New Years Eve. 1977. London.
Night Music: The Ramones, “Do You Wanna Dance”
New Years Eve. 1977. London.
Breakfast Blend: Bad Way To Go
Steve wrote a while back about how some of the best rock today is country. With that in mind I listened to the new Lydia Loveless EP and was not impressed. A pop move, it has some rock and country sounds, but it sounds crafted for the radio.
But tonight, when I called up Google Music All Access, her last album, Indestructible Machine, was in the queue. For some reason I played it and there’s a world of difference. The first song on side one is called Bad Way to Go and it is one of a bunch of drinking and drinking some more songs, and not always regretting how things worked out. On YouTube I couldn’t find performances of any of the songs with the album arrangements, but I did find this live performance at SXSW from a few years back of the second song, Can’t Change Me.
Not as hot as the album version, and not a perfect song, but very driven and likeable. And the guitarist is sharp.
There are a lot of references on Indestructible Machine (Can’t Change Me uses the ringing guitar sound from London Calling, though I think that was actually originally on a Blue Oyster Cult song, but she doesn’t appear to be aping anyone. And with the hard guitar and drum attack she reminded me some of Chrissie Hynde (with less melody). On other songs though, when the country sound played fast peeks through she reminded me most of Exene Cervenka and the music she made with the Original Sinners.
Country coming from a different place.
Night Music: The Bruthers, “Bad Way to Go”
The Bruthers signed a management deal with Sid Bernstein and managed to get one single released: Bad Way to Go b/w Bad Way to Go.
The only reason I know this is because I was researching another song, not the same song, called Bad Way to Go for a Breakfast Blend tomorrow. But this is fun because it is a fairly deranged song with lots of moving parts.
It also turns out that the Bruthers are real brothers. The band broke up after Bad Way to Go didn’t hit and RCA released them, but they didn’t get out of the business. Keyboardist Joe Delia ended up arranging and playing on David Johansen’s 1978 hits, Hot Hot Hot, while guitarist Frank Delia went on to direct videos for the Ramones, Wall of Voodoo and Jefferson Starship.
The video is suitably crazy, but is clearly from a time much more recent than 1966.
Night Music: tUnE yArDs: “Doorstep”
Lindsay dropped this cut on my Xmas disc a couple of years back, and there is something so basic and rhythmic about it, although to be truthful, I cannot put my finger on specifically what kills me about the song.
I do think there is something hypnotic about repetition in music when pulled off right. Prince’s Purple Rain being a great example of a song that seems like the only real words are in the chorus, for example, although there is some actual substance beneath that repetitive portion of the tune that draws us in.
Much the same is this one by the tUnE yArDs (hey, that is their spelling, not mine, though I confess as a fan of e.e. cummings, I love lower case letters dominating) during which we only seem to hear the scary chorus over and over (listen carefully, cos it ain’t pretty) although the sweetness and innocence of the voice of band brain child and leader Merrill Garbus somehow transcends the ugly scene.
The Perfect Pop Song
Made the long drive yesterday to see my kids the rest of this week and grabbed Cheap Trick’s In Color as part of my CD driving arsenal. Hadn’t listened to it in many years – I usually pick Heaven Tonight when I pick Trick (ho ho, I should be a morning DJ).
Realized yesterday that In Color is a really good album, better than Heaven Tonight.
This song struck me as as close to perfect as a pop song can be. There’s nothing new here and I have no idea what Robin Zander is singing about, but it sure does give you that giddy feeling in the tummy that a great pop song should.
Considered doing a “Most Perfect Pop Songs” Steveslist five, but how could anyone begin to get that right without months of research?
Enjoy.
Lunch Break: Duane Allman, “Blue Sky” solo
This is a clip from a live show of the Allman Brothers band at Stony Brook University in September 1971. My first rock show was the year before, also at Stony Brook, with my buddies Big Jim and Bobby. The Allman Brothers opened for Mountain. We were fans of Mountain and had never heard of the Allman Brothers before my mom dropped us off. Wow.
Night Music: Joe South, “Games People Play”
This was a Pop Song back then. Not a great song, but a big hit at the time.
It was a song I loved, because I was a teen and hated the Games People Played.
But cheesy. This is a song not about resentment, but about honesty. FWIW.
Song of the Week – Weather With You, Crowded House
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Some time ago one of you responded to one of my weekly missives to say that week’s song was also on the All Music Guide critic Stephen Thomas “Tom” Erlewine’s Desert Island Singles list. On his allmusic.com bio page he provides a couple of other “lists” — The Usual Suspects — Boring Desert Island Discs I Still Love and The Real Desert Island List — Albums I Listen to More Than the Previous List.
I really relate to his taste in music. I especially respect his singles list. He fearlessly includes such “unhip” selections as Al Stewart’s “Time Passages” and Spandau Ballet’s “True” (a song I often closed with when I was a club DJ in the mid 80s).
At the end of his “lists” he creates up a bunch of “categories” and selects his own “winner.” Here are a few examples with my answers added in parentheses:
Favorite Music Books:
Shakey; The Last Party; No Sleep Til Hammersmith (Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music)
Favorite Songwriters:
Chuck Berry; Nick Lowe; Ray Davies; Lowell George (Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Ray Davies)
Singers Who Make Your Skin Crawl:
Patti Smith; Linda Perry (Stevie Nicks)
Artist You Will Always Defend:
The Rolling Stones (The Beatles)
Albums That You Will Always Defend:
Urge Overkill — Exit the Dragon; Menswear — Nuisance (Crowded House – Woodface)
Here’s the link if you want to check out the whole thing: Tom Erlewine’s AMG Bio
Australia’s Crowded House began as a trio (Neil Finn, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour) and recorded their first two albums in that configuration. For Woodface, Neil recruited his brother Tim Finn (formerly of Split Enz who had a hit with “I Got You” in 1980) who brought along a batch of songs and another terrific harmony voice. Add production help from Mitchell Froom and mixing expertise from Bob Clearmountain and there’s a decent chance the album will be pretty good.
The lyrics tell an interesting story but are vague enough to leave room for any number of interpretations.
Walking ’round the room singing Stormy Weather
At Fifty Seven Mount Pleasant Street
Well it’s the same room, but everything’s different
You can fight the sleep, but not the dream
Things ain’t cookin’ in my kitchen
Strange affliction wash over me
Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire
Couldn’t conquer the blue sky
Well, there’s a small boat made of china
It’s going nowhere on the mantelpiece
Well, do I lie like a lounge room lizard
Or do I sing like a bird released?
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you
I’ve always thought of this as another in the long line of break up songs. “The same room, but everything’s different” is the feeling we all experience when someone we love is no longer present. And who among us hasn’t lost sleep after losing a lover? Then again I could be totally off base!
I’m also intrigued by the song’s form/structure. It opens with vaguely Eastern sounding chords and rolls into the first verse with Beatle like harmonies. Next it moves into a second verse with a totally different melody. (Some might call it a bridge, but I wouldn’t.) The third verse is just like the first but it’s a little more complicated. In the final “movement” the song title is repeated numerous times. It could be tedious, but not in the hands of this band. They arrange it in such a way that you hardly notice.
I again refer you to Spotify to check out the rest of the album, especially “Chocolate Cake,” “It’s Only Natural,” “Fall At Your Feet,” and “Four Seasons In One Day.”
Enjoy… until next week.
Night Music: Donovan, “Young Girl Blues”
This gets complicated fast. I didn’t know this song except I’ve been reading Rachel Kushner’s “Novel of the Year,” The Flamethrowers.
And in it there is reference to this Donovan song, which describes the interstices between the fashion and the art world just the way the novel does.
But this isn’t a great song, and when Dylan mocks him in that movie (D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back) it’s because Donovan at that point was a bigger star with fewer chops, and I suppose both knew it. But only Dylan was the asshole. Dylan was also the Flamethrower.
If you read the Flamethrowers, which has lots of historical tourism in 1975-1977 artworld Soho and Little Italy NYC, you are likely to be massaged and blown away by Rachel Kushner’s writing. She brings both sensual immediacy and historical fluidity.
I’m less sure of her emotional center, but that’s not a talk for now or this song by Donovan, which is not surprisingly deep. But sounds nice.
Lunch Break: Richard Thompson, “Feel So Good (I’m Gonna Break Somebody’s Heart)”
When we were discussing Wreckless Eric and the Stiffs Live a few weeks back, I thought of Richard Thompson with a smile.
He is indeed my very favorite guitar player (though watch it Richard, Mick Ronson and Bill Frisell are gaining on you), singer/songwriter, and live performer.
Since Peter brought Richard and Linda and Shoot Out the Lights to the forefront, such is my opening.
Just about everything Peter culled about Richard’s career is correct, although Thompson did take a break from performing in the 80’s at some point.
I am not sure exactly when, though I suspect it was the early 80’s, or perhaps even the late 70’s.
I know this because I caught the Austin City Limits with him many years back, and during an interview the guitarist noted that he had turned to selling antiques for a while, a gig for which he admitted he was not very good at.
But, he returned to music, and the interviewer asked what brought him back, and Thompson noted, “The Sex Pistols.”
When asked to elaborate, Thompson said, “I realized I didn’t have to turn into Elton John.”
Sometime after Amnesia ( which features the terrific Valerie) was released, then the closest thing to a breakout for Thompson with Rumor and Sigh.
It was then that I truly fell in love with Richard, for though I saw Fairport Convention in the early 70’s, the first time I saw him solo was opening for Crowded House around 1988, touring solo acoustic behind that album.
Rumor and Sigh featured the great Vincent Black Lightning 1952, Read About Love, and the song below, Feel So Good. The You Tube version is culled from Letterman, and his band is the Letterman band, meaning Paul Schafer is on keys.
Just a great great song.