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A track. A song. Why does it matter? What interests you about it? I’d like this thread to be about individual songs and what’s great/interesting/important/notable/etc. about them.
Objective facts
Subjective ideas
A song’s context in your life
Trivia
Anything that you think is important about a song
Video Killed the Radio Star from The Age of Plastic (1980) by The Buggles
So this song came on the radio this morning.
Is there anyone who doesn’t know that the video for this song was the first one ever aired by MTV when it launched in 1981? It actually was a rather advanced video for the time, when most were just stock footage of a band performing. But Video Killed the Radio Star is so much more than that. It is quintessential new wave, all the while harkening back to an early time of popular music, with its ‘phoned-in’ lead vocals and classic pop backing vocals.
I find this song to be simultaneously timeless and a pleasant artifact of its time.
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant from The Stranger (1977) by Billy Joel
At his best, Billy Joel was a storyteller. I often hear his music now and think to myself that it hasn’t aged well, except that I think ‘aged well’ is so entirely subjective as to be meaningless. Perhaps another way of saying that is to note that the song is very much imbued with its time. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When I listen to The Doors or classic era Rolling Stones or the Cars or 1970s Springsteen, one of the things I love about them is that they have that magical vibe of their times. So I’m ambivalent of the whole ‘hasn’t aged well’ idea.
Back to Joel and this song. He does a wonderful job of mixing sentimentality and bittersweet lament in this poetic tale. The epic story of Brenda and Eddie is told in three parts – musically, different songs, a la Bohemian Rhapsody or Band on the Run – and builds to a climax until returning to the original tune for the coda.
This is one of those songs that I don’t want to often hear, but that I’ll listen to once every so often and enjoy it very much.
Dallas by The Flatlanders from All American Music (1973)
Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?
Well Dallas is a jewel, oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight
And Dallas is a jungle, but Dallas gives a beautiful light
Well Dallas is a woman who will walk on you when you're down
Well Dallas is a rich man with a death wish in his eyes
You can guess at this song’s age from the opening line’s reference to a DC-9 (that is, if you’re kinda an airline foamer like me). But you probably don’t know The Flatlanders. In The Big Lebowski there’s that scene at the beginning of the film where Smoky is OVER THE LINE! and Walter draws a piece on him lest he ‘mark it 8’ because ‘this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling – there are rules’? Smoky is Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who sings Dallas.
It’s a country song, old-time country, far more Marty Robbins than anything that constitutes modern country. The Flatlanders were a mostly-forgotten group that had released a single album on eight-track only in the early seventies. Then Rounder Records in 1990 took that original album, added a few one-offs and unreleased tracks, and put it all out as the aptly-titled More a Legend Than a Band.
Major Tom (Coming Home) from Error in the System (1983) by Peter Schilling
Peter Schilling’s strange version of Major Tom’s story has two things going for it. First, it’s a prime example of the new wave sound of the early to mid-1980s, which for me is the sweet spot of my musical youth. But more notably, it’s a curious remake (of David Bowie's Space Oddity) where the same story is told but with entirely new lyrics and melody. I’m a sucker for this sort of artistic innovation.
I heard this clip of Tom Petty being interviewed, and somehow the topic of Huey Lewis comes up. Petty is dismissive of Lewis’ music, saying among other things:
“I don’t believe a word he says … I don’t believe nothin’ that guy says.”
--Tom Petty, re Huey Lewis.
What Petty meant is that Huey doesn’t sell his songs (at least in Tom’s opinion). A rock and roll song is a short piece of musical fiction. Like a novelist or an actor, a musical artist needs to take the listener out of the moment and into the story. Jagger sells the apocalypticism in Gimme Shelter, McCartney the emotional loss in Yesterday. Dylan. Springsteen. Bono. Aretha. Bowie. Prince. They all sell/sold it.
And that’s the genius of Freddie Mercury. The attention is always on his vocal virtuosity, but I don’t care about that. Soul is the heart of musical art, and Mercury made you believe; there are few examples of it better than Fat Bottomed Girls. Really, what else is there to the song? All right, it contravenes social ideals by embracing ample derrieres, but that’s not enough to carry it. Musically, it’s pretty simple. There are some quintessential Queen harmonies here and there, and Roger Taylor has a nice drum flourish, but mostly this song is a great example of how the artistic sum can be vastly greater than the technical parts. And Freddie? He doesn’t use his vocal range much at all, preferring to just belt it out. Which totally works! You believe every word he’s saying, despite the fact that it was Brian May who wrote the song and it certainly wasn’t girls catching Mercury’s eye.
I Want to Break Free from The Works (1984) by Queen
This song baffles me. Well, not the song itself, but the fact that I like it. And I do, I really like it.
One of the traits of art is that often the sum is far greater than its parts. So it is with I Want to Break Free. It’s one of those songs where none of its components are things that I normally like. But all mashed together? I love it!
It’s another song where the listener is certain that Freddie Mercury wrote. I mean, just listen to it! But, no. It was penned by bassist John Deacon, yet Mercury absolutely makes it his own.
And for those who wonder how people are ‘too offended’ these days? MTV throttled back the song’s video rotation, because... well, look:
Behind the Wall of Sleep from Especially For You (1986) by The Smithereens
The Smithereens have long confounded me. I love this track and I love Blood and Roses. And? I’ve never heard another song by the New Jersey garage rockers that I really want to hear again. I’m sure I’d love them in a bar while downing a few with friends. That’s who they are. Not recordings, though, with these two exceptions. So what’s special about this song?
“She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965
She had legs that never ended, I was halfway paralyzed
She was tall and cool and pretty and she dressed as black as coal
If she asked me to I'd murder, I would gladly lose my soul”
Who was Jeannie Shrimpton? Beats me. [all right, I confess, I googled her; but before that I had no idea] But I get the idea. And Pat DiNizio simply sells how he’s fallen for this girl he’s never even met.
“Well she held a bass guitar and she was playing in a band
And she stood just like Bill Wyman
Now I am her biggest fan
Now I know I'm one of many who would like to be your friend
And I've got to find a way to let you know I'm not like them”
Now here’s a question – what is it about women and playing the bass that seems to occupy a disproportionate niche in male fantasies? I think it’s the passivity. The singer is too out there and available. Electric guitar and drumming? Too aggressive. But the bass player lurks in the background, laying down those slinky and seductive lines. Perfectly safe for idealization while minimizing the encroachment of established gender roles. That’s my take on it.
Cherry Bomb from The Runaways (1976) by The Runaways
The very first strains of this song absolutely scream ‘I come from the late seventies!’. Somehow, Cherie Currie manages to sell the lead vocals as sounding at least a bit older than the 15 she was at the time of the recording, which is a blessing given the subject matter. And boy are they selling just that; some of the backing vocals, so to speak, are moans that leave little to the imagination. If that wasn’t enough, the album reverse notes the age – or should I say, the underage? – of each of the band members along with their photos.
Though Currie would do little on the charts after the Runaways, that’s Lita Ford on lead guitar and Joan Jett back there on rhythm guitar. These beginnings are rather inauspicious, though. Once you’ve heard this album-leading song, you’ve mostly heard the album. Still, this track is an interesting artifact of a place and time in rock and roll history.
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