Friday, September 26, 2014

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Singles of 1984 - # 97

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-singles-of-1984-pops-greatest-year-20140917/peter-wolf-lights-out-20140917

Here's the first act so far where my knowledge of the act/musician predates the year. Like many, I "discovered" the J. Geils Band when they hit big huge in 1981 with "Centerfold" and the Freeze Frame album. But I didn't stop there; I went back, becoming a fan of their earlier material, especially Love Stinks, Sanctuary and one of my all-time favorite albums, Monkey Island (God, I could do a whole long post just about "Wreckage" and now that I've teased you, I certainly will. You're welcome.) I would have gone forward, too, past Showtime!, a great live album that proves you don't need a double/triple/quadruple album to show what a great act you are onstage, if Wolf hadn't left. I actually knew so much about the band that when I heard that he was leaving, I correctly predicted that drummer Stephen Jo Bladd and keyboardist Seth Justman would take over vocal duty being that they sang vocals on the other albums. (Yes, kids, when you're a nerd with ton of useless knowledge in high school, you just grow up to be an older version. And then, someone invents the Internet. And here we are.)

Great song and a great album end to end.  

But that video - oof! Those kinds of moves may look good onstage with a mike stand in your hand when you're doing all that breathless rapping mumbo jumbo he was known for but alone in a video? Thank God Billy Squier got crucified a month earlier for what really wasn't much worse and no one dragged Wolf to the streets, leaving him alone for the sake of the goodwill he'd cultured for over 15 years. Cause, man, that's some bad dancing. 

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Singles of 1984 - # 98

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-singles-of-1984-pops-greatest-year-20140917/dead-or-alive-you-spin-me-round-like-a-record-20140917

I am not a dancer; I try, but it's not happening. And it's not pretty. But I do like dance music - more than I thought I would. Something about the precision of the beats syncs with my math-loving brain, which is the problem; I get so tuned into listening, I can go into a trance and lose my feet. 

This is really good one, too, but I much prefer "Brand New Lover", which hit in late 1986, almost two years later. Which makes these guys' chart reign longer than Boy George's and Culture Club (remember, for all of the Club's hits - and there were many - they hit hard and were almost washed up in less time.) Odd, that.

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Singles of 1984 - # 99

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-singles-of-1984-pops-greatest-year-20140917/scandal-feat-patty-smyth-the-warrior-20140916

Okay, here's a good one. You never don't hear this one; every weekend, some radio station is playing a "Best of the 1980s" weekend and this one surely belongs. It's a shame that she didn't have the hit parade that her voice deserved. But, The Warrior did become The Survivor; I saw her last December, doing a Christmas show in NYC. Still cute and spunky, she led her band (half of whom weren't even born when she first broke out, it seemed) through a warm and intimate show mixed with old, new and holiday songs. The voice hadn't aged as well as the songs, but the spirit was still there.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Singles of 1984 - # 100

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-singles-of-1984-pops-greatest-year-20140917/corey-hart-sunglasses-at-night-20140916

Oh, God, doubling up won't be difficult with songs like this. But, you have to start somewhere, I guess and here it is. 

Actually, the song's not bad and it did sound great coming off the radio back then. However, the video is like an encyclopedia of video cliches and bad ones, at that. Also, way, way too many people actually walked around wearing sunglasses at night, and I still can't decide if it was more stupid than dangerous or vice versa. Topping that was that most of those people were teenaged girls and when a 17 year old boy complains about what teenaged girls are wearing, someone should take notice.

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Singles of 1984

Last week, Rolling Stone's online component posted their list of the Top 100 singles of 1984, a year that they are (finally) calling "the year that pop stood tallest." Well, Musician magazine said basically the same thing - in 1989 - and I said it in 1985. Since I lived through this incredible year, which was not only a great year for pop but also for Amerindie/punk as well (sidebar post to come), I thought I'd do a post a day, offering my own perspectives on each song/video. If I double up a few days at first, I should post the number one on New Year's Eve 2014. Along the way, I'll supplement with other thoughts on the music of 1984 as experienced by a 17 year old boy, just shaking off comic books (bad move in retrospect) and embracing the fairer sex (questionable move in retrospect) and wholly dedicating his head, heart and wallet to music of every stripe. 

Rolling Stone's criteria in choosing songs needs to be explained - a song had to be released in 1984 (well, duh) or have significant chart impact in 1984 (to allow songs by Michael Jackson that were almost two years old to be on the list) and have charted on the Billboard Top 100 (to continue a 30 year streak of ignoring/undervaluing The Smiths and Morrissey.) 


Full disclosure - I read Rolling Stone RELIGIOUSLY from June 1983 to 1997 and then again with alternating  annoyance/surprise for the last 8 years. Those interested in better consistency and depth, please, please try Paste.com, Pitchfork.com, Stereogum.com, TheQuetus.com and Spin.com (for starters.)


http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-singles-of-1984-pops-greatest-year-20140917

Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Best Songs of the 50s and 60s

(this one goes out to my cousins, Joanne and Celesta.  Once upon a time, they started me on a musical journey that has lasted to and past this day. They introduced me to the Bee Gees and Bruce Springsteen, although I initially balked.  They told my parents what albums to get me for Christmas. They bought me the first and last Beatles albums in honor of my parents doing the same.  They lent me the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack so often, I wonder if they've ever heard it.)

Most “best of” lists that deal in or contain 50s & 60s music (roughly pop/rock’s pre-teen years) will contain works from Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Frank Sinatra,  The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan or Motown.  And why not? SPIN magazine even once did a list that was entitled “The Best Albums from the 1960s That Weren’t Recorded by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan” – but that was so they could put The Velvet Underground at the top with no fear of backlash (like saying The Velvet Underground and Nico is better than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is somehow sacrilegious.)*

Anyway, I have a list of songs from that time that don’t include any of the above acts and still represent it fairly well; they’re in chronological order.  And there may be a few ringers.  And why not?
  1. “Jamaica Farewell”, Harry Belafonte (1957) –I’ve always said that the 1980s would have been a much different decade musically if Bob Marley hadn’t died so early on; I truly believe what we call “world music” would have given burgeoning hip-hop a struggle or at the very least another influence.  Well, “world music” had been making inroads into pop music since the mid-50s thanks to this guy.  Now, most of us born after the Beatles arrived know Belafonte mainly from “Day-O” and “Jump in the Line” thanks to the movies, but this song is actually the best of the three.  An impossibly beautiful meditation on a traveler’s lost love in Jamaica, it deepens its theme by multi-tracking his vocals in the chorus, suggesting that it is all men’s fate to be so seduced.
  2. “Pretend You Don’t See Her”, Jerry Vale (1957) – Most people I know of Italian-American descent grew up with Sinatra in the house.  I didn’t, for some reason, though I would eventually learn the deficit and deficiency that comes with THAT. (“Summer Wind” and “It Was a Very Good Year” would, for sure, make it onto any list it qualifies for.) However, my parents listened to Jerry Vale ad infinitum, with a good chunk of Tony Bennett and Jimmy Roselli for good measure.  This was purely a political move, as my father disapproved of Sinatra’s.  This track epitomizes everything that is wonderful of pre-Beatle pop music – gorgeous production, impassioned vocals and a grand melody.
  3. “The Good Life”, Tony Bennett (1963) – Sinatra is easily one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th Century; that doesn’t mean that he sings the definitive versions of everything.  Just like Streisand, who would place higher than Ol’ Blue Eyes on that list, fails when she sings Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind”, no one can touch Tony on this one.  All too briefly, Bennett admonishes a lover, but says he’ll be there for her, while making an airtight case for rejecting the very lifestyle in which Sinatra lived and whose music served as the soundtrack.  Deft….subtle….masterpiece.
  4. “Walk On By”, Dionne Warwick (1964) – the one song on this list that could hold its own even if every act listed in the intro was allowed in, no doubt.  An interesting take on an emotional blowout, as Dionne shows strength by accepting her weakness.  Plus, that devastating piano chord, which rivals the one sustained at the end of the lads’ “A Day in the Life”.   I heard that chord as a little boy, didn’t know what it meant until I got my heart broken the first time and it taught me a lesson I’d hold for the rest of my life.
  5. “I Got You Babe”, Sonny and Cher (1965) – As a recording, this one beats the living daylights out of most pop songs in any year, from then til 100 years from now.  An incredible confection of pure pop magic, the charms of this song only deepen over time.  Sonny shows what he learned from working for“Wall of Sound” Phil Spector; he piles on the layers and it never even shows signs of crumbling down.  Bonus points for this, too: Cher is easily one the most limited singers in history and Sonny ranks 10 notches higher on the same list, yet they make it work.  Cher said of Sonny, after his death that he was the love of her life; she must have been thinking of this song when she said that, because only that kind of affection could  have inspired this song.
  6. “California Dreaming”, The Mamas and the Papas (1966) – Many have written of the enduring charms and influence of The Beach Boys; many cherish their music.  And then there’s me.  If nothing else, this song puts a sinister twist on Brian Wilson’s con job of West Coast bliss (setting the stage for America’s “Ventura Highway”, a few years later) AND made a monster hit.  But the vocals and harmonies would show to be even more influential over time.  For an extra treat, check out Jose Feliciano’s (yes) version.
  7. “Run On”, Elvis Presley (1967) – done right before the ’68 comeback, this is one of the greatest “inspirational” songs ever.  Elvis plays the role of a man saved by the good word and lets the rest of the congregation know what’s in store for them if they waver from the path set forth. More rockabilly than gospel, the King was rarely better.  What makes the song kill is the questionable moral hierarchy it suggests; trying to sleep with your neighbor’s wife is bad, but him killing you is justified? Funny.
  8. “I Was Made to Love Her”, Stevie Wonder (1967) – Pure ringer – a Motown from (arguably) THE Motown artist.  But this is Stevie Wonder as we’ve forgotten him…this is Little Stevie, the one who had yet to declare (quite deservedly, to be sure) artistic freedom from the Motown “machine”.  Where do we start with this song? How about the line “I was made to love her…throw my world all around her”, as he drops his register in the second half; you can SEE him throwing his hands down to defend his love; this is hip-hop boasting 15 years ahead of its time. How about the realization that the song is being sung as an “I told you” as the childhood sweethearts made good on that boast?  How about every time I hear this, I want it to be 20 minutes long and hear a succession of ad-libbed vocals on the playout?
  9. “Witchita Lineman”, Glen Campbell (1968) – Okay, Dad may not have brought the Sinatra (or anything else from the 60s), but he had THIS.  Oh, this is amazement.  Songwriter Jimmy Webb tells a tale heard over and over in pop music – how to balance love and work.  But there are so many touches that elevate it to unique status.  A man who basically controls power is unable to be with the woman he adores. Yes, adores.  And that’s stronger than love, as evidenced by the line, “And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.” That is just one of those lines; putting it in the mouth of an average Joe suggests that the soul of a poet resides in all of us. And that’s what the best pop music is all about – making the personal universal.
  10. “Elenore”, The Turtles (1968) – This one just makes me grin like an idiot.  A little wiki-lore for you all (I’ve tried to avoid it) – this comes from a concept album** called The Turtles Present The Battle of the Bands, in which the group played songs of differing styles, each with their own band name!  Clever, really.  But what makes this one stand out, not just from the album, but over those 13 years, is the layers it piles on.  Basically, it’s a simple pop song, with the “moon-June-spoon” lyrical structure that Dylan and The Beatles killed off, but sung, played and produced in Beatlesque fashion.  Dig a little deeper, though, and you see the barbs…”even though your folks hate me”, “you’re my pride and joy, et cetera”…nothing like biting the hands that influenced you. Plus, I’ve never heard a line written to rhyme its first syllable with its last (“Elenore, gee, I think you’re swell”). Brilliant, especially since they wrote the thing to twist on and say “fuck you” to the record company that hounded them for another “Happy Together”.  This is the better song, hands down.  No wonder Frank Zappa loved these guys.
* We’ll talk someday about how it is LOGICALLY impossible for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to be the greatest album of all time.

**We’ll also talk about concept albums.  Remind me.


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

VHS Suicide Run

Starting today, I'm going to potentially sacrifice 7 VHS tapes. Let me explain - my VCR...

I'm sorry...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vhs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCR

OK, let's go, children of the 21st century...

...my VCR is old and has started to eat tapes at random, possibly in some response to the fact that we have 17 DVD players in a two-bedroom apartment. But I don't feel like spending money to upgrade these until they are no longer playable, so into the kite-eating tree, I mean tape-eating VCR we go!

Here's the festival lineup:

Tequila Sunrise (1988, Robert Towne)
Mystery Train (1989, Jim Jarmusch)
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985, Stephen Frears)
Broadcast News (1987, James L. Brooks)
Midnight Run (1988, Martin Brest)
She's Gotta Have It (1986, Spike Lee)
The Spanish Prisoner (1998, David Mamet)