The Spaniels - "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite"

My mother died last month, after a lengthy battle with cancer.  That event is mostly beyond the scope of this blog, but in my eulogy I mentioned the 1954 hit "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite" by The Spaniels. When I was young, she used to sing this song to me when it was time for me to go to bed.  It wasn't until much later in life, presumably I was an adult, that I realized this song was an actual song from her youth and not a song that she made up to shepherd me into bedtime. It's a perfectly fine doo-wop song, but for me it will always be associated with my mother and my childhood bedtime. 

The Spaniels - "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite".  

The Four Seasons - "Beggin'"

 

I often think about the fact that most people stop listening to new music in their 30s.  I realize that partially applies to me too, but I do make an effort to listen to new music with an open mind.  So when I hear something new on the radio and like it, I have a moment of self-congratulation.  

This happened recently when I heard a song on 96X I didn't recognize but quite liked. Shazam told me it was "Beggin'" by Maneskin, and I was feeling pretty happy with myself for "discovering" a new song.  When I got home and did some digging, I realized:

• The song came out in 2017, on their debut EP "Chosen", and at seven years old, I'm not sure it still qualifies as "new". 
• Upon reflection, it occurred to me that the arrangement borrowed heavily from the Violent Femme's "Add It Up" (1983).  
• And finally, I realized it was a cover of the 1967 song by the Four Seasons.  

As a big fan of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, I was disappointed that I did not immediately recognize it.  Although it was not one of their major hits, Frankie Valli even performed "Beggin'" when we saw him at Chrysler Hall in 2022.  In my defense, Maneskin does a great cover with the arrangement sounding more like the Violent Femmes than the Four Seasons.  

So the self-satisfaction of being open minded enough to take in new music evaporated, but I was left with a new-ish cover, arranged in a classic, college-alternative 1980s idiom.  Still good stuff.

Maneskin - "Beggin'"

Violent Femmes - "Add It Up"

The Four Seasons - "Beggin'" 

PS -- At about the same time, I heard on 96X "Sad in Carolina" by Dexter and the Moonrocks -- an actual new song that's great.

Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"

 

Danette, Bonnie, and I saw Bonnie Raitt at Chrysler Hall on November 16 (for some reason, there's no entry at setlist.fm).  Just days after her 75th birthday, she still had a big, strong voice, played guitar with authority, and in general gave a great show.  Her first encore was her top-20 single, "I Can't Make You Love Me", from her 1991 LP "Luck of the Draw".  A surprise treat for us was that Williamsburg's own Bruce Hornsby came out and joined her for that song; I did not realize he played on the studio version of that song back in the day.  Listening to it now, it's very clear that it's him playing piano, but if I ever knew this, I had forgotten.  

Each of her shows is apparently a little bit different: for example, Roanoke was treated to her covering "Need You Tonight" and "Burning Down the House".  I would have loved to have seen those, but we'll be happy with Bruce Hornsby as a guest.

Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"

Bonnie Raitt & Band plus Bruce Hornsby, 2024-11-16

The B-52s - Live on SNL (1980-01-26)

 

We saw the B-52s on Halloween night at The Anthem in DC.  We had not seen them before, and given their ages (e.g., Kate is 76), there are surely not many chances left to catch them live.  They gave an objectively great show, even accounting for the fact that it's not 1980 anymore...

Speaking of 1980, Danette often talks about the time she first head the B-52s: their appearance on Saturday Night Live on January 26, 1980.  She would have been 13 at the time, the most impressionable and formative time for receiving new music.  She describes the scenario of digging their kitsch aesthetic and sound, and her father coming in and saying something to the effect of "what is this? this isn't music!" Her father, a musician himself and a very "serious" jazz aficionado, had just unwittingly given the indirect approval that every teenager desires.  She was a B-52s fan from that moment on, as were most of the freaks and geeks of our generation (even before their "comeback" LP "Cosmic Thing", recorded after the death of Ricky Wilson).

Danette enjoyed the show, but was a bit sad that they did not do "Quiche Lorraine" or "Strobe Light" (both from their second LP, 1980's "Wild Planet").  We had a discussion afterwards where I think we finally agreed that while those two songs were popular in her HS circle, they were not broadly popular. 

The SNL performance is regularly deleted from YouTube, so the two songs here are sourced from Facebook and TikTok (we'll see how long they stay up).  It's hard to imagine back to 1980 and understand how irreverent, fun, and fresh this sound was.

SNL, January 26, 1980: "Dance This Mess Around", "Rock Lobster" (both from their self-titled debut LP) (Trivia: the host for that episode was Teri Garr, who died two days before we saw them on Halloween.) 

Pics from October 31, 2024:

Iron Maiden - "Killers"

We heard today that Paul Di'Anno, the first singer for Iron Maiden, died recently.  While he had a number of health problems through the years, it was still a surprise ("66" doesn't seem as old as it once did).  Almost 10 years ago, I reviewed their debut LP "Iron Maiden" and detailed my fondness for the first two Iron Maiden LPs over the rest of their extensive discography. By nearly any metric, Bruce Dickinson is a "better" vocalist, but I -- and others, apparently -- just love Di'Anno's raspy, punk growl.  

Their second LP, 1981's "Killers", is an extraordinary LP with no weak moments and several that are simply transcendent.  "Killers" finds them settling into their classic sound: guitarist Dennis Stratton was replaced by Adrian Smith, who combined with Dave Murray to solidify the "Iron Maiden dual harmony" sound that would define their career.  In addition, "Killers" was the first LP to have their long-time producer, Martin Birch, which resulted in a slightly fuller if muddier and heavier sound than their first LP.  

As I said in my review of "Iron Maiden", I enjoy the first two LPs without the crutch of nostalgia or a hint of irony (cf. my recent review of "Too Fast for Love"). They were right to fire Di'Anno in late 1981: he was a troubled addict, and Iron Maiden would never have become "Iron Maiden" had he stayed at the helm.  But the first two Iron Maiden LPs are special. 

Standout songs: "Ides of March / Wrathchild", "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "Killers", "Prodigal Son", "Purgatory" (Full LP)

Skip 'em songs: none. 

Final rating: 10/10.  A NWOBHM masterpiece. 

Bonus link: my review of "Live at the Rainbow", a 1980 concert with Paul Di'Anno. 

Devo - "Uncontrollable Urge"

Happy birthday Danette!!!

Last year, I was back to picking a song that reminds me of Danette, independent of whether or not she actually liked it ("The Story").  This year, I'm picking a song she actually likes, while still being especially relevant to her.  

The song is "Uncontrollable Urge", from Devo's 1978 debut LP "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!".  Due to the unlikely and meteoric success of 1980's "Whip It", it's tempting to think of Devo as a one hit wonder, but a closer inspection reveals that's not even close to true.  They got a lot of MTV airplay back in the day, even if "Whip It" might have been the only song to make the radio.  Some minor hits they had include: "Love Without Anger", "Girl U Want", "Freedom of Choice", "Through Being Cool", "Peek-A-Boo", and of course, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", a cover of The Rolling Stones classic for which "Uncontrollable Urge" was the B-side (bonus: our shared love of B-sides was covered three years ago).  

I suspect it was similar for Danette: I always liked Devo since my exposure to them in 1980, but I was really too young to fully get the message: de-evolution, Bob & The Church of the SubGenius, etc.  The pre-teen me detected something more than just silly novelty songs, but it wasn't until college that the full context was exposed to me.  Like Danette, you can enjoy Devo on the surface, or you can take the time to really explore their deep point of view and aesthetic.  Or, preferably, both.  

But the reason for this particular song?  It's the opening theme song for the MTV series "Ridiculousness", a show that Danette is obsessed with.  MTV will run daily marathons of this show, and she'll watch them all.  The show consists of the hosts and the special guests reacting to short videos from social media, mostly people doing stupid things (frequently due to testosterone poisoning), making bad decisions, falling down, etc.  The videos are sometimes positive (cute animals, people avoiding catastrophe), but they're almost always silly.  "Low brow" is not what one thinks of when they think of Danette, but this guilty (?) pleasure for her allows her to disengage from the gravity of her normal circumstances, and nicely captures her duality: though not everyone knows it, she can be quite fun and silly.  Danette is like Devo wearing their energy domes and playing purposefully and awkward classic rock covers: it might appear silly on the surface, but it's 10X more mischievous, biting, and clever than you anticipated.  

Though the members of Devo are baby boomers, their music is more closely associated with GenX, and is part of the soundtrack of the misfit intellectuals, weirdos, lost souls, geeks, and punks of our generation.  If you are to understand us, you must understand songs like "Uncontrollable Urge".  

Devo: "Uncontrollable Urge"  

Previous birthday songs:

2023: Brandi Carlile - "The Story" 
2022: Plastic Bertrand - "Ça plane pour moi" 
2021: Adam and the Ants - "Christian D'or" 
2020: Walk Off The Earth - "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"
2019: Nicki Minaj - "Monster"
2018: Bear Hands - "Giants" 
2017: Alvvays - "Archie, Marry Me" 
2016: Molly Hatchet - "Flirtin' With Disaster" 
2015: Avett Brothers - "Kick Drum Heart"
2014: Ani DiFranco - "32 Flavors" 
2013: The Green Pajamas - "Kim the Waitress"
2012: The Cure - "High"
2011: Blink 182 - "Josie"
2010:  Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"  

Motley Crue - "Too Fast for Love" (LP Review)

I recently watched "The Dirt", the 2019 biopic based on the 2001 book of the same name, which tells the story of Motley Crue.  Although I had not read the book, I was familiar with most parts of the story, since Motley Crue was a contemporary band form my musical education, and was briefly very important to me in early HS.  The cultural context for this LP and Motley Crue itself is important.

Like most people, "Too Fast for Love" wasn't the first Motley Crue LP that I heard.  Originally self-released in late 1991 and then later released on a major label in 1982, this LP was eclipsed by their much larger and more successful 1983 LP "Shout at the Devil".  In 1983 & 1984* (my freshman year of HS), heavy metal was enjoying an unprecedented level of mainstream success and exposure, regularly appearing on the radio and MTV.  I was young, with an insatiable desire for anything loud, angry, and offensive, and Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil", along with Dio, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, Ozzy, etc. were a salve for middle class, suburban, teenage ennui. Finding out about new music in the 80s was difficult and expensive, and you needed to have a tape trading network to explore and push the boundaries.  It was Chris Miller, my first HS metal connection, that recorded the first two Motley Crue LPs on tape for me. Even though "Shout at the Devil" is arguably heavier of the two LPs, its imagery was a conflict for me: I dug the satanic trappings, but they glam and camp was off-putting in a way that I could not articulate at the time.  Though it was "Shout at the Devil" that drew me in, it was "Too Fast for Love", with its KISS / Aerosmith sound and attitude that I found myself replaying over and over. 

Though they were a gateway band, Motley Crue was not important to me for long.  Via Matt McClure and Scott Kinkade, I soon learned of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Venom, Celtic Frost, and various other "true" metal bands.  They were faster, heavier, darker, and generally more engaging, and "Shout at the Devil" seemed insincere, clumsy, and clownish in comparison.  And in a division that make both the Judean People's Front and the Peoples Front of Judea proud, I saw the metal scene divided between "real metal" and "false metal", played by poseurs.  By my sophomore year in HS I had firmly embraced thrash, black, and death metal... but I kept playing "Too Fast for Love".  

Its production is raw, like a garage band, but still crisp and not muddy like many low budget recordings of the time. There's a youthful urgency to the songs, accentuated by having almost no dead air between the tracks -- as if the band simply could not wait the two seconds normally employed to separate, for example, "Live Wire" and "Public Enemy #1".  There's the commitment to use some combination of a guitar flanger, cowbell, or vocal reverb/echo/delay for every single song.  Vince Neil sings like a chipmunk, and while they're not punk levels of sloppy, unlike most metal bands, there's no real virtuoso.  Mick Mars is a good enough guitarist, but he couldn't play for your average thrash metal band.  However, the song writing is excellent, and what they lack in talent they make up for with energy and attitude.  

Curious as to how it would hold up today, I listened to "Too Fast for Love" all the way through after finishing "The Dirt".  It held up surprisingly well, and even the weaker of the songs ("Merry-Go-Round", "Take Me to the Top", "Piece of Your Action") still had redeeming features.  And the best songs?  They still rawk, still produce a physical reaction, and transport me back to HS. 

By the time "Theatre of Pain" came out in 1985, Motley Crue was unspeakably uncool in my circle, and they became worse with each successive LP.  But even without the veneer of nostalgia, "Too Fast for Love" is a legitimately great LP.  If you can somehow ignore what they'd eventually become, and pretend like it's 1982(-ish), this is still a fun LP.

Standout songs: "Live Wire", "Public Enemy #1", "Starry Eyes", "Too Fast for Love", "On with the Show" (full LP)

Skip 'em songs: The songs from their first single, "Stick to Your Guns" and "Toast of The Town", were included on the 2003 release but left off the 1981 self-release and the 1982 Elektra release, and for good reason.  

Final score: 8/10.  I would have scored it 9/10 back in the day, but I think I can still defend a "8/10" now. 

* Seriously, a lot of good debuts as well as bands at their peak in 1983 & 1984: