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Slap in a punk song?


2020Jazz

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56 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Where’s the punk? I can only see a Boomtown Rats song..?

early Rats Stuff was punk, Mary of the 4th Form etc, but they did start move away from it with this and then I don't like Mondays, but then again what is punk? 

edit, having said that the lyrics are very punk rock

can of worms.jpg

Edited by PaulWarning
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This was Top of the Pops.  As far as I know, the artists had to sing but the music was mimed; consequently Bob Geldof manages to produce lifelike sax sounds out of a candelabra but I also remember Rod Stewart (I think it was Rod Stewart) once performing with his lyrics on a piece of paper as he hadn't memorised them.  So I'm not sure if the real bass line was slapped, I can't tell from the clip.

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Weirdest thing.

 

Back end of the 70's I'm in this nightclub and the DJ sticks Rat Trap on. You'd think it would have cleared the floor, not a bit of it. Everyone keeps dancing. 

Every time they hit the dead stops everyone freezes in time, then starts dancing again. Come the fast bit before the fade they all wig out out, jumping up and down and then the DJ plays Disco Inferno and everyone carries on dancing normally.

 

Weird.

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12 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

Well that's another 36 seconds of listening to the Boomtown Rats that has reminded me why I try not to listen to the Boomtown Rats. One of those bands where you just wonder who their fans are and hope they never get into a position of power.

 

I had a couple of their albums when I was 13 and enjoyed them. I've always been a very long way away from any position of power, you'll be pleased to hear. 

 

Like Clockwork seems to me to have aged better than some of their others:

 

 

I've not got any metrics by which to judge whether something is punk or not, but it would be quite an achievement for a band formed in Dublin in 1975 to be Hochpunk.

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18 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

 

I had a couple of their albums when I was 13 and enjoyed them. I've always been a very long way away from any position of power, you'll be pleased to hear. 

 

Like Clockwork seems to me to have aged better than some of their others:

 

 

I've not got any metrics by which to judge whether something is punk or not, but it would be quite an achievement for a band formed in Dublin in 1975 to be Hochpunk.

'Like Clockwork' is a fantastic track, goes against the bad rep that they have.

We cover that in my punk/new wave covers band and it's a great song to play.

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The whole point of punk was that it supposedly ripped up the rules. It's surprising how many rules there are about who is punk, how you have to look, how you have to sound, how you have to dress etc! 

 

In the 90s I was in a punky band and the producer suggested I do some slap bass in the chorus of a song. I tried it and it worked a treat. 

 

Coming from a punk rock background, I went on to play 15yrs on the Americana / Country circuit. I think this is far more punk than spending 35yrs trying to sound like GBH. 

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17 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

Where’s the punk? I can only see a Boomtown Rats song..?

 

16 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

+1. Yep, not punk. Were around at the time of, but not part of.


I’ve never really been sure exactly what the definition of punk is. I seem to recall that at the time it was a pretty big brush and a lot of bands ended up being tarred with it by their management and record labels, whether they wanted to be or not. 
 

I’m sure that some learned musical historian* will have a musical definition of punk (and the distinction between punk in the USA and punk here) but as far as I could tell at the time, punk’s defining characteristic was an attitude. And, in some cases, a blessed brevity.

 

Once the music press got hold of the phenomenon and hyped it up, every new band had to be “punk” in some way or other if they wanted to get a record deal or get decent reviews in the NME or MM.

 

So were the Rats punk? To a die-hard punk fan, probably not. To a record company exec or a band’s manager trying to promote their product, probably yes.

 

Did punk preclude the use of slap bass (or indeed any kind of virtuoso ability on an instrument)? No, but it generally hid it well behind that all-important attitude.

 

 

 

*Or one of those cheap-to-make Channel 5 talking heads programs that trots out the usual suspects to pontificate on the Top 50 Punk Records or some such. 

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I’m sure the Punk Police would have their opinions as to whether Bob & Co were punk or not. As has been said it’s strange that a movement which came from the idea of having no rules has become - for some - so regimented. 

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15 hours ago, BillyBass said:

This was Top of the Pops.  As far as I know, the artists had to sing but the music was mimed; consequently Bob Geldof manages to produce lifelike sax sounds out of a candelabra but I also remember Rod Stewart (I think it was Rod Stewart) once performing with his lyrics on a piece of paper as he hadn't memorised them.  So I'm not sure if the real bass line was slapped, I can't tell from the clip.

 

Sounds like a pick on the original to me. And, I've just tortured myself by watching a couple of live versions on YouTube.

The Bassist was playing with a pick on those versions.

:D

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