Bands – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues …album review

I’ve listened to this album before, but this week I had it on constantly, and I went through it many times. Not one clunker on this album. It’s one of those albums that is hard to pick just one song off and go with it. It needs to be listened to as a whole. I was just going to go with the song World Party but I kept listening to track after track and decided to go with the entire album. You have all kinds of musical styles on this album, including a tribute song about Hank Williams called Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?. It has something for everyone, but blended into one cohesive album voice.

The impression I get from this album is The Basement Tapes by Dylan and The Band. Not comparing songs, no, just the freedom feel of the entire album. It sounds like they didn’t plan anything, and it just happened. When you pull that off, it’s pure magic. Not many albums are truly spontaneous, but when you get that feeling, bottle it quickly, because it doesn’t come often.

The Waterboys were formed in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott, the band’s leader and primary songwriter. Over the years, their music has evolved through various phases, blending elements of rock, folk, and Celtic influences. Fisherman’s Blues was the title track of their album released in 1988.

Mike Scott recorded over 100 songs during this period. Only 13 made the cut for this album, and he made a good selection. This album helped inspire a wave of folk-rock revivalists in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and later on bands like Mumford and Sons. Mike Scott has said that Fisherman’s Blues was not one sound but a voyage, not a destination, but a process.

The album had a little of everything, like spirit, freedom, risk, and reinvention. It’s the sound of a band trying something new and getting lost in something older, wilder, and more timeless. It’s one of those rare albums where you feel like you’ve lived with the band. I’m going to go song by song…just listen to this album!

All the songs except for two covers (Sweet Thing by Van Morrison and This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie) and a song called Dunford’s Fancy written by violinist Steve Wickham were either written or co-written by Mike Scott.

Karl Wallinger, who co-wrote World Party and was a key part of the early Waterboys, left during these sessions to form his own band, named World Party. I picked that song “World Party” below to highlight, plus the entire album on Spotify. What caught me was that it explodes out of the speakers with a honky-tonk style piano and a fiddle sawing like a buzzsaw through a barn wall. It’s hard not to like that. The song just makes me feel good.

The album peaked at #15 in New Zealand, #76 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #13 in the UK in 1988.

Mike Scott: We started recording our fourth album in early ’86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn’t know where to take it. It could’ve been a gospel or country album. It could’ve sounded more like This Is the Sea or it could’ve been a traditional album. It could’ve been anything.”

The tracklist to the original album

Fisherman’s Blues (Mike Scott, Steve Wickham)
We Will Not Be Lovers (Scott) – 7:03
Strange Boat (Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite)
World Party (Scott, Trevor Hutchinson, Karl Wallinger)
Jimmy Hickey’s Waltz (Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite)
And a Bang on the Ear (Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite)
Has Anybody Here Seen Hank? (Scott)
When Will We Be Married? (Traditional, adapted: Scott, Thistlethwaite)
When Ye Go Away (Scott)
Dunford’s Fancy (Wickham)
The Stolen Child (Words: W.B. Yeats, Music: Scott)
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)

World Party

Well it’s got nothing to do with anything that is realyou just believe in it and it’s trueYou can sooth like an angel or sigh like a saintyou can dream it and see it throughYou will live to see a sea of lightssparking on the face of a pearlClimb your own peakfind a new streak

Get yourself along to the world party (party!)

Now you’ve been building for yourself a cool place in the sandyou’re thinking that it’s mighty fineYou’ve got dust in your eyeballs, you got mud in your mouthbut it’s your head, it ain’t mineI’ve got a madman of my own to contend withcursing in the cave of my skullTurn the other cheekfind a new streak

Get yourself along to the world party (party!)

Well I heard a rumour of a golden agesomewhere back along the lineMaybe I dreamed it in a whisper orheard it in a spellIt was something to do with the sign of the timesand the only thing that I rememberIs a summer like a pretty girlwho shimmers and shinesMoving in timeshaking to the beat of the heart of the world

Party (party! party! party! party! party! party! party! party! party!)

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Who – Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy … album review

I bought this album right after I had bought Wholigans and Who’s Next. I wanted to know what their sixties output was like besides My Generation and I Can See For Miles. This compilation album was released in 1971; it wasn’t just a sampler of radio singles; it was a brash declaration of how The Who reached the top and what they broke along the way. Most of these songs did not reach the ears of Americans and Canadians in the 1960s. If Who’s Next was their grand gesture, Meaty Beaty was their rowdy scrapbook. The album is exciting!

In Canada and America, most people know the Who’s Next material and after as well. This album is the roots of the band. They stretched the limits of recording, trying new things in the studio, much like The Beatles did, but with a rawer result.

Rock in the mid to late sixties was changing, and what a diverse set of songs that you hear from that period. This is when Pete Townshend was turning teenage anxiety into rock mini-operas and Keith Moon was trying to demolish every drum kit in London. The title, reportedly referring to the four members themselves, Meaty (Roger), Beaty (Keith), Big (John), and Bouncy (Pete), is cheeky and self-mythologizing. And the tracklist? Nearly perfect. These singles are where Moon started to get his wild drumming reputation. He is everywhere in these songs, especially I Can’t Explain, making them different from other bands.

I have said that my favorite kind of band to watch live is the ones that you think will fall apart with any song they play, but they pull it between the lines without going over the cliff. They did that with these songs in the studio.

You’ve got I Can’t Explain, The Kids Are Alright, and Substitute up front, each one a case study in amphetamine, fueled mod rock. These aren’t songs that build; they explode right from the opening riff. Substitute, in particular, grabs your attention with the loud backing, but also the lyrics. Substitute could be The Who’s best single ever. And then I’m a Boy, Happy Jack, Pictures of Lily, you realize Pete was already leaning into story-song territory years before Tommy became a rock opera.

Magic Bus is a Bo Diddley-beat freakout that somehow makes a song about public transportation sound like a spiritual quest, or My Generation, the track that blew the doors off rock ’n’ roll. If that bass solo doesn’t rattle you, check your pulse. There’s a through-line here: Townshend’s fascination with identity, repression, rebellion, and guilt. These songs are electric in the best sense of the word.

Later Who albums might be deeper (Quadrophenia) or grander (Who’s Next), but this one is the sound of the band becoming The Who. Loud, brash, and already mythic. If you want to learn about The Who…this is a great starting point.

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Love – Forever Changes ….album review

Pam from All Things Thriller recommended this band and the album Forever Changes. I’ve been following her blog for years, and I trust when she recommends someone, and she came through. I was not disappointed with this album. This album has been listed in the top 100 best albums ever by different publications. It doesn’t have a bad song on it. The album is not known for hit singles but for the collective whole of the songs on that album. I was going to pick one song, but again, this album needs to be listened to as a whole.

One single did get pulled off of this album called Alone Again Or and it did hit the UK and Billboard Charts, and it sounded familiar. The reason it did was because The Damned covered back in 1987.

This is a band that I heard of but never really heard as much. With founder Arthur Lee, Love fused garage rock, folk, psychedelia, and baroque pop. They were not commercial juggernauts, but they sure did sound great. This album’s core is acoustic, and they build on it from there. I could not stop listening to it all this week. They were also one of the first racially diverse American rock bands.

Released in late 1967, just as the Summer of Love was peaking and already beginning to fall, it’s a record that doesn’t sound like its time, and doesn’t really belong to any other, either. This was the band’s 3rd album. Arthur Lee was just 22 when he put this band together. He already had two solid albums under his belt, full of garage rock, Byrds-like jangle, and attitude, but Forever Changes was something else entirely. It’s as if Lee had seen the whole California dream flicker and die and was moving on.

I’ve listened to this album around five times overall, and it keeps getting better. I love how they mixed the acoustic with jaw-dropping percussion and touches of electric guitar. I’m not going to go down the list of songs; the best way is to listen to it.

The original lineup featured Lee, guitarist Johnny Echols, bassist Ken Forssi, drummer Don Conka (later replaced by Alban “Snoopy” Pfisterer), and singer/guitarist Bryan MacLean.

Alone Again Or

Yeah, said it’s all rightI won’t forgetAll the times I’ve waited patiently for youAnd you’ll do just what you choose to doAnd I will be alone again tonight my dear

Yeah, I heard a funny thingSomebody said to meYou know that I could be in love with almost everyoneI think that people areThe greatest funAnd I will be alone again tonight my dear

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Jam – That’s Entertainment

I learned about these guys from a friend’s brother, who introduced me to Big Star, The Clash, and The Dead. They had export albums that no one else I knew had at the time. There was no Spotify…you had to work for it. You had to hunt songs and albums down. It made it that much better when you heard them.

I wrote this for another Jam song a while back and it holds true: Sometimes people say…oh this or that band was just too British. I never found a fault in that and wanted more British bands. But…if ever a band could be considered “too British” this may very well be the band. But I want more…

This is one of those rare songs that doesn’t just describe life, it feels like life. Weller wrote it in a single night after stumbling home drunk (“Coming home pissed from the pub”), acoustic guitar in hand. And you can tell, the lyrics have that bleary, late-night poetry, where ordinary objects take on greater significance. A “policeman’s baton,” “a smash of glass,” “a freezing cold flat” these aren’t metaphors, they’re scene-setting. There are strong Ray Davies vibes going on in this, with working-class life.

He’s not glorifying his world; he’s documenting it. And in doing so, he’s creating a kind of working-class poem, a collage of British life with all the glamor scratched off. This is why I love the Kinks, the Who, and other bands that deal with everyday life. I would include Squeeze in there as well.

They formed in 1973 and released their first album in 1977. Their members included guitarist Paul Weller, bassist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Rick Butler. Paul Weller is the best known out of the band, but they were all great musicians. Being a bass player…I’ve noticed a lot of Foxton’s bass playing is terrific.

The song was released in 1981 and peaked at #21 on the UK Charts and #34 in New Zealand. The song was on the album Sound Affects, which peaked at #2 on the UK Charts, #72 on the Billboard 200, #39 in Canada, and #2 in New Zealand.

Paul Weller: “It was just everything that was around me y’know. My little flat in Pimlico did have damp on the walls and it was f–king freezing. I was doing a fanzine called December Child and Paul Drew wrote a poem called ‘That’s Entertainment.’ It wasn’t close to my song, but it kind of inspired me to write this anyway. I wrote to him saying, Look is it all right if I nick a bit of your idea, man? And he said, It’s fine, yeah.”

Thats Entertainment

A police car and a screaming sirenA pneumatic drill and ripped up concreteA baby wailing and stray dog howlingThe screech of brakes and lamp light blinking

That’s entertainmentThat’s entertainment

A smash of glass and a rumble of bootsAn electric train and a ripped up phone boothPaint splattered walls and the cry of a tomcatLights going out and a kick in the balls

I say, that’s entertainmentThat’s entertainment

Days of speed and slow time MondaysPissing down with rain on a boring WednesdayWatching the news and not eating your teaA freezing cold flat and damp on the walls

I say that’s entertainmentThat’s entertainment

Waking up at 6 a.m. on a cool warm morningOpening the windows and breathing in petrolAn amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yardWatching the telly and thinking about your holidays

That’s entertainmentThat’s entertainment

Waking up from bad dreams and smoking cigarettesCuddling a warm girl and smelling stale perfumeA hot summer’s day and sticky black tarmacFeeding ducks in the park and wishing you were far away

That’s entertainmentThat’s entertainment

Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnightTwo lovers missing the tranquility of solitudeGetting a cab and travelling on busesReading the graffiti about slashed seat affairs

I say that’s entertainmentThat’s entertainment

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A Replacements Revival

Thanks, Dave, for asking me to participate. Dave wanted us to pick a band we would like to see reunited based on reality and not bringing people back to life. A lot of bands that I would love to get back together, but most have deceased members, and under his rules, we cannot raise them again. Allman Brothers, The Band, Big Star, and many others where one or a few are alive. I considered The Kinks because Ray and Dave Davies are still alive, along with Mick Avory, the drummer. I also considered REM, CCR, J Geils, and The James Gang. Even if Dave had said we could resurrect people, I still would not pick The Beatles. I’m forever grateful they didn’t try it before Lennon passed. There is no way they would have lived up to people’s expectations.

The Replacements, Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars are still doing well. Their lead guitar player, Bob Stinson, passed away in 1995. He was replaced by Slim Dunlap in the ’80s when Bob quit. Slim passed away in 2024. He didn’t tour with them in the teens when they DID reunite because of a stroke he had in 2012.

They reunited in 2012 and started to tour, which lasted until 2015. They sold out huge arenas, made more money, and played in front of more fans than they did in their prime. Although their last show in Chicago drew over 50,000 people in 1991.

They had a penchant for shooting themselves in the foot in the ’80s over and over. Grabbing their new producer and tearing his clothes off and throwing him in the hall, saying the F word on Saturday Night Live and then getting banned, guest hosting a radio show and picking old blues records they knew had cuss words, and getting kicked out of there, and opening up for Tom Petty and breaking in Petty’s dressing room and stealing and wearing his wife’s clothes on stage (they finished the tour though…Petty had a sense of humor), refusing to make videos, knowing that record executives from big labels were coming to watch them and getting drunk playing TV theme songs plus KISS covers all night long. No need to add more things…you get the point.

I’ve heard from people who saw them in their prime. They usually have two things to say about them if they have seen them at least twice. “The best rock and roll band I’ve ever seen or heard” OR “The most drunken display I’ve ever seen” but even when they said that…they said they liked them and they still beat most bands. It does make sense, though. They started off as a punk band and slowly developed into a rock band when Westerberg developed as a songwriter. They had a rebellious spirit to the end.

Personally, I think if they had played the music company game like REM, they could have been popular in the mainstream. They had some of the strongest songs of the 1980s because of Paul Westerberg, and I put his songwriting on the level of Springsteen. Now let’s get into the songs of the band. I think many of their songs rival The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Stones, or anyone you could throw out there. Bastards of Young, Here Comes A Regular, Alex Chilton, Androgynous, Can’t Hardly Wait, I Will Dare, Left Of The Dial, Unsatisfied, Kiss Me on the Bus, Skyway, Color Me Impressed, The Ledge, and so many more. If they had gotten proper airplay, I have no doubt they would have been hits.

Most indie bands were out of touch with the mainstream at the time, and that is the reason they all had such a large fan base. It started to cross over, though in the late eighties or early nineties at last, but by that time…The Replacements were winding down. This is a band I would want to see again, clicking on all cylinders. From the reviews of all of their reunion shows…they were on.

So Paul and Tommy…how about one more go around? Please include some TV Themes and KISS cover songs…just because you can. If you guys are happy…we will be.

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Cream

Randy had a series called Three Piece (Suits Me) that ran a few weeks ago. Thank you, Randy, for inviting me to do this! I’ll take any excuse to write about Cream. When I think of a power trio…no offense to ZZ Top, but Cream is the first one that comes to mind. It was an all-star band that was super aggressive live and translated well in the studio. Either one of the members could have been musically the star of any band.

Cream was widely regarded as the first supergroup in rock history. They consisted of three legendary musicians: Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker. Cream was formed in July 1966 when Clapton, Bruce, and Baker—all already established musicians—came together to create a band that fused blues, rock, jazz, and psychedelia. The name “Cream” signified that they were the “cream of the crop” in the British music scene. They each had a rich history before Cream.

Clapton had played with The Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers..Bruce and Baker had been part of The Graham Bond Organization. Bruce also had briefly worked together with Manfred Mann. Clapton and Baker were forming the band and Eric had just played with Jack Bruce and wanted him in this. Clapton said: When Ginger invited me to join, I asked him who else was in the band. He said, “I don’t know yet. So I suggested Jack. He said, “No, what did you have to go and mention him for?” I said, “Because I just played with him and he’s a great bass player and you guys played together with Graham Bond and Alexis, so I thought you’d be pleased.” And he said, “No, we don’t get on very well at all.” So I withdrew at that point. Then I said I would only go in with Ginger if he would go in with Jack. So he had to say OK.

Eric Clapton was confident in his guitar playing but less so in his singing. Early on, it was decided that Jack Bruce would take on the role of the band’s primary singer and songwriter. However, as time went on, Clapton contributed more as both a writer and vocalist. Bruce collaborated with poet Pete Brown to write the band’s songs.

Cream’s debut album, Fresh Cream, was released in 1966, featuring tracks like I Feel Free, NSU, and Spoonful. While the album made an impact, it was their second release, Disraeli Gears, that truly propelled them to fame, with standout songs like “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Strange Brew.”

Released in 1968, Wheels of Fire featured Cream’s iconic cover of Crossroads and White Room, which became one of their signature songs. However, behind the scenes, tensions between Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were escalating, proving too much for the more laid-back Eric Clapton.

By the end of the year, the band decided to call it quits, playing a farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall and releasing a final album fittingly titled Goodbye. The album included Badge, one of my favorite Cream songs, co-written by George Harrison.

Cream had a huge influence on rock, blues, metal, and bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Rush, and Van Halen. At the time the only other band like them was another trio called The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, and later Billy Cox replacing Redding.

They did reunite a few times through the years. The first time was not publicized or open to the public. In 1979 Eric Clapton married Pattie Boyd and he invited Cream, three Beatles, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Elton John, and David Bowie. Cream did play and so did Paul, George, and Ringo. Pattie said that somehow Lennon wasn’t sent an invite but he said he would have gone if he would have known.

In 1993 they reunited at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when they were inducted. They also reunited for two sets of shows in 2005. One with four shows at the Royal Albert Hall and three shows at Madison Square Garden. Yes, there was still friction between Bruce and Baker at that time. That fact made it impossible for them to do any more shows. Bruce passed away in 2014 and Baker in 2019…effectively ending Cream.

I will say they made the most out of their short window. They influenced countless rock and roll bands through the years. Eric Clapton never sounded as good again as he did with Cream. Part of that reason is he was pushed because of the trio format that we are celebrating today!

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The Dick Cavett Show

I remember being a kid and how ABC, which was our “channel 2,” never came in clearly. The picture was snowy, but I still recall catching glimpses of The Dick Cavett Show. Of course, I also remember Johnny Carson—he and Cavett were the two big talk show hosts of the time. While it might be sacrilegious to say, I always favored Cavett over Carson. Even as a kid, Cavett seemed more interesting.

The Dick Cavett Show on ABC was a smart alternative to The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Cavett frequently booked intellectuals and gave them time for extended, in-depth conversations. You truly got to know his guests—he took more than 10 minutes, unlike the rushed format of today. There were no distractions, no flashy sets, just meaningful conversations. That was the key: Cavett didn’t just interview his guests… he had real conversations with them. No gimmicky skits, just an authentic exchange.

Cavett had his critics. Some called him a snob, a name-dropper, or too controversial. All three were true—and I loved it. Yes, he went to Yale, and yes, he dropped names. But honestly, if I’d spent time with people like Groucho Marx, I’d name-drop too. Cavett’s guest list was legendary: John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and so many more. He embraced the counterculture, but he also joked about the counterculture, staying balanced in his approach. In modern times, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman came closest to that spirit…and Charlie Rose as far as having conversations.

One of Cavett’s trademarks was his unique mix of guests. Where else would you see Janis Joplin, Raquel Welch, and Gloria Swanson sharing the same stage? His early 1970s ABC show was the pinnacle of his career. When he booked a rare or special guest, he often dedicated the entire episode to them. Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn each had an entire show to themselves. Can you imagine that happening today? Is it because today’s stars aren’t as compelling, or has the audience’s attention span shrunk too much to appreciate such depth?

Cavett also thrived on risk. He hosted Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, who famously clashed, and another episode featured Salvador Dalí, Lillian Gish, and Satchel Paige. These combinations were bold, and they worked. Even Johnny Carson admitted that Cavett was the only talk show host who could’ve seriously challenged him, though ABC’s third-place standing in the network race kept Cavett from overtaking Carson’s dominance.

This isn’t a knock on Johnny at all—his show set the blueprint for today’s talk shows. But Cavett offered something different: a smarter, more thoughtful experience. Watching his episodes now feels like opening a time capsule. While some moments are tied to their time, much of it remains timeless. Hearing from legends like Marlon Brando and Katharine Hepburn, who rarely did talk shows, is especially fascinating.

It wasn’t one of those “Hi, my name is Miss/Mr. So-and-So, my favorite color is blue, and goodbye until next time I have something to promote” situations. With Dick Cavett, you really got to know the person. He had a knack for drawing out something truly interesting. My favorite interview is the one with George Harrison. It didn’t seem promising at first—George wasn’t particularly eager to be on any show at the time—but Dick managed to get him to open up. You could see Cavett’s relief when George finally warmed up. This interview, which came right after John and Yoko’s appearance, turned out to be one of George’s best.

Here are some YouTube comments for these older talk shows:

I’m amazed when I go back and watch interviews from older talk shows, because it’s more quiet and the celebrity hosts and celebrity guests actually engage in authentic conversation with pure respect.

Jimmy Fallon should watch this video. No stupid laughing constantly, no sound effects and no fake laughter from the host. Just a meaningful conversation

Man no wonder podcasts have taken over. This interview was far more interesting and informative than any late night tv interview we get these days.

Badfinger… quick history

Today I’m having a Badfinger day. Christian got me into a Badfinger mood with his Baby Blue Post. I would suggest you read a more detailed version of their story when you can. Their story will draw you in.

Badfinger was a very talented band that had a gift and curse of sounding like The Beatles. Their songs are remembered today but not the band which is a shame. They made some very good albums and at least one great one. This band’s story is a cautionary tale that other bands must consider. This is what signing with a bad manager can do to you.

The members were Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins, and Joey Molland (who replaced Ron Griffiths).

They started out as the Iveys and signed with the Beatle’s new label…Apple. They released Maybe Tomorrow as the Iveys which was a minor hit. After that, they changed their name to Badfinger. Paul McCartney wrote their first big hit single”Come and Get It” and after that, they were writing themselves. The hits kept coming… No Matter What, Baby Blue, and Day after Day. They also wrote Without You…a small blues song that Harry Nilson covered…it became a monster worldwide hit. Mariah Carey also covered it and was again a giant hit.

They signed with a manager named Stan Polley and got a massive contract with Warner Brothers after leaving Apple. Things were looking really good. They had hits but they never made it over the hump in being a big-time group. Warner Brothers could have pushed them over the hump…Polley set up an escrow account for the band with the advance money and the money disappeared.

He told the band that he was planning for their future etc…He put them on a small salary and embezzled the rest. He really swindled them and their royalties for their songs were tied up for decades. The band was basically broke. With all of their self-written hits, they should have been set financially for years.

Pete Ham didn’t have the money to pay his mortgage and with a baby on the way, drunk and depressed at the fatal age (for rock stars) of 27 he hanged himself in his garage in 1975. In 1983, after scrambling for gigs, Tom Evans broke and not able to get to any of the royalties due him from co-writing Without You with Pete…hanged himself also.

Pete was a trusting soul and never would believe Polley was cheating them until the very end. His suicide note read…

“I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me.”

They all wrote to some degree but Pete Ham was a great songwriter. He had so much potential. He also was a great guitar player and singer. The other members did write some very good songs but Pete was the special one.

Stan Polley died in 2009… escaping other scandals without punishment.

Their albums were

Magic Christian Music – This was the soundtrack to the movie The Magic Christian. Come and Get It is on this album and a minor hit called Maybe Tomorrow which is a good pop song.

No Dice – No Dice is where Badfinger starts to be themselves. No Matter What and Without You came off of this album. It also has some other great songs… I Can’t Take It, Blodwyn, We’re for the Dark, Better Days, and my favorite of the album and possibly of Badfinger…Midnight Caller.

Straight Up – This is my favorite album by them. It has Baby Blue and Day after Day but a host of other good songs. Take It All, Money, Name of the Game, Suitcase, Sweet Tuesday Morning, and I’d Die Babe. Joey Molland’s songwriting and singing were very good on this album.

Ass – Their last album for Apple Records and the start of the downward spiral. The songs I would recommend are Apple of My Eye and Icicles.

Badfinger – They just signed a new record deal with Warner Brothers and this was the first album. They recorded this album as soon as they finished their previous album Ass for Apple which was too soon. They should have waited a while before recording this album. This album didn’t do well, and one of the reasons is that it was competing with their previous album. They were released within months of each other because Polley wanted something out. The songs I like are I Miss You and Shine On.

Wish You Were Here – The album was released in late 1974 and was pulled in early 1975 before it had time to do anything because of litigation between their manager and the Warner Brothers. It was released and pulled in a matter of weeks. Warner Brothers saw the money was missing and yanked the album off of the shelves. The songs I like are Dennis and Just a Chance. This album should have been a giant hit. It had hit songs on there waiting to be played. Dennis is one of their best songs.

Head First – They recorded this album after Wish You Were Here with Bob Jackson after Joey Molland had quit. The album was stuck in limbo for 26 years never released. It wasn’t released until 2000. I went out and bought this the day it was out at Tower Records when I read they were releasing it. On some songs, you can tell they are having problems with their management. The songs that stand out to me are Lay Me Down, Hey Mr. Manager, Rock N’ Roll Contract, and Keep Believing. A good album and I wish it would have had a chance at the time.

They did make a couple of albums after Pete died called Airwaves and Say No More. The song Lost Inside Your Love is the only song that approaches the Badfinger early quality.

Without Pete, the biggest talent was gone. That is not a knock on the others but he was just that good. Tom Evans was a good singer, songwriter, and musician who worked with Pete well and had a great voice. Joey Molland was a good guitar player, singer, and songwriter. The band didn’t lack talent.

In 1997 a CD was released of Pete Hams demos called 7 Park Avenue. It was various demos from his entire career. A follow-up was released in 1999 called Golders Green. The melodies he had rivaled McCartney. He was an amazing songwriter.

Go out and Google Badfinger and more importantly, listen to them. This band needs to be remembered.

Baby Blue… Maybe the most perfect power pop song ever in my opinion.

No Matter What…around 2:02-2:06…Tommy Evans does a cool backup. Not hard but very effective.

Day After Day

Midnight Caller

Suitcase

A good article on Badfiinger

My Top 5 Big Star Songs

This band is one of the big reasons I started to blog in the first place. To meet more Big Star fans and if I got just one person who didn’t know them to listen… my mission was a success. Want a great documentary? Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me

I thought I would list some songs that would be in my top 5 of their catalog. So maybe one of you reading this will take a listen. Here are Graham’s top 10 Big Star songs on his site. These songs are up there with the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, and Who to me. They didn’t have the quantity those bands had, but they had the quality.

Let’s make it 6. My bonus pick is:

BONUS: In The Street – I would say, hands down, the most known song by them besides September Gurls because it was the theme of That Seventies Show. Cheap Trick covered it and someone else for the intro…I wish they had used the original version.

5: Life Is White – Love this driving song by Big Star. It was on Radio City, their second album. Some say it is a response to the Chris Bell song off the first album called My Life Is Right…or a message to his girlfriend Diane (Don’t like to see your face Don’t like to hear you talk at all) that he was splitting with at the time.

4: When My Baby’s Beside Me: Great riff by Alex Chilton and full of the hooks that Big Star is known for. This song was the A-side to In The Street released in 1972. Both songs are on Big Star’s album #1 Record.

3: September Gurls: If Big Star had been heard, this would have been a top-ten hit or at least top 20. It was one of the best pop songs that didn’t chart. September Gurls was rated #180 by Rolling Stone in the magazine’s top 500 songs of all time.

Released as a single, it did not chart despite receiving excellent reviews, due mainly to poor marketing and distribution. It was on their second studio album Radio City. The song was later covered by The Bangles on their album Different Light.

2: Thirteen – This song is an absolutely perfect song about adolescence. I played it to my then 14-year-old son, and it made him a Big Star fan, now 10 years later. This song is the most covered song by Big Star, with 49 different covers. It’s almost a perfect acoustic song. The song is about an adolescent guy and his girlfriend who are rock fans, being what 13-14-year-olds are…confused and lost.

1: The Ballad of El Goodo – There are some songs that I hear, and I think…damn I wish I would have written this. This is one of those songs. To me, it’s a perfect song and represents everything I like. The way they transitioned into the chorus is magical to me. It comes very close to being my favorite song of all time.

The Ballad of El Goodo

Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh
And I’ve been trying hard against unbelievable odds
It gets so hard in times like now to hold on
But guns they wait to be stuck by, at my side is God

And there ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round

There’s people around who tell you that they know
And places where they send you, and it’s easy to go
They’ll zip you up and dress you down and stand you in a row
But you know you don’t have to, you could just say no

And there ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round

I’ve been built up and trusted
Broke down and busted
But they’ll get theirs and we’ll get ours if you can
Just-a hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on

Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh
Though I’ve been trying hard against strong odds
It gets so hard in times like now to hold on
Well, I’ll fall if I don’t fight, and at my side is God

And there ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on

Flatlanders – Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown

I first blogged about these guys last year. I keep listening to their music and it’s all very likable. It’s something about this song that I can’t put my finger on that has stuck with me for days. It could be the unique lead vocal or it could be

Jimmie Dale Gilmore wrote this song with John Reed who was in a band at the time called Frieda and The Firedogs. Gilmore said: “It was inspired by this feeling I had one night having to do with, Well, I just want to go downtown, everybody knows that feeling. I think that’s why that song resonates with people because it kind of conjures an emotion that you can’t quite put your finger on.”

The track is featured on their album All American Music, which was their debut album and a great example of Americana and Texas music. Over the years, the song has been covered by various artists, including Joe Ely in February 1978 and Nanci Griffith in March 1982…Mudhoney also covered it.

With their All American Music… they issued a few hundred copies on 8-track cassettes. The group broke up the following year but would reform continually. In the 1990s, as Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock gained recognition as individual artists, interest in The Flatlanders’ early work grew so this album saw the light of day.

They were formed in 1972 by three singer-songwriters: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock. The band was born out of the music scene in Lubbock, Texas, where all three members grew up. They recorded this album in Nashville. Initially, the album was released only as an 8-track tape by Plantation Records, with the title “Jimmie Dale and the Flatlanders.” This limited release received little attention at the time, and the band members soon went their separate ways to pursue solo careers.

They then released an album in 1980 called One More Road. Their debut album was re-released in 1990 as More a Legend Than A Band after all of them had some success during their solo careers. They have released 9 albums including a live album in 2004 from 1972 to 2021. Their last album was released in 2021 called Treasure Of Love. They started to chart in the music charts in the 2000s.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and I hope you enjoy these songs.

I’m adding an extra bonus Flatlanders song called Pay The Alligator

I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown

Tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.
Tonight I think I’m gonna look around
For something I couldn’t see
When this world was more real to me.
Yeah tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

My love, my love has gone away.
My love, my love what can I say.
My love would never see
That this world’s just not real to me
And tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

I told my love a thousand times
That I can’t say what’s on my mind,
But she would never see
That this world’s just not real to me
And tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

Tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.
Tonight I think I’m gonna look around
For something I couldn’t see
When this world was more real to me.
Yeah tonight I think I’m gonna go downtown.

…

Moody Blues – Story in Your Eyes

Great melody in this song. One of the best rock songs of its era. I bought the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour when I heard this song from Columbia House. I would say that this song made me a Moody Blues Fan. The Moody Blues are sometimes described as a progressive band, but unlike some progressive bands, they kept a good pop/rock sensibility…some have called them an “Art”rock band which fits much better to me. And…the bass in this song is great.

If you were stuck on the orchestral sounds of Days of Future Passed, The Story in Your Eyes might have caught you off guard…in the best way possible. The song was released in 1971 as the lead single from Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, this Justin Hayward-written song is one of the Moody Blues’ most energetic, guitar-driven tracks, proving they could rock with their harder peers.

The album title, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour comes from a mnemonic phrase used to remember the notes on the lines of the treble clef. E, G, B, D, F, (Every Good Boy Does Fine) from bottom to top.

The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100, and #7 in Canada, in 1971.

Justin Hayward: “Despite its personal nature, ‘The Story in Your Eyes’ is also kind of about the band, We’re part of the fire that is burning, and from the ashes we can build another day.” “There’s a kind of confession in it, as we were soon about to go through a rather awkward phase.”

Justin Hayward: “The song just sprung out of my acoustic guitar one day while I was at home. I was just playing my Martin D-28…I don’t know for certain if it’s from ’55 or ’57, but it’s been with me since 1969 and the first thing that came to me was the middle-eight section. And from there, the rest of the song came together.”

“Only a couple of weeks before entering the studio, I had done a version of it with Mike (keyboardist Mike Pinder) at his place, with just me playing the guitar and him working out the piano part for the outro. Mike then did eight or 12 tracks of Mellotron, bouncing from one machine to another. And it only sounded good when he had done it and multitracked it.”

“When it came time for the electric guitar part, I used a Cherry Red 1963 [Gibson] ES-335 that I’ve had since 1968. The electric guitar that opens the song including feedback that’s in tune to an A note…and goes all the way through the song is the ES-335 direct into the Normal chan

nel of an AC30 Top Boost turned up full. In the solo and at the end, that’s the ES-335 again through a Marshall Reverb-Fuzz Unit.”

Story in Your Eyes

I’ve been thinking about our fortune
And I’ve decided that we’re really not to blame
For the love that’s deep inside us now, is still the same
And the sound we make together
Is the music to the story in your eyes
It’s been shining down upon you now, I realize

Listen to the tide slowly turning
Wash all our heartaches away
We are part of the fire that is burning
And from the ashes we can build another day
But I’m frightened for your children
And the life that we are living is in vain
And the sunshine we’ve been waiting for
Will turn to rain

When the final line is over
And it’s certain that the curtain’s gonna fall
I can hide inside your sweet sweet love
Forever more

Head Cat – Fool’s Paradise… album review

I don’t do many album reviews, but this one, I had to write something. I spent this weekend totally locked in on this 2006 album, having it on my computer and phone. It’s a fun rockabilly album well done, and the song selection is terrific. I was going to review another artist, but I got stuck on this one, so I’ll post him next weekend. After the Motörhead post on Friday, CB brought up a rockabilly band that Lemmy was in. I was surprised, to say the least, because I didn’t remember this from the documentary but it’s been a while. I love what I heard.

I don’t skip tracks because one is as good as the other. There is a bounciness to this album…if that is a word. I could have written a one-word review… FUN.

Let’s get with the members of this band. On drums, you have Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats. This man pops up everywhere by the way. On Guitar and piano, you have a rockabilly guitarist named Danny B. Harvey. On bass you have Lemmy Kilmister taking a break from Motörhead to play some rockabilly. His voice fits this music well.

The origins of The Head Cat trace back to a casual collaboration. Lemmy Kilmister, Slim Jim Phantom, and Danny B. Harvey teamed up in 1999 to record a tribute album to Elvis Presley, titled Swing Cats: A Special Tribute to Elvis. The band’s name? Can you guess? Combining Motörhead and The Stray Cats. They released 6 studio and live albums combined.

They didn’t always pick the most popular rockabilly songs which I love. You have Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Jimmy Reed, and The Crickets songs on this album. Rather than covering Peggy Sue, they cover Peggy Sue Got Married instead which personally I like more. You have a Buddy Holly title cut Fool’s Paradise. You also have Crying, Waiting, Hoping, Not Fade Away, and one of my favorite Holly songs in Well…All Right.

The reason this and other similar rockabilly albums work is because 1: The musicians love this type of music and…that damn word again…FUN. 2: The songs are simple and that is not a put-down but they don’t have 12 chords and studio tricks. The songs sound good on backyard porches and would sound great in the Royal Albert Hall or Ryman Auditorium. I think music has moved too far away from this style. 3: When I said these songs were simple I was NOT implying they are easy to play right…on the contrary because you have no distortion box or tricks to hide behind. It takes pure musicians and a love for this music to play it right. These guys grew up with this music so they pour their heart into it.

I’ll get off my soapbox now but how I wish I would have had this music growing up. I didn’t grow up in this era when the songs were real time but I see why all of the great artists I like… cling to this music. Everyone from The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Stones, Springsteen, Dylan, and The Kinks spent their career trying to recapture the spirit in these wonderful songs. The Head Cat did a great job!

Here is the tracklist:

1 Fool’s Paradise
2 Tell Me How
3 You Got Me Dizzy
4 Not Fade Away
5 Cut Across Shorty
6 Lawdy Miss Clawdy
7 Take Your Time
8 Well…All Right
9 Trying To Get To You
10 Learning The Game
11 Peggy Sue Got Married
12 Crying, Waiting, Hoping
13 Love’s Made A Fool To You
14 Big River
15 Matchbox

If you want the complete album on YouTube…here is the link

Well…All Right

Well, alright, so I’m being foolish
Well, alright, let people know
About the dreams I know that you wish
In the night when lights are low

Well, alright, well, alright
We’ll live and love with all our might
Well, alright, well, alright
Our lifetime love will be alright

Well, alright, so I’m going steady
It’s alright, let people say
That those foolish kids can’t be ready
For the love that comes their way

Well, alright, well, alright
We’ll live and love with all our might
Well, alright, well, alright
Our lifetime love will be alright

Well, alright, well, alright
You know we’ll live and love with all our might
Well, alright, well, alright
You know our lifetime love will be alright

….

Remembering Buffalo Springfield

I wrote this before I had any readership so I thought I would post it today.

I had a friend’s dad who owned their 1969 greatest hits album when I was in sixth grade and we wore it out. Broken Arrow, Mr Soul, and Expecting to Fly were the ones we played over and over, and heard something we missed in the previous play. So when my peers were listening to The Flock of Seagulls (nothing wrong with that!)…I was listening to Buffalo Springfield and I stayed stuck in the 60s for a long time.

Buffalo Springfield is a band that gets lost in the shuffle at times. People know their big hit “For What It’s Worth” but little about the band. They were only active between 1966-68 but had a huge impact on other artists. The band was very talented……with Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin, and Jim Messina who replaced Bruce Palmer. They had some great songs like Mr Soul, Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing, Burned, Expecting to Fly, Bluebird, Rock and Roll Woman, Broken Arrow, and their big hit For What It’s Worth…

I just read Neil Young’s book “Waging Heavy Peace” and he said that the end of Buffalo Springfield started because the bass player Bruce Palmer kept getting busted for drugs and taken away…more than once… By 1968 it was over and what a waste of potential they had…The remaining members reunited in 2011 and played 6 concerts… in 2012 they were going to tour and do 30 concerts. Neil quit and did an album with Crazy Horse. He has a history of leaving projects when they don’t interest him anymore.

If this band would have stayed together originally… There’s little doubt they would have gotten much bigger with the talented members they had in place.

The song Broken Arrow is a song that was made in sections and it’s hard to explain it with words… Something is haunting and beautiful about it. I listen to it now and it’s like Buffalo Springfield’s own A Day In The Life. It was produced in 1967 during the psychedelic era. One of my favorite songs of all time…any song with the lyric “He hung up his eyelids and ran down the hall” grabs my attention. Neil Young wrote this beautiful song. Gregg Allman cornered Neil backstage somewhere in the 2000s and pleaded with him to start playing this song again. He did when Buffalo Springfield reformed.

Right after the breakup, Stephen Stills helped form Crosby, Stills, and Nash….short time later Young came aboard and would join them occasionally. Furay and Messina helped form Poco and Messina teamed up with Kenny Loggins later on.

They made three albums while together. Buffalo Springfield (1966), Buffalo Springfield Again (1967) and Last Time Around (1968). A greatest hits came out in 1969 called Retrospective The Best of Buffalo Springfield. A box set was released in 2001.

So…what are your thoughts about Buffalo Springfield?

Broken Arrow

The lights turned on and the curtain fell down
And when it was over it felt like a dream
They stood at the stage door and begged for a scream
The agents had paid for the black limousine
That waited outside in the rain
Did you see them, did you see them?
Did you see them in the river?
They were there to wave to you
Could you tell that the empty quivered
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow
Held a broken arrow?

Eighteen years of American dream,
He saw that his brother had sworn on the wall
He hung up his eyelids and ran down the hall
His mother had told him a trip was a fall
And don’t mention babies at all
Did you see him, did you see him?
Did you see him in the river?
He was there to wave to you
Could you tell that the empty quivered
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow
Held a broken arrow?

The streets were lined for the wedding parade
The Queen wore the white gloves, the county of song
The black covered caisson her horses had drawn
Protected her king from the sun rays of dawn
They married for peace and were gone
Did you see them, did you see them?
Did you see them in the river?
They were there to wave to you
Could you tell that the empty quivered
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow
Held a broken arrow?

Ronnie Lane and Pete Townshend – Til The Rivers Run Dry

When I hear this song I think to myself…it’s pretty cool that I met the writer several times. It’s a song written by Don Williams and Wayland Holyfield. I’ll get in a mood where I have to hear something rootsy or down to earth. I usually pick either The Band or Ronnie Lane. So today’s posts with Rick Danko and Ronnie Lane fall into that. Combine that with that mid to late 1970s country sound and I love it. This music is something you could play on your back porch.

In 1976, following an extensive tour, The Who took a hiatus to focus on individual projects. Ronnie Lane initially approached Pete Townshend to produce his album but later invited him to collaborate on songwriting. Townshend, hesitant as he had never co-written songs before, ultimately declined. However, they did succeed in co-writing the album’s title track, Rough Mix. The album featured a mix of songs written individually by Lane and Townshend, with the two performing on most tracks together. This song is the one cover they did. The producer was the legendary Glyn Johns.

An album with Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane you would figure to be huge at the time. It wasn’t huge but it was a great album and has been highly regarded since. Personally, it’s high on my list of albums made in the 1970s along with Lane’s solo material. Like with the Danko album of 1977, Punk and Disco ruled the airwaves and probably had an effect on the commercial success of this album.

Don Williams’s music was really hot during this period. Eric Clapton was covering it and suddenly country music was popular. The album peaked at #44 in the Billboard Album Charts, #70 in Canada, and #45 in the UK in 1977.

Til The Rivers Run Dry

Till the rivers all run dry
Till the sun falls from the sky
Till life on earth is through
I’ll be needing you

I know sometimes you may wonder
From little things I say and do
But there’s no need for you to wonder
If I need you ’cause I’ll need you

Till the rivers all run dry
Till the sun falls from the sky
Till life on earth is through
I’ll be needing you

Too many times I don’t tell you
Too many things get in the way
And even though sometimes I hurt you
Still you show me in every way

Till the rivers all run dry
Till the sun falls from the sky
Till life on earth is through
I’ll be needing you

…

Rick Danko – Sip The Wine

I have had someone ask me my favorite singer from The Band. I always say that it depends on the song. They were brilliant in dividing up who would sing what. Robbie Robertson would write songs for one of their three top-notch singers. He knew exactly how to divide them up. Danko had one of the most recognizable voices of the bunch because it was so soulful and unique.

I first heard this song in The Last Waltz. Martin Scorsese was interviewing Danko in the control room and asked him what he was doing now. He started to play this song and turned it up. It’s always stuck with me. After seeing the film this past Thanksgiving I thought I would write it up.

During the Last Waltz, Danko was working on a self-titled solo album. He was the first member of the band to release one. He did have some help with Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood, Blondie Chapman, Doug Sahm, and members of The Band. An ad for the record claimed, “Once you get a taste of Rick Danko, you’ll never get enough.” Unfortunately, the album didn’t have much commercial success. This song was written by Tim Drummond and was originally called To Lay Down Beside You and it was originally recorded by Joe Simon. Ronnie Wood played the solo on this song.

At the time the album was released in 1977, disco and punk music were dominating the airwaves. The album contains different kinds of genres but not punk and disco.

Rick Danko: “We’ve been together for 15 or 16 years and I for one wouldn’t stop making albums with the Band. Just so long as the Band wants to continue making records, I’ll be there.”

Sip The Wine

I want to lay down beside you
I want to hold your body close to mine
Like a grape that grows ripe in the sunshine
There comes a time when we must sip the wine

I can tell by looking you’re not mine, girl
I believe everything I told you was true
There’s a child here that wants to start livin’
Well, you know that this child will get its start
From me and you

(Close your eyes)
Now close your eyes
And don’t you think of nothing
(Let your thoughts)
Let your thoughts remain here
Inside this room
(Lay your head)
Lay your head beside me on my pillow
And I will share this night with you

(We must sip the wine)
Til it feels alright
(We must sip the wine)
Into the night
(We must sip the wine)
Together

…,