Chris & Max Pick …songs from 1996

When fellow blogger Max who pens the great PowerPop blog wrapped up his Max Picks song series earlier this month with selections for 1995, my first thought was, ‘I get it.’ After all, considering his taste, which is pretty similar to mine, finding great music for each year becomes more tricky the closer you get to the present time. But then I thought given how much decent new music I’ve been able to uncover each week over the past three years or so, why not continue where Max left it off.

Not only was Max generous enough to allow me to run with his idea, but he even agreed to participate in the continuation of the series by contributing one song pick for each year. Starting today, I’m hoping to publish the 29 installments every other week to get us all the way to 2024. This would mean the series would conclude sometime in the spring of next year. I realize that’s a long time to look ahead, so we’ll see how it goes and take it one post at a time. Here are song picks for 1996.

Jackson Browne/The Barricades of Heaven

I’m thrilled to pick up the series with Jackson Browne, one of my all-time favorite artists. The Barricades of Heaven, credited to Browne, Luis Conte, Mark Goldenberg, Mauricio Lewak, Kevin McCormick, Scott Thurston and Jeff Young, is a track from Browne’s 11th studio album Looking East, which came out in January 1996. Yep, that’s many writers but what a gem!

The Wallflowers/One Headlight

In May 1996, The Wallflowers released their sophomore album Bringing Down the Horse, which became their highest-selling to date. Undoubtedly, this performance was fueled by One Headlight. The album’s second single, which became the band’s biggest hit, was Max’s excellent pick. Like all other songs on the album, it was written by frontman Jakob Dylan.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers/Walls (Circus)

Next up is Tom Petty, another longtime favorite artist of mine. Wall (Circus), written by Petty, is the opener of Songs and Music from “She’s the One”. The ninth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers appeared in August 1996 and served as the soundtrack for the American romantic comedy picture She’s the One, which came out the same year. Man, I dearly miss Tom!

Sheryl Crow/If It Makes You Happy

The title perfectly captures my sentiment about this next song. If It Makes You Happy, co-written by Sheryl Crow and her longtime collaborator Jeff Trott, is among my all-time favorites by Crow. Evidently, many other listeners agreed. The song, which appeared on Crow’s self-titled sophomore album from September 1996, became one of her most popular singles.

Shawn Colvin/Sunny Came Home

Admittedly, Sunny Came Home is the only song by Shawn Colvin I can name, but at least it’s a real goodie! Co-written by her and producer John Leventhal, not only did it become Colvin’s biggest hit, but it also won her two 1997 Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song was included on her fourth studio album A Few Small Repairs released in October 1996.

Johnny Cash/I’ve Been Everywhere

Wrapping up this first installment of the continuation of the song series is the Man in Black. I think I first heard I’ve Been Everywhere in a TV commercial. Written by Australian country singer Geoff Mack in 1959, the song was first popularized down under in early 1962 by rock & roll, pop and country artist Leslie William Morrison, professionally known as Lucky Starr. Later that same year, Hank Snow took it to no. 1 in the U.S. on the country charts. It has since been recorded by many other artists. Johnny Cash featured it on his November 1996 album American II: Unchained. I’m still puzzled how you can mention so many different places in rapid machine gun fire fashion without stumbling! 🙂

I’d like to leave you with a Spotify playlist of the above goodies – one down, 28 installments to go!

Sources: Wikipedia; Acclaimed Music; YouTube; Spotify

A Novel Name For a Boy

Once again, Dave from A Sound Day invited me and a few other fellow bloggers to share our thoughts for his monthly Turntable Talk feature, which has now run for more than two years. Following is my contribution, which first appeared on his blog on April 14. It has been slightly reformatted to fit the style of this blog.

Turntable Talk 25 it is, and the series is still going as strong as ever. This time, Dave’s proposition was to write about a novelty record we like. As usual, he was kind enough to give us some flexibility.

While I had heard the name “novelty song” before, I couldn’t come up with a great definition. Here’s how Wikipedia explains the concept: A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and with musical parody, especially when the novel gimmick is another popular song.

Based on the above, the first artist who came to mind is “Weird Al” Yankovic, but I figured he would be too obvious a choice or somebody might pick him. Then I strangely remembered a song titled Gimme Dat Ding, which my six-year-older sister had on vinyl. When looking it up in Wikipedia, I found it appeared in 1970 and was by The Pipkins, a British novelty duo.

Since it’s kind of an annoying song, I didn’t want this to be my pick, so I ended up doing some research. I was really surprised to see how many novelty songs there are, though the boundaries between novelty, comedy and parody songs are fluid. Finally, I decided to pick a song, which if I recall it correctly was the first I heard by Johnny Cash: A Boy Named Sue.

For some reason, I liked that song right away, even though I didn’t really get what it was about, since I didn’t understand English at the time. A Boy Named Sue was penned by American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer-songwriter, musician and playwright Shel Silverstein. The Man in Black first recorded the song during his February 24, 1969 gig at California’s San Quentin State Prison for his At San Quentin live album released in June of the same year.

Curiously, that live version of the song became Cash’s biggest hit on the U.S. pop chart Billboard Hot 100 where it peaked at no. 2, marking his only top 10 single there. It also topped the country charts in the U.S. and Canada and climbed to no. 4 in the UK – his best showing there in a tie with his 1971 single A Thing Called Love.

According to SecondHandSongs, there are more than 60 versions of A Boy Named Sue. Here’s the original by Shel Silverstein. Not bad, but it’s hard to beat Cash’s coolness factor!

Here’s another live version by The Highwaymen, a country supergroup featuring Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson – quite a quartet! Their live rendition was included on an album titled Live: American Outlaws, which came out in May 2016.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

This is about a boy who grows up angry at his father not only for leaving his family, but for naming him Sue. When the boy grows up, he sees his father in a bar and gets in a fight with him. After his father explains that he named him Sue to make sure he was tough, the son understands.

Shel Silverstein’s nephew Mitch Myers told us [meaning Songfacts – CMM] the story: “In those days in Nashville, and for all the people that would visit, the most fun that anyone really could have would be to go over to someone’s house and play music. And they would do what one would call a ‘Guitar Pull,’ where you grabbed a guitar and you played one of your new songs, then someone else next to you would grab it and do the same, and there were people like Johnny Cash or Joni Mitchell, people of that caliber in the room.”

“Shel sang his song ‘Boy Named Sue,’ and Johnny’s wife June Carter thought it was a great song for Johnny Cash to perform. And not too long after that they were headed off to San Quentin to record a record – Live At San Quentin – and June said, ‘Why don’t you bring that Shel song with you.’ And so they brought the lyrics. And when he was on stage he performed that song for the first time ever, he performed it live in front of that captive audience, in every sense of the word.”

“He had to read the lyrics off of the sheet of paper that was at the foot of the stage, and it was a hit. And it wasn’t touched up, it wasn’t produced or simulated. They just did it, and it stuck. And it rang. I would say that it would qualify in the realm of novelty, a novelty song. Shel had a knack for the humorous and the kind of subversive lyrics. But they also were so catchy that people could not resist them.”

Shel Silverstein went on to write another song titled “The Father of the Boy Named Sue.” It’s the same story, but from the father’s point of view.

Johnny Cash performed this song in the East Room of the White House on April 17, 1970 when he and his wife were invited by President Richard Nixon. Nixon’s staff had requested the song along with Okie From Muskogee and a song by Guy Drake called “Welfare Cadillac,” but Cash refused to perform those songs, saying he didn’t have arrangements ready.

The Goo Goo Dolls named their 1995 breakthrough album A Boy Named Goo in a play on this song’s title.

In the 2019 animated film Missing Link, the main character, a male Sasquatch voiced by Zach Galifianakis, is named Susan.

Sources: Wikipedia; SecondHandSongs; Songfacts; YouTube

Song Musings

It’s Wednesday and I hope this week has been kind to you. Welcome to another installment of my recurring feature that explores specific songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. The other day, fellow blogger Dave from A Sound Day wrote about Supertramp’s 1977 album Even in the Quietest Moments…. This reminded me I had earmarked the British group months ago for Song Musings. My pick: Child of Vision.

Child of Vision primarily was written by Roger Hodgson, though it is also credited to the group’s co-founder Rick Davies. The song is the stunning closer of Breakfast in America, Supertramp’s sixth album from March 1979, which remains my favorite by the band. Among the great tracks on this album Child of Vision has always been a standout to me because of its neat piano action.

Child of Vision was an album track only, likely at least in part due to its length of close to seven and a half minutes. Of the four songs that also appeared as singles, The Logical Song turned out to be the biggest hit and Supertramp’s highest charting song in the U.S. at no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Breakfast in America became their most commercially successful album with approximately 20 million units sold worldwide, of which the U.S. accounts for more than 4 million.

As noted above, one of the song’s great features are the piano parts. The main instrument is a Wurlitzer electric piano played by Hodgson. The grand piano including the extended solo was performed by Davies. Supertramp’s saxophonist John Helliwell played the sax solo at the end of the song. The other members on the recording were Dougie Thomson and Bob Siebenberg, the band’s bassist and drummer, respectively. Here’s a neat live version recorded shortly after the album had come out.

Child of Vision’s lyrics question a materialistic lifestyle. Wikipedia notes Hodgson stated the song was written to be an equivalent to “Gone Hollywood”, looking at how Americans live, though he confessed that he had only a limited familiarity with US culture at the time of writing. He also said there is a slight possibility that he subconsciously had Rick Davies in mind while writing the lyrics. Hodgson and Davies had very different views of the world.

“Child of Vision was an inspirational song,” Hodgson explained on Facebook in October 2015, according to AZLyrics. “It was more of a commentary, really, of what I was seeing around me. I am singing to the idealist in Child of Vision – basically buying into the American lifestyle – ‘they gave me Coca-Cola and they had me watch television’. It was maybe talking to part of myself to hang on to the vision beyond that.”

Here’s another live version by Hodgson, captured in Montreal, Canada, in October 2013. He was backed by Kevin Adamson (keyboards, backing vocals), Aaron Macdonald (saxophones, harmonica, keyboards, backing vocals), David J Carpenter (bass, backing vocals) and Bryan Head (drums).

I’ll leave you with the lyrics:

Well, who do you think you’re fooling?
You say you’re having fun
But you’re busy going nowhere
Just lying in the sun
You tried to be a hero
And commit the perfect crime
But the dollar got you dancing
And you’re running out of time
And you’re messing up the water
And you’re rolling in the wine
And you’re poisoning your body
And you’re poisoning your mind
And you gave me Coca-Cola
‘Cause you said it tasted good
Then you watch the television
‘Cause it tells you that you should

Ooh, how can you live in this way?
(Why do you think it’s so strange?)
You must have something to say
(Tell me why should I change?)
There must be more to this life
It’s time we did something right
I said “Child of vision, won’t you listen?
Find yourself a new ambition”

I’ve heard it all before
You’re saying nothing new
I thought I saw a rainbow
But I guess it wasn’t true
And you cannot make me listen
And I cannot make you hear
So you find your way to heaven
And I’ll meet you when you’re there

How can you live in this way?
(Why do you think it’s so strange?)
You must have something to say
(Tell me why should I change?)
We have no reason to fight
‘Cause we both know that we’re right
I said “Child of vision, won’t you listen?
Find yourself a new ambition”

Sources: Wikipedia; AZLyrics; YouTube

On This Day In Rock & Roll History: April 23

Time for another installment for my long running irregular music history feature. I still find it interesting to tackle this by taking a look at select events that happened on a specific date throughout the decades.

1964: Additional footage was captured for the Can’t Buy Me Love sequence for The Beatles’ first movie A Hard Day’s Night. The Beatles Bible notes, Filming took place on Thornbury Playing Fields in Isleworth, south London. A fake helipad was constructed, and The Beatles were filmed running around and acting up. The film was released in July of the same year.

1971: The Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers, which most fans regard as one of their best albums. It marked their first studio album without Brian Jones who had passed away in July 1969 and the second full-length recording after their live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, which featured guitarist Mick Taylor. Sticky Fingers, which was the band’s first to top the UK and the U.S. albums charts, became one of their best-selling, including more than 3 million sold units in the U.S. alone. Here’s the first single Brown Sugar, written primarily by Mick Jagger and, as usual, credited to him and Keith Richards.

1976: New York punk rock band Ramones released their eponymous debut album. While it became their best-selling album and eventually was certified Gold in the U.S. in April 2014 (500,000 certified sold units), it only reached no. 111 on the Billboard 200. Its two singles Blitzkrieg Bop and I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend missed the charts altogether. None of that changed the fact that the album is now regarded as their most accoladed and iconic release. Here’s the second single, which was written by drummer Thomas Erdelyi, known as Tommy Ramone.

1977: Soul and disco vocalist Thelma Houston hit no. in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 with her rendition of Don’t Leave Me This Way. Co-written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert, the song was first released in 1975 by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass. Houston’s cover also enjoyed significant chart success in other countries and became her biggest hit.

1983: British band Dexys Midnight Runners reached no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 with the upbeat song Come On Eileen. The single, off their sophomore album Too-Rye-Ay, became their sole chart-topper in the U.S. Their biggest hit also topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland and Switzerland. The group who continues to exist and fronted by Kevin Rowland is now known as Dexys. Come On Eileen was co-written by Rowland (bass, guitar, piano, vocals); Jim Paterson (trombone) who continues to be part of the current line-up; and Billy Adams (banjo, guitar, backing vocals).

Sources: Wikipedia; AllMusic; Songfacts History Calendar; Recording Industry Association of America website; YouTube

Ian Hunter Continues Defiance On Great-Sounding Sequel

Until last year, Ian Hunter wasn’t exactly on my radar screen. That changed quickly after I had heard Bed of Roses, one of the upfront singles of his April 2023 album Defiance Part 1 that I subsequently reviewed here. Last Friday, April 19, the ex-Mott the Hoople lead vocalist and guitarist came back with Defiance Part 2: Fiction. While it mirrors the approach and sound of the predecessor, the sequel is a fun listening experience reaffirming that Hunter at 84 years remains a compelling vocalist and songwriter.

Like Defiance Part 1, the second installment features contributions from an impressive array of other artists. Some, such as Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo, the late Taylor Hawkins and the late Jeff Beck, also were on the first album. Others like Brian May, Lucinda Williams and The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson are new guests.

Ian Hunter with the late Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp who in addition to playing guitar on one track created the painting for the cover art

Once again, longtime collaborator Andy York, who is also a member of John Mellencamp’s touring band, co-produced the album with Hunter. More background on how the Defiance concept came together is in the above-noted review. Let’s get to some music from Defiance Part 2: Fiction.

Since I included the opener People in my latest weekly new music review, I’m skipping it here and go right to Fiction. Like all of the album’s other nine tracks the music and the lyrics were solely written by Hunter. Among others, it features ex-Mott the Hoople keyboarder Morgan Fisher who has also played with many other artists and more recently expanded into photography.

The 3rd Rail is a ballad dedicated to Jeff Beck. The English guitarist can also be heard on lead guitar. It was one of his final studio recordings prior to his death from bacterial meningitis at age 78 in January 2023. Johnny Depp contributed acoustic and electric rhythm guitar.

Precious, which became the album’s first upfront single on February 15, features ex-Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Joe Elliott on backing vocals and Queen’s Brian May on guitar. “We got on really well with Queen,” Hunter recalled in a statement on his website. “When you’re in a band you can get really bored with each other but they were just normal blokes, it was like being on the road with nine guys instead of just five. Freddie was hilarious and I’ve kept up with Brian to this day.”

On What Would I Do Without You, another ballad, Hunter shares lead vocals with Lucinda Williams, who has become one of my favorite artists over the past couple of years. “Lucinda and her husband came to one of my shows in Nashville,” Hunter recalled. “I love her voice, there’s something very childlike, and you just know it’s her straight away. You don’t forget that voice.” They do sound great together!

The last track I’d like to call out is Everybody’s Crazy But Me. The nice rocker, among others, features Hawkins (drums), Waddy Wachtel (guitar) and Benmont Tench (organ), formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Commenting on his harder lyrical edge to examine contemporary issues on Defiance Part 2: Fiction, Hunter stated, “I was trying to avoid all that on PART 1 but on PART 2, it caught up with me. Most of those were written two or three years back, so I wanted to get it all out before whatever takes hold in November. It would be dated after the fact.”

He added, “I’m neither left nor particularly right. I’m just straight down the middle. And so I tried to write from that point of view. An eagle has two wings and if one falls off it perishes. That’s what I’m trying to get at. A bit of common sense, you know, Thomas Paine stuff.”

Apparently, Hunter has found his grove and wants to continue the Defiance project with a third installment, for which he already has started to write new songs. Though the project initially emerged from expediency and COVID quarantine, Hunter evidently is encouraged by the outcomes of the collaborative approach.

“I never initiated this,” he said. “It just kind of just happened and it turned out great. So I’m going to write some more songs and we’ll see what happens again.”

Sources: Ian Hunter website; YouTube; Spotify

The Sunday Six

It’s Sunday and hard to believe another week has flown by. On the upside, this means the time has come again to embark on a little imaginary music time travel excursion. As always, the itinerary includes six stops in six different decades with music in different flavors.

Lester Young/I Can’t Get Started

This first pick, which takes us back to 1956, was inspired by fellow blogger and jazz connoisseur Cincinnati Babyhead, aka. CB, who the other reminded me of Lester Young. Nicknamed The President, the tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist was active between 1933 and 1959. Young first gained prominence as a member of Count Basie’s orchestra. I Can’t Get Started, initially a 1936 composition by Vernon Duke with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, was included on Young’s 1956 album The President Plays With the Oscar Peterson Trio. This smooth music is perfect to ease us into the trip!

Ramones/Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey! Ho! Let’s go! To April 1976, which saw the eponymous debut album by New York punk rockers Ramones. They had formed two years earlier in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills. The band originally featured lead vocalist Jeffrey Hyman (Joey Ramone), guitarist and backing vocalist John Cummings (Johnny Ramone), bassist and backing vocalist Douglas Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone) and drummer Thomas Erdelyi (Tommy Ramone). Blitzkrieg Bop, co-written by Tommy and Dee Dee, was the band’s debut single. This fun music is my kind of punk rock. One, two, three, four!

Gary Moore/Story of the Blues

Time for some blistering electric blues with a nice soul touch by Gary Moore. Prior to releasing his solo debut Back on the Streets in 1978, the Northern Irish guitarist played with Irish bands Skid Row and Thin Lizzy. By the time he released his ninth solo album After Hours in March 1992, Moore had comfortably settled on blues and blues rock, which remained his main musical focus until his untimely death from a heart attack at age 58 in February 2011. Here’s Story of the Blues, a song he wrote.

Gregg Allman/Black Muddy River

Our next stop takes us down south and to the present century. In March 2016, Gregg Allman recorded what would become his final album Southern Blood. Initially, the Allman Brothers co-founder had planned a sequel to his 2011 solo album Low Country Blues with original songs. But Allman who had been diagnosed with liver cancer in 2012 was running short of time, so he worked with his manager Michael Lehman to pick “meaningful” songs to cover. Southern Blood was recorded over just nine days at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. The album was released in September 2017, four months after his death. Speaking of the Allmans, on Thursday, Dickey Betts passed away from cancer and COPD, leaving drummer Jaimoe (John Lee Johnson) as the former group’s only surviving co-founding member. Here’s Allman’s incredible rendition of the Grateful Dead’s Black Muddy River, co-written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter.

The Hollies/Bus Stop

I always get weirdly emotional when listening to music from Southern Blood, so my next proposition is more upbeat. Enter a catchy ’60s song with sweet harmony vocals: Bus Stop by The Hollies. Initially formed in the late ’50s as duo comprised of Allan Clarke (vocals, guitar) and Graham Nash (vocals, guitar), they became The Hollies in December 1962, together with Vic Steele (lead guitar), Eric Haydock (bass) and Don Rathbone (drums). Bus Stop, released in June 1966 and penned by future 10cc member Graham Gouldman, was one of the group’s biggest hit singles and was also the title track of their fourth U.S. album. The Hollies exist to this day as a touring act and most recently were on the road in the UK last year. Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliott, who played guitar and drums, respectively, on Bus Stop, are part of the current line-up.

Scorpions/Bad Boys Running Wild

And just as this trip is in full swing, we need to wrap up again. Let’s push the pedal to the metal with Scorpions and the great opener of March 1984’s Love at First Sting. The German metal band’s ninth studio album cemented their status as an internationally popular act. With approximately 3.5 million sold units worldwide, Love at First Sting became their second-highest seller after Crazy World (November 1990). Initially were formed in 1965, Scorpiona continue to rock on and are currently on the road. Here’s Bad Boys Running Wild, with music composed by guitarist and co-founder Rudolf Schenker and lyrics written by lead vocalist Klaus Meine and then-drummer Herman Rarebell.

Of course, I wouldn’t leave you without a Spotify playlist of the above track. Hope sometimes tickles your fancy and that you’ll be back for more!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

New Music Musings

It’s Saturday, which is the time of week where I take a fresh look at newly released music. All picks are included on albums that dropped yesterday (April 19).

Valley Lodge/Daylights

Valley Lodge are a power pop band from New York City who released their eponymous debut album in August 2005. Cheap Trick, T. Rex, Big Star, Raspberries, Thin Lizzy, Matthew Sweet, Slade and the Kinks are among their influences. The group’s current lineup includes Dave Hill (vocals, guitar), Phil Costello (vocals, guitar), John Kimbrough (guitar), Eddie Eyeball (bass) and Rob Pfeiffer (drums). Daylights is the fun opener of the group’s fifth and latest album Shadows in Paradise.

Brainstory/Peach Optimo

Brainstory are a Los Angeles-based trio whose sound AllMusic characterizes as smooth and trippy, blending psychedelic jazz and pop. Comprised of Kevin Martin (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Tony Martin (bass, vocals) and Eric Hagstrom (drums), Brainstory debuted in November 2019 with the album Buck, releasing an instrumental version and a version with vocals. They are now out with their second full-length album, Sounds Good, which pretty much sums up the music! Here’s Peach Optimo.

Pillow Queens/Like a Lesson

Irish indie rock band Pillow Queens were formed in Dublin in 2016. Their members are Pamela Connolly (vocals, guitar), Sarah Corcoran (bass, backing vocals, pump organ), Cathy McGuinness (guitar, backing vocals) and Rachel Lyons (drums, backing vocals). After a series of singles, they released their debut album In Waiting in September 2020. Off their third and new album Name Your Sorrow, here’s Like a Lesson.

The Brother Brothers/Brown Dog

New York-based folk duo The Brother Brothers consist of Adam Moss and his identical twin brother David Moss. AllMusic notes their harmony-laden pop draws from Americana and first-generation rock & roll. Initially, Adam learned the fiddle and David picked the cello, and they played in different bands in different locations. It wasn’t until they both lived in Brooklyn that they started their duo. Their first full-length album Some People I Know appeared in October 2018. Their latest is titled The January Album. Here’s Brown Dog. Those vocal harmonies are neat!

Ian Hunter/People

Until February 2023 when I came across Bed of Roses by Ian Hunter from his album Defiance Part 1, I had not realized what an extensive solo career he has had since 1975. The former Mott the Hoople lead vocalist and guitarist who turns 85 in June continues to fire on all cylinders. Like last year’s predecessor, Defiance Part 2: Fiction features collaborations with prominent guests, such as the late Jeff Beck, Lucinda Williams and Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes. Here’s People featuring Cheap Trick (Tom Petersson, Robin Zander & Rick Nielsen) and Def Leppard lead vocalist Joe Elliott.

Pearl Jam/Running

Wrapping up this new music review are Pearl Jam. I’ve yet to more fully explore the Seattle rock band who were formed in 1990. Their present line-up includes co-founders Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar, backing vocals), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Jeff Ament (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), together with Matt Cameron (drums, percussion, backing vocals) who joined in 1998. Running, credited to the band and producer Andrew Watt, is a track from their 12th and latest album Dark Matter. This rocks nicely.

Sources: Wikipedia; AllMusic; Pillow Queens Bandcamp page; Ian Hunter website; YouTube; Spotify

Song Musings

Happy Hump Day and welcome to another edition of my weekly feature, which takes a closer look at songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. On March 30, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman turned 60, something I would have completely missed, had it not been for fellow blogger Dave who pens the excellent A Sound Day and posted about the happy occasion. Not surprisingly, he also included my pick this week: Fast Car, a song that was instant love the moment I heard it for the first time!

Fast Car appeared in April 1988 on Chapman’s eponymous debut album and like all other tracks on this gem was solely written by her. It also became Chapman’s first single and biggest hit, topping the charts in Canada, Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands and Portugal. In the U.S., it peaked at no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, while in the UK it climbed to no. 5. The song also hit certification thresholds in various markets, most notably in the UK where it reached 4x Platinum last month (2.4 million certified sold units).

Not only only did Chapman’s expressive, relatively low voice grab my attention right away, but I also immediately loved the acoustic guitar part. Together with Talkin’ about a Revolution, the second single that also received lots of radio play back in Germany at the time, it made me buy the album on CD and subsequently a companion songbook for guitar. That’s when I fully realized how great the lyrics of these two songs are, as well as the other tracks on the album.

Fast Car tells the tale of a woman who likes to escape her dreadful life and tries to convince her unemployed and unsupportive partner to come with her to build a better future, recalling a time when he made her feel great while they were driving in his car. Thematically, it reminds me of The Animals‘ 1965 hit single We Gotta Get Out of This Place co-written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Here’s a clip of Chapman playing the song at the June 11, 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at London’s Wembley Stadium – an impromptu performance that changed her career trajectory, as explained further down in this post.

At the 1989 Grammy Awards, Chapman won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Fast Car. The song was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In Rolling Stone’s 2004 inaugural list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Fast Car was ranked at no. 167. In the most recent February 2024 revision, the song came in at no. 71, matching its position in the September 2021 update. Fast Car also made Pitchfork’s August 2015 list of The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s at no. 86.

SecondHandSongs lists close to 100 cover versions of Fast Car, mostly by lesser known artists. The most notable exception is country singer-songwriter Luke Combs who included a decent rendition on his fourth studio album Gettin’ Old that came out in March 2023. Not only did he score a major hit reaching no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hitting no. 1 on the Country Airplay chart, but Combs also won Single of Year at the 2023 Annual Country Music Association Awards. Chapman took home Song of the Year, becoming the first Black woman to ever win a CMA award. Here’s Chapman’s amazing live performance with Combs at this year’s Grammy Awards where Combs was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance. Gosh, this is just great!

Here’s another cool rendition of Fast Car by Black Pumas, an intriguing partnership between producer and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Quesada and singer-songwriter Eric Burton. According to AllMusic, they fuse cinematic neo-soul, light psychedelia, and a touch of urban grit. Black Pumas released their cover of Fast Car in August 2020.

Following are select additional insights from Songfacts:

In the BBC radio series Striking A Chord, Chapman talked about the meaning of “Fast Car.”

“It very generally represents the world that I saw when I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, coming from a working-class background, being raised by a single mom and being in a community of people who were struggling,” she said. “Everyone was working hard and hoping that things would get better.”

“It wasn’t directly autobiographical,” she continued. “I never had a fast car. It’s a story about a couple and how they are trying to make a life together and they face various challenges.”

The catalyst [for Fast Car – CMM] came on June 11, 1988, when Chapman was on the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium along with big names like Whitney Houston, Peter Gabriel, and Jackson Browne. She did a three-song set in the afternoon that included the apropos “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” but not “Fast Car.” She thought she’d done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert, but as the show stretched into the evening, Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back on stage again. In front of a huge prime-time audience she performed “Fast Car” alone with her acoustic guitar, wowing the crowd and building quite a buzz. The song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, landing at #5 in the UK on July 16 and #6 in America on August 27. In the US, her album also hit #1 on that date.

Combs’ version keeps a tight grip on the original’s iconic guitar riffs, with a gravelly vocal delivery that sometimes mimics Chapman’s. It’s worth noting that Chapman is known to be very selective about who gets to use her work.

Combs has said that “Fast Car” was his first favorite song, and he learned to play guitar using it. He’s such a fan of the original that he refers to himself as a “girl” in the fourth verse to preserve the lyrics.

[Producer – CMM] David Kershenbaum wanted to create a sonic landscape that allowed Tracy Chapman to shine. Recognizing the delicate balance required when adding additional players to an acoustic artist’s work, Kershenbaum opted for a meticulous approach.

He recorded Tracy and her guitar on a digital machine, then brought in five studio drummers and five bass players to lay down tracks. Kershenbaum carefully curated the mix, picking and choosing until he struck gold with the winning combination of Denny Fongheiser on drums and Larry Klein on bass. [There is also Ed Black on guitar – CMM]

“The combination of Denny and Larry was the correct one,” he told Billboard. “Many times, they are all that’s playing along with Tracy. It’s a third of the record. So, I had to be careful that they were really supporting what she was doing and not distracting because she had to be in at the forefront of this.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Rolling Stone; SecondHandSongs; AllMusic; Songfacts; YouTube

Catching Up: Short Takes On New Music I Missed

I realize I’m starting to sound like a broken record. While I’m taking a fresh look each week, there’s way more decent new music coming out than I can track. Once again, Spotify’s Release Radar comes to the rescue. Following is some good stuff that appeared over the past four weeks I missed.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples/What’s Going On With Ordinary People

The Reds, Pinks & Purples is an indie pop project launched in 2015 by San Francisco-based musician, singer-songwriter and producer Glenn Donaldson, who I first featured in March 2023. Their Bandcamp page notes six albums, several EPs and many singles they have released over the past five years, citing The Go-Betweens, The Smiths, Magnetic Fields and Felt as inspirations. Off their latest album Unwishing Well, which dropped on April 12, here’s the great-sounding What’s Going On With Ordinary People.

Ringo Starr/February Sky

Bless Ringo Starr who continues to release new music and keeps touring! February Sky, which came out on April 12, is the first single off his upcoming EP Crooked Boy scheduled for April 26. It comes six months after his previous EP Rewind Forward and is his fifth in a row since March 2021. Like the remaining three tracks on Crooked Boy, February Sky was written and produced by Linda Perry. “February Sky is great – very moody,” Starr said. “But since Linda wrote these specifically for me – it of course has to have a positive peace & love element.” Pretty decent pop rock song!

Lions in the Street/Down in the Hole

Lions in the Street are a cool ’70s style rock & roll band from Vancouver, Canada, who only entered my radar screen a few months ago when I featured them in another Catching Up post. Formed in 2000 as The Years, they changed their name to Lions in the Street in 2006 after a label deal to release an album had gone sour. With their latest single Down in the Hole, released on April 8, they deliver more of that kickass style rock & roll. Check out that neat b-b-b-b-bad to the bone slide guitar action!

James Bone/Left Side Right Side

Speaking of bone, here’s the new single by James Bone, a British singer-songwriter who strangely has a website and an online store but no posted bio! According to this review I found in Louder Than War, Bone released his debut album in April 2023. “I played in bands for years but they all fell by the wayside as is often the case,” he’s quoted in the review. “Then I wrote/directed a short film about a boxer which kept the creativity bubbling, but I knew I had to get my ass in gear and make a record, then Covid happened and it seemed like the time was ripe!” Here’s Bone’s new single Left Side Right Side – neat song! The next step I’d humbly suggest is to throw us a bone and post a bio.

Stewart Forgey/Look For the Truth

Stewart Forgey is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and member of Pacific Range, a country-oriented jam band formed in 2013. Look For the Truth appeared on March 26 as an upfront single to Forgey’s solo debut album Nature of the Universe, set to drop on April 24. This is a gorgeous song with a neat West Coast vibe that reminds me a bit of America. It follows Starry Dream, another nice-sounding track from the forthcoming album. Looking forward to hearing the rest of it!

Anders Osborne/Reckless Heart

I’m thrilled to wrap up this post with new music by Anders Osborne, a versatile singer-songwriter and guitarist who my longtime German music buddy Gerd first brought to my attention many years ago. Osborne was born in 1966 in Uddevalla, Sweden and has lived in New Orleans since 1990. He blends multiple genres, such as funk, soul, rock, blues and R&B, into a tasty gumbo. Since his 1989 debut Doin’ Fine, Osborne has released more than 20 studio and live albums. The great roots rock-flavored Reckless Heart is from his upcoming album Picasso’s Villa scheduled for April 26. The song first appeared as an upfront single on March 21.

Sources: Wikipedia; AllMusic; The Reds, Pinks & Purples Bandcamp page; Ringo Starr website; Lions in the Street website; Louder Than War; YouTube; Spotify

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Second Helping Hits the Big 50

Today, another classic ’70s rock gem turns 50. On April 15, 1974, Lynyrd Skynyrd released their sophomore album Second Helping. To the casual listener, it’s best known for Sweet Home Alabama, which became the group’s biggest hit single. While it hasn’t exactly suffered from obscurity on radio waves and I still enjoy it, there’s more to the album than its defining song, so let’s take a closer look!

Since I’d like to do this celebratory post in the order of the tracks, ironically, we’re right back to Sweet Home Alabama, the album’s opener. It was co-written by Skynyrd guitarists Ed King and Gary Rossington with lyrics by lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, none of whom were from Alabama. The song was a response to Neil Young’s Southern Man, which they felt unfairly had characterized all Southerners as rednecks. Ol’ Neil in subsequent interviews agreed, and despite the public dissing, they remained good friends. Turn it up!

With one of Skynyrd’s signature songs out of the way (the other one being Free Bird), let’s highlight some of other great great tracks on the album. Don’t Ask Me No Questions, a fun boogie rocker and the album’s first single, was co-written by Van Zant and Rossington. Unlike Sweet Home Alabama, it missed the charts altogether, which is a shame. Yeah, it’s a simple riff and in that sense perhaps less sophisticated than Alabama but rock doesn’t need to be complicated to be neat!

Closing out Side one is Workin’ for MCA. Co-written by King and Van Zant, the song recalls Skynyrd’s signing with the record label. The “Yankee slicker” is Al Kooper, the man who discovered and signed the band, and who produced their first three albums. The reference to “seven years of hard luck” acknowledges Skynyrd’s early period from 1966 to 1973 when they didn’t have a label deal. They also went through a series of names before becoming Leonard Skinnerd in 1969, which subsequently was changed to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

This brings us to Side two and the great The Ballad of Curtis Loew. Co-written by co-founder and Skynyrd’s third guitarist Allen Collins and Van Zant, the song is about a composite of different people, including Skynyrd lead guitarist Ricky Medlocke‘s grandfather, Shorty Medlocke, according to Songfacts. Medlocke wasn’t part of Skynyrd’s line-up at the time they recorded it. “The original version of the band only played ‘Curtis Loew’ one time on stage,” recalled Ed King. “We were playing in a basement in some hotel and thought we’d try it. We never played it again until the Tribute Tour with Johnny Van Zant.”

The lyrics of The Needle and the Spoon, a deep cut penned by Collins and Van Zant, leave no doubt what the song is about. Van Zant who was struggling with addictions to heroin and cocaine himself knew what he was writing about. Songfacts notes, In 2015, Guitar World honored guitarist Allen Collins’ solo, and his use of the wah-wah pedal to inject the Southern rock song with a hit of ’70s psychedelia, by ranking it at #19 on the magazine’s list of greatest wah solos of all time.

This leaves us with one more track, Skynyrd’s great rendition of J.J. Cale’s Call Me the Breeze. Cale included the song on his October 1971 debut album Naturally. Songfacts explains, When Lynyrd Skynyrd covered this song, it once again financed Cale’s lifestyle, allowing him to release albums in a leisurely fashion and without concern for hit potential. Another key supporter was Eric Clapton, who not only helped Cale get his first record deal but who also covered some of the Oklahoma guitarist’s songs, most notably After Midnight.

While reviews of Second Helping at the time of its were mixed, contemporary assessments are more favorable. The album climbed to no. 12 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 and no. 9 in Canada. It also quickly reached Gold status (500,000 certified sold units) in the U.S. by September 1974 and hit 2x Platinum (2 million certified sold units) in July 1987. As such, ranks among Skynyrd’s most successful albums.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; RIAA website; YouTube; Spotify