Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another journey through various decades of music.

1985: David Bowie and Mick Jagger

1971: Joni Mitchell

1976: Steve Miller Band

1962: The Crystals

1976: Nick Lowe

1977: Steely Dan 

1978: The Police

1981: The Go-Go's

1965: Donovan

1975: Bad Company

1966: The Monkees

1963: The Ronettes

1981: Devo

1998: The Rolling Stones (the remix version)

Covered

 

Last week I posted I'm Free a cover version by The Soup Dragons. After this I recognized, that during the years I never featured The Rolling Stones on these pages. To be honest, I thought about it but wasn't sure if I should write about a chapter of their musical history, their best songs, their main influences or something else. Maybe I will find the time for a post in the future. While listening to I'm free, many cover versions of her songs came to my mind. Many are irrelevant and far too close to the original. Others have been radically altered or deconstructed to fit the sound of the performer. Like Devo or Motörhead, for example, who have amplified the driving force of Sympathy for the Devil with minimal means. This is just a small subjective overview of how these songs could have sounded if someone else had written them and should in no way be seen in competition with Rol's fantastic Top Ten.

Enjoy

Working Week Is Over

I often came back to work after a longer hiatus but it never was like this week. Plenty of work waiting on my desk to be done. And not only done most of them should be done quickly because my final work was needed for various appointments for our CEO or external audit. So I exercised my duties with some almost 10 hour shifts and when I came home I just wanted to sit down, watch an hour or so TV and then falling asleep. I didn't had the power to continue the blog and I am confident that next week will be easier to work and I can have more time for myself.

Old Vine In New Bottles

Devo, a band formed in the mid 70's in Akron, Ohio, were one of the weirdest bands during the upcoming punk/new wave era in the US. They dissent popular music to a minimum to open our ears to new sounds. One of their greatest was their version of The Rolling Stones classic Satisfaction. A very new and raw version of a song everybody knows for ages. Their first record from 1978 Q: Are We Not Me, A: We Are Devo is still outstanding for this era. They faced the way for many other bands from across the ocean like Talking Heads and more. This song is still a classic like Mongoloid and Jocko Homo. They are worth to give them a memory in this way.

Who's Afraid Of The 80's? Pt 5

When I bought this record in the late 70's I knew a few songs by the original and was surprised why so called punk bands cover theses classics. During the next years most every new band covered a well known song from the past (thinking about a new short series about covers, done by punk/new wave artists). First I was confused about what they done to these songs - but not for long. Very soon I recognized that they breathed new life into these songs. And most of them were better than the originals. I remember when I played these new versions to some friends and was sad that they didn't open their ears to new sounds. And it is the same until now. You can read in many panels people posting that they closed their ears in the early 80's and are not willing to listen to something new. Even if it is hot or not.

Devo were one of this artists that shocked with their first LP. They reduced their songs to a minimum. From Satisfaction as known by Rolling Stones it reduced to a rattling rhythm and a nervous chorus.

Devo - Satisfaction

Another band that killed the originals were The Flying Lizards. They made the best version of Money I have ever heard. And they did the same with Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues. Going away from the Rockabilly sound they used a simple keyboard and almost spoken words to make a very new and unique version of this classic song.

Praise the lord that they put a song by The Skids on this record. It might be on of the first punk rock bands from Scotland and they grabbed me with Masquerade. a classic 2:45 minutes masterpiece. It is simple, exciting, dulcet and on heavy rotation almost 40 years ago. A few years later Stuart Adamson formed Big Country and wrote a lot of great songs. But this is a story I told already.

Indie Scene 1981

1981 was the year independent music changed his face. During the last years a lot of bands became highly rinsed playing short guitar based songs with a lot of verve. Now it seems that pop and the spirit of singer/songwriter get a foot in the door of new music. Fantastic bands like Haircut 100, Aztec Camera appeared on the scene as well as acts like Flock of Seagulls or Hazel O'Conner. I don't want to wail - it was a very good thing that happened to new music - they enriched us with their music. Now I could spread my musical spectrum to even this music.

In my hometown the first so called 'punk bands' showed up in some locations. Absolutely a few years too late but they had the power and the spirit in it. I remember a few concerts where there was for one hour totally weirdness listening to some young fellows playing mostly cover versions of their heroes. Still in 1981 the mainstream ruled my little town. The jazz purists refused to listen to this kind of music, the Deadheads were still smoking pot and the rest was listening to Phil Collins, Journey or Pat Benatar but the scene grew the more we outdistanced from them. I remember one of the first concerts by Fido and the Insects (one of the first local punk bands) in a very small club playing in front of 80 people watching them. Listening to them crudely sound wasn't fun at all but we loved their power and enthusiasm. A few month ago I watched them after more than 30 years when they played a reunion gig. Everyone's got older (and maybe wiser), the dudes learned how to play their instruments and the crowd was happy for another evening to remember these days.

Au Pairs - Inconvience
Aztec Camera - We Could Send Letters
Birthday Party - Release the Bats
Clock DVA - 4 Hours
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - It's my Party
Pigbag - Papa's got a brand new pigbag
Southern Death Cult - Fatman
The db's - Big Brown Eyes
Toyah - I want to be free

More of stuff like these you will find in an older post of mine.

Indie Scene 1978

It was in 1978 and lots of people felt happy listening to Rod Stewart singing about 'Hot Legs' or Kansas' 'Dust in the wind' I turned into another kind of music. I felt bored with all this music - not that I didn't liked some of these but now there was another kind of music that gave me much more. It was fast, loud, raw and full of emotions. But it was hard to talk about this music with the folks I hang around. Most of them disclaimed this music because they stuck in the old fashion patterns they were used to have. You've got no chance to convince them that 'Alternative Ulster' is more than a whole record by Van Halen. It took me a long time to understand that this music is more a conviction and a boundary from everything 'old'. In this time I started to listen to the lyrics more than before and I understood that there were more people out there thinking the way I do. And the more I listened to this music the more the lads changed I shared my time. There were a few punks that adapted this attitude, some Teds and ordinary looking people like me. And finally we were a little scene in our town and years later we started to play our music in a club (but this will be another story to be told). Punk and New Wave wasn't played in public radio in these days so I began to buy NME regularly to get informed what's new. An older friend of mine which I used to play football together was the owner of a record shop and he had open ears for this new music. And he was very quick to get the new stuff to sell. I don't know how many hours I hang around in his shop listening to the new arrivals.

So enjoy the songs and have a perfect weekend

The Lurkers - Ain't Got A Glue
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
The Fall - Bingo Masters Breakout
Joy Division - Glass
TV Personalities - Part Time Punks
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
The Normal - Warm Leatherette

Satisfaction

These days I was writing a lot of late 1970s music especially with Dirk in our 'Battle of the Blogs'. I also read again the documentary from Jürgen Teipel about the birth of German punk music 'Verschwende Deine Jugend'. This might be the third or fourth time I read this - and it still makes me smile when I get remembered to this time. This book isn't only an enumeration of things that happened. The writer - former self a member of the movement - took the time to interview most of the musicians in Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin to remember this time. After all you can follow the punk in Germany year by year with all the comments from the people which was part of the scene. A lot of references were given to Devo and I remember well that we used to play their songs often and loud. One chapter in punk and New Wave was to reduce well known songs to their minimum to rebuilt it in their own inspiration.

I think it's a good start in the new week - so enjoy and have fun

Devo - Satisfaction