19/06/2024
“Abracadabra” was released 42years ago today. (June 15, 1982)
Abracadabra is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Steve Miller Band. The album was released by Capitol Records.
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Een eigenzinnige mix van soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, gitaren en nog veel meer wat er ter meng - en draaitafel komt...
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19/06/2024
On this day in 1982, the Roxy Music LP “Avalon” went to #1 on the UK Albums chart, and debuted on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #118 (June 19)
“Avalon” is Roxy Music's most successful studio album.
It stayed at #1 on the UK Albums Chart for three weeks, and remained on the chart for over a year.
Although it reached only #53 in the US, Avalon endured as a sleeper hit and became Roxy Music's only million-selling US record, ultimately receiving platinum certification.
The luxuriously ambient LP enhanced by Bryan Ferry’s smooth vocals was a hit around the world, peaking at #1 in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and Norway, #4 in Germany, and #5 in Austria.
In 2020 the album was ranked #336 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and is the highest entry of four Roxy Music albums that made the list.
Bryan Ferry's girlfriend (and soon to be wife) Lucy Helmore appeared on the album cover wearing a medieval helmet with a falcon perched on her gloved hand, evoking King Arthur's last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon.
Click on the link below to watch “More Than This”:
https://youtu.be/kOnde5c7OG8
17/06/2024
Een eigenzinnige mix van soul, funk, disco, pop, gitaren en nog veel meer wat er ter meng - en draaitafel komt. Na 21.00 uur kan je je favoriete platen aanvragen op de voicemail van 010 744 9102 of de website van i-turn Radio! Dit allemaal op de maandagavond van 20.00 tot 22.00 uur via:
https://i-turnradio.nl/
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11/06/2024
On this day in 1975, The Eagles released the LP “One of These Nights” (June 10)
The band’s fourth studio LP became the Eagles' very first #1 album on the US Billboard 200 album chart, launching three Top 10 singles: "One of These Nights", "Lyin' Eyes" and "Take It to the Limit".
The title song became the group's second #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. The album sold four million copies and was nominated for Grammy Album of the Year.
“Lyin' Eyes" from the album was also nominated for Record of the Year, and won the Eagles' first Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
“One of These Nights” is the last Eagles album to feature guitarist Bernie Leadon, who left the band after the “One of These Nights” tour and was replaced by Joe Walsh.
The seventh track, "Visions", is the only Eagles song on which lead guitarist Don Felder sang the lead vocals, despite his desire to write and sing more songs.
The album was the band's commercial breakthrough, transforming the band into international superstars.
They went on a worldwide tour to promote the album.
In addition to making #1 in the US, the album also peaked at #2 in Canada and the Netherlands, #3 in New Zealand, #5 in Australia, #8 in the UK, and #9 in Norway.
Click on the link below to watch the title track live:
https://youtu.be/i8VYNvYdP5Q
11/06/2024
This week in 1971, the Marvin Gaye LP “What’s Going On” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #187 (June 12)
Marvin Gaye's eleventh studio album was his first album to credit him as a producer, and to credit Motown's in-house studio band, the session musicians known as the Funk Brothers.
The concept-style album is from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran returning to his home country to witness hatred, suffering, and injustice.
Gaye's introspective lyrics explore themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War.
The song “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” also brought ecological issues to the fore, long before the modern “Green” movement…
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Marvin Gaye discussed what had shaped his view on more socially conscious themes in music and the conception of his eleventh studio album:
“In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say ... I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home.
I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people.
I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.”
“What's Going On” stayed on the Billboard charts for over a year and became Gaye's second #1 album on Billboard's Soul LPs chart, where it stayed for a massive nine weeks.
In 1985, writers on British music weekly the NME voted it the best album of all time.
In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
In 2020, it was ranked #1 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The title track, which had been released in January 1971 as the album's lead single, hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the top spot on Billboard's Soul Singles chart for five consecutive weeks.
Click on the link below to watch it live:
https://youtu.be/fPkM8F0sjSw
10/06/2024
Een eigenzinnige mix van soul, funk, disco, pop, gitaren en nog veel meer wat er ter meng - en draaitafel komt. Na 21.00 uur kan je je favoriete platen aanvragen op de voicemail van 010 744 9102 of de website van i-turn Radio! Dit allemaal op de maandagavond van 20.00 tot 22.00 uur via:
https://tunein.com/radio/i-turn-Radio-s229530/
https://i-turnradio.nl/
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08/06/2024
On this day in 1974, the Olivia Newton-John LP “If You Love Me, Let Me Know” debuted on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #186 ( June 8 )
Other than the title track, all the material was from her previous three albums, “Olivia” (1972), “Music Makes My Day” (1973) and “Long Live Love” (1974).
It was Olivia’s first album to top the Billboard 200 Albums Chart.
Two hit singles were released from the album, the title track (which went to #1 in Canada, #2 in Australia, and #5 in the US), and "I Honestly Love You", which became her first ever US #1 single.
Classic early ONJ, with the great bass back-up vocals by Mike Sammes…
Click on the link below to watch:
https://youtu.be/6qtrLr5T0-Y
06/06/2024
On this day in 1981, the Moody Blues single “Gemini Dream” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #66 (June 6)
The song with the wall of keyboards from the album “Long Distance Voyager” eventually peaked at #12 on the Billboard charts, and was a #1 hit in Canada, and a Top 40 hit in Australia.
"Gemini Dream" was the band’s first single to feature Patrick Moraz on keyboards, who replaced original Moody Blues co-founder Mike Pinder.
The song was written jointly by Justin Hayward and bass guitarist John Lodge, both of whom won an ASCAP songwriting award for it.
Click on the link below to watch:
https://youtu.be/j3QLFFVFpp0
05/06/2024
On this day in 1983, the Michael Sembello single “Maniac” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #89 (June 4)
The song by Stevie Wonder’s former guitarist from the smash hit movie “Flashdance” went all the way to #1 in the US and Canada, #2 in Australia, Spain, and Switzerland, and hit the Top 10 in New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands.
As part of the “Flashdance” soundtrack, all of the songwriters who contributed to the album won the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.
An MTV and dance floor favourite…
Click on the link below to watch:
https://youtu.be/324it5DKoXU
05/06/2024
On this day in 1984, Bruce Springsteen released the LP “Born in the U.S.A.” (June 4)
The “Born in the U.S.A.” sessions were the most prolific point of Springsteen's career, and covered more than two years (January 1982 through March 1984), producing approximately 80 songs.
It’s impossible to separate them from the songs that comprised the album “Nebraska”; and at one point, Springsteen considered combining both sources as a double-album release…
“I had these two extremely different recording experiences going," he told Mark Hagen in an interview for Mojo published in January 1999. "I was going to put them out at the same time as a double record.
I didn't know what to do."
But they were eventually two separate albums, and following “Nebraska”s release a couple of years earlier, “Born in the U.S.A.” became the best-selling album of 1985.
It actually proved to be the best-selling record of Springsteen's career; in fact one of the highest-selling records ever, producing seven Top 10 hit singles, including the title track, “Cover Me”, “Glory Days”, “I’m on Fire”, and “Dancing in the Dark”.
The album stayed at #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart for seven weeks, and remained on the chart for a massive one hundred forty three weeks.
It also topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
Annie Leibovitz's famous cover photo for “Born in the U.S.A.” also became one of the iconic album covers of the era.
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked “Born in the U.S.A.” #142 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Springsteen's iconic single of the same name was ranked 275th on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and in 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed the song 59th (out of 365).
The song is not, as some people misinterpret, a chest-beating celebration of America, but rather addresses the hardships of Vietnam veterans upon their return home, juxtaposed ironically against patriotic glorification of the nation's fighting forces.
Click the link for a classic live Springsteen rendition of the anthem:
https://youtu.be/jqUk0SMzkeI
04/06/2024
On this day in 1978, the Steely Dan single “FM (No Static At All)” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #67 (June 3)
"FM (No Static At All)” was the title theme for the 1978 comedy drama film “FM”, about internal conflicts at an FM radio station.
The film performed poorly at the box office, but its soundtrack was excellent, and was a Platinum-certified disc, selling over a million records.
“FM (No Static At All)” was recorded during the same sessions as for the classic Steely Dan album “Aja”, using some of the same studio musicians and recording personnel, in addition to band members and songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
Among them were Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro, and Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Tim Schmit of the Eagles sang backing vocals.
The song enjoyed divergent success throughout the world. In three countries it reached similar levels of success: #22 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and #19 in Canada and New Zealand.
At its most successful, it topped the charts Spain.
On other hand, the single failed to make the Top 40 in two other large English-speaking markets. It was only able to reach #49 in the UK, and performed worse in Australia, where it only reached #87.
Fagen felt the song could have been a bigger hit if the movie had been more successful. "The song was a hit, but I think we should have seen the movie before we committed ourselves," he said in 2007.
“As you know, it wasn't a very successful movie."
Click on the link below to watch:
https://youtu.be/2VuAAL_ssFk
03/06/2024
Een eigenzinnige mix van soul, funk, disco, pop, gitaren en nog veel meer wat er ter meng - en draaitafel komt. Na 21.00 uur kan je je favoriete platen aanvragen op de voicemail van 010 744 9102 of de website van i-turn Radio! Dit allemaal op de maandagavond van 20.00 tot 22.00 uur via:
https://i-turnradio.nl/
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https://iturn.nl/m160 - 160 kbps mp3
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https://tunein.com/radio/i-turn-Radio-s229530/
02/06/2024
On this day in 1975, the Glen Campbell single “Rhinestone Cowboy” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #81 (May 31)
"Rhinestone Cowboy" was written and originally recorded by Larry Weiss, a Brooklyn songwriter whose credits include "Bend Me, Shape Me" by The American Breed.
The song appeared on his album “Black and Blue Suite”.
It originated when Weiss overheard the phrase, "Rhinestone Cowboy" in a conversation. He told American Songwriter magazine September/October 1984: "I heard the phrase and thought, 'Boy, I like that title'. I put my own meaning to it and wrote the song.
I'll always be a kid at heart, and 'Rhinestone Cowboy' was sort of a summation of all my childhood cowboy movie heroes - particularly Hopalong Cassidy."
In late 1974, Campbell heard the song on the radio and, during a tour of Australia, decided to learn it.
After its release, the song became a huge hit around the world.
It went all the way to #1 in the US, Canada, Ireland, and Yugoslavia, #2 in New Zealand and South Africa, #3 in the Netherlands, #4 in the UK and Belgium, and #5 in Australia.
Campbell performed this song at the Grammy Awards ten years ago in 2012, where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Click on the link below to watch:
https://youtu.be/8kAU3B9Pi_U
02/06/2024
ON THIS DATE (50 YEARS AGO)
May 31, 1974 – Chicago: “Call On Me” b/w “Prelude To Aire” (Columbia 4-46062) 45 single is released in the US.
"Call On Me" is a song written by Lee Loughnane for Chicago and recorded for their album Chicago VII (1974), with Peter Cetera singing lead vocals. It is the first Loughnane composition to be released by the band. Loughnane was the last original Chicago member to receive a songwriting credit.
The second single released from the album, it reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Easy Listening chart.
29/05/2024
On this day in 1982, the Steve Miller Band single “Abracadabra” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #75 (May 29)
The song became a worldwide hit when it was released overseas, topping the charts in Australia, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and Sweden, and peaking at #2 in the UK, South Africa, Denmark and Ireland.
Miller said at first his US record company Capitol Records did not initially see the potential hit it would become. "Capitol didn't believe in it and didn't want to release it.
I had a different deal with Phonogram in Europe.
When it came out in Europe, I cancelled my American tour because it was #1 everywhere in the world, except the States."
After seeing its success overseas, Capitol eventually relented and released it in the US, where it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two non-consecutive weeks, becoming the band's third #1 hit in the States along with "The Joker" and "Rock'n Me".
It was knocked off the top by Chicago's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry", only to return to #1 two weeks later.
A similar occurrence between the two bands happened in 1976, when "Rock'n Me" knocked Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" out of the #1 spot.
The song also spent a massive 14 weeks in the US Top 10, and was the band’s last US Top 40 hit.
Miller explained the inspiration behind the song to The Dallas Morning News:
“One day I was out skiing in Sun Valley and, lo and behold, who did I see on the mountain but Diana Ross!
I skied down off the mountain to go have lunch.
I had played with Diana Ross and the Supremes on “Hullabaloo” [the variety tv show] in the '60s, and I started thinking about the Supremes and I wrote the lyrics to 'Abracadabra' in 15 minutes."
The pioneering music video received an MTV award for best effects, considered quite adventurous at the time.
“Abracadabra" is listed at #90 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time….
https://youtu.be/tY8B0uQpwZs
29/05/2024
MAY 1985 (39 YEARS AGO)
Sting: "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" b/w "Another Day" (A&M AM-2738) 45 single is released in the US.
"If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" is the first single released from Sting's solo debut album The Dream of the Blue Turtles. It reached #1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #17 on the R&B chart.
Sting wrote this in response to "Every Breath You Take," his monumental hit with The Police. He explained in Lyrics By Sting: "This song was as much a hymn to my newfound freedom as it was an antidote to the brooding issues of control and surveillance that haunted 'Every Breath You Take.' Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a partner is 'I don't own you - you're free.' If you were to try to possess them in the obvious way, you could never appreciate them in the way that really counts. There are too many prisons in the world already."
Sting told Musician in 1985: "In relationships I feel very susceptible to entrapment. I see the bars go up and I try and escape, usually in the most violent and vicious way. I've destroyed one person totally; I've left people in a bloody pulp as I've felt the bars go up. If anything, 'Set Them Free' is a kind of warning. I'm not really into the idea of permanent relationships. I find that phoney, shallow and unrealistic in many ways. That's not to say the relationships I have are in any way inferior. I think they're more intense because of that belief."
The album's title (The Dream of the Blue Turtles) was inspired by an odd dream Sting had when he first arrived in Barbados. He remembered in Lyrics By Sting: "I dreamed I was sitting in the walled garden behind my house in Hampstead, under a lilac tree on a well-manicured lawn, surrounded by beautiful rosebushes. Suddenly the bricks from the wall exploded into the garden and I turned to see the head of an enormous turtle emerging from the darkness, followed by four or five others. They were not only the size of a man, they were also blue and had an air of being immensely cool, like hepcats, insouciant and fearless. They didn't harm me but with an almost casual violence commenced to destroy my genteel English garden, digging up the lawn with their claws, chomping at the rosebushes, bulldozing the lilac tree. Total mayhem: I woke up to the sound of Branford in the room upstairs, riffing wildly on the tenor sax, followed by his unmistakable laughter."
28/05/2024
This week in 1990, the Heart single “All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You” peaked at #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (May 26)
The song was written by legendary producer “Mutt” Lange for Don Henley, but was first recorded by Dobie Gray and released in 1979 on his self-titled album, though with different lyrics.
Ann Wilson has made a number of comments on her dislike for the song, calling the song's message "hideous", and has reportedly been surprised at how many of their fans, especially in Australia and New Zealand, want to hear the song to this day whenever Heart plays live.
The one-night-stand track went to #1 in Australia and Canada, #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Sweden, #3 in Norway, #4 in Belgium and the Netherlands, #5 in Finland, and #8 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch the extremely popular clip:
https://youtu.be/OAfxs0IDeMs
22/05/2024
This week in 1979, the John Stewart song “Gold” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #78 (May 19)
It was the lead single and biggest hit among three Top 40 singles released from his LP “Bombs Away Dream Babies”, on which Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, both appeared.
Nicks sang backup vocals. Buckingham sang backup vocals, played guitar, and co-produced.
The song was Stewart's first US Top 40 hit, as well as his first chart single in a decade.
The track eventually peaked at #5 in the US and Australia, and #4 in Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
https://youtu.be/reFlgu1vq3Q
22/05/2024
On this day in 1977, the Fleetwood Mac LP “Rumours” went to #1 on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart (May 21)
This wonderful, eclectic, emotional musical rollercoaster was famously born out of the band’s relationship turmoil, and is arguably one of the best albums of all time.
“Dreams”, “Don’t Stop”, “Never Going Back Again”, “Go Your Own Way”, “The Chain”, “Songbird”, “Gold Dust Woman”, “I Don’t Want To Know”, “You Make Loving Fun”.....just a classic piece of vinyl.
“Rumours” was an instant commercial success, selling over 10 million copies worldwide within just a month of its release, and becoming the band's first #1 album on the UK Albums Chart, also topping the US Billboard 200.
It was also #1 in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, and South Africa.
The record has received a Diamond Award from the Recording Industry Association of America for a 20× platinum certification or 20 million copies shipped, making it, as of 2021, tied for the eleventh highest certified album in US history.
In 2003, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the Library of Congress.
In 2020, Rumours was rated the seventh-greatest album of all time in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Mick Fleetwood has called “Rumours” “the most important album we ever made", because its success allowed the group to continue recording for years to come.
Click on the link below to watch Fleetwood Mac play “The Chain” live:
https://youtu.be/dGykwC0fdJ4
22/05/2024
MAY 1980 (44 YEARS AGO)
The Beat: I Just Can't Stop It is released in the UK.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 4.5/5
# allmusic 5/5
# Rolling Stone (see original review below)
I Just Can't Stop It is the debut album by UK 2 tone band The Beat. The album was released in the UK in May, 1980. It was released the same year in the US on I.R.S. Records under the name "The English Beat". It reached #3 on the UK Albums chart.
The Beat was formed in Birmingham in 1978, with members Dave Wakeling (vocals, guitar), Ranking Roger (vocals, toasting), Andy Cox (guitar), Everett Morton (drums), veteran Jamaican saxophonist Saxa, and David Steele on bass. The band was part of the West Midlands ska revival scene that also produced The Specials and The Selecter, whilst London saw the formation of Madness and The Bodysnatchers. The Beat's first single was an arresting version of Smokey Robinson's "Tears Of A Clown", given a completely new feel, and was backed with their own composition "Ranking Full Stop". Released in a one-off deal on Jerry Dammers' Chrysalis-backed 2-Tone label, the single stormed into the Top 10 in December 1979, and saw the band appear twice on Top Of The Pops. Backed by Arista, the band formed their own label Go-Feet Records. The first release in February 1980 was another Top 10 hit, "Hands Off... She's Mine", and was the first of twelve chart singles for the band on Go-Feet.
In the liner notes for I JUST CAN’T STOP IT (EXPANDED), music journalist Neil Kulkarni writes: “Multiracial in an era seething with racial division, deeply class-conscious, gloriously diverse in influences, The Beat provided a dancefloor-directed escape from the grim realities of early-’80s British life but also confronted those realities with songs about paranoia (“Mirror In The Bathroom”), insecurity (“Noise In This World”), and the new decade’s instability (“Stand Down Margaret”). Far beyond the revivalist constraints of the 2 Tone scene, The Beat’s imaginative hybrid sound was punchy, possessed with an infectious energy, and delivered with a unique sense of style on this absolute riot of a record.”
__________
ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW
The English Beat make night music: wild and threatening, s*xy and sharp. Five kids from England (two black, three white), triggered by a wicked Jamaican sax player of indeterminate age, these musicians play with the intensity of the truly possessed. Like the Specials (on whose Two Tone label they first recorded), the English Beat are part of the ska revival that's taken British rock & roll one step beyond reggae. Their rude-boy attack shifts from ska to pop to updated R&B with a jazzy and nostalgic twist, but always it sounds driven, frenetic, unstoppable. The English Beat are really a punk-soul dance band caught in some private warp. They don't just rock, they spin.
I Just Can't Stop It includes four cuts released as singles in the U.K.: a bopper's remake of the old Smokey Robinson hit, "Tears of a Clown"; the avowedly chauvinistic "Hands Off ... She's Mine"; a poignant love song called "Twist & Crawl"; and the searing "Mirror in the Bathroom." These are set amid ten other numbers that move almost as quickly. Unfortunately, the ska tunes (e.g., "Rough Rider," the obligatory Prince Buster cover) tend to seem pointless and clichéd, while the rest of the record is anything but. At their best – in "Twist & Crawl." "Mirror in the Bathroom" and the incredibly frenzied "Click Click" – the English Beat slide black and white music together and mix them up on a razor's edge of delirium. They sail right past ska to create a sound that's violent, irresistible and rife with echoes of Fifties hipsterism. The Specials have often tried for such a blend, but they've never quite achieved it.
The English Beat are a working-class Birmingham band whose concerns are mutual and basic: s*x, violence, women, other guys. Women are possessions, yet men are somehow supposed to get along. So you get a song like "Two Swords," in which brotherhood is preached while someone chants. "Two swords flashing on each other/Only sharpen one another." I guess that just about says it for male bonding. But if the English Beat were really interested in making statements, they wouldn't have buried their vocals in the mix. What matters isn't the words but the beat–and what a beat it is!
The point is made seven seconds into the album, when a wailing sax comes punching in over the pumping bass and drums that open "Mirror in the Bathroom," giving it the hollow feel of cheap whiskey and deadend streets. Next are snake rhythms and trance playing that constantly threaten chaos because they're so taut with control. Sax and rhythm section bounce off each other like boxers' blows, and you've no choice but to be floored. Words fly out so fast that you're halfway through the track before you realize the singer is actually talking to his mirror. He wants to take it to a restaurant! He's promising a glass table so that it can watch itself eat! He mentions mental illness! Pardon me if I upset tables. I just can't stop it.
Even in "Tears of a Clown," one of the most danceable Motown numbers ever, the English Beat send us skittering in crazy new directions. Everything is slightly off balance and a little too speedy–this group's trademarks. In the Andy Williams song, "Can't Get Used to Losing You," an innocuous tune is undercut by choirboy vocals and an impossibly smutty bass line.
The English Beat, in other words, are not to be trusted. They may be primitive, but they certainly aren't simple. I Just Can't Stop It is the most exhilarating surprise from Britain since Marianne Faithfull's Broken English. (RS 325)
~ FRANK ROSE (September 4, 1980)
TRACKS:
All songs written by The Beat, unless otherwise noted.
Side One
"Mirror in the Bathroom" – 3:10
"Hands Off...She's Mine" – 3:01
"Two Swords" – 2:19
"Twist & Crawl" – 2:35
"Rough Rider" (Prince Buster) – 4:52
"Click Click" – 1:28
Side Two
"Big Shot" – 2:34
"Whine & Grine/Stand Down Margaret" – 3:51
"Noise in This World" – 2:19
"Can't Get Used to Losing You" (Mort Shuman, Doc Pomus) – 3:04
"Best Friend" – 3:01
"Jackpot" (George Agard, Sydney Crooks, Jackie Robinson, The Beat) – 4:19
21/05/2024
35 years ago today, Paula Abdul's “Forever Your Girl” hit No. 1 on the . 💯
The song, which shares a title with her debut album, reigned for two weeks as her second No. 1 (following “Straight Up”).
Revisit her chart history: http://blbrd.cm/vFU6v3r
21/05/2024
ON THIS DATE (46 YEARS AGO)
May 16, 1978 – Joe Walsh: But Seriously, Folks... is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 4.5/5
# allmusic 4.5/5
# Rolling Stone (see original review below)
"But Seriously, Folks..." is the fourth studio album by Joe Walsh, released on May 16, 1978. It reached #8 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart, bolstered by his biggest solo hit, Life's Been Good", which reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The original eight-minute album version of this track was edited down to 4½ minutes for single release.
The album also features the other four members of the Eagles—which Walsh had joined two years earlier—as well as Jay Ferguson, a former member of the group Spirit (who co-wrote one track on the album), drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm, and bassist Willie Weeks.
Original pressings of this record had text engraved on the carry-out grooves:
Side 1: Luncheon Counter of the Deli Kind
Side 2: Call It In the Air!
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ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW
Joe Walsh seemed an odd choice as Eagle-come-lately because he has a sense of humor; he's a mensch, not an Übermensch. Presumably, Henley, Frey & Co. wanted him for his guitar playing. Walsh added enormous punch to Hotel California -- he's the one who kicks "Life in the Fast Lane" into fifth gear -- but good as that album was, it hardly left room for Walsh's bizarre brand of self-depreciation. For that, he has to make his own records.
"But Seriously, Folks..." -- whose jacket pictures Walsh relaxing at a cafe that is unremarkable except for the fact that it's underwater -- is a triumph in the grand tradition of So What? and You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind. (Since Walsh is now signed to Asylum, shouldn't he have called the new disc Voluntary Commitment, or something like that?) The sound is full of brilliant highlights, and the songs are good, though not as carefully written as Pete Townshend's, with whom Walsh shares a lot, and not as lazy as Jimmy Buffett's, with whom Walsh shares too much. On the other hand, not having to try very hard is pretty much what the album is about -- "Theme from Boat Weirdos," a delightful instrumental, comes off like a backing track for which Walsh couldn't be bothered to find lyrics -- and what makes Walsh's celebration of ease so much fun is that he's never arrogant. He's befuddled, but he won't look a gift horse in the mouth -- a phrase that might well turn up as the title of his next LP.
The best thing here is clearly "Life's Been Good," an eight-minute reverie on the absurdity of success (what's absurd to Walsh is that he's successful). It starts off with dramatic guitar figures -- this is the Big One, the music announces -- and then drops into bubblegum reggae for the world's least dramatic autobiography: "My Maserati does one-eighty-five/I lost my license/Now I don't drive." It's a tale of a rich, carefree rock star, laughing at the world that has given him his pleasures, and laughing as well at his ability to enjoy them without a twinge of guilt -- or even a hint of the self-pity such songs conventionally use as a substitute for soul. "I can't complain," Walsh admits. "But sometimes I still do."
As always, Walsh sings in his filtered, tinny whine -- he sounds as if he's coming from across the street, an odd contrast to the full presence of his guitar and the band -- but after a while you get used to it. He's got a lot of Keith Moon in him, and the quality of his voice simply cops to the fact that he's not quite all there, aurally or otherwise. Q***r as his voice may be, Joe Walsh is never as hoked up as Tom Petty, but then he doesn't take himself as seriously either. Long may he keep on not doing so.
~ Greil Marcus (August 10, 1978)
TRACKS:
All songs by Joe Walsh, except where noted.
Side one
"Over and Over" – 4:53
"Second Hand Store" (Murphy, Walsh) – 3:35
"Indian Summer" – 3:03
"At the Station" (Joe Vitale, Walsh) – 5:08
Side two
"Tomorrow" – 3:39
"Inner Tube" – 1:25
"Theme from Boat Weirdos" (Ferguson, Szymczyk, Vitale, Walsh, Weeks) – 4:43
"Life's Been Good" – 8:04
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