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    #26
    Originally posted by Sits View Post
    Oh and Clem Burke is an amazing drummer.
    Understatement alert.

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      #27
      Nah, The Stranglers and The Doors both produced lots of great singles.

      And if it wasn't for the LA Woman LP, the Quo would have still been doing Listen to the Flower People.

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        #28
        Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
        And if it wasn't for the LA Woman LP, the Quo would have still been doing Listen to the Flower People.
        Your point being?

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          #29
          If you don't think Debbie Harry is terrifying, why is she ringing you from the phonebooth across the hall, and why have you moved your fridge against the door?

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            #30
            All questions about the Punk nature of Blondie, answered here!

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              #31
              Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
              No, it was 'cos they were tossers and crap.
              No. They may be tossers, but they weren't crap. "Hanging Around" is one of the best songs ever.

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                #32
                Or were you having a Turkish?

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                  #33
                  I still love the white side of the Black & White LP, and their grinding, drawn-out version of Walk On By. Not sure how Rattus Norvegicus has stood the test of time - used to love it too, but haven't listened to it for decades. Probably sounds about as threatening now as the Boomtown Rattus. Don't know how 'hard' they were, but the one time I went to see them, at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens in the early 80s, the concert was called off because they'd reportedly got into a fight with "some dockers" that afternoon. The fact they had to call the concert off implies that the dockers got the better of them. Agree with treibeis re. Hanging Around.

                  After walking out on The Doors - the movie - around 25 years ago I could never take them seriously again and haven't listened to them since.

                  Still regularly listen all the first three Blondie LPs. Don't know about punk, but Parallel Lines is my favourite pop record ever.

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                    #34
                    Ah, the things you can research online when you have insomnia - here's the background to the Stranglers at Cleethorpes. Big fight with dockers on stage in 1977 after JJB challenged to take on any two of them. A former Stranglers roadie contributes to the discussion saying they pulled out of a gig there mid-afternoon "about 1989/90" due to lack of a crush barrier (pussies), but I reckon it could be my gig there from circa 80/81 that he's talking about.

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                      #35
                      Cleethorpes Winter Gardens

                      That’s one of the most evocative names I’ve read in a while. Never been, never seen but a strong mental image.

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                        #36
                        Originally posted by imp View Post

                        After walking out on The Doors - the movie - around 25 years ago I could never take them seriously again and haven't listened to them since.
                        Yeah. See, I believe you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who was introduced to them pre-Morrison's demise who thinks that way. The movie has a lot to answer for, none of it good.

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                          #37
                          “Listen to it every night around dusk for a month...”
                          https://youtu.be/5xillqqt0Y0

                          I was under the impression that the film was actually pretty accurate, which fans don’t want to hear.

                          They still made some good songs.

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                            #38
                            There being a 'The Doors' coffee shop in Amsterdam has always contributed to my sense of them being a bit naff. Plus the two people who liked them at school tended to really talk up JM's credentials as a poet and mystic, which didn't do him any favours.

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                              #39
                              Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                              “Listen to it every night around dusk for a month...”
                              https://youtu.be/5xillqqt0Y0

                              I was under the impression that the film was actually pretty accurate, which fans don’t want to hear.
                              .
                              Oh, factually, it is extremely accurate. Jerry Hopkins and his, then, wife were close friends of Jim and Pamela Morrison and his book, that the film is based on, is well worth reading. The problem, basically, was Oliver Stone. He was making a film about a LEGEND!. Get it? A LEGEND!!!!!. The film was overhyped, overblown and — to a considerable extent mis-cast.

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                                #40
                                Yeah, Kyle and his chin in the most ridiculous wig as Manzerak seemed the worst. Or maybe Meg Ryan. She was woecious.
                                Last edited by Lang Spoon; 07-02-2018, 19:06.

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                                  #41
                                  What an odd thread - Blondie, The Stranglers and the Doors

                                  I think that Blondie were always New Wave which, in itself, was a different thing to punk. More pop and melody, less rock, more angular. The early Attractions, The Talking Heads, The Boomtown Rats, perhaps the Police etc before going into a load of one-hit wonders and bandwagon jumpers like the Vapors, the Knack, Martha and the Muffins, Hazel O'connor.

                                  I think that Blondie get away with it due to Harry's phrasing (which, in an odd way, follows Lydon's), the staccato guitars and the Moon-esque incredible drumming of Burke. Their image, attitude and CBGBs heritage added to it as well.

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                                    #42
                                    Stein could lay down a fine melodic solo as well, even amid all that new wave (proto power-pop) early stuff. I'm thinking of the (brief) solos in tracks like "X-Offender" or "Presence Dear". That wasn't punk music, the way the Ramones were punk music. Having said that, Johnny Ramone wasn't exactly a hack with the guitar either.

                                    Anyway, punk wasn't really about music but about attitude and militant resistance to conformity (much as its contemporary, disco). By that brutally abbreviated definition, and within their timeline, early Blondie were punk. At least until Heart Of Glass.

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                                      #43
                                      Somewhat taken aback at the idea that being a punk group and being musically proficient are mutually exclusive. Wouldn't that mean that the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks, among others (Wire, The Fall), weren't punk groups?

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                                        #44
                                        Depends how you're defining 'musical proficiency' - if you can play 3-4 chords well, then you're more 'musically proficient' than many.

                                        All of the bands listed above made their names on the back of some fairly basic songs, in any case. (That the likes of Wire, etc, 'got good' is more down to having strong and original basic ideas and developing them over time.)

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                                          #45
                                          Nice little clip on the making of Heart Of Glass.

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                                            #46
                                            The documentary that, I assume, it comes from looks good as well.

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                                              #47
                                              Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                                              And if it wasn't for the LA Woman LP, the Quo would have still been doing Listen to the Flower People.
                                              I know they covered "Roadhouse Blues" off "Morrison Hotel". Have they said something to the effect of your comment?

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Furtho View Post
                                                Nice little clip on the making of Heart Of Glass.

                                                That's really nice. I have a double CD set of the first two albums which has bonus tracks, one of which is The Disco Song, the proto version of HOG. According to the notes it's from 1975 which would be one of their earliest recordings. A very different and smaller lineup then; no Harrison or Infante, but Gary Valentine on bass.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Thanks to this thread, this has been my earworm for four days.

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