Feb. 28 – Third Time’s The Charm For U2

Third time was the charm for U2. The Irish lads raised their profile from “one of many interesting new wave bands from the British Isles” to “the band to pay attention to from across the ocean” with their third album, War, released this day in 1983.

U2 had drawn attention globally with their first couple of albums, the impressive debut Boy in 1980 and the *cough*not-so-memorable*cough* sophomore effort October in ’81. But to this point they were mixed in with bands like Big Country and The Alarm, and Simple Minds who in all likelihood at that point were considered the biggest “post-punk” act going. War certainly changed all that and pointed to the world-conquering, larger-than-life band they were on the road to becoming. At a time when bands like Kajagoogoo and Spandau Ballet were on the cutting edge of music coming out of Britain and Ireland, U2 stood out like a thunderstorm on a spring afternoon. Not only did the Edge deliver solid, chunky, rockin‘ guitars, the band’s lyrics were anything but sunshine and lollipops. The brilliant “Sunday Bloody Sunday” dealt with the Bogside Massacre in Ireland; the lead single, “New Year’s Day” was loosely-inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement and the first signs of the crumbling of the Iron Curtain. “40”, an album cut which has become one of the band’s most popular in concert is inspired by the Old Testament’s Psalm 40, which among other things asks God “Let them be ashamed and confounded together, that seek after my soul to destroy it and let them be driven backward.”

The reason for the darkish turn, and album title, was explained that year by Bono: “Everywhere you looked from the Falklands to the Middle East to South Africa, there was war…we’re not only interested in the physical aspects of war,” he continued, “The emotional effects are just as important: ‘the trenches dug within our hearts…”

At the time the British press wasn’t all that enthusiastic. The NME panned it, for instance, saying “where Boy shone and flowed, War is dull and static.” Over here, the critics were kinder. The Village Voice gave it a B+ and Rolling Stone gave it 4-stars, saying that while the first two albums sounded OK, they were lightweight. “October wrapped itself in romance and religion but didn’t understand either,” it noted, but “War makes for impressive listening but more important it deals with a difficult subject in a sensible way.” It also applauded the singer – then still known as Bono Vox, and the Edge’s guitar which “demonstrates (U2) can play hard rock with the best.” The magazine has since ranked it among the top half of the 500 greatest albums of all-time.

Regardless of the critics, pro or con, the public ate it up. It was their first #1 album in the UK, first to crack the top 20 in the US and first one to make the charts at all in Germany. It’s worldwide sales of 11 million were more than the prior 2 records put together and would be among the best tallies of the decade… but as we now know, not even close to what the band would do a few years later with The Joshua Tree.

Feb. 27 – A Big Day For Britain’s Bee Gees. Wait- Whose Bee Gees?

I wonder if Casey Kasem got tired of saying their name that week? It was a massive week for the Bee Gees back in 1978. Not only was the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack firmly entrenched on top of the albums charts in North America, they were at #1 on the singles chart as well. But that wasn’t all- the trio had a trio of hits in the top 10, and a hand in two more!

That week, “Stayin’ Alive” was the #1 song in the land, joined by “Night Fever” at #8 and “How Deep Is Your Love?” at #10. Add in “Emotion” by Samantha Sang and “Love Is Thicker Than Water” by Andy Gibb and you have, basically about half of what we were hearing on hit radio coming out of their camp! (“Emotion” was #5 and sounds very Bee Gees-like due to being written by them and having Barry Gibb on backing vocals while “Love Is Thicker Than Water” at #2 is co-written by Barry of the band, with his younger brother Andy.)

It was probably a proud week for Australia therefore, since we all consider the Bee Gees one of that land’s biggest exports, right alongside Foster’s Beer and kangaroos. But here’s a fun fact: while they did get their musical careers off and running Down Under, the Brothers Gibb are actually Brits! They were all born in England, moving with their family to Australia in 1958, when they were tweens. And they aren’t the only famous musicians born somewhere other than where you’d expect.

Take Olivia Newton John for example. Another Australian riding high on the charts in the late-70s, but like the Gibbs, she was British-born 

Feb. 27 – No Fiction – Pulp Were On Top 22 Years Ago

Those of us over here on the left side of the Atlantic finally got to hear what the buzz across the pond was about – Pulp’s landmark Different Class came out this day in 1996. It had already been out and topped the charts in Britain the previous fall. It was arguably the pinnacle of “Britpop” and certainly it came out at that scene’s highwater mark, with Oasis conquering world markets and Blur more popular than ever in their homeland.

For all that, Pulp didn’t necessarily fit neatly into the “Britpop” pigeon-hole neatly. Singer/songwriter Jarvis Cocker was some five years older than Damon Albarn or Noel Gallagher, and moreover, had started his band around a decade before they had. Pulp had played its first gig back in 1980! As their publicist says, by the time this, their 5th album, came out “Pulp had spent a long time in the wilderness. there were lots of people saying ‘They’re really old, they’re never gonna do it.’” Yet do it they did, with this smart, angry, danceable record.

Much of the content can be summed up by a line on the back of the cover: “We don’t want no trouble, we just want the right to be different.” It was not lost on some that it was something of a double-entrendre . Did they mean they wanted to be accepted for who they are? Or they wanted the Thatcherism politics of the Right that still were prevalant to soften? In all likelihood the answer was both.

The band had built a bit of a following with their previous record, His’n’Hers, their first on Island, with it squeaking into the UK top 10 a couple of years earlier. But this one took it to another level, soon going to #1 there and spawning 4 very different, yet all appealing top 10 singles: “Common People”, “Sorted With E’s and Wizz” the Laura Branigan “Gloria”-esque “Disco 2000” and “Something Changed.” Eventually the album went 4X platinum there; immediately it was lauded.

Feb. 26 – Remembering The Man In Black

Remembering a music legend today. The original “Man In Black”, Johnny Cash was born this day in 1932 to a poor Arkansas farming family. As we know from the many biographies and biopics about the man, he never forgot those humble beginnings and in fact used them well in his art. Growing up where he did, he was close to Memphis and its soul and later, early rock sounds but also in an area rich in gospel tradition and with a love of country and western. A near-perfect blend of sounds to grow up to and a near-perfect summary of the genres of music he performed.

By now many of the main points of Cash’s life are so well-known as to be nearly cliches; his failed first marriage, his trouble with drinking and drugs, his strong religious beliefs and his second marriage, to June, which likely saved not only his career but his life. Likewise we know many of the impressive stats he racked up: 55 studio albums (plus 7 more Christmas-themed ones), 9 #1 country albums, 15 Billboard top 40 singles plus many more on the country charts, even an ABC-TV variety show at the start of the ’70s. What it doesn’t touch on however, is the breadth of his appeal.

Few artists in our lifetime have been popular so long or to so many generations. Not many singers are loved by grandparents, their kids and their kids in turn, but that could be said of Johnny, whose first hit single was back in 1956 (“I Walk the Line”) and who had a major alternative rock hit in the early 2000’s with his version of Nine Inch Nails “Hurt.” His trademark song “Ring of Fire” was not only a rockabilly-ish smash for him but later a rock hit for The Animals and a song both new wave’s Wall of Voodoo and SoCal punkers Social Distortion recorded on their debut records. Similarly, I can’t think of any other artist enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame to boot! The Rock hall sum him up well as an “authentic storyteller whose plain-spoken narrative songs speak to the American everyman.”

Cash died a few months after his beloved June Carter Cash in 2003. Medically it was put down to complications from diabetes and a disease similar to Parkinson’s that he’d suffered from for five or six years; others might say he succumbed to a broken heart or gave in to a desire to be reunited with June. Then-president Bush paid tribute to Cash and singer Rodney Crowell suggested “Johnny Cash will, like Will Rogers, stand forever as a symbol of intelligence, creativity, compassion and common sense.”

We’ll leave it with a timely answer from the man himself about why he became synonomous with ebony-clothing. “I wore black because I like it. It’s …my symbol of rebellion against status quo, against our hypocritical Houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to other’s ideas.”

Feb. 25 – Two Achievements For The Three Thompson Twins

It was a big day for the Thompson Twins this day in 1984. All three of them!

The Brits simultaneously topped the UK album chart for the first time with Into The Gap and made it into the US top 40 with what would be their signature tune, “Hold Me Now.” It was the fourth album for the group but only the second since they’d trimmed down their roster to singer Tom Bailey,keyboardist Joe Leeway and percussionist/singer Allanah Currie. Bailey explained trimming guitars and even horns from their sound was a result of his belief in electronics being the future or music and “we weren’t going to be a rock’n’roll band. We weren’t going to have a guitar.”

The result worked and was one of the defining sounds of the ’80s. The album went on to be double-platinum at home and in Canada and even crack the US top 10 where it also went platinum. Worldwide it was by far the biggest of their 15-or-so year career, selling upwards of 5 million copies. Although the singles “Doctor Doctor” and “You Take Me Up” aided in that and were top 5’s in Britain, the album really took off because of the lovely “Hold Me Now.” It also made the top 5 in the UK but was a major hit in North America, getting to #3 in both the US and Canada. Previously, although they did score a #1 hit on dance floors with “Lies” the year before, they’d barely made an impression on overall singles charts or radio play. Into the Gap changed all that. While it was predictably massive on college radio and stations known for playing new wave (it was in the year-end top 10 at both LA’s KROQ and Toronto’s CFNY for example) it also made a break into mainstream airplay and onto MTV.

How you felt about it was probably determined by how you felt about the whole ’80s new wave scene. If you weren’t a fan of it, you were not going to like Into The Gap. Music publications in their homeland were especially critical; Smash Hits gave it just 2.5 out of 10, calling it “the usual triumph of naked ambition over talent”. Over here the Village Voice’s crusty critic Robert Christgau had to admit to liking “Hold Me Now” but thought the rest of it only “lightly creditable.” In retrospect though, all music consider the band one of the decade’s “talented and flamboyant synthesizer act(s)” and rate the record as 4-star. They note “nearly every song on this is different from the others” and call it a “classic as far as ’80s new wave pop was concerned.” We agree.

As for the smash single, it was written quickly after Currie and Bailey had made up after an argument. Currie says it was a mixed blessing. “It was really big all over the world, which is great,” she says, “but it was just an accidental thing…After that…everybody- managers, the record company- (were) on our back to write ‘Hold Me Now, Part 2’ and harassing (us) to find a formula.” They didn’t quite do that and although their follow-up Here’s To Future Days did moderately-well, they never scaled the heights again like they did in 1984. After dropping Leeway from the group and changing the name to Babble, by then an electronica outfit, they called it a day in the mid-90s.

Don’t Forget To Look for Daily Music Trivia With Us On Twitter!

Feb. 24 – When Led Zeppelin Scaled New Heights

The Beatles had their Sgt. Pepper, the Beach Boys their Pet Sounds. Led Zeppelin’s attempt to rise to new artistic heights was Physical Graffiti, released this day in 1975.Zep were at their creative peak about then, with five albums and numerous tours behind them and they decided to stretch themselves a little with album #6. The result, the first on their own Swan Song label, was the most extensive and most diverse-sounding releases in their catalog.

That Physical Graffit sounded a bit broader and less-unified than their other releases is no surprise; it was recorded in several studios over a period from the summer of 1970 through mid-1974. Originally, arguably, designed as a way of buying the band a bit of time to work on more things it contains several tracks that were recorded with, but not released on their previous three albums (III , IV and Houses of the Holy). But they had some good new material waiting as well and they decided to put it all together in one ambitious album…which was actually a double-album, with 82 minutes of music! The one thing that was consistent throughout was the production by Jimmy Page as usual.

Although they released only one single off it – “Trampled Under Foot”, which scraped into the US top 40 for two weeks- it’s largely remembered for the long and sprawling tracks “In My Time of Dying” (over 11 minutes long) and what many consider their finest song, “Kashmir” (over 8 and a half minutes.)

From hard rock to prog rock to almost country-ish, this album delivered something for everybody. Or so the response suggests. It was their fifth-straight #1 album at home in the UK as well as in Canada and the fourth for them in the States, where it sits at a remearkable 16X platinum by now! Critics liked it as much as the record-buying public too.

Rolling Stone at the time called it “Led Zeppelin’s bid for artistic respectability” and Billboard gave it the thumbs up, saying it was a “tour de force through a number of musical styles, from straight rock to blues to folky acoustic to orchestral sounds.” It’s appeal has stayed with it through the years. Classic Rock rank it the 5th “greatest rock album ever” and Rolling Stone put it as the 73rd greatest album ever. Over at all music, it’s rated a perfect 5-star with Stephen Thomas Erlewine saying it is “more textured than their previous work” and declaring “highlights are when (they) incorporate influences and stretch out into new styles and territory, most noticeably on the tense, Eastern-influenced ‘Kashmir’”.

Feb. 24 – Fastball Led ‘The Way’ 20 Years Ago

Being declared a “One Hit Wonder” is often seen as rather an insult, but when you think about it, not so. How many of use even have one shot at putting out a piece of music that will live on for decades and perhaps appeal to others even after we’re gone? Put in that light, a “One Hit Wonder” is a pretty decent thing! Today we remember one such song and band- Fastball’s “The Way” was released this day 20 years ago.

By that time the trio had been around for three years, put together in Austin by bagel-baker Tony Scalzo. They had a solid following in Texas’ Music City, but their first album , Make Your Mama Proud didn’t necessarily make London Records (a Disney division which has put out releases for Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Los Lobos and even Queen) that proud. It sold, liberally, about 6500 copies. So expectations for the follow-up, All the Pain Money Can Buy weren’t necessarily that high. One song changed all that.

“The Way” is one of the most

Feb. 23 – The Night The Foo Fighters Began To Rock

“I was just supposed to join another band and be a drummer the rest of my life. I thought I would rather do what no one expected me to,” explains Dave Grohl about his creation of the Foo Fighters. Although the debut album, which come out soon, was essentially a Grohl solo record, he realized that he loved playing music to crowds too and thus assembled a band . On this night in 1995 they made their first appearance.

It was less than a year after the demise of Kurt Cobain, and thus Nirvana as well. Grohl to that point had just been the guy behind the kit on stage with Cobain (and Krist Novoselic). After the singer’s death, Tom Petty had come calling wanting Dave to be the drummer in his Heartbreakers. Grohl actually did play with them in ’94, appearing on Saturday Night Live. But his dreams were bigger than drumming to someone else’s tune so by October he’d recorded what would become the first Foos album by himself.Wanting to take the tunes on the road, he got together other Seattle musicians Nate Mendel (who’s still in the band) and drummer William Goldsmith (who was quickly replaced) from the defunct band Sunny Day Real Estate, plus guitarist Pat Smear who’d toured with Nirvana to form the band.

Zigging when others expected him to zag seemed to be Grohl’s gameplan. Not only did he eschew interviews at the time and put out, again, in truth a solo album under the name “Foo Fighters” to try and fly under the radar, he chose an incongruous spot to kick off the band’s career. A little over a week before playing Nirvana’s stomping ground in Washington, they performed at a small club in northern California.The Jambalaya Club, or “Jam”, in Arcata is a bar/live music venue that fits in about 220 when “jam”med and was where the Foos first played. The owner told the North Coast Journal he thought it was a prank when someone called and said Grohl wanted to play a concert there the following night. It wasn’t. The band played, the smallish crowd roared their appreciation and after the show Grohl went bowling with the club DJ! The after-show celebration was captured by that paper in the photo above.

Needless to say, the Foo fighters would soon outgrow the need to play such low-rent locales. The album went platinum in the States and Canada and generated 3 top 10 Billboard alternative singles (“Big Me”, “This Is A Call” and “I’ll Stick Around”) and there’s been no turning back since.

Feb. 22 – Radiohead At 25

It’s the 25th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most critically-acclaimed careers in recent history- Radiohead. They released their major label debut, Pablo Honey on this day in 1993. Many sat up and took notice; few imagined how inventive and, well, odd the band would become.

Radiohead had been around, more or less, for about 8 years by this time. They’d started as a group called On A Friday when members Thom Yorke, Colin and Johnny Greenway, Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien met at a boy’s school in Oxford, England. By the time of Pablo Honey, they’d taken their current name, become local faves and put out a grungy EP called Drill (if you have one of the 3000 copies made, it would fetch about $123 online.) EMI Records had big hopes for the band, so much so that they put the release out on the Parlophone label, commonly associated with the early days of The Beatles. They weren’t let down.

Although off the bat, the album did fairly well on alternative rock radio, and was a top 30 hit in the UK, it certainly got the band attention and opened the door wide for their later releases, like OK Computer, a #1 hit in their homeland, and 2000’s Kid A which even topped American charts. In time, the debut went platinum in the US and double that in the UK and Canada, largely on the strength of a song the band hates! Thom Yorke says he wrote “Creep” in a drunken haze about a “man lacking confidence “ to approach women. He and his mates ended up thinking the song “crap” but it was the lead single and it made the top 10 in Britain and Australia and #2 on American alternative charts- after the label had released a radio-friendly version changing the F-word to “Very” in the chorus (as in “you’re so VERY special”). As if the fact that the band apparently didn’t even like the song that made them famous wasn’t enough, they’d soon end up in court over it. Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood sued for plagiarism, thinking it borrowed too heavily from the song “Air That I Breathe” 

Feb. 22 – The Brits Remember Bowie

Gone but not forgotten is one apt way to summarize David Bowie. There was plenty of evidence of that a year ago when Britain’s main music awards, the Brits recognized him posthumously. Bowie won the “Best British Male Solo” performer and “Best Album” award, the latter for Blackstar, the grim album released only days before his death.

For Bowie, it was his third trophy for Best Male, with past wins in 1984 and 2014; the album award was his first. It was the first time either had been awarded posthumously in the awards 40 years. The award for Album of the Year was picked up by his son Duncan, who said if there was one thing he’d want his own son to know about David, it was that he “was always there for people who were a bit different” and said in closing, “this award is for the kooks!”