...jumped off a window sill in our bedroom and landed atop the On button on our bedside radio...
...and suddenly I found myself awakened by a song I hadn't heard in quite a long time.
I happen to really like that record; I've never been a huge Jackson Browne fan, but when he isn't being Mr. Sensitive Mellow Guy, he has a real knack for old-fashioned Brill Building-esque 60s pop stuff. (Listen to "Tenderness on the Block," which he co-wrote for Warren Zevon's Exciteable Boy album, if you doubt me.) In fact, I've decided that my summer project -- in the company of my old garage band chums The Weasels, if they're agreeable -- is to record a cover of this, with the annoying "What a Fool Believes" piano riffage replaced by Keith Richards' style rhythm and chiming power pop guitar stuff. I'll keep you posted as this develops.
Incidentally, an old (now sadly departed) pal of mine was a comedian and piano player (Lewis Black's musical director in the early 80s) who used to do a hilarious bit stringing together every damn hit song -- of which there were approximately a zillion -- that featured the "What a Fool Believes" piano. Mercifully, I seem to have forgotten most of them, with the hellish exception of "Steal Away" by Robbie Dupree.
21 comments:
That would be Rusty Magee, an immensely talented man, and a true mensch. Lewis used to open for Rusty every Friday night at the West Bank Cafe. It took Lewis time to hone his persona, and if you had asked the attendees which of the two would become a star, most would have guessed Rusty. One of Rusty's charms as a performer was applying vaudeville skills to contemporary popular culture. Who else was doing imitations of Van Morrison and Elton John 30 years ago?
Dave F
I loved him -- and you're right about his pop star impressions. To this day, I still laugh thinking about his pantomime to John Waite's "Fame."
Saw him and Lew countless times at the old West Bank -- I knew him through Lew, and I knew Lew through my then girlfriend who had gone to Yale with him.
You were probably sitting at a table near me one of those nights...
:-)
Just found a video of Rusty at the West Bank -- he comes on with a priceless Bruce Springsteen impression directly after the opening baton twirler doing Ginsberg's "Howl."
God he was great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahzhgv_VFW0
You had me at "Jackson Browne". I have never truly forgiven our drummer Mike for looking more like him than I did.
Steve,
1- Moe Berg, a singer/songwriter whom you admire for his work for Canadian power-pop heroes THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, has had a side-project cover band for many years called MONTE FORTE. One of the songs they used to do "live" is "Somebody's Baby."
2- I don't mind "What A Fool Believes" as a record, but one of the most annoying appropriations of that piano riff was in "He's So Shy", a big hit single for the Pointer Sisters just a few years after the Doobie Brothers' song itself was a smash, and a pretty lame rip-off of the Doobies, in my opinion. Sorry to remind you about it, but it gives me a chance to vent.
3- "Somebody's Baby" was co-written by Danny Kortchmar, who's been a talented, useful songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (mainly guitar) for Browne, Carole King, Don Henley and James Taylor, among others, over the years.
J. Lag
Maybe Rusty's best known bit, "Rasta Magee." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMhCw9k3tV0 You can't get much more stupid but it makes me laugh everytime, and it's pure Rusty.
J. Lag --
Moe Berg is a Facebook friend -- I just left him a message asking about that.
Is this kinda what you're aimin' for as the backing?
file:///C:/Users/Vickie%20Rock/Downloads/Somebodys%20Baby%20Poquito%20Raunch.mp3
VR - just a touch of raunch
Steve,
I've known Moe for over 25 years but he might not recognize my name because - and I know this is a real bolt from the blue :) - I contribute to this blog under a pseudonym. Still, he'll probably figure out who would remember and who would be a Simels fan at the same time.
J. Lag
J. Lag -- I'll be damned.
I'm have the coolest commenters on the planet, and I am a very lucky guy.
Also J. Lag --
I don't know if you ever saw this
http://powerpop.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-pursuit-of-happiness-postscript.html
But it's one of the things I wrote at STEREO REVIEW that I'm proudest of, and it prompted Moe to write me a letter that made my century. And then I got chewed out for having written it by my then editor.
Man, those were the days.
Vicki -- I can't seem to get that to play.
What is it?
Steve,
I'm gonna guess that it's your review, from SR, of the THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS' second album "ONE SIDED STORY", which was originally released on Chrysalis in 1990. I've talked to Moe a couple of times about it, and I know that he really liked it - I think he felt that you were the only reviewer who "got" what he was trying to say in a lot of the lyrics on that album. Sorry that your editor chewed you out about it - what objections were raised? Actually, if you're back on Facebook with Moe soon, ask him - and here's another bolt from the blue :) - about the unreleased song that he wrote around that time with power-pop god MARSHALL CRENSHAW (!!).
J. Lag
Steve:
what service do you use to upload music? apparently what i'm using ain't working. It's a surprise, albeit a dull one. Nevertheless I'll paste the worthless link again. You never know. Works for me, but maybe no one else.
file:///C:/Users/Vickie%20Rock/Downloads/Somebodys%20Baby%20Poquito%20Raunch.mp3
VR
Vicki-- that's still not working for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
I used something called The Box, which is free and works very well.
Do you have my e-mail addy? Maybe you can just send it to me as an mp3 attachment. I'm dying of curiosity, actually...
Steve:
Try this. http://www.streamfile.com/pickup/CgoZWkYmPCAu. should be a download link for what it's worth.
VR
Vicki -- thanks, that finally came through.
But no, that's not what I'm going to be aiming for. I'm hearing the rhythm part being Keith Richards open-G plus maybe electric 12-string stuff. Think a cross between Tumblin' Dice and Tom Petty.
Who knows? Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't.
Good luck with that. As long as it's guitar driven you can't go wrong. Jackson's version is too "pussified".
VR
I'm glad to know that somebody else held "What a Fool Believes" in such contempt along with that horrible piano riff that every song on the radio had for two years after it came out.
Jackson's version is too "pussified".
He wrote and produced the fucking thing. Who are you to question the writer's version of HIS OWN FUCKING SONG????
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