ALBUMS: ‘T.Rextasty — The Best of T. Rex, 1970-1973 (1985); The Turtles Greatest Hits (1983)
MVC Rating: T. Rex; 4.0/$$$$$; Turtles, 4.0/$$$$$
Again, another package deal in the ‘T’s. Note: I feel like I will be in the U’s in the next week barring the occasional ‘S’ that keep popping up. From the U’s we have UVWXYZ. Don’t get too excited, I snuck a peek and I have a fair amount left (83 is what is registered (that number beside the title) But I will most certainly have surplus. More on that later.
The Turtles and T. Rex. Seems like a mismatch to me but don’t underestimate a turtle. Both of these groups were light psychedelia/pop/folk. Both had one song each that was career defining.
For T. Rex it was Bang a Gong (Let’s Get It On.) Fun Fact: Members of the Turtles played on some T. Rex songs, including contributing backing vocals on ‘Bang a Gong.’
For the Turtles, their career song was ‘Happy Together,’ a spectacularly catchy and hummable song that spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
T. Rex were huge in the UK where Bang a Gong was atop the charts for weeks. In the US, the song ‘Bang a Gong’ reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Bolan was killed in a car accident in which he was a passenger in 1977. Members of the Turtles joined Frank Zappa’s band for a time in the 1970s.
That slam-bam line by Edwin Star on his War & Peace album is probably known by more people than the opening of the Beatles ‘Hey Jude.’
It’s been on movie soundtracks, commercials and radio shows and samples. The song was the US No. 1 hit for three weeks on Billboard in 1970. Bruce Springsteen covered the song and it became a concert staple for Bruce for many years. Motown originally gave the song to the Temptations but thought it needed a grittier treatment for success. Starr was there to oblige.
Well, I wanted to know what else this singer did so I bought the album sometime in the mid-1970s with the Vietnam war still fresh on everybody’s mind.
What I found were some tuneful soul songs sung by a man in the shadows of James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, and Otis Redding.
‘War,’ though, changed everything by becoming a worldwide hit.
Other standouts on the album: ‘All Around the World,’ ‘I Just Wanted to Cry’ and ‘She Should Have Been Home.’ There’s also a surprisingly straightforward version of ‘Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.’
Some of Starr’s earlier work is considered part of the ‘Northern soul’ subgenre and is quite collectible. The Northern soul songs were especially popular in England and Germany. Starr moved to England in 1971 and died there at 61 in 2003.
A package deal here. I like doing this just to shake the format a little. Sometimes there are themes; other times the only similarity is the records are made of vinyl and have a hole in the center. I have three albums here and if you stretch, there’s a theme (or two).
Snif’n’ the Tears was a one-hit wonder with their catchy ‘Driver’s Seat.’ a car song if ever there was one even if the lyrics are gibberish ‘..Driver’s seat …oh, oh, oh, there is no elite.’ But the tune was an ear worm and well produced with driving drums and bass and synthesizer flourishes. Another problem they may have had is there other songs were softer rock, which may be unexpected coming off of ‘Driver’s Seat.’
Sugarloaf was a 2-hit wonder, rolling out ‘Green-Eyed Lady’ and ‘Don’t Call Us (We’ll Call You). The album I have doesn’t have Green-Eyed Lady on it.
The song opens: ‘Long distance, directory assistance, area code 212.’
Fun fact about Don’t Call Us: The sound of someone dialing a telephone of the push-button variety– the next big thing since rotary dial — is a key part of the song. And that sound is reportedly the private number of the record executive who rejected the group.
Now that’s edgy.
Now K-tel, if you grew up in the 1970s, was ubiquitous to late night television commercials, advertising 20 top hits for $3.99. On my album cover it says: ‘As seen advertised on television.’
The K-tel records were usually fluffier tunes that had that here-today-gone-tomorrow feel on them. Although they could surprise you. On my record, for example, there’s a Partidge Family song “Doesn’t Somebody Want You to Want Me.” sharing vinyl with Ray Charles’ “A Sweet Little Thing Like You.’ The K-tel record also had Green Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf. Ding ding ding ding. There’s a connection. It was Sugarloaf’s entry into two-hit wonderdom.
Of these three albums, I’ve played the K-tel record much more than the other two. That’s because the records by Sugarloaf and Snif’n’the-Tears didn’t really have any other good songs on them. Sugarloaf had some mediocre rock and roll and Snif’n’the-Tears ditto, only more mellow.
I was lucky in that I had a nearly mint K-tel record as they usually are played to death and then used as frisbees.
It is also one of the permutations (in 1972) of this company that used nonedited official song tracks. However cramming the grooves closer with 10 songs per side certainly didn’t help K-tel become a model of sound fidelity. My K-tel had one serious one-hit wonder called ‘Sweet Mary by Wadsworth Mansion — another impossible ear worm.
ALBUMS: 100cc 10cc (1975); Original Soundtrack (1975); How Dare You (1976); Bloody Tourists (1978)
MVC Rating: 100cc 4.5/$$$$; Original 4.0/$$$; How 4.0/$$$$/ Bloody 4.0/$$$
I’ve got 10cc in a previous post as one of my top underrated bands. I’ve had conversations with ‘friends’ that think 10cc is not underrated –but shouldn’t be rated at all because they are so bad!
This attitude comes from several things, namely two Top 40 hits. One, ‘I’m Not in Love” was a song off of the Original Soundtrack album that was a big radio hit that people either loved or hated. It has syrupy strings and slow tempo. But as I’ve pointed out in my arguments, it is satire, like a lot of 10cc. They are clever and very good musicians and songwriters:
In that song: ‘I keep your picture on the wall/it hides a nasty stain that’s lying there … I’m not in love.’
The song ends in a whisper spoken refrain: Be quiet, big boys don’t cry, big boys don’t cry.
So, if you are entering the 10cc universe with that one song on the radio, you would miss out on some interesting music.
The other ‘success’ that I think hurt them a little was a song several years later that was a sappy, big radio pop song, ‘The Things we Do for Love’ — their most successful song but I think it hurt their credibility a bit.
‘The things we do for love, like walking in the rain and the snow and there’s nowhere to go ...’
No satire to save this one as it did for ‘I’m Not in Love.”
Fortunately I entered in through their 1975 compilation album of early British hits. Or, another way to describe that would be early U.S. flops.
This really is an album of near misses. ‘Rubber Bullets,’ ‘Wall Street Shuffle,’ The Worst Band in the World,’ and ‘Silly Love,’ (Not to be confused with Paul McCartney’s sappy ‘Silly Love Songs.’ Or their own ‘Things We Do For Love.) 10cc’s ‘Silly Love’ opens with riffing power chords. .’
‘Rubber Bullets’ satirizes a couple of jailhouse songs that were popular on the 1950s including ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and Riot on Cell Block No. 9. In the song, the warden is calling guards to ‘Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets.’
Then it got out of hand as the music do-wops along:
Well we don’t understand Why you called in the National Guard (national guard, national guard) When Uncle Sam is the one Who belongs in the exercise yard (exercise yard, exersise yard
We all got balls and brains But some’s got balls and chains At the local dance at the local county jail
100cc is a great place to start although there pleasures and treasures to be found in the others, including ‘Art for Art’s Sake,’ off of the ‘How Dare You,’ album, ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ (I don’t like cricket, I love it).’
If I had to describe their music, it would be Frank Zappa (without the overt weirdness) and Queen with its emphasis on sound production and structure.
This album has a great album cover by artist James Rizzi. The Tom Tom Club, which was the Talking Heads without leader David Byrne, sounds like the cover looks.
Funny, crazy, colorful and noisy. Cartoon figures of the band and others are crammed onto the cover amid dozens of little drawings — hearts, dollar signs, squiggles and wiggles. Giraffes, military fighter jets and microphones.
Whew! It’s enough to spin the head of the Rev. Howard Finster.
The music mostly fits the cover. There are hints of the advent of Electronic Dance Music, although it sounds more organic than dialed in — which is a good thing.
But one has to remember this was cutting edge about four decades ago. Now, not so much. Funny how that works: How art competes for immortality yet often is yesterday’s news. Sometimes it takes a long time to decide which is which.
Talking Heads’ married couple Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, were the main creators of TTC.
ALBUMS: R&L ‘Shoot Out the Lights (1982); Richard Thompson ‘Hand of Kindness’ (Solo album 1983)
MVC Rating: R&L 5.0 $$$$$; Richard 4.0/$$$$$
Oh man, this is a good one, I had going in this was a 4.5. In other words a high quality, almost perfect album. But then I dropped the needle after about 25 years of not hearing this album — at least all the way through.
It’s a ‘5.’
And the Richard solo album is excellent especially if you are a fan of his unusual guitar style.
‘Shoot’ was reportedly a break-up album kind of like Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.
Richard and Linda, veterans of the English folk rock scene (Fairport Convention), broke up after about 10 years of marriage at the time this record was being made in early 1980s.
It is dark, full of pain, fraught with emotion. And wonderful because Linda has a beautiful voice. And Richard propels by guitar the mess of hurt through a carnival of dark shadows and broken dreams.
“I’m walking on a wire and I’m falling,” Linda sings.
More amusement ride imagery with both singing in a bouncy way that belies the words: “Won’t you ride on the Wall of Death one more time.”
The title song says the darkness makes it real — ‘real as a gun’ —shoot out the lights. Still another song plumbs the depths of human love and hate, and the confusion of the motives behind one’s actions.
‘Did she jump or was she pushed.’ A theme explored in depth by John A. Knowles in the novel. A Separate Peace.
Spun Gold is about the only song on here that I truly enjoy. It’s the last song on the album. Other decent songs are here but others are just irritating.
Singer Michael Quercio needs to learn exactly what to do with that high voice. I’m a fan of odd voices and even higher than usual ones (Freddy Mercury, Prince, Geddy Lee even). Quercio sounds great in Spun Gold, a swirling round of a song, but too often the voice is a distraction.
Guitarist Louis Gutierrez is a solid player. He just needs better songs to wrap around. The Three O’Clock was part of the so-called Paisley Underground, an LA based tag that plagued some of the artists in it. The Bangles were so labeled. I see the all female Bangles as less Paisley and more retro 60’s style. Green on Red is another so called Paisley Underground badge wearer but GOR was much more raw, rocking and funny to be Paisley anything.
The Three O’Clock were the Herman Hermits through a 1980s prism and Quercio is Davy Jones in a higher octave.
This is another of my Blue Note jazz albums, and as I’ve come to expect with the label, it is high quality, high fidelity jazz.
My ‘Blue Hour’ is a 1985 re-issue from the original tape of the 1960 classic.
In about 20 seconds after dropping the needle, Turrentine’s tenor sax slides in like butter. The sound on my re-issue is fabulous. I haven’t heard the 2000 re-master but it would be hard to beat the warm tones of this one. I give it an extra bump in the ratings for sound quality.
It’s late night, last call music. The Three Sounds know when to step up and when to step back. Bill Dowdy on drums, Andrew Simpkins on bass, and Gene Harris on piano.
And now for something completely different as Mr. Python used to say. A banjo record.
Sure enough all 11 songs on the Real Turkey Records label in San Francisco feature banjo and more banjo. By the cover it appears our six band members include an upright bass, a drummer, a singer, and three banjo players. There’s also piano on some tracks. Several try vocals occasionally but banjo is the theme.
And to put it on the turntable is to turn the beat around. Banjo is scene changer. And this one proves Steve Martin’s line: “The banjo is such a happy instrument–you can’t play a sad song on the banjo – it always comes out so cheerful.”
For that reason this might be fun throwing on when things need livening up or things are getting heavy. But I would recommend only one play (front and back) because too much banjo music has the opposite effect. In a longitudinal study, excessive banjo music (dubbed Banjomama) results in irrational fear of player pianos and suspenders.
Interestingly, I have another album that is based in banjo, but the two records couldn’t be more far apart. ‘Kaleidoscope’ is a California psychedelic album featuring future Jackson Browne guitarist and award winning banjo player David Lindley. Kaleidoscope was a jazzy progressive rock jam while Medicine Ball leans more on traditional songs and ‘happy’ playing.
MVC Rating: James Taylor 4.0/$$$$; Greatest 4.0/$$$$
I grew into James Taylor. Mainly through my future wife, Catherine, who was a huge fan. While I had all my rock and roll mixtapes, she consistently pined for JT, Carol King, Carly Simon — the holy triumvirate of soft folk rock in the 1970s. (The Carpenters were a favorite but were more pop than folk.) So, of course I made mixtapes with these songs for her.
I remember she talked me into buying concert tickets when they went on sale at Auburn University, which Cat and I attended (and graduated). This was was one of these all day in line things, complete with folding chairs to snag tickets before they were sold out.
We got tickets and I proceeded to have about as enjoyable a concert as I have had in my 21-year-old life. He played all the classics ‘Fire and Rain,’ You’ve got a Friend,’ Carolina on My Mind,’ ‘Shower the People,’ and How Sweet It Is.’ But he also rocked out in the encores, playing some Chuck Berry I believe and others that have slipped through the memory of time. I just remember marveling at the concerts’ quality from songs to musicianship, coupled with a laid back easy personality that is his trademark.
The Greatest Hits may be all you need if you are just coming into JT. But all of his albums I know are good. I have his self-entitled debut which had ‘Carolina on My Mind’ with Paul McCartney on bass. Many of the other songs on this first album are unfamiliar these days but show a young man with a talent for simple songs that say more than they seem.
It doesn’t surprise me that he, now in his 70s, is still filling concert venues.
