Singles – Page 100 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Elvis Costello – Radio Radio

When I heard the organ in this song it hooked me. I haven’t posted much of Costello partly because like the Replacements…I got sidetracked in the late 80s away from him and since I started blogging I’m rediscovering him again.

I was 10 years old walking in our old drug store and I heard this artist I never heard before over the speakers…the song they were playing was Alison. The drug store sold records also and they had Elvis’s debut album propped up for viewing. The name threw me because this “Elvis” was a small skinny guy with glasses…that is when I found his music.

Radio Radio was made more famous by the Saturday Night Life performance.

Radio Radio was released as a single in 1978 and peaked at #29 in the UK. It was on the US version of the album This Year’s Model and it peaked at #30 in the Billboard Album Charts, #21 in Canada, and #4 in the UK.

Costello was slated to play his current UK single “Less Than Zero,” on Saturday Night Live in 1977. Costello launched into a few bars of “Less Than Zero,” but then turned to his band and told them to stop. He then apologized to the live audience, saying, “I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there’s no reason to do this song here,” and broke into a full rendition of “Radio Radio,” which had not yet been released.

Lorne Michaels…the God of Saturday Night Live was not pleased.

Costello was banned from Saturday Night Live. It has been said that the corporate brass at NBC (which owned radio properties) objected to the lyrics of “Radio Radio,” but others say it was because Costello went off-script, which was a no no to Lorne Michaels. That was one rule Michaels wanted the cast to know…they were not the Carol Burnett show and they were not to go off script or laugh.

Costello later claimed he was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, who in 1969 stopped a performance of “Hey Joe” on the show Happening for Lulu and launched into the Cream song “Sunshine Of Your Love,” earning him a ban from the BBC.

On Saturday Night Live’s 25th anniversary show in 1999, Costello parodied the incident when he interrupted the Beastie Boys while they were playing “Sabotage,” leading them in a full version of “Radio Radio.”

Elvis Costello: “Before I got into show business, I thought radio was great, So I wrote a song about celebrating it – the thrill of listening to it late at night. This was my imaginary song about radio before I found out how foul and twisted it was.”

From Songfacts

In this song, Costello is protesting the commercialization of late 1970s FM radio. Radio stations would become more and more consolidated over the years, and their playlists tightened up considerably. Eventually, deregulation led to a few companies owning the majority of American radio stations, which led to automated stations. Tom Petty sang about this on his 2002 track “The Last DJ.”

This song is a takedown of radio, but it started out as a loving tribute. Costello wrote the first version of the song as “Radio Soul” when he was in a band called Flip City. They recorded a demo in 1974, but the song was never released.

In “Radio Soul,” Costello sings lovingly about radio, without any trace of vitriol:

I could sail away to the songs that play upon that radio soul
Radio soul
It’s a sound salvation

When he reworked the song in 1977, he changed the title and completely flipped the meaning, reflecting his newfound take on the topic.

On December 17, 1977, Elvis Costello & the Attractions appeared on Saturday Night Live as last minute replacements for the Sex Pistols, whose various criminal records had made getting visas in time difficult.

Costello’s ban was lifted in 1989 when he returned as musical guest, performing “Veronica” and “Let Him Dangle” without incident. His 1977 act of defiance became part of Saturday Night Live lore, and is often recounted in retrospectives of the show’s history.

Bruce Springsteen was an influence on this song, musically and lyrically. The Springsteen ethos is more apparent in the “Radio Soul” version, with the theme of escaping to a better place through the power of music.

In the ’10s, Costello started performing the “Radio Soul” version of this song, explaining that it resonates with him far more than “Radio Radio.” He has clearly mellowed out.

Costello performed the early version of this song, “Radio Soul,” at the Apple iTunes Radio announcement event on September 10, 2013. Introducing the song, he explained that radio was very important to him, since his father was singer for a radio dance band.

The 1999 SNL return and parody of the original event.

The 1977 SNL infamous appearance

Radio Radio

I was tuning in the shine on the late night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With every one of those late night stations
Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
When the switch broke ’cause it’s old
They’re saying things that I can hardly believe
They really think we’re getting out of control

Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don’t give you any choice ’cause they think that it’s treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they’d never seen me

Some of my friends sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up, they don’t wanna hear about it
It’s only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin’ to anesthetize the way that you feel

Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio
Radio, radio

XTC – Making Plans For Nigel ….Power Pop Friday

I got into XTC late into the game. I didn’t get to know them until they released I’m The Man Who Murdered Love. I liked this song right away because it has a nice power pop sound. The drums stand out on this song.

This song was XTC’s breakthrough single released in 1979. It was written by bassist Colin Moulding, who shared vocal and songwriting duties with guitarist Andy Partridge. It was on the third, breakthrough, album Drums And Wires.

The album peaked at #174 in the Billboard album charts, #15 in Canada, #34 in the UK, and #12 in New Zealand.

Making Plans For Nigel peaked at #12 in Canada, #17 in the UK, and #29 in New Zealand.

The lyrics are told from the point of view of parents who are certain that their son Nigel is happy in his work, affirming that his future in British Steel “is as good as sealed”, and that he “likes to speak and loves to be spoken to”. As a response to the song, British Steel reportedly gathered four Sheffield employees
named Nigel to talk about job satisfaction for the trade publication Steel News.

From Wiki: The first 20,000 pressings of the single came in a fold-out cover that created a fully playable gameboard of “Chutes and Ladders” adapted to details of Nigel’s “miserable life”, including the purchase of a scooter, job interviews, a holiday in Spain and an engagement to “a very nice girl.” There were two versions of the gameboard, one to be played by Nigel and the other to be played by his parents. As credited on the back cover, the illustrator was Steve Shotter and sleeve design was by Cooke Key.

Colin Moulding:

“Partly biographical, this one. My dad prompted me to write it. He wanted a university future for me and was very overpowering in trying to persuade me to get my hair cut and stay on at school. It got to the point where he almost tried to drag me down the barber’s shop by my hair. I know the song tells of a slightly different situation, but it all boils down to the same thing – parental domination.”

There were no Nigels at school. I wasn’t bullied, but I think I had a natural empathy for people that were. ‘Nigel’ was my song for the bullied, I suppose.

“British Steel was just a bit of naughtiness. What I hadn’t bargained on was the union boss later ringing me up and asking me to join the cause! I had the devil of a job to convince him it was an organization I chose at random.”

Andy Partridge: “Quite early on it had been decided that Making Plans For Nigel was going to be the single. We spent five times longer messing with that song than any of my tracks. At one point I was fuming because my songs were being ignored.”

From Songfacts

The Rembrandts, Primus and Robbie Williams all covered this.

This was covered by Nouvelle Vague, a bossa group, and included on a chillout compilation album known as Breakfast Club: Milan.

Andy Partridge told Uncut: “The things that sound like sheets of metal being struck, that’s a white noise patch on a monophonic Korg synth we had. We decided to do it with this industrial sound and glories, so it hinted that British Steel, which is where Nigel works.”

Making Plans For Nigel

We’re only making plans for Nigel
We only want what’s best for him
We’re only making plans for Nigel
Nigel just needs this helping hand

And if young Nigel says he’s happy
He must be happy
He must be happy in his work
We’re only making plans for Nigel

He has his future in a British steel
We’re only making plans for Nigel
Nigel’s whole future is as good as sealed
And if young Nigel says he’s happy

He must be happy
He must be happy in his work
Nigel is not outspoken
But he likes to speak

And loves to be spoken to
Nigel is happy in his work
We’re only making plans for Nigel

…

Velvet Underground – Rock and Roll

Lou Reed wrote this song for the album Loaded. This was the last Velvet Undergound album to feature Lou Reed.

Reed left the band right after the album Loaded was recorded. They were booked at Max’s Kansas City in New York City. August 23, 1970. Reed had played two sets when he simply left the stage, walked up to producer Sesnick, said, “I quit,” and walked out the back door, got into his parents’ car (they drove down from Long Island), and rode away. There was no drama or arguments.

Three months later the album was released and failed to chart. Other founding members Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker would leave in 1971 For this reason, it is often considered by fans to be the “last” Velvet Underground album.

In Reed’s 1971 interview with Lester Bangs for Creem magazine, Reed stated that the breakup wasn’t anybody’s fault, but just the way the music business is…he left because he wasn’t making any money, and felt that they’d never be successful.

The band also recorded this song in 1969, during their final weeks with the Verve label, but the well-known version appears on this album.

Lou Reed: “‘Rock and Roll’ is about me. If I hadn’t heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet. Which would have been devastating – to think that everything, everywhere was like it was where I come from. That would have been profoundly discouraging. Movies didn’t do it for me. TV didn’t do it for me. It was the radio that did it.”

From Songfacts

Do remember that the album Loaded was supposed to have mainstream appeal. This song perhaps makes the definitive case that Lou Reed boxed in by executive meddling is not the same as Lou Reed given free rein to do whatever he wants by an avant-garde art house. Loaded is an album that divides fans.

Even though it is obviously tailored to mainstream appeal, Velvet Underground managed to slip a subversive edge around “Rock & Roll”: It inverts the standard three-chord progression and has five-bar verses with an especially laid-back approach to the lyrics. It’s done loose and lazy, perfect for the subject, but subtly averting it at the same time.

This looks like a good time to answer the question: What genre do The Velvet Underground belong in? Some say punk, some alternative, some experimental. It was all of those and none of those – Velvet Underground as it was originally formed would doubtless have had the same disdain of conventional labels as does Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead fame (by the way, Lemmy says he identifies more with punk than metal). The most correct identity that is widely accepted is “protopunk” or “inspiration for punk.” While not having a punk sound as it is understood today, they did bring characteristics to rock music (an aggressive attitude, a rebellious spirit, anti-establishment ideas, and a deliberately crude and minimalist sound) which have since become the hallmarks of the punk genre. Punk rock, when it came along in the early 1970s, was about yelling “You think too much and you don’t get it!” at establishment rock (and likely following with “It’s all about the money to you anyway!”). The Velvet Underground had that idea early on, even if they expressed it as John Cale smashing a whole stack of china dishes instead of Johnny Rotten snarling “Anarchy in the UK!” So, we’ll endorse protopunk, not punk.

Alice Cooper recorded a heavy version for his 2021 Detroit Stories album. Alice told Apple Music he loves the “New York heroin chic” vibe of the Velvet Underground original, but for his cover, he thought, “What happens if we take this song to Detroit and put a V8 engine, and soup it up?”

Alice recruited for his version guitarists “honorary Detroiter” Joe Bonamassa, and Steve Hunter, who played with both Alice and Lou Reed in the 1970s.

Rock and Roll

Jenny said
When she was just five years old
There was nothing happening at all
Every time she puts on a radio
There was a nothin’ goin’ down at all,
Not at all
Then one fine mornin’
She puts on a New York station
You know, she couldn’t believe
What she heard at all
She started dancin’
To that fine fine music
You know her life
Was saved by rock ‘n’ roll
Despite all the amputations
You know you could just go out
And dance to a rock ‘n’ roll station

It was alright
It was allright
Hey baby, You know it was all right

Jenny said
When she was just by five years old
You know why parents gonna be the death of us all
Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars –
Well you know it ain’t gonna help
Me at all
Then one fine mornin’
She turns on a New York station
She doesn’t believe
What she hears at all
Ooh, She started dancin’
To that fine fine music
You know her life
Is saved by rock ‘n’ roll,
Despite all the computations
You could just dance
To a rock ‘n’ roll station

And baby it was alright
And it was alright
Hey it was alright
Hey here she comes now!
Jump! Jump!

It was alright

Guadalcanal Diary – Watusi Rodeo

I’ve been listening to this band for the last few days…they combine country with jangle pop on a lot their songs. This band came from Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, but they were often billed as being from Athens, Georgia and was lumped in with the other Athens acts.

The band formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1989. They reformed in 1997, but never recorded any new material. After going on hiatus in 2000, Guadalcanal Diary temporarily reunited for a second time in 2011 for Athfest, where they celebrated their 30th anniversary.

Still in high school, singer/guitarists Murray Attaway and Jeff Walls became musical partners when they joined the punk band Strictly American. Electing to strike out on their own, they formed Emergency Broadcast System. Walls was teaching Rhett Crowe bass at the time and she was asked to join the band. Crowe accepted the offer and quickly suggested a name change to Guadalcanal Diary (based on the 1940s movie).

Though he had no experience on the instrument (having previously played bass), Walls friend John Poe was added as drummer.

The band quickly became staples on the Athens and Atlanta club circuit, signed by Danny Brown’s Atlanta-based dB Records.

Watusi Rodeo was on Guadalcanal Diary’s debut album called Walking In The Shadow of The Big Man released in 1984. They were constantly being overshadowed by the successes other mid-’80s alternative jangle rock bands.

Watusi Rodeo

Come along with me to the Congo land
Got a zebra by the tail and a python in my hand
Once my home was a Texas plain
But now I swing a lasso on an alien terrain

Hottentots and pygmies know where to go
Everybody’s heading for the Watusi Rodeo

Cowboys are putting up a big fence around
A sacred elephant burial ground
Native women stomping up a flurry in the mud
Villagers are looking for some cowboy blood

I guess they didn’t like them hats we made ’em wear
They don’t look right on the native hair
Don’t they know that it’s all for show
All for showing at the Watusi Rodeo

Monkeys in the trees just thumbing their nose
At the bull riders riding on rhinos
Warriors standing with spears in the hands
Wondering what’s next from a crazy white man

Natives are restless under these Stetsons
What are these cowboys doing in the Congo
Look like cows but they’re water buffaloes
Ropin and a ridin in the Watusi Rodeo

Oh they look like cows but they’re water buffaloes
Everybody’s heading for the Watusi Rodeo

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Perfect Skin… 80’s Underground Mondays

Love the sound of this song. It sounds like it could have come out of any decade. The guitar fills are wonderful. It’s a shame they didn’t have success in America but they were played on college radio stations.

Lloyd Cole wrote the lyrics and music to this song. He would write all the lyrics on the album and on a few songs would get some help with the music.

Perfect Skin was off of the album Rattlesnakes which peaked at #13 in the UK and New Zealand in 1984. The song peaked at #26 in the UK. NME included the album in its Top 100 Albums of All Time list, and the title track was later covered by the American singer Tori Amos.

The Welsh band Manic Street Preachers included the album amongst their top ten list.

They were active from 1984 through 1989 and released three albums and all of them made the top twenty in the UK. They had formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1982…they broke up in 1989. Cole embarked on a solo career but the band reformed briefly in 2004 to perform a 20th anniversary mini-tour of the UK.

Lloyd Cole: Perfect Skin’s Louise wasn’t real, though. I’d read about Bob Dylan seducing women by writing songs for them, so I was showing off with words: “She’s got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin and she’s sexually enlightened by Cosmopolitan.” When I sing that live now, I go: “Who isn’t?”

Between 1983 and 84, we went from being a wimpy band who sounded like the Style Council to more of a rock band. When I wrote Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? it made us realise what we could do. I took a Portastudio to my room in Glasgow Golf Club, where my parents worked and lived, and wrote Perfect Skin and Forest Fire. Not one song on Rattlesnakes was more than a year old when it was recorded.

Perfect Skin

I choose my friends only far too well
I’m up on the pavement
They’re all down in the cellar
With their government grants and my IQ
They brought me down to size
Academia blues

Louise is a girl
I know her well
She’s up on the pavement
Yes, she’s a weather girl
And I’m staying up here so I may be undone
She’s inappropriate but then she’s much more fun and

When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
She’s got perfect skin

Shame on you, got no sense of grace
Shame on me
Just in case I might
Come to a conclusion other than that which is absolutely necessary
And that’s perfect skin

Louise is the girl with the perfect skin
She says, “Turn on the light otherwise it can’t be seen”
She’s got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin
And she’s sexually enlightened by Cosmopolitan and

When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
For her perfect skin
Yeah, that’s perfect skin

She takes me down to the basement
To look at her slides
Of her family life
Pretty weird at times
At the age of ten she looked like Greta Garbo and I loved her then
But how was she to know that

When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
She’s got perfect skin

Up eight flights of stairs to her basement flat
Pretty confused, huh?
Being shipped around like that
Seems to climb so high
Now we’re down so low
Strikes me the moral of the song
Must be: there never has been one

…

Who – I’m A Boy

My name is Bill, and I’m a head case…

Now THAT is a lyric worth exploring.

Pete Townshend wrote this for a Rock Opera he was composing called “Quads,” which was about a future where parents could choose the sex of their children. That opera never happened. I have to wonder if Townshend had this old title in mind when a few years later he came up with the title for “Quadrophenia.”

I’m A Boy was released as a single in 1966. The song peaked at #2 in the UK and #2 in New Zealand. The song was not heard much in America or Canada at the time. Many of their singles would finally come to the light when the great compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy was released in 1971. They did a live version and included it on the live album Live At Leeds released in 1970.

Released as the B-side of the single was “In the City”, the first and last song credited to the songwriting collaboration of John Entwistle and Keith Moon. Entwistle referred to it as rip-off of Jan and Dean, a group that was a favorite of Moon’s.

Roger Daltrey: “I always thought The Who went through a weird period after ‘My Generation’ (November 1965) that lasted until we did ‘Magic Bus’ (October 1968). I thought it all went a bit sloppy. But ‘I’m A Boy’ and ‘Pictures Of Lily’ were from that period when I’d been allowed back into the band (Daltrey had been asked to leave after beating up Keith Moon over his heavy use of amphetamines). My ego had been crushed. I was insecure and it showed in my voice. When I first heard those songs, I was like, ‘Oi, what’s this all about?’ I didn’t think I could find the right voice for them. You can hear it when you listen to them now, but my insecurity made those songs sound better. It was a happy accident.”

From Songfacts

This is about a boy whose mother wants him to be a girl, while the boy longs to assert his real sexual identity. The controversial subject of cross-dressing was probably the reason why this failed to reach the American Top 100.

Daltrey told Uncut magazine: “On ‘I’m A Boy’, I tried to sing it like a really, really young kid, like an eight-year-old. Not the voice of an eight-year-old but the sentiment – and I think that came across.”

I’m A Boy

One girl was called Jean Marie
Another little girl was called Felicity
Another little girl was Sally Joy
The other was me, and I’m a boy

My name is Bill, and I’m a head case
They practice making up on my face
Yeah, I feel lucky if I get trousers to wear
Spend evenings taking hairpins from my hair

I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But my ma won’t admit it
I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But if I say I am, I get it

Put your frock on, Jean Marie
Plait your hair, Felicity
Paint your nails, little Sally Joy
Put this wig on, little boy

I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But my ma won’t admit it
I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But if I say I am, I get it

I want to play cricket on the green
Ride my bike across the street
Cut myself and see my blood
I want to come home all covered in mud

I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But my ma won’t admit it
I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy
I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy
I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy

Keys – I Don’t Wanna Cry…. Power Pop Friday

This fantastic English band was active between 1979 through 1983. The Keys attracted a lot of attention. They had a producer who I would have never guessed. Joe Jackson…I just never thought of him producing a power pop record.

The band included main songwriter and bassist Drew Barfield, guitarists
Steve Tatler and Ben Grove, and former Paul McCartney and Wing’s drummer Geoff Britton.

They were signed to A&M records and released the U.K. their only LP “The Keys Album”. The album drew rave reviews, but unfortunately it didn’t sell very well. Besides the album, the label released six singles. Due to a lack of interest The Keys split in 1983.

I listen to the album and I see why they got great reviews…I just can’t figure why they didn’t sell. I Don’t Wanna Cry was the A side and the B side was a song called Listening In. I have the video below…both songs are good power pop.

David Silvia from Allmusic: One of powerpop cornerstones ever. A hidden classic and a real masterpiece. Pop at it’s best

I Don’t Wanna Cry

Was it really just our last good night
when I saw the light and I know
that you’ve been telling lies
Oh, no, not me, I don’t wanna cry
You could talk about it all night long
but the feeling’s gone and
I don’t need you to tell me why
Oh no, not me, I don’t wanna cry

‘Cos you know, I’ve got you figured out
and you have got, nothing to shout about
if this is love, I don’t really wanna play
I wanna know why you want to stay

I know all about your little plan
find a fool and check up the thing you can
well, it seems is never gonna be that way
I wanna know what you want to stay
ESTRIBILLO

Oh no, not me, I don’t wanna cry
Oh no, not me, I don’t wanna cry
I don’t wanna cry
I don’t wanna cry
I don’t wanna cry
I want to know what you want to stay

Del Lords – How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

The title was enough for me to take a listen to this band. They combined 60’s garage rock, country, blues, and folk influences to become one of the many 80’s roots rock bands.

Thanks to Paul for bringing this band up.

The Del Lords were formed in the early ’80s by Scott Kempner of New York punk group the Dictators. They emerged from the’70s new wave scene…which the band never quite fit. Kempner gathered together Eric Ambel of Joan Jett And The Blackhearts, drummer Frank Funero (now with Cracker) and bassist Manny Caiati and set out as The Del-Lords.

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? is an American folk song originally recorded 1929 in New York City. It was written, composed, and performed by Blind Alfred Reed, accompanying himself on the violin.

The song tells of hard times during the Great Depression. It is considered an early example of a protest song. In 2020, the song was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The song was on their Frontiers album released in 1984.

The Del-Lords lived together, played together, recorded and released records as a band through 1990. At the urging of the Spanish Promoter Pepe Ugena they reformed the band in the last decade and recorded and released their most recent music in 2013 on the album Elvis Club.

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

How can a poor man stand such times and live
How can a poor man stand such times and live
How can a poor man stand
How can a poor man stand
How can a poor man stand such times and live

The doctor comes around with his face all bright
And he swears, in a little while, it’ll be alright
All he gives you is a humbug pill
A dose of dope and a great big bill
How can a poor man stand such times and live

There once was a time when everything was cheap
But the prices nowadays nearly put the man to sleep
When we get out grocery bill
Man I feel like makin’ out our will
How can a poor man stand such times and live

How can a poor man stand such times and live
How can a poor man stand such times and live
I give all I’ve got to give
I get my pay and say, is this it
How can a poor man stand such times and live

Tell you what
This poor boy’s got some big plans of his own
I’m gonna call up a coupla friends on the telephone
Tell ’em, Bring some records and bring some beer
Then we can just hang out over here
How can a poor man stand such times and live

How can a poor man stand such times and live
How can a poor man stand such times and live
How can a poor man stand
How can a poor man stand
How can a poor man stand such times
How can a poor man stand such times
How can a poor man stand such times and live
And live

….

10,000 Maniacs – Like The Weather…. 80’s Underground Mondays

I saw this band in the late eighties and it was one of my concert highlights. The song peaked at #68 in the Billboard 100 and #37 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1988.

The phrase “unique voice” could have easily have been made for Natalie Merchant. I mean that in the best way. When you hear Natalie you won’t mistake her for Linda Ronstadt, Steve Nicks, Dolly Parton, or Janis Joplin…You know it’s Merchant.

What I liked about this song and their music when I first heard it was the bright happy music set against the dark/sad lyrics…I really like the contrast. The band loved up-tempo songs but Natalie liked the darker lyrics.

Lead singer Natalie Merchant was 17 years old when she was invited to try out for the vocals. She fit, and the group, which started as Still Life, formed around her. They performed together for the first time in 1981 – Merchant was about 10 years younger than her bandmates.

The band got its name from the 1964 film Two Thousand Maniacs!, expanded to 10,000 because there were originally five of them. The group has accumulated a legion of former members thanks to its revolving-door lineup history, but the most famous and founding member was Natalie Merchant. Merchant left in 1993 to start a solo career, but the group kept going without her, replaced by Mary Ramsey.

Bass Player Steven Gustafson: We liked to play toe-tapping music,”Stuff you could dance to with a big beat. Her view of the world was sometimes in stark contrast to that joy we got from playing. It made us unique.”

From Songfacts

The first charting single for 10,000 Maniacs (#68 US), “Like the Weather” was written by lead singer Natalie Merchant, and is simply about being in a foul mood on a day when the weather is horrible and she can’t find a good reason to get out of bed.

The video was directed by Adrian Edmondson, who is best known for his work as an actor: he starred in the British shows The Young Ones and Bottom. Edmondson is also a comedian, and his sardonic wit is at play in this clip, which finds Merchant in a beatific state amid a colorful, breezy set as she sings the rather morose lyrics.

Like The Weather

The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lips as if I might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my voice as I cry,

“What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away.”

I hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Now I’m far behind.
You’ve put in ’bout half a day
while here I lie
with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lip as if I might cry,

“What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away?”

Do I need someone here to scold me
or do I need someone who’ll grab and pull me out of this four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as I can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as I cry,

“What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away?”
I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

Cult – Edie (Ciao Baby)

This post is probably tilted a little more about the subject of the song than the song…I was interested in Edie when I was a teenager…she was an interesting and troubled person.

I watched the movie Ciao! Manhattan when I was around 15 years old. Her life was a mess and I started to read more about her. In the mid-sixties she was hanging out with Bob Dylan, Bob Neuwirth, Robbie Robertson and Andy Warhol.

This song of course is about Edie Sedgwick, a socialite who formed part of the artist Andy Warhol’s Factory scene in New York in the ’60s. Sedgwick was featured in several underground Warhol films, including Poor Little Rich Girl and Beauty No. 2. She soon would break from Warhol and wanted to start a legitimate film career but that never really got off the ground.

Her final movie role was as Susan Superstar in Ciao! Manhattan, which was written and directed by John Palmer and David Weisman.

She lived a troubled life that was plagued by mental health issues and drug addictions. In 1971, Sedgwick died of an overdose. She was 28 years old. She was filming Ciao Manhattan when she died…they wrote that in the film.

The 2008 film, Factory Girl, starring Sienna Miller, is about Sedgwick.

The song peaked at #93 in the Billboard 100, #62 in Canada, #17 in New Zealand, and #32 in the UK in 1989.

The song was on the album Sonic Temple that peaked at #10 in the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #3 in the UK Album Charts.

From Songfacts

The Cult’s front man, Ian Astubury, became interested in Sedgwick while the band were recording their Electric album in New York: “It was kinda like I was really interested in Warhol’s scene, The Velvet Underground [who Warhol managed between 1965-1967], and really interested in Edie Sedgwick and just was compelled to write something about it.” Guitarist, Billy Duffy added: “Just being in New York you can get wrapped up in it. It’s a very special place. That’s just basically what the songs about. It’s not really about her particularly, it’s her used as an example.”

Sedgwick was quite a muse: she had a brief affair with Bob Dylan and his song “Just Like A Woman” is reportedly about her.

Edie (Ciao Baby)

Always said you were a youthquaker, Edie
A stormy little world shaker
Oh, Warhol’s darling queen, Edie
An angel with a broken wing

The dogs lay at your feet, Edie
Oh, we caressed you cheek
Oh, stars wrapped in your hair, Edie
Life without a care
But your not there

Oh, caught up in an endless scene
Yeah, paradise a shattered dream
Oh, wired on the pills you took, Edie
Your innocence dripped blood, sweet child

The dogs lay at your feet, Edie
Oh, we caressed your cheek
Oh, stars wrapped in your hair
Oh, life without a care
Ciao baby

Shake it, boy

Oh, sweet little sugar talker
Paradise dream stealer
Oh, Warhol’s little queen, Edie
An angel with a broken wing, oh

The dogs lay at your feet, Edie
Oh, we caressed your cheek, well
Stars wrapped in your hair
Life without a care yeah, yeah, yeah

Don’t you know paradise takes time?
Ciao baby, yeah
Ciao baby
Ciao baby, yeah
Ciao baby

…

Railroad Jerk – Natalie

I love the opening riff to this song! It sounds like a riff from the old 70’s ZZ Top with a little Stones thrown in…. but a little rawer. I have to thank my blogger friend CB who mentioned this band.

In 1989 singer and guitarist Marcellus Hall formed the band in 1989 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with bassist Tony Lee and drummer Jez Aspinall. Within a few months, guitarist Chris Mueller also joined.

I hear a mixture of The Cramps and The Stones. This was on their 4th album The Third Rail released in 1996. The band recorded demos for a fifth Railroad Jerk LP which was to be entitled ‘Masterpiecemeal’. This final LP was never released. Dave Varenka and Marcellus Hall went on to form the band White Hassle.

It’s not a lot about this band, not even the song’s lyrics so I’m including an excerpt from AllMusic.

Railroad Jerk skewer blues, country, rock, and noise into a messy, bohemian post-punk celebration of roots rock. Formed in 1989 by guitarist/vocalist Marcellus Hall and bassist/vocalist Tony Lee in Trenton, NJ, the duo added drummer Jez Aspinall and guitarist Chris Muller by early 1990; the group recorded their self-titled debut for Matador Records in 1990. After its release, Aspinall left the band and was replaced by Steve Cercio; Muller was kicked out of the band and replaced by Alec Stephen. The quartet released their acclaimed second album, Raise the Plow, in 1993; after its release, Cercio left the band and was replaced by Dave Varenka. Railroad Jerk released its third album — its most highly-praised yet — in spring of 1995. Third Rail, the group’s fourth album, also received positive reviews upon its fall 1996 release.

Let’s Active – Every Word Means No…. Power Pop Friday

This is great 1980s college radio power pop. Everything is there you want…the jangle and the jangly hook.

Let’s Active was formed in 1981 by Mitch Easter, a guitarist and songwriter best known as a record producer, with Faye Hunter on bass. Drummer Sara Romweber, then 17 years old, joined to form the original trio two weeks before their first live performance. Their first performance was opening for R.E.M. in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981.

Let’s Active was critically praised but like their peers did not sell a ton a records. This song was on the 1983 EP Afoot and they would go on to release three more LPs in all before breaking up in 1990.

Mitch produced REM on their Chronic Town EP, Murmur, and Reckoning. Easter also produced Marshall Crenshaw, Suzanne Vega, and bunches of indie acts. He also took a trip to Memphis in 1978 with members of the dB’s to meet two members of Big Star.

Romweber quit the band in 1984 after the release of the Afoot EP and their debut full-length, Cypress. Later, she co-founded the group Snatches of Pink and performed with her brother as the Dex Romweber Duo. In 2014, she reunited with Mitch Easter as Let’s Active for a benefit show. She would die of a brain tumor in 2019. Bassist Faye Hunter died in 2013.

Mitch Easter:

“I could not imagine myself singing in a Johnny Winter-style voice about ‘I just wanna make love to you,’ but the new goofball lyrics were something I could pull off,’ “I read an article with Andy Partridge of XTC back then where he was saying at no other time in history would he have been allowed to be the singer in a band. And I felt just like that, you know.

“I had this weird voice, but now maybe I could be allowed to sing without suffering some hopeless comparison to Gregg Allman.’

Every Word Means No

Watching for a sound to lead me to where ever you are
I can’t help it I will always love you

It used to be no words could come between us
Any time was right for secret meetings
It’s different now and when you speak
Every word means no
Every word means no

I’m thinking, of things that never come to life
You’re going through some things so shallow
There’s nothing to fight

It used to be no words could come between us
Any time was right for secret meetings
It’s different now and when you speak and
Every word means no
Every word means no

And it’s just anathema
I haven’t lost my way
I’m looking around in directions
‘Cause all I ever thought about was you
I never noticed anything but you
Predicting, puts me down on shaky ground
I keep on thinking your looking at me
Do you want me around

It used to be no words could come between us
Any time was right for secret meetings
Now and then I forget the rules have changed
You always remind me
That every word means no, every word means no

Paul Simon – Old

I heard this in 2000 and it sounded like the Paul Simon of old…no pun intended. It’s about when people telling you…you are getting old whether you are there or not.

It was on the album You’re The One released in 2000. You’re The One was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2001. As a result Simon became the first artist to be nominated in that category in five consecutive decades (1960s-2000s). Paul McCartney also joined that club in 2006 with his album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

You’re the One‘s generally upbeat tone arose out of his happy home life with singer Edie Brickell and their children… “the first time that I ever had domestic bliss.”

You’re The One peaked at #19 in the Billboard Album Chart, #8 in Canada, and #20 in the UK. This release was 3 years after his album Songs from the Capeman which contained songs from a Broadway Play he wrote.

Old

The first time I heard ‘Peggy Sue’, I was twelve years old
Russians up in a rocket ships and the war was cold
Now many wars have come and gone, genocide still goes on
Buddy Holly still goes on, but his catalog was sold

First time I smoked, guess what, paranoid
First time I heard ‘Satisfaction’, I was young and unemployed
Down the decades every year, summer leaves and my birthday’s here
And all my friends stand up and cheer

Say man you’re old
Getting old
You’re old
You’re getting old

We celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day
And Buddha found Nirvana along the Lotus Way
About fifteen hundred years ago the messenger Mohammed spoke
And his wisdom like a river flowed through hills of gold

Wisdom is old
The Koran is old
The Bible is old
Greatest story ever told

Disagreements?
Work ’em out

The human races walked the Earth for two point seven million
And we estimate the universe about thirteen to fourteen billion
When all these numbers tumble into your imagination
Consider that the Lord was there before creation

God is old
We’re not old
God is old
He made the mold

Take your clothes off
Adam and Eve

Scruffy the Cat – My Baby, She’s Alright…. 80’s Underground Mondays

Somewhere in the 80’s out of all the synthesizers, electronic drums, quadraverbs, and that big sheen production…there was a rock roots movement playing out on college radio. Some was a mixture of punk rock, country, British Invasion, and power pop.

Scruffy the Cat was a cowpunk band that was popular on the Boston area, but never sniffed the charts. My Baby, She’s All Right is from 1987 that got some MTV airplay. I do barely remember the song after seeing the video. I want to thank Paul for bringing this one up.

The song was off the album Tiny Days released in 1987 and the album was in the top 5 of college national radio charts.

Charlie Chesterman was in a band in Iowa and they all moved to Boston in 1981. The band he was in then broke up and some moved back to Iowa. Chesterman stayed on in Boston and eventually helped put together another band called Scruffy the Cat (named for a cat owned by the father of one of the band members). Scruffy the Cat began playing around Boston in 1983 and released its first EP-”High Octane Revival”-on the Relativity label in 1986. They released the LP Tiny Days in 1987, Boom Boom Bingo EP in 1987, and their final album Moons of Jupiter in 1988.

They had several national tours and shared the bill with such acts as The Replacements, Yo La Tengo, and Los Lobos. The band played its final shows in 1990 before disbanding. In 2011, Scruffy The Cat played three reunion shows in the Boston area, with the initial show being arranged as a benefit concert for the cancer-stricken Chesterman. Chesterman died in November 2013.

Their music as been described as “a combination of early Elvis Costello and the Attractions with a touch of Jason & the Scorchers’ tough country punk and the American jangle of the Byrds.” They were together between 1984 through 1990.

My Baby, She’s All Right

She’s a long, tall drink of water
Badder than Bo Diddley’s electric guitar
Badder than anything this whole year
I don’t like bragging but I can’t help myself, well…

Long and lean like a Cadillac
Supercharged like the Batmobile
She drives me into the woods
When she gets behind the wheel

In the desert, in the hottest fire, in the houses and over the seas
In the cities, in the telephone wires
They all talk about what she means to me, ’cause…

My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby…

She’s got that certain something
Man, I hope you know what I’m talking about
If you’ve ever had a lover who was really true
Just walking down the street or when you turn out the lights, ’cause…

My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby…

And when she kisses me, I hear the Drells or is it T. Rex?
I could hang my arm out the window, but around my baby is where I’ll be…

I know you must have heard about her
You know everything they say is true
I suppose you know what she means to me
And if you don’t then what’s the matter with you? well…

Haven’t you been listening
Or did you hear what I just said?
If someone tried to show me something better
I’d have to say I’m not interested, because…

My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby…Yeah, yeah, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby, she’s allright
My baby…Yeah

Beatles – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

This is a great opening track to this famous album. What a way to introduce probably the most famous album ever.

The slicing guitar stands out and the drum sound that Ringo got. Paul McCartney wrote this and sang lead. After recording it, he had the idea of doing the whole album as if Sgt. Pepper was a real band. It became the title track of what was considered a “concept” album, with the songs running seamlessly together on the record.

The title is a parody of American bands who were choosing long names for their bands.

Three days after the album came out, Jimi Hendrix opened a concert with this. McCartney and Harrison were both there, and were very impressed that Hendrix learned it so quickly.

The reprise of the song is right before A Day In The Life.

This song was produced in a rush when The Beatles decided to bring back the theme song to introduce the last track on the album, “A Day In The Life.” The idea to reprise the song came from Neil Aspinall, The Beatles’ friend and road manager.

George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr played this on May 19, 1979 at Eric Clapton’s wedding. Clapton married Harrison’s ex-wife, Pattie. Pattie didn’t think John Lennon would fly over from America so she never sent an invititation. John Lennon said later he would have come.

From Songfacts

The album was heavily produced and took 129 days and about 700 hours to complete. The Beatles first album, Please Please Me, was recorded in less than 10 hours.

The crowd noise was dubbed in. The Beatles had stopped touring by then.

There really is an apostrophe in this song’s title, although on the album cover, it is rendered without. Since the Lonely Hearts Club Band belongs to Sgt. Pepper, it is possessive, thus “Sgt. Pepper’s.”

This is reprised at the end of the album before the final track, “A Day In The Life.”

This was recorded as one song with “With A Little Help From My Friends.” They flow seamlessly on the album, creating a problem for radio stations that want to play just one of the songs.

Artist Peter Blake designed the album cover as if Sgt. Pepper’s band had just performed a concert. He asked The Beatles who they wanted at the concert, and put them in the cover design.

All living people depicted on the cover were asked permission. Mae West refused at first – she didn’t want to be part of a “Lonely Hearts Club Band” – but The Beatles wrote her a letter and she agreed. Other characters depicted on the album cover include comedic duos Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Temple and W.C. Field.

Lennon wanted Jesus, Gandhi, and Hitler on the cover. He had recently taken a lot of heat for saying The Beatles were “Bigger than Jesus,” so they decided not to.

It was rumored that the hand that is sticking out above Paul is that of Adolph Hitler. A Hitler cut out was on the set, but if you look at some side shots of the photo session, you can clearly see that the hand belongs to comic Issy Bonn, whose face is seen in between Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

On the cover of this album McCartney is taller than the other Beatles. This added to rumors of his death, since there is also a hand above Paul’s head which is an omen of death. Also, if you take a mirror and put the edge on the center of the Lonely Hearts Club Band drum an arrow will point directly to McCartney.

Sgt. Pepper was the first pop album to come with printed lyrics on the cover.

Twelve years after “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” appeared on the Sgt. Pepper album, they were released together as a two-song medley and reached US #71 and UK #63.

In 2005, Bob Geldof helped organize Live 8, a set of concerts held in eight countries with the goal of promoting activism. The concerts coincided with the G-8 summit, and Geldof was hoping to send a message to world leaders that they should increase aid to Africa and institute fair trade practices. On the London stage, U2 played this with McCartney to kick off the concert. The opening line, “It was 20 years ago today,” was a reference to Live Aid, which Geldof organized for famine relief in 1985.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the first rock album to win a Grammy for Album of the Year.

On the album cover, Paul McCartney is wearing an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) badge on his right sleeve. You can see this better on the inside artwork.

The hand-painted drum skin used on the cover of the Sgt Pepper album was sold at Christie’s House in London on 10th July 2008 for £541,250 ($1,071,000) – setting a record for non-lyrics Beatles memorabilia.

In 2007, the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool went on a search for real Sgt. Peppers and found seven police or army officers in the UK that were sergeants with the last name Pepper. “Being Sgt. Pepper is awesome but sometimes people think I am bogus when I call them on the phone or introduce myself,” Sgt. Sean Pepper of Highfields said.

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

It was twenty years ago today
Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play,
They’ve been going in and out of style,
But they’re guaranteed to raise the smile,
So may I introduce to you,
The act you’ve known for all these years,
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

We’re Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
We hope you will enjoy the show
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sit back and let the evening go
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

It’s wonderful to be here,
It’s certainly a thrill
You’re such a lovely audience,
We’d like to take you home with us, we’d love to take you home

I don’t really want to stop the show,
But I thought you might like to know,
That the singer’s going to sing a song
And he wants you all to sing along,
So let me introduce to you
The one and only Billy Shears
And Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Oh ha ha
Yeah, dress down
I feel it, I feel it, I feel it
Oh baby now, I feel it, I feel it, I feel it
Baby, free now
Gotta be free now, gotta be free now, gotta be free
Don’t like that
I think it’ll probably be another day singing it
Yeah so just edit that then, it’s nice
Yeah, and what you can do with the bits where you can’t get it ’cause you haven’t got enough breath
Just take over, yeah