Which just goes to show, tightness ain’t everything.
Yeah, I also like the Clash better. And I wouldn’t want the Stones without their sleaze.
This seems like a good place to mention The Faces. Sloppy but sublime.
OK, so with the disclaimer that this might not be exactly the fairest type of “like versus like” comparison, both of the following examples fall within the genre of “power pop” and were contemporaries.
Here’s Cheap Trick with “I Want You To Want Me”, from their much-beloved 1979 live performance in Japan:
Now here are Elvis Costello and The Attractions, playing “I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea” live at Rockpalast in Germany, a year earlier:
Again, I realize some might find this an unfair comparison. Cheap Trick doesn’t sound BAD, and the recording quality is admittedly not the greatest. But notice the difference in the way that each band plays live. Cheap Trick trudges along, workman-like, through the big power chords, and Robin Zander hits all the pitches and his voice sounds good, in any objective sense. But the performance is not tight the way “Chelsea” is.
Pete Thomas, Bruce Thomas, and Steve Naive are like a Formula One pit crew, if Costello is the driver in this situation. Pete is hammering out an extremely complex drum groove and keeping it right in the pocket, Bruce is repeating that killer bass riff over and over again without ever losing a fraction of a beat, and Steve is doubling the bass part with one hand on the Vox organ while throwing out those squealing lead riffs with the right hand.
Here is the key that makes this so tight: there’s still open space in the song. There are as many pauses and strategically placed moments of silence as there are musical notes played or drums hit. The arrangement is “transparent”, if that makes any sense, rather than being “opaque.” It’s kind of like watching the gears of a running mechanical watch - different parts are moving along at different speeds and some parts don’t appear to be moving at all, but they are all working together with mind-boggling precision.
Again, Elvis Costello and Cheap Trick are both considered “power pop.” And they both have power. But one is more like an oval-track race and the other is like the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Clash example is excellent. What’s funny is that that’s the version from its US follow-up release…the original UK version (which is also actually the original US version) is even more chaotic!
Yeah, I thought about which version to post, and then went with the one I first became familiar with, the version on the US/import version of the “The Clash”. I like it a bit better, but yes, the UK version is even more at the brink of totally falling apart at every moment, though it never happens, and that makes it great
Hehehe, yes. Though I dearly love the band, they’re the epitome of getting by on energy, charisma, and rock.
I might posit Keith Moon-era Who vs Kenney Jones-era Who, with Moon keeping the Who loose and chaotic, and Jones tightening up the backbone (though not in a good way for this particular band, which really needed the manic energy and bombast of Moon’s drumming.) Compare, say, “Eminence Front” and “You Better You Bet” (Kenney Jones) with “Baba O’Reilly” or “Teenage Wasteland” (Moon.) The feel is much losser on the Moon songs; it’s not just in the complexity of the parts – Jones wasn’t as flashy and had a much more groove-based approach – but there’s also a more metronomic feel to Jones’ drumming. It’s more right on top of the time. For most bands, that’s a great thing, but in the context of the Who, it kind of throws the whole vibe off for me. Moon was loose enough without completely unraveling.
Or at least that’s how I hear them with and without Moon, and how I think of “tightness” vs “looseness.”
I think I can hear it in the examples, but I’ll be damned if I can describe it in any sort of coherent way.
Since we are talking about bands that were completely loose and teetering on collapse, I will bring up Black Flag. They had a lot of songs that somehow rocked forward without falling apart.
It’s like a new car and an old car on a rough road. The new one still has everything fastened tight and doesn’t make as much noise. The old car’s parts have become loose after years of use: a “bucket of bolts” that rattles and vibrates down the road.
Squeeze !
Cool for cats is my all time favorite song because of that incredible accent and tongue in cheek lyrics. : )
And as you said they were a tight band.
Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Roxy Music, Talking Heads, and Bowie all made liberal use of amusing and very clever wordplay. I’m really a “music first, lyrics secondly” type of listener, but all of those bands really knew how to make the actual words entertaining, as opposed to merely the vocals. That was a great era for lyrics.
Up the Junction was so much about working class heartbreak and that poignant song about menstruation that I forget the name to. Perhaps the only rockers that wrote about that unseen part of a woman’s life.
Romance and heartbreak were so much a part of Squeeze’s songs.
Up The Junction by Squeeze is one of my favourite songs by anyone.
Not one of my personal favourites but I think the song about menstruation you mention is She Doesn’t Have To Shave
TCMF-2L
That’s right. 
I had completely forgotten about that song.
Thank you .
Alice Cooper: Only Women Bleed.
Actually, that song’s a lot more serious than I remembered. I don’t feel like joking about it anymore.
Thank You.
I had no idea. : )
I read the lyrics.
I guess he is talking about violence and abuse.
Could be mistaken for menstruation though.