Continuing the ongoing saga of what’s playing here in crabbtown.
Baseball has started, The Cubs are fucking around as always and can’t
seem to beat the Brewers. Kerry Wood can’t pitch no more and he isn’t
going to cut it as a stopper. Better find somebody that can otherwise
it’s going to be a long year.
Coming later in the month regardless of 3.30 a gallon gas or more MadCity.
And now this weeks songs of notice and most of these artists have
played a vital role in music for me. Plus from Diggy, a obscure number
from a British Invasion band. And no, it wasn’t on the Dave Clark Five
50 Greatest Hits either.
Shall we?
1. Gone Gone Gone-The Everly Brothers 1964 Their Warner stuff gets
knocked around by critics and by around this time their label was giving
them dated crapola but once in a while Phil and Don would write up a
rockin song that cries out to be rediscovered. So much so that Robert
Plant and Alison Krauss got a hit out this song last year. Of course
there were worser versions of this song, ever heard Crow’s Version (nope
not Sheryl Crow but another band)?
2. I Like It Like That-Chris Kenner 1961 Perhaps the best known
version from this obscure New Orleans singer that the Dave Clark Five
got a sizeable hit four years later. Kenner had other minor hits but a
streak of bad luck and bad timing pretty much rendered him to the cult
status. Collector’s Choice reissued Land of A 1000 Dances last year, in
today’s terms more like a EP rather than LP. Fuel 2000 did a much
better anthology which seems to have fallen by the wayside. And so it
goes.
3. Let Her Dance-Bobby Fuller Four 1965 Out of all the Buddy Holly
soundalikes, Fuller was the best since, like Holly came from Texas and
had some decent garage rockers outside of I Fought The Law. Probaly my
favorite of Bobby’s singles.
4. Long Line Rider-Bobby Darin 1969 Mr. All Purpose, Darin switched
to a more folk/rock style around the end of the 60s. If you played
this song, you’d swear that this wasn’t the same Darin who gave us Mack
The Knife and Splish Splash. I find Bobby’s Direction years to the most
interesting of times, but soon afterwards, Bobby would sign with Motown
and go back to the Mack The Knife style Vegas pop that seemed to be the
most successful. But by this time, the least selling and interesting.
5. Living Well Is The Best Revenge-REM 2008 They’re baaaaack and
they may have made their most musical album since Monster although at
times Accelerate fathers (namely on crappy track nine) at least we can
all agree that they seemed to be rocking a bit harder and at least
sounding more interested in what they’re doing. That’s saying something
especially after they conned into buying their album in a crappyassed
digipak. For a CD collector, going green sucks.
6. Learning The Game-Buddy Holly 1958 Later overdubbed by The
Fireballs and released as a single sometime in the early 60s, this is
one Buddy Holly song you don’t hear very often but those who do record
it as their own. Leo Kottke did and so did The Bunch (A Fairport
Convention offshoot band). And Buddy fifty years gone still sounds like
it was recorded yesterday. But don’t take my word for it, seek and ye
shall find.
7. Working Without A Net-Waylon Jennings 1987 RCA thought Waylon
was washed up, but MCA didn’t and so they signed Waylon and got him some
choice songs to cover and turned out to be a comeback of sorts. And I
have found myself listening to more Waylon the past couple years than
previous.
8. When Will The Rain Come-The Troggs 1968 Hopefully not soon.
This was the B side to Love Is All Around and was found on a Import
singles compliation.
9. Get Out The Door-Velvet Revolver 2007 Adios Scott Wieland and
don’t let the door hit you in the ass. So sez Slash and the boys.
Goodbye VR, hello Stone Temple Pilots again.
10. Put A Little Love In Your Heart-The Dave Clark Five 1968 And
finally we conclude our legends series with a odd choice cover from the
band that at one time challanged The Beatles for the British Invasion
Champs. While the Beatles progressed, the DC5 regressed and by the time
this came out, they were pretty much forgotten on the AM dial. Not
released as a single, but Diggy sent me a copy of this song on a DC5
best of mixtape that he sent out this way. However, in the Goldmine 45
RPM Records 3rd Edition, they do list Southern Man as a single in 1971
and I’m wondering if this is a cover of the Neil Young song. Stock
copies go as high as 50 dollars. Final note: the last known DC5 single
was a version of Rub It In which was covered by Billy Crash Craddock.
The DC5’s song flopped.
PS If you google Southern Man by DC5, it will take you to some
websites that do have the song up in a thirty second clip. They also do
a cover of Signs (the five men electrical band hit), Draggin The Line
(done by Tommy James) and a host of other songs. Till Dave Clark ever
releases them in our lifetime, this is what you got out there in net
land.
I say...Dave Clark can do whatever he wants with the masters of the
DC5 and he’s entitled to. But withholding the songs that the world has
to find the used bins is a mark against the band more than it does to
Dave Clark. And it shows a selfishness about him for that. Maybe he
realizes his music wasn’t that good as of the Beatles or Stones or The
Who or other british bands. However, when they did a song as heavy as
Any Way You Want It or Bits Or Pieces or Glad All Over, they were at
home on the radio like the rest of them.
And so it goes.
Pat Monahan-Last Of Seven (Columbia)
The Train head put this out late last year and it sounds just like a
Train album although it reminds me more of Drops Of Jupiter, their
biggest selling and least interesting album. If you like slow to mid
tempo radio ready songs, you’ll might find this interesting for a play
or two. But you won’t remember it.
Grade C plus
