Category Archives: I Like This Song

Classic Nuggets: The Jarmels, “A Little Bit of Soap”

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I am not sure why pop/soul songs of the early 60’s have been jumping into my brain of late.

Earlier this week it was Dick and DeeDee’s The Mountains High. This morning it was Ruby and the Romantics Our Day Will Come, which I promptly went to on YouTube.

I found the original, plus a pretty good cover by Amy Winehouse, but in the process, there popped up a bunch of other great like songs from the era. Tell Him, by the Exciters, One Fine Day, but the Chiffons, Easier Said Than Done, by the Essex, and this tune.

The songs, and those of the Brill Building and Motown were not only so finely written and crafted, but they were a lot like the movies of the Hollywood system in the late 30’s and 40’s, when it just seemed the competition was tight and everything produced–or at least released–was a the top of its respective game.

It did make me realize that times have changed, and there is no real vehicle for simple pop tunes like these any more. It is rock, or alt, or headbanger, or rap, or house music, but the old homogenization of the pop charts where The Impressions and Conway Twitty and the Beachboys and the Four Seasons and Marvin Gaye could all share Billboard space seems to be long gone.

For, though there were specific genres back in the 60’s, the big deal was to have a cross-over hit, like A Little Bit of Soap, which made it on the soul charts, but also made it on the Billboard Top 100 as well.

Maybe with the death of radio it was inevitable for genre selection to be driven by Pandora and her ilk, but irrespective, it doesn’t seem like bands and songwriters and producers labor to produce little two-minute-plus gems as they did when radio was in its heyday. Not that I am longing to return to those old times, but I did start a new category call “Classic Nuggets” just to cover these lovely little works of musical art.

Let’s start here, anyway, with the Jarmels.

Breakfast Blend: Norman Whitfield by Proxy

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In 1970 Motown masterminds Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong (Money, among many others) wrote a song called War for the Temptations that was not released because it was deemed to be too radical.)

Whitfield and Strong then wrote Ball of Confusion, which is psychedelic and strong (like Sly Stone’s stuff), but politically ambiguous. Certainly radical, but hard to pin down. The Temps had a No. 3 hit with that.

At the same time, Motown released a version of War sung by Edwin Starr (who coincidentally wrote Shades of Blue’s great song, Oh How Happy!), that went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

Whitfield then recorded a version of Ball of Confusion with his younger and more political group, the Undisputed Truth. Not that Ball of Confusion is a radical song, but Whitfield and Strong, two of the greatest songwriters of the pop era, were always trying to do something bigger. Good for them. What’s interesting is that all three groups, the Temptations, Edwin Starr, and the Undisputed Truth, were signed with Motown. It’s like Berry Gordy knew he could channel Whitfield and Strong’s creative energy into more sales and profits! Different strokes, and all that.

Night Music: Brother D with Collective Effort, “How We Gonna Make a Black Nation Rise”

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Those opaque Good Rats’ lyrics about going to the city and organizing reminded me of this highly pleasurable bit of agitprop from 1980. And I’m not kidding.

And when Brother D says, “Look at the so called Indian, look what happened to him,” he might well have been talking about the Good Rats’ Injun Joe. Right?

Dibbe dibbe dize.

Afteroon Snack: Cage the Elephant, “Cigarette Daydreams”

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I always think that I don’t post enough stuff with contributions from newer bands, and, I really like this band (well, the band is really the vehicle for singer/songwriter Matt Shultz) a lot, and this song has a nice dreamy almost John Lennon quality to it. As does Shultz’ voice at times.

Really a sweet tune as we all try to relax during the calm, prior to the onslaught of turkey and family and football.

Which isn’t a bad thing, I might add.

Lunch Break: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, “Dr. Luther’s Assistant”

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This is an Attractions B-side, originally released with New Amsterdam from Get Happy! in 1980. I own the 45 pictured in the video. The song was later collected in many different places, including the first odds and sods elpee, Taking Liberties (in the US), and like all the repeatedly rereleased novel versions of the classic albums albums with bonus tracks from the Attractions’ early years.

It’s a weird perverse kind of song, swampy with decadence and transgression, not at all in keeping with Get Happy!’s soul inspiration. I find it creepy and catchy and very bent, and tried to post it at some point last year but couldn’t find a copy on the internet.

But now there is one, and it’s gotten 51 plays. Whoops, 52, I played it again.

Breakfast Blend: Another Distant Planet World

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Okay, I didn’t know about this 1979 U2 song, and its humiliating video. But it’s U2 and they weren’t yet famous, so they were working it. Hard to blame them. Still…

A year before that The Only Ones released this tune, which is one of the great romantic tunes of all time. Disambiguated, of course. But please dare to compare not only the hook, but the ambition and imagination.

Night Music: U2, “Out of Control”

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I liked the first U2 album, in large part because of this song, which feels like it is going to spin out of control, but it never does, all the while rueing the day that control was lost.

This live version doubles down on that conflict, and maybe signifies why this rock band has always come across as more in control than ecstatic. I love the way Mr. Vox yanks his sweater out of the public’s hands, and uses that as a way to wade gently back into the fray topless.

Lunch Break: Rick James, “Mr. Policeman”

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Listening to Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster the other day, I was put in mind of this one from Rick James’ classic “Street Songs” album.

It’s pretty much a direct rip of Stevie’s style, but that just means it sounds great, too. And actually the rest of the record is really good, even the songs that are more like Rick James, like Super Freak.

Inspirational verse: I’d rather be a farmer than a police, police.

Ps. That’s Stevie Wonder himself playing the harmonica on Mr. Policeman.