Curse of Beatlemania

I always liked the Stones better than the Beatles.

I think the Stones are great too. The first time I saw them Stevie Wonder opened the show, one of the best performances I've seen.

I never saw the Beatles in concert, much to my regret, but their albums are superior to the Stones or the Doors when you compare how many tunes are good.

Both the Stones and the Doors put out albums, for the most part, that only had about four or five songs that were worthwhile.

BluesDuke is right about cranking those tubes - if in fact you have a tube amp - and controlling the volume on the guitar.

BluesDuke can also get the same thing going through at least one (maybe the only one, though I've not tried it through others) solid state amplifier, the Fender Princeton Chorus. (By the way, I've been playing the blues for years, I've been using D'Addario light-lighter-lightest as in gigalight strings for likewise on my guitars, and I have neither broken quite so many strings (maybe one string every other year) nor had to change strings as frequently as before, unless I absolutely want to do so. And, take it from me - those strings will cry like babies when you pick or bend or shake 'em right!

RC: I kinda know what you mean about Chuck Berry's Concerto in B Goode album, but if you take it on another level - namely, the sidelong title track (side one we could live without, except for that one slow blues number which was really kind of nice stuff) - you will rarely find a more genteelly pulsating example of an old and elemental rocker, who knows the real thing when he hears it, pointing out to the incumbent generation of ersatz artsy-fartsy sykeaydelic sockittome poseurs, who actually had the nerve to call their slop rock (there were exceptions, though few and very far), the precise spot at which he noticed their heads had stopped after crawling up their arses!

(Until my own copy was long, long ago lost, I also used to like using the number "Concerto in B Goode" as a limber-up for playing my guitar, I found it very relaxing finger exercise!)

Isn't Monterey also considered to be the festival where Otis Redding became a star, and Janis Joplin first got noticed?

Strictly speaking, Monterey was the festival where Otis Redding crossed over to a predominantly white American audience for keeps (he'd already been a favourite among black audiences and, when the Stax/Volt Revue hit England a year earlier, Redding had been one of the hits of the revue) and where Janis Joplin went from West Coast rumour to bona fide star, and thus lured then-Columbia Records head honcho Clive Davis to sign her by way of her then-band, Big Brother and the Holding Company. Monterey also made major stars of Jimi Hendrix and the Who (the word from their appearance put a jump into sales and made their then-current single, "Happy Jack," and the Happy Jack album, which was the U.S. version of A Quick One, their best-selling recordings to that point in the U.S.).

Strangely enough, one band who was invited to perform at Monterey but didn't show up was Cream - because their manager, in his infinite wisdom, conveniently neglected to inform the trio that they had been invited!

Both the Stones and the Doors put out albums, for the most part, that only had about four or five songs that were worthwhile.

For the most part, this is true. But if you were going to pick out two must-have albums from each band, my picks would be these: For the Rolling Stones, no questions asked, Aftermath and Exile on Main Street (plus, most of their singles up to 1976, minus "Angie" and "Fool To Cry"); for the Doors, The Doors and L.A. Woman (plus, all their singles minus "Tell All The People" and the live mini-LP from 1983, Alive, She Cried, which really showed them in their best concert light).

Monterey also made major stars of Jimi Hendrix and the Who (the word from their appearance put a jump into sales and made their then-current single, "Happy Jack," and the Happy Jack album, which was the U.S. version of A Quick One, their best-selling recordings to that point in the U.S.).

Strangely enough, one band who was invited to perform at Monterey but didn't show up was Cream - because their manager, in his infinite wisdom, conveniently neglected to inform the trio that they had been invited!

Aaahhh...

The joy of managers.

I'll have to dig up my vinyl copy of Concerto in B Goode and see if it even plays. I don't believe that one was even released on a CD in this country! Anyway, if memory serves right that was really his swan song. Wasn't it the one with Berry's last classic tune Tulane? I remember thinking at the time, oh great, he's still hip, he's still got it, he'll be around for a while. Ha!
Quoting from memory:

Tulane and Johnny had a novelty shop,
Back behind the counter they had the cream of the crop

Pete Townshend wasn't lying in his song "However Much I Booze" about his ego. The Who were big before Hendrix, so I don't blame him there. But I heard him in an interview once say he thought as a band overall, including performing live, they were better than the Beatles.

They were definitely a great band, but I wouldn't go that far.

And here are the real lyrics. The last great Chuck Berry tune:

Tulane and Johnny opened a novelty shop
Back under the counter, was the cream of the crop
Everything was clickin' and the business was good
'Til one day, lo and behold, an officer stood
Johnny jumped the counter but he stumbled and fell
But Tulane made it over Johnny as he yelled

Go ahead on, Tulane, he can't catch up with you
Go Tulane, he ain't man enough for you
Go Tulane, use all the speed you got
Go Tulane, you know you need a lot
Go Tulane, he's laggin' behind
Go 'head on, Tulane go head on

Pete Townshend wasn't lying in his song "However Much I Booze" about his ego. ...But I heard him in an interview once say he thought as a band overall, including performing live, they were better than the Beatles.

I never saw the Beatles live, but I've never seen a live performance better that the Who while Keith Moon was still alive, just after Tommy came out. It was amazing! The Beatles had more impact on society and the music industry, but Pete has a point.

Still the Beatles music was more varied and the progression more notable. I guess it depends on what you like.

I remember a documentary, maybe the "Hendix" movie, where Pete Townshend said he refused to follow Hendix onstage. I've seen the Who live but never Hendrix. I don't think I would care which was first in a hypothetical best concert I'd ever seen.

Townshend's comment had to do with Monterey: the Jimi Hendrix Experience had followed the Who, who brought the house down with both their music and their then-still-in-force bust-up routine during "My Generation," their usual set closer. Hendrix, wondering what he could possibly do to top that kind of finish, saw and raised Townshend about ten when, finishing off his set, he cranked out a feedback-drenching, hip-grinding version of the Troggs' garage punk hit "Wild Thing" and finished off by sprinkling a little lighter fluid onto his guitar strings, lighting them, and then kneeling before the flaming guitar pumping on the fluid can in a shattering psychosexual image (since lighter fluid cans, you see, pump similar to male orgasms, nudge-nudge-wink-wink, and each pump swelled the flames even higher). Townshend had hung around to catch Hendrix's set and after getting a good long look at what Hendrix's performing style was doing to the crowd, decided you'd about have to be a fool to even think about following him. (Not for nothing was Hendrix the final scheduled performer for Woodstock a couple of years later, by which time the Who - who also appeared at Yasgur's Farm - had retired the bust-up routine from their concerts.)

I forgot to mention - Cream's manager, who so brilliantly forgot to tell them they'd been invited to Monterey, was Robert Stigwood.

Anyway, if memory serves right that was really his swan song. Wasn't it the one with Berry's last classic tune Tulane? I remember thinking at the time, oh great, he's still hip, he's still got it, he'll be around for a while. Ha!

That pretty much was one of Berry's last classics. But if you want to catch his best late 1960s work, hunt down that live album he did (originally on Mercury) with the original, five-piece (including Boz Scaggs) Steve Miller Band, at the Fillmore West. Like blues giant (and I do mean giant, at 6'4" and about 280 pounds) Albert King, Chuck Berry and the Fillmore crowd - that part of it who weren't totally under the spell of the Grating Jefferson Dead Tuna Messenger Starship, that is - were made for each other. (For that matter, the three - count 'em! - albums to have sprung from Albert King's legendary gigs at the Fillmore West in 1967 and 1968, Live Wire/Blues Power, Wednesday Night in San Francisco, and Thursday Night in San Francisco, are absolute musts for any fan of either Albert King or the deep rural-to-urban soul-shouting blues.)

The Beatles became a studio band after 1966, while the Who never stopped touring. I wouldn't doubt for a second they were seasoned pros on the live scene. And I sure wish I had a chance to see them perform live, especially before Moon's death. He was THE drummer in my opinion for speed and timing.

A friend of mine says no way, Neil Peart of Rush. They're both good, though I think Neil sort of followed Moon's style a bit.

But I still like John Bonham the best. His drumming is what gave Zeppelin their unique sound.

The Doors are without a doubt the most overrated and pretentious "major" band ever to play a note of music on this planet.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I disagree. In fact, while I like the Beatles and the Doors, I liked the Doors more as a band, if for nothing else they had a top notch keyboardist...

The Rolling Stones were a better Rock and Roll band than the Beatles but Lennon and McCartney were better songwriters.

The Stones' Exile On Mainstreet is a top 10 albums of all time - classic.

The Rolling Stones had dry spells in their career but to be sure, their best concerts must have been better than the best Beatles' performance after the German club days. I say this because they never played some of their best material live and morphed into more of a studio band.

Most people will never get to see Let It Be (I missed my chance at a screening last year) and that concert was cut short by a business man who wanted all that racket shut down! Who knows how long they could have played in that farewell performance? (I think it only clocked in at 30 minutes)

but I've never seen a live performance better that the Who while Keith Moon was still alive, just after Tommy came out. It was amazing! The Beatles had more impact on society and the music industry, but Pete has a point.

He does and he doesn't. If he's talking about the years between 1969 and 1971, the Who were all but incomparable as a live performance band (from the rockers I saw live in those years, only the then-cult-only Pink Floyd were the Who's equal in concert). Any live recording you can find of them recorded from those years - usually, Live at Leeds and The Who at Isle of Wight 1970 - is worth the ticket and then some. If you can find a copy of their 1971 hit single, "Join Together," an original copy, that is (with a silver Track Record label), there's an equally thrusting live cut on the flip side, a six-minute Who-style ride of a Motown chestnut, Marvin Gaye's early hit "Baby Don't You Do It".

(Not for nothing was Hendrix the final scheduled performer for Woodstock a couple of years later, by which time the Who - who also appeared at Yasgur's Farm - had retired the bust-up routine from their concerts.)

The first time I saw the Who in concert was in 1971 or thereabouts in Seattle. The audience had been waiting for them for hours when we found out their equipment truck had crashed in Oregon on the way. Local stores provided new replacements for all the lost stuff, joints circulated throughout the auditoriom, and the band began to play.

Roger, Pete and Keith were shows unto themselves and John laid down a solid bass. They blew us all away. After about an hour and a half Roger Daltry announced that it was the end of the standard show, but since we'd all been so patient they were going to play a little of their latest album 'Tommy'.

We were all on our feet for the rest of the concert, they played all most all of Tommy. My most memorable concert experience.

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