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Grex > Music3 > #111: John Entwistle Memorial Let It Rock item, Bassicaly. |  |
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| 25 new of 70 responses total. |
brighn
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response 36 of 70:
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Jul 9 17:59 UTC 2002 |
Was it meant to be a cutout, or was it meant to be Ringo himself, frozen in
place? I didn't see the sketch.
I'm not sure that qualifies as a drummer joke, though, as much as a joke on
the idea that Ringo was the talentless one (Starr did write a few songs, but
they were definitely among the least favorite... did he write "Act Naturally,"
or just sing it?).
Anyway, as far as musician sketches on SNL go, that one reminded me of when
Paul Simon was host, and while he's being interviewed, all these people come
up to him: the guy who sat in the front row, third from the left, at his
Madison Square Garden concert in 77, that sort of person, and Paul Simon
rattles off all these details. The sketch ends with Art Garfunkel (the real
one, in a cameo) walking by and greeting him, only to have Paul say, "I'm
sorry, do I know you?"
#34> Davey's cute. Davey's got a really pretty singing voice. Davey can't play
any instruments, so they gave him a tambourine, when they finally broke down
and let the other guys play. (That's not a dis on Davey, since he hadn't been
hired as a musician in the first place... two of them were
actors-turned-musicians [Davey and... Peter?], two of them were musicians
turned-actors [Michael, definitely, and maybe Micky?: I really don't remember
which of Peter and Micky were musicians, although Micky did like his MOOG].)
Ironically, or maybe predictably, the most musical of the Monkees left the
band the soonest.
(The online site I found informs me that Peter and Michael were the musicians,
with Michael even selling compositions before and during the show. Linda
Ronstadt's "Different Drum" [1968] was a Nesmith tune.)
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oval
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response 37 of 70:
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Jul 9 18:40 UTC 2002 |
stop dissing ringo too!
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brighn
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response 38 of 70:
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Jul 9 19:19 UTC 2002 |
ringo's my favorite of the Beatles. I can dis him if I want.
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slynne
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response 39 of 70:
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Jul 9 20:39 UTC 2002 |
Oh man. Next thing you know and he'll start dissing on John Denver or
something.
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brighn
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response 40 of 70:
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Jul 9 21:16 UTC 2002 |
now that you mention it...
John Denver's performance in "Oh God!" defined 70s geek chic, and made
Christians look like hopeless dweebs.
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slynne
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response 41 of 70:
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Jul 9 21:23 UTC 2002 |
But he sang that song about his grandma's featherbed which totally made
up for that.
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brighn
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response 42 of 70:
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Jul 9 22:12 UTC 2002 |
But then he went and skied into a tree.
Oh wait, that was Sonny Bono.
Wrong ultra-wholesome 70s geek. My bad.
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scott
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response 43 of 70:
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Jul 9 22:30 UTC 2002 |
The SNL sketch had them trying to auction off Ringo Starr himself (he was that
week's guest host) and getting no bids.
Playing a drum kit well is quite tricky. It doesn't help we're looking for
good (up to our level) players, either. Nor is there much money. Hmm, that's
probably why we have problems.
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mcnally
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response 44 of 70:
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Jul 9 22:32 UTC 2002 |
re #36: I believe "Act Naturally" was a cover of a Buck Owens tune..
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bru
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response 45 of 70:
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Jul 10 04:07 UTC 2002 |
denver plowed his plane into the ocean, not his ski's into a tree.
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brighn
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response 46 of 70:
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Jul 10 04:15 UTC 2002 |
#44> Yes, looking it up, it was written by Johnny Russell and first recorded
by Buck Owens. I was actually going to mention "Octopus Garden" instead, but
I thought that was a Lennon/McCartney tune. It turns out *that* is a Starkey
composition.
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mrmat
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response 47 of 70:
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Jul 10 10:49 UTC 2002 |
Ringo has always been underrated as a drummer. He just wasn't flashy.
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brighn
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response 48 of 70:
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Jul 10 13:32 UTC 2002 |
Ringo wasn't flashy? Oh yeah, demure little Ringo Starr, the only one with
a stage name, and such an unassuming stage name at that. Heh. Ok. ;}
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mrmat
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response 49 of 70:
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Jul 10 13:37 UTC 2002 |
His playing style wasn't flashy, like a Keith Moon or John Bonham.
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brighn
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response 50 of 70:
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Jul 10 13:57 UTC 2002 |
That I'll buy. He was a very low-key drummer. Actually, I'd say he was
probbaly doing closer to what the job of a drummer (as opposed to a
percussionist) really is: Provide an interesting but non-intrusive beat.
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jaklumen
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response 51 of 70:
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Jul 10 17:30 UTC 2002 |
Yeah. I forget which Beatle movie it was (either Help or Hard Day's
Night) in which it starts putting in a drum beat to another act.
Pretty talented.
resp:36 Yes, I saw VH1's "Behind the Music." Peter Tork had been a
Greenwich Village musician (i.e. East Coast hippie), and Michael
Nesmith was indeed a folk composer-musician. They explained that
Nesmith was really frustrated by the corporate machine, punching the
wall when "Sugar Sugar" was offered to them (quite ironically, it was
given to a band comprised of comic strip characters). It was
interesting to see "Video Killed the Radio Star" as well, in which they
explain Nesmith's contribution to the launch of MTV.
Nesmith wasn't the most polished and proficient of composers; a lot of
his Monkee tunes suffer in the light of what studio wizards were doing,
and he wasn't a consistent hitmaker. But he did have some talent.
However, he didn't need to worry about money-- he was the heir of the
fortune of the woman who invented paper clips.
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slynne
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response 52 of 70:
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Jul 10 18:01 UTC 2002 |
She didnt invent paper clips, she invented White Out or Liquid Paper (I
forget which)
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brighn
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response 53 of 70:
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Jul 10 18:19 UTC 2002 |
Michael Nesmith's mother invented Liquid Paper.
The only Monkees movie, Head, deals almost exclusively with the issue of them
being little more than a commercial product. Its surrealism reminds me a lot
of Nesmith's later work, including the much more acerbic but about as strange
Estevez cult classic, "Repo Man."
The life of a repo man is *always* intense.
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jmsaul
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response 54 of 70:
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Jul 10 18:25 UTC 2002 |
Nesmith worked on Repo Man?
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brighn
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response 55 of 70:
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Jul 10 18:35 UTC 2002 |
He's listed as Executive Producer.
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jmsaul
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response 56 of 70:
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Jul 10 18:39 UTC 2002 |
Any idea what he actually did? That title can mean a variety of things.
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brighn
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response 57 of 70:
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Jul 10 18:54 UTC 2002 |
Nope, no idea. Given that it does have a similar surrealism, it's hard to tell
whether he had some creative input, or just agreed to underwrite it because
he clicked with the script. It's definitely darker than the few other things
he's been involved with (although Head did have a few dark moments, like the
wraparound pseudosuicide of the band that it begins and ends with).
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jaklumen
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response 58 of 70:
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Jul 11 06:55 UTC 2002 |
resp:53 Whoops, that's right.
"Head".. I *loved* that movie, but I swear, Jack Nicholson and the
others must have been on mondo drugs.
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omni
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response 59 of 70:
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Jul 11 09:32 UTC 2002 |
John Denver was the idiot who ripped on Toledo for being boring.
Ok, it is, but he didnt have to write a song about it.
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brighn
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response 60 of 70:
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Jul 11 13:24 UTC 2002 |
I think my favorite bit is where Peter apes back the words of the guru,
talking about the nature of reality for a few minutes before concluding with,
"But why ask me, for I know nothing." Instead of being as wowed by Peter as
Peter was with the guru, the other Monkees get disgusted and slap him around.
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