Page 25 - the NOISE June 2013

Tonight’s the night It’s gonna be alright Cause I love you girl
Ain’t nobody gonna stop us now
the Shouting Matches; Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie Prince’ Billy
Just let your inhibitions run wild
Ewww. Was this considered seductive in the 1970s? I know rock and roll has always been about sexing up the young ladies, but how can that couplet NOT make your skin crawl? “Don’t say a word, my virgin child” sounds like a line Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs might use on the girl in the pit.
The secret is about to unfold Upstairs before the night’s too old
And that secret is ... Rod’s rod. So get your butt in the bedroom bitch, because it’s about to unfold.
To cap this mess off, over the sleazed-out harmony guitar riff that closes the song (and goddamn you Rod for making harmony gui- tar riffs suck), we hear a female voice cooing in a foreign language, possibly Español).
SHE’S A VIRGIN WHO DOESN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH.
Rod has a skinny fourteen-year old Mexi- can waif trapped in his palatial estate house. She probably thinks she’s there to wash his laundry or cook his dinner. To her horror, this nasty old dude with the f*cked-up hair is intent on getting into her drawers. He’s ply- ing her with alcohol and telling her to stay away from the doors and windows and not to speak. The phone doesn’t work either. She doesn’t understand much of what he’s say- ing, but she’s no idiot. She just came to this country and already Rod is the creepiest guy she has ever met. Her brothers are going to stomp this pendejo when they hear about this sh*t. Goddamn temp agency. Merry Maids my ass.
Can someone contact the authorities and see if there’s any street urchins on their miss- ing persons list?
that horrid song is now stuck in your head, imagine what I had to go through to re- search and write this article.
In 1975, one year before Rod’s master- piece, a different tune called “Tonight’s The Night” was released in which Neil Young delivers a riveting, tequila-soaked elegy for two of his buddies who overdosed on heroin. There’s no sex in it, but this “Tonight’s The Night,” howling and bleak, full of ghosts and foreboding, is great art, essential rock and roll and very nearly the polar opposite of Rod’s song.
Tonight’s the night
It’s gonna be alright
Cause I love you girl
Ain’t nobody gonna stop us now
Not even your parents or the cops.
For any die-hard Rodheads or fans of runny 1970s cheese out there, I will concede that “Tonight’s The Night” is catchy. Just like herpes. If the rest of you hate me because
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The Shouting Matches
Grown Ass Man
Middle West
jjj
Justin Vernon. You’ve heard of him. Wom- en have anyway. If Justin Vernon wasn’t in this band, it seems improbable this would have much traction. It has its moments, without doubt (the masterful Nels Cline-like guitar solo in the really great “Gallup, NM”) but mostly this just sounds like Eddie Money middle of the road blues rock. The musicians are tight (in a loosey goosey way) and the production is solid but the skronk slides out of the brain as quickly as it enters. Bon Iver lifers be wary.
— Frank Chipotel
Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
What the Brothers Sang
Drag City
jjj
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s Will Oldham and Fawn Fables’ Dawn McCarthy sing songs that the Everly Brothers sang. That’s the concept. If one takes a moment and looks at the list of songs this includes, it’s easy to see the ad- vantages to such an endeavor. It’s difficult to
It was not a #1 single.
— Tony BallZ
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