So a certain Shady Dame and I finished an absolutely amazing, but ultimately exhausting, exploration of Pompeii yesterday (have I mentioned I'm on vacation in Italy?)
Interesting place, but as you can see, kind of annoyingly Americanized.
So I was having breakfast at our hotel in Rome yesterday morning -- have I mentioned I'm on vacation in Italy? -- and over the dining room sound system, they were playing nothing but Italian pop and rock. Which normally leaves me cold, but I was starting to have fun trying to figure which Brit and American pop/stars the various Italians were emulating.
And then the studio version of this (which I have not been able to find for free) came on, and -- to quote Cristina Applegate from Married With Children -- you could have knocked me over with the weather.
I'd vaguely heard of this Zucchero fella, who is considered "the father of Italian blues" in his homeland, however amusing a concept that may be. But in any case, I gotta say, he does a largely credible version of the Procol Harum classic.
Now if I could only figure out who was doing the sort of Italian knock-off of David Bowie's "Heroes" that played right before this while I was having my scrambled eggs.
From 1983, and their H20 album, please enjoy Daryl Hall and John Oates live, as they ask the musical question on everybody's lips -- where are the "Italian Girls"?
I bring all this up because a certain Shady Dame and I are off on a European vacation later today.
First stop -- Rome!!! Woo hoo!!!
Assuming my laptop doesn't give me problems, I'll be doing regular musical postings as well as vacation dispatches until our return at the end of the month.
In the meantime, have a great weekend, everybody!!!
From JPs -- a low drug den/music dive on the upper East Side, on the evening of May 27, 1982 -- please enjoy the fabulous Floor Models and their totally rocking ode to urban paranoia "What's Wrong With This Picture?"
Written and sung by our late great 12-string ace Andrew Pasternack.
That's from our soon to be released live album, obviously, and kudos to brilliant engineer Brent McLachlan, at 30 Below Studio, for making the now decades old cassette recording of this stuff sound absolutely transplendent.
From 1965 and Shindig, television's greatest pop music show ever, please enjoy the mysteriously obscure Donna Loren and an appropriately gorgeous performance of "With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair."
That song was unknown to me until a couple of weeks ago, when I heard Dennis Day sing it on a 1940 episode of The Jack Benny Show (it was a hit for a bunch of singers that year). Don't worry, I won't inflict Day's version on you, but I was immediately taken with it; apparently, its writer -- Clara Edwards -- was a slumming composer of classical art songs.
Donna Loren -- who was a regular on Shindig, although I don't remember her at all -- was obviously a pretty fabulously soulful singer, and but for the vagaries of fortune might well have been a major 60s pop figure on the level of Dusty Springfield or Jackie DeShannon; she had to settle for merely being in a lot of AIP beach movies, episodes of Batman and Dr. Kildare, and a five year stint as the "Dr. Pepper Girl." I am pleased to add that she's still with us (like yours truly she was born in 1947) and you can find out more about her over at her official website HERE.
From last month, please enjoy The John Sally Ride -- featuring friend of PowerPop and proprietor of the fabulous music blog BURNING WOODSal Nunziato on drums -- and their suggestively monikered and completely rocking new single "Far From Eaten Out."
And who are these guys? Well, attentive readers will doubtless recall my enthusing about them in the recent past, but here's how the press release for their 2017 debut CD explained it.
The John Sally Ride was inevitable. Long time friends, with thousands of combined hours listening to and talking about music, the trio of musicians that comprise this exciting new band had been making music separately for years. The time had finally come to make a record together. It wasn't just their mutual love of The Kinks, David Bowie and Todd Rundgren. And it wasn't just that special knack of finishing each other's musical sentences. It was all of that, for sure. But, like any great band/record, it all starts with the songs and the magic that suddenly took hold of these gents when they finally hit the studio.
To make a short story long, this record is so wonderful I hate the people who made it, even though as I said up top, I consider Sal a friend.
No kidding -- how dare these guys release a better single than mine in the same season!!! I mean seriously -- not only is "Eaten" a knockout of a song in a sort of hybrid power pop/hard rock vein, but the guitar work by Joe Pampel is ridiculously cool.
As are the lyrics by the song's auteur John Dunbar.
I wish I lead the life you think I lead
I stay at home each night and mostly read
My weekends end so weak and don't start strong
You'd guess they're all booked up and you'd be wrong
You say I'm out and all about
But I'm inside with a can of stout
You think I'm living where it's hip to be
The neighborhood I'm in it takes a trip to see
Life's now one long defeating bout
No drum rolls will be beaten out
And your heart will be far from eaten out
Your heart will be far from eaten out
I hope you never learn of what I do
I'd say it's nothing like the life I knew
The tears will never fear a drought
I'm at the laundry using Shout
And your heart will be far from eaten out
Your heart will be far from eaten out
Just shoot me now. In a good way, of course.
Meanwhile, you can (and should) purchase "Far From Eaten Out" over at Bandcamp HERE. It's also available at Amazon and Spotify.
And, of course, at YouTube.
I should add that a second single by these guys is due next month, and a full-length album by summer.
Hey -- what are you waiting for? Go download or stream "Far From Eaten Out" right now!!!
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