So before we get started with today’s chart, I need to call your attention to those purty lil’ Amazon graphics below. They were created by the awesome Brian Ibbott, the man behind my favorite podcast (after the Popdose podcast, of course), Coverville. I figured Brian had taken them from the Amazon website, and since I couldn’t find them over at Amazon, I just took ‘em straight from Brian. I didn’t mean to be a thief, but turns out I am. So all credit for that nifty graphic that nobody clicks on goes to Brian — thanks, Brian! And if you’re not listening to Coverville, you’re missing out on one of the best, most compelling podcasts on the web. Check it out!
Okay, so now that I’ve stopped Brian’s team of blood-thirsty lawyers in their tracks (kidding!), we can take a look at this week’s chart. And I don’t mean to cast a cloud over this Top 10, but I’m not thrilled with most of these songs. Although three of them did hit #1 (one of them is actually the #1 hit of 1977), five of them didn’t make the Top 100 of either 1976 or 1977 at all. And as you’ll see, the songs that actually did hit #1 aren’t that great either. Things were better earlier in 1976 and later in 1977, but this specific week is, in my opinion, a low point. Do you agree? Let me know — and let’s attack November 20, 1976!
10. Do You Feel Like We Do — Peter Frampton 9. Beth — Kiss 8. Just to Be Close to You — Commodores 7. Rock’n Me — Steve Miller 6. The Rubberband Man — Spinners 5. Disco Duck (Part 1) — Rick Dees 4. Muskrat Love — Captain & Tennille 3. Love So Right — Bee Gees 2. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald — Gordon Lightfoot 1. Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright) — Rod Stewart
10. Do You Feel Like We Do — Peter Frampton
One day, if I’m lucky enough to have kids as geeky as I am (seems kind of inevitable), I’ll sit them down and tell them about the improbability of this song’s success. Sure, I’ll have to explain terms like “double album,” “record label” and “radio,” but I think it’ll be worth it. I’ll explain to them how Peter Frampton managed to remain on a major record label, A&M, despite the fact that his first three albums (as well as his first eight singles) didn’t even crack the Hot 100 (”what’s the Hot 100, daddy?”) and his fourth album peaked at #32. And that despite these failures, A&M decided that his next release should be a live album — and when he turned in the live album, the head of the record label (Jerry Moss) complained that it was too short (!) and should be a double album (!!). And so Frampton — who had recorded most of the album at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, went to record more tracks live at SUNY Plattsburgh, better known as the least sexy of all the NY State-owned colleges. (I know. My dad went there.) “Do You Feel Like We Do” was one of the tracks recorded on the college campus. Unedited, it clocks in at 14:15. And children, guess what? “Radio stations,” as they were known back then, actually played the full, unedited version of the song! “Disc jockeys,” who were the people who actually had some control over what songs were played on the radio, used the song as an excuse to go to the bathroom or do other things that I’ll tell you about when you’re older. A&M understood that some stations might not want to play a 14-minute song, though, so they reasonably edited the song…to 7:19. 7:19 was considered reasonable, children!
At this point, my kids will probably be asleep from boredom, and that’ll be a shame, because I haven’t even explained to them why the unedited version of this song became so successful. Two words: TALKBOX SOLO. And here’s what I want to know, people: why do I have to wait SEVEN MINUTES AND 25 SECONDS for the talkbox solo? There should have been one in the beginning, in the middle, and then another one at the end. No, wait: the end one should be a false ending, and then there’d be another one after that one. There. That’s your perfect song. And I know the audience would have agreed, because you can hear how loud they cheer when he starts using the damn thing. You can’t deny the power of the talkbox. The talkbox is so powerful that the audience forgets the fact that anybody using one looks like a total douche.
“durrrrrrrrrrr!”
Frampton does a talkbox solo for four full minutes, making “Do You Feel Like We Do” not only our CHART ATTACK! Song of the Week, but perhaps The Greatest Song of All Time, Excluding “What a Fool Believes.”
Rod Stewart is one of the most soulful vocalists on Earth, as well as one of rock’s finest interpreters.
He also sucks.
This Rod dichotomy has been a part of the Stewart listening experience since 1976’s Atlantic Crossing, which, while very much a solid album, hinted at the dark depths to which the erstwhile Face would soon sink. 1977’s Foot Loose & Fancy Free kicked off Stewart’s plunge to the bottom of lowest-common-denominator MOR rock in earnest, slipping the loathsome “Hot Legs” out of its asscheeks, followed the next year by Blondes Have More Fun and “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” From then on, every Rod record has contained a few gems scattered between fragrant mounds of dookie; he’s turned himself from the heartbreaking singer of his early sides into the musical equivalent of a classroom fuckup who has to follow any honest effort with a fresh round of cheerful stupidity. Even worse, as the ’80s became the ’90s, his periodic bursts of actual talent grew dimmer (like, say, “Rhythm of My Heart”), and were followed by ever more spectacular feats of lameness (like, say, “The Motown Song”). (more…)
All right, so maybe silence wasn’t the best approach to this column. You have to understand that I approached remixes more as a fan of the art of the remix, rather than as a fan of the band. This has left me a bit short when it comes to talking up certan songs or artists, but I think I’ve found a compromise: I’ll do it “Mix Six”-style, offering what tidbits about said song or remix that may still be bouncing around in my booze-addled cranium.
ABC – Be Near Me (Ecstasy Mix)
This was the dub mix, as it were, from the American 12″ single, but in many ways I liked it more than the Munich Disco Mix. The bass licks in the late break, combined with the processed “Ecstasyyyyyyy” vocals, were just too much for my teenaged brain to handle. I knew it was amped-up disco – which was still terribly uncool in late 1985 – but that is what made it so awesome.
Climie Fisher – Love Changes Everything (House Mix)
If I hadn’t been working in a record store when the song was released, I would have thought that this was Rod Stewart too, except that this came out at the same time as Stu’s (awful) Out of Order album. There is no mistaking this mix of the song for Rod the Mod, however, as the songwriting duo of Simon Climie and the late Rob Fisher hands themselves over to Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s remix slave Phil Harding, who proceeds to house the ever-loving shit out of them. Read into that statement however you like.
Hipsway – The Honeythief (Galus Mix)
However right or wrong this may be, I’m giving all credit for this mix’s awesomeness to Gary Langan, because he has done what I consider to be great work (early Art of Noise, Billy Idol’s “Flesh for Fantasy” remix, ABC’s Beauty Stab). The other producer Paul Stavely O’Duffy, however, I have generally written off as a guy that succeeded in spite of the bands that he’s produced, not because of them. Then again, our good friend Mark S. Berry loves Paul, so maybe I’m being too hard on the guy. Whoever was in charge of this mix, I like the occasional forays into crazy.
Kool Moe Dee – Wild Wild West (Extended Mix)
Imagine my surprise when Bryan “Chuck” New, the man that mixed this record, popped up on the remix credits for “Pictures of You” by the Cure. Never saw that coming.
Roxette – The Look (Head Drum Mix)
An import 12″ from the Netherlands, this is amusing in retrospect only because it’s the kind of mix that any of us could probably assemble from home today, but at the time was a cutting-edge piece of work, blending the “Ashley’s Roachclip” drum beat (known as the Milli Vanilli beat to the unenlightened) with the then-ubiquitous “Aww yeah!” vocal sample. I never did find out where that “Aww yeah!” came from. I heard it sampled in a million other records (”Bring Me Edelweiss,” to name but one), but never heard the original. Anyone? Bueller?
Scritti Politti – The Turntable Mix
This is EXTREMELY rare, so if you thought for even a nanosecond about downloading this, do it now, now, now. This was a B-side to the import 12″ mix to “The World Girl,” but not every pressing of “The World Girl” contained this mix, which segues “Hypnotize,” “Wood Beez,” and “Absolute.” Cabaret time, fuckers!
Everything you’re about to read is apocryphal. No proof exists that anything that follows is true. But I heard it from someone, who heard it from someone, who likely heard it from yet another someone, who should know. Here goes:
When then-Alice Cooper bassist Kip Winger met model Rachel Hunter in the late ’80s, at a party for some long-forgotten leather codpiece manufacturer, the clear blue mid-afternoon southern California sky darkened in seconds. Lightning touched down thither and yon, drifting toward the party, eventually making a rough circle around the pair about ten yards in diameter. Klieg lights materialized out of thin air, training their intense beams at the couple. Someone (probably Paul Stanley) produced a disco ball and tossed it high in the sky, where it was struck by a bolt of lightning, sending tiny shards of mirrored glass down toward them, shards that turned into sparkling glitter dust as it entered their new, unique atmosphere. The party for the long-forgotten leather codpiece manufacturer was over, but the party for Kip and Rachel had just begun.
They rented a room at the Continental Hyatt House on the Sunset Strip for a long weekend, enjoying three days of room service and round-the-clock study of the Kama Sutra, as well as free HBO. In fact, Kip was the only one of the two who left the room all weekend, on a run to the local apothecary to purchase additional 24-packs of prophylactics. (Imagine being the poor housecleaning attendant emptying that wastebasket after they checked out.) (more…)
By the late ’60s, the world was beginning to beat a path to Rod Stewart’s door. After kicking around for most of the decade in bands such as the Ray Davies Quartet (later known as the Kinks), Steampacket (whose members included Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger, and Micky Waller), and Shotgun Express (which included Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green), Stewart was hot. He joined the Jeff Beck Group, and they recorded two pivotal albums, Truth and Beck-Ola, before breaking up at the end of 1969. It was in the Jeff Beck Group that Stewart first worked with Ron Wood.
Stewart got an offer to sing with the hard rock band Cactus, but he and Wood opted to join three members of the Small Faces, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones. The renamed band was simply called Faces. Never one to put all of his eggs in one basket, Stewart also signed a deal with Mercury Records as a solo artist. His first solo album was called An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down. In the U.S., the album was re-titled The Rod Stewart Album, and released in November 1969 by Mercury. (more…)
The new crop of pop stars could learn a lot from Frank Sinatra. No, they probably won’t match his voice or his depth of feeling. No, they probably will still rely on the celebrity dating and nipple-slips to draw attention when their respective albums fail to. As far as the qualitative end of things, I can’t name one single modern artist who could replace Lanky Frank (this means you, Michael Buble and Josh Groban.) What Sinatra does have in common with Pop ‘09 is that he was an interpreter of other people’s music and songs. Even his classic conceptual Capitol albums, including Only the Lonely and Where Are You?, were the work of other minds yet when he set his voice to them, the songs became his. When you think of “High Hopes” it’s his voice singing them. The same holds true for “All of Me” and even if “Love and Marriage” makes you picture Kelly Bundy, you’ll never mistake who was singing it.
While Capitol’s latest collection lacks the sheer magnitude of its predecessor, it is still a serviceable primer full of songs you know very well. It even has a previously unreleased track, “This Can’t Be Love” but that isn’t really a huge selling point for this set. That it’s 21 tracks for the price of a single disc constitutes a hell of a deal, especially considering how skimpy many of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ other compilations have been, is part of the allure. The true fan probably has the albums these cuts came from, and if they don’t at least have Only the Lonely they ought to be ashamed of themselves, but this really isn’t for them. (more…)
Hello again, folks! Last time we met, we reviewed a pretty awesome chart from June of 1975. Well, since I choose these charts pretty much at random, you had to know it was inevitable that our luck might not hold out. Or did it? I’ll be interested in hearing what you think — let’s take a look at the pop-filled chart for the week ending July 19, 1986!
Even in 1986, how did Rod Stewart keep a straight face when singing the line “I’m gonna give you my love touch”? No, even worse, let’s look at the middle of the song, where Rod actually sings “Oooh, you’re gonna get a/oooh, you’re gonna get a big love touch.” That’s the worst of the bunch. “A big love touch”? Shame on you, Rod. I’d even take you making love to the camera a la “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” over this dreck. And who had the idea for steel drums? What a terrible idea! Although I think it’d be fun to go to the Bahamas and ask a traditional steel drum band if they know “Love Touch.” (C’mon, do we really need to hear them play Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” yet again?)
All this being said…for some inexplicable reason, I like the chorus of this song. (Well, up until he says the words “love” and “touch,” anyway.) I specifically love the line “Just gimme a chance!” because of the way he pronounces “chance.” It sounds like Harry Caray.
This is the first of four songs on this week’s chart taken from a movie soundtrack. This one in particular is from Legal Eagles, and some brilliant director decided to set the (awful) video in a courtroom, inserting scenes from the movie featuring Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah. Fortunately, all three actors had the good sense to not make themselves available for the video, unlike another certain movie star…well, you’ll see.
Ian McLagan is one of rock’s most revered performers. He was a member of the Small Faces, as well as the Faces, and has played with a who’s who of rock and roll, including Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and many, many others. His unique keyboard stylings can be heard on hundreds of recordings, including such classics as Stewart’s “Maggie May” and the Stones’ “Miss You.” He currently resides in Austin, TX, where he performs weekly with his band, the Bump Band. His latest album, Never Say Never, is available on 00:02:59 Records.
You’ve been living in Austin since 1994. What brought you there in the first place?
It was actually an earthquake. The earthquake in L.A. on January 17 felt brutal, and I’d been promising my wife that I’d consider leaving L.A., but was getting so much work there. After the earthquake I just said, ‘let’s get out.’ We did a little research. It didn’t take long. There’s really only one music city in America. I mean, Seattle’s cool and everything, but it’s got English weather, and New York is fine, but it gets a brutal winter. It was just checks and balances. It’s obviously Austin, and we moved here a few months later, in May of that year, almost 15 years ago.
At some point you put together the Bump Band. When was that?
I’ve had a Bump Band since ‘79. Obviously the L.A. versions were different. I toured Japan with Ronnie Lane in 1990, and we rehearsed here in Austin, at what was then the ARC (Austin Rehearsal Complex), and that was run by Don Harvey and Wayne Nagel. Don Harvey was the drummer on that tour, so he was the first person I called when I was going to move here. He found me (guitarist) “Scrappy” Jud Newcombe, and from there the three of us have been together 15 years.
And when did (former Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne) Mark Andes join?
(Laughing) It’s funny you should mention that. He joined in June, five years ago, and left two or three weeks ago.
I’m sorry to hear that.
I saw him … actually there was a party at the ARC. It was the 10-year anniversary since it closed party, and Mark came from Houston for that. So it was nice to see him. So, I mean, we’re still pals and everything. I think he’s just focusing on different stuff. He probably doesn’t want to tour anymore. (more…)
I’m not much of a believer in band reunions — they seldom result in any output that actually improves the band’s legacy, and often have just the opposite effect. Still, I was thrilled recently when rumors of a Faces reunion were all over the Internet. First of all, the Faces were always one of my favorite bands; second, despite the presence of future superstars Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, they never really got the shot that they deserved. Of course, a lot of that was of their own mischievous making. In many ways the world has come to see the Faces as the perennial scrappy underdogs.
Most of the Faces have gone on to solo careers, to one degree of success or another. Beloved bassist and songwriter Ronnie Lane died in 1997. None of them have been able to recreate the special vibe that a Faces album had, though; it was some sort of magic blend of carefree rock and roll, and cry in your beer pathos.
Faces (and Small Faces) keyboard player Ian McLagan became something of a journeyman, making brilliant contributions to records and tours by the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, and many, many others. He is one of the most respected and revered musicians in the world by his colleagues and his fans. He moved to Austin in 1994, where he formed the Bump Band, which includes bassist Mark Andes (Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne, Canned Heat, Heart), drummer Don Harvey (Martha Davis, Joe Ely, Charlie Sexton), and Joe Newcomb (Ray Wylie Hubbard, the Resentments, Beaver Nelson). The band released “Extra Live” in 2006.
On August 2, 2006, McLagan suffered a loss that would change his life substantially. His wife Kim was killed in a car accident near Austin. She was 57 years-old, and they had been married for 28 years. Kim had previously been married to Who drummer Keith Moon. McLagan hasn’t stopped playing though, far from it, and now he’s back with Never Say Never (00:02:59), a solo album by a former Faces member that finally captures the magic of the legendary band. (more…)
Howdy, everybody! Happy Friday and welcome back to another edition of CHART ATTACK! This week’s mix is relatively eclectic, yet — as was often the case in the early ’80s — completely inoffensive. And you’ll find references to John Lennon in four of this week’s singles. On with the chart — let’s look at February 14, 1981!
I love Steely Dan. And I love “Hey Nineteen.” And although I’ve never had any misconception about this song’s subject, it was only when listening to this song the other day that I realized: Donald Fagen both looks and sounds like a skeevy, dirty old man, and “Hey Nineteen” is, in fact, not helping his image. And despite the fact that Fagen was only 32 when this song was recorded, it’s not a stretch to hear it and imagine him being, say, 50. SKETCHY. Here’s a picture of Donald Fagen with Japanese musician Juri Panda Jones. Look at this while listening to “Hey Nineteen,” willya?
Right?
Something else weird happened to me while I was listening to “Hey Nineteen” recently. Whenever I sing along with it, I always avoid the lead line (except for “that’s ‘retha Franklin”). I just sing the backing vocals. And, when I sing them, I sing them like…you guessed it.
Oh, picture of 3 Time Grammy Award Winner Michael McDonald, how I’ve missed you.
Anyway, so yeah, I always sing those backing vocals like McD. But when listening to the song the other day, I realized: I don’t hear McD as a prominent voice. I mean, I think I hear him in there, and I know he sang backing vocals on Gaucho, but you know that I have a tendency to hear a little bit of McD in everything, so I could just be crazy.
Steely Dan only had a few Top 10 hits ( “Do It Again” and “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” and what the hell, we’ll give “Peg” credit for reaching #11, only because of McD), but this was their last one, peaking here at #10 for only two weeks.
One day, if I’m lucky enough to have kids as geeky as I am (seems kind of inevitable), I’ll sit them down and tell them about the improbability of this song’s success. Sure, I’ll have to explain terms like “double album,” “record label” and “radio,” but I think it’ll be worth it. I’ll explain to them how Peter Frampton managed to remain on a major record label, A&M, despite the fact that his first three albums (as well as his first eight singles) didn’t even crack the Hot 100 (”what’s the Hot 100, daddy?”) and his fourth album peaked at #32. And that despite these failures, A&M decided that his next release should be a live album — and when he turned in the live album, the head of the record label (Jerry Moss) complained that it was too short (!) and should be a double album (!!). And so Frampton — who had recorded most of the album at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, went to record more tracks live at SUNY Plattsburgh, better known as the least sexy of all the NY State-owned colleges. (I know. My dad went there.) “Do You Feel Like We Do” was one of the tracks recorded on the college campus. Unedited, it clocks in at 14:15. And children, guess what? “Radio stations,” as they were known back then, actually played the full, unedited version of the song! “Disc jockeys,” who were the people who actually had some control over what songs were played on the radio, used the song as an excuse to go to the bathroom or do other things that I’ll tell you about when you’re older. A&M understood that some stations might not want to play a 14-minute song, though, so they reasonably edited the song…to 7:19. 7:19 was considered reasonable, children!
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Rod Stewart is one of the most soulful vocalists on Earth, as well as one of rock’s finest interpreters.
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Everything you’re about to read is apocryphal. No proof exists that anything that follows is true. But I heard it from 
By the late ’60s, the world was beginning to beat a path to Rod Stewart’s door. After kicking around for most of the decade in bands such as the Ray Davies Quartet (later known as the Kinks), Steampacket (whose members included Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger, and Micky Waller), and Shotgun Express (which included Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green), Stewart was hot. He joined the Jeff Beck Group, and they recorded two pivotal albums, Truth and 
The new crop of pop stars could learn a lot from Frank Sinatra. No, they probably won’t match his voice or his depth of feeling. No, they probably will still rely on the celebrity dating and nipple-slips to draw attention when their respective albums fail to. As far as the qualitative end of things, I can’t name one single modern artist who could replace Lanky Frank (this means you, Michael Buble and Josh Groban.) What Sinatra does have in common with Pop ‘09 is that he was an interpreter of other people’s music and songs. Even his classic conceptual Capitol albums, including Only the Lonely and Where Are You?, were the work of other minds yet when he set his voice to them, the songs became his. When you think of “High Hopes” it’s his voice singing them. The same holds true for “All of Me” and even if “Love and Marriage” makes you picture Kelly Bundy, you’ll never mistake who was singing it.
Ian McLagan is one of rock’s most revered performers. He was a member of the Small Faces, as well as the Faces, and has played with a who’s who of rock and roll, including Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and many, many others. His unique keyboard stylings can be heard on hundreds of recordings, including such classics as Stewart’s “Maggie May” and the Stones’ “Miss You.” He currently resides in Austin, TX, where he performs weekly with his band, the Bump Band. His latest album, 
