Word: cappella
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...late '60s-basic riffs repeated without elaboration on a rhythm guitar-was bankrupt as a musical form. He broadcast this decision with his rendition of the old Velvet Underground standard "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" on Street Hassle; he sang it virtually a cappella, with no guitar, no drums, nothing but a fuzzy electronic backup to signal that this was indeed, or had been, rock and roll...
Once they absorb Queen's campy style, American audiences will be dazzled by the sound: gleaming a cappella vocal harmonies that arise from such pieces as The Prophet's Song. Words emerge with a cut-glass clarity that is rare in rock. Unfortunately, Queen's lyrics are not the stuff of sonnets. In Death On Two Legs, Mercury hurls a series of enunciated curses: "You suck my blood like a leech ... you're a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride." The song, Mercury says with a smile, shows him in "one of my docile...
...worry, her would be back soon. "I've never been to a rock concert before, do people sing along at these things?" -- she was a little bit bitchy. The material was exactly what you would expect: "Joe Hill," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," and an a cappella "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" -- very competent, sort of boring. She also sang "Diamonds and Rust" from her new album which is explicitly about Dylan and pretty bitter: "If you're offering me diamonds and rust/ I've already paid...
...high: aside from a $3 or $4 cover, depending on the day of the week, you'll be required to buy a drink (the beer, for example, costs $1--only Schlitz is available). Somehow, whether it's the atmosphere or not, the songs come off better than the a cappella routines. The music is fun and even if the lyrics have even less political depth than the skits, well, it's some compensation...
...Paul's Mall through Sunday, are a four-man singing group famous for having spurned any backup instrumentation for years and years. Word has it, however, that they've used a band from time to time in the last year, but that they still mostly stick to a cappella. As you'd expect, they have fine, smooth, well-harmonized voices and like to sing softish, intricately scored stuff...