Author Archives: Tom Muscarella

Song of the Week – Andmoreagain, Love

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Happy Valentine’s Day. What better time is there to feature a SotW by a band called Love that is itself, a love song (of sorts). It is called “Andmoreagain” from the classic 1967 album Forever Changes.

I like some of how Matthew Greenwald reviewed the song at AllMusic.com, though I don’t necessarily interpret the lyrics the way he does:

“Andmoreagain” is another example of Arthur Lee letting the song he was writing lead him, rather than the other way around. Its lilting, slightly spaced folk melody is somewhat similar to Burt Bacharach, as well as Neil Young’s “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing.” Loaded with sweet, major-7th chords, its calm, infectious beauty is, in a word, mesmerizing. Lyrically, it’s another example of Lee free associating on his acid-magnified state of mind, meditating on reincarnating his own defense mechanisms. The line “undone, wrapped in my armor/’cause my things are material” bears this out. One of Lee’s best-loved compositions, it’s always been included in his concert repertoire, even after disbanding Love.

To me, the lyrics are a text book example of the kind of hazy, mystical, psychedelic mumbo jumbo to come out of the “Summer of Love;” so vague and cryptic that they can be construed an infinite number of ways.

I’ve heard interpretations that the title refers to the girlfriend of Love’s leader Arthur Lee, or the film and TV actress Ann Morgan. (I think it’s just a word that is sung to sound like a name.)

I’ve heard that it is about love’s “duality” – the light and dark of love. But my favorite theory is that Angmoreagain is a succubus, defined by Wikipedia as “a female demon or supernatural entity in folklore (traced back to medieval legend) that appears in dreams and takes the form of a woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. The male counterpart is the incubus.” Now that’s cool!

review_succubus_4
And if you’ll see Andmoreagain
Then you will know Andmoreagain
For you can see you in her eyes
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum

And when you’ve given all you had
And everything still turns out
Bad, and all your secrets are your own
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum

And I’m
Wrapped in my armor
But my things are material
And I’m
Lost in confusions
‘Cause my things are material

And you don’t know how much
I love you
Oh, oh, oh

The music has a baroque rock (The Left Banke) feel. Arthur Lee’s vocal is reminiscent of Bee Gee Robin Gibb circa “I Started a Joke” but not nearly as maudlin.

Forever Changes is a great album that really deserves your attention if you’re not familiar with it. It has received numerous accolades — #40 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, #11 on Mojo’s list of the 100 greatest albums ever made. Other songs to check out include “Alone Again Or”, “The Red Telephone” and “You Set the Scene.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White, The Standells

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One of the proud traditions at Fenway Park is that they play The Standells’ “Dirty Water” (“Oh Boston, you’re my home”) at the conclusion of every Red Sox victory.

So last Sunday, when the Patriots won another Super Bowl after their undrafted rookie cornerback made an unlikely interception with only 20 seconds left in the game, I was yearning to hear “Dirty Water” to help celebrate the win.

But that wasn’t gonna happen – the game was played in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona, not Fenway. Beside, after all of that “Deflategate” nonsense, much of the country was filled with Patriots haters.

So instead of “Dirty Water” maybe the more appropriate Standells song to play would be “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White.”

This 1966 release only made it to #43 on the Billboard charts. But it was a song that was noticed by The Cramps and Minor Threat – both covered it. That’s because it’s a great garage/psych rocker.

Go Pats!

Enjoy… until next week.

BTW – Today is the 7th anniversary of the SotW; over 350 posts, almost 500 songs and never a week missed. Thank you all for continuing to inspire me to keep this thing going.

Song of the Week – Wild Summer Nights, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band

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Today’s SotW was written by guest contributor Pete McQuaid. Pete is a fellow Boston College alum and the former lead entertainment writer for a newspaper in the Boston area. Pete has recently sold his soul to work in commercial real estate. He also plays guitar and is a wicked pissah soul singer.

In late 2014, many entertainment outlets celebrated the 30th anniversary of Purple Rain, Prince’s smash film/album/vanity project that proved the public will always sit through any poorly-acted, unintelligible movie about musicians as long as the soundtrack is amazing.

Well, they almost always will. Eddie and the Cruisers came out just eight months before Purple Rain in September 1983 and didn’t even make its $5 million budget back (by comparison, Purple Rain took in $68 million at the box office — and that doesn’t include the 20 million-plus copies of the album that sold). It was pulled from theaters three weeks after its release, only to find a second life on VHS and HBO in 1984, after which the film’s main hit “On the Dark Side” climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Much like Purple Rain, Eddie and the Cruisers is an unintentionally hilarious mess. It stars Tom Berenger (a week away from his leading turn in The Big Chill) as a teacher who gets questioned by a reporter about his time as a member of Eddie and the Cruisers, a flash-in-the-pan rock group who released one album in the ’60s before its titular lead singer and visionary (played by Michael Paré) vanished.

The film is told in a hackneyed Citizen Kane-style flashback with laughable dialogue and a limp plotline, and has an ending Roger Ebert described as “so frustrating, so dumb, so unsatisfactory, that it gives a bad reputation to the whole movie.”

But — that music, though.

Performed by Narragansett, Rhode Island rockers John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band (and ably lip-synched by Paré), the music of the Cruisers is Wall of Sound meets Jersey bar group, in the style of acts like the E Street Band and the Asbury Jukes. Their sound is a little anachronistic for a movie set in the early ’60s, but hey, Eddie was ahead of his time. The snappy, John Mellencamp-y, not-very-wordy “Dark Side” is the only song from the soundtrack that still gets played on the radio (or referenced on Family Guy) but it may be the weakest tune on there, overshadowed by everything from sax-soaked ballads (“Tender Years”) to existential pre-prog rock (“Season in Hell”).

The best cut is “Wild Summer Nights,” a rollicking number that is so ridiculously “Springsteen-esque” a casual listener might mistake it for a fun outtake from The River. With its swirling saxophone riff, gruff vocals, twinkling piano and talk of “rebels lac[ing] midnight in black leather,” “Wild Summer Nights” is as close to The Boss as you’re going to get.

Here is the version from the soundtrack:

and here is Beaver Brown’s less-polished (but possibly harder-rocking?) version released a few years earlier:

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Just Like A Prisoner, Eric Clapton

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Every musician/band has their “golden age” no matter how great their entire musical legacy may be. Today’s case in point is Eric Clapton. He made his mark early on with major contributions to some of the most important records in rock history with The Yardbirds, John Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie and Derek & The Dominoes. But with each of those bands he became restless in short order and never spent more than a few years with any of them.

Then he went solo and that’s the part of his career that I mean to discuss today. Clapton has recorded some 30 albums since his first solo release, Eric Clapton in 1970. That was followed by 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974), Slowhand (1977) and Backless (1978) – his “golden age”. Many of you can name at least a few songs on each of those albums but how many of you can name a few songs on August (1986), Pilgrim ((1998) or Reptile (2001). Only true fans, for sure.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that the records he produced after the 70s don’t contain lots of good music. It’s just that we fans lose interest and need to work harder to keep up and find the gems within.

One such gem is “Just Like A Prisoner” from Behind the Sun (1985).

OK, I admit that the lyrics are a bit mundane, but Clapton’s guitar playing is amongst his best since Layla (perhaps because it was inspired by the same woman). In fact I recently read in MOJO he was once asked if he’d ever created “a thing of beauty.” “A long solo at the end of Just Like A Prisoner,” he replied. “It gets better and better. You think, ‘This could go on forever’. Some of the most beautiful guitar playing I’ve ever heard. And it’s me.”

That’s a good enough endorsement for me!

The only problem is that the cut contains typical 80s production values (the album was produced by the then VERY HOT Phil Collins). If the song could be remixed to take out the wash of synthesizers and drum machines the solo would stand out more and probably sound a lot better (IMHO).

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – The Holdup, David Bromberg

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I was looking for something to watch on TV a few weeks ago and stumbled upon a David Bromberg documentary called David Bromberg Unsung Treasure. It was a pretty good show and can be streamed online here:

I remember seeing Bromberg live for the first time at the famous Passim’s coffeehouse in Cambridge’s Harvard Square back in the mid 70’s. I got to see him again a 5-6 years later at a free summer concert at Rogers Park in Brighton, MA.

Bromberg’s proficiency in all of the sub-genres of American roots music (blues, bluegrass, gospel, R&B), combined with his wicked sense of humor, always made his performances worth attending. Plus he’s a virtuoso on just about every instrument that has strings.

Today’s SotW is “The Holdup”, a song co-written with George Harrison. It appeared on two different Bromberg albums. It was originally on Bromberg’s first album in what’s come to be known as the “Harrison version” because George added his slide guitar to it. The one on Wanted Dead or Alive is known as the “Dead version” because several members of The Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Keith Godchaux and Bill Kreutzmann) played on it. I favor the Wanted Dead or Alive version (plus that album had one of the greatest album covers of all time!).

“The Holdup” opens with an intro of piano, guitars and percussion that sounds Spanish influenced. It romps along with high energy before mariachi horns begin to blare.

The lyrics are cousin to Harrison’s “Taxman” (US Revolver) in that “the holdup” refers to the government tax thugs coming to take your money.

STICK UP YOUR HANDS, YOU MUST STAND AND DELIVER,
MY STOMACH’S EMPTY, MY CLOTHES ARE ALL TORN.
OPEN YOUR HEARTS TO THE JOYS OF THE GIVER,
ALL OF YOUR POCKETS ARE TERRIBLY WORN.

THIS IS A HOLDUP, NO WAY TO MISTAKE IT,
WE’RE MEN OF VIOLENCE SO DON’T FOOL AROUND.
IF YOU HAVE MONEY, WE’RE GOING TO TAKE IT,
YOU’LL TRY AND STOP US, YOU’LL END UNDERGROUND.

SO HAND US THE MONEY, DON’T STAND THERE AND SHIVER,
TAX TIME IS COMING, GIVE ALMS TO THE POOR.
OR I´LL PUT A BULLET RIGHT THROUGH YOUR BEST LIVER,
WEALTH IS DISEASE AND I AM THE CURE.

Bromberg has played on the albums of a who’s who of great artists – Bob Dylan, Al Kooper, Ringo, Bonnie Raitt, etc. It’s worth checking out his work with all of these artists and more. He also still performs live in small venues, mostly up and down the east coast. Go see this “unsung treasure” while you have the chance.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young – Faron Young

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This is the first installment of the “Rare Record Series.”

rrs faron

I was crate digging at a local thrift store a few weeks ago and came across an album by country music star Faron Young. I know very little about Young, one of my few touchstones being the great Prefab Sprout song “Faron Young.” But I bought the record because it was so old and in such good condition.

When I got home I cleaned it up and dropped the needle on it. To my surprise I recognized the very first song, “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young”, toady’s SotW.

It took me a while to figure out where I had heard the song. It was on a CD I have by a New York based rockabilly band from the late 90s called The Big Galoots. The Galoots recorded mostly originals, so I never noticed that “Live Fast…” was a cover. What a great choice.

Faron Young took the song to #1 on Billboard’s country chart in 1955. As the story goes, he wasn’t fond of rockabilly and didn’t want to record the song. He preferred more traditional, establishment country music but was happy to have a hit on his hands (and the pay that came with it) once it was released.

The song title and lyrics, written by Joe Allison, were inspired by a line from the Humphrey Bogart gangster movie, Knock on Any Door (1949). In that flick, costar John Derek says his motto is “I want to live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse.” Who could have predicted back in ’55 that this motto would come to define the rock and roll lifestyle until the more current “sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll” espoused by Ian Dury.

In 1979 Blondie updated the saying in their song “Die Young, Stay Pretty” from their hit album Eat to the Beat.

Words to live by!

Enjoy… until next week.

BTW – If you’re interested in record collecting, you may want to read this article by John Harris of The Guardian about the vinyl comeback.

John Harris – Vinyl’s difficult comeback

Song of the Week – Cuyahoga, I Believe, Swan Swan H, R.E.M.

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I’ve wanted to post a SotW featuring R.E.M. for a long time but haven’t gotten around to it. The weird thing is that I been paralyzed by the choice because I love so many of their cuts. So I’m finally ready to take a stand by choosing three songs, all from the band’s 4th album, Lifes Rich Pageant.

This is my favorite R.E.M. album. It was the first one I really sunk my teeth into but it also was the album that bridged their early indie (I.R.S. Records), college radio years with the broad commercial success of their releases on Warner Brothers records.

LRP had two songs that were popular, “Fall On Me” and a cover of The Clique’s “Superman”, so I’ll skip over them. That’s easy because every other song on the album is so good.

Let’s start with “Cuyahoga.”

It is a protest song that addresses both environmental concerns (the Ohio river famously caught fire in 1969 due to pollution) and protecting the heritage and natural resources of the native Americans.

Let’s put our heads together and start a new country up
Up underneath the river bed we’ll burn the river down

This is where they walked, swam
Hunted, danced and sang
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir

Next is “I Believe.”

The banjo intro acts as a sort of overture to create an Americana feel for this country rocker. (It has a similar feel to “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” but I like this number better.) As is often the case with R.E.M. the lyrics are indecipherable but interesting nonetheless.

I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract
Explain the change, the difference between
What you want and what you need, there’s the key
Your adventure for today, what do you do
Between the horns of the day

I believe my shirt is wearing thin and change is what I believe in

Lastly is “Swan Swan H.”

Asked about his inspiration for “Swan Swan H”, lead singer/lyricist Michael Stipe said “(It’s a) Civil War song. That’s all I know of writing it. I remember the inspiration but it just flowed. “What noisy cats are we” I lifted from an actual Civil War written piece.” The music features a haunting, folky twelve string guitar, a military drum beat, and a subtle vocal delivery that perfectly supports the songs emotional narrative.

A pistol hot, cup of rhyme
The whiskey is water, the water is wine
Marching feet, Johnny Reb
What’s the price of heroes?

Six and one, half dozen the other
Tell that to the captain’s mother
Hey, captain, don’t you want to buy
Some bone chains and toothpicks?

LRP was released in in 1986 which makes it almost 30 years old! That doesn’t seem possible. But the album still holds up so I hope you’ll check out the rest of it.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Full Moon, Woods and Give Me Love, George Harrison

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It’s the end of another year, so I’ve been sorting through a lot of the new music I was exposed to this year, trying to compile my favorites. One song I’ve been listening to often is “Full Moon” by Woods, yet another Brooklyn based band. It’s from their 8th album of Americana, With Light and With Love.

“Full Moon” has a breezy Southern California feel. The intro has a strummed acoustic guitar, a wah-wah and a cool slide guitar that sounds like something from a George Harrison solo album. The lyrics are sung by Jeremy Earl in a high register that may remind you a little of Wayne Coyne’s work with The Flaming Lips.

The George Harrison comparison now has “Give Me Love” stuck in my mind.

That song, from 1973’s Living in the Material World, was a #1 hit when it was released. Its lyrics espousing peace and love and freedom and good karma are perfect concepts to think about as we approach the end of another year. And it still sounds great to me after all these years.

Happy New Year!

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Holland, 1945, Neutral Milk Hotel

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As many of you already know, I’m a ginormous fan of Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report. I’ve hardly missed an episode during the show’s nine year run. Stephen feels like a brother to me. My heart is filled with sadness that the show is over. There will be a huge hole in my daily routine that The Colbert Report used to fill.

The show “ended” with Stephen singing “We’ll Meet Again” with dozens of the shows friends coming onstage to join him.

But if you were patient and stayed tuned past the commercial break you saw the final sign off.

But it was a story by Doug Sibor on the pop culture website, Complex, that caught my attention because it identified the background music as “Holland, 1945” by Neutral Milk Hotel.

Sibor went further to explain why that song was chosen, quoting from a New York Times column written about Colbert by Maureen Dowd last April.

He had 10 older siblings. But after his father and the two brothers closest to him in age died in a plane crash when he was 10 and the older kids went off to college, he said, he was “pretty much left to himself, with a lot of books.”

He said he loved the “strange, sad poetry” of a song called “Holland 1945” by an indie band from Athens, Ga., called Neutral Milk Hotel and sent me the lyrics, which included this heartbreaking bit:

“But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on…
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don’t move anymore.”

These words are especially poignant during the holiday season that so many people find difficult to manage through.

Neutral Milk Hotel is a band worth investigating further. Led by Jeff Mangum, they have songs with fascinating lyrics and are accompanied by a band of multi instrumentalists that comes up with interesting, clever arrangements.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week Revisited – Bar-B-Q, Wendy Rene

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Stax/Volt soul singer Wendy Rene has died of complications from a stroke. She was only 67 years old. You can read a full obituary here:

Wendy Rene Obituary

Below is a SotW I originally posted on June 30, 2012. I’m revisiting it here today in her honor.

I’ve always got my ear to the ground with the hope of discovering some long lost soul gem. A couple of months ago I was listening to the 9 CD, 244 song, boxed set – Stax/Volt – The Complete Singles 1959-1968. The collection has all of the well know favorites by the label’s major stars, but also goes deep into the catalog for some wonderful obscurities. I found one that’s perfect for the summer and the upcoming 4th of July holiday — 1964’s “Bar-B-Q” by southern soul legend, Wendy Rene.

Born Mary Frierson, her stage name was the suggestion of Stax label mate Otis Redding. Her first release, the mournful “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” was her biggest hit. That song was eventually covered by Alicia Keys under the title “Where Do We Go From Here.”.

But I prefer the lighthearted, upbeat “Bar-B-Q.” The bass and organ lay down a funky rhythm. The famous Memphis Horns add to the southern soul stew. It even features a little Steve Cropper guitar solo. Then there’s Wendy’s sassy vocal on the playful lyric.

i smell something in the air, you know it smells like barbecue
if i had some i wouldn’t care because i like barbecue

well, i like barbecue
you like barbecue
we like barbecue
you know i sure like barbecue

sister’s out back sittin’ in the swing, she wants some barbecue
little brother’s on the porch doin’ handsprings, singin’ i’d like some barbecue

chorus

my old dog has got a bone, and he wants some barbecue
i’ve got an old gray cat sittin’ on the stone, and he’s beggin’ for barbecue

chorus

here comes pop from up the street and he’s got some barbecue
all the kids are startin’ to pat their feet because they want some barbecue

By 1967, Wendy was in a second marriage and raising a growing family so she decided to leave the record business. I’ve heard the story – but I’m not sure if it’s true – that she was scheduled to perform one last show with Otis Redding and other Stax artists but that she turned it down at the last minute. As the story goes, that gig was Redding’s last. He was killed along with four of the Bar-Kays when their plane crashed on the return from the show.

Enjoy… until next week.