At the risk of releasing a giant ear worm, here’s the band that wrote and recorded ‘The Break-up Song.’ Don’t remember it?
How about if I add the rest of the song title. (‘They Don’t Write ‘Em) No?
How about this hint:
Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
Yes, they don’t write ’em like that anymore.
It’s a decent song with little to say other than people are dancing to a song like you don’t hear much anymore. That may be profound. Or, like a lot of things, profundity is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case the ear of the listener.
Remember this was 1981. So we can look back and say the same thing about this song.
Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah. They don’t write ’em like that any more.
Maybe we are thankful.
Some decent power pop rock on this album with the emphasis on ‘some.’ I don’t recall buying this but I must have obtained it pretty cheaply. Mostly forgotten fodder. Most of the songs are written or co-written by Kihn. But there’s a cover of “Sheila” by Tommy Roe, he of ‘Dizzy’ fame. “I’m so dizzy, my head is spinning.’
Authentic 1950s rock-a-billy from the 1970s. Gordon does his best Sun years Elvis or Eddie Cochran or Gene Vincent.
Gordon along with guitar rock-a-billy pioneer Link Wray gives a by-the-note lesson in reproducing the sound of the era. And to top it off, Gordon gets a contemporary Bruce Springsteen song — ‘Fire’ — that not only sounds right at home but was so catchy it jumped on to the charts where it sounded like no other song in the Top 40 at that time..
Gordon operates in the relatively small universe of non-novelty retro sounds as put forth by the Stray Cats and Chris Isaak.
Gordon is mostly a great interpreter here rather than trying for a new or hybrid sound with rock-a-billy — unlike, say, Jason and the Scorchers who punked their billy up a bit.
As Allmusic.com writes:
He still comes off more as an enthusiastic interpreter than a musician with a vision of his own. Still, there weren’t that many American-born rock & rollers who were willing to fly the flag for rockabilly at end of the ’70s, and if other acts would surpass Gordon in imagination and impact a few years on, he certainly gets an ‘A’ for effort.”
Oh and you may notice that this is out of alphabetical order. I missed it — it was in the wrong place. It’s a ‘G’ record at a time I’m opening up the K’s.
There are others coming I’m sure. I’ll point it out when it happens . At the end, I’ll probably have several that I missed and finish with an addendum after the Original 678. Remember if you are looking for an album, you can narrow it down some by clicking on its letter in the categories at the left. Or, simply type the name into Search.
This came out today on CBS Sport.com ranking the Top 10 National Anthems. A pretty good list but two things for historical perspective and posterity need to be mentioned.
Whitney Houston may have done the best version ever. Luther Vandross may be in the Top 10. Jennifer Hudson may be No. 2 behind Whitney.
But these soulful renditions would not have been possible, IMHO, without the pioneering sporting event National Anthems done by two men.
Way back in 1968, a blind Puerto Rican, Jose Feliciano, took heat following his ever so slightly Latin-tinged rendition and Spanish guitar flourishes at baseball’s World Series, Game. Some sources say the backlash nearly derailed Feliciano’s career: This is the man who made a pop standard out of the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire.’
And at the 1983 NBA All Star game Marvin Gaye blew the lid off the structure of the song and made it a soul song of incredible depth– still my favorite version. When has there ever been a National Anthem performance that had the crowd clapping and swaying in time near the end of the song.
I remember watching it live on TV and being riveted, hanging on to every verse to see what Gaye would do next with it. Check it out.
For more see My Vinyl Countdown posts on Feliciano and Gaye.
NOTE: I added Pearl, which I picked up in a thrift store after I’d done the original review. Half the tracks overlap with Greatest Hits. Pearl is a great classic album. I’m pretty sure I have pretty much all the Joplin I need as I also have a CD with something like 20 song.
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Talk about pain — as we have been with the country songs of George Jones and Tammy Wynette — Janis Joplin was one hurting puppy.
Her voice was like no other when that inner turmoil came out.
That’s why the video in my last post of Janis and Tom Jones is something of a revelation. Tom Jones (coming to Birmingham soon) is a made for-Vegas, pop singer with a ladies’ following, some nifty dance moves copped from Elvis, and a strong strong voice in his own right. On this duet, Tom and Janis seem to be having much fun as they see who can out belt each other while shimmying around the dance floor to a small but raucous crowd of musicians and dancers.
Janis’ story is sad. Bullied in school in Port Arthur, Texas, for being overweight and having severe acne, she withdrew, thinking she didn’t fit in. She listened to old blues records and began singing in clubs. Next stop San Francisco. It was the psychedelic 1960s’ epicenter. Music, consciousness raising, sexual liberation and drugs came together in a way that was both exciting and very extremely dangerous. Janis died of a heroin overdose at 27.
She died before seeing her cover of the Kris Kristofferson-Fred Foster penned ‘Me and Bobby McGee.’ I might even put that song in my top 10 all time rock songs. Listen to how the lyrics like graceful brush strokes evoke a time, a place, desperation and, yes, freedom.
It was the second No. 1 single to be released after the artist died. The other? ‘(Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay’ by Otis Redding, another song in contention for my Top 10 and another example of voice and words evoking a sad song of wandering and memories. I’ve got some Otis Redding coming so, as Sam and Dave used to sing, Hold On.
Fun fact: Bobby McGee has been covered by many people, but the first cover was by Roger “King of the Road” Miller. Road songs all.
