20 November 2023 - Tin Machine - Under the God

One day, David Bowie decided he didn't want to play alone anymore, so he put together a band.   It was a supergroup, too - with Reeves Gabrels, Tony and Hunt Sales - these were guys with illustrious resumes.  

This was their first single, from their 1989 eponymous debut, and their biggest hit.  They would stay together for two albums and a live set, before disbanding for good in the early 1990s.  

The music they made was noisy, and fuzzy, and energetic, the sound bordering on punk with obvious post-punk influence.  

Bowie, who wrote the song, is pretty clear in this live version what his song is about - racism.  I wonder if he'd think his song still applies today (hint: yes)?

17 November 2023 - Alice In Chains - Angry Chair

Short one today.

This one is stuck in my head, and it was one of my favorite AiC songs when it was released, so I thought, hey, why not write a post that's all about it?

The song is kind of a slow burn of anger.  Written entirely by Layne Staley, the song is about a guy who is angry and has been for a while.... and has come to accept it.    It's brilliant, and showcases Staley's talents beautifully.

16 November 2023 - Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker

Pat Benatar made her debut in 1979 - a hard rocking solo woman act who debuted just as music videos were taking off.

This was her second single, and the first of hers to hit the pop charts - reaching the top 30 in early 1980, while also sticking around for more than four months.  Is it her most recognizable song?  No, of course not.  But without "Heartbreaker", a great, hard-rocking song that also hit it big on rock radio - we might not have all the rest of the Pat Benatar early catalog that helped launch MTV.  

You know I always love to put a live nugget into these posts.  I felt the duet Benatar did with the country version of Pat Benatar - Martina McBride - was a good choice.  

No word if the country fans watching became apoplectic, but the fans in the audience loved it.

15 November 2023 - Françoise Hardy - Tous les garçons et les filles

This song - a song of a lonely person looking in envy at those in love around her - was a massive hit in France in 1962 and 1963 - where it spent 15 weeks at number 1..... strangely non-consecutively, as it kept coming back to the top spot four times.   

What's really noteworthy about this isn't Hardy, who was and is a French icon.   I mean, she is - she was a leader of the yé-yé wave of music in France in the 1960s, and was a fashion icon as well.  No, what's noteworthy is that Jimmy Page - THAT Jimmy Page - was a session muscian on this song.

What's more noteworthy is that the song is absolutely beautiful and you know what the subject is wihtout being told, or knowing French.

After its success throughout Europe, Hardy rerecorded the song in several languages.  I personally think it translates well to English.  Titled "Find Me A Boy" in English, it's still the same theme, in an easier to understand language for English speakers.

The German version - "Peter und Lou" - tells a similar story, and brings a beauty that you don't normally see in German singing.  The song didn't do AS well in Germany, but was still a top 20 hit.

In Italian, the song is "Quelli della mia età:, which literally translates to "Those my age."  Again, same themes, different language, top 5 hit.

14 November 2023 - The Cure - Fascination Street

The Cure are a British band, but this song was only released as a single in the States.  It was most noteworthy for what came next.

Written by the band, the lyrics describe a night on what appears to be Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which is probably why it was a US-only single.  It opens with an extended instumental opening, which was shortened for the radio edit.

The song hit #46 on the US pop charts, but was followed by their massive "Lovesong".  

I like this song better. 

13 November 2023 - Malcolm McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team - Buffalo Gals

This one might take some explaining.

You see, Malcolm McLaren was a manager to a lot of punk and post-punk bands, like the Sex Pistols and Bow Wow Wow.  It was the latter that brought him to New York City in the 1980s, where he went to an outdoor block party by Aftrika Bambaataa.  There, he discovered hip hop and scratching.

So he, Trevor Horn, and Anne Dudley got together, wrote a song that replaced guitars with scratching, got a whole bunch of then-unknown DJs and MCs to perform on it, and made a hip hop classic.

How a punk manager made a hip hop record might be strange, but there's no doubting its influence. Eminem made reference to it in one of his biggest hits.   Neneh Cherry based her biggest hit on this song.  The song was, and is, beloved and revered.

In 1998, McLaren rereleased the song as part of a larger record that featured songs based on and interpolated from "Buffalo Gals".  Our favorite reimagination of the song was by Rakim.

10 November 2023 - The Go-Go's - Head Over Heels

The Go-Go's were rightfully inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.  This was the pinacle of their career, and they wrapped up their time as a band in 2022 - if Belinda Carlisle is to be believed.  They've broken up before, though, so we'll see.

At any rate, let's feature the band's last Top 20 hit - from 1984 - and the song Jane Wiedlin calls her "favorite Go-Go's song."   Written by Charlotte Caffey (the only one without a short haircut in this video) and Kathy Valentine (the bassist - who wrote herself a somewhat iconic solo), the song is pop-rock perfection.

In this 2001 performnace at Central Park, we get to see the problem with Go-Go's live performances - the camera is almost never on Gina Schock..... but when it is, you can see she's a bad-ass drummer.