The following is critic Robert Christgau’s review of a Deep Purple album- can someone please explain what Paul Kantner song he is referring to at the end?
“Smoke on the Water” is about a big fire in Montreux, obviously the most exciting thing to happen to these fellows since the London Symphony Orchestra. No jokes about who’s getting burned, though–I approve of their speeding, and Ritchie Blackmore has copped some self-discipline as well as a few suspicious-sounding licks from his buddies in London. Personal to Paul Kantner: Check out "Space Truckin’.
It isn’t a reference to any specific Kantner song. I think what Christgau was saying to Paul was: “Look! These guys are as loony as you are about sailing around in space and crap like that.” At the time, Kantner was wrinting stuff like “Blows Against The Empire” and “Can You See The Stars Tonight?”
Having a dictionary handy is definitely helpful when reading R. Christgau reviews, but he’s no where near as obnoxious in his use of arcane words as Dave Marsh, and is infinitely more lucid and knowledgeable. It also helps to really know the intracacies of music to get all of his references- I get probably one out of 100.
Of a sort, yes. At least, it consisted primarily of English words.
Coming right after the reference to copping licks, the Kantner aside comes off looking like an accusation that DP stole from Kantner. But I think what Crustgoo means to say is that Paul Kantner, purveyor of bloated, hippy-dippy space epics, could take a lesson from Deep Purple’s simple, stripped down boogie approach to the subject.
He’s wrong, of course–Blows Against the Empire blows anything Purple ever did out of the water–but that’s beside the point.
After reading almost all of the reviews on his website, I took the comment to mean that Space Truckin’ steals from some unknown Paul Kantner song- no one knows a song of his that is similar?