Seems this simple Casio keyboard contained a preset rhythm track that, some claimed was derived from Eddie Cochran’s Somethin’ Else, or maybe the Sex Pistol’s Anarchy in the UK.
The writer tracks down the musician (a reggae fan) who created it, in 1981, as a rock track, and puts together a long and twisted history of how this single preset ended up being used in hundreds of reggae tunes.
And, it turns out, it was based on a rock song from the 70s, but not Anarchy in the UK. Which one?
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Today’s SotW is about the most popular songs I’ve ever posted about. The occasion is the 50th anniversary of one of my favorite singles releases evah! On December 8, 1965, The Beatles released the double A-sided single “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work It Out.”
The songs were recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions.
“Day Tripper” was written specifically to be released as a single. Recording for it occurred on October 16th and was completed that day. They rehearsed in the afternoon and then they recorded the rhythm track in three takes. Vocals were overdubbed in the evening.
The opening riff is a variation on Bobby Parker’s “Watch Your Step” (which was also the inspiration for “I Feel Fine”). The energy builds quickly as bass, a rhythm guitar and tambourine enter, capped off by a drum roll and cymbal crash. (The tambourine was used extensively on the Rubber Soul sessions.)
“We Can Work It Out” was recorded four days later on October 20th and nearly completed save for some final vocal overdubs recorded on October 29th. It is special in that it is one of a very few true Lennon/McCartney collaborations written after their very early days together.
Who wrote what is easy to discern as it plays right into the boy’s reputations – Paul’s positive, upbeat verse/chorus set against John’s cynical middle eight.
One of the things that we Beatlemaniacs love about their music is that almost every song is like a box of Cracker Jacks – it has a “surprise” inside. On “We Can Work It Out” it is the shift to waltz time in the section that bridges back to the verse. That was George’s contribution.
When the sessions began it was assumed “Day Tripper” would be the A-side. But everyone was so pleased with the way “We Can Work It Out” sounded that they changed their minds… except John. He wanted to lead with “Day Tripper” and lobbied hard for it. The compromise was to release the double A-side. Genius!!!
You’ve got to admit, they just don’t make them like this anymore.
Enjoy… until next week.
I guess I gotta do this too.
At my gym I can see the TVs as I work out but can’t hear the audio. So this morning, I see Scott Weiland singing with the caption “Shocking Death” underneath. Sorry to be course, but the Packers’ Hail Mary was more shocking.
I ignored STP after their beginnings as a Pearl Jam ripoff. Reading I’ve done today tells me they got past that, but I was already gone. Once in a while, I’d sample something from a Scott Weiland supergroup, but nothing ever piqued my interest. Played “Vasoline” in a cover band a few years ago and it was kind of fun, but I can’t even remember how it goes.
The only Scott Weiland I ever listened to (and still do) is his appearance on How High The Moon, perhaps my favorite live album ever, from one of my favorite and most underrated bands of all-time, Masters of Reality. Sadly, it’s the weakest track on the album, but after not liking it at all to begin with, it grew on me after about a year or so.
The fact that Chris Goss would think enough of Scott Weiland to bring him on stage gives Scott cred in my book, but, in my world, Goss would be the superstar and Weiland would be the obscure guy.
Another slow one.
I hope my obituary is better than this one.
With Peter magazining and Gene and Lawr temporarily AWOL, I figured I’d do my part.
Since we discussed this a little a week or two ago, I did a google on “Jet Boy Jet Girl.” It led me to this Damned version (had never heard it before) and the Wiki listing, which told me:
a) this song was covered by many, including Sonic Youth,
b) its plot line about a young boy who has an affair with an older man only to get dumped for a woman, resonated with many young fellows.
The Damned version sounds kind of shitty at first, but grows on you if you let it play all the way through. Strange to say, but it’s kind of subtle compared to the original Elton Motello version. Plus Brian James looks like an exploded pineapple.
Damn if this isn’t the second slow song I’m posting out of my last few posts, stretching many inactive months.
Graveyard is touring now and you folks need to check them out. I’m planning to see them in Philly on February 13th.
So refreshing to see a band (remember those?) with long stringy hair playing guitars (remember those?). Oh yeah, I forgot about all the pop punk garbage shit.
My two girls were home for Thanksgiving and, in the car – I swear – all they would play is that fucking Adele song OVER AND OVER AGAIN, interspersed with that fucking Justin Bieber song OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
God help us all.
P.S. – I particularly love the chord changes during the part where the ladies are singing background.
I found this Bob Christgau story about seeing Elvis Costello and the Roots a couple of years ago, when their album Wake Up Ghost came out. It’s a fine record, but what made my eyes open was his description of their cover of the Specials Ghost Town.
Here it is.
Sound is crap, but it is sweet. Here’s the original version, which EC produced, and has a lot more air.
These are Australians, but they count. Read it here.
Two of the Australians have a band called the Arcadian, which is a bad name for Googling (there are lots of them), but when I finally found them they’re kind of a stock hardcore band. But they get excited about a record by a band called Frenzel Rhomb, an Australian punky band from the 90s that does-but-doesn’t-overdo the pop punk cuteness on this tune from 1996.
Here’s another one. Good rhythm section.
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
As we get close to the yearend I start to think about some of my favorite albums of the last 12 months. One of the recordings on my list for 2015 is Yours, Dreamily by The Arcs.
The Arcs is a side project by The Black Keys front man, Dan Auerbach. The restless Auerbach – he’s also kept busy by producing albums for Dr. John and Lana Del Rey – pursued this to fill two weeks he suddenly had on his hands after Black Keys bandmate Patrick Carney separated his shoulder, forcing some tour date cancellations. (Auerbach also produced Bombino’s 2013 album Nomad, featured as the SotW August 31, 2013.)
For The Arcs, Pitchfork reported that Auerbach recruited “Truth and Soul Records founder Leon Michels, Black Keys touring bassist Richard Swift, Menahan Street Band member Homer Steinweiss, Amy Winehouse collaborator Nick Movshon, and guitarist Kenny Vaughan.”
This larger group allows Auerbach the space to “do his thing” outside the confines of the two piece, guitarist/drummer limitation he faces with The Black Keys. And it works. The basic DNA of the “Keys” is still there but the songs have more depth with the added instruments.
Today’s SotW is “Outta My Mind.”
Selecting this cut, the album opener (after a short instrumental intro), is a little bit of a cop out since it is the song that sounds most like The Black Keys – albeit with more instrumental depth and a tighter arrangement.
Auerbach exclaims:
I heard I lost my self-control
But everything I did just went and turned to gold
and
I’m old enough to know the game
But pushing buttons now is all that keeps me sane
Clearly he has something to say about his own success in “the business.”
The rest of the album breaks out of this blues/garage rock mold and is worth checking out.
Enjoy… until next week.
Entranced by Cowgirl in the Sand and those various guitar sounds, I have to ask what happened when I heard this music back in 1977?
An urban art history version, huh!, of Cowgirl in the Sand, or maybe some other dueling guitar sound songs out of Neil and CSNY, Duane and Dickie, or something way more off kilter.
I love when Tom says, Richie says, let’s dress up like cops and see what we can do. That’s still scary today.
Hmm, now that I started this I’m thinking that Cowgirl is much more like Marquee Moon or The Dream Dreams the Dreamer, from Television’s second album. Whatever. Listen to it all. It’s not my fault.
Playing a Neil Young song on this site is like putting lipstick on a pig. Young is the ultra dude of American rock, the shot of tequila in your eye, the collateral skag, unless he was getting quiet.
Plus, he’s a star. Like Dylan, Joni, and the rest.
But driving to Boston for the feast today I got put in mind of this song, which I typed almost all my college papers to (because the vinyl was longer than the usual pop record).
Sorry, this is mainstream, but these are killer guitars, some of which sound like the guitar I made out of a shoebox when I was in fifth grade. It made sounds, it didn’t endure. But this does.
