Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

I was trying to coax visitor Brian -- a classical-music buff as well as a fellow YouTube addict -- into sharing his favorite YouTube clips. I failed, darn it: Brian turns out to be in anything but a classical-music phase. But I failed in a good way. Here's part of Brian's response:

"I'm not listening to classical much at the moment. It's all Ramones all the time these days. Compare the audience at this '78 concert to your 1970 Bo Diddley clip of last week, and you'll find out who saved rock 'n' roll:

[More here, here, here, and here.]

Say, that ain't such a bad post in itself... Go ahead and put 'em up if you want to. Did you know Johnny Ramone was a Republican?"

Ramones-wise, I can recommend "End of the Century," Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia's excellent documentary about The Ramones. (Amazon, Netflix.) And I'm eager to catch up with the Special Edition DVD of Allan Arkush's cheerfully tacky C-movie classic "Rock 'n' Roll High School," featuring The Ramones. (Amazon -- I wasn't able to turn up the Special Edition on Netflix.)

Best,

Michael

about audience behaviour:

1. It was Elias Canetti who mentioned the sharp contrast between the audience behavior and the music in a classic music concert. The amount of information and emotions is much bigger than in rock and people remains quiet and listening.

2. A couple of nights ago I saw on the BBC4 the Rolling Stones concert in San Francisco (the one with the killed spectator) and the behavior of the public was the one you seem to prefer. Frankly, I like them better sitting and quiet.

Greetings from Barcelona !

Posted by: ortega on August 10, 2006 1:09 PM

I can only pogo for about 30 seconds these days, but EFFIN' AYE! I never get tired of these dudes.

Moreover, what are the similarities? Racous guitars, thumping beat, simplicity, and shortness. Good times.

Posted by: Scott Chaffin on August 10, 2006 1:13 PM

This post makes me wanna sniff some glue!

I just found a link from that concert that I missed, Rockaway Beach here. Compare it to one of their favorite influences here. (Dig the crutches!)

Didn't you say somewhere, Michael, that all great innovations are actually revivals?

Posted by: Brian on August 10, 2006 9:34 PM






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