Tag: Phil Seymour

Dwight Twilley – Looking For The Magic

I thought I would get back to the blogs name and feature two power pop songs today. 

What is that old saying? More hooks than a tackle shop? This song would fit that description. This is pure power pop where the feel is more important than the lyrics. When you listen to the song in headphones, you can hear things going on everywhere in the song. Twilley’s voice is drenched with delay, and it works in this. It’s the delivery that I like. 

The Dwight Twilley Band, Twilley and partner Phil Seymour, was a power pop duo of pure melodic instinct and harmony-drenched hooks. The magic here isn’t just in the title, it’s in the song. Of course, like so many great power pop songs, this one slipped through the cracks commercially. Twilley was cursed with bad label timing and promotion, and Shelter Records was basically a soap opera by the late 70s.

This song was on their 1977 Twilley Don’t Mind album. Shelter Records had switched its distribution around the time this was released. The album only peaked at #70 on the Billboard Album Charts, and after that, Phil Seymour quit, and the band broke up. Seymour saw labelmate Tom Petty hit it big, but not the Dwight Twilley Band. In fact, Tom Petty played some guitar on this song.

Twilley did have two songs that hit the top twenty. I’m On Fire in 1975 and Girls in 1984.

Check out the bass player on the live version.

Looking For The Magic

All my life I’m looking for the magicI’ve been looking for the magicFantasize on a silly little tragicI’ve been looking for the magicIn my eyes

Oh, oh, oh, I’mLooking for the magic in my eyesIn my eyesBaby in my eyes

Only child is a silly little raggedShe’s been looking for the magicStay awhile til the city is a desertShe’s been looking for the treasureIn my eyes

Because a photograph isLike an hourglass out of timeAnd then I never laughedBecause I never had no time

Oh, oh, oh, I’mLooking for the magic in my eyesIn your eyesBaby in your eyes

…

Dwight Twilley Band – I’m On Fire ….Power Pop Friday

You know…I haven’t been living up to my page’s name. I’ve had very little power pop on powerpop.blog lately. I hope to solve that coming up. Here is a song I’ve always liked from the mid-seventies. Dwight Twilley is one of those artists who had great songs but only had 2 hits in his career…and this is one of them.

This is a great power pop song from 1975. It peaked at #16 in 1975 on the Billboard 100. The band was formed by Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour. I always thought Twilley should have been more popular.

This was his first single from the album Sincerely. The song was released in 1975 and it did quite well.  There was one big problem… the label he was on was Leon Russell’s Shelter Records and they were barely making it. Shelter Records could not release the album until a year after this single was out which killed the momentum of the single.

Shelter Records was formed by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell in 1969 and ran until 1981 but Leon Russell left in 1976 as it was falling apart. Tom Petty was also part of the label for a while. It seems like many power pop artists are accompained by a story similiar to this.

Dwight Twilley: We thought we were indestructible. And we were proven
wrong really quick! We had so many problems right from the get-go. The album
didn’t even come out until a year after “I’m On Fire,” and it would have gone
gold if it had come out then. They believed in it so much they were going to
release two more singles before it came out. They released the second single
and then the company went under. 

Dwight Twilley on knowing Leon Russell: “I learned a lot from Leon. We were a Tulsa-based band when we were originally signed, and Leon lived here. And we ended up being signed to his label. A lot of people thought that Leon was the driving force behind it. But we didn’t really meet Leon until after we’d had our hit single ‘I’m On Fire.’ And I guess the surprising thing was just what a kind man he was, and how generous he was. He invited us into his own home studio and had us recording in his 40-track studio. And for little kids who six months ago had only been in a 4-track studio, that was a big deal. He was very kind and super talented, and he really didn’t say much. Just by following and by example we could see some of the things that he did that were just amazing. And I think he’s a terrific talent. I’m really proud of the way that he has sustained, that he’s out there still doing it.”

I’m On Fire

Got your lady on the line
Got your name on the cover
Though your friends are ninety-nine
Honey you ain’t got no lover
And you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no lover
And you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no other

I remember the feelin’ that I could be free
Now I know it could never ever be me
‘Cause I’m on fire
Got myself on fire 

Got your joker on the table
You’ve been told from time to time
I’ll be willin’, I’ll be able
You could read between the lines

But you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no lover, lover, lover
And you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no other

I remember the feelin’ that I could be free
Now I know it could never ever be me
‘Cause I’m on fire
I’m-a I’m on fire

But you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no lover, lover, lover, lover
And you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no other, other, other, other
And you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no lover, lover, lover

I’m on fire
I’m on fire (and you ain’t, you ain’t, you ain’t got no lover, lover, lover)
I’m on fire (lover, lover, lover, lover)
I’m on fire (lover, lover, lover)