TS: The Back Seat of My Car vs Back of A Car

Mad stoner.

I don't agree with you about the decline in the quality of his music, actually. I think he just works in styles, and the perceived banality of some of his lyrics and music is not so much coming from him, personally, but the fact that he's trying to do different things, stylistically.

hahaha, so you think he *wasn't* toking down in the 60s??

anyway, Big Star by a mile, even though I dig Paul.

"Perceived" banality? It's pretty obvious, Tim, although I'll admit his, um, scenarios are more imaginative than, to pick a random example, Bernard Sumner's.

Who else would the music come from? He's writing and playing it.

OTMFM

Let's not forget Macca is a bass player, and one of the three or four best ever. Even the crappiest Wings song has a top bassline ("Silly Love Songs" for ex). Those songs MOVED (even if they didn't particularly have a destination).

http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/candy/ghp_i_just_wasnt_made_for_the_backseat_of_my_car.mp3

Bell apparently helped write a few of the songs on "Radio City." I read a good piece on this recently--I think Bell wrote part of "Back of a Car" and maybe "O My Soul." Some think he played on the record too, but I don't hear it myself. I think Alex wrote "In the Street" by himself, actually; and the ones that Bell sang on the first album were written by him, ditto the Alex ones like "Thirteen" and "Baby's Beside Me." On "Radio City" there are a couple-three tunes that are Chilton, Danny Jones and Richard Rosebrough, maybe they're "She's a Mover," "What's Goin Ahn" and "Mod Lang"? It's an odd thing to say that compared to Chris Bell Alex was a real careerist.

Myself, I prefer "Radio City" to "#1 Record." I just think it's more unified-sounding. And I prefer Chilton's singing to Chris Bell's. But there are plenty of people who like "#1" better. I always liked Alex's stuff, even some of his '80s and '90s material, and I'm a fan of "Like Flies on Sherbert," which I think is really great. But I think Alex was a real chameleon and that he took what Bell was doing and goosed it up on "Radio City." Kind of the same way he took what Dan Penn did in the Box Tops and sort of imitated it. The only time Alex really did something on his own--before he turned into the Malaco-Records version of cabaret--was that third record, which is in my opinion far and away the best thing he ever did, and also, in my opinion, way better than *anything* Paul McCartney ever did, too. And I like Paul fine, and Lennon too--I just think "Third" is, like, better than "Plastic Ono Band" or at least as good, depending on my state of mind at the time.

And this thread reminds me again of how great Ram is on the whole.

-- Handsome Dan (blacktop4...), March 2nd, 2005.

Macca is a better bass player than Sgt. Salt Peter (though Salt was, in the wrods of Mike Olson of teh Olivelawn, "the John Entwistle of punk").

Feel--Bell
El Goodo--Alex
In the Street--Bell
Thirteen--Alex
Don't Lie to Me--sounds like both of 'em
India Song--Hummel
Baby's Beside Me--Alex
My Life Is Right--Bell
Give Me Another Chance--Alex
Try Again--Bell
Watch the Sunrise--Alex
ST 100/6--sounds like both of them

the lyrics of Back Of A Car really capture the complete fucked-up-ed-ness of being a teenager, as did many of their songs. i don't think i ever heard the McCartney song.

The McCartney song really captures the complete earnest horniness of being a teenager, or feeling like one, or finding that exact moment of intersection between you making it in the back seat of a car and the entire world uniting in harmony, perfection and bliss.

Sorry, I'm not buying that at all. I love the McCartney song, but that's a really, really complicated/sophisticated arrangement...It's more elegaic than horny...Like a thirty-something looking back on being a horny teenager.