The Sunday Six

Can you believe we already hit the last Sunday in July? It’s insane how time flies! Speaking of time, Sunday of course is the day on this blog when I’d like to take my readers on a special trip through space and time to visit some great music of the past and the present. Let’s do it!

Bobby Jaspar/Early Wake

The start of today’s journey takes us back to October 1954 into a studio in Paris, France, where Bobby Jaspar and other great jazz musicians recorded a groovy piece called Early Wake. The Belgian cool jazz and hard bop saxophonist, flutist and composer’s recording career only lasted from 1954 until February 1963 when his life was cut short by a heart attack at age 37. In 1956, he went to America and worked with the likes of J. J. Johnson, Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. On the above recording, Jaspar (tenor saxophone) was backed by Jean Aldegon (alto saxophone), Armand Migiani (baritone saxophone), Pat Neck (trombone), Roger Guérin (trumpet), Sadi (vibraphone), Pierre Michelot (bass) and Dave Pochonet (drums).

Sinéad O’Connor/Nothing Compares 2 U

On Wednesday, news broke that Sinéad O’Connor had passed away at age 56. No cause of death was provided. The Irish singer-songwriter and political activist is best remembered for tearing up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on U.S. live late-night television to protest child abuse by the Catholic Church and her incredible rendition of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. While I suppose one can have different opinions over the form of her protest, sadly, O’Connor was proven right. Thirty years later, former Pope Benedict XVI apologized to sex abuse victims though denied any cover-up allegations. Nothing Compares 2 U, one of the most powerful ballads I know, appeared on O’Connor’s sophomore album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, released in March 1990. This song still gives me chills.

Moby Grape/Mr. Blues

Let’s next head to San Francisco and June 1967, which saw the release of multi-genre psychedelic-flavored rock band Moby Grape’s great eponymous debut album. Their September 1966 formation in the City by the Bay was instigated by guitarist Skip Spence and manager Matthew Katz, who both had been associated with Jefferson Airplane. The band’s first incarnation ended in 1969, though they reformed multiple times and continue to perform occasionally to this day. Mr. Blues was written by Moby Grape bassist and vocalist Bob Mosley, one of three original members who remain part of the group.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts/I Hate Myself For Loving You

Time for a stop-over in the ’80s. In May 1988, American rockers Joan Jett and the Blackhearts issued their sixth studio album, Up Your Alley. I guess a good deal of music fans shared the title’s sentiment. Up Your Alley became Jett’s second most successful album, climbing to no. 19 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 and reaching Platinum status in February 1989 (meaning 1 million certified sold copies). Undoubtedly, the album’s appeal had something to do with its first single I Hate Myself For Loving You. The tune was penned by Jett together with album co-producer Desmond Child. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts still love rock & roll and are currently touring in the U.S.

Joslyn & The Sweet Compression/Honey Bee

For this next pick, we’ll time-travel back to the present and a cool smooth funk and soul band I saw live on Wednesday evening during a free summer concert-in-the-park-type event: Joslyn & The Sweet Compression. The group was formed in the late 2010s by great Kentucky vocalist Joslyn Hampton, who sounds a bit like Beyoncé, and her stepfather Marty Charters, a touring guitarist whose performing credits include Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and Van Morrison. Off their eponymous May 2019 debut album, here’s the groovy Honey Bee, which has a neat Nile Rodgers vibe – my kind of dance music! Their sophomore album Bona Fide is scheduled to come out on August 25.

Bad Company/Good Lovin’ Gone Bad

Once again we’re hitting the point where we need to wrap up our trip. This final tune takes us back to April 1975 and Straight Shooter, the sophomore studio album by Bad Company. The English rock “supergroup” was formed in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers (formerly of Free), one of the great vocalists in rock; guitarist Mick Ralphs (formerly of Mott the Hoople); bassist Boz Burrell (formerly of King Crimson); and Rodgers’ former Free bandmate Simon Kirke (drums). During their initial 9-year run, Bad Company released six studio albums. They’ve since reunited several times and toured in various incarnations. Off Straight Shooter, here’s Good Lovin’ Gone Bad, written by Ralphs.

What’s missing? Of course, the Spotify playlist! Hope there’s something you dig!

Sources: Wikipedia; Joslyn & The Sweet Compression website; YouTube; Spotify

New Music Musings

Another Saturday calls for a fresh look at newly released music. All picks are from studio releases that appeared yesterday (July 28).

Bethany Cosentino/Natural Disaster

Singer-songwriter and former child actress Bethany Cosentino first gained prominence as one-half of lo-fi pop rock duo Best Coast who went on hiatus after the 2020 release of their fourth studio album Always Tomorrow. Cosentino subsequently decided to go it alone and is now out with her debut solo album Natural Disaster. I can hear a bit of a Sheryl Crow vibe. Here’s the title track.

Bush Tetras/Bird On a Wire

Bush Tetras are a post-punk band from New York who have been around since 1979 with two longer breaks along the way. While they never achieved mainstream success, they were influential in the Manhattan music club scene in the early ’80s. They Live in My Head is the group’s third and latest full-length studio album, their first such release since 1996. Bird On a Wire is credited to all four current members of the group: Cynthia Sley (vocals), Pat Place (guitar), R. B. Korbet (bass)and Steve Shelley (drums).

Darlingside/All the Lights in the City

Darlingside are an indie folk band from Boston, Mass. Their current members Don Mitchell (guitar, banjo, vocals), Auyon Mukharji (mandolin, violin, vocals), Harris Paseltiner (guitar, cello, vocals) and David Senft (bass, kick drum vocals) met at Williams College in 2009. Off their fourth album, Everything is Alive, here’s All the Lights in the City, credited to the members of the group.

Diesel Boy/The Finnish Line

Punk rock band Diesel Boy got together in Santa Rosa, Calif. in 1993 and initially were active until 2002 when they unofficially split up. Now they return with Gets Old, their first new album in 22 years. One of the tracks on it is The Finnish Line, written by co-founder, vocalist and guitarist Dave Lake, aka. Diesel Dave. This rocks – love that wah-wah guitar action!

Elizabeth Moen/Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart

Elizabeth Moen is a Chicago-based self-taught guitarist and singer-songwriter who wrote her first songs while being a student at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Moen’s eponymous EP, self-released in 2016, was followed in 2017 by her first full-length album That’s All I Wanted. Her latest release, For Arthur, is a covers EP of songs by Arthur Russell, an Iowa musician, composer and producer whose work spanned a disparate range of styles. Here’s Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart.

Ghost Hounds/Last Train to Nowhere

Rounding out this weekly new music revue are Ghost Hounds who describe their music as rock ‘n’ blues. Since their 2019 debut Roses Are Black, the five-piece from Pittsburgh, Pa. have released three additional albums, including their latest, First Last Time. The great opener Last Train to Nowhere was co-written by their guitarist Thomas Tull and Kevin Bowe. Ghost Hounds also include Tré Nation (lead vocals), Johnny Baab (guitar), Bennett Miller (bass) and Blaise Lanzetta (drums).

Sources: Wikipedia; Bethany Cosentino website; Bush Tetras Bandcamp page; Darlingside website; Diesel Boy website; Elizabeth Mohen website; Ghost Hounds website; YouTube; Spotify

Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy Hits the Big 50

In July 1973, Steely Dan released Countdown to Ecstasy. The 50th anniversary of their sophomore effort gave me new appreciation of a great album from which I only had known a handful of tunes by heart.

At the time Countdown to Ecstasy came out, Steely Dan still were a standing band, but there already was one significant change. Donald Fagen became the sole lead vocalist replacing David Palmer who had shared the role with Fagen on the group’s debut Can’t Buy a Thrill and sang lead on most songs during live gigs – a result of Fagen’s stage fright. Palmer still contributed backing vocals on the album but subsequently departed.

While like the Dan’s predecessor Downtown to Ecstasy was more rock and blues-oriented compared to the later albums, especially Aja, there also was a strong jazz influence. To me, the blend of these different music styles makes for an intriguing listening experience.

Interestingly, the two singles the album spawned, Show Biz Kids and My Old School, failed to make much of a chart impact, reaching a meager no. 61 and no. 63 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, respectively. That stood in marked contrast to Do It Again and Reelin’ In the Years, the singles off Can’t Buy a Thrill, which climbed to no. 6 and no. 11, respectively. As is the case with nearly all other Steely Dan tunes, Fagen and his musical partner Walter Becker co-wrote all tracks on Countdown to Ecstasy.

Side one kicks off with the strangely titled Bodhisattva, one hell of a jazz and blues-flavored rocker. Had it been up to me, it would have been the lead single. Songfacts notes a bodhisattva is a human who has reached enlightenment, as the Buddha did, and can leave physical existence behind, but chooses to remain in human form to help others achieve freedom. The tune was “sort of a parody on the way Western people look at Eastern religion – sort of oversimplify it,” Fagen explained. “We thought it was rather amusing – most people didn’t get it.”

One of my great rediscoveries on the album is Razor Boy. I just love this groovy mid-tempo song. I’m not sure what it means but will add interpreting lyrics isn’t necessarily my strong suit. I also feel when it comes to Steely Dan, it’s more about the music! Plus, I think it’s fair to say even folks who are generally great at deciphering the words oftentimes get puzzled by Fagen’s and Becker’s lyrics. Sometimes, I wonder whether they simply combined certain words or phrases since they sounded good or fit the musical time signatures.

Let’s turn to Side two, which opens with the aforementioned Show Biz Kids, featuring Rick Derringer who provided neat slide guitar. The tune grooves along on the same chord with no progression, an unusual feature, especially for the Dan whose songs tend to have many chord changes. But it works. As for the lyrics, Songfacts states The repeated refrain sung by the female backing singers says, “You go to Lost Wages, Lost Wages,” sung to sound vaguely like “Las Vegas.” It was inspired by a joke from comedian Lenny Bruce, who was a major influence on the band’s lyrical outlook. I’m glad we got that clarified!

It’s safe to assume most folks have heard of My Old School, one of my all-time favorite Dan songs featuring a killer guitar solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a core band member at the time, as well as great soulful horns. Songfacts notes My Old School was partially inspired by a drug bust in May 1969 at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., during which Fagen and Becker were arrested, along with their girlfriends. The two had first met at that “school” in 1967.

The last tune I’d like to call out is Pearl of the Quarter. That beautiful pedal steel guitar was provided by Baxter. According to a review on the webzine Something Else!, the song probably was inspired by Panic in Year Zero, a 1962 science fiction picture about a family on vacation, trying to survive after a nuclear war had broken out. The Dan’s lyrics take liberties, replacing the family with a loner trying to find other remaining survivors, using an old amateur radio.

In addition to Becker (bass, harmonica, backing vocals), Fagen (piano, electric piano, synthesizer, lead and backing vocals) and Baxter (guitar, pedal steel guitar), Steely Dan’s core line-up featured Denny Dias (guitar) and Jim Hodder (drums, percussion, backing vocals). In 1974, Fagen and Becker decided to abandon a standing band structure, stop touring and turn Steely Dan into a studio project, relying on a diverse group of top-notch session musicians. This concept eventually led to 1977’s Aja album, which is widely regarded as their musical Mount Rushmore.

Countdown to Ecstasy didn’t match the chart and commercial success of Can’t Buy a Thrill. Still, it climbed to no. 35 on the Billboard Top LPs and Tape chart (now known as the Billboard 200), and stayed there for 34 weeks. Eventually, it reached Gold certification in the U.S. in 1978, meaning 500,000 copies had been sold at the time. The album also received high scores from music critics, especially in retrospective reviews. If you like what you read and heard and haven’t listened to Countdown to Ecstasy or haven’t done so in a long time, I’d encourage you to give it a spin.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Something Else; YouTube; Spotify

Song Musings

It’s Wednesday and I hope this week has been kind to you so far. Once again, the time has come to take a closer look at another song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date.

One of my longtime favorite bands are The Who. Since I’ve already covered many of their popular songs, I decided to pick a tune that outside of fan circles is less widely known: Anyway Anyhow Anywhere.

More casual listeners, who are primarily familiar with classics like My Generation, Pinball Wizard and Won’t Get Fooled Again, probably find Anyway Anyhow Anywhere sounds a bit underwhelming. However, not only is it a pretty good early tune by the English rock band, but it also has some intriguing aspects.

To start with, the song that first appeared as a non-album single in the UK in May 1965 was co-written by guitarist Pete Townshend and lead vocalist Roger Daltrey. Most of the group’s tunes were solely penned by Townshend. Anyway Anyhow Anywhere also represents one of the first songs using guitar feedback. According to Wikipedia, it was the first to use the effect in the guitar solo.

The use of feedback throughout the song was crucial, Townshend stated. He explained The Who “were trying to achieve the sound which we get on the stage at present, all in a commercial song that will sell.” Speaking of live, here’s a great clip of the tune, captured in 2000 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Anyway Anyhow Anywhere was the second single The Who released under that name and their third overall. The debut, Zoot Suit/I’m the Face appeared under their initial name The High Numbers. Anyway Anyhow Anywhere became their second top 10 single in the UK, reaching no. 10. It also made the top 40 in France, climbing to no. 38. But unlike its predecessor, I Can’t Explain, it missed the charts in the U.S. and in Australia. Anyway Anyhow Anywhere was subsequently included on the October 1971 singles compilation Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy.

In the liner notes of that album, Townshend recalled the following about the tune: Roger Daltrey helped a lot with the final arrangement and got half the credit. Something he does today for nothing, bless him. I was lying on my mattress on the floor listening to a Charlie Parker record when I thought up the title. (It’s usually title first with me.) I just felt the guy was so free when he was playing. He was a soul without a body, riding, flying, on music.

Listening to the compulsory Dizzy Gillespie solo after one by Bird was always a come-down, however clever Gillespie was. No one could follow Bird. Jimi Hendrix must have been his reincarnation, especially for guitar players. The freedom suggested by the title came restricted by the aggression of our tightly-defined image when I came to write the words. In fact, Daltrey was really a hard nut then, and he changes quite a few words himself to toughen the song up to suit his temperament. It is the most excitingly pig-headed of our songs. It’s blatant, proud and, dare I say it, sassy.

The studio recording was the first by The Who, which featured Nicky Hopkins on piano. At the time, Hopkins was a session musician. Widely considered to be one of the greatest studio pianists in the history of popular rock music, Hopkins worked with many other artists, particularly The Rolling Stones, playing on all of their studio albums from Between the Buttons (1967) through until Tattoo You (1981), except for Some Girls (1978).

Following are some additional insights by Songfacts:

Like many early songs by The Who, “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” captures the band enjoying the unfettered freedom of youth: they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want. Pete Townshend, who wrote the lyric, described it as “anti-middle age, anti-boss class, and anti-young marrieds.”

This was The Who’s second single, following “I Can’t Explain.” Their producer at the time was Shel Talmy, who could wrangle a lot of noise into something coherent. After “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” was released, the group made their first album with Talmy: My Generation. The title track to that one was another feat of controlled chaos and a defining hit for the band, but The Who had their manager, Kit Lambert, produce their next one, breaking their contract with Talmy and setting off a legal battle that ended up giving Talmy royalties on every Who recording into 1971.

This contains one of the first uses of feedback on a record. The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey recalled to Uncut magazine October 2001: “We were doing this feedback stuff, even before that. We’d be doing blues songs and they’d turn into this freeform, feedbacky, jazzy noise. Pete was getting all these funny noises, banging his guitar against the speakers. Basically, the act that Hendrix is famous for came from Townshend, pre-‘I Can’t Explain.'”

“‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ was the first song when we attempted to get that noise onto a record and that was a good deal of time before Hendrix had even come to England,” Daltrey continued. “The American pressing plant sent it back thinking it was a mistake. We said, ‘No, this is the f—ing noise we want. CUT IT LOUD!'”

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube

Mick Jagger Hits 80!

Today, Mick Jagger turned 80 years. The Rolling Stones lead vocalist is one of the most amazing band frontmen I can think of. To celebrate Jagger’s admission to the club of the octogenarians, I’m republishing a post I put out for his 75th birthday. It has been slightly edited and updated at the end.

No matter whether you like him or not (and I love him!!!), I think there’s no question Mick Jagger has to be one of the coolest rock artists on the planet. To me, he’s the embodiment of rock & roll in all of its crazy shapes. Unlike the other members of The Rolling Stones, Jagger doesn’t show many signs of aging. He still has the energy and swagger he did when the Stones started out in the early ’60s.

I also don’t believe I know of any other rock artist who studied at the London School of Economics, though evidently, Jagger figured out pretty quickly that Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes weren’t as sexy as rock & roll. And, dare I say it, there are many economists, but there’s only one Mick Jagger!

Jagger’s biography has been told a million times, so I’m not going to write yet another iteration. Instead, I’d like to celebrate Sir Michael Philip Jagger’s 80th birthday with what he’s all about: rock & roll.

Let’s kick it off with the first officially recorded song Jagger co-wrote with his longtime partner in crime Keith Richards: Tell Me (You’re Coming Back), the only original track on the Stones’ eponymous U.K. album released in April 1964. While the tune’s early ’60s pop vibe doesn’t sound much like The Rolling Stones, I still find it charming.

Yes, it’s probably the most over-played song The Rolling Stones have ever released, but since it’s such a signature tune, how could I not include (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction in this post? Plus, the song from the Stones’ third British studio album Out Of Our Heads really seems to be a perfect fit for Jagger.

She’s A Rainbow from 1967’s Their Satanic Majesties Request may be an uncharacteristic tune by The Glimmer Twins, but I’ve always loved it.

I know many Stones fans consider Exile On Main Street or Some Girls as the band’s best studio album. If I would have to select one, I think it would be Sticky Fingers. Here’s Dead Flowers.

The song’s title sums it up perfectly: It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It). It was the lead single to the Stones’ 1974 studio album It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll, their 12th and 14th in the U.K. and U.S., respectively.

Here’s When The Whip Comes Down. According to Wikipedia, Jagger wrote the lyrics to the song, which first appeared on the Some Girls album from 1978, though it is credited to Jagger/Richards.

Tattoo You is considered by many folks to be the last decent album the Stones released in August 1981. The lead single was Start Me Up, which remains one of the band’s most recognizable tunes and a staple during their live concerts where they often play it as the opener. It’s a great tune and with its simple riff yet another example that less is oftentimes more in rock & roll.

I’ve always liked Steel Wheels, which the Stones released in August 1989. By that time Jagger and Richards had patched up their fragile relationship and wrote a great set of songs that are reminiscent of the Stones’ classic sound. Here’s Mixed Emotions.

To date, A Bigger Bang from September 2005 is the Stones’ most recent full studio album featuring original music. Here’s the opener Rough Justice.

I’d like to conclude this celebratory playlist with an amazing live clip: Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, from the Stones’ Sticky Fingers show on May 20, 2015 at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. It was captured in a great live album released last September as part of the band’s From The Vault series. To me, the Stones rarely sounded as fresh as they did that night!

For a number of years, there has been chatter about a new album by The Rolling Stones. It looks like this year it’s finally going to happen. In February, Deadline and other entertainment media reported a new album will appear later in 2023, featuring contributions by the late Charlie Watts, as well as two other rockin’ octogenarians: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

It’s only rock & roll, but I like it, yes, I do.

Happy birthday Mick Jagger!

Sources: Wikipedia; Deadline; YouTube

British Invasion Festival Returned to Rock Atlantic City

Sometimes the brain or whatever I have inside my skull works in mysterious ways. Until Saturday early in the morning, I completely had forgotten about the British Invasion festival in Atlantic City. Suddenly, the one-day event at the Golden Nugget popped up in my head and I thought, ‘dang it, I probably missed it!”Luckily, it was happing later on that very day, and I’m happy to share some impressions!

As the name suggests, the annual event focuses on British music that took America by storm starting in the mid-’60s. Of course, The Beatles were instrumental in popularizing British acts in the U.S. when their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 changed the music world forever. Appropriately, their music was featured in Atlantic City, delivered by a fun tribute band called Britain’s Finest. There were also two other great tribute groups: Who’s Next (can you guess the band?) and Slow Hands, a tribute to Mr. Slowhand, Eric Clapton.

From top left (clockwise): Your fearless roving music reporter, Britain’s Finest, Slow Hands (half of the band) and Who’s Next

Saturday was the third or fourth time I made the trip from central New Jersey down to Atlantic City for this festival. And while it’s a bit of a hike, based on my previous experience, I was reasonably sure I wouldn’t take much of a gamble here! Like in the past, the nine-hour live music marathon on the deck of the Golden Nugget kicked off at around 2:00 pm. Each tribute act got to play an afternoon and an evening set. This post covers the evening gigs.

Since the aforementioned appearance of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan is considered to mark the beginning of the British Invasion, appropriately, Britain’s Finest were the first act. Founded in Los Angeles in 2011, the band’s current lineup includes Jay Nixon (as Paul McCartney), Ruben Amaya (as John Lennon), Robert Bielma (as George Harrison) and Brendan Peleo-Lazar (as Ringo Starr). Even though the lads are Americans, they do a lovely job imitating the British accents by John, Paul, George and Ringo. How about the music? Here’s their neat rendition of Please Please Me.

Well, let’s shake it up, baby, now with one more tune: Twist and Shout, a perfect set closer!

I guess it takes many hands to cover the music by Eric Clapton and Slow Hands do a nice job with it. This eight-piece from Freehold, N.J. has been around for about five years. They include Carlos DC (lead guitar, lead vocals), Steven Raphel (rhythm guitar, background vocals), Matt Ali (slide guitar), Dennis Matusche (keyboards), Kenneth Thorstenson (bass) and Raul Diaz Cobo (drums), along with Erica Taylor (background vocals) and another talented background vocalist. Here’s the neat opening of their set, a one-two punch of Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love and Eric Clapton’s Motherless Children – my kind of music!

Closing out this fun evening were Who’s Next, an amazing tribute I’ve seen on various occasions over the past six years or so. They’ve been around for a long time and currently feature Bill Canell (as Pete Townshend), Doug Zahn (as  Roger Daltrey), Will Shelley (as John Entwistle) and Rich Savarese (as Keith Moon). Meet the new boss, same as the old boss! If you don’t recognize these iconic lines, let the music do the talking. It won’t fool ya!

Sources: Wikipedia; Britain’s Finest website; Slow Hands Facebook page; Who’s Next website; YouTube

The Sunday Six

I can’t believe it’s Sunday gain! Hope you’re spending a lovely weekend and are in the mood to accompany me on another journey through space and time to explore some great music of the past and the present. The magical music time machine is ready to take off – all aboard, fasten your seat belt and off we go!

Stan Getz/Blue Bells

To kick off today’s trip, let’s set the controls to the year 1957. That’s when Stan Getz released an album titled Stan Getz and the Cool Sounds. At that time, the jazz saxophonist, aka. known as “The Sound” because of his warm, lyrical tone, already was well into his nearly 50-year career that saw him play with Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Horace Silver and Dizzy Gillespie, among many others. Here’s the beautiful Blue Bells, a composition by Phil Sunkel. On this recording, Getz was backed by Tony Fruscella (trumpet), Lou Levy (piano), Bill Anthony (bass) and Frank Isola (drums).

Dawes/Ghost In the Machine

This next pick almost leads us right back to where we started. In July 2022, Los Angeles folk-rock band Dawes released their eighth studio album Misadventures of Doomscroller, which saw the group depart from their short, more lyrically focused tunes of the past, to longer, more instrumental songs. Here’s the incredible Ghost In the Machine, written by guitarist and vocalist Taylor Goldsmith. He formed Dawes in 2009, together with Tay Strathairn (keyboards), Wylie Gelber (bass) and his younger brother Griffin Goldsmith (drums).

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy/Turn On a Friend (To the Good Life)

As frequent travelers know, no Sunday Six can skip the ’60s, and today I’ve got a really cool proposition thanks to my longtime music buddy from Germany: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. The psychedelic pop-rock band was formed in L.A. in 1966 and released three albums during their four-year run. The second was called The Great Conspiracy and appeared in December 1967. It kicks off with Turn On a Friend (To the Good Life), a tune with a great Jefferson Airplane vibe, penned by bassist and vocalist Alan Brackett. In fact, Airplane’s drummer Spencer Dryden had played in an earlier incarnation of the group, called The Ashes.

Semisonic/Closing Time

Time to pay a visit to the ’90s with some great melodic alternative rock by Semisonic. The band from Minneapolis, Minn. came together in 1995 from the ashes of Trip Shakespeare, another local alternative rock group. In March 1998, Semisonic scored their biggest hit, Closing Time, which appeared on their sophomore album Feeling Strangely Fine. The seductive tune with a nice R.E.M. feel was written by lead vocalist and guitarist Dan Wilson. Following a hiatus after the release of their third album in March 2001, the group has done a series of reunion tours since 2017 and just last month supported Barenaked Ladies on a summer tour.

Bob Dylan/Hurricane

Next, we shall go to January 1976 to listen to the story of Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blame, for somethin’ that he never done. I guess this was the last great protest song by Bob Dylan. The epic tune tells the tale of middleweight boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter who was framed, wrongfully convicted for a triple murder in 1966, and put in a prison cell for more than 20 years – arguably, one of the most notorious cases of police misconduct this country has ever seen. Hurricane, which Zimmy penned after he had read Carter’s autobiography, The Sixteenth Round, was included on his 17th studio album Desire. I never get tired of that song and Scarlet Rivera’s violin.

Simple Minds/Don’t You (Forget About Me)

And once again, we’re reaching the final destination of our journey. Let’s wrap up in February 1985 with a tune I’ve always liked by Scottish art rock band Simple Minds: Don’t You (Forget About Me). Co-written by producer Keith Forsey and guitarist Steve Schiff, the song first appeared as a single in the U.S. and was part of the soundtrack of the motion picture The Breakfast Club. It became Simple Minds’ biggest hit in America. Interestingly, they didn’t include it on October 1985’s Once Upon a Time or on any other of their regular studio albums.

Last but not least here’s a Spotify playlist of the above goodies, coz I wouldn’t leave you without it. As always, I hope there’s something you dig and you’ll be back for more!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify

New Music Musings

Happy Saturday with ch-ch-ch-changes to my weekly look at new music. Hope you like the updated format! All picks are from albums that came out yesterday (July 21).

Allegra Krieger/Lingering

Allegra Krieger is a New York-based singer-songwriter and composer. She describes her songs as “at once cathartic and compelling,” with “emotive lyricism and explorative harmony.” Off her fourth album, I Keep My Feet On the Fragile Plane, here’s Lingering, which was solely penned by her.

The Oxys/Mr. Horrible

Austin, Texas-based punk rock band The Oxys were formed in 2020 during the peak of the pandemic. Mr. Horrible, a song about deceased Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, appears on their sophomore album Generation Irrelevant. It was written by the group’s guitarist Jason “Ginchy” Kottwitz.

The Arcadian Wild/Shoulders

Led by songwriters Isaac Horn (acoustic guitar, vocals) and Lincoln Mick (mandolin, vocals), with Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild from Nashville, Tenn. have their roots in formal vocal music and influences from progressive bluegrass and folk. From their new full-length album Welcome, here’s Shoulders.

Blur/St. Charles Square

Brit pop band Blur have been around since 1988. The Ballad of Darren is their ninth studio album and first since an 8-year hiatus. St. Charles Square is credited to all four members of the London-based group: Alex James (bass), Damon Albarn (vocals), Dave Rowntree (drums) and Graham Coxon (guitar).

Cut Worms/Don’t Fade Out

Cut Worms is the moniker of singer-songwriter Max Clarke who hails from Ohio and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. According to his AllMusic bio, he blends early rock, country and Americana with a “contemporary D.I.Y spirit and lush arrangements.” Don’t Fade Out is a track from Cut Worms, Clarke’s third and latest studio album.

Greta Van Fleet/The Falling Sky

Closing out this post are Frankenmuth, Mich. rockers Greta Van Fleet whose sound has been compared to early Led Zeppelin since they emerged in 2012. The Falling Sky is off their third full-length studio album Starcatcher. The tune is credited to band members, brothers Joshua Kiszka (lead vocals), Jacob Kiszka (guitar, backing vocals) and Samuel Kiszka (bass, keyboards, backing vocals) and Daniel Wagner (drums, backing vocals), as well as co-producer Dave Cobb.

Sources: Wikipedia; Allegra Krieger website; The Oxys Bandcamp page; The Arcadian Wild website; Cut Worms website; AllMusic; YouTube; Spotify

A Hit That Wasn’t

This post first appeared last week as a contribution on A Sound Day, penned by fellow blogger Dave who hosts a great monthly feature titled Turntable Talk where he invites fellow bloggers to share their thoughts around a topic he suggests.

This time, Dave asked us to write about a song that we felt should have been a hit but wasn’t. Following is what I submitted. After the post had been published, I found what I feel is a better live version of the song and used it to replace the original clip. This version of the post has also been slightly edited to fit the format of my blog.

Turntable Talk, now in its 16^th round, truly is a gift that keeps on giving. I always enjoy participating, so thanks for having me back, Dave!

This time, thanks to Max from PowerPop blog, our task was to identify a song that we feel should have been a hit but wasn’t. Dave rightly acknowledged that defining what is a hit can be tricky but did not set any guidelines other than suggesting we should only focus on tunes that were released as singles. Of course, this still leaves many options from which to pick.

As I further reflected on how I would define a hit, I decided it should be a single that entered the top 40 pop/mainstream singles chart. The next question was which country’s chart. Since I live in the U.S., naturally the Billboard Hot 100 came to mind first. Looking at that chart, you can find some incredible examples of songs that failed to become hits, such as AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Purple Haze and Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, stalling on at no. 47, no. 65 and no. 86, respectively.

Then I thought while the U.S. undoubtedly is an important music market, so are Australia, Canada and the UK, to name a few others. Once you consider more markets, finding a song that should have been a hit but wasn’t becomes more complicated.

While Highway to Hell missed the top 40 in the U.S., it climbed to no. 4, no. 9, no. 17, no. 24 and no. 30 in the UK, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Australia and Germany, respectively, clearly satisfying my above-mentioned definition of a hit in these countries. Or take Purple Haze, which undoubtedly was a hit in the UK (no. 3), Norway and Austria (no. 7 each), The Netherlands (no. 11) and Germany (no. 17).

This little exercise finally made me conclude that my real task was to find a single I really dig, which was released in multiple markets but failed to place within the top 40 in any. At first, it looked a bit like a daunting task. Then I suddenly remembered Joe Jackson had a number of singles that didn’t make the top 40 or didn’t chart at all. This includes one of my all-time favorites by the versatile English artist and my pick for this post: Down to London.

Written, arranged and produced by Jackson, Down to London was included on his 10^th studio album Blaze of Glory released in April 1989. It also became one of three singles. Based on Wikipedia and Discogs, Down to London appeared as a single in the UK and various other European countries, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada. Incredibly, not only did it fail to make the top 40 in any of these markets, but it didn’t chart at all anywhere except for Australia where it reached a measly no. 126!

According to Wikipedia, Down to London is an autobiographical tune that was inspired by Jackson’s early music career in London. “The song is from the point of view of a teenager who’s going to the big city for the first time,” Jackson told VH1 during an interview in 1989. “The songs on Blaze of Glory are loosely a journey through time from the perspective of someone who’s getting older as it goes along. The song is the third on the album. To me, it’s when I was about 17.”

He went on, “It’s an old story that’s retold everyday – people going to the big city to seek excitement, fame or just a job. The ambivalence of the song, I think, is although it’s your first exposure to that big city excitement, at the same time you’re exposed to a certain amount of harshness. You can’t afford to stay in a nice hotel, you’re sleeping on someone’s floor. There’s an element of that, but on the whole, I think the song is pretty positive.”

Here’s a version, included on Jackson’s 2004 live album Afterlife that was recorded during various gigs in California in August 2003.

Down to London may not be quite up there with Joe Jackson classics like Is She Really Going Out with Him?, One More Time, It’s Different For Girls or Steppin’ Out, but it sure as heck is a great song that at least would have deserved to land in the top 40 in the UK and the other markets in which the single appeared.

I’ll leave you with the lyrics.

Stop – what’s that sound
It’s the death rattle of this rusty old town
Stop – listen again
It’s the sound of laughter all along the Thames

Hey – what’s my line
Do I have to stay here ’til the end of time
I’m – good looking and bright
I want to see life after ten at night

So if they ask you where I am
I’m in the back of a transit van
In a squat on the earls court road
Gone down to London turning coal into gold
Down to London – down to London
Gone down to London to be the king

Hey – what’s your name
The boys back home all seem to look the same
You – should stick with me
And one of us will make it, just you see

Stop – what’s that sound
Seems like the sixties are still swinging around
Hey – can you hear me back there
Or is there anybody left to care

So if you ask me where they are
They’re hanging tough in a soho bar
Playing guitars in the underground
Gone down to London trying to chase that sound
Down to London – down to London
Gone down to London to be the king

So I ask you should I cry or laugh
Drinking tea in a kings cross caff
A leather jacket against the cold
Gone down to London turning coal into gold
Down to London – down to London
Gone down to London to be the king

Sources: Wikipedia; Discogs; YouTube

Song Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another installment of my weekly feature where I take a closer look at songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. Today, I’m slightly bending my rules by highlighting a tune I previously covered as part of a review of the album that includes it. But this is the first time, I’m elaborating on Super Fly by the great Curtis Mayfield in a dedicated post.

Written by Mayfield, the funk tune first appeared in July 1972 as the title cut of the soundtrack album for the Blaxploitation motion picture of the same name. It was also released in October that year as the second single off the album.

Super Fly became Mayfield’s second top-10 hit in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100, following Freddie’s Dead, another tune from the same soundtrack album. As a side note, the epic Move On Up from Mayfield’s September 1970 debut album Curtis incredibly did not chart in the U.S., neither on the Hot 100 nor on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart, which today is known as the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, though it did become a hit in the UK, reaching no. 12 there.

The Super Fly album did even better than the single, topping both the Billboard 200 and the Soul charts (today known as Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums). In the UK, it climbed to a respectable no. 26. Here’s a great live version, which according to the clip’s information was captured at Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y., in November 1972. This is what cool sounds like. And pretty groovy! Plus, it nicely showcases Mayfield as a guitarist.

Wikipedia notes the bassline by Joseph “Lucky” Scott and the rototom percussion break from the intro performed by “Master” Henry Gibson (gotta love these artist names!) have repeatedly been sampled in songs, including Beastie Boys’ Egg Man, The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die Intro, Goldie Lookin Chain’s Pusherman and Nelly’s Tilt Ya Head Back featuring Christina Aguilera. Mayfield himself sampled the original song in Superfly 1990, a duet he recorded with rapper Ice-T.

Following are some additional insights on the tune and the movie from Songfacts:

This was originally an instrumental passage used in the 1972 movie Super Fly, but it ended up having a huge role in the film. It plays at the end of the movie after the drug-dealing lead character Priest takes a stand against the white deputy commissioner, telling him, “You don’t own me, pig!”

“It was a glorious moment for our people as blacks,” Mayfield told Q magazine. “Priest had a mind, he wanted to get out. For once, in spite of what he was doing, he got away. So there came ‘Superfly’ the song. He was trying to get over. We couldn’t be so proud of him dealing coke or using coke, but at least the man had a mind and he wasn’t just some ugly dead something in the streets after it was all over. He got out.” [I only know the soundtrack but haven’t seen the actual picture – CMM]

Mayfield, as a member of The Impressions, was a huge part of the ’60s civil rights movement thanks to songs like “People Get Ready” and “This Is My Country.” In the Super Fly film, he saw an opportunity to examine city life, and how drug culture affects African Americans. After seeing the screenplay, he jumped into the project and was given complete creative freedom. He wrote the songs to suit the scenes, but he made sure they could stand on their own, telling the stories even without the visuals. “Superfly” works very well outside of the film, as the character Mayfield describes could relate to anyone trying to survive and thrive under difficult circumstances.

Mayfield was working on the songs for the movie while it was shooting, and would often visit the set, bringing in demos so the cast and crew could hear how they would integrate into the film. He even appears in the movie, performing the song “Pusherman” in a bar scene.

This song popularized the word “fly,” which means unusual and exceptional, particularly when it comes to fashion. “Super Fly” is thus even better, and very high praise. In the film, the main character Priest wears some super fly clothes and also supplies drugs that give that feeling.

“Fly” was especially big in the late ’80s and early ’90s: Will Smith asked about the “fly honies” on his show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; the TV show In Living Color had a dance troupe called “The Fly Girls” (Jennifer Lopez was one of them); and Tone-Loc asked the question, “Why you so fly?” in “Funky Cold Medina.”

Super Fly was part of a movie genre known as “Blaxploitation.” When white people started leaving urban areas in the US for the suburbs, movie studios realized there was a large black audience near theaters, and began making films catering to them. Movies like Shaft and Foxy Brown were the result. Mayfield did the music for the 1988 film I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, which is a send-up of the genre.

Unless Sidney Poitier was in the film, there was little chance of seeing a nuanced black character in a movie around this time. Super Fly’s lead character appealed to Mayfield because he had a vivid backstory and was not just a stock drug dealer. In the song, Mayfield examines how he’s really doing what we all are: trying to get over.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube