1980s – Page 24 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

B-52’s – Rock Lobster…. 80’s Underground Mondays

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)

….

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Lost Weekend

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

Joe Walsh – Space Age Whiz Kids

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!

Pogues – If I Should Fall from Grace With God….80’s Underground Mondays

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

Barracudas – We’re Living In Violent Times

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

Fuzztones – Bad News Travels Fast

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

Pixies – Here Comes Your Man ….80’s Underground Mondays

Thanks to Dave at A Sound Day for bringing this song back up to me a few months ago. That 12 string caught my ear right away.

Songwriter and guitarist Black Francis (Charles Thompson IV), he called this song “Hobo film noir.” He said the song was about hobos traveling by train and dying in a big earthquake in California. He started writing it when he was about 15 and was inspired by small earthquakes experienced growing up in California.

This was probably their most popular song, getting lots of airplay on college radio stations. They couldn’t be bothered promoting it but it did well on the alternative charts.

This song was released in 1989 and it was on the album Doolittle. It peaked at #3 in the Alternate Charts and #54 in the UK.

The band broke up in 1993 and reunited in 2004.

Black Francis: “This is a pre-Pixies song that I wrote when I was about 15. It’s about winos and hobos travelling on the trains who dies in the California earthquake. Before earthquakes everything gets very calm, animals stop talking and birds stop chirping and there’s no wind. It’s very ominous. I’ve been through a few earthquakes actually ‘cos I grew up in California. I was only in one big one in 1971. I was very young and I slept through it. I’ve been awake through lots of small ones at school and at home. It’s very exciting actually, a very comical thing. It’s like the earth is shaking, and what can you do? Nothing.”

From Songfacts

The Pixies included this song on their first demo when they set out to get a record deal. Once they were signed, Frank Black had no intention of recording the song, and didn’t until their third album, Doolittle. “People have been telling us to record it ever since so we finally did,” he said.

This became a concert favorite for the Pixies after they reunited in 2004 (they broke up in 1993), but when it first came out, Frank Black had no intention of playing it. “The poppiest song on Doolittle, which we couldn’t even play live if we tried, is ‘Here Comes Your Man,'” he told The Catalogue in 1989. “We would never play that song live; we’re too far removed from it. It’s too wimpy-poppy.”

Joey Santiago played a 12-string Rickenbacker to get the jangly guitar sound on this track.

Here Comes Your Man

Outside there’s a box car waiting
Outside the family stew
Out by the fire breathing
Outside we wait ’til face turns blue

I know the nervous walking
I know the dirty beard hangs
Out by the box car waiting
Take me away to nowhere plains

There is a wait so long
You’ll never wait so long

Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man

Big shake on the box car moving
Big shake to the land that’s falling down
Is a wind makes a palm stop blowing
A big, big stone fall and break my crown

There is a wait so long
You’ll never wait so long

Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man

There is a wait so long
You’ll never wait so long

Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man
Here comes your man

Here comes your man

Stems – Love Will Grow

I posted a song by the Stems earlier called Tears Me In Two and they recorded this song at the same session. They released their first EP Rosebud Volume 1 in 1985 and it included Love Will Grow.

The EP reached #72 in the Australian charts in 1986.

The Stems were a garage punk band formed in Perth, Western Australia in late 1983. They were hugely popular in Australia. The band broke up in 1987 and reunited in 2003 and are still together. The still have three of the original members. Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews, and David Shaw.

They are very popular to this day in Australia. Their debut single “She’s a Monster/Make you Mine” reached the top of the independent charts and also sold 500 copies in England. The single was to be the 2nd highest selling independent single for Australia in 1985, second only to the Hoodoo Gurus.

They were one of the few indie bands that sometimes made it on the mainstream charts.

Love Will Grow

Feeling down and not so bright
Another lost and lonely night
I try so hard not to feel this way
I could not fight these blues away

Then you came along and you made me know
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow

Yesterday I could not speak
My days were sad, confused, and weak
A cut was bleeding deep inside of me
Anxiety that I could not hide

Then you came along and you made me know
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow
How it is our love will grow

Guadalcanal Diary – Ghosts On The Road

Ghosts On The Road was on their first LP Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man released in 1984. So far this will be the third song I’ve posted from Guadalcanal Diary and all three have been on this album. I will be getting this album soon. My next post by them will be a selection from a different album…but I know of 2 more on this album that this album that I will post in the future.

Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man drew a huge response from college radio and critics and college radio programmers. That in turn got the attention of the big labels. In 1985 Elektra Records signed them and reissued the album. More touring followed, as did a cameo appearance in a comedy called Rockin’ Road Trip playing Ghosts Of The Road.

The band formed in the early eighties in Marietta, Georgia. They broke up in 1989. They would reform in 1997 but didn’t release any more new material.

Give this band a listen…you may like them.

Ghosts On The Road

Phantom headlights, broken white line
Bloodstains on the highway, glowing power lines
Signal thirty whispers softly through the pine

He said that no one could take her away
None that could tear them apart
The song she was singing made a mans blood run cold
Like a moth in flames, torn from his heart

Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah

Flashing road signs misty red eyes
lost on the highway, not a soul in sight
endless black ribbon racing through the night

She said that nothing in the world would survive
lonely spirit float on the wind
No candles burned to light his way in this life
No one saw the veil of sorrow closing to an end

Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah
Ghost on the road, ah

Four barrells roll, down a country road
Driver never sleeps, engine never slows
They say he’ll stop one day and look back to see
a girl who waits by the bend
Her silvery laugh will remind him of one past
by his side until the night must call her home again

Ghost on the road, ah

…

Church – The Unguarded Moment

This is another band I wish I would have known more about in the 80s.

This song’s main riff reminds me a little of Ticket To Ride after being juiced up a little. The Church was an Australian alternative band that released this song in 1981. It was the second single from their 1981 debut album, Of Skins and Heart.

It was written by Steve Kilbey, lead singer and bassist and Mikela Uniacke, who was his wife at the time. The lyrics caught my attention in this song. They are well put together and clever

The song peaked at #22 in Australia and #19 in New Zealand in 1981. The band is still together but Steve Kilbey remains the only original member. They have released 25 albums in their career and have charted everywhere.

The album peaked at #7 in New Zealand, #22 in Australia, and #31 in Canada.

From Wiki: In January 2018, as part of Triple M’s “Ozzest 100”, the ‘most Australian’ songs of all time, “The Unguarded Moment” was ranked number 57.

The Unguarded Moment

So hard
Finding inspiration
I knew you’d find me crying
Tell those girls with rifles for minds
That their jokes don’t make me laugh
They only make me feel like dying
In an unguarded moment

So long
Long between mirages
I knew you’d find me drinking
Tell those men with horses for arms
That their jokes don’t make me bleed
They only make me feel like shrinking
In an unguarded moment

So deep
Deep without a meaning
I knew you’d find me leaving
Tell those friends with cameras for eyes
That their hands don’t make me hang
They only make me feel like breathing

In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
In an unguarded moment
(In an unguarded moment)
In an unguarded moment
(In an unguarded moment)
In an unguarded moment
(In an unguarded moment)

Bevis Frond – Lights Are Changing ….Power Pop Friday

The slightly distorted 12 string guitar and Nick Saloman’s voice gives a strong Byrds sound. The song though is just good with or without the Byrds sound. Lights Are Changing was released in 1987 and this is what I wish was playing on the radio in my area.

Nick Saloman began performing thirty years ago as a guitarist in cover bands during the late 1960s in London. In 1979 he formed a band called the Von Trap Family.

In 1986, Saloman released a ninety minute cassette to a few friends of himself playing original material under the alias The Bevis Frond name. The first releases was under his own record company Woronzow records.

This song was on the Triptych album released in 1988. Saloman is productive if nothing else. They have released 27 albums. https://bevisfrond.bandcamp.com/

On the bands first recordings Saloman played many of the instruments. Members include Cyke Bancroft, Dominic Colletti, Martin Crowley, Graham Cumming, and Rie Gunther.

The band has had many members through the years but they are there to do Nick Saloman’s music projects. Their albums have had underground success.

Nick Saloman: “When you’re [as old as I was at the time] and you’ve never gotten anywhere, you kind of think that you’ve had it. So I just started doing self-indulgent stuff on my own without worrying about things like getting a record deal. I honestly didn’t think anyone would care. But lo and behold, people were interested, and it changed my life.”

Lights Are Changing

Disappearing out of sight along the open road
Into indistinct horizons – they had no time to reload
Like a silver bullet from a gun, an arrow from a bow
Like an equine star you hear about me everywhere you go

All through nebulae I was racing in my mind
I tripped on the light fantastic and I’ve never looked behind
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
You slow down you slow down our lights are changing
You fly so high yeah and you move so fast
You’re running blindly from the past
Slow down you slow down green lights are changing

Oh changing all the time
Oh changing all the time

Looking through these hollow eyes across the great unknown
Growing greater every second, growing harder with each stone
Yeah and you who judge your freedom by the quantity you score
Would it make you any freer if you took a little more?

All that summertime I revolved around your eye
In accelerating spirals in an asymmetric sky
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
You fly so high yeah and you move so fast
You’re running blindly from the past
Slow down slow down green lights are changing

Oh changing all the time
Oh changing all the time
You slow down you slow down lights are changing
You slow down you slow down my lights are changing
Well you slow down you slow down my lights are changing

…

Replacements – Answering Machine

This is raw, raw, and more raw. It didn’t fit in with the 80s mainstream and is one of the reasons I like it so much.

There are not as many answering machines anymore…although we still have one that is connected to our VOIP phone. We live in the middle of the country where cell phones are iffy sometimes.

Paul is the only Replacement on this song. He did the guitars, percussion, and vocals.

Westerberg liked a girl in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and would court her long-distance. Sometimes he’d call to talk her and get her answering machine instead. He said at the time that he wasn’t a modern person and that technology irritated him. If technology did in the 80s I can’t imagine what he feels today.

He poured that frustration into “Answering Machine.” He considers it one of the best songs he did with the Replacements. The song was on the album Let It Be released in 1984 and is considered one of their best albums. It was ranked number 241 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

At the song’s conclusion, amid a wall of noise and effects, he would shout out Michigan’s 313 area code; he also threw out a couple others, including New York City’s 212, to cover his bases with a few other girls, just in case.

Paul Westerberg: “There was real passion, and there was a real person on the other end, and that made it all come to life.”

Answering Machine

Try and breathe some life into a letter
Losing hope, we’ll never be together
My courage is at its peak
You know what I mean
How do you say you’re okay
To an answering machine?
How do you say goodnight
To an answering machine?

Big time’s got its losers
Small town’s got its vices
A handful of friends
One needs a match, one needs some ice
Call-waiting phone in another time zone
How do you say I miss you
To an answering machine?
How do say good night
To an answering machine?

(If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again
If you need help, dial the number…)

I get enough of that

Try to free a slave of ignorance
Try and teach a whore about romance

How do you say I miss you
To an answering machine?
How do you say good night to
An answering machine?
How do you say I’m lonely to
An answering machine?
The message is very plain
Oh, I hate your answering machine
I hate your answering machine
I hate your answering machine…

(If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again…
If you need help…)

…

Lyres – Help You Ann

The guitar on this song hooked me…it has a tremolo effect that resembles The Smiths How Soon Is Now.

A band named DMZ broke up in 1979 and from that lead singer and organist Jeff “Monoman” Conolly formed Lyres in Boston. The original lineup of the band featured Conolly, Rick Coraccio (bass), Ricky Carmel (guitar), and Paul Murphy (drums). The nickname Monoman for Jeff Conolly came because of his love of monophonic recordings of the ’60s and in part because of his monomaniacal obsession with vintage rock & roll.

A four-song EP that came out in 1981 called AHS-1005. The EP won the group attention outside of Boston, and a single followed in 1983, “I Really Want You Right Now” with the B side “Help You Ann.” Jeff Conolly wrote Help You Ann.

The band has released 8 studio and live albums and 3 EPs. The band is still together and playing.

The song was included on the On Fyre album released in 1984. From Wiki: Trouser Press called the album “simply the [garage-rock] genre’s apotheosis, an articulate explosion of colorful organ playing, surging guitars and precisely inexact singing. AllMusic gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

In 2018 Jeff Conolly announced that a new album by the Lyres was being recorded.

Help You Ann

There he go and he talk to you just like a fool
He’s got no use for you now and that’s why I feel the same way too

Well, he’s done putting you down and as cynical as he can be
He spending money on some things that you used to give to me for free

Sometimes I get so mad
And I wanna hurt you
But I did the best I can
And I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann

He’s so bad, he stole up all the money that you made
Yeah, he’s got a use for you now
An apartment on the choo choo train

Well, he’s no good for you Ann
When I kill him, I’ll snatch you one day
That’s right, I want you myself
Spend up all the money I could save

So I’m back here again
‘Cause I wanted you so
Said, I wanna be your man
And I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann

And I wanna help you, Ann
Said, I wanna help you, Ann
And I wanna help you, Ann
And I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann
Said I wanna, I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can
And I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can
And I wanna help you, Ann

And I wanna help
Said, I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can
And I wanna help you, Ann
And I wanna help
Said, I wanna help you, Ann
Just as fast as I can, right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyres_(band)

Nomads – Where The Wolf Bane Blooms

When I see a title like that I just have to listen. I could not just sit by and not listen. I told John at 2loud2oldmusic that some songs and song titles are like big red giant buttons…that you just have push. With that title I had to listen…I’m I’m glad I did.

They have a huge sound. I have to wonder how many bands have gone by the name The Nomads in the history of garage bands? They are a Swedish Garage Punk band founded in 1981. The were founded by by Hans Östlund, Nick Vahlberg, Joakim Tärnström, and Ed Johnson.

They are still together with only Hans Östlund and Nick Vahlberg.

The Nomads released an album with this name in 1983. They released the single in 1987. They have never got big airplay on radio or much TV exposure but they still have a huge fanbase built on releasing albums and touring.

The Nomads have released 19 albums…the last being in 2015…add to that around 40 singles.

Where The Wolf Bane Blooms

I know a place, it seems really strange
Some things will never change
Thunder and lightning lining my eyes
Even though the bats fill up the skies
But in the pale light of the moon
You’ll maybe see the wolf bane bloom

Ancient voices will appear
Call the hunted don’t tread here
You may be pure of heart and pure of soul
But you’ll become a wolf when the moon is full
And in the pale light of the moon
You’re gonna see the wolf bane bloom

Primal Scream – Gentle Tuesday

I have heard mostly the 90s music from this band…I recently found this album from 1987 and love it. They formed in 1982 in Glasgow Scotland and are still together today. The only original member left is lead singer Bobby Gillespie. They have shifted in sound through the years. This song was during their power pop period.

This song was on the Sonic Flower Groove album released in 1987. It was met with mixed to bad reviews at the time. The bad reviews caused internal strife within the band. Two members Jim Beattie and Gavin Skinner subsequently resigned. The band then changed directions and shifted to a more rock sound. In the mid-eighties a Byrds sound was not exactly the height of popularity but it would start taking off with bands like REM soon after.

I love the jangling guitar and the overall sound of the song and album. This song, Imperial, Treasure Trip, and many more make this a very good album to me.

Most reviewers now look back on the album with praise. It charted at #62 in the UK charts in 1987. Gentle Tuesday peaked at #87 in the UK charts in 1987.

Gentle Tuesday

Shadow masking matters
Can’t conceal the way you really feel
It doesn’t fit our souls exist
That of they asked me how it is

New morning dew for you
Sweet honey hips your lips
Hold spells when cast they dwell
Like magic in your kiss

Confusion colours cruel designs
Unhappy girl, you’re out of time

Gentle Tuesday
Sad and lonely eyes
Gentle tuesday
See yourself tonight

Memories as fat as bees
Presents a mess of poison tears
A word unkind that tricks our minds
We really warned before your time

Happiness, nothing less
A universal way
Bad seeds but fruit are sweet
You choke on empty days
Confusion colours cruel designs
Unhappy girl you’re out of time