Day After Day #292: Misirlou

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Misirlou (1962)

Sometimes when we look at popular music, we forget that it's been around for a long time. And sometimes different versions of certain songs will become popular in different decades for different reasons. The song "Misirlou" has been around for nearly 100 years and it's still relevant, thanks to Dick Dale's version from 62 years ago.

The song has its origins in the Mediterranean in 1920s, played by Arabic, Greek and Jewish klezmer musicians, but the first known recording was rebetiko musician Theodotos Demetriades in 1927. Demetriades had moved from Istanbul, Turkey to the U.S. in the early '20s; he called the song "Misirlou," which is Turkish for "The Egyptian." Greek musician Michalis Patrinos made a slower version in 1930.

In 1941, a jazz instrumental version was released by Nick Roubanis, a Greek-American. Bandleader Harry James also released a version that year that went to #22 in the U.S. Five years later, pianist Jan August released a version that went to #7 on the Billboard chart. 

But it was in 1962 when Dale released an instrumental surf rock version of "Misirlou" that had a faster tempo and a blistering riff. Dale, who was of Lebanese descent, remembered seeing his uncle play the song on an oud and came up with his own version of it. The song didn't chart but it became identified with the surf rock movement and Dale was dubbed "King of the Surf Guitar" (likely by himself). 

Dale came up with his version after a fan asked if he was able to play a song on one string. Unlike the Beach Boys, Dale was actually a surfer and he said he wanted to transfer the power he felt while surfing into this guitar player. "Misirlou" definitely achieves that objective.

Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi (he of the iconic "Linus and Lucy" fame) recorded a live version with his quartet later that year, and the Beach Boys put a Dale-esque version on their 1963 album Surfin' USA. Other surf rock acts made their own covers, including the Ventures and the Trashmen. 

Dale ended up retiring after a cancer scare in the mid-'60s but began performing again in the '80s. He was in the movie Back to the Beach in 1987, in which he played a version of "Pipeline" with Stevie Ray Vaughan. But he became known to a whole new audience in 1994 after Quentin Tarantino used "Misirlou" in the opening credits of Pulp Fiction. The popularity of that movie and its amazing soundtrack led Dale to play rock clubs to crowds of indie rock fans. I saw him at the Middle East Downstairs in the late '90s and he was great, although he was a character who loved to refer to himself in the third person regularly. 

Dale was an extremely influential guitarist who inspired Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Eddie Van Halen and Brian May, among others. He popularized tremelo picking on electric guitar and his speedy single-note staccato picking technique came well in advance of folks like Van Halen, who surpassed it.

Dale toured right up until his death in 2019 at the age of 81 because of his need to pay for his extensive medical expenses; he was dealing with diabetes, kidney failure and vertebrae damage. 

Day After Day #291: Against the '70s

 Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Against the '70s (1995)

By the mid-'90s, Mike Watt was already entering his third act as a performer. In the early '80s, he was the bassist of legendary indie act the Minutemen. After the tragic death of Minutemen singer-guitarist D. Boon, Watt resurfaced with another great combo in fIREHOSE. But in 1994, fIREHOSE split up and Watt's marriage to former Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler was ending, so he needed to do something new.

Watt brought together about 50 of his friends from the indie rock scene to help him make his first solo album, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? The list of guests was impressive: Henry Rollins, Frank Black, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, J Mascis, Adam Horovitz, Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, Mark Lanegan, Evan Dando and many more. The album was a combination of originals and covers, but it was all very much Watt.

There are many great songs on the album, but the standout for me is "Against the '70s," which features Vedder on lead vocals, albeit doing a pretty good Watt impression. Although Watt is a Baby Boomer himself, the song casts a skeptical eye at the influence that generation had on the younger generation (which at that time was Gen X).

"I asked him if he knew what time he had/He said he wasn't sure, maybe a quarter past/The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/I peered in his eyes as we stood in line just to have a look/But the pages I found looked like an unbound coloring book. The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/It's not reality/It's just someone else's sentimentality/It won't work for you."

Indeed, ever since those early days of the Minutemen, Watt and his cohorts rejected the traditional path to rock success, "jamming econo" by creating their own network of independent clubs and promoters to deal with and crashing on people's floors and couches. 

"Baby boomers selling you rumors of their history/Forcing youth away from the truth of what's real today/The kids of today should defend themselves against the '70s/Stadium minds with stadium lies gotta make you laugh/Garbage vendors against true defenders of the craft."

Musically, the song has an all-star cast: In addition to Vedder on vocals and guitar and Watt on bass, Grohl on drums, Gary Lee Connor of Screaming Trees on lead guitar, Novoselic on farfisa organ and Carla Bozulich on backing vocals. The song hit #21 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

At the time the album came out, Vedder was the biggest star in rock and was obviously a huge get for Watt, although he didn't view it that way. The song got plenty of play on alt-rock radio. And then Watt toured with a backing band that consisted of Vedder and a new group called the Foo Fighters. I saw Watt play in April 1995 at Avalon in Boston with opening acts Hovercraft (featuring Vedder's then-wife Beth Liebling and Vedder wearing a wig on drums) and Foo Fighters, who nobody had heard previously. Foo Fighters returned as headliners to the same venue few months later after their debut album had come out.

True to his nature, Watt didn't try to capitalize on the success of the album, instead pursuing various opportunities. He played with Porno for Pyros, the Stooges, Wylde Ratttz, Banyan, J Mascis and the Fog, and has also released solo albums. The last time I saw him live was in 2017 at Brighton Music Hall on a bill with Meat Puppets and Grant Hart and he was excellent as usual. Watt is the man.

Stuck In Thee Garage #552: November 1, 2024

Do we overuse parentheses? Maybe (maybe not). Whatever the case, there are plenty of song titles that include parentheses and this week's installment of Stuck In Thee Garage features two hours' worth of them. Are they necessary? That might require an after-hours discussion to come to a conclusion.

This playlist could lead you into a series of wacky misadventures:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

David Bowie - Cat People (Putting Out Fire)/Let's Dance

Hallelujah the Hills - Bring On the Lucie (Freeda People)/The World is Most Certainly Haunted and I am One of Its Best Ghosts

Spiritualized - Let It Bleed (For Iggy)/Everything Was Beautiful

Chixdiggit - (I Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart)/Chixdiggit

OFF! - I Need One (I Want One)/OFF!

Ozzy Osbourne - Now You See It (Now You Don't)/Bark at the Moon

Alvvays - Lollipop (Ode to Jim)/Antisocialites

Snail Mail - Forever (Sailing)/Valentine

She Sir - Mirror, No (We're the Same)/Rival Island

Rod Stewart - You're My Girl (I Don't Want to Discuss It)/Gasoline Alley

L.T.D. - (Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again/Something to Love

Sunset Rubdown - For the Pier (And Dead Shimmering)/Random Spirit Lover

Spiral Stairs - Trams (Stole My Love)/Doris and the Daggers

Hour 2

The Clash - Train in Vain (Stand by Me)/London Calling

Frank Black - I Don't Want to Hurt You (Every Single Time)/The Cult of Ray

Wire - Options R (Star)/Pink Flag

Krill - Sick Dogs (For Ian)/Lucky Leaves

The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Mistakes (Too Many to Name)/The Town That Cursed Your Name

The Proper Ornaments - Cremated (Blown Away)/Foxhole

Nanami Ozone - Make It All Right (Damage)/NO

Beck - Pay No Mind (Snoozer)/Mellow Gold

Folly Group - I Raise You (The Price of Your Head)/Human and Kind EP

The Posies - Fight It (If You Want)/Amazing Disgrace

Sonic Youth - Brave Men Run (In My Family)/Bad Moon Rising

The Young Leaves - Hey Man (Backup Plan)/Life Underneath

Queens of the Stone Age - How to Handle a Rope (A Lesson in the Lariat)/Queens of the Stone Age

Judas Priest - (Take These) Chains/Screaming for Vengeance

Grant Hart - (It Was a) Most Disturbing Dream/The Argument

Courtney Barnett - An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)/Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

Thrush Hermit - (Oh Man!) What to Do/Clayton Park

The Tragically Hip - I'll Believe in You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight)/Live at the Roxy

Rock your socks (and whatever else) off RIGHT HERE.

Day After Day #290: Black Sabbath

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Black Sabbath (1970)

Hey, it's Halloween, so it's fitting that I write about that most Halloweeny of songs, "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath from the album Black Sabbath. 

The band featured Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. Originally called Earth, the group changed its name after discovering another English band called Earth. Butler noticed a theater across the street from their rehearsal space was showing the 1963 Italian horror film Black Sabbath starring Boris Karloff. He was already obsessed with the occult at the time and claims to have had a vision of a large black figure standing at the end of his bed. He told Osbourne and the wrote a song called "Black Sabbath" based on Butler's experience. After recording the song, the band changed its name to Black Sabbath.

"What is this that stands before me?/Figure in black which points at me/Turn 'round quick and start to run/Find out I'm the chosen one/Oh, no!"

"Black Sabbath" is often referred to as the first heavy metal song, thanks to the heavy riff played by Iommi, which highlights the dark and dissonant tritone. It's definitely scary sounding and Osbourne's haunted vocals only amplify the effect.

"Big black shape with eyes of fire/Tellin' people their desire/Satan's sittin' there, he's smilin'/Watches those flames get higher and higher/Oh no! No! Please God, help me!"

The song marked a definitive shift from the psychedelic hippie music that was all the rage at the time and no doubt had many straight-laced parents freaked out.

"Is it the end, my friend?/Satan's coming 'round the bend/People running 'cause they're scared/The people better go and beware/No! No! Please, no!"

The sheer heaviness of the song is impressive, but the last two minutes pick up the pace as Iommi solos and Ozzy does that possessed dance of his. 

Other bands were already playing heavy rock, like Blue Cheer, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Cream, but Sabbath made it their thing. The critics were not thrilled, but fans were into the new sound. The Sabbath debut got to #8 on the U.K. album chart and #23 in the U.S. The band didn't waste any time, recording their second album Paranoid just four months after the first album came out. And they went on to have a long rollercoaster of a career, as did Osbourne, who went solo in 1980 and became a superstar in his own right. And they owe it all to that evil-sounding song that scared the crap out of everybody.

Day After Day #289: Dead Souls

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Dead Souls (1980)

It's All Hallows Eve Eve and today's selection isn't your typical song about ghosts or spooky stuff, but it's pretty scary nonetheless. With Joy Division's "Dead Souls," the song details the inner torment of lead singer Ian Curtis and it was released only a few months before he committed suicide.

As detailed previously, the post-punk act had released an EP in '78 and debut album Unknown Pleasures in '79. Curtis provided moody lyrics and a deep baritone while fronting a killer band: Bernard Sumner on guitar and keyboards, Peter Hook on bass and Stephen Morris on drums. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was a hit and the band in March 1980 recorded their second album, Closer.

Also that month, Joy Division released the "Licht und Blindheit" (Light and Blindness) single, with "Atmosphere" on the A-side and "Dead Souls" as the B-side. The song was named after a 1842 Nikolai Gogol novel. The first two minutes are instrumental, powered by a circular Hook bassline; the band would use the long intro to size up the audience as Curtis did an odd dance behind the mic. Finally, at 2:12, Curtis begins to sing in a haunted tone.

"Someone take these dreams away/That point me to another day/A duel of personalities/That stretch all true realities/That keep calling me/They keep calling me/Keep on calling me/They keep calling me."

Sumner plays a Stooges-like riff behind him as Curtis maintains the creepy mood.

"When figures from the past stand tall/And mocking voices ring the hall/Imperialistic house of prayer/Conquistadors who took their share/That keep calling me/They keep calling me/Keep on calling me/They keep calling me."

Curtis' anguished vocals have been analyzed endlessly after the fact: Was he referring to his own personal demons or singing about dreams of historical figures? Whatever the case, it's both compelling and intense.

By this point, Curtis was struggling with epilepsy, exacerbated by a lack of sleep and long hours; he was having seizures more often, sometimes while performing on stage. In April 1980, he attempted suicide by overdosing on his anti-seizure medication. The band ended up cancelling a few gigs as Curtis recovered. 

Joy Division was about to begin their first North American tour in May 1980, which Curtis had been enthusiastic about. But he was also feeling the strain of his marriage crumbling. The night before the band was to leave for the U.S., Curtis went home to talk to his wife Deborah, asking her to drop her plans to divorce him. He asked her to leave him alone in the house before he left the next morning to go on tour. After watching a Werner Herzog movie and listening to Iggy Pop's album The Idiot, Curtis hung himself in the kitchen. Deborah discovered him in the morning. 

The remaining members ended Joy Division and formed New Order, which went on to become a success and is still going.

"Dead Souls" found some renewed popularity in 1994 when Nine Inch Nails recorded a faithful cover for the soundtrack of The Crow. The creep factor of the NIN version was boosted by the fact the band recorded it at the house where Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson family; in addition, during the filming of The Crow, star Brandon Lee died after being shot by a prop gun during filming.

Completely Conspicuous 645: Wordless Chorus

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite instrumentals. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as"). 

Show notes:

• We're feeling goooood.
• What makes a good instrumental?
• Jay: I like the musicians in Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Not as many instrumentals made now as there used to be 
• No jazz instrumentals included in our lists
• Phil's bubbling under picks: Booker T and the MGs, Bar-Kays, Meters, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, U2, Rush, Dick Dale, Beatles, Boston, TSOP, Bowie, Pink Floyd 
• Jay's non-top 10 picks: Rush, Van Halen, Focus, ELO, Pink Floyd, the Who, Iron Maiden, Commodores, Fugazi, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
• Alex VH's new book ignores Sammy Hagar
• Some great instrumentals are TV themes like Barney Miller
• Jay's #10: The Police with a mysterious guitar exercise
• Phil's #9: Majestic song from the Who's first rock opera
• Fans in the '60s didn't know what to expect when bands were melting their faces
• Jay's #9: Beastie Boys break out the funk
• To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Day After Day #288: Die, Die My Darling

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Die, Die My Darling (1984)

You can't talk about Halloween and rock music without mentioning the Misfits. The horror punk outfit has become synonymous with this time of year.

Formed in Lodi, New Jersey, in 1977 by singer Glenn Danzig, the band released a single and played their first shows without a guitarist; Danzig plawyed electric piano while Jerry Calafa played bass and Manny Martinez was on drums. They were soon joined by guitarist Frank Licata, aka Franche Coma, and Danzig stopped playing piano and focused on vocals while moving the band in a punk direction. Martinez was replaced by Mr. Jim. The band entered the studio in January 1978 and recorded 17 songs, 14 of which were for their proposed Static Age album. Unable to find a label to release the album, the Misfits released four of the songs as part of the Bullet EP on their own Plan 9 Records. The other songs came out on various compilations over the next two decades before Static Age was finally released in 1996.

After the Static Age sessions, Danzig began to write songs inspired by horror and sci-fi films and started wearing stage gear with skeleton bones painted on them. Meanwhile, Calafa (now known as Jerry Only) began wearing dark eye makeup and styling his hair in a long point hanging from his forehead between his eyes and down to his chin, which was eventually called the "devilock." Danzig and Only's brother Doyle soon followed suit. Coma and Mr. Jim quit the band in '78 and were replaced by drummer Joey Poole (aka Joey Image) and guitarist Bobby Kaufhold (aka Bobby Steele). They released the "Horror Business" single in June 1979, which had a cover featuring a skeletal character from the movie poster for 1946's The Crimson Ghost; the character became the Misfits' logo.

After opening for the Damned in New York City, Jerry Only talked to Damned singer Dave Vanian about opening for the band in the U.K. The Misfits flew to London in November '79 to find out Vanian hadn't taken the conversation seriously. The band did play two shows with the Damned, but were upset about the situation and left the tour. Image quit the band and flew home while the others stuck around until their return flight in December. 

The Misfits returned to the U.S. and released the Beware EP in January 1980. They added Arthur McGucking (aka Arthur Googy) on drums and when Steele was kicked out of the band, Jerry Only's brother Doyle (who was 16 at the time) replaced him on guitar. 

The album Walk Among Us was released in 1982, the only full-length album to be released while the early version of the band was active. The band was going through drummers at a Spinal Tap-esque rate and by 1983, Danzig was growing upset with the Misfits and started making plans to leave. The album Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood was recorded but before the band could release it, the Misfits were over. At their Halloween show in Detroit, new drummer Brian Damage was too drunk to play and had to be replaced by the drummer of opening act the Necros. Danzig announced from the stage that it was the final Misfits show.

Seven months after the breakup, the Misfits single "Die, Die My Darling" was released by Plan 9. The song was inspired by the 1965 movie Die Die My Darling, a movie about a psychotic old lady starring Tallulah Bankhead. Danzig takes the title of the film but changes the story into a slasher tale.

"Die, die, die my darling/Don't utter a single word/Die, die, die my darling/Just shut your pretty mouth/I'll be seeing you again/I'll be seeing you in Hell/Don't try to be a baby/Your future's in an oblong box, yeah/Don't try to be a baby/Should have seen it a-comin' on/Don't try to be a baby/I don't know it was in your power."

In addition to the crunching guitar riff, the song features a beeping note that repeats and grows louder throughout. It's a high-energy song that never lets up.

"Don't try to be a baby/Dead-end girl for a dead-end guy/Don't try to be a baby/Now your life drains on the floor/Don't try to be a baby/Die, die, die my darling/Don't utter a single word/Die, die, die my darling."

The song was recorded in August 1981 during the Walk Among Us sessions. The flip side of the single included "We Bite" and a studio version of "Mommy, Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?" (A live version of the latter song was included on Walk Among Us.) All three songs were added to later releases of Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood.

Metallica covered "Die, Die My Darling" for its 1998 covers album Garage Inc.; the band had previously covered the Misfits' "Last Caress" and "Green Hell" in 1987 for The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-Revisited.

After the Misfits split in 1983, Danzig formed the band Samhain, which kept the horror themes but explored a heavier, metal sound. Later, he formed the band Danzig. Danzig released albums of previous and unreleased recordings and overdubbed many of the Static Age instrument tracks to avoid having to pay royalties to the other former band members. Legal battles ensued, with Jerry Only arguing that he and Doyle deserved compensation for writing some of the music, but later he dropped that fight and wanted the rights to use the Misfits name and imagery. An out-of-court settlement was reached in 1995 allowing Only and Doyle to record and perform as the Misfits, sharing merchandising rights with Danzig.  

Only and Doyle reformed the band and held auditions for a new singer, eventually choosing 19-year-old Michael Emanuel (aka Michale Graves). The new Misfits released an album in 1997 and toured; tensions grew between the band members until a show in 2000 when Graves and drummer Dr. Chud both quit the band and walked off stage. Various lineups played over the next 15 years until 2016, when Danzig, Only and Doyle announced they would perform together for the first time in 33 years under the name the Original Misfits at the Riot Fest in Chicago and Denver. The band has since played shows in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Day After Day #287: (Every Day is) Halloween

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

(Every Day is) Halloween (1985)

One interesting thing about artists is that they can evolve. What they sound like as young musicians can change over the years. There are exceptions, of course, like AC/DC (although they had two different singers over their career), but most artists sound markedly different as they move through their careers. 

Ministry provides a good example of a band changing its sound. If you only listened to them over the last 35 years, you'd think they were always a deafeningly loud industrial metal band. But they weren't always like that. 

Formed in Chicago in 1981 by singer/multi-instrumentalist Al Jourgensen, the early incarnation of Ministry was very much a synth-pop band, touring with the likes of A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club and Depeche Mode. The band's first lineup featured Jourgensen, keyboardists Robert Roberts and John Davis, bassist Marty Sorenson and drummer Stephen George. The group released the single "I'm Falling" in late '81 on Wax Trax! Records and played their first show on New Year's Day 1982. The song hit #45 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Disco chart and Arista Records founder Clive Davis subsequently signed Ministry to a six-figure, two-album deal.

Jourgensen and George became the official band members who went into Syncro Sound studio in Boston to make their first album, with Roberts and Davis along as session musicians. Ministry's debut album, With Sympathy, came out in May 1983 and went to #94 on the Billboard 200, with "Work for Love," "Revenge" and "I Wanted to Tell Her" released as singles. The band supported the Police on a leg of the Synchronicity tour. 

However, Jourgensen had a falling out with Arista and eventually sued the label for violating the contract. In later interviews, Jourgensen has said he no longer wanted to make synth pop but the label insisted; he had discovered hardcore punk and wanted to move in that direction. Eventually, he signed with Sire Records on the condition they would support Wax Trax! and released several singles in the summer of 1985, including "(Every Day is) Halloween." With its pounding industrial beat, the song has since become a goth anthem.

"Well, I live with snakes and lizards/And other things that go bump in the night/'Cause to me every day is Halloween/I have given up hiding and started to fight/I have started to fight/Well anything, any place, anywhere that I go/All the people seem to stop and stare/They say, 'Why are you dressed like it's Halloween?/You look so absurd, you look so obscene!'"

Initially the B-side to the "All Day" single, the song became embraced by goth fans much like Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead."

"Oh, why can't I live a life for me?/Why should I take the abuse that's served?/Why can't they see they're just like me?/It's the same, it's the same in the whole wide world/Well, I let their teeny minds think/That they're dealing with someone who's over the brink/And I dress this way just to keep them at bay/'Cause Halloween is every day, hey."

It became popular at alternative dance clubs and was included on the 1987 compilation Twelve Inch Singles (1981-1984). The following year, the song was used in a commercial for Old Style Beer.

Meanwhile, Ministry released its first album for Sire, Twitch, in 1986. It was still very electronic-based, but more aggressive than the band's previous releases. Joined by bassist Paul Barker and drummer Bill Rieflin, Jourgensen started playing guitar again and the next album, 1988's The Land of Rape and Honey, incorporated the heavier guitar riffage that would become a large part of the band's sound, combined with the industrial elements introduced on Twitch. Subsequent albums would be heavier and faster and the band became part of the alternative rock wave of the early '90s; 1992's Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs, got as high as #27 on the Billboard 200 chart and the band headlined the second Lollapalooza tour along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and over the likes of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. I saw that tour stop in Mansfield, Mass., and Ministry was pretty mind-blowing, just pummeling the audience with volume and power while a bunch of fans ripped up the fence at the back of the lawn area, set it on fire and danced around it. Lollapalooza was not invited back to the venue for several years after that.

Through the rest of the '90s, Ministry's sound became more of a doom metal vibe. Jourgensen was struggling with a serious heroin problem (as well as other substances) and nearly lost his arm in 2001 when he was bitten by a venomous spider. Ministry played a farewell tour in 2008 but reunited in 2011. They've continued to tour and record albums, although they announced a few weeks ago that they're planning to release a final studio album in 2025.

As for "(Every Day is) Halloween," Ministry didn't play the song live for more than 30 years, partly because Jourgensen had sworn off the early synth-pop days. But they played an acoustic version in 2018 with Dave Navarro in Los Angeles and have since reintroduced the song into their live repertoire.

Day After Day #286: Ballad of Dwight Fry

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Ballad of Dwight Fry (1971)

Alice Cooper (aka Vincent Furnier) has spent his career making creepy songs that are perfect for Halloween. I've written about his excellent early '70s run before, but as we approach All Hallows Eve, it's worth revisiting one of his best and creepiest: "The Ballad of Dwight Fry."

Written about Hollywood actor Dwight Frye, who played a number of characters in old horror movies including Renfield in the original Dracula, the song imagines Renfield in a mental institution.

"I was gone for 14 days/I could've been gone for more/Held up in the intensive care ward/Lyin' on the floor/I was gone for all those days/But I was not all alone/I made friends with a lot of people/In the danger zone/See my lonely life unfold/I see it every day/See my lonely mind explode/Since I've gone away."

Cooper dropped the "e" from Fry's name to avoid a lawsuit, but he wrote in his autobiography that Fry always played the most psychotic characters in those old horror movies. 

"I think I lost some weight there/And I'm sure I need some rest/Sleeping don't come easy/In a straight white vest/Sure would like to see the little children/She's only four years old/I'd give her back all of her playthings/Even, even the ones I stole."

After the second chorus, Cooper's character starts mumbling "I gotta get out of here" and keeps going until he's desperately screaming it.

Cooper would perform the song in concert while wearing a straightjacket, which he would escape from and then strangle a nurse. Eventually, live performances of "Ballad of Dwight Fry" would include a mock beheading of Cooper with a fake guillotine.

"I grabbed my hat and I got my coat/And I ran into the street/I saw a man that was choking there/I guess he couldn't breathe/Said to myself this is very strange/I'm glad it wasn't me/But now I hear those sirens calling/And so I am not free/I didn't want to be/I didn't want to be/I didn't want to be."

The song was on the album Love It to Death, which was cited as an influence by the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, as well as a generation of hard rock and metal bands. It was Cooper's first commercial hit and established his band--guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith--as a shock rock force to be reckoned with. They would release four more excellent albums over the next two years before splitting up; Furnier officially changed his name to Alice Cooper and then continued on as a solo artist. He's still going to this day.

Day After Day #285: Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) (1990)

Concrete Blonde is one of those bands that I always liked but never really dug into. I knew the songs I heard on the radio by them and I always appreciated Johnette Napolitano's vocals, but that was the extent of my Concrete Blonde knowledge. I did see them play a song when I attended a live taping of Late Night with David Letterman in 1992 as well.

The band was formed in Hollywood in 1982 with Napolitano on vocals and bass and James Mankey, former bassist of Sparks, on guitar, later adding drummer Michael Murphy. The band was originally called Dreamers and then Dream 6, but when they signed to I.R.S. Records in 1986, labelmate Michael Stipe suggested the name Concrete Blonde. Harry Rushakoff took over on drums for the first album. They got some attention with "Still in Hollywood" from their self-titled debut and "God is a Bullet" from their second album Free.

It was their third album, 1990's Bloodletting, that was the band's breakout thanks to "Joey," a ballad that hit #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and #19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was everywhere, so much so that I got sick of hearing it at the time. The band was joined by Paul Thompson of Roxy Music on drums, filling in for Rushakoff, who was in treatment for drug addiction.

But the first song on the album, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)," really captures the gothic mood of the collection and also makes it a perfect song for Halloween. Between Napolitano's chilling vocals and Mankey's sinister guitar riff, the song evokes the right amount of creep.

"There's a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed/There's a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed/Oh, you were a vampire and baby, I'm a walking dead/Oh, you were a vampire and baby, I'm a walking dead."

This leads into a gang vocal chorus: "I got the ways and means to New Orleans/I'm going down by the river where it's warm and green/I'm gonna have a drink and walk around/I got a lot to think about, oh yeah."

The song slinks along as Napolitano figures out her vampire problem.

"They used to dance in the garden/In the middle of the night/Dancin' out in the garden/In the middle of the night/Oh, you were a vampire and I may never see the light/Oh, you were a vampire and I may never see the light."

The album went gold, hitting #49 on the Billboard 200 and #4 in Canada. A 2010 reissue of the album included a French version of the title track, which adds heavier guitar and mixes French and English lyrics.

Concrete Blonde contributed a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" to the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, and then followed up with 1992's Walking in London and 1993's Mexican Moon, but the albums didn't sell well and the band broke up in '94. Napolitano and Mankey reunited in 1997, teaming up with the band Los Illegals for an album and tour. Concrete Blonde reunited again in 2001 and released two more albums over the following few years.

Day After Day #284: Killers

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Killers (1981)

Continuing the look at scary songs in the runup to Halloween, today the spotlight is on the early days of Iron Maiden. This is also doubling as a tribute to the band's singer on their first two albums, Paul Di'Anno, who died on Monday at the age of 66. 

As noted in my previous post about the band, Iron Maiden was formed on Christmas Day 1975 by bassist Steve Harris. There were many personnel changes in the early years of the band; in November 1978, they auditioned Di'Anno (who went by Paul Andrews before he joined the band), a gruff but powerful vocalist and gave him the job. The band's self-titled debut came out in 1980 and was immediately successful, debuting at #4 on the U.K. Albums Chart thanks to songs like "Running Free." After opening for KISS and Judas Priest, the band was riding high, but guitarist Dennis Stratton was fired and replaced by Adrian Smith, a childhood friend of their other guitarist Dave Murray. 

Maiden didn't like the production on their first album and hired veteran producer Martin Birch to work on their second studio album. Except for "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "Prodigal Son," the songs were written before the band recorded its debut album. Harris wrote all the songs himself except two: "Killers" with Di'Anno and "Twilight Zone" with Murray. 

Thanks to Birch's production, the album sounds a lot better than the debut, even if the songs on the first album are a bit stronger. Murray and Smith provide a potent twin guitar combo, Harris is a monster on bass and drummer Clive Burr's drumming is superb, but another highlight is the aggressive vocal style of Di'Anno. It's kind of become fashionable for Maiden fans to claim they like Di'Anno over his successor Bruce Dickinson, who had a more traditional operatic metal singing style; I like the Dickinson albums better, but there's no denying Di'Anno's power and street-tough attitude. Some even said he brought a punk sensibility to Maiden.

That is especially evident on the title track, which is a coiled and menacing tale of a killer on the loose that switches between the third and first person.

"You walk through the subway/His eyes burn a hole in your back/A footstep behind/He lunges prepared for attack/Scream for mercy/He laughs as he's watching you bleed/Killer behind you/His blood lust defines all his needs."

Still a young band, Maiden plays with precision as Di'Anno steps into the role of the killer.

"My innocent victims/Are slaughtered with wrath and despise/The mocking religion/Of hatred that burns in the night/I have no one/I'm bound to destroy all this greed/A voice inside me/Compelling to satisfy me/I can see/What a knife's meant to be/You'll never know/How I came to foresee, see, see."

The instrumental passages give a preview of the galloping metal sound the band would refine on future albums, even as they move away from classic horror tropes and start writing more literary songs about ancient mariners, historical figures and war. 

"My faith in believing/Is stronger than lifelines and ties/The glimmer of metal/My moment is ready to strike/The death call arises/A scream breaks the still of the night/Another tomorrow/Remember to walk in the light/I have found you/And now there is no place to run/Excitement shakes me/Oh God help me, what have I done?/I've done it again."

The album was a little less successful than the debut, hitting #12 on the U.K. chart, but it was the band's first foray onto the Billboard 200 in the U.S., reaching #78. Maiden played in the U.S. for the first time on this tour, opening for Judas Priest.

Although the band was building its profile around the world, Di'Anno was struggling with the increased demands of the job and began going overboard with cocaine and alcohol abuse. After the Killer World Tour ended, the band fired Di'Anno and replaced him with the former singer of Samson, Bruce Dickinson. Maiden's next album, The Number of the Beast, was a huge hit and the band rocketed to the top of the metal heap.

Meanwhile, things didn't go as well for Di'Anno. He formed a band called Di'Anno that moved away from the metal sound of Maiden to the AOR vibe of bands like Journey, although they did play Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow" in concert. The group released one album before breaking up. Di'Anno then joined a would-be supergroup called Gogmagog that was assembled by producer Jonathan King. The band also included Burr, future Maiden guitarist Janick Gers and former Def Leppard axman Pete Willis and bassist Neil Murray. King forbade the group from writing their own material; they released a three-song EP that had them perform a Russ Ballard song and two written by King. It didn't chart and the group disbanded.

Di'Anno then started a band called Battlezone (also called Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone) that made two albums before splitting up, after which he formed a power metal band called Killers, which would release four albums. In the late '90s, Di'Anno put together a new version of Battlezone and made another album. He continued to play with various bands over the subsequent decades, relocating to Brazil in 2008. In 2011, he was sentenced to nine months in prison in the U.K. after being convicted of fraud but was released after two months for good behavior. 

He struggled with health issues for years, including a knee problem that had him performing live in a wheelchair the last several years of his life. It couldn't have been easy to watch his former band ascend to such heights without him. Di'Anno was able to meet up with the guys from Maiden a few years ago and they seemed to be on good terms, judging by the photos posted of them. He was a troubled man who led a troubled life, but Di'Anno left behind a couple of killer albums.

Stuck In Thee Garage #551: October 25, 2024

It's that time of year again. Time to celebrate scary stuff, give out candy to neighborhood kids and dress up like sexy actuaries. Well, two out of three ain't bad. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, we get the drop on Halloween six days early with two hours of scary, spooky and creepy rock songs. Crank this loud enough to keep the undead away...or attract them. One or the other, I can't remember which.

This playlist isn't on the jukebox, but it should be:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Cypress Hill - How I Could Just Kill a Man/Cypress Hill

Rollins Band - Monster/Get Some Go Again

Teenage Fanclub - Satan/Bandwagonesque

Queens of the Stone Age - Monsters in the Parasol/Rated R

Boygenius - Satanist/The Record

La Luz - Goodbye Ghost/La Luz

Jonny Polonsky - Ghost Like Soul (feat. Cedric Bixler-Zavala)/Kingdom of Sleep

R.E.M. - Ghost Riders in the Sky/Live at Rockpalast 10/2/85

Alice Cooper - Sick Things/Billion Dollar Babies

Blue Oyster Cult - Hot Rails to Hell/Tyranny & Mutation

Black Francis - When They Come to Murder Me/Svn Fingers

The Blood Brothers - Set Fire to the Face on Fire/Young Machetes

Kam Fong - Get Behind Me Satan/From the Bottom of the Sea

Jarvis Cocker - I Will Kill Again/Jarvis

Neutral Milk Hotel - Ghost/In the Aeroplane, Under the Sea

Radiohead - Give Up the Ghost/The King of Limbs

Hour 2

Paul Westerberg - Ghost on the Canvas/PW & the Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys

Jerry Cantrell - Black Hearts and Evil Done/Brighten

Mad Season - Lifeless Dead/Live at the Moore, Seattle 4/29/95

Fiddlehead - The Deathlife/Death is Nothing to Us

Spoon - The Ghost of You Lingers/Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Mudhoney - Ghost/Tomorrow Hit Today

Sonic Youth - Satan is Boring/Bad Moon Rising

Mastodon - Halloween/Once More 'Round the Sun

Six Finger Satellite - Crippled Monster Bearing Malice/Live at Sub Pop's Vermonstress Fest October 1992

Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon/Bark at the Moon

Killing Joke - Hosannas from the Basements of Hell/Hosannas from the Basements of Hell

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)/Bloodletting

John Carpenter - Halloween Theme/Halloween soundtrack

Scare up the devilishly hott rock HERE!

Day After Day #283: Frankie Teardrop

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Frankie Teardrop (1977)

With Halloween a week away, I'm going to highlight some of my favorite scary songs for the next week. This first one is one of the freakiest songs I've ever heard.

Suicide was a pioneering electronic proto-punk act out of New York City formed by on a  Alan Vega and Martin Rev in 1970. One of the first bands to bill themselves as punk rock, Suicide emerged in the early glam punk scene with bands like the New York Dolls. Vega would provide vocals while Rev played pulsating synths and keyboards.

The band released its self-titled debut in December 1977, and it was initially panned by critics in the U.S. Vega's big inspirations were '50s rock icons like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, which you can hear in their first single, "Johnny." The second single, "Cheree," was a love song written about a girlfriend of Rev's that has even been used in a perfume commercial. But listening to those songs will in no way prepare you for the horror of "Frankie Teardrop."

Inspired by a news story Vega read, the 10+ minute song focuses on a 20-year-old factory worker who, driven insane by the poverty he's stuck in, comes home one day and kills his wife and baby before killing himself. The claustrophobic creep factor is amplified by the synth drone and drum machine, but the kicker is Vega's yowling vocals.

"He's working from 7 to 5/He's just trying to survive/Well let's hear it for Frankie/Frankie Frankie/Well Frankie can't make it/'Cause things are just too hard/Frankie can't make enough money/Frankie can't buy enough food/And Frankie's getting evicted/Oh let's hear it for Frankie/Oh Frankie Frankie/Oh Frankie Frankie."

The song is already disturbing at this point and only gets more so.

"Frankie is so desperate/He's gonna kill his wife and kid/Frankie's gonna kill his kid/Frankie picked up a gun/Pointed at the six-month-old in the crib/Oh Frankie/Frankie looked at his wife/Shot her/'Oh what have I done?'/Let's hear it for Frankie."

Making the song even creepier is Vega's blood-curdling screams, which are truly horrifying.

"Frankie Teardrop/Frankie put the gun to his head/Frankie's dead." You might think that would be it for poor Frankie, but no.

"Frankie's lying in Hell/We're all Frankies/We're all lying in Hell."

It's a tough listen, but Bruce Springsteen cited it as an inspiration for his album Nebraska, which features the haunting Teardrop-esque "State Trooper." 

It's such a tough listen that radio host Tom Scharpling started the Frankie Teardrop Challenge, in which listeners to his Best Show program were challenged to get through a full listen of the song on headphones in the dark and alone without freaking out. Very few made it through the entire 10:26.

Although it wasn't well received at the time, Suicide's first album has been cited in many best-album-of-all-time lists since. The band released their second album in 1980, but then released only three more studio albums over the next 22 years. They played live sporadically until 2015. Vega died in his sleep in 2016 at the age of 78.

In addition to Springsteen, countless artists have named Suicide as an influence, including Television, Public Image Ltd., Talking Heads, Steve Albini, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Ric Ocasek, Mudhoney, R.E.M., Henry Rollins, Nick Cave and Devo.

Day After Day #282: Vapour Trail

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Vapour Trail (1990)

Sometimes you just miss things the first time around. I fully admit to being clueless about the greatness of English shoegaze greats Ride when they first emerged in the early '90s. I heard them on WFNX, but they just didn't click with me the way other bands like R.E.M., U2, Jane's Addiction and others did. 

It wasn't until the early 2000s that I really started paying attention to Ride; I downloaded a cool live bootleg of the band in its prime from an MP3 blog and really enjoyed it. Then in 2012, my good buddy Jay, proprietor of the late great Clicky Clicky Music Blog, wrangled a tribute compilation to Ride's debut album Nowhere in which Boston indie acts each covered a song. It was pretty goddamn great and stoked my interest in Ride even more; you can listen to it here.

Ride was formed in Oxford, England in 1988 by singer-guitarists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, drummer Laurence "Loz" Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt. Bell cited seeing the Smiths play live as his inspiration for forming the band. The group made a demo tape that caught the ear of Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain, which then led to former JAMC manager Alan McGee taking an interest in Ride. After they opened for the Soup Dragons in 1989, McGee signed Ride to his label, Creation Records.

Ride released three EPs in 1990: Ride, Play and Fall, all of which making it into the top 75 of the U.K. charts. The first two EPs were combined as Smile and released in the U.S. in July 1990, while the four songs on Fall were incorporated into the CD version of the band's debut album, Nowhere, in October 1990. Ride's noisy guitar-driven sound was classified as shoegaze in the British press, although the band didn't like the label. 

The last track on Nowhere (although the CD versions added three songs from the Fall EP at the end), "Vapour Trail" was released as a single in the U.S. in April 1991. Written by Bell, the song featured a shimmering and distinctive guitar riff played on two Rickenbacker 12-string guitars while Colbert's powerful drumming propels the proceedings along. There are only two verses in "Vapour Trail" in the first half of the song; the last half is instrumental, closing with a string section.

"First you look so strong, then you fade away/The sun will blind my eyes, I love you anyway/Thirsty for your smile, I watch you for a while/You are a vapour trail in a deep blue sky/Tremble with a sight, glitter in your eye/You seem to come and go, I never seem to know/And all my time is yours as much as mine/We never have enough time to show our love."

The song is widely considered the band's best. Nowhere went to #11 on the U.K. Albums chart, although its popularity in the U.S. was restricted to college and alternative stations. 

Ride released its second album, Going Blank Again, in February 1992, and had a top 10 hit in the U.K. with "Leave Them All Behind." The followup single didn't fare as well and after a difficult American tour, the band took a break. The band's third album, Carnival of Light, came out in June 1994 but it was not well-received by critics. The recording of Ride's fourth album, Tarantula, found the group pursuing a different sound; Gardener and Bell had begun squabbling and Gardener walked out during mixing sessions for the album. The band announced its breakup right before Tarantula was released in March 1996.

After the breakup, Bell formed a new band called Hurricane No. 1 and released two albums before joining Oasis on bass. Gardener and Colbert formed a band called the Animalhouse that didn't last long before Gardener began a solo career. In the meantime, all four Ride members participated in a 2001 documentary about Sonic Youth and recorded a 30-minute improvised jam that was later released on CD. 

In 2014, Ride announced it was reuniting, playing festivals in Europe and North America. Eventually the band decided to record a new album, releasing Weather Diaries in 2017. The album was strong and Ride supported it with another tour. I saw them on the reunion tour and in 2017. Two more albums have followed, including Interplay this past March.

Better late than never, I say. Nowhere is an amazing album and "Vapour Trail" is an amazing song. (Check out Senor Breitling's tribute comp, Nofuckingwhere, which features a sharp version of the song by Eldridge Rodriguez.)