The Plimsouls – “A Million Miles Away”

"A Million Miles Away" (P. Case, J. Alkes, C. Fradkin) Copyright 1982 Baby Oh Yeah Music BMI/Nineties Music BMI

The Plimsouls, led by guitarist/singer/songwriter Peter Case, released a couple of terrific albums in the early ‘80’s, fusing power pop, punk and R&B into their own unique blend. “A Million Miles Away” was featured in the film Valley Girl, and should’ve catapulted The Plimsouls onto greater fame, but their career stalled and the band split up by the mid-’80’s. To some, this song marks The Plimsouls as One-Hit-Wonders, but their albums are chock-a-block with great songs. Still, there’s no denying the brilliance of “A Million Miles Away” and on this episode, we take a close look at this timeless classic.

“A Million Miles Away” (P. Case, J. Alkes, C. Fradkin) Copyright 1982 Baby Oh Yeah Music BMI/Nineties Music BMI

TRANSCRIPT:

String theory is the theoretical concept that all of reality is made up of these infinitesimally small vibrating strings. Smaller than atoms, smaller than electrons and protons, smaller than quarks, vibrating at different frequencies. And what is a guitar, or a violin, or a piano, but a bunch of vibrating strings? The whole universe is just one big song. Welcome to the Pantheon Podcast Network and the “I’m In love With That Song” podcast.

My name is Brad Page, and each edition of this podcast, I pick one of my favorite songs and we dig deep into it. Maybe not down to the level of quarks or electrons, but we go deep enough to examine all the elements that make it a great song. So you don’t have to be a scientist or a musical expert to enjoy this show. Just a little curiosity is all that’s required.

On this episode, we’re exploring a classic power pop band from the early ‘80’s that still sounds as fresh and vital today. This is The Plimsouls and “A Million Miles Away”.

Peter Case was a member of The Nerves, a band that straddled the line between punk and power pop in the mid-seventies. Along with Jack Lee and Paul Collins, they released one four-song EP in 1976 and then broke up. But those four songs were great, including the classic “Hanging On The Telephone”.

Of course, that track was later covered by Blondie, and they had a big hit with it.

Peter Case then put together The Plimsouls, named after a type of shoe, I believe. Initially they were a three piece with Peter Case on guitars and vocals, Dave Pahoa on bass and Lou Ramirez on drums. A little later, Eddie Munoz came on board on lead guitar. They released a five-song EP called “Zero Hour” in 1980.

They became pretty popular around LA and signed a deal with Planet Records, and released their first full album, self-titled, in 1981.

That first self-titled album is a great album, but it didn’t really sell, and they ended up parting ways with Planet Records. Then they independently released “A Million Miles Away” as a single. And that song ended up in the movie “Valley Girls”. In fact, the band is actually featured in that film. That got them some attention. They ended up getting signed by Geffen Records and released their second album, “Everywhere At Once”, in 1983. That album features a re-recorded version of “A Million Miles Away”.

The song was performed by Peter Case on lead vocals and twelve string guitar, Eddie Munoz on lead guitar, Dave Pahoa on bass, and Lou Ramirez on drums and percussion. It was produced by Jeff Eyrich.

The song kicks off with a flam on the snare drum and a great guitar riff. Sounds to me like that riff is played on the twelve string. Let’s hear just the guitars.

The bass and drums have a great groove going on too. Let’s go back and listen to those two together. We’ll pick it back up from that part of the verse.

They repeat that riff twice there. And then we get a new section, essentially a pre chorus. The chords here are a little dreamier, a little spacier, with lyrics to match: “I started drifting to a different place I realized I was falling off the face of the world and there was nothing left to bring me back:

There’s really great guitar accompaniment on this pre-chorus. This is definitely played on the twelve-string. Let’s go back and hear that.

And that pulls us right into the first chorus. Let’s listen to that all the way through. Let’s hear the whole band underneath the vocals. The guitars really work well together here. And there’s more cool riffing on the twelve-string.

All right, let’s back it up a bit and then play through the end of the chorus. Let’s pull up the vocals for this second verse.

Sounds like he’s doubling the vocals. Let’s pick it up at the next pre-chorus.

And let’s bring the vocals up again for this chorus.

Listen for the echoes on this next line.

Next up, Eddie Muniz lets loose with a pretty tasty guitar solo. There’s some more tasty playing going on behind the vocals there, so let’s go back and just listen to this section without the vocals.

Let’s bring it back in for the last chorus. Here comes the echoes on the vocals again.

The Plimsouls “A Million Miles Away”

The Plimsouls would break up after this album. Peter Case has continued to write and record. He’s released plenty of solo albums, and he’s still out there. A pioneer and founding father of indie rock, The Plimsouls have reunited a few times and they got one more album in 1998 called “Cool Trash”. I recommend all of their albums. They’re all worth seeking out.

Thanks for checking out this edition of the “I’m In love With That Song” podcast. New episodes of this show are released into the wild on the first and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back soon. If you can’t bear to wait for the next episode, you can catch up on all of our previous shows. There’s over 150 of them on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com or look for us on your favorite podcast app. And of course, there’s plenty of other shows on the Pantheon Podcast Network, so check some of those out too.

Please leave a review of the show wherever it is that you listen that helps, and share the show with your friends, family and neighbors. Your word-of-mouth support is the best advertising we can get, so thanks for that. And thanks for listening to this episode on “A Million Miles Away” by The Plimsouls.

RESOURCES:

The Plimsouls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plimsouls

Peter Case
http://petercase.com/

The Nerves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nerves

Blondie
https://www.blondie.net/

Valley Girl (film)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086525/

Geffen Records
https://www.geffen.com/

Matthew Sweet – “Divine Intervention”

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"Divine Intervention" (Matthew Sweet) Copyright 1990 EMI Blackwood Music, Inc/Charm Trap Music

One of our greatest singer/songwriters, Matthew Sweet, suffered a stroke recently. He’s facing some tough times ahead, but this isn’t the first challenge he’s faced. Things were not going Matthew Sweet’s way in 1990; his first two albums flopped, and his marriage fell apart.  His 3rd album was make-or-break, do-or-die.  If this one failed, he may never get to do another record.  So he & his producer went back to basics, recording a batch of guitar-oriented songs that sound both retro and refreshingly new.  The album that became known as Girlfriend saved his career and has become a true classic.  On this episode, we explore the album’s brilliant opener, “Divine Intervention”. Let’s hope he rebounds as well this time.

Please donate to support Matthew’s recovery here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-matthew-sweets-stroke-recovery?utm_campaign=pd_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&attribution_id=sl%3Ab8c56669-0388-4ae5-b3ac-5f0bb6d84d1f

“Divine Intervention” (Matthew Sweet) Copyright 1990 EMI Blackwood Music, Inc/Charm Trap Music

PREVIEW:

TRANSCRIPT:

How are you? How have you been? Good to have you back with us on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m Brad Page, coming to you on the Pantheon network of podcasts, with another exploration of one of my favorite songs. We keep the music theory and technical jargon to a minimum here, so whether you’re a musician, an avid listener, or just a fan of the song, everybody’s welcome here.

On this edition of the podcast, we’re delving into a song from one of the greatest albums of the 1990’s, and it still sounds as fresh today as the day it was recorded. It’s an indispensable part of my record collection.  For many people, the album “Girlfriend” is Matthew Sweet’s masterpiece. Join me as we explore the song that opens this classic album, “Divine Intervention”.

Matthew Sweet was born in 1964 in Nebraska. He played in bands and was writing songs as a teenager, and when he graduated high school, he moved to Athens, Georgia for college, which also happened to be ground zero for the alternative rock scene of REM, the B-52’s, Pylon, all of those great bands. He hooked up with some local bands, and even did some gigs with Michael Stipe from REM. He spent some time playing bass for Lloyd Cole, too. He formed another duo with drummer David Pierc,e and under the name the Buzz of Delight, they released one EP which included a Christmas song that still pops up every now and then.

Columbia Records was impressed and signed him to a solo deal, and he released his first album, “Inside”. The album is very ‘80’s, heavy on the synthesizer, and suffers for the fact that it was worked on by ten different producers. Here’s a song from that album. It’s called “By Herself”.

The record did not sell, and Columbia dropped him. Three years later, he surfaced on A& M Records with a new contract and a new album, “Earth”. This album was a little more cohesive and featured more guitar, including key contributions from Robert Quine and Richard Lloyd. Here’s a song from Earth called “Wind And The Sun”.

Unfortunately, this album wasn’t any more successful than his first, and A&M dropped him too.  Sweet and his wife had married young; he was 19 when they got married, but now the pressure and strain had taken its toll, and she was gone. They divorced in 1989. Having burned through two record labels and one marriage is enough to make anyone reassess their life. He regrouped, and with producer Fred Maher, they started to work on another album. And this time they stripped things back. Inspired by The Beatles’ “White Album” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”, they wanted an album that felt raw, organic, direct… not necessarily “live”, they were not trying to capture a “live in the studio” band; there are plenty of overdubs, but they were trying to catch complete performances on tape. Most overdubs were performed beginning-to-end without a lot of punch-ins, with one exception: Robert Quine’s guitar solos. Quine was so unpredictable, he never played the same thing twice. So his solos were edited together from multiple takes. But most of the performances on the new album were complete takes, start to finish. Not always perfect, but capturing the feel of a song played by real human beings.

There are two other approaches to this album that contribute to its distinctive and pretty magical sound. One is the heavy use of compression. Pretty much every instrument and vocal was subject to a significant amount of compression. Compression is electronically processing the sound to level it out, increasing the quiet sections while lowering the louder parts. This can be done subtly so that you don’t really notice it, but it results in an even, consistent sound. But you can crank up the compression, producing that distinctive sound that you hear all over this record.

The other thing that makes this album sound the way it does is reverb, or I should say, the complete lack of it. There is no reverb or echo on this album at all. Vocals, drums, instruments, none of it has any reverb at all. At a time when, in the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, reverb was used on everything to create a big sound, especially on drums, those ridiculously huge drum sounds. This album goes in completely the other direction, avoiding the use of reverb at all. And it’s all the better for it.

“Divine Intervention” is the song that opens the album. It was written by Matthew Sweet, and before we get to the album version, let’s have a taste of the demo. This is Matthew on guitar, vocals & six string bass, and Ivan Julian on lead guitar.

Once they brought it into the studio, they gave it the full band treatment. Basic tracks were laid down with Matthew on electric guitar and Rick Menck on drums. Rick was an indie rock veteran and was playing drums for Velvet Crush. Once the drums and rhythm guitar were done, Matthew Sweet would overdub a bass guitar part vocals and lead guitar, in this case by Richard Lloyd, would come after that. The song opens with a series of short, contrasting sounds. Here’s what we’re hearing there. First, there’s a snippet of the vocals from the chorus played backwards in the right channel. That is immediately followed by a guitar chord that dissolves into feedback in the left channel. This always reminds me of the beginning of “I Feel Fine” by The Beatles.

Next you can hear Rick Menck count off the song. But that’s interrupted by a stray guitar note in the center channel. I’m guessing this is an artifact from Richard Lloyd’s overdubbed guitar. And then Matthew Sweet’s guitar in the left channel kicks off the song proper. There’s also kind of a funny little guitar sting in there from Richard Lloyd.

Let’s go back to the top and hear that whole intro all the way through. You can hear what sounds like some backwards notes in the right channel.

Let’s back it up a bit and play it through the rest of the intro. The other thing you’ve probably noticed by now is the fairly extreme panning with Sweet’s guitar all the way to the left and the drums panned hard right. This was inspired by those old Beatles records. Let’s play the first verse and listen for the stereo placement of all the instruments and the vocals.

I really like the groove laid down by the bass and drums. Simple, not busy at all. Just very straightforward. Supporting the guitars and vocals and giving them plenty of room to work with.

Let’s listen to the second verse. I always thought it was interesting that, on this album that was born out of commercial failure and the collapse of his marriage, and all the questions and soul searching that would arise out of those feelings, that he would open the album with a song about maybe the biggest question of all: is there a God? And does he really care? This song doesn’t offer any answers. How could it? But it is an honest exploration of his doubts.

Notice how on that chorus that the lead and the backing vocals intentionally don’t sync up.

Next up is a guitar solo from Richard Lloyd. We’ve talked about Richard Lloyd on this podcast a couple of times before.  He was a member of the band Television, which we explored in episode #147, and we covered a song from one of Richard’s solo albums way back on episode #39. I’ve always liked Richard as a player. He can be very creative. He can play with a lot of fury and fire, and he’s not above playing like a real old-fashioned guitar hero when the moment calls for it. This solo has a little bit of all of that in it. Theres a real manic energy to this one. Just for fun, lets listen to the solo on its own and then well go back and hear it in context.

All right, now let’s go back and hear that in the final mix. First, you’ll hear Matthew sweet say the word “All right”, twice. I’m guessing one of these is on the lead vocal track and the other one is on the backing vocal track. That is a cool little bit there where for a couple of seconds they flip the tape around and play it backwards. Creative tricks like these are a great way to throw in something unexpected that shocks the listener out of complacency, breaks the predictability, and helps keep the listener engaged.

Matthew Sweet sings all of the vocals on this album, all the lead and the backing vocals. It was an intentional decision to use only Matthew’s voice on the album. That creates a sense, almost subconsciously, of the album being the singular feelings and expressions of one man. Plus, Sweet is just a great singer and is able to blend his voice together in beautiful swaths of harmony.

There’s a simple but nice little drum fill there by Rick Menck, and that brings us towards the end of the song with a bit here that I’m sure is another nod to The Beatles.

Let’s listen to just a little bit of those vocals there because it’s so great.

You might think they’re going to end it right there, but it’s just a short pause. Then there’s a drum fill and Matthew laughs. And then Richard Lloyd takes flight again. Let’s hear it. There is a simple piano part in the background played by Matthew Sweet. It’s cropped up throughout the song. You can hear it if you listen closely, here in the right channel.

The song, begins to fade out. And again, you might think this is where it all ends, but it’s a false ending. It’s going to fade back up for an encore.

They weren’t trying to be tricky here. They actually thought Richard Lloyd was on such a roll, they wanted to give us another minute or so of his brilliant guitar work.

“Divine Intervention” – Matthew Sweet

The album was released in 1991 by Zoo Entertainment, at the time, a new label formed by the former president of Island Records.

The album cover is almost as famous as the album itself. It features a photo of the actress Tuesday Weld taken sometime in the late 1950’s when she was just 14 years old. Sweet originally wanted to call the album “Nothing Lasts”, but Tuesday Weld didn’t want to be associated with that title, so they changed the name of the album to “Girlfriend”.

The record label marketed the album as if it were Matthew Sweet’s first record, which was probably smart, because this was really a fresh new start for Sweet.  But the strategy worked so well that most people don’t even know or forgot that he had two previous albums before this one.

The album wasn’t a smash hit out of the gate, but it certainly wasn’t a flop either. It sold steadily and eventually went platinum. It’s Matthew Sweet’s most commercially successful album, and it’s a critics’ favorite too. It’s hard to find a bad review of this album. In my opinion, it’s a damn near perfect record.

Thanks for joining me for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. You can find all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or look for us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. New episodes of this show come out twice a month on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll meet you back here soon.

When you have a minute, please leave a review of the show, and you can always drop me a line on Facebook or by email– lovethatsongpodcastmail.com And please support the show by telling your friends about it. Share it with your fellow music junkies.

Were part of the Pantheon Podcast Network, where you’ll find many more music-related podcasts. Check them out if you get a chance, and remember to support the artists you love by buying their music.

If you don’t already have a copy of “Girlfriend”, go buy a copy now– you won’t regret it– and crank up “Divine Intervention” by Matthew Sweet.

Big Star – “September Gurls”

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“September Gurls” (Alex Chilton) Copyright 1974 Koala Music Corporation/Almo Music Corporation, USA

One song can’t really define a whole genre, but “September Gurls” by Big Star comes pretty damn close – it IS the sound of Power Pop.  Jangly guitars, plaintive vocal, angelic harmonies, all neatly wrapped up in under 3 minutes.  It became a template to inspire bands as diverse as R.E.M., Cheap Trick, The Bangles, KISS, and The Replacements.  Discover why Big Star is often called “the most influential band you’ve never heard of”.

“September Gurls” (Alex Chilton) Copyright 1974 Koala Music Corporation/Almo Music Corporation, USA

Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from your favorite bands by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome, seekers of knowledge and keepers of the flame. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, part of the Pantheon family of podcasts. My name is Brad Page, and each edition of this podcast, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together on our mission to understand how great songs come together. We don’t get into music theory here; no musical expertise is necessary. We’ll spend our time looking at the arrangements, the performances, and the production that make each song great.

Today we’ll be listening to one of the defining bands in power pop history. In fact, this is one of the defining songs of the power pop genre. People often talk about artists that were overlooked or not appreciated in their day, but went on to become legends and inspirations for future generations. Well, there is no band that exemplifies that better than this band. In fact, this band is the poster child for “the most influential band you’ve never heard of”. This is Big Star and their classic song, “September Gurls”. We covered Big Star on this podcast before, back on episode number 73, where we explored “The Ballad of El Goodo”, a song from their first album released in 1972.  So, on this podcast, we’ll pick up the story where that episode left off.

They called that first album “#1 Record”, somewhat ironically, but also with high hopes– and rightly so, because that album is a masterpiece. It got great critical reviews. But there was one big problem. The album was distributed by Stax Records, and Stax was going through a rough time at that point. They didn’t have the money or the ability to promote it or distribute it properly. So even when the band got good reviews or got some radio play, people couldn’t buy the record in the stores because the stores just didn’t have it. It’s pretty hard to sell an album when it’s not on the shelf. So, the record flopped commercially.

Guitarist and singer Chris Bell, who was really the driving force behind the band up until that point, fell into a deep depression, and in November 1972, he quit the band. The remaining three members stuck together for a while, and though they never officially broke up then, they weren’t really working together either. Enter John King, who was working on promotion at Ardent Studios, which was Big Star’s home base. And he came up with this idea to hold a rock writers convention in Memphis. The critics were the one audience who had found Big Star. So, John King invited 150 rock writers and record industry people to the Holiday Inn for a two-day convention. Most of the big names and rock criticism were there. Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Cameron Crowe, Ed Ward, Stanley Booth– they were all there for this convention, which was really just an excuse for Big Star to play a show in front of a receptive and very influential audience. So the three remaining members played the gig, and the critics loved them. That gave the band some hope that maybe it was worth making a second album.

So the band went back to work as a three piece. Jody Stevens on drums, Andy Hummel on bass, and Alex Chilton on guitar and lead vocals. The resulting album was called “Radio City”, released in February 1974. The recording was done very efficiently with John Fry producing. The basic tracks were recorded in one, two, maybe three takes. The drums were recorded with a minimal amount of microphones, just four mics. But those mics were meticulously placed, resulting in one of the great drum sounds.

Andy Hummel primarily played a Fender Precision bass, plugged directly into the console, with some vintage tube compression applied. And Alex Chilton played a Fender Stratocaster most of the time, through either a Fender or a Hiwatt amp.

The song “September Gurls” is nestled away towards the end of side two of the album. Considering that, to many people, this song is like the ultimate Big Star song, if not the ultimate power pop song, it’s kind of shocking that it’s unceremoniously placed where it is on the record. You’d expect it to get a more prominent placement. “September Gurls”, and that’s girls spelled with a “u” – g-u-r-l-s, was written by Alex Chilton. It was performed by Alex Chilton, Jody Stevens and Andy Hummel, and produced by the band with John Fry. It clocks in at two minutes and 49 seconds. Tight, sweet, perfect.  Not a second wasted.

It opens with the sound of Alex Chilton’s Fender Stratocaster mixed towards the right channel. You can hear Andy Hummels bass note come in there, too.

Now, one of the defining characteristics of power pop is what’s often described as the sound of “chiming” guitars. Well, what does that mean? What is a chiming guitar sound? Well, I submit that this is the textbook example of a “chiming guitar”. And you also hear the first few notes of another guitar part there, panned to the center. That is Alex Chilton playing a mando guitar. A mando guitar has a body shape and roughly the size of a mandolin, but it’s tuned like a guitar. It’s also a solid body electric, not an acoustic instrument. Alex will overdub parts on the mando guitar throughout the song.

And that’s it. Just those two guitar tracks, the Strat and the mando guitar. But as we play through the song, listen to how rich and full this song sounds with just those two parts.

Let’s listen to just the backing track there. The bass, drums and guitar were all recorded live, and this was actually done on the second take, with the mando guitar overdubbed. And that part is really just doing some minimal ornamentation here.

Now let’s hear that again, this time with the vocals, and we’ll play through the first chorus.

The mando guitar is playing a descending, arpeggiated part that’s simple, but just perfect. Then there’s a short little interlude before the second verse, with the mando guitar playing some fills.

Let’s listen to the bass and the drums during this verse. Again, it’s not complex, but I just really like what they’re doing here.

Now let’s spend a minute with Alex Chilton’s vocals. To me, Alex always had this wistful, plaintive ache to his voice that adds some poignancy to his vocals. Even if the lyrics aren’t particularly deep, the emotion is there.

That gets us to the bridge, or what’s often referred to as the middle eight, because typically it takes up eight bars. Although in this case, I think it’s just seven. Here’s that instrumental track, without the vocals, that segues into a guitar solo played on the mando guitar.

But what I really like here are the backing vocals. That drum fill is great. It’s just this cathartic release before the final verse. I like how all the instruments pause to let Jody Stevens become the focus for a second, before they come back in for the verse. Let’s hear that again.

Let’s bring up the vocals one more time.

I love that little vocal “woo” at the end there. Let’s play that back.

And the backing vocals return here, too. And that’s another great drum fill from Jody Stevens.

“September Gurls” by Big Star.

They released the album “Radio City” in February 1974 and hoped this time, things would go better. But they didn’t. This time it was Columbia Records who dropped the ball. They had taken over distribution, but in the end, they had no real interest in Big Star and made little, if any, attempt to support the album. It sold 10,000, maybe 20,000 copies. That’s hardly anything for a nationally released record. It disappeared, and with it went any hope of success.

Andy Hummel was the next to quit. He left and went back to college. The band played a few more gigs with John Lightman on bass, but that was it. Alex and Jody did go back into the studio to record some more tracks, which were eventually released as their third album. It was called either “Third” or “Sister Lovers”, depending on which version you got. That is a profoundly strange album. Nothing like the first two, but for some people, that’s their favorite Big Star album.

Chris Bell, the original guitarist, singer, and songwriter for Big Star, died in a car accident on December 27, 1978. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see the band that he put his heart and soul into finally get its due in the mid-nineties.

Alex and Jody reformed Big Star, released some live albums and cut an album of all new material in 2005. Alex Chilton died of a heart attack on March 17, 2010. Andy Hummel, who didn’t participate in the reunion, passed away from cancer on July 19, 2010.

But at the time of this recording, Jody Stevens is still with us, still playing drums, and he’s now the CEO of Ardent Studios.

There’s a pretty decent documentary about Big Star, it’s called “Nothing Can Hurt Me”, which I’m sure is available on one of the streaming services. If you’d like to know more about Big Star, check it out.

And thanks for checking out this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. A new episode will be coming your way very soon, and all of our previous episodes, including the other one on Big Star, they’re all available on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com.

This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you to leave a review of the show and to “like and subscribe” to the show. I guess if you’ve never listened to a podcast before, then you wouldn’t know the drill, but I think you all know what to do. Sharing the show with your friends really does help, though, so that’d be great.

We are part of the Pantheon podcast network, home of the greatest music related podcasts. Thanks for listening to this episode on Big Star and “September Gurls”.

RESOURCES:

Big Star
https://www.bigstarband.com/

Stax Records
https://staxrecords.com/

Ardent Studios
http://ardentstudios.com/

Fender
https://www.fender.com/

Hiwatt
http://www.hiwatt.co.uk/

The Cars – “It’s All I Can Do”

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"It's All I Can Do" (Ric Ocasek) Copyright 1979 Lido Music Inc

The Cars debut album was a commercial and critical success. The pressure was on for a follow-up, and the band delivered big time with their 2nd album, “Candy-O“. The album was packed with more Cars classics, including the subject of this episode, “It’s All I Can Do”, a song that shows the strengths of each band member– everyone contributing something special top this great track.

“It’s All I Can Do” (Ric Ocasek) Copyright 1979 Lido Music Inc

…and check out this previous episode on The Cars:
lovethatsongpodcast.com/the-cars-just-what-i-needed/

TRANSCRIPT:

Time for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, sending these love letters to the music we cherish, care of the Pantheon podcast Network. Each episode I pick a favorite song and we look at it in detail, trying to understand what makes it a great song. You don’t have to be a musician or have any advanced knowledge, because we don’t get into music theory or technical stuff here. If you’re willing to listen, then this podcast is for you.

On this episode, we’re exploring a track from a band that came onto the scene as the 70’s were coming to a close, and their sound was critical in launching the sound of the 80’s. This is The Cars with “It’s All I Can Do”.

We talked about The Cars on this show once before, back in episode number 43, “Just What I Needed”. So you can check out that episode for an overview of the band’s history. This time, we’ll pick up where that episode left off.

They released that first album in June 1978. A year later, their second album, “Candy-O”, hit the shelves. That first album was considered one of the strongest debut albums of all time, and it still is. Rolling Stone ranks it in their Top 20 Greatest Debut Albums. So when it came time to record their second album, the pressure was on, and they delivered… no sophomore slump here.

“Candy-O” ended up charting higher than the debut album. It made it to #3 and would eventually sell over 4 million copies. There were three singles released off of “Candy-O”. “It’s All I Can Do” was the second single. The song features Rick Ocasek on rhythm guitar, Elliot Easton on lead guitar, Greg Hawks on keyboards, David Robinson on drums, and Benjamin Orr on bass and lead vocals.

The song begins with a bass drum hit and a quick open and close of the hi-hat. One guitar on the left with a slightly distorted tone is playing staccato, muted power chords. The bass in the center is duplicating that guitar part. On the right, there’s another guitar playing smoothly strummed, ringing chords. Sounds like there’s maybe some reverb, perhaps some chorus effect on that guitar. The rest of the tracks are pretty dry, and Greg Hawks is playing a simple but effective melody on the keyboards.

Rick Ocasek is universally acknowledged as the architect of The Cars’ sound, and he wrote all the songs on the album; but every member of the band contributed something special, and to me, the magic ingredient of the best Cars songs is the vocals of Benjamin Orr. He had a great voice and so perfectly suited to The Cars sound.

For the second half of the verse, the guitar that was playing those clean, ringing chords on the right is going to suddenly shift to playing heavy, distorted chords. Listen for the change.

Then David Robinson is going to do a short drum fill on the toms to launch us into the first chorus, and those toms are pretty high in the mix.

The instrumentation behind the chorus is pretty minimal, not a lot of overdubs, just the basic band performing, but each player is doing something just a little different enough that it sounds nice and full, with Greg Hawke’s melodic keyboard part just riding on top. Let’s bring the vocals back in and listen to that again.

Both The Cars’ first album and “Candy-O” were produced by Roy Thomas Baker, one of the most famous and successful producers of the 1970s. Baker is probably most known for working with Queen, including producing “Bohemian Rhapsody”, so he knew how to layer vocals. Though the cars kept the production tricks to a minimum on this album, there are moments where the Roy Thomas Baker effect shines through those rich backing vocals at the end of the chorus. Here is a good example.

That chorus leads immediately into the second verse, and notice that clean, ringing guitar is back.

That’s one of my favorite lines in the song—“When I was crazy, I thought you were great.” We’ve probably all had a time in our lives where we were so crazy in love that we couldn’t see just how bad that person was for us.

And the distorted guitar returns.

Greg Hawkes is playing pretty much the same keyboard part that he played on the first chorus, but he’s using a different sound this time. Here’s the sound again from the first chorus. And here’s the keyboard sound on this second chorus. They add an extra six beats in there to lead us into the guitar solo.

And I’ve mentioned before on this show that I love Elliot Easton’s guitar playing. And this is another great example of a tasteful, melodic, memorable guitar solo by Elliot Easton. Check it out.

One thing we haven’t looked at yet is David Robinson’s drum part on the verses. What he’s doing is pretty subtle, but it’s not just a straightforward drum beat. He’s put some pretty clever twists into it. Let’s listen.

Also on this final verse, Greg Hawkes has added a new keyboard part. You can imagine a string section playing this part. It really adds a new layer of drama to this last verse. Listen to how it builds through to the end of the verse.

And that’s another great line; “As soon as you get it, you want something new”.  How many of you have been on one end of that in a relationship?

Listen to the way the guitar and the keyboard are going to answer each other. It’s the guitar on the right, the keyboard on the left.

Like the way Benjamin sings this line here.

“It’s All I Can Do” by The Cars

The Cars released six albums between 1970 – 1987. Five of them were top 20 hits. Four of them reached the top ten. They split up in 1988.

Benjamin Orr died from cancer in 2000. The remaining members reformed for one more album in 2011. But without Benjamin Orr, it just wasn’t the same.

Rick Ocasek died in 2019. David Robinson has more or less retired from the music business and owns an art gallery in Rockport, Massachusetts. Elliot Easton is still active and has a number of musical projects that keep him busy, and Greg Hawkes does session and touring work, working frequently with Todd Rungren.

Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to listen to this show. I always appreciate it. New episodes of the podcast come out on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back soon with another episode. You can keep in touch with the show on our Facebook page, or on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, where you’ll also find all of our previous episodes. And you can find the show on your favorite source of podcasts, whether it’s Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher– wherever you listen to podcasts, you’ll find this show. We are part of the Pantheon Network of podcasts, the place for music related podcasts, so be sure to check out some of the other shows, too.

Thanks again for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast featuring The Cars and “It’s All I Can Do”.

REFERENCES:

The Cars
https://www.thecars.org/

Candy-O (Album)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy-O

Rolling Stone (Greatest Debut Albums)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-debut-albums-of-all-time-143608/the-cars-1978-163377/

Roy Thomas Baker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Thomas_Baker

Bohemian Rhapsody
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody

David Robinson’s Art Gallery
http://www.rockportartassn.org/

Elliot Easton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Easton

Greg Hawkes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Hawkes

‘I’m in Love with that Song’ Podcast Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/lovethatsongpodcast

Pantheon Podcast Network
https://www.pantheonpodcasts.com/

The Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated”

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"I Wanna Be Sedated" (Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings & Douglas Colvin) Copyright 1978 Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc and Taco Tunes

Few bands left a legacy as deep and as lasting as The Ramones.  You literally couldn’t count the number of bands who were influenced by these 4 New York ne’er-do-wells. They created a sound and a look that virtually created a whole genre of music.  Let’s have a listen to one of their classic tracks, “I Wanna Be Sedated”.

“I Wanna Be Sedated” (Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings & Douglas Colvin) Copyright 1978 Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc and Taco Tunes

TRANSCRIPT:

This ain’t no Mud Club or CBGB’s– this is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. My name is Brad Page, and each episode of this show, I pick a favorite song and we poke it and prod it, unearthing all the elements that go into making it a great song. Musical knowledge or experience is not required here, the only prerequisite is a little curiosity and a lot of love for music.

On this edition, we’re digging into a song by the progenitors of punk, the forefathers from Forest Hills– The Ramones and “I Want To Be Sedated”.

The Ramones came together around 1974, when guitarist John Cummings and bassist Doug Covid recruited Jeffrey Hyman to play drums in their new band.

Doug was the first one to change his name. Inspired by a fake name that Paul McCartney used to use, he changed his name to Dee Dee Ramone. He convinced the others to change their names, too. So, John became Johnny Ramone and Jeffrey became Joey Ramone.  It didn’t take long for Dee Dee to realize that he wasn’t any good at playing bass and singing at the same time, so Joey took over lead vocals, and then he realized that he couldn’t sing and play the drums. So their would-be manager, Tommy Erdelyi, changed his name to Tommy Ramone and became their drummer.

They played their first gig in March 1974. Their songs were fast, short and loud. Dressed in black leather jackets, these guys were not Greenwich Village hippies. This was something new. They became regulars at CBGB’s, and in 1975, they signed a contract with Sire Records. They released their first self-titled album in 1976, a total of 14 original songs. The longest song clocking in at a breakneck 2 minutes and 35 seconds. That album is a classic.

They recorded two more albums, but by 1978, Tommy was tired of the relentless touring and left the band. But he would continue to work with them as their producer. They recruited a new drummer, Mark Bell, who had played with Richard Hell, Wayne County, and a band called Dust, and rechristened him Marky Ramone.

They started work on their fourth album, “Road to Ruin”, co-produced by Tommy and Ed Stasium. The Ramones never strayed far from their trademark sounds. But “Road to Ruin” shows just a tiny hint of advancement. There’s some acoustic guitars, short guitar solos, and some of the songs even crack the three minute mark. I think it’s one of their better records, and it contains one of their most enduring songs. “I Want To Be Sedated”.

Their constant touring schedule brought them to London during Christmas 1977. The band was exhausted, and when everything in the city shut down for Christmas, they were stuck at their hotel with nothing to do, nowhere to go. Apparently, after one show, Joey had said to their manager, “put me in a wheelchair and get me on a plane before I go insane”. All of this would work its way into the lyrics to this song.

The song is credited to Joey, Dee Dee, and Johnny Ramone. It’s the track that opens side two of the album.

Like so many great Ramones songs, the track kicks off with a bang, with all instruments coming in together.

From what I can tell, there are probably four guitar parts here. There’s a guitar panned all the way to the left and another to the right. It’s possible that that’s just one guitar in stereo, but I think it’s two separate parts. Those guitars are just chugging away on the power chords, while there’s a third guitar in the middle playing in a higher register. Then there’s another guitar, also in the center channel, playing a twangy single note part, Dwayne Eddy-style. This is a good example of how multiple, pretty simple guitar parts can be layered together to create one big guitar sound.

Let’s take a listen to Joey’s vocal. There’s some classic 1950’s Sun Studio style echo on his voice.

And let’s check out the bass and the drums.

And that guitar break is even simpler than it sounds.

And here’s a key change.

And the hand claps return for this final section.

And that one note guitar part comes back here, too.

The Ramones – “I Want To Be Sedated”

The Ramones recorded over a dozen albums of original material. None of the records were that commercially successful. The band struggled their entire career. It’s so ironic that now that the band has long since broken up and all the original members are gone, now they’re probably more well-known than ever. They still probably sell more t-shirts than records. I bet half the people wearing Ramone’s t-shirts barely know anything about the band. But there’s no question how important they are in the history of rock and roll and how influential they were. Spanning decades, they inspired the British punks in the ‘70’s well as bands like Nirvana in the 90’s. It’s just a shame the guys didn’t live long enough to enjoy this success.

Joey Ramone died from lymphoma in 2001. Dee Dee died from a heroin overdose in 2002. It was prostate cancer that took Johnny Ramone in 2004, and Tommy died from cancer in 2014. But Marky Ramone, who plays drums on this song, is still with us today.

And that will do it for this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. New episodes are released on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back with you in about two weeks with a new show. You can find all of our previous episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, pretty much anywhere where podcasts are available. And of course, they’re all on our website too: Lovethatsongpodcast.com.

Keep in touch with us on Facebook, just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, or on Podchaser, where you can leave reviews and comments and feedback.

This show is part of the Pantheon family of podcasts, where you’ll find plenty of other great music related shows to check out.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. Remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. Take a few bucks out of your pocket and buy that album, that CD, or those m p three files. Now everybody sing along, as the Ramones play us out with “I Want To Be Sedated”.

REFERENCES:

The Ramones
https://www.ramones.com/

CBGB
http://www.cbgb.com/

Sire Records
https://www.sirerecords.com/

Wayne County
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wayne-county-the-electric-chairs-mn0000247765

Dust (Band)
https://www.discogs.com/artist/

Pantheon Podcasts
https://pantheonpodcasts.com/

I’m in Love with That Song Podcast on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/lovethatsongpodcast

I’m in Love with That Song Podcast on Podchaser
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/im-in-love-with-that-song-688085

XTC – “Making Plans For Nigel”

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"Making Plans For Nigel" (Colin Moulding) Copyright 1979 EMI Virgin Records Ltd

Keyboardist Barry Andrews was out and new guitarist Dave Gregory came onboard for XTC’s 3rd album, Drums And Wires, as the band’s sound palette expanded. Written & sung by bassist Colin Moulding, “Making Plans For Nigel” became XTC’s first big hit. This episode, we explore the production, performance and the origin of this XTC classic.

“Making Plans For Nigel” (Colin Moulding) Copyright 1979 EMI Virgin Records Ltd

Remember to follow this show, so you never miss an episode.

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome, friends. There’s no thugs in our house, so come on in and join us here at the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. My name is Brad Page and each episode of this show, I pick a favorite song and we explore it together, discovering all the elements that go into making it a great song. We don’t get into music theory here, so don’t worry if you’re not a musician or technically inclined. All that’s required here is a desire to listen.

This time, we’re exploring a song from one of the most creative bands ever. This is “Making plans for Nigel” by XTC.

Guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Molding started working together in the early 70’s. Both were singers and songwriters. Along with drummer Terry Chambers, they played in various bands with various names. By 1976, keyboard player Barry Andrews joined the band, and they changed their name to XTC.

They released their first album, “White Music”, in January 1978. And then, less than a year later, they released their second album called “Go To” in October 78. Two months later, Barry Andrews quit. He would go on to work with Robert Fripp and form the band Shriekback. But XTC decided to go into a different direction. They recruited a guitarist, a guy named Dave Gregory, who they knew from back in their hometown of Swindon.

They set to work on their third album, “Drums and Wires”. “Drums and Wires” earned its name due to the increased focus on drums and guitar sounds. The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite and engineered by Hugh Padgam, who were both the architects behind the gated, reverb drum sound that would pretty much define the sound of the 1980s.

Andy Partridge was the primary songwriter in XTC. He wrote eight of the twelve songs on the album. The other four tracks were Colin Molding songs. “Making Plans For Nigel” was one of Colin’s.

By this time, Colin was getting a little tired of the more quirky, angular stuff the band had been doing. And with the addition of Dave Gregory on guitar, he was able to push the band in a more pop direction. Not necessarily more commercial, just more accessible.

The fact is the band had all kinds of influences and with Barry Andrews’ departure, they could explore and incorporate sounds and styles beyond just the punk and new wave approach.

When Colin first presented “Making Plans For Nigel” to the band, he was strumming it on a nylon string classical guitar, and that wasn’t going to cut it for XTC. Andy Partridge contributed a lot to the arrangement of the song, and he worked with drummer Terry Chambers on the drum part. Influenced by the sounds of Devo, Andy referred to it as an “upside down drum part”, where Terry was moving a conventional rhythm around to different drums on the drum set.

Colin is following the tom pattern on his bass. Dave Gregory is playing staccato spiky chords on his guitar, while Andy is playing a two-note riff over the top.

You can hear a slow flanging effect on the drums. Terry is playing an insistent pattern on the floor tom instead of the hi-hat or symbol, as a drummer would typically do. In fact, he’s playing the hi-hat along with the bass drum. And just before the rest of the band kicks in, one of the guitars sounds like it’s momentarily stepping on a wah-wah pedal.

Again, that’s Dave Gregory’s guitar playing chords panned somewhat to the left and Andy playing that two-note bit on the right. Here comes Colin’s vocal:

Andy has to inject some weirdness… he just can’t help himself. So he adds that odd little backing vocal part.

The lyrics tell the tale of a boy with overbearing parents who’ve already mapped out the path of his life. It’s a song about parental domination. Colin said he chose the name “Nigel” because he knew a few Nigels at school, and thought the name fit the song. But the lyrics are somewhat autobiographical. Colin’s dad did not approve of him being in a band and wanted Colin to cut his hair. Back in those days, you could get expelled from school for having long hair and sure enough, Colin was expelled for refusing to cut his hair.

The song isn’t really a depiction of Colin’s life, he just used that as a starting point. But Colin did say that there’s “a bit of Nigel in myself”. There’s probably a little Nigel in many of us.

And some more quirky backing vocals from Andy there. Doubled on guitar, I think.

Little bit of a guitar fill there from Andy.

There’s a voice whispering, we’re only making plans for Nigel behind the lead vocal. Check it out.

Colin imagined Nigel working in middle management, so he gave him a corporate job at British Steel, more or less at random. Turned out to be a good choice because a month after the album was released, 100,000 union steel workers went on strike.

The British Steel Company was upset enough by the song that they found four of their employees named Nigel and had them tell the press just how great it was to work for British steel. And, as usual, this kind of publicity only helped XTC to sell more records.

They used a keyboard to create that metallic, industrial crashing sound that, along with the unique drum pattern, give the song a mechanized production line feel that matches the corporate industry conformity of the lyrics.

Now we’ve reached the bridge; Andy adds his distinctive harmony vocals here.

Andy is going to add a background vocal here, singing the line “In his work” with kind of a howling delivery that makes you wonder just how happy Nigel really is with his work.

That last time, Andy sings “In his world”. And then they repeat the main verse.

Let’s focus in on the drum part, and listen again to the way Terry Chambers plays the floor tom like it was the hi hat and uses the hi hat for accents.

And there’s another short guitar break played by Andy.

They repeat the verse again, but with different harmonies that add a sense of urgency to it. this time.

Andy adds a new high pitched vocal to that part.

Lyrically, the song is never sung from Nigel’s perspective. The whole song is sung from the perspective of Nigel’s overbearing parents. Nigel never gets to share his thoughts or feelings in his own song.

Another reference to British Steel. Here, the song breaks as they repeat the word “Steel” with that heavy echo. I imagine this was influenced by the reggae dub sound.

The rhythm guitars get a little busier here at the end.

“Making Plans For Nigel” – XTC

When the record company heard “Making Plans For Nigel”, they wanted it to be the first single from the album, and it turned out to be their first big hit, at least in the UK.

XTC is often compared to the Beatles, and I think that’s an apt comparison, at least in the sense that there was a certain tension between the two primary songwriters; there was a constant evolution from album to album; that no two records are the same; and that they were always exploring new sounds and new approaches to making records. Their songs were always smart, always clever and they knew their way around to catchy melody.

The fact that XTC never got the attention they deserved, especially in America, is just one of those frustrating things about the music business. But it doesn’t change the fact that as far as I’m concerned, they made some of the greatest albums ever.

Thank you for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. If you’d like to leave feedback or a review of the show, podchaser.com is probably the best place to do it. You can keep up to date with the show on our Facebook page, and you can find all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com or just search for us on Google Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and pretty much anywhere podcasts can be found.

And if you like the show, the best thing you can do to support us is to tell some friends about it– share it with other people. That helps the show to grow.

We are part of the Pantheon network of podcasts, where you can find a ton of other music related shows, so give some of those shows a listen. New episodes of this show are released on the first and the 15th of every month, so I’ll see you back here in about two weeks.

Until then, thanks again for listening to this episode on “Making Plans For Nigel” by XTC.

Starbelly – “This Time” (with Special Guest Cliff Hillis)

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"This Time" (Dennis Schocket) Copyright 1998 Eleven Twenty Ate Music/ASCAP

Never heard of Starbelly? You should have. But it’s not your fault. There was a bit of a resurgence of “power pop” bands in the late-90’s/early 2000’s that generated a lot of GREAT albums, but for some inexplicable reason, not much commercial breakthrough (Fountains Of Wayne being one of the few exceptions). Starbelly’s debut album “Lemon Fresh” was simply brilliant, and it’s one of my favorite records. On this episode, we dive into “This Time“, the song that opens this album, along with a special guest to tell the story– Cliff Hillis, Starbelly guitarist & vocalist who played on this album.

“This Time” (Dennis Schocket) Copyright 1998 Eleven Twenty Ate Music/ASCAP

— This show is one of many great music-related podcasts on the Pantheon network. And remember to follow this show, so you never miss an episode.

The Shazam – “On The Airwaves”

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"On The Airwaves" (Hans Rotenberry) Copyright 1994, 1999, 2000 Clut Guckle Music (SESAC)

When The Shazam tumbled out of Nashville in 1994, they should’ve landed as one of the biggest rock bands in America. Instead, they merely left us with 5 fantastic albums of hard-rocking power pop that lodged them on my list of all-time favorite bands. If you’ve never heard them before, here’s your chance to discover their greatness with a song called “On The Airwaves” – certified one of the Coolest Songs In The World.

“On The Airwaves” (Hans Rotenberry) Copyright 1994, 1999, 2000 Clut Guckle Music (SESAC)

— Don’t forget to follow this show so you never miss an episode.

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the “I’m in Love With That Song” podcast, where we use the wisdom of Solomon, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus… but maybe not the speed of Mercury, to explore the magic and mysteries of music.

I’m Brad Page, your host here on the Pantheon Podcast network. Each episode, I pick a favorite song of mine and we delve into it together, discovering what makes it a great song. To date, we’ve explored well over 100 songs; this episode features a song that’s been on my to do list since day one. This is one of my favorite songs, from one of my favorite bands ever. You maybe never heard of this band before, and that’s okay, in fact, I envy you a bit because you get to discover this band for the first time. This is The Shazam with a song called “On The Airwaves”.

[Music]

Shazam was founded around 1994 by Hans Rotenberry. Hans fell in love with music at an early age. His first two favorite singles were Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline” and “Love Me Do” by the Beatles– off to a pretty good start, I think.

He’d been playing in bands as a guitarist and writing songs, but he was never able to find the right singer. So, probably out of frustration more than anything else, he decided to try singing these songs himself. So he went into the studio with drummer Scott Ballew and producer Brad Jones to record some demos. It worked out well enough that they decided to make it official and put a band together. Hans and Scott recruited a 16-year-old bass player named Mick Wilson, and The Shazam played their first gig on August 11, 1994.

They built an audience the old-fashioned way, by playing shows, including the big power pop festivals. And in 1997, they released their first self-titled album. There’s not a bad song on it. Here’s a track from that record. It’s called “Oh No”.

[Music]

In 1999, they released their second album, again produced by Brad Jones. It’s called “Godspeed The Shazam”. At this point, they weren’t sure if they’d ever get to make another record, so they really went for it on this album. It’s an all-out, go-for-broke effort. Another killer album. Check out this track, it’s called “Sunshine Tonight”.

[Music]

Around this time, they were joined by an unofficial fourth member, Jeremy Asbrock. Jeremy had been working with them as a recording engineer and he was a friend of the band, but he was also a great guitar player and he would join them on stage to fill out their sound.

The band headed to the UK for some pretty high-profile gigs, including a BBC event at Abbey Road, and opening for Paul Weller at Earl’s Court.

The record label was looking for some new material to release, something they could get out quick, capitalize on some of the success they were having and make a few bucks to offset the cost of that UK trip. The band didn’t have anything ready, but Hans had a handful of songs that he was working on for a solo album, which they quickly turned into Shazam songs. Hans also had the idea to record a cover version of the Beatles “Revolution Number 9”, which was kind of a dare, but the record company said OK. And so the Shazam did one of the most audacious things I’ve ever heard: their take on “Revolution Number 9”.

[Music]

So they took their version of “Revolution 9”, along with those repurposed solo songs and a couple of old Shazam leftovers that they re-recorded, and they put them together on a seven song EP that they called “Rev 9”, which was released in 2000.

Now, one of those leftovers was a demo from 1995 that they had never finished. They polished it off and used it as the opening track for the “Rev 9” EP. Little Steven, on his radio show “Underground Garage”, would choose this song as one of the coolest songs in the world. In fact, years later, when Little Steven would release a series of CD’s that collected all of the coolest songs in the world, for Volume One, song number one, he chose this song: “On The Airwaves”.

[Music]

“On The Airwaves” was performed by Scott Ballew on drums, Mick Wilson on bass (playing an 8-string bass, actually), and Hans Rotenberry on lead vocals and guitars. He also played a Theremin and a bunch of other sound effects, as we’ll hear. The song was produced by Brad Jones.

The song begins with what I think is one of the greatest opening riffs of all time. It’s a big sounding, epic introduction that just demands attention, and that rattling tambourine is a nice addition. Let’s play through the intro. After two times around on the riff, Scott does a drum fill and Mick’s bass follows the guitar.

Then we hear the first of those sound effects at the end of that last chord. Hans is going to pluck at that single guitar string to hold the tension before letting loose with the title of the song, and they break into the main riff.

[Music]

Speaker C: Essentially, that’s a 4-note part. But there’s so much going on, it sounds massive. First, let’s hear the bass guitar. Mick is playing an 8-string Hamer bass through a Big Muff fuzz pedal.

Then there’s an overdubbed guitar part in the left channel on the final mix. I believe this was played on a Hamer Standard, through either a Vox AC 30 amp or a Peavey Classic 30. There’s also a Big Muff pedal on this guitar, too. And then there’s a bunch of overdubbed instruments playing that same riff. There’s a couple of Theremins, a Mellotron on the saxophone setting, a vocoder, and a bunch of guitars run through various effects.

[Music]

It makes for one glorious cacophony of sound waves blasting out in all directions.

The Shazam never made a video for the song, but if they did, Hans envisioned them in some post-apocalyptic world, driving across the wasteland, broadcasting their message to all the last surviving misfits.

Here comes the first verse. There’s a slight pause, and then Hans comes in with the vocals. Sounds like he’s doubled his vocals here. Scott is doing some great drumming all through this song. Let’s go back and listen to his drums, especially those tasty little fills.

[Music]

We hear a couple of guitar parts there. There’s a rhythm guitar part. Let’s hear that. And then there’s a second guitar playing this part:

[Music]

And for good measure, let’s hear what the bass is doing there. You can really hear that he’s playing an 8-string bass here. Let’s go back and hear that altogether.

[Music]

Here’s the second verse, and I love this verse.

“Radio of the deevolution, what do you say?
The lunatics, the hit parade,
Don’t listen, Mayday Mayday
Talking about the only thing we know, on the airwaves .

Let’s listen to that vocal track first.

[Music]

I love that. Now, underneath that, there’s still all of these crazy sound effects going on. The theremin, mellotron, radio static, manipulated tape echo… There’s even a piano part which you’ll hear towards the end. Let’s listen to all of that.

[Music]

I can picture them barreling across the post-apocalyptic wasteland, broadcasting this out. Let’s go back to the final mix and hear it all together and see what you can pick out in the background now that you know it’s there.

[Music]

That brings us to the bridge, which begins with a pretty heavy riff.

So let’s explore this next part. First, I just want to listen to Scott Ballew’s drums, because he’s playing great during this part. And there’s more of those radio effects going on, including some nonsense vocals, very low in the background.  Let’s hear a bit of that.

[Music]

And let’s pick it up when the vocals come in.

“Late at night we’re singing tunes
from deep inside our basement rooms,
lurking on our secret frequency
and in the dark red meters glow a message to the freaks”

And now there’s a nice little piano part under that, and from there, it builds back up for the final refrain

[Music]Notice the tambourine here. There’s the sound of a classic tape echo here. Probably an Echoplex, manipulating it by hand, slowing the tape down to get that descending echo. And let’s listen to what the bass is doing here at the end. You can really hear that 8-string in full effect.

[Music]

Play that back all the way through, with what I assume is a little bit of vocoder at the end.

After the “Rev 9” EP, The Shazam released another full length album called “Tomorrow The World” in 2002. That’s a great album…in fact, that may be my favorite Shazam album.

After that, Mick Wilson left the band and they recruited a new bass player, Mike Vargo, and Jeremy Asbrock finally joined the band as an official full-time member. They released one more album, “Meteor”, in 2009. That album was produced by Mack, a legendary producer who worked with Queen and ELO, just to name a few.

But unfortunately, things just came to an end, as they often do. I wish I understood why some artists catch on and others don’t. In my opinion, The Shazam were one of the best bands to come along in the last 30 years. Seriously, I would stack them up against any band that’s made a record in the last 30 years. They should have sold a million records and played stadiums, but it just didn’t happen.

The good thing, though, is that this music is still out there. You can find these CDs, you can stream all of these songs –and I want you to do it. Go find The Shazam. You will love this music, I promise.

Bassist Mick Wilson more or less retired from the music biz, though he does still play around. His replacement, Mike Vargo, is still playing and he’s actually got a pretty successful career going, including playing Paul McCartney in a McCartney tribute project.

Sadly, drummer Scott Ballew took his own life in April 2019.

I want to thank both Jeremy Asbrock and Hans Rotenberry for helping me with this episode. Hans was especially generous with his time. Jeremy has earned a great reputation as a hired gun guitarist and he’s just launched a new band called Rock City Machine Company. Check them out.

And Hans, he put out an album with Brad Jones in 2010 called “Mountain Jack”. It’s a great record.  And as we speak, he’s compiling material for a deluxe reissue of the “Godspeed The Shazam” album. And when that’s available, I’d love to have him on the show. Maybe we can do a track by track or something. That’d be fun.

Anyway, thanks to both Jeremy and Hans for sharing their stories with me, and I thank you for listening. I’ll be back in two weeks with another new episode. If you’d like to get caught up on all of our previous shows, you’ll find them all on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or listen to the show on your favorite podcast app. We’re on Amazon, we’re on Apple, we’re on Google Podcast, we’re on Spotify and Pandora and iHeartRadio… you name it, we’re on there.

Remember to support the artists that you love, like I love The Shazam, by buying their music, and you can support this show by just telling people about it. Won’t cost you a thing, and it really helps spreading the word. I’ll see you soon. Thanks for listening to this episode on The Shazam and “On The Airwaves”.

BONUS HOLIDAY SONG: Sheila Swift – “Christmas With You”

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"Christmas With You" (Michael Wagner & Sheila Swift) Copyright 2018

Join me and my special guest Mike Wagner to celebrate the holidays with his song “Christmas With You”, as performed by Sheila Swift. It’s time for some end-of-year thank-you’s as well. Happy Holidays!

“Christmas With You” (Michael Wagner & Sheila Swift) Copyright 2018

Bangles – “Tell Me”

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"Tell Me" (Suzanna Hoffs/Vicki Peterson) Copyright 1984 Illegal Songs Inc/Banglophile Music

The “Paisley Underground” scene birthed a lot of great bands in the ’80’s, but few went on to be as commercially successful as the Bangles. That success came with a price, as they were pulled away from the British Invasion and Power Pop sound that inspired them. But their first full-length album, All Over The Place, is one of the best records of the era. Before they were swayed by Prince or walked like Egyptians, they were one of the most promising successors to the sound of 60’s jangle pop.

“Tell Me” (Suzanna Hoffs/Vicki Peterson) Copyright 1984 Illegal Songs Inc/Banglophile Music

TRANSCRIPT:

What is it about songs that capture your imagination or make a lasting impact on you? How is it that a song can somehow capture an entire experience, or express a complex idea much better than mere words? I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to answer those questions here, but we do try to understand what it takes to put a great song together; the performances, the arrangements, the production, and just maybe get a little insight into those bigger questions. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, and today’s song is “Tell Me” by The Bangles.

[Music]

To some people, The Bangles were just that other girl band from LA. But to me, they were one of the best bands to come out of LA in the 1980’s, boy or girl. They came together in 1981 after Susannah Hoffs and the Peterson sisters, Vicki and Debbie, met through the Musicians Wanted classified ads in the weekly Recycler newspaper. They bonded immediately over their love for The Beatles and 60’s rock in general.

They first gigged around LA as The Colors before changing their name to The Bangs. With their jangly guitars and those rich harmony vocals, they fit right into the growing scene in LA rooted in the sounds of 60’s garage bands and the British Invasion, what would later be known as the “Paisley Underground” sound. They recorded their first single in 1981 called “Getting Out of Hand”.

[Music]

That single caught the ear of Miles Copeland, who signed them to his Faulty Products label, which was eventually folded into IRS Records.  With Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson, both on guitars and vocals, Debbie Peterson on drums and vocals and Annette Zelenskis on bass, the band set about recording a five song EP in 1982. Just as they were about to release the EP, they discovered there was another band called The Bangs, so at the last minute, they changed their name to The Bangles.

Shortly after the EP was released, Annette left to start her own project, Blood On The Saddle. She was replaced by the former Susan Thomas, who, using the stage name Mickey Steele, was a founding member of The Runaways. When she joined The Bangles, she changed her name yet again to Michael Steele.

In 1984, they released their first full length album, called “All Over the Place” on Columbia Records. For my money, this is one of the best albums of the entire 1980’s. Every song is a gem, and each song shows a different side of the band. I could have picked any song on this album to feature, it’s that good. But on this episode, we’re going to listen to one of the most rockin’ songs on the album.

“Tell Me” was written by Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson. It features Susanna on rhythm guitar, Vicki on lead guitar, Debbie Peterson on drums and Michael Steele on bass. Both Susanna and Vicky handled the lead vocals together with Debbie on backing vocals. The album was produced by David Khan.

“Tell Me” was one of the earliest songs Susanna and Vicki wrote together dating back to 1982. And you can hear its roots in that garage band sound of their early club days in the best possible way. It may sound like a simple garage rock tune, but there’s some nice work here.

The song kicks off with a classic jangly guitar intro. Then a snare drum fill launches the riff. Vicki is playing the riff on electric, and it sounds like Susanna’s playing rhythm on an acoustic guitar. Here’s just the guitars.

Now, let’s let that play through to the first verse, and notice how the guitar riff drops out to make room for the vocal. Straight away, you can hear how well Susanna and Vicki’s voices blend together. Debbie’s voice adds to the harmony here. The second verse comes right on the heels of the first.

Vicki s playing a crunchy guitar part that slides between two chords. Simple but effective.

Here’s the chorus.

This is a great example of how the Bangles arranged their vocal harmonies.

Then Michael Steele gets a moment to shine with a cool bass part.

Here’s a guitar playing a single chord over the top. It’s a very clean tone with a tremolo effect that gives it a real shimmering sound. Then Vicki gets in a short surf guitar influenced solo.

Notice how the drums just never let up. Debbie is pounding them through the whole track. Listen to the bass during the chorus, too. It’s another great part.

And on the third verse, they break between the lines for Michael to take the lead.

“Tell Me” by The Bangles.

Short and sweet, all of two minutes and 15 seconds. Sometimes that’s all you need to make your point. In just over two minutes, you got a taste of everything this band has to offer; the blended vocals and harmonies, the garage punk energy melodic guitar riffing, and then each band member gets to show their stuff.

I think The Bangles were a league above the other bands they got lumped in with, both vocally and as musicians. They got forced into a much too slick commercial box during the 1980s, and by ‘89, they split. But they came back in 2003 with an album that was a return to form—“Doll Revolution”, and they followed that up with “Sweethearts of the Sun” in 2011. Both albums are worth checking out.

Though Michael Steele would leave the band again, their original bass player, Annette Zelenskis, returned for their most recent incarnation. The Bangles never made a bad album, but I still think this one, “All Over The Place”, is the one to beat.

Thank you for joining me on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. New episodes of this show are released on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so we’ll be back soon. Until then, you can catch up on all our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com.

Let us know what’s on your mind. You can find us on Facebook; just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast.

We are happy to be part of the Pantheon Podcast Network, so be sure to check out some of the other great shows that are part of the Pantheon family. That’s it for this episode. I will see you soon… For now, I leave you with “Tell Me” by the Bangles.