The Sunday Six

Happy Sunday, and I hope you’re in the mood to accompany me on another zig-zag trip with the magical music time machine. As always, the journey shall include six stops in different decades, featuring music in different flavors. But this time, I’d like to shake things up a tiny bit. Let’s go!

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble/Lenny

Today, our first stop is June 1983, which saw the release of electric blues guitar virtuoso Stevie Ray Vaughan’s debut album Texas Flood. But don’t worry, I’m not gonna hit you over the head (yet) with some hard-charging Jimi Hendrix-style blues rock. Instead, we’re gonna do it nice and easy with a relaxing jazzy instrumental, Lenny, the album’s closer. Just listen to that brilliant guitar tone and you know why I love Vaughan as much as I do. He was backed by Tommy Shannon (bass) and Chris Layton (drums), who were known as Double Trouble. Initially, they were a five-piece (including SVR) Vaughan had formed in 1978, and after some line-up changes evolved into a power trio. Sadly, the career of Vaughan, one of the most talented guitarists I can think of, was tragically cut short in August 1990 when he died in a helicopter crash, along with the pilot and three other passengers on board.

Buzzcocks/Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)

Okay, time to wake up in case you nodded off during the previous track – now we’re gonna kick some butt! This next tune takes us to September 1978. That’s when English punk rockers Buzzcocks came out with their sophomore album Love Bites. And I’m not talking about some fast and loud music and screaming vocals by some guys who can barely play their instruments. This is punk with catchy pop hooks and decent vocals – in other words, my kind of punk! The Buzzcocks were formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriters Pete Shelley (vocals, guitar) and Howard Devoto (lead vocals). Devoto already departed after the release of the group’s debut EP Spiral Scratch (Jan 1977) to form Magazine, an early post-punk band. By the time Love Bites appeared, the remaining line-up of Buzzcocks included original members Steve Diggle (guitar, vocals), Steve Garvey (bass) and John Maher (drums). Buzzcocks who are still around have since seen multiple changes. Shelley remained until his death of a suspected heart attack in December 2018. Diggle is still around. To date, Buzzcocks have released 10 studio albums, most recently Sonics in the Soul, which came out in September 2022.

The Platters/The Great Pretender

If you’re a frequent reader of my blog or know my music taste otherwise, you’ve probably noticed I dig great singing. A lot! As such, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that I like certain vocal groups. One of the first such formations I heard are The Platters. I can’t quite remember whether it was Only You (And You Alone), their first hit single from July 1955, or the follow-on, which I decided to feature here. Released in November 1955, The Great Pretender became an even bigger chart success, their first single to top the U.S. pop charts. Written by Samuel “Buck” Ram, who also was a prominent music producer and arranger, The Great Pretender was a no. 1 in The Netherlands as well and reached no. 5 in each the UK and Belgium. Amazingly, a touring version of The Platters exists to this day, though none of their founders are still around. The one constant member from the group’s inception in 1952 until his death in 2012 was Herb Reed. And, sure enough, The Platters are on the road and have a pretty busy schedule throughout the year. So, let’s hear it for The Great Pretender – what a marvelous classic!

Nirvana/Smells Like Teen Spirit

Our next stop is the ’90s, the decade where I began to largely tune out from contemporary music unless it was by a band or artist I had started to follow in the late ’70s or ’80s. I realize this time and again when fellow bloggers post about ’90s music. There were a few notable exceptions – thank goodness! One I initially wasn’t crazy about were Nirvana. It took me a few times until I fully appreciated the brilliance of Smells Like Teen Spirit, the opener and lead single of their sophomore album Nevermind, released September 10 and September 24, 1991, respectively. The tune was primarily penned by frontman and main songwriter Kurt Cobain with inputs from the band’s bassist and drummer Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, respectively. The title was derived from the phrase “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit,” which his friend Kathleen Hanna, lead vocalist of punk band Bikini Kill, had written on his wall. Cobain thought it was some revolutionary slogan. However, Hanna referred to the deodorant Teen Spirit, which she and Cobain’s then-girlfriend Tobi Vail had discovered during a trip to the grocery store. The dynamic changes in this haunting tune are just incredible!

The Rolling Stones/Child of the Moon

We’re four stops into this trip and haven’t visited the ’60s yet. This must be corrected immediately by setting our music time machine to May 1968. On the 24th of that month, The Rolling Stones released Jumpin’ Jack Flash as a non-album single in the UK. It also came out in the U.S. one week later. Since it appeared, the Stones have played Jumpin’ Jack Flash during each of their tours – I mean, it’s a dynamite tune, so who can blame them! By comparison, I think it’s fair to say the single’s B-side, Child of the Moon, has largely remained obscure, even though it’s a great tune as well. It got my attention the other day when I came across the cool official video. As noted by ABKCO Music & Record when posting the clip on YouTube, Filmed in 1968, this surrealist promotional film features all five original band members and Emmy Award-winning actress Dame Eileen June Atkins. Shot on a farm near Enfield, outside north London, the eerie music video for “Child of the Moon” is an early example of the narrative approach, when the format was in its infancy, over a decade before the advent of MTV.

Artemis/Lights Away From Home

And once again, this brings us to the sixth and final stop. You may wonder what happened to the “usual jazz track”. I told you things would be a bit different this time, though my first pick by blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was jazzy. Here comes a second instrumental with a more traditional jazz sound, except it’s by a contemporary New York all-female sextet, Artemis, and it’s brand new. From their website: The brainchild of pianist and composer Renee Rosnes, Artemis is a powerful ensemble of modern masters. Named for the Greek goddess of the hunt, the multinational, multigenerational band was founded in 2017 under the banner of International Women’s Day. Artemis’ performance at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival was so dynamic, Blue Note Records President Don Was signed the group to the label. Tour dates across Europe and North America followed, including performances at such iconic stages as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, SFJAZZ, Chicago Orchestra Hall, as well as at the Detroit Jazz Festival, Saratoga Jazz Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival among others. Off their sophomore and new album In Real Time, which was released on May 5, here’s Lights Away From Home, a composition by the ensemble’s bassist Noriko Ueda. According to this review by Glide Magazine, this groovy track was inspired by watching a meteor shower. BTW, in addition to their involvement with Artemis, each of these six amazing ladies is leading their own band!

Of course, I won’t leave you without a link to a Spotify playlist featuring each of the above goodies. Hope you enjoyed our trip and will be back for more. And, who knows what may be in store next. Perhaps, I’ll throw in some yodel music! 🙂

Sources: Wikipedia; Artemis website; Glide Magazine; YouTube; Spotify

The Sunday Six

Welcome to another Sunday Six, my zig-zig music journeys featuring six seemingly random tunes from the past 70 years or so. This time, it’s mostly different flavors of rock, including smoking British Invasion rock, grungy alternative rock, groovy ’70s funk, more alternative rock, jazzy soft rock and pop rock. Let’s go!

The Animals/We Gotta Get Out of This Place

I’d like to start with the The Animals, one of my favorite ’60s bands that became part of the British Invasion. I’ve always loved their edgy blues rock-oriented sound and frontman Eric Burdon’s distinct deep vocals that perfectly fit their music. Undoubtedly, the group is best known for their rendition of the traditional The House of the Rising Sun. While I love that tune, there are so many other great songs. One of my favorites that is also one of their most popular tracks is We Gotta Get Out of This Place. Co-written by prominent U.S. songwriting duo Barry Mann and his wife Cynthia Weil, the tune initially was intended for The Righteous Brothers. After Mann got a record deal for himself, his label Red Bird Records wanted him to release the song. At the same time, hard-charging record executive Allen Klein had heard the track and handed a demo to Animals producer Mickie Most. The Animals ended up recording it before Mann could – perhaps they should have renamed it “We Gotta Get Out This Song!” We Gotta Get Out of This Place was first released as a single in the UK in July 1965, followed by the U.S. the next month. It also became the opener of the band’s third U.S. album Animal Tracks released in September of the same year.

Nirvana/Come As You Are

Let’s jump to the early ’90s next and Nirvana. Co-founded by lead vocalist and guitarist Curt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Wash. in 1987, the group was an acquired taste for me. Oftentimes, I still find it hard to digest their loud and dissonant music combined with depressing lyrics. But when I’m in the right mood, there’s just something about Nirvana. Come As You Are is a track from their sophomore album Nevermind from September 1991. The first record to feature drummer Dave Grohl, Nevermind enjoyed a surprising degree of mainstream success and was key in popularizing the Seattle grunge movement and alternative rock. Come As You Are, written by Cobain, also appeared separately as the album’s second single. While it didn’t match the chart success of Smells Like Teen Spirit, it still became one of the group’s most successful songs. It climbed to no. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to no. 27 in Canada, and placed within the top 20 mainstream charts of many European countries.

Curtis Mayfield/Super Fly

After that haunting Nirvana tune, I’m ready for something groovy, something funky. Something like Super Fly. Written by the amazing Curtis Mayfield, the tune is the title track of Mayfield’s third solo album that came out in July 1972. It’s also the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation crime drama picture of the same name. Together with What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, Super Fly is viewed as a pioneering soul concept album featuring then-unique socially aware lyrics about poverty, drug abuse, crime and prostitution. Both albums proved skeptical record executives wrong and became major commercial successes. For Mayfield, Super Fly also was the first of five soundtrack scores he wrote in the ’70s. In August 1990, Mayfield became paralyzed from the neck down when he was hit by stage lightening equipment while being introduced at an outdoor show in Brooklyn, New York. Sadly, that freak accident marked the start of a downward spiral in Mayfield’s health, which culminated in his death from diabetes complications at age of 57 in December 1999.

R.E.M./Orange Crush

Warning: Once you listen to the next tune, it might get stuck in your brain. And while with that crazy ongoing heat wave you might feel thirsty, it has nothing to do with the orange flavored soft drink. Orange Crush is a track off R.E.M.’s sixth studio album Green from November 1988. The title refers to Agent Orange, the horrific chemical used by the U.S. during the Vietnam war to defoliate the Vietnamese jungle. Songfacts explains that while R.E.M. lead vocalist Michael Stipe’s lyrics do not refer to a specific war-related experience, his father served in Vietnam as part of the helicopter corps. Like all other tracks on Green, Orange Crush was credited to all members of R.E.M., who apart from Stipe included Peter Buck (guitar, mandolin), Mike Mills (bass, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals) and Bill Berry (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The tune also appeared separately as the album’s lead single in December 1988, becoming R.E.M.’s then-most successful song on the UK Singles Chart where it peaked at no. 28. According to Wikipedia, Orange Crush wasn’t released as a commercial single in the U.S. But it became a promotional single and hit no. 1 on both Billboard’s Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock Tracks charts.

David Crosby/She’s Got to Be Somewhere

Yesterday, David Crosby turned 80 – wow! After all his past struggles with drugs and alcohol and even incarceration, I wonder whether he himself thought he would ever reach this milestone – well, I’m glad he did and wish him many happy returns! Of course, Crosby is best known as a co-founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, both groups I dig. In addition to appearing on their albums, Crosby has also had a solo career that started in February 1971 with the release of If I Could Only Remember My Name. But until 2014, his solo output was pretty uneven. The next album after his debut, Oh Yes I Can, came out in January 1989 and was followed by Thousand Roads in May 1993. Since 2014’s Croz, Crosby has been on a late stage career surge that has since seen the release of four additional albums. The most recent one, For Free, dropped just last month. My knowledge of Crosby’s solo work is pretty spotty. One of his albums I’ve listened to previously and reviewed here, is Sky Trails from September 2017. Here’s the opener She’s Got To Be Somewhere. And nope, even though it sounds like Donald Fagen could have written it, the tune was actually penned by James Raymond, Crosby’s son who has worked with his father since 1997, both on the road and in the studio. Crosby is a big Steely Dan fan. Fagen knows and even co-wrote a song for Crosby’s last album, Rodriguez for a Night.

George Harrison/All Things Must Pass

Yes, the time has come again to wrap up yet another Sunday Six installment. All Things Must Pass looks like an appropriate tune for the occasion. Apart from the fitting title, the pick is also inspired by the recent appearance of the massive 50th anniversary reissue of George Harrison’s third solo album from November 1970 and his first after the breakup of The Beatles. Frankly, I’ve yet to listen to it. The super deluxe format, which my streaming music provider offers, has 70 tracks. In addition to remixed songs of the original 3-LP album, it features numerous outtakes, jams and demos – altogether close to 4.5 hours of music! Anyway, let’s turn to the title track. I did not know that it was Billy Preston who first released the song as All Things (Must) Pass on his album Encouraging Words that appeared two months prior to Harrison’s record – nice version that’s here in case you’re curious! Also unbeknownst to be Preston included a great rendition of My Sweet Lord as well.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube