Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: Towards the Truth, in reply to insider,
Variously Korea? Vietnam? Malaya? Indonesia? Suez? Falklands? Aden? Cyprus?
You left Kenya off that list, and Belize. The UK wasn't in Vietnam officially although RAF pilots were seconded.
my father had a long and successful career in the RAF without ever firing a shot in anger
I'd argue that he was extremely lucky as RAF squadrons were in action in all the above. Often heavily. They were also seconded to various other allied airforces (as were our own - the guy who lived next door to us at Ohakea in the 1960s was compulsorily sent to Vietnam to fly OV-10 and O-2 COIN/Observation aircraft under fire).
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Hard News: Everybody's News, in reply to Rich Lock,
Sometimes it was laughably easy to tear apart the arguments, such as with Colin Powell and his inaccurate and plagarised presentation (not that tearing them apart made any difference).
The 'mobile chemical weapons trailers' that he made such a fuss over were, just months earlier, documented in The Independent as having been supplied by Thatcher as weather stations in the 1980s. They were made in Cambridge and the plans were publicly available. Really, it was as easy as reading a bloody newspaper sometimes. They didn't bother.
I'm always bemused at the inanity of the argument that most of the Washington elite, elected and otherwise, were convinced by the 'evidence'. All it says is that these people either chose to ignore the evidence - for a variety reasons, mostly agenda serving - or were just far more gullible and less inquisitive than people have a right to expect them to be.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to dyan campbell,
Not all artists with African ancestry played disco music.
Umm - really not all what I said. It was a disaster for the Black owned, orientated or controlled recording industry across the board. Radio stations across the US switched formats from soul, r&b and so on to top 40, Classic Rock etc.
The biggest negative was simply fact that in 79 (the year we are talking about) the cashflow dried up and it had a hugely negative effect that rippled way beyond the acts that made disco, or had made disco.
Several of the acts you've linked to above suffered. Let's look at all of them though:
Gil Scott-Heron's first two albums in the 80s, 1980 and Real Eyes, were both sales disasters and received no exposure. He was eventually dropped by Arista and his wilderness years began. The track you linked to pre-dates this.
Grace Jones was a disco act. In 1979 her career was more or less over. If she'd been signed to a US label she would likely have been dropped in the flurry to dump such acts in 79. It was saved by the fact she was signed to Island, a UK label who believed in artist development. Chris Blackwell took her to the Bahamas, placed her with Sly &Robbie and Alex Sadkin who repositioned her as almost a reggae/post punk blend.
Fishbone were an alt rock band who's minor successes came long after the period we are discussing.
Garland Jeffreys hardly set the world on fire sales wise - before or after the 70s and 80s. His major market was European though.
The disco backlash in 79 didn't stop people making wonderful and inventive music - the first hip hop was released in 79 (ironically the first big hit used a disco track as its backing) and the backlash fuelled the nascent boogie scene which exploded in the 8os, there was a guy called Prince and a whole Minneapolis scene, the early NY garage records and way more. However it made exposing all that way much harder, and - worse - getting it funded.
Because of all that it was a disaster for the music industry. And it went way beyond disco.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to 3410,
but "the worst thing he did?" That's a mighty big call.
How about suing Al Jardine to prevent him telling concert goers he used to be in The Beach Boys, or suing Brian Wilson last year to prevent him playing Smile live. Not only was it an album he torpedoed but now the prick is listed as a consultant on the forthcoming release.
I remember - and I might have mentioned this before - some young chubby guy being interviewed on brekky telly by Kate Hawkesby when Love brought whichever touring circus he was touting as The Beach Boys at the time, to NZ for a vineyard show, in the early 2000s.
A member of "The Beach Boys" said she.
Kate (or was it Alison Mau?) then asked the 25 year old what it was like playing all those fabulous songs in the 1960s. He didn't quite know what to say.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to st ephen,
I'm still waiting for your spirited defense of Sailing
Atlantic Crossing was produced by Tom Dowd (look down that list of credits and weep with joy). It got massively positive press on release, deservedly so I'd argue. Hell, even the NME rated it.
How's that?
Mostly this was when it turned ugly for Rod. He never returned.
Kenny Jones!!
Great Ian McLagen interview in Mojo last month.
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to dyan campbell,
For Jackie
Those first three Rod solo albums were fucking fantastic.
As was Rod & The Faces @ Western Springs Jan 27, '74. They came on to the theme from The Stripper, and finished with a rawkus Stay With Me and Rod's 'Thank you for your time.... and your money'. He snapped the mike stand they staggered off.
Which neatly leads into this:
and this I guess
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Danielle,
My favourite Twitter hashtag ever: #fuckMikeLove
Used it often.
The worst thing he did (okay your story was pretty vile but...) was suing Brian Wilson for half the writer's copyright on Beach Boys songs he played no part in writing. Not only was it fairly universally agreed he had zip to do with many of them, but he was demonstrably not in even in the same country when some were penned.
Brian, at his lowest of his pretty low couple of decades, rolled over to make it go away and thus Love took half the credits and the money.
So yes: #fuckMikeLove
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Hard News: Everybody's News, in reply to George Darroch,
Or Bill Keller's rampant dishonesty in the NYT today:
But knowing as we now do the exaggeration of Hussein’s threat, the cost in Iraqi and American lives and the fact that none of this great splurge has bought us confidence in Iraq’s future or advanced the cause of freedom elsewhere — I think Operation Iraqi Freedom was a monumental blunder.
Neatly pulled apart by Greg Mitchell here.*
*h/t Toby
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to 3410,
Warning: this video is not suitable for... well... anyone, really
Maybe for Mike Love?
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Hard News: Those were different times ..., in reply to Rich Lock,
We ain't no suit-wearing businessmen like you, Simon....
My feelings are tainted by something like that I guess, however for me it's more to do with with the human and creative wreckage that the bandwagon jumpers created than anything else.
The early years of disco were those of groundbreaking and still hugely influential urban American record indie labels, many of them Black owned. Stigwood's RSO label was actually one of those although, like another, Neil Bogart's Casablanca, it spun out of control after Saturday Night Fever.
The rise of - post Saturday Night Fever - disco pap, and the racist reaction to it, destroyed large numbers of these and bankrupted companies like TK in Florida. Others - the likes of Philadelphia International, Salsoul and more - either just struggled through by dropping all their acts or were bought for zip by multi-nationals (the ones who license the tracks to those cheap comps now).
En-mass, musicians found no work and producers struggled badly.
The tail end of disco was a disaster for the music industry, and most especially the Black independent scene which didn't recover until the mid 1980s and the rise of hip-hop.