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
I really like this band. Their career was split into two different sounds. In the early seventies, they were more like the Stones with blues/rock. After their singer (Roy Loney) left…they got another (Chris Wilson) and switched to power pop. They have songs that are power pop, grungy blues rock, and some great rock and roll.
The band was started in 1965 by Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. By the end of the sixties, they clashed over where to go. Loney was more Stones and Jordon leaned toward the Beatles.
Loney left in 1971 and they got an 18-year-old lead singer named Chris Wilson. They moved to London and started to work with Dave Edmunds. With Chris, they did more power pop and that is when Shake Some Action came about with Wilson and Jordon writing it.
They would go on to be a great power pop band and also be known as an early proto-punk band…they pretty much covered the gamut. Yes It’s True was written by Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson. It has a Beatle vibe to it and was on their 1976 album, Shake Some Action. The album peaked at #142 in the Billboard Album Charts.
The band broke up in the 80s but some of them continued with the name touring off and on. They did release an album in 2017 called Fantastic Plastic.
Yes It’s True
Every time you see me smile
I’m really blue
Because I’m wondering all the while
If you’re really true
Cause girl you know I’ve tried and tried
Everything to see your side
But I can’t forget the tears I’ve cried
Yes, it’s true
When you got a girl who thinks she’s smart
That’s not so fine
Cause they’re the kind who’ll break your heart
And leave you crying
And lovin’ them is not so nice
You better think about it twice
Or I else she’ll make you pay the price
Yes, it’s true
Well, she’s the kind of girl
Who knows what she wants to be
She knows what she wants
And she knows how to get it from me and you
I saw the smile upon your face
I felt so sure
Although there never was a place
For me and you
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
I hope you enjoy this Byrds cover by Tom Petty. One of the best B-side songs I can think of.
I posted The Waiting not long ago and talked about the similarities between The Byrds and Tom Petty. This Byrds song fits Tom Petty perfectly but the original song was not sung by McGuinn but by its writer…Gene Clark. Clark wrote this song in the mid-sixties when a girl he was seeing started to bother him. He also co-wrote Eight Miles High.
Although the song was the B side to The Byrd’s song All I Realy Want To Do, it gained a lot of promotion from Columbia Records and a lot of radio air time. It also became a classic rock standard, with dozens of artists giving their versions of the song.
This song was on Tom Petty’s solo album Full Moon Fever in 1989. The original name of the album was Songs From the Garage. It would have been an appropriate name for it. They worked on this album mostly in Heartbreaker Mike Campbell’s garage. This album caused a riff in The Heartbreakers. The other members thought Tom was going to leave the band. He kept reassuring them but they were not sure.
What’s unbelievable about it is, MCA rejected the album because they didn’t hear a single. This album would have 5 singles released from it.
Tom was absolutely stunned and depressed. He went back and added Feel A Whole Lot Better and the song Alright For Now and presented MCA with basically the same album again. There had been a regime change at MCA and this time they loved it. Ah…record companies…sometimes they are the spawn of Satan.
Although the album was released in 1989…Petty recorded it back in 1987 and 1988. MCA caused much of the delay when they rejected it.
Gene Clark of the Byrds: “There was a girlfriend I had known at the time, when we were playing at Ciro’s. It was a weird time in my life because everything was changing so fast and I knew we were becoming popular. This girl was a funny girl, she was kind of a strange little girl and she started bothering me a lot. And I just wrote the song, ‘I’m gonna feel a whole lot better when you’re gone,’ and that’s all it was, but I wrote the whole song within a few minutes.”
Tom Petty:“I didn’t see much of the Heartbreakers during that period, Mike I kept in touch with, of course, because he was working on Full Moon Fever with me. I never thought of leaving. And I kept reassuring them that I wasn’t going to leave. But I think there was some doubt in their mind.”
Feel A Whole Lot Better
The reason why, oh, I can’t say
I had to let you go, baby, and right away
After what you did, I can’t stay on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Baby, for a long time, you had me believe
That your love was all mine and that’s the way it would be
But I didn’t know that you were putting me on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Now I gotta say that it’s not like before
And I’m not gonna play your games any more
After what you did, I can’t stay on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Yeah, I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Good girls don’t Good girls don’t But, she’ll be telling you Good girls don’t But I do
The Knack was huge after their debut album but the record company wanted another one quickly. That was a huge mistake. A band takes years and years to make their first album. What I mean is they are writing songs as teenagers and later until they get a record deal. They use most of them up for the debut and now are stuck with coming up with a new album in a few months. That is a hard chore to do and why there is a sophomore slump with some bands.
Good Girls Don’t was released by the Knack in 1979 off the album Get the Knack. It was written by Knack singer Doug Fieger and peaked at 11 on the Billboard Charts. Everyone knows their other big single off that album “My Sharona” but I really liked this one at the time and still do. I was going to write…this song would not fly today but…I’ve heard rap songs that make this sound like Mother Goose.
One of the main reasons I like this song is the bridge. I don’t talk about a song’s bridge very much but it’s put together well. It starts with it’s a teenage sadness and builds. I will say this…I still like My Sharona…but I’ve My Sharonaed out. I still like it but in small doses. This one is a lot of fun.
I was 12 about to be 13 when I heard this song for the first time. For a new teenage boy, it was a great song. Fieger wrote this song in 1972 and didn’t want to record it for the album until the producer talked him into it. It is a strong power pop song with some edgy lyrics for 1979 and a “clean” single was released also that edited out the naughty things. It is a teenage song but it’s still fun.
The first video is the cleaner version of them in the studio…the second is the real version.
Good Girls Don’t
She’s your adolescent dream School boy stuff A sticky, sweet romance And she makes you wanna scream Wishing you could get inside her pants
So you fantasize away While you’re squeezing her You thought you heard her saying
Good girls don’t Good girls don’t But, she’ll be telling you Good girls don’t But I do
So you call her on the phone To talk about the teachers that you hate And she says she’s all alone And her parents won’t be coming home ’til late
There’s a ringing in your brain ‘Cause you could have swore You thought you heard her saying
Good girls don’t Good girls don’t But, she’ll be telling you Good girls don’t But I do
And it’s a teenage sadness Everyone has got to taste An in-between age madness That you know you can’t erase ‘Til she’s sitting on your face
You’re alone with her at last And you’re waiting ’til you think the time is right ‘Cause you’ve heard she’s pretty fast And you’re hoping that she’ll give you some tonight
So, you start to make your play ‘Cause you could have swore You thought you heard her saying
Good girls don’t Good girls don’t But, she’ll be telling you Good girls don’t But I do
And it’s a teenage sadness Everyone has got to taste An in-between age madness That you know you can’t erase ‘Til she’s sitting on your face (And it hurts)
Good girls don’t Good girls don’t But, she’ll be telling you Good girls don’t But I do
Good girls don’t Good girls don’t But, she’ll be telling you Good girls don’t But I do But I do But I do But I do
Well everyone…this is powerpop’s 3000th post! I want to thank all of you for making this happen. There was a while when I started that I didn’t know if I would go on because as we all know…it’s sometimes hard to get started and known in word press. The big break for me came when Hanspostcard republished one of my posts (the 1967 movie Bedazzled) and I started to get a few readers and that grew. The reason I keep doing it is because of the comments…meeting like-minded people is the reason this is still fun so thanks again.
In the early 1990s, my cousin Mark and I shared an apartment in Nashville. On our answering service we would leave funny or what we thought were funny messages. I broke out the guitar and we did the chorus of this song as a message. It went over well but we got tired of hearing it every time someone called.
If I had to rank Tom Petty songs in my personal list. This song would come right behind American Girls as far as my favorite Tom Petty songs. I’m a huge Tom Petty fan and one of the reasons besides the music is this. At the time, Tom Petty was so popular his record label wanted to charge $1 more for the LP than the standard $8.98, but they backed down after he considered naming the album $8.98. Tom seemed to be a good man.
I bought the single when it came out in 1981 and then the album Hard Promises. This song has a Byrds feel and is reminiscent of the mid-sixties. It peaked at #19 on the Billboard 100, #6 in Canada, and #27 in New Zealand and it didn’t chart in the UK…the UK missed the boat on this one.
Tom seemed to always channel his inner Roger McGuinn. American Girl is a prime example. It sounds so much like Roger McGuinn that the first time Roger heard the song he asked his manager “when did I record this?” McGuinn met Petty and they got along great…McGuinn invited Petty to open up for him on his 1976 tour.
In the 1980s I watched the Gary Shandling Show faithfully and I remember that Tom Petty played this song on one episode.
Tom Petty:“I remember writing that one very well. That was a hard one. Went on for weeks. I got the chorus right away. And I had that guitar riff, that really good lick. Couldn’t get anything else. (Softly) I had a really hard time. And I knew it was good, and it just went on endlessly. It was one of those where I really worked on it until I was too tired to go any longer. And I’d get right up and start again and spend the whole day to the point where other people in the house would complain. “You’ve been playing that lick for hours.” Very hard.
It’s one that has really survived over the years because it’s so adaptable to so many situations. I even think of that line from time to time. Because I really don’t like waiting. I’m peculiar in that I’m on time, most of the time. I’m very punctual.
Roger [McGuinn] swears to me that he told me that line. And maybe he did, but I’m not sure that’s where I got it from. I remember getting it from something I read, that Janis Joplin said, “I love being onstage, it’s just the waiting.”
Roger McGuinn on hearing Tom Petty for the first time:
“I said, ‘when did I record that?” I was kidding, but the vocal style sounded just like me and then there was the Rickenbacker guitar, which I used. The vocal inflections were just like mine. I was told that a guy from Florida named Tom Petty wrote and sings the song, and I said that I had to meet him. I liked him enough to invite Petty and the Heartbreakers to open for us in 1976. When I covered ‘American Girl,’ I changed a word or two and Tom asked me if it was because the vocal was too high and I said ‘yes.’ I had fun with Tom’s song.”
Tom on the Gary Shandling show. I remember this episode.
Again thank you to everyone!
The Waiting
Oh baby, don’t it feel like heaven right now? Don’t it feel like something from a dream? Yeah, I’ve never known nothing quite like this Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again? Baby, we know better than to try and pretend
Honey, no one could’ve ever told me ’bout this I said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The waiting is the hardest part Every day you see one more card You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part
Well, yeah, I might have chased a couple women around All it ever got me was down Yeah, then there were those that made me feel good But never as good as I feel right now Baby, you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now I said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The waiting is the hardest part Every day you get one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part
Oh, don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you I’ll be your bleeding heart, I’ll be your crying fool Don’t let this go too far, don’t let it get to you
Yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The waiting is the hardest part Every day you get one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part
Yeah, the waiting is the hardest part
Woah-oh It’s the hardest part Woah-oh It’s the hardest part
My 22-year-old son just walked into my music room and asked me…”Dad, do you know Emitt Rhodes?” I told him I most certainly do and he found out about him through Spotify. It suggested songs compared to what he listens to and this one came up. Of course, I’m happy with his musical tastes but it did come as a surprise because Rhodes is not exactly a household name.
This is another reminder of what a different world we live in than I did growing up. I would find a band like Big Star or Them by a friend’s brother or just read about an artist in books. I would then go to a record store and would have to order an export from the UK or some other means. Now, you are one click away from finding out about bands that didn’t get recognition.
Emitt Rhodes to me sounds like a mixture between Paul McCartney and Pete Ham from Badfinger. He is not well known but he did have some very good powerpop songs and albums in his off-and-on career.
He was in a pop band called The Merry-Go-Round that was formed in Los Angeles in the mid-60s. It featured Rhodes, drummer Joel Larson, lead guitarist Gary Kato, and Bill Rinehart on bass. The band released just one album in the spring of ’67 called The Merry-Go-Round. Their song “Live” was their debut release. Rhodes disbanded The Merry-Go-Round in 1969 and began working on solo material.
In 1969 he bought all of the equipment he needed when A&M Records refused to release his recordings and built a recording studio in his parent’s garage. He recorded his first album (Emitt Rhodes) in that studio. ABC/Dunhill Records signed him and they released his album as well as the next two albums he recorded.
His first album was self-titled called Rhodes. Billboard magazine called him “one of the finest artists on the music scene today” and later called his first album one of the “best albums of the decade.” Emitt Rhodes reached #29 on the Billboard 200 Album charts. A single called “Fresh as a Daisy” peaked at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100.
After several more album releases, he became a recording engineer and record producer for Electra Records. He died in his sleep at the age of 70 in Hawthorne, California, in July 2020.
The record company really messed him up…not a shock. When his debut solo release started climbing up the charts, A&M saw an opportunity and took it. They dusted off his shelved Merry-Go-Round album, renamed it The American Dream and released it as a solo Emitt Rhodes album, pitting one solo Emitt Rhodes album against the other. Buyers were confused. This was where the first damage was done. Emitt felt that this one act of corporate greed caused irreversible damage. “It definitely hurt sales, because people went out to buy the record they heard on the radio, and they ended up buying The American Dream.”
After several more album releases, Rhodes became a recording engineer and record producer for Electra Records. He died in his sleep at the age of 70 in Hawthorne, California, in July 2020.
The Bangles recorded the Merry Go Round song “Live” for their debut album All Over the Place in 1984.
His album releases per Wiki:
The American Dream (1970) No. 194 Emitt Rhodes (1970) No. 29 Mirror (1971) No. 182 Farewell to Paradise (1973) Rainbow Ends (2016) No. 150
With My Face On The Floor
Well, I’m down with my face on the floor Yes, I got what I asked for and more Well, the moment she stepped through that door I was down with my face on the floor
Now I’m standing with back to the wall Waiting, praying the ceiling don’t fall Well, I once thought that I knew it all Now I’m standing with back to the wall
Well, now she’s gone away Just took time to say: “I’ll drop you a line” Well now she’s gone away Just took time to say: “I’ll see you some time”
Well, now she’s gone away Just took time to say: “I’ll drop you a line” Well now she’s gone away Just took time to say: “I’ll see you some time”
Well, I’m down with my face on the floor Yes, I got what I asked for and more Well, the moment she stepped through that door I was down with my face on the floor
Well, the moment she stepped through that door I was down with my face on the floor
I’ve posted a song by the Cynics before and now they remain in my playlist. They had a great recording engineer…they always capture the guitar wonderfully.
There was quite a big garage band scene in the 80s from all over the world. These bands stuck close to their ancestors but with a little more punch in the modern recording. They avoided the dated sound unlike some of their more popular peers.
The Cynics were from Pittsburgh and along with the Chesterfield Kings, the Milkshakes, and the Fuzztones were early founders of the 1980s garage rock revival movement. They pick up where the garage bands from the 60s left off.
This band is not limited to garage rock. I’ve heard everything from power pop to folk from them in songs.
Gregg Kostelich started the Cynics in 1983. The other members were drummer Bill Von Hagen, vocalist Michael Kastelic who joined in 1985, bass player Steve Magee, and keyboardist Becky Smith who debuted with their first album, Blue Train Station in 1986.
This song is not from the 80s but from 2011. It’s off of their album Spinning Wheel Motel. The guitar walk-down in this song is great…you can hear it right after each chorus. It could have been made in 1968. My favorite part of the song? The intense feedback at the end!
I Need More
I hope this letter finds you well There’s not too much for me to tell
I mailed it from another highway And I don’t know what I’m looking for I don’t know who I am so I’m taking it door to door I try to understand, but I just can’t take it no more
It doesn’t matter what you say People only pay to hear you play
I mailed it from another highway And I don’t know what I’m looking for I don’t know who I am so I’m taking it door to door I try to understand, but I just can’t take it no more
I’ve had as much as I can take Why does everybody have to break?
I mailed it from another highway And I don’t know what I’m looking for I don’t know who I am so I’m taking it door to door I try to understand, but I just can’t take it no more
Can’t take it no more Hey, what’s the score You’re such a bore And I need more
Bruce from Vinyl Connection referred me to this song after The Stems post I did last week. I liked it the minute I heard it. This song was off of an EP called Down in Your Dreams released in 1998.
This band at one time or another included Darryl Mather, Mitch Easter, Ken Stringfellow, Jody Stephens, Bill Smith, Jon Auer, Dave Smith, and Rick Steff.
You may recognize some of those names. Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer were in the Posies and the later Big Star with Alex Chilton, Mitch Easter was the producer of R.E.M. and a member of Let’s Active. Darryl Mather was in the Australian band Lime Spiders.
Mather along with his bassist friend Bill Gibson formed this band in 1994 in Australia. The band released 3 albums… Assorted Creams (1997), Humblin’ (Across America) (2001) and Depressing Beauty (2015). They had one EP and that would be this one and two singles named Apple Green Slice Cut and Any Way You Want It.
I’ve dived into their catalog and song after song shows different styles and really likable music. I would strongly suggest you checking this band out. Plus…what a cool name!
I’m really into this band at the moment. This is one band I wish I would have known about in the 1980s. This song was on their album At First Sight, Violets Are Blue. The album is still rated as one of the best Australian guitar pop releases. In the early nineties, Rolling Stone included it in the top 100 Australian releases of all time. At First Sight became their signature song.
The Stems were a garage punk band formed in Perth, Western Australia in late 1983 by member Dom Mariani. They were hugely popular in Australia. They would release 7 singles, 2 albums, and 2 EP’s between 1985-1987.
They debuted in March 1984 and released a series of independent records on Sydney’s Citadel Records. Each release made it to number one on the Australian alternative charts. Dom Mariani’s earliest influences included The Beatles, The Raspberries, Badfinger, and Big Star. He formed his first band (The Go Starts) in 1981 and The Stems in 1984. The members included Mariani (songwriter, guitar, and vocals) Richard Lane (guitar/keyboard/vocals), Gary Chambers (drums) and Julian Matthews (bass).
The band broke up after this album in 1987. They regrouped in 2003 and played to packed houses across Australia and Europe. They disbanded again in 2009 and regrouped in 2013 and still play from time to time.
The song peaked at #90 in the Australian Kent Music Charts but I’ve read where it peaked at #1 on the alternative charts there as well…along with two more singles from this album.
On the 30th anniversary of the album….founding member Dom Mariani: “It seems like a long time, doesn’t it? Music’s one of those funny things that never dies, it’s there forever. It’s always going to be there and what we did 30 years ago has connected with people, and it’s a bit of a historical thing. Personally, I’ve kept doing it (playing music) because it gave me the confidence to keep writing songs and stay interested in it. If it had been a flop I might have taken a different path.”
Back then I would have never thought much of it. You can’t look into the future but we had high hopes, and thought we’d be chart topping & tour the world etc. We were lucky enough that what we did was popular, we had some good tunes, and we loved what we were doing. Where I’ve ended up, I’m pretty happy with though. If we’d had any degree of success that was ‘life changing’, we probably wouldn’t have done all the music that we did since then. I’ve had a great journey, and it’s always been about rock and roll. The art form is more important than owning a mansion.”
At First Sight
Just say the word and I would die for you And I’ll be a flower if you wanted to ‘Cause I never met anyone quite like you I lose my head my heart starts pounding too And all I had to do was look at you At first sight
I’ll be the motor in your car And I’ll be the fire in your flaming star And I’ll be the water in your waterfall ‘Cause I’d hit the ceiling I’d feel ten feet tall And all I had to do was look at you
At first sight
Just say the word and I would die for you And I’ll be a flower if you wanted to ‘Cause I’ve never met anyone quite like you I lose my head my heart starts pounding too All I had to do was look at you At first sight
All I had to do was look at you At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight
At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight At first sight
This song was on the album called The Who Sell Out. I’ve said before that titles sometimes grab my attention and this one certainly did. This one has had many covers from other bands and artists.
The Who Sell Out is A Pop Art album that was fashioned after Pirate radio. The Who created spoof promo slots for Radio London, Premier Drums and Rotosound Strings, recorded in the brash ad-speak of 60s pirate radio. John Entwistle wrote two commercial jingles for Heinz Beans and Medac spot pimple cream.
Pete Townshend:“I’d already written two songs for [co-manager] Kit Lambert for the American Cancer Society – Little Billy and Kids! Do You Want Kids? – and I had Odorono, about a girl who loses a record contract. It wasn’t meant to be a commercial, it was just a song about body odor.”
I always thought it was a brilliant idea and remains a great satirical take on 60s consumerism.
The song would be the B side in America to I Can See For Miles.
The album was released on December 16, 1967. It peaked at #13 in the UK and #48 in the Billboard Album Charts. Their album Tommy would be released 2 years after this one and it would be their breakthrough all over the world.
Critic Dave Marsh called it “the greatest rock and roll album of its era” and “the Who’s consummate masterpiece, the work that holds together most tightly as concept and realization”.
Pete Townshend on the album: I’d demoed ‘Tattoo’ in my hotel room in Las Vegas during our three-day vacation, and a song called ‘Odorono’, named after a deodorant stick. ‘Odorono’ led us to the most perfect pop idea of all time: we would make our next record a vehicle for advertising. When we called Kit to explain, he was as excited as we were. I suggested we link the gaps between songs with jingles like those on commercial pirate radio.
John and Keith leapt on the idea, and, inspired by ‘Odorono’, began making up advertising jingles for all kinds of things, like Medac spot cream, Premier Drums and Heinz Baked Beans. But when the album was ready to be put together we were still short of tracks. John’s track didn’t feel right either, so he quickly produced a demo for another song called ‘Silas Stingy’, which, to be honest, was equally eccentric. But this was obviously going to be a very eccentric record.
Who – Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand
I danced with Linda
I danced with Jean
I danced with Cindy
Then I suddenly see
Mary-Anne with the shaky hands
What they’ve done to her man
Those shaky hands
Mary is so pretty
The prettiest in the land
Guys come from every city
Just to shake her shaky hands
Linda can cook
Jean reads books
Cindy can sew
But I’d rather know
Mary-Anne with the shaky hands
What they’ve done to her man
Those shaky hands
Mary-Anne with the shaky hands
What they’ve done to her man
Those shaky hands
Mary-Anne with the shaky hands
What they’ve done to her man
Those shaky hands
This will wrap up Power Pop Friday for this year…it will return in 2023.
I never travel far, without a little Big Star The Replacements
I hold Big Star’s music up along with The Who, Beatles, Stones, and Kinks…they never had the sales but they did have a giant influence. Big Star released their debut album #1 Record in August of 1972.
Alex Chilton and Chris Bell wrote most of the songs and wanted to emulate Lennon/McCartney and they did a great job but with an obvious American slant to make it their own. After the commercial failure of this album, Chris Bell quit but the other three continued for one more album and then bass player Andy Hummel quit after the second album, and Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens recorded the third.
When their albums were finally discovered by eighties bands, they influenced many artists such as REM, The Replacements, 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. Billboard went as far as to say, “Every cut could be a single” on their debut album.
Big Star 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.
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.”
Here is the reformed Big Star with original members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens in 1994. Filling out the rest was two Posies members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow.
I did find a date that I will go to when I get a time machine..March 31, 1974. Big Star opened for Badfinger.
Below is Big Star on that date.
Don’t Lie To Me
Don’t lie to me Don’t lie to me Don’t lie to me Don’t lie to me
I know where you been And I know what you been doing Don’t lie to me
Don’t push me ’round Don’t push me ’round Don’t push me ’round Don’t push me ’round
I don’t like that Now, I’m telling you Don’t push me ’round
Don’t cross me babe Don’t cross me babe Don’t cross me babe Don’t cross me babe
You said you wouldn’t And I’m just making sure Don’t cross me babe
I’m doing this post for Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday! The subject today is “Power Pop” so I could not pass this by. Power pop is my favorite genre of music. Today I’m focusing on the 1990’s band Marcy Playground. The main song today is “Sex and Candy” AND I also included their other hit “Sherry Fraser” above Sex and Candy at the bottom of the post. Give them both a listen if you can…and thank you Jim for inviting me.
With lyrics that included “Like disco superfly” and “In platform double suede” plus “Like disco Lemonade” my “like” meter went off the charts. I love the 70s-like phrases and the interplay between guitar and lyrics in this late 90s power pop song. It’s not a high-energy pop song by any measure but it keeps me interested.
I loved the overall sound of this band and was excited about what would come next. They really never hit with anything else after this. Sex and Candy was written by singer-songwriter and guitarist John Wozniak. Wozniak got their name from his childhood school called “Marcy Open School” located in Minnesota.
This song peaked at #8 on the Billboard 100 and #29 in the UK in 1997. The song was on their self-titled debut album. It peaked at #21 in the Billboard Album Charts, #16 in Canada, and #61 in the UK in 1998. It also peaked at #1 in the Billboard Heatseeker charts.
They released 3 more albums but none of them charted in Billboard 200. The band still releases albums and tours.
John Wozniak: “Where did I get the ‘sex and candy’ part from? Well, I was dating a girl and she was going to Bryn Mawr College and it’s where my dad teaches. And I was probably 17 or something like that and she was like 18. I always liked the older girls. (laughs) But we were in her dorm room, and her roommate came in and she saw us there, and she was like, ‘Oh, it smells like sex and candy in here.’ And I always remembered that. And that was back in the late ’80s.
And then when I was writing the song and I was coming up with all these weird disco-era references that I was making up, ‘platform double suede’ and all that business, I was like, hey, let’s just throw in that phrase that’s been sticking in my head for the last 5 years or whatever. So I wrote that song in ’92, ’93, somewhere around there. And it didn’t really come out until ’97. That song had been at least in my consciousness since the late ’80s. At least with the concepts behind it.
But it’s just about seeing some sexy girl and then falling in love, and then asking a dumb question to yourself… well, it’s not even asking a question. It’s just – I don’t know!! I don’t know. (laughing) I’m just gonna be straight up honest. I don’t know. I’m telling you, when I was very young I experimented with drugs, but when I was writing these songs, I wasn’t high. But it sounds like I was high.
Sex and Candy
Hangin’ round downtown by myself And I had so much time To sit and think about myself And then there she was Like double cherry pie Yeah there she was Like disco superfly
I smell sex and candy here Who’s that lounging in my chair Who’s that casting devious stares In my direction
Mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this surely is a dream
Hangin’ round downtown by myself And I had too much caffeine And I was thinkin’ ’bout myself And then there she was
In platform double suede Yeah there she was Like disco lemonade
I smell sex and candy here Who’s that lounging in my chair Who’s that casting devious stares In my direction
Mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this surely is a dream
I smell sex and candy here Who’s that lounging in my chair Who’s that casting devious stares In my direction
Mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this surely is a dream Yeah mama this must be my dream
A great Cheap Trick song. In 1982 it was released off the album “One on One” and peaked at #45 on the Billboard 100 and #57 on the UK Charts. That low charting surprised me somewhat because it received heavy airplay on MTV when they actually played music videos.
When I heard the bridge of this song I noticed the strong Beatle influence. I would tell people in the 80s…if the Beatles released a song now…this is what it would sound like. Just a couple of years before, their album All Shook Up was produced by no other than George Martin.
This song was off the album One On One which was produced by Roy Thomas Baker. I bought the album and is one of my favorites by them. John at 2loud2oldmusicreviewed this album a while back. It peaked at #39 on the Billboard Album Chart, #39 in Canada, and #95 in the UK. The two hit singles were If You Want My Love and She’s Tight.
Original bassist Tom Petersson left the band in 1980 and was replaced by Pete Comita. Comita didn’t make it through the recording of this album and he was replaced by Jon Brant. Brant played on Saturday at Midnight, If You Want My Love, and She’s Tight. The rest of the album’s bass tracks were recorded by Rick Nielson. Brant left on good terms in 1987 after playing on the next three albums. Tom Petersson returned after that. Brant has filled in for Petersson when he wasn’t able to tour.
A similar instance happened with Tom Petty and The Heartbreaker’s original bass player Ron Blair. He left the band in 1982 only to return in 2002.
Cheap Trick was always one of the hardest-working bands ever…they toured relentlessly. Rick Nielson has said If You Want My Love is one of his favorite songs he ever recorded.
If You Want My Love
If you want my love, you got it When you need my love, you got it I won’t hide it I won’t throw your love away, ooh
If you want my love, you got it When you need my love, you got it I won’t hide it I won’t throw your love away, ooh
Yes, I thought you were a mystery girl A special girl in this crazy old world You couldn’t see me when I laid eyes on you
Lonely is only a place You don’t know what it’s like You can’t fight it And it’s a hole in my heart, in my heart
If you want my love, you got it When you need my love, you got it I won’t hide it I won’t throw your love away, ooh
You hold the secrets of love in this world I’m hypnotized by your every word A special face, a special voice, a special smile in my life
‘Cause lonely is only a place You don’t know what it’s like You can’t fight it And it’s a hole in my heart, in my heart
If you want my love, you got it When you need my love, you got it I won’t hide it I won’t throw your love away, ooh
If you want my love, you got it When you need my love, you got it I won’t hide it I won’t throw your love away, ooh
If you want my love, you got it When you need my love, you got it You won’t hide it You won’t throw your love away, ooh
My friend Deke got me into this power pop band from Canada. Deke and Dave have introduced me to many Canadian artists that I hadn’t heard of before like Blue Rodeo, The Moist, Justin Bieber(Just Kidding Guys!), Tragically Hip, and more. It still puzzles me why some very successful Canadian bands in the 80s-90s didn’t translate in the US.
Sloan got its start in Halifax during the early ‘90s. The band played around the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Toronto. They got their name from a pot-smoking musician they knew in Halifax. He worked in a restaurant as a busboy and used to be known as “the slow one.”
The band made their recording debut on the Halifax, Canada CD compilation “Hear & Now” with the song “Underwhelmed” before releasing their debut EP “Peppermint” in 1991 on their own label Murderecords. In 1992 Sloan signed with Geffen Records and released their full-length debut “Smeared”. The album had somewhat of a grunge style. They soon switched to power pop and they have some fantastic songs.
Hearing this band is encouraging for Power Pop. A few weeks ago I posted a song about The Beths and now Sloan who have new albums out. Their influences have been listed as The Beatles, Sonic Youth, Fleetwood Mac, and more. In this song, I hear a little Beatles and Who.
This song is on their new album called Steady released on October 21, 2022. It’s their 13th album to date. Guitarist Patrick Pentland wrote this song. There is a great review of this album here. I would recommend giving this power pop band a try.
Spend The Day
It’s not like living in your real world Is better than my life on The Other Side I’m sick of wired and I’m tethering And weathering somewhere out of my mind
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while
It’s not like every time your wide eyes Look at something that it’s full of lies You’re gonna try and find The who what why where I refuse to recognize
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while
It’s not that living in your real world Is better than my life on The Other Side I’m sick of wired and I’m tethering And weathering somewhere out of my mind
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Hide away Spend the day Hide away Hide away With me a while