Members Magpel Posted July 6, 2007 Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 Has there ever been a more strangely charismatic frontman than this guy? I think not. Enjoy a national treasure here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hard Truth Posted July 6, 2007 Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 Pere Ubu and David Thomas are great. That is not a very good example of what they can do, that is them at their most mainstream and conventional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted July 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 Pere Ubu and David Thomas are great. That is not a very good example of what they can do, that is them at their most mainstream and conventional. Of course, but it is the ONLY pere ubu video on youtube! Apparently Thomas keeps very close tabs on what gets on Youtube and gets it removed. Still I like their pop stuff. Cloudland and Worlds in Collision are nice enough albums with some really sweet songs like this one and "Catherine." And "mainstream" for ubu is still a pretty remote tributary for everyone else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted July 6, 2007 Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 I was thinking that it was "an Ohio thing". Robert Pollard (GbV) without beer would be a little like that. I posted quickly (while the board was intermittent) but none too clearly. The comparison that I had in mind concerned the sort of post-psychedelic, ecstatic, monster fan-in-a-mirror quality that they share. And they both trim the edges of annoyance while still keeping you on their side. mostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 6, 2007 Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 I loved Pere Ubu and saw them, I think, four times, and then saw Thomas doing a reading/performance (backed up by a tuba player, IIRC) at the Newport Art Museum. Do we know when this was taped? It looks pretty far along down the line... not their most compelling song, by a stretch, but good to see them, nonetheless. I just found Dub Housing, New Picnic Time, Art of Walking and more on my subscription service, so I'm gonna go wallow in the Good Ol' Days... "Navvy"... now that's the Pere Ubu I remember... Now -- all THAT said -- I think MY vote would have to go to Howard Devoto... I saw Magazine every chance I got back in the day (I think that added up to 5 times -- the first time they were out I was so impressed I went back and saw them again at another venue). Devoto was an utterly hypnotic performer in those days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted July 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 Do we know when this was taped? It looks pretty far along down the line... '89 would make sense, promoting Cloudland, on which this song is track one. I think that also squares with Sanborn's show, Night Music, historically. Man I saw some great stuff on that show! Sanborn, Todd Rundgren, and Pat Metheny singing Gilbert and Sullivan in costume... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SanDiego333 Posted July 6, 2007 Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 I don't know these guys....is that just a 'natural' stage presence, or...enhanced? Gotta confess, he is really entertaining! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 6, 2007 Members Share Posted July 6, 2007 '89 would make sense, promoting Cloudland, on which this song is track one. I think that also squares with Sanborn's show, Night Music, historically. Man I saw some great stuff on that show! Sanborn, Todd Rundgren, and Pat Metheny singing Gilbert and Sullivan in costume... Yeah... over the years Sanborn's then-ubiquitous sax work had really grown to instantly irritate me on every hearing but, dang, he had some good people on and Sanborn for sure got points from me for being in the horn line when Sun Ra was on. That was pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super 8 Posted July 8, 2007 Members Share Posted July 8, 2007 Has there ever been a more strangely charismatic frontman than this guy? Maybe Nina Hagen? My vote for greatest frontman has to go to this guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tedster Posted July 8, 2007 Members Share Posted July 8, 2007 Joe Cocker in his heyday got pretty spastic onstage... Not the best clip (til the end) to show off his spasticity...but it's one of my favorite Cocker (Leon Russell, actually) songs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ray Tremblay Posted July 8, 2007 Members Share Posted July 8, 2007 You guys MUST be {censored}ING JOKING! I thought it was a bad Saturday night live skit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 8, 2007 Members Share Posted July 8, 2007 Maybe Nina Hagen?My vote for greatest frontman has to go to this guy.http://youtube.com/watch?v=0oW9GLgsa8s Think about their potential love child... Now that migth be one confused individual. I met Nina (I had a couple records in my hand getting signed, it's not like it was on the VIP deck of the QM2, or anything... not that they'd let Nina on there, probably, either) and her GF at a record signing party in a tiny record store in Seal Beach, CA, in the 80s. She seemed really sweet and shy, believe it or not. Later that night (or the next) I was watching her do Cosma Shiva in front of a couple thousand KROQ fans and thinking, wow, what a transformation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lsits Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 Here's the greatest of them all: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 Yeah, thats pretty bad. Sorry, I don`t get "it". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 Here's the greatest of them all:http://youtube.com/watch?v=ukjnrXTTvPY Don't make me whup these guys on your sorry backside: [Warning: Earnest won't get this. No one will get this. I've seen this band live and I don't get this. I certainly could not watch even half way through. It was painful. It brought back seeing the band a long time ago in such a situation that I had to watch their whole set. These guys are not faking it. They really are that bad. What was really scary is that a couple of guys in the band did not realize that they were a joke band for a long time. And they were pissed when they found out.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Magpel Posted July 9, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 Here's the greatest of them all:http://youtube.com/watch?v=ukjnrXTTvPY You win. He's the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super 8 Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 Here's the greatest of them all:http://youtube.com/watch?v=ukjnrXTTvPY Far out!Black Oak Arkansas and The Shaggs had a baby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 I am heartily sorry for any role I may have played in the drift of this thread. That said... I believe that this particular Pere Ubu performance references this famous bit of business. http://youtube.com/watch?v=VD7_7SXsHU8 tell me I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 This is a really disturbing thread. More than Kens on slavery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jive4005 Posted July 11, 2007 Members Share Posted July 11, 2007 For all you youngters out there... back in the middle of the 20th century we had the greatest frontman that ever took a stage in this or any country.His name was Louis Armstrong (Satchmo... short for shacthel-mouth). No one since comes close to handling the audience. He was the pro's PRO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members surferbeto Posted December 9, 2007 Members Share Posted December 9, 2007 Nina Hagen is one of the very most riveting and utterly compelling performers I have ever seen. At her show (circa 1985) I was absolutely 100% convinced that either: a.) It really is true that you can sell your soul to the Devil for powerful success in rock n roll, and here before me stood a woman who had done this. or... b.) Here before me stood a completely insane woman who believed with every fiber of her being that (a) was true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted December 9, 2007 Members Share Posted December 9, 2007 I saw her around then and she was, indeed, great. Loose. But great. "Cosma Shiva"... what a tune. I actually got her to sign an EP and an LP at an instore appearance at a friend's record shop earlier in the day... she liked that I brought in the EP, I guess it was kind of rare. She was very down to earth and friendly. It was a whole different thing to see her later in the evening in front of 1200 people in front of the band. She was super charismatic, bigger than life. Of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted December 9, 2007 Members Share Posted December 9, 2007 For all you youngters out there... back in the middle of the 20th century we had the greatest frontman that ever took a stage in this or any country. His name was Louis Armstrong (Satchmo... short for shacthel-mouth). No one since comes close to handling the audience. He was the pro's PRO! I was lucky enough to see Louis Armstrong fronting up a trad jazz combo (dixieland, if you will) on the paddle-wheeler going around Tom Sawyer's Island at Disneyland in 1964 or '65 (I have it written down somewhere; it was part of one of Walt's frequent music festivals, this one probably related to the New Orleans Quarter or whatever it was called, which had just opened a year or two before). I'll admit that even at 14 or so I was jaded enough going in that I thought of Armstrong more as an entertainer than a musician. Still, I was excited to see a band on the boat, that seemed kind of novel and cool. I got really close up. I feel like I remember them not playing on a bandstand, just right on the deck, with a little PA down around them in the front. It was extraordinary. I was completely swept up in the music. I kind of thought 'dixieland' was corny -- but this was gritty and cooking and Louis was just smoking. He played long enough to go around the island three times, I think. It was the first time I was really transported by live music. It was, you know, an ecstatic experience, in the true sense of the word, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted December 9, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted December 9, 2007 Who are all of those people? When it comes to great front men, it's hard to beat Cab Calloway, Bob Wills, or Spike Jones. I'm sure they all have videoson U-Tube , if that's a criteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tedster Posted December 9, 2007 Members Share Posted December 9, 2007 Has there ever been a more strangely charismatic frontman than this guy? I think not. Enjoy a national treasure here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1hYqvtHzr48 That is such an OUTSTANDING lesson in charisma, because it proves beyond all doubt that one doesn't have to be skinny, good-looking and young to be a great frontman. One merely has to immerse themselves in the role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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