Sunday, June 6, 2021
Time Machines
I thought I'd try something fun for this blog entry. I have time on my hands so I figured, why not?
Music is something I haven't really been listening to a lot of lately. Ultimately, nothing is really coming out that I've found interesting that's new, so I'm forced to kind of look back. Maybe that's a good thing. There's an endless supply of undiscovered (by me, anyway) greats out there for people like me.
Plus, I went looking for old songs I completely forgot about. So I made this playlist on YouTube which likely won't ever be finished. I don't have the premium version of YouTube, so I endure the commercials, much like when you listen to the radio. At least you get to hear the songs you want, right? Also, the vast majority of the music on this playlist is stuff that I don't own, but have come to appreciate more and more over the years. Some of these songs I didn't even like back in the day, but look fondly upon now.
Anyway, I wanted to do a blog here describing what these songs do for me. Some I'm not super familiar with, others create a stamp on my own history which brings me back to those times. Everybody has music that brings them back and creates a stamp in time for them.
So let's get after it!
I love this song for its simplicity. It's this kind of thing I like to play in a band because it's got that groove that's so easy to lock into and have a ball with. This YouTube version of it on my playlist is longer than I'd heard before, so I think I like the radio version better, perhaps because I'm more familiar with it. This whole song begs you to chill and have fun. "Slow ride... take it easy!" The whole sound of this is just so 70's, when music didn't rely on so much automation to create. I hear this and think of the days of going to see shows at the old Moncton Coliseum.
I always did like this song, but it seems to resonate so much more for me now. Maybe because it's so 80's. I love the production, the outrageously great harmonies, the melody, riff, in-your-face drum sound, and in the video I love the way the band carry themselves. It's ultimately sad that these guys didn't become massive, enduring stars. More personally, this reminds me of a friend of mine named Marie, who was my first girlfriend back then. I remember she loved this and bought the record. I haven't seen her in decades.
I can not go on enough about how much I love this song. It's an early 80's staple with all the right stuff in it: A great catchy riff, amazing harmonies, a great clean/crunchy tone on guitar... just all around amazing. The video is just as great. Iris presents himself as a nerdy, Buddy Holly-ish everyman who adores Leah, a beauty that's seemingly out of reach of guys like I was. Try not to sing along to the chorus... you can't resist it. This brings me back to junior high school at Queen Elizabeth here in Moncton, which were some of the funnest years of my life, outside of getting picked on and beat up for being a KISS fan that is. In those days I didn't quite latch onto this song like I do now. Having played drums all these years makes me appreciate all the components of music more, though, and how everything interlocks when the magic happens, like it clearly does in this song. It reminds me a little bit of a girl I knew named Leah Dryden, who was a nice girl, but I was quite an immature ass to her, I think. She was also quite lovely like Leah is in the song. This makes me also think of my buddy Tim Churchill, to whom I introduced this song to and wound up loving it. Solid 80's rock and roll that stands timeless.
Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me
There's some songs you hear that you can never listen to too much. This is definitely one of them for me. Again, as the years pass, I find myself more and more appreciative of this tune. I love the restrained, but effective, vocal in this, the great atmosphere the synths provide, the soaring carrying guitar notes, and for me especially... the drums. They're so crisp and snappy, and carry the bassline to help create that catchy punch. The breakdown is phenomenal here. The drumfill at the end of it... I can't help but air drum to it whenever I hear it. They play it at my work a lot, so I probably look a little 'out there' when it plays. I have fond memories of watching this on MuchMusic, and just the way times were then.
The Alan Parsons Project - The Voice
Ah, this brings me back to around 1978. My dad passed away early that year, and if I recall right - I could be mistaken - it was that year that I drove with my brother Pete in his black Toyota Celica (which he kept in immaculate condition for years) to Welland, Ontario where he lived with his wife in those days, Heather, and their daughter Alycia had just come into the world. I remember Pete would rave about TAPP's album this song comes from called 'I Robot' with anyone who would listen. This song is about the voice in your own head, your conscience, that steers you in whatever direction, mostly moral. It's a brave tune, sounding nothing like what came before it, or since really. It incorporates an orchestra and all kinds of funny noises that somehow fit the song like a glove. This is definitely a time machine song for me, bringing back a lot of fond memories of the time.
The Alan Parsons Project - Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)
Another song from TAPP's 'I Robot' album. A more ballad-y tune that should've been a monster on radio, but TAPP would find massive success not too long after. The whole sound of this song is quite amazing. The band seems to let the music carry the subdued vocals into another realm, namely in the chorus. Again, lots of fond memories of when my brother Pete introduced us all in the family to this stuff.
The video of this song bugs me a bit because it's the edited version to accompany the radio single. But the song is timeless. I can remember seeing Loverboy at the Moncton Coliseum on the 'Get Lucky' tour, when a young upstart named Bryan Adams opened for them and would wind up writing some songs with them. My girlfriend in those days, Michelle Dormer, was crazy for this band. They were one of my favorites too. They were phenomenal live. I remember just about everyone who had a car blared the 'Get Lucky' album out of their car stereos all over the place in the summertime. Also, on this playlist, I wanted to incorporate some music my wife loves too. In my early drumming years, I cut my teeth with a guy named Larry Finn who plays some of the most wicked guitar I've heard, as we jammed a lot in those days and we learned our chops. We used to play some Loverboy stuff sometimes. For whatever reason, Loverboy's music is almost the subject of ridicule for some, maybe because of the band name? But I never wavered. Always loved this band. They were another favorite of my buddy Tim.
Christopher Cross - Think of Laura
I included this song mainly for my wife Janice, who always loved it. I believe the subject of the song is a girl named Laura from the 'General Hospital' soap opera, when she and Luke were the couple that was all the rage on TV screens in the 80's. Laura wound up dying... not necessarily staying dead, as is often the case in soap operas... creating a wave of sadness across soap-operaville the world over, inspiring Cross to make this song about her. Michelle Dormer loved this too; I assume she still does.
The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
Often imitated, never duplicated. This is an all-time great love song to me. Funny when I looked this up on YouTube, I never realized The Righteous Brothers weren't black! Their voices are so soulful I just assumed that they were. The structure of this song is just phenomenal. The mood it creates with the heartbreaking story of a guy losing his lady begging her to stay resonates with pretty well every human being that hears it. Hall and Oates did a version of it that was quite good, too. Not as good as the original, of course, but a well done update. I love singing this song in the shower. It fits right into my voice range. Janice says she loves hearing me when I do. She's likely just being nice!
Blue Swede - Hooked on a Feeling
Folks today will recognize this song from its inclusion in the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' soundtrack. Indeed, it caught my attention and made me take a better listen to it, from the days that I originally heard it and just went 'meh'. This is hardly 'meh' though. This is back in the days when horns were welcome in rock and roll, and it was safe to sing stuff like 'ooga chucka, ooga, ooga, ooga chucka'. There's something about music from the 70's that just so honest and deep. I guess because it's the last decade of music before musicians got carried away with technology.
Walter Egan - Magnet and Steel
One of those songs you could find on countless K-Tel records in the seventies. I always liked this song, but as time went on, it grew on me more and more. Again, like with Blue Swede, there's just an honesty and simplicity to it that's so effective. It's got an old fashioned beat, a great collection of singers, and bursts at the seams with romance. How many of us guys related to this song of an irresistible girl in their lives that they were helplessly drawn to? The video is fun to watch too, because it screams 70's, affectionately.
Andrea True Connection - More More More
This is one of the biggest time-machine worthy songs for me. Again, back in the late 70's, I was a pre-pubescent who was a bat boy for a senior baseball team called the A&W's, sponsored by said burger joint. What a blast those days were! We'd travel all over New Brunswick for ball games, and very often this song would be playing on the radio in the bus/van with all of us on it. I remember hearing it on the way back from Edmundston on on overnight drive home, after I'd been drilled between the eyes by a line drive baseball, giving me a terrible concussion. I was sent to the hospital, they looked at me and sent me right back. But the boys on the team took good care of me. I wound up sleeping for over a whole day, making me wonder if I'd slipped into a coma. My mom was away in Ontario at the time, and my dad had passed, so I was kind of on my own, which is a bit scary looking back. Andrea True did a good job with this song, being a porn star and all. If you didn't know that, now you do, and you'll likely never hear it the same way again! You'll recognize the cowbell part in the breakdown as a sample for Len's 'Steal My Sunshine' song from the 00's.
This is post-Grease Olivia, and she put her career on steroids with a string of massive hits after that hugely successful movie and soundtrack. A lot of people today wouldn't even know this tune, as it's one of those forgotten radio songs. I didn't even think much of it initially when it was released, but in recent years I've come to appreciate it quite a lot. I love that woman's voice. She doesn't get carried away with notes and range and show-offy stuff, she just lets the song speak for itself. I find it creates quite a mood and a real stamp in its own time. The music is great and isn't buried under the vocals like a lot of the pop princesses seem to all do today. The timelessness of music depends on how much simplicity is allowed to exist in it. Pop music and rock and roll isn't supposed to be classical or operatic.
Ah gee, where do I start with the memories from this song?? Wow. This is an all-timer, one of those tunes I just can't tire of. I remember jamming to it with my old buddy Larry a lot, and sometimes family members would come and see us play it, along with 'Another One Bites the Dust'. It's a great song for musicians learning to play, for sure, but even better when you can play, as we did in my old YQM band. We'd play mostly our own stuff, but 'Cars' was one we wanted to put our own stamp on. We only did one gig, even though we put out our own album of our own music, but we needed a few covers to fill out the set. If you listen to the beginning, there's a whirring sound to start it off, followed by a short drum fill, then it got going. As something fun, my bandmates Pete and Jody would stand at their microphones playfully imitating that whirring sound, and I'd sit behind the drums with a big smile watching them do it as long as I wanted, because my drum part kicked off the song, so it was pretty funny. A cool thing we did with that song was, when we were rehearsing, Pete would play the riff on guitar, and Jody would pump the twin bass riff in. One day Pete accidentally dropped his guitar pick, leaving just the bass and drums until Pete dive bombed back in at the tail end of the verse, and it sounded great, so we played it that way all the time after that. I remember our old friends were at that one gig... my wife Janice, of course, Tim Churchill and his then-wife Kelly, Brian Bourque and a lot of others, and our now deceased great friend/future bandmate/guitarist extraordinaire Mike Trites, who told us after we were done, "your CD doesn't do you guys justice, that was fuckin' GREAT!" I'm quite proud of Pete Howell's performance that night as a frontman/guitarist. Gary Numan, incidentally, has Aspberger's, which seems incredible, although nowadays we're finding out just how keenly intelligent those folks are. I remember going to the record store and seeing Numan's 'The Pleasure Principle' album on all the best seller racks because of that song. He was a one hit wonder though, but that song would provide a great life for him. Also... this is a blast to play on drums. And the atmospherics are amazing, especially at the tail end.
To this day I'm kicking myself in the ass for not seeing David Bowie play here in town at the coliseum when I had a chance to, on his Glass Spider tour. 'China Girl' is from his 'Let's Dance' album before that, though, and what a tour de force this is musically. The soaring synth notes, KILLER bass riff, and Nile Rodgers' input on guitar makes this steak sizzle big time. Of course Bowie's voice is remarkable as always, without getting too theatric. I'm iffy on understanding the subject matter of the lyric, but I just enjoy the whole song. This was in the early beginnings of Stevie Ray Vaughn's career, who played the leads on the 'Let's Dance' album. I have fond memories of watching this on music video shows in those days, often surrounded by friends. It sounds fun to play, but I never had a chance to jam with it with anyone because I never found anyone else who wanted to.
With all due apologies to 'China Girl', this is probably my favorite Bowie song. This was in his theatrical character era in the 70's, and the music just sounds so pure and unrefined, whereas music today that's made has to be absolutely perfect, it seems, before it's released. The riff is unapologetic, repeating itself throughout the verses and chorus. This is another one of those songs I always wanted to jam to, but just didn't find anyone else who would. It speaks to those of us who felt like outsiders when we were kids.
File this one under 'I wish bands still sounded like this', the loosely tight variety. This is the best version of Heart there was, though they'd make awesome music long after this was out. I remember hearing this as a kid, thinking it was really good, but again... appreciating it more once I became a musician. This is a blast to play on drums, probably everything else too. I have a dream/fantasy of being in a band playing this song with my daughter Alexandra singing, because she CAN. I saw Heart a few years ago with my wife, and deeply regret not bringing our daughter, because I think it might've lit a rock and roll fire under her vocally. Once again, one of those songs I can't get tired of.
Don't know if I'd classify this as R&B or disco, or both, but it's friggin' awesome. There was no one quite like Boney M. An all-black group, three women led by one guy as a kind of ringleader, with limitless soul in their voices, great writing and super co-ordination of orchestral arrangements with catchy hooks throughout, and a great true-story lyric to boot. You might think it's cheesy, but the more you hear it, the more you want to hum it. I remember first discovering this in the 70's when my sister Cindy had the album and would listen to it a lot, and now I associate it with those days, putting it on in her room on her little white stereo record player with the 8 track in it. I rather tormented Cindy back then getting into her stuff, to the point her boyfriend/now husband George had to rig the stereo with a fuse so I'd leave it alone. I was a destructive tasmanian devil in those days.
Gerry Rafferty - Right Down the Line
Songs like this bored me back then in the seventies, just a little too AOR for me, but... then I became an adult, so it kind of fits now. I love how the organ glides through the song underneath it, the great harmonies and melody, and expertly crafted musicianship. Once more, this guy had a subdued voice that that contributed to the song rather than dominated it. The reverb-y solo fits this tune like a glove. This is another record my sister Cindy owned, but I was passive of it at the time, but it did still stick in my head. Nowadays, I appreciate this tremendously. It's in my head all day if I hear it once.
Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love
Another time-stamped classic. My dad died right about the time this came out, and I spent a lot of time at my Uncle Jack's house with my cousins while this Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was in the air a lot. My sister owned this record, again, and again I played it a lot. That record actually helped get me through one of the toughest times of my life. I used to draw pictures of that record and the logo and everything. Of course, I got into KISS shortly after that and renounced my love of disco before ultimately growing up and re-appreciating music like this. Now I hear all the components of it all musically and hear the soul and deep feeling of it all that I didn't grab onto initially. How about the harmonies of these guys? There's never been a group quite like them since, and I doubt music like that will ever be made again. Especially now that 2/3 of the Bee Gees have left this world. Quite melancholic, actually.
To be continued...
Comments