Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXV--Taxxi: Cocktail Queen

A couple of years back I wrote about a tune by Dwight Twilley called "Somebody to Love" that I thought should still be being played in all its anthemic glory on FM station after FM station...but alas, it isn't.  This week's tune is much the same, though it should be as fondly remembered of a one hit wonder as Looking Glass' "Brandy" or Blues Image's "Ride Captain Ride..."

Amazingly enough, Taxxi did have a Wikipedia entry (a whole couple of paragraphs) because I could find absolutely nothing else about the band--the only album mention I found just stated the album and its songs without any review, and for the first time in the history of Friday Night Jukebox there was no lyric sheet to be found (gasp!).  For the record, Taxxi formed in London (surprise to me as I thought they were an American band) in 1979 and lasted until 1987 despite an utter dearth of commercial success.  They released four studio LPs, one compilation, one unreleased tracks album (?!!!), and had a song on two separate soundtracks (Weird Science and The Secret of My Success).  The band did get its start with help from the Who's manager Kit Lambert, so there's that.  Otherwise, singer/guitarist David Cumming, keyboardist Colin Payne, and drummer Jeffrey Nead's only claim to fame is making a song I deemed worthy of inclusion on FNJ (which I hope doesn't give them pause as to the breadth of their career)...

Fun Fact:  Randy Jackson of American Idol fame played bass as a session musician for the band on its first three albums.  Fascinating, my God....

"Cocktail Queen" was released in 1982 on Taxxi's second album, States of Emergency.  Neither the single nor the album so much as sniffed the charts, though the song did receive some steady MTV airplay (and is where I became familiar with it).

Regular readers (both of you) know of my love for power pop, and "Cocktail Queen" has the commanding guitar chords and driving drums that make my heart sing (to coin a phrase).  There's also plenty of hand claps, great backing vocals, and a story about a cocktail waitress who may (or may not) be everybody's angel (and what man among us hasn't fallen in love with a waitress at least once?).  But if you really want to know how I feel about the song, check out keyboardist Colin Payne in the video below--I may not be as graceful as he as he bop, bop, bops along, but my heart dances exactly as he every time I hear "Cocktail Queen."  Don't she love to rock and roll (rock and roll!), indeed.

Lyric Sheet: [Blogger's Note:  I actually own the LP of States of Emergency and these lyrics are verbatim from its...uh...lyric sheet]  "Cocktail queen, like a fire in the night/Burns with a flame that will set you alight/And she can keep on burning, all night long..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Just how sick these assholes are

Psychopaths, every last one of them

This just isn't about Donald Trump, though he's a part of it, its about Corporate America, Wall Street, Big Business, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jamie Dimon, and the whole lot of these greedy cocksuckers.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said today that the coronavirus, which has already killed 170 people and will kill countless more before its done, should be good for American business and accelerate a return of jobs to America.

Only in Donald Trump's America could someone celebrate the profitability of people dying.

We need to bury these fuckers, stat.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

R.I.P. GOP, 1854-2020

Someone cue "Taps"...

 I'm obviously not the best prognosticator (once again, Sarah Palin, republican nominee for President, 2012), but I find it hard to believe that the republican party will survive in any semblance of its current iteration following its conduct under Donald Trump.  While Mitch McConnell coordinating with the White House to conduct a sham trial, Rand Paul doing his damnedest to out the whistleblower, the Trump defense team making a mockery of the U.S. Constitution, or John Roberts once again pretending to be an impartial juror instead of the GOP lackey that he truly is may play well with the 40% of Americans who will welcome fascism as long as it keeps old white men in power, the other 60% of the country wants absolutely no part of it.

And even if they do manage to turn us into Brazil, or Poland, or Turkey, or the Philippines, or even North Korea, it's only a matter of time before the bombs start bursting and the guillotines begin dropping.

You can't spent 200 years teaching a people how important and unique its freedoms are and then take them away without having a whole hell of a lot of hurt inflicted on those doing the taking.

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee

Making America Suicidal Again

One hopes Trump won't be bragging about these numbers

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control shows that suicide is #10 on the leading causes of death in the United States, and is #4 for adults aged 18-65.

While the study makes clear that many factors--and especially family history, depression, and substance abuse--play a role in suicide, and that there is no one reason for it, it also makes clear that job stress and one's socioeconomic status are definitely having an affect on the increasing numbers of Americans committing suicide.

It also gives one reason to pause, as Donald Trump promised his followers that if they put him in the White House those good paying manufacturing and coal jobs that have been disappearing for decades would magically reappear...and they have not.  In fact, 70% of Americans claim that their economic situation has either stayed the same (50%), or worsened (20%), since Trump became President.

Apparently giving big tax cuts to yourself and your family, as well as your wealthy benefactors and corporations, doesn't have quite the upside for those who live on the economic margins and who didn't inherit millions--and more than a little chutzpah--from their fathers.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Be careful what you wish for...

You sure about that?

Watching Iowa Senator Joni Ernst utterly embarrass herself  kissing Donald Trump's ass as she tried to influence Iowa Democrats on their upcoming selection of a Democratic nominee by questioning their support for Joe Biden after the Senate impeachment trials proved Biden had done absolutely nothing wrong (and you'd think after Ernst bragged about castrating hogs she'd have just a bit more fortitude), had me wondering once again why republicans think Biden is their toughest foe.

I know I'm in the minority, and while I think Biden can beat Trump regardless, I still think he would be the best candidate for Trump to run against.  To wit:

• Voters would be comparing two old white men (a group of which I am also a card carrying member).  Biden would not stand out in the way a either a woman or a candidate of color would.
• Biden is massively prone to gaffes when speaking.
• He would be a constant reminder to Trump's base of Barack Obama--and confirm all of their racist instincts and thus fire them up more than perhaps another candidate.
• Ditto his support from African-Americans.
• Biden does not appeal to young Democrats who are not interested in incremental steps and want action on income inequality and climate change yesterday.

I've been wrong before (anyone remember Sarah Palin's winning campaign for the republican nomination in 2012?  Didn't think so...), but I still think Biden gives Trump his best chance of winning.

Be a shame if all their work ended up with us selecting another candidate who trounces Trump in November...

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol CCLXIV--Poco: Crazy Love

One of the fun things about this week's tune is that it shares a title with a great song by Van Morrison (which I'm sure I'll get around to featuring here on FNJ someday)--so every time I think the words "crazy love" this week it's a tossup as to which song I start singing....

Poco was formed in Los Angeles way back when in 1968 from the shards of Buffalo Springfield by former members Richie Furay, Jim Messina, and Rusty Young.  Despite the fact that the band didn't have a lot of commercial success (they only had two albums hit the top 40, and their best peaked at #14), the band continued in many different incarnations (23 to be exact) until 2013 when the only remaining original member, Rusty Young, retired.  The band does still get together for one off performances, and will on occasion be joined by the many different people who have played a part in the band's history.  For their career, Poco released 19 albums, 10 live albums, and while not quite the Byrds (as noted by their 48 last week) have released 31 compilations.  They've also released 24 singles through the years.  Furay (Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, solo work, preacher in Colorado) and Messina (Loggins and Messina, solo work) left by the mid-seventies, and Young stayed with the band through his retirement, and as noted above, still performs the odd concert.

"Crazy Love" was released in 1979 on Poco's album Legend.  It was the band's biggest single, peaking at #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and also their best selling album, reaching #14 on the Billboard 200.  Even better, songwriter Young noted in a 2008 interview that the song "...still pays the mortgage."

Fun Fact:  Young inserted the "ooh" before the words "crazy love" in the chorus, and the "ah ha" at its end as fillers for lyrics he hoped to later insert, but once the band recorded it in the studio the members liked the chorus as it was and didn't replace them with other words.  Such are the best laid plans of mice and men....

Truth be told, when "Crazy Love" was first released in 1979 I didn't like it much--thought it just another sappy ballad.  With age, though, I've come to realize just what a gem it is (I'm not the only one--I noticed several people in the YouTube comments below the video had the same reaction).  The crazy love of the song's title is actually a love for a woman who loves the narrator no longer, and how despite his longing to stop loving her, he can't.  There's a resignation to the vocals, but it's the resignation of a man who realizes he could have never loved her and how much worse that would be than having loved and lost her.  The song has a nice acoustic guitar intro (always an emaycee fave), and the harmonies are to die for (another facet of music I seem to enjoy more the older I get).  Poco are considered one of the forefathers of the country rock genre, and it's not hard to see why from this one as it sounds like a song the Eagles or James Taylor could easily have done.  In the end, it's proof positive that every now and again even a sappy ballad can touch greatness.

Lyric Sheet:  "Tonight I'm gonna break away/Just you wait and see/I'll never be imprisoned by/A faded memory..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Thanks, Donnie!

And it's on film!

Donald Trump, the gift that keeps on giving, declared at Davos this week that it would be "easy" to cut Medicare and Social Security in his second term.

There should not be one Democrat who is running for election this November that doesn't make sure this is repeated again and again and again.

The Democratic Party and its PACs should run ad after ad after ad with Trump's fat face declaring how he's going to cut the Social Safety Net--and remind them that he gave massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy.

This is class warfare at its most elemental and Democrats need to remind everyone just which side their on.

The one that's going to make sure your family keeps eating and not that the rich keep eating better.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Trump's economic ka-boom

Trump and republicans this November?

For all Donald Trumps talk about our booming economy, the truth is that it's been a great one for the rich, and not so much for the rest of us.  Studies released this week showed that after being adjusted for inflation, workers wages rose 0% last year.

Just booming, I tell you.

Even worse, the same studies showed that 51% of Americans got no raise last year, which means, adjusted for inflation, that most Americans fell farther behind economically last year.  And another study from the Brookings Institute shows that 44% of the jobs in the U.S. economy are low wage jobs.

Add in the fact that the USDA announced that 37 million Americans experienced hunger last year (that's better than one in ten), and Donald Trump better be hoping that Americans don't vote their paycheck this November.

Because if they do, there's a good chance he's going to add to the unemployment numbers in January of 2021.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXIII--The Byrds: Eight Miles High

It's hard to imagine in this day and age of corporate rock that had this week's song been released in 2020 it would have even sniffed contemporary radio--let alone reached the top 15 on Billboard.  A hit among the cool kids, sure, but to the average American radio listener...very doubtful.

The Byrds would have had a noteworthy resume had they just been the progenitors of psychedelic rock...but their album Sweethearts of the Rodeo is also considered the forefather of the country rock movement.  They formed in 1964 in Los Angeles, and over the course of their careers have been known for folk, folk rock, raga rock, and country, as well as the aforementioned psychedelic and country rock.  While their commercial sales were up and down after their first three albums (all of which were top 25 hits), the band has continued off and on in dozens of different incarnations up until now, though many of them were one off performances.  Noteworthy members have included the original lineup of Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke, as well as Gram Parsons.  The Byrds released twelve albums between 1965 and 1973...and nary a one after.  They do most definitely hold the Friday Night Jukebox record for most compilations, having released forty-eight--you read that right, forty-eight--of them.  Many of the members had success either solo or in other groups (especially David Crosby who eventually joined up with Graham Nash and Stephen Stills to form Crosby, Stills, and Nash), and sadly, many of them have left us for the Great Rock Concert in the Sky.  The Byrds were elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, and it was the last time the original members played together.

"Eight Miles High" was released in 1966 on the Byrds album Fifth Dimension.  It would peak at #14 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would reach #24 on the Billboard 200.

While I was previously familiar with "Eight Miles High," it's only been the past few years when it's dawned on me what a tremendous song it truly is.  When it was originally released the band said the song was simply about flying over London, and vociferously denied that it had drug references...but as time went on the band admitted it was a bit of both.  Beginning with a wobbly bass before an eastern influenced lead guitar joins in, the band waxes philosophic about flying into the U.K. for the first time and the sights they see as well as their emotional toll.  As with most Byrds' songs, the harmonies are exquisite, notably for their pregnant pauses...especially amazing as the song has no chorus, and is really just three stanzas of random thoughts.  There's even a couple of off the beaten path guitar solos that come, amazingly enough, straight out of the sixties counterculture.  I noted a while back that every now and again a song comes along that makes the listener put on his big boy pants and dig a little deeper into a song's soul--"Eight Miles High" is definitely one such song and while not maybe the Byrds' most popular song, is certainly their greatest.

Lyric Sheet:  "Eight miles high and when you touch down/You'll find that it's stranger than known..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Impartial my ass

The man who broke the Supreme Court?

While I am expecting very little good will come of Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the U. S. Senate beginning next Tuesday, any pretense we have that Chief Justice John Roberts will be an impartial jurist should be disposed of immediately.

Roberts has shown again and again that he is nothing more than a republican and corporate toadie, and his tenure has resulted in Americans' confidence in the Supreme Court being at all-time lows.  Roberts does not, and never has, cared one whit for the U.S. Constitution nor the American people, as long as he is allowed to take care of his benefactors.

They might as well have put some lame ass like Sean Hannity in charge of it--Roberts will lick Trump's boots exactly in the same manner Hannity has.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Another proud week for Michigan

A platform in the republican party

Amidst a Detroit Metro Times story this week about a republican Facebook page (since shut down) wherein members advocated for the burning, shooting, beating, and raping of (among others) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, M-08 representative Elissa Slotkin, Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, and Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, State Senator Peter Lucido (R--of course--Shelby Township) responded to a question about his participation in said group by Michigan Advance reporter Allison Donahue by suggesting that a group of boys nearby could have " a lot of fun" with her.  And then proceeded to explain away his remarks as just the way he talks to young women.

How this utter cretin could even still be a state senator is beyond me. 

While Lucido did eventually give the usual half-assed republican apology, it's important to remember--especially as we vote this November--that Lucido and those who commented in the above noted Facebook page are not the exception in today's republican party, they are the rule.

And we should let any business thinking about setting up shop here in the Wolverine State know exactly what Michigan republicans think of their female employees, and their mothers, wives, and daughters.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXII--Sniff 'n' the Tears: Driver's Seat

While doing my half-assed research for this week's tune, I ran across a writer who proclaimed that the song was one of the best one hit wonders of the 70's, and maybe of all-time.  Don't know if I'd go quite that far, but it is one of the better one hit wonders in my musical lifetime....

Sniff 'n' the Tears (and there's one of your better band names) began in 1973 in the U.K., but lead singer Paul Roberts gave up after a couple of years of no success and moved to France.  In the interim, Luigi Salvoni heard some demos he and Roberts had recorded and gave Roberts a call to see if he was interested in picking up where they had left off.  Sniff 'n' the Tears formally came into being in 1977, recorded their debut in 1978, and due to pressing problems with the record, waited until 1979 for its release.  The band immediately had a worldwide hit with "Driver's Seat." and shortly thereafter went its separate ways.  Roberts continued with the band name and has released 7 more albums through the years, with exactly none of them ever charting.  Somehow in this age of bands releasing 90 greatest hits packages for their lone hit, Sniff has only released one.  The band has also released eleven singles with just one charting anywhere other than the Netherlands, where they had a whopping three singles hit the charts.  While mostly a Roberts production, the band continues touring and recording to this day.

"Driver's Seat" was released as a single in 1979 on Sniff 'n' the Tears debut album, Fickle Heart.  "Driver's Seat" would reach #15 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, the only charting single of their career in the U.S. (it would reach #1 in the Netherlands in 1991 thanks to a television commercial--so many cool kids in the Netherlands!).  The album would reach #35 on the Billboard 200, and was one of only two albums of theirs to chart in America.  Surprisingly, they have never had an album chart in their native U.K.

They should make a law that any time you like a song, you should have to read a lyric sheet as the song plays.  I have literally loved this song since 1979 and never noticed that about a quarter of the way into the song after every line Roberts sings, the band alternates between an "ooh" on the first and a "yeah" on the second, and how much these small harmonies make the song so much better.  For its time, "Driver's Seat" was actually quite different as a single--I've often thought of it as a precursor to the New Wave movement that would hit a few years after its release.  While the song mentions driving, Roberts claims it's actually about the disjointed thoughts one often has after a relationship ends.  Be that as it may, once the song opens with an acoustic guitar part (and how many songs have I loved that open with an acoustic guitar part?), and the drums drive and an electric guitars blasts into the first verse, one is easily hooked by the music before the lyrics even begin.  "Driver's Seat" is another in a long line of songs featured here on FNJ where for a little more than three minutes, a band executes perfection...and another in a long line of songs that makes a lifetime of devotion to pop music worth the while.

Lyric Sheet:  "Doing all right/A little driving on a Saturday night/And come what may/Gonna dance the day away..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Insane in the brain

Pretty much says it all

Of all the lame ass excuses the Trump Administration has given for assassinating Irani General Qassem Soleimani, the most pathetic was Mike Pompeo yesterday on Fox proclaiming that it was an act of retribution for the killing of an American contractor.

Not U.S. troops, but an American contractor.

Keep in mind that an American contractor is not in Iraq to further U.S. interests, but to make money for the corporation that is most likely getting oodles of U.S. taxpayer dollars to build a bridge to Venus.  Not to mention that being a contractor in the Middle East carries a much greater risk to life and livelihood than being a contractor in say, Romania.  The corporation and the contractor assuredly knew the dangers involved.

And now the Trump Administration is trying to tell us we risked World War III for fucking that?

Further proof that Corporate American has an out-sized influence on our government, and that the Trump Administration is beyond incompetent.

Utterly fucking ludicrous.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXI--Traveling Wilburys: End of the Line

At one point in time I had thought that if I ever decide to bring Friday Night Jukebox to a close this week's tune would be perfect for its ending...but considering that I have songs to cover the next three years and seem to come up with a year to a year and a half's worth of songs each year to continue FNJ, its demise seems pretty remote....

The Traveling Wilburys formed in 1988 when George Harrison (Nelson Wilbury) asked Jeff Lynne (Otis) and Roy Orbison (Lefty) to help him with a B-side for his next single.  As Bob Dylan's (Lucky) house was nearby and had a recording studio, they asked if he'd let them use it.  Tom Petty (Charlie T., Jr.) came on when Harrison stopped by his house to pick up a guitar he'd left there.  They deemed the B-side single they recorded ("Handle with Care") too good for a B-side...and decided to join forces.  Their first album was a surprise hit, won a Grammy, and led to a second--and final--LP.  Sadly, Roy Orbison passed away shortly after the first album was released, George Harrison passed away in 2001, and Tom Petty in 2017.  The band discussed touring but it never came to be.  The super group is credited with revitalizing the careers of Dylan, Petty, and Roy Orbison (the revitalization, especially Dylan, played a large part in their only releasing two albums, as solo careers took precedence), and also with giving rock and roll a shot in the arm as it defied what were then the most commercially successful genres of pop music.  If nothing else, they were a hell of a lot of fun....

"End of the Line" was the second single released from the Wilburys' appropriately named debut album, The Traveling Wilburys, Vol 1 (have to admit the "Vol. 1" was a nice touch, separating them from every other group with an eponymous album).  The single would reach #63 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album roared up to #3 on the albums chart.

Fun (if somewhat sad) Fact:  Roy Orbison had passed away by the time the Traveling Wilburys made the video (seen below) for "End of the Line," so Orbison is memorialized by showing a rocking chair with a guitar on it next to his picture every time Orbison's vocals are present in the song.

The Traveling Wilburys pretty much had me at the jangly guitar (adroitly played by Harrison) at the beginning of the song--that the rest of the song is a gem is just icing on the cake.  Much like the Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey" (which I wrote about in Jukebox No. 23, "End of the Line" is a paean to getting older and relishing in it.  While I was still a young man when the single debuted, I've come to appreciate its sentiments more and more as I get older.  Surprisingly enough, getting older is "all right" as the band tells us, and you do tend to appreciate the day to day treasures just a bit more.  The song features Tom Petty's vocals through the stanzas, and each of the band members (except Dylan) takes a turn leading the chorus vocals.  The music is top tapping good, there's a knowing humor to both the lyrics and the vocals, and the band's chiming "...at the end of the line, end of the line..." as the end of each sentence Petty sings makes one of those special moments that all great songs have.  As I've noted here a time or two, one of the surest ways for me to know how amazing a song is is how much I sing it after I've done my half-assed research for the week--suffice it to say this one's been driving my wife and youngest son nuts all week--having to listen to me sing it again and again and again....

Lyric Sheet:  "Well it's all right, even if you're old and gray/Well it's all right, you still got something to say..."


Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Thing one and thing two

Paper tigers--the republican party mascot

While I have my doubts Donald Trump will go to war with Iran unless he wins re-election (his approval ratings are already historically bad, more than half of Americans believe he should be impeached for his actions regarding Ukraine, no one--domestic or foreign--other than republicans believe a word he says, and the sight of hundreds of American soldiers coming home in body bags every week won't help his campaign's chances), should he decide to do so there are two things you can absolutely count on from war mongering republicans:

1. Despite all their bravado, it won't be them--or more importantly, their children--who will be dying for their cause.  It will be the children of ordinary Americans.
2. Their wealthy benefactors won't be the ones paying the humongous price for it (estimates are over a trillion dollars).  We will--much like America's farmers in Trump's disastrous trade war with China--because we'll be asked to sacrifice and it will be used as an excuse to cut benefits  America's poorest citizens most need.

In other words, it will be the usual republican shit show--there'll be lots of posturing over how tough they are and how they're keeping Americans safe, and in the end all that will really come of it is that  once again Americans will see how weak and ineffective they are, all the while working class folks will be paying the price, both economically and with their children's lives.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee