John Sebastian/Ronnie Spector/McGuinn: Literally The Most Un-Cool Song & Video In Rock History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwzphA0Wpko

watch and wonder! don't miss the guys dancing at the end!

yes that's richard manuel on drums

and some dude from the rascals?

apparantly a guy from NRBQ on bass!

guys

c'mon

u gotta feel this groove

SWEATER GAME ON A THOUSAND TRILLION

feelin smooth atm

For a sec, I thought that there was no fucking way that this could be uncool... but damn.

lol, wasn't there already a thread devoted to this song/video? whatever, it deserves another thread. what a nightmare!

yeah i never saw it! but who cares the masterpiece of modern music should be in every thread imo

It was discussed n the SuperHeavy lol thread.

xp well, get to work putting it in every thread.
manuel is the biggest bummer here, it's probably one of the last things he ever did!

anything John Sebastian is ever involved in gets at least a little of this vibe for me. sorry to report that I can't unearth his appearance on Merv Griffin doing "Roller Girl" from the film Skatetown USA - the performance and interview are without a doubt the most uncool things I've ever seen in my life, and I play indie rock for a living

yeah sebastian is a complete toolbox overall

xpost

tyler i was thinking, god did check out like right around that time? he looks so frail :(

yeah manuel killed himself in 86 i think. hopefully he was drunk enough during these sessions to not really remember anything about it.

just to be braggin'12 I shared a dressing room w/2 of these v. cool people last month

xp fuck my heart breaks for richard manuel. his interviews in the last waltz seems so filled with love of music. poor lost guy.

did you ask ronnie spector about this song

Jesus Christ I couldn't even make it to thirty seconds.

yeah he's one of the most tragic guys in music ever....

i do love seeing him play drums during the non-live parts of last waltz (and even in this clip), he has such a strange physicality, as if he's some odd bearded puppet that's being controlled by strings when he plays drums

but yeah like his lonely songs like "whispering pines" or "sleeping" really take me to a sad part of the universe, he's sort of otherworldly to me in a way i can't explain

yeah i pretty much cried listening to whispering pines last night w/ him and levon harmonizing. song makes me cry anyway, but now....

I think "whispering pines" is my favorite jam on the self-titled, even over "cripple creek" which I've adored all my life & was a formative song in my what-are-those-big-kids-rockin'-to days

did you ask ronnie spector about this song

dude I gotta tell you her cool is just fucking radiant, like the most famous person in the room still sits up a little straighter when she passes. and she's the only one who had autograph hounds waiting for her when she showed up for the rehearsal set the day before.

sleeping's lyrics are really haunting to me in light of how he died:

For the life we chose in the evening we rose
Just long enough to be lovers again
And for nothing more, the world was too sore
To live in

Sad old ships
A morning eclipse
I spent my whole life guessing
Then I turned from the sun
And saw everyone
Searching

The hoot owl and his song, will bring you along
Where else on earth would you wanna go?
We can leave all this hate, before it's too late
Why would we wanna come back at all?

Cobwebs on my pillow
I'm found in the willow
I'd spend my whole life sleeping
To be called by noon
Is to be called too soon
Today

The storm is passed
There is peace at last
I'll spend my whole life sleeping
Now there's not a sound
No one to be found
Anywhere

The shepherd and his sheep
Will wind you to sleep
Where else on earth would you wanna go?
To a land of wonder
When you go under
Why would we want to come back at all?

ha, did not actually think one of those people would be ronnie spector. that's awesome!

Holy fuck.

McGuinn... DANCING... with his hips...

yes, terrifying.
not to turn it into a richard manuel appreciation thread, but m@tt otm about "sleeping", such an otherworldly tune. that whole record, stage fright, is kinda underrated. never been nuts about ws walcott medicine show, but the rest of it is solid.

Yeah the dance line is just.....

Like honestly I'm sure you thought oh he's exaggerating I bet I've seen something more uncool than this...but then you watch it

sort of think a whole book could be written about how it came to this

This looks like a band in the same rotisarrie baseball league which put together that version of G'n'R with Buckethead, Tommy Stinson and Brain in the lineup.

Lolling at this last post.

So apparently this was part of the failed pilot for a nostalgia/60s generation oldies show in 1986 called Deja View. I saw the Box Tops name in the credits and got excited but of course they didn’t reunite at that time, there was just some extended version of “The Letter” played behind this original music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMLKLtZCrWE

did you ask ronnie spector about this song

dude I gotta tell you her cool is just fucking radiant, like the most famous person in the room still sits up a little straighter when she passes. and she's the only one who had autograph hounds waiting for her when she showed up for the rehearsal set the day before.

― same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, April 18, 2012 6:01 PM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Should probably C+P and link in other thread as well.

OP video seems to have gone missing so here is another, admittedly blurry version of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoxJsSc21Io

Hope this chapter is covered in the upcoming Ronnie Spector biopic!

Lol!

This feels like a song from an 80s sitcom where the lame dad tells his kids he used to be in a band in the 60s and they're like "Sure, dad" and then his old bandmates show up and they jam and the kids sort of dig it.

btw, regarding the talk about Levon Helm upthread-- on the same album as this song Sebastian has a song he co-wrote with Helm. Sounds a bit like the Band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8wFhJBO53g

yeah manuel killed himself in 86 i think. hopefully he was drunk enough during these sessions to not really remember anything about it.

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 18, 2012 6:54 PM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I meant to say "talk about the Band"--not about Helm.

"apparently sone guy from MRBQ on bass"

there are two blind spots on ILM, as opposed to every single other aspect of music culture worldwide that I can expect to be informed views here. Maybe three blind spots?

One is broadway/show tunes/the great american songbook. Another is the european art music tradition, previously known as classical music. But since the above are generally idioms that the rockist/poptimist axis upon which ILM revolves around wishes to distinguish itself from, the lack of interest in NRBQ here is bizarre. UMS, a poster whose grasp of traditional rock and roll is impeccable, has often said he doesn't like or doesn't get this band, and no one here other than me has ever expressed any knowledge of enthusiasm. Which is to say: in between the years of 18 to 24, I saw as many shows by this band as others saw the Dead.