http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zepxgMEz5IM
Those female backing vocalists look like they'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.
The death of R&B singer Bobby Womack was announced last Friday. He died of undisclosed causes at age 70. His songs included the Top 10 hit "Lookin' For a Love" (which also topped the R&B chart) and "Across 110th Street," but my personal favorite is his duet with Todd Rundgren called "The Want of a Nail." Here's footage of the song's recording. Who knew Rundgren had soul?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zepxgMEz5IM Those female backing vocalists look like they'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.
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Top 10 Songs
That Might've Been If Twerking Was Invented Earlier 10. "Twerkin' For A Livin'" 9. "Don't Twerk To Strangers" 8. "Twerking In L.A." 7. "We Can Twerk It Out" 6. "Twerkin' Robin" 5. "I Started A Twerk" 4. "Twerk It To The Limit" 3. "Twerking In Your Sleep" 2. "Twerking In A Coal Mine" 1. "Young Twerks" Honorable Mention Lyrics: "I'm a joker I'm a smoker I'm a midnight twerker" "Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man No time to twerk" "You know you twerk, little girl You know you twerk so fine Why don't you twerk a little closer now And let me know that you're mine" Here's some notes from yesterday's retro Top 40 countdown, the first aired since Casey Kasem's death. This edition focused on this week's Top 40 songs from 1978, where I heard this lyric:
"Suzie wants to be a lady director And Eddie wants to drive a hearse" Not the most promising opening to a first verse in music history, but nonetheless it came from the #28 song this week: "Almost Summer" by Celebration featuring Mike Love. Celebration's lineup included two members of King Harvest, the one-hit-wonders who charted with "Dancing in the Moonlight," and Mike Love came from the Beach Boys, three of whom wrote said song. The tune came from the film Almost Summer, and because there seem to be no plot summaries of the film on the Internet that extend more than one sentence, I have no idea whether that opening line lists character motivations relevant to the cinematic work itself. (Obviously, I have never seen the film.) Anyway, here's the song; a nice, bright little tune with a cute reference to "Little Deuce Coupe": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6GuVu703To Disco's fine, but listening to the Top 40 countdowns from 1978-79 I can appreciate how some people were getting tired of the genre's chart oversaturation. I love the Bee Gees, but I'm going to pick on them as an example. This week the #31 song was Frankie Valli's "Grease", the title track from the movie written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees that would eventually top the singles chart. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1V7EwR5w2A The #1 song this week was Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing," written by Andy with his three Bee Gee brothers. Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxA3FVUwvk Let's face it, that's almost the exact same song. Even the string and horn arrangements are similar. But maybe that similarity of styles let both Gibb and Valli easily slip into this phenomenal duet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhrPTu-1kSI If you're wondering if I held it together while listening to the first rerun countdown aired since Kasem's death, I assure you that I was fine. It saddened me more to hear Kasem announce that Andy Gibb's achievement made him the only male singer in music history to have his first three releases top the chart. I rank Andy as "good, not great" and never thought he was anywhere near as talented as his brothers, but it still saddened me to hear Kasem excitedly announce the Gibb brother's accomplishment with the 20/20 hindsight of knowing how Andy would flush his career and his life away with his rampant drug abuse. And I started this entry by talking about a hearse. Another retromercial from YouTube. This time, it's a piece of 1960s psychedelic animation for F & F Throat Lozenges (whatever those were). It reminds me of the Letterman segments from The Electric Company with a little bit of R. Crumb thrown in. Far out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKiTFSb3VRw Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows it's a no-brainer what today's entry covers. Casey Kasem died yesterday at age 82 after a battle with Parkinson's disease and dementia. Best known as a DJ, I'd also like to remember him as a wise man whose signoff line "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars" is as good advice as any.
He was primarily known for his syndicated "American Top 40" pop countdown, but he also did voiceover work including Shaggy in the Scooby-Doo animated franchise and Alexander Cabot III in the Josie and the Pussycats cartoons. Kasem also did some narration behind some animated segments that debuted during the first season of Sesame Street. Here's the best known one, "advertising" the letter B. You may remember this as one of the segments watched by Drew Barrymore in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyqesU0Jdto Remember what I wrote a couple entries back about the first decade of Sesame Street having a somewhat anarchic quality about it? :) This is the classic 1977 track "Trans-Europe Express" by the German synthesizer group Kraftwerk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBGNlTPgQII As I listened to it, It occurred to me that the part that begins at the 1:00 mark reminds me a lot of this piece of 1982 Americana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbnCQnDnfjs No, it does not escape me that the last 5 letters of Kraftwerk is "twerk." Continuing the glimpse at the first 15 pieces of pop I owned as I started my music collection 25 years ago.
8. & 9. George Harrison - Somewhere in England and Gone Troppo Place of Purchase: Wal-Mart These came from the huge discount bin of tapes Wal-Mart used to have that you had to dig through. I don't think I've seen one there since 1999-ish. I had liked "All Those Years Ago" off England since it was popular when I was 6, and I just got Troppo out of curiosity. Alas, these are the only 2 on the list no longer with us; they were chewed up a long time ago more from lack of quality control on Warner Bros. Records' part than anything I did with them. Choice Cut (England): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Smw33PKJA Choice Cut (Troppo): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcoIQXp0-Ts 10. Caddyshack movie soundtrack Place of Purchase: Camelot Music (R.I.P.), Mall of Memphis (R.I.P.), Memphis, TN. Kenny Loggins' "I'm Alright" was another favorite of mine as a kid, and the attraction only grew as I became more independent as a teenager and adult. Would love to find this on CD if it even exists for the Hilly Michaels track and the rocked-up version of the "1812 Overture." Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSUyYSQie8 11. Ghostbusters II movie soundtrack Place of Purchase: Musicland OK, this one is a bit lame. I like the chart-topping Bobby Brown hit at the time, but now I find its drum-machine-heavy production annoying, so I guess I'll highlight the Glenn Frey track off this instead. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2CcyOewcCA 12. Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw & the Cooked Place of Purchase: I actually don't remember. I'm getting old. :) One mega-album, and then you disappear. It's still a good album, though. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHYnS9Dm-g8 13. XTC - Oranges and Lemons Place of Purchase - gift (Wal-Mart) I won this on a bet from my mother over which Milli Vanilli video I had taped for her. I internally gag just writing that. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t2j8NcVpW4 14. and 15. Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt and Give My Regards to Broad Street movie soundtrack Places of Purchase - Flowers from Wal-Mart, Street from Camelot I already covered Dirt two entries back. I probably got Street on the grounds that I liked "Good Day Sunshine" and "Ballroom Dancing." Despite how much my mother tells me she played "No More Lonely Nights" when it was popular, I don't remember it at all. This was my first exposure to Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere," and I still prefer the McCartney version on here on the original. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67TePwGLlEs As promised, here's the first part of the list of the first 15 cassettes I ever owned. It actually didn't take long to come up with the list, but I refused to cheat and search through the boxes for hints. This was in 1989, and I was 14. I am now 39 and my entire music collection (records, cassettes, CDs) now totals more than 15 cubical moving boxes of material. And it all started with one tape....
1. The Beatles - Rock and Roll Music (Tape 1) Place of Purchase: (gift from Wal-Mart, Jonesboro, AR) My mother decided that I was so into "Twist and Shout" thanks to its inclusion in the films Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Back To School that she had to buy me the tape. The journey begins... Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgd46QiHz4I 2. The Beatles - Rock and Roll Music (Tape 2) Place of Purchase: Wal-Mart So then I had to go out and get the second volume. It was only $4.98 or so from the Wal-Mart discount tape bin, meaning you didn't have to mess with the annoying anti-theft plastic protector. The Rock collections were cheapie Capitol Records Beatles cash-in collections, making them possibly the only Beatles recordings ever to make the cut-out section. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR9JMwzxybE 3. The Beatles - Yellow Submarine movie soundtrack Place of Purchase: gift, (probably from Musicland, Indian Mall, Jonesboro, AR) After seeing the Yellow Submarine clips of "All You Need is Love" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" during the VH-1 Imagine: John Lennon weekend promoting the documentary of the same name, I became obsessed with seeing the animated film, so my mother rented it for me from the local National Video for my birthday that year. It did not disappoint and is still in my Top 10 favorite films. The second side of the tape is George Martin's orchestra score, which, interestingly, I appreciated as a "hip" teenager and is still despised by supposedly hardcore adult Beatles fans. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AWBENDJDk8 4. The Beatles - Beatles '65 Place of Purchase: Musicland "I'm a Loser" was sort of a teenage angst song for me. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYnbtI2VuwQ 5. Bangles - Everything Place of Purchase: Musicland Don't give up hope, I did like SOME current music of the time. "Eternal Flame" served as a soundtrack for a girl crush I had at the time. This is still one of my favorite albums and one of the most solid recordings ever made with not a bad track on it. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSoOFn3wQV4 6. Beach Boys - Best of Beach Boys, Vol. 2 Place of Purchase: K-Mart, Jonesboro, AR My father and I played this on the way to my first rock concert - the Beach Boys at Mud Island Ampitheater in Memphis, TN. We were in the nosebleed bleachers but it was still a lot of fun. My souvenir T-shirt still fits and I still wear it! (As I recall, though, this tape is barely 30 minutes long.) Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_gmNTHYQ2k 7. Blues Brothers - Best of the Blues Brothers Place of Purchase: Waldenbooks, Indian Mall, Jonesboro, AR There may be somebody out there who knows the real reason this cassette was bought. Hopefully, that videocassette of evidence was erased a long time ago. All I can say is I like the music. Choice Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5wg9XXaNU That's all for today. Check back this week for the remaining 8 tapes. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Paul McCartney's 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt. It's one of McCartney's best albums which included four songwriting collaborations with Elvis Costello, including the first single "My Brave Face." The summer of 1989 hosted a bunch of comebacks, most of them temporary, from acts ranging from Bee Gees to the Doobie Brothers to Donna Summer that saw them placing songs in the Top 10. Despite McCartney's publicists and the media attempts to ride that train of hype, McCartney's song didn't perform as well, stopping at #25. The album only made #21 but still sold more than 500,000 copies for gold certification. Costello actually got the last laugh as "Veronica," a song the two wrote that appeared on Costello's album Spike, became a rare hit single for him and made the Top 20 with both occupying the Top 40 at the same time. What is more, "Veronica" was inspired by Costello's grandmother's affliction with Alzheimer's disease, not exactly the subject of your usual pop tune.
Anyway, here's McCartney performing "My Brave Face" on UK TV in 1990, with a bunch of girls half his age in the audience dancing much faster than the song's tempo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9euXUhEGj2w Here's another highlight from the album, "We Got Married," about how people get hitched and their love matures, etc. Here's a 1990 live performace from Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVsiFcDBA_Y The album's closing track was "Ou Est Le Soleil?" a pretty cool and trippy dance song that showed McCartney could stretch himself when he wants to. To save you from the embarrassing too-cutesy video he made for it, I found this really cool one that shows some computer graphics an artist created while listening to the track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtmolwHLwH0 This release date also has great meaning for me, as it was one of the first pop music recordings I ever bought. I remember getting the tape from Wal-Mart with my dad, back in the days when that store used to put their cassettes in these awful unwieldy long cases composed of thick plastic with handles to prevent theft THAT THE EMPLOYEES WERE TOO LAZY TO REMOVE AT THE REGISTER that you had to fight with when you got home. (The clerks at Musicland and Camelot in the mall seemed to have no problem removing THEIRS at the register.) I remember me and my parents fighting with many of those cases and trying to split them with a large pair of scissors, when a samurai sword was probably better suited for the job. My journey into the wonderful world of music consumption began 25 years ago. Wow. I'm going to have to see if I can remember what the first 15 tapes I owned that filled my very first cassette box were. Check back Monday. |
Walburgh's BlogMostly retro, mainly music, but generally whatever's on my mind. Archives
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