September 5, 2016 - John Lennon - #9 Dream (1974)

bwaaowww...that's my onomatopoeia for the guitar sound that opens #9 Dream. It sounds like an instantaneous sunrise, like bwaaowww! and the sun is up. The guitarist is Jesse Ed Davis and he is playing the sweetest wah pedal tone ever. Listening to this song is like floating on a cloud. Very much of its time, breezy mid-70s production with a heavy layer of smoothness, kind of like 10CC's 'I'm Not in Love' or The Hollies 'Air that I Breathe'.

Nicky Hopkins on keyboards and John's pal Klaus Voormann on bass. I always feel a little sadness about John when I hear his music, but then I know he doesn't want people hanging their heads - keep yer chin up, world! I never knew that John had used the string arrangement already, on Nilsson's version of Many Rivers to Cross. It's fun to hear it on a different song. Once in a rare while I obsess over the tinniness of the reverb used on John's voice, but it's pretty well buried under the heavy string gravy...man it's thick. But so ultra-creamy. And, obviously, dreamy.

Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé

September 4, 2016 - Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless (1980)

Talking Heads freaked me out as a 13 year old. First, there was the Once in a Lifetime video, which happened to be playing on a big screen in this electronics store where my parents were shopping. Why was this sweaty geeky Buddy Holly-looking guy hitting himself? Then there's the Remain In Light cover. Red splotches hiding their faces. Who are these weirdos?

Crosseyed and Painless rides a great dance groove that doesn't veer from its direction the whole way. Funky slap bass lines, guitars, keyboards, lots of percussive sounds and special effects scattered about. David Byrne goes on about facts, especially during the final part: facts are this and facts are that. Take it easy, dude!

September 3, 2016 - ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses (1979)

ZZ Top is the coolest thing to come out of Texas. Well, there's also my friend Jeff, Willie Nelson, Hank Hill, Freddie King, Buddy Holly, etc.

Cheap Sunglasses rocks, and it's hilariously ridiculous too. A humorous ode to eyewear. The first verse is about acquiring cheap sunglasses, the second verse is about stalking a woman who is wearing cheap sunglasses, and the third verse is also about acquiring cheap sunglasses. If there is a chorus, it's Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah.

Instrumentally, there is the prominent use of a Planet N keyboard, heard in the halting breaks at 0:37, 1:05 and 3:21, at the end of each verse/chorus. At 1:06 and 1:50, you get the keyboard and this funny woo-woo-woo alarm sound. Perhaps that's the police coming after the stalker, or a signal that if you currently are not wearing your sunglasses, now is the time to don them and keep your head down. There are some great guitar solos as well, starting at 1:26 and again at 2:10, displaying some excellent distortion and harmonics. Billy Gibbons rocks! Finally, at 3:23, they slow things down for a nice bluesy outro. In 1979, while disco was still prominent, ZZ Top were keeping rock n roll alive, baby.

September 2, 2016 - Roxy Music - Out of the Blue (1974)

1974. Ah, yes, Roxy Music and the Country Life album. Pleasant scenery in the country. The cover features two scantily clad women, one of whom is Can's Michael Karoli's cousin and the other is his girlfriend. I did not know that, did you?

Out of the Blue has a fade in with some bass and cool phasing effects. Verses have pounding piano and Bryan Ferry's languid nonchalant vocals. I love Phil Manzanera's guitar in the chorus, the quick slide at 2:01, and the high up the neck part from 2:07-2:12.

2:55 - I don't mind if it's only a passing craze, throwaway lines often ring true...my favorite passage.

3:28 - end...great souped-up violin solo from Eddie Jobson. Enjoy!

September 1, 2016 - Witthuser & Westrupp - Illusion I (1971)

We kick off September sounding similar to yesterday's Bowie tune...strummed acoustic guitars. Quicksand was just an llusion...I. A grand illusion. I don't know if there is an Illusion II, and you'd be fooling yourself to look for one. Many superstars have tried and failed. GnR used their two illusions, then sailed away to Germany with Witthuser & Westrupp.

With Illusion I you got yer basic steady building instrumental carnival ride...like this one. It starts off in a big slow circle, nice and easy, and goes around and around, then it starts gathering momentum and strength with each passing lap, picking up layer upon layer of guitar, zither and psaltery. At four minutes, you are concerned you might vomit or have a heart attack. Just then, the operator is pulling the lever and the ride comes to a stop. Please watch your step as you exit to the right.
Great job! You survived Illusion I ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Please enjoy a treat at one of our snack bars!

August 31, 2016 - David Bowie - Quicksand (acoustic demo) (1971)

This is the acoustic demo version of Quicksand, which is a bonus track on the Rykodisc issue of Hunky Dory from 1990. It is a lost treasure, unless it still exists on some other reissue I don't know about. I have always found it so hauntingly beautiful, fragile, spiritual. Just strummed guitar and vocals, but the effect is fantastic. It has a sad, tender, lost quality to it. Bowie sings the dark self-questioning lyrics with a tired resignation...I ain't got the power anymore. Bowie's brilliant otherworldly spirit shines out on the part that begins 'Don't believe in yourself...' Makes me feel a bit distressed when I hear it, sends a tingle up the spine.

August 30, 2016 - Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (1977)

Whether you're a brother, or whether you're a mother, you're stayin alive stayin alive...if you're a father or if you're a sister, you're just relaxin just relaxin...Hahahaha...i'm just relaxin while I write about this groovy song groovy song.

The scene - a record store in Highland Park, IL, in winter of 1977-78.
Mom: Mark, are you sure you want to spend all your money on the Saturday Night Fever album?
Me: Yeah, Mom.
It cost $9.98 or something, and it was all the money I had, but the mystique was all over my elementary school and I had to have it. For some reason, the instrumental called 'Calypso Breakdown' really blew my 10 year old mind. ha, I still have the record. Look at Barbarino in his disco threads jumpin in the air on the disco floor. I even kinda like the movie. The part where the guy falls off the bridge is pretty traumatic. The ending is sweet, Travolta and the girl agreeing on a platonic friendship. And of course, my favorite part: the dinner scene. The blue collar American family. Tough love. He hits my hair. John Travolta's character, uh, Vinnie? Danny?, wtf is his name? Geez, Tony. How could I not remember that. Anyhow, he is actually a pretty likeable character. An underdog. A sensitive heart in that blustery white suit.

Stayin' Alive kicks off the film and soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. It opens with an immediacy of keyboards and bass. It has a sexy mystique, a hypnotic power, a cool confidence. Maurice Gibb plays one of the most memorable bass lines of any song ever. Then there are strings soaring up to heaven, different percussion instruments popping up here and there, that constant 'chicka' hi hat, and mighty blasts of horns.  

And there are the vocals...the screechy high notes sometimes make me cringe, but I love Barry's vocals on 'life goin nowhere, somebody help me.'  Smooooottthhhhh..... 

The Bee Gees were the gods that sat atop Mount Disco, their high-pitched harmonies crying out across the land. Then you had lil Andy Gibb hittin the charts as well. And who can forget Sesame Street Fever? What a cultural phenomenon, that disco era. I did a social studies report on prejudice against disco, in the form of the Steve Dahl Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park. I liked disco, I didn't really know any better, I was a kid and this stuff was on the radio. I thought the Village People were like Saturday Morning Cartoon characters.

August 29, 2016 - Boston - More Than A Feeling (1976)

I remember hearing More Than A Feeling on a Saturday morning in the Fall of 1976, in our station wagon as my Mom drove me to gymnastics class. I liked the song so much that it caused me to make my first and worst mail order record purchase. The TV had advertised a record called Muskrat Love, which had this song plus many other popular songs of the time, like Rubberband Man, Nadia's Theme, Theme from Airport '76, Car Wash, Boogie Fever, Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word. Some real tepid stuff. Unfortunately, what I failed to understand about Muskrat Love from the commercial, was that these songs were not the original artist recordings. They were covers that sounded very close to the originals but not quite. I think my Mom tried to explain this to me before she helped me send $3.99 to some PO box in Michigan, but I probably didn't understand. After waiting 4-6 weeks for delivery, which is a lifetime to a nine year old, the album arrived and I eagerly placed it on the turntable. Right away, I knew something was amiss. More Than A Feeling sounded weird. I still listened to the album, but soon soured on it and eventually tossed it in the creek across from our house. I was disappointed, flabbergasted. How could someone be allowed to sell crap like this? Apparently, Canadians were spared this monstrosity.

I finally heard the actual Boston album years later, I heard the real More Than A Feeling. And Peace of Mind. And Foreplay/Long Time. As my brother would say, may your birthday be as cool as side one of Boston's first album. It is a great side. Side Two is good also, but I never cared for Something About You and Let Me Take You Home Tonight (Mama now it's all right). By the way, when did guys start referring to women as 'mama', and when did it end? Was it just a hippie thing?

Later on in life, I heard Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, and noticed that the chord structure was very similar to More Than A Feeling, albeit an angrier angst-ridden 90s yin to Boston's happy 70s yang. The guitar solo in More Than A Feeling is like taking a dose of serotonin. It sends joy and pleasure right into your bloodstream.

August 28, 2016 - The Cure - A Forest (1980)

A Forest. Any forest in particular? Maybe the same one as Path Through the Forest. Or the one Little Red Riding Hood experienced on her way to Grandma's house. Or maybe Mirkwood. An eerie, discomfiting place to say the least, and The Cure put you right in the gothic rock heart of it. A thick atmosphere of bass and drums, skinny branches of guitar reaching out to grab at you.

It doesn't get more hopelessly Blair Witch Project than when Robert Smith sings at the end:

Suddenly I stop

But I know it's too late
I'm lost in a forest
All alone
The girl was never there
It's always the same
I'm running towards nothing
Again and again and again and again

August 27, 2016 - Television - Friction (1977)

I knew it musta been, some big set-up... f r i c t i o n. A dual I-V riff opener, followed by descending triplets with a twisting tail prior to the start of the first verse. The bass line and hi-hat hit make me think of some kind of unique punk disco combination. Marquee Moon is a guitar-saturated album. The interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is some of the best recorded. Very dynamic and inventive, riffing and soloing all over the place.

My eyes are like telescopes...

Verlaine sounds like Barbarino - 'you give me too much homework, Mista Kottuh. I need time to write my poems!'