Posted on

The Easybeats — 508

a

ALBUM: The Easybeats ‘Friday on My Mind’ (1985, compilation)

MVC Rating:  4.0/$$$

I can’t quite figure out the Easybeats, the 60’s-era band from Australia. This could be framed as a tale of two videos by the Aussie band, one bad beyond redemption, one amazing beyond compare. But more on that later.

Billed as Australia’s answer to the Beatles, they had two truly great songs:  ‘Friday on My Mind” and ‘Good Times’ are rock songs that  rank among the best, dare I say, or at least in the better category in our historical referencing language. ‘Friday’ is No. 726 on Dave Marsh’s list of the top 1001 songs of all time. Looking at that list, which I have in the form of an actual 1989 book, I’d move ‘Friday” up and put ‘Good Times,’ which isn’t even on the list, higher than Friday or at least on par.

‘Good Times’ probably loses points for inane lyrics, but the old film footage of the band doing this song has rock screamer lead vocalist Stevie Wright doing a flying knee drop at the right time. Not to be missed although the singing doesn’t always match the lips, if you know what I mean.

In the pantheon of rock songs, these two songs are hanging out at Itchycoo Park. (Damn that’s bad writing). But that Small Face pantheon, er, or park is not a bad place to be. OK let me just say it. Good Times wins by sheer force of it balls-out music and singing. Friday wins by capturing in words and music the powerful promises of an upcoming weekend.

But still it’s hard, as I said earlier, to understand this band, which is later linked to AC/DC through band members George Vanda and Harry Young.  Young was the older brother of Angus and Malcolm of AC/DC and were connected to that group through songwriting and production work. I’ll have more about V&Y when I review Flash and the Pan, a bizarre Vanda and Young project that generated several albums.

Back to the Easybeats. My main issue is that as good as those two songs are, I expected more hidden gems on this greatest hits albums. Instead I wander through what sounds like early Kinks outtakes or Dave Clark Five b-sides. Sounds like the band came unglued, torn between a hard-rocking psychedelic-tinged sound (Heaven and Hell) and hitsmakers a la early era Beatles thing (She’s So Fine.)

Their version of the much covered ‘River Deep/Mountain High’ is decent enough. I don’t know what to think of ‘Heaven and Hell’ whose title and lyrics got it banned in some places. It’s riveting in a rendition done on French TV but riveting in that your frozen in place if this could be heaven or this could be hell.

‘Come and See Her,’ which is not on the album fortunately but is captured on YouTube is  inexplicably bad. What are they doing? I can barely watch it. Is this the  band that has a live performance of ‘Good Times’ which I think is one of the best rock songs of that era. (INXS covered it years later, but the song never got the notice it deserved). Maybe it was all too easy. Easy fever.

Here’s their most popular song:

So two videos. One hideous and one brilliant. Either way, enjoy them here:

 Worst video.

Did you  catch the young woman dancing in the background at the end? She appeared to have pulled  her arms out of the socket or something. Anyway, here’s what I think is their best rock song (performance). CLICK HERE.

Posted on

Steve Earle — 509

MVC Rating:  4.0/$$$

ALBUM: Guitar Town (1986)

I feel like this is one of those records I discovered. Before anybody else was hip to Steve Earle, I had this, his first album. ( A lot of people jumped in at Copperhead Road).

Of course I am being facetious. Earle’s star was growing with this first album. I have several other digital albums and Earle songs but I  certainly have a fondness for this vinyl LP.

But here’s a question that lingers with Earle: Was he authentic? Dumb question? But I get the sense sometimes that his songs and singing style were, let’s just say showing a lot of influences.

So that nags at me a little but truth his he plays good music. He  picks good songs to cover.. He sings well. And he writes well. Check out the title song from this album (below).

Gotta keep rocking while  I still can/ gotta 2-pack habit and a motel tan.

From Someday: There ain’t a lot that you can do in this town 
You drive down to the lake and then you turn back around 
You go to school and you learn to read and write 
So you can walk into the county bank and sign away your life 

Yep, small town southern living pretty much encapsulated.

And to argue with myself, aren’t we all a product of our influences?

As an artist you just don’t want to wear influences in such a way as to be a cover band or Elvis impersonator. It’s all in how  you synthesize the influences. Earle went on to record 15 albums after this one so he’s done well. And I don’t know if his addictions and jail time made him more authentic in his music but it certainly seems like it put the blues and the outlaw into his country-folk- rock sound.

. And I discovered him.

By the way if you are reading this and wondering where the numbers went on last couple of countdown posts, hang on. I’m trying to recalculate a couple of outliers and will have it up and counting soon.

Posted on

The Eagles –511, 510

ALBUMS: Eagles Greatest Hits (1976), Hotel California (1976)

MVC Rating: Hotel 4.0/$$; Hits 4.0/$$

Get over it people. The Eagles are the most maligned great band of all time.  And that’s not right.  And these records, both from 1976, are two of the biggest selling albums of  all time.

Part of this venom comes from  cooler-than-thou anti-commercial snobs. That sentiment hounds all bands that get popular or have a song or two go into the stratosphere. This whole attitude was famously and hilariously sent up in the movie The Big Lebowski when the Dude screamed to turn off the radio: “I hate the f——g  Eagles.”

I believe  the Coen brothers were poking fun at this superiority rip that some get on with popular music. That said, the line would not have worked as well with Beatles subbing for Eagles. Why? I seriously wonder. It’s too easy to say the Beatles were better. The Beatles were pioneers. The Eagles were hitmakers trodding on the familiar ground of country-rock.

Hotel California is a great multi-faceted song instrumentally, and lyrically it opens itself up for numerous interpretations. That’s a good thing (see Dylan). When this song came on the radio and you were 17 in high school, it meant the night was kicking in. It means the door was open for just about anything. Funny, a song about decadence and greed in a subculture of Los Angeles could find common ground with Georgia southern boys and girls. But that’s how I remember it in high school in Athens, Ga.. in 1976-77. We didn’t have ‘ a dark desert highway’ but we had pine forest backroads.

Then music emanating  from a cassette tape in your car, you’d turn it up as ‘Life in the Fast Lane ‘ kicks in.

Other great songs? ‘Take it Easy,’ ‘Witchy Woman’ ‘Lyin’ Eyes,’ ‘Desperado, and on. (Not a fan of ‘Best of My Love,’ though.  Too slow and syrupy.)

Madeleine Chapman on The Spinoff, a blog from New Zealand (see this hate debate  has made it around the world), says this:

…. Half of the people who claim to hate the Eagles today just say so because their too-cool-for-soft-rock-I-only-listened-to-David-Bowie parents hated the Eagles. … There’s no logic besides if even my lame Dad hates them, they must be bad. And that would be totally fine if people weren’t so proud of their hate.

The Eagles get tagged with being misogynistic. A quick Google around and I saw their name linked to misogyny but no good examples. They write a lot about broken relationships. There are some obvious break-up songs e.g. ‘Lyin’ Eyes.’ Is ‘Witchy Woman sexist?’ ‘ Raven hair, ruby lips, sparks fly from her fingertips?’

“It’s a girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford turning around to take a look at me” from ‘Take it Easy.

Here’s one from ‘Hotel California:’

Her mind is Tiffany twisted, she got the  Mercedes Benz/ She got a lot of pretty pretty boys she calls friend.

Dunno.