Johnny Rotten gets it completely right when he says, “It ended at exactly the right time for all the wrong reasons.” One of the most inarguable statements in the history of music.
I was almost ashamed to say that it has taken me this long to see The Harder They Come. That was, of course, until I saw it.
Everyone who likes Reggae has undoubtedly heard of The Harder They Come. Most have probably never heard of its most comparable film, Rockers. The Harder They Come, released in 1972, was the first film of its kind to come out of Jamaica. Rockers was released in 1978, and while it does have some comparable elements to The Hard They Come, it is quite different.
Now here is a unique band. Six disparate musicians creating such a beautiful noise. I have to admit that it took me a while to really enjoy their non-hits. I was raised, 20 years too late, on White Rabbit and Somebody to love. Like Jazz, it takes a bit to tune your ear to their particular style. Sure, the aforementioned hits are undeniable, it was their more unusual song structures that took a bit of getting used to…
The best and worst thing to happen to Big Brother and the Holding Co. was adding Janis Joplin to their line up. There is probably a 50/50 split on whether people like her or not. I am firmly entrenched on the not side. Do I think she is talentless, no, I can’t deny her that. I just don’t like her signing style. Well, on most of her work, anyway.
It is sad that this film is being left to languish in a vault somewhere – well, maybe not a vault. Vault just sounds better and underscores the crime that this film is out of print. Some of the remastered film found its way into the excellent Beatles Anthology documentary that aired in the early 1990s…
The Rolling Stones album Some Girls is like Achtung Baby by U2. It reveals a band that was once musical innovators trying hard to play catch up with a scene that has long since left them behind. In both the Stones’ and U2′s case, it was changes in dance music that caused/forced their musical shift…
Around the time the video for Metal on Metal by Anvil was making the rounds on music T.V. stations (circa 1985), I had recently befriended two brothers of Mexican descent. I can still recall the younger of the two unmercifully mocking Metal on Metal, and the band Anvil, for that matter…
Ever wonder why new “main stream” music sucks? This documentary is a good place to start. Popular tastes are a possible culprit, but when good music isn’t reaching the masses, one has to think there is another reason…enter Clear Channel.
We have all wanted to kill a hippy, right? Oh come on, you know you have. They were cute at Woodstock, but then they started to get way too hairy and smell (even worse). They became more of a pestilence in an untended field than gophers, and harder to get rid of. The everything should be free mantra got a bit old, too – yeah, that free concert at Altamont was great, wasn’t it…