It's the late show....
My coolness quotient, never that high to begin with, takes a hit this week with the revelation that my introduction to this week's tune was from its appearance on an album thrown together (more or less) for charity. While the nobility of its cause (famine in Africa) is beyond reproach, the single that spawned the album--and most of the album for that matter--are not among rock and roll's finest. That being said, I do believe there is a second song from said album that will be featured in a future post. Exit stage right from Coolsville....
Huey Lewis and the News formed in 1979 in my forever home of San Francisco. While their first album generated good reviews, it didn't sell, but the next four more than made up for it with a top fifteen, back to back # 1's, and another top fifteen. They faded slowly but surely with their next several releases, though the band continued to tour regularly for many years. They have sold over thirty million albums, won a Grammy and been nominated for two more, and have won thirty Bammys (Bay Area Music Awards, now known as the Californian). For their career, Huey Lewis and the News have released ten studio albums, three compilation albums, and one live album. They have also released thirty-nine singles, with ten of them reaching the top ten, three of which went to #1. While the band hasn't broken up, they haven't performed since 2018, sadly because lead singer and frontman Huey Lewis was diagnosed with Meniere's disease, an inner ear disorder, which makes his performing impossible.
Fun Fact: The band's career really took off when their song "The Power of Love" was featured in the megahit movie, Back to the Future. They also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.
"Trouble in Paradise" was originally released on their debut album, the ever so cleverly named Huey Lewis and the News. It was not released as a single, and the album did not chart. The version I'm featuring this week is a live version from the charity album We Are the World. It was once again not released as a single (for obvious reasons), but the album would go on to reach #1.
While I can't say I was ever a big fan of Huey Lewis and the News, being a pop music aficionado they did have a song or two that I enjoyed. I chose the live version of this week's song because it seemed more vibrant to me than the studio version, though the difference between the two is minimal. The band is tight, Lewis has a good voice for power pop, and the subject matter of the song (the evils of drugs) is a notch above their usual fare. Lewis' lyrics do a nice job of questioning what drugs have done to a once promising life without getting preachy--and with the singer admitting he's been there a time or two himself. While doing my listening this week, I couldn't help but wonder how I'd never noticed how central the saxophone was to the song--it's wails and screeching mimic not only the travails of the user, but also the friends and family left in his wake. In the end, it's another pop gem for the annals of Friday Night Jukebox--albeit a pop gem with a message.
Lyric Sheet: "American son he's not very old/An American dream that's never been sold/The smile on his face is his last disguise/We've got trouble in paradise..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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