Please be assured: this has nothing to do with the NME, etc.
Below are quotes from two members of a band, about a single track on one of their records.
Can you guess: which band and which record? If you’re feeling really astonishingly wonderful today, maybe even the track (might be a bit trickier)?
Band member A:
“The ultimate destruction of rock ‘n’ roll is to destroy it with itself – and that’s to take out the ‘n’ roll part. Johnny B Goode stands for everything wrong with ’50s rock and roll: the cheerfulness and the neatness of the tune. So the basic idea of (…) was Johnny B Goode with one chord, repeating – and what it needed to go with it was a big, multitracked, fuck-off wall of guitars.”
Band member B:
“It has a sort of majesty, we all felt it was the mission statement. It’s because of its incredible simplicity. Obviously there’s a bit of a chorus going on, but essentially it’s one chord. This is a possible music. Again, it’s this abstract thing: what’s the least you can do and it still be music?”
Totally wild guess AC/DC – High Voltage
I know I’ll get my coat …
Sounds like something the Manic Street Preachers would say.
My first thought too – specifically Generation Terrorists era
Your first thought was Paul Young – No Parlez? Shurely?
My second thought this time (see below)
You Love Us would fit the bill here, I reckon.
Is it 2Unlimited?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
(You’ve been waiting for someone to respond with that haven’t you?)
FINALLY!
Spinal Tap?
I’m thinking either Primal Scream or Spacemen 3.
Aha – but which are you going for?
Spacemen 3.
But, then again, it’s the kind of crap Bobby G comes out with, so:
Primal Scream.
Jesus and Mary Chain?
Was it Devo?
The Beatles or The Ramones?
Which are you going for?
Beatles
Is it Paul Young talking about No Parlez, particularly the cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart
That made me laugh out loud on the bus!
Anyone ever notice how similar Love of the Common People is to Fast Car?
https://rave.dj/UNVCLp_fmAHYCQ
Black Lace?
Is it Flux Of Pink Indians?
I’ve got to be right one day…
Well, no…
Kid Creole and the Coconuts?
The Lighthouse Family?
Scouting For Girls?
The answer is always David Bowie?
Gerry Rafferty?
*Full House!*
Full House – terrible ITV sitcom of the 1980s “starring” Christopher Strauli and Sabina Franklin
But a great Fairport album…
I was going to put the album by Beats International, but I don’t want to encourage Afterword cannibalism.
Very droll, @Salwarpe!
My first thought was the Ramones, but that seems a bit too obvious. Must be a punk band shirley.
That’s interesting…
Sounds like art school types, Byrne and Eno? That kind of era of noise lovers, Velvets admirers. Talking Heads not really wall of guitars though or?…
A clue: yes, the band are/were art school types – but then, about half a dozen of the names already suggested could reasonably be described as bloody art school types!
(Bloody art school types, messing around all day, they should get a proper job, lying around all night, eating my tax – and you, get yer ‘air cut, two years in the army would do them good, etc, etc…I had that Bruce McLean in the back of the cab once…)
Trouble is, “art school types” covers all sorts – Clapton, Townshend, Barrett,
Gang of 4, Belle & Sebastian, Cale, Blur, Simenon, Mick Jones, Florence, etc, etc?
Art school, noise loving, upset the apple cart types. A smaller pool of talent to choose from.
That’ll be Glen Matlock, then
I get that a lot.
One of the lesser-known Speyside whiskies…
McArf!
For peat’s sake.
Suicide?
Failing that, JAMC or Spacemen 3
Which would you go for, if there can only be one?
Mm, now I think of it, the phrase “a fuck-off wall of guitars” sounds very British. Therefore not Suicide. Oh, I’ll go with Spacemen 3, possibly talking about ‘revolution’
Softly-spokwn public schoolboys, Jason and Peter? I very don’t think so.
Jason wasn’t a public school boy! Pete very much so.
Oops! Thanks for the correction.
My Bloody Vallentine
Good suggestion, Uncle W.
How about Japanese noise terrorists Melt Banana?
My guess is Sigue Sigue Sputnik – sounds like the kind of tosh Tony James came out with at the time.
They’re talking about a very simple song, so I would say it’s their breakthrough single, Love Missile F1-11.
I actually bought the follow up, 21st Century Boy, which was more of the same but for some reason I liked that one more than the first one.
I really enjoyed the Rockenteurs episode with Tony James, a fascinating, eloquent character. They’ve promised a second one as he’d barely got started after an hour.
Pixies
I see where you’re coming from with that…
Strange that dodgers think it always has to be loud. I’ll never quite understand this as all the evidence suggests otherwise.
The very embodiment of Rock ‘n’ Roll is Gene Vincent, and yet his vocals are invariably low, in some cases barely audible, with a lightness of touch.
Yes, I did wonder if Band Member A’s comments would offend thine eyes, DD…
It should offend everybody’s eyes.
What next?
Johan Cruyff stands for everything wrong with football.
Viv Richards. A cricketer. My arse.
More importantly, I need to know who said it in order to monitor everything the dodger, for that is what ‘he’ is, has ever said, so that I can do the opposite. Reveal it soon please.
Remain calm. Adopt the brace position. All will be revealed.
If thine eye offends thee pluck it out. Trouble is you still have your ears.
I’ll have another go
The Clash by The Clash.
Brian Jonestown Massacre
It’s Sigue Sigue Sputnik, I think…
I’ll post the answer this evening, on or around 18:00 GMT.
Don’t want it to drag on too long – and anyway, deramdaze needs the time to rearrange his life, so that he’s doing the opposite of whatever Band Member A does…
In order to enable me to prioritise my days activities, has the right answer been given or should we all continue to scratch our heads?
A very good point.
No: I can confirm that the correct answer has NOT been given thus far.
(…and Band Member A is NOT Johan Cruyff…)
Sounds like Buzzcocks or Wire to me. I’d have guessed the Fall but which of the numerous others in the band got a word in (other than Brix Smith obviously).
Which of those three do you think you’ll go with?
I’ll say Wire.
Okay I’ve changed my mind again. I’ve decided it’s Suicide talking about Frankie Teardrop.
Interesting…very interesting choice.
But you’ll be kicking yourself if it’s actually Buzzcocks, Wire or The Fall!
If the band has not been suggested yet, I’m going to have a second attempt – Throbbing Gristle.
Not been suggested yet – interesting…
I’d go Velvet Underground cept I doubt they were interviewed about tracks on their album.
You’re saying NOT the VU on balance, then?
Has anyone said Roxy Music yet? The Bogus Man is a one chord song and they are the very definition of art school.
If its not them, I’m going back to The Ramones. As two people have nearly said them (myself included) but then picked someone else.
No-one has suggested Roxy yet – but, if pushed, would you choose Roxy or Ramones as your best bet?
I like the idea of it being Roxy but something about your responses to the mention of the Ramones makes me think it is them.
Roxy.
Yes. I think.
Locked in?
I phoned my friend – he called me an idiot. So locked in.
Arf!
Second guess from me: Sunn O))),
That’s a good guess – but do you think it’s a better guess than the Manics?
Nope. Decided to go with the Manics.
Loop?
All that old guff about destroying rock and roll could have come from any number of self-regarding rock and rollers. The key phrase, I think, is that bit about Johnny B Goode standing for everything wrong with ’50s rock and roll. What humourless twit could possibly be cocky and/or silly enough to come out with something like that? And there’s not just one of them in the band but two, with Member B describing their meisterwerk as “a possible music”. That indefinite article speaks volumes to me. And as someone else pointed out, the phrase “fuck-off wall of guitars” dates it to within the past 25 years and most likely a Brit too, I reckon.
As per @Milkybarnick et al, I’m going for the Manics too: three utterly humourless gobshites plus a drummer whose name I just had to google. Quotes from Richey Edwards as band member A and Nicky Wire as band member B, and they’re talking about You Love Us from Generation Terrorists.
You don’t think that all that Johnny B Goode, cocky humourless stuff might actually have been an attempt at, er, humour? Well, maybe not – it’s hard to tell without the context. Depends how seriously they were taking themselves, I suppose…and the Manics did take themselves very seriously…
4 Real. They only seemed to lighten up a bit later.
Pink Flag was released in 1977 – so 48 years ago – good grief! Nearly half a century since ‘77…
About half an hour to go. The correct band has been mentioned somewhere above – but then rejected in favour of a second guess. Aargh! I’ve said too much…
The Ramones! The Ramones!
OK: time for the reveal.
The band was Wire.
The album was Pink Flag.
The track was the title track, Pink Flag.
Band Member A was Colin Newman
Band Member B was Bruce Gilbert.
No wonder the contemporaneous punks didn’t know what to make of ‘em…
Special mention for @Bamber, who chose Wire – then rejected them in favour of Frankie Teardrop by Suicide – so close, so close…
I should’ve trusted my instincts. No idea where the idea of Wire came from as I’ve never rated them, listened to an album of theirs to my knowledge and am certain that I had no interest in any of their interviews. While I like the subsequent efforts of band members Adamson and Andrews, those two have never been on my radar.
Edit: As most of you will have realised from the above error, I was thinking of Magazine. I could never tell one from the other. 2nd edit Barry Andrews wasn’t with either!
Are you absolutely sure it wasn’t Nicky ‘Wire’?
I’m coming to this late but I swear I guessed Wire.
Good enough – you win.
Always going to be male… always going to be dodgers… but I am slightly surprised it was more your Fag-end Frankie variety, which is why I didn’t rise to the bait of the no-hits clash, who, after all, hung around Rock On and did record Brand New Cadillac, a version I’ve never heard. I had my money on more yer Mark IV dodgers c. mid-to-late ho-hum 1990s (U.S. or U.K.).
I now want to know everything that Wire have ever said/recommended and I’m only going to get it from you guys.
They are obviously shite, but I do congratulate them for being ten years younger than the Beatles. Those ten years might just as well be 1,000 years. Great timing, chaps!!!
Ask not what a you can do for a dodger, ask what a dodger can do for you!
I’m off to listen to Johnny B. Goode on repeat.
What is dodgers?
Again? OK. They missed the 60s.
Just for DD…
I think it’s Wire.
Huzzah!
What are next week’s winning lottery number, Beez?
Next week’s answer will be Flux of Pink Indians…
I can see it in my crystal ball. Along with last week’s winning lottery numbers.
No. It’s the Ramones.
Pink Flag is a great album, as are their second and third releases. It’s better than any punk album I know of. It doesn’t matter what crazy ideas musicians have for doing what they do as long as the recordings cut it. They do have a certain droll humour though which comes across in the music and lyrics. What a bunch of iconoclasts they are, which you need to be to do new things. It’s on Harvest though and has a certain feel of early Floyd, a psychedelic inventiveness you could say.
I agree with all of this, whether you meant it or not…
Oh I mean it all right. I think Wire were a bit ahead of the game in 1977, already seeming to be post punk although they had the shout, short, sharp bursts of energy.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Great as the first three albums were, their comeback was even better. An Ideal Copy is fab, as is A Bell Is A Cup…
Great, but not necessarily better…they’ve been remarkably consistent, even as their sound changed.
Further to my late night comment, on balance it is not VU. I’m going with Ramones. Sorta stoopid thing they’d say.
Well…okay, then…
I like the cut of Junior’s jib. It is our truth.
What – in a “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” stylee?
Yes*
* This is actually quite a clever answer.