BIG WHOOP.
Who cares?
Good question. I suppose the reason why I listen to them is I like them. But, the bigger question is, why should anyone bother re-issuing their material at all? If anything, they serve first and froemost as examples of why groups like them (and a million others, doesnt matter what time period you're talkign about) were useful as forgettable readymades.
Let's go caso a caso. I'll show you what I mean. Procol Harum, 9 out of 10 doctors and patients know at least a chunk of the ditty "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Couldn't give a rat's tuckus to bother spelling the group's wacko name right or care who the geezer singing the ditty is, nor should they.
Been on a emailing list of fanatics 'bout the band. Very weird. One thing can be relied upon when peopel talk about them: "Procl are so under-rated!" etc. yaddayadda yadda. Does that mean there's a standard? Does their British accent ,and very British music, guarantee them a place in the Rock and roll pantheon -- which i hear is behind a Burger King in Detroit. Hell, the Hammand organ and "stentorian lyrics" (copped that quote from a rock encyclopedia in he 80's) are all the band is really memorable for cuz the organ isnt Booker T, though Matt Fisher copped stuff from the head MG, and he doesn'sound like the guy from question mark and the Mysterians, or Jimmy Durante for that matter. Like every band of the era, they sought to expand their sound, and on the ell Pee "A Salty Dog" they went so far that the Hammond was waaaaaay in the back and sleighbells were played by the guitar player (who became a member of the band Robin Trower. THat was his name, by the way). These cats were an idiosyncratic band. So were all the rest for that matter that I listed above. just fil in teh blanks where nouns appear for the band/instrument/album and you got the same group(s).
It's frustrating saying you're a fan of any of these groups. I should know cuz I tried to be one once, back in the days when CDs were still numbering 30 in my collection and clamoring for more buddies o theirs to fill my room and bug my mom.
What it boils down to, fer me at least, is that these guys decided to do something for themselves with teh cliches that their eras of rock had to offer. and they did it toooooo well, cuz they ain't completely ossified dinosaurs-- more like missing links with a couple hit tunes here and there (even Focus, a scandanavian group fercrissakes! had a hit in the USA) that wer only hits because they were catchy, not becuse the overal zeitgeist of the band propelled the song in purchaseability, like a Zepplin woulda or John Tesh (face it, when was the last time anyone thought John Tesh wrote catchy stuff?).
Blue Oyster Cult...
Still in fan mode, but only at 63 percent capactiy these daze(s). For a breif period in life-- other people's and mine, too. Can't be completely insular now, can I? (yes) -- they were DA BOMB. Not a maverick or a scud, or even a remake of "Psycho". They were like unfunky UFO's carved with heiroglyphs from another time and concept of place in the white boy rock n' roll scene. Why? Simply put, them early batch o words (and a gaggle of later words, too) didn't refer to anything that Earth has to offer. Shur [a microphone or a mispelling? You decide!] they used nouns an' stuff that look familiar/al, but dem things just didn't fit on the map of existence at the time.
Sonically speaking (skunk), it was a mishmosh of what the 5 boys lived and breathed in imagination and in dorm rooms an concert halls and VFWs as whatever group they were part of @ the time (of the season for loving...)
I miss 'em
it roiled and seethed and burst forth from the dams and dykes and retaining plungers like
a cosmic river of spackle
frosting everything and other things with a crystalline template
About
to be
smashed by the sound of a guitar solo or drum roll.
Thats why they are obscure.
Blue Wailin' Yardbirds only did so for 1.25 albums in their speckled career. Why? Clapton took care of the 5 live Yardbirds being bluesy, as did the oh so in/accurate recording of them live in a club that became that record on the markeplace of Marrakesh. Why Marrakesh? good question, cuz it links with the Hot house of Ogamarashid, a wacky subverbal/proto instrumental fracas that appeard on their 1.eponymous LP or 2. "Roger the Engineer".. bonus points if you know what I'm doing here. It Wasn't a Gouldman number that made the pop charts/tarts == is there really a difference? think about it.
They rocked sideways (an over and under and down too. BUT they had the guts to ask at the same time, "When will it end?" Sure Nietzsche could be happy with his endless seriese of dawns, but no Brit is as hardy (or syphillitically insane, fer that matter) like Fred. Weridly they answered within the same song:
Will it?
Cut off the when cuz the one voice in that call/response overlaps the background guy, presumably a drummer or a rhythm guitar guy.
It's nice being so sceptical of the possibility of being other than what one is. But dude, such a furrowed brow is not the place for the askanse observer to fall on. The heat of the gaze could toast their pop tarts.
