Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

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Heston
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Heston »

I don't know if it's relevant here but Johnny Appleseed on Letterman is so great.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

101Walterton
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by 101Walterton »

Heston wrote:I don't know if it's relevant here but Johnny Appleseed on Letterman is so great.
It's a great song full stop!!!!!

Heston
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Heston »

101Walterton wrote:
Heston wrote:I don't know if it's relevant here but Johnny Appleseed on Letterman is so great.
It's a great song full stop!!!!!
Yeah, but the Letterman performance. It's similar to a minor religious experience for me. CK was mostly batshit crazy but he got it right about Joe's Shamanistic tendencies.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

NoMoreHugh
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by NoMoreHugh »

Thanks to all for the replies especially as no one answered with a contempt to rip my head off :mrgreen:

I think Joe's music isn't terrible and good enough actually in some places but for me it doesn't break the mould in a way that i would expect from him. When i hear something great i can feel it , to the point i want to stand up and walk around the room with an excitement of discovering new music that moves me. When i listen to his stuff its background music and at times i look back and couldn't even tell you what was just played.

Quite good but i couldn't describe it as great and there is really nothing new to discover same old song structure and no new surprises. Certainly some flashes of brilliance which brought me to suggest i always felt he needed a great song writing partner to bring it all together for him.

I certainly understand the comments about BAD and can see your point of view but i feel i will have to agree to disagree on this one. One thing to get from all this It would be boring if we all liked the same thing. :cool:

Chairman Ralph
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Chairman Ralph »

First, my choices:

1. Gangsterville
2. Trash City
3. Tie: Sleepwalk/Unknown Immortal/Cholo Vest (all because they have such a great, dark, moody vibe to them)
I think Joe's music isn't terrible and good enough actually in some places but for me it doesn't break the mould in a way that i would expect from him. When i hear something great i can feel it , to the point i want to stand up and walk around the room with an excitement of discovering new music that moves me. When i listen to his stuff its background music and at times i look back and couldn't even tell you what was just played.
For me, one major issue of Joe's early post-Clash output is his writing -- his lyrics often lapse into what I've jokingly described as "stream of gibberish" (I'm mainly thinking of EW here). That factor -- coupled with the inevitable Clash comparisons, plus, EW's sonic lapses -- dissuaded a lot of folks from giving that particular recipe another shot. I suspect that it probably cramps your enjoyment of his stuff, as well.
I certainly understand the comments about BAD and can see your point of view but i feel i will have to agree to disagree on this one. One thing to get from all this It would be boring if we all liked the same thing. :cool:
Personally, I always preferred BAD live -- I saw them five times at various stages of their career, and it always amazed how much more guitar Mick played, versus what he allowed to creep out onto vinyl.

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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by NoMoreHugh »

Chairman Ralph wrote:First, my choices:

1. Gangsterville
2. Trash City
3. Tie: Sleepwalk/Unknown Immortal/Cholo Vest (all because they have such a great, dark, moody vibe to them)
I think Joe's music isn't terrible and good enough actually in some places but for me it doesn't break the mould in a way that i would expect from him. When i hear something great i can feel it , to the point i want to stand up and walk around the room with an excitement of discovering new music that moves me. When i listen to his stuff its background music and at times i look back and couldn't even tell you what was just played.
For me, one major issue of Joe's early post-Clash output is his writing -- his lyrics often lapse into what I've jokingly described as "stream of gibberish" (I'm mainly thinking of EW here). That factor -- coupled with the inevitable Clash comparisons, plus, EW's sonic lapses -- dissuaded a lot of folks from giving that particular recipe another shot. I suspect that it probably cramps your enjoyment of his stuff, as well.
I certainly understand the comments about BAD and can see your point of view but i feel i will have to agree to disagree on this one. One thing to get from all this It would be boring if we all liked the same thing. :cool:
Personally, I always preferred BAD live -- I saw them five times at various stages of their career, and it always amazed how much more guitar Mick played, versus what he allowed to creep out onto vinyl.
I do remember my hands shaking and struggling with anticipation trying to get the polythene off of my vinyl copy of Earthquake Weather and if i remember Love Kills and Dum Dum club single wasn't long out so the expectation was set for me . I think you are right maybe i have a acceptance block now i didn't think i was like that but it is a possibility. The disappointment was huge and embarrassing for me that this was Joe's effort when i first played it.

Yes i think you are right about BAD the live experience was the key. I dont think i would have the same feelings about the band if i had not seen them live all those times and that's the same for BAD II too .Mick would be gutted to think that was the case as it makes it more exclusive club which is what he was so against. For me i have enjoyed the exclusiveness.

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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Chairman Ralph »

I do remember my hands shaking and struggling with anticipation trying to get the polythene off of my vinyl copy of Earthquake Weather and if i remember Love Kills and Dum Dum club single wasn't long out so the expectation was set for me . I think you are right maybe i have a acceptance block now i didn't think i was like that but it is a possibility. The disappointment was huge and embarrassing for me that this was Joe's effort when i first played it.
I sort of thought so, too, because I liked both those songs, and they seemed to suggest that he was off to a promising start. I mainly remember Earthquake Weather as the soundtrack of my first experience of London -- I actually listened to it on the plane over, thinking, "Hmmm....I like some songs better than others, but I don't see this setting the world on fire."

I felt the same anticipation, though from a slightly different angle....as that last week blew rapidly away in a last-minute of packing, mindless errands and God knows what else! :mrgreen: So I didn't have time to check it out until the middle of the night, crossing over the Atlantic, and I'm thinking..."OK, we won't be touching down till seven in the morning, might as well pull it out and listen."

One other issue about this period that occurs to me is, at times, Joe often seemed to cram too many words into a line, or a verse, for his own good. At some point, the listener needs a break, or the track isn't likely to stick in your brain, anyway.
Yes i think you are right about BAD the live experience was the key. I dont think i would have the same feelings about the band if i had not seen them live all those times and that's the same for BAD II too .Mick would be gutted to think that was the case as it makes it more exclusive club which is what he was so against. For me i have enjoyed the exclusiveness.
Nothing wrong with exclusivity -- which might apply to those who dig Higher Power and F-Punk, perhaps! :mrgreen: (Though I personally prefer the former effort to the latter, but that's just me.)

And, yeah, I can understand it might not have floated Mick's boat -- at the end of the day, artists can't control all the outcomes, and that's how it worked out. I tended to see a lot of the same faces at the gigs I saw, which reflected more of the cult status that settled in, once that initial early success wore off.

At a certain point, too, once enough time passes, most bands exist as a body of music -- and, often, as one period versus another, that people prefer one way or another, which influences their vote when it comes to buying a ticket. So maybe a certain amount of exclusivity settles in, anyway, perhaps.

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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by NoMoreHugh »

Chairman Ralph wrote: One other issue about this period that occurs to me is, at times, Joe often seemed to cram too many words into a line, or a verse, for his own good. At some point, the listener needs a break, or the track isn't likely to stick in your brain, anyway.
This is a good point i think the more words the more descriptive you get and then the meanings become too obvious or too personal to the singer. Leave a little mystery to the meanings and allow the freedom of thought from the listener to almost place their own meaning if not the interpretation that its all about themselves. This makes a lyric work with great affect and allows the listener in and become part of the song and makes it more personal .
When i listen to Joe i often do feel i need a break. But I quite like your analysis of acceptance block i have been giving that a little bit of thought lately its an interesting theory.

101Walterton
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by 101Walterton »

This is one of the best covers of this classic!


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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by msza2 »

Current tally. Any more stragglers?

Trash City (22)
Burning Lights (10)
Unknown Immortal (10)
It's A Rockin World (9)
Island Hopping (8)
Shouting Streets (7)
Cholo Vest (6)
Gangsterville (6)
Love Kills (6)
Afro-Cuban Be-Bop (5)
Tennessee Rain (5)
Sleepwalk (4)
Leopardskin Limosines (3)
Nothin Bout Nothin (3)
Pouring Rain (3)
Ride Your Donkey (3)
Dum Dum Club (2)
Jewelers and Bums (2)
Harder They Come (1)
Permanent Record Theme (1)
Tropic of No Return (1)
When Pigs Fly (1)

Heston
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

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Can't believe Trash City is winning!

Kinda tells its own story about Joe's disappointing solo career.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

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Heston wrote:Can't believe Trash City is winning!

Kinda tells its own story about Joe's disappointing solo career.
If my arm could stretch 6000 kms, I'd punch you from the comfort of my chair.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Heston
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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Heston »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
Heston wrote:Can't believe Trash City is winning!

Kinda tells its own story about Joe's disappointing solo career.
If my arm could stretch 6000 kms, I'd punch you from the comfort of my chair.
Don't tell me you had Trash City at number one? It has no chorus and a repetitive tune that strongly resembles Do Wah Diddy by Manfred Mann. The drums sound like they were played on dustbins. I do like the lyrics.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Heston wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:
Heston wrote:Can't believe Trash City is winning!

Kinda tells its own story about Joe's disappointing solo career.
If my arm could stretch 6000 kms, I'd punch you from the comfort of my chair.
Don't tell me you had Trash City at number one? It has no chorus and a repetitive tune that strongly resembles Do Wah Diddy by Manfred Mann. The drums sound like they were played on dustbins. I do like the lyrics.
Number one and no regrets. It's a damned fun song—it's unambiguous rock n roll—and Joe sounds like he's enjoying himself. One of Joe's virtues was that when he was having a good time on record or in concert, it had an amazing transferral effect to the audience. If you want to look for faults, you can find it in any song. But Trash City's basic formula isn't meant to challenge; it's about why we love rock n roll in the first place. Sometimes it's good to be reminded about that stuff (which, imo, is why LC succeeds).
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Wilderness Years - vote your top 3

Post by Marky Dread »

Heston wrote:Can't believe Trash City is winning!

Kinda tells its own story about Joe's disappointing solo career.
I know it's terrible isn't. It should be number 2 because I said so! ;)

I wish there was more of Mick in the Love Kills mix.
Image

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

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