Weekend Listomania: Special "Where's Don Ameche Now That We Need Him?" Edition

Okay, I had a long trying week, so let's forego the customary snarky intro about some imagined Manual Catharsis Technician and get right to the business at hand (heh). To wit:

...BEST OR WORST POST-ELVIS POP/ROCK/FOLK/SOUL SONG OR SINGLE REFERENCING TECHNOLOGICAL FORMS OF COMMUNICATION IN THE TITLE OR LYRICS!

DISCUSS!!!

The New York Times magazine ran a similar list just last week; I didn't agree with many of their selections, and I've slightly altered the perameters they used so this is not quite the lazy slacker rip-off you might suspect. Also, it strikes me as there's gotta be at least one song out there along the same lines written specifically for the Internet Age, but I just can't think of one at the moment. Taylor Swift, maybe?

In any case, my totally Top of My Head Top Six is/are:

6. The Hounds -- Call Me

Originally I was gonna include the wonderful Chris Montez song of the same name, but then for obvious reasons I figured -- go with something I'm playing guitar on.

5. The Five Americans -- Western Union

Those kids were very clean, weren't they.

4. The Kinks -- Party Line

This is the only entry I have in common with the Times' list. I should add that the opening -- "Hello, Who is That Speaking Please?," as intoned by the band's unutterably posh then manager Robert Wace -- has been the ringtone of a ertain Shady Dame of my acquaintance for over a decade now.

3. Blondie -- Call Me

The Times went with Blondie's "Hangin' on the Telephone," but this one just strikes me as more apt.

2. The Beatles -- No Reply

"I tried to telephone/they said you were not home." Hey, it doesn't get more poignant than that.

And the Numero Uno song celebrating the joys talking of to your honey over long distances is...

It's a tie!!!

1. Wilson Pickett -- 634-5789/The Marvelettes -- Bechwood 4-5789

File under: phone numbers without area codes.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend everybody!!!

Closed for Monkey Business

Or shall we just say Slacker Thursday?

Back tomorrow with a really, really, no fooling, guaranteed pisser of a Weekend Listomania. 😎

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "Bronx Blues" Edition

From 1996, please enjoy the incomparable Dion DiMucci -- aka the guy who invented rock-and-roll attitude -- with his short-lived sorta supergroup The Little Kings and their utterly irresistible slice of the aforementioned attitude "You Move Me."

I say "sorta supergroup" because, as you can see from the above, the incomparable Mike Mesaros of The Smithereens is on bass (the other two guys were from the Del-Lords), and alas, I never got a chance to see them live, although they were pretty much a fixture in NYC for a couple of years.

BTW, "You Move Me" featured on a sort of mixtape CD I made in the early 'aughts entitled Great Lost Singles of the 90s, and I stumbled across the playlist the other day. Pretty cool stuff, and I suspect I'll be sharing more selections from it in the not-too-distant future. 😎

Today's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles and Photo-Funnies

The Beatles entries just had me on the floor, especially the zoomie. 😎

Those Fabulous '80s

From director Walter Hill's sadly shlocky 1984 rock-and-roll fable (their description, not mine) Streets of Fire, please enjoy the minor miracle that is the video of Dan Hartman's deserved hit single "I Can Dream About You."

Our good friend Sal Nunziato, propriertor of the invaluable Burning Wood blog put a link to the audio of that up of as one of his Songs of the Week yesterday, and I must confess I still haven't quite recovered. I hadn't thought about that clip in what feels like half a lifetime (hey wait -- it actually is!) but watching it again after all those years I was just as blown away as I was when it was all but ubiquitous on MTV. I mean, the song is terrific, but the video is in a whole other dimension; I don't know who choreographed it, but it's like the greatest Temptations or Four Tops performance they never gave -- I can't watch the damn thing without simultaneously a) getting goose bumps and b) nearly jumping out of my seat and attempting to dance (pretty dangerous at my age, obviously).

In any case, one of the most unjustly overlooked/underrated artifacts of its era and if you were wondering, yes,, the tall skinny backup singer to the right of the other two is the fabulous actor and comedian Robert Townsend (and where has he been lately?).

Thanks, Sal!!!

Weekend Listomania: Special "Hell, My Kid Could Do That" Edition

It's been an exhausting week, for reasons too obvious to mention, so once again let's abjure the traditional snarky, pun-filled intro referencing my Asian manual catharsis technician Fah Lo Suee and thus get directly and inexorably to the subject of today's business. To wit:

...MOST AVANT-GARDE POST-ELVIS POP/ROCK/FOLK/JAZZ/COUNTRY/SOUL RECORD (SINGLE, NOT ALBUM) EVER TO CRACK THE TOP TWENTY!

DISCUSS!

No arbitrary rules whatsoever, so you can define avant-garde any way you want. I am, however, gonna be a stickler for the Top Twenty thing. And the single rather than album thing. And don't give me any of the Ramones-and-punk-rock stuff because admirable as those records may be not one of them was ever toppermost of the poppermost.

And now, in no particular order, my totally Top of My Head Top Seven is...

7. The Beach Boys -- Good Vibrations

Low register cellos and a theremin -- yeah, THAT's something you hear at the diner on a normal basis.

6. Buddy Holly -- Peggy Sue

Hiccuped vocals, drums fading in and out, and a guitar that suddenly gets way louder? It still sounds weird now -- can you imagine what it must have been like for delicate virgin boomer ears back when it was new?

5. The Beatles -- Strawberry Fields Forever

Forgetting the song itself -- that video is one kinda masterpiece of abstract cinema.

4. Sly and the Family Stone -- Dance to the Music

If ever a band was collectively possessed of genius, it was those guys.

3. (a tie) The Byrds -- Mr. Tambourine Man/Eight Miles High

Electric twelve-string guitar as gorgeous/atonal melodic as it gets.

2. Donna Summer -- I Feel Love

Synths, anyone?

And the Numero Uno weirdo freaking record of all time absolutely has to be there's no doubt about it is...

1. The Yardbirds -- I'm a Man

A singer who sounds likes his harmonica and a guitarist who ends the whole thing by just making noise. Works for me.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be????

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Songs I'd Forgoten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "Encounters With Greatness" Edition

From 1989, please enjoy power pop legend Otis Ball and the title track from his transplendently great debut album I'm Gonna Love You 'Til I Don't.

This one popped into my head unbidden the other day, and I realized I probably hadn't heard it any time this century, which seems a shame. (Apparently I long ago lost my autographed copy of the CD).

I should add that back in the '80s, when I was living in Hoboken, there was a very cool record store about half way between the PATH train station and my apartment, and I used to stop in from time to time on my way home (from work in Manhattan at Stereo Review). Otis may or may not been the store's proprietor, but he was behind the counter pretty regularly and I would chat with him while browsing the latest cool stuff. He was a charmingly dweebish guy, and I was unaware of his musical career until Bar/None Records sent me a copy of his album at the magazine.

I just looked for him online, and apparently he's gone pretty much underground, so I can't tell you if he's still making music, but you can hear the album in its entirety over at YouTube HERE. Trust me -- it's worth your attention.

So....Did I Miss Anything Yesterday?

Regular music posting -- and actually pertinent to the raison d'etre of this here blog -- resumes on the morrow.

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles and Photo-Funnies

Depending on the election results, tomorrow's post will either be a) a well-lit photo of me smiling while wearing an "I Voted" button or b) a grainy black-and-white shot of me dangling from a noose in my bathroom. 😎

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "Corn in the Corn Belt" Edition

President Biff canceled and then uncancelled a desperate campaign rally in theoretically beet red Dubuque, Iowa yesterday, so this seemed suddenly relevant.

That is, I believe, from The Assocciation's self-titled 1969 studio album, which I had on vinyl when it was new, and probably haven't heard in five decades. A lovely, poignant song, my titular snark notwithstanding, by a band that has never really gotten the props it deserved IMHO.