The Roches

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:15pm

How did I not discover them until tonight?
"Bobby's Song"

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:21pm

One of my all-time favorite bands. (See my FB.)

For the past 30 years.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:22pm

Tonight I was watching the SNL they were on (hosted by Bea Arthur!) and I just stopped when they came on. They are so weird and goofy. I am going to start discovering the hell out of them.


Jesus Christ!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:26pm

One of the best songs EVER:

http://www.roches.com/television/ss83mm.html

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:30pm

The in the middle (is that Suzzy?) sort of looks like she stepped out of a production of Godspell that had been soaked in LSD.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:40pm

I can tell you SO MUCH about The Roches.

Suzzy had a child with Loudon Wainwright, which is so weird because Loudon Wainright also had two children with Kate McGarrigle of the McGarrigle Sisters, who were often compared to The Roches.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/10 at 11:51pm

Who is the mother of Rufus? (Who I HATE! Sorry, gays)

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:05am

Kate McGarrigle, who just died a few weeks ago (at 63). Rufus wrote a beautiful tribute to his mother.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:54am

Huge fan of theirs - saw them at Carnegie Hall in the early eighties. Periodically, Robert Fripp (who produced their first album) would enter the the stage, and play guitar about 15 feet upstage of them. Then he would leave. For the longest time, the sisters pretended to not even have noticed him, but at one point, right after he exited the stage, one of them said "Who is that guy?" They never referred to him by name during the entire show. I still have several of their handmade buttons they gave out that night.

This is their introductory number (though, sadly, not the one from Carnegie).
We

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 1:16am

Thanks g and Miss P.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 1:40am

You're welcome, PRS. I would definitely check out Keep on Doin'/Jerks on the Loose from Ms P's link, and here's a few more not on that link (or different versions) to get you started:

The Train:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-LJX9IXiio&feature=related

Hammond song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3sqtoRG-Y&feature=related

Mr Selleck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3sqtoRG-Y&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3sqtoRG-Y&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3sqtoRG-Y&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3sqtoRG-Y&feature=related

Pretty and High:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w4hzYenLyg&feature=related

Losing true:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8OLXO2ebTE&feature=related

Road to Fairfax County:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yK8UK-v3bc

Updated On: 2/16/10 at 01:40 AM

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 2:07am

The first time I saw them was in 1978 at a benefit for Bill Bradley who was running for the Senate for the first time. It was at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic. Nobody knew what to make of them. They looked like three little girls who ransacked their grandma's trunk of clothes in the attic...and added a few touches of their own. Then they sang in these gorgeous harmonies which really threw everyone for a loop because they seemed so out of sync with the wacky costumes. I was immediately smitten.

I saw them many times after that. But they don't really perform anymore except on very rare occasions.

Lucy Wainwright tours with her father though.

I even have an album that Maggie and Terre put out by themselves before Suzzy joined them. Their children's album and Christmas album are both really wonderful too.

I love their a cappella version of this Cole Porter number:

http://www.roches.com/television/tomsynd3.html

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 6:52am

Love them for years, too! I got to see them at Steppenwoolf (front row!)a few years ago. Don't ask me to pick a favorite, but Hammond Song and Face Down at Folk City are up there. Suzy also played Amy Irving's gal-pal in Crossing Delancy!
I didn't know that about Wainwright, though.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 9:48am

"Face Down At Folk City" .... still makes me laugh out loud after all these years!

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:23am

Love them...since that SNL appearance.

They also grew up in the same town as my cousins.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:28am

They also have a briliant Christmas album called "We Three Kings."

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:29am

I just can't believe I went all this time without even peripherally knowing who they were!

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:30am

We thought about telling you, but figured it was better this way.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:32am

Yeah...we keep stuff from you all the time.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:33am

Bitches. All of you.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 10:37am

We listened to The Roches in college, lost my albums in a move several years so have not heard them in years! Fond memories!

Posted: 2/16/10 at 11:10am

Wonderful! Loads of fun! The Christmas album is spectacular- something even a non-Roches fan could love. There is some movie where they are seen busking in the background but I cannot for the life of me remember it.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:16pm

Did you guys know that there was a cartoon made about them? They are 3 insects. It was part of the Animaniacs or something. I saw it YEARS ago just by happenstance on TV.

Phyl, BTW, I do believe I started a thread about them a long, long time ago. (But I no longer know how to search for such things.) You must have been ignoring me over that the little wicked debate that sparked the initial flame of our love.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:24pm

Oh, and that Roches link in my signature has been there for years, Phyl! That's what you get for ignoring me!

Here is a number that has been a theme song of mine for years. I mean, how can you not love a song that begins with--

"I don't feel that great today. I have never felt that great."

And ends with "Think how good just normal feels...a helmet on my head, constant flow of ice cream in...I'd be as good as dead."

http://www.roches.com/television/jc85aw.html

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:58pm

"Bitches. All of you."

Yep, PRS, especially me, as it was my special private torture for you - and now I'm foiled again!

Do yourself a favor and buy their first album. It's a great play-through, and the "Frippertronics" (Robert Fripps guitar work on that album) are something I really miss from their live performances.

Miss Pennywise, I've been meaning for years to thank you for the link you've provided in your signature - will you accept a belated one?