Meow

With thanks to Blue Cat for sending it to me.

-

DesertOcean

The Dean

No, sorry D.O. - can't take the vocal affectation and false emotions of the man............. adding a 'faux pathos' (good mixed metaphor, eh?) that just wasn't in the original.

Not up to your usual enlightened standard.

The Dean

Just found this........... astonishing live performance of Marvin Gaye's protest epic, "What's Going On". The live audience shots are even more remarkable, and the whole thing is entirely of its time.............

DesertOcean

Joe Cocker from what I can tell by watching old videos including his performance at Woodstock '69, has pretty much sung that song in the same style. False emotions, perhaps, but evidently it works for him by the response from the listening crowd.

The original Beatles version is great, it just doesn't move me the same.

DesertOcean

The Dean

That's my point - the original wasn't meant to be emotional - it was a jokey singalong ditty. It was also alleged that "my friends" was a reference to drugs, but that's not the point either.

Remember - any Beatles track on which Ringo is the vocalist must not be taken seriously (Yellow Submarine, etc).

The Dean

The original version, by a ludicrously underrated singer-songwriter who moved effortlessly between country and folk. The story of the inspiration behind the song is a good one - Wikipedia:

The song was inspired by an encounter with a street performer in the New Orleans First Precinct jail and refers to neither the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson nor the New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall.

According to Walker, a murder on the 4th of July weekend in 1965 precipitated the arrest of all the street people in the area. In the crowded cell, a disheveled homeless old man began to talk to Walker, who had been arrested earlier for drunkenness. The man told various stories of his life, but the tone darkened after 'Mr Bojangles' recalled his dog who'd been run over. Someone then asked for something to lighten the mood, and the man obliged with a tap dance.

The Dean

Sometimes, pretty often in fact, only one band will do............

The greatest band in rock history, thumbs up, hands down.........

It's only rock n' roll, but I like it.............

dollface

Love them and that song, but for me, not the best band in Rock n Roll history but fairly up there.

The Dean

Go on then........... name the best.

The Dean

Long before the Blues Brothers came along............

Sam and Dave live in Finland - just look at that audience go wild...........

dollface

Well that's tough :

The Who
Beatles
Pink Floyd
Few others make the grade including the Stones.........

The Dean

Can't argue................ this is the studio version - if I can find a good live one, I'll post that too..............

DesertOcean

King Crimson - Epitaph

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams.

Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back
and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying.

Between the iron gates of fate,
The seeds of time were sown,
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.

Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back
and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying.