Robert plant’s one on Us

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Pete

After a very hectic and sporadic existence these past few weeks it’s time to join the fracas that is Muenster Mash. Yep, that’s where we here at WMMCM distill our knowledge of all that is rock n’ roll into a tiny little package with a weird name.

Not just any name mind you, we only go for the best. And, that’s how we ended up with Muenster Mash. You see, Muenster is a pretty good cheese and we wouldn’t have it any other way around here. So, for today’s foray into musical madness in going to be in league with the I15 freeway while I passionately drive through the city of San Bernardino. (Or something like that.)

The Big Log of E-Mail Links!

Well, by the summer of 1983, Robert Plant had not been a member of Led Zeppelin for nearly three years and he was looking for something to do. That something would normally be called – a solo career. The year before, Plant had released his first “solo” album, Pictures at Eleven, and it was good. In fact it even had a pretty big hit with the single, “Burning Down One Side,” which made it to the sixty-third spot on the US charts while the album was a respectable number five seller.

Side Burning E-Mail Link!

Why isn’t former Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant’s first “solo” album not really quite a “solo” album? Well, the drummer on that first hit single was none other than Phil Collins of Genesis. In fact Collins played drums on six of the album’s eight tracks with the remaining two being played by former Rainbow and Black Sabbath drummer, Cozy Powell

In 1983, anything with Phil Collins on it can not be considered a solo album. In fact in 1983, Phil Collins was on nearly everybody’s albums. Eric Clapton, Frida from ABBA, Phillip Bailey from Earth Wind and Fire, Adam Ant and so on. There was a several year long period in popular and rock music that Collins was either playing drums, singing, writing or producing seemingly everything you would hear that was not hair metal. (I think that got missed because even then Phil didn’t have any hair.) But, I digress.

So, at least in 1983 terms, it is difficult to describe Plant’s first solo album as a “solo” album with the then all encompassing Collins behind the drum throne.

After the success of Pictures at Eleven, Plant very quickly followed up with The Principle of Moments and his first top forty hit, “Big Log.” This is where the Muenster Mash part comes in.

The words “Big Log” are never used in the song for which we should all probably be thankful when you think about it. I’ve read the lyrics of course and heard the song an interminable number of times, especially in the early 80′s when it was on MVT high rotation. What I can tell you is that even in the summer of 1983 when “Big Log” was released and became a hit, it bored me to death… I freely admit that even when putting up the link to the video, I didn’t listen to it. I won’t listen to it.

Dom, doo, doo, doom… And then right to sleep…

Perhaps it should be praised for it’s medicinal qualities?

As I’m sure you can tell, I don’t like the song. It snoozed it’s way into becoming a hit and I have no clue as to why. Other than a lot of walking and looking, I have no idea what the heck this bizzarly named song is about?

“My love is in league with the freeway,

Its passion will ride, as the cities fly by.

And the tail-lights dissolve, in the coming of night

And the questions in thousands take flight

My love is a-miles in the waiting.”

Of all the things that my love might be in league with, a freeway is not one of them. Where do you go with this stuff? “Hey, nice center divider! Whoo, Hoo!”

“My love is exceedingly vivid

Red-eyed and fevered with the hum of the miles

Distance and longing, my thoughts do provide

Should I rest for a while at the side.”

Even trying, crawling actually, past these lyrics, other than a really vivid and possably thoughtful guy watching tail-lights going by while wandering through the desert for no particular reason, I have no idea what the heck he’s talking about.

“Your love is cradled in knowing

Eyes in the mirror, still expecting they’ll come

Sensing too well when the journey is done

There is no turning back.”

Question? Why should I care what he’s talking about?

When Robert Plant’s “Big Log,” – no snickering please – was a huge hit, a musician friend of mine said to me after watching the video. “I think Robert Plant has laid a big log on all of us.”

Well, there you go.

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You sure about that, Alice?

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Bridey

So Robert the probably-a-philodendron is back in his spot by the patio door and looking a little perkier than last week, though he still doesn’t seem to be in the pink, or green, of health, exactly. I am considering moving him and his potmate (there is a sort of vaguely sinister ivy-like arrangement that shares his space) to a new, larger pot, as suggested by commenter Maggie McT, but I’m afraid doing something so drastic may risk Robert’s health further, given that I am pretty much a menace to all things botanical. It’s a tricky balance.

And of course getting Robert into a new home means venturing over the river to Bullhead City and into the wilds of Lowe’s or Home Depot or Wal-Mart. The problem with that being that they are all flippin’ enormous; land and life are cheap in the desert, and any trek into one or another of the “superstores” over there should come with the option of a train of camels and a Bedouin guide. The very prospect is exhausting — I’d almost rather get hold of a wheel and learn to throw Robert a new pot myself.

But we do have a topic of the moment, which is to say, pretty decent songs with bad, creepy, or off-putting titles. And here’s a master of the creepy or off-putting, and an artist for whom we have a particular fondness at WMMCM:

Bleeding e-mail link.

In 1975, Alice Cooper was as big a star as he’d ever be. He’d cut loose from the band a few years before, when those hardened rock ‘n’ rollers got tired of his baroque approach to showmanship, and Alice, who was always an engaging personality and a charming interview subject, was firmly in the mainstream. The Welcome to My Nightmare concept album drew a lot of attention, and even got him a network TV special in the spring of ’75. And “Only Women Bleed,” the single, was a hit — 12 in the U.S. and number one in Canada under the less ghoulish name of “Only Women.” As I recall, L.A. radio stations back-announced it with the shortened title as well.

It’s an earnest record, if somewhat melodramatically produced, but the title is problematic. It immediately brought, shall we say, cyclical thoughts to mind — if you are foolish enough to venture into the YouTube comments (absolutely never a good idea at any time), you will see the problem, and it is the very problem that arose the day the song came out. The title also led to some discussion because, whether intended literally or metaphorically, the contention it makes is patently not true.

But anyway, this is Alice singing about a woman who feels trapped with a violent man:

She spends her life through
Pleasing up her man
She feeds him dinner,
Or anything she can
She cries alone at night too often
He smokes and drinks and don’t come home at all
Only women bleed

The song was understood at the time, and was no doubt meant, as an earnest indictment of domestic abuse. But this is Alice Cooper, and there is a suggestion, in the lyrics “You live and love in pain” and in the bridge:

Black eyes all of the time,
Don’t spend a dime,
Clean up this grime,
And you there down on your knees
Begging him, please, come
Watch me bleed

That this victimized woman has become a helpless and needy woman as well.

The record is far too long at nearly six minutes — a long instrumental break allowed for stage business — and it’s only a middling vocal, given that Alice was always more of a belter than a balladeer. But domestic violence was a topic not much addressed in pop culture at all at the time, and perhaps this song brought some useful attention.

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Stagecoach Cheese Wood: Saturday Night!

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Pete

As I continue my little foray into the world of Country Music and the major event that is Stagecoach, it’s time for the sun to go down and the really crazy people to emerge from the beer garden with all it’s television sets, chairs, comfy couches and well, beer.

That’s not to say that beer was all they had. No, not by a long shot. As in, a long shot of tequila, whiskey, bourbon, vodka and pretty much everything else under the sun. (Which is at least a little odd as the one place not under the sun is where everything else that is under the sun could be found.)

Do keep in mind that it is the same site and folks that run Cochella the two weekends before Stagecoach rears it’s defiant head up from the desert floor. (What that means in practice is that there are at least five bars and/or beer stations that reside comfortably under the tents at the far end of the field across from the stage.)

In other words, this is a drinking crowd.

So, when the sun finally declined behind the mountains and the temperature became bearable once more what happens? Well, the bars and the food vendors become busier. It becomes a nearly life changing experience even trying to navigate that entire area. Once you actually manage to get to the front of the line you still may have to wait for five to ten minutes as the waitstaff are running around in the same manner that several hours earlier the die-hard fans that got in line at 9am were when they were trying to carve out their own little bit of real estate in front of the Mane Stage so they can actually – see – the performers they came to listen to.

And yes, there is a distinction. If you get there shortly after 12 noon when the doors open, you may find that the only spot you can call your own is so far away that the performers looks like they are about a 1/4 inch tall. (They do have a very adequate number of huge video screens up but, it’s not quite the same thing.)

Now that it’s finally dark and the lights are up, (and the clever scissor lifts that they use for spotlight towers,) it’s time for the big dogs!

As I mentioned in the previous part of my Stagecoach adventure, I was more than a little displeased with the horrid job the un-sound guy was doing with Steve Martin. So, logically, we went off and got a beer.

Then we made the trek to our hard won and strategically placed blankets, chairs, backpacks and – now -shady spot about seventy yards from the Mane Stage. From that distance you can actually see the person you are there to listen too and they don’t look like ants. (Which is good.)

I didn’t catch much of Justin Moore at all as I was still in transit but I was able to settle in a few minutes before Luke Bryan came onstage.

Luke Bryan is one of the more recent stars to emerge into the country universe. He has been plugging away – as usual – for quite a few years but, recently his star is definitely rising. He opened with “Rain is a Good Thing” which is a fun, upbeat song, (even though I must protest that even if rain makes corn; we’re good so far, but corn makes whiskey? That would normally be a Rye or a Canadian whiskey. Nothing wrong with that of course but, it just kind of bothers me. I do have to admit that “rain makes barley, barley makes whiskey,” may be more accurate but it doesn’t really flow as well…)

In any event, which Stagecoach surely is, Luke Bryan was at the top of his form for such a young artist just hitting the really big time. He was energetic and pretty close to being a crazy person up there from time to time. That is a good thing after all!

After performing “Country Girl Shake it for Me” Bryan got a bit adventurous with the audience and asked if there were any country guys that could dance. After a few moments, we all got the answer when Bryan spotted a young man up front and asked him to come onstage to show his stuff. All in good fun as the – more than likely inebriated man – strutted his stuff to wild applause from the crowd, Bryan invited him to join him for perhaps – another – drink, back-stage after his show.

Following Luke Bryan’s energetic and quite enjoyable set, it was time for the really big dogs of country music to light up the stage. And who else to do the honors for a Saturday night out in the desert other than Blake Shelton?

Shelton has become one of the most effective voices in recent country music history with his sense of humor and broad vocal range. He can hit a song like “Old Red” with a gusto that makes you believe he really is that guy outsmarting the Warden and he then turns all soft and sweet with a wonderful version of “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking.”

Shelton is one of the best artists in any genre these days. He can be completely sincere on the love songs – usually directed at his wife, Miranda Lambert – and completely silly and fun when performing a G rated version of his Voice companion Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.” Then he hit’s you with his debut single, “Austin,” which I still believe was the strongest debut single of any country artist since Garth Brooks and “The Dance.”

In other words, Blake Shelton brought out the big guns for his performance and put on a great show.

So, to close out Saturday night at Stagecoach we were treated to a full hour and fifteen minute set of Miranda Lambert. For those not in a country state of mind, Lambert was on the very first season of the now defunct Nashville Star back in 2003. From the first time I saw her perform there was little doubt in my mind that this girl was going places. She didn’t win of course but Miranda made a huge impression with her big attitude and the chops to back it up.

Lambert ran through all the songs that you would expect including an over the top performance of her first big hit “Kerosene” before bringing the place to a standstill with her current number one hit, “Over You.” Fifty thousand voices joining with Lambert as she sings a truly heartbreaking song she co-wrote with husband Blake Shelton about Shelton’s brother who was killed in an automobile accident in the early 1990′s. It was one of the most powerful moments I’ve ever experienced at a concert.

To help bring everyone back up again Lambert brought out her friends Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley who – with Lambert – are collectively known as the Pistol Annies for a twenty minute set of Girl Power Country.

They specialize in amplifying the sass that Lambert provides by specializing in tight, three part harmonies with solid gold country stories and lyrics while still rockin’ the place. They easily could have been singed on for a set in their own right as their debut album went right up to the number four spot without any label support or promotion. As side projects for a major artist goes, it’s one of the very rare good ones.

After the Pistol Annies departed and we returned to Miranda solo once more and she kept the energy level as she closed out the night. Only five years ago Miranda Lambert was one of the smaller lead-in acts on this very stage. Saturday night at Stagecoach, she owned the place.

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