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

Sign O' The Times

It is now 35 years ago when Prince released his masterpiece Sign O' The Times an double album that showed everything he was famous for. An album that still works after all these days. I have to admit that I don't be a big fan of him and his music but he made in these days records that were high above the average of many other artists. Songs that were well tempered and arranged and when I listen to them ages later they still grab me in a way I can't explain. Just a post to remember a great musician.

 

The Revolution Of Super Visions

Another week filled with too much work is over and at last I will find some time to listen to music. One of those songs that I came new to my ears this week is the first song from Jane Weaver's upcoming album Flock. It is a kind of funky song with a mid-tempo groove, a repetitive heavy bass with a Prince inspired rhythm guitar that builds a perfect basis for Jane's voice that makes me curious for her new album

FIRE RECORDS · Jane Weaver - The Revolution Of Super Visions

Monday's Long Song

In 1987 Prince released his masterpiece Sign O' The Times. Only sometimes I agree to critical acclaim to an album because it is often a kind of hype to me. But the many warm words to this album are more than correct and true. I loved this album from the first time I listened to it.. I don't know any album from the late 80's that stood the test of time like this. Prince was at the height of his songwriting abilities and less double albums are worth to be listened in a row. His way of combining  different kind of music influences like electro-funk, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel, blues and folk is still unmatched.

Prince - It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

Mary Don't You Weep

Price was the one a lot of people could agree in the mid 80's because he wrote great and well arranged songs that made him a superstar. He could hold a high level for several years and released many albums until he died in 2016. A few month ago Piano & A Microphone, his first posthumous album was released. It is nothing more than a session or a warm up but intimate and intense. Listening to the songs on the album you will know what kind of influences he had. Mary Don't You Weep is just a gospel song but the way he did it is superb. For me a great start into Sunday. 

Prince 1958 - 2016

Sad news arrived that Prince/Love Symbol died today. It is not the music I used listen too often but he made some remarkable records in the mid 80s. I don't know much about the records he released the last decade but for me he was the sound of black music almost 30 years ago.

RIP, you Sexy MF

Prince - Sign O The Times

Them Changes

It's summer and more and more exhilarated songs were released. One of those I found by visiting the homepage of Austrian radio. It's by Stephen Bruner aka Thundercat an American bass player and producer. With his brother he played in former times with Suicidal Tendencies before he started to work as a session musician. He has a close friendship to Flying Lotus and was the producer of Kendrick Lamar's last album. It's a little gem with a steady slow soul, references to Prince and George Clinton in slow-motion.

Lonelady

Owned me the newest album by Julie Campbell aka LoneLady and I have to say that it's one of the best in this year so far. It's a record that spreads between early Manchester sound like Joy Division, Wire and A Certain Ratio and early Prince when Wendy and Lisa were true his sound. Listening to this record is like a journey between the coolness of the early 80s New Wave and the funk and groove of the late 80s. All in all a record you should give a listen to.

LoneLady - Into The Cave




And this a song she did in collaboration with the mighty Jah Wobble a few years ago:

From The In-Box

Two thirds of the year are over and when I look out of the window I feel like the autumn is close to us. Weather forecast tell us that it isn't this way and Indian summer is coming soon. But the bad weather makes me able to check the incoming music from last week. And something really good music arrived.

Black Eskimo is a NYC based band and published some downtempo electronic songs. Ingrid Chavez writes the lyrics to the songs composed and produced by Marco Valentine. Most songs rhythm is reduced to the minimum and Ingrid sings (or may I say talk?) her lyrics to. These songs do not let go you any more because they are familiar to you in a way at all. Listening several times to them I find some influences from early Prince and David Silvain - not a too bad choice I think.

Black Eskimo - Beautiful
Black Eskimo - My Love's A 45

Let me introduce the next band in their own words:

In an East London (England) gutter, something deep, primal and most definitely weird is stirring.

The Boy From The Crowd Cocktail: take a pinch of Delta blues, mix with some edgy surf rock, shake (don’t stir) with a hefty dose of punk attitude and some good old-fashioned rock n roll swagger. Infuse with tension, blend with menace and you're starting to get a flavour of the rich and potent firewater served up by The Boy From The Crowd. 

And indeed - it's an incredible mix: Taking some blues themes, adding some new sounds and a mean guitar. It's quiet the way The White Stripes has done before. Worth to listen to.

The Boy From The Crowd - Revilator

Newcastle upon Tyne gave us The Pete Rea Band playing classic rock. And what's bad in classic rock? Nothing if it's played in this way. Most of the songs based on a simple blues pattern but played with so much soul, style and verve. He plays a fantastic blues guitar and listening to it you know his inspirations. It sounds like this old British guitar heroes from the 60s like Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck or Peter Green. All the songs are heavy riffing with great vocal harmonies, guitar solos and sometimes with beautiful sax works.

The Pete Rea Band -  Gun To My Head

The Pete Rea Band -  I'm The Angel

The Pete Rea Band -  Line of Fools

Seems like Hippies never die - and it's good that someone keeps the tradition alive. The music is based in the tradition of Folk-Rock with heavy influence of the main leading bands of the psychedelic era. I like this song not only because it brings back some memories. No it's just a good song, well arranged, played and added with a fantastic horn part.

Jon Clark - Mr. Fix-It Man

Twanging Tuesday # 9

Rumble on the Beach was a German rockabilly band from the early 1980s. Their first record was released on the Weser label which was well know for their punk history. Rumble Rat is a pretty good record in this genre and Rumble on the Beach reached a higher name recognition with their rockabilly-version of Prince's Purple Rain.

Rumble on the Beach - Purple Rain

40 Records In 40 Years (14/40 - 1987)

Occupational change at the office. In addition to my general tasks they added new obligations to me. Now I have to switch to the customers to serve and to conclude contracts with them. That was exactly the thing I never wanted to.  But I had no opportunity to refuse this job if I wanted to keep my job. And I was to lazy to look for a new job because I was integrated in my social life and the big advantage to have a job in my hometown. After weighing all the pros and cons I bit the bullet and did my best, knowing that this will be my final job. Therefore me and Susanne decided to take a longer time for vacation this year. In summer we went for a four-week vacation to the coast of the Algarve in Portugal by car. It was 1.300 miles one way from our town to the final destination of Albufeira. As we go by car we decided to take not the shortest way and visit some other places on our way. So we first drove through France towards Marseille and from there up to Barcelona. We also stayed a couple of days in the beauty Camargue. It was an easy and free time to travel and to stop and stay if ever we had the feeling inside that this place needs to stay for longer. All in all we had a great time, not knowing that this was the best moments in our both life so far. Looking back to this trip I ask myself how I could manage driving this distance. Maybe you can do this when you are younger - today it would be too much for me.

This year's records that are worth to remember again:

The Triffids - Calenture: Another great record by a underrated band

Public Enemy - Yo! Bum rush the show: A monument of rap

U2 - The Joshua Tree: You couldn't ignore because it was played everywhere

Gary Moore Wild Frontier: Blues rock with Irish influences

Deacon Blue - Raintown: Perfect pop about life in Glasgow

The Cure - Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me: Back again with an more optimistic mind

John Hiatt - Bring the Family: A perfect combination of Blues, Country and rock

Terance Trent D'Arby - Introducing the Hardline According to ...: The return of soul inspired songs

The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come: Their legacy and final highlight

Nyah Fearties - A Tasty Heidfu: Minimal Irish Punk Folk; short songs - great fun

The Jesus and Mary Jane - Darklands: Gigantic

39 Clocks - 13 more Protest Songs: German New Wave goes Psychedelic

The Sister of Mercy - Floodland: Andrew Eldrich turnes into bombast 

Aztec Camera - Love: One more great record from one of the finest Scottish bands

Aretha Franklin - One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism: The mighty voice goes back to the roots

Some songs that was played very often this years and others they should have been played more:

What was on the movies this year:

Good Morning Saigon: Robbie Williams as a radio DJ in Vietnam - awesome

The Untouchables: Fantastic movie about how to get Al Capone in jail

Dirty Dancing: Patrick Swayce tried to teach us how to dance

Dragnet: Dan Aycroyd's homage to the 50s cop series

La Bamba: Good biopic about the life of Richie Valens

Moonstruck: Nice movie about relationship in the family. Great: Cher

Angel Heart: Maybe the best movie about the devil ever. Fantastic: Robert De Niro as Lou Zeyfer (especially peeling the boiled egg)

The Big Easy. Corruption in the police department of New Orleans with great Cajoun music

Full Metal Jacket: Great idea to show military education on Paris Island and the reality fighting houses

Radio Days: Woody Allen takes us back to the times before television

Wall Street: Oliver Stone shows us how trading business works.

When I remember this year there are a few things that touched me personally:

The so called Unabomer Ted Kaczynski strikes another time in Salt Lake City with his bombing campaign against modern technologies // The Iran-Contra affair continues and blaming Ronald Reagan for not controlling his administration // The first appearance of the Simpsons in the Tracey Ullman show // Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II // Nineteen year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defenses and lands a private plan on Red Square in Moscow // Through a visit in Berlin Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet prime minister Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall // 400 Iranian pilgrims are killed in clashes with Saudi Arabian security forces in Mecca // Black Monday: Stock market levels fall sharply at Wall Street and around the world // English jockey Lester Piggot is jailed for three years after being convicted of tax evasion //worker rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausesco in Romania // King's Cross fire in London Underground kills 31 people - after that the historic wooden lift was replaced // Barschel-affair in Germany: One day before the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein, reports the mirror, Prime Minister Barschel have let spy on the SPD's top candidate Björn Engholm // Rudolf Heß kills himself in Spandau prison // Zeebrugge disaster: Roll-on/Roll-off cross-channel ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes off  Zeebrugge Harbour in Belgium; more than 180 people die.

A year of very good music and essential records were released. Most of them I copied on tape listening to them on our vacation to Portugal and it was again very hard to decide what record I will show up for this year. Finally it was Prince with his monumental record 'Sign 'O' The Times'. Why?  Because it shows Prince on the highest level he ever reached. He was full of ideas and combined his influences from R&B, Dance, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Rock and Pop to an extraordinary mixture that stands the test of time. No song is like the other and the title track was a veritable chart breaker. His class was also recognized by the great producer Quincey Jones who asked him for a duet with Michael Jackson on 'Bad'. But he denied because 'he doesn't do things like that anymore'.

Prince - Adore
Prince - The Cross
Prince - Sign 'O' The Time
Prince - Starfish And Coffee
Prince - The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker

40 Records In 40 Years (10/40 - 1983)

When I think back what happened in this year of my life that it was stamped by two influences: First is the wakeup of my political thinking and second was that I started playing football again.

Compared to now the twenty something was more interested in politics and tried to show their point in mostly peaceful ways. I still remember what we discussed these times. There was the NATO Double-track decision that offered the Warsaw pact the deployment of the mobile American middle-range missiles (Pershing II) to rebuilt the state of Mutual Assured Destruction. NATO offered immeditate negotiations with the goal to ban nuclear armed middle-range missiles from Europe completely, with the provision that the sam missliles could be installed four years later should the negotiations fall. Knowing that the Americans deposited a lot of nuclear warheads in southern Germany and not far away from our place we were afraid of the so called 'war by mistake' and a nuclear Holocaust in Europe.

This was the birth of the peace movement in Germany. We demonstrated against the NATO double-track decision on some marches through the cities and finally in October with the largest human chain. More than 300.000 people stood between Stuttgart and Neu-Ulm (more than 100 km) hand in hand to say no to this decision. How proud we were to be members of this.and I still remember that slogan 'Petting instead of Pershing'. It was also the time when our new government by Mr. Kohl turned into another politic of nuclear energy forcing the building of new atomic reactors. Reminding the accident on Three-Mile-Island we had fears about what could happen when we lose control over the systems. We supported the Green Alternative so that they were elected in the autumn to the German Bundestag. In this connection I have to remember the leading person of this party Petra Kelly and her partner the former general Gert Bastian - that they died a few years later at suicide is another story to be told.

The third thing I remember was the census that should be done in this year. A lot of questions to be answered in interviews partly very private. The easiest way to say to the census was not opening the door to the interviewer. And after some judical judgements the government denied the census.

This was the background we discussed at long evenings in our local pub. A lot of them lads I did know for years - others were totally new to me. One day the owner of the pub wrote with chalk on the board: 'Is anyone interested to play football in the name of the pub?' We sat there watching him writing and said spontaneous 'Try us!' And that was the birth of a hobby team that lasted for nearly 20 years. We all knew that we could be successful because we all played football in different clubs. But our first tournament was a totally disaster because we thought we were unbeatable and play with several beers in our head. But more of this later.

Now back to music from 1983:

Michale Jackson - his international breakthrough. God, how normal he looked.

David Bowie: Back on the block with great songs

Flashdance - You couldn't avoid this song in this summer. Every girl wanted to dance

Prince - maybe the most played video this year. Great funky music long before 'Purple Rain'

Lionel Ritchie - Soft soul popped up again

New Order - The start of something really great

Talking Heads - back again with a superb record and ambitious video

Mari Wilson - The return of some piano jazz as played in bars

Big Country - brought us back whistling guitars

The Flying Pickets - gave us back a-capella

Malcom McLaren - swinging tunes

Orange Juice - one of the best bands ever

And we need this (ok - it's for JC; remember your countdown?)

My first thought was that this year were not released as many remarkable and leading records compared to the last year. Maybe a little break for the things will come. Anyway - by adding them up I have to say that I was wrong. Here some records that I remember well:

Malcolm McLaren - Duck rock: Turned away from his punk roots to combine south African music with American Rap

Roxy Music - The High Road: Just a four track EP but great

David Bowie - Let's Dance: Sound of the summer that fit to a lot of people

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain: Their first masterpiece; awesome songs

New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies: Elementary for what will be called dancefloor later

Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues: Excellent record after a couple of years

Yello - You Gotta Say Yes To Another Success: s.a. New Order

Big Country - The Crossing: Love to hear some good guitars again that sounded like bagpipes

Rufus - Stomping At The Savoy: Together with Chaka Khan a furious live recording

Marc And The Mambas - Torment and Toreros: Following project from Marc Almond together with Matt Johnson. A crude mixture of French chansons, freaky guitars, string arrangements, dance tracks and a little bit of dark wave.

The The - Soul Mining: Matt Johnson gave us a combination of wave, dark and dance

Michael Franks - Passion Fruit: I always loved his voice, and now he released a little masterpiece of funk and fusion

I didn't went often into the cinema this year but there are still some movies I can remember::

Trading Places: Day Aykroyd an upper class broker and Eddie Murphy a homeless street hassler changing their lifes because of an immortal bet.

The Big Chill: Lawrence Kasdan shows us what could happen when you meet your former class mates after 15 year according to a funeral of your friend

Silkwood: My first time I recognized Meryl Streep as an actor when she stood up against the atomic industry

Carmen: Never seen flamenco like this before - awesome

Cujo: Another horror thriller based on a novel by Stephen King - beware of the dog

Gorky Park: Crime in the Soviet Union - nearly impossible?!?

Zelig: Woody Allen shows us his Jewish roots

Not only the protest against the decisions of our government ruled the world - there was something else:

The mighty Björn Borg retired from Tennis; 25 members of the brigada rossi were imprisoned for life after for murder of Aldo Moro; Klaus Barbie is officially charged with prison for war crimes; over 2000 people, most of them Bangladeshi Muslims, were massacred in Assam, India; Strategic Defense Initiative by Ronald Reagan - became well know as 'Star Wars'; Motown celebrates 25th anniversary and Michael Jackson creates the moonwalk; Sterm magazine releases the Hitler diaries which are later found to be forgeries; Aberdeen FC wins the European Cup Winner's Cup by beating Real Madrid 2:1 after extra time; the Tories are re-elected by a landslide majority; Anti-Tamil riots begin and nearly 3000 where killed - start of the Sri Lanka civil war; Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by interceptor when the civil aircraft entered Soviet airspace; Maze prison escape.

The second official record from Fun Boy Three is on of the most perfect records ever that combined political and social commentary with fantastic harmonies and melodic twists. The whole record has a full touch of sadness and hopelessness all over. Often combined with the last hope: love.

It was produced by Talking Heads member David Byrne who also played guitar on  it. I can't remember when I heard three voices (Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding) in that harmony before and after. Their single 'Our lips are sealed' reached the top 30 in Britain these year. Less people will remember that this song (co-written by Terry Hall) was recorded by the Go-Go's a few years ago (also a band I remember very well sometimes). It is pure pop but effective arrangements feature trombone, cello and other orchestral instruments make this record a milestone in British music.

Fun Boy Three - The More I See (The Less I Believe)
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed
Fun Boy Three - The Tunnel Of Love

And as a bonus - their smash hit with Bananarama - just drums and rhythm