SPRING 1977

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What can anyone say to summarize the music of 1977 in a succinct and/or pithy manner? How about, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (Dickens said that first, I believe). Pop music was being torn down the middle, no longer capable of sustaining much energy on its own. Albums had virtually taken over pop culture, which turns out to have been a mixed blessing. In the ‘60s and early ‘70s, a 45 RPM single was the best means to promote a great song. By the mid-to-late ‘70s, the status of the 45 RPM single deteriorated, becoming the best way to cash in on novelty acts that couldn’t sustain an entire album. To make matters even more confusing, ‘disco’ music was growing more and more popular, and most disco artists found their foothold in the ‘singles’ market.
The best singles were simply songs that were extracted from monster-hit albums. Many artists couldn’t even be bothered to release ‘singles’, or were too stylistically eclectic to have much chance for a hit. Still, some of the most memorable music from this era comes from these albums. Here’s a list of songs featured in today’s program;
First, the singles:
GREAT HITS
1) Hotel California – The Eagles
2) Lido Shuffle – Box Scaggs
3) Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
4) Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
5) Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) – Joe Tex
GREAT MISSES (aka “BAD HITS”)
6) In the Mood – The Henhouse Five
7) Gonna Fly Now – Bill Conti
8) Undercover Angel – Alan O’Day
9) Disco Lucy – The Wilton Place Street Band
GREAT ALBUM TRACKS
10) Neat Neat Neat – The Damned
11) New Rose - The Damned
12) Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, HONORABLE MENTION – WARREN ZEVON

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With today’s show, we continue our series on ‘How Music Changed’ by taking a close look at another ‘honorable mention’ artist. Warren Zevon may not have changed the world, but he certainly left enough of an imprint to remembered for a long, long while. By combining outrageous characters with autobiographical details, Zevon brought his own personal zeal to each of his songs. His popularity rose and fell, depending on the whims of our cultural zeitgeist, but he never pandered to trends; his style remained fairly consistent from the time of his first ‘real’ solo album in 1976 until his death in 2004.
Today’s show celebrates his career, with the following songs;
1) Werewolves of London – (from “Excitable Boy”)
2) Poor Poor Pitiful Me – (from “Warren Zevon”)
3) Hasten Down the Wind – (from “Warren Zevon”)
4) Lawyers, Guns and Money – (from “Excitable Boy”)
5) Excitable Boy - (from “Stand in the Fire”)
6) Detox Mansion – from “Sentimental Hygiene”)
7) Raspberry Beret – the Hindu Love Gods
8) Disorder in the House – (from The Wind”)
9) Rub Me Raw – (from “The Wind”)
10) Keep Me in Your Heart – (from “The Wind”)

APRIL 1967

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Today, we continue our series of decade-related programming with a look back 40 years to April 1967. We begin with a look at six songs that debuted on the top 40 during this month, five great, and one that is, well, not so great…or is it? We follow this with a glance at two classic albums that also debuted this month 40 years ago. Here are a few more classic songs from a classic era – the spring before the ‘Summer of Love’.

1) The Happening – The Supremes
2) Sweet Soul Music – Arthur Conley
3) Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon - Neil Diamond
4) Friday on My Mind – The Easybeats
5) My Back Pages – The Byrds
6) I Got Rhythm – The Happenings (as a ‘Great Miss’)
7) Dr. Feelgood – Aretha Franklin
8) Do Right Woman – Do Right Man – Aretha Franklin
9) Once I Loved – Frank Sinatra

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, HONORABLE MENTION - ROBERT PLANT – THE SOLO YEARS

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How Music Changed is a series that strives to tell the whole story about American popular music by portraying how it developed from one phase to the next. We plan to do this by focusing on the 250 most relevant artists of the 20th century, and if we are successful, this format certainly will convey a tremendous amount of information about our culture and its development. Still, there are occasions when we would like to stretch out a bit. For instance, there are many artists who have had a significant influence on aspects of our culture but did not make the final cut. At other times, an artist may experience a rebirth of sorts, when circumstances cause their work to be reconsidered (actually, ‘rebirth’ may be the wrong term, since a musician’s death could easily be cause for reconsideration). Rather than neglect them, we would like to feature these artists from time to time, in segments we call “Honorable Mentions”. These segments will devote one program to an encapsulation of the artist’s work.
Recently, Robert Plant saw his entire solo catalog re-released. The timing of this event inspired us to devote our first “Honorable Mention’ program to all of Plant’s post-Led Zeppelin work. While his solo work did not resonate as profoundly as his work with Led Zeppelin, it served as a reliable compass through the treacherous ‘80s, and he maintains high standards and a significant degree of relevance to this very day. Plant’s status within contemporary music culture is such that his work simply cannot be ignored, so with today’s show, we honor his solo work with our first ‘Honorable Mention’ episode of “How Music Changed”.
Following is a list of songs featured in today’s program;
1) Slow Dancer (from “Pictures at Eleven”)
2) I’m in the Mood (For a Melody) – (from “The Principle of Moments”)
3) Big Log – (from “The Principle of Moments”)
4) Sea of Love – (from “The Honeydrippers”)
5) Little by Little – (from “Shaken ‘n’ Stirred”)
6) Tall Cool One – (from “Now and Zen”)
7) Hurting Kind (Got My Eyes on You) – (from “Manic Nirvana”)
8) Come Into My Life – (from “Fate of Nations”)
9) Song to the Siren – (from “Dreamland”)
10) Freedom Fries - (from “Mighty Rearranger”)
11) Mighty Rearaanger - (from “Mighty Rearranger”)

AMERICAN HIT RADIO - APRIL 1957

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As we glance back fifty years ago to the music of April 1957, you can hear the battle rage between old-school pop music and the newfangled rock and roll stylings. The top 10 chart from the week of April 20, 1957 reflects this battle with nearly stunning clarity. Interestingly, the hot ‘debut’ tracks are all rock and roll songs, a harbinger of things to come, but the one album track we feature proves that good old-fashioned singing would remain relevant, despite the youth-oriented signs of the times.

Here’s a list of songs covered in today’s program, starting with the top 10 singles;
1) Butterfly – Andy Williams
2) Party Doll – Buddy Knox (followed by “Devil Woman,” also by Buddy Knox)
3) Round and Round – Perry Como
4) Little Darling – The Diamonds (followed by “Little Darling” by the Gladiolas)
5) I’m Walkin’ – Fats Domino
6) All Shook Up – Elvis Presley (also a ‘debut track’)
7) Young Love – Tab Hunter
8) Marianne – Terry Gilkyson & the Easy Riders
9) Butterfly – Charlie Gracie
10) Teen-Age Crush – Tommy Sands

Best Debut Tracks from April 1957
11) School Day – Chuck Berry
12) Lucille – Little Richard

Album Track (#1 Album from April ’57)
13) Stardust – Nat King Cole

An Interview with Pete Mitchell of No More Kings

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This interview with Pete Mitchell of No More Kings is the most fun we’ve had since watching Cosby Show reruns.
From a critical perspective, few things are more enjoyable than a pleasant surprise. Since we are expected to listen to four, five, sometimes even ten new CDs every week, it is easy to become cynical, especially when so much product sounds more or less the same – Is it another pretty blue-eyed boy who writes sensitive songs? A female songwriter with an attitude? A long-haired band with noisy guitars and angst-y lyrics? I see each of these stereotypes approximately once a week, and I have grown tired of inventing new adjectives for the same-old same old.
This is why the No More Kings cd was such a pleasant surprise. In my opinion, the press kit that preceded the cd didn’t do the group proper justice. As I noted in my review, my partner refused to even cover the disk, because the promo material made it sound so god-awful. Songs about the Karate Kid, Gulliver’s Travels and Charlie Brown characters prompted his gag reflex, but I promised that I would at least listen before jumping to conclusions, and once the disk arrived, I fell in love on first listen. Whether it is because the singer sounds so self-effacing, or perhaps because he sounds so sincere, the songs worked brilliantly. Of course, it helped immensely that the arrangements were fresh and the melodies were so hook-laden. It’s a cd that I love to play for friends, who are also usually pleasantly surprised by how quickly they get drawn in.
Today’s show features our interview with Pete Mitchell of No More Kings. We learn a lot about the band’s fascination with junk culture, but we also learn that it can be as fun to talk with the bandmembers as it is to listen to their cd. So enjoy the interview, and then pick up a copy of the disk. A good time is guaranteed for all.