"Classic Show Biz" In Rock

[filkertom]

In the previous thread, tomreedtoon mentions that he doesn't listen to "most serious pop music", and laments what he perceives as a lack of "classic show biz in the rock world".

Now, I am not in any way jumping on him. I think he's missed out, and I'd like to help. I think it'd be fun to not only show him that there is indeed such a thing as "classic show biz in the rock world", but also to introduce him to some of the truly great rock performances available online.

(I think this may be the Bowie-Turner performance he refers to.)

Since this is kinda show-biz-zy, let's try to stick to videos. Although there are forty-nine-thousand buttloads of great audio performances online, especially at places like The Internet Archive.

My first three choices, off the top of my head, would be these:
Meat Loaf - "I Would Do Anything For Love"

Annie Lennox - "Sweet Dreams" at Live 8 (cadhla, vixyish, tfabris, Ookla, we have fucking got to cover this at OVFF)

Billy Joel and Elton John - "Piano Man"

Link us up to some of yours!

Comments

[ericcoleman]

I will get some specifics up when I get home late tonight, but go do a search on The Sensational Alex Harvey Band if you want to see a band that knew how to put on a SHOW

[jbacardi.livejournal.com]

Amen to that!

[ericcoleman]

I saw them twice, once headlining in London on the Impossible Dream tour and the second time coming DAMN close to blowing Jethro Tull off the stage in Charleston WV

[jbacardi.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, close as I ever got was seeing them on TV a couple of times. I would have given several key parts of my anatomy to have seen them live...!

Impossible Dream remains my favorite album by them...

[ericcoleman]

I have a couple discs of live stuff on DVD to remind me what I saw ... still one of my top 5 bands of all time. Tomorrow Belongs To Me is my personal favorite overall, but Impossible Dream has the Hot City Symphony, which is my favorite song(s) of theirs.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

That last video gives me ideas, if only I could find a willing victi-... Er, participant.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Speaking of "Under Pressure"...one of the first clips of Queen in concert I ever saw; from the 1986 Wembley Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faUuwRDRrqA

Freddie Mercury, the embodiment of rock showmanship.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Damn skippy. Practically every move he made was a performance clinic. Kevin Kline, Tim Curry, and Meat Loaf all have that as well.

[ericcoleman]

Another band I saw when I lived in London ... on the Sheer Heart Attack tour ... There have been few better frontmen than Freddie

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I honestly can't think of one. A few solo performers, like Loaf, come close. Steven Page has nearly the voice, and Ed Robertson nearly the charisma. But Freddie was pretty damn unique, and we were lucky enough to be there when he happened.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Amen to all of the above.

[ericcoleman]

Jagger in his prime was a better performer, but didn't have the voice (still, neither did Freddie live a lot of the time). I would put Angelo Moore from Fishbone up there as damn close to equal with Freddie in both voice and performance. Bono is certainly up there as well and is probably the greatest living frontman for any rock band.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Freddie was one of those very rare people who were put on this earth to truly sing. As far as front men go he was the best. I didn't get into Queen until my college years but I've been a fan ever since I heard one of their songs for the first time.

He was definitly one of the greats. No question about it.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

The Annie Lennox one was abso-freaking-mazing; but then what else could you expect from Annie. The Meatloaf one wasn't on You-Tube anymore, but having seen other performances of his on cable I can imagine it was larger than life.

All in all a great set of performanes from some great artists.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm playing the Meat Loaf one right now. Let's see -- you obviously can get to YouTube, if you got the Lennox.... I dunno. Here, try a direct link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WiMjTgh-u4).

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Either way Meatloaf's an amazing performer that's never really gotten the respect he deserved as an artist. Big songs, big performances, powerful vocals. I've been a fan since college.

Same with Annie Lennox, Queen, lots of stuff people might not expect a guy like me to enjoy ;)

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

The embed is horked, and the direct link just hangs there loading forever. It looks like some other folks have had the same issue with it in the past. I tried it on IE and Firefox, so I don't know why some people seem to have the issue and others don't.

Meatloaf's the man.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Serious question: Are you running something to nuke Flash or Javascript, such as the NoScript plugin for Firefox? Or can you get to other YouTube videos, just not this one?

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I'm not him, but I have some YouTube issues too.

I run IE in "Seriously Paranoid" mode (and I don't have Flash installed at all), and YouTube embeds in LJ have never worked for me even though this is a Trusted Site. They don't even work when I embed them in my own posts -- I managed to test that a couple of weeks ago.

Direct YouTube links, however, usually work just fine. Just FYI.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Weird. Given that the standard YouTube video mode is Flash, you not having it installed... well. Weird.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Both Freddy Mercury and the young Mick Jagger rocked hard. Add Meat Loaf (whose repertoire is more limited, but awesome nonetheless) to the mix.

I wish I hadn't been so square growing up; then I could have seen Peter Gabriel in his Genesis prime (maybe; I was only 13 when he left the band). Still (longish vids ahead):

Supper's Ready, Part I:


Supper's Ready, Part II:


Supper's Ready, Part III:

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I have a preference for the Seconds Out version - not so much because Phil Collins is singing it, but because the band overall sounds more polished and together than when the Gabriel-era Genesis recorded the song.

Then again, Gabriel acquired quite a bit more polish once he left Genesis. Witness this:



Whether you like Paula Cole (here) or Kate Bush singing the female part is a matter of debate, but Peter is effective regardless.

Raven

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

The thing to keep in mind with Meatloaf is that virtually all of his material was written by Jim Steinman, who can't seem to write or produce anything that isn't dramatic, even when it isn't in genre. Case in point:


(Sisters of Mercy - "This Corrosion")

Bet you didn't know that Jim Steinman produced that! Steinman was also responsible for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and a bunch of other songs that sound like that.

Raven

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Good songs, all... but I have to say that I am not particularly a fan of show biz in my rock and roll. One of the things I've always loved about the Grateful Dead is that—unless you count the light show—it's all about the music and the interaction between band and audience. No pyrotechnics. No backup singers in sequinned outfits or dancers flanking the band. Just real-time, in-your-face music, out there on a limb, compeletely WYSIWYG, exploring a different space every single night. Sometimes you get pure magic. Sometimes Jerry couldn't hit a note with an Uzi and made Bob Dylan sound like Luciano Pavarotti. But every night was something new and true. Half the fun was seeing if whatever they were up to was going to work.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but -- and I really don't think Deadheads would argue too strenuously with this -- The Dead were and are always more of a folk-rock act. This is not to denigrate them in any way -- I'm a folk-rock act. Everything's a bit more relaxed, especially regarding interaction with the audience.

That's a different conversation, and you'd probably be surprised at my choices for top performances there.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I would strongly debate calling them 'folk rock', although that's undeniably part of their musical heritage ... but that, too, is another conversation. I would still point to the stripped-down stages and straight-ahead musical performances of such bands as The Dead, The Band, Little Feat, or Dixie Dregs.

My point, basically, is that I don't care much for theatrical distractions from the music. When I go to see a band play, I'm there to hear the band play, not to see what flash and glitz they've wrapped around themselves.

There are exceptions, of course. Weird Al has a hell of a stage show -- but that's in support of the humor, not a distraction from the music (and truth be told, his band is amazing, when you stop to think how many styles they've had to master). TMBG goes in for a little theatricality, but at predictable points -- and by and large, their shows are all about the music.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

By the way, let me chime in. (You can tell by my Moral Orel face that I'm serious.)

In the very early 60's, the "lame" acts - people like Frankie Avalon, Fabian and the like - saw themselves as being part of show business proper. They not only sang, they got into movies (or tried to) and saw themselves doing what the previous generation did - do TV shows where they would host, do comedy skits and the like.

That ended shortly after the Beatles arrived. Especially among the rock acts at the time, when they were booked on TV variety shows, they resented being made to read lines and take part in skits. They felt they were all about the music and only about it. There was reverse hostility too...every time he had to book a rock act on his show, conservative Red Skelton came out and asked to play with the band on his autoharp. But mostly, the rock acts didn't want to be a part of show business, seeing themselves as untouched and pure artists. They saw show business as run by adults, Establishment, and evil.

End result: when people got tired of their music, those guys found themselves out of show business proper. Sonny and Cher were lucky; to survive they had to work state fairs and lousy clubs, and they learned how to be more rounded entertainers almost at gunpoint. Few other acts of their generation did, and got stuck playing "greatest hits" concerts to diminishing audiences.

Maybe not every performer can be "well rounded" and do a variety of things. I doubt that I'll see Tom Smith dancing with any stars, or Eminem getting hit in the face with a pie and taking it with comic good grace. But we now have a generation of rockers and musicians who don't even try to stretch themselves, and I think we're all poorer for it. I, for one, would like to see Eminem in a Three Stooges skit - maybe with the remnants of the Stooges, if any of that band are still alive, or with Run DMC.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, while I'm here, I might add that nearly all working bands never consider mixing comedy with music. That's why I support Dementia and filk; it's a way back to what I consider the natural order of things.