** From Kenneth Newman to Dennis Mccunney on 15 Jul 97  23:25:00
 ** Zepp
 DM>  I was never a big Groundhogs fan
 KN>
 KN> I wasn't until a couple of years ago when someone o n the
 KN> echo mentioned them. I picked up an anthology and was
 KN> blown away. Slowly but surely I've been adding their
 KN> albums one by one to my collection, but it isn't easy to
 KN> find them. I even tried unsuccesfully to buy some
 KN> specific Groundhogs albums in Birmingham which is where
 KN> they're from.
 That's dedication.
 DM>  prefer folks like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and the like to
 DM>  da British Blooze
 KN>
 KN> Kinda apples and oranges, though, eh? Groundhogs were
 KN> definitely blues based, but so were the Cream, neither
 KN> was really a blues band. Certainly some of the Groundhogs
 KN> stuff with mellotrons wailing could hardly be called
 KN> blues, however much it comes from the blues.
 Agreed, mostly.  It may simply be a reaction to the old days when every
 band felt compelled to do at least one stone blues number, whether they
 could play them or not (and often whether they could play anything at
 all or not...)
 I got to be a bit selective about what I'd put up with.  I don't mind
 bands that started with a blues base and went on from there -- I was a
 big Steve Miller fan, for instance.  I just wish Steve had someone he
 could work with who could write lyrics.  A lot of his are embarrasing.
 DM> and I loved the Yardbirds but never could stand Led Zep.
 KN>
 KN> I only really started to grok Zep in the 1990's, once I
 KN> realized the drums were supposed to sound like that and
 KN> that the engineering of the band's sound was no drunken
 KN> accident. Also, having always dissed Page as sloppy I
 KN> began to appreciate indeterminacy in music. I saw Page
 KN> and Plant a couple of years ago, though, and they were
 KN> better than Zep, IMO. Great show, and I'd seen Zep a few
 KN> times in their heydey. Page was incredible. It was the
 KN> end of the tour, which is always when he's at his best.
 KN> The guy was a master of microtones. Few guitarists can
 KN> play like that, and even he can't do it right every time.
 KN> But when it works, as it did when I saw him, it's
 KN> absolutely mindblowing.
 I knew Zep was supposed to sound that way, and I admired Page's
 technical proficiency. But Plant's "they've got my balls in a C-clamp
 and they're squeezing" vocals grated on my nerves, and I simply heard
 too much Zep on the radio, in people's houses, floating out open
 windows and the like.  I got OD'ed on it without ever buying an LP.
 I prefer the Who for power trio stuff, and while Zep may have been
 (with Deep Purple), the precursors of heavy metal, most of that genre
 bores me stupid.
 DM>  I do wonder if the Groudhogs couldn't be thought of as a
 DM>  precursor to "grunge" bands, but that's another issue.
 KN>
 KN> At first I dismissed the idea but having mulled ito over
 KN> for a few days I can sort of see it, though I think the
 KN> Groundhogs always took great care in textures and making
 KN> sure things sounded tight. Some of those guitar settings
 KN> are exquisite.
 It was an off-the-top-of-my-head notion.  I agree that the parallels
 aren't exact, but fundamentally, there's little new in pop music, even
 if the folks playing now *don't* know it's been done before.
 DM>  KN> So, if for example, you want to start a Blodwyn Pig
 DM>  KN> thread, go right ahead.
 DM>
 DM>  I'll pass.  I never really cared for Blodwyn Pig.
 KN>
 KN> Proto-Brand X, they were. I still like them.
 I like Brand-X, so I'll give BP another listen when the opportunity
 arises.
 DM>  Maybe a United States of America/Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies
 KN>
 KN> This would be fine - all psych music is currently
 KN> on-topic here. We're having a special on that. Knock
 KN> yourself out.
 Have to drag out the album and refresh, but I don't need much of an
 excuse to play it.
 DM> thread.  Or a Van Dyke Parks discussion.
 KN>
 KN> Are they in the Bronx or Brooklyn? No, seriously, we're
 KN> overdue for a VDP discussion around here, and especially
 KN> something that goes beyond just talking about his
 KN> production work with the Beach Boys. Maybe an in-depth
 KN> discussion of Song Cycle or Visit America.
 Song Cycle is one of the 10 LPs I'd keep if I could only keep 10 of the
 1500 or so I own.  USA is another.  The other 8 slots see a fair amount
 of shuffling depending on my mood, though Richard Thompson would likely
 claim at least two slots.
 KN> To be honest I wasn't terribly enamored of _Tokyo Rose_
 KN> or _Jump_ or any of his later stuff, but the guy is a
 KN> genius, that's for sure.
 I'm not current on the later stuff, but I agree he's brilliant.  As far
 as the production work with the Beach Boys goes, there's a bit of their
 work I might claim fits here.  I also recall a rumor that there wuld be
 some tracks from the vault released on CD, with an attempt to
 reconstruct what "Smile" was *supposed* to be.
 [Email: dmccunney@roper.com]
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