I remember being struck by a TV interview with Bill Bruford many years ago, in which he was chatting about punk rock and said something like: “If you say to people that rock music is made up of three chords,” Bruford ponders, “there will always be guys, especially in the UK, who say, ‘What if we added a fourth chord and put it into 5/4?’” (The quotation is taken from a drumming magazine piece in 2007 that I found via Google - it's slightly different in emphasis from I recall him saying on the telly.) I thought it nicely captured the tension between the primal essence of rock'n'roll, and the desire to stretch the possibilities. And I can get enthused about both ends of the spectrum, from Dr Feelgood to Rush, say, and many points in-between. (One of the most interesting things about Steely Dan, I often think, is simply their deployment of "jazz" chords that flip things in interesting directions.)
I love your para about "wanking off with pentatonic nonsense", or as I often describe it, noodling. And to add a different spin to your point, I wrote a piece a few years back about how a lot of guitarists don't seem to recognise the (connected) criticality of the song and the singing: https://bit.ly/3vyMdUq.
Have to disagree with you on one point though. I have never got on board with Raising Sand. There are some great songs in there, but I find the general vibe suffocating. Maybe that's down to your sense of over-compression, I don't know. I feel like all the spontaneity has been sucked out of Plant's performance. It's not that I can't take seriously downbeat stuff, and I'd submit artists like London trio The Jujubes and Mississippi's Robert Connely Farr in evidence.
Anyway, an interesting and stimulating piece Simon - and excuse the somewhat disjointed response!
I to get turned on by the most basic songs, whether it be Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner or Mannish Boy. There is something about the drone of just one chord.
Raising Sand is certainly an aquired taste and I do love the production and most of the songs, but most of all it's Plant's willingness to try somthing new. If you remember back in the Gary Moore came out of the blue (pun intended) with "Still Got the Blues". Before he was known for his rock/jazzrock playing and his work with Colosseum II - especially "The Inquisition", is still a firm favourite of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVofyIB7mu4
Yep, I applaud Plant's determination to try new things, even if I don't always like them. I blow a bit hot and cold with Gary Moore, who was so talented but to my mind often guilty of that overplaying Bonamassa describes, I love Still Got The Blues, on which I think he just fell into exactly the right vibe. And on the whole I'd rather listen to his Colosseum II period or his blues stuff than some of his solo hard rock stuff, where he just seemed to be trying to play as fast as possible.
I remember being struck by a TV interview with Bill Bruford many years ago, in which he was chatting about punk rock and said something like: “If you say to people that rock music is made up of three chords,” Bruford ponders, “there will always be guys, especially in the UK, who say, ‘What if we added a fourth chord and put it into 5/4?’” (The quotation is taken from a drumming magazine piece in 2007 that I found via Google - it's slightly different in emphasis from I recall him saying on the telly.) I thought it nicely captured the tension between the primal essence of rock'n'roll, and the desire to stretch the possibilities. And I can get enthused about both ends of the spectrum, from Dr Feelgood to Rush, say, and many points in-between. (One of the most interesting things about Steely Dan, I often think, is simply their deployment of "jazz" chords that flip things in interesting directions.)
I love your para about "wanking off with pentatonic nonsense", or as I often describe it, noodling. And to add a different spin to your point, I wrote a piece a few years back about how a lot of guitarists don't seem to recognise the (connected) criticality of the song and the singing: https://bit.ly/3vyMdUq.
Have to disagree with you on one point though. I have never got on board with Raising Sand. There are some great songs in there, but I find the general vibe suffocating. Maybe that's down to your sense of over-compression, I don't know. I feel like all the spontaneity has been sucked out of Plant's performance. It's not that I can't take seriously downbeat stuff, and I'd submit artists like London trio The Jujubes and Mississippi's Robert Connely Farr in evidence.
Anyway, an interesting and stimulating piece Simon - and excuse the somewhat disjointed response!
Thanks very much for your detailed response Iain.
I to get turned on by the most basic songs, whether it be Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner or Mannish Boy. There is something about the drone of just one chord.
Raising Sand is certainly an aquired taste and I do love the production and most of the songs, but most of all it's Plant's willingness to try somthing new. If you remember back in the Gary Moore came out of the blue (pun intended) with "Still Got the Blues". Before he was known for his rock/jazzrock playing and his work with Colosseum II - especially "The Inquisition", is still a firm favourite of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVofyIB7mu4
Yep, I applaud Plant's determination to try new things, even if I don't always like them. I blow a bit hot and cold with Gary Moore, who was so talented but to my mind often guilty of that overplaying Bonamassa describes, I love Still Got The Blues, on which I think he just fell into exactly the right vibe. And on the whole I'd rather listen to his Colosseum II period or his blues stuff than some of his solo hard rock stuff, where he just seemed to be trying to play as fast as possible.