by STEVE SIMELS
MY FRONT PAGES
My younger brother's passion-or per haps it's a mania-for film exceeds even mine for music. I mean, he'll sit through four hours of a Republic serial without even going to the John! But his mania has its uses: not long ago I was browsing through an esoteric film journal in his collection and chanced across an article whose basic premise I have decided to crib. Titled simply "Things We Like," it was a completely and openly subjective (what else?) catalog by two film nuts of moments they found memorable in various motion pictures. One moment that stopped me--and it's the only entry I can remember, by the way-was the opening: "Mariette Hartley's wedding in Peckinpah's Ride the High Country." Lovely.
Anyway, after worrying away at my own list culled from twenty-odd years of rock-and roll, I've decided at last to air the dirty linen in public. What follows is simply a random run down of things that have given me pleasure, rock-wise, over the years-specific songs, events, brief musical bits. I won't pretend, as much as I'd like to (ought to?), that any of them have any significance other than showing where my own head is at, but never mind.
This is strictly for browsing; I'm willing to bet any rock fan could come up with a totally dif ferent list that would be equally valid and just as much fun. So, without further ado, "Things I Like." George Harrison's last harmonic on the solo from Nowhere Man.
Charlie Watts hitting the bell of his cymbal on the final line of Dead Flowers.
The opening a cappella harmonies on Fair port Convention's version of Percy's Song.
The Beach Boys' background ah-ohm-wop diddits on This Whole World.
Smokey Robinson's heartrending wordless vocalizing at the end of Ooo Baby Baby.
Keith Richards' guitar solos on Down the Road Apiece.
Dave Davies' finger-picking on the fade-out of the Kinks' See My Friends.
Roy Wood introducing his solo on Turkish Tram Conductor Blues with a coy "Oh, yes." All of Bruce Springsteen's Rosalita.
Bob Dylan's spoken introduction forLike a Rolling Stone on the Albert Hall bootleg.
The back-up vocals on the last verse of the MC 5's Shakin' Street.
Steve Marriott's screaming at the end of the Small Faces' Tin Soldier.
David Crosby's harmonies on the last verses of the Byrds' Fifth Dimension and I Come and Stand at Every Door.
The drunken Dixieland band on the Stones' Something Happened to Me Yesterday.
Arlene Smith's singing on the Chantels' Maybe.
The production (especially of the percussion) on Martha and the Vandellas' Dancing in the Street.
Paul McCartney's bass line on A Little Help from My Friends.
Keith Moon's drumming on the final break of Happy Jack.
Eric Clapton's lead guitar on the studio version of Badge.
Stevie Winwood's organ work on the ending of I'm a Man.
Jeff Beck's guitar solo on the Yardbirds' Train Kept A-Rollin'.
Keith Richards' forgetting to turn on his fuzz-tone during Satisfaction on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966.
Todd Rundgren's guitar work on the Nazz's Under the Ice.
Leon Russell's piano on Dylan's Watching the River Flow.
Alan Price's two-fingered organ solo on the Animals' Boom Boom.
Johnny Johnson's boogie-woogie piano break on Chuck Berry's School Days.
Jimi Hendrix's solo on Little Wing.
Roger Daltrey's "Yeahhhhh!!!" after the instrumental section of the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again.
The censored original cover for "Beggars Banquet."
The un-credited piano player (Carole King?) on the Chiffons' One Fine Day.
Steve Stills' and Neil Young's guitar duet on the original Bluebird.
Skip Spence's mumbled vocal on Moby Grape's Seeing.
The rave-up during the Kinks' Milkcow Blues (studio and live versions).
Buddy Holly's rendition of Slippin' and Slidin'.
The Stones doing Under My Thumb at Altamont, as seen in Gimme Shelter.
Van Morrison's harp break on Mystic Eyes.
Joni Mitchell's long-held notes and guitar work on Marcie.
Ian Hunter's primal (what else?) screaming on Mott the Hoople's The Journey.
The fact that Dylan is removing Pete Hammill's liner notes from "Blood on the Tracks." The back-cover photo on the English EP version of "Got Live If You Want It." Paul Buckmaster's orchestral evocation of Vaughan Williams at the conclusion of Moon light Mile.
Paul McCartney's vocal on Long Tall Sally. (Not to mention Ringo's drumming or George's second solo.) The out-of-tune twelve-string and falsetto vocal on the Stones' Singer Not the Song.
Gary Brooker's scream of "Here I Go!" from Rambling On.
Nicky Hopkins' electric piano on the Beatles' Revolution.
Zal Yanovsky's solo album.
Lou Reed's singing on the last verse of the original Sweet Jane from "Loaded." John Fogerty's harmonica on Run Through the Jungle.
John Mendelssohn's review of "Led Zeppelin II." The Move's Tonight.
"Beatles VI." Joan Baez's unintentionally hilarious at tempt at soul singing on the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (in the 1966 rock film The T.N.T. Show).
Almost anything by Dave Edmunds.
Carly Simon's legs (but not her records).
John Lennon forgetting the words to Help! on the Ed Sullivan Show.
The echoed hand-clap before the end of the Zombies' Tell Her No.
John Entwistle's bass figures on the "teen age wasteland" portion of Baba O'Reilly.
Rod Stewart's "Whooo!!!" on the Faces' Had Me a Real Good Time.
Iggy Stooge's Ray Davies imitation on Gimme Danger.
The Beatles' Shea Stadium Concert film.
Elvis' weight problem.
Jack Cassady's eyebrows. (Also, his bass on the Airplane's Other Side of This Life.) Lou Reed being reduced to tears by anti Semitic remarks during his recent Italian tour.
Steppenwolfs Born to Be Wild as featured in the credit sequence of Easy Rider.
Keith Richards' teeth.
Carl Wilson's twelve-string break on the Beach Boys' Dance Dance Dance.
B. J. Wilson's one-measure drum solo on Procol Harum's The Devil Came from Kan sas.
Neil Innes' "worst guitar solo in history" from the Bonzo Dog Band's Canyons of Your Mind.
West. Bruce and Laing titling a banal slow blues Slow Blues.
And, of course, just everything from "Exile on Main Street."
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