Friday, December 02, 2005
Regular Favorite Note
Between-song banter is usually pedantic, boring, cliched, and a waste of everyone's time. With that stated, I have located the greatest line of between-song banter in the history of live rock music.
Picture it: it's 1969 at the Big Sur Folk Festival. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are finishing up their set. It was the most anticipated set of the day, and it's been a solid one. They just finished "Wooden Ships" on a powerful, if harried note. And now . . . . they pause.
Back then, the equipment wasn't as good as it is today, and they were more nervous -- especially Neil. So they tuned up for minutes at a time between songs. At this point, it's announced that the last song of the day will be Neil's "Down By the River". There is an audience cheer; then it quiets. You can hear Stills and Young tuning up.
Crosby and Nash start bantering. They're both obviously stoned out of their skulls, and just about 11 out of every 12 words they say are hippy nonsense. Stills says something praising Joan Baez. Crosby seconds it, half-heartedly. The crowd applauds. They tune up some more. It's getting long. Stills, sounding nervous, explains that it's the salt air that corrodes the strings, getting them out of tune. He nervously laughs. Neil's been quiet the whole time. Nash, being the idiot he is, announces to the crowd: "This is a boogieing song, so you can all just b-"
Neil cuts him off and says to the crowd in a loud voice: "You can all just cheer when your regular favorite note shows up."
And that's it. Right there. That's what rock and roll is. Simple as that.
Nash laughs nervously, like he didn't understand it. The crowd laughs too. It's too simple for them. A few seconds later, Neil starts playing that D-chord, leading them into a raging, epic, 15-minute version of the song. And sure enough, everyone's regular, favorite note showed up.
Picture it: it's 1969 at the Big Sur Folk Festival. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are finishing up their set. It was the most anticipated set of the day, and it's been a solid one. They just finished "Wooden Ships" on a powerful, if harried note. And now . . . . they pause.
Back then, the equipment wasn't as good as it is today, and they were more nervous -- especially Neil. So they tuned up for minutes at a time between songs. At this point, it's announced that the last song of the day will be Neil's "Down By the River". There is an audience cheer; then it quiets. You can hear Stills and Young tuning up.
Crosby and Nash start bantering. They're both obviously stoned out of their skulls, and just about 11 out of every 12 words they say are hippy nonsense. Stills says something praising Joan Baez. Crosby seconds it, half-heartedly. The crowd applauds. They tune up some more. It's getting long. Stills, sounding nervous, explains that it's the salt air that corrodes the strings, getting them out of tune. He nervously laughs. Neil's been quiet the whole time. Nash, being the idiot he is, announces to the crowd: "This is a boogieing song, so you can all just b-"
Neil cuts him off and says to the crowd in a loud voice: "You can all just cheer when your regular favorite note shows up."
And that's it. Right there. That's what rock and roll is. Simple as that.
Nash laughs nervously, like he didn't understand it. The crowd laughs too. It's too simple for them. A few seconds later, Neil starts playing that D-chord, leading them into a raging, epic, 15-minute version of the song. And sure enough, everyone's regular, favorite note showed up.
