Please feel free to email me or post in comments if you have any suggestions. I’ve received about 5 or 10 suggestions which I will check out and post some here. They can come from your record collection or anywhere you might have them, even if it’s in memory. Keep checking back here as I may add even more.
The blog version is slightly different with a couple of different song selections. But the artists are the same. Here I’m posting a whole new round with different artists (except for one case). Though not designed for this — could make a good song playlist for the BIG GAME tonight. Add the 12 from the first list, the 8 from the second post and you have a 20-song cool list. Put it on Random Play.
Here’s a few:
“Don’t Wait Up” — the Beat, a power-pop group that never got too far though they had Peter Case, members of the PlimSouls and the Nerves.
Dover Beach by the Bangles.
The Bangles had plenty of hits, Eternal Flame, Hero Takes a Fall, Manic Monday, Walk Like an Egyptian and more.
But Dover Beach was not one of them.
It for me ranked up and above many of their hits. That’s saying something because they had some good ones with their slightly retro-60s sound.
Doctor Doctor by UFO — Schenker brother on guitar. We had brother Rudolph with Scorpions on other list. Great head bobbing tune. Cool album cover. (This has taken on kind of new meaning for me).
29 Palms by Robert Plant — I kind of grew away from Led Zeppelin as we all aged but Robert Plant’s fourth solo album, Now and Zen, I bought after hearing ‘Ship of Fools.’ If anybody can name the other three songs I’m thinking of also named “Ship of Fools,” they win a prize TBD. — All by pretty well- known artists. Ok back to 29 Palms which came after Now and Zen, I believe in the 1990s. But I was more attuned to BOLA for Plant songs.But it was his next album that had 29 Palms, which I thought would be a surefire hit. DIsclaimer: On Billboard this peaked on the charts at 111. However, in a newer narrowed-down tracking chart called Mainstream, it went to No. 4. (I’m leaving it up.) Almost insulting to be called Mainstream, right Plant? I just like the way the song kicks into this nice lilting melody in its second parts. Have no idea what it’s about other than that the title is the name of a town in SoCal, wealthy.
This This song by The The is fantastic, sad but true and in a good way. This This really could be the day, your life will surely change.
Borderline – Thin Lizzy
He’s dead, Phil Lynott bi-racial lead singer of Irish band. He once joked that he escaped being picked on for being the “only black person” in Ireland by playing in a band. Lot of great music The Boys are Back in Town, Jailbreak, Cowboy song to name a few of their biggest. This sad drinking song often gets overlooked.
Borderline:
Life in the Foodchain/Funky Western Civilization — Tonio K.
A reader emailed me several suggestions for Tonio K. I had Cinderella’s Baby on the original blog posting. But David, the emailer made me think. Tonio K. had at least five other hit songs from his work, hell in my opinion his entire works are great. It’s kind of like carving the turkey; it’s kind of like mowing the lawn; everything gets to this certain dimension winds up on the customer’s plate and is gone.
Sure, it’s a cliche’. But you know what they say about cliches’ — it became a cliche’ for a reason. The phrase sums up what I’m about to say about dementia.
The hardest thing about living with Lewy body dementia or any fatal disease is the unknown and dealing with that psychologically.
Will my brain damage progress slowly with controllable symptoms until I die peacefully (if that’s a thing) in my sleep?
Or will I shout, scream, accuse my wife of seeing other men or trying to poison me? All stories I’ve heard from caregivers and patients.
Will I be incontinent, impolite, and insulting, one who wanders out the front door and disappears? As Bob Dylan wrote,”No direction home, a complete unknown.” Will I be a heartbreaking shell of the man who was a father, son and husband?
When the word got out through my columns, I began hearing lots of stories. I have heard stories from friends, neighbors, in online support groups, emails from strangers. Some people run down in explicit detail how their loved one was at the end.
“He was in extreme pain,” one person wrote me. Another said she wouldn’t wish the disease on her worst enemy. I’m so sorry Mr. Oliver, another wrote.
I’m try to process this.
Many folks living with dementia or caring for a loved one with Lewy body, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s want information. And this is where I see light.
Certainly everybody can decide for themselves how to handle this — until you can’t. I chose to come out in public early with my diagnosis in an effort to raise awareness of this little known form of dementia. But my advice works on a broader scale, I hope.
Learn what you can about the disease, what can happen from best to worst, from living a full, relatively long life to sitting in a nursing home blank faced and unresponsive, not even knowing your daughters’ names as they stand crying before you.
This is serious.
Don’t be afraid to do the research, to name the disease, to listen to people’s stories. But you are not obligated. OK, you might say at some point: I get it. My brain is dying which controls everything I am, my perceptions, my memories, my motor skills.’ That doesn’t sound good. Talk to your friends and loved ones openly and make a plan for the worst.
I was diagnosed at a relatively young age for Lewy body — age 57. Now 59, I have progressed slowly due, in part to medications which were developed for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients. (That there are no specific drugs developed for Lewy body dementia I see as a sign the disease is flying under the radar, and that’s a key reason I am trying to spread the news and keep up the pressure to find a cure for Lewy body dementia.)
Once you know how bad it can be, you can begin to expect the best.
When I was young I remember my parents had a book called ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ a title that kind of made me roll my eyes. But I’m thinking there may be something there.
“Stand up to an obstacle,’ wrote Norman Vincent Peele decades ago. “Just stand up to it, that’s all, and don’t give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break, and it won’t be you, it will be the obstacle.”
Exercise, treat yourself to healthy but delicious meals, go see something you haven’t seen, write about your life, engage in a community of fellow LBD patients, or just friends, family, faith-based groups.
And I’m no Norm Van Peale but I offer up another suggestion:
This is an opinion column by Mike Oliver who writes for AL.com about his fatal brain diagnosis and other life issues. See his Living With Lewy Body blog at www.myvinylcountdown.com
In going through my 678 records to bring awareness for my brain disease, Lewy body dementia, I’ve come across songs that I believed should have been big hits.
I’m sure you’ve done this before. Like how could that song not be a hit single? I’m going to pull a list of 12 songs from my 678 albums that should be hits. The artists, if they read this, should reissue these songs, pump them up and make some money.
Actually that’s easier said than done. Everything is out there. Yet there’s opportunity here for a band to be rediscovered. Or maybe score a car commercial, like Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’ did years ago.. Of course he never saw the benefit of that: He died by suicide years before it was a commercial.
Actually what might be a hit today will likely fall on dead ears in regards to my 59-year-old self. My idea of a hit will sound more like what II grew up with in the 60s, 70s and 80s. I’ll provide links and/or videos to those I can find. Maybe you’ll agree these should have been hits. Or, maybe not. But let me issue a challenge. Put these 12 songs on a playlist. Six you will say naaaah! Three you will like or find interesting. Two you will love and keep forever. And one will enter your Top 10 list of all-time great songs. The challenge begins as I rank in descending order of my picks.
12. One Day Tomorrow — Edgar Winter. Winter, taking a break from the straight-ahead rock of Free Ride and Frankenstien, goes solo with a mostly mellow album called Jasmine Nightdreams. Mellow except for the song Shuffle Low, which features searing guitar and ‘Keep on Burning” in which Edgar shows where Steven Tyler picked up that cat hairball scream.
11. Feel Like Calling Home — Mr. Big
This obscure British group, not to be confused with a slightly lesser obscure American group of the same name had a lead singer who went to the Geddy Lee school of high scream you scream. Check it out (the song is nothing like a Rush song FYI). For an encore, the lead singer will put glass bottles on his fingers, clack them together, and say ” Warriors, come out and play-ay.”
10. Jesus Came Down — Lake
Moving from obscurity to more obscurity, let’s go to Germany where a band named Lake put out a few albums , sometimes sounding like Yes. Of Lake songs there are several that could make the shoulda coulda woulda list: ‘TIme Bomb,’ ‘On the Run’ or ‘Jesus Came Down.’
I’m going with Jesus. But you gotta be worried about that guitarist who unleashes a firestorm of guitar licks that almost had me running with the devil.
Live version of Jesus Came Down. Studio version is in link in story.
9. Catch Your Train — Scorpions
Back in the day (and night) we listened to this new genre called ‘heavy metal.’ If it was commercial, it sucked. The Scorpions and UFO, two German bands (speaking of German bands) were a pretty good bet not to be commercial. That changed some 5 or 10 years after I was a little metal head for about 20 minutes. The Scorpions, though could still play metal, they started to do power ballads that topped the charts. Little cash money you know. ‘Catch Your Train’ is not even on the Scorpions greatest hits album. But I always thought it would go worldwide if released as a single. Listen up. There’s a hardcore metal singer and a guitarist, one of the Schenker brothers. (The other is/was in UFO). Put your cotton balls in your ears and crank it all the way to 6. (Just to be safe).
8. Ballad of El Goodo — Big Star
It’s certainly fits the storyline that Big Star would have all sorts of calamities that kept their great music from the masses. But this song, especially, seemed to be an automatic hit.. But no. When you first hear it you say, I know that song, but then you can’t figure out where. It’s a rock and roll template song with soul.
7. Summer Eyes — Nite City
After Jim Morrison, frontman of the Doors, died, the brain behind the mega group, Ray Manzarek, had to do something. So he hooked up with a few LA-based musicians and formed a short-lived group called Nite City. The resulting record isn’t too bad. But it’s highlight ‘Summer Eyes” is kind of like the El Goodo song. In that it instantly sounds like it was a big hit sometime in the past — in the listeners’ minds. Although it did get some radio play — that’s how I first found it in Athens, Ga., while was in high school. Fittingly, the song is anchored by a strong Manzarek organ riff.
6. Oh My Love – Dave Olney
I saw Dave Olney several times in my several years at Auburn. Live music every Thursday night with $5 cover and 50 cents Budweiser long necks. Olney and his band the X-Rays played intermittently. Tight band. I bought the album at a record store and will review it in Myvinylcountdown.com soon. “Oh My Love” I believe did get local or regional airplay. Nothing fancy about it. Except that it will stay in your head forever. This is a very difficult song to find online. Finally found a geriatric Olney, doing well it looks like, still recording, writing books, etc. See video below and go to the 3 minute mark to get the song. It’s a great song and I’d love to see an older video with full backing band, that would bring back memories.
5. This Corrosion – The Sisters of Mercy
This little bit of Gothic darkness is a quite catchy if you ask me. And you can dance to it. Put it on the radio.
4. Gypsy Blood — Mason Ruffner
This song just needs to be on the radio. It’s a road song and will make you drive too fast. Listen to Ruffner on the guitar. Should have been a hit.
3. Sincerely — Dwight Twilley
This guy was severely under-recognied. I could put about five or six songs of his here — off the top of my head.
2. More Than One Heaven — The Swimming Pool Q’s
Blindfold me. And let me randomly pick a list of Swimming Pool Q songs. A majority could have been hits. ‘Pretty on the Inside,’ Celestion,’ ‘ Blue Tomorrow,’ ‘The Bells Ring’. Listen closely for guitar. Bob Elsey, I’ve said it before, is one of the more underrated guitarists in a pop band. He rarely jumps out front, mainly delivering song support with guitar in a way that you rarely see (hear?) In live concerts he steps forward a little. He leaves you wanting more. Jeff Calder is a fine guitarist as well and lyricist. Anne Richmond Boston has a distinct and wonderful tone on vocals. I saw the Q’s in 1978 (or 79) as they opened for the B-52’s at Memorial Hall on the UGA campus. I was in a dorm about 3 minutes walking distance. My introduction to the New Wave thing. I saw them later in Birmingham at the Nick.
Cinderella’s Baby — Tonio K. This artist, I’ve talked about before. I’ll save writing about his work and songs until I get to him on the MVC Countdown. But know this: He is one of my favorites and his lyrics and rock sensibilities are in the upper realm of modern rock and roll. Notethis album’s cover is part of my home page. This song sounds radio ready even if the lyrics were not so great. But the lyrics are amazing –a blatant condemnation of the pressure that popular culture put on us to be who we are not, especially women and girls. It’s a culture that encourages women and girls to emulate someone’s sexualized vision of beauty to sell product. . “Don’t you believe it,’ Tonio sings. “when they tell you that your face won’t do and you got to make one up.”
Post Script. I welcome feedback. Let me know if my predictions about how many you like are spot on or waaaay miss the mark. In doing this I resisted to pull some lesser heard Beatles or Rolling Stones (‘Out of Time’ off of Metamorphosis was a Stones song considered. Remember also I was working out of the universe of my collection. That said, I’d love to hear your ‘Best songs that should have been hits.’
The Olivers, the Archibalds and Brummies’ Jacob Bryant.
Alabama Theatre has seats. For that I’m thankful.
I saw three great acts back-to-back last night at the historic venue. We were tired and I couldn’t keep up with end of the concert standing and dancing but JA could. Our wives were even more wiped than I was. But there’s John shaking his, well, shaking everything.
The music. The local lads, The Brummies, opened and played many cuts off their album Eternal Reach, of which I am a big fan. They rocked harder than they did on the finely produced album. That was expected and they put on a great show.
SUSTO made me take notice. Off-kilter, enigmatic, lyrics, excellent musicianship. I will explore this Charleston-S.C. based group further.
Anderson East, my goodness, this kid could sing. He’s got the WW — Wilson and Womack (and Wilson I’m talking about Jackie but you can easily take your Pickett.)
After Midnight we talked to Brummies vocalist guitarist trumpet player co-founder Jacob Bryant. I told him I was a big fan. They are working on more songs and I can’t wait to hear them.
