UPDATING THE UPDATE: There is a way to get to the blurbs, as they've been rescued by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. I explain down in the comments. In the meantime, I've put the usable links in brackets right beneath the two failed links below.]
http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/?slide=98
http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/?slide=64
[UPDATE: Use these instead:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150310090636/http://spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/?slide=64
https://web.archive.org/web/20130401055230/http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list?slide=98 END UPDATE]
"Mobile Line"
I also unsuccessfully proposed the following:
--He 5 Merry Christmas Psychedelic Sound
--Lee Jung Hwa with Shin Joong Hyun and the Donkeys No/Spring Rain
--Shin Joong Hyun Beautiful Rivers And Mountains (but is a compilation that crosses decade boundaries)
--20 Heavy Hits, an advertised-on-TV album put out by Crystal Corporation, with tracks by the Impressions, Tommy James & The Shondells, Strawberry Alarm Clark, Len Barry, Janis Joplin, The Intruders, The Ohio Express, The Who, Ricardo Ray, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Turtles, The Amboy Dukes, The Happenings, The Lemon Pipers, and Sonny & Cher
--Nazz
--Nazz Nazz (but I said that Nazz would need some writer other than me)
--The Best Of The Chocolate Watchband
--The Swinging World Of Johnny Rios And The Us 4 Nuevo Boog-A-Loos
--Grace Slick & The Great Society
The actual list ended up as well-trod monuments like the Velvets plus a variety of avant people and oddballs that I assume Christopher hopes'll jar open people's minds and that modern musicians can still put to use. ("Well-trod monuments" is a mixed metaphor. Perhaps the monuments are doing the treading, wearing down the grass of urban parklands; or they're being trod themselves, by pigeon feet.) No reason musicians can't put monuments to use, too, of course, if listening nonmonumentally. But that applies to monuments like Dylan, Stones, and Yardbirds as well as the Stooges and Velvets, and there's no credible way the latter set can be considered alternatives to the former. The former provided them their templates. (I embedded Yardbirds, Stones, and Velvets here, if you want to hear the evidence.) The actual distinction is social. If I'd been Christopher's editor rather than vice versa I'd have insisted he try to be clear about such things in his intro.* One reason lists of "alternative" exist in places like Spin is to maintain something of a social separation between the people who now still manage to see themselves as alternative** and the mass of Stones-Dylan-Zeppelin fans who don't identify as alternative. I'm not automatically against such social differentiation; it can put the world in interesting motion. I think this differentiation, now, is dead in the water; and to the extent it isn't, it should be, life and motion being more lively elsewhere. But if someone else wants to make a case for it, fine. But Christopher needed another paragraph to clarify why he didn't include '60s figures such as, e.g., a social conservative like Mike Curb, or a singer like Dottie West who worked stylish pre-rock pop moves in country music, or Frank Sinatra, who was still scoring with the old stylish pop, all three of whom were running far more counter to what Christopher is considering the counterculture mainstream than were the folks on the Spin list. I'd say the answer is that he's casting his net backwards to include people who meet the needs of a marketing niche that belongs to later decades, and to exclude those who don't. To do this isn't good history, but it's not dishonest if you're clear that that's what you're doing. And there's no reason in principle that a marketing niche can't encompass the visionary and the combustible, though it's delusional to think that this one does.
To be honest, I haven't yet made the time to read through the blurbs, so maybe there is some sort of case being made. I did read Christopher's writeup for White Light/White Heat; his statement that the alb "rocketed the band 20 years forward into the future" baffles me (or maybe it's my reading comprehension that's being baffled; one guess is that "rocketed the band 20 years forward into the future" means rocketed from the '90s that he's claiming the first Velvets album entirely mapped out*** into the '10s of this immediate moment, though he probably just means rocketed the Velvets from '68 into '88, which still leaves out all the intervening '70s and '80s musicians who actually made quite a lot out of White Light/White Heat, e.g. the Modern Lovers, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, The Fall, just to name a few, and Christopher himself names several). Anyhow, if I'd been Christopher's editor I'd have leaned on him to specify what's open and alive in the record now, where its sonic possibilities are still untapped or unelaborated or interestingly problematic, rather than doing what he did, which was to give a list of later luminaries who validate the Velvets and in turn are validated by the Velvets (though it was more than just a list, in that he gave us descriptive adjectives; but such a list can also support the contention that "alternative" is an utterly retro genre).
Of course if I were an editor at Spin we'd be living in an alternate universe.
(My negatively intended phrase "list of later luminaries who validate the Velvets and in turn are validated by the Velvets" is a riff off a better-stated Mark Sinker argument: it's referenced in "i opened the window and INFLUENZA" but unfortunately I can't find the argument itself. Mark, help!) [UPDATE: Found it here.]
I was plumping for Vanilla Fudge, Rare Earth, and Iron Butterfly because of their attempts to layer a big and dumb extravagant Sixties brontosaurus stomp onto soul and funk, a massive dance that they didn't have the swing to pull off, so therefore a living possibility for right now. Also I was discovering that they influenced Korea, hurrah; I ended up blogging about it here on Koganbot. Further, they'd stomp atop the social timidity of the Spin list. I'd also typed them in my mind as often fairly terrible, without really exploring their oeuvre, and I wanted to relisten and maybe rethink.
I like that Christopher mentioned bubblegum when writing of White Light/White Heat. I wish he'd given us bubble names too, e.g., the 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Simon Says" in the heart of "I Heard Her Call My Name," the latter of which, for all the weight of mediocre alternative progeny, is still thrilling:
[UPDATE: Don't remember what I embedded below and it's been deleted from YouTube. So I'm choosing one now, one of the two I quote directly in my blurb.]
"Heroin"
[UPDATE: Here are the blurbs:
Because Spin lost or killed the list, I've posted it in the comments. And while I justifiably chided it in this post for how socially constricted it is, I'll also say that (1) Christopher and I probably have pretty similar nervous systems, and (2) if people – such as me, even now – were to go through and listen to what they didn't know from it, they'd learn a lot.
END UPDATE]
*Intro is actually unsigned; I assume it's his.
**Or some such; is the word really still in effect?
***A bizarre claim in itself, which overlooks metal and new jack swing and dancehall and r&b and hip-hop and Britney and soundtrack ballads, not to mention almost all the rest of the world's music.
When Christopher Weingarten sent his list of potential acts for Spin's '60s alternative roundup, I wrote back that they should get rid of the Velvets, Stooges, and Leonard Cohen and put Vanilla Fudge, Rare Earth, and Iron Butterfly in their stead. Was trying to rescue both the list and Velvets-Stooges-Cohen from respectability, I guess. Nonetheless I volunteered to write about the Velvets and Stooges, and the Holy Modal Rounders. Got two of the three. [UPDATE: The links below take me to the intro to the list but I can't find a way to get to the list itself or the write-ups – including my write-ups. This makes me angry, though I don't know what went wrong at Spin's end, or what's at fault. Anyhow, at the bottom of this post I've pasted in what I wrote, and I've pasted the entire list in the comments.] [UPDATING THE UPDATE: There is a way to get to the blurbs, as they've been rescued by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. I explain down in the comments. In the meantime, I've put the usable links in brackets right beneath the two failed links below.]
http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/?slide=98
http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/?slide=64
[UPDATE: Use these instead:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150310090636/http://spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/?slide=64
https://web.archive.org/web/20130401055230/http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list?slide=98 END UPDATE]
"Mobile Line"
I also unsuccessfully proposed the following:
--He 5 Merry Christmas Psychedelic Sound
--Lee Jung Hwa with Shin Joong Hyun and the Donkeys No/Spring Rain
--Shin Joong Hyun Beautiful Rivers And Mountains (but is a compilation that crosses decade boundaries)
--20 Heavy Hits, an advertised-on-TV album put out by Crystal Corporation, with tracks by the Impressions, Tommy James & The Shondells, Strawberry Alarm Clark, Len Barry, Janis Joplin, The Intruders, The Ohio Express, The Who, Ricardo Ray, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Turtles, The Amboy Dukes, The Happenings, The Lemon Pipers, and Sonny & Cher
--Nazz
--Nazz Nazz (but I said that Nazz would need some writer other than me)
--The Best Of The Chocolate Watchband
--The Swinging World Of Johnny Rios And The Us 4 Nuevo Boog-A-Loos
--Grace Slick & The Great Society
The actual list ended up as well-trod monuments like the Velvets plus a variety of avant people and oddballs that I assume Christopher hopes'll jar open people's minds and that modern musicians can still put to use. ("Well-trod monuments" is a mixed metaphor. Perhaps the monuments are doing the treading, wearing down the grass of urban parklands; or they're being trod themselves, by pigeon feet.) No reason musicians can't put monuments to use, too, of course, if listening nonmonumentally. But that applies to monuments like Dylan, Stones, and Yardbirds as well as the Stooges and Velvets, and there's no credible way the latter set can be considered alternatives to the former. The former provided them their templates. (I embedded Yardbirds, Stones, and Velvets here, if you want to hear the evidence.) The actual distinction is social. If I'd been Christopher's editor rather than vice versa I'd have insisted he try to be clear about such things in his intro.* One reason lists of "alternative" exist in places like Spin is to maintain something of a social separation between the people who now still manage to see themselves as alternative** and the mass of Stones-Dylan-Zeppelin fans who don't identify as alternative. I'm not automatically against such social differentiation; it can put the world in interesting motion. I think this differentiation, now, is dead in the water; and to the extent it isn't, it should be, life and motion being more lively elsewhere. But if someone else wants to make a case for it, fine. But Christopher needed another paragraph to clarify why he didn't include '60s figures such as, e.g., a social conservative like Mike Curb, or a singer like Dottie West who worked stylish pre-rock pop moves in country music, or Frank Sinatra, who was still scoring with the old stylish pop, all three of whom were running far more counter to what Christopher is considering the counterculture mainstream than were the folks on the Spin list. I'd say the answer is that he's casting his net backwards to include people who meet the needs of a marketing niche that belongs to later decades, and to exclude those who don't. To do this isn't good history, but it's not dishonest if you're clear that that's what you're doing. And there's no reason in principle that a marketing niche can't encompass the visionary and the combustible, though it's delusional to think that this one does.
To be honest, I haven't yet made the time to read through the blurbs, so maybe there is some sort of case being made. I did read Christopher's writeup for White Light/White Heat; his statement that the alb "rocketed the band 20 years forward into the future" baffles me (or maybe it's my reading comprehension that's being baffled; one guess is that "rocketed the band 20 years forward into the future" means rocketed from the '90s that he's claiming the first Velvets album entirely mapped out*** into the '10s of this immediate moment, though he probably just means rocketed the Velvets from '68 into '88, which still leaves out all the intervening '70s and '80s musicians who actually made quite a lot out of White Light/White Heat, e.g. the Modern Lovers, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, The Fall, just to name a few, and Christopher himself names several). Anyhow, if I'd been Christopher's editor I'd have leaned on him to specify what's open and alive in the record now, where its sonic possibilities are still untapped or unelaborated or interestingly problematic, rather than doing what he did, which was to give a list of later luminaries who validate the Velvets and in turn are validated by the Velvets (though it was more than just a list, in that he gave us descriptive adjectives; but such a list can also support the contention that "alternative" is an utterly retro genre).
Of course if I were an editor at Spin we'd be living in an alternate universe.
(My negatively intended phrase "list of later luminaries who validate the Velvets and in turn are validated by the Velvets" is a riff off a better-stated Mark Sinker argument: it's referenced in "i opened the window and INFLUENZA" but unfortunately I can't find the argument itself. Mark, help!) [UPDATE: Found it here.]
I was plumping for Vanilla Fudge, Rare Earth, and Iron Butterfly because of their attempts to layer a big and dumb extravagant Sixties brontosaurus stomp onto soul and funk, a massive dance that they didn't have the swing to pull off, so therefore a living possibility for right now. Also I was discovering that they influenced Korea, hurrah; I ended up blogging about it here on Koganbot. Further, they'd stomp atop the social timidity of the Spin list. I'd also typed them in my mind as often fairly terrible, without really exploring their oeuvre, and I wanted to relisten and maybe rethink.
I like that Christopher mentioned bubblegum when writing of White Light/White Heat. I wish he'd given us bubble names too, e.g., the 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Simon Says" in the heart of "I Heard Her Call My Name," the latter of which, for all the weight of mediocre alternative progeny, is still thrilling:
[UPDATE: Don't remember what I embedded below and it's been deleted from YouTube. So I'm choosing one now, one of the two I quote directly in my blurb.]
"Heroin"
[UPDATE: Here are the blurbs:
#37
The Holy Modal Rounders – The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders (Elektra, 1968)
Part of New York City's urban folk bohemia, the Rounders heard in rockabilly and old rural string bands a vision of new music. On this, their fourth album, the styles were still mostly from the rural south of the 1920s, with added garage blues and scraps and bits from rags and barrelhouse and the American songbook (such as the melody but not the words to "Three cheers for the red, white, and blue"). But each instrument played its own accents and unique curlicues, not in direct support of the main melody or the singer (whose mic is always set to "soft"). Imagine a number of people wandering into a room and simultaneously telling their individually varied stories, while never losing touch with what the others are saying. The effect isn't dreamy or diffuse but slightly crazed, as everyone seems to be listening to notes just out of earshot, and every sound can potentially drive the wagon off various cliffs in any direction. FRANK KOGAN
#3
The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground & Nico (Verve, 1967)
It's a convention of drug songs as much as love songs that if you say you don't care, you do care. But a line like, "When the smack begins to flow and I really don't care anymore" does glorify self-destruction, as a rebuke to senators and society, to niceness and complacency. Choose to choose, choose to go. While Simon & Garfunkel hit big with similarly death-obsessed lyrics, the Velvets brought the conversation to eye level, skillfully precise ("up three flights of stairs," "twenty-six dollars in my hand"). The music matches, feels as sick and dirty as the protagonists. But the drones and unison pounding are a frame for cascades of notes and syllables that are as virtuoso as Diddley and doo-wop without announcing themselves as such. So the whole thing's got a lilt and a dance, solace for the broken people. F.K.
Because Spin lost or killed the list, I've posted it in the comments. And while I justifiably chided it in this post for how socially constricted it is, I'll also say that (1) Christopher and I probably have pretty similar nervous systems, and (2) if people – such as me, even now – were to go through and listen to what they didn't know from it, they'd learn a lot.
END UPDATE]
*Intro is actually unsigned; I assume it's his.
**Or some such; is the word really still in effect?
***A bizarre claim in itself, which overlooks metal and new jack swing and dancehall and r&b and hip-hop and Britney and soundtrack ballads, not to mention almost all the rest of the world's music.