Music

May132020

A Song About Drugs or Alcohol

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 8: A Song About Drugs or Alcohol

The English band Chumbawumba first formed in 1982, but didn’t achieve mainstream recognition until the 1997 release of “Tubthumping,” which would become their biggest hit. Here in the US, it spent a total of 31 weeks in the Billboard Top 100, two of which were spent at slot number 6, the song’s highest point of success. All through the fall of that year, it was well-nigh inescapable.

Even so, it’s admittedly kind of a stupid song. There’s only a single verse and the chorus, repeated over and over. You can’t say it’s making any deep observations about the human condition. But it is weirdly evocative in its stripped-down simplicity. It so wonderfully captures a time and a place: a sweaty crowded pub, or in my case, since I didn’t get out to pubs all that often, house parties filled with horny twentysomethings trying to relax and to connect, the hormonal imperative to meet somebody and be with somebody just strong enough to overcome the insecurity, perhaps with a little help from the Jello shots. I hear this song and I think of candles flickering down deep into canyons of melted wax as the clock spins on into the wee hours and the living room grows quieter and the conversation gets weirder, the ashtrays overflowing and all the sticky-sweet mixer is gone so you’re just drinking the straight stuff now, and your free hand is around the shoulder of someone you want to take home, and someone is expounding on a book they read in college, so long ago, and someone else is staring sadly at the ember glowing at the end of their cigarette. I was 28 in the fall of 1997. Emotionally, I was probably closer to 20 than to 30, but I thought myself such a sophisticate, or at least I told myself I was. I fancied myself a Byronic hero, beaten up by the world, and yet somehow standing upright in the gale. “Tubthumping” evokes that, too… it’s not only a drinking song, it’s optimistic and encouraging, with its assertion that you’re going to get up again no matter what life throws at you.

And it’s catchy as hell.

May122020

A Song To Drive To

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 7: A Song to Drive to

A good driving song doesn’t have to be a high-energy hard rocker — for example, I have a very fond memory of the first time I heard Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” as it filtered through the static of a low-band radio station like a pensive ghost while I scooted around the eastern rim of the Salt Lake Valley in my old VW Rabbit. But there’s something about combining a ferocious guitar attack and the sensation of acceleration, of feeling your foot on the gas pedal and your hands on the wheel, the car like an extension of your body, and the rock-and-roll a primal release of everything you carry around inside: the frustrations of that day job, the joy of a sunny day with the top rolled down, the lust for living something more than a mundane workaday existence. Especially the lust.

It helps if traffic is light so you feel like you can go anywhere. And it helps if the lyrics are vaguely naughty… as they are in Van Halen’s “Panama,” a song that might be about a car, or it might be about a girl. Or it could be about… well, who the hell knows? David Lee Roth wrote the lyrics, after all.

“Panama” was the third single from the band’s smash album 1984, the last VH album that featured Diamond Dave on vocals. It was also the first VH album to feature keyboards. Both of those factoids pointed the way toward Van Halen’s future with Sammy Hagar, which purists still argue isn’t “true” Van Halen at all. But this isn’t the place to get into that. Although “Jump” was the big hit from 1984, “Panama” came in at a respectable peak of 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video below did pretty well also, and its three minutes and 42 seconds capture everything that was grand, grandiose, spectacular and ridiculous about the first incarnation of the band.

And now I want to go for a drive…

May112020

A Song That Makes You Want to Dance

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 6: A Song That Makes You Want to Dance

Yeah, today’s choice is another Journey song but this one comes with a story.

About a year and a half ago, Anne and I were in New Orleans, walking down Royal Street in the French Quarter one fine morning. The day was bright but a bit chilly, and even though it wasn’t particularly early, there weren’t many people around. It was a Sunday, you see, and I like to imagine that most folks were nursing hangovers or in church, or maybe both. The street was slowly beginning to come to life as we strolled: shop owners were opening the shutters over their windows, a man in an apron was spraying the sidewalk with a hose (I probably don’t want to know what he was hosing away), and a hulking garbage truck was creeping slowly down the narrow 18th-century cross streets.

At one particular corner, we encountered a street musician, a pretty Asian woman playing the violin with skill and passion. (I’ve since learned that her name is Tanya Huang, and she’s a regular fixture on that corner.) We stopped to listen and after a moment, I realized that I knew the song. It wasn’t a classical piece or jazz… it was Journey. And well, cheesy as it sounds, I was moved by the moment and the location and the music, moved to take Anne’s hand and spin her around, then close in for some cheek-to-cheek. I even sang a bit to her, one of the lines I was certain I knew:

“Lovin’ a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be

Oh, girl, you stand by me…

I’m forever yours, faithfully… “

I gave her a little dip, then suddenly felt sheepish because I realized we had an audience. Tanya was smiling at us as she played, and looking around, I saw a black man leaning against a door frame. When I caught his eye, he flashed me a huge grin and a nod. I nodded back at him, and for just a moment, I felt like I really got New Orleans, and maybe I even belonged there. Like I caught the fleeting, flashing, silvery spirit of the place in my hand long enough to feel its heat before it flew away.

That’s the sort of memory I’m always hoping to make when I travel, the kind that comes to define a place for you. I’ll be honest, our NOLA trip was a little bumpy for various reasons. But when I think of the place, my mind always goes to the moment I danced with my Anne in the middle of Royal Street to the melody of “Faithfully.”

“Faithfully” was released in the spring of 1983, just as I was finishing eighth grade. At the time, I thought it was pretty boring, just a sappy ballad; I much preferred the angry rocking sounds of “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” the single that had preceded “Faithfully” by a couple of months. But the song made it to number 12 on the Billboard charts in spite of my disdain, and I gradually came around on it. It’s become one of the band’s signature tunes and always leads to a sing-along and a lot of affectionate cuddling and swaying when they perform it live.

The video is something of a classic as well, the first documentary-style “life on the road” clip, which was later imitated by bands ranging from Bon Jovi to Richard Marx. It’s become something a cliche now — oh, another band singing about how tough it is to be out touring — but this song and this video still work. It worked in New Orleans, anyhow…

May072020

Salt Lake’s Best Rock

Oh my hell… in the previous entry, I mentioned remembering a TV ad for a Salt Lake radio station that used the opening drums from Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll,” right? So guess what I just just ran across on YouTube? The stuff you can find out there on the interwebz never fails to amaze me…

Incidentally, if you’re interested, I also found this brief history of the station as I was wandering cyberspace trying to confirm my fading memory, written by a dude named Paul Wilson in 2005:

CITADEL – KBEE-FM

In 1947, Salt Lake City had only two commercial FM stations…at 100.3 (Bonneville’s KSL-FM) and 98.7 (what is now KBEE-FM). In the early 1970s, KCPX-FM (at 98.7) was known as “Stereo X” and was the home of a wide-ranging free-form album rock format…but under the direction of KCPX Program Director Gary Waldron, by the end of the 70’s the station had evolved into “Real Rock 99 FM”. The playlist was short (only a couple hundred songs) and it quickly became the market’s top-rated station, combining the laid-back presentation of album rock with tight top 40 rotations a decade before Pirate Radio spawned the term “Rock 40”. As the 80’s began, the station hired a full staff of announcers and “99FM” continued to dominate the market. I was fortunate enough to hold the 7-midnight shift for nearly four years, until the musical pendulum swung back toward pop music and the station evolved again. By 1984 there was a new crew of jocks, the format was CHR and “Hitradio 99” again dominated the market. Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures had owned the KCPX stations (AM, FM and TV) for a number of years but sold the TV station in the mid 70s. In the mid 80s they sold the radio stations to John Price, a Salt Lake based contractor best known for building massive shopping malls. Under Price, the station evolved into “Power 99” and finally to AC as KVRY (Variety 98.7). The historic KCPX letters were parked on a small AM station in Centerville for about twenty years (more on that later). Price eventually sold the stations to Citadel; the format remained AC but the call letters were changed to KBEE (B98.7), which is how the station is known today.

Incidentally, it’s been 15 years since that was written, but KBEE B98.7 is still around, now owned by Cumulus Media and playing an adult contemporary format, i.e., mainstream soft rock. I rarely listen to it.

May072020

A Song That Needs to Be Played Loud

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 5: A Song That Needs to Be Played Loud

“Rock and Roll.” Led Zeppelin. ‘Nuff said.

Oh, okay, fine, you know me better than that. I’ve almost always got more to say…

“Rock and Roll” comes from Zeppelin’s fourth studio album, commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV or ZoSo (owing to one of the arcane symbols on the record’s label; it’s a long story), although the LP was technically untitled. That’s the album with “Stairway to Heaven,” the one most likely to be owned by people who kinda-sorta like Zeppelin but haven’t gone into full-blown fandom. The song is a tribute to the early days of the rock genre: It opens with a speeded-up version of the drumline from the Little Richard oldie “Keep A-Knockin'” (fans of the movie Christine ought to know that one!) followed by a guitar riff that was supposedly an homage to Chuck Berry, and then nostalgic lyrics that speak of (among other things) “The Stroll,” a 1958 dance tune, and “Book of Love,” a hit record for The Monotones, also from 1958. While it was never formally released as a single for consumer sales, the song was distributed in the US as a promotional single, meaning it was was sent to radio stations for airplay, and it quickly became a staple in that venue. (I remember a local Salt Lake station, Rock 99, used the opening of the song for its television commercials; I was familiar with that ferocious drumbeat long before I ever heard the complete tune, or for that matter, had even heard of the band!)

The song was also a favorite during live performances starting from around the time of IV‘s release in 1971 until the band’s breakup in 1980. Having become one of Zeppelin’s signature tunes, it was naturally part of their brief reunion set at Live Aid in 1985 and again at the reunion shows at London’s O2 Arena in 2007. The video clip I’m posting here is from their performance at Madison Square Garden in 1973, when the band was at the peak of its powers. (It appears in the concert film The Song Remains the Same.)

Personally, I tend to run hot and cold on Zeppelin. I really love some of their stuff, and I’m really put off (and sometimes even bored) by other things. But from my early teens, this has been a song I truly love. Its energy is undeniable — I can’t resist shaking my head to it even nowadays when serious headbanging gives me a headache — and I love its reverence toward the genre’s childhood, even as it twists and warps the sound into something Little Richard probably never could have imagined. Come to think of it, though, that was Zeppelin’s whole thing, really… they were essentially playing the blues, just really loud and distorted blues.

One final thought before the video: The song has been covered many times by artists ranging from Heart (their version is intense… Ann Wilson is possibly the only woman in rock whose voice matches the soaring power of Zeppelin’s Robert Plant) to Great White, Van Halen, John Waite, Stevie Nicks, the Foo Fighters, and, most improbably, Alvin and the Chipmunks. I’m really trying to wrap my head around that one.

And now… turn it to 11, kids!

May062020

A Song That Reminds You of Someone You’d Rather Forget

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 4: A Song That Reminds You of Someone You’d Rather Forget

This is a difficult category for me because… there really isn’t anyone that I’d rather forget. Seriously, no one. Not an old girlfriend, not a bully, not an authority figure I clashed with or anyone who done me wrong or hurt my feelings. Not that those things never happened to me. But, as Captain Kirk declares in Star Trek V, I need my painful memories as much as my happy ones. (Well, that was the gist of what he said, if not a direct quote… Star Trek V is one of my painful memories, you see, and I haven’t seen it in a very long time… ) The point is, we are the sum total of our experiences, good and bad. I could forget some people, but then I’d very likely be losing some component of myself too. And I don’t know if it’s worth the tradeoff. Not for me anyhow.

So… the best I can offer for this category is a song that reminds me of someone who hurt me once, and this song was… a memorable feature of the weeks that followed. But I haven’t forgotten that person, nor do I want to.

“I Don’t Care Anymore” comes from Phil Collins’ second solo album, Hello, I Must Be Going, and it can be seen as something of a companion piece to his first big hit, “In the Air Tonight.” It has a similar sound to “Air,” and like that one, it was prominently featured in a first-season episode of Miami Vice, helping to set the overall tone and style of that breakthrough television series. That episode of Vice wouldn’t air until a year after the song’s release, though, too late to provide much of a sales boost. “Don’t Care” barely cracked the top 40, peaking out at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the last week of March 1983. It’s a great song, though, especially if you’re pissed at someone and want to wallow in that feeling for a time. Just sayin’.

May052020

A Song That Reminds Me of Summertime

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 3: A Song That Reminds You of Summertime

Never mind that Journey’s “Stone in Love” point-blank mentions “summer nights” and is packed with imagery that evokes what it’s like to be in love — or at least in lust — on those sweltering nights that never seem as long or as dark or as ripe with possibilities as when you’re young. No, I associate it with summer because of that time I was road-tripping with my friend Jeremy and we stopped in southern Utah to visit a cousin of his, and then we all spent the night cruising around St. George in his cousin’s car with the Escape album on endless replay in the CD player. Or maybe it was a cassette deck? Who can say now? It was a long time ago, possibly the last time I ever “cruised the main drag” like that, which is probably why it’s stuck in my memory the way it has. But why that particular song instead of something else on the album? I don’t know, unless it just somehow seemed to fit the mood of the event. Could’ve just been because that catchy opening riff and those wonderfully nostalgic lyrics I mentioned.

Escape was Journey’s seventh studio album. Released in 1981, it was the band’s biggest seller and now represents the peak of their inescapable (and still considerable, even now) popularity. It spawned four hit singles, including their signature classic “Don’t Stop Believin’.” “Stone in Love” was not one of those singles, but it become a staple of 1980s album-oriented rock radio, the stations that did “block-party weekends” every weekend.

There’s no “video” per se for this song, but the live-performance clip I found was recorded for MTV, which was then in its very early days, so I suppose that counts, right? The entire concert is available on DVD under the title Live in Houston 1981: The Escape Tour.

May042020

A Song You Like with a Number in the Title

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 2: A Song You Like with a Number in the Title

I grew up listening to my mom’s old 45s, and then in my later teens, I constructed much of my identity around driving a classic car that had only an AM radio, which meant all oldies, all the time, when I was bombing around town in my Galaxie. The result was that I developed a lot of appreciation and affection for music from the 1960s and ’70s during a time when my peers were focused on then-current artists of the ’80s. I guess we’re all looking for some way to express our individuality at that age; mine was listening to throwback Baby Boomer music and fancying myself some kind of spiritual descendant of James Dean.

Three Dog Night was one of the biggest bands of that era, and one of my favorites during my throwback period; they landed 21 top-40 hits in the six years between 1969 and 1975, including three number-ones. “One,” which most people probably think is called “One Is the Loneliest Number” — actually the first line of the song, not its title — topped out at number five in the spring of 1969, which would’ve been a few months before I was born. Still a great song, though, and my pick for a tune with a number in the title.

Incidentally, a form of Three Dog Night is still touring, featuring two of the original ’60s/’70s era members. I haven’t see them, but I understand they put on a good show.

May032020

A Song You Like with a Color in the Title

30-Day Song Challenge, Day 1: A Song You Like with a Color in the Title

Right off the bat, I have a problem meeting this challenge. Not because I can’t think of a song with a color in the title — there’s lots of those, if you just look around — but because I can’t decide on one!

“Purple Haze” leapt immediately to mind… but perhaps that means it’s too obvious. “Little Red Corvette”? Same thought. “Blue Bayou,” “Paint It Black,” “Green Tambourine”? Nah, none of those quite fit my mood.

I really like Lou Gramm’s “Midnight Blue,” but I featured that as a Friday Evening Video a while back, and I’d kind of like to come up with some original choices for this challenge.

And then a lighbulb went on. Ah, yes. That one.

I’ve told the story before of how I discovered one of my all-time favorite songs, “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn, but as a brief refresher, I spent a week in Reno with my dad way back in 1991, and I heard that song everywhere I went in that dusty, half gambling mecca, half Old West frontier town. I didn’t identify it until months later when I finally happened to catch it on the radio back home in Salt Lake, and I promptly ran out and bought the CD it came from. As it turned out, that entire album was terrific. There wasn’t a bad cut on it. But as so often happens, it didn’t get quite the level of attention it should have. “Walking in Memphis,” Cohn’s biggest hit, rose to only number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the follow-up single from the album — which is my selection for the 30-Day Song Challenge, Day 1 — reached only 63. Even so, “Silver Thunderbird” is a nifty piece of heartfelt storytelling, and considering that my dad has owned a number of T-Birds over the years, I can relate to it.

Here’s the video, which weirdly enough for a song about a Ford Thunderbird, features Cohn driving a Chevy Corvette. Go figure.

May022020

30-Day Song Challenge

So, I’ve been seeing this chart or whatever you want to call it floating around social media and what remains of the blogosphere for a couple years: the 30-Day Song Challenge. It certainly sounds like the sort of silliness we used to thrive on back in the heyday of blogging, and I’ve thought about doing it more than once but obviously I’ve never gotten around to it. It is, after all, a big commitment to do 30 blog entries across 30 days, consecutive or otherwise, and life these days is so very full of distractions. (Supporting evidence: I believe Jaquandor started this challenge but I don’t think he finished, and he’s the only one from my old blogging circle who still posts with any regularity at all.)

The infamous Scalzi recently found a way around the commitment issue by just dropping all 30 songs into a single massive post with minimal commentary, just a long string of video clips. I don’t think that’s the right path for me — I like to blather too much, and really who wants to scroll for an hour (says a guy who did, in fact, scroll through Scalzi’s entire post)? However, his example started me thinking about the Challenge again, and considering that about the only thing I ever manage to post these days is the occasional Friday Evening Video, I think maybe it’s time I give this a try. It’s functionally no different than the video posts I’m already doing, and if I can stick with it through all 30 days, it will generate more content than this blog has seen in a year. I’d really like to feel like my personal blogspace is a living, breathing thing again, if only for a few weeks.

And so, without further ado, I present… the Simple Tricks and Nonsense 30-Day Song Challenge!