smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Billy G. Spradlin" <bgspradlin@cablelynx.com> |
| Subject | Re: What was going on in the '70s? |
| Date | Mon, 27 Oct 2003 11:35:02 -0600 |
[Part 1 text/plain us-ascii (3.6 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
The Blue RS guide also bashed the Association (two stars). Shoes first two
Elektra albums got one star each, while he gave Santa Esmeralada 4 stars.
Marsh
also gave Ray Parker Jr & Raydio's first 3 albums 3 stars each. ecch! Marsh's
warped hippie tastes really dominated the first two RS guides. Too bad Creem
never had a record guide. Trouser Press' first 2 record guides were excellent.
Billy
At 01:50 AM 10/27/03 -0500, you wrote:
>On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 19:00:09 -0500 audities-owner@smoe.org writes:
>> I wish I still had my Rolling Stone Red Book -- but I'm guessing that
>some
>> of the stuff they were going ape for was full of pretension or dull as
>dirt.
>
>I hope nobody made their purchasing decisions based solely on the first
>two Rolling Stone Record Guides!
>
>An example from the Red one:
>
>"The Zombies
>
>Time of the Zombies (**)
>
>During the British Invasion, the Zombies hit with an ethereal love song,
>"Tell Her No," which spawned Rod Argent's career. In the late Sixties,
>after a long hiatus, the group came up with "Time of the Season," the
>keynote of this mediocre comeback effort. "Tell Her No" was on Parrot,
>and it's the one to have. - DM [Dave Marsh]"
>
>Just about the only "accuracy" in that whole review is that Tell Her No
>was on Parrot, and that it was a hit. But it didn't spawn Rod's career
>(that was She's Not There), there was no hiatus whatsoever, and "Time of"
>was a 2 record comp with singles, unreleased tracks and all of O&O
>(hardly a comeback effort). At least 2 US hit singles are ignored. And
>this guy's supposed to be an expert rock critic? I know they were all
>out of print in 1978, but c'mon!
>
>Better check the Blue:
>
>"The Zombies
>
>Time of the Zombies (**)
>Early Days (***)
>
>Early Days incorporates the band's original incarnation as one of the
>artier British Invasion groups, courtesy of the relatively spooky hit,
>"Tell Her No," which sparked the career of Rod Argent. Time of the
>Zombies sports an almost-all-new group (except for Argent) who hit in the
>States with "Time of the Season." This version of the group also
>launched Colin Blunstone. Both bands are better -- if less typically --
>represented by their hit singles, available on any number of multi-artist
>anthologies superior to these collections. - DM [Dave Marsh]"
>
>No better. OK, "Time of" did include a few songs (one side out of four)
>which were finished by Rod and others after the Zombies split. But all
>of them (I think) were made more-or-less finished versions recorded by
>the actual group. In any event, Time of the Season was on the O&O
>portion of "Time of", so was of course the actual band. And the second
>"version" of the group did not launch Colin -- he was there from the
>start.
>
>Fortunately, I learned early on that these books were most useful for
>deciding which releases of a particular band to try first, rather than
>choosing between bands. So those shoddily written reviews didn't deter
>me from picking up Time of the Zombies at the time.
>
>Oddly, most of the Doors' records have 4 or 5 stars in the Red, but only
>2 or 3 in the Blue.
>
>No Queen record in the Blue with more than 2 stars. Meanwhile,
>"Thriller" gets five stars. I'd rather listen to The Shaggs, who earned
>the dreadful square: "Worthless". Poor Foot Foot.
>
>g
>
>
>
>________________________________________________________________
>The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
>Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
>Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
>
Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.