And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of Song...and still be (six days) late again....
[Back to back days--twice as nice!]
I don't remember my introduction to this week's tune, but being a child of the seventies it's likely it was from some AOR radio station sometime during my teen years. As is, it's one of those songs that just stays with you through the years and you're nothing but the happier for it having remained so....
Of all the bands I've featured on Friday Night Jukebox, Badfinger quite easily has the saddest bio of any featured artist. Starting out as the Iveys in Swansea, Wales in 1961, they labored playing cover songs in gigs across the U.K. before signing to the Beatles Apple Records in 1968. After a slow start, Paul McCartney wrote and produced their first hit. After another hit, George Harrison produced their next song, and it went on to be the best selling of their career. A fourth (minor) hit, as well as some session work on a Harrison solo project, and it looked like they were primed for rock and roll stardom. Sadly, along the way and thereafter, very little went right. The dissolution of Apple Records left them with legal issues that for a time prevented touring and signing a new contract. They signed an epically bad deal with a manager who turned out to be swindling them, and as one might expect, infighting further damaged the band's psyche. Triggered in part by their financial issues, lead singer and guitarist Pete Ham committed suicide in 1975. Also a victim in part because of their financial ruin, bassist Tom Evans committed suicide as well in 1983. For all intents and purposes Badfinger was done at that point, though remaining original members Mike Gibbins (drums) and Joey Molland (guitar) would continue in various incarnations until their deaths in 2005 (Gibbins, brain aneurysm) and 2025 (Molland, complications from diabetes). For their all too short career, the band released (several of these were after the fact) ten studio albums, three live albums, four compilations, and fourteen singles (with three top tens in both their native U.K. and the U.S. They sold over fourteen million records and are considered one of the progenitors of (emaycee fave!) power pop.
Fun Fact: The band's name comes from the working title--"Bad Finger Boogie"--of the Beatles' hit "With a Little Help from My Friends." It was originally called such because John Lennon had an injured finger as he played piano on the song.
"Day After Day" was the first single released from their 1971 album, the rather vertically entitled Straight Up. The single would hit #4 (with a bullet!) in America and #10 in Great Britain; it was also their only gold single. The album reached #31 in America, but for some odd-ass reason, Wikipedia makes no mention of its charting in the U.K.
"Day After Day" is a power pop ballad, driven by inspired vocals from Pete Ham, otherworldly harmonies from the band, and some magnificent slide guitar by George Harrison. Upfront it's a song about missing the one you love, but in the end it's a song about how love can save us from loneliness and make us whole. It's another in a long line of fine seventies songs that line the pantheon of Friday Night Jukebox, and for me, another reminder just how wondrous power pop can be.
Lyric Sheet: "Looking out from my lonely room, day after day/Bring it home, baby, make it soon/I give my love to you..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
No comments:
Post a Comment