ohtani's jacket
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Posts posted by ohtani's jacket
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I forgot about the best song of 1975. I don't think it was a single, though.
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1975
1975 was another weakish year, but if you dig a little deeper there's always some cool shit to be found:
One funky ass joint:
Latimore, again!
I'm pretty sure there's a remix of this I like more, but still a great tune:
The book really needs some afrobeat:
I promised myself I'd start including more Japanese songs:
And why not a song from my home country:
I really like this Roxy Music tune:
David Allan Coe's loving parody of country music:
Early hip hop:
Dub classic:
These guys are underrated as fuck:
I love Jonathan Richman. Here's the 1975 version of this song:
Roky's back!
This has a relentless groove:
Epic:
Amazing track from a great artist:
Best soul track of 1975:
Infectious:
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Do you mean Fly to the Rainbow?
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On 6/22/2020 at 3:03 AM, Curt McGirt said:
To explain this one: "Gloria" was originally a Van Morrison song, which is how he could have covered it, and I suppose it wasn't released until '79. Just FYI.
I listened to this today. It was recorded in October 1968 and released as an EP along with The Essential Jimi Hendrix Volume Two. Pretty cool. Like Patti Smith's version, Hendrix changes the lyrics. It sounds like he's making them up as he plays.
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1974
I'm thrilled they included my avatar! Bobby Bland wasn't the first blues artist to crossover into more of a soul and funk sound but damn if he didn't sound good doing it.
This is also good:
1974 is kind of a weak year as evidenced by how few tracks they picked. The only gripe I had with the list was they did Richard and Linda Thompson a disservice with that pick. The title track from that album is much catchier:
Interesting how much of a spotlight they give Dolly, too. She gets more of a look in than the entire outlaw country movement.
Setting aide Bowie, Roxy Music and other stuff they've already covered, here's some tracks from '74 that I enjoy:
A dollar nine gets a bottle o' wine:Best Curtis Mayfield song not written by Curtis Mayfield:
Probably my favorite Marvin Gaye song:
Betty Davis was NASTY:
So smooth:
Worth it for Millie's monologue:
There hasn't been enough Funkadelic/Parliament on the list:
LATIMORE! So criminally underrated.
Really tight psychedelic soul:
I really like the album this is from:
This guys were so good. Here's a gem from one of their lesser known albums. One thing I learned going through the old Best of the 70s list pimping was to always check out good artists' follow up albums:
Where are all Teddy's friends?
That voice. And that hair:
PANTHERMAN!
Doom Metal pioneers cover the Stones:
How was Doctor Doctor not on the list? Obviously never been to karaoke with me:
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1973
1973 was a year with plenty of classic albums, and a lot of songs you'd hear on Classic Rock stations. Let me add some funk:
Funky Kingston is one of my favorite reggae songs:
BuA nice slice of New Orleans funk:
It doesn't get much funkier than this:
If you'd rather hear Marvin trying to get laid than save the children:
Possibly the best of the blaxploitation themes:
The guitar work on this song is outstanding:
This'll get you singing along by the time it's through:
James Brown is mad:
I tend to prefer ex-Temptations dudes to the Temptations themselves:
Might not be Jim Croce's best, but a toe-tapper:
It's hard to stop when it's this good:
The great MANDRILL:
It always amuses me how much effort Joe Simon put into this one:
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I always thought Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was about a country boy who became a toy boy for some rich socialite.
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Uh oh, 388-390..
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I've watched more Rocco than most, and I have a real love/hate relationship with his work. When I first got into watching WoS, there were British fans who held him up as some type of workrate god. And to some extent, if you compare the Dixon Screen Sport stuff, or the ASW Slots on ITV, to some of the stuff Joint Promotions was putting out, Rocco was cutting edge for the time. Rocco had an amazing, forceful personality. His 70s work is some of my favorite WoS stuff. Not only his feud with Marty Jones, but his heel run in the late 70s where he's as good a heel character as any on TV. And his go-go-go style salvaged more than a few matches against lesser talents. If he had managed to transition into great 80s feuds with Finlay, Jones, Dynamite Kid, etc., I would accept him as a great worker. But you don't get it, and to me it's a real disappointment.
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Here's one that might surprise you.
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9 hours ago, bleloch said:
Were they Tsururyū Combi at some point then? I've only ever heard the name as Kakuryū Combi (same Kanji, I know)
Edit: read their Wikipedia page to find out more info, and found this. Forgive my translation:
He's not wrong.
The quote from Wiki says the fans called them Kakuryu, but Tsuruta didn't like it and thought it should be Tsururyu. I have no idea what the commentators called them. I tried skimming through a couple of their matches but I only only heard Tsuruta-Tenryu combi, which doesn't help. It may have been Kakuryu. To be honest, the whole abbreviation thing in Japan drives me nuts.
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Liam,
Stevie Wonder had a series of acclaimed albums in the 70s:
Music of my Mind (1972)
Talking Book (1972)
Innervisions (1973)
Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)
Songs in the Key of Life (1976)The Innervisions album was considered his transition into a mature recording artist.
You may have heard this track before:
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On 6/8/2020 at 2:11 AM, Oyaji said:
As I said, this is largely arbitrary but the difference was never whittled down to black trunks v Tanahashi hair, it was more about mentality and approach to matches. Even Tiger Mask seemed like an ornery bastard on the best of days and wrestled a flashy yet aggressive style. Compare that to high flyers of today who are often times more gymnasts performing thrilling exhibitions of athleticism rather than trying to hurt their opponent and I think you get more to Suzuki's original point. Showa era wrestlers, according to his argument that I'm sure I'm butchering, saw wrestling as a job, largely did not grow up as fans, and wrestled with anger and violence. Compare that to wrestlers from the Heisei era, particularly with wrestlers who were trained well after the transition period of the early '90s, and almost all of them grew up wrestling fans (Nakamura speaks in his book to so many of the amateur wrestlers in high school and college being pro wrestling fans and it being a natural course to go from amateur to pro) and work a style more built around dramatic stories building to finisher dances instead of a simulated fight.
There are holes in that thesis, of course, but as a general look at the zeitgeist of wrestling in Japan, I think it works. Again, look at Kensuke Sasaki and compare him to Tenzan and Kojima. It's not just the garish costumes, it's the goofy mannerisms and character work. Kojima is a lovable bread dad now but his nickname is Cozy (yes, I understand "Koji" -> "Cozy"). There is nothing cozy about Kensuke Sasaki except his flowing mullet I imagine would've been cozy. The Mongolian chop vs. an actual chop.
I think the general distinctions between Showa wrestling and Heisei wrestling are true, but only if you view Showa wrestling as being bloody and violent. Showa wrestling had a lot of bloody brawls, but it also had long NWA style title matches, faux Inoki MMA matches, early juniors wrestling, serious women's matches, the beginning of shoot style, and the move towards dramatic stories built around finisher dances in All Japan Pro-Wrestling. There were key All Japan matches in the Showa era that provided the blueprint for most of the 90s classics. There is a working class, blue collar feel to Showa wrestling compared to the modern style, though I do find it ironic that Tsuruta copped flak in the 80s for referring to pro-wrestling as just a job.
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15 hours ago, Edwin said:
I've been watching Japanese pro-wrestling for some 20+ years, but thanks to @D.Z I learned something new and I'm not sure it's common knowledge as most of the time folks mostly just talk about match reviews and results and not about history in detail. He mentioned the term pro-wrestling shitenno a little bit ago and I remember going back and forth with him on the topic, but he never went much into detail.
Shitenno means four heavenly kings. Before Baba passed, he wanted Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi and Taue who are also referred to as the Four Pillars, to create a new in ring style in which they could get away from the previous era of matches being bloody brawls with foreigners relying heavily on the use of weapons and the matches ending in no contest, DQ's and count outs. The Four Pillars began developing the head drop heavy style as they thought that was the best way for them to beat each other to the point of exhaustion and being able to win clean by pinfall.
Of course Akiyama was later added to that group and they were called gokyo which means Top 5 and after the All Japan and Noah split, Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama and Takayama became the four pillars of Noah.
That bit of history is something kind of missing for a lot of foreign fans who've been following for years as we mostly just got best of comps. in the tape trading community and a lot of folks didn't really bother with full TV blocks or year sets back then.
Also, I had no idea Steve Williams' backdrop was called the satsujin backdrop which translates to murder backdrop as it was a high-angle backdrop which is news to me.
Anyway, just thought I'd share that bit of meaningless nerdy trivia with you folks.
The term Shitenno itself comes from Buddhism and was later used to describe famous groups of retainers and Samurai generals. Later on, it was used for judokas. I think it's a bit silly referring to wrestlers as Shitenno, but apparently the fans and media have done it since the 60s when Inoki, Baba, Oki and Yoshimura were considered Japanese Pro-Wrestling Shitenno. The Japanese magazines do love naming everything. They had a name for the Tsuruta vs. Tenryu feud -- The Tsururyu Confrontation (or Crane Dragon Confrontation) based on the nickname for the Tsuruta/Tenryu tag team (Crane Dragon Combi or simply Crane Dragon.)
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On 5/12/2020 at 1:51 AM, Matt D said:
Re: AoA
1. Watchmen barely holds up as something special or revolutionary now because of how many things copied it, took it further in plot ways, etc. It's hard to see what it was pushing against. And that's Watchmen. So you can imagine how something like Age of Apocalypse was going to age.
2. It's hard to explain to someone who wasn't there. Because if you're a year or two older than me or a year or two younger, you wouldn't hit it quite the same. I was of perfect age for things when X-Men 1/Uncanny 281/X-Force 1 hit. Nine or ten. You were able to get on the ground floor of this this exciting, dynamic thing that also had so much history. You could have something all your own, but be part of a broader group. By 95-96 when AoA hit, there were a few years of this behind it. This was hitting RIGHT when the internet was starting to become a thing, so I was on Prodigy in X-Men clubs too. I was able to read the news online and print it out and bring it in to my retailer to tell him. I'd ride my bike to New England Comics and come back with my backpack and the comics. You found out about the solicits from the free New England Comics black and white Newsletter. And I was shook to the core by the idea of AoA. All these facts and bits of canon that I had learned, that made me part of some exclusive club (literally. I was part of a group on Prodigy at 13 where you had to pass a quiz to get in called X-Clusive. This is not a lie), and they were undoing all of it. It was a shock. They announced it in the promo page they had every much by having a blurb of AoA Sunfire (who is unrecognizable) with a little "Who is this mystery character?!" And he had the magneto neck bumps so we all thought maybe it was some version of Magneto. This era is a weird multi-sense thing too. It's when they just moved to the glossy paper so you can almost feel it in your memory. And the idea of the FOUR characters coming over into the main reality afterwards. Anyway, it's not great. It doesn't stand up. I have no desire to reread it. But it was an important part of my youth.
I started reading X-Men in 1988, which was much later than the Byrne/Claremont heyday. There were already plenty of people who had sworn off X-Men by the time I started reading it. When I started out, they were dead and living in Australia, but I was obsessed with it. I was upset when Claremont was fired, but I stick with it through the relaunches. I was young at the time and the art was enough to keep me hooked. By the time AoA rolled around, I was already influenced by the older dudes working in the comic shop, and I had started branching out and reading more mature titles. AoA was the nail in the coffin. I don't remember how long I lasted, but I definitely remember it was during that event that I gave up on the X-Men forever. In retrospect, I should have quit when Claremont left. I remember when I first got on the net, I found an interview with him where he laid out what his plots were for the next two or three years in the early 90s and I was gutted. I wonder how long he would have lasted in the 90s. The hot shot artists ended up quitting and forming Image. I wonder how long Claremont would have survived.
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I was a big comics fan during the 80s and 90s. Every now and again, I like to go back and fill in the gaps from my youth. Mostly stuff I never read. Here's some stuff I've checked in the last six months or so:
V for Vendetta -- nice art. Kind of typically verbose Alan Moore. And I say that as someone who loved From Hell where he is even more verbose. I was simultaneously reading 2000 AD at the same time, so it was interesting comparing Moore's early work to his completed series here. Ultimately, I was on the fence. We're so far removed from Thatcher's England that it didn't quite resonate with me, but overall it wasn't bad.
George Perez' Wonder Woman -- I liked the way that Perez created a mythology surrounding the Wonder Woman character, and a new cast of supporting characters, but ultimately there's a limit to what you can do with the Wonder Woman character. I guess she's like Superman in that sense. Like most of these post-Crisis reboots, the series also suffers when Perez stops doing the art.
Mike Grell's Green Arrow series -- I liked the way this operated outside of the DC Universe like a creator owned title. It had its ups and downs, but I was kind of bummed when Grell grew bored of it.
Arkham Asylum -- I don't know what sort of rep this has these days, but I thought it was poor. I am a big fan of the work Morrison did on Zenith, Animal Man and Doom Petrol, and Dave McKean was a fantastic cover artist, but to me this was pretty subpar given the pre-Vertigo type mature comics DC was already producing. It sold well at the time because of the Batman hype in the 80s, but I thought it was weak imitation of Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz, to be honest.
The 80s Flash reboot -- This was another 80s post-Crisis reboot with a new supporting cast. Goofy and lightweight (at least after Mike Baron left), but a breezy and enjoyable read. I have read this through to the early 90s and haven't found a reason to stop yet.
Preacher -- This series got hot after I left comics. I polished it off pretty quickly. I loved the build-up to the final story arc. I dunno if I loved the ending, but it's one of those series where it would be difficult to satisfy everyone with how it finished.
I'm currently reading Hellblazer (from the start), 100 Bullets and Transmetropolitan. I keep giving up on All-Star Squadron. I guess I don't have much love for Golden Age stories.
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On 6/1/2020 at 1:24 PM, OSJ said:
Japan is a strange place. Mocking someone for any sort of "unusual" physical characteristic is considered acceptable behavior. A friend of mine who was a Thalidomide baby (short, deformed arms) spent some time in Japan and was called to his face "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and "Flipper" by some of the local wits. The same sort of talk that will likely get your face caved in here in the West is considered the height of humor in Japan. I don't speak Japanese, but I'm pretty confident in saying that after age slowed him down and he relegated himself to comedy matches the stuff shouted at Giant Baba was hardly complimentary...
While it's true that Japan has a backwards attitudes towards anyone who is different, it is not considered acceptable behavior to make fun of people with disabilities. Nor is the height of humor. There is fear and shame, and discrimination, but it is wrong to suggest there is open mockery of marginalized folks.
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Since we just did '72, and the bassist died, a band I discovered through Love and Rockets:
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James Harden being the greatest player to never win a ring isn't an outlandish statement, but let's see him take Houston to the Finals before getting carried away.
Baylor had a ring. He auctioned it off.
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There were two Johnny Cash songs and a Merle Haggard song. And a few songs here and there with country elements like Sixteen Tons and Sam Stone.
It doesn't get any better. I believe there is one Emmy Lou Harris song and one Willie Nelson song. No Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, David Allen Coe, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Gram Parsons, Mick Newbury, or anyone else from the 70s.
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6 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:
Well I guess I was wrong. Shit.
There was already some WAR earlier.
No "Pancho and Lefty" is criminal.
I think that WAR was all me. The only war in the book was Edwin Starr.
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Liam, can you post 367-369? I was waiting to hear what you think of You're So Vain.
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1972
I thought the authors did a pretty good job with this year. I appreciated the effort they made to cover different genres. The list reflects how varied and eclectic music was at the time and captures the movements that were happening at the time.
I do have a few grievances, though. Namely, the lack of Neil Young. If it were up to me, Neil Young would be all over this list the same way that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were, or Elvis and Sinatra. I read elsewhere that the only other song he gets is "Like a Hurricane," which is bullshit. There's always going to be individual preferences, particularly when it comes to preferring one singer-songwriter over another, but Neil Young is an institution to me.
I would choose either Superstition or Bowie's Starman as the year's best. There was a lot of good stuff, though. The only really weak song was that Aussie one. I'm not sure why they keep choosing songs from Australia. Choose something from New Zealand, damnit!
This was actually voted as our greatest ever song:
I kind of prefer this cover, though:
I think they choose the wrong Steely Dan song too:
Always a popular song w/ Japanese guys at karaoke:
Still waiting for them to pick some Townes Van Zandt:
Breaking Bad forever stuck this in my head:
Definitely need some O'Jays, either this or Love Train:
My favorite folk song ever:
We need some Bill Withers. This is as good as any:
Underrated band:
They really need some WAR but I don't see any coming. It was either this or Cisco Kid, but there is a live version of Cisco Kid I prefer over the album cut. I've included it because everyone should appreciate this fine band:
A few songs that are just as piercing today as in '72:
Some krautrock that kicks ass:
TEDDY. I could go on about Teddy for a while if you let me:
You might remember this from Kill Bill. I've actually been thinking of pimping some Japanese music:
I really like the chorus to this song:
Sing it, Luther:
One of my favorite Bobby Womack songs:
British funk:
A fun little number:
Funkiest gospel tune ever?
I'm not sure if this was released as a single, but it's one of my all-time favorite songs. I have a live version I prefer but this is the original album track:
That's enough for now. I'll spare everyone the slow jams like Oh, Girl and Betcha By Golly, Wow.
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12 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:
Would BattlArts be the last time an entire promotion consisted of dudes devoted to a more brutal (if not exactly orthodox) "Showa" style?
That's hard to say. BattlARTS definitely wasn't a shoot style promotion. It was a hybrid fighting style influenced in part by Ishikawa's love for Inoki, but not a strict homage to vintage strong style. I see it as a vibrant 90s indy. Maybe there were some 70s hard rock influences, but for the most part it was an amalgamation of everything else that was happening in the wrestling scene in the early 90s.
1,001 songs to listen to before you die...
in MUSIC
Posted · Edited by ohtani's jacket
My first exposure to that Eno song was from The Son's Room, an Italian film about the grief a family endures when their son suddenly dies. It's impossible for me to separate it from the emotions in that film, but I have a friend who swears it's an uplifting song. Funny how people can hear such different things from the same piece of music. My wife hates the piano line and always told me to turn it off.