Throwback Thursday DLC Pick: Wolfmother – Joker & the Thief
This week’s Throwback Thursday DLC track is one from a band that was expected to be the second coming of Led Zeppelin, and to many it was, but they didn’t last very long, as the original lineup fell apart in late 2008. Their first big hit was “Woman,” which actually landed them a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2007. The song was featured in SIX different video games, including Guitar Hero 2. While this may have been their breakout hit, it isn’t the song I think of when I hear Wolfmother. That song is “Joker & the Thief,” which happens to be this week’s Throwback Thursday DLC pick.
Similar to previous Throwback Thursday songs, this is not the artist’s most recognizable song, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one of their best. There’s nothing apologetic about this song, as it starts like a rollercoaster with a guitar riff that builds tension as it rises in the beginning, and rocks you all over the places at it hits peaks and valleys over the course of the song. As you could guess, the song title is a reference to Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” The song has been featured in the movies Jackass 2, Shoot ‘Em Up, Shrek the Third, and most notably and recently, The Hangover.
In addition to being featured as DLC for Rock Band, it also appears in one of the Karaoke Revolution games and Rock Revolution. Nearly every instrument on this song is a stand out, and a decent challenge for the average player. The guitar is listed at a difficulty of a 5, but there are some very challenging sections in it (including the long trail of HO/PO’s in the beginning) that will cause some to fail out!
Check out the full band gameplay video below, courtesy of @HeyRiles!
The song can be purchased in the Rock Band 2 music store, or online at Xbox.com, for 160 MSP ($1.99).
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Oh, how I hate the guitar part at the beginning of this. Stuff this hard at the beginning of a song is just infuriating (q.v., Snow and Don’t Stop Believing), because there’s no chance amass Star Power to save my ass.
Fun on the other instruments, though.
SebastianSB Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Snow still kicks my ass, but I actually find Joker & the Thief to be pretty easy now. Once I learned to treat each set of six notes as two sets of three, moving my entire hand back and forth with each one, I’ve gotten to the point where I can hit at least 95% of the notes.
That doesn’t look too difficult, I’ll probably snag that one next time I’m at home. Good song, my best friend was a huge Wolfmother fan.
It’s worth mentioning that the bass for this song has one of the most brazen cases of overtiering ever. It’s officially rated five dots (whatever you want to call that), which is preposterous. It’s cake. It should have no more than one dot.
skydog Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Agree!
LoopyChew Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:14 am
I think it’s because early DLC had bass and guitar tiered evenly.
Shane Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I still think the worse tiering is Testify, which gets four dots when it’s all Talkies!!!
Dark Reality Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
‘Testify’ gets my vote for worst overtiering as well. I mean come on, all you gotta do is hold the mic up to the speaker and get an FC… gold stars with no overdrive usage too, IIRC. It’s pretty shameful.
Numskull Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 6:21 am
When I think of overtiering, I think of things that are a little less obvious than the all-talky songs. To me, it’s so indisputable that Testify should be bottom tier on vocals that there’s no point in bringing it up when discussing overtiering; it belongs in its own category (along with Visions, Prequel to the Sequel, etc.).
So these guys were supposed to be the next Zeppelins?
)
I’m sorry but they definitely over-crowned them right away.
Yes they are talented, but no where near the guitar, drum, vocal, or even bass talent of Zeppelin.
(I’m no Zeppelin fan actually either.. just I know that these guys aren’t even close
skydog Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:18 am
opps hit submit too early HA.. do that a lot.
I really enjoy playing their songs though because they do have some mid-hard charts (especially the joker & the thief beginning guitar.. I failed that my first time playing it LOL)
*Ps. the new CD stuff is really good ;].. so i recommend buying that stuff first*
RockBandAide Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:19 am
At least Wolfmother’s stuff was original. Can’t say the same for Zeppelin.
The original riff is one that haunts my dreams, not because it’s HOPOtastic, but because it was right about then I realized how awesome Shoot ‘Em Up was going to be.
Its funny, I was going to download this the other day when I was finally getting around to buying “Woman” (I put it off since I had it on GH, but decided to get it anyway). I kinda got sick of the song after last years Pepsi music video thing, because everyone picked this song… but I am a huge Hangover fan and cant get this song out of my head when i hear it now.
Hooray we got flamed for not getting perfect on guitar
Wolfmother still kill.I just saw them live on Saturday and they are ferocious live, the new lineup is great, the new album smokes. They closed the show with an awesome version of Baba O’ Reilly. You should get the Cosmic Egg DLC. Great stuff.
Yeah, great song… but New Moon Rising gets me going even more. I love this band.
I definitely prefer this song over Woman, though I think the stuff from their new album is better. I love Sundial and New Moon Rising.
This song gave me nightmares as well when I first started playing Rock Band, but I can proudly say I know how to play this song now. (not well) The Wolfmother stuff has been pretty good on Rock Band, Sundial stands out as my favorite.
This song is great, but unfortunately it is one of the few songs in RB that is ridiciously overcharted! And I was really mad at this, because playing this in RB on guitar doesnt make fun at all!!
I can play this on real guitar and it’s sooo much easier. And this sucks, the RB chart shouldnt be harder than the real thing.
Hopefully this gets updated with Pro Mode one day…
RockBandAide Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I have a good friend that plays a couple of different instruments in real life and he said that happens to him quite a bit in songs all the way back to the first Guitar Hero. There are definitely some songs that aren’t as hard on real guitar as they are in game on Expert.
wut? Wolfmother shamelessly ripped off the best of ’60s and ’70s hard rock, Led Zeppelin most obviously. I love their first album and how they’ve cooperated with Harmonix, but you have your names backwards. And Led Zeppelin were awesome for decades before it was hip to like them a few years ago and hip to hate on them as of late.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
I don’t hate them, I really like them! But it’s pretty common knowledge know that Led Zeppelin borrowed pretty liberally from many other contemporaries and artists before them.
Dark Reality Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Hey RBA, my comment was actually meant to be a reply to Skydog’s comment where he posted too early and you said Wolfmother were original and Led Zep were not… but apparently Opera Mini for Android (2.1/Eclair on Samsung Acclaim) doesn’t like replying to comments. It will reply to the blog entry just fine, though.
But still, if Led Zep fail your originality test, then how do Wolfmother pass it? And if Led Zep fails, what is the criteria for passing, anyway? They’re not like Three Days Grace (a band I enjoy the singles of, that gets far too bad a rap in the Rockband community) in that they sound exactly like every other band in the genre. They’re not even like Aerosmith, who tried to copy a legend (the Rolling Stones) and ended up a legend in their own right.
Of course, Jimmy Page hates technology, and by extension Rockband, so he’s a douche… but I’m not gonna knock his music for it. Metallica at least started to suck around the time they started making d-bags of themselves, so hate for their music was justified. What you call “common knowledge [now]” I call a damned fad… they’ve been broken up for right about three decades and under the name “Led Zeppelin” have produced nothing new since. Any shifting attitudes about them, after that, isn’t “knowledge” but “opinion”. Sure, they borrowed from the blues, but that’s how rock got its start. They still brought an original sound that hadn’t really been heard before, and that’s how they rose to the top, and that’s why their influence is still felt today… and Wolfmother’s proof of that.
RockBandAide Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 8:50 am
I think you’re missing something, and that’s my fault based on the words I choose.
Yes, Wolfmother is INSPIRED by bands like Led Zeppelin, but (unless there’s evidence to the contrary), they haven’t STOLEN directly from any other artists. But as I mentioned above, Led Zeppelin is pretty famous for unapologetically STEALING from MANY previous artists.
Go here to see the extent of what was taken from other artists, including a quote from Jimmy Page admitting that they used entire riffs and lyrics as an “homage” to other artists: http://earfarm.com/features/daily-feature/monday/1820
Again, I’m not trashing Led Zeppelin. I like them quite a bit. I’m not calling them out to be a dick, but I guess I just assumed that most people knew about this by now.
(And if you want a good chuckle, with some naughty words, check out the audio from Opie & Anthony where they play the original music and then Led Zeppelin… it’s pretty funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEsL46_PgOg)
I’ve had this Dlc for a long time now (years? Wow), but it’s still a blast to play on drums. It isn’t as complicated as some of the later tracks, but I consider it to be the most enjoyable.
This is the first Throwback Thursday track you’ve promoted that I think actually deserves to be in everyone’s library. It’s incredibly fun on every instrument.
The Wolfmother pack that came out later on is a must-have, too. Especially the song “White Unicorn” — INCREDIBLE on drums.
Dark Reality Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Fully agree on both counts. Not all of the songs in the Wolfmother pack are as good as “Joker & The Thief” but they are all good.
Whizzer Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 1:26 am
I wholeheartedly agree as well. Really solid 6 songs on most instruments. Fun is almost guaranteed.
I’ve seen Wolfmother twice and they always close with this song.