As many of you know, I was a college radio DJ. As such, I had early access to music, some of which was on the fringe of music in the early 1990s.
That includes They Eat Their Own, an LA-based band founded by vocalist Laura B. (Baricevic) in or around 1989, which was together until about 1994. They didn't have a lot of success, but they had that ONE SONG and that ONE VIDEO.
This is that song. Released in 1990 or 1991, it got a fair bit of airplay and got the band a major label deal with Geffen Records.... that ended up imploding before anything came of it. This song, however, is absolutely amazing.
Of course, they wouldn't have gotten their single released at all if they didn't perform live extremely well. This version, performed live at the LA Music Factory, predates the studio recording, and it's sparser, but still great. Laura is a terrific frontwoman.
I said "is" for a reason. You see, after TETO broke up, Laura B. hopped around the country for a bit, settling in Pittsburgh, PA. She started a band called The Off Labels, and they performed a lot of her old stuff.... like this song. Have a listen to this performance from 2014.
This was an outtake from last week, where there was a lot of sugary sweet songs. Plus Metallica.
We had to combat the saccharine.
So, we did it with South Park. Season 1, Episode 10.
The song is far from politically correct, and features Eric Cartman (voiced by Trey Parker) repeating an insult about Sheila Broflovski, who happens to be Kyle's mom.
Kyle, voiced by Matt Stone, did not appreciate the song.
In 1999, the Academy Award nominiated film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, was released. An extended, uncensored version of this opus was included with the movie, as it should be.
By the way, there's almost one "bitch" per second in this version.
Of course, it's more meaningful to see Trey Parket and Matt Stone actually perform this thing of beauty live. They did just that at the 25th anniversary concert.
Yes. South Park is old enough to rent a car.
The testimonial to this song is how many people know and love this song. It's a classic - more so than the theme song.
It's also incredibly crude.
The orchestral rendition is only a little bit less crude.
Persian-Kiwi rapper CHAII has carved out a corner in the hip hop scene that is fresh, diverse and extremely exciting, drawing from her Iranian heritage as well as the multi-faceted and multi-cultural world of hip hop burgeoning in Australia and New Zealand.
Not wrong.
This video - for the title song of her debut EP - is self-directed, filmed in California (where a lot of her family and, indeed, a large Persian popluation, lives). You can see the signs in Farsi - in CALIFORNIA. Everything you see and hear is all CHAII's vision - and she is clearly proud of her heritage.
OK, so yeah. This song is objectively cool as f.
But why this week?
Because this song was featured, along with a lot of other modern Middle Eastern music, on the television series Ms. Marvel. I absolutely can easily make an entire week - a MONTH - out of great music from that one series alone. It was hard to choose just one.
In 1986, a band that was growing in popularity (but not getting much airplay) released their third albun, Master of Puppets. The only single they released from that album was the title song, and it was a goddamn masterpiece. The song is about their frustration with the music business how drugs can control your life.
It was also the last album and therefore the band's last single that featured original bassist Cliff Burton, who passed away later in 1986. This was his favorite song on that album, and its mine as well. The band all co-wrote the song, which features long instrumental breaks, dramatic tempo changes, and even an homage to David Bowie.
Those of you who know television know where I'm going here.
That's right. James Hetfield's appearance on American Dad, which features this song.
No, no, that's not what you were looking for.
Of course, it was The Simpsons, where the band appears and featured this song and a super diss on the bus driver.
Ohhhh, no. You meant Billions, the Showtime series. You know, its seventh season comes tomorrow to Paramount+ (with Showtime).
OK, fine,
Stranger Things generated TWO Billboard Hot 100 hits last year. "Running Up That Hill" was a huge hit, but "Master of Puppets" featured prominently in the season finale, and made this song a top 40 hit - with airplay finally coming ON POP RADIO -(although rock radio played them even more) - in the United States, nearly 40 years after its initial release.
According to my sister, Eddie played this song on his guitar in the Upside Down to destract the demobats away from Venca's house, so Steve, Robin and Nancy could sneak in to try and hurt/kill Vecna before he got Max.
This is Eddie. It's he who played the song.
There's no way in hell I'm posting a picture of Vecna. I Googled that so you don't have to.
I understood none of that, so I hope you did.
I just wanted to remind you that this song is 37 years old and the band still performs live, and they ALWAYS, to my knowledge, include this song, which is one of their most popular amonsgt fans (including my sister).
In current concerts, they actually use some of the Stranger Things images on the screen. Which you can see in this video, taken when they played in Western New York in 2022. August 11, Highmark Staduim (which used to be called Rich Stadium and that's what it will always be to me). I know this because my sister, Dawn, actually recorded this video.
The song is also featured in my favorite TikTok post... of mine.
Some songs, you just save for someone to pass away. This is one of them.
This song, quite likely the best known song by Canadian-American band The Band, was written by Robbie Robertson, who has passed away. He was 80 and had been ill for quite some time.
He had a career as a backing musician for Bob Dylan, with the Band, and a solo career. I personally loved his solo stuff.
Rick Danko and Levon Helm provide vocals on this song, of course, while Robertson plays guitar. The song is a tale of a traveller passing through a town called Nazareth and finding some kind folks along the way. I certainly hope he's met with kindness whereever he is now.
When he went solo, Robertson did play his best known song live. It hit a little differently without The Band - a little more of a slow jam - but it still worked, and was full of just as much emotion and appreciation.
In 1981, Billy Vera, along with his live band The Beaters, released a single called "I Can Take Care of Myself", which ended up being a top 40 hit - Billy Vera's second, but also his first since 1968. His follow-up song was an over-the-top sad love song called "At This Moment."
It would peak at #79 on the Billboard Charts in 1981 - a minor hit, but nothing spectacular.
Fast forward to 1985. During the 1985-1986 season of the popular TV show Family Ties, the character of Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox, was given a love interest, Ellen Reed, played by Tracy Pollan (who would soon become Fox's wife (she still is)). It was a great on-screen relationship, probably because they had that real-life connection.
Anyway, this song was used by the show as their love theme - and it became a huge, HUGE hit on its second run. It topped the charts in 1987, and also hit the country charts - such a crossover by a chart-topping pop song wouldn't happen again for another 13 years.
It would be Vera's last Top 40 hit (to date).
Despite the song hanuting Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan for a few years, they, and all the cast, appreciated the song, and he the show. In 2011, he performed the song at the TV Land Awards - and yes, the cast of Family Ties were there... and clearly enjoyed it.
I will take any excuse to take a screen grab of Michael Gross and Justine Bateman enjoying a Billy Vera jam (you weren't expecting Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, were you?)
Here is his performance from that night. You can see all the main cast members from the show's run watching and enjoying.
Sometimes, it isn't just a random song from an episode that hits just right.
Sometimes, it's the theme song.
Take this song, from the 1981 series The Greatest American Hero. Starring William Katt and Connie Sellecca, and I guess William Culp, and created by the legendary Stephen Cannell, it would last for three seasons... and the theme song was inspiring.
Joey Scarbury's biggest hit peaked at #2 on the greatest American pop charts in 1981, being kept from the top spot by the juggernaut that was "Endless Love". Steven Geyer wrote the music, with producer Mike Post providing the music.
Of course, the tune would be repopularized by George Constanza's answering machine on Seinfeld.
This week on Wicked Guilty Pleasures, we are going to dedicate our list to "What the hell is that song that I just heard on my favorite TV show?"
Today, we go to the end of Season 7, Episode 24 of Criminal Minds. This song was played as JJ and Will got married, if you know the show. If you don't know the show, that's a meaningless reference and this is just a really pretty song.
Lily Kershaw, of course, is a singer-songwriter best known for, well, this song. Her mom is actress Whitney Kershaw, so she knows show business. This song is from her 2013 debut album, Midnight in the Garden. The episode this song was featured on, however, was from 2012 - and it, along with another appearance in a season 8 episode by another of her songs - led directly to her record deal.
Anyway, it's an awfully pretty song and I hope you enjoy it.
Yes, she performs it live, and she performs it beautifully.
And, for those interested in the song in the context of the show.....
Seth Justman wrote and produced this song. Not coincidentally for this keyboard-heavy song, Seth Justman was also the keyboard player for the J. Geils Band.
He was not J. Geils, though.
Neither was Peter Wolf, although a lot of casual fans of this song, the band's biggest hit (six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982) sure thought he was. He was the vocalist and most prominent publc face of the band.
No, no. J. Geils was the guitarist for the band. And their leader, I suppose.
This is Jay. John Warren Geils, Jr.
A little strangely, the video takes place in a high school classroom full of young women who end up being relatively scantily clad. It makes sense to the plot of the song - the narrator has discovered his high school crush has appeared as a centerfold in an unspecified men's magazine that we can only assume is Playboy. He's both titilated and, well, confused, I guess is the right word.
I don't have any explanation for the milky drum, though.
The band did have some hiatuses - hiati? - but remained mostly intact until 2013, when J. Geils passed away. They did tour through 2015 at least - as shown in this live performance from that year.
Contrast that with this performance from 2009, with J. Geils still on guitar. I think it's a better performance, frankly.
Perhaps my favorite album title of all time is Lyle Lovett's 1992 album, Joshua Judges Ruth. For those Chritians out there, they are the 3 books immediately following the Torah (the first five books) in the Old Testament.
That is a pretty cool way to title your album.
The former Mr. Julia Roberts has carved out a nice alternative country career that has recieved a lot of critical acclaim, and with good reason - he writes and performs good, unique country music. Take this song, from the aforementioned album. It would not be out of place at a Southern revival, or on country music radio. It's a spirited song.
The beauty of Lovett's music is when it is performed live. You can see just how much of this song is powered not by musical accompaniment - which is sparse but ever-present - but by the power of his voice and of his backing vocalists. This song really and truly takes on a spiritual feeling - and you actually hear the lyrics. It's really not a terribly spiritual song.
If I ever go back to adding artists to our Hall of Fame, I have a list of potential inductees.
Madonna tops that list. She's a prolific performer, who has had a very long career - spanning about 40 years, during which time she's frequently released albums and performed live.
What a lot of people DON'T know is that she also has written a lot of her music. Take this song, a single she co-wrote and co-produced with Mirwais. She's also all the voices in this song - she's the one asking if you like to boogie woogie throughout.
More than fifteen years into her career, this song was yet another #1 song for Madonna, in 2000 - and remains one of her largest worldwide hits.
The video features a pre-Borat Sacha Baron Cohen, who was largely unknown to the US audience at that time, in full Da Ali G Show character. Amazingly, Madonna was pregnant during the filming of this video.
The real reason we're posting this? In a live version, Madonna interlaced this song with "Disco Inferno". It's way more incredible than it deserves to be.
In 2012, Madonna did the Super Bowl halftime show, which was epic and full of guest stars. Here, she merged "Music' with LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It". Also, at the :31 second mark, she almost falls.
I'm haivng a little trouble believing that Same Trailer, Different Park, the debut album by Kacey Musgraves, is ten years old this year.
This was one of the singles off that album. It was a relatively big country radio hit and even bubbled under the Hot 100, which means it got a lot of POP radio airplay - in a era when such a crossover was uncommon
The song is a clever play on words - the "Blowin' Smoke" is both a reference to the protagonist of the song smoking and also to the phrase "blowing smoke up one's ass", or in other words, talking trash and generally doing a lot of talking - her words. And, there's a lot of blowin' smoke in this song - mostly about her co-workers, one of whom just left for Vegas (so there's a little jealousy going on here). It's clever and witty - and a little dark.
It's refreshing to hear a live version of a song sound a lot like the studio version. The song is just as quietly cool unproduced than it is on vinyl. Also, that tambourine playing by Kacey is epic.
But what about when the stage and crowd get a lot bigger, like at Farm Aid 30, in 2015? By this time, her 2nd album, which had a more traditional country feeling, had been released, and so her band was tuned for that. It sounds less pop and more country - but it's still the same old song about blowin' smoke.
This was originally written for last week, but you know what they say about plans - man plans and God laughs. I still wanted to share this post with you, and it it a fitting end to a busy July.
I grew up in the 1970s, the son of van owners. We had an eight track and later a cassette deck in the van.
My parents were also Columbia House Record Club members, so, well, they had a lot of 8-tracks and later cassettes.
My mother was a huge fan of Loretta Lynn, so I heard a LOT of Loretta Lynn music. One I remember hearing is perhaps one that could have been considered my mother's theme song (although I hope not completely). A song earnestly performed by Lynn, it was about a woman who married too early and kept getting pregnant, while envying those who were marching for women's lib.
Loretta Lynn, like my mother, was a feminist. No doubt. In 1971, this was controversial. Loretta Lynn was frequently a controversial figure. So was my mother, in some ways.
The best part of this song - which was a huge country hit, reaching the top of the charts in 1971 - is the songwriter.
Shel Silverstein.
The Where The Sidewalk Ends guy.
Shel Silverstein.
This performance is from the Grand Ole Opry in 1972.
Famously, she also performed the song in 1978 on The Muppet Show..... with a lot of small Muppets.
My parents were country music fans and we listened to it in our family van all the time.
One of the cassettes my parents had was a Mac Davis compilation. Included on this was a song called "In The Ghetto", a very sad song about a child who grows up poor and completes a vicious circle of violence and poverty.
It would be many years before I learned that was an Elvis Presley song.
It would be a few years after that before I learned that Mac Davis actually wrote the song and was covering a song HE wrote - a year after Elvis turned it into a hit song.
This was Elvis's first release after his 1968 comeback special - and it ended up being a worldwide hit. It remans to this day one of my favorite Elvis Presley songs (don't tell my parents).
I felt this was a good bookend to yesterday's post - because it came from the other end of Sinead O'Connor's career. This song was the big single from her 2014 album, I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss, which would be her last.
I actually found this song hoping to post a cover of hers that wasn't a Prince song over on Totally Covered. I thought this was the Hozier song.
It is not the Hozier song. Sinead O'Connor wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music for this one.
The video, directed by James Lees, is particularly striking for me. It superimposes images of Sinead O'Connor from her "Nothing Compares 2 U" video over her in the present day - with hair (that she removes at approximately 2:00 in the video - it's a wig).
I encourage you, however, to pay attention to the lyrics. It's raw and honest performance by O'Connor.
I really REALLY REALLY dislike having to do special edition posts.
For those new to the blog, I do these when a musician passes away, so, you can probably figure out what's going on here.
This song was Sinead O'Connor's third single, and her first in heavy MTV rotation, from her debut album, The Lion and The Cobra, which is fantastic. It's a straightahead rock song, and it led to her becoming an international superstar and being in the position to tear the pope's photo in half on Saturday Night Live.
"Fight the real enemy." - Sinead O'Connor
I was supposed to see Sinead O'Connor live in 1995, as part of the Lollapalooza tour. She departed about a week before I was scheduled to attend. I'm sorry that I never got to see her live, Her eccentricity and raw spirit are going to be missed in the music world.
The late Nanci Griffith was quite possibly the greatest songwriter of her generation. She released so many critical acclaimed albums throughout her long career.
At the time of its release in 1989, Storms was not one of those albums. It was a huge departure for her stylistically - from country-folk to a more pop-folk sound, including this song, which ended up being one of the biggest personally recorded hits she had in her career (Bette Midler had a much bigger hit with one of her songs, and frankly, so did Kathy Mattea). Critics did not like her change in style, which didn't stick, but also, these were still great songs that told great stories.
And this song tells a fantastic story, and it does so beautifully.
And the lyrics are so poignant, even today, more than thirty years on. Few songs give me actual chills - but this one does.
"This will always be my, uh, my personal best favorite" - Nanci Griffith
"If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all that they'll know" - Nanci Griffith
Remember when the (Dixie) Chicks got in a fight with George W. Bush over the Iraq War.
1) They were right (and I'm pretty sure he'd agree now).
2) This better-than-it-should-be song, which was extremely controversial at the time of its release, ended up being one of their biggest hits.
This song hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006 and REENTERED in the top 10 in 2007, after the song won three Grammys, including Song and Record of the Year (the two biggest awards). Co-writen by the Chicks (they changed the band name in 2020 to avoid association with the Dixie Swastika) and Dan Wilson (the lead vocalist of Semisonic), it is an angry song. Anger does, however, bring about good music.
It was an extremely controversial song. Controversial songs can be good songs, though, and in this case, it is.
I considered including their Grammy performance, which was excellent, but their performance on the TV show VH1 Storytellers was even better and more sublime.
As I write this, there is a country song with a lot of controversy surroudning it (mostly based upon its music video). It's a big hit song. It's also not very good.
By the way, I am presently sitting in a small town, saying that, so you could say I tried it ina small town. (I feel like that joke isn't going to make sense in a month).
So, at a loss on what to write, I decided to do a week dedicated to country music that doesn't suck.
Of course I'm opening the week with Kelly Willis. I've written about her before, but everything I've written this far is about her MCA years. Her three albums for MCA were excellent but poorly marketed. Her first album for Rykodisk, on the other hand, What I Deserve, was very well marketed. Its first single, today's song, is excellent, much like her earlier work, and actually got label support.
The song would go on the broad critical accalaim, as would the album, and deservedly so. Co-written by Kelly Willis and Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, it is now a part of the American music fabric.
Of course she performs the song live. And it's delightful.
My Strange Addiction is an American documentary television series that premiered on TLC on..... no, wait. I mean, that's true, but that's not what this blog is about.
Let's, instead, talk about Billie Eilish's strange addiction..... The Office. Not that this song is about that - it's probably more tightly tied to the TLC show and perhaps a romantic addiction. However, this song opens with a sample of Season 7, Episode 17 of The Office, titled "Threat Level Midnight" and contains other sample throughout. It is a must-see episode that was requested as a going-away gift for Steve Carell.
The song was written and produced by Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish's brother. They are frequent collaborators, and this song might be their high water mark. It was a mid-level hit - peaking at #43 on the US charts and a top 10 hit elsewhere.
By the way, their mom, Maggie Baird, once had a voice role on The Office. Season 4, Episode 18, "Goodbye, Toby (part 1)". She's the one on the phone with Phyllis when she's asking about an anti-gravity machine.
This isn't an official video for the song. No such video exists. However, Billie Eilish has fans, and they made a pretty good video that includes a lot of The Office clips, too.
This is a song she clearly loves performing live - and the crowd, who knows all the words, love it, too.
What happens when four relatively well-known musician friends decide to start a band together?
Chaos? Maybe.
Hilarity? Absolutely!
Buzzworthy effervescent pop music? No doubt.
Well, Dodie, Greta Isaac, Orla Garland and Martin Luke Brown did exactly this. They are four best friends who happen to be independent musicians that made themselves into a supergroup.
FIZZ's debut single came out three weeks ago, and their album drops in September. Go preorder it if you want. No pressure. The song is about... well, getting high. In Brighton.
So, this is so new, there's no way there's any live performances, right?
It is SO RARE that we get to hit a song when it's still a hit. It happens maybe twice a year.
This is the CURRENT, as we write this, #1 song in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, and #2 in the UK - and a big hit in a lot of other countries..
Of course, the version of the song that's a huge hit doesn't include the word "famefucker", but we don't restrict bad words here.
And it is good. REALLY good. It's like a mini rock opera, and the video has three acts just like your traditional rock opera. No Olivia Rodrigos were harmed in the making of this video.
This far, it being such a new song, she's only performed the song (which she co-wrote, like most of her stuff) live one time.
But she did it on piano, and it hits so much different - maybe even a little angrier! - so stripped down
My sister is going to be very happy with this post. You see, she was part of a generation in thei 1980s who were the perfect age to see The Monkees reunited (without Mike Nesmith) and a revival of their show by Nickelodeon(!), so she became a really big fan of The Monkees at an early age, and I mean a really big fan.
It's because of her that I even know to write this post, because, before her, I didn;t know of the existence of Head, a somewhat satirical musical adventure that served as an epilogue to the band's popular television series. Co-written by Academy Award winning actor Jack Nicholson - yes. THAT Jack Nicholson - the movie was... well, it was a little trippy.
It opened with this song (and accompanying visual - this is the opening of the movie, complete with mermaids saving Mickey Dolenz), written by the great songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It is something of a deep song - and includes not only the band playing the song, but actual porpoise clicks and clacks.
The Monkees took a lot of shit for being a band for a television show. Yeah. I said it. It was undeserved. They were a real band, with a lot of talent, who toured together for as long as they possibly could. Here are three surviviing members (Davy Jones having passed earlier that year) performing together - and I do mean together, and well - in 2012.
Of course, at this point, three of the four Monkees have passed, but the vocalist on this song, Mickey Dolenz, has not, and still tours in tribute to the Monkees More than fifty years after this song was originally released, he still delivers it in the same huge, theatrical, emotional manner.
