What a great song -- wonderful harmonies, a witty lyric about a guy everybody knows, big ringing guitars and a cowbell (heh) on the solo. This should be blasting out of every car radio in America, frankly, and the rest of the album (which is one of ny top five faves for the year) is just as terrific, including an obviously heartfelt ode to the former frontman of The McCoys (from whence I cribbed the title of today's post) and a blistering cover of Steve's cousin Jumpin Gene Simmons' "Peroxide Blonde."
You can -- and very definitely should -- order the album (in physical or download forms) from any of the fine musical delivery systems listed below.
iTunes: http://apple.co/1SVJIT5
Apple Music: https://itun.es/us/2mQF6
Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/78VFDkVWRQeBftDpcOZ2Pj
Amazon MP3: http://amzn.to/1j5lR6y
CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thest
You're welcome.
4 comments:
Rockin'. Solo and cowbell are great. Maybe it is just me and my crappy computer and headphones, but I would like to have the vocals a little more distinct in the mix on the verses. Or maybe I should shut the hell up and listen to more REM.
Great song, this DUKE OF HIGH SCHOOL. I hear the slicker side of The Replacements and Tommy Keene here, and it makes me think of two things, one of which is hearing a song like DUKE while driving, which is a particular type of listening pleasure that I enjoy to this day. The other is that at my high school, John Adams, in South Ozone Park, Queens and in the mid-1960s, we had a term for such Dukes: Super Seniors (read dropouts) who would drive by the school in their souped-up and/or growling Bonnies, Novas, and my favorite, the Olds Starfire, impress the ladies, go home to watch the game shows and soaps on TV, and then do a second drive-around at 3:00pm.
By the way, this Steve Deaton album is least expensive at Bandcamp. Five bucks. And that's just one of the reasons Bandcamp is great.
And on another note of interest to old farts ... I mean, rock historians ... like us, Louis Menand looks at Peter Guralnick's new book, SAM PHILLIPS: THE MAN WHO INVENTED ROCK 'N' ROLL in the current issue of The New Yorker (see http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/16/the-elvic-oracle).
Louis Menand is a cultural historian, a Professor of English at Harvard, a NEW YORKER staff writer and contributor to the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS. And one hell of a brilliant writer and thinker. Good cultural historians -- like Menand -- look at historical events as they really happened, and not how big-deal pop media outlets, cultural romantics, blowhards and many others would like to believe they took place. Menand's among the best, and his look in this piece at the 1950s rise of rock 'n' roll as a business and cultural force is about as clear-eyed as you can get.
Good stuff, Steve. Thanks.
Dave F.
I'll have to go with these guys. Beautiful congenital failures. Stick with them until they start singing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOgyytldfow
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