Archive for 'My Insipid Record Collection'

These days I listen mostly to Seattle’s fabulous radio station KEXP and if you are endlessly curious about music like I am, you run into absolute gems on this listener powered commercial free slice of musical heaven.  It’s what radio should sound like.  Their main DJs; John Richards, Cheryl Waters and Kevin Cole respectively, are what DJs should sound like.  Sharp, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, understated and normal.   Not a fake DJ voice in the bunch.  I envy the hell out of them to be honest.  I know they aren’t making a killing working at KEXP, but it’s not exactly breaking the rocks on the chain gang either.  They can play whatever they want as far as I can tell.  I think I have the most in common with the morning man, John Richards, as far as musical tastes go, but I love Cheryl and Kevin as well.  You know how you really only learn from folks who are smarter and more experienced than you?  That’s how I feel with these guys.  Normal programming at a Classic Rock station or an “Alternative” Rock station bores me these days.  Not because the music isn’t good; it’s more because I have to hear the same songs over and over.  I have zero patience for that.  I feel like I know about 99% of all the music played on those stations.  I can’t learn anything there.  It’s gotten so bad on one of the local Classic Rock stations that I can usually pick two out of the three songs in a given “Rock Block” before they even come on the air.  That is just plain sad.  No chance of that on KEXP.  I might know 40% of what they play.  That number might be a bit low, but it’s not that far off.  I absolutely adore KEXP as a result.  I grew up listening to New York’s WNEW-FM (102.7 Where Rock Lives) in the 70′s.  I worshipped that station.  There were plenty of good stations in the New York, Philadelphia, Connecticut market at that time; WPLJ in New York, WMMR in Philadelphia, WYSP in Philadelphia and WCCC in Hartford, CT were all great stations at one time or another.  Those days are over.

I know I talk about this a lot, but it has a direct impact on my listening habits.   Here in Boston, I listened to (1978-1987) and worked at (1982-1986) WBCN for about nine years straight.  It had it’s flaws, but it was still the best game in town.  WCOZ, the forerunner (although we didn’t really know it at the time) to Classic Rocker WZLX, had a unique thing going back in the early 80′s for a short time trying to combat the then free form WBCN.  It branded itself “Kick Ass Rock & Roll” as I remember.  But really what they did was boil the most popular songs of the 70′s down to 450 songs and sprinkle in some contemporary (gulp) music like Pat Benatar and Adam Ant.   Today it would sound tired, but back then it had its charm believe me.  WBCN made its bones by making sure it trumpeted the local music scene and that really served them well.  Within a couple of years WCOZ was gone and WBCN began a serious reign that lasted more than a decade.  I jumped off the bandwagon in 1987 when I discovered WFNX and so called “Alternative” Rock.  I was mad for bands like The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order, The The and Big Audio Dynamite (going to see them August 2nd…can’t wait).  I dropped WBCN, whom I stopped working for in 1986, like a hot potato.  I know I’m repeating myself a bit here, but I thought I was on top of the musical curve when I started listening to WFNX in 1987.  I rode the wave from The Manchester Sound through Grunge and, for a while there, even Industrial Rap Metal until I got so sick of it.  I’m a melody guy.  You could sing Blah, Blah, Blah (hello Iggy) and if the bed of music has me tapping my feet I’m sold.  With the exception of Nine Inch Nails and a handful of other bands, I don’t like unnecessary shout singing and distortion.  Distortion probably isn’t the right word because I’m a big Sonic Youth fan, love Neil Young and grew up on Jimi Hendrix.  In fact, I was listening to a band called Gravity Kills just last night.  They had an X Games driven hit called “Guilty” around 1996 if memory serves.  That sort of encapsulates what I mean when I talk about Industrial Rap Metal.   Great song, but back then I got very sick of it.

I guess what I’m trying to convey here is that, even as a middle aged man, I still love my new music.  I have SO many friends who barely listen to music anymore it sickens me.  And if they do, they’ll throw a potentially great party and the music is the very last thing on their agenda.   I have a friend who owns a hotel that has a bar in it.  It’s an upscale setting, but it’s mainly a bar and function room, not a restaurant.  There is no kitchen on the premises.  It’s in the heart of Boston with mega foot traffic.  I think the place is kind of soul-less myself, but I’m not the one with money at risk.  The hotel is constantly booked, but it’s the bar that fascinates me.  The place is wildly successful for a number of reasons; location, patio, open air in good weather, foot traffic, function room, bar staff and on and on.  The thing is the sound is awful in the place.   If the bar is full and the music isn’t on 11 you can’t hear anything.  And I won’t even go into what kind of music they insist on playing there.   If I had built the place I would have filled it with people first and then had someone do the sound.  It’s very thin, distant  and muffled in the bar in my opinion.  Good for my friend; it hasn’t deterred his regulars one iota.  The place does just fine without my two cents, but it’s indicative of what I call sound apathy.  Even though I’d love a forum to play only what I wanted to play, that’s not really it; the sound in some of these places is just plain neglected.   OK, I’m clearly rambling…

To refresh; my insatiable thirst for great music I’ve never been exposed to has me focused squarely on the UK’s The Kills.  This two man (sorry, person) band consists of American Singer Alison Mosshart (nicknamed VV for some reason, but it sounds sexy) and Jamie “Hotel”  Hince.  Mosshart was from Florida, at least before she moved to London, where Hince was, so they could begin a working relationship.  Because they are a two person band they are compared to The White Stripes in some circles, but The White Stripes at least had a drummer in Meg White.   The Kills have a drum machine.  Still, I’ve spent the last two days listening to all four of their records in full.   I have to say, I’m impressed.  I usually take my sweet time absorbing records and bands.  I might not figure out just how good a band is until many years later.  Now this might qualify as their first record was released in 2003, but believe me, I just found out about them maybe three days ago.  Now I’m hooked.  The White Stripes comparison is not where I’d go first.  I liken them to The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs.   I’m a huge fan of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.   I absolutely loved 2003′s Fever To Tell.  It has to rank in my top ten or twenty records from the oughts.  Alison Mosshart sounds a lot like Karen O of The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs to me.  I hope she doesn’t mind the comparison.  I love Karen O.  The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs are listing a bit these days, but I loved them for a good while there.   They even played on the common in Government Center several years back…for free…and I couldn’t find anyone to go with me.  That never stops me, but it does amaze me sometimes.

I’ve listened to 2003′s Keep On Your Mean Side, 2005′s Now Wow, 2008′s Midnight Boom and 2011′s Blood Pressures twice each over the last ten hours.   I’m really impressed.  I don’t think there is an awful song in the bunch.  In fact, they are remarkably consistent over these four CDs.  They are a touch Garage, a touch Punk, a touch PJ Harvey and, in my opinion, a nice blend of The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and The Velvet Underground.  Not a straight ballad in their whole catalogue.  My kind of band.  I’m definitely a big fan.  Check out, in particular, the song “Future Starts Slow” from their most recent release Blood Pressures.  It’s one of the best new tracks I’ve heard in months.  Just fantastic.  Thanks to KEXP’s Cheryl Waters for playing it the other day or I’d be blissfully unaware of The Kills.  The name of the band is not exactly one that makes it stand out, but it’s too late to worry about that now.  The Kills makes me think of a Punk band from the late 70′s.  That is not what they sound like.  I’m definitely going to go see them if they come around these parts any time soon.  I’m hip to them now.  You should be too.

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A Living Legend.  A National Treasure (who cares what Nation?).  A Game Changer.   There is nothing this humble blogger could write that hasn’t already been written, but that’s never stopped me before has it?  I don’t know if the folks who asked me to help promote a contest they are running for graphic artists around the world are going to see these records the way I see them, but this isn’t pay for play as they say in the world of market research.   As I understand it, designers are invited to submit graphic art that is supposed to have been inspired by the recently re-released 1970 McCartney I (Bowl of Cherries) and the McCartney II album released ten years later in 1980.  I always figured I’d get around to doing a Paul McCartney post, but I didn’t think it would go down this way.  For graphic artists this is a wonderful opportunity to get worldwide exposure.  Apparently Sir Paul will sign a lithograph of the winning entry, selected by him personally, and post some of the winning artist’s work on his web site.  More details below.

So, great for artist community, but I’m left to make comment on the music in question.   Before I begin let me just say; I’ve stated in the past that if I had to choose the best band of all time with a gun pointed at my head I would say The Beatles.   Honestly, probably without the gun, but many of our younger readers never really listened to every song on every album, nor did they care to.  The Beatles are more than likely your parent’s music.  The fact that they endured 40 plus years in the minds of the public is nothing short of astounding.   They are taking on the status of Mozart and (Roll Over) Beethoven.  As far as I’m concerned rightfully so, but there are many reasons for their fame that just won’t go away.   I just bought a copy of their Ed Sullivan shows on DVD recently.  Haven’t watched it yet, but I’ll get around to it.  In fact, I’ve got an unopened DVD copy of Anthology too.  I saw it on TV when it came out, but I bought it about three years ago at Christmas time when I was shopping for someone else and just put it on the shelf.  I know a friend of mine who bought the recently re-mastered Beatles catalogue as an investment for his 8 year old son.  Wouldn’t let the kid open the package!  I guess what I’m driving at is every five years or so somebody comes along and re-packages the whole Beatles Experience.  Been to Las Vegas lately?  Huge billboards trumpeting the Love show.  I drove into Boston for the about two years (it seemed) every day and looked up at a mammoth billboard of The Fab Four as Apple hawked their music coming to iTunes.  I saw Beatlemania as a kid.  I sold CDs in the mid 80′s when their music came to that format.  I read The Love You Make.  It just goes on and on.

When you break the kind of ground worldwide that The Beatles did and helped move Rock & Roll, played mostly at that time by African American artists like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard (give or take an Elvis Aaron Presley or Buddy Holly) into the mainstream, you’re bound to be remembered.   When you think of The British Invasion you think of The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks,  Small Faces, Donovan, Manfred Mann, Hermit’s Hermits, The Who, The Zombies, The Yardbirds and scores of others, but you don’t always think Beatles do you?  Guess who led the way?   That is why it kind of pains me to say what I have to say here.   Sponsors take cover; I’m happy to see that McCartney I is getting re-re-re-released, it was a fine record after all, but when I heard McCartney I & II I immediately thought Bowl of Cherries and 1971′s Ram.  I hate to keep apologizing before I write my next sentence, but the truth is my hero Paul McCartney went a bit soft in the late 70′s.  I followed Wings right up through 1978′s London Town, but as with the massively successful Wings at The Speed of Sound from 1976; the lead tracks were, well, “Silly Love Songs.”  “With a Little Luck” might as well have been “Ebony & Ivory” to me.  I had to move on.  Nothing to hear here.   Wings at The Speed of Sound still had the marvelous “Beware My Love” and “Time To Hide,” but by and large I didn’t feel those last three Wings records were must owns.  I sincerely apologize to Paul and his legions of fans post 1979, but there just didn’t seem to be any more monster tracks like “Let Me Roll It” or “Letting Go” in his bag of tricks.  Red Rose Speedway, Band On The Run and Venus & Mars were fantastic records all around.  But after 1979 I wanted to shout his own lyrics back at him; “What’s wrong with you!, I wish I knew, You say time will tell, I hope that’s true.”  Look, Paul always had a softer side to his compositions, but I felt he’d gone to far left of center.  It’s just my opinion; it doesn’t make me right.

McCartney II?  I didn’t even know it was called that honestly until today and I have what most would consider a massive collection.   “Coming Up” was a nice pop song by most standards, but it wasn’t enough to bring me back to the fold.  I had checked out.   1980 brought a slew of GREAT records and I only had so much money as a 20 year old kid.  I NEEDED The Pretenders debut, Joy Division’s Closer, Talking Head’s Remain in Light, David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), The Jam’s Sound Affects, Bruce Springsteen’s The River, Peter Gabriel III, Prince’s Dirty Mind, The Cure’s Boy’s Don’t Cry, U2′s Boy, AC/DC’s Back in Black, Squeeze’s Argy Bargy, The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta, The B-52′s Wild Planet, Dire Strait’s Making Movies, Pete Townshend’s Empty Glass, The Psychedelic Furs debut record, Steely Dan’s Gaucho, Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz, Genesis’ Duke, Billy Joel’s Glass Houses, X’s Los Angeles and Sousie & The Banshees Kaleidoscope.  Not to mention, gulp, John & Yoko’s Double Fantasy.   If I poke at my software, I guarantee I can produce another dozen must owns from 1980.  See where I’m going with this?   That doesn’t mean McCartney II can’t inspire great art.  Sorry for being a bit of a downer, but good luck to all the artists who enter the contest!

Editor’s Note: Apparently the graphics for the McCartney contest were just a bit too wide for a direct post here.  We’re going to have to make due with a link to the contest instead. The Giant Panther regrets any inconvenience.  Now a few McCartney numbers…

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Summer, Summer, Summer…it turns me upside down.  Well, not really.  I live in the Northeast, as I’ve said in the past, because I’m not that big on the heat.   A lot of folks love the summer weather.  Heck, half of them don’t even need air conditioning.  That’s definitely not me.  I don’t mind a good dip in the ocean, but I’m not going to work that hard to make that happen anymore.   Something about all these extra pounds I figure.  My friends go to Cape Cod almost every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day and I just can’t get motivated to skip two workouts, knife my way through what should be an hour and a half drive (it never is) and then be at the mercy of whatever the other 15 folks I’m meeting up with want to do (besides the obvious beach time).   It’s brutal sometimes.  If it rains, nobody has a plan.   That would be fine in and of itself, but everybody enjoys themselves at different levels.  I suppose I refer to alcohol intake.  The next day, some folks are not as, shall we say, as chipper as they could be.   You don’t want to be couped up and or wandering aimlessly with those folks when all they want to do is be at the beach with a drink in hand.  I think you know the type.

The beach is a place where a man can feel he’s the only soul in the world that’s real a famous musician once opined.   That’s a really vivid sentiment and it always stuck with me.  I guess what I’m trying to say is my crowd goes the beach in four wheel drive vehicles and they go where hardly any of the run of the mill public are allowed.   They line up ten to twenty vehicles side by side and enjoy the heck out of themselves all day and into the night.   BBQ’s, Horseshoes, whiffle ball, Frisbee, kite flying, beach golf (a drinking game) and all kinds of activities.  I guess there are two things I can’t do when I’m in that crowd; relax and read a book is one.  The other is to dream of not cock-tailing.  I know; it’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it (sing it like Faith No More).  The thing is, this is something I need to factor in before I take the plunge.  I have to participate in all the reindeer games…and explain why I haven’t been coming down every week like everybody else.  I could see myself retiring to The Cape, I really could, but I’m not big on the commute…at all.  And to do it on a long holiday weekend?  You’re just asking for trouble.  If you can leave on Wednesday night and come back on Tuesday morning, hey, no sweat, but most of us have jobs.  Nothing worse than being exhausted, hungover and sun-burnt on Monday morning.

I have to say, Summer in Boston, can be lovely.  For one thing, I get to remember what the female form actually looks like outside of gym clothing.   Women don’t sweat as a rule (it just seems that way to this sweathog I guess) so Summer is their time.   I keep hearing Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” in my head these days.  I know that makes me old, but I keep thinking of Bill Murray in Stripes.  I haven’t seen the movie in fifteen years I figure, but it doesn’t matter.  There she was just a walkin’down the street singing…in a city like Boston, New York or Chicago (where I just caught a couple of games at Wrigley Field), the scenery is never ending during this time of year.   Maybe it just seems that way because it’s cold nine months of the year in these parts.  Every Summer comes along and every year I say if I can just get through this year I’ll come back next year in much better shape.  I’ve been saying that to myself since I was 32.  Short of liposuction, it’s not going to happen.  I’ve adjusted my expectations (or squashed them altogether might be more accurate) and resigned myself to what is.  Most middle aged men look worse than I do.  I have no facts to back that up, but when I look around there are days when I feel pretty good.   Still, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in myself.   I stopped playing competitive softball (read fast pitch) about six years ago now.  I miss it some, but not the commitment.   Sounds ridiculous because you do an awful lot of standing around on a softball diamond, but it helped keep me in reasonable shape coupled with my daytime workout.   That daytime workout is now a real challenge due to a number of factors.  It all adds up to me not wanting to show myself at the beach.   How sad is that?   Don’t answer that.

Summer comes and goes around here in the wink of a young girl’s eye.  Man I’m pilfering everybody today huh?   The weather finally breaks to the point of it actually being hot (for me that is 75 degrees, but to most it’s probably closer to 85 degrees) around June 15th or so.  This year I think we’ve hit 90 maybe twice.  The nights are generally cool and the days are fairly manageable.   That’ll change soon, but for me it’s been a nice break from the norm.   The air conditioner at work is so good that I bring a windshirt to work and keep it in a drawer.  When it’s on it’s blowing right on me, which I normally wouldn’t mind, but there are times when it is just too much.  When it’s off though it takes me approximately 10 minutes before I wish it was on again.   At the end of the day Fall is my favorite season by far, but I realize I’m in the minority.   That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t like and understand the general vibe Summer brings to the masses.   Towards that end, with Fourth of July mere hours away, I’m posting some of my favorite Summer tracks for fun today.  I’m sorry I can’t post as often as I normally would like these days, but we’re still here and appreciate that you folks stop be every once in a while.  Enjoy.

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Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future…turn the way back machine to The Year of Our Lord 1978…see the spindly teenagers coming and going in and around the then three year old Voorhees High School in Glen Gardner, NJ.  I’m glad there aren’t too many photos of me from that day and age.  Suffice to say it wasn’t very pretty.  Come to think of it, the same could be said of the John Jay circa 2011.   What’s 33 years really?  I ask you.  I could have sworn this same sign was there in 1978, but maybe the parents of the class of 1993 decided to spruce it up a bit.  I remember not voting for the nickname “Vikings” as if there was another choice.  I think I was a Los Angeles Rams fan in the 70′s and as everyone who followed the NFL in the 70′s knows Bud Grant and the REAL Vikings (you know, the ones that played OUTDOORS) owned the Lambs, er, I mean Rams.  The NFL team from St Louis were considered Cardinals back when I actually cared about who won on Sunday.  Anyway, I think I voted for “Bruins.”  What a maroon as Bugs Bunny might say.  I’m glad I was overuled back then.  Still, My Old School is remembered alternately fondly and with regret.  I can’t imagine circling the grounds today.  I don’t go home, which has long vacated the high school’s region, on Thanksgiving so I don’t get pleasure of watching a damp, cold 7-6 mudfest in the rain against our arch rivals (take your pick…North Hunterdon Regional…the school from which Voorhees was spawned in 1976…or Hunterdon Central High School, which probably still pounds us silly to this day) on Turkey Day each year.  I haven’t stepped foot on campus since I graduated as far as I can remember.

I thought I’d post a few songs about school letting out today for fun and games.  I think most schools run into early June these days, but I don’t have any rug rats to verify.  Something about the mandatory number of days in class (did we have those?) and snow days might even have it running past this week for all I know.  What I can tell you is that when school let out it was a great feeling.   Take a look at the bird’s eye view of our “campus” above and you can see where trouble could be had with all that greenery.  We might have slipped into the pines for who knows what a few times, but don’t quote me.  See that baseball diamond over on the right?  Picture, in your mind’s eye if you can, playing endless sub .500 ball against bigger schools in questionable baseball weather.  I remember a school named Hightstown (NJ) brought a lefty into face us in 1977 and the guy might as well have been David Price (of the Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays…yeah I said it Prince of Darkness breath).  This kid mowed us down on one hit.  I remember our 3rd baseman, a kid named Doug Swick (sorry Doug if I’m butchering your last name all these years later), punched a single to LF so we could avoid total embarrassment as a team during an 11-0 whitewash.  It was a state tournament game so the one and done Vikings could head out on vacation right on time.  Ah, memories…

So, in fairness and with full disclosure, I saw Rolling Stone Magazine, after receiving an unwanted e-mail, was doing something similar this month so I thought, hey, I run a two bit blog, surely I can do that better than those flunkies.  So here we are.  Nothing beats Vincent Furnier’s “School’s Out” for an onset of summer anthem, but I have a few others I thought I’d toss into the mix.  Just for fun.  Happy Summer out there my young readers.  Hopefully they’ll be a heretofore unknown chestnut in here for you.  Now go out and find a Summer fling would ya?

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It’s been quite the struggle to post lately for me.  I copied my digital music library from my computer to an external hard drive and the process took nearly a week!  My computer is ancient so that might have something to do with it, but suffice to say there was a lot of music tripping through these wires this past week.  It’s just short of a terabyte now and I’m not really close to having everything from my library digitized.   I’m looking forward to having several copies in safe places and buying a new machine that can handle all this data.  I’m almost there, but in the meantime I just let the thing chug, day and night, until it finished.  If that didn’t crystalize for me how far behind the times I am nothing will.  This machine, a state of the art HP tower circa 2000, has performed very well considering the crap I put it through, but it wasn’t designed to manage a library of over 100,000 tracks.  I have a 21st century laptop from work, but this baby needs to be put out to pasture soon.  It could probably run another ten years without the burden of housing my library, but it’s reached the end of its usefulness for me.   It’s having a little trouble multi-tasking lately.  Poor old girl.  I’m pretty sure Norton Anti-virus running during idle time added to that long copy session, but once it started…

How about The Giant Panther surfacing after months of hibernation (post directly below)?  I get antsy if I haven’t posted in five days and he took something like 10 months off!  Nice.  Quite the brand we have here huh?  Some old codger droning on about childhood Classic Rock and an Indie freak who barely posts.   We rule huh?   I’ve had countless bursts of ”I’m going to post about X” moments over the past nine months only to have them slip through the cracks.  If you don’t write things down, the idea just disintegrates without a trace.  I don’t know if this post is going to qualify as earth shattering, but I thought I’d have a little fun with it.   Today we are identifying the best songs about each day of the week.  Or at least my favorites.   Here goes nothing…

When I did a search for Monday, my database turned up a reasonable amount of fun stuff, but I realized it might be harder than it sounds to pick just three per day.  I found out later, and so will you, that some of these days have pretty weak followings.  Monday, traditionally a day most folks dread, had it’s share of reasonably good drops from my point of view.  I think I’ve passed along my slight Duran Duran fetish, which totally against my normal Rock status quo, but I had to leave “New Moon On Monday” behind.  The Mamas and The Papas “Monday, Monday” is an all time classic, but I didn’t think it made the cut either.   Bob Geldoff and The Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” isn’t very uplifting and I was never sure how much I actually liked that track anyway so it too hits the cutting room floor.  “Rainy Days & Mondays” by The Carpenters?  I think not.  Porbably my favorite Monday song is “Monday” by The Jam, but I’ve posted that one before so I’m not going there either.  I decided to pass on “Monday” by Wilco and “Manic Monday” by The Bangles too.   Here is what was left.  Not shockers and not very risky, but Monday is a get through day right?

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I honestly thought there’d be more for Tuesday.  It’s a pretty non-descript day for sure, but you have to figure in the history of Rock there’d be some more activity.  I remember, as I date myself yet again, that there was a frightening beautiful woman named Tuesday Weld who used to turn up in movies like Looking For Mr Goodbar (1977) and had guest appearances in various TV shows I would watch as kid.  I used to think being named Tuesday was wicked cool.  I guess I still do.   If you were buying records in the 90′s you might remember her picture on the cover of Matthew Sweet’s fantastic 1991 CD Girlfriend.  Seems he had the same regard for her that I did.  She’s still with us by the way at 67 years young.   My search for Tuesday brought back six measly tracks.   I eliminated two solid, but not great tracks in Badfinger’s “Sweet Tuesday Morning” and The Cowboy Junkies’ “Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning” and had to make a hard decision.  Know what?  Screw it, Tuesday gets four songs…

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It gets pretty bad from here on out until the big weekend.  Hump Day produced four songs. Four!  That’s awful.  The sad thing is I don’t even really know them all.   What would Wednesday from The Adams Family think?  She’s gotta be around my age.  I just looked her up.  Lisa Loring, born February 16, 1958.  OK she’s got a couple of years on me, but she looks so young!   John Frusciante, ex of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame, apparently has a song called “Wednesday’s Song,” but I have yet to upload that CD to my hard drive so it’s not going to happen today.   Sorry John.   I’m posting a song called “Wednesday Week” by The Undertones, but I’m not at all familiar with it.  Mighty slim pickings I’m afraid.  I’m not very consistent here, but wait until you get a load of Thirsty Thursday.   Whoa.

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Thursday is absolute disgrace.  C’mon people!  I don’t write the songs, but Thursday is one of the coolest days of the week by far.  I’ve always been a big Thursday guy.  I saw The reformed Cars this past Thursday at Boston’s House of Blues and The Good Times were Rolling.  All the local gadflies were there.  I know because I’m one those hangers on myself.  Although I admitted as much to myself in 1985 so I’m OK with it.  I’m might be carrying a few extra lbs, but I was looking good the other night.  Oh yeah.  1978 was a mighty long time ago my friends.   Bet your Bottom Dollar.  But Thursday is just the best day of the week sometimes.  You only have one more work day to get through and you can feel the weekend coming on like a freight train.  As far as finding any good rockin’ Thursday tracks I really struggled.  Thankfully there is one outstanding track by Morphine to post so it’s not a total wash, but man…Thursday deserves so much better…here’s the sum total of my Thursday search…

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You’d have thought Friday would have unleashed a torrent of School’s Out/Here Comes The Weekend ditties to choose from.  You’d be wrong.  I have three plus songs to post, no problem there, but there weren’t a ton of songs to eliminate to be honest.  I love The Cure, but “Friday I’m in Love” has never been one of my favorites by them.  Not even close.  Sorry Robert.  Obscure tracks by Atomic Rooster, Alvin Youngblood Hart (love that guy), The Darkness and The Click Five were easily eliminated.  Replacement spinoffs Bash & Pop even had a track called “Friday Night (is killing me),” but I had better choices.   That leaves me with the following five tracks.  Did I say three earlier?  I meant five…

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Saturday, predictably, had the most juice.  I’m not going to name all the songs that qualified because there were in the neighborhood of 40, but there were some tough omissions.  “One More Saturday Night” was never one of my favorite Grateful Dead tracks and I’m an out of the closet Deadhead I suppose.  You can call me all the names you want, but I was not leaving Chicago’s “Saturday in The Park” behind.   I know I’ve talked about Peter Cetera led Chicago in the past, but love ‘em or hate ‘em, Chicago was a huge part of the fabric of the 70′s.  I absolutely love half a dozen Chicago tracks to this day.  I’ve never seen them live and I’ve never been much of a Jazz Rock buff, but can you imagine if Chicago only released ten records instead of thirty?  I’m sure they’re in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame without checking, but if they aren’t they should be.  I had my share of choices here, but these are probably my personal favorite Saturday songs.  I’m sorry I doubled up on two artists, but the earlier days of the week were kind of weak and there isn’t much of a choice when you match up Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Saturday Night Special” and Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.”  The competition seems kind of pedestrian next to these titans of Saturday.  I was shocked to find out (not) that I didn’t have a copy of The Bay City Rollers’ spelling bee that corresponds to this day of the week.   

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Sunday, or Funday as the kids call it these days, is a day I try to avoid heavy partying.  I hate to see the week kick off with a hangover.  I remember a friend of mine’s wife asked me to put together a CD that only had songs about Sunday.  It took me a month or two to get around to it, but I finally did it and sent it to her.   Sunday has the most cool tunes surrounding it in case you were wondering.  I’m going to post as many as I feel like right here and now.   Today is Sunday now that I think of it.   I remember Alice Cooper named checked a guy named Billy Sunday in his song “Department of Youth” from 1975′s Welcome To My Nightmare.   Sunday was a Preacher and former NL baseball player in the 1880′s.   All these years and I never bothered to look it up.   Sunday has everything you’d want in a day songwise.  Some moldy oldies, some one hit wonders, some epic tracks and some classics.  I couldn’t possibly get to them all, but here are a few of my favorite weekenders for fun and games…Sunday Will Never Be The Same…

 

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So that’s a wrap.  We’ll finish it with the title track to my post.  Happy Memorial Day.  Thanks again to all the families who ended up making the ultimate sacrifice.

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Tomorrow is Monday.  Start you’re own list… 

For those of you who know nothing about Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes other than singles like “Trapped Again” and “The Fever,” Southside Johnny is/was a great Soul influenced band that more or less peaked by 1980.  They still tour to this day, but folks who don’t know anything about Southside Johnny are missing out.  They are from New Jersey (full disclosure; so am I) and for that reason they toiled in the legendary Bruce Springsteen’s shadow, but they have an awful lot of really great tracks that nobody knows.  You heard me right too; great was the operative word.   They were a very good bar band that sort of made the leap to regional fame, but never really to national fame.  It was easy to confuse them with Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes if you had never really heard either band’s music.  I think most people think of them as something on the level of John Cafferty &  The Beaver Brown Band.  That’s a real shame.  Next stop The Commitments I suppose.  No offense to those other bands intended, but Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes were really very good.  Don’t quote me, but but I think the last time I heard them, notice I didn’t say saw them, was outside of  The South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, MA maybe four years back.  I’m totally guessing, but I remember sitting about 30 yards away sitting in my car in the parking lot listening to them warm up Robert Cray or Little Feat.  I had arrived fairly late, for me anyway, and I felt like enjoying  a couple of beers in the car that nobody was whacking me $9.50 for.   THE SSMC is a great venue in case you’ve never been.  I don’t know what capacity is, but it feels like 750.  It’s buried among a bunch of tall pine trees in a picturesque New England South Shore community about 15 minutes from the beach.  It’s a pain in the neck to drive down to from Boston; better give yourself an hour even if traffic cooperates, which it almost never does.  I guess my point is I never even bothered to go in and actually see SSJ.  I just listened from my car.

I’m actually unclear how many times I have seen SSJ.  I seem to recall catching them at The Channel (R.I.P.) in Boston maybe 25 years ago, but I can’t find any proof.   That doesn’t mean I wasn’t there, but I usually have my ticket stubs…althought it could be taped to one of my old albums.  That’s what I used to do before I stuffed them in the back of the jewel box of CDs.  It’s much neater and cleaner these days.  Although it’s murder trying to tack one of those print at home tickets (e-tickets I guess they call them) to an MP3 file.   I felt bad about not going into see Southside, but I wasn’t expecting much to be honest.  I have no idea if any of the members are original or whatever, but I lost interest in them years ago.  I’m sure they have released some good records since 1980, but I don’t own any of them.   I can tell you I really enjoyed their output between 1976-1980.   I never saw them at the fabled Stone Pony in Asbury Park or anything, but I couldn’t really tell the difference between Southside Johnny and other artists back then.  I didn’t know they were a fledgling bar band trying to escape The Boss’s shadow.  I didn’t know Steven Van Zandt wrote their signature song “I Don’t Want To Go Home.”  I only knew they were played on the radio and that my roommates back then, Tim & Steve from Wilton, CT loved them.  So did another roommate named Richard I lived with after those two.  I knew Southside Johnny (John Lyon) didn’t write “The Fever,” but he made that Springsteen song his own in a big way.  I also didn’t really understand that they were more or less propped up musically by Bruce and his band for a time.  I’m sure John Lyon doesn’t feel like that at all; after all he’s the one he toured his brains out and made it work, but that is sort of the public perception unfortunately.

I know we in the Northeast had ten times the exposure to Southside Johnny than the rest of country did, but no matter who wrote what material they did a great job of performing the songs.  “Trapped Again,” written by Bruce Springsteen, John Lyon & Steven Van Zandt remains a brilliant track.   It had he feel of those old songs from the Stax era like Jean Knight’s “Mr Big Stuff” or The Staple Singers “I’ll Take You There.” Those songs still sound flat awesome to these ears all these years later. “Trapped Again,” with all the horns and urgency sounds, well, very much like Bruce Springsteen.   Not such a bad thing, except when you are trying to stand on your own.  Still, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes had three solid, if unspectacular, LPs in 1976′s I Don’t Want To Go Home, 1977′s This Time It’s For Real and 1978′s Hearts of Stone before being dropped by their label.   Even with the backing of the mighty Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes just couldn’t seem to take off.   In 1979, it’s record company, Columbia Records, pulled the plug on them.  Picked up by Mercury Records shortly thereafter, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes released two very good records almost nobody heard in 1979′s The Jukes and 1980′s Love is a Sacrifice.   One thing nobody who saw them could deny is that they put on a good show.   There were a handful of good bands with prominent horn sections in those days like Tower of Power and Chicago to name a couple and people genuinely loved the mix of horns and Rock or Pop music as far as I could tell.   I know I did.  Should I try to do some more…25 or 6 To 4…know what I’m saying?  In 1981 Southside Johnny chronicled their live prowess with an album called Reach Up and Touch The Sky, but even though they went on to release several more records with different iterations of the band, that ended an era right then and there.   Still, I’ve always been a fan.

I only thought of Southside Johnny yesterday because I was listening to Graham Parker in my car.   I know what you are thinking; what do these two artists have in common?  Well, actually it was horns that triggered my SSJ flashback.   The horns were in Graham Parker tunes like ”Heat Treatment” and they got me to thinking about Southside Johnny for some reason.   That’s how I listen to music sometimes these days.  I hear a sound, think of another band and off I go.  I was watching that Springsteen Rockumentary about the making of Darkness On The Edge of Town a couple of months ago and Steven Van Zandt (Little Stevie of East Street Band and Sopranos fame) was talking about how he loved old Soul, Motown and Doo-Wop.  It definitely dates those of us who agree with him, but I was watching a baseball game just now and in between innings The Foundations “Build Me Up Buttercup” was playing in the ballpark while the announcers were talking.  One announcer was making fun of the other one for digging the track so much.  I thought that was amusing for what it’s worth.  I’m trying to think of comparables for Southside, but while I’m sure there are many if I just took the time to comb my collection, it’s hard to think of one for the moment.  I mentioned Beaver Brown & The Commitments earlier, both bands seem kind of fictional to me even though I realize they weren’t.  Southside Johnny was (I say “was” because I’m referring to a band from a five year span in the late 70′s as opposed to a band that just won’t die…and I mean that with all due respect)  a real live touring machine that just couldn’t get over the hump.  Beaver Brown seemed to swoop in with two mid 80′s hits called “The Dark Side” and “Tender Years” with almost no nation wide history.   It’s like they had no social security number.  The former was a quasi rocker and the latter was a sappy ballad.  Much better songs that I had first wanted to give them credit for, but what else did they do exactly?  “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” as Dada once said…

I know many of you don’t get or care about Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, but that’s precisely why I posted about them.  Scores of bands are every bit as good as Southside Johnny, but never got as far as they did.  Yes it was extremely helpful to have Bruce Springsteen as a song benefactor, but these guys were highly entertaining and I still love listening to their music every so often.   Part of that is the Jersey connection, I have no doubt, but I always felt, under different circumstances, they could have made some real coin.   Don’t get wrong, I’m sure they are much more well off than I am, but for all their hard work I wonder if they play the what if game themselves.  The music business is wild now; how do artists even make it today?  I loved those big old album covers that did much of the advertising for a given artist.  They were like mini billboards.  And you could actually read them.   If you carried them under your arm, people could see and identify them.  Now?  Invisible MP3s dominate the landscape.  That doesn’t take into account radio formats, the lack of risk taking among the record labels left and the fact that bands are breaking up because nobody is signing them to big advances anymore.   Even with record moguls ripping off even the best bands back in the 60′s and 70′s there was so much money flowing bands could still get rich.  Now you either tour full time or you are as good as Coldplay.   It’s why I buy CDs at every small show I go to even if I never listen to them.  It just seems like the right thing to do.   As for Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, they had their day in the sun even if things didn’t work out exactly as they would have liked.  They still have fans out there like me who still listen to their records.  That’s gotta count for something doesn’t it?  Next time I get the chance to see them, if I do, I’ll make sure I go inside the venue out of respect.

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Buy or Download The Best of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes From Amazon Here.

As I was combing through the archives looking for a long forgotten band to feature, I came across my two Ned’s Atomic Dustbin CDs.  If you’ve never heard of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin you are not alone.   They were popular in the UK mostly between 1990 and 1993.  Over here in the good ol’ US of A they were played on Alternative Rock stations like WFNX Lynn-Boston here in the Northeast.  It’s almost like they were somewhat of a buzz band.  They never seemed to actually establish their own sound and identity, but when I think back on that precious era of The Reading/Manchester sound vs The Grunge of Seattle, I think what we all liked best about them was that they sounded like all the other bands at that time.  I don’t mean to denigrate NAD or anyone else, but it seemed like if you were listening to Oasis, Blur, Electronic, Happy Mondays, The London Suede, what was left of New Order, Inspiral Carpets, The Stone Roses, Depeche Mode, The Chameleons UK, The Charlatans UK, Joy Division, The La’s, Pavement, Jesus Jones, The Smiths, The Durutti Column or The Fall, as I was, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin found its way into your CD collection.   In those days, as I’ve said more than once here, I was into making mixed tapes for the beach or house parties.  If a band showed me something, like Smashing Pumpkins did on 1991′s Gish, I would steal a few tracks, throw it on the pile and move on to the next great sound.   I was buying CDs at the rate of roughly 115 per year in those days (or so says my software).   Many of them were used and bought out of calendar year, so to speak, but that gives you an idea of my cosumption rate.  It was ferocious.   Not much has changed I’m afraid, all these years later, but getting to every last track on some of these CDs can be a pipe dream.  I had to relearn my Ned’s Atomic Dustbin CDs this past week.  It’s kind of amazing, but you can throw an old record in front of me to this day and if I’ve handled it at all, I can pick out the three to five tracks that either were played on the radio or should have been.   Such was the case when I grabbed my two Ned’s Atomic Dustbin CDs the other day.   And no, I didn’t play every song to figure it out first.

The NAD story, according to our good friends a Wikipedia, began in 1987 or so in an English town called Stourbridge.  Taking their name from the name of an episode on The Goon Show, apparently a comedy show broadcast by the BBC, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin set itself apart by employing two bass players.   You don’t see that much anymore that’s for sure.  I guess I will have to apologize for suggesting these guys didn’t have their own sound, but as you can tell I’m not a musician.  I didn’t notice they had two bass players.   Some Rock Critic I am huh?  I’m no Rock Critic to be sure.  I just know what I like and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin passed my smell test.   Have I reached for 1991′s God Fodder in fifteen years?  Probably not, but when I played “Grey Cell Green” to refresh my memory it all came rushing back.  I gravitated to “Happy” right away thinking I was either confusing it with a song (or album) by Public Image Limited or I knew the track.  I knew the track.   It was a good one.  Still, the early 90′s whistled by an awful lot music fans.  The radical change from stuff like Sinead O’Connor, Big Audio Dynamite and a lot of the dance rock music that dotted the late 80′s morphed into Ecstacy fueled house to Grunge so fast it made your head spin.  Personally I love it.  I know you all think I’m Classic Rock mad, but I’ve always been interested in the trends in music.  To me, Popular Music is Top 40.  I outgrew Top 40 in 1969.  Give or take massive hits like “The Macarena” or “Like a Virgin” or “Oops, I Did It Again” I frequently don’t hear a note of really famous artists.   Mariah Carey is one.  Alicia Keys is another.  Nora Jones would be another.  I see the names on the charts, but that stuff isn’t for me.  R&B for me is Al Green, Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye.   I’m not a snob about it, but I just don’t groove in bars that play that stuff exclusively.  To that crowd, Journey’s ”Don’t Stop Believing” or Bon Jovi’s ”Livin’ On a Prayer” are rock songs.  Ah, no.  I cringe when I hear those tunes coming.  That doesn’t make me right, but it is my opinion.  And for the record give me Journey over Bon Jovi.  Not that there’s much of a decision to be made there.

I guess the point I started trying to make here is that Ned’s Atomic Dustbin never really got over the hump.  They were good, very good, but not really great.   I hear tell they are reunited these days.   That is cool.  I hope they do well.   I never even made it to their third major label release called BrianBloodVolume in 1995.  After 1992′s Are You Normal? had at least one radio friendly track in “Not Sleeping Around,” but it took NAD another three years to put out another record.  By then Pearl Jam ruled the world, Nirvana had come and gone and life had changed.   The Neds and their skateboarding, crowd surfing, slacker audience were old news.  As I read more of their Wikipedia entry just now there are more comments about their sound being something totally different.  I guess I didn’t hear it that way when they were being played on the radio.  I liked their sound, no doubt, but I didn’t consider it to be anything that unusual.   Maybe I should re-consider, but not just yet.  I’ll have to bring them to work with me tomorrow and listen in the car.   In any event I just felt like talking about The Neds today leaving you with some of their music.  I hope they are in the process of making more great records.  I might have to go back and find BrianBloodVolume and look into their new stuff if I hear something I like.  I’m not above being wrong…again…enjoy.  And try not to think about their Bay City Rollers cover.

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Buy or Download Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s God Fodder From Amazon here.

Depending on your point of view,  England’s Tears For Fears were either great or a band that was played so often on the radio that you can barely stand to hear them anymore.  I can tell you I was in the latter camp for quite awhile, but I’ve made it back to the former with the passing of the years.   Somebody handed me a copy of 1983′s The Hurting around the same time as 1985′s Songs From The Big Chair hit the charts.  I remember hearing “Change” from The Hurting off and on at WBCN, but I was floored when “Shout” from Songs From The Big Chair hit the airwaves.  I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard…until I heard it three times a day for the next nine months.   I still think it’s a good tune, but it’s not my favorite Tears For Fears song.  Tears For Fears just blew through Boston about three months ago.  Was I there?  No.  I have no doubt I would have enjoyed it immensely, but I either didn’t hear about it in time, highly doubtful if you know me, or I just plain didn’t prioritize the show.  I’m sure it was on a Monday night or some such thing, but I regret not catching the show.  I’ll live of course, but sometimes you just feel like it could be the final time…not in the way The Cure was done twice or The Who was done about seven times.   When was the last time they came through Boston?  A decade?  We’re all getting old.  I’m sure Ziggy will present himself one of these days even though David claims he’s done with that persona.  When he does I’ll be there even though I’ve been there several time before.  It’s ritual de lo habitual to coin a phrase.

So, I’ve been totally slacking around here lately, but it’s nothing compared to somebody named Giant.   I don’t know if the Ground Hog saw his shadow or if hibernation has been extended for the Panther, but I’m naked.  No cover.  It’s me or nothing.   Well, since my OMD outing about twelve days ago now, I’ve turned another year older, torched an NCAA bracket, took in some spring training baseball (on TV unfortunately), celebrated the Irish Holy Day and worked my ass off.   What?  You didn’t know Jay was an Irish name.  Silly rabbit.  I just can’t seem to find time to blog lately.  It’s been brutal.  I worked from 9 to 7 today, commuted home, changed clothes, jammed the equivalent of a TV dinner home and sat right back down at another computer determined to make good on my own internal promise.   I missed several Rock Star Birthdays during my absence, but they’ll be there next year.  Remember me telling about digitizing my catalogue?  Sometimes it gets done by virtue of a post.  I can’t go to press with inferior sound quality.  I’m too much of a perfectionist.  So I whipped through the big three Tears For Fears records before I began.  Oops, lost another hour there.   It’s 10 PM as I begin writing.  I might not get to bed until 1 AM, but that’s par for the course.  The problem is I won’t have an or so flat on my back to give it a rest.  Did you know that backs don’t care for sitting 12-14 hours a day for months on end?  Especially backs desperately in need of a good sports massage on a regular basis.  My chiropractor would flip if she knew how much pain I’m regularly in.  I don’t even notice the difference anymore.   As long as my disk isn’t bothering me I can get through all kinds of tightly wound muscular trauma.   Not very Rock & Roll is it?  I came to say something and down yet another rat hole I go…

Tears For Fears had a lot more great songs than the average listener will ever know.   The funny thing is it’s hard to tell the  “B” cuts from the “A” cuts when you get down to it.  I’m going to guess that most folks have heard “Change, Head Over Heels, Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Sowing The Seeds of Love.”  If you don’t own a greatest hits package, you probably aren’t too aware of “The Hurting, Mad World, Pale Shelter, Mothers Talk and Suffer The Children.”  I didn’t follow Tears For Fears after the 80′s ended.  MAN that seems like a long time ago now.   1989′s Sowing The Seeds of Love seemed a wee bit commercial for me, but even though I tried like hell not to like it the truth is I do.  I’m going to have to spend some time with their post 80′s output and add to this post some day, but as far as the two man partnership that represented the bulk of 80′s Tears For Fears, it was over after they sowed the seeds of love so to speak.  Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith parted company in 1991and Orzabal became a party of one with side musicians.   I understand they soldiered on some, but for a band once so huge, you hardly heard their name again after 1990 or so.  It’s almost just as well.  Their three records were 80′s mainstays.  22 million records sold all told according to our good friends at Wikipedia.   Sound about right.  I provided Tears For Fears with tons of cover, the way I bought, and still buy, records, but the radio just leaned on their five or six singles until most of us just couldn’t take it anymore.  Those in the know though understood there was more to Tears For Fears besides a cool band name and six great songs.  These guys were standouts in an era that wanted its MTV.   The Thomas Dolby’s and The Thompson Twin types all seemed to blend together to a degree.  It’s not a slight on any of these acts; it was just the times.  A pretty face could bank a career on one song and it might have an expiration date of 1000 listens.  No matter, on to the next video.   It really seems wild to me now, what with Jersey Shore and all kinds of garbage so called Reality TV programming clogging up the once mighty hit making video channel.   Duran Duran has got to be taking this pretty hard.

There isn’t much else to add about Tears For Fears.  Smith and Orzabal met as teenagers, became competent session men, had a few false starts in different bands, struck out on their own, got signed to Phonogram Records in 1981 and the rest is history.   Make no mistake; The Hurting and Songs From The Big Chair were fantastic records and turned these two men into international superstars in the space of about three years.  It’s kind of cool, but I’ll bet it was plenty scary too.   The pressure to repeat great records has got to be unbelievable.  I can’t even write a lousy post and some bands kick out great music for dozens of records.   I wouldn’t have cared if Tears For Fears just cut three records and called it a day.   I would still remember them.   They have a place in My Insipid Record Collection.   Enjoy.

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Buy or Download Tears Roll Down, Greatest Hits ’82-’92 From Amazon Here.

I was plugging along at the gym this afternoon, you know, maintaining my (I’m wild about my Jelly, ’bout my sweet) Jelly Roll (Blues), and my Sony iPod like device began to blare the song “Wrong” by School of Fish.  I was absolutely digging this tune.  I have about 1600 or so songs on this particular device and they play alphabetically.  “W” comes up about every five months now I’m working out an embarrassing two days a week until I feel comfortable that I’ve built a business I can rely on.  I’m in sales and all we do, at this level, is stress our brains out until the ink is dry on the signature.  Those of you who are in this game know just what I’m talking about.  The money is good, no doubt, but I would think playing CF for the New York Yankees would be more enjoyable in terms of pressure.  As a consequence, working out is on the back burner.  Instead of running through 75 songs a week at the gym I’m barely getting through 30.  I’m not fat, but I’m definitely not thin…which of course means I’m fat by definition.   At my advanced age and after all the crap I’ve put my body through; all the Buffalo wings, the pizza, the meatball subs, the cream cheese, the sugar in my coffee, my love of condiments, the alcohol and everything else that I’ve done since I was a rail thin 145 lbs in 1982 it doesn’t look real promising for our hero.   Maybe I should take up cigarettes huh?  I would have done a lot better in the Rubenesque Age.   I’d have probably be too thin for those women though.   Tell you what though; I’m going to battle until the end of my days on this front.   It ain’t over ’til it’s over right Yogi?…

Where was I?  Oh yeah, School of Fish.   On April Fool’s Day 1991, School of Fish released it’s debut CD just called School of Fish.  The first song was a quasi two parter called Intro/3 Strange Days.  I was instantly attracted to this song.  It had angst, confusion, dull observation and it told a story that made absolutely no sense unless it was a reference to a three day drug induced fog.  Know what?  Johnny Clueless (Hey!  That’s me!…or maybe the singer’s self named alter ego representing his irresponsible side) was there with his simulated wood grain (alcohol?) so how bad could it have been?  I’m not much for acid or “trips” so I can’t really relate other than to say I’ve misplaced a few hours in my own life.  Trouble is, not only can’t I get them back, I probably wouldn’t have felt much like writing about it after I regained consciousness.  Whatever School of Fish’s vision for this song it kicked my ass all over the road.  It gets played on our local Alternative Rock station on a program called “Leftover Lunch” about once every six months.  But don’t try getting through a week without hearing “Girls On Film” by Duran Duran or worse, something like “True” by Spandau Ballet.  Geesh.  What happened to the Rock in Alternative Rock?  “3 Strange Days” was a fantastic Alternative Rock song and should be remembered as such.   When I hear it come on the radio or see while I’m trolling through my jukebox software I instantly reach for the volume circa 11.   As 90′s one hit wonder songs go, “3 Strange Days” is right up there at the very top in my book.   I bought the record without hesitation.

School of Fish was basically a duo, Josh Clayton-Felt and Michael Ward, accompanied by a drum machine and a pre-programmed bass machine.  They eventually had real live performers at some point, but they were transient at best.   They set up shop in Los Angeles and made a name for themselves.   Capitol Records took a shot at them and their debut CD sold very well thanks to folks like me.  Their second CD, 1993′s Human Cannonball, tanked and the band was done by 1994.  They had been together maybe five years.  Josh Clayton-Felt tried to make a go of it as a solo artist, but he was dropped by his label almost immediately.  His story unraveled even further when he was diagnosed with inoperable testicular cancer.  He passed away in the year 2000 at a disgustingly young age.  Problem is our friends at Wikipedia say he was born May 18, 1976 and died January 19, 2000.  My math isn’t so hot, but since they say he died at 32, I’m guessing May 18, 1967 was his real birth date.   Whatever the case, Josh has a hand in at least three greats tunes by my count.  That’s three more than I’ll ever write.  I’m getting an education about writing songs by reading the Keith Richards’ bio that just came out.   It’s more interesting than I ever dreamed it would be, but as I’ve noted in the past, I’m not exactly unbiased with my love of The Rolling Stones.   Still, the Richards book is excellent reading if you are so inclined.

Michael Ward, Clayton’s partner in crime for a time, went on to play with John Hiatt, an artist I absolutely love, and The Wallflowers, who had their moments in the sun despite the expectations of having the legendary Bob Dylan’s offspring in the band.   Not much else is known about School of Fish, but frankly, that adds to the mystery of why they never really got over the hump.  Sometimes over analyzing moments in time like these can kill the spirit of what took place.  I’d take these guys over a ton of so called hot bands that have materialized since.  It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on 20 years since their first record came out.  Pretty soon it’ll be 3 Strange Decades if we don’t mark the time.  I’m leaving you with their three biggest “hits” and great three hit wonder fodder for your iPods.  Enjoy.

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Buy or Download School of Fish From Amazon Here.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 29 years since the date (October 20, 1981) Dare! was released.  I know it’s really easy to say that The Human League were nobodies with questionable talent, but I’m not one of those people.  I really enjoyed this synth pop record.  Everybody knows “Don’t You Want Me” and that is a credit to a massively catchy tune, but the Human League were not a one hit wonder band in my humble opinion.  I’m sure you will see this song on One Hit Wonder compilations, and that’s quasi fair I suppose, but I was a fan.

I remember working my shift at T.G.I. Fridays on Newbury Street in the winter of 1981 and a bunch of us heading to someone’s cheap apartment in The Fenway.  I was hanging around with a lot of wait staff (I was a cook) and a lot of them were upwardly mobile.  Some were DJ’s at WZBC (Boston College) or at WMBR (MIT) and they were always on the cusp of what was floating across the pond from Great Britain.   Joy Division (and later New Order), Echo & The Bunnymen, The Clash, Elvis Costello…whatever.  They weren’t really aware of it, but those folks were a big influence on my constant need to hear different sounds and not be a music snob.  Now I might be a bit of music snob when it comes to Top 40, but I try hard not to be.   These formative year late night parties after work were killers.  Frequently, if we didn’t make last call at The Half Shell (long gone restaurant on Boylston Street) or Daisy Buchanan’s we’d frequently make a beeline for the first apartment that would have us.  It didn’t matter what day it was or where we were.  We were indestructible kids hell bent on partying from 2 AM to 7 AM, sleeping ’til 1 PM and getting up to run one errand before heading back to work and repeating the cycle.  Sometimes we didn’t make it, but more often than not we did.

The reason I tell the story is because on one of these fine occasions someone threw The Human League league on the turntable (remember those?) and out from the speakers popped “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of.”  I have to say, one of the waitresses busted out her best three beer dance moves and I was hooked.  It was definitely way off the beaten path for this writer at the time.   I was a ZZ Top fan.  1981′s El Loco was a smashing success in my household with the likes of “Pearl Necklace” and “Tube Snake Boogie.”  Childish wordplay on sexual activity granted, but I was 21 with hormones that were constantly revving.  I wanted The Who’s “Cry if You Want.”  I think you get the idea.  1981 was a long, long time ago brothers and sisters.  New Wave had broken several intriguing bands like The Cars and The Pretenders, but there was a new New Wave coming down the pike.   Bands like A Flock of Seagulls were now demanding air time.  Synthesizer Rock was making a big play with the help of big hair and MTV.  The Human League was right on the cusp of mainstream Alternative Rock even before “Don’t You Want Me” got 10,000 air plays.   What a fantastic single though.   The back and forth between the main characters in the song was conversational and believable and it had an awesome premise and back beat.   Nobody cared if they could play instruments or sing; the tune was catchy as all get out and it spread like wild fire.  But, for me, my introduction was still ”Things That Dreams Are Made Of.”

Have you heard “These Things” by She Wants Revenge?  This is the closest thing to “Things That Dreams Are Made Of” that I can bring forward to the present day.  They say that Phillip Oakley, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall influenced scores of modern day acts like Madonna, Moby and The Pet Shop Boys.  Who really knows, but they definitely influenced me.  From there I saw bands like Orchestral Maneouvres in The Dark, Erasure, Yaz(oo), The Pet Shop boys, Utah Saints and a handful of other not so manly bands as instantly credible and that wasn’t easy in the 80′s.   They were not the enemy right off the bat.  The fact that The Human League continued on to make a lot of records post 1985 is something of a miracle to me.

Human League had more songs after Dare! that resonated with the public to a degree, but take away the single “Mirror Man, (Keep Feeling) Fascination, The Lebanon” and the entire 1986 LP Crash and you’d be hard pressed to find where they made their mark after 1981.  Unlike most folks I don’t hold that against The Human League.  “Seconds, Get Carter and Love Action (I Believe in Love) were all great accessories to “Don’t You Want Me” on Dare!  Meet a girl on a boat or a boy on a plane and fall in love without the pain.  Everybody needs love and adventure, everybody needs cash to spend, everybody needs love and affection, everybody needs two or three friends….love it!  Happy Labor Day everyone…

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Buy or Download The Very Best of The Human League from Amazon here.