Day After Day #317: Perfect Strangers

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

Perfect Strangers (1984)

Rock bands can be difficult to hold together. While there are certainly examples of bands that have maintained the same lineup for decades, more often than not bands tend to split up or replace members after a few years. 

Deep Purple was formed in 1968 and is still together, but the group has had approximately 3,782 members during that time. I wrote about a hit for an early version of the group, but the version of Deep Purple that most people point to as the best is the "Mark II" lineup: Ian Gillan on vocals, Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Roger Glover on bass, Jon Lord on keyboards and Ian Paice on drums. That lineup produced four classic hard rock albums from 1970 to 1973, with hits including "Smoke on the Water," "Highway Star," "Woman from Tokyo" and "Space Truckin'."

By this point, internal tensions were high between Gillan and Blackmore, leading to Gillan quitting the band after a tour in 1973, followed by the dismissal of Glover. The band hired Glenn Hughes, a bassist-singer, and wanted to add Paul Rodgers as lead singer but he opted to form Bad Company instead. So Purple went with an unknown singer named David Coverdale. That version of the band released two albums that did well, but Blackmore didn't like the direction the band was going in and left to form Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio. 

Deep Purple then added young American guitarist Tommy Bolin and released one album. Bolin was talented but was struggling with drug addiction, which hampered his performance on tour. After the tour, the band split up and Bolin died of a heroin overdose a few months later. 

From 1976 to 1984, the various former members of Purple did well in their various other bands: Blackmore's Rainbow went from playing classical-tinged metal to Foreigner-esque hard rock with several vocalists; Gillan had success with his own band and fronted Black Sabbath for an album; Glover played with Rainbow and was a producer; Coverdale formed Whitesnake, which also included Paice and Lord at different points. Paice also played in Gary Moore's band.

In April 1984, the Mark II version of Deep Purple reunited and recorded a new album, Perfect Strangers. The band was able to put their past differences aside and came up with a strong album; they were all in their late 30s or early 40s and still at the peak of their powers. At the same time, hard rock and metal was having a renaissance and new material from the classic lineup of Deep Purple was embraced by the record-buying public.

The title track was based on the Elric fantasy series by author Michael Moorcock, who had previously collaborated with Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult. It begins with a powerful organ intro from Lord before the rest of the band kicks in and Gillan launches into the vocal.

"Can you remember, remember my name?/As I flow through your life/A thousand oceans I have flown/Oh and cold/Cold spirits of ice/All my life/I am the echo of your past/I am returning, the echo of a point in time/And distant faces shine/A thousand warriors I have known/Oh, and laughing/As the spirits appear."

The song is one of the few Deep Purple tracks without a Blackmore solo, but his lead guitar work is exquisite throughout.

"All your life, all your life/Shadows of another day/If you hear me talking on the wind/You've got to understand/We must remain/Perfect strangers."

It was the perfect reintroduction of a classic band. I picked up the album while on a visit to Toronto in the fall of '84 and was instantly hooked, already being a fan of the band's big hits. Songs like "Knocking at Your Back Door," "Nobody's Home" and "Mean Streak" were also standouts. I wasn't a fan of the latter Rainbow stuff like "Street of Dreams," which I felt was trying too hard for a radio hit, so it was nice to hear Blackmore back to his guitar god ways.

The Perfect Strangers album hit #17 on the Billboard 200 and #5 in the U.K. and the band's subsequent tour in 1985 outgrossed every other act in the U.S. except Bruce Springsteen. But after that glorious return, things got bumpy for the Mark II lineup. The making of the band's follow-up album, The House of Blue Light, was difficult and it didn't capture the same vibe as Perfect Strangers. The tour was cut short when Blackmore broke a finger. And in 1989, Gillian was fired and replaced by Joe Lynn Turner, who had worked with Blackmore and Glover in Rainbow. 

The band made one album with Turner before bringing back Gillan in 1993 for a 25th anniversary album and tour, but both were disappointing. Blackmore ended up leaving the band on tour in November 1993 and was replaced by Joe Satriani; the band asked Satriani to join permanently but his Epic Records contract didn't allow it. Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs and Kansas filled the slot in 1994. 

Since then, there have been various configurations of the band, but it's still going with Gillan, Glover, Paice, keyboardist Don Airey and guitarist Simon McBride. The band released a new album earlier this year.

Deep Purple, including Blackmore, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. He's continued performing with his wife in Blackmore's Night, a medieval folk-rock group.

Day After Day #316: I Like to Rock

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

I Like to Rock (1979)

Growing up as a youngster in Pickering, Ontario, I was obviously exposed to a lot of Canadian music thanks to the Canadian Content rules, which required that radio stations play at least 25% of their music by Canadian artists (that was the rule in the '70s, it has since gone up to 35%). Even before I was listening to rock, I have a distinct memory of being in bed and hearing a neighboring house having a party with April Wine's "You Could Have Been a Lady" rattling my windows. It was pretty cool, wondering what was going over there. With the benefit of hindsight, I'm guessing there was plenty of beer and weed and that all the attendees are in their 60s now.

Back to the CanCon: In the late '70s, I would hear plenty of April Wine on the radio, along with Rush, Triumph, the Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Max Webster, Saga, etc. In early 1981, I watched a CBC concert featuring April Wine playing in London and it totally rocked. I had liked them before, but this cinched it. They had just released their album The Nature of the Beast, which was their biggest album in the U.S. thanks to hits like "Just Between You and Me" and "Sign of the Gypsy Queen." 

But it was a song from the band's previous album, 1979's Harder...Faster, that grabbed my attention thanks to that concert special I saw. The lead track, "I Like to Rock," was an epic rocker that paid tribute to some of the band's main influences while also reflecting the current hard rock scene. 

April Wine was formed in 1969 in Halifax by singer-guitarist Myles Goodwyn and brothers David and Richie Henman (guitar and drums, respectively) and their cousin Jim Henman (bass). They relocated to Montreal after mistakenly thinking a rejection letter from Aquarius Records was an invitation and talked the label into signing them. They scored a top 40 hit in Canada with "Fast Train" off their 1971 debut album and opened for Ike & Tina Turner, Jethro Tull, Badfinger and Stevie Wonder.

The band's had a hit with their 1972 cover of Hot Chocolate's "You Could Have Been a Lady," which hit #2 in Canada and #32 on the Billboard Hot 100. Jim Henman had already left the band and was replaced by Jim Clench, and then the Henman brothers quit and were replaced by Jerry Mercer on drums and Gary Moffet on guitar. The band released albums that did well in Canada and continued to tour regularly; Clench left to join Bachman-Turner Overdrive and was replaced by Steve Lang. 

April Wine was successful in Canada, adding Brian Greenway as a third guitarist. The band was booked to play a gig at the El Mocambo club in Toronto in March 1977; the co-headliner was a band called the Cockroaches, which turned out to be the Rolling Stones. The performance was released as a live album and the band toured in the U.S. opening for the Stones, Styx and Rush.

In 1979, the band released Harder...Faster, which included the hits "Say Hello" and "I Like to Rock." The latter song was a tribute to Goodwyn's love of the genre.

"Well, alright, something's got you going tonight/Doin' all she can, it's alright/Come on, can't you see?/That when we all let go/We get high on rock and roll/Journey to the stars/Rock n' roll guitars/I like to rock/Some like hot, baby/I like it, you like it/I like to rock/I like to rock."

Harder...Faster ended up staying on the Billboard 200 chart for 40 weeks, with April Wine opening for Rush, Toto, Styx, Boston, Squeeze and Blue Oyster Cult. 

"I can sing, that's the kind of life for me/Want it loose and fancy free/Come on, then let's go/And it'll be alright/We can rock and roll all night/Journey to the stars/Rock and roll guitars/I like to rock/Some like it hot baby/I like it, you like it/I like to rock/I like to rock."

The song also includes tributes to the band's influences with the riffs from the Beatles' "Day Tripper" and the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in the final verse.

The song went to #86 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #75 on the Canadian RPM top singles chart, while reaching #41 on the U.K. Singles Chart.

April Wine hit platinum with The Nature of the Beast, and then had success with 1982's Power Play thanks to the videos of "Enough is Enough," "If You See Kay" and "Anything You Want, You Got It." But in-band tensions led to Goodwyn moving to the Bahamas before the recording of 1984's Animal Grace. The album was less successful than its predecessors. Another album followed in 1986, with less success.

The band released four more albums over the next 20 years, with various lineup configurations. Goodwyn finally retired from the band in 2022 and died the following year at the age of 75.

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #556: November 29, 2024

After playing long songs on Stuck In Thee Garage last week, I went in the opposite direction this week and played short songs in hour 2. Nothing over 2 minutes long, which means there were a lot of extra songs this week. Rev it up!

This playlist likes to party:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Kim Deal - Disobedience/Nobody Loves You More

Spun Out - Paranoia/Dream Noise

Amyl and the Sniffers - Motorbike Song/Cartoon Darkness

Jesse Malin - No Way Out (feat. Rancid)/Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin

Ekko Astral - Uwu Type Beat/Pink Balloons

The Hard Quartet - Earth Hater/The Hard Quartet

The Cure - A Fragile Thing (RSD 24 mix)/Songs of a Lost World

Dale Crover - Kitten Knife/Glossolalia

The Bug Club - We Don't Care About That/On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System

Sharp Pins - It's a Mod Mod World/Mod Mayday 23

Split System - The Wheel/Vol. 2

Kal Marks - Midnight/Wasteland Baby

Spectres - Wishing Well/Horror Box /AM-DRAM

Bleeding Star - Bury the Hatchet/Sympathy

Johnny Foreigner - The Blazing World/How to Be Hopeful

Oceanator - Cut String/Everything is Love and Death

John Davis - Indifferent Stars/Jinx

Hour 2: Short songs

Beastie Boys - Time for Livin'/Check Your Head

The Hives - Step Out of the Way/The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons

Guardian Singles - Chad and Stacey/Feed Me to the Doves

Nirvana - Very Ape/In Utero

Mclusky - Lightsabre C*cksucking Blues/Mclusky Do Dallas

MJ Lenderman - SUV/Boat Songs

Militarie Gun - Think Less/Life Under the Gun

Superchunk - Mad World/Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides and Strays, 2007-2023

The Dils - Mr. Big/Dils Dils Dils

The Horrors - Sheena is a Parasite/Strange House

Pavement - Debris Slide/Westing (By Musket and Sextant)

Camper Van Beethoven - Oh No!/Telephone Free Landslide Victory

The Muffs - On and On/Blonder and Blonder

The Breeders - Lime House/Pod

The Nation of Ulysses - Hot Chocolate City/13-Point Program to Destroy America

Stove - Duckling Fantasy/'s Favorite Friend

Girlpool - Alone at the Show/The Le Sigh (Vol. II)

Boss Hog - Beehive/Boss Hog

Sasami - Squeeze (feat. Not Home)/Squeeze

Alice Bag - Sister Dynamite/Sister Dynamite

Julie Ocean - Ten Lonely Words/Long Gone and Nearly There

Johnny Foreigner - Choose Yr Side and Shut Up/Grace and the Bigger Picture

Turnstile - Endless/Glow On

Tony Molina - Leave This Town/In the Fade

Hot Snakes - Mystery Boy/Automatic Midnight

Ween - What Deaner Was Talking About/Chocolate and Cheese

Daniel Romano's Outfit - Chatter/Too Hot to Sleep

Sonny Vincent and Rocket From the Crypt - Something I Gotta Do/Vintage Piss

Jeff Rosenstock - Head/Hellmode

Van Halen - One Foot Out the Door/Fair Warning

Wake the neighbors by cranking this show up HERE!

Day After Day #315: I Thank You

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

I Thank You (1979)

After yesterday's foray into offensive content warnings (which I believe was caused by an apparently risque lyric that I later deleted), I'm going to keep things brief and relatively family friendly today. It's Thanksgiving, and I've watched exactly zero minutes of football and spent no time on my couch...because we're up in Canada for the second year in a row. We drove up to Toronto to visit my youngest daughter, who's in her junior year of college. We brought Thanksgiving to her, going to Whole Foods and getting the fixings for a low-key dinner, substituting a rotisserie chicken for a turkey. It was great to have the four of us together for Thanksgiving for the first time in five years.

In the spirit of the holiday, I'm going with ZZ Top's 1979 cover of "I Thank You," which was originally done by Sam and Dave in 1968. The original, written by David Porter and Isaac Hayes, is excellent, but I'm more familiar with the ZZ Top version that came out when I was 12. 

Billy Gibbons provides the gruff yet soulful vocals while also delivering the goods with some gutbucket blues guitar, while Dusty Hill on bass and Frank Beard on drums keep things tight on the bottom end. 

"You didn't have to love me like you did/But you did, but you did/And I thank you/You didn't have to love me like you did/But you did, but you did/And I thank you/But you took your love to someone else/I wouldn't know what it meant to be loved to death/You made me feel like I never felt/Kisses so good I had to holler for help."

The song was the first single on ZZ Top's album Deguello and it hit #34 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was still a few years before the band blew up with the 1983 album Eliminator.

"Every day was something new/You put on your bag and your fine to-do/You got me trying new things too/Just so I can keep up with you/You didn't have to shake it but you did/But you did, but you did/And I thank you/You didn't have to make it like you did/But you did, but you did/And I thank you."

The Sam and Dave version was a big hit, going to #9 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #4 on the R&B chart. The song has also been covered by numerous artists over the years, including Bonnie Raitt, the Casanovas, Bon Jovi, Paul Rodgers, Robert Randolph and Tom Jones.

I wrote about another ZZ Top song from the same album a few months back. They kicked a whole lot of ass back in the day. That's it! Hope you had a great Turkey Day.

Day After Day #314: It's Gonna Be a Long Night

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Day After Day #313: Heads Will Roll

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

Heads Will Roll (2009)

While the early 2000s NYC is often thought of as primarily guitar rock, there was a lot more going on musically. Sure, there were bands like the Strokes and Interpol, who wore their influences on their proverbial sleeves (VU/Television/Feelies and Joy Division/New Order/Smiths, respectively). Then there were bands like LCD Soundsystem, who I wrote about last week, that focused on electronic rock. Poised in between those poles were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Formed in 2000 by Karen O (aka Karen Orzolek, on vocals and piano), Nick Zinner (guitars, keyboards) and Brian Chase (drums), the group was initially an acoustic duo called Unitard comprised of Karen O and Zinner before they decided to go in an art-punk direction. The band played danceable punk rock, described by some critics as Siouxsie Sioux fronting Led Zeppelin. Soon they were opening for the Strokes and White Stripes and in late 2001 released a self-titled EP. In '01, they toured the U.S. with Girls Against Boys and Europe with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. 

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs released their debut album, Fever to Tell, in 2003 and it was a big hit, thanks to the single "Maps." Karen O was a visually striking frontwoman, making an interesting contrast with the expressionless Zinner, who wailed away on guitar alongside her. They followed up with 2006's Show Your Bones and the Is Is EP in 2007, continuing to be popular among the indie rock and dance punk crowds. 

The band's third album, 2009's It's Blitz!, marked a change in direction when Zinner brought a vintage ARP synthesizer to the studio and the songs became pulsing synth-pop. The album's second single was "Heads Will Roll," a glorious paean to dancing and/or decapitation.

"Off with your head/Dance 'til you're dead/Heads will roll/Heads will roll/Heads will roll/On the floor/Glitter on the wet streets/Silver over everything/The river's all wet/You're all chrome/Dripping with alchemy/Shiver stop shivering/The glitter's all wet/You're all chrome/The men cry out the girls cry out/The men cry out the girls cry out/The men cry out, oh no."

The video for the song was pretty iconic as well, with the band performing in a club while a werewolf dances in front of them, doing Michael Jackson-esque moves (MJ coincidentally died just before the single was released and a month after the video came out). After a light flashes halfway through the song, the werewolf starts chasing the audience and kills most of them, but instead of blood, red glitter and confetti flies from the bodies. At the end of the video, Karen O keeps singing while decapitated. In the U.K., the ending was edited out.

"Looking glass/Take the past/Shut your eyes/Realize/Glitter on the wet streets/Silver over everything/The river's all wet/You're all chrome/You're all chrome/Off, off, off with your head/Dance, dance dance til you're dead."

The song went to #5 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart, #1 on the Dance Singles Sales chart and #7 on the Alternative Digital Songs chart. I swear Billboard just comes up with new charts every year. It's Blitz! hit #22 on the Billboard 200 and went gold. Of course, you have to remember that by 2009, the decline in album sales was happening for nearly a decade thanks to the internet; It's Blitz! was supposed to be released on April 13 but the release date was moved up to March 9 after the album was leaked online in late February. 

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs released one more album, 2013's Mosquito, before going on hiatus at the end of 2014. Karen O released a solo album, Crush Songs, in September 2014 and a live album in 2015. She also released Lux Prima, a collaborative album with Danger Mouse, in 2019.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played some small shows in 2017 and a London festival in 2018, but were pretty quiet until 2022, when they released their latest album Cool It Down in September.

"Heads Will Roll" has had a resurgence of late, popping up in numerous TV shows, including Agatha All Along, The Boys, Gen V and Chucky.

Day After Day #312: What Is Life

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

What Is Life (1971)

Continuing the going solo conversation from yesterday, how about an artist so talented that nobody knew what he really could do because he was in the shadows of two of the greatest musicians of all time? It's not like George Harrison didn't do anything consequential in the Beatles, because he certainly did, but he clearly had a lot more to say once the band split up.

Before the Beatles broke up in 1970, Harrison had recorded and released two solo albums: Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound, which were mainly instrumental. In December 1969, he toured Europe with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock and drummer Jim Gordon. After the tour, Harrison began working on his third album with his tourmates and others, including Ringo Starr, Gary Wright, Billy Preston and more. Producer (and future murderer) Phil Spector co-produced All Things Must Pass with Harrison, using his Wall of Sound production technique; he had previously worked on the Beatles' Get Back rehearsal tapes, which turned into the Let It Be album.

Harrison had already been getting praise for his contributions to the Abbey Road album, the brilliant "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun," but he had a stash of unreleased songs written as early as 1966. All Things Must Pass ended up being a triple album: two albums of songs and an album of informal jams. 

The first single, "My Sweet Lord," was released in November 1970 and it hit #1 on charts worldwide. Originally written for Preston, Harrison's version reflected his interest in Hinduism and praised the Hindu god Krishna. Several years later, the song was part of a copyright infringement suit because of its similarity to the Chiffons' hit "He's So Fine"; Harrison was found to have subconsciously plagiarized the song. 

The second single from All Things Must Pass was "What Is Life," which while not as huge as its predecessor, still was a big hit. Harrison wrote it in 1969 and also originally intended to give it to Preston, but then decided to hold onto it. "What Is Life" could be interpreted as a love song for both a woman and a deity.

"What I feel, I can't say/But my love is there for you any time of day/But if it's not love that you need/Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed/Tell me, what is my life without your love? And tell me, who am I without you by my side?"

Harrison opens the song with a descending fuzz riff before he's joined by the rest of the band: Clapton on rhythm guitar, Carl Radle on bass and Gordon on drums. Spector adds some of his patented reverb, plus strings, horns and multitracked vocals to create a huge sound.

"What I know, I can do/If I give my love now to everyone like you/But if it's not love that you need/Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed/Tell me, what is my life without your love?/And tell me, who am I without you by my side?"

The joyful song peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was top 10 throughout the world. The song was so anthemic that it has been used on many movie soundtracks, including Goodfellas, Patch Adams and This Is 40. "What Is Life" has been covered by many artists, including Olivia Newton-John, the Ventures, Shawn Mullins and Weird Al Yankovic, who played the song at the George Fest tribute concert in 2014.

Harrison went on to have a fairly successful solo career, with a few dips and several high points. After his 1982 album Gone Troppo sunk like a stone, he laid low but came back in 1987 with the album Cloud Nine, which was a big hit thanks to his cover of "Got My Mind Set On You," which went to #1 and was played constantly on MTV. Harrison then started the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. The group released two albums (the second as a four-piece after Orbison died in 1988), which both sold well. 

In 1994, Harrison worked with McCartney and Starr on the Beatles Anthology project, which included recording two new Beatles songs built around recordings made by Lennon before he died. Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997 and recovered after treatment. In 1999, he and his wife Olivia were attacked at their home by a man who broke in and stabbed Harrison with a kitchen knife more than 40 times. He recovered, but the cancer returned and spread to his brain. Harrison died in November 2001. His final studio album, Brainwashed, was released in 2002 after it was completed by his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne.

Day After Day #311: Other Arms

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

Other Arms (1983)

It can't be easy to go solo after being in one of the biggest bands ever. Certainly, there have been artists who have done well on their own, like Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Stevie Nicks, Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel. Then there are others, like Mick Jagger, who have never been able to climb out of the shadow of their bands. 

When Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham, it was unclear what would happen next. Things almost went in a predictable direction when Zep guitarist Jimmy Page ran into Chris Squire, former bassist of Yes (who were broken up at the time) at a party in late 1980 and decided to put a band together. Called XYZ (ex-Yes-Zeppelin), the group would have included Page, Squire, former Yes drummer Alan White and keyboardist Dave Lawson. Squire was the main songwriter, but Page felt the band needed a good frontman and reached out to his former Zep bandmate Robert Plant, who went to a rehearsal in February 1981 but decided to pass on the invite. As it turned out, Squire and White ended up reforming Yes, with some of the XYZ songs turning up on their hit comeback album 90125. 

Meanwhile, Page did some soundtrack work and Plant pursued a solo career, although he briefly considered becoming a teacher. Plant put together a band that included guitarist Robbie Blunt, bassist Paul Martinez and keyboardist Jezz Woodroffe and recorded his solo debut Pictures at Eleven, with Phil Collins playing drums on five of the eight songs and Cozy Powell on two. Released on Zeppelin's label Swan Song, the album certainly had echoes of Zeppelin on some of its songs and sold well, hitting #5 on the Billboard 200 and #2 in the U.K.

For 1983's The Principle of Moments, Plant sought to broaden his sound from the typical hard rock belters of his past. Most of the band from his previous album remained, with Collins again drumming on five of the eight songs and former Jethro Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow on the other two. The lead single, "Big Log," was very unlike Zeppelin, a mellow exploration featuring just Plant, Blunt and Woodroffe providing synths and programming a drum machine and hand claps. It was a big hit for Plant, going to #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and getting tons of airplay on rock and adult contemporary radio, as well as MTV. The second single, "In the Mood," was also a mellow-sounding hit, going to #4 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart and #39 on the Hot 100.

The label had wanted "Other Arms" as the first single, but Plant resisted, not wanting to be pigeonholed as a hard rock singer. And indeed, "Other Arms," the lead track on the album, was more in that direction, featuring big drums from Collins, a strong riff from Blunt and powerful vocals from Plant. The song was never released as a single, but after the success of "Big Log" and "In the Mood," radio stations began to play "Other Arms" and it topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, displacing the Police's monster hit "Every Breath You Take."

"Lay down your arms/Oh, now baby let me sleep at night/Lay down your arms baby, oh/I'll make everything alright/Words you been using, hurting me so/Some day you're gonna regret/Way friends are talking, guess you'll never know/This battle aching in there/Lay down your arms, baby/When the deal is done/Lay down your arms, child/Used to be your only one."

Plant turned out to be right, of course. He broadened his appeal and The Principle of Moments went to #8 on the Billboard 200 and #7 in the U.K. without him having to recreate Led Zeppelin.

"That thing you're using is hurtin' me bad/What do you hope to achieve?/Fussin' and fightin' is leaving me sad/That's not the way it should be/So if I find a love/Oh, if I find a way/Oh, we'll find a dream/Oh, if I find a way/You know that I will, yes, you know/Lay down your arms/Oh please, release me, let me go/Lay down your arms, baby/Now surrender to me, don't you go."

After touring for the album with Collins and later Little Feat's Richie Hayward on drums, Plant put together an all-star band called the Honeydrippers that included Page, Nile Rodgers, Paul Shaffer and Jeff Beck and recorded an EP of 1950s songs. The project spawned two huge hits, with "Sea of Love" going to #3 on the Hot 100 and "Rockin' at Midnight" reaching #25; the EP itself went to #4 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Plant's next album, 1985's Shaken 'n' Stirred, was more synth-driven and sold less well, but its lead single "Little by Little" cracked the top 40. Plant had avoided playing Zeppelin songs on this first few tours, but he started to embrace his past on his next album, 1988's Now and Zen. He was no longer working with Blunt, instead teaming with keyboardist Phil Johnstone and guitarist Doug Boyle. Page guested on the songs "Heaven Knows" and "Tall Cool One"; the latter also featured samples of a few Zeppelin songs and hit #25 on the Hot 100. Plant leaned into the hard rock for this and his next album, 1990's Manic Nirvana. His next album, Fate of Nations in 1993, was inspired by late '60s acts like Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane. 

Plant and Page then re-teamed to make No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, which featured the pair revisiting Zep classics and recording new material in Morocco with Egyptian musicians; it was both an MTV special and released as an album. The duo then toured as Page and Plant and made one more album, 1998's Walking to Clarksdale, with Steve Albini as producer. Plant then returned to his solo career, playing with a folk-rock band and then a band called Strange Sensation, with which he released an album of blues and folk remakes and then 2005's Mighty ReArranger. 

In 2007, Plant and bluegrass star Alison Krauss released a duets album called Raising Sand that was a monster success, hitting #2 on the Billboard 200 and winning multiple awards, including five Grammys in 2009. The album crossed genres as it appealed to rock, Americana, country and folk audiences.

While all that was going on, Plant, Page and John Paul Jones reunited (along with John Bonham's son Jason on drums) as Led Zeppelin to play a benefit concert on December 10, 2007, to commemorate the life of music exec Ahmet Ertegun. Audience-recorded videos flooded YouTube with snippets of the show, but an album and video release of the entire show wasn't released until 2012. The performance led many to wonder if a Zeppelin tour would follow, but it never did; many attributed that to Plant not wanting to do it. While he was able to pull off the traditional hard rock hollering for the one show, no doubt he probably felt he couldn't do that night after night. The one concert they did was excellent, so there's that.

Since then, Plant has continued to release albums and tour, with bands he put together called Band of Joy, the Sensational Space Shifters and Saving Grace, mixing blues rock with world sounds and folk. In 2021, he released another album with Alison Krauss that again performed well, reaching #7 on the Billboard 200. 

I saw him in 1990 on the Manic Nirvana tour in full rocker mode and again in 2010 on the Band of Joy tour and they were both excellent but very different performances. At age 76, Plant is still active, doing what he wants and doing it well.

 

Day After Day #310: Welcome to the Boomtown

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

Welcome to the Boomtown (1986)

The 1980s were seen by some as a time of great prosperity, but there were a lot of folks having a tough time in the midst of all that. For many, that meant struggling with drugs, debt and domestic violence. On their only album, David + David focused on the stories of troubled characters living in Los Angeles in the mid-'80s.

Made up of LA studio musicians David Baerwald (vocals) and David Ricketts, the duo released the album Boomtown in July 1986. The lead single, "Welcome to the Boomtown," was a biting look at a few of those characters struggling with their daily existences.

"Ms. Cristina drives a nine four four/Satisfaction oozes from her pores/She keeps rings on her fingers/Marble on her floor/Cocaine on her dresser/Bars on her doors/She keeps her back against the wall/She keeps her back against the wall/So I say/I say welcome, welcome to the boomtown/Pick a habit/We got plenty to go around/Welcome, welcome to the boomtown/All that money makes such a succulent sound/Welcome to the boomtown."

Musically, the sound is hooky pop-rock and a little '80s-slick, befitting their session background, but Ricketts' distorted guitar provides a nice edge to the proceedings.

"Handsome Kevin got a little off track/Took a year off of college/And he never went back/Now he smokes too much/He's got a permanent hack/Deals dope out of Denny's/Keeps a table in the back/He always listens to the ground/Always listens to the ground/So I say/I say welcome, welcome to the boomtown/Pick a habit/We got plenty to go around/Welcome, welcome to the boomtown/All that money makes such a succulent sound/Welcome to the boomtown."

And as happens from time to time, the story didn't end well for at least one of Baerwald's characters. "Well, the ambulance arrived too late/I guess she didn't want to wait."

The song was a minor hit, getting plenty of play on rock radio and cracking the top 40 in the U.S. at #37. The album was also a hit, reaching #39 on the Billboard 200. Boomtown also spawned two other radio hits, "Swallowed by the Cracks" and "Ain't So Easy"; the latter got to #51 on the Hot 100 and had a video starring a young Gabriel Byrne. 

David + David toured behind the album but split up shortly afterwards. They both collaborated with Sheryl Crow on her debut album Tuesday Night Music Club. Baerwald released two solo albums, 1990's excellent Bedtime Stories and 1993's Triage. He has been working as a songwriter and score composer for films and television in recent years. Ricketts co-wrote and produced singer Toni Childs' debut album Union and also worked with Robbie Robertson and Meredith Brooks.

Day After Day #309: Subterranean Homesick Blues

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

Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965)

I'm no Dylan scholar. There's a million of 'em out there, if that's what you're looking for. I've never really drilled down on his entire catalog, but I know the big songs and have picked up a few albums here and there, including Blonde on Blonde and Bringing It All Back Home from his early years. There's just SO MUCH to listen to, it's intimidating.

I've always appreciated the guy for the obvious reasons: incredible lyrics, ridiculously great songs and that inscrutable charisma. 

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" was the first single off Bringing It All Back Home, released in March 1965. It's one of his first electric songs and was revolutionary in a number of ways: Dylan's speak-singing influenced countless future artists, his lyrics were brilliant and wide-ranging, and the music video (featured in D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Don't Look Back) is downright groundbreaking.

"Johnny's in the basement/Mixing up the medicine/I'm on the pavement/Thinking about the government/The man in the trench coat/Badge out, laid off/Says he's got a bad cough/Wants it to get paid off/Look out, kid/It's somethin' you did/God knows when/But you're doin' it again/You better duck down the alley way/Lookin' for a new friend/The man in the coonskin cap/By the big pen/Wants eleven dollars/You only got ten."

In a 2004 interview, Dylan said the song was "from Chuck Berry, a bit of 'Too Much Monkey Business' and some of the scat songs of the '40s."

"Maggie comes fleet foot/Face full of black soot/Talkin' that the heat put/Plants in the bed but/The phone's tapped anyway/Maggie says that many say/They must bust in early May/Orders from the D.A./Look out, kid/Don't matter what you did/Walk on your tiptoes/Don't try 'No-Doz'/Better stay away from those/That carry around a fire hose/Keep a clean nose/Watch the plain clothes/You don't need a weatherman/To know which way the wind blows."

The song was Dylan's first top 40 hit in the U.S., getting to #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made the top 10 of the U.K. Singles Chart. Reportedly, John Lennon liked the song so much he wasn't sure he'd be able to write anything that could match it. 

The album hit #6 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. Dylan had started experimenting with electric instrumentation, which was controversial with his existing audience who felt he should stick to acoustic folk. Thankfully, he didn't listen to those jamokes. Headlining at the Newport Folk Festival that year, Dylan played an electric set and was booed off the stage after three songs. 

The subsequent 59 years have been filled with highs and lows (but mostly highs) for Dylan, including playing with the Band as his backing group, a brief Christian period, rapping with Kurtis Blow (see below), touring with the Grateful Dead, joining the Traveling Wilburys, acting in movies from time to time, hosting a radio show, appearing in commercials and touring constantly. Now 83, he's still going strong.

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" has been covered by numerous artists, including Gregory Isaacs, Harry Nilsson, Alanis Morissette and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (see below). INXS did a takeoff of Dylan's video for the song with their video for "Mediate," and the lyrical style of the song was a clear influence on R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."

Stuck In Thee Garage #555: November 22, 2024

There's definitely an argument to be made for brevity in rock and roll, but sometimes you gotta let songs stretch out, too. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I opted for the latter with two hours of long songs. Nothing crazy long, but all songs over 6:30, so I played about half as many songs as I normally do (NOTE: Realized after the fact I grabbed Neko Case's "Hell-On" instead of "Curse of the I-5 Corridor" from the same album, which meant I had a 4-minute instead of a 7-minute song there. Oh well, it's still a good song.). So sit back, put on yer headphones and dig in.

You cool, man?

Artist - Song/Album

Faith No More - The Real Thing/The Real Thing

Smashing Pumpkins - Drown/Singles soundtrack

Soundgarden - Like Suicide/Superunknown

James Brown - Funky Drummer/In the Jungle Groove

Terry Callier - You Miss Your Candyman/What Color is Love

Prince - Controversy/Controversy

Peter Gabriel - The Family and the Fishing Net/Security

TV on the Radio - Blind/Young Liars

The War on Drugs - An Ocean in Between the Waves/Lost in the Dream

Neko Case - Hell-On/Hell-On

!!! - Hello? Is This Thing On?/Louden Up Now

The Afghan Whigs - Faded/Black Love

Elizabeth Colour Wheel - Head Home/Nocebo

Black Mountain - Tyrants/In the Future

Fugazi - 23 Beats Off/In on the Kill Taker

Killing Joke - Love Like Blood/Night Time

Dig the groovy soundz RIGHT HERE.

 

Day After Day #308: Stranger Than Fiction

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

Stranger Than Fiction (1994)

By the time the California punksplosion happened in 1994, Bad Religion were already veterans of the scene. The band was formed in Los Angeles in 1980 by high schoolers Greg Graffin (vocals), Jay Bentley (bass), Jay Ziskrout (drums) and Brett Gurewitz (guitar). In 1981, the group released an eponymous EP on a new label called Epitaph Records, owned by Gurewitz. They were recording their first album How Could Hell Be Any Worse? in 1981 when Ziskrout quit the band and was replaced by Pete Finestone.

Bad Religion's second album, 1983's Into the Unknown, was a complete left turn, with the band playing keyboard-dominated hard rock. The band split up shortly after the album came out, but Graffin later reformed the group with Greg Hetson of the Circle Jerks stepping in for Gurewitz, who went into drug rehab. After another breakup, the band reformed in 1986 with the original lineup plus Hetson and recorded Suffer, which came out in 1988. 

Over the next few years, Bad Religion kept selling more albums with each release, with 1990's Against the Grain selling 100,000 copies, pretty good for a non-mainstream punk band. The group specialized in powerful, catchy and literate punk rock. In 1993, the major label thirst for alternative guitar bands was at an all-time high thanks to the success of Nirvana, Pearl Jam et al. Bad Religion signed to Atlantic Records and re-released Recipe for Hate, which had come out on Epitaph a few months earlier. "American Jesus" and "Struck a Nerve" got some play on rock radio and the band took several bands on tour as openers, including Bay Area punk upstarts Green Day, who were on Lookout Records.

In September 1994, Bad Religion released their eight album Stranger Than Fiction. By this point, Green Day had made their major-label debut on Reprise and just blew up, while the Offspring on Epitaph also were getting popular. Stranger Than Fiction had success with "Infected," a re-recording of "21st Century (Digital Boy) and the title track, which was written by Gurewitz.

"A febrile shocking violent smack/And the children are hopin' for a heart attack/Tonight, the windows are watching, the streets all conspire/And the lamppost can't stop cryin'/If I could fly high above the world/Would I see a bunch of livin' dots spell the word stupidity/Or would I see hungry lover homicides, lovin' brother suicides/And olly olly oxen frees who pick a side and hide?/The world is scratching at my door/My morning paper's got the scores/The human interest stories/And the obituary, oh yeah/Cockroach naps, rattlin' traps/How many devils can fit upon a match head?/Caringosity killed the Kerouac cat/Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction."

Gurewitz left the band right before the album came out, saying that he needed to spend more time at Epitaph because the Offspring had become so huge. He was replaced by Brian Baker of Minor Threat, who turned down a touring gig with R.E.M.

"In my alley 'round the corner, there's a wino with feathered shoulders/And a spirit givin' head for crack and he'll never want it back/There's a little kid and his family eatin' crackers like Thanksgiving/And a pack of wild desperadoes scornful of living/The world is scratching at my door/My morning paper has the scores/The human interest stories/And the obituary, oh yeah/Cradle for a cat, Wolfe looks back/How many angels can you fit upon a match?/I wanna know why Hemingway cracked/Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction."

But there were also tensions with Graffin over the signing with Atlantic. Graffin started singing alternate lines like "I want to know where Brett gets his crack" or "I want to know why Gurewitz cracked." Whatever the case, the song got some play on MTV's 120 Minutes and hit #28 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album peaked at #87 on the Billboard 200 and became the only Bad Religion release to go gold.

"Life is the crummiest book I ever read/There isn't a hook/Just a lotta cheap shots, pictures to shock/And characters an amateur would never dream up/Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction."

Bad Religion made three more albums for Atlantic, but their popularity was on the wane as punk went back to its underground status. The band went back to Epitaph in 2001 and Gurewitz rejoined the group; the band has released six albums since 2002 and continued to tour periodically. Graffin, Gurewitz, Bentley and Baker are still members, along with guitarist Mike Dimkich and drummer Jamie Miller.