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Song Of The Day – “The Uncle Meat Variations” by The Mothers Of Invention

May 28, 2020 by Eric Berman

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Uncle Meat Variations” by The Mothers Of Invention

Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Dvorak…the alphabet of classical composers goes on and on…and then you come to “Z.”

May I offer “Zappa?” Yup, Frank Zappa…an artist whose music will be studied by serious composers for generations to come.

You don’t believe me? Then check out today’s Song of the Day by Eric Berman, “The Uncle Meat Variations” from Uncle Meat.

The Uncle Meat album was released in 1969 and was conceived as a soundtrack to a science fiction film that was never finished. The front cover sported the following subtitle: “Most of the music from the Mother’s movie of the same name which we haven’t got enough money to finish yet.”

A finished version of the film was released in the late 1980s bearing many of the scenes filmed for the movie and was rather incoherent. The double album was also planned as part of a suite of albums called No Commercial Potential that included the Mothers’ records Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only In It For The Money and Cruising with Reuben & the Jets.

Frank Zappa: “It’s all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related.” (Zappa: A Biography – Barry Miles)

The Mothers consisted of Frank Zappa, Ray Collins on vocals, Jimmy Carl Black on drums, Roy Estrada on bass, Don Preston on keyboards, Billy Mundi on drums, Bunk Gardner on woodwinds, Ian Underwood on keyboards, Artie Tripp on percussion and Euclid James “Motorhead” Sherwood on saxophone.

The album is one of The Mothers’ and Zappa’s finest, and I opine that it will be studied by serious musicians for years to come.

So, “Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.”

“Fuzzy dice and bongos”…indeed!

Song Of The Day – “Just Like Me” by Paul Revere & The Raiders

May 27, 2020 by Eric Berman

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Just Like Me” by Paul Revere & The Raiders

Silly costumes aside, Paul Revere & the Raiders was responsible for some of the most infectious garage rock singles of the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

They recorded “Louie Louie” in the same studio as the Kingsmen classic at around the same time, and were the first to record “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone” before The Monkees took it to the charts. They also promoted themselves on TV dressed in full Revolutionary War regalia to help sustain their popularity with appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, Where The Action Is, Happening ’68, Happening, The Ed Sullivan Show and even an episode of Batman.

It was those silly costumes and wacky TV antics that somewhat obscured the great records they committed to wax and took to the upper regions of the charts including indelible singles like “Kicks,” “Him Or Me – What’s It Gonna Be!,” “Hungry,” “Good Thing,” and their sole number one hit which was actually a Mark Lindsay solo single “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)” and this one from 1965. Today’s Song of the Day by Eric Berman is “Just Like Me,” an unhinged garage rock classic that climbed all the way to #11 on the charts in 1965.

Paul Revere, whose real name was Paul Revere Dick, succumbed to cancer this past weekend. He wrote on Facebook this past July that he was taking a break from touring because of health issues. “It breaks my heart to have to stay home while the band goes out without me to our next block of dates,” he said. “You don’t even know how much it kills me.”

It kills ‘60s garage rock fans the world over to know that their beloved Paul Revere is now gone. RIP

Song Of The Day – “Fox On The Run” by Sweet

May 25, 2020 by Eric Berman

Boy, I hated this song when it was a huge hit back in 1975. It stood for everything I disliked about commercial rock ‘n’ roll. The band was totally lightweight and poppy, and their brand of glam rock had no teeth like that of David Bowie, Lou Reed and Mott The Hoople.

But a funny thing happened on the way to reaching the tender age of 52, I became nostalgic for the band and the song.

I’ve written about nostalgia before and I’ve come to the conclusion that the songs we feel most nostalgic for today, are the songs that were most reviled by the critics when they were new, and equally loved by the everyday radio listening fan. Many of them also had some kind of novelty value as well.

They were all played to death on radio to the point where even fans of the songs never wanted to hear them again, and many of them were co-opted by Madison Avenue for use in TV commercials in subsequent years after their run on the charts.

These are the songs we loved to hate when they were new, and today we kind of hate to love them. But we do love them. They make us feel good and warmly nostalgic when we hear them. Instead of hastily reaching for the dial to turn them off like we did when they were new, now we turn them up.

Such is the case for me when it comes to Sweet’s single “Fox On The Run” and the Desolation Boulevard album from whence it came. The band consisted of Brian Connolly on vocals, Steve Priest on bass, Andy Scott on guitars and Mick Tucker on drums, and most of the album’s tracks were written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn.

The roots of Sweet go back to the late 1960s when Connolly and Tucker were introduced to two aspiring songwriters Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn by their former producer Phil Wainman. The group recruited Steve Priest whom they had already worked with on bass and Andy Scott on guitar. Together, the band began recording records in the mold of bubblegum groups of the late 1960s who were at the height of their popularity.

On a side note, Chinn and Chapman went on to write and/or produce hit records for the Chrysalis Record label including “Hot Child In The City” for Nick Gilder, the Bondie albums Parallel Lines Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican and The Hunter in which Chapman wrote many of their hits, Get The Knack by The Knack including the hit “My Sharona,” Tina Turner’s “The Best” and “Better Be Good To Me,” Pat Benatar’s “Love Is A Battlefield” and production on albums by Divinyls, Rod Stewart, Lita Ford and many others.

After signing a record deal with RCA in the UK and Bell in the U.S., they began recording albums leading to thirteen top twenty UK hits including “Little Willie,” “Block Buster,” Funny Funny,” “Co-Co,” “Poppa Joe” and “Wig-Wam Bam.” The only single that made any impact on U.S. shores was “Little Willie” which climbed to #3 on the Billboard charts in 1973.

Today’s Song Of The Day was released as a single in 1974 in Europe, and then remixed and re-released the following year in the U.S. It was subsequently covered by the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Girlschool, Ace Frehley (of Kiss) and the Scorpions who recorded it in German. The Desolation Boulevard album also included the big hit “Ballroom Blitz” (another single I hated back then…and pretty much still hate now) and glam-tastic album tracks like “The Six Teens,” “Sweet F.A.” and “AC DC.”

It’s hard for me to imagine why I totally ignored records by Sweet, Kiss and Bad Company back in the day because they sound so good to me now. The only excuse I could come up with is that they just didn’t seem to be as “weighty” as records like Lou Reed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal, David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, John Lennon’s Walls And Bridges and Mott The Hoople’s Mott, to name but a few.

Song Of The Day – “Wake Me Up” by Elvis Costello & The Roots

May 13, 2020 by Eric Berman

After the release of Elvis Costello’s last two T. Bone Burnett-produced albums, he was ready to throw in the towel on his recording career seeing no point in going back into the studio to create new records that nobody would hear. And as a long-time Costello fan of 36 years who suffered through those albums, I was beginning to sadly think that it might’ve been the right decision.

Fortunately, inspiration struck in the oddest of places while guesting on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon TV show where The Roots have been the house band since the show’s inception. With a college of musical knowledge and a mutual love and thirst for all things sonic between Costello and Roots drummer, ?uestlove, a collaboration between the two seemed to be a match made in hipster heaven.

So, is this Costello’s hip hop album? Is it The Roots’ foray into punk rock?

Neither is true, but with his fedora tipped oddly to one side, Costello and The Roots have fashioned a narcotized, off-beat and off-kilter record drawing on both artists’ signature sound, while creating a groovy new sonic palate for all to taste.

Elvis: “It seemed like a good playground, a fabulous ride, to go in and play with a great band that has a broad-minded view of music. It felt like anything was possible.” ?uestlove: “We recorded a lot of it in our tiny little dressing room at 30 Rock, not a traditional studio, but Elvis had no hang-ups about that.”

In the spirit of sampling no doubt influenced by The Roots, Costello revisits his back catalog and repurposes lyrics from past songs for Wise Up Ghost’s tune stack. Once the novelty of playing spot the reference wears off, you’re still left with one of his strongest collections of songs in over a decade.

Today’s Song Of The Day (shown here from a the album’s kickoff concert in Brooklyn last week) plunders Costello’s 2004 track “Bedlam” from The Delivery Man and mingles it with the 2006 title track from his collaboration with Allen Toussaint The River In Reverse. “Stick Out Your Tongue” revisits the 1983 Imposter single “Pills And Soap” while incorporating “Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)” from his overlooked 1991 collection Mighty Like A Rose.

In the song “Refused To Be Saved” Elvis spits out lyrics from Mighty Like A Rose’s “Invasion Hit Parade,” as he approaches a rapper’s cadence accented by sharp horn blasts, and the stunningly beautiful urban doo wop of “Tripwire” hearkens back to the song “Satellite,” from Costello’s 1989 album Spike. One of the most beguiling tracks on the collection is “Cinco Minutos Con Vos,” a sinuous horn-infused duet with singer La Marisoul of the band La Santa Cecelia.

Elsewhere, The Roots’ influence shines through on the woozy funk of “Sugar Won’t Work” and the Princely soul of “Viceroy’s Row.” Their use of string arrangements to create a sonic tension in “Refused To Be Saved” and “Wise Up Ghost” create a symphonic funk sound reminiscent of classic Isaac Hayes.

And if to reassert his influence on the proceedings, ?uestlove’s drums introduce many of the album’s songs including “(She Might Be A) Grenade,” “Walk Us Uptown,” and “Viceroy’s Row,” exposing The Roots’ penchant for building songs up from the rhythm tracks first.

Costello and The Roots have created a soulful socially conscious musical bouillabaisse with Wise Up Ghost; a kind of a What’s Goin’ On and Superfly for the twenty-teens…and a record for the ages by both artists.

Song Of The Day – “Baja” by The Astronauts

May 11, 2020 by Eric Berman

They were a surf group from Boulder, Colorado. Yup, you heard that right, the group was from Colorado, where there is no ocean in sight, and yet they recorded nine surf albums for RCA Records during the 1960s.

The Astronauts consisted of Rich Fifield (guitar and vocals), Jon “Storm” Patterson (guitar and vocals), Bob Demmon (guitar), Dennis Lindsey (guitar) and Jim Gallagher (drums). When the group went into the recording studio to record their first album in 1963, they’d never heard of or played surf music before.

Their first single was “Baja” which was written by none other than Lee Hazelwood (who was famous for his production work with Duane Eddy and Nancy Sinatra). The song was the group’s only appearance on the U.S. charts, where it flew all the way up to the none-too-impressive height of #94, and stayed for one solitary week.

The song was from their debut album, Surfin’ With The Astronauts (released in 1963) and featured covers of some of the biggest surf hits of the day including “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Miserlou,” “Pipeline,” “Susie Q,” “Let’s Go Trippin’,” “Batman” and “Banzai Pipeline” (written by Henry Mancini, no less). Their other classic single was the hot rod tune, “Competition Coupe,” which also served as the title cut from one of their albums of, you guessed it, hot rod tunes.

But while success seemed to elude The Astronauts here in the states, they found they were “Big In Japan” (as the song title goes), where they scored a number one hit with the song “Movin’” (retitled “Over The Sun” for the Japanese market) and three top-ten albums.

By 1967, it was pretty much over for The Astronauts when Gallagher and Lindsey were drafted and went to Viet Nam. However, Fifield did go on to become a member of one of the versions of the psychedelic rock group, The Electric Prunes.

Song Of The Day – “Hot Stuff” by The Rolling Stones

May 9, 2020 by Eric Berman

Today’s Song Of The Day comes from the Rolling Stones’ 1976 album Black And Blue. Next to Goats Head Soup, the album stands as one of the most maligned Rolling Stones releases of the 1970s. That assessment is totally unfair since the album actually is one of the most varied and forward looking records in their catalog, featuring two superb ballads, two terse rockers and several songs that add reggae, soul, funk and disco into the mix.

Many of the record’s songs stemmed from studio jams that were recorded while trying out new guitarists to replace Mick Taylor, and guitarists Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel turn up on half of the tracks. The record is also Ron Wood’s first album as a member of the Stones and his guitar is heard on the other half of the tracks. (Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton also auditioned for the band; however they do not appear on the record at all.) It is also Billy Preston’s most visible album as a Stones sideman and his vocals and piano playing turn up on most of the tracks, especially on “Melody” which carries the credit “inspiration from Billy Preston.”

The marketing campaign leading up to Black And Blue’s release included a controversial billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood depicting model Anita Russell black and blued and tied up with the caption “I’m Black And Blue from the Rolling Stones — and I love it!” The billboard attracted protests from Women Against Violence Against Women, and was ultimately taken down. The billboard’s central image was also the focal point of the album’s print campaign, and it turned up in magazines and newspapers all over the world.

Today’s Song Of The Day, “Hot Stuff” was the second single from the album and one of the band’s first forays into funk and disco. The track features lyrically effervescent soloing courtesy of Harvey Mandel, and the tail end of the track features some of Jagger’s greatest vocals ever. (In the video, Wood is seen playing Mandel’s solo.)

The album also includes two of the band’s most sturdy ballads, the super melodic top-ten “Fool To Cry” featuring wonderful falsetto vocals by Jagger, and “Memory Motel” which features dueling vocals by both Jagger and Richards. Both songs received deserved radio airplay, and are the only two songs on the record that were formally written and less the result of studio jams.

Richards gets his reggae on with a cover of Eric Donaldson’s 1971 classic “Cherry Oh Baby,” and the two rockers “Hand Of Fate” and the album’s closer “Crazy Mama” stand head and shoulders tall with some of the group’s very best.

Elsewhere, the band tries their hand at gnarly funk on “Hey Negrita” (which is credited with inspiration from Ron Wood) and some very loose pseudo lounge jazz on “Melody.” Both songs show their jam-based roots more than the others on the record.

After its release, the album spent four weeks at #1 in U.S., and the single “Fool To Cry” reached the top ten on the charts. While certainly a transitional effort, the album paved the way for the band’s 1978 mega comeback record, Some Girls and its chart-topping single “Miss You.”

Song Of The Day – “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive

May 8, 2020 by Eric Berman

In 1971 the rock godz gave us Fragile by Yes…and three years later, they bestowed upon us the riff fest known as Not Fragile by BTO!

There’s something to be said about what I call “big dumb rock records.” They’re the riff-crazy tracks that make you grab for your air guitar whilst rocking your head back and forth…oh, and don’t forget the obligatory pain-ridden facial expressions a la Carlos Santana.

We’ve all been there and I still go there today from time-to-time. Anybody who’s been to a concert with me can attest to this fact. It ain’t pretty…but it’s the rock abandon that tracks like the title track to BTO’s Not Fragile (written by C.F. Turner) conjure that makes it all happen. Simply put, the track is the consummate air guitar song and probably the band’s most riff-heavy moment.

The Not Fragile album was BTO’s most popular (non-compilation) album, reaching number one on the LP charts in 1974. The record was their first album with Blair Thornton on guitar, giving the album its twin lead guitar heaviosity, and it contained two of the group’s best-loved singles, the freewheelin’ “Roll On Down The Highway,” and today’s Song Of The Day, the chart-topping “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” The rest of the BTO line-up consisted of Randy and Robbie Bachman on guitar and drums respectively, plus C.F. Turner on bass.

And today’s Song Of The Day, and the group’s biggest hit ever wasn’t even intended for the album! “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” was born out of a jam and originally recorded as a scratch track to get levels in the recording studio. Randy Bachman added the song’s signature stutter as a joke for his brother Gary who stuttered. When the band presented the album to Mercury Records for release, the suits didn’t hear a surefire hit single on it and asked Bachman if he had anything else. Bachman reluctantly dug up the scratch track and, of course, they loved it.

Even so, Bachman only agreed to add the song to the record if he could re-record the vocals without the stutter. Bachman: “I tried to sing it normal, but I sounded like Frank Sinatra. It didn’t fit.” Ultimately, it was the original stutter version that had all the magic, and that is what we hear on the album.

Bachman, however, didn’t want it released as a single and the band went with “Roll On Down The Highway” as the album’s first single which peaked at #14 on the U.S. singles charts. Meanwhile, radio DJs started playing “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” as an album cut and it began to gain popularity. As a result, the song was finally released as a single and went on to sell over a million copies and top the charts. It was, in fact, BTO’s only chart-topping U.S. hit.

The Who had already set the precedent for the use of stuttering on a rock record with their single “My Generation,” but The Who similarities didn’t end there. Many people believe that the chord progression of “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” is indeed a rip of The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly.”

Meanwhile, stuttering has gone on to become a popular element in songs like “Bennie And The Jets” by Elton John, “Changes” by David Bowie, “Bad To The Bone” by George Thorogood & The Destroyers, “My Sharona” by The Knack, “Welcome To The Jungle” by Guns N Roses and “Check It Out” by The Beastie Boys, to name but a few. What other stutter songs can you name?

Song Of The Day – “Haunts Of Ancient Peace” by Van Morrison

May 5, 2020 by Eric Berman

Here we have one of Van Morrison’s most soulful pieces of music, originally from one of his most underrated albums. Common One was released in 1980 and features six deeply moving extended jazz meditations that hawked back to Morrison’s classic Astral Weeks album in sound and texture.

However, unlike Astral Weeks, this record’s release was met with unanimous derision from the critics who didn’t understand the literary and jazz underpinnings of the music and found it ponderous and boring. While the record does lack the kind of immediacy that grabs you on the first listen, it does reap generous rewards upon further listening.

The title of this song was named from a 1902 book by Alfred Austin (Poet Laureate 1896-1912). This version features the same band that played on the album, and was recorded at Montreux before the album’s release. The personnel featured new band members Mark Isham on trumpet, John Allair on organ and synthesizer, Pee Wee Ellis on saxophones and Peter Van Hooke on drums. The rest of the band is filled out with Morrison’s Caledonia Soul Orchestra members Jeff Labes on piano, John Platania on guitar, David Hayes on bass and Dahaud Shaar on percussion.

Song Of The Day – “Sheila Take A Bow” by The Smiths

May 4, 2020 by Eric Berman

The Who called them “odds and sods.”

These were the songs that didn’t fit on their proper albums. Typically, they were non-album singles, B-sides and stray tracks recorded for outside compilations, movie soundtracks and other projects that either didn’t fit, or were never considered for, inclusion on their proper albums. They were also songs that may not have been released all over the world, but were only released, for whatever reason in specific regions.

The “odds and sods” compilation album made for an easy stop-gap project between new albums, creating more revenue for the artist and new product for the labels to market. At the same time, the “odds and sods” compilation also satisfied the desire of die-hard fans who want everything they can wrap their ears around by their favorite artists.

Some great examples of the “odds and sods” compilation include The Who’s aptly titled 1974 collection Odds And Sods, Elvis Costello’s Taking Liberties The Beatles’ Past Masters and the album where today’s Song Of The Day hails from; Louder Than Bombs by The Smiths.

The Smiths consisted of Morrissey on vocals, Johnny Marr on guitar, Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums, and the combo of Morrissey and Marr guaranteed sharp lyric songs that were high in equal parts of drama and melody.

Louder Than Bombs has become one of the most essential of all The Smiths’ releases because it features so many of their classic hits, including “Shoplifters Of the World Unite,” “Ask,” “Panic,” “Shakespeare’s Sister,” “William It Was Really Nothing,” “Hand In Glove” and “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.” And if that isn’t enough, many of the B-sides collected on the album are also of top-shelf quality including “London,” “Half A Person,” “Girl Afraid,” “Back To The Old House,” “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” and “Is It Really So Strange.”

The album was the counterpart to the UK compilations Hatful Of Hollow and The World Won’t Listen, however Bombs became so popular as an import in the UK, that Rough Trade (their British label) ultimately released it and it climbed to #38 on their album charts.

The jacket for Louder Than Bombs features an image from The Saturday Evening Post of British playwright Shelagh Delaney of Salford, Greater Manchester. Delaney’s play, A Taste Of Honey inspired many lyrics to several of Morrissey’s early songs including “This Night Has Opened My Eyes,” which is included on the album.

Today’s Song Of the Day, “Sheila Take A Bow” was originally released as a single and reached the #10 spot on the UK charts in 1987. Morrissey had intended for ‘60s pop vocalist Sandie Shaw to sing background vocals on this track (as she had previously done on “Hand In Glove” and “I Don’t Owe You Anything”), however on the day of the session Morrissey was out sick. Morrissey’s absence from the session apparently rattled Shaw and her vocals weren’t up to snuff and ultimately scrapped. Shaw later told the press that she thought the song was horrid anyway.

Several versions of the song exist. An early version produced by John Porter featured a prominent sitar line which was deleted from the Steven Street produced released version. The single also featured two John Peel Session recordings on the flip; “Is It Really So Strange” and “Sweet And Tender Hooligan.” Both songs were ultimately released along with the A-side on Louder Than Bombs.

As with many Smiths singles and albums up to this point, the 45’s cover featured a still from a film. The cover star of Sheila Take A Bow was actress Candy Darling (who was a member of Andy Warhol’s Factory entourage and immortalized in the Lou Reed song “Walk On The Wild Side”), in a still from the 1971 film Women In Revolt.

Over its four sides, The Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs has become an essential addition to the group’s catalog, and holds up better than most of their regular album releases.

So for a little trivia and just to make sure people actually read my posts, what are your favorite “odds and sods” collections?

Song Of The Day – “Rock On” by David Essex

May 3, 2020 by Eric Berman

It was the era of T. Rex’s Electric Warrior, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Lou Reed’s Transformer. Glam rock was all the rage as were Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople and The New York Dolls. And there was also a new brand of power pop taking the charts by storm at the same time with hits like “Little Willie” by Sweet, “Go All The Way” by Raspberries and later “Saturday Night” by Bay City Rollers.

Enter David Essex…British actor and future glam rock pinup star. Essex had an acting career appearing in the musical Godspell in 1971 and later in the film That’ll Be The Day where he came to the attention of British and American audiences alike with today’ Song Of The Day.

So it was just a matter of time for him to take on the world of recorded music with this self-penned two-time hit from 1973. The bass player on this sinuous track is Herbie Flowers who went on to play bass for David Bowie on the Diamond Dogs album the following year.

This song is the ultimate glam-pop confection, a sticky piece of ear candy with a slicing string arrangement and echo-laden bass riff. It should be no surprise that the track made it into the U.S. top five by 1974. Such was the popularity of the song that it would eventually top the charts again in 1988, when it was recorded by TV soap opera star Michael Damien.

While Essex will forever be associated mainly with this song in America, and perhaps his appearance in Jeff Wayne’s musical interpretation of The War Of the Worlds from 1978, he has led a long acting career primarily in the UK, where he has performed in the musicals Evita (and scored the top-five British hit “Oh What A Circus.”), Aspects Of Love and Footloose.