Alternative – Page 7 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Cheap Trick – In The Street ….Under the Covers Tuesday

Wish we hadA joint so bad

I’m a huge Cheap Trick fan but when I heard this song as the theme to That 70s Show… I just asked myself why? Why not use the original version of the song? That’s not a dig at Cheap Trick…they did fine with it but it was unnecessary. The show later covered a Big Star song in an episode…the haunting song Thirteen. The band had lost out on stardom in the early seventies and now many people really like the theme song but have no clue who wrote it. In a way though…unfortunately, that fits Big Star perfectly.

In the first season, the theme song was done by Todd Griffin. It’s a close copy of the original soundwise but with different lyrics by Ben Vaughn. The rest of the show’s seasons was replaced by the Cheap Trick version. The only reason I can think of not using Big Star is they needed an edited version of the song and felt they had to change the song’s lyrics although the lyrics would have fit the show. Cheap Trick’s version is very good of course because it’s Cheap Trick…but it would have been nice to hear the original. Many people think that Cheap Trick wrote the song.

Chris Bell and Alex Chilton are credited with writing the song. In 2000, Chilton confirmed that he was paid $70 in royalties each time the show aired, an amount he thought ironic, given the show’s title. The song was originally on their debut album #1 Record.

Recently I watched some performances they did on the Leno show later on when Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens reformed the band with two members of the Posies. The introduction made me do a double take…“Big Star…the missing link between the Beatles and The Replacements.” How could I not like that? Three of my favorite bands right there.

The #1 album was hailed by critics and got radio play when released. The feedback from people who heard it was very positive. There was one problem though. They signed with Stax Records which normally didn’t deal with pop and rock bands. They weren’t prepared to promote them and the biggest problem was there was no distribution. People started to go to record shops to buy it but there were no Big Star albums there. Stax was in financial trouble as well. They carried on for three albums but with no commercial breakthrough…although bands like Cheap Trick, The Replacements, R.E.M., KISS, and others all say they were heavily influenced by them.

Jody Stephens drummer of Big Star: “I don’t know if the general population even knows that Big Star had anything to do with it.”

Mike Mills of REM: “I heard the first two records first, Radio City and #1 Record, I just thought they were perfect. If I could make records, that would be the sort of records I would make. The third one took me a bit longer to get into, but it does reward repeated listening. What Big Star was doing made sense to me.”

The Todd Griffin version

The Cheap Trick version

The Orginal

In The Street

Hanging out, down the streetThe same old thing we did last weekNot a thing to doBut talk to you

Steal your car, and bring it downPick me up, we’ll drive aroundWish we hadA joint so bad

Pass the street lightOut past midnight

Ahh

Hanging out, down the streetThe same old thing we did last weekNot a thing to doBut talk to you

Hoodoo Gurus – I Want You Back ….Power Pop Friday

I’ve almost written this song up on numerous occasions so I thought I would finish it because it’s been in my drafts for a while. Great power pop from this band.

The Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band combining elements of power pop, Beatleesque harmonies, psychedelia, and grungy garage rock. Guitarists Dave Faulkner, Rod Radalj, and Kimble Rendall were joined by drummer James Baker when the band formed in Sydney in 1981.

I Want You Back” was the final single to be released for the band’s debut album, Stoneage Romeos. The band’s debut Stoneage Romeos, full of garage punk songs and pop references, was named Australian Debut Album of the Year and was released in America where it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative / College charts for 7 weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network. Their next two albums also reached #1 on the Alternative College charts.

This song was played alongside The Replacements, R.E.M., and other alternative bands at the time throughout America. They were not well known to the masses here but in Australia they were huge. In 2007 were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.

They have released 10 studio albums and the last one, Chariot of the Gods, was released last year in 2022.

I Want You Back

I can still recall the time
She said she was always mine
Then she left as people do
And forget what we’ve been through

It’s not that she’s gone away, yeah
It’s the things I hear that she has got to say
About me and about my friends
When we, we’ve got no defense

That’s her, I’ll never believe her again
She might have deceived all my friends
I know they will see in the end
What it all means when she says, yeah

(Ah, ah) I want you back
(Ah, ah) I want you back
I, I, I want you
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says, yeah, yeah

But what’s worse, she thinks it’s true
But that’s just her, she always was a little bit confused, and
She’s not worth the time I had to lose

That’s her, I’ll never believe her again
She might have deceived my friends
I know they’ll see what it means when she says, yeah

(Ah, ah) I want you back
(Ah, ah) I want you back
I, I, I want you
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says

She says (ah, ah)
She says (ah, ah)
I want you back
She says (ah, ah)
She says (ah, ah)
I want you and only you (ah, ah)

She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says

Blue Rodeo – Til I Am Myself Again ….Power Pop Friday

Happy Friday to you all! Today and Saturday I will be out of town but I will keep checking when I can.

This song could fit into different categories…country, country-rock, and power pop. It has a touch of the Byrds in this because of the 12-string Rickenbacker sound. Its melody is the reason that I like this one so much. This one (and a Sloan song) was going to go in Canadian Week but I ran out of days.

Blue Rodeo is a Canadian country rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto. Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, have been friends since high school, having both attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute.

Their record company did try to break into America because they hired Danny Goldberg as their US manager. Danny Goldberg was involved in some giant bands. He got his start in the 1970s with Led Zeppelin and later on, went to The Allman Brothers and then to Nirvana. Unfortunately, Goldberg left after the Casino album was released. He didn’t end up having much to do with the band according to Jim Cuddy.

This song was on their album Casino and it was released in 1990. The song peaked at #3 in Canada, #1 in the Canadian Country Charts, and #2 in the Canadian Adult Contemporary Charts. The song was on the Casino album released in 1991. The album peaked at #6 in Canada. The song was written by Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor. Cuddy and Keelor are the two main singer/songwriters in the band.

They got Pete Anderson to produce the album. Anderson produced Dwight Yoakam, Roy Orbison, Jackson Browne, Buck Owens, K.D. Lang, and Lucinda Williams. He took the approach to Blue Rodeo as if they were recording 10 singles. He said their songs were entirely too long at that point and the band worked to tidy the songs up to under 4 minutes as you can see in the quote below.

Pete Anderson: “They loved to jam, but the songs were way too long. They were ahead of bands like Phish and The String Cheese Incident. They were not a jam band per say, but they were on the front-end of that jam-band world. Those bands are not on the radio. A programmer looks at the back of the record and sees songs that are over four minutes and they will not play those songs unless it is hippy radio. We were going for a three-minute and 20-second consciousness for this record.

Jim Cuddy: “That was a very tumultuous time. Our manager [Danny Goldberg] quit right when we had finished recording; he really never had anything to do with us. That was a lesson learned. We did not make that record to break into the U.S. market or cater it for radio. That idea was imposed on us. We thought all our records would be accessible in the States. We made Casino based on records we liked such as Dwight Yoakam’s Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. That was a guy Anderson worked with. We wanted to sound like that sonically and artistically. Pete came up before we went to L.A., made extensive notes, and shared them with us. We did some demos on an eight-track machine in our studio on Sorauren Avenue. Those demos are interesting to go back and listen to now. For example, ‘What Am I Doing Here.’ I remember Pete cut out one of the bridges in that song. I thought that was a great suggestion. We never were good with self-editing.

Bass Player Bazil Donovan: “That’s one of Jim (Cuddy’s) songs that came out of the time when we first toured the States and we were gone so long, that we became disconnected with reality. We spent so much time on a bus, in a plane or going to a gig somewhere, and we were new to all of that. It took its toll on us, we weren’t taking care of ourselves and we were probably drinking too much, and on the long road depression sets in. The song captures that, about how you can lose your spirit. We had spent like a whole year on the road. It’s funny how a dark experience can result in a great song. People dance to it like it’s a happy rocker, but the lyrics remind me of that dark time.”

Bazil Donovan: “Pete had a concept. I remember one night we went to eat at El Pollo Loco and he said to us, ‘I want to make a record with you guys that has 10 singles on it. I don’t want to make stuff that is not going to get played. I don’t care if you have one arty tune that is an album track. My idea is to make hit songs.’ Listen to that record today and you can hear that. They are all three-minute pop-rock hits, which Pete was very good at. Some of our biggest songs came out of that record. I learned a lot from him. Before that, I didn’t know a lot about arranging. After I watched Pete work with arrangements it opened up the door for me and I thought about arranging myself. A lot of the stuff I learned there I have applied to stuff I’ve done since.”

Til I Am Myself Again

I want to know where
my confidence went
one day it all disappeared
and I’m lying in a hotel room
miles away
voices next door in my ear

Daytime’s a drag
nighttime’s worse
hope that I can get home soon
but the half-finished bottles of inspiration
lie like ghosts in my room

I wanna go
I know I can’t stay
but I don’t want to run
feeling this way
til I am myself
til I am myself
til I am myself again
There’s a seat on the corner
I keep every night
wait til the evening begins
I feel like a stranger
from another world
but at least I’m living again

There are nights
full of anger
words that are thrown
tempers that are shattered and thin
but the moments of magic
are just too short
they’re over before they begin

I know it’s time
one big step
I can’t go
I’m not ready yet
til I am myself
til I am myself
til I am myself again
I had a dream
that my house was on fire
people laughed while it burned
I tried to run but my legs were numb
I had to wait til the feeling returned

I don’t need a doctor
to figure it out
I know what’s passing me by
when I look in the mirror
sometimes I see
traces of some other guy

I wanna go
I know I can’t stay
but I don’t want to run
feeling this way
til I am myself
til I am myself
til I am myself again

Tragically Hip – New Orleans is Sinking ….Canadian Week

I’m just now really listening to this band and I’m liking a lot of what I’m hearing. This song takes on a new meaning after Katrina but this song was released in 1989. Whenever I post something about a band that I don’t know much about…I usually go with their most popular song to start off. I posted Ahead By A Century, and people responded. I like this one more…it has some thump to it.

I liked this one with a first listen. I love the relentless guitar riff that starts this off. The song seems to be recalling a past experience in the city, and the lyrics describe a sense of nostalgia and appreciation for everything New Orleans has to offer…including its spirit. The song is lamenting the changing times, and expressing his desire to remain connected to its rich history and traditions.

The song was on their debut album Up To Here released in 1989. The album did well in Canada peaking at #9 and #170 on the Billboard 100. They released 13 studio albums and this is the worse showing of all the albums on the Canadian charts. Nine of their albums peaked at #1, two of them at #2, and one of them at #3. The song peaked at #1 on the Canadian RPM magazine Charts, #70 on the Canadian Singles Charts, and #30 on the Billboard Main Rock Charts in 1989. The song was credited to the band.

To show the disparity between the band’s fortunes in America and Canada. I read that a fan was traveling through upstate New York and passed a small roadside club that said “Tonight: The Tragically Hip” and he turned around and saw them in the small club. In Canada at the time were filling stadiums and now they got a chance to see them close up. A difference a few miles can make.

The Tragically Hip is an institution in Canada, and still something of a cult band everywhere else…and I love cult bands such as Big Star and The Replacements.

Deke told me about the live album The Tragically Hip Live At The Rox May 3, 91 and it is great…a great sound and the band was really tight that night. No video of them but it’s worth a listen to the video below this.

New Orleans Is Sinking

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue-green
I can’t forsake a Dixie dead-shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what’s this river that I’m in?
New Orleans is sinking man, and I don’t wanna swim

Colonel Tom, what’s wrong? What’s going on?
Can’t tie yourself up for a deal
He said “hey north you’re south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real”
Ain’t got no picture postcards, ain’t got no souvenirs
My baby, she don’t know me when I’m thinking ’bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I have my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the Lord above
And said, hey man thanks
Sometimes I feel so good I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to God she said

My memory is muddy, what’s this river that I’m in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don’t wanna swim
Swim

Big Star – Mod Lang …. Power Pop Friday

A song by the band Big Star. This song was on Radio City and released in 1974…their second album and follow-up to their debut…Big Star #1 Record. Although Chris Bell had quit the band after the release of #1 Record.

After the failure of their first album, singer/songwriter guitar player Chris Bell quit Big Star. Alex Chilton didn’t know if Big Star was going to make another album. He continued making demos because he could always do a solo album. The two other members, drummer Jody Stephens and bass player Andy Hummel weren’t sure either what was going to happen. They had talked about ending the band.

Their record company Ardent was under the Stax umbrella. They sent out invitations to all of the major rock journalists of the day in 1973. They invited them to Memphis to see Ardent’s roster of bands but most of all Big Star. The rock writers loved Big Star. Many legendary writers were there including Lester Bangs. They played at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Radio City is not as polished as their debut album but it’s just as good and many say better. Chilton remained the constant variable that made the band’s music soar. His September Gurls is among the band’s finest songs and one of the prototypical power pop songs.

This song was the B side to one of their most famous songs, September Gurls. They released 3 studio albums in the seventies. All three are in Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. For a band that never charted a record that isn’t too bad. When their albums were finally discovered by later bands, they influenced many artists such as The Replacements, REM, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Sloan, Matthew Sweet, KISS, Wilco, Gin Blossoms, and many more. They influenced alternative rock of the 80s and 90s and continue to this day.

Big Star did returned in 1993 with a new lineup when guitarist Jon Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow joined Chilton and Stephens. Auer and Stringfellow remained members of the Posies. In 2005 the reformed band released their last album called In Space.

Whenever I write about this band, I always have to stop myself from gushing about them. Was it the mystique of them? Was it the coolness factor of liking a band that not many people know? No, and no. It’s about the music. Mystique and coolness wear off and all you are left with is the music…We are fortunate to have 3 albums by the original Big Star to enjoy.

Drummer Jody Stephens: “All of a sudden I’m playing with these guys that can write songs that are as engaging to me as the people I’d grown up listening to, so I felt incredibly lucky.”

Alex Chilton: “I really loved the mid-’60s British pop music, all two and a half minutes long, really appealing songs. So I’ve always aspired to that same format, that’s what I like.”

Mod Lang

I can’t be satisfied
What you want me to do?
And so I moan
Had to leave my home

Love my girl, oh yeah
She got to save my soul
I want a witness, I want to testify

How long can this go on?
How long can this go on?

All night long I was howling
I was a barking dog
A-how, a-how

I can’t be satisfied
What you want me to do?
I want a witness, I want to testify
How long can this go on?
How long can this go on?

All night long I was howling
I was a barking dog
I want a witness, I want to testify

Replacements – Androgynous

The Replacements are a band that deserved to be heard. I always thought they should have been in the spotlight just as much as R.E.M. I always looked at them as the Stones to R.E.M’s Beatles. They didn’t help themselves though… as they tended to self-sabotage many breaks they received.

Paul Westerberg was one of the best songwriters of the 1980s. They had more of a timeless sound than many of their peers until their last albums. You could listen to this album Let It Be and think it comes from any decade and that is what Westerberg wanted.

This song was way ahead of the curve on the subject matter. It was released in 1984. Their manager Peter Jesperson for a brief time worked for R.E.M. and the two bands were friends. When he came back to the Replacements he had a couple of Peter Bucks (guitar player for R.E.M.) guitars. Buck came by to get them and used that as an excuse to hit the clubs with Westerberg.

Westerberg and Buck even talked about having Buck produce this album. As Buck and Westerberg were drunkenly hitting the bars they decided to have some fun and wear loud makeup and women’s clothes for a laugh. It nearly got them into a bar fight with some less-liberal locals.

A girl called them androgynous, which was the first time Westerberg heard the word. He looked it up and based the song around it. The song is about Dick and Jane who don’t stick to traditional gender norms.

An artist in the movement for transgender rights was Laura Jane Grace, who performed this song with Miley Cyrus and Joan Jett at a benefit for The Happy Hippie Foundation, which encourages young people to accept others without judgment.

The Crash Test Dummies and Joan Jett have covered this song.

Androgynous

Here come Dick, he’s wearing a skirt
Here comes Jane, you know she’s sporting a chain
Same hair, revolution
Same build, evolution
Tomorrow who’s gonna fuss

And they love each other so
Androgynous
Closer than you know, love each other so
Androgynous

Don’t get him wrong and don’t get him mad
He might be a father, but he sure ain’t a dad
And she don’t need advice that’ll center her
She’s happy with the way she looks
She’s happy with her gender

And they love each other so
Androgynous
Closer than you know, love each other so
Androgynous

Mirror image, see no damage
See no evil at all
Kewpie dolls and urine stalls
Will be laughed at
The way you’re laughed at now

Now, something meets boy, and something meets girl
They both look the same
They’re overjoyed in this world
Same hair, revolution
Unisex, evolution
Tomorrow who’s gonna fuss

And tomorrow Dick is wearing pants
Tomorrow Janie’s wearing a dress
Future outcasts and they don’t last
And, today, the people dress the way that they please
The way they tried to do in the last centuries

And they love each other so
Androgynous
Closer than we know, love each other so
Androgynous

The Godfathers

I’ve heard of this band but CB (Cincinnati Babyhead) turned me on to them…and when that happens great music comes out of it. I listened to their first real album Birth, School, Work, Death and it was fantastic. I then skipped around and listened to some songs throughout their career. Super band… they have a tough, rought Katie bar the door… no-holds-barred sound. I hear some Who, Kinks, Small Faces, Sloan, and other bands in them.

The main reason I like them…the hooks. They know how to develop and use great hooks in the right places. While you have the hooks and melodies you also have the super-aggressive anger riding on top of everything. They mix it perfectly. In short… abrasive in-your-face rock.

Think of this post as a sample platter…I included some history but the main thing is…listen to these songs.

Peter and Chris Coyne started the band in 1982 calling it the Side Presley Experience. By 1985 they had removed some members and brought in some more. They also made a name change to The Godfathers. They wanted to record so they found a producer in Vic Maile who had worked with The Kinks, Who, and Motorhead. They released some singles in the UK and finally after seeing import sales they put together an album made up of singles and B sides plus they did a cover of John Lennon’s Cold Turkey and called it Hit By Hit (#3 in the UK).

Then came the call every band wants…Epic Records signed them to a contract. They released the single Birth, School, Work, Death in 1987. The following year they released an album with the same name. Birth, School, Work, Death peaked at #38 in the US Modern Rock Charts.

They broke up in 2000 but reformed in 2008 with the original members. Chris is not with the band but Peter still is. They released an album last year named Alpha Beta Gamma Delta.

Also on the album was this song…Love Is Dead peaked at #3 in the UK indie chart in 1987.

Now, let’s skip around a little too different album songs. She Gives Me More peaked at #8 in 1989 on the US Modern Rock Chart.

Now to one of the coolest titles ever… Just Because You’re Not Paranoid Doesn’t Mean To Say They’re Not Going To Get You!

Together they had 10 studio albums with the last released in 2022.

Hit by Hit (comp, 1986)
Birth, School, Work, Death (1988)
More Songs About Love & Hate (1989)
Unreal World (1991)
Unreal World (1991)
The Godfathers (1993)
Afterlife (1995, Intercord)
Jukebox Fury (2013)
A Big Bad Beautiful Noise (2017)
Alpha Beta Gamma Delta (2022)

Peter Coyne: I would like The Godfathers to be remembered as a great British rock & roll band who made some fantastic singles & classic albums – right from the start to the very end. I would also like us to be remembered as a brilliant, kick ass live band who brought a lot of pleasure to punters all round the world. On my gravestone you can chisel “He came, he saw, he’s gone – awopbopalubopalopbamboom!”

Peter Coyne: I would have liked to have been in The Beatles circa ’61 during their Hamburg period. All that black leather gear they wore, quiffs, speed, girls with peroxide blonde hair, seedy clubs, high energy rock & roll & exotic, neon night life would have suited me fine!! Beatlemania & their psychedelic era was ace too. Fab4 FOREVER! X

Now one for the road…Unreal World was their highest charting song in North America. It peaked at #6 in the US Modern Rock Chart.

Unreal World

I heard women crying everywhere
Babies born and no one cares
People sleeping on the ground
See the rain come falling down
There’s decisions to be made
There has to be some give and take
For this the road we walk along
Is no the road we started on
Have you heard the full time score
We’re living under Murphy’s Law

I’ve been walking ‘cross vast empty spaces I feel
I’ve been looking for one face I know that is real
I’ve been walking ‘cross vast empty spaces

Let’s talk about the way I feel
The whole wide world’s become unreal

Time’s like money it’s soon spent
Let’s talk about the government
They’re selling England by the gram
We’re stranded in the strangest land
There’s not enough to go around
No one knows what’s going down
Nothing ventured nothing gained
Why should we feel so ashamed
‘Cause every dog must have it’s day
And I refuse to be your slave

I’ve been walking ‘cross vast empty spaces I feel
I’ve been looking for one face I know that is real
I’ve been walking ‘cross vast empty spaces

Let’s talk about the way I feel
The whole wide world’s become unreal
Let’s talk about the way I feel
The whole wide world’s become unreal

London’s mourning skies turned black
They’ve gone too far we can’t turn back
Free the ravens from the tower
We’ve yet to have our finest hour
Don’t believe the news at ten
That happy days are here again
Where’s the Union Jack and Jill
‘Cause we should not be standing still
Listen to me understand
A hungry man’s an angry man

Let’s talk about the way I feel
The whole wide world’s become unreal
Let’s talk about the way I feel
The whole wide worl’ds become unreal

…

Orange Humble Band – Down In Your Dreams…. Power Pop Friday

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!

Down In Your Dreams

Sorry…I could NOT find the lyrics.

…

Stems – At First Sight

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

Replacements – Black Diamond

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.

Paul Westerberg: ““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 livingYou know it’s only begunThey’ve got you under their thumb

Out on the street for a livingShits only begunDoing whatever killed himThey got you under their thumb

Oooh, black diamondOooh, black diamond

Out on the street for a countryAnd it’s only a dreamGot other people marchingAnd it’s only a way

Oooh, black diamondOooh, black diamond

Out on the street for a livingAnd it’s only begunRegardless a street or a countryThey got you under their thumb

Oooh, black diamondOooh, black diamond

Clash – The Magnificent Seven

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.

The song was recorded in March 1980 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. 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

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

Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated

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

Sloan – Spend The Day …. Power Pop Friday

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 worldIs better than my life on The Other SideI’m sick of wired and I’m tetheringAnd weathering somewhere out of my mind

Hide awaySpend the day in here with me a whileHide awaySpend the day in here with me a while

It’s not like every time your wide eyesLook at something that it’s full of liesYou’re gonna try and findThe who what why whereI refuse to recognize

Hide awaySpend the day in here with me a whileHide awaySpend the day in here with me a while

It’s not that living in your real worldIs better than my life on The Other SideI’m sick of wired and I’m tetheringAnd weathering somewhere out of my mind

Hide awaySpend the day in here with me a whileHide awaySpend the day in here with me a whileHide awayHide awaySpend the dayHide awayHide awayWith me a while

Beths – Expert In A Dying Field ….Power Pop Friday

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).

Here is a link to the entire album on youtube.

From Allmusic by Marcy Donelson on the album

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 deniabilityI swear I’ve never heard of itAnd I can close the door on usBut the room still existsAnd I know you’re in it

Hours of phrases I’ve memorizedThousands of lines on the pageAll of my notes in a desolate pileI haven’t touched in an ageAnd I can burn the evidenceBut I can’t burn the painAnd 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 rewindLove 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 memoryThe water will never run clearThe birds and the bees and the flowers and treesThey know that we’ve both been hereAnd I can flee the countryFor the worst of the yearBut I’ll come back to it

Can we erase our history?Is it as easy as this?Maybe in other realitiesThe road never took this twistAnd I can close the door on usBut 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 rewindLove is learned over time‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field

Oh, an expert in a dying field

Smithereens – Behind The Wall Of Sleep …. Power Pop Friday

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

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