May 17 – Turntable Talk 26 : The Single That Was More Like A Home Run

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! This is our 26^th round. By now all our regular readers know how this goes, but for any new readers, first off, welcome! I hope you find it interesting and check back from time to time here – new posts go up daily and we run the ‘Turntable Talk’ feature usually once a month. And second, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. We have an index of past topics, with the final one of each in the link, others could be found going back day by day from each of those.

This month, our topic is Music Music. We asked our contibutors to write about a song that is about music – either about music itself, or the art of making it or the lifestyle of a musician. I’m intrigued to see what people come up with. Today we have Max from Power Pop blog. He’s played in bands himself, so he should come up with an interesting pick for a song about music…

Thank you Dave for posting this on your site. Below is the request that we wrote about.

There are many great songs about music, so let’s highlight them. Pick a song you like either about music itself (eg, ‘I love Music’ and so on)  or about the life of a musician making music . Or anything else you can think of about music… about music! 

I sometimes go for the B-sides or ones that aren’t heard as much. Not this time! This 1971 song remains a classic. It was the first single I bought that you had to flip over to listen to the other side. The song was 8:42 long.

I remember when I was 5-6 years old and listening to this song. The verses I ignored at the time and enjoyed the chorus immensely going around singing it and being told to shut up already by my sister. I guess a six-year-old singing Bye, bye ‘Miss American Pie, Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry, And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye, Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die, This’ll be the day that I die…” Would get old but hey…I had good taste anyway (better than my sister).

It’s a song that I don’t get tired of…ever. When I think of it I think of my childhood and also a big dose of pop culture. We all know that the day the music died was pointing to the Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper plane crash. The rest builds up and between the lines, he sings about a lot of events and artists. 

Where do I begin with this one? The song has so many references that it acts as a pop culture index by itself. I have read about college classes just on this song. It has been inspected and dissected since its release. Long after Don McLean leaves this earth…the song will be inspected and dissected again and again.

We do know the song was inspired by Buddy Holly… What does it all mean? While being interviewed in 1991, McLean was asked for probably the 1000th time “What does the song ‘American Pie’ mean to you?,” to which he answered, “It means never having to work again for the rest of my life.” Now that is a great and honest answer by McLean.

In 2015 he opened up about the song and sold the original lyrics for $1.2 million . This time he answered the question seriously.“It was an indescribable photograph of America that I tried to capture in words and music.” He also said that “American Pie” was Buddy Holly’s airplane that crashed…it was a made-up name by McLean because the company that owned the plane didn’t name any of them. “People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity, of course, I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.”

In later years I would buy the single and try to figure out who he was talking about. Some of the lyrics include references to Karl Marx (or Groucho Marx), Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (or John Lennon), the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, The Byrds, James Dean, Charles Manson, the Rolling Stones, the “widowed bride,” Jackie Kennedy (or María Elena Holly), Jimi Hendrix, the Vietnam War, The Fillmore East, and more.

This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #2 in the UK in 1972. If you want more… here is a website PDF that breaks down the song line by line of their interpretation.

I’ll let Don McLean talk about the song: “For some reason, I wanted to write a big song about America and about politics, but I wanted to do it in a different way. As I was fiddling around, I started singing this thing about the Buddy Holly crash, the thing that came out (singing), ‘Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.’

I thought, Whoa, what’s that? And then the day the music died, it just came out. And I said, Oh, that is such a great idea. And so that’s all I had. And then I thought, I can’t have another slow song on this record. I’ve got to speed this up. I came up with this chorus, crazy chorus. And then one time about a month later I just woke up and wrote the other five verses. Because I realized what it was, I knew what I had. And basically, all I had to do was speed up the slow verse with the chorus and then slow down the last verse so it was like the first verse, and then tell the story, which was a dream. It is from all these fantasies, all these memories that I made personal. Buddy Holly’s death to me was a personal tragedy. As a child, a 15-year-old, I had no idea that nobody else felt that way much. I mean, I went to school and mentioned it and they said, ‘So what?’ So I carried this yearning and longing, if you will, this weird sadness that would overtake me when I would look at this album, The Buddy Holly Story because that was my last Buddy record before he passed away.”

 

May 17 – Teenage-rs Were Growing Up

---

By 1980, The Clash were expanding their musical range and had an American hit for the first time with the decidedly smooth-sounding “Train In Vain.” Perhaps Canada’s Teenage Head took note of that as they managed to score their first notable hit song at home with the fairly easy-going and refined sounding “Something on my Mind.” It peaked at #28 in Canada this day 44 years back.

Teenage Head had been perhaps Canada’s pre-eminent punk band during the height of the British punk sensation. The quartet led by singer Frankie Kerr (going by the moniker Frankie Venom then) and guitarist Gord Lewis had begun in Hamilton, an industrial city about 30 miles outside Toronto, back in 1974. They were a very popular and energetic live act but it took til 1979 for them to get a recording contract, and even then it was with the small Attic label in Toronto. They put out a self-titled debut in 1979, which won raves from their fans but really didn’t sell, but things changed the next year with the second album, Frantic City.

The album sounded a bit more polished than the debut and included a couple of early rock covers – “Something Else”, an Eddie Cochran song and – keeping the Clash comparison going – “Brand New Cadillac.” That song had been done by Vince Taylor, but most of the Teenage Head fanbase likely knew it only from the Clash cover of it which had come out a few months prior to their own.

The album was described at allmusic as “their finest moment on vinyl”, and contributors there described “Something on my Mind” as “splendid albeit gentle” and even “Bob Dylan-like.”

The song got them airplay on radio stations who’d never have thought themselves likely to spin a “punk” band and helped propel Frantic City to platinum status. The popularity was sustained for a few years at home; they’d score an even bigger hit a couple of years later with “Some Kinda Fun”, by which time the record company had added an “s” to their name in order to try to make them more palatable for the U.S.

market. That didn’t really work so they soon went back to their original name and concentrated on their fans at home again. They’d put out six more albums, the last one being Teenage Head with Marky Ramone, with the title pretty much describing the record.

There is a version of Teenage Head still playing around Canada, however with Venom dying back in 2008 and Lewis in 2022 (tragically, murdered by his own son) and no original members left playing it might not be quite the same Frantic City fans remember from nearly five decades back.

May 17 Waitin’…

May 17 is a good day in music…and we’ve got great posts for it. Max from Power Pop drops by to talk about one of the ’70s greatest hits and I look at one of Canada’s favorite party bands…

just waiting for AT&T to fix this inter-webby thing so we can upload the good stuff!

May 16 – Turntable Talk 26 : A Salute To ’60s Rock

---

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! This is our 26^th round. By now all our regular readers know how this goes, but for any new readers, first off, welcome! I hope you find it interesting and check back from time to time here – new posts go up daily and we run the ‘Turntable Talk’ feature usually once a month. And second, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. We have an index of past topics, with the final one of each in the link, others could be found going back day by day from each of those.

This month, our topic is Music Music. We asked our contibutors to write about a song that is about music – either about music itself, or the art of making it or the lifestyle of a musician. I’m intrigued to see what people come up with. Today we have Christian from Christian’s Music Musings, a site where he keeps us upto date on new releases every week and looks back at some great oldies.

Once again, it’s Turntable Talk time. Now in its 26^th round, fellow blogger Dave’s monthly series continues to go strong. This time, the topic was great songs about music, whether they express sentiments about music or focus on the life of a specific musician.

While there are many examples that fit the above definition, the first song that randomly came to my mind was “Sweet Soul Music”, a classic first released by Arthur Conley in 1967. The second one I thought of was my pick, “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” by John Mellencamp, one of my longtime favorite artists.

Written by Mellencamp, who at the time was still known as John Cougar Mellencamp, “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” first appeared on his eighth studio album Scarecrow, released in July 1985. This album also happens to mark the start of my Mellencamp musical journey, which I felt was another good reason to pick the song.

“R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A,” subtitled “A Salute to ‘60s Rock,” also became the album’s third single and its biggest hit. In the U.S., it peaked at no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Canadian audiences evidently liked it as well, propelling the song to no. 7 on RPM’s singles chart. Elsewhere, it reached no. 17 in New Zealand and no. 67 in the UK – not bad for a song with a ‘60s retro sound during a time the charts were dominated by new wave and hair metal.

Songfacts explains “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” tells the story of how rock and roll emerged in America, and how those (now infamous) musicians that were not afraid to take personal risks for the sake of their music became a strong influence on the next generation. It mentions numerous artists and bands, including Frankie Lymon, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder, Jackie Wilson, Shangra La’s, Young Rascals, Martha Reeves and James Brown, who became influences for Mellencamp. Growing up, he listened to their music on AM radio.

Initially, Mellencamp hesitated to include the song on the Scarecrow album, feeling it was too light-hearted compared to other tracks about more serious topics, such as “Rain on the Scarecrow” about the financial struggles of midwest farmers and “Face of the Nation”, which addresses the decline of the so-called American Dream and corporate greed. “It was one of those absolute last-split-second decisions,” Mellencamp said in 1986. “I was only including it on the cassette and CD copies of Scarecrow as a bonus party track, but my manager loved the energy of it and I thought, ‘Yeah! What the hell!'”

Contrary to Mellencamp’s first manager Tony DeFries, who insisted the last name Mellencamp wasn’t marketable and came up with Johnny Cougar, a name Mellencamp hated, in the case of “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A”., the manager got it right. While I know by that time Mellencamp had long parted ways with DeFries and next worked with Rod Stewart’s manager Billy Gaff, I’m not sure Gaff was still in the picture at the time of the Scarecrow album.

“R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” was recorded at Belmont Mall in Belmont, Ind. Mellencamp produced the song under the alias “Little Bastard” together with Don Gehman. Other musicians on the recording included Mike Wanchic (guitars, backing vocals), Larry Crane (guitars, flutophone), John Cascella (keyboards), Sarah Flint (backing vocals), Toby Myers (bass) and Kenny Aronoff (drums).

Here’s a fun live version captured in 1985 at Farm Aid, an annual benefit concert to support American farmers, founded in 1985 by Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Neil Young.

Following are some additional tidbits from Songfacts:

With “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A”…Mellencamp was paying homage, but he was also paying his dues. For example, the late Bobby Fuller’s mention on a Top 10 song, and a platinum album, was enough to revive flagging interest in the artist (as well as get Mellencamp a credit on a Bobby Fuller Four Best-Of album). Said Mellencamp: “When I played in Albuquerque, I think it was, his [Fuller’s] mom and some of his family came down to see me play. They acted like I gave them 60 million dollars just for mentioning his name. They gave me his belt that he died in.”

The instrumental break in this song is very clever. Mellencamp says the riff was lifted from Neil Diamond’s first hit, “Cherry, Cherry.” When we first hear it, it’s played on an ocarina, which is a small wind instrument of ancient Eastern origins, thought to be 12,000 years old, and often made in the shape of a bird and used to imitate its fluting song. This is a nod to the song “Wild Thing” by The Troggs, which featured an ocarina solo. In Mellencamp’s song, the riff is then played on guitar and later on keyboards, going through various musical forms popular in ’60s rock. In concert, Mellencamp would often bring a fan onstage to dance with him during this section.

In the months prior to recording Scarecrow, Mellencamp’s band worked their way through nearly a hundred cover songs. Mellencamp hoped that through these covers, they would absorb the stylistic essence of the era through osmosis. Mellencamp’s bassist Toby Myers admitted that, “I thought he was giving us busywork, but he wanted us to understand what made those songs tick so we could put some of that grit into his songs.” The band was surprised by the sheer quantity of different styles that characterized the era. “Take an old Rascals song for example,” Mellencamp said. “There’s everything from marching band beats to soul music to country sounds in one song.”

In keeping with ’60s hit single tradition, Mellencamp kept this song under three minutes long – it clocks in at 2:54.

Last but not least, here are the song’s lyrics:

They come from the cities

And they come from the smaller towns

Beat up cars with guitars and drummers

Goin crack boom bam

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A., Yeah, Yeah!

Rockin’ in the U.S.A.

Said goodbye to their families

Said goodbye to their friends

With pipe dreams in their heads

And very little money in their hands

Some are black and some are white

Ain’t to proud to sleep on the floor tonight

With the blind faith of Jesus you know that they just might, be

Rockin’ in the U.S.A.

Hey!

Voices from nowhere

And voices from the larger towns

Filled our head full of dreams

Turned the world upside down

There was Frankie Lyman-Bobby Fuller-Mitch Ryder

(They were Rockin’)

Jackie Wilson-Shangra-las-Young Rascals

(They were Rockin’)

Spotlight on Martha Reeves

Let’s don’t forget James Brown

Rockin’ in the U.S.A.

Rockin’ in the U.S.A.

Hey!

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A., Yeah, Yeah!

Rockin’ in the U.S.A.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube

May 16 – God Only Knows Why His Wife Didn’t Love It

If the Beatles progressed in gigantic steps from the 1963 sound of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to late ’65-’66’s Rubber Soul and Revolver, they spurred on the competition to do the same as well. Case in point, the Beach Boys Pet Sounds, which came out this day in 1966. A casual listener could be excused for not even recognizing them as the same group that were “Surfin’ USA’ only a few short years earlier. Of course, some might argue it wasn’t the same group. By then Brian Wilson and his vision had taken over and his bandmates were rendered somewhat irrelevant by his use of more talented musicians from the Wrecking Crew to actually make the records.

We know how well Pet Sounds was received upon release… by other musicians and critics. Paul McCartney, for example said “no one is educated musically until they’ve heard this album.” The public wasn’t as blown away initially; it peaked at #10 in the U.S. and is still only certified platinum there (as opposed to multi-platinum; the Beatles Revolver for example is 5X that). Britain was more receptive, with it hitting #2 here. As Matthew Oshinksy put it “Brian Wilson was the only man on earth who could declare he was going to make a record as good as Rubber Soul and pull it off!” And another comparison to the Fab Four, perhaps its best song wasn’t even a single at home. Today we look at “God Only Knows.”

Brian Wilson wrote the song, with help from Tony Asher (who co-wrote much of the album), apparently as a result of a prayer session in the studio. He was said to be fascinated by spirituality and this love song came as a sort of answer to a prayer. Bono agrees it would seem, he’s declared that the song is “fact and proof of angels.”

The song is complex to say the least, Brian’s brother Carl played a 12-string guitar on it, but Brian used no fewer than 20 studio musicians on it, including drummer Hal Blaine, drummer Jim Gordon who somehow played plastic cups for percussion, Carol Kaye – one of the all-time great bassists – on electric guitar while Ray pohlman played bass, Larry Knetchel on harpsichord…there was a French horn, an upright bass and a whole string session to boot. Carl Wilson sang lead though, the only Pet Sounds sound he did that on, while Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnston sang backing vocals.

The result was stunning.

People have compared its composition to Bach and Stravinsky; Oshinsky noted “the verses stretched at the confines of rock chord progressions.” Jimmy Webb’s said it’s his favorite song of all-time and McCartney said he and John Lennon wrote “Here, There and Everywhere” the night they first heard “God Only Knows” as a response.

For all that, Capitol put out “Sloop John B” as the lead single from the album and relegated this song to the b-side of “Wouldn’t it Be Nice”, in North America at least. It’s said though that they were worried that the use of “God” in the name might be considered sacreligious at the time and that was why. In Europe, it was an a-side and it hit #2 in the UK, their third top 10 there. Later they’d score a #1 song with “Good Vibrations” that followed soon after.

Obviously, it’s aged well… especially for an album cut! Rolling Stone readers voted it the best Beach Boys song “by a wide margin” and that magazine has ranked it as high as #11 on their list of greatest songs of all-time. Of course, for an opposing opinion there was none other than Mrs. Brian Wilson (at the time), Marilyn Rovell. She said at the time she thought “he’s really taking a chance. I thought it was almost too religious, too square!”

May 15 – Turntable Talk 26 : Rock Has A Head For Rock

---

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! This is our 26^th round. By now all our regular readers know how this goes, but for any new readers, first off, welcome! I hope you find it interesting and check back from time to time here – new posts go up daily and we run the ‘Turntable Talk’ feature usually once a month. And second, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. We have an index of past topics, with the final one of each in the link, others could be found going back day by day from each of those.

This month, our topic is Music Music. We asked our contibutors to write about a song that is about music – either about music itself, or the art of making it or the lifestyle of a musician. I’m intrigued to see what people come up with. And today we have our second Canadian contributor in a row – Deke from Ontario. We know from his Deke’s Vinyl Reviews and More site he loves music… especially the rockin’ variety!

Thanks again to Dave for letting me spout off about some good old hard rock. So this month we picked “Music Music “about great songs. I could have picked a million hard rock tunes but for me it’s fun at times to pick not an obvious choice. My pick is by the band Rockhead, and a tune called “Bed of Roses”.

Who are Rockhead you ask? I’m sure many of you Ruch’N’Rollers who read Dave’s blog may have heard the name Bob Rock mentioned previously. In case you don’t remember, Bob Rock has produced Metallica, Bon Jovi, Micheal Buble,Motley Crue, The Offspring, The Cult… I could keep going on. What many don’t know is that Bob, back in 1990 put together a rock act named – you guessed it – Rockhead!

By late 1992 the self-titled CD appeared and disappeared quickly. Probably as the style had more to do with ’70s Rock than 90’s Grunge. It’s little notice was a shame as Bob put together a kick ass band featuring vocalist Steve Jack, bassist Jamey Kosh and drummer Chris Taylor.

Thirteen tracks make up the debut and Bob brought in some heavy hitters on guitar like Richie Sambora and Billy Duffy to add some muscle on a few tracks. Bob is no slouch on the six string himself, as you hear on my pick , the opening track and lead-off single : “Bed of Roses” . It has a real throwback sound even with the amped up honky tonk piano along for the ride as well. Great verses,choruses along with Jack’s lead vocal and the musical muscle behind the singing proves that it’s all about timing in the music biz.

This album didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell back in ’92 yet Bob’s relationship with Bon Jovi got them the opening gig of Jovi’s European tour even with the album stalling sales-wise Rock went back to his day job producing. Perhaps Bob had to scratch that rock itch one more time as he was also the guitarist in The Payolas back in the early to mid-’80s. The Payolas had the big hit “Eyes of A Stranger” back in the early ’80s.

One final thing I will add about this album is that the first four tracks (“Bed of Roses”, “Chelsea Rose”, “Heartland”, “Lovehunter”) would stand toe to toe with any band of this genre (hard rock) at the back end of the ’80s. It’s all about timing in the music biz and Bob Rock and the boys were too late to the party.

It’s a great album yet for some funny reason it’s not on streams (Apple for sure) but the whole album is up on YouTube.

Thanks Dave, and thanks to you for reading!

May 15 – Their Voyage Continued Into Their Third Decade

Starting their voyage to the top again on this day in 1981, Moody Blues release perhaps their most successful album, Long Distance Voyager. It was their tenth studio album and it became their second #1 in the U.S. and Canada, spending 10 full weeks atop the charts in the latter where it went triple platinum.

At home, although it did make #7, the reception was cooler and it was their lowest charting album in a full decade there in the UK. The prog-rockers were by that point already “veteran cosmic rockers”; having been on the scene since 1965. However, there was a sense of renewal on this record, the first they were able to record in their own English studio (they also released it on their own Threshold Record label.) It was also noteworthy for being the first without the band’s legendary keyboardist Mike Pinder, who’d quit after the previous album; his place was filled quite well though by newcomer Patrick Moraz.

The album contained two of their most enduring, and upbeat singles “Gemini Dream” and “The Voice”. The former became their second #1 hit in Canada and got to a respectable #12 in the U.S., “The Voice” also made the Canuck top 10 and American top 20 (a third single, “Talking Out of Turn” was a hit in Canada but nowhere else.) Strangely, they didn’t even make the British charts which at the time were beginning to be very dominated by new wave sounds, which makes the album’s quality and popularity surprising.

As allmusic note, “progressive rock bands stumbled into the ’80s” which made this 4-star record “impressive.” they particularly singled out “The Voice” as a “sweeping and majestic call to adventure.” Rolling Stone ranked it as one of the 20 best albums of the year, saying “no new twists, but this is exactly how it should be…dignified, eloquent and like a good sherry, should warm the hearts of…their fans and any others who choose to listen with fresh ears.”  That it did, that it did.

In 2018 the Moodies were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame which point out how their “new sound (in the ’60s) influenced an entire generation of musicians, including Yes and Genesis.” Sadly they also called it quits that year, with Graeme Edge retiring; he and Mike Pinder (the last of the original members) have both passed away since.

May 14 – Turntable Talk 26 : Edmunds Loves Music

---

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! This is our 26^th round. By now all our regular readers know how this goes, but for any new readers, first off, welcome! I hope you find it interesting and check back from time to time here – new posts go up daily and we run the ‘Turntable Talk’ feature usually once a month. And second, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. We have an index of past topics, with the final one of each in the link, others could be found going back day by day from each of those.

This month, our topic is Music Music. We asked our contributors to write about a song that is about music – either about music itself, or the art of making it or the lifestyle of a musician. I’m intrigued to see what people come up with. And we’re starting with Randy, from Mostly Music Covers in Ontario, Canada. He’s the expert on cover songs, and lately has shown himself to be a pretty knowledgeable figure on the early influences of rock…

When Dave asked us to pick a song about music, I immediately knew which one I would write about. Then, of course, I thought this was a good theme! More songs came to me. Alas, he asked for one song but as we contributors often do, I will cheat and sneak in a related tune.

My choice is “I Love Music” written and recorded by Dave Edmunds and it appeared on his 1994 album Plugged In.

While I could not find the lyrics and if the title wasn’t enough to convince you, I did pick up a few words from the song. Edmunds starts by introducing the song “In the Key of G”, he mentions things like flats and sharps, MTV, Fred Astaire, and music making “the world a better place”. Near the end, he says “Rocking and Rolling Universe that’s my philosophy”. One could do worse these days.

Depending on the day you ask my favorite musician is either Dave Edmunds or Nick Lowe and I have talked plenty about them both. Just in case you don’t know who he is, here is a brief bio.

Dave Edmunds was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1944. At age ten he was playing in a band with his older brother and by the mid-1960s he was playing in several bands and recording. You likely know his best charting song, “I Hear You Knocking”, a cover of a Smiley Lewis song that reached #1 in the UK in 1970 and #4 in the US. And while he was never able to reproduce that success, he went on to release 14 studio albums and he played in the critically acclaimed band Rockpile (with Nick Lowe). As a producer, he has worked with Shakin’ Stevens, The Stray Cats, Dion, Paul McCartney, Status Quo, and The Everly Brothers’ comeback album among others. He is known for his production precision and his incredible guitar work.

If Dave will indulge me, (ed. Note – Dave will) is Dave Edmunds has another great ‘Music’ song. “A.1. On the Jukebox” from his 1978 album Tracks on Wax 4. Written by Edmunds with Will Birch who would later write the book Cruel to Be Kind: The Life and Music of Nick Lowe.

“A1 on the Jukebox and nowhere on the charts”

May 14 – More Than ‘One Thing’ About INXS Appealed To Masses

A gamble paid off well for Australian band INXS this day in 1983. That’s when their single “The One Thing” became their first to make the top 40 charts (or any really) in the U.S. Which is doubtless what they hoped to accomplish and were so confident of, they paid to make it themselves.

By that time INXS were quite well-established in their homeland, having a small record deal, and two albums out that each went gold there and garnered them a trio of charting singles. But they felt they were destined for bigger and better, and weren’t sure their small label, Deluxe, was designed to accommodate that. So they rented a studio and recorded this song themselves. They liked the result so they kept the producer, Mark Opitz, around to do three more. These they used as a demo to shop themselves around to international companies, soon getting signed by Warner Bros. for much of the globe, and Polygram for Europe.

They kept “The One Thing” for their international debut album, Shabooh Shoobah – a title allmusic note is “one of the most annoying…ever” and supposedly derived from the sound of the rhythm of one of the songs on it. Thankfully, most agreed the music was better than the name of the record. Allmusic called it “a talented bunch of performers still finding their identity” but loved this song, “a strutting number that gives (Michael) Hutchence a real chance to shine as a singer” with “synth/guitar/sax hooks” that made it “instantly memorable.”

Hutchence wrote the lyrics about the guy obsessed with a girl who has lots of suitors (and provided his girlfriend as one of the many models for the video) , and though it was short of words, Andrew Farriss thought that a plus. Andrew, one of three Farriss brothers in the group, wrote the music and said of Hutchence “when he felt he had nothing more to say, he wouldn’t say anything more…he wouldn’t try to justify his lyric, and I think there’s a strength to that.”

Seems he said enough, the song became a hit…helped along by their extensive touring of North America that spring and summer. At various times they opened for the Go Gos, Kinks and Hall & Oates and they were on the big stage at the US Festival. It all helped push Shabooh Shoobah to gold status in the States, and “The One Thing” all the way to #2 on the then-new Mainstream Rock chart. Overall, it got to #30, first of nine top 30 hits they’d eventually have Stateside, and #31 in Canada. At home, it helped their career along too, hitting #14, their high mark to that point, although one they’d eclipse many times in the following eight or nine years. About four years later they’d even score an American #1 hit, with “Need You Tonight”.  So, seemingly having confidence might be “the one thing”. At least it was for INXS.

May 13 – Let It Be… A Bit Better Quality

If the full length one is a bit too much for you, but the trailer isn’t nearly enough, the magical world of Disney might have the answer for you. We’re talking about the Beatles and the story of their Let it Be album, of course. It was very much in the spotlight a couple of years back with the release of the Get Back documentary, this week it’s back in the headlines due to the re-release of the Let it Be documentary. Coincidentally, that movie came out on this day in 1970, only a few days after the album of the same name did.

If it seems a little confusing, this is the short explanation. The Beatles had cameras rolling during their early 1969 rehearsals and practices in London, as they prepared to make a new record (which was Let it Be) and culminating in the famous concert on their Apple Records building rooftop. There were countless hours of footage, much of it them just sitting around talking, or playing a few loose riffs. They edited it down to make an 80 minute documentary, 1970’s Let it Be, but super-producer Peter Jackson decided the public wanted to, and deserved to, see more of that footage, so he went to work on the 2022 epic documentary, Get Back, which was of vastly better image and sound quality (due to new technology) and gave a more thorough picture of the times for the Fab Four. Now, Disney has worked on remastering the original, shorter doc, and have it available on their streaming TV service.

The original was co-produced by the band’s Apple Records, with Neil Aspinall (their friend and at time, boss at Apple) in charge and Michael Lindsay Hogg directing. It was released first in New York, then a week later in Liverpool…with no Beatles anywhere in sight.

It was a tumultuous time for the great band; tensions were high, John seemed more interested in spending time with Yoko Ono than his bandmates, they quarreled over who best should manage them to fill the void Brian Epstein left with his death and George Harrison was sick of being overlooked and briefly walked out and quit the band altogether. There were moments when they seemed happy and enthusiastic about the project, as well as when they seemed fully involved in creating the music, but many thought the initial release missed that. Ringo Starr elaborated recently “I was always moaning about the original film, because there was no real joy on it.” John Lennon had said “the camera work was set up to show Paul and not show anybody else…(they) cut it as ‘Paul is God’ and we’re just lying around.” Indeed the footage did show Paul trying to take charge and at times boss the others around, but arguably that was because he was the only one really interested in getting work done and moving forward. Oddly McCartney was the one pushing for it to be re-released years ago, admitting “the objections should be me. I don’t come off well on it.”

At the time, response was muted to it. Fans were probably too shocked to realize the Beatles had broken up to really assess the film, or even the album. Back then Leonard Maltin said it was “uneven and draggy” but “rescued by” its music. That music won them (or at least John, Paul and George… somehow they overlooked Ringo) an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The New Yorker in 1970 said it was “a very bad film, and a touching oneabout the breaking apart” of the band who seemed like an “ageless family of siblings.” Over the years, Rotten Tomatoes has looked at reviews and rates it about 74%… quite good. Most agree that the expanded Get Back is better however.

Paul may still come off badly and John may seem to be lying around too much, but all agree the newly restored version is far clearer and of better visual and sound quality than the 1970 release. If you want to check it out yourself, you’ll need to have Disney TV, although it’s entirely possible a home DVD release may be coming this summer. It’s not officially been available for home release since a (poor quality) VHS in limited quantities in the 1980s.