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Monday, July 13. 2009
Lazy Monday Blues
Man, what a lazy Monday. Haven’t done squat all day except sleep and eat. Brings to mind Lee Michaels’ version of “Stormy Monday.” Features just Michaels on Hammond organ and vocals and drummer “Frosty" Smith. Most people remember Lee Michaels, if he’s remembered at all, for his 1971 hit, “Do You Know What I Mean.”For me, “Stormy Monday” remains the signature Lee Michaels song.
They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday’s just as bad
They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday’s just as bad Lord and Wednesday’s worse
And Thursday’s oh so sad
Someone will remind me that the title of the song is actually “Stormy Monday Blues.”
Back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s it was okay to be different and even encouraged. Having just keyboards and drums was pretty fresh in the rock and roll world. Over in England Keith Emerson had a band called Nice that featured Emerson’s Hammond and of course Deep Purple had a hit with “Hush” that prominently featured Jon Lord on Hammond Organ. But, both of those bands had guitar players.
How do you get a guitarist to stop noodling around during rehearsals?
Put sheet music in front of him.
D’OH!
Lee Michaels went out on stage with just his Hammond and a drummer. That was it. He recorded a couple albums that way, then, after the hit, the record companies wanted him to homogenize and be like every other rock band; at least it seems that way. “Classic Rock” as a genre began to form in 1972 when the hip hippie radio stations started to gain more advertising revenue, when they received high listener ratings around certain bands and certain songs in particular.
We used to hear bands like It’s a Beautiful Day (Remember the song “White Bird”?) and Focus (“Hocus Pocus”) all the time before 1972, and stations would play, from start to finish, whole albums, interrupted by commercials only when the LP had to be flipped to play Side 2. That doesn’t happen any more.From Led Zeppelin, a venerable star of Classic Rock stations, we would hear more than “Whole Lotta Love,” “Black Dog,” “Rock’n’Roll” and the few other Zeppelin tunes we constantly hear these days. The double album Physical Graffiti has my favorite Zeppelin tune, “Ten Years Gone.” Can’t think of the last time I heard that played on the radio.
If a band wanted to cover it at some Classic Rock nightclub, they’d need at least three guitars just to cover the main guitar parts, of which there are 14 on the album version. Jimmy Page, tweaked out on his opiates, would just sit in his home studio and devise music and layers to music then bring it to the recording studio and the band would fill in the pieces.
In 1977 I had the pleasure of watching Zeppelin perform “Ten Years Gone” live in Houston, TX. As was often the case with Zeppelin in concert, what they lacked in studio finesse they made up for in pure, unadulterated rock’n’roll power and charisma on stage. Can’t think of any band today that has that kind of stage presence, but then, I can’t think of any popular bands today; it isn’t my generation and maybe there’s a band out there that does.
Michael Jackson had that kind of magnetism, but a rock band, a hard rock band, there were very few: The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Who and Led Zeppelin. The Holy Quadrangle of Classic Rock right there.Of course there are a lot of other bands played on Classic Rock stations, most of them having just one song played, like “Do You Know What I Mean” by Lee Michaels. Fleetwood Mac has a bunch of songs played on Classic Rock, but none (that I can think of) featuring Peter Green and none from the coolest Fleetwood Mac album, Kiln House.
My brother Ken, recently a new father, is a radio station bigwig and sometime DJ back in the Midwest. One day when he was spinning the discs we were chatting amiably through the chat feature on Facebook. He put on one of the standard Fleetwood Mac hits and I happened to suggest they play “Station Man” from Kiln House. None of his fellow radio station employees had ever heard of the album, let alone the song, so he didn’t. He wouldn’t even listen to it himself.
Man, that’s sad. They’re in the music business and they don’t know the history of one of the bands that pays their salaries? I don’t blame my brother, I blame society. For most people, there was no Fleetwood Mac before the 1975 Album, Fleetwood Mac, the first to feature Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Such is Classic Rock.What was this about? Oh yeah, a lazy Monday. Now I’m thinking of Deep Purple’s song, “Lazy.” Never hear that on Classic Rock stations. It’s why I never listen to Classic Rock stations.
Now it’s time for another nap.
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