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Morning Oldies

Edgy MD Jul 18 2013 07:18 AM

Things pondered while accompanied by the seventies on my way to work this morning. 1) Has it ever been established what was going on down by the old school yard? The leading theories I'm familiar with are drug experimentation/initiation and homosexual experimentation/initiation? I sort of have to lean toward the latter as the parents aren't merely pissed, but scandalized and disowning, and why would it be a news story worthy of a Newsweek cover if it was just one more teenager smoking pot? Maybe there are other theories, or maybe Paul has spilled the beans unbeknownst to me. One thing's for sure and that is they weren't just playing stickball with Mickey Mantle. [youtube]Z6VrKro8djw[/youtube] 2) "Beach Baby" is a funny bit. It's weird to hear a 38-year-old song about nostalgia for a time that was itself only 10 or so years old. Longing in 1974-1975 for the innocence of the early Beach Boys sound and sixties teenage beach culture tells you how much had changed in the previous decade. Would anybody release a song in 2013 reminiscing about the days of "In Da Club" by 50 Cent? Anyhow, for a Beach Boys knockoff song, it manages to demonstrate how not-so-easy the Beach Boys sound was to capture. They somehow manage to get the dorkiness down perfect, though. [youtube]oeGPpwFpIAA[/youtube] 3. Speaking of knockoffs, one guy who knew what he was doing was Walter Egan, who nailed the Eagles sound so well with "Magnet and Steel" that I'm sure Henley tried to sue and still red-assed about it. [youtube]B7DAHi_Cks8[/youtube]

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 18 2013 07:42 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Dig Walter Egan, sometimes conflate him with the late Bob Welch, who was also a smooth solo artist with Fleetwood Mac ties.

Edgy MD Jul 18 2013 08:08 AM Re: Morning Oldies

"Magnet and Steel" and "Ebony Eyes." Both produced by Buckingham. Both probably inspired by Stevie Nicks. Both (I think) featured Juice Newton on backup vocals. (Although maybe I'm wrong, as that doesn't look like her in the video.)

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 18 2013 08:11 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Buckingham produced and played guitar on at least some of Egan's albums and I believe it's he and Stevie singing, uncredited, on Magnet & Steel. I'm listening to his debut elpee as we speak, and definitely some Stevie background singing on that.

Edgy MD Jul 18 2013 08:20 AM Re: Morning Oldies

John Stewart would complete the Holy Trinity of Briefly Successful Not-So-Young Anymore Solo Artists of the Late Seventies Having a Run of Suceess While Benefiting from Young and Inspired Lindsay Buckingham Producing and Other Fleetwood Mac Folks Backing. Buckingham producing that record must've steamed the Eagles that much more.

Frayed Knot Jul 18 2013 08:22 AM Re: Morning Oldies

I believe both Buckingham & Nicks also sang backup on this Matthew Sweet version of M&S This version sort of re-introduced the song to me. I had forgotten about it or, more accurately, had pretty much ignored the original, probably dismissing it as kind of Lite-FM filler. But sometimes it takes a good remake to give you that 'hear it again for the first time' vibe. [youtube:7c1xo3f6]Us4LFfH-MdA[/youtube:7c1xo3f6]

MFS62 Jul 18 2013 08:23 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Edgy MD wrote: John Stewart would complete the Holy Trinity of Briefly Successful Not-So-Young Anymore Solo Artists of the Late Seventies Having a Run of Suceess While Benefiting from Young and Inspired Lindsay Buckingham Producing and Other Fleetwood Mac Folks Backing. Sounds like doing that would be kind of a drag. Later

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 18 2013 08:47 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Frayed Knot wrote: I believe both Buckingham & Nicks also sang backup on this Matthew Sweet version of M&S This version sort of re-introduced the song to me. I had forgotten about it or, more accurately, had pretty much ignored the original, probably dismissing it as kind of Lite-FM filler. But sometimes it takes a good remake to give you that 'hear it again for the first time' vibe. [youtube]Us4LFfH-MdA[/youtube] Another great rewakening for this song was the porno awards scene in Boogie Nights where Dirk Diggler makes his triumphant speech having won "Best Cock." Keep rockin and rollin [youtube]putWJCj0eoI[/youtube]

Edgy MD Jul 19 2013 07:55 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Got the sixties this morning. Martha and the Vandellas: "Heat Wave" Nothing steams me more about heartless computer-generated programming than songs that are sublime in a certain context being played in the completely wrong context --- "Stepping Out" played on Tuesday morning, "See You in September" played in early November, or "I Wish it Would Rain" played in the midst of three consecutive days of downpours. So it was nice to hear "Heat Wave" played this morning while under the sticky foot of an honest-to-God heat wave. You rarely hear Martha Reaves' name on the list of the great female singers of the rock era, but she was the stuff. Maybe it's because the girl groups tend to get considered collectively rather than individually (with the exception of the Supremes), but apart from Darlene Love pinch-hitting for a couple of them, they're pretty distinctive. I mean, Martha, Ronnie Spectre, and Shriley Alston Reaves certainly were. Between Martha and the baritone sax, this rips, and I remember hearing this on WCBS as a kid and liking the heat a lot more. Really insistent stuff. Almost musical yelling. [youtube]UCpDMQf5o9s[/youtube] Lulu: "To Sir with Love" For such a delicate composition, this has this weird prickliness where the strummed guitar doesn't resound and instead feels like it's cheaply reverberating off of a piece of cardboard. That's the only mis-step, though, as they navigate through the tender weirdness of a love song from a young woman to her handsome teacher, thanking him for guiding her from girlhood to adulthood. I love the movie and the song, but it gives my wife the icks. Note the Motown stomp on the refrain. Anything can rock a little, if the drummer's willing to suddenly go down on the snare on all four beats. [youtube]S6b48Ta0EuI[/youtube] The Byrds: "All I Really Want to Do" The Byrds made a lot of money off of Dylan, but he likely made a ton off of them, and got no small amount of rock 'n' roll cred from them, even if they both probably got sick of the partnership. The interesting thing is, confronted by the sickness, the Byrds did something of a rewrite, turning verse three on "All I Really Want to Do" into a bridge. Dylan, who had been relying on limited musical bag of tricks at the time, didn't write a whole lot of bridges. I wonder if they asked permission for the minor re-write. I wonder if he took it as the sort of challenge to up his game that he took from the Beatles. [youtube]tcBoVXdOpx4[/youtube]

sharpie Jul 19 2013 10:20 AM Re: Morning Oldies

I don't know if I agree with you about Martha Reeves not getting her due. They are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and are #96 in Rolling Stone's list of Greatest Artists of the Rock Era. Plus, a book about "Dancing in the Street" was just released. Martha had the goods, no doubt about that. Good point about the Byrds' turning the third verse of "All I Really Want to Do" into a bridge. I can't imagine Bob objected. Bob's version is kind of thrown off anyway. "Another Side of Bob Dylan" was recorded live in the studio with a bunch of friends there to watch and, in that song's case, there's a little chuckle that was clearly unintentional.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jul 19 2013 11:50 AM Re: Morning Oldies

She's gotten her due from those who were around at the time/those who know their stuff... but, say, compared to the "divas" of the era, it's an arguable point that she doesn't have a level of renown that's quite commensurate with her achievements/the uniqueness of her voice. The "Dancing In The Streets" book seems intriguing, if the NPR feature I heard on it is any indication-- it's by the "Salt" and "Cod" guy, Mark Kurlansky, and it seems that the track gets the same a-thousand-topics-in-one-thing sort of treatment, only with a sort of fix on that particular historical moment in the mid-sixties.

G-Fafif Jul 19 2013 12:04 PM Re: Morning Oldies

Walter Egan, "Magnet and Steel"; Toby Beau, "Angel Baby". Nothing alike, but forever conflated from the summer of 1978. Didn't realize Toby Beau was a group until Casey Kasem told me so.

Edgy MD Jul 19 2013 02:03 PM Re: Morning Oldies

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: She's gotten her due from those who were around at the time/those who know their stuff... but, say, compared to the "divas" of the era, it's an arguable point that she doesn't have a level of renown that's quite commensurate with her achievements/the uniqueness of her voice. The "Dancing In The Streets" book seems intriguing, if the NPR feature I heard on it is any indication-- it's by the "Salt" and "Cod" guy, Mark Kurlansky, and it seems that the track gets the same a-thousand-topics-in-one-thing sort of treatment, only with a sort of fix on that particular historical moment in the mid-sixties. I'd do a whole chapter on Baltimore and Washngton, DC, getting merged in the shout-outs. Is that what we were to you, Motown? Two halves of one Midlantic whole? Also notable is that, with the exception of New Orleans, she stays out of the south. Soul may be from Memphis, but like Blues before her, she had migrated, and she was raising her kids in the industrial north.

Mets – Willets Point Jul 19 2013 03:09 PM Re: Morning Oldies

James Brown seems to fall asleep while passing through Richmond, VA on the Night Train and only remembers at the last minute that he must have passed through there. Then he takes an express train from New York to New Orleans.

Edgy MD Aug 16 2013 07:59 AM Re: Morning Oldies

"How Can I Be Sure?" --- Rascals Felix Cavaliere was part of the lineup at one of the Ringo Starr All-Star tours. The one I saw, anyhow, and as he launched into "People Got to Be Free," I realized this scene was sort of beneath him. He'd get to do, I expected, a crowd-raising version of "Good Lovin'" later and that's it. But unlike a lot of guys on stage, who'd get to sing the two songs they're probably sick of singing, but thanks to Ringo, get to sing them to a big audience again, Felix and the Rascals had ten or twelve top twenty singles. If they hadn't fallen out over money, the Rascals could have made a lot more scratch in the seventies and eighties as a sort of poor man's Beach Boys doing juke box tours. Anyhow, Ringo knew what he had, and gave Cavaliere a rare third song, "Groovin'." It's a pretty deep catalog you've got if Ringo gives you three swings of the bat and you don't need to pull out "How Can I Be Sure?" Did one of the other Rascals sing this? [youtube]OrpLpbqBYsw[/youtube] "These Eyes" --- The Guess Who You know, there's a lot of white guy Brits and a lot of white guys Americans trying to do vocal soul with a rock band presentation. But not a lot of Canadians who have the guts to give it a go. And Burton Cummings, white guy though he may be, had a pretty soulful name. [youtube]SfcSXmFFVfE[/youtube] "Come Back When You Grow Up" --- Bobby Vee This should go in a poll with "Go Away, Little Girl" and "Sweet and Innocent" for borderline creepy songs about being so awesomesexy that children throw themselves at you, and how smoove you are to gently resist, along with an invitation to come back when you fill out a little, and make sure you bring your birth certificate. Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" gets an honorable mention, but he doesn't seem to concerned with pushing her away until she's older. Oh, no, not creepy Neil. Bobby Vee was part of a who-really-cares filler of a teenage group that was low on the bill for the "Winter Dance Party" tour, when the plane crash death of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Le Gran Bopper left something of a gap on the bill, and they ended up being the headliners, at least for that first night in Minnesota. (And you know, it's pretty amazing, in retrospect, that big shot artists would even try to get to Moorhead, Minnesota for a live engagement in February, much less die trying. I want to be young in that world.) Otherwise I have confusion issues among Bobby Vee, Bobby Van, and Bobby Vincent. In later years, Bobby Rydell has falling into that mental stew, despite not having a V. in his name. [youtube]VXmT5NtSS5g[/youtube]

Mets – Willets Point Aug 16 2013 08:03 AM Re: Morning Oldies

"These Eyes" --- The Guess Who When you posted this on Facebook this morning I thought this was a song by Blood, Sweat & Tears until I looked it up. You learn something new everyday.1

Edgy MD Aug 16 2013 08:05 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Glad I could help.

Edgy MD Aug 16 2013 08:37 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Edgy MD wrote: "How Can I Be Sure?" --- Rascals By the way, very Bacharachy, this, with the three-beat oom-pah-pah of "What's New, Pussycat?" carried more delicately by accordion. And then a sweet horn solo, but not quite as muted as Bacharach would do it.

Edgy MD Sep 20 2013 07:51 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Had the nineties going the last two mornings, and got "She Bangs" from Ricky Martin yesterday and "La Vida Loca" this morning. Ricky Martin is a watermark for me in our cultural slide toward media saturation as I was at Giant supermarket in Chevy Chase circa 1998-1999 when a twenty-something guy in front of me turned in line to look at a celebrity magazine with a headline like "Ricky Martin Gay Rumor Heartbreak." The guy shrugged, turned toward his wife/girlfreind/partner, and said "Who the hell is Ricky Martin?" The pop magazines were so ahead of the zeitgeist that poor Ricardo was the first guy knocked off his pinnacle by being outed before he actually reached that pinnacle, and sophisticated young folks from Chevy Chasse knew he was gay before they knew who he actuallly was. [youtube]5ihtX86JzmA[/youtube]

Mets – Willets Point Sep 20 2013 07:58 AM Re: Morning Oldies

Nowadays the celebrity gossip magazines don't even use surnames. It would just say something like "Ricky and Jen in nude beach scandal!"