43 Comments

This is the most fun someone can have on the internet! Thanks for having me, Brad. I'm now off to get my official Tune Tag tattoo, every gets one, right?

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Make sure to get it on the right butt cheek. That's where the rest of us have them. Though, having done Tune Tag twice, both of my cheeks are branded.

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Which brings me to my next tagged tune: "Dancing Cheek to Cheek."😱

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I guess you're gonna need some more cheeks!

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As a Rush fanatic, and "La Villa Strangiato" being my favorite song by them (at least today), I was more than thrilled with how this all started off! And to get a peak into Ryan's mind is a bit like learning about Oz behind the curtain. Once we are inside we can never go back.

All the twists and turns were a blast, but maybe my favorite was the pre-Steely Dan/post-Steely Dan tag. I also was hoping for Dukes of Stratosphere, but having my hopes dashed, at my age, is considered a form of exercise. So good on ya!

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I wish I would have gotten Dukes of the Stratosphere, but I'm thrilled to learn about it, had no idea.

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That XTC turn was really a mystery at the time (I must've covered this in my piece)....why would a band confound a fanbase when they've worked so hard to build one, and why would their label tolerate such a PR nightmare? I seem to recall they switched labels shortly thereafter (maybe they were dropped?).

As soon as I learned about The Dukes of September, the Stratosphear cats is what I immediately thought of!

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"Phil Collins is an excellent drummer and a savant, but let’s not kid ourselvesβ€”he’s no Neil Peart when it comes to drum solos." - I designed a coffee mug for my wife with a pic of Phil Collins that says "World's Best Drummer." I thought it was a great joke but my wife now gets the last laugh as she taunts music-loving house guests with a straight face.

Awesome Tune Tag Ryan and Brad!

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HA! sorry, I'm a Phil Fan and I've clearly ruffled some feathers with this statement. I'd take Phil as an overall musician, but would take Peart as a drummer for fills, solos and syncopation. In reality, I prefer more straightforward groove than flashy drumming.

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No ruffling here. I've always wanted to share my love (and reasoning) behind my Genesis love. This seemed to be a good time. For years, I've gotten the question, "How can you like Genesis and not like Rush?" Now, I've put it down on paper! A similar question: "How can you love Bonnie Raitt and not like Linda Ronstadt?" Easy!

The fact that my lead guitarist was the one who turned me onto Genesis in Fall '72 ("Watcher of the Skies"), when "Foxtrot" was released, was helpful, too. A year-and-a-half later was when Rush released their debut (on my 19th birthday in '74), and by then, I'd already pledged my allegiance to Genesis: On the very eve of that birthday, March 17, 1974, I was 15 feet away from Gabriel, watching Genesis onstage at Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/paper-plate-peter-gabriel-offers

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What! Are you calling us chickens?! Or worse, pigeons? I am a bald eagle with no feathers to ruffle. Just like my bald brother Mr. Collins.

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Yr just a bunch of cry baby squonks!

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Thanks, Jami! Ryan was a fun and challenging Tagger!

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I'm as big a Rush fan as there is, but I can say that Phil Collins, at his peak, was at the level of Neil Peart. And on top of that - he could sing while playing! This clip, from when he played with the rock fusion band Brand X, shows PC at his percussive best.

https://youtu.be/Jy9U3D0tmb8?si=YZZNiSpvOD446wxs

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Thanks for this, Steve.....we like who we like, I get it. But, for me, it's all about emotion. I was never, and could never get emotionally connected with Rush or their music. Genesis? There are some songs I can't listen to without crying. The music can be that emotionally evocative and draining (Watcher of the Skies, Supper's Ready, A Trick of the Tail, The Cinema Show, and so many others), or the lyrics can be heart-wrenching. And, many times, both....You may have lived through a hearts and flowers adolescence, but so many days at age 13, I was made to feel like Squonk, a decade before I first heard the song, and felt that immediate twinge of a painful memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DUWqEIAfhM

Plus, was Master Peart ever in a Beatles movie? Extra points for Phil for appearing in "A Hard Day's Night" as an adolescent extra! https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/future-1980s-90s-pop-star-appeared-beatles-1st-film-hard-days-night-cool.html/

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Brad, I was singing the praises of Mr. Collins here! You know more than anyone that I love, love the Phil-era of Genesis (and Squonk especially!). Rush definitely was more cerebral than heart-heavy, but songs like "Subdivisions," "Closer to the Heart" and "Different Strings" all get me in the solar-plexus every time.

Phil needs no extra points, just extra injections of Prolia.

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Oh, I know, Steve! I wasn't defending to you, 'cause like you, we know our musical tastes. I was speaking to whomever has ears to hear....kinda laying out the spread on the table for anyone who wanted to nibble. As for "A Hard Day's Night," I wonder if there's still a bunch of folks who simply didn't know that little fascinating factoid.

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There's only one thing that matters: size of the kit. If I can see the drummer, I don't want to hear it. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwCD9JfTpB4

(sorry, googled "largest drum kit" this guy actually sucks)

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It is true, where drum sets are concerned, size matters. And if there isn’t a 5-foot gong, it’s not a real set.

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Look at the shoulders on these drummers. That's a serious workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chGH2EqhESA

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I hear good things about the Dave Mathews Band drummer: https://drummagazine.com/the-carter-beauford-tribute-kit-returns/

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This was awesome. All this talk about an Alzhemier’s drug, but I think this game is much more effective! Plus it’s a lot more fun, needless to say πŸ˜…

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Hey, don't knock the 'Heimer's, young buck! As my mom (may she rest in peace til I get there!), who passed away 8 Christmas Eves ago, used to say in her waning years, "I've got half's-heimers!" My wish is that my verbal acuity is even close to that as I creep closer to (gulp) 70....don't panic; that'll just be in '25! Thanks, Andy.....more for reminding me of Mom, but certainly for your appreciation and inspiration of the mighty TT!πŸ˜‰

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It’s a very cruel disease. I lost my grandmother and my father-in-law to it. No question about the verbal acuity -- in some cases, better than non-Alzheimer’s patients. What I was trying to say is that this game is excellent (among other things) to exercise one’s memory, which is sadly the first thing, as you well know, that Alzheimer’s patients start to lose.

And on that note, can I just say I wish I had an ounce of your memory and brains and knowledge... now, let alone when I reach your age?! I mean... it is impressive, and I can’t say this enough. Proud of you in every way, my friend!

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Thank you, Andy. I knew where you were going.....'twas my mom who gave me her love of writing (she worked for Reader's Digest for a time right out of college). With that, Dad gave me his love of wordplay and just general humour! The long-term memory was the last to go for Mom, and as long as I still have a vice-grip on mine, I'll still be doin' my thing here!

My exposure to voluminous promo albums, late '60s thru early-'80s, gives me a TT leg up in some instances: Often, I can go right to something (in my head) I know I had in my collection (on a major label) back in the early '70s, and, at least, start there. Ex: Somebody throws me "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog" by Three Dog Night, I might leap to Frenchman, M. Frog Labat's 1973 album on Bearsville....yep, Todd Rundgren's label, and Todd engineered it! Labat ended up, shortly thereafter, joining Utopia on synth.

Check out Labat's album: https://www.discogs.com/release/4158944-M-Frog-M-Frog- That's what mine looked like with the pink Warner Bros. promo sticker on the upper-left. Also, he put the color bars for his synth charts on a few pages that were affixed to the front of the jacket! Now, granted, no one's gonna be fooled from "Jeremiah" and M. Frog, and why I went there, but it would be a connection, most likely, no one on the planet's gonna spend time looking on Google's page 3,875,983,746 to find! Now, is an M. Frog track from that album available anywhere on the web? That's another question entirely! But, to your excellent and generous point, my 2,000-LP collection is right up here (points to noggin)!

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Of course there’s that exposure, and of course the genes/influences from your mum and dad play a role, but it’s also what you’ve done (and continue to do) with all that baggage and all those resources. That’s why I have a complicated relationship with the word β€œluck”, (not that you used it, but just sayin’), because it only tells a very little portion (less than half) of the story. What you have achieved with the precious raw material that you inherited is truly remarkable.

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πŸ˜πŸ‘πŸ’–πŸ™

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I listen to very little pop or rock music on any regular basis, but I will listen to Steely Dan sing the letter M from the phone book if I hear it.

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That Supremes video is great -- a fun performance, and they're clearly _really_ concerned about not moving out of the frame of the camera.

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None of that is by accident, Nick! Several rehearsals in-studio (the same NYC studio Letterman inhabited from the '80s on....what came to be known as The Ed Sullivan Theatre) for the director and cameramen to nail down blocking, and the girls to make sure whatever stage movements they may be used to doing for concerts, is condensed a bit for that stage and cameras!

The Motown charm classes (they were a thing!) came into play here, as grace, aplomb, and smiles galore are more than evident here. And, what a talented dynamo Diana was/is (she'll be 80 in March)! Can you imagine Michael Jackson being tutored (in all things show biz) by her? Amazing!

From just a year before (but, it may as well have been a decade, the differences are so massive), the Ronettes (records produced by Phil Spector) from '65, and The National Anthem (as I've always called it....I hear it starting to play in a public setting, I'm like, "All rise"!), "Be My Baby." In 1965, color film stock was expensive, so TV shows were all shot, largely, in B&W (NBC's "Bonanza," which debuted in 1959, being a lone color outlier; there were others, but few). So, even a year apart, we have The Ronettes necessarily in B&W, and The Supremes in living color. That Ronettes video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRy2pV7b2QA

By 1966, color stock had markedly decreased, so shows began regularly filming in color. My lament illustrating this: CBS's The Dick Van Dyke Show (one of my all-time fave sitcoms) stopped production in '65, with all 5 of their years being in B&W. Had they lasted another year, we could've had a full season of color eps of the show! Which is also why The Andy Griffith Show (another of my faves) had several B&W years, but lasted long enough to shoot a couple seasons in color!

Not meant to compare (they're all legends), but The Ronettes (and Ronnie, bless her heart) were such a short-lived blip on rock's radar (but, what an influential blip...just ask The Beatles). The differences are fun to point out, though:

Diana and the girls' evening gowns, beautifully-coifed do's, and slinky moves vs. The Ronettes' street-wise gum-popping, with boufants and sensible pant-suits, and nothing even coming close to charm classes! Watch Ronnie suggestively throw her head back at 1:05, just as she sings, "I'll make you happy, baby!" Oh, she knows just what she's doing. I kinda hope this is your introduction to Ronnie and her gals, Nick!

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That's great. I've heard a couple of songs by Ronnie Spector before, but that performance is a good introduction.

I have many thoughts, but the first is that watching the Ronnettes (and the back up dancers) I was reminded of a comment by Bob Dylan that part of why he made his career as a singer-songwriter was that the economics of performing worked a lot better as one person than as part of a band -- cheaper to get from place to place and you don't have to split the money.

(There's also Dave Von Ronk's comment that the reason why folk musicians were so popular in coffeehouses was that the management needed to turn over tables, and having a folk musician sing for 40 minutes would clear everyone out).

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HA! Which, of course, leads me to the great Martin Mull, who once said (I'm paraphrasing), "Remember the folk music scare of the '60s? Man, that crap almost caught on!" In fact, here it is, verbatum: https://open.spotify.com/track/0ma2jtivKRPMEx5dJOZAZd?si=60b5c000a70144d7

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A wild ride and a fun read!

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Quite a snowball rolling downhill, huh, Jeremy? Every new week's seems to eclipse the one before, despite the seemingly improbable odds! Onward!

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β€œ... decisions are a tragedy that nobody should have to make.” Ryan had me from this line.

After that this game just got more and more fun. I loved the fun of guessing each other’s rationale in this one. A great game of tune tag indeed :)

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Thanks, Michael..........yeah, this one tested my "truth-in-editing" fortitude, definitely! At first, I did a double-take on Ryan's line....."wait, is this what he really means?" Then, I realized its borderline genius, and a POV I felt was unique, and had to let it speak for itself!

Same with my realization that I had forgotten my own Babs-to-Dan article. I could've white-washed over that embarrassing boner, but I have to be true to the process, warts and all....so, there it sits....and, I'm cool with that!

But, I'm glad you're playing along with the rationale-guessing! I had imagined that could be a fun playground for a lot of readers, too, along with enjoying the variety of songs'n'artists!

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Missing your own Babs-To-Dan article was the best part of the Tune Tag!

That's the pleasure of live performance; you get little unexpected moment.

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And, that, ultimately, is the goal, and you're so spot-on to highlight it, Nick! Would that it could be in real time, but that might only be possible if done as a thread....something to look into for the future, although somebody has already pointed out that a TT thread would be chaotic! But, a live performance is certainly the feel we're going for.

When I first spotted that blunder, I tried to figure out how I could possibly have made it.....but, if I forgot it in the first place, I don't imagine I'd be remembering how I made it! Fun stuff, regardless!

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It's nice to have a little time to google the previous selection.

If you were going to do it as a thread, you'd probably want to do it on a schedule (new selections get posted every 3 hours? If you stick to working hours you could do it over 2 days, with posts at 9AM/noon/3PM/6PM each day, and probably each time there's a new selection you start a new thread (and re-post the links to all the previous selections).

It's still a lot more complicated, but it could be fun.

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You're kind to try to work it all out, Nick, but as it was explained to me, despite all good intentions, that arrangement can only devolve (eventually, if not sooner) into what I'd love to see as someone's band name, one day: Logistical Nightmare!

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Heh. Simpler version. Do it as a free-for-all. Start a Tune Tag open thread (as a post) post a starting song, let anybody suggest the next song (first selection to get two replies saying "seconded" becomes the official next choice). It's still a logistical nightmare because you'd need to update the post to reflect the "official" selection, but it would let people shout ideas from the peanut gallery and see what happens.

If you had a handful of people active in comments it would move fairly quickly.

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This is one of the many reasons why tune tag is so special, Brad. Because the editor-n-chief is honest in editing process :)

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