Animal Wednesday

 

Today, let’s take a look at some animals that aren’t mentioned very often in songs, and let’s go back to 1987, when David Weiss and Don Fagason – also known as David and Don Was – formed Was (Not Was) in Chicago. Their sound, which was a blend of funk, rock and pop, brought them a number of chart hits.

A year later, we came across a Swedish singer who, until then, had also been working as a model. Neneh Cherry was (quite rightly) the talk of the town thanks to her voice and her debut album, Raw Like Shushi.

Whilst Prince was already being hailed as a rising star in the early 1980s, it was his album Purple Rain that secured his definitive breakthrough. Not just because of this song.

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Here is the second edition of a journey through former hits and some eclectic songs from the past this year.

1972: Little Feat

1964: The Searchers

1969: The Byrds

1983: Prince

1965: The Righteous Brothers

1965: The Shangri-Las

1968: Otis Redding

1971: Ike & Tina Turner

1990: Sinead O'Conner

1981: Ultravox

1969: Tommy James and the Shondells

1994: Tori Amos

1971: Janis Joplin

1974: The Allman Brothers Band

1974: Paper Lace

1974: Joni Mitchell

Red Hot And Blue II

 

The weekly journey into color and temperature takes us back to the eighties and the noughties. Let's start with a song from 1983 by Prince. With his album 1999 he became known to a wider public. Not so much because of his idiosyncratic interpretation of funk, but also because of his sexual innuendo in Little Red Corvette.

Prince - Little Red Corvette

The Cure released in 1987 their first double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me a record whereupon The Cure impressed with an unprecedented wealth of facets. The addition of new instruments and the sometimes unconventional song structures annoyed one or two fans in black outfits. Many of the songs are sunnier than everything they recorded before and after. And on Hot, Hot, Hot they played a superb funk-pop.

The Cure - Hot, Hot, Hot

Blue Orchid was the opening track from Get Behind Me Satan the fifth album by The White Stripes. The song shows exactly what you could expect from the whole album: minimal played, raw blues with great hooks.

The White Stripes - Blue Orchids

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another journey through releases of songs that made me fun listening again.

1970: Detroit rock and blues band Rare Earth released a cover version of Temptations hit Get Ready. Although the single is pretty good I prefer their long version.

1981: Vince Clarke prepared the sound of electronic pop music with Depeche Mode. I Just Can't Enough was the first of many upcoming melodic hymns.

1987: Prince released his best album for me with a statement of what was going on these days.

1991: REM release Losing My Religion, not their best song but the one that made them super stars.

1984: Bananarama was probably the first British girl band that brought us in the 80'sna lot of classic pop songs like this.

1980: Squeeze should be named if someone asks for a band formed in the post-punk days and later turned into pop-rock hymns.

1973: Bruce Springsteen released his debut and Blinded By The Light was one of his early highlights of the great storyteller.

1979: From the ashes of the latest pub-rock band The Motors Bram Tchaikovsky showed how great power-pop could be.

1979: It takes a lot of chutzpah to record cover versions of soul classics at a time when music was in upheaval. But the two comedians Aykroyd and Belushi did it very well.

1980: Atomic by Blondie is too good to remain unmentioned here.

Sinéad O'Connor RIP

 

A few hours ago the sad news arrived that Sinéad O'Conner died at the age of 56. The reason why she died was not announced but it doesn't matter because another great voice is gone now. Everyone knew her if only one remember her cover of a song by Prince. But she had more to offer than a great version of this song. During her career she slipped from genre to genre and I don't know any song sung by her that wasn't worth to give a listen. Her beautiful and fragile voice is always a pleasure to listen to. That she had a painful life after being abused in her childhood and this trauma you can hear in every song she sung. 

Rest easy Sinéad

Sixty Four

 

Today's my 64th birthday and I can't belief the day because nothing big changed during the last years except getting older. I think and feel younger than my date of birth tells me. There's no greater celebration going on today and I will meet another fellow who has his birthday today as well for a couple of pints with a few friends. There were many thoughts of what to feature today but nothing felt confident to me so I decided to check the dates in music history for May 22 and decided to name a few of the list.

2019 - Scottish musician Jake Black (The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love), died age 59. He was a member of Alabama 3 a very underrated band.

1988 - Prince scored his first UK No.1 album with 'Lovesexy.' The cover (based on a photo by Jean Baptiste Mondino) caused some controversy upon release as it depicts Prince in the nude. Some record stores refused to stock it or wrapped the album in black.

1988 - Billy Bragg were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and 'She's Leaving Home.' The two Beatles songs had been recorded for the childLine charity, sales of the single, which spent four weeks at No.1 on the UK chart, were over £600,000, all of which was donated to ChildLine .

1982 The Hacienda Club was opened in Manchester

1980 Joe Strummer was arrested at a much-troubled gig in Hamburg, Germany, after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he was released after an alcohol test proved negative.

1972 The Doors, Pink Floyd, the Faces, Family, Curved Air, Atomic Rooster, The Kinks, Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep, Country Joe McDonald, Buddy Miles, Status Quo, Brinsley Schwarz, Spencer Davis, The Strawbs and Humble Pie all appeared at the 2nd British Rock Meeting, Insel Grun, Germersheim, West Germany. The festival was due to take place in Mannheim, West Germany, but after protests from the locals, the concert actually took place in nearby Germersheim.

1972 Marvin Gaye released What's Going On