I’m mystified by what genre this tune, and almost all of Johnny Lyon’s sides are. It’s some strand of soul, but different.
Wikipedia says:
I don’t know. In this one I hear more Mink Deville, but while Springsteen always manages to sound like the early 60s, this comes out of that idea, but is different. I really like this song
The Germs are not universally loved, but they are indisputably worth talking about. And they covered Chuck Berry, well.
I love this.
I gather this is an early recording of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker doing some covers in a club. The first is Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business, which is fantastic. That’s why I’m here, though I loved Cream back in the day. But we didn’t have this then.
Then there is the rest, which is pretty damn sweet.
Many of the great Chuck Berry covers were by the Rolling Stones, and a few were by the Beatles and John Lennon. But there were other covers of note. Here is a website that lists them all.
Here are a few I recommend.
This embellished list by Alan Light is well worth going through. They’re the greatest hits, for the most part, but many of the notes were new to me.
As was this song, which Light notes he wrote while in jail, without a map.
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28740659
Dick Clark introduces an appearance by Berry promoting this album and stumbles over the title, with the audience tittering at the double entendre. Really?
It is 1959, and, as Clark mentions, this is an album that has on it Carol, Maybelline, Johnny B. Goode, Roll Over Beethoven, Little Queenie and many more.
Those were the days of album oriented rock. Not.
It’s an incredible trove, not a greatest hits album, that the Rolling Stones particularly mined for their early (and later) setlists.
Berry, of course, looks right at home playing along to this other cut, Back in the USA, that is also on Chuck Berry is on Top, with the totally white and polite audience clapping along.
One of my favorite, lesser known, Chuck Berry songs.
RIP, Chuck.
He took the jazz/R&B stylings of T-Bone Walker and invented a new guitar style that IS rocknroll. He turned the whole concept of “authenticity” on its ear fifteen years before it reared its misguided head, by writing perfect vignettes of white middle class teenagers as a 30-year old black man. He was sometimes bitter and sometimes difficult and had good reasons for both, but he always got his due and always will. And check out this smoking drummer, who I’d give his due if I only knew who he was. Bye bye.
Read about these guys in a magazine. I like this song. The Amazon reviews are great. The singer appears charismatic. I’m a sucker for a Flying V. And bluesy-ness.
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Today’s SotW is from the “Restored” dresser drawer. It is “Senses Working Overtime” by XTC from the English Settlement album. “Senses…” reached the Top 10 in the UK but only managed #38 on the Rock Album Tracks chart in the US. It was released in two formats, the 4:34 single version and the 4:53 album version. Why Virgin records thought they needed to cut out a few lines to make the song 19 seconds shorter is incomprehensible to me.
“Senses…” is an impressive composition. The musicianship is amongst the best in the vast XTC catalog. The first of three sections opens with a folky “medieval” sounding acoustic guitar playing some variation on an E flat chord. Shortly it’s joined by a cool bass line. Colin Moulding plays his fretless bass with creativity and panache. I especially dig the legato slides.
The middle section makes effective use of diminished chords and acts as the bridge to the rousing count-up chorus.
The drumming is ear catching. The fills in the choruses (after the count of “5”) insist that listeners play “air” drums along with the record.
The lyrics are cryptic. Is it a peculiar love song? Is it about an insane person? It doesn’t really matter. To me it’s a lot like The Beatles (John Lennon’s) word salad, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” The expressive lyrical imagery is way more important than the “meaning.” Thematically, the lyrics are much closer to The Beatles (George Harrison’s) “All Too Much” from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.
Beyond the words are the way they sound. It was a creative mind game to write “1-2-3-4-5, senses working overtime.” After the count, you expect to hear 6-7 (seven) and get the word “senses” that’s a bit of a trick.
Sadly for us XTC fans, there were few opportunities to see the band live. In April 1982, just a few months after “Senses….” was released, the band played their last concert in San Diego. Andy Partridge experienced a nervous breakdown of sorts and was unable to perform in front of audiences. He retreated, Beatle like, to the studio and crafted several more outstanding albums – including Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons, and Nonsuch.
Enjoy… until next week.
BTW – Did anyone notice that everyone in the video is playing left handed — including the drummer. Still messing with our senses?
