991.com brings you excerpts from this weeks R.C. Weekly Newsletter. To receive the full unedited version please contact [email protected] and mention 991.
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Lots of discussions in
the office about why there’s something faintly embarrassing about seeing the uh,
more mature musician acting like he’s still a kid full of vim (not the cleaning
product, that’s Jumping Jack Flash). I am racking what’s left of my brains to
remember how I felt when I was young and saw old rockers. Did I believe that
people who reached 30, or even 21, had no right to rock? I suspect it was a
conceit injected into the culture by punk, but that may not be the case. Many
people enjoyed Bill Haley’s UK tours in 1969, ’72 and ’74, and by all
accounts those shows were almost as exciting as in the mid-50s when Haley
invented teenagers. Did people judge the 40-something Haley in 1969 and decide
he was past it? I doubt it. Bear in mind that Bill was in his
early 30s when he first kicked off trashing cinema seats in the name of fun.
Haley never appeared to be anything other than what he was; an avuncular western
swing singer updating Louis Jordan for a new era. Nobody expected him to
be anything other than showbiz – it was the sound that was exciting, not his
style. So while you might find the music slightly embarrassing and past-it,
Haley wasn’t, because he never pretended to be a kid, no matter how much
twirling of the double bass went on. To me that is the crucial thing: it’s only
the musicians that imagine – or kid themselves that we imagine – they’re still
young that are an embarrassment.
When did we start
believing that mature folk weren’t entitled to rock? Few musicians dared
consider the matter until punk forced them to; The Byrds may have
sung as cynical a song about the process as you could imagine, but there’s no
mention about what happens when your pants are tight from a beer gut rather than
a strategically-placed enhancement sock. One of the few
tunes to face the problem was this one; it’s
whimsical but at least it was aware that rock’n’roll was getting on a bit. Of
course, there is an argument that us old music lovers have earned the right to
be as embarrassing as we like, and that if you can’t make the kids cringe with
what they love to call “dad dancing”, you’re not doing your job. I figure that
you should dance if you want to
(yes, that link does lead where you expect; perhaps you’d rather not click), but
maybe don’t do it on stage…
The new issue is going
out to subscribers in the next day or so; it’s in the shops on the 25th. Lots of
unlikely valuable records on the cover – plus a small gratuitous picture
of this lady. Inside,
The Hollies, Wire, Sandie Shaw, ZZ Top, TT
Shakers, more San Francisco Psych and a fascinating story about the
acts who laid the foundation for AC/DC. Plus all the usual strange bits
and bobs. Record Collector: if I wasn’t working for it, I’d buy
it.
Hope you have a great
week
Ian McCann, Editor Record Collector
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Led
Zeppelin's Houses Of The
Holy at 40,
plus
collectables
Alvin
Lee's last interview
The
life and times of the UK
Subs
Legendary
British record producer Tony
Hall talks about his
incredible career
West
Coast Psych rarities &
collectables
Simon Dupree
& The Big Sound and Gentle
Giant
We pay
tribute to Bert Jansch
Plus Billy Bragg,
Stephen Stills, British Sea Power, Anthrax…plus much more
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