My new favorite song this week is the uplifting and poignant “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid” by Canadian art-rock band Arcade Fire. Released in late April, it’s the second single from their sixth studio album WE. About the song, band front man Win Butler told Pitchfork “‘Lookout Kid’” is a reminder, a lullaby for the end times, sung to my son, but for everyone…. Trust your heart, trust your mind, trust your body, trust your soul. Shit is going to get worse before it gets better, but it always gets better, and no one’s perfect.” The video, produced by Ben Matheny and Nathan Harrison, and directed by Benh Zeitlin, is delightful.
Singer-songwriter and rapper Lizzo advances to #2 with her feel-good dance song “About Damn Time”. Debuting this week at #s 28-30 are “Lemon Tree” by L.A.-based alternative/indie folk rock band Mt. Joy“, “Tek It” by Brooklyn-based electro-pop duo Cafuné, and “Compliance” by British alt-rock band Muse.
UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) – Arcade Fire (2)
ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (3)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (1)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (6)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (4)
BELIEVE – Caamp (5)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (8)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (10)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (11)
CLOSER – The Frontier (12)
LONELY – Sea Girls (13)
THE FUNERAL – YUNGBLUD (14)
IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (15)
WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (16)
MISTAKES – Sharon Van Etten (17)
2am – Foals (7)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (9)
DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (20)
The subject for Day 21 of my 30-day Song Challenge is “A song sung in a different language“, and my pick is “Sukiyaki” by Kyu Sakamoto. I vividly remember hearing it played a lot on the radio in the summer of 1963, and even though I was only eight years old and couldn’t understand a single word he sang, I absolutely loved it. The beautiful song was a big worldwide hit, reaching #1 not only in Sakamoto’s home country of Japan, but also in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
Originally titled “Ue o Muite Arukō” – represented in Japanese as 上を向いて歩こう, and translated into English as “I Look Up as I Walk” – the song was alternatively titled “Sukiyaki” (the name of a Japanese hot-pot dish with cooked beef) for its release in English-speaking countries. The word ‘sukiyaki’ does not appear in, nor have any connection to, the song’s lyrics, but was used only because it was short, catchy, recognizably Japanese, and more familiar to English speakers. Written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura, and sung by young Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto (who was only 19 when he recorded the song), “Ue o Muite Arukō” was first released in Japan in 1961. It quickly topped the Japanese pop music chart, and went on to become the #1 song of the year there.
Released in the U.S. in Spring 1963, “Sukiyaki” spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1963, one of the few non-English songs to do so. It was the only single by an Asian artist to top the Hot 100 until “Dynamite” by South Korean band BTS in 2020. “Sukiyaki” ranks among the best-selling singles of all time, selling over 13 million copies worldwide as of 2009.
In contrast to the upbeat arrangement and sunny instrumentals, the poignant lyrics tell the story of a man who looks up and whistles while walking so that his tears will not fall, with the verses describing his memories and feelings. Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home after having participated in the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. Though he was expressing his frustration and dejection at the failed efforts to stop the treaty, his lyrics were purposefully generic so that they might also be interpreted to be referring to a lost love. (Wikipedia)
Tragically, Sakamoto died in August 1985 in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123. All 524 passengers and crew were killed in the crash, which remains the deadliest single-aircraft accident in global aviation history.
An alternative version of “Sukiyaki” was later recorded in 1981 by American band A Taste of Honey, who’d had a #1 hit in 1978 with their disco song “Boogie Oogie Oogie”. Just like me, A Taste of Honey vocalist Janice-Marie Johnson heard the original “Sukiyaki” on the radio in the summer of 1963 when she was nine years old, and loved it. Despite not understanding the lyrics, she was deeply moved by the song, demanding “Mom! Buy me this record!” She played the record constantly, phonetically learning its lyrics and teaching them to her sister, and before long the pair would sing “Sukiyaki” at neighborhood talent shows while performing their approximation of an Oriental dance number.
Years later, after Johnson heard the Linda Ronstadt cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Ooo Baby Baby” on her car radio, she thought remaking a 1960s hit could be a good career move for her band. Her obvious choice being her beloved “Sukiyaki”, Johnson contacted the song’s lyricist Rokusuke Ei, who provided her with a literal translation of what he had written. Because his translation did not yield complete sentences in English, Johnson set out to write a new set of lyrics she felt would capture the spirit of the song. Johnson later recalled the reaction of vice-president of Capitol Records Cecil Hale, who upon hearing her sing the lyrics she had written for “Sukiyaki” in the slow ballad style she envisioned for the track, said, “‘absolutely not! Black people don’t want to hear Japanese music.’ I was stunned [having been] so sure he would like it. I looked at him and I said ‘Last time I looked in a mirror I was black and I want to hear it.‘”
Producer George Duke, who was assigned to produce the upcoming A Taste of Honey album Twice asSweet, shared Hale’s lack of enthusiasm. In a 2010 interview with All About Jazz, Duke recalled: “‘Man, what am I going to do with “Sukiyaki”?’ I thought [Johnson] was crazy, but I said ‘If that’s what she wants to do, I’ll do it.'” He brought in Clare Fischer to play the string arrangement and June Kuramoto, of the jazz band Hiroshima, to play koto, giving the track a Japanese flavor. “We added an R&B section, and that was it. It was a simple tune I never thought would become a hit. To this day, I can’t believe it was as big a record as it was.”
Though Capitol Records exec. Cecil Hale remained resistant to the song, after two released tracks from Twice as Sweet failed to gain traction, he finally relented and released “Sukiyaki” in January 1981. Even though I personally don’t much care for the song, it reached #1 on both the Billboard R&B and Adult Contemporary charts, and #3 on the Hot 100.
The subject for Day 20 of my 30-day Song Challenge is “A song from an artist’s side project“, and my pick is “Outta My Mind” by The Arcs. The Arcs was a side project of Dan Auerbach, guitarist and vocalist of the Black Keys. He formed the band in 2015 when The Black Keys were on a brief hiatus while drummer Patrick Carney recovered from a shoulder injury. In an interview with Pitchfork, Auerbach explained his impetus for creating the band: “I just wanted to do my thing and get extra weird. I wanted everything to flow [and] be cohesive. It’s basically everything I love about music all wrapped up into one record.”
The record he referred to was their debut – and thus far only – album Yours, Dreamily, released in September 2015. Besides Auerbach on lead vocals and guitar, The Arcs consists of Leon Michels on farfisa organ, synthesizer, guitar and drum pads, Nick Movshon on bass guitar, Homer Steinweiss on drums and percussion, and Richard Swift, who sadly passed away in 2018, on drums, percussion, keyboards and backing vocals.
“Outta My Mind” was the second single released from Yours, Dreamily, and their only single to chart, peaking at #17 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. The song’s terrific, a delicious blend of garage rock, R&B and rock’n’roll, highlighted by marvelous psychedelia-tinged surf and blues guitars. The entire album is great, and along with “Outta My Mind”, my other favorite tracks are “Put a Flower in Your Pocket”, “The Arc” and “Pistol Made of Bones”.
The subject for Day 19 of my 30-day Song Challenge is “A song that’s a superior cover of the original“, and my pick is “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix. The magnificent song was technically recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which consisted of Hendrix on guitar, Noel Redding on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. For this song, however, Hendrix also played bass, as he felt that Redding “did not put his heart into the bass.”
“All Along the Watchtower” was written by Bob Dylan, who recorded it in 1967 for his album John Wesley Harding, but Hendrix’s cover became the most iconic. Hendrix took Dylan’s acoustic original and radically rearranged it into a more dynamic and dramatic song, befitting the lyrics that many have stated are an allegory about the entertainment business, with artists feeling exploited by their managers and record labels. His complex, multi-layered blend of blues and psychedelic guitars is positively jaw-dropping and nothing short of spectacular.
In choosing to cover the song, Hendrix stated: “All those people who don’t like Bob Dylan’s songs should read his lyrics. They are filled with the joys and sadness of life. I am as Dylan, none of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan’s songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that Watchtower is a song I could have come up with, but I’m sure I would never have finished it. Thinking about Dylan, I often consider that I’d never be able to write the words he manages to come up with, but I’d like him to help me, because I have loads of songs I can’t finish. I just lay a few words on the paper, and I just can’t go forward.” (Songfacts)
In a 1995 interview with the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, Dylan described his reaction to hearing Hendrix’s version: “It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I liked Hendrix’s [recording] and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way. Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him.”
There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief
Business men, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None will level on the line
Nobody offered his word
Hey, heyNo reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin' falsely now
The hour's getting late, heyAll along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Well, uh, outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl, hey
All along the watchtower
“All Along the Watchtower” was released as a single in September 1968, with the B-side “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”. Both songs were included on the album Electric Ladyland. Shockingly, it was Hendrix’ only song to reach the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #20.
The subject for Day 18 of my 30-day Song Challenge is “A song you sing well(ish) at karaoke“. Now let me state upfront that I’m not, nor have I ever been, a singer, nor have I sung karaoke very much. And most of the few times I did, I was embarrassingly bad. One of the eye-opening things about attempting karaoke is how really difficult it is to stand up and sing into a microphone when you’re not a singer, nor have any real experience singing in public.
My very first attempt at singing karaoke was back in the early 90s while at a bowling alley in Sacramento, CA with friends. After bowling a few games, during which we also drank a fair amount of alcohol, the six of us went into a room where people were singing karaoke. I and two friends, who were also co-workers, decided we’d tackle the B-52s classic “Love Shack”. Despite its fun, party-like vibe, “Love Shack” is not as easy a song to sing as one would think, partly because there are both male and female parts, but also because they’re meant to be sung in a colorful, animated style that requires a bit of vocal talent. Patricia sang the female parts okay, but Jim (who had an even worse singing voice than me) and I literally mangled the male parts. We were so bad, our other three friends began jeering and throwing food at us!
A few years later, after my partner and I moved to St. Louis, we had a friend who liked to go to karaoke bars. Curiously, though he played piano and sang beautifully, he never wanted to sing karaoke, but only watch others do it. We tagged along with him a few times, and one night, after I’d taken in just the right amount of liquid courage to lower my inhibitions but still maintain adequate mental acuity, I first sang the Olivia Newton-John/John Travolta number from Grease, “You’re the One That I Want”, in a duet with the bar owner’s daughter. Then I did a decent job singing the Archies’ bubble-gum classic “Sugar, Sugar”. With my newly-found confidence, on a subsequent visit to the karaoke bar, I summoned the courage to sing the Bee Gees‘ “You Should Be Dancing“. And much to my own surprise, I gave a stellar performance, falsetto and all!
Sadly, all my following attempts at karaoke, of which I can remember only three more – The Diamonds’ 1950s classic “Little Darlin'” (WTF was I even thinking that I could possibly handle that song, which I butchered in front of Patricia, of the “Love Shack” debacle, and her husband Keith, who were visiting from Sacramento), Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On”, in a pathetic duet with my friend Sue while on a cruise, and Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, which was far more difficult to sing than I’d imagined. After that humiliation, my karaoke days were over!
Now, for a bit of info about my song pick: As everyone knows, though the Bee Gees began their career writing and singing mostly heartfelt ballads, they transitioned to a more rock-oriented style in the 1970s, which later included a number of dance songs. Although the brothers Gibb felt their songs like “Jive Talkin'” and “Stayin’ Alive” were actually rock songs, they were labeled disco by both music critics and fans. I do consider “You Should Be Dancing”, with it’s infectious, thumping dance beat, as a true disco song, and what a fun song it was to dance to! Released in 1976, it was later used for one of the great dance scenes in the film Saturday Night Fever, where John Travolta wows us with his amazing moves on the dance floor.
Here’s the scene from Saturday Night Fever of John Travolta dancing to “You Should Be Dancing”:
The subject for Day 17 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A songreleased this year“. This was another tough one, as there are literally thousands of songs to choose from. To help narrow my list of possible choices a bit, I decided to choose a song I like by an artist or band who follows me on Twitter, and who I’ve not yet written about in 2022. And the very first act that popped into my head is L.A.-based trio The Rare Occasions, and their terrific new single “Seasick“. I love their music, a glorious cornucopia of colorful melodies, sparkling arrangements, exuberant instrumentals, compelling lyrics and endearing vocals. With songs that are immediately memorable and delightfully addictive, it’s not surprising they’ve earned a massive following, with over 5.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone.
I first wrote about them in September 2020 when I reviewedtheir fantastic single “Alone”, so I won’t repeat a lot of background information about them that can be found in that article. But to summarize, with origins in New England, and based in Los Angeles since 2017, The Rare Occasions now consists of three very personable and talented guys: Brian McLaughlin on lead vocals and guitar, Jeremy Cohen on bass, and Luke Imbusch on drums. They’ve been putting out great music since the release of their debut EP Applefork in 2013, and last summer (of 2021), they released their outstanding second album Big Whoop. When I wrote about them two years ago, their song “Notion” had garnered approximately 1.7 million streams on Spotify. But after the song went viral on TikTok late last year, it’s now racked up more than 237 million streams! With their explosion in popularity, nine of their other songs have earned between 1-9 million streams.
Their latest single “Seasick” is a fun romp, with a bouncy, lighthearted groove set to Jeremy’s galloping rhythm, and highlighted by Luke’s thumping drumbeats and Brian’s exuberant surf guitars. Brian’s plaintive vocals are wonderful too, rising to electrifying wails in the lively choruses. The lyrics, which feature lots of nautical metaphors, speak to struggling with fears and insecurities that hold us back, preventing us from moving forward in life, living our truths and reaching our goals: “I can’t keep pushing back the plans I got, impersonating something that I’m not. / We get caught up in the little things, displaced from what we know. Though I’m not too fond of traveling, there’s a long long wake behind me.“
The animated lyric video, with sweet artwork by Rhea Hanlon of Lost Lines Studio, and animation by Arianna Soto & Mamasoto Design & Media, shows the band floating in the sea on a small inflatable raft.
The subject for Day 16 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A songfrom the 1990s“, and my pick is “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve. I’ve always loved songs with lush soundscapes and cinematic orchestration, and “Bittersweet Symphony” fits the bill quite nicely. The magnificent song is one of my favorites from that entire decade.
Though they’d been releasing music for over five years, their singles and albums failed to gain traction in the U.S. or elsewhere outside of the UK. “Bittersweet Symphony” proved to be their breakthrough hit, making them international stars. Released first in the UK in June 1997, the song reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart, and was nominated for Best British Single at the 1998 Brit Awards. It was named Single of the Year by both Rolling Stone and NME, and is considered one of the defining songs of the Britpop era. “Bittersweet Symphony” was subsequently released in the U.S. in March 1998, where it reached #3 on the Billboard Adult Alternative, #8 on the Adult Top 40, and #12 on the Hot 100 charts. The song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song, and the music video was nominated in three categories at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. Surprisingly, it was their only song to ever chart in the U.S., though their albums UrbanHymns and Forth both reached #23 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.
The Verve have had a rather troubled history, facing numerous challenges, including name and line-up changes, break-ups, health problems, drug abuse and various lawsuits, for most of their existence. Originally formed as ‘Verve’ in 1990 while still in their teens, the Wigan, England-based group consisted of lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft (who Coldplay front man Chris Martin said is the best singer in the world), guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. (Guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member during their first reunion period.) But within a year, American record label Verve, known for its extensive jazz catalogue, took issue with the band’s name and demanded they change it. Both parties reached a compromise by the band agreeing to add ‘the’ to their name.
From its beginnings, “Bittersweet Symphony” – whose title would become sadly apropos – was also beset with controversy. The song is based on a sample of a 1965 orchestral version of the Rolling Stones song “The Last Time” by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra, a group formed by Andrew Loog Oldham, the former producer and manager of the Rolling Stones. There was no actual orchestra, but rather a group of session musicians that sometimes included members of the Rolling Stones. Their recording of “The Last Time” was included on their album The Rolling Stones Songbook, featuring symphonic versions of Rolling Stones songs.
When Richard Ashcroft heard the Andrew Oldham Orchestra version of “The Last Time”, he thought it could be “turned into something outrageous“, as he later recalled to David Fricke for Rolling Stone. He sampled and looped four bars from the original recording, then added dozens more tracks, including additional strings based on the melody in the sample that were arranged by Wil Malone, along with guitar, percussion and his own layered vocals. In that Rolling Stone interview, Ashcroft said he imagined “something that opened up into a prairie-music kind of sound“, similar to the work of the Italian composer Ennio Morricone, and that “the song started morphing into this wall of sound, a concise piece of incredible pop music“.
The Verve obtained the rights to use a few notes of the string melody from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra’s “Last Time” by the copyright holder, Decca Records, in exchange for half of The Verve’s royalties on “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” However, they were not given permission from another former Rolling Stones’ manager Allen Klein, who owned the copyrights to the their pre-1970 songs, including “The Last Time”. When “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was about to be released as a single, Klein, by then head of ABKCO Records, refused clearance for the sample, saying The Verve had used a larger portion than previously agreed to. The Verve’s co-manager Jazz Summers turned to their American record label Virgin Records for help. Virgin played “Bitter Sweet Symphony” for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who liked the track, but declined to become involved in the dispute. Summers also sent a copy to Oldham, who wrote back: “Fair cop! Absolute total pinch! You can see why [ABKCO are] rolling up their sleeves.” (Rolling Stone)
ABKCO Records filed a lawsuit, which forced The Verve to relinquished all royalties to Klein, and change the songwriting credits to Jagger–Richards. Ashcroft received only $1,000. According to The Verve bassist Simon Jones, “We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing. They rung up and said we want 100 percent or take it out of the shops, you don’t have much choice.” Rolling Stone wrote that the outcome was “patently absurd”, noting that Jagger and Richards were not involved with the sample or Ashcroft’s melody and lyrics. Ashcroft said sarcastically that “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was “the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years“. Asked in 1999 whether he believed that the situation was fair, Keith Richards said: “I’m out of whack here, this is serious lawyer shit. If The Verve can write a better song, they can keep the money.”
In 1999, Oldham sued AKBCO, saying he was owed up to £1 million in royalties for the use of the sample. Years later he joked that he had bought “a pretty presentable watch strap” with his royalties, and said: “As for Richard Ashcroft, well, I don’t know how an artist can be severely damaged by that experience. Songwriters have learned to call songs their children, and he thinks he wrote something. He didn’t. I hope he’s got over it. It takes a while.” Billboard estimated that “Bitter Sweet Symphony” had generated almost $5 million in publishing revenue by 2019. In 2018, Ashcroft expressed his anger over the situation, saying: “Someone stole God-knows-how-many million dollars off me in 1997, and they’ve still got it … Anyone, unless you are mentally ill, will always remember the day when 50 million dollars was stolen off them.”
In early 2019, Ashcroft’s managers approached Jody Klein, who’d become head of ABKCO following his father’s death in 2009, for reconsideration of the lousy judgement. Klein then connected them to the Rolling Stones’ manager, Joyce Smyth, who agreed to speak to Jagger and Richards about the issue. That April, ABKCO, Jagger and Richards agreed to return the “Bitter Sweet Symphony” royalties and songwriting credits to Ashcroft. Ashcroft announced the agreement a month later at a ceremony in which he received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He said it was a “kind and magnanimous” move, adding “I never had a personal beef with the Stones. They’ve always been the greatest rock and roll band in the world. It’s been a fantastic development. It’s life-affirming in a way.” In a statement, the Rolling Stones said they acknowledged the financial and emotional cost of “having to surrender the composition of one of your own songs.” (Wikipedia)
Here’s the full album version of the song:
And here’s the instrumental version of “The Last Time”, by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra, that served as the basis for “Bittersweet Symphony”:
There’s so much great music out now, I have at least 50 songs I’d like to put on my Weekly Top 30. “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender remains at #1 for a second week. Closing in at #2 is Arcade Fire‘s heartwarming ““Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”, while Lizzo slides into the #3 spot with her funk-pop earworm “About Damn Time”. German alt-rock band Milky Chance enter the top 10 with their cool song “Synchronize”. For some reason I cannot fathom, the song has not been anywhere near as popular as their previous single “Colorado”, even though I think it’s a better song.
Two songs make their debut this week: “Bones” by Imagine Dragons and “Grey” by Welsh rock band Holy Coves. While I’m a fan of Imagine Dragons, I didn’t care for their previous single “Enemy”, a massive hit now in it’s 35th week in the top 40 of the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, nine of them at #1, but I do like “Bones” a lot. (“Enemy” and “Bones” currently hold the #4 and #5 spots on the Alternative chart.) I’ve resisted putting “Bones” on my chart for the past several weeks, but it’s just too damn infectious! “Grey” is the second song by Holy Coves to appear on my Weekly Top 30; their single “The Hurt Within” spent 11 weeks on my list this past Spring.
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (1)
UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) – Arcade Fire (3)
ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (5)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (2)
BELIEVE – Caamp (4)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (6)
2am – Foals (9)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (8)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (7)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (12)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (13)
CLOSER – The Frontier (14)
LONELY – Sea Girls (15)
THE FUNERAL – YUNGBLUD (17)
IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (18)
WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (19)
MISTAKES – Sharon Van Etten (21)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (10) 19th week on list
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (11)
DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (22)
LIN MANUEL – Onism E (23)
FAILURE TO COMPLY – MISSIO (25)
BROKEN RECORD – NAVE (27)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (16)
UNTIL I FOUND YOU – Stephen Sanchez (29)
SUPERMODEL – Måneskin (30)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (20)
The subject for Day 15 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A songfrom the1980s“, and my pick is the glorious “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel. With it’s wildly infectious driving rhythms and wonderfully trippy video, the song became one of the most beloved and popular of the 1980s. Released in April 1986 as the lead single from his critically-acclaimed and commercially successful fifth studio album, So, the song reached #1 in the U.S. and Canada, #2 in Austria, and the top 4 in Australia, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland and the UK. The song was also nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
One of the things – among many – that make the song so uniquely fascinating was the use of a synthesized shakuhachi flute (a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute made of bamboo), generated with an E-mu Emulator II sampler. Gabriel said that the “cheap organ sound” was created from an expensive Prophet-5 synth, which he called “an old warhorse” sound tool. (Wikipedia) The great backing vocals were sung by P. P. Arnold, Coral “Chyna Whyne” Gordon, and Dee Lewis, who also sang backup on “Big Time”.
Ironically, “Sledgehammer” (which was Gabriel’s only song to reach #1 in the U.S.) replaced “Invisible Touch”, by his former band Genesis, at the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 (which was their only #1 hit in the U.S. as well). In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, Phil Collins remarked “I read recently that Peter Gabriel knocked us off the #1 spot with ‘Sledgehammer’. We weren’t aware of that at the time. If we had been, we’d probably have sent him a telegram saying: ‘Congratulations – bastard.'”
You could have a steam train
If you'd just lay down your tracks
You could have an aeroplane flying
If you bring your blue sky back
All you do is call me
I'll be anything you needYou could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never endsI want to be - your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
Oh let me be your sledgehammer
This will be my testimony
Show me round your fruitcage
'Cos I will be your honey bee
Open up your fruitcage
Where the fruit is as sweet as can beI want to be - your sledgehammer
Why don't you call my name
You'd better call the sledgehammer
Put your mind at rest
I'm going to be - the sledgehammer
This can be my testimony
I'm your sledgehammer
Let there be no doubt about itSledge Sledge Sledgehammer
I've kicked the habit, shed my skin
This is the new stuff, I go dancing in, we go dancing inOh won't you show for me and I will show for you
Show for me, I will show for you
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you, only you
You've been coming through
Going to build that power
Build, build up that power, hey
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
Going to feel that power build in youCome on, come on, help me do
Come on, come on, help me do
Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh , yeh, yeh, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
It's what we're doing, doing
All day and night
The brilliant video for “Sledgehammer”, directed by Stephen R. Johnson and produced by Adam Whittaker, featured marvelous claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation created by Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay. For the video’s production, Gabriel had to lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while the video was filmed one frame at a time. In a 1986 interview with Philadelphia radio station WMMR, Gabriel commented “It took a lot of hard work. I was thinking at the time, ‘If anyone wants to try and copy this video, good luck to them.’” All that hard work paid off, as the video won an astonishing nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, more than any other video has ever won, as well as Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards.
The subject for Day 14 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A songfrom the 1970s“, and my pick is “Year of the Cat” by Scottish singer-songwriter Al Stewart. The lead single from Stewart’s album of the same name, the song was released in July 1976 in the UK, and October 1976 in the U.S. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts in early 1977, and was also a top 10 hit in Canada, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Surprisingly, it would be Stewart’s only song to chart in his native UK, where it peaked at a disappointing #31. The album peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.
I was going through a break-up at the time the song came out, and though I was only 22, I felt anxious and confused about the direction my life was taking, almost like I was having a mid-life crisis. Consequently, the songs that really resonated with me in the early months of 1977 were Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” and “Dreams”, and Stewart’s “Year of the Cat”. I loved the song’s hauntingly beautiful melody, gorgeous arrangement, lush instrumentation, enchanting lyrics, and Stewart’s beguiling vocals. “Dreams” and “Year of the Cat” are my two favorite songs of 1977.
The song has kind of an interesting back story I discovered researching for this post. Stewart took the melody for “Year of the Cat” from “Foot of the Stage”, an unreleased song he wrote in 1966 after seeing a performance by comedian Tony Hancock, who joked about being a complete loser who might as well end it all right here (and sadly, later committed suicide). Nine years later, while touring the southern U.S. with Linda Ronstadt in 1975 (which according to a review by Katherine Hernandez of a concert Stewart gave in Edmonds, Washington in November 2017, was not a happy experience), he heard the tour pianist Peter Wood repeatedly playing a catchy chord progression during soundchecks that sounded somewhat similar to his original melody for “Foot of the Stage”. Stewart asked Wood if he could incorporate his piano notes into a song, and ended up giving Wood writing credit for “Year of the Cat”.
The song was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in January 1976, under the direction of engineer/musician Alan Parsons, who produced the track. In addition to Stewart, who sang vocals and played guitar and keyboards, Tim Renwick played both lead acoustic and electric guitars, George Ford played bass, Peter Wood and Don Lobster played additional keyboards, Stuart Elliot played drums and percussion, Andrew Powell played string arrangements, Bobby Bruce played violin, Marion Driscoll played triangle, and Phil Kenzie played alto saxophone. His marvelous sax solos transformed the song’s original folk concept into the jazz-influenced ballad that made it a big hit. Surprisingly, Stewart told Dallas radio program In the Studio with Redbeard that he didn’t like those sax solos at first but eventually grew to like them. (Wikipedia)
The song’s lyrics describe a male tourist who encounters a mysterious silk-clad woman while visiting a market in an exotic country. She promptly carries him off to a romantic adventure, which he willingly participates in, captivated by her charms. Upon waking the next day beside her, he discovers that his tour bus has left without him, and decides to stay where he is for now, in the year of the cat. The lyrics also make references to Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, which Stewart was inspired to include after watching the film Casablanca. As for the song’s title, in the Vietnamese zodiac, the Cat is one of the twelve signs, and corresponds to the Rabbit sign in the Chinese zodiac. At the time of the song’s release, the most recent Year of the Rabbit had been February 11, 1975 to January 30, 1976, thus, the song was written and recorded in the Vietnamese Year of the Cat. (Songfacts)
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the catShe doesn't give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers
And you follow 'till your sense of which direction
Completely disappears
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls
There's a hidden door she leads you to
These days, she says, I feel my life
Just like a river running through
The year of the catWhile she looks at you so cooly
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli
So you take her, to find what's waiting inside
The year of the catWell morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you've thrown away your choice you've lost your ticket
So you have to stay on
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the newborn day
You know sometime you're bound to leave her
But for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat
The album’s beautiful and whimsical cover art, designed by Hipgnosis and illustrator Colin Elgie, depicts a woman with an apparent obsession with cats reflected in a mirror as she dresses up as a cat, possibly for a costume party. The assortment of items displayed on her dresser all have cat motifs, and her cat’s tail is visible at the bottom.
Here’s a wonderful performance of the song by Stewart and fellow musicians at Daryl Hall’s home studio in upstate New York this past April.
ECLECTIC MUSIC LOVER 