I’m sitting here (not) studying for an exam later this week. Blagged a day off work and all. On my iPhone at the moment are tracks by John Lennon, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles (very Classic Rock, I know).
In a desperate effort not to actually learn anything pertinent, my brain has expanded upon a Hepworthian theory that it has previously toyed with: The classic/cliched sound of many artists is not the sound associated wih their most successful or lauded period. Some examples for consideration:
> The ‘classic’ Hendrix guitar sound, the one that has people instantly thinking ‘Jimi’ is a mildly overdriven strat sound, with or without fuzz, fed through a univibe pedal to give that swirling, underwater vibe. Think ‘Band of Gypsies’ In fact, think of nothing but Band of Gypsies, as that was the only place he used this sound, barring posthumous releases, and it’s hardly considered his defining work. It’s the sound that Robin Trower built a career on and numerous guitar effects pedals try to recreate, and Hendrix only used it for a few messy months before he died.
>The classic George Harrison guitar sound is the sound from his solo recordings, not the Beatles. It’s a sweet, melodic slide sound, often harmonised. Think “My Sweet Lord”. It’s so evocative of Harrison that it was doused liberally over “Free as a Bird” as a sort of pheremone mark that this was the Beatles. Thing is, it’s entirely absent from his Beatles recordings. (I accept that a 12-string Rickenbacker through a Vox amp is pretty iconic, but it was quickly nicked by the Byrds and many others)
>Jeff Beck is a guitar freak. He conjures incredible micro-bends and other general stunts into his playing in an instantly recognisable way: the ‘Beck’ guitar sound. The ‘Beck’ guitar sound that was entirely absent throughout the 60s and 70s and appeared out of nowhere in the 80s, well after his commercial peak. Page still sounds like Page, Clapton still souds like Clapton (unfortunately) but Beck mutated into something else entirely. You could always hear elements of something different going on, but he was still very much in the ‘blues guitar player’ box that he climbed out of sometime in the 80s and impaled on his whammy bar.
>And just to show it’s not all about guitars (although it actually is). The ‘John Lennon’ vocal sound is a dry, heavily slap-backed sneer that was hinted at on “Walrus” and “Ballad of John and Yoko”, appeared on “Come Together” and stayed for the remainder of his solo career. I know he always liked slap-back but it seems that once he was free of the Beatles there was no-one telling him to turn it down a notch. Listen to the Rutles “Cheese and Onions”. Piano ballad with slap-back vocals for some reason means ‘John Lennon in the Beatles’, even though neither of these featured heavily at the time.
>And one for the drummers. The cliched Stones sound is Charlie’s tight up-tempo drumming with a few sparse and lazy Keith open G riffs over the top. Whenever the Stones produce a new album, the lead single is always a mild variation on this pattern. Think “She’s so cold” or “Start me Up”. However the actual classic Stones sound is far looser, slower and less structured. Even straight up rock songs like “Brown Sugar” are less metronomic and swing more. The cliched Stones sound seemed to have joined the Stones with Ron Wood, as it’s in the mid 70s that Charlie’s playing mutated and it’s been stuck that way since.
I fully accept that this theory is considered proven beyond a doubt and my examples watertight, but I’m still interested in hearing what you peasants think.
You may well be right about Hendrix and Beck, but I pretty much stopped listening to Hendrix after Electric Ladyland and Beck after Beck-Ola, so in my head their ‘classic’ sound is from their earliest efforts.
*clears diary for an afternoon of Beatles and Stones*
But you have to admit that whenever anyone tries to imitate a ‘Hendrix sound’ whether in a movie (Apocolypse now) or another song (anything Funkadelic) it’s the Band of Gypsies sound they are going after.
Absolutely agree re Lennon and Harrison, Hendrix theory sounds about right,don’t really know Beck or the Stones well enough to say, but you’ve convinced me.
I like the cut of your jib, Podicle old fruit and fully intend to pursue this line in future conversion (with credit to yourself, of course).
Not for the first time I have the strong suspicion that I don’t know what I’m talking about, but… I’ve never thought of Charlie Watts’ drumming as “tight up-tempo”. Quite the opposite. I’m no Stones fan, but I’ve always quite liked what I heard as Charlie’s sloppy, pseudo-lazy, slightly off the beat drumming, as exemplified (to my ears) on songs like Honky Tonk Women or Beast Of Burden.
Honky tonk women is from the 60s, which is their golden period. Beast of Burden is from a decade later, and has a much crisper, tighter sound. Have a listen to Some Girls or Tattoo You and you’ll hear numerous examples of tight, dry, four square drumming. Find me anything from their golden period (Beggars Banquet to Exile- no arguments) with drumming anything like that. The closest I can think of is Rocks Off and it’s noticeably looser. I think when Mich Taylor left, Ron joined and Bill stopped participating for many sessions, it fundamentally changed the rhythm section.
Ron Wood was never right in the Stones, like a Mini-Me for Keef. The rhythm section never recovered – that “tight, dry” sound you mention lost the loose swagger that was so essential to their greatest work. I get the feeling Keef wasn’t happy with a much better guitarist in the line-up – took the attention away from him. Nobody’s going to be looking at Ron when Keef is up there, the old tart. Still and all, I’ll take anything the Stones ever recorded over everything the Beatles recorded, thankyouverymuch.
Harsh words vis-a-vis the Fabs, H.P, but I agree entirely about the Stones. The weird thing is that, on paper and based on the Faces records, Ronnie seemed like the perfect match. Just didn’t hold up in reality. A bit like Kenny Jones with the Who. Listen to the Small Faces and Faces and he seemed to have a bit of Moonish wrecklessness about him. Actually put him in The Who and he turned into a metronome.
My perfect replacement for Mick Taylor would have been Lowell George. Imagine that, even for one album. Not sure if Keef and Lowell would have survived a tour together, however.
There was a point – maybe around Tattoo You – when the Stones thought they had to “play like the Stones”, and decided that a big headachey beat and a recycycled riff was the essence of what they did, and what people wanted to hear. For me (and millions of others) the Stones were always about great songs. Everything else followed from that. The greatest Glimmer Twins songs are as great as rock music (and popular song) gets, and they’ve been compensating for their loss by “sounding like the Stones” for decades. They have the signature down pat, but the art is lost. (Harsh about the Fabs? I love the Beatles. Their records, not so much.)
… damn this lack of edit feature!
Interesting choice of Lowell. He said that the first Feat album was the band trying to come up with their own Exile On Main Street. As odd as that appears, when you listen to the album in that light it makes perfect sense.
Ry Cooder would have been best in The Stones. He taught Keef everything he knows. Imagine Ry Cooder playing with Mick Taylor!!
Ry did a good job in Little Feat, too.
Ry! Good call, Tig. He played on that dreadful Jamming With Edward album. But he would have totally sidelined Keef. Mick Taylor only lasted so long because a) he wasn’t an established star player (unlike Ry) and b) played in a complimentary style to Keef.
I’m sure you have The Rising Sons tracks? Just astonishingly good.
Yes, I have the Rising Sons. Ry isn’t half bad on Safe As Milk.
The other one who could/should have replaced Taylor was Jeff Beck. Keith would have had to step up his game then. I suspect there wouldn’t have been such a late seventies collapse in Stones quality.
Jeff Beck is the kiss of death for any group.
Here’s another example which may not stand up to rigorous examination, but…
how about REM? Their “Classic, cliched sound” would, for many, be jangly Rickenbacker guitar rock with mumbled, inpenetrable vocals. Their most successful, lauded period would, for some, be from when the music became more direct, even with the use of different instruments, and the vocals more distinct.
I’ve often thought that the flat sounding vocals and upfront uke work that just screams “imperial” George Formby is nothing like the loose, raga feel of most of his later work, after he discovered Newkie Brown.. Of course by then people had switched off and only wanted Dick Haymes and his ilk. Crying shame.