I absolutely love this band’s sound…and you have to admit they were thinking outside of the box with the band name.
They were originally known as Squirrelbait Youth, with David Grubbs on guitar and vocals, Clark Johnson, Ben Daughtrey and Brian McMahan joined on second guitar.
They were known as a pop punk band that came out in 1983 from Louisville, Kentucky. Squirrel Bait (I love typing that) opened for such bands as Hüsker Dü and Chicago-based bands Naked Raygun and Big Black, who recommended Squirrel Bait to their label, Homestead Records.
Through Homestead, Squirrel Bait released an eponymous EP in 1985, a single in 1986 and an LP in 1987, all of which were later compiled onto a single CD. The Squirrel Bait record released in 1985 didn’t make any waves at first.. What helped them was Bob Mould from Husker Du and Evan Dando of the Lemonheads talking it up among others in the music press, people began to notice this band.
The band broke up in 1987 and most of the members joined other bands and David Grubbs did the same and started to release solo albums as late as 2017.
Sun God
I feel the power of the sun on my back So good That heat’s good That light has a mind to take it away
Take it away…
Let something go If it comes back it’s a good thing A good life A good feeling But it has a mind to take it away
Take it away… Take it away and it’s gone
I feel the power of the sun on my back So good…that heat’s good That light has a mind to take it away
This band had one of the most inspiring rises and the most devastating fall a band could have. They had the help of the biggest rock star in the 80s but that couldn’t stop what was coming. A truly sad story and a what might have been.
When Billy Rancher was a kid…he didn’t dream of rock stardom…it was baseball that he dreamed of. Billy’s father Joe was in the Dodgers minor league system. Billy was born in 1957 and he was an all-city shortstop at Madison High School and played ball for Mount Hood Community College on an athletic scholarship. His mom wanted Billy to finish his education, but his dad died in 1978, and Billy dropped out and concentrated on music.
He taught himself how to play guitar and started a band in Portland, the Malchicks, with his younger brother Lenny. That band soon broke up and Billy formed the Unreal Gods with Jon DuFresne, Bill Flaxel, Alf Rider, and Dave Stricker. The band was a hit in the Portland club scene…they even opened up for Peter Tosh at one point. At this time around 1981, Billy found out that he had cancer. He went to the hospital and he was cleared of cancer afterward.
The band raised some money and went to New York to record for Joe Delia, a session musician and independent producer.
They rehearsed at an auto-body shop, a favorite rehearsal spot for local bands. They noticed someone walking through…and that someone was Bruce Springsteen. Bruce helped to get the Unreal Gods into the Power Station…a famous studio…which was the place to record in the Big Apple. The Rolling Stones were putting down tracks there at the time.
Clive Davis, head of the Arista label, heard about this Portland band that had impressed Bruce Springsteen and hopped a flight to see them. Davis, caught an Unreal Gods show at the club Starry Night. He signed them the next day.
The label hired Men at Work producer Peter McIan to produce them. Right away the band were at odds with Mclan…he wanted to take their rawness away. Billy argued with him and the band agreed they would have found common ground but it was not meant to be. At this time Billy found out his cancer had come back. The label was sending the band to England to tour but that was put on hold…permanently
Billy fought the cancer and he was thought to be cleared but it then spread through his body. Billy Rancher died on December 2, 1986. He played live up until before he died.
In 2019 an album named Upstroke Down was released and featured some of the songs they were working on for Arista and others that sat in the vaults…including Uptown.
Jon DuFresne:Stuff started showing up on YouTube, I’d think, Wow, that was me. There we all are. There’s Billy. Did that really happen?
These garage bands were a breath of fresh air in the 80s. They sound like their 60’s predecessors but with an updated sound.
The Miracle Workers were formed in January 1982 in Chicago by Gerry Mohr, and Joel Barnett. The original guitarist and drummer left the band early on. Matt Rogers, a friend of Joel’s, became the guitarist. The band finally stabilized in 1984, with the addition of Dan Demiankow, and Gene Trautman.
They ended up recording 5 albums and 8 singles and EPs between 1984 and 1995. They play garage rock and fit with the revival acts, such as The Chesterfield Kings and Lyres that I have covered.
They broke up in 1992 because of musical differences. The band came together back in Portland to record their last album “Anatomy of a Creep” and released it in 1995.
You Know Why
You thought you’d be back here but it’s not that that it works for you, but you don’t know where it’s at You’ll know why when you learn to cry You can’t see through another’s eyes
Someday you’ll be hurt like others have been by you Can you feel the pain inside when there’s nothing you can do You’ll know why when you learn to cry You can’t see through another’s eyes
You could be who you want to be if you change your state of mind Look inside and you will find something you just can’t hide You’ll know why when you learn to cry You can’t see through another’s eyes
I love this band…it seems I have a fondness for bands that released good to great music but never could get over that hump to mass audiences. Maybe if they would have cleared that obstacle their music would have changed…but who knows… maybe it’s a part of their appeal.
This song comes out in 1997 and was on their Sound of Lies album. At first I thought it was about the Memphis band Big Star and it is kinda…and also about The Jayhawks and loving what you have now. The album peaked at #112 in the Billboard Album Chart and #61 in the UK.
They have a Kinks tie… They recently backed Ray Davies on his albums Americana and Our Country – Americana Act II. Their 2016 album Paging Mr. Proust was produced by Peter Buck of REM.
They formed in the mid-80s in the Twin Cities .
Gary Louris when asked if the song is about the band Big Star: “Not exactly. Maybe in the back of my mind.” “You could say it about the Velvet Underground or Big Star or The Jayhawks,” “world’s unluckiest bands. They should have been bigger. But everybody in the audience started a band. Everybody that saw them started a band. The old cliché. But it’s true.”
“I have a lot of famous friends.” “about achieving a place that you thought you wanted to be and maybe it would make you happy. It’s a typical human response. If I get there, then I’m finally going to be happy. And in reality, you probably won’t be. You should just be happy with what you have.”
Big Star
I’m flat-busted Wild-eyed and free I couldn’t get arrested if I tried A has-been at a mere thirty-five
Straight, honest, forthright and true Great expectations for someone Doesn’t anybody know how to have fun But I’m
Gonna be a Big Star I’m gonna be a Big Star someday I’m gonna be a Big Star someday
Grape’s bitter I’m no quitter Revolutions come one by one Seems it’s high noon and I ain’t got no gun
But it’s so hard So hard So hard getting by
Gonna be a Big Star I’m gonna be a Big Star someday I’m gonna be a Big Star someday
Fine bourbon, Cuban cigars Rude remarks observed at the C.C. Bar I’m perfecting the finest art of wasting hours But I’m
Gonna be a Big Star I’m gonna be a Big Star someday I’m gonna be a Big Star someday
I’m gonna be a Big Star I’m gonna be a Big Star someday
Game Theory was a power pop band founded by Scott Miller in 1982. I remember they got some MTV airplay. Miller was the only constant member of the band which changed members frequently. Game Theory got a lot of college play in the 80s.
Mitch Easter, who produced R.E.M. produced Game Theory. This song was on their album The Big Shot Chronicles which was praised when it was released and now. In the 2007 book Shake Some Action the album was #16 in the top 200 power pop albums of all time.
Scott Miller was a special songwriter. He influenced artists such as The New Pornographers, Jellyfish, Velvet Crush, Matthew Sweet, Ben Folds, Guided by Voices, and more.
Miller committed suicide in 2013. After Miller’s death, it emerged that he’d been planning a new Game Theory album with the working title, Supercalifragile. Miller’s widow enlisted The Posies’ Ken Stringfellow, along with some Game Theory bandmates, to finish the L.P. It was released in 2017.
There are many that compare him to Alex Chilton musically…and also in terms of being a really good songwriter that doesn’t beyond a cult following.
Alex Chilton and Scott Miller
Erika’s Word
Erica’s gone shy Some unknown X behind the why All is some less today Mass not conserving in the old way
Checking out with Brother Jay I’ll miss your half of me Girl are you leaving something You might later need?
Erica’s word, taking me clear and leaving me blurred Erica’s news, singing the praise and playing the blues Pulling the rug out under my shoes
Twelve years ago Shorthand allegiance to the long throw Make believe and pretend I remember when they served the same end
You always liked the photo of us Sitting in our car Just like we’re driving Girl it’s not looking like we’ll go all that far
Erica’s word, taking me clear and leaving me blurred Erica’s find, blowing my hair and tearing my mind Throwing for grabs and leaving behind
Maybe you’ll find that promised love The tingle to the touch Girl and I hope it comes through for you in a clutch But I wouldn’t bet much
Erica’s word, taking me clear and leaving me blurred Erica’s news, singing the praise and playing the blues Pulling the rug out under my shoes
Erica’s find, blowing my hair and tearing my mind Erica’s word, taking me clear and leaving me blurred Knocking me down from second to third
I’ve been posting bands that were in the Paisley Underground scene back in the 80s. This one is probably the most well known. Over the last few months I’ve become a fan of this 80s movement. For me…a better alternative to the top 40 at the time. I want to thank Dave at A Sound Day for introducing me to the song! They were called The Bangs before they released this song.
The Bangles were a breath of fresh air in the mid-eighties. The band played sixties inspired rock with Byrd’s chiming guitars. The lead singer, Susanna Hoffs, caught my eye right away. Yes for the normal ways but also for the fact she was playing a Rickenbacker guitar…what more could I want?
“Paisley Underground” was a moniker that helped music journalists describe their sound, which didn’t fit the New Wave or Rock. This song is an example of the genre, with a jangly guitar and ’60s-style reverb reminiscent of The Byrds or early Beatles. Other bands that fit this mode were The Rain Parade, The Dream Syndicate, and Rainy Day.
The scene also had a bit of early alt country rock (The Long Ryders and Green On Red) made more popular in the 90s.
The Real World was a song on the self titled EP the band released after signing with Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. Records. The EP wasn’t too successful but it did help get the band signed to the major label Columbia Records, which issued their first album called All Over The Place in 1984.
Guitarists Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson wrote this song. This is one of the few Bangles tracks bassist Annette Zilinskas played on; she left the group soon after, replaced by Michael Steele. The song was released on the small label Faulty Products.
Rain Parade covered this on a 2018 compilation called 3 x 4, where four Paisley Underground groups…Rain Parade, Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and The Three O’Clock – cover each others’ songs.
The Real World
Forgot to tell you Sins are very hard to say And you know that the words are there, my love When I first saw you I didn’t notice it that day Now you’re the one I’m thinking of.
[Chorus:] Oh, you never bring me down Make me sad, it’s such a change, oh yeah (oh yeah) If I was insecure That was yesterday and now I’m sure Oh, so sure (oh so sure, so sure).
When I was a little girl I wanted everything ideal Yeah, and a love I could depend on This is the real world And I believe our love is real And it’s the only thing I’m counting on.
[Chorus] Oh, you never bring me down Make me sad, it’s such a change, oh yeah (oh yeah) If I was insecure That was yesterday and now I’m sure Oh, so sure.
[Chorus] Oh, you never bring me down Make me sad, it’s such a change, oh yeah (oh yeah) If I was insecure That was yesterday and now I’m sure Oh, so sure, oh.
This is the real world I really want to be your girl This is the real world (real world) I really want to be your girl This is the real world (real world) I really want to be your girl.
The lyrics won’t make you mistake these guys for Bob Dylan but the guitar action is pretty cool in this one.
Several years before it became fashionable…the Droogs were playing what would later be called “garage revival”. They started playing together as pre-teens in 1966 and began issuing singles in the early to mid seventies.
Ahead of My Time was released in 1974. They missed out on the garage band sixties and they were ahead of the curve of the 60s garage band revival in the late 70’s.
They started to release albums in the mid-eighties and were part of the Paisley Underground Scene. They released 8 albums between 1984 to 2017.
The Droogs just released an album in 2017 called Young Gun and are still together doing their thing.
Ahead Of My Time
Hey babe, this must be your lucky day babe I wanna kiss you if I may babe Don’t care what people have to say babe
I’ve got to love you, the only way that I can So please don’t misunderstand They’ll tell you that I’m not your kind But I’m just ahead of my time.
In your neighborhood, got a reputation that’s none too good. For knowing things no young man should I know baby, you would if you could
I’ve got to love you, the only way that I can So please don’t me be your man They’ll tell you true love’s hard to find But I’m just ahead of my time. I’m just ahead of my time. I’m just ahead of my time.
We’re just ahead of our time. We’re just ahead of our time. We’re just ahead of our time.
Hey babe, this must be your lucky day babe I wanna kiss you if I may babe Don’t care what people have to say babe
I’ve been listening to the Rain Parade’s album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip and I’ve heard influences from Buffalo Springfield to Rubber Soul. The Rain Parade were part of the Paisley Underground scene in Los Angeles in the early 80s. The Paisley Underground scene contained bands such as The Bangles, Green on Red, and The Long Ryders.
They were another band formed in Minnesota by college roommates Matt Piucci (guitar, vocals) and David Roback (guitar, vocals) in 1981, while they were attending Carleton College. David’s brother Steven Roback (bass, vocals) joined.
Their roots were in punk music but in this band…instead of the Sex Pistols and the Clash they went for the Byrds jangly guitars. The critics were mixed on this band…some saying they copied the psychedelic era too much and others saying they were ahead of their time. The Roback brothers were the main writers. After this album Dave Roback left the band.
From Wiki: Critic Jim DeRogatis would later write in his book Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (2003) that “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is not only the best album from any of the Paisley Underground bands, it ranks with the best psychedelic rock efforts from any era”, with uplifting melodies offset by themes that were “dark and introspective.”
They were together from 1981 to 1986. They broke up in 1986 and reformed in 2012 and have been touring since. Dave Roback passed away in 2020.
Daveid Roback: “Rain Parade was very much a recasting of our punk interests in more musical terms, inspired by our fascination with music history.”
One Half Hour Ago
What’s the point of looking back?
All you see is an empty track
Of lives you’ve lived
And things you tried to love
What’s the use of anything
That brings you down?
You can’t believe it for an hour
You’re in here just a while
Half an hour from an hour ago
From a half an hour from an hour ago
Call me early on Saturday
It’s my favorite day
I’ll come out to play
That is only, I go to bed
So that I can rest
I can leave my head behind
Disappointing everyone
I’m so much fun
Until I’m lost
Things we do are the way we choose to live
I was really happy when I saw Mike’s choice of the Replacements song Can’t Hardly Wait in the draft. I had that one in the back of my mind but had this one ready to go later. I decided to go ahead and get this one in.
I could have picked a more instantly likable song like Skyway, Here Comes a Regular, or Alex Chilton but this song…was a great anthem that kicks you in the shins when it starts. It was recorded in the eighties but it has no giant production…it’s raw and honest about youthful uncertainty and alienation.
I recently visited Aphoristic’s site and he had his top ten songs of the 1980’s. I thought about it and I included this song on my list in the comment section. In popularity would it be there? No… but this is a lost anthem of the eighties that should have been taken up by that generation. Just because a song isn’t heard and embraced by the masses doesn’t mean it isn’t great.
Westerberg’s songwriting in the 1980s rivaled any artist in that decade.
Everyone who knows me… knows I’m not a huge fan of the top 40 in the 1980s but alternative rock is a different story. In my opinion, the two best alternative rock bands to come out of the 80s were The Replacements and R.E.M.
R.E.M played the music business game much more than The Replacements. The Replacements didn’t play at all until the very end. That hurt them on not being heard on the radio or MTV. If it weren’t for their penchant for self-destruction they would have been known more by the masses.
This song was on their album “Tim” released in 1985. Why was the album called Tim? There was no reference to the name on the album. The band’s manager said that he asked Paul Westerberg what the name of the album would be. Paul told him “Tim” and the manager asked why? Paul said “because it’s such a nice name.”
“Tim” was placed 136th on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 137 in a 2012 revised list. The album peaked at #186 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1986.
Paul Westerberg:“To me, a part of that song is about my sister who felt the need … to be something by going somewhere else. It is sort of the Replacements feeling the same way … not knowing where we fit. It’s our way of reaching a hand out and saying, ‘We are right along with you. We are just as confused.'”
They also played this song on SNL and got banned for life for being drunk and a certain swear word slipping out….supposedly by accident. This is the only video I can find of it. Westerberg eventually appeared on SNL in the 90s as a solo artist. The studio version is the second video.
Bastards of Young
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled It beats pickin’ cotton and waitin’ to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young We are the sons of no one, bastards of young The daughters and the sons
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom Elvis in the ground, no waitin’ on beer tonight Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function It beats pickin’ cotton and waitin’ to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young We are the sons of no one, bastards of young Not the daughters and the sons
Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no war to name us
The ones who love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest And visit their graves on holidays at best The ones who love us least are the ones we’ll die to please If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young We are the sons of no one, bastards of young Daughters and the sons
Young Young Young Young Young
Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours Take it, it’s yours
I couldn’t continue these underground Mondays without featuring the B-52s. I always smile when I hear this band. I could not listen to them for hours on end but once in a while is great.
I like the sixties sound of this. It sounds that way because of the Farfisa organ played by Kate Pierson and the surf guitar sound that Ricky Wilson created.
Fred Schneider and B-52s guitarist Ricky Wilson were listed as the writers on this track, but at some point the other three band members – Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland were added to the credits.
Canada really responded Rock Lobster. The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #56 in the Billboard 100, and #37 in the UK, and #38 in New Zealand in 1978.
Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson’s fish noises on this song are an homage to Yoko Ono, whose work is filled with these kind of screams and blurts. Yoko performed these parts when she joined the band at their 25th Anniversary concert at Irving Plaza in New York City in 2002.
John Lennon noticed the The Yoko Ono influence on this song when he heard it in 1979. It reminded him of Yoko’s music so much that it inspired him to return to the recording studio after a five-year retirement, resulting in the 1980 album Double Fantasy.
Yoko Ono:“Listening to the B-52s, John said he realized that my time had come. So he could record an album by making me an equal partner and we won’t get flack like we used to up to then.”
Fred Schneider: “We jammed on it for hours and hours and miles and miles of reel-to-reel tape. Keith and Ricky went and spliced ideas together, brought them to Kate, Cindy and I, and we put in our six cents and we came up with this six minute and forty-eight second song. We have a hard time editing ourselves, but who cares?”
From Songfacts
Many B-52s songs have fun, whimsical lyrics, and this is one of them. It’s about a beach party where someone encounters a rock lobster (which is also known as a crayfish, but that wouldn’t sound as good), and hijinx ensue.
Fred Schneider of The B-52s stopped eating crustaceans at the age of four after going crabbing with his family in New Jersey and watching the crabs get boiled alive. He explained in a video he narrated for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that he got the idea for this song when he was at an Atlanta disco called 2001 where a projector displayed images of lobsters on a grill. He thought, “Rock this, rock that… rock lobster!” The band jammed on the title and “Rock Lobster” was created.
The B-52s’ guitarist, Keith Strickland, recalled to Q magazine that at the end of the song, “Cindy does this scream that was inspired by Yoko Ono. John heard it in some club in the Bahamas, and the story goes that he calls up Yoko and says, Get the axe out – they’re ready for us again! Yoko has said that she and John were listening to us in the weeks before he died.”
This was the first single the B-52s released. They recorded it on a shoestring budget at Mountain Studios in Atlanta in February 1978, and released the track as a single on DB Records in April. Danny Beard, who owned the label, recalls spending about $700 on the single in a session where a key on Pierson’s Farfisa organ didn’t work. The recording was rough but effective: it earned airplay and established the band as quirky, innovative, thrift-store punk rockers with pop appeal. Warner Bros. Records signed them and had them record a full album, complete with a new version of “Rock Lobster,” in Nassau, Bahamas, with producer Chris Blackwell. The album was issued in 1979 along with the single, which reached its US chart peak of #56 in May 1980. In the UK, where the band initially had a stronger following, it reached #37 in August 1979. When the song was re-issued in the UK in 1986, it reached #12.
In 1985, Wilson became one of the first celebrities to die from AIDS-related causes. He was 32.
This song has one of the most famous bass lines of all time, but it wasn’t done with a bass guitar. Guitarist Ricky Wilson came up with the riff, and Kate Pierson played it on Korg SB-100 Synthe-Bass, a little machine with a big sound that can also be heard on early Soft Cell recordings, including “Tainted Love.”
The original 1978 version runs 4:37; the album version released in 1979 goes 6:49, with the single edited down to 4:52.
Fred Schneider mentions several unusual sea creatures near the end of the song, including a narwhal, which is a rarely seen whale-like creature with a horn that makes it look like some kind of aquatic unicorn (one appears in cartoon form in the movie Elf). To the best of our knowledge, “Rock Lobster” is the only Hot 100 hit where a narwhal shows up in the lyric.
Other creatures mentioned: sting ray, manta ray, jellyfish, dogfish, catfish, sea robin, piranha, bikini whale. As Schneider sings, Wilson and Pierson approximate their calls with some impressive vocalizations.
“We always just did things our own way,” he continued. “You don’t have any preconceived notions. I was writing lyrics with Keith on the way into the studio, but then I changed my lines and stuff and then the girls added their noises at the end.”
This reached #1 on the Canadian charts in 1980, following Blondie’s “Call Me” and preceding The Pretenders’ “Brass In Pocket.” It held the pole position for one week. >>
This is one of the great cowbell songs; drummer Keith Strickland is credited with playing it on the recording, but when performed live, Fred Schneider would play it.
A video was made for this song in 1979 by combining stock footage with various band antics. MTV was still two years away, but the video helped promote the song throughout Europe. The group got their star turn on MTV a decade later when “Love Shack” became one of the most popular clips on the network.
The song appeared in the movies One-Trick Pony (1980), Lobster Man from Mars (1989) and Knocked Up (2007); it was used in episodes of My Name Is Earl (“Joy in a Bubble” – 2008) and Glee (“The Hurt Locker: Part 1” – 2015).
The song is also a favorite on the show Family Guy, where the character Peter Griffin performs it on guitar in two episodes, first in a 2005 episode where he plays it (inappropriately) to cheer up Cleveland, then in a 2011 episode where it plays to a lobster with the lyrics changed to “Iraq Lobster.”
The B-52s performed this on Saturday Night Live, January 26, 1980. This gave the song a big boost; in May, it reached its US peak of #56.
Ricky Wilson didn’t have high expectations for the riff when he came up with it. His sister Cindy Wilson told the CBC: “I came home one day, and Ricky was just working on his guitar, and he was just laughing to himself. He says, ‘I just made up the stupidest riff there ever was.'”
Panic! at the Disco sampled the famous “Rock Lobster” riff on their 2016 track “Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time.” Panic! frontman Brendon Urie is a big fan of the B-52s; he was thrilled when he found out the sample cleared.
Rock Lobster
Ski-doo-be-dop Eww Ski-doo-be-dop Eww (Ski-doo-be-dop) We were at a party (Eww) (Ski-doo-be-dop) His ear lobe fell in the deep (Eww) (Ski-doo-be-dop) Someone reached in and grabbed it (Eww) (Ski-doo-be-dop) Was a rock lobster (Eww)
Aaaah Rock lobster Aaaah Rock lobster
Eww Eww We were at the beach (Eww) Everybody had matching towels (Eww) Somebody went under a dock (Eww) And there they saw a rock (Eww) It wasn’t a rock (Eww) Was a rock lobster (Eww)
Aaaah Rock lobster Aaaah Rock lobster
Rock lo-o-obster Rock lo-o-obster
Motion in the ocean (Ooh ah) His air hose broke (Hoo ah) Lots of trouble (Ooh ah) Lots of bubble (Hoo ah) He was in a jam (Ooh ah) He’s in a giant clam! (Hoo ah)
Rock, rock Rock lobster! (Aaaaaaaaah) Down, down! (Aaaaaaah)
Lobster Rock Lobster Rock Let’s rock!
Boys and bikinis Girls and surfboards Everybody’s rockin’ Everybody’s frugin’
Twistin’ round the fire Havin’ fun
Bakin’ potatoes Bakin’ in the sun
Put on your noseguard Put on the lifeguard Pass the tanning butter
Here comes a stingray (ooh wok ooh wok) There goes a manta ray (ah ah ah) In walked a jellyfish (huah) There goes a dogfish (rea-owr) Chased by a catfish (geh geh geh geh geh geh geh geh geh geh) In flew a sea robin (Laaaaa) Watch out for that piranha (eh rek eh rek ah hoo) There goes a narwhal (eeeeh) Here comes a bikini whale! (Aaaaah!)
(Lobster rock lobster-ster) Rock lobster (Lobster) Rock lobster (Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah) (Lobster rock lobster-ster) Rock lobster (Lobster) Rock lobster (Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah) (Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah) (Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah)
I like this bouncy story song by Lloyd Cole. His hiccupping style of singing is appealing. I first posted a song by Cole and his Commotions back in June and I’ve been listening to them ever since.
This song was on their album Easy Pieces released in 1985. This band was a success in the UK but didn’t do much in America.
Easy Pieces would enter the UK album charts at number five, and sold over one-hundred thousand copies within a month. Two successful singles were taken from the album. Brand New Friend reached number nineteen and Lost Weekend reached number seventeen.
They released three studio albums total and all were successful. Rattlesnakes in 1984, Easy Pieces in 1985, and Mainstream in 1987. All were in the top twenty in the UK. In 1989, the band decided to break up and released a best of compilation, 1984-1989.
Lost Weekend
It took a lost weekend in a hotel in Amsterdam And double pneumonia in a single room And the sickest joke was the price of the medicine Are you laughing at me now? May I please laugh along with you?
This morning I woke up from a deep, unquiet sleep With ashtray clothes and this lonely heart’s pen With which I wrote for you a love song in tattoo upon my palm ‘Twas stolen from me when Jesus took my hand
You see I, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it Drop me and I’ll fall to pieces So easily
I was a king bee with a head full of attitude Wore my heart on my sleeve like a stain And my aim was taboo, you Could we meet in the marketplace? Did I ever hey please, did you wound my knees?
You see I, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it Drop me, and I’ll fall to pieces Yeah too easily
There’s nobody else to blame I hang my head in a crying shame There is nobody else to blame Nobody else except my sweet self
It took a lost weekend in a hotel in Amsterdam Twenty four gone years to conclude in tears And the sickest joke was the price of the medicine Are you laughing at me now? May I please laugh along?
I was a king bee with a head full of attitude An ashtray heart on my sleeve, wounded knees And my one love song was a tattoo upon my palm You wrote upon me when you took my hand
You see I, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it Drop me and I’ll fall to pieces too easily Too easily Too easily
I was a sophomore in high school when this was released. I was surprised because it was a big departure from what we were accustomed to from Joe Walsh. To my surprise this was the last song of Joe Walsh to chart in the Billboard 100. It peaked at #52 and #21 in the Mainstream Rock Charts.
Space Age Whiz Kids was released in 1983 as a lead single from his sixth studio solo album, You Bought It – You Name It. Something about Joe Walsh, he had some of the best names for albums ever.
The video is classic as Walsh jumps from the pinball era to the video game era with his mocking of the stereotypical kids who played games featured in the video like Donkey Kong and Pac Man at the time.
The album peaked at #48 in the Billboard Album Charts. The album contains rock songs such as “I Can Play That Rock & Roll” and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, “Love Letters”.
Space Age Whiz Kids
I used to play that pinball, I used to go outside I had to spend my money, get on your bus and ride I used to go out dancing, put on my high-heeled shoes Get in my short black chevy, go on a downtown cruise I feel a little bit mixed up, maybe I’m obsolete All us pinball pool sharks, we just can’t compete
Space age whiz kids kids Leaders in the field Pioneers of research Space age whiz kids
Arcade mothership monsters, laserbeam blastshield eyes Full on space age madness, make-believe satellite skies Alien ships approaching, there’s trouble in sector five Left hand on the joystick, right hand hyperspace drive
Space age whiz kids kids, Space age whiz kids
Space age whiz kids kids, Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids
They got nothing to do, put another quarter in Pay those space age dues Donkey Kong high score, Pac Man’s on a roll Klingons on the warpath, whiz kids on patrol
Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids Space age whiz kids, Space age whiz kids I like space age whiz kids I like…I need…I need quarters…quarters! Give me quarters! I like quarters!
This great song is listed under Celtic Punk. This song was on an album with the same name released in 1988. Its been called the Pogues best album and it peaked at #3 in the UK and #4 in New Zealand in 1988. This song was was originally recorded for the “Straight Too Hell” soundtrack
This is such pure music and I’m a sucker for a well placed accordion.
The Pogues formed in Ireland in 1982 by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left because of drinking problems and was replaced for a time with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996.
They reformed with MacGowan in 2001 and are still together and playing. The band was awarded the life-time achievement award at the annual Meteor Ireland Music Awards in February 2006.
If I Should Fall From Grace with God
If I should fall from grace with god Where no doctor can relieve me If I’m buried ‘neath the sod But the angels won’t receive me
Let me go boys Let me go boys Let me go down in the mud Where the rivers all run dry
This land was always ours Was the proud land of our fathers It belongs to us and them Not to any of the others
Let them go boys Let them go boys Let them go down in the mud Where the rivers all run dry
Bury me at sea Where no murdered ghost can haunt me If I rock upon the waves No corpse can lie upon me
It’s coming up three boys Keeps coming up three boys Let them go down in the mud Where the rivers all run dry
If I should fall from grace with god Where no doctor can relieve me If I’m buried ‘neath the sod And still the angels won’t receive me
Let me go boys Let me go boys Let me go down in the mud Where the rivers all run dry
This 80s band started off as a surf band and then they switched to a more garage band sound. The song has a 1960s feel…it would be expected from a band who had a song called (I Wish It Could Be) 1965 Again.
The Barracudas are an English-Canadian band that formed in 1978 when Robin Wills (from London) met Jeremy Gluck (from Ottawa) and they are now based in England. The band’s original line-up consisted of Jeremy Gluck (vocals), Robin Wills (guitar and vocals), Starkie Phillips (bass and vocals) and Adam Phillips (drums).
The band broke up in 1984 but reformed in 1989. In 2005 they released their back catalog and that provided a boost to their career. They started to release singles and an album in 2014. They ended up with more compilations albums than regular releases.
This song was released in 1981 on their debut album Drop Out.
There was also a sixties band with the same name.
Jeremy Gluck:Radio was an enormous influence. You can’t imagine now how important it was then, it would seem sentimental to get into it. There were some good local stations, like CFRA, that played the Top 40 – I remember calling them like crazy in hope of my “Bang-a-Gong” request hitting paydirt. But the best was on FM. The night my top FM DJ played all of ‘Quadrophenia’ days before its release was one of many highlights. At night through the crystal clear winter skies I could tune in dozens of American stations, and discovered a lot of music and madness that way. Radio is magic: the first time I heard a record of mine on radio (John Peel show!), it was an epiphany.
Jeremy Gluck is the author and founder of the Nonceptualism art manifesto…yea don’t ask me but he described it.
“Nonceptualism is about the (an) end to art, and the end of the idea of an artist in self-concept and conception and execution of work, as we and consider it…but maybe it’s also my way of saying, It’s about an end to some or all of me as I’ve conceived myself since conditioning began – as it does with all of us – not long after birth. Which I like…”
We’re Living In Violent Times
Stayed in all day I was scared of getting killed Didn’t pick up my pay I know I’ll just get bills Maybe it’s all in my frozen mind We’re living in violent times Maybe it’s in my mind We’re living in violent times Took the news off the TV It always depresses me Put my new car in the garage I’m so scared of a crash I couldn’t wait to turn off the lights We’re living in violent times I tell ya We’re living in violent times Protested Guess I should look at the bright side And be glad just to be alive I’ll be happy right now If I come through this and survive I’m not imagining this I see the signs We’re living in violent times
This song rocks… The riff sounds like it was borrowed from Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” but he goes somewhere else with it.
This was the debut single of the Fuzztones in 1984. The band was formed in 1980 by Rudi Protrudi in New York. The band was nicknamed “The Gurus of Garage Grunge.” a decade before grunge existed. They played a large role in the mostly underground ’60s revival during the 1980s.
Their debut studio LP, Lysergic Emanations, was released in 1985. Thanks to praise from Ian Astbury of the Cult… the newly relocated Los Angeles-based Fuzztones were one of the few to get a major label deal. Thanks to a hugely successful tour of Europe in 1985, the group built a loyal and dedicated fan base there, and they toured there regularly ever since.
The band broke up in 1987 but Rudi Protrudi recruited other members to form a new Fuzztones and they have touring and releasing albums ever since…with Rudi being the only original member.
According to Discogs they have released over 21 studio and live albums between 1984 through 2020.
Bad News Travel Fast
Well I got somethin’ to say girl I hope you’re listenin’ close ‘Cause here’s one fish you caught that’s Slippery than most Baby You’re just a schoolgirl Well here’s a lesson you can use All the other women Say that I’m Bad News You’re not the first You won’t be the last Bad News Travels Fast
Well you’re friends they all warned you My heart is black as coal So if you wanna ride my highway baby You gotta pay the toll You know I’m bad That’s where it’s at Bad News Travels Fast Well, don’t you try to change me I’ll just string you along Sit back and enjoy the ride Tomorrow I’ll be gone
Baby you’re just a schoolgirl Here’s a lesson you should learn If you want my lovin’, baby You gotta wait your turn Well You’re not the first You won’t be the last Bad News Travels Fast Bad News Travels Fast Bad News Travels Fast
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PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 