Category Archives: I Like This Song

Hot Chocolate/Stories, “Brother Louie”

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It was the cover of this tune, by Stories, that was a big hit in the US in 1973. The arrangements of the songs are different. Hot Chocolate has more of a soul feel, with flangy guitars and strings, while Stories rocks the guitars more, but the biggest difference in this story of interracial love is the point of view.

Hot Chocolate wrote the song, so you have to give their version primacy. In Hot Chocolate’s version, contrasting vignettes of Louie and his gal at their respective parents’ homes, and their fathers’ spoken word intolerance demonstrate that there is no difference between black and white in the worst possible way.

Stories version changes the story, as it were. Louie brings his black gal home and there is some kind of unspecified scene. That’s it. Gone is the equal opportunity prejudice, as well as the strings and the spoken word. In Stories’ version the white parents are the bad guys, in a vague way, and they shouldn’t be. You know what I mean?

I remember at the time hearing that this song was an answer song to Richard Berry’s Louie Louie, which is apparently not true.

Louie C.K. adopted Brother Louie as the theme song for his show, Louie, in which he plays a dad in an interracial marriage that is now defunct. Interestingly, the show uses the Hot Chocolate arrangement of the song, with vocals by Stories’ Ian Lloyd.

Finally Got Me A Sonics Album

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Their debut – Here Are The Sonics – came from Amazon yesterday. It’s pretty great.

I was inspired by news of their brand new album that’s getting some notice. Apparently, they’re still kicking ass in their 70s.

The cover (many covers on this album) of Roll Over Beethoven kind of sums up my favorite rock ‘n’ roll – a Chuck Berry base with punk chutzpah.

But this one’s my very favorite, a cover of a band called The Wailers, who have nothing to do with reggae. I found a video with pretty pictures for your viewing pleasure as well, definitely a respite from having to look at those dirty stinky Slayer guys.

If I had to sum up The Sonics in a phrase it would be “the white Little Richard.” That’s a compliment.

Courtney Barnett, “Avant Gardener”

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We all agree that great rock songs don’t need great lyrics. But sometimes I’m sucked in by a singer/songwriter who is clever and fresh lyrically, even if the music isn’t particularly distinctive or original or rocking.

Courtney Barnett is a bit of a critic’s darling right now, which is how I learned about her. Her lyrics are funny and probing, revealing and cleverly opaque, with enough pop sense to suck one in if one listens enough. Which I did, and now I’m a fan, even though as I listen I can’t help but hear the drone of Lou Reed in her delivery. And hearing that drone, I can’t help but think about the way Reed dressed his songs up in surprising and hard hitting ways, which Barnett doesn’t.

That puts her more in the neighborhood of all those 90s alt-rock bands, who didn’t really alt that much while not really rocking that hard. Bands/artists who lived on the sharpness of their lyrics.

Afternoon Snack: Simple Minds, “Waterfront”

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Simple Minds are a band I discovered via word of mouth. I had never heard anything of theirs for some reason (this was some time before Don’t You Forget About Me was a hit) so I bought the album, Sparkles in the Rain which is competent enough, however, this song, Waterfront, just cranks.

I remember when I was first learning to play guitar, and my friend Alan Freedman (a tremendous musician and bass player) asked me to pick out some stuff I wanted to play in a small band setting, and Waterfront was one of my requests.

Alan listened to it once, said it was a great song, and then said I would never be able to play it.

I now understand he did not mean ever, but surely vamping on a D sus4 as an A barre chord for five minutes was much too abstract for my simple band of beginners to even try to approach.

In fact, now I actually can play the guitar and bass parts (well, that is not saying much, though the time of the bass player is dead on throughout and since he plays the same riff for five minutes, that is no simple task from Simple Minds) and could probably hold my own, but I completely understand how Alan meant that it takes some musical sophistication to play something so simple effectively.

This is the Minds a year ago, and they blast it out pretty well 25-years after the release of the album.

Speaking of which, lead singer, Jim Kerr, was married to Pretenders head Chrissie Hynde, and her song, 2000 Miles features the line “sparkles, in the rain” so I always wondered who lifted the line from whom, or it was just fortuitous?

Irrespective, we need to give Ms. Hynde some virtual ink here, but for now, here are the Minds. Tell me if this song does not rock the shit out of your speakers?