Music and more with claudecat17 (aka Chris Davlin)!

Gonna keep it short today, as I’m all tuckered out from writing the cigarette piece earlier. But as always we have one of my all time favorites, and it’s another video clip too so yay!

If you’re old like me you may recall a music show on Sunday nights that was on for a few years with a name that changed often. It was Sunday Night at first, like the music equivalent of SNL, or Saturday Night Live. That must not have worked, so next it was called Night Music, then Michelob Presents Night Music. And they wondered why ratings were disappointing… Nobody knew what it would be called from one week to another, and in those days “the guide” was a paper TV Guide or newspaper listing or whatever. The TV Guide was like every home’s real bible, the one thing everyone in the family read front to back each week. TV Guide day was big!

But the real reason the show was a ratings disaster was the same reason it was so great. They did a great job of keeping the focus on music, and weird music at that. I remember one week where Conway Twitty gamely continued his rendition of whatever he was singing while the Residents danced around behind him in their famous giant eyeball costumes. It doesn’t get much weirder than that on network TV, or didn’t back then. Does network TV even exist now? I know there are still FBI and Chicago shows, and who else would be making that garbage but our beloved big 3-4 networks?

Crap, I’m drifting off topic! NRBQ has been in my top few bands list since the late 80s and they’re extra extra great here, in the midst of their last big label promotional push for their Virgin release, Wild Weekend. It didn’t work, and soon the fellas were back out on the bar circuit getting stiffed by random club owners and eating Taco Bell for breakfast. The dream!

What I love about this performance is every goddamn thing. They never sounded better than this, and Phil Woods’ presence adds a lot. His solo is really something, carefully crafted yet off the cuff, just a thing of beauty. You know he hadn’t ever heard that song until rehearsal, one time through, and he plays that?!?

You can tell the fellas loved it by their subtle reactions, including big Al pointing once it’s over. I see this as among the best live performances of any art form in the history of the universe, hands down. Everything’s fucking perfect, from Tommy’s rock solid drum beating to that perfect blend of voices that Al and Joey had going for like a decade or more. Plus it’s a real good song, both lyrically and the music itself. Some fun little quiet bits!

NRBQ are like the Rodney Dangerfield of rock, except Rodney could usually book high ticket gigs. Last time I saw the Q they left after one set because the promoter was trying to weasel ’em I guess. There was a half eaten pizza in the dressing room, so it must have been sudden. Food’s important on the road, and not to be wasted! That first set, maybe 25 minutes, was it that night, and who can blame ’em? They probably traveled a fair distance only to find themselves fucked. Nobody was smiling during that brief set. Just the opposite. Al looked positively murderous, and they all kinda just looked defeated. It was sad, and played a role in my exit from music as a way to make money.

I guess that’s enough bloviation. Look it up pervert. And read a book! Nobody has a vocabulary worth a shit these days, just the rich kid dipshits.

And on that note I’ll bid y’all adieu until morrow. Play the clip though! It’s good!