FRANKENSTEIN vs. HOCUS POCUS
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
Two heavy-metal instrumentals that were both hits around the same time (spring '73). I remember one Chicago Top 40 deejay admitting - on air - that he couldn't tell one song from the other, but he was probably just being facetious. "Frankenstein" was semi-funky and had an electric sax solo. "Hocus Pocus" was too fast and stiff to be confused for funk, and had a flute solo. Matter of fact, "Hocus Pocus" also had manic yodelling that almost disqualifies it from being an instrumental. Which one would you choose?
Here's a couple of Midnight Special clips to jog your memory:
Here's a couple of Midnight Special clips to jog your memory:
Comments
Not even close
forgive me (I wasn't even in my parents thoughts in 73 lol) but if you guys weren't telling me i'd have never imagined this was considered Heavy-Metal in the 70's. It's way too far from what I am used to listen as HM nowadays. Thank you.
I'm a breaks lover so I prefer Frankeinstein wich is the funkiest. I will study on it to extract some good breaks for my beatjuggling practice!
By hte way the Scatting/Yodeling guy is amazing.
Thnks for making me listen to this stuff! ;)
I can't see the metal label applying either.
The Focus track is horrible. "Frankenstein" wins for sure.
Metal is one of those terms that keeps redefining itself every few years.
Some band changes the game, and next thing you know what was considered heavy metal at one point isn't anymore.
But that is another discussion for another time and I don't feel like splitting hairs! Back to the main topic: EDGAR'S SAX VS. THIJS' FLUTE, PEOPLE! :-)
That's what I meant with my post. And I said thank you. It was a new discover to me...
By the way... I prefer the Flute solo on the Sax one. But If I look the overall tracks i prefer the frankeinstein one.
Drums solos on hocus pocus are dope to.... I'm sorry we rarely see musician this skilled nowadays....
thijs von leer is a melodic genius and jan akkerman is on the level with richie blackmore for many specific technical "first's" on the electric twanger in a hard rock format [exotic non pentatonic based scales for phrasing and composition ,extended diatonic arppeggios etc]
moving waves is a classic
frankenstein kicks ass
this is a lame comparison/thread
skel you are and will always be a 2 faced clown
:shreddin_it:
I wouldn't know. Focus will forever be one-hit wonders on a K-Tel compilation as far as I'm concerned. They actually made albums?
their albums haunt many a dollar bin in both europe and north america. euro jazz funk wanking with large doses of classical and other stuff...not a fan but jan akkerman is alright i guess, although i have yet to hear a solo album of his that i wanted to listen to again...
frankenstein is still so killer (perhaps even more killer) after all these years. that sax solo is unchained.
Cheers for that, mate!
Sure, by Mrs. Akkerman.
Otherwise, not so much.
Yeah, you're right. I knew that Focus had a major following back in the time with their elpees; I was just yanking Kala's chain.
Although one thing I did think was odd...I think Sire released an anniversary box set some time back that, oddly enough, didn't include any tracks by Focus or the Climax Blues Band, who were their top sellers in the US for years. Matter of fact, they didn't include any selections prior to the Ramones (whose first album was in 1976). Did they lose the rights to those acts, or is that a part of the heritage they're trying to bury in the closet?
I know they licensed those two bands from EMI, so maybe the deals were album-specific (or limited in some other way) and they weren't able to use individual cuts for the box.
On the contrary, Akkerman was very much the guitarist's guitarist for quite some time after Focus broke through to a wider audience. I seem to remember even Zappa - who famously never got into that slightly juvenile, hierarchical, who's-the-best shit - once saying he'd have given Akkerman a gig in The Mothers Of Invention. Good musicians do tend to draw the attention and praise of other musicians, after all, and peak-era Focus - Akkerman, van Leer, van der Linden and Ruiter - were outstanding players, even if you didn't particularly care for what they did.
Climax would have been licensed in from EMI, but Focus were signed to Polydor in the UK and Europe - either way, none of that stuff would have been Sire-owned repertoire. They'd have had to relicense anything they wanted to use for a box set, and it's likely that it would either have been too costly for the project, or there would have been some kind of contractual quirk, such as needing to get approval from all four members or something. From what Pickwick is saying, it seems equally likely that, prior to the Ramones, most Sire releases would have been licensed-in repertoire and not signed directly to the label, so all the deals that granted them rights to that material will have long since expired.
There might have been a few cultists who thought of Akkerman that way, but I don't think it went beyond that. Page, Clapton, and many others you'd see that claim made about over and over, but Akkerman? If the claim was being made it sure wasn't widespread.
focus is godhead
Akkerman claimed the crown at some point.
This mindset eventually evolved into the Vai/Satriani musical masturbation style we know today.
All those other guys you mention are kind of flashy players, to put it mildly. Moreover, they've got their niche and they tend to stick to it, whereas Akkerman's a lot more diverse stylistically and could play with much more restraint and subtlety than any of those guys. He doesn't lean on speed as a way of disguising a lack of musical ideas either. The only beef I have with him is that his tone can be a bit tough on the ears sometimes.