Song of the Week – Too Much Monkey Business, Chuck Berry, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob Dylan, Pump it Up, Elvis Costello, Wild Wild West, The Escape Club

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Over the years I’ve written several posts in what I refer to as the “Evolution Series.” It consists of two sub categories. The first highlights the development of a single song over time by different artists [say, Train Kept A-Rollin’ by Tiny Bradshaw (1951), Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio (1956), The Yardbirds (1965), Aerosmith (1974)]. The other traces a certain song style – i.e. a rhythm or lick – as artists borrow from the past to make it their own (the Bo Diddley beat to Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” to “Magic Bus” by The Who to Springsteen’s “She’s the One” to U2’s “Desire”).

Today’s SotW is another collection in the second category. It starts with Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business” (1956).

Berry’s 5th single introduced an unusual rhythm for the vocal delivery of the lyrics. He spits out words to simply describe the frustrations of everyday life, like losing your money in a pay phone (that is, if you know what a pay phone is).

Pay phone, somethin’ wrong, dime gone, will mail
I ought to sue the operator for tellin’ me a tale

Bob Dylan picked up on Berry’s lyrical delivery and raised the bar on “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965).

In 2004, Dylan told the L.A. Times’ Robert Hilburn of “SHB,” “It’s from Chuck Berry, a bit of “Too Much Monkey Business” and some of the scat songs of the 40s.”

It became even more iconic with the D. A. Pennebaker directed scene, from the documentary Don’t Look Back. of Dylan flipping through a series of cue cards with key words from the song, including one of Dylan’s most quoted lines:

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”

Next in line is “Pump It Up” (1978) from Elvis Costello’s second album, This Year’s Model.

“Pump It Up” has some of Costello’s best lyrics from his early days as the angry young man.

She’s been a bad girl
She’s like a chemical
Though you try to stop it
She’s like a narcotic
You wanna torture her
You wanna talk to her
All the things you bought for her
Putting up your temperature

Lastly is “Wild, Wild West” (1988) from the one hit wonder, The Escape Club.

In 1988 I was the DJ at a Christmas party at the famous Cask & Flagon near Fenway Park in Boston. The friends that hosted the party were mostly into the “alternative” rock of the day (Style Council, English Beat, etc.) which was right up my alley. I still remember seguing from “Pump It Up” into “Wild, Wild West” and how nicely it worked – the true test being that no one left the packed dancefloor.

I can think of a couple of other songs that might be close relatives to this series – maybe U2’s “Get On Your Boots” or R.E.M.’s “The End of the World as You Know It.” Can you come up with any others?

Enjoy… until next week.

More Spotify Fun with The Stone Roses, Ace Frehley, The Mekons, and Mojo Nixon

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Not much secret how much fun I am having listening to my Spotify Weekly Playlist. Although, I would like to know the guys that program how our likes and preferences are bounced, and then built the algorithm that crunches my liking Yo La Tengo and Pink Floyd and the Kinks and Bill Frisell, and figures out that I might like the New York Dolls, or Love, or a bunch of other bands I never hinted at?

More interesting, is that over the past two cycles of songs–Spotify drops 30 a week onto a Monday playlist based on the how the company projects what I would like–I have not only loved just about every song, especially in context, but tunes have appeared that I did not know that I am sure would appeal to my Remnants mates.

I was always a Raspberries fan, and I know at least Steve and I were both fans, but how Spotify knew and dropped I Wanna Be With You on the playlist last week, though, is beyond me. But, the next track on that playlist was the ultra fantastic Love Spreads, by the Stone Roses. How that made the equation is even more obscure, though the Roses were a favorite (their debut album might have made my essential 50) but I had not thought of the band in years.

There were more, but this week’s craziness included a song by Ace Frehley, the KISS guitarist whom I would normally dismiss, but this tune, New York Groove, is a pretty good guitar driven pop tune. And, again, I am guessing Steve, who is more traditional in his music listening habits, would at least chuckle at the irony behind this.

This week also gave me a Tom Verlaine tune, Kingdom Come, I did not know and I suspect both Peter and Gene would (if they don’t already) love, and then for fun, the killer (and also new to me) Where Were You by the Mekons, a fave band of Peter’s, came blasting out.

This was with Do You Feel Like I Do, Just Dropped in to See What Condition (my Condition Was in), Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, The Shape I’m In, peppered into the mix, along with this somewhat obscure gem from the past.

 

 

 

Moldy Peaches, Jorge Regula

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While you were hating Nirvana and Pavement and actual crap indie bands in the 90s, the Moldy Peaches advanced.

A suburban rock guy with a love of noise meets a socially challenged preschool teacher who is a great song writer, what can happen?

Great songs can happen. (Though the record that made their names, as it were, wasn’t out until 2001.)

This video was made by fans, which makes it especially valuable. But I like the song.

Song of the Week – Hesitation Blues, Janis Joplin & Jorma Kaukonen

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This week a new Janis Joplin documentary, Little Girl Blue, was broadcast on PBS’ American Masters. I had a chance to watch it and think it was worthwhile. It wasn’t the best documentary I’ve ever seen, but it earned some kudos for access to family letters and discovery of some previously unseen archival footage that the filmmaker provided to us.

There were also a few interesting bits of information that were new to me like her romance with David Niehaus, an American she met while she was on a “detox” holiday in Rio in early 1970.

Another bit of information that grabbed my attention was the existence of the “typewriter tape” – a recording she made with the pre Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen in 1964. The tape got its name because you can hear Kaukonen’s wife typing a letter in the background as Janis and Jorma tape a rehearsal in his Santa Clara home when he was still a senior at Santa Clara University (prior to moving into San Francisco’s Haight district).

Today’s SotW is “Hesitation Blues” from the Typewriter Tape.

The fidelity of this recording isn’t great (it wasn’t a true demo) but the performance and historical value makes it worth a listen. Joplin’s command of the blues and Kaukonen’s finger picking guitar style are both very impressive for their age and experience. “Hesitation Blues” would remain a standard in Kaukonen’s repertoire. It was the first cut on Hot Tuna’s first album in 1970.

If you would like to learn more about the Typewriter Tape, check out KQED’s Gabe Meline’s recent interview with Kaukonen.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/05/03/jorma-kaukonen-on-janis-joplin-and-recording-the-1964-typewriter-tape/

Enjoy… until next week.

Long Ryders, Looking for Lewis and Clark

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Darren Viola posted this song on Facebook today. I’d totally forgotten about these guys, though I’m pretty sure I have the vinyl of this one in the boxes in the basement. I happen to have the poster for the movie The Long Riders in my office. No direct relation, but Ry Cooder did the music for that classic film, and these guys took their name from the movie.

Song of the Week – Hypnotized, Fleetwood Mac

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Fleetwood Mac has gone through numerous line-ups in its 50 year career though it’s been pretty stable since Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined in 1975. But for the first 8 years the band went through several incarnations. The first was the blues based band led by guitar hero Peter Greene. When Greene left, Danny Kirwan took over as the main songwriter. Version 3.0 came about when Bob Welch stepped forward with his songwriting and vocals.

Today’s SotW is Welch’s “Hypnotized” from the album Mystery to Me (1973).

In a 2012 article for Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote “The best song Welch ever gave the Mac, “Hypnotized” was urgent noir propelled by a shuffling mix of guitars and (Christine) McVie’s electric-piano understatement, with Welch singing in a sleepwalking cadence like a Raymond Chandler detective musing to himself in a late-night rain.”

“Hypnotized” was released as a single, but it was buried as the B-side to Mac’s cover of The Yardbirds “For Your Love.” (If you’re a vinyl album geek like me, you’ll try to find a copy of the album that erroneously lists an unreleased song called “Good Things (Come to Those Who Wait)” that never made it onto the album because it was dropped at the last minute and replaced by “For Your Love.”) Fortunately for Welch and the Mac, “Hypnotized” became an FM rock radio staple in the 70s.

It starts with a very catchy Mick Fleetwood drum pattern – a snare crack and three beats on the bass drum under an insistent patter on the high hat. Once the beat is firmly established it’s followed by some slick guitar interplay. Christine Mac and Bob Weston provide soothing backing vocals.

The lyrics have an early 70s, Carlos Castaneda (The Teachings of Don Juan) inspired, mystical vibe.

They say there’s a place down in Mexico
Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
And he don’t need an airplane or some kind of engine
And he never will

According to Mojo (Jan 2013), “Welch apparently wrote this eerie electric blues after dreaming that a UFO piloted by a Navajo shaman had landed on the tennis court in Fleetwood Mac’s communal country pile.”

Sadly, Welch died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in his suburban Nashville home in 2012. But he left us a strong legacy of music in his work with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, especially the album French Kiss (1977).

Enjoy… until next week.

Worst Video Ever

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A new Planet Fitness opened close to my house, so I quit the Y and joined. $10 a month can’t be beat. But the music they play is pure horrible.

I’ve seen this video several times now and I can ignore it no longer. Here’s the plot:

1) There’s this lonely Bro Country guy in the desert.

2) One night he sees something like a falling star very nearby.

3) He checks it out and meets an alien/feral/Native American woman. Nubile and beautiful, of course.

4) They tool around and drink Bud Light (perhaps most offensive).

5) It’s implied that they fuck later. (I’m hoping she has a big lobster claw where her vagina should be.)

The band sickens me too, looking exactly like every band should look these days. The music certainly doesn’t make up for anything.

I would happily offer everyone in this video to ISIS, as my gift.