The only issue I have with the inclusion of "Twist And Shout" here is the disparagement of the studio recording, which is pretty much perfect. Lennon's voice is shredded in all the right ways and Paul lets loose one of the greatest screams ever committed to tape. So if you, like most folks, don't own the Hamburg…

I will second wrecksracer's recommendation. They were a very solid Tex-Mex garage band. You can get both albums on one CD on two different comps:
http://www.allmusic.com/alb…
http://www.allmusic.com/alb…

My favorite version of "Torture" is probably the one from As An Am (part of the Beat The Boots set.) The fidelity, of course, is not up to snuff, but it's the one I pull out every Halloween (after I've finished jamming Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein", natch.)

Fair enough. And sorry if I came off like I was giving you an exceedingly hard time.

One thing he did make better was "Crescent City Blues", when he re-wrote it into a classic. I don't disagree that he should have given Jenkins co-songwriting credit in the first place, but Johnny Cash was a tireless promoter of other people's songs who talked long and often about his influences. You can dismiss his…

I'd argue this is probably true almost always. If I'd had the chance to see Queen live anytime in the '70s through the mid '80s (I lose interest in their material after that) I'd have surely jumped at it just for the spectacle and the fun of being there, despite my feelings about them live. And I'll bet I would have…

The Pulp Fiction heist was one of the goofiest things I've ever seen.
Highly trained superspies on the lam trying to stay off the radar abduct a man in a crowded restaurant by waving guns and threatening everybody in earshot. Why not finish your pancakes, follow the guy out, and then snatch him in a little quiter…

Well you'll be happy to know then that Cash ending up paying Gordon Jenkins $75,000 for it in the early '70s. Feel better now? (Worth noting: nobody but Cash wrote "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." I'd say that was a pretty big contribution.)

Eddie Kramer, the producer, has been quoted as saying that since everyone else was jumping all over the place, not only were their vocals often off-mic, they simply couldn't be that tight. Criss, on the other hand, sang very little and was stationary. Plus, drums is a basic starting place for a lot of recorded music,…

I find the majority of onstage banter pretty cringeworthy when I'm actually at a rock show too. And that includes what comes out of my mouth when I'm onstage with my band. Good banter is way harder than singing.

Does it sound worse now?

I have. It doesn nothing for me.
I'm also probably the only person on the planet who thinks their Live Aid performance is completely underwhelming. (The energy is through the roof, but I'd rather listen to every one of those songs in the studio versions, which were already perfect.) Nope, give me studio Queen every…

He's speaking to a room full of Japanese people who may or may not understand English well, hence the deliberate cadence. He doesn't talk that way onstage in America.

They call that "folk music" and it's how it's been done since time immemorial.

Well, I've never gotten a clear picture of how much overdubbing was done on Stop Making Sense, but I can't imagine it was as severe as Kiss Alive, which was basically a complete re-recording. It doesn't bother me in any case. Seems to me what's important is how the finished product sounds, not the conditions under…

The "Stray Cat Blues" on there is no slouch either. Nasty stuff.

Oof. I've heard a lot of great live Zeppelin but exactly none of it is on Song Remains The Same, IMHO. I don't even own that album any more.

Yep. Already saw downthread all the Queen praise. I knew I'd be in the minority. I can live with that.

Absolutely true that their straight-up rockers were their best live. But it's more than that. Freddie Mercury is one of the most amazing singers in recorded history, but live I think all his worst tendencies (read: Broadway) come out. He panders to the crowd, he does ridiculous vocal gymnastics that add nothing to the…

I always thought it was hilarious too. One of the other stories told in that Casablanca book is that the record company would buy up as many copies of magazines like Creem when they had reader polls and then have the office staff fill them out to make Kiss the winners. Best album, best song, best guitarist, best bass…