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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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
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 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.)
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Love is Like Oxygen (1978)
As I've discussed previously in this feature, the 1970s were a wild and wooly time. Coming off the end of the psychedelic late '60s, it seemed like everything went a little nuts in the '70s: the clothes were insane, the hair was everywhere and the music was all over the place. It made sense that glam rock emerged in the early '70s, thanks to T. Rex, David Bowie, early Roxy Music, Slade and others, including the Sweet.
The Sweet was formed in London in 1968 under their original name the Sweetshop, playing bubblegum pop before moving to a harder rock sound. The band was led by vocalist Brian Connolly, drummer Mick Tucker, bassist/vocalist Steve Priest and guitarist Frank Torpey, who left after a year and was replaced by a few guitarists until the band settled on Andy Scott. They signed a management deal with aspiring songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and had a hit with the song "Funny, Funny" but the band started to make some headway with the singles "Little Willy" and "Wig-Wam Bam," which both hit #4 in the U.K. In 1973, "Little Willy" was released in the U.S. and got up to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Sweet were getting popular with teens, but they started to chafe at the bubblegum image Chinn and Chapman had constructed for them, preferring to play heavier material. At the same time, the band's stage attire was getting wilder and they began wearing makeup as glam rock exploded in the U.K. The band started calling themselves "Sweet" instead of "The Sweet" and had big hits with "Ballroom Blitz," which was written about a 1973 incident in which the band was forced off stage by fans throwing bottles at them, "Fox on the Run" and "Action."
Sweet's big hits were very chameleonic; they could sound like a different band depending on the song. This was especially true with 1978's "Love is Like Oxygen," which could have fit in on an ELO album with its strings and classical elements. The band was going in more of a pop direction, and the nearly 7-minute album version contains several sections that sound nothing like "Ballroom Blitz" or "Action."
"Love is like oxygen/You get too much you get too high/Not enough and you're gonna die/Love gets you high/Time on my side/I got it all/I've heard that pride/Always comes before a fall/There's a rumor goin' round the town/That you don't want me around/I can't shake off my city blues/Every way I turn, I lose."
The song also sounds like other late '70s pomp-rock acts like the Alan Parsons Project and 10CC.
"Time is no healer/If you're not there/Lonely fever/Sad words in the air/Some things are better left unsaid/I'm gonna spend my days in bed/I'll walk the streets at night/To be hidden by the city lights, city lights/Love is like oxygen (love is like oxygen)/You get too much you get too high (too high)/Not enough and you're gonna die (gonna die)/Love gets you high."
The song was Sweet's last top 10 hit, hitting #8 in the U.S. and Canada and #9 in the U.K. and Australia. It was nominated for Song of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards but lost out to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street."
The band opened for Bob Seger in the spring of 1978, a tour marred by a show in Birmingham, Alabama, attended by Capitol Records executives who saw a drunken Connolly collapse on stage, leaving the rest of the group to continue without him. Connolly was eventually fired the following year.
Sweet continued on as a trio, but eventually split up in 1981. Brian Connolly formed a version of the band in 1984 without any other original members, calling it Brian Connolly's Sweet and then New Sweet. Meanwhile, Andy Scott formed a version of the band in 1985. After some legal squabbles, Connolly and Scott agreed to call their bands by their names to avoid confusion. Connolly died in 1997 at the age of 51 after years of health problems. A few years later, Steve Priest put together his own version of the group; he died in 2020. Andy Scott is the last surviving member from the group's glory days.
I've never owned any Sweet music but have certainly heard them on the radio plenty over the years. In the mid-'90s, I was at a party with my buddy Bob when we discovered that the party host, a friend of ours, had a Sweet Greatest Hits CD. This eventually led to us cranking the CD at 2 a.m., singing along loudly to "Love is Like Oxygen," much to the annoyance of the hosts who were trying to get everyone to go the hell home. Ah, memories.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Noel, Jonah and Me (1993)
It's not necessarily fun to be an opening act for a band with an established following. Sometimes the headliner's fans can be hostile or dismissive (or not even there until right before the opening act is done), sometimes the mix is bad and sometimes it's just a bad fit. I typically like to see opening acts if I can because it's a great way to discover new bands.
In the spring of 1994, I was excited to see the Afghan Whigs at the Paradise. I had been enjoying their new album Gentlemen and was looking forward to see them play the new songs live. My brother and I got to the Dise in time for the opener, a guitar-and-drums duo out of Portland, Oregon called the Spinanes and we were blown away.
This was several years before the White Stripes blew up, so a two-person band was still pretty unique. The Spinanes were made up of singer-songwriter/guitarist Rebecca Gates and drummer Scott Plouf and had been signed by Sub Pop the previous year, in the midst of the grungesplosion. The band didn't sound like those other bands at all, leaning into a more minimalist sound that emphasized the dynamics between guitar and drums. Gates had a lilting voice that floated above the noise generated by her furious strumming and Plouf's powerhouse drumming. Not long after the show (the Whigs were awesome, btw), I picked up the band's debut album, Manos.
It's a terrific record with an economical approach, careening between acoustic folky numbers and raucous rockers. Plouf is a monster throughout, while Gates is a winning frontperson. The standout track for me was (and is) "Noel, Jonah and Me," which features both band members furiously kicking ass. The guitars are propulsive and energetic while Plouf hammers away, while Gates' vocals quietly take control.
"Standing here now you wash over me/Screeching fear and how you pull me near/Hear and there and your creeping complications/Did you give up punk for Lent in your heart heaven sent/Count Noel, Jonah and me."
The album definitely resonated with its target audience as it went to #1 on the college radio charts soon after its release.
"You're twisting to feel and I'm scared/And you're thinking to feel and I'm scared/And you're twisting to feel/I'm a square and that makes you giddy/Hey you there do you have some needs/It's your prayer and how/Standing here now you wash over me/Count Noel, Jonah and me."
The video for "Noel, Jonah and Me" got decent play on MTV's 120 Minutes; I don't remember hearing the song on WFNX in the Boston area but it may have gotten some airplay. Over the following few years, Gates sang backups on Elliott Smith's "St. Ides Heaven" and on Ben Lee's debut album, while Plouf played with Team Dresch and on Beck's album One Foot in the Grave. The duo reunited to make another Spinanes album, Strand, in 1996, but Plouf also began playing with Built to Spill and left the following year to join that band full-time.
Gates moved to Chicago and added bassist Joanna Bolme (later of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) and drummer Jerry Busher and made the 1998 Spinanes album Arches and Aisles. After releasing a comp of early singles in 2000, Gates ended the band and went solo, releasing albums in 2001 and 2012. Plouf played with Built to Spill until 2012; he played on an album by Disco Doom in 2014. In 2018, Merge reissued Manos, which had been out of print for a while.
Opening acts don't always work out; I remember seeing Fastway open for Rush in 1984 and they were godawful. But I'm certainly glad I showed up early for that Afghan Whigs show 30 years ago.
