Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.Dr. Medulla wrote:You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?Wolter wrote:You play music with those ears?Heston wrote:DON'T TALK SHOP!!
Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
- Wolter
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.IkarisOne wrote:Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.Dr. Medulla wrote:You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?Wolter wrote:You play music with those ears?Heston wrote:DON'T TALK SHOP!!
"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.Wolter wrote:Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.IkarisOne wrote:Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.Dr. Medulla wrote:You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?Wolter wrote:You play music with those ears?Heston wrote:DON'T TALK SHOP!!
"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
I like it, but I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I mean, can you imagine anyone DANCING to this?
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Says the guy who listened to it three times in a row starting at 3.52 am …Inder wrote:I like it, but I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I mean, can you imagine anyone DANCING to this?
"Grab some wood, bub.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
HEY NOWDr. Medulla wrote:Says the guy who listened to it three times in a row starting at 3.52 am …Inder wrote:I like it, but I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I mean, can you imagine anyone DANCING to this?
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
I can see that.IkarisOne wrote:A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.Wolter wrote:Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.IkarisOne wrote:Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.Dr. Medulla wrote:You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?Wolter wrote: You play music with those ears?
"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."
Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.
It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Even the AOR mix? :(Wolter wrote:I can see that.IkarisOne wrote:A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.Wolter wrote:Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.IkarisOne wrote:Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.Dr. Medulla wrote: You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?
"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."
Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.
It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
I'm more outraged by the fact that of all that dreck this was the one they gave the most complete 'production' job on the album, and that they actually thought this was the Casbah to This Is England's KYR on the singles release pecking order.Wolter wrote:I can see that.IkarisOne wrote:A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.Wolter wrote:Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.IkarisOne wrote:Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.Dr. Medulla wrote: You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?
"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."
Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.
It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Fingerpoppin' is definitely in my CTC top 4.
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
I got your back, Captain.Inder wrote:Fingerpoppin' is definitely in my CTC top 4.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
ESPECIALLY THE AOR MIX!Inder wrote:Even the AOR mix? :(Wolter wrote:I can see that.IkarisOne wrote:A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.Wolter wrote:Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.IkarisOne wrote: Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.
"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."
Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.
It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.
Because as Rattie implied, they gave that song the "loving care" it so richly did not deserve while stripping "Dictator," "Three-Card Trick," "Are You Ready For War," and (to be honest) "This Is England" of most of what made them great live.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Keith Topping's take on it in "The Complete Clash":
Quite possibly the worst song ever written by anyone, 'Fingerpoppin' is a trite, one-dimensional expose of male and female coital rituals. 'Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?' asks Strummer. No, Joe, actually they're boys and girls doing what boys and girls have done for millennia. 'Fingerpoppin'' features an embarrassingly clumsy neo-funk backing track, in which the constituent components sounds as though they're trying to escape into a different song. The Clash always sounded a bit ridiculous when they tried to play disco but, at least when Headon and Jones were in the band, they had the musical skill to just about pull it off.
With its imitation slap-bass the present song sounds uncannily like a Level 42 B-Side. Given the notoriously crap state of the UK charts in the 84-85 period, this would have been a fair-sized hit had it been released as a single. The song's first and only live performance came at one of the Brixton NUM benefit shows in December 1984. The miners, subsequently, lost. 'nuff said.
Quite possibly the worst song ever written by anyone, 'Fingerpoppin' is a trite, one-dimensional expose of male and female coital rituals. 'Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?' asks Strummer. No, Joe, actually they're boys and girls doing what boys and girls have done for millennia. 'Fingerpoppin'' features an embarrassingly clumsy neo-funk backing track, in which the constituent components sounds as though they're trying to escape into a different song. The Clash always sounded a bit ridiculous when they tried to play disco but, at least when Headon and Jones were in the band, they had the musical skill to just about pull it off.
With its imitation slap-bass the present song sounds uncannily like a Level 42 B-Side. Given the notoriously crap state of the UK charts in the 84-85 period, this would have been a fair-sized hit had it been released as a single. The song's first and only live performance came at one of the Brixton NUM benefit shows in December 1984. The miners, subsequently, lost. 'nuff said.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
I've made that point on here before, I also think they were trying to replicate the sound Dead Or Alive had on "You Spin Me Right Round".IkarisOne wrote:A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board
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Re: Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread
Considering one of the few Clash-related songs I hate more is "Boogie With Your Children," maybe Joe should have stayed away from all iterations of slap-bass.matedog wrote:Keith Topping's take on it in "The Complete Clash":
Quite possibly the worst song ever written by anyone, 'Fingerpoppin' is a trite, one-dimensional expose of male and female coital rituals. 'Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?' asks Strummer. No, Joe, actually they're boys and girls doing what boys and girls have done for millennia. 'Fingerpoppin'' features an embarrassingly clumsy neo-funk backing track, in which the constituent components sounds as though they're trying to escape into a different song. The Clash always sounded a bit ridiculous when they tried to play disco but, at least when Headon and Jones were in the band, they had the musical skill to just about pull it off.
With its imitation slap-bass the present song sounds uncannily like a Level 42 B-Side. Given the notoriously crap state of the UK charts in the 84-85 period, this would have been a fair-sized hit had it been released as a single. The song's first and only live performance came at one of the Brixton NUM benefit shows in December 1984. The miners, subsequently, lost. 'nuff said.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"
"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"