This column is dedicated to featuring those bands that aren’t household names but, to my ears, should be.
Growing up in a small town in southern Michigan, the closest major city was Chicago. We were still a good two hours away, though, so it was with great inconsistency that my little bedside transistor radio picked up Chicago rock powerhouse WLS (home of legendary rock DJ Larry Lujack). During the fateful summer of ‘79, while Cheap Trick enjoyed their first taste of national and international success, another Chicago band was also ruling the Windy City airwaves.
That band was Off Broadway, and the song was “Stay in Time,” the first single from their Atlantic Records debut, On. Comprised of simple elements — as is the case with all great rock songs — there was something about “Stay in Time” that was nevertheless unlike anything else. (more…)
In 1975, music critic Jon Landau, having seen Springsteen’s performance at the Harvard Square Theater, wrote the immortal words, “I saw rock and roll’s future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
From the moment I heard Bruce Gary’s infectious drum beat on the intro to “My Sharona”, I was hooked. I had never heard of this band, The Knack. Then, of course, they were everywhere. “Good Girls Don’t” was the follow-up hit that proved once and for all this was no one-hit wonder. They were a two-hit wonder!
“…but the little girls understand” came only months later and it seemed to sound so much like “Get The Knack, Part 2″ to me that I was not at all surprised the tracks had been recorded during the same sessions and that the band had initially hoped to release “Get The Knack” as a double-album.
My favorite Knack record, without a doubt, is “Round Trip”. Oddly enough, it is the album that got the band dropped by Capitol Records for being a complete commercial failure.
If “Get The Knack” was their “Meet The Beatles, “Round Trip” was The Knack’s “Revolver”. With songs like “Art War”, “Africa”, and “We Are Waiting”, they fused psychedelia with jazz chops and, while there were the obligatory standard pop songs (”Radiating Love” and “Soul Kissin’, for example), this experimental approach completely alienated the fans.
The band later broke up, Fieger having become addicted to heroin(!). They would reform repeatedly, as Fieger and Gary made half-hearted attempts to work around their differences. It was not to be, though.
Bruce Gary, of course, passed away last year, making any further full reunions impossible.
The good news, of course, is that The Knack are still very much alive, gigging consistently in the wake of Fieger’s recent recovery from cancer.
The band’s 1979 Carnegie Hall appearance was perhaps the pinnacle of Knack-mania, if you will. Here are some tracks from that performance.
One of the most dramatic success stories of 2007 is Amy Winehouse, who first captivated us with her stunningly retro hit, “Rehab”, then flew off the rails in a haze of drug and self-abuse. As the UK tabloids detail a life in quick decline, one can only hope that this immensely talented individual will eventually win out over the demons that seek to thwart her rise to greatness. Whether you dig her music, or not, I am hopeful that your prayers will be with her and that we are able to hear more from this potentially legendary artist.
I, too, entered a period where success sought to bring out every insecurity I had in myself. Every time you’re told you aren’t good enough, every time the kids in school make fun of you, every time your parents criticize you, will be magnified ten-fold the closer you get to realizing your dream. Alcohol brought me out of my shell when video shoots, photo shoots, and press interviews required that I be something other than the introverted person that I was 97% of the time. That was as far as it went, though. No hard stuff. I can only imagine that if I had been exposed to the things Amy has been exposed to, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this blog. Sad to say, really.
Even sadder is the idea that Amy might not pull out of this tailspin and that she might be so devoid of self-respect that she allows herself to succumb to the voices that tell her she isn’t good enough. She IS good enough, goddammit. It’s a fuckin’ sad-ass world if she’s unable to allow herself to believe that when it matters most.
My thoughts and prayers are with this crazy, lost, mixed-up girl who’s no different than the rest of us when it comes to feeling like shit sometimes. She’s got that special something, though…something that you can’t necessarily describe…and I hope she sticks around.
I was such a wee lad when the first Boston album came out in 1976 that I remember little else from the time, but I distinctly remember how much an impact the record had on the music world. First, there was the distinctive guitar-shaped spaceship on the cover telling you this was not your everyday rock band. Then there was the sound of the album itself. Aside from some truly stellar songs, Scholz production resulted an album that sounded as if it had been cut twenty or thirty years in the future and then deposited in a time machine set for 1976.
MIT engineering graduate Tom Scholz had been dabbling in music since he was a kid, going so far as to invent some of the amplification that would be used in the recording of the album. Despite being impressed by Scholz home demos, Epic had demanded that the band re-record the album at a professional studio. Aside from recording one song at a California studio with John Boylan, though, the recording budget was spent on beefing up the equipment in Tom’s home studio, where the remaining seven songs were recorded without Epic knowing the difference.
With Boston more a concept than a functioning band up to that point, the classic Boston line-up of Scholz, singer Brad Delp, guitarist Barry Goudreau, bassist Fran Sheehan, and drummer Sib Hashian was hastily assembled and comprised mostly of musicians Scholz had worked with in other Boston-area bands.
The band would soon fracture into separate factions after the release of “Don’t Look Back” in 1978, with Goudreau pursuing a brief solo career before forming Orion The Hunter (with future Boston singer Fran Cosmo) and RTZ (with former Boston singer Brad Delp) in later years.
Critics often reflexively deride Boston as one of the many corporate rock bands that came to prominence in the 70’s, but, truth be told, they were the product of Scholz’ D.I.Y. determination. He got where he was by sticking to his guns, going so far as to deceive the label to maintain artistic control of the album by recording at home. The fact that the album went on to sell millions owes just as much to Scholz’ talents as a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist as Epic’s considerable clout as THE label for the best American rock had to offer.
Here’s a new spin on a classic album, live cuts of each track from “Boston”:
I liked Snow Patrol back when they were just an Irish band getting some BBC airplay for their first album. In hindsight, the first album sounds pretty embryonic, but, still, there was just something about the singer’s voice that connected with me.
Years later, I picked up “Final Straw” at a time when I was going through some upheaval in my personal life (read: chick trouble) and, point blank, that album got me through some tough sh*t. I was working at eHarmony, answering emails from people who were also looking for “the love of their life” and there I was; a guy whose own love life was in shambles. For several months, all I did was show up at work, put “Final Straw” in my PC, and answer emails from hundreds of people who were having troubles of their own. Singer Gary Lightbody’s lyrics hit so close to home that it was sometimes a little hard to listen to, but the songs were so undeniable. There was just enough joy amidst the angst to raise my spirits.
With the release of “Eyes Open”, we find Gary still lamenting the relationship that crashed and burned just prior to Final Straw and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Just kidding, of course. Again, the songs wear their lyrical heart on their sleeve and one can’t help wonder just what the heck poor Gary did to f*** things up so badly that here he is two years later still trying to find his way out of the debris.
In homage to one of the most-played albums on my numerous road trips this past year, I’ve compiled a sort of alternate Eyes Open, comprised of live versions I’ve gathered. Even if you’ve played this CD as often as I have over the past couple years, some of these performances will breath new life into these great, albeit familiar songs. Also note the cool mash-up of “Chasing Cars/Every Breath You Take”.
The Beatles were my first love, musically. I remember being a young kid and having my uncle play me a copy of “Help!”. I hadn’t even heard of the Beatles and, from the first moment they hit the screen, I was transfixed. In the film, the Beatles all share a huge flat and John Lennon sleeps in a bed that’s built into the floor. That, perhaps more than anything, captured my imagination. I decided right then and there that the only way to have a bed in the floor like John Lennon was to be a rocker myself. Swear to god, one day I will have a bed that’s built into the floor.
So, without further delay, here are a few Help! and Abbey Road-era tunes in a variety of alternate formats:
In our second installment of tracks from Cheap Trick’s legendary New Year’s Eve show at L.A.’s Forum, we’re going to forego any further delay of gratification and focus on the hits. “Give the people what they want”, as The Kinks would say a couple years later. Oh, and some of our fave tracks from the “Dream Police” album.
While “Dream Police” was a record that furthered their chart domination at the time, it is an album that fails to garner as much hipster respect as the band’s prior three studio records and that, quite frankly, is a shame, as it is easily on par with “In Color” or “Heaven Tonight”. Truth be told, their stunning bone-jarring debut record is without equal. Period.
Exclamation point.
But tracks such as the highly conceptual “Dream Police” itself (which is an unheralded lyrical tour de force, however kitschy you may feel the actual song is) and “Voices” are simply two examples of some of the best songwriting to come from that particular decade. “I’ll Be With You Tonight” - sigh - how was this song not a Top 40 hit, much less a Top 10 smash? Like the album’s title track, it opens with a soaring chorus first, making it tailor-made for rock radio. The rest of the song just flat-out rocks and Robin Zander’s voice elevates the entire performance as Daltrey did for the best Who songs, Plant on all the chill-inducing Zep tunes, and so on. If you haven’t already, check out the live version we made available in yesterday’s post.
“The House Is Rockin’” is probably considered by most Trick fans to be somewhat of a throwaway track. We personally think it’s a great cut, but, admittedly, it tends to get lost amid the stellar tracks that dominate this album. Any other band would be patting themselves on the back and pricing mansions in the Hollywood Hills upon recording a track that cool. In Trick’s case, it ended up as a B-side.
On New Year’s Eve 1979, Cheap Trick, riding a crest of massive international success via the multi-platinum At Budokan record (and the newly released Dream Police), came to L.A.’s Forum arena and rocked it to the foundation.
Anyone who’d had any suspicions that the intensity of At Budokan was somehow manufactured could have tuned in to KLOS and heard for themselves that Cheap Trick was, indeed, the real deal.Listening to these tracks more than 25 years later, my jaw dropped just like it did back in the day.
There have been thousands of bands since, but very few bring the rock like Cheap Trick did in ‘79, much less today. While their studio output has slowed, and the quality is certainly arguable, they continue to be a dependably raucous live act.
In trying to figure out which Trick tracks to make available this week, I figured I’d showcase a particular show that included some material that we as Trick fans haven’t already heard ad infinitum over the years.
A particular favorite of mine was a German show (for Rockpalast) from 1983. What makes this show so memorable is the appearance of some Next Position Please-era material that truly comes alive in a concert setting (whereas the studio versions were a bit flat, to my ears). Seriously, check out their live version of “Next Position Please”. Once you do, you realize how cool the song coulda been if Rundgren hadn’t been at the helm (not that I have anything Todd, of course).
Heck, they even played “Reach Out” and “Everything Works If You Let It”, which I never heard once the year before despite catching the band numerous times durijng the US leg of their One On One tour.
Those lucky Germans!
In addition, if you pay careful attention, you’ll hear a set of vocals singing impeccable harmonies right along with Zander. You’ll also hear pianos and synths throughout. All of this is compliments of tour singer/keyboardist Magic Christian, who was on-board for the Next Position Please tour.
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Popdose represents the coming together of a veritable Who's Who of music bloggers and and an ever-expanding roster of writers who have made it their mission to experience the best and worst in pop culture — from music to movies to books, with a dash of current events thrown in for good measure — so you don't have to. Popdose delivers coverage both in-depth (the all-encompassing 
