My Insipid Record Collection
My Insipid Record Collection – The Human League
Sep 4th
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 10,000air 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…
The Human League – The Things That Dreams Are Made Of.mp3
The Human League – Love Action (I Believe in Love).mp3
The Human League – Don’t You Want Me.mp3
Buy or Download The Very Best of The Human League from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Aug 7th
I was listening to the Genesis epic classic “Supper’s Ready” at the gym this morning and I starting thinking about posting something from my Prog collection. I decided today was ELP day. Hope you don’t mind. My first exposure to Emerson, Lake & Palmer was probably somewhere around 1971 when I heard “Lucky Man” on the radio. Today, ”Lucky Man” sounds a bit quaint and outdated, but it remains a beautiful song as far as I’m concerned. I remember my friend Jim’s brother used it at his wedding. This was not uncommon in the 70′s. I’m not sure if “Lucky Man” actually hurt the careers of ELP, but it did pigeonhole them a bit. That first record, 1970′s Emerson, Lake & Palmer, had some stellar tracks on it. “Take a Pebble” was absolutely one. “Knife Edge” was probably my personal favorite, but it was “Lucky Man” that carried the day for that first voyage. The rumor mill suggests that “Lucky Man,” allegedly written by Greg Lake at ripe old age of 12, was a throwaway track considered filler at the time. Apparently the record company requested they add it. Neither Emerson nor Palmer thought very much of it the story goes. Wonder what they think of it today all those dollars later? Just curious…
I remember being in the sixth grade, somewhere around 1973, when my music teacher (do they still have those?) brought in a copy of ELP’s 1971 LP Pictures of An Exhibition. Teachers, like Mrs Pritchard (I don’t even recall her first name because we always called her “Mrs” and it was 37 years ago), could get behind ELP because they were classically trained musicians. Pictures at An Exhibition was an interpretation of work originally done by Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer in the 1800′s. As a 13 year old kid I didn’t know squat about ELP or Mussorgsky, but if my teacher liked it there’s a pretty good chance it wasn’t very cool. It didn’t seem half bad to me really, but I wasn’t rushing out to find my own copy that’s for sure. It was about that time that Emerson, Lake & Palmer released Brain Salad Surgery complete with it’s interesting cover and design. It was the first time I actually made the connection between Classical Music (not one of my favorite genres) and ELP’s work. When I see the words “Movement, Arrangement, Suite and Impression” I usually start sprinting in the other direction. Now I was interested.
ELP, according to our friends at Wikipedia, sold over 40 Million records worldwide. That’s a lot of records. They were considered something of a Supergroup back in the day because Keith Emerson was playing keyboards in a band called The Nice, Greg Lake was the bassist in the legendary King Crimson and Carl Palmer was drumming for a band called Atomic Rooster. I know I have mentioned that I bought more than the occasional album over the years strictly because the artwork intrigued me. Well, Atomic Rooster became one of those bands in 80′s. A CD called Home To Roost, which apparently was first released in 1977, was one of those records. I had no idea, none, that Carl Palmer was involved with this band when I grabbed the CD out of our used CD bin back when I managed a compact disc store in 1987. I just liked the artwork on the cover. I only found out about it today when I started looking into ELP’s background for this post! Now I have to listen to the CD again to see if I can actually make out Palmer’s drumming. Know what? When I went to look into Atomic Rooster’s background I found out they were predominantly made up of ex-Crazy World of Arthur Brown members. I could not get enough of TCWAB’s 1968 hit single “Fire” when I was a kid. I think I still have that 45 RPM around here somewhere. Small world huh? I know It’s Only Rock & Roll, but I Like It as someone once said.
Brain Salad Surgery was released in November of 1973 and Emerson, Lake & Palmer were instantly international superstars. The album only contained five tracks, but the last one, Karn Evil 9, had several impressions. Radio stations knew it was good, but they had to locate the shortest numbers to fit their formats. “Still…You Turn Me On” was perfect. Two minutes and forty three seconds of I love my girlfriend. Sold. ELP’s other relatively famous track from Brain Salad Surgery would be Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part II. It contained the “Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends” phrase and it was short enough to play on the radio at 4:46. “Jerusalem” also got some light airplay, but the record sold like hotcakes. The curious thing about Brain Salad Surgery, as good as it was, is that 1972′s Trilogy might well have been Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s finest moment. Trilogy had “From The Beginning” and several other classic ELP tracks. I’m guessing it didn’t sell nearly as well as Brain Salad Surgery though. Including their second record, 1971′s Tarkus, ELP had released their core studio records by the end of 1973. They went on an ostentatious world tour and released and unheard of triple album in 1974 called Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends…Ladies and Gentlemen to commemorate the event, but ELP as we knew them were officially running on fumes. The Moog Synthesizer and the Hammond Organ seemed to be running out of ideas by 1975. Works Volumes I & II, released in 1977, had their moments, but by and large the changing landscape of Rock had passed them by. It was Clash, not Classical any longer.
I have one or two friends that still swear by classic Emerson, Lake & Palmer and for that I am grateful because I find myself still attached to the bands of my youth on more than one occasion. I look around and most folks my age have long since stopped rocking and I feel like the only idiot alive that loves the history of Rock & Roll as much as I do in my age group. Bleep ‘em. I got to shake Warren Haynes’ hand on Thursday, took in Interpol that night and saw Gov’t Mule at point blank range last night. I don’t care if I’m The Last Man Standing, as Jerry Lee Lewis might say, I’ll be rocking myself to the grave. OK, enough babbling. I’m leaving you with three of my favorite ELP tracks, but I wish it could be more.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Karn Evil 9 1st Impression – Part I.mp3
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – The Sheriff.mp3
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Knife Edge.mp3
Buy or Download Come & See The Show: The Best of ELP from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – Golden Earring
Jul 10th
On of my favorite albums when I was a kid was Golden Earring’s 1973 LP Moontan. It only had five songs on it, but one of them was the legendary “Radar Love.” A 13 year old kid in the United States, New Jersey no less, is clueless about where a particular band might hang its hat. Now that the adult John knows where Amsterdam is, The Netherlands has some appeal. Back then I didn’t know anything about being Dutch other than they seemed to have funny shoes and there seemed to be a lot of windmills in their pictures. I later found out they also brew a mean beer, but all that stuff didn’t matter to me back in 1973. I had to have the album that had “Radar Love” on it. I didn’t see Moontan as Progressive Rock, but then again I don’t see a lot of music as necessarily Progressive Rock. I’m a little slow there. I just looked at “Radar Love” as an iconic rock song along the lines of Free’s “All Right Now.” It was a must own once upon a time. Ironically, the Dutch band Focus also had a big hit around this time called “Hocus Pocus” complete with yodeling. Other Dutch acts such as The Outsiders (who had a 60′s Garage hit with “Time Won’t Let Me”) and The Shocking Blue (who rocked our world with the 1970 classic “Venus”) made some noise, but that was basically it. So much for the Dutch Invasion huh?
Moontan is a very cool record. Yeah I know you’ve heard “Radar Love” so many times it’s making you sick, but that’s not really Golden Earring’s fault. The song I have come to like the most is “Candy’s Going Bad,” but “Vanilla Queen” is outstanding as well. I will remind you again that back in the early 70′s, when you bought an LP, you usually played the whole thing on the order of 50 times before you decided if it was worth its salt. I’m not kidding. Every song. Moontan passed that test decades ago. The two songs I haven’t mentioned, “Are You Receiving Me?” and “Big Tree, Blue Sea” are also great tracks. I didn’t bat an eye playing side two of the LP even thought it just had these two songs on it. By definition, the extended length of a given track sort of lends itself to be thought of as a “composition” which roughly translates into “Progressive” where Rock is concerned. I suppose I can live with that. Everyone knows radio friendly music is normally much shorter than seven minutes, but the emergence of FM radio back then allowed for longer tracks. Truthfully the DJs needed to fill time and often needed songs long enough to tolerate bathroom breaks. Frequently late night talent would be lucky if there was an engineer on the premises in those days. Long songs had a place on the FM dial. Not so much anymore.
There isn’t a lot more to say about this record. I don’t have any little known tidbits, but in the larger scheme of things I was astounded to find out that Golden Earring has some 24 studio albums and one scheduled to be released later this year. I believe Moontan was their first release in the United States and it came with a different LP jacket. Apparently the one above was a bit too racy for 1973. I didn’t know any different, but it’s interesting to learn today. I know they had to take a hatchet to “Radar Love” in order to make it radio friendly. I don’t recall how much time was chopped off, but the long version released on Moontan was around 6:25. I know the version they played on U.S. radio was shorter than that. It probably had no drum solo. I just found out there was no “Big Tree, Blue Sea” on the Dutch version and it had two other tracks called “Suzy Lunacy” and “Just Like Vince Taylor.” Fun facts. I should track down those two tracks sometime soon. I’ll bet they’re pretty good. These guys were on a roll.
The unfortunate truth about Golden Earring in the United States is that aside from the 1982 single “Twilight Zone,” which can be found on their album Cut, Golden Earring failed to take over the world. In The Netherlands this band is understandably legend, but much like the band Status Quo in England, Golden Earring remained mostly a territorial phenomenon. Sadly, Moontan is the only Golden Earring record I own, but that doesn’t diminish the ardor I have for this record. If you are of a certain age you may want to download these five songs and turn on the Way Back Machine. They Don’t Write ‘Em Like That Anymore as someone once said. I’m purposely not posting “Radar Love” so you can get the most bang out of this post. Thanks for reading.
Golden Earring – Candy’s Going Bad.mp3
Golden Earring – Vanilla Queen.mp3
Golden Earring – Big Tree, Blue Sea.mp3
Buy or download Moontan from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – Garbage
Jun 25th
I was driving around yesterday for about 40 minutes running errands and sometimes, like the fool that I am, I blindly reach into my collection and pull something out to play in the car. Yesterday I grabbed Garbage’s 1995 debut record. Most of you would recognize the two hits off this record in “I’m Only Happy When it Rains” and “Stupid Girl,” but this was one of those records where you were instantly smitten the second it began to play in your CD player. Unfortunately, as radio is wont to do, they beat on the two songs I mentioned, but left the rest of the disc for relative dead. Those of you who own this CD know that it is not a two hit wonder.
I saw Garbage play live at Axis in Boston on Tuesday November 14, 1995. The record had been out maybe four months at the time. WFNX here in Boston was playing it like crazy and I was all pumped up to see them in a small club like Axis. I enjoyed the heck out of that show. I remember seeing Scotland’s Shirley Manson and being mesmerized; speaking of women who rock yet again. She is an exotic looking women with big eyes that look right through you. I don’t imagine many of you watched the shaky Fox TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but I was DVRing it for a while there, mostly because I thought Summer Glau was smoking hot. I was surprised to find Shirley Manson playing the part of Catherine Weaver. As with everything she does, its was intense and fun to watch. The show, however, has been put out to pasture mercifully.
The first Garbage record came with a considerable amount of hype as I recall. I know Butch Vig, who produced 90′s legends Nirvana and their smash CD Nevermind, was playing drums, but it was more than that. Vig had produced some of my favorite early 90′s records such as Smashing Pumpkins’ 1991 CD Gish and their 1993 uber smash record Siamese Dream as well as Sonic Youth’s great 1992 CD Dirty. Those were some solid credentials. Still, there was something about this record that we all figured was going to be very good. Fortunately we were right. Nobody can deny what a great song “Only Happy When It Rains” is, no matter how many times you may have heard it, but “Stupid Girl” was kind of mediocre for my money. The rest of the record, however, was very good. I’m posting some of the forgotten tracks below.
Garbage technically hailed from Madison, Wisconsin and stuck around for four studio albums through 2005, but they were never quite as good as they were on their debut CD. It ended up selling 4 Million copies according to Wikipedia. They may have sold as many or more records on subsequent CDs, but the initial new band love affair was over. Having seen them live, I was telling all my friends about this record. I really loved it. I loved the cover too. It was colorful and off the beaten path. It also felt a little like the Grunge era had been extended. To those of us who enjoyed the Grunge era, buying this record was a no brainer.
Garbage went on to sell a ton of records and have what most would consider a wildly successful career, but my interest in the band kind of tailed off around 2000 or so. I bought all their records hoping to find another gem, but I don’t know…I just lost my mojo for them. They were never bad, but Alternative Rock stations beat on five singles until I could care less if I ever heard their music again. Songs like “#1 Crush, I’m Think I’m Paranoid, Androgyny, Breaking Up The Girl and Bleed Like Me” all had their moments, but end to end I still like the first record the best. Here are three of my favorites. I understand there may be another CD in the coming year so look for that.
Buy or download Garbage from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – The Pretenders
May 22nd
I can remember when The Pretenders first album hit the stores in January of 1980 here in the States. MTV hadn’t been launched and hadn’t yet started playing “Brass in Pocket” every two hours. I remember my college roommate Tim coming home with a copy of the record and he just started playing it night and day. I have to admit, I didn’t get “Brass in Pocket” right away. I liked it fine, but I didn’t love it. Since I was listening to both WCOZ and WBCN back in those days I probably heard the song four times a day for two years, but the truth is it probably clicked a bit for me watching Chrissie Hynde in that waitress outfit telling me how special she was. Turned out she was right.
It’s hard to argue with that first Pretenders record. According to our good friends at Wikipedia, Rolling Stone Magazine rated it the 155th best record of all time in 2003. Apparently Nick Lowe (I’m a huge fan) produced the first single on this record; a cover of The Kinks “Stop Your Sobbing,” but declined to work with them any further thinking they weren’t going anyway. Oops. I absolutely love “Switchboard Susan” and “Cracking Up,” but Nick…you dropped the ball dude. Meanwhile, the songs from that first Pretender’s record just rolled off the charts one after another; “Brass in Pocket, Precious, Tattooed Love Boys, Stop Your Sobbing, Kid, Private Life, Mystery Achievement”…the absolute perfect blend of Rock, Pop, Punk and New Wave. Everybody loved and owned this record. And Sire Records, their label, had all the coolest bands in their stable.
I still can’t figure out New Wave exactly, give or take The Cars and Gary Numan, but if there was ever a record that legitimized that phrase and genre this was it. It rocked and it rolled. It still sounds great today 30 years later. I mentioned The Cars and I have yet to write about them. I will eventually, but think about how great that first Cars record was and how hard it was to follow up. Candy-O was a very worthy contender, complete with an awesome album cover that I overlooked when we did our recent post, but this is exactly what The Pretenders were up against when they released Pretenders II in 1981.
I had started working The Listener Line at WBCN in the Spring of 1982. They were still digging through Pretenders II at that time. I was giddy heading off to work even though I wasn’t getting paid and I just took requests they never could possibly get to. I don’t think I was doing it two months when Mark Parenteau yanked me out of there to work on his intern staff. Intern? Doesn’t that imply…oh whatever Nevermind.
The point I’m trying to make is that Pretenders II marks happy days for me. I was free of college, the city was my oyster and I was going places…oh well, two out of three ain’t bad right? When you work at a radio station, heck, even if you don’t, you start associating bands with DJs. I’m talking beyond payola…pure love. At WBCN Charles Laquidara liked to play a lot of AC/DC and Bruce Springsteen if I remember correctly. Mark Parenteau loved Hall & Oates. Carter Alan was a U2 man and even wrote a great book about them called Outside is America. I still have a signed copy of that one. But the DJ who just LOVED The Pretenders was Captain Ken Shelton. He played 1984′s Learning To Crawl incessantly until I could no longer stand to listen to it. Ken had the 10 AM-2 PM shift between Charles and Mark for several years. I listened to about 5000 Mighty Mighty Lunch Hours between 1981 and 1986 I swear. Embellishment? Yes, but you get the point. Back then we’d cut class or blow off work and hit tar beach (the roof) and swill Rolling Rock in the blazing sun waiting for “Pop Shivers” by The Atlantics to get played. I look upon those days very fondly. The Giant Panther included A Flock of Seagulls’ “Wishing (If I had a Photograph of You)” in his recent post and that one was one of my all time favorite tar beach tunes (Nahant was as far as we could get in those days if we wanted to go to a real beach and be back for work or whatever) and when I hear it, to this day, I’m rocketed right back to 1982 or so.
See how easily I get carried away to some far off lazy hazy day of summer nearly 30 years ago? Stop laughing; it’ll happen to you, I guarantee it. Regarding Pretenders II few sophomore efforts are as strong in my mind. This record included 12 tracks and every one of them is solid. You all know “Talk of The Town” and “Message of Love” I’m sure, but all of my favorite Pretenders ”B” cuts are on this baby; “Jealous Dogs, The English Roses, I Go To Sleep, The Adultress and the song the phrase ’Insipid Record Collection’ comes from; Pack It Up.” When I reach for a Pretenders album it’s always II. It’s grungy, dirty, well recorded and it rocks…hard. Even though they covered yet another Kink’s song “I Go To Sleep” I didn’t even care. I love The Kinks to death, but too many covers can really sink a serious band.
Speaking of covers, I was just going over Rod Stewart’s collection the other day and I had no idea how many songs he had that were covers. Record after record. Too bad he stopped rocking in 1978, but the covers never seemed to bother me in his case for some reason. I guess when you cover Tim Hardin and The Temptations and half of Motown it’s hard to really screw it up. His cover of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” from 1978′s Footloose and Fancy Free was a favorite. It is very sad to see his career reduced to Songbook Era crooning though…I don’t care how many leggy models he gets to boink and or how many records that drivel sells. Play with Faces Rod! Restore some of that well deserved reputation for crying out loud. (I’m Know) I’m Losing You to coin a phrase…
OK, I’ve babbled on long enough today. Here are the takeaways; Pretenders II is still a fantastic record even in the intimidating shadow of Pretenders I, The Pretenders have made some tremendous records over the years, but zero in on the first three or four for the real quality and this band is a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer as of 2005. Oh, and should you be under the mistaken impression that they no longer make great records go pick up a copy of 2002′s Loose Screw. Hats off to Chrissie Hynde for breaking ground, knocking down doors, changing people’s perception of what women can do in Rock and riding great guitar work, great singing and sex appeal all the way from Akron, OH to The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Rock royalty. Love her.
The Pretenders – The English Roses.mp3
The Pretenders – Jealous Dogs.mp3
The Pretenders – Pack It Up.mp3
Buy or Download Pretenders II from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – Steve Winwood
May 16th
I think it’s safe to say Steve Winwood’s legacy was cemented back in the 60′s when he sang the lead vocal for “Gimme Some Lovin’” for The Spencer Davis Group. There isn’t a self respecting Rock & Roll Soul alive who doesn’t instantly recognize that particular piece of music. Steve Winwood joined The Spencer Davis Group at the tender age of 14. They apparently ween their rock stars much younger in the UK. Fortunately his older brother Muff (ouch babe) was also in the band to keep an eye on him. The Spencer Davis Group had half a dozen hits or so, but Winwood was on to his next musical venture by 1967 when he hooked up with Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason to form the seminal Rock band Traffic. Then things really got musically interesting.
Traffic was an excellent act that had its shelf life interrupted by personnel changes and a Supergroup called Blind Faith. They eventually reformed and had their greatest commercial success in the early 70′s after parting company with Dave Mason. That divorce seemed to work out for everybody because Traffic put out two records post Blind Faith that everyone should own. One is called John Barleycorn Must Die (1970) and the other is The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971). Shootout at The Fantasy Factory (1973) had some great moments on it, but it just didn’t measure up to the first two 70′s releases. You will find many a Traffic fan who feel that the first two Traffic albums might have represented their best, but I’m not one of them. I loved Dave Mason’s solo career and 1970′s Alone Together is a masterpiece, but these two parties were better off in separate quarters. Mason did return for a spell between John Barleycorn and Low Spark, but he was gone again fairly quickly. Traffic recorded a few more records after this period, but they had reached their zenith in my humble opinion. Folk, Jazz, Blues…it was all there. I love Traffic and still listen to them from time to time. I’m still a big Dave Mason fan, but I’m glad they had trouble getting along. More music for the rest of us I figure.
Blind Faith doesn’t need a lot of explanation. Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Ric Grech all seemed to congregate while their ex-bands (Traffic, Cream and Family respectively) were trending downward at the time. Clapton, by his own admission if you read his 2008 book (Clapton: The Autobiography), was a bit of a chocolate mess at that time and found Delaney & Bonnie more interesting than Blind Faith. That might have been a friendly turn of the card for Winwood as he eventually rep-upped with Capaldi and Wood while taking Grech along with him back to Traffic. Blind Faith is a household name based on one record and it’s well deserved, but Traffic probably wouldn’t have quite the cache it has today if it weren’t for Clapton’s seemingly fickle behavior.
Around 1977 or so Steve Winwood went solo. His first effort, Steve Winwood (I can’t remember when “Stevie” became Steve, but all traces of his former name seem to have disappeared…Wonder what the other Stevie thinks of all this? Or the venerable Ray Vaughan?) was critically acclaimed but didn’t sell very well. According to our friends at Wikipedia it is now out of print and considered a rare find on CD. I own a copy myself. I suspect that my collection has several similar CDs with the same designation if I chose to do a little investigating. Three years later, in 1980, Steve Winwood put out Arc of a Diver. “While You See a Chance” was a smash hit and the song everybody remembers, but “Spanish Dancer” and “Arc of a Diver” were the real finds on this CD. It peaked at Number Three here in the United States. Two years later he was back with Talking Back To The Night and the sublime hit single “Valerie.” To this day I love this single. “Still in The Game” was the second single worth noting here, but four years later, in 1986, Steve Winwood literally took over the world. Back in The High Life had no fewer than five smash singles and everybody I know bought the record. It got so much radio play at WBCN 104.1 “The Rock of Boston” (RIP) that even I got sick of it. I don’t think too many people saw this coming. I know I didn’t.
Making a followup to Back in The High Life was going to be near impossible. Sure enough, 1988′s Roll With It had trouble living up to the standard that was Back in The High Life. Winwood had a couple of singles on the record, most notably the title track and “Holding On” and “Don’t You Know What The Night Can Do?,” but by and large his solo star began to fade as he became overexposed. That is no slight on his talents, believe me, I’d kill to be him, but hit records, more accurately hit singles, were really not his thing. I mean the R&B stations were playing his stuff by then. It got to be too much. 1990′s Refugees of The Heart was so non-descript that I didn’t even hear about 1997′s Junction Seven until years later. I have to admit I didn’t pay them much mind as I was exploring other genres back then. Hopefully I’ll learn that was a mistake eventually.
That gets us to what I came to talk to you about. I don’t know what Steve Winwood was doing between 1997 and 2003, but whatever it was it worked. I don’t know how many of you have had the pleasure of hearing 2003′s About Time, but let me just say; it’s about time people. This record is exquisite. I know a lot of you out there probably wrote Mr Winwood off years ago, but don’t make that mistake. There isn’t one bad track on this CD. I remember seeing a live performance of it on PBS and having it just cement what I already knew; fantastic record. I’m going to grab a couple of tracks here for you, but frankly, I recommend this entire record if you have any Steve Winwood blood in you. I spoke to Ryan earlier and he and I both agree this is a great record. It comes with The Giant Panther seal of approval for what that’s worth. Winwood put out another record in 2008 called Nine Lives, but I haven’t yet digested it I’m embarrassed to say.
Steve Winwood – Cigano (For The Gypsies).mp3
Steve Winwood – Different Light.mp3
Steve Winwood – Why Can’t We Live Together.mp3
Buy or download About Time from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – Flash and The Pan
Apr 29th
In 1979 I was in my second year of college. Something called New Wave music was re-shaping the Rock landscape. It was exciting and things were changing in a hurry. Tremendous bands new began to surface in droves. Off the top of my head, the late 70′s into the early 80′s produced greats and near greats like The Cars, The B-52′s, Blondie, The Call, The Jim Carroll Band, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Nick Lowe, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, The English Beat, XTC, Erasure, The Eurythmics, The Fixx, Gang of Four, Human Sexual Response, The Human League, Billy Idol, INXS, Joe Jackson, The Jam, Grace Jones, Lene Lovich, Joy Division, Madness, Missing Persons, The Motels, Gary Numan, Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark, Graham Parker & The Rumour, The Police, The Psychedelic Furs, Romeo Void, Pete Shelley, Shriekback, Split Enz, Squeeze, The Stranglers, Talking Heads, Tears For Fears, The The, The Thompson Twins, The Clash, The Tom Robinson Band, Translator, Ultravox and Wire to name just a few.
I have no idea what New Wave really means, but the onslaught of great new music did resemble a wave of sorts. I always think of New Wave as The Cars. They were not a hard rock band and they had these unbelievably catchy songs that seemed to rely on synthesizers. I was sold on them after one song though I can’t remember if it was “Let The Good Times Roll” or “Best Friend’s Girl.” Living in Boston means I probably don’t need to turn to any Cars, Aerosmith or J. Geils records for the duration of my time on This Mortal Coil due to over saturation, but if you have to hang your city’s hat on three bands you could do a lot worse. As for New Wave, there were scores of one hit wonder acts with absolutely fabulous singles like The Buggles, The Records, Robin Lane & The Chartbusters and The Fabulous Poodles. They were danceable and you could sing along to them. Think Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” or Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” Once you ruled out the guitar god sound, which I still love to this day, you had the freedom to experiment and change it up. Pop Muzik (talk about) became anything you wanted it to be.
When you hear a Gary Numan or a Flash and The Pan today, you still have to love them in my opinion. There was a big difference between crappy and sappy fare like Kajagoogoo’s “Too Shy,” Spandau Ballet’s “True,” ABC’s “The Look of Love” and, say, Translator’s ”Everywhere That I’m Not.” I guess what I’m trying to say is the New Wave era produced a ton of music, some of it inherently sappy, but most of it has stood the test of time. 80′s music is very hot these days, but I say there’s a lag time of nostalgia driving that type of thinking that lasts about 20 years. In the aughts 80′s music was big. I’ll bet you as time marches on the next decade will look back wistfully at some 90′s fare. It’s just a function of generations coming of age and Hollywood using some of that music in their movies. The 70′s had a huge revival in the 90′s as bands like Led Zeppelin became universally accepted even though their brand of Blues Metal was absolutely offensive to a ton of folks back in their day. Not me of course, but they were a tough sell for parents in the 70′s. They didn’t call themselves Black Sabbath or anything, but Jimmy Page allegedly had some ties to mysticism and alternative practices like Witchcraft. That stuff seems comical today and the best we can do now is Marilyn Manson. Scary huh? We’ve moved onto other things I guess. It’s a wonder I made it this far what with McDonald’s and Black Sabbath. Someone should have died right? Geesh.
To make a long story longer, my specialty it seems, I came to talk about the Australian act Flash and The Pan today. Flash was actually a studio project led by two ex members of The Easybeats named Harry Vanda and George Young. You may remember The Easybeats for their famous song “Friday On My Mind,” covered by David Bowie among others. And, much to The Giant Panther’s delight I’m sure, George Young turns out to be the older brother of Angus and Malcom Young of the legendary Hard Rock outift AC/DC. Love those Australians. Ryan loves (sic) those guys. The Flash actually have/had half a dozen records on the market, but none sold like that first one. I’m posting their four most famous songs. “Hey, St Peter” was their first single. “Down Among The Dead Men” was a song so popular as a single the first record needed to be re-issued to include it. “Walking in The Rain” was covered by Grace Jones and the last one called “Media Man” which came from their second release in 1980 called Lights in the Night. Flash and The Pan should have been a Flash in The Pan, but somehow they were better than that and some folks like me still listen to them some 30 years later.
Flash and The Pan – Down Among The Dead Men.mp3
Flash and The Pan – Hey St Peter.mp3
Flash and The Pan – Walking in The Rain.mp3
Flash and The Pan – Media Man.mp3
Buy or download Flash and The Pan from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – The London Suede
Apr 25th
I’m having all kinds of trouble finding time to blog lately, but don’t give up on us. The only way to drive traffic is to put something new up every day. I’d love to be able to do that, but since this job doesn’t pay it’s kind of difficult to prioritize our blog over daily life. I’m still digitizing my personal catalogue and sometimes I get lost in that. I just bought a Grandfather clock and it chimes every fifteen minutes letting me know that too much of my life is being spent sitting here at this desk. It’ll pass, but I hope I can get a good twenty years out of the fruits of my labor when I’m done.
I always come across some old CD when I’m doing this and am instantly transported back to that time in my life. Today’s band is The London Suede. I have to tell you, when I heard “The Drowners” and “Animal Nitrate” from 1993′s Suede, I was instantly smitten. I thought these tracks rocked. I still do. Suede would need to henceforth be referred to over in the States as “The London” Suede as their pedestrian choice for a band name was miraculously taken over here. I guess Suede UK was taken huh? Regardless, this band seemed to get more critical acclaim than actual fans buying their records. I have nothing to back up that claim, but man were they media darlings. Our friends at Wikipedia refer to them as an English Alternative Rock Group that helped kick start the BritPop movement. Interesting. I keep thinking that “movement” was basically a party of one, Oasis, with a few bands like The Verve and Elastica thrown in for window dressing. I always felt like The London Suede had more in common with the Manchester bands, but upon further review I suppose they do have a lot in common with Blur and Oasis as well. 1993 was still on the fringe of the Grunge Heyday so anything else seemed to get lumped into together back then.
The London Suede actually did very well in the UK and are considered very influential to this day, but I bought Suede, 1994′s Dog Man Star and 1996′s Coming Up before jumping off the bandwagon. I also liked “Metal Mickey” from their debut CD, but I have to admit to losing interest in the band after the first three records. I think they had five studio CDs total so maybe I didn’t miss too much, but if anyone out there thinks otherwise feel free to point me in the right direction. The London Suede seemed to be very influenced by some of the usual UK suspects in The Beatles, The Smiths and Mr David Bowie. No shame there. They had a lot of Glam in them with a touch of androgyny just like their heroes. Either way, they definitely were one of the “it” bands during the early to mid 90′s.
I don’t have a lot to add about The London Suede here. I just wanted to post a couple of tracks in case some of you somehow missed out on them for one reason or another. They have had their share of personnel changes over the years and while they still have the ear and pen of the critics their brand has definitely faded over the years. They just seemed to recede quietly into the woodwork at the time. Still, I wish I had written a couple of their tracks. Hope they are doing well wherever they are today. I had heard about them reforming this year, but that never seems to end well does it? We, however, wish them well here at The Giant Panther.
The London Suede – Animal Nitrate.mp3
The London Suede – Metal Mickey.mp3
The London Suede – The Drowners.mp3
Buy or download Suede from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – The Jayhawks
Apr 5th
Before there was Wilco and the whole Alt Country thing became relatively big business, there was a Minneapolis, MN band called The Jayhawks. I don’t even know what Americana actually means to be honest, but I think I know it when I hear it. They say Gram Parsons is the unofficial father of the Alt Country scene, but who the heck knows. The Byrds sure seems like they belong in the discussion. How about The Band? Isn’t Alt Country the intersection of Country, Acoustic, Bluegrass and Alternative Rock? What then do we make of Hank Williams Sr? Woody Guthrie? Bob Dylan? Heck, even The Grateful Dead? Certainly without all of these artists we’d have no Tom Petty right? I don’t really know, but it’s a very cool sliver of the dial and The Jayhawks had a great sound.
I was driving around running errands the other day and I hastily grabbed something off my wall of sound and came away with The Jayhawks 1992 CD called Hollywood Town Hall. I had absolutely forgotten what a great record this was. Time has given me a lot of perspective at what drives my listening habits and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. More accurately I think about what drove my buying habits way back when. Terrestrial radio has changed an awful lot since the early 90′s. If I wasn’t such a radio fool I’d just give it up and listen to KEXP on the Internet full time. I have to be honest; I still have attachments to the personalities I more or less grew up with. I have mentioned many times how much I loved my New York area DJs when I was in my teens. WNEW-FM 102.7 in New York City, “Where Rock Lives,” is always going to be my mind’s eye ideal of what radio can and should be, but excepting a short Christmas holiday between 1978 and 1982 I haven’t heard that fading memory in nearly 30 years.
My point here is that the only reason I listen to the terrestrial radio at all anymore is because I still enjoy the familiarity of hearing the voices of WFNX’s Julie Kramer or WZLX’s Carter Alan on the air waves. The Charles Laquidara’s, The Ken Sheltons’, The Mark Parenteau’s, The Morning Guy Tai’s and all the other legendary Boston DJs are all gone. It’s not even an option to adopt The Kinks’ song “Around The Dial” as an anthem. Julie and Carter are the last two Rock DJs (no sense in splitting hairs between Classic Rock and Alternative Rock here) left around these parts. And no anyone who plays Kiss 108 type music doesn’t count as far as this discussion goes. As a fan I feel like I want to see ‘em off, even if it’s part time and I detest their repetitive programming. I still love their Leftover Lunch and Sunday Morning Blues shows. The only reason I bring up radio, yet again in my posts, is because I don’t believe there is room for The Jayhawks on a rock station with today’s tight formats.
I set my alarm to my Alma Mater’s radio station, Emerson’s WERS 88.9 and all kinds of things pop up during my fifteen minutes of slapping the alarm while I scrounge and extra five minutes of horizontal time. I’ll hear Cat Power next to Donovan next to Joni Mitchell next to Coldplay. Ah, the beauty of free form programming. I love the total surprise, but I love it even more when something gets played I have no idea who it is. Of course, I’m not going to remember the names, but I’ve downloaded a couple of artists as a result of sleepy early morning programming on WERS. I remember one time I heard them playing Alison Krauss & Union Station’s stark version of The Foundations’ classic track “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” and absolutely making a beeline to find that song. The original is part of my DNA from the 60′s, but the cover is nearly as great as the original. Believe it or not, as a result of that accidental discovery I knew who Alison Krauss was (believe me, she’s a star on the Country and Bluegrass circuits) before she ever teamed up with the legendary Robert Plant for 2007′s Raising Sand collaboration. My friend Jefferson calls her the woman that broke up Led Zeppelin II. As funny as that is she’s a real talent.
OK, I’m way off track yet again. The Jayhawks released seven studio records between 1986 and 2003 before releasing last year’s Music From The North Country Anthology. They remain tremendously influential and their major label debut on Def American, Hollywood Town Hall, was their third studio release. Their next record, Tomorrow The Green Grass, was released in 1995 and featured the hit single “Blue.” That was about as popular as they ever got. Number 33 in Canada! Stop the presses. The premise here is that The Jayhawks were more of a word of mouth band than a radio darling. I heard “Settled Down Like Rain” and bought the CD instantly. While driving around the other day in my car listening to 18 year old Hollywood Town Hall I remembered why I liked this record so much. I’m going to dump a few tracks on you now so that you might take the same trip with me down memory lane. They were really very good in a genre that has a definite place in Rock history.
The Jayhawks – Settled Down Like Rain.mp3
The Jayhawks – Take Me With You (When You Go).mp3
The Jayhawks – Crowded in The Wings.mp3
The Jayhawks – Waiting For The Sun.mp3
Buy or download Hollywood Town Hall from Amazon here.
My Insipid Record Collection – Tribe
Apr 2nd
On of the most overlooked bands from Boston were Tribe back in the early 90′s. Sure they got some nice radio airplay, but this band, despite great music and a sexy front woman with a great voice in Janet LaValley, never made it out of Boston for the most part. I’m not quite sure I understand it, but I’ve seen it happen scores of times so I don’t question it when it happens anymore. In Tribe’s case though it was very unfortunate. I thought they were quite good myself.
If you can find their records these days count yourself lucky. Amazon.com has them each listed as “Discontinued By The Manufacturer.” Ouch. In the old days, nobody really knew what records were out of print because it wasn’t trumpeted to the world. That means if you want a copy of one of Tribe’s records you have to turn to the used market. As someone who spent hours upon hours in local used record and CD stores (some of which no longer exist unfortunately) in the Boston, Cambridge and Somerville areas like Nuggets, Planet Records, In Your Ear, Weirdo Records, Looney Tunes, Mystery Train, Cheapo Records, CD Spins, Disc Diggers, Stereo Jacks, On Church Street, Skippy Whites, Massive Records, Diskovery and probably a half dozen others I’ve forgotten I relish the challenge of finding great used CDs. Just going by what Amazon.com is telling me, I’m guessing Tribe is now in that category. I’m not saying you can’t find their first pass (artwork above) at commercial success on Rutabaga Records, but this CD in particular has a couple of strikes against finding it. The others would be easy enough to track down, but this particular CD is a shade tougher. I’m guessing there were a limited number ever made. Now you too can own your very own used copy for a mere $64.95 on Amazon. Such a bargain.
I still have a tremendous soft spot for every single one of these stores and probably a third of my collection comes from mining them. Between albums (remember them?) and CDs I’d guess that is well over 1500 combined. It wasn’t the fact that I was buying albums at $2.99 or whatever, even though that was a tremendous added bonus; it was the exploration and the listening to what was being played in the store for ideas that excited me. I had no real designs on breaking into the music business, but it was cool to hang around like minded audiophiles who loved to talk music. I’ll never forget being in Nuggets in Kenmore Square; the old tiny place…not the rather massive one on the corner where it is today…around 1980 and hearing one of the clerks, I have come to know as Stu, playing Iggy Pop’s New Values. “Tell Me a Story” was blaring and I had to confess I was nearly clueless about Iggy Pop back then. I bought the record on the spot and never looked back. Not only did I absolutely love that record, but I became a huge fan of his over the years. If you search the archives I posted about my Iggy Pop fandom last year. I guess my point is you can learn a few things in these joints while on your quest for whatever holy grail record you may be in search of. I rarely go in search of something specific; I go in to troll for bargains, bootlegs and rarities. It’s a blast to me.
Getting back to Tribe, they had worked hard to build a local following that built up this Indie label release in 1990. They had an EP from 1987, but that’s even harder to find than what I present to you today. I wasn’t very much aware of them until around 1989, but I had heard their single “Abort,” which actually became the title of their major label debut on Warner Brothers subsidiary Slash Records in 1991. You may remember them as home to another band that didn’t quite get out of Boston in The Del Fuegos. “Abort” was a spacy song that ended abruptly as you will hear when you play the attached MP3 below. It was aborted as it were. Cute. It didn’t have the massive cache of local heroes The Pixies’ “Gigantic” for instance, but it was a cool track and made the band worth exploring.
After hearing several tracks on WFNX I went out and bought Here at The Home as soon as it was released. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I liked every track on this 10 song CD. There isn’t one bad track on it. I think the folks at Warner Brothers heard what I heard because they scooped the band up and set about reworking this record for a major label release. I have talked in the past about records being released with different tracks such as XTC’s Skylarking being re-released to include the single “Dear God.” For someone who buys the records the minute they hit the market this can be disheartening. I never actually bought a physical copy of Tribe’s Abort in 1991. I have since downloaded it, but at the time I was miffed that I was being asked to buy another copy of the record the very next year. I never actually did a track comparison I was so aggravated. New additions “Joyride (I Saw The Film)” and “Easter Dinner” were big hits on the Alternative Rock scene as 1991 melted into 1992, but I was still playing the old CD. At the end of the day, the new CD had 12 tracks including two other tracks called “Payphone” and “Serenade,” but they came at the expense of two tracks I really liked called “Pinwheels” and “Lemmings” from their original CD.
Sometimes you just have to take a stand no? There was a lot of talk about the production of Abort sounding much better than Here at The Home, but I didn’t really notice that much. I’m sitting here listening to a computer play Led Zeppelin’s 1976 record Presence as we speak from a set of MP3 files. Call me a loser, but I don’t mind the sound one iota. Maybe the fact that I’m about two feet from the speakers and I haven’t had the space for that Maxell sound blowing the hair back in a chair experience in quite a while, but then again I didn’t mind the sound of a CD versus a record either. I completely understand the richness of vinyl and if you have the inclination to sit around and compare you’d obviously hear it, but frankly I just love the portability and tiny footprint of every single song I own now. It’s frightening to think that if my condo was to burn down the only thing I’d really try and save would be my terabyte drive and the copies of it I have laying around here. No birth certificates, pictures or anything else valuable. Just give me my hard won MP3 copies of my real collection. How sick is that?
I got way off topic as usual, but that’s half the fun for me I swear. You never know what tangents you are going to come by if you read my posts. Tribe went on to have modest local success and release a second major label CD called Sleeper in 1993. That CD too had a couple of minor hits including with tracks called “Red Rover” and ”Supercollider,” but by 1994 Tribe was cashiered. Too bad I say. They had talent. Happy Easter (Dinner).
Buy or download Here At The Home from Amazon here.
