Author Archives: Tom Muscarella

Song of the Week – What Is and What Should Never Be, Led Zeppelin

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Today’s post will be short and sweet. (I’m still jet lagged due to my return flight from Europe yesterday.)

Wednesday, October 22nd, marks the 45th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin II (1969). The album quickly ran up to the top position on the worldwide charts – knocking The Beatles’ Abbey Road out of that spot here in the US. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to, do they?

The SotW is “What Is and What Should Never Be.”

The song was one of the first to have lyrics contributed by Robert Plant. It’s a slow blues that uses the soft/loud dynamic that Led Zeppelin employed to such great effect. MOJO recently made a list of the 50 Greatest Zeppelin Songs and WIaWSNB came in at #26. Writer Clive Prior had this to say about it.

Plant’s half-whispered, phased vocal is both seductive and covert, the invitation to his lady friend to visit his nearby castle sounding playful as well as slightly absurd on a song of alleged deep confession. Then in a dramatic vocal switch, he assumes his strutting Golden God persona, his strident vocal bursting dramatically forth. Page’s intimate production adds a smoothness to the atmospherics served up by Jones and Bonham, the drummer’s gong pressed into service for the first time on record at 1:09 to shimmering effect.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – That’s When I Reach For My Revolver, Mission of Burma

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This post was originally mailed to my distribution list on October 11th.

Mission of Burma is one of my favorite Boston bands. (Those of you that have been following the SotW for a while have probably noticed that I write about Boston bands a lot… maybe too much.)

The band formed in 1979 when I was still a post grad DJ at WZBC (Boston College’s radio station). We were giving air time to many of the great local bands (Human Sexual Response, The Neighborhoods, etc.) a little ahead of the commercial stations in the city. That was the niche we were cultivating thanks in large part to people like Herb Scannell (GM) who later went on to a very successful career in the television media and Dave Herlihy who coined the station’s “No Commercial Potential” tag line (and was a founder of the band O Positive). But I digress.

MoB consisted of Roger Miller (guitar), Clint Conley (bass) and Peter Prescott (drums). They also would sometimes call on Martin Swope who would work some magic as a sound shaper by manipulating tape recordings. The band only managed to stay together for 4 years and recorded one single, one EP (Signals, Call and Marches), and one proper album, (Vs). This entire output was compiled into a CD titled simply Mission of Burma.

The SotW is “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”, written and sung by Conley and original on the Signals… EP.

Bill Janovitz wrote a great description of the song at Allmusic.com:

The Mission of Burma original version of “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” opens with a flatly recorded, ringing bass minor-chord line that forms the core of the arrangement. A chiming guitar enters soon after mimicking the hook. The flatness and the minor key portends gloom. The starkly poetic lyrics do not betray this mood; they suggest an alienated man who has reached his limits and who explodes on the chorus, “that’s when I reach for my revolver/that’s when it all gets blown away.”

The songs arrangement and use of “soft/loud” dynamics provide the clues necessary to connect the dots from MoB to Husker Du to The Pixies to Nirvana. Clint Conley’s ranting vocal may even serve as the template for the hardcore vocal style to develop later, but they’re not quite as harsh.

And, at about 2:25, the song busts into one of the coolest bass solos since John Entwistle’s freak out on “My Generation.”

If you want to learn more about the band, try to find a copy of the documentary Not a Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story (2006) on DVD or to stream.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Black and White, Parquet Courts

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This post was originally mailed to my distribution list on October 4th.

A band that is currently on the indie rock circuit is Brooklyn (yes, another one from Brooklyn) based Parquet Courts. Their third album, Sunbathing animals, has been out for a few months now. I’ve been checking it out on Spotify and really enjoy the whole album. But “Black and White” stands out to me for its up tempo, post-punk drive – so it is today’s SotW. (It’s also the song they played on Seth Meyer’s late night show earlier this year.)

“Black and White” has a Velvet Underground/Television/Sonic Youth vibe to it – repetitive strumming and droning lead and a feedback laced freak out.

The lyrics communicate the difficulty and frustration of trying to balance how to continue to be fresh and creative when you’re trapped by the mundane tedium of constant touring. Here’s the second verse.

There’s a sinful sort of side of being
So contained, a bit like being lost
Stumbling through the background like a small town loner
Quietly a-whisperin’ my thoughts into my cupped hands
Folded and monk-like, at least that’s what I’ve always said
How does writing letters from the lonely margins feel
When there is no hair on my head?
Is the solitude I seek a trap where I’ve been blindly led?
Tell me, where then do I go instead?

Parquet Courts is another contemporary band worth keeping an eye on.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – The Rhythm of Love, The Pooh Sticks

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The Pooh Sticks were one of the most confounding bands of the 90s. The Welsh group, led by Huw Williams, came out of the C86 scene with their own brand of power pop; or maybe bubblegum to use a genre title from the 60s. But be careful what you read about them because they famously fed the media fabrications about their background. (One story, still found all over the internet, claims that Williams is the son of drummer Terry Williams (Man/Rockpile/Dire Straits). Hmmm?

The band openly and unapologetically lifted song/album titles, lyrics, melodies and even solos and recycled them into something all their own. They didn’t “sample” them, they reproduced them, note for note. At the time, people were puzzled by their approach. One group thought it was a stupid gimmick and sneered at their twee notions. Others felt like they were in on an elaborate private joke and embraced the whole concept. I was in the latter group and bought three of the (now out of print) albums.

Let me explain a little further. The group was a sort of make believe band like many of the 60s bubblegum acts – The 1910 Fruitgum Company (“1, 2, 3 Red Light”, “Simon Says”), The Ohio Express (“Yummy, Yummy, Yummy”), The Archies (“Sugar, Sugar”). In fact, on their Great White Wonder album, the artwork was drawn by Hanna-Barbera’s Alan Forbes. (The title of the album was itself homage to the first commercially successful bootleg of the rock era – the unauthorized release of Dylan and The Band’s basement tapes.)

Song titles on the album include “Sweet Baby James”, “Pandora’s Box, “Desperado” and “I’m In You.” Sound familiar?

The SotW is “Rhythm of Love.” This a little different than most of the songs on the album since it is a cover of The Strangeloves song that was the B-side to their 1965 release, “Night Time.”

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But this is no straight up cover – it’s done the Pooh Sticks way. It opens with the motif from Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears.” It adds a little more power pop crunch than the original. Then at about a minute and a half in, they slip in the guitar intro from Neil Young’s “Powderfinger.” You’ll recognize it when you hear it.

Unfortunately, very little of the Pooh Sticks repertoire is available on either Spotify or YouTube. But if you want to understand a little more, check out this link to a website posted by band member Trudi Tangerine that is running down The Pooh Sticks Top 50 Songs. The list is so new that she hasn’t even finished it yet – she’s just getting to the top 10.

The Pooh Sticks Top 50 Countdown, 50-11

Just about every song on this list has made its way into a Pooh Sticks recording in some fashion. It’s a strange, eclectic and crazy fun list.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – O My Soul, Big Star

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I have to write about Big Star this week. Why? Because it was meant to be. I’ve been stumbling across Big Star/Alex Chilton references for several weeks now and I can take a hint.

In August I came across The Onion’s A.V. Club article on the band. A few weeks later I saw a Salon article called Mike Mills: “I discovered Big Star the same way I discovered much of the music I love ¬— by listening to Peter Buck’s record collection”.

Finally, the reunited Replacements appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on September 9th, and what did they choose to perform? You got it – the song they wrote for their hero “Alex Chilton”.

My choice for a Big Star SotW today is “O My Soul.” It could be something different tomorrow because I love this band so much I have a new favorite every time I listen to their albums.

Mark Deming captures the beauty of this song in his AllMusic.com review:

On Big Star’s second album, Radio City, the departure of co-founder Chris Bell left Alex Chilton as the group’s sole guitarist, and the album’s first cut wasted no time in pushing his ragged-but-right instrumental style to the forefront. “O My Soul” is a gloriously messy hodgepodge of slashed-out R&B rhythms, psychedelic chord twists, and smart pop melodicism; the melody, fractured as it is, swerves all over the place, but Chilton’s breathless forward momentum (as well as the propulsive energy of drummer Jody Stephens and bassist Andy Hummel) keeps the tune on track, and the cut is one of the most exciting (and most curiously funky) in the Big Star catalog. As for Chilton’s lyrics, he seems to be having as much fun with his words as with his music: “I can’t get a license/To drive in my car/But I won’t really need one/If I’m a big star” is typical of the cheeky, surreal wit, though the refrain, “Never you mind/Go on and have a good time,” sums up whatever “message” he has to offer.

If you enjoy this song and want to learn more about Big Star and Alex Chilton, be sure to click on the links provided to read the articles. Also, there’s a very good documentary about the band that came out last year called Nothing Can Hurt Me. It’s available to stream on NetFlix and here’s a review of the movie from The New Yorker.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – NYCNY, Daryl Hall & You Burn Me Up I’m A Cigarette, Robert Fripp

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I was watching an episode of Live from Daryl’s House that had Minus the Bear as his guests. To my surprise, they played a version of “NYCNY” from Hall’s Sacred Songs solo album. That got me thinking about my favorite songs on two pretty obscure albums that remain forever intertwined.

Sacred Songs is an interesting album and considered a hidden classic by its fans. It was recorded with Robert Fripp’s help (guitars and production) in 1977, but RCA withheld its release until 1980. At that time, Hall wanted to branch out from the blue eyed soul he was making with partner John Oates, and Fripp, on hiatus from King Crimson, was about to start work on his Exposure solo album.

“NYCNY” is a very cool song that was written in collaboration by Hall (lyrics) and Fripp (music). An alternate version showed up on Exposure in 1979 under the title “I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I’ve Had Enough of You” but with different lyrics by that version’s co-writer, Joanna Walton.

When work was completed on Sacred Songs – it only took three weeks – Hall returned the favor and agreed to help out Fripp with Exposure. My favorite song on Exposure is “You Burn Me Up I’m a Cigarette” which was also co-written by Hall and Fripp and features a Hall vocal.

Recorded in New York in 1978, you can definitely hear the influence of the local punk scene that was on the rise at that time.

Although Hall and Fripp seemed like a very counter intuitive pairing when they began work together, you must admit that the music they made still sounds pretty good some 35 years later.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Let Me Go, The Rockets and Three Dog Night

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Today’s SotW is about a band that is a mere footnote in rock ‘n roll history, but an important one at that – at least if you’re a Neil Young fan.

Back in 1968 a band called The Rockets released their one and only album. The band was made up of Danny Whitten (guitar), Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums), guitarist brothers Leon and George Whitsell and Bobby Notkoff (violin). It’s been said that the album only sold about 5,000 copies, but it came to the attention of Neil Young who recruited half the band – Whitten, Talbot and Molina – to be the backing band for his second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. He renamed the band Crazy Horse and the rest is history.

The SotW is Danny Whitten’s “Let Me Go” from that 1968 album by The Rockets.

It starts with about one minute of vocals then goes on for more than 2 and a half minutes of guitar jamming that often sounds more like a chain saw than a musical instrument. (That’s a good thing in this case.) You can clearly see why the “Godfather of Grunge” Young was so intrigued by their sound.

But Young wasn’t the only one listening. Back when Three Dog Night was cool (yes, they were cool for a few albums) before they resorted to recording dreck like “Joy to the World” and “Black and White”, they were covering tunes by some of the best unknown songwriters of the day. Their first hit, “One”, was written by Harry Nilsson. They also performed songs by Laura Nyro, Randy Newman, The Band and Traffic.

As a Beatles fan, I was confused by the Lennon/McCartney credit given to a song on their first album that I’d never heard called “It’s For You.” It was many years later when I learned the Beatles never recorded it. Instead they gave it to another artist Brian Epstein managed, Cilla Black, who took it to #7 in the UK. (It didn’t chart in the US which partially explains my ignorance.)

One of my favorite songs from their sophomore effort, Suitable for Framing, was “Lady Samantha”, written by an as yet undiscovered Elton John.

And this all leads me back to “Let Me Go” as recorded by TDN on their debut.

While The Rockets version is a worthy psych/garage take, TDN makes it a shorter, tighter pop song. It has more spark and puts a spotlight on their harmony vocals. I have to admit, I like it better. How about you?

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – L’Via L’Viaquez, The Mars Volta

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Six or seven years ago I was listening to a lot of music by the modern prog rock band The Mars Volta. The song that really captured my attention was “L’Via L’Viaquez” from their well-regarded sophomore effort, Frances the Mute (2005). And that’s today’s SotW.


Frances the Mute is a concept album, of sorts, based on a diary band member Jeremy Ward found in a car he was repossessing. The book told of the author’s search for his biological parents, something Ward could relate to.

The album’s lyrics – part English, part Spanish — were written by Cerdic Bixler-Zavala and the music by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, who also acted as the album’s producer.

It weaves a story about Vismund Cygnus, son of Frances and the product of a rape. He was adopted and is now determined to find out where he comes from.

“L’Via L’Viaquez” is Frances’ sister (Cygnus’ aunt) who witnessed the rape. Miranda is their mother. There’s much more to the story but you’ll have to reach you own conclusions about it.

If you don’t know Spanish (I don’t) there are many translations on the internet to help you understand the lyrics. Here’s a sample:

Lyric:
L’via, hija de miranda
Tu apellido se cambio’
L’via, sin ojos me quieres dar
Una historia sin mi madre
Solo tengo que decirte
El dolor de noche dice
Solo se quedo’ el vestido
Le lave’ la sangre

Translation:
L’via, Miranda’s daughter
Your last name changed
L’via, without eyes you want to give me
A history without my mother
I just have to tell you
The night pain tells
Alone the dress kept
I washed the blood off

This cut isn’t for everyone; I have to tell you that up front. It’s a very challenging 12+ minute piece of music that has more stylistic layers than a Kim Kardashian wedding cake. There’s a healthy dose of Santana, a strong hint of Led Zeppelin, a bit of Chili Peppers funk (John Frusciante provides the first two guitar solos) and a sprinkle of Can.

Sputnikmusic.com’s Jared W. Dillon wrote a very descriptive synopsis of the song’s structure:

Quiet skipping of a record is heard for 40 seconds until John Frusicante comes in with a huge rock riff. Then we break into some classic sounding heavy metal with Spanish lyrics coming from Cedric. While some of Cedric’s slurs and such are not perfect, he still uses Spanish pretty greatly throughout the song. The pretty normal sounding song sticks the same until about 2:40 when it breaks into a small piano beat that has an extremely Latin feel to it. Cedric starts to sing in English in this section sprouting off phrases like ‘With every clamor that they mine’ and ‘I will never forget who I’m looking for’ After the short interlude we come back to some heavy soloing on John’s behalf that brings the song back to the Latin rock feel. There are no changes in this section from the previous except for the solo that started it off and so at around 4:53 it breaks back into the piano Latin section. Cedric’s lyrics have changed here but they are still in English, and eventually he reprises the ‘I will never forget who I’m looking for’ section.

After a minute of piano play we go to another solo who is by Omar this time I believe, and instead of returning back to the similar rock beat of the past two sections we are given a rousing drum beat and some very deep singing from Cedric in Spanish. Soon after the Spanish is complete Cedric breaks into English saying, ‘When all the worms come/Crawling out of your head, Telling you/ Don’t be afraid’ The drumbeat eventually breaks into a short solo and then a gong sounds off the return to the piano section. The reprise of the piano sections is different than the previous two though as it has the sampling of people talking behind it. Although it has this new effect the same chorus is returned but towards the end the vocals of Cedric start to be drowned with effects.

Following Cedric’s vocal arrangement the famous pianist Larry Harlow plays a piano solo, with the help of Omar providing some back up soloing in response to the keys. This goes on for until 11:03 when the song drowns out and we hear a highly distorted Cedric spouting out the chorus of ‘And with everybody that I find/And with every clamor that they mine, I won’t forget who I’m looking for/ Oh mother help me I’m looking for’. After the ending of the small vocal solo, a quiet squeaking is heard that takes us into the next track.

It’s a bit of a challenge, but stick with this and I think you’ll like (or at least appreciate) it.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Lonely Summer Nights, Stray Cats

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In 1982 the Stray Cats released their US neo-rockabilly debut, Built for Speed. The album may be too commercial for many of you – it had two big hits with “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut” – but I still think it holds up pretty well.

Back in the days of vinyl, some albums were one sided and others were two. You baby boomers know what I mean. Sometimes you would become so enamored with one side of an album that you might never get around to listening to the other side. Built for Speed had that potential with both hits and at least one other very good song (“Rumble in Brighton”) on Side 1.

But buried on Side 2 was the terrific ballad “Lonely Summer Nights”, today’s SotW.

The tenor sax intro sets the stage for a retro sounding, romantic number that you might have listened to with your summer camp boyfriend/girlfriend. (Think “See You In September” or “Sealed With A Kiss.”) It has everything it needs – sad, romantic lyrics, tasty guitar licks, a smooth, jazzy sax solo and a big ending.

So as the summer of 2014 is winding down, this song appeals to me as a fitting conclusion.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Left Hand Free and Something Good, alt-J

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The British indie rock band alt-J has a minor hit on their hands this summer. It’s the single “Left Hand Free” from their latest album, This Is All Yours.

The band’s name is a substitute for their original name which was the Greek letter ∆. They decided to pronounce it alt+J because that’s the keyboard command used to display the symbol on Mac computers.

Now back to the song…

If you read any reviews you’ll quickly learn that “Left Hand Free” isn’t your typical alt-J song. It’s a simpler, more straight ahead psych-pop song than their normal “intellectual” rock fare.

The Guardian’s Sam Richards reported:

Alt-J resolved to write “the least Alt-J song ever”, taking a “joke riff” (guitarist/vocalist) Joe (Newman) had been playing in rehearsals and fleshing it out with the most perfunctory chords and rhythm imaginable. Whereas the band typically spend weeks agonising over every note, Left Hand Free was written “in about 20 minutes”. Needless to say, the US label loved it.

The playful lyrical reference to guns may lead to some to think it’s a pro 2nd Amendment manifesto.

I tackle weeds just so the moon buggers nibble
A right hand grip on his Colt single-action army

Well your left hand’s free
And your right’s in a grip
With another left hand
Watch his right hand slip
Towards his gun, oh no

I think they’re just goofing on us but it’s all good fun.

If you’d like to check out a cut that sounds more like what fans expect to hear from alt-J, check out “Something Good” from their 2012 album, An Awesome Wave.

This is a very good band that I’ll be following for the next few years.

Enjoy… until next week.