Bruce from Vinyl Connection referred me to this song after The Stems post I did last week. I liked it the minute I heard it. This song was off of an EP called Down in Your Dreams released in 1998.
This band at one time or another included Darryl Mather, Mitch Easter, Ken Stringfellow, Jody Stephens, Bill Smith, Jon Auer, Dave Smith, and Rick Steff.
You may recognize some of those names. Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer were in the Posies and the later Big Star with Alex Chilton, Mitch Easter was the producer of R.E.M. and a member of Let’s Active. Darryl Mather was in the Australian band Lime Spiders.
Mather along with his bassist friend Bill Gibson formed this band in 1994 in Australia. The band released 3 albums… Assorted Creams (1997), Humblin’ (Across America) (2001) and Depressing Beauty (2015). They had one EP and that would be this one and two singles named Apple Green Slice Cut and Any Way You Want It.
I’ve dived into their catalog and song after song shows different styles and really likable music. I would strongly suggest you checking this band out. Plus…what a cool name!
I’m really into this band at the moment. This is one band I wish I would have known about in the 1980s. This song was on their album At First Sight, Violets Are Blue. The album is still rated as one of the best Australian guitar pop releases. In the early nineties, Rolling Stone included it in the top 100 Australian releases of all time. At First Sight became their signature song.
The Stems were a garage punk band formed in Perth, Western Australia in late 1983 by member Dom Mariani. They were hugely popular in Australia. They would release 7 singles, 2 albums, and 2 EP’s between 1985-1987.
They debuted in March 1984 and released a series of independent records on Sydney’s Citadel Records. Each release made it to number one on the Australian alternative charts. Dom Mariani’s earliest influences included The Beatles, The Raspberries, Badfinger, and Big Star. He formed his first band (The Go Starts) in 1981 and The Stems in 1984. The members included Mariani (songwriter, guitar, and vocals) Richard Lane (guitar/keyboard/vocals), Gary Chambers (drums) and Julian Matthews (bass).
The band broke up after this album in 1987. They regrouped in 2003 and played to packed houses across Australia and Europe. They disbanded again in 2009 and regrouped in 2013 and still play from time to time.
The song peaked at #90 in the Australian Kent Music Charts but I’ve read where it peaked at #1 on the alternative charts there as well…along with two more singles from this album.
On the 30th anniversary of the album….founding member Dom Mariani: “It seems like a long time, doesn’t it? Music’s one of those funny things that never dies, it’s there forever. It’s always going to be there and what we did 30 years ago has connected with people, and it’s a bit of a historical thing. Personally, I’ve kept doing it (playing music) because it gave me the confidence to keep writing songs and stay interested in it. If it had been a flop I might have taken a different path.”
Back then I would have never thought much of it. You can’t look into the future but we had high hopes, and thought we’d be chart topping & tour the world etc. We were lucky enough that what we did was popular, we had some good tunes, and we loved what we were doing. Where I’ve ended up, I’m pretty happy with though. If we’d had any degree of success that was ‘life changing’, we probably wouldn’t have done all the music that we did since then. I’ve had a great journey, and it’s always been about rock and roll. The art form is more important than owning a mansion.”
At First Sight
Just say the word and I would die for you And I’ll be a flower if you wanted to ‘Cause I never met anyone quite like you I lose my head my heart starts pounding too And all I had to do was look at you At first sight
I’ll be the motor in your car And I’ll be the fire in your flaming star And I’ll be the water in your waterfall ‘Cause I’d hit the ceiling I’d feel ten feet tall And all I had to do was look at you
At first sight
Just say the word and I would die for you And I’ll be a flower if you wanted to ‘Cause I’ve never met anyone quite like you I lose my head my heart starts pounding too All I had to do was look at you At first sight
All I had to do was look at you At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight
At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight
If you are a KISS fan…yes you are reading this right. On their 1984 album Let It Be the always unpredictable Replacements put a KISS cover in the middle of their album. It felt out of place on the album but was a fun cut. The Replacements and Big Star were similar…not music as much but as an influence. Every punk band that got huge in the ’90s, especially Nirvana and Green Day owes a major debt to the Replacements.
The Replacements have been described as being one of the best live rock and roll bands ever witnessed…or if they were in a playful or pissed-off mood…they might play covers all night long and some very bad on purpose. They started off as a punk band and doing KISS covers was not high on the punk list…neither was guitar player Bob Stinson idolizing Yes’s prog rock guitar player Steve Howe.
They gradually morphed into a great rock band after their second album. I’ve known people who saw them in the 80s…say that yes they could compete with the best rock band on earth when they were on. When they were not on…they would at least entertain you.
In the mid-80s they were playing at CBGB’s and near the set’s end, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons walked in. Peter Jesperson (Replacements manager) was at the soundboard. “They had a talkback system at CBGB where you could communicate from the booth into the monitors.” He alerted Paul Westerberg to Simmon’s presence, and the band went right into “Black Diamond.” “Simmons was looking all around like ‘How did they know I was here?’” recalled Jesperson. The ’Mats’ “suck ass version” quickly chased Simmons from the venue. The band followed up with an X-rated version of the “Ballad of Jed Clampett,” then whistled their way through the theme from The Andy Griffith Show before finally leaving the stage. Someone was watching them from the audience that night…the one and only Alex Chilton.
When the Replacements went through their routine, Chilton had a grin plastered on his face. After the show, both Jesperson and Chilton were waiting to get paid by CBGB owner Hilly Kristal. Jesperson offered to buy breakfast the next morning. Chilton accepted. That started a friendship between Chilton and the band.
Seymour Stein was the head of Sire records which was owned by Warner Brothers. He was interested in the band and listened to their albums and finally got to see them a few nights after the CBGB disaster…he was knocked out by how great they were. They went all out and were definitely on. That is how big the contrast was with their shows.
The song was written by Paul Stanley. Black Diamond is the closing track on the band’s eponymous first album, Kiss, released in 1974. Paul Stanley did the intro vocal and then Peter Criss takes over. This is a good example of why Criss’s voice is the one I like best of all of them. It has a raspy feel to it.
The Replacements version changes it somewhat and they make it more of their style…is it a great cover? No, but it is interesting. If you asked me my favorite rock band of the 80s…The Replacements would be my pick. They played rock with intelligent lyrics and they were armed with Westerberg who I would place among the best songwriters of his era.
PaulWesterberg: ““That was, in 1974, dangerous, exciting rock-and-roll for us, I was ashamed to admit it at that time, but now I’m smart enough to know that that music was the thing that got me going.”
Paul Stanley (KISS): “‘Black Diamond’ was a song that I wrote about New York. New York was very dear to us, and life there was all we could write about. Seeing hookers on the street, whether we lived it, we saw it and it kind of gave us something to fantasize about.”
Black Diamond
Out on the street for a living You know it’s only begun They’ve got you under their thumb
Out on the street for a living Shits only begun Doing whatever killed him They got you under their thumb
Oooh, black diamond Oooh, black diamond
Out on the street for a country And it’s only a dream Got other people marching And it’s only a way
Oooh, black diamond Oooh, black diamond
Out on the street for a living And it’s only begun Regardless a street or a country They got you under their thumb
The bass intro to this song is worth the price of admission by itself. It still sounds alive and fresh 42 years later. When you namecheck Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Milhous Nixon, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and Rin Tin Tin…you are doing damn well.
Bassist Paul Simonon was busy starring in a film called Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains when the Clash started the album Sandinista!Ian Dury and the Blockheads’ bassist Norman Watt-Roy was there so we wrote the superb bassline.
There was a controversy after Sandinista! was released due to every song having the”The Clash” writing credit that failed to name outside writers like Norman Watt-Roy. This has been considered the first rap-style song to be written by a white rock band. It was recorded in March 1980, six months before Blondie’s own attempt at the genre with “Rapture.” For me, I do think it has elements of course but it’s a cross between rock, rap, funk, and Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. I also hear elements of the next album Combat Rock in this one.
The song peaked at 21 on the Billboard Dance Chart, #18 in Canada, and #34 in the UK.
ThesongwasrecordedinMarch1980atElectricLadyStudiosinNewYorkCity. Sandinista! was released as a triple album in 1980. It peaked at #24 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand, and #19 in the UK in 1980. They did get the title from the famous 1960 movie.
Joe Strummer on the triple album: “I stand proud of it, warts and all. It’s a magnificent thing! I wouldn’t change it even if I could. And that’s after some soul-searching. Just from the fact that it was all thrown down in one go. It’s, like, outrageous. And that it was released like that, it’s doubly outrageous — triply outrageous.”
The Magnificent Seven
Ring, ring, it’s 7:00 A.M.
Move yourself to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and your bankers too
Must get up and learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too
Churnin’ out that boogaloo
Gets you up and it gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?
Gimme Honda, gimme Sony
So cheap and real phony
Hong Kong dollar, Indian cents
English pounds and Eskimo pence
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, give it all you got
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, yeah
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, give it all you got
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, yeah
Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
Seen the ads, she thinks it’s nice
Better work hard, I seen the price
Never mind that it’s time for the bus
We got to work and you’re one of us
Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk
Yeah, wave bye, bye (when can I tell ’em what I do?)
(In a second, maan, alright Chuck)
Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss
It’s our profit, it’s his loss
But anyway the lunch bells ring
Take one hour, do your thang
Cheeesboiger
What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin’ gypsies on the pavement
Now the news has snapped to attention
Lunar landing of the dentist convention
Italian mobster shoots a lobster
Seafood restaurant gets out of hand
A car in the fridge, a fridge in the car
Like cowboys do in TV land
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, give it all you got
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, huh
You lot, what?
Don’t stop, give it all you got, yeah
You lot, what?
Don’t stop
So get back to work and sweat some more
The sun will sink and we’ll get out the door
It’s no good for man to work in cages
Hit the town, he drinks his wages
You’re frettin’, you’re sweatin’
But did you notice, you ain’t gettin’
You’re frettin’, you’re sweatin’
But did you notice, not gettin’ anywhere
Don’t you ever stop, a long enough to start
Take your car outta that gear
Don’t you ever stop, long enough to start
Get your car outta that gear
Karlo Marx and Frederick Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence
What have we got? Yeah, ooh
What have we got? Yeah, ooh
What have we got? Magnificence
What have we got?
Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
Went to the park to check on the game
But they was murdered by the other team
Who went on to win fifty-nil
You can be true, you can be false
You’ll be given the same reward
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way through the kitchen
Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin
Who’s more famous to the billion millions?
News flash, ‘Vacuum cleaner sucks up budgie’
Ooh, bye-bye, bub-bye
The magnificent seven
Magnificent
Magnificent seven
This song and The KKK Took My Baby Away are my two top favorite Ramones saongs.
This song was released in 1978 on The Ramone’s album Road to Ruin. It has no chart history on Billboard but is one of their best-known songs. The Ramones were to the point, with no solos, no frills… just about the song.
I’ve heard them described as punk, bubblegum, rock, heavy rock and everything in between. I always thought they combined the elements of all of them.
When Joey Ramone wrote the lyrics for “I Wanna Be Sedated,” he was not joking. They were on tour in New Jersey in 1977 when the singer badly burned his face and chest with scalding water from a vaporizer he was using to soothe his throat.
He finished the show, then went to the hospital with second and third-degree burns. They pulled a bunch of shows while he recovered, and when they returned to the road in Europe he was still in constant pain. The song was scribbled down in London around Christmas, and the band cut it in 1978. Needless to say, it didn’t impact the charts, but today it’s one of their most-played songs on the radio. Joey Ramone said at one time it was his favorite Ramone track.
Joey Ramone: It’s a road song. I wrote it in 1977, through the 78. Well, Danny Fields was our first manager and he would work us to death. We would be on the road 360 days a year, and we went over to England, and we were there at Christmas time, and in Christmas time, London shuts down. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go. Here we were in London for the first time in our lives, and me and Dee Dee Ramone were sharing a room in the hotel, and we were watching The Guns of Navarone. So there was nothing to do, I mean, here we are in London finally, and this is what we are doing, watching American movies in the hotel room.
I Wanna Be Sedated
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, nowhere to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain Oh no oh oh oh oh
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, no where to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain Oh no oh oh oh oh
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, no where to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my toes Oh no oh oh oh oh
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, no where to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my toes Oh no oh oh oh oh
Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated
My friend Deke got me into this power pop band from Canada. Deke and Dave have introduced me to many Canadian artists that I hadn’t heard of before like Blue Rodeo, The Moist, Justin Bieber(Just Kidding Guys!), Tragically Hip, and more. It still puzzles me why some very successful Canadian bands in the 80s-90s didn’t translate in the US.
Sloan got its start in Halifax during the early ‘90s. The band played around the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Toronto. They got their name from a pot-smoking musician they knew in Halifax. He worked in a restaurant as a busboy and used to be known as “the slow one.”
The band made their recording debut on the Halifax, Canada CD compilation “Hear & Now” with the song “Underwhelmed” before releasing their debut EP “Peppermint” in 1991 on their own label Murderecords. In 1992 Sloan signed with Geffen Records and released their full-length debut “Smeared”. The album had somewhat of a grunge style. They soon switched to power pop and they have some fantastic songs.
Hearing this band is encouraging for Power Pop. A few weeks ago I posted a song about The Beths and now Sloan who have new albums out. Their influences have been listed as The Beatles, Sonic Youth, Fleetwood Mac, and more. In this song, I hear a little Beatles and Who.
This song is on their new album called Steady released on October 21, 2022. It’s their 13th album to date. Guitarist Patrick Pentland wrote this song. There is a great review of this album here. I would recommend giving this power pop band a try.
Spend The Day
It’s not like living in your real world Is better than my life on The Other Side I’m sick of wired and I’m tethering And weathering somewhere out of my mind
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while
It’s not like every time your wide eyes Look at something that it’s full of lies You’re gonna try and find The who what why where I refuse to recognize
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while
It’s not that living in your real world Is better than my life on The Other Side I’m sick of wired and I’m tethering And weathering somewhere out of my mind
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Hide away Spend the day Hide away Hide away With me a while
I learned about this band from Graham at Aphoristic Album Reviews. I think the subject of this song is brilliant. It’s the title song on the album Expert In A Dying Field. The album was released in September of 2022 and is their 3rd studio album to date. It peaked at #1 in New Zealand and #80 in Australia in 2022.
Through the years in power pop…the lyrics take a back seat to the music many times. The Beths music excites me because they don’t produce empty songs…they have substantial lyrics to go along with their irresistible hooks.
The Beths are a band out of New Zealand, that was formed by Elizabeth Stokes in 2014. The songs are full of guitar hooks along with Stokes’s clever writing and voice… make them fun to listen to. They have some 90s indie sound with a little of the 60s thrown in at times.
The members include Elizabeth Stokes ( lead vocals, rhythm guitar ), Jonathan Pearce (lead guitar, backing vocals), Benjamin Sinclair (bass, backing vocals)
and Tristan Deck (Drums, backing vocals).
After quickly building a fan base in New Zealand and Australia with their live shows, Auckland’s the Beths burst onto the broader indie scene with an infectious, hook-crammed debut, 2018’s Future Me Hates Me. As suggested by the album’s title, Elizabeth Stokes’ self-depreciating lyrics were part of its charm, and the follow-up, 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers, reflected an even more hapless outlook as it explored strained relationships caused by the band’s new life on the road. Without skipping a hook, third album Expert in a Dying Field delves still deeper into melancholy, with lyrics navigating a breakup as well as pandemic life. Churning fuzz and ringing lead guitar begin a downcast but nonetheless driving opening title track that asks, “How does it feel/To be an expert in a dying field?/How do you know/It’s over when you can’t let go?” The song’s chorus picks up multi-tracking, vocal countermelodies, group harmonies, and crashing cymbals by its final incarnation.
It could be said that much of the album continues in kind, with memorable melody after memorable guitar hook after air-drum-compelling fill on a series of songs that border on midtempo, but the way it plays out is something much more off-balance. The Beths lean on the accelerator three tracks in, on the polyrhythmic “Silence Is Golden,” for instance, a song whose punky, racing rhythms and guitar histrionics are matched by a rambling, lilting vocal that only stops to breathe before the chorus’s repeated “Silence is golden.” Nearing the halfway point of the track list, the two-minute “I Want to Listen” is a gentler, McCartney-esque ditty with more complex chords and shifting harmonic progressions than are typical for the onetime jazz majors. Later, the chanting “Best Left” (“Some things are best left to rot”), while still wistful in tone, plays to the arena crowds. The group have said that Expert in a Dying Field was made with live performance in mind, and on that point, it delivers, right up until the plaintive closing ballad, “2 a.m.,” which finds Stokes left alone in a flash of headlights (“There’s a song that never fails to make you cry”). The album also delivers on vulnerable, rock-solid songs, a juxtaposition the Beths continue to master.
Elizabeth Stokes: “I really do believe that love is learned over time. In the course of knowing a person you accumulate so much information: their favorite movies, how they take their tea, how to make them laugh, how that makes you feel. And when relationships between people change, or end, all that knowledge doesn’t just disappear. The phrase ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ had been floating around my head for a few years, I was glad to finally capture it when writing this tune.”
Elizabeth Stokes: “When I first started this band … I was looking back towards [what] I liked when I was younger, sweetly sung melodies and super depressing lyrics”
Expert In A Dying Field
Can we erase our history? Is it as easy as this? Plausible deniability I swear I’ve never heard of it And I can close the door on us But the room still exists And I know you’re in it
Hours of phrases I’ve memorized Thousands of lines on the page All of my notes in a desolate pile I haven’t touched in an age And I can burn the evidence But I can’t burn the pain And I can’t forget it
How does it feel (how does it feel) To be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know (how do you know) It’s over when you can’t let go? You can’t let go, you can’t stop, you can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field (How does it, how does it feel?)
The city is painted with memory The water will never run clear The birds and the bees and the flowers and trees They know that we’ve both been here And I can flee the country For the worst of the year But I’ll come back to it
How does it feel (how does it feel) To be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know (how do you know) It’s over when you can’t let go? You can’t let go, you can’t stop, you can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Till you’re an expert in a dying field
Can we erase our history? Is it as easy as this? Maybe in other realities The road never took this twist And I can close the door on us But the room still exists
How does it feel (how does it feel) How do you know (how do you know) Can’t stop, can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field
This song has a Rolling Stones connection in the lyrics. I love the first line “She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965.” Shrimpton dated Mick Jagger before he was with Marianne Faithful. The second reference is an odd one to Bill Wyman, the Stones’ bass player.
The song was on their debut album Especially for You released in 1986. They had released a couple of EP’s before this album. Pat DiNizo wrote the song and was influenced by the title of the H.P. Lovecraft short story, “Beyond the Wall of Sleep.” The song was about Kim Ernst. She was the bass player of The Bristols.
Pat DiNizo:“We’d done a gig with The Bristols, four fabulous women who looked, sounded and dressed like Roger McGuinn’s The Byrds, Kim had black hair, really long: ‘She [had hair like] like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965, she had legs that never ended, I was halfway paralyzed. She was tall and cool and pretty, and she dressed as black as coal. If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul.’ Our first two hits were ‘Blood And Roses,’ about suicide, and this one, ‘If you’d ask me to I’d murder’—very dark material [laughs].”
In 1985 they recorded the album at The Record Plant, the famous recording studio that hosted John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen among others. They had to save up gig money to record.
Drummer Dennis Diken:“Those sessions actually almost didn’t happen, we had recorded Beauty and Sadness in Studio B. That was the room where Springsteen recorded The River, and a lot of other big stuff was done there. Studio A was also famous for historic sessions; John Lennon worked there. But we were the low guys on the totem pole, so we got a call on the afternoon of Good Friday 1985—when we were supposed to go in that night—saying, ‘Sorry, but we have a more important session booked in B now. We’re going to have to kick you upstairs to C,’ which was a much smaller room.
“We got on the phone with each other and said, ‘Hey, this ain’t too cool. Maybe we should wait until larger rooms become available again,’ but in the end, reluctantly, we went for it.”
The album peaked at #51 in the Billboard Album Charts. The song peaked at #23 in the Mainstream Rock Play charts.
Behind The Wall Of Sleep
She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965
She had legs that never ended
I was halfway paralyzed
She was tall and cool and pretty and she dressed as black as coal
If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Well she held a bass guitar and she was playing in a band
And she stood just like Bill Wyman
Now I am her biggest fan
Now I know I’m one of many who would like to be your friend
And I’ve got to find a way to let you know I’m not like them
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Got your number from a friend of mine who lives in your hometown
Called you up to have a drink
Your roommate said you weren’t around
Now I know I’m one of many who would like to be your friend
And I’ve just got to find a way to let you know I’m not like them
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
What a great-sounding band XTC has been for years. I was exposed to many bands in the 80s like The Replacements, REM (before they hit), and Big Star but not XTC. I didn’t find out about them until their 2002 release I’m The Man Who Murdered Love. When I heard that song I knew I had to find out about this band. Way back when I published that post I also looked up this song that a fellow blogger (run-sew-read) suggested. It’s only taken me 4 years but I’ve finally posted it!
This song was released in 1982 on the album English Settlement. The album peaked at #48 on the Billboard Album Chart, #15 in Canada, #12 in New Zealand, and #5 in the UK. The song peaked at #10 in the UK, #31 in Canada, #37 in New Zealand, and #38 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts.
When they went on tour for this album… it would be their last. That didn’t exactly help them cross over to a mass audience. Andy Partridge had a fear of flying and severe stage fright that could have been heightened by withdrawing from valium that he had taken since childhood. On April 3, 1982, they performed their last show in San Diego. After that first night of the American tour, the rest of the tour was canceled. My friend Dave from A Sound Day has more info on this band and album.
I do think XTC would have broken through to a mass audience if they could have toured. At the time some people in America had thought that Partridge died and some bands held tribute shows.
Allmusic Stephen Thomas Erlewine: XTC was one of the smartest – and catchiest – British pop bands to emerge from the punk and new wave explosion of the late ’70s. … While popular success has eluded them in both Britain and America, the group has developed a devoted cult following in both countries that remains loyal over two decades after their first records. … XTC’s lack of commercial success isn’t because their music isn’t accessible – their bright, occasionally melancholy, melodies flow with more grace than most bands – it has more to do with the group constantly being out of step with the times. However, the band has left behind a remarkably rich and varied series of albums that make a convincing argument that XTC is the great lost pop band.
Drummer Terry Chambers on their last concert:“The audience was electric, everyone was on their feet and cheering throughout. It was the first date of our first major U.S. headlining tour, playing decent-sized venues, and the future looked good. I had no idea that Andy [Partridge, singer] was in such bad shape. Even after the gig, when we were traveling to LA, we had no clue that anything was wrong.”
Andy Partridge:“We were bullied back onto the road and that really started to wind me up, I’d be there onstage thinking: ‘I hate doing this.’ The anger towards being made to tour and the mental stress it was causing me began to manifest itself in stage fright, which I’d never had in my life. It didn’t help that my mental state was being exacerbated by the impact of Valium withdrawal, which I’d been on since my early teens.”
“And I had no concept of withdrawal, and I had no concept of what would happen to you if you stopped taking this stuff, which… your brain becomes dependent on it,” Partridge said in 2006. “And after 13 years of quite high doses, you’re really dependent on it. … I was losing my memory, I was getting bouts of amnesia, I was getting physical problems like pains in my stomach, I was getting weird events like I couldn’t move my legs. And my brain came unwound. I started having panic attacks.”
Senses Working Overtime
Hey, hey, the clouds are whey
There’s straw for the donkeys
And the innocents can all sleep safely
All sleep safely
My, my, sun is pie
There’s fodder for the cannons
And the guilty ones can all sleep safely
All sleep safely
And all the world is football-shaped
It’s just for me to kick in space
And I can see, hear, smell, touch, taste
And I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to take this all in
I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to taste the difference ‘tween a lemon and a lime
Pain and pleasure, and the church bells softly chime
Hey, hey, night fights day
There’s food for the thinkers
And the innocents can all live slowly
All live slowly
My, my, the sky will cry
Jewels for the thirsty
And the guilty ones can all die slowly
All die slowly
And all the world is biscuit-shaped
It’s just for me to feed my face
And I can see, hear, smell, touch, taste
And I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to take this all in
I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to taste the difference ‘tween a lemon and a lime
Pain and pleasure, and the church bells softly chime
And birds might fall from black skies (Whoo-whoo)
And bullies might give you black eyes (Whoo-whoo)
And buses might skid on black ice (Whoo-whoo)
But to me they’re very, very beautiful (England’s glory)
Beautiful (A striking beauty)
And all the world is football-shaped
It’s just for me to kick in space
And I can see, hear, smell, touch, taste
And I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to take this all in
I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to tell the difference ‘tween the goods and crimes
Dirt and treasure
And there’s one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to take this all in
I’ve got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime
Trying to taste the difference ‘tween a lemon and a lime
Pain and pleasure, and the church bells softly chime
Blue Ash is one of those bands that should have made it to the masses. That has always interested me why great bands like Blue Ash, Big Star, and so many others couldn’t find their way to mass popularity. I’ve been listening to their debut album and it stacks up against their peers at the time and definitely now!
This song reminds me of a great FM album track. Blue Ash toured and opened for such acts as The Stooges, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and more but for lack of sales they were dropped by Mercury Records in May 1974. You would think with those bands they would have picked up a lot of fans.
Blue Ash was formed in the summer of 1969 in Ohio by bassist Frank Secich & vocalist Jim Kendzor. Guitarist Bill “Cupid” Bartolin and drummer David Evans were recruited later that summer. They got their name from a road sign outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, pointing towards a small town called Blue Ash. During a three-year stretch of 1970-1973 the band recorded numerous songs along with hitting the road playing western New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia along with Ohio, performing over 250 shows a year. Think about that for a second… 250 – 300 shows a year!
Their first album No More, No Less was released in May 1973 and received rave reviews in the rock press. This album is usually always in people’s top twenty power pop albums. It is considered a power pop classic and is regarded as highly collectible among fans of that genre.
This one transports me to the seventies. The intro is around a minute but I love the sustained guitar that kicks in after the intro ends.
Pleasant Dreams
When day is done and night has begun
A smile comes on my face
I know that I’ll be taking me
To a very pleasant place
It’s half-way across my mind
It’s not so hard to find
I’ve been there many times before
And everytime ti’s seems
I know that I’ll be back for more
I’m hooked on pleasant dreams
Without reality there’s
Nothing i can’t see
Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to climb in bed
Lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright
A copper king, a movie star
I’m anything I please
I slip into my private world
Which sets my mind at ease
I do the things I feel you know
I feel the the things I do
Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to climb in bed
To lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright
I wake up in the morning and
It seems I’ve come undone
I make believe I’m not asleep and
I’m pretending that it’s fun
I’m half the man I am
I’m twice the man I’m not
Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to close my eyes to
Lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright
This song is straight-ahead pop/rock with some cool vocal hooks. This song was off The Real Ramona album but did not chart.
The band was formed in 1981 by step-sisters Kristin Hersh (vocals/guitar) and Tanya Donelly (guitar/vocals), who were both at high school at the time. Initially called Kristin Hersh And The Muses, the line-up was completed by bassist Leslie Langstons and drummer David Narcizo. Tanya and Kristin wrote most of the songs. Tanya Donelly is singing this one. She admitted that her songs were a little more simple whereas Kristin Hersh’s were more eccentric.
They lived close to Providence, Boston, and New York and so they could play a club quite often in both places. They had a lot of colleges and some local newspapers, magazines, and radio stations to promote them.
They were the first American band to sign to the British 4AD label. Tanya would go on to form the Breeders with Kim Deal of the Pixies. She also formed Belly as guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, with Thomas Gorman on lead guitar, Chris Gorman on drums, and Fred Abong on bass guitar.
Tanya was never replaced and the band is still active today as a trio with Hersh. The two step-sisters did get together in 2018 and do some shows together.
Not Too Soon
She colorblind tired eyes Her hallway aching She’ll never move him, likes it that way He’s just a walker and he’ll never stop walking away It’s not too soon, he said, you know it’s not too soon at all And you might as well be dead, he said If you’re afraid to fall, I said, I know her
She said, oh, my, why do you stare so hard? Wrapped up like a doll in bad dreams and broken arms Make these old bones shiver It’s not too soon, he said, you know it’s not too soon at all And you might as well be dead, he said If you’re afraid to fall, I said, I know her
The last time I saw you, you were standing in the dark And with a freezing face, I watched you fall apart
It’s not too soon, he said, it’s not too soon at all And you might as well be dead, he said If you’re afraid to fall, I said Done your time, been in your place I couldn’t look you in the face and tell you that it turns me on it makes my stomach turn I know, I know her
During my break from blogging, I was listening to everything from arena rock, to alternative rock, to newer rock music. The Replacements and R.E.M were high on my alternative list. I like the early R.E.M. songs that don’t get as much attention nowadays because of the big hits that came later.
This was the second single from R.E.M.’s debut album, Murmur. The first single was Radio Free Europe released in 1983. The guitar melody/solo in this song actually comes from multiple acoustic guitars played by Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon.
The album was rated number eight on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the TV network VH1 named Murmur the 92nd greatest album of all time.
The 1988 video, directed by Jem A. Cohen, expounds on the lyrics’ references to hunger by placing images of homeless people with a multi-million dollar warship.
Michael Stipe:“I had taken a French course at college, which I dutifully flunked out of, and Linda Hopper and I thought that the phrase, ‘combien de temps,’ that is, roughly, ‘how much time?’ was deeply meaningful and beautiful. I did sing it that way and it works here, if only here. We were 22 at the time after all.”
The song is credited to Berry, Buck, Mills, and Stipe as were most of their songs except for a few covers they did. This was a smart thing they did and probably is the reason for the longevity of the band and the continued friendship they have now. Many bands break up because one or two songwriters get all the publishing rights and make much more money.
Mike Mills on Bill Berry’s contributions: He would generally come up with several ideas for each record, and he would also be a really good editor for us. He was always very much about keeping them short, getting to the hook. He didn’t want to waste a lot of time and people’s attention noodling around.
Talk About The Passion
Empty prayer, empty mouths combien reaction
Empty prayer, empty mouths talk about the passion
Not everyone can carry the weight of the world
Not everyone can carry the weight of the world
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Empty prayer, empty mouths combien reaction
Empty prayer, empty mouths talk about the passion
Combien, combien, combien de temps?
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Not everyone can carry the weight of the world
Not everyone can carry the weight of the world
Combien, combien, combien de temps?
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion
THIS sound is what I missed in the 1980s while growing up in that era. The Replacements were a throwback band in a lot of ways. The guitar could have come off of Exile on Main Street. The guitar tone does not sound pretty or clean…that sound went missing in the land of overproduction in the 80s.
IOU was more band biography as were several of their songs, Westerberg was eager to cancel out old relationships...“I want it in writing / I owe you nothing.”
The song appeared to be directed at former manager Peter Jesperson and guitar player Bob Stinson, but Westerberg said the literal inspiration came from an encounter with Iggy Pop: “I was on the bus with him after a show, and somebody asked for his autograph. He wrote, ‘IOU NOTHING.’ I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.”
This was off of the album Please To Meet Me recorded in Memphis with Jim Dickinson producing. Dickinson also produced Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers album a decade before. Bob Stinson was out of the band at this time and it was recorded as a trio of Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Mars.
Westerburg has said he wanted their albums to sound timeless…not as tied to the decade they were recorded in. For the most part, he got his wish.
This song kicked off the album Please To Meet Me with a bang. To these ears…the best pure rock band of the 80s.
I.O.U.
Give me a/get me out of this little stinkin’ fresh air Ninety days in the electric chair Step right up son Gonna show you something ain’t never been done You’re all fucked
Listen, it don’t cost much I lay down the line that you touch Never do what you’re told There’ll be time, believe me, when you’re old You’re all wrong and I’m right
Please be on your honor Please be on your side […sucker?]
Listen to the story all right I’m losing all I own on that dotted line Step right up son Gonna show you something ain’t never been done You’re all wrong and I’m right
You see I want it in writing, I owe you nothing Want it in writing, I owe you nothing Want it in writing
When the organ leads off…I would have sworn this song is from 1967 but no…it’s from 1983. They were part of the Mod revival in the 80s minus the mopeds and parkas of the early sixties.
It’s a song that I listened to once and thought…that song is ok…then I wanted to hear it again an hour later…after that, I listened to it all day at work. I like the small hooks placed strategically in the song.
All the instruments are on the mark and the singer has a voice that bends but never breaks. As I wrote this post…I’ve listened to it around 4 or 5 times…it’s almost like potato chips…you can’t stop at one listen…at least not me. It sounds like it could have been a cool Doors album track.
This British band formed in 1980 and debuted in 1982 with A Taste Of Pink, on their Own Up label. They ended up with a few record companies that included Stiff Records. This song was on their album 1984 The Wisermiserdemelza.
They ended up making 4 studio albums altogether but called it quits in 1986 and later regrouped for a final single in 1997 but they failed to find commercial success.
I first heard this band through a song called Hold Me Up a while back. Cool hooks, guitar sound, and melodies. This band has the distorted and jangly sound well mixed together. This song came off of the 1994 album Teenage Symphonies to God which is probably their best-known album. I have listened to this album a bunch and the songs sound like classic songs that have been forgotten.
Vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck are the band’s two constant members. They had previously worked together in 3 other bands…Choo Choo Train, Bag-O-Shells, and The Springfields in the 1980s.
Guitarist Jeffrey Underhill played with them on their first three albums. The album was produced by Mitch Easter who would produce R.E.M among other artists. He gets such a warm sound with Velvet Crush. Matthew Sweet has also worked with this band.
Chastain, Menck, and Underhill reunited in 2019 to tour.
Time Wraps Around You
To the summer of love, from the winter of fear Seasons change us around, the reasons not clear So turn the page Their innocence can’t be saved Beginning again
Like the motions you make, the wave of your hand Like the time that it takes to know that you can Standing by To try and make you feel alright
This time wraps around you And I’ll wrap around you You know I’ll stay
Through the summer of love, the winter so near Seasons scatter good friends, and more every year Looking back Then you find Learning that It’s time to leave the past far behind
You know it’s alright This time wraps around you And I’ll wrap around you This time wraps around you And I’ll wrap around you This time wraps around you And I’ll wrap around you This time wraps around you And I’ll wrap around you This time wraps around you And I’ll wrap around you Know I’ll stay
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
You must be logged in to post a comment.