Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDLXXXI--Aerosmith: Dream On

 It may be a week late, but at least it's on a Friday Saturday....

Not So Great Moments in Dorkville:  Back in the day, every now and again our parents would go out for the evening, and when they did we'd have the whole house to ourselves.  So me, my brother, and a friend of my brother's would listen to 45's and pretend we were a band and play our air instruments as we listened  (I told you it was Dorkville...).  Needless to say, this week's tune was one of the better numbers in our repertoire....

A brief history of Aerosmith:  Band forms, has local success, becomes national success, gets fucked up on drugs and loses a couple of members, gets straight and all members come back, against all odds has massive comeback, gets old together and keeps playing rock and roll.  And while they've had their differences during the years, since they started in 1970 all five of the original members are still in the band--doesn't happen often in rock and roll.  Through the years the band has accumulated five 
Grammys and sold over 150 million records.  They were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2013 lead singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry were elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  For their career, Aerosmith has released fifteen studio albums, with two hitting #1, and five others peaking in the top ten.  They've also released seventy-two singles, with seven of those reaching the top ten.  The band has been plagued with numerous health issues in their later years, but they did on embark on a farewell tour last September.

"Dream On" was the first single Aerosmith ever released, from their ever so cleverly named debut album, Aerosmith.  The single would reach #59 (with a bullet!), though the album would not chart.  After the success of their more playfully named 1975 album, Toys in the Attic, "Dream On" was re-released and would hit #6 (again with a bullet!), and the album would hit #21.

For a band that--at least in its early days--built a reputation as badass hard rockers, "Dream On" is a surprisingly optimistic exhortation to keep on dreaming until your dreams come true.  Written by Tyler, the song opens with some eastern influenced guitar from Joe Perry before segueing into Tyler's musing vocals, and his call to sing with him (which, for whatever odd reason, I love its spirit of brotherhood).   The song is very anthemic--I could imagine back in the day it was probably quite the showstopper for their live shows.  Although I'd never call myself a big Aerosmith follower, I've heard enough of their catalog to say that while they've had a number of good songs, I don't think they've ever had one that was better than this one.  And it closes with a gong!  The aspirations of youth come true....

Lyric Sheet:  "I know nobody knows/Where it comes and where it goes/I know it's everybody's sin/You got to lose to know how to win..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Since you're gone, moonlight ain't so great

Bye, bye love...

Man, it has not been a good week for some of my rock and roll favorites from my youth--Eddie Money on Friday and now news that Ric Ocasek , the wizard behind the Cars, was found dead at the age of 75 in his apartment on Saturday.  My loyal followers (both of you) will recall that I wrote about the Cars' song "My Best Friend's Girl" on Friday Night Jukebox a little more than a year ago.

It's hard to understate what a breath of fresh air the Cars were when they first arrived on the scene--while they may have eventually thrown their lot with commercial success, their first album was unlike anything that many of us (especially those of us growing up in small and conservative midwestern towns) had ever heard.  Ocasek was the quirky genius (Jesus, he's one of the few humans that could make dorkiness look and seem cool) who brought it all together--his lead guitar, vocals, and songwriting had a uniqueness that opened the door for a lot of bands that followed.

Fortunately, as a great man (Bob Seger) once noted in song, rock and roll never forgets--the sadly appropriate, "Since You're Gone":

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXLIV--Boston: More Than a Feeling

A song about reminiscing in a blog post reminiscing about a song...

The only constant in the band Boston has been guitarist/songwriter/producer extraordinaire Tom Scholz--and considering his contributions, it's only fitting.  Boston began in 1975 in Boston, amazingly enough--though honestly it began years earlier in Scholz' basement, where he'd put in his own studio and mixed and recorded most of the songs that appeared on their debut album, playing all of the instruments himself, as well.  Despite being rejected by numerous labels, Scholz kept on keeping on and eventually got a record deal with Epic...which lead to their first album becoming the greatest selling debut album in history (since eclipsed by Guns 'n Roses' Appetite for Destruction--still second, though).  Forty-four years down the road, Scholz is the only remaining original member (sadly, lead singer Brad Delp committed suicide in 2007, and drummer Sib Hashian--and what a great rock and roll name that is--passed away in 2017), though the band continues to tour and rumor has it, they will be releasing a new record this year.  For their career, Boston has released six studio albums, the first four of which went top ten on the Billboard 200, with two of them reaching #1.  Surprisingly, they've only released one compilation album (come on guys, you're not trying!).  They've also had four top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, sold over 75 million records, and have been nominated for a Grammy.  For whatever reason, they've not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is a real shame, especially considering that lightweights such as Rush, Van Halen, and Abba have been....  The band, though, does have a solid legacy, especially as one of the early purveyors of power pop.

Fun Fact #1:  In what I'm pretty sure is a Friday Night Jukebox first, Scholz is a graduate of MIT--of which there is undoubtedly a dearth of in the world of rock and roll.

Fun Fact #2:  When I was taking guitar lessons eons ago, my first teacher told me that the majority of hit songs were hit songs because the chord structures in them were very simple and people like simple.  Along those lines, the bar chords used in the chorus for this week's tune (which are simple enough for a doofus like me to play) also feature prominently in the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and the Offspring's "Self-Esteem."

"More Than a Feeling" was the first single released from Boston's debut album in 1976, entitled appropriately enough, Boston .  The single would reach #5 (with a bullet) on the Billboard singles chart, while the album would reach #3 on their albums chart, on its way to selling 17 million copies.  That's a career for a lot of folks, let alone one album.

"More Than a Feeling" is one of those songs (though vastly different than) like "Night Moves" by Bob Seger that the older I get the more I appreciate both the song and it's innate greatness.  The song works on so many different levels--for one, it's how Scholz manages to make a lead guitar, a rhythm guitar, a bass guitar, and a set of drums sound almost symphonic.  There's a fullness to the music that overwhelms the senses.  For two, Scholz lead guitar playing is otherworldly, wielding his guitar like a siren in the night wailing out its presence.  He doesn't come up often in conversations about great guitarists, but he should.  Third is Brad Delp's vocals--the best falsetto this side of the Bee Gees.  Finally, it's the song itself--a song about the power of music and its ability to evoke, in this case, the memory of a lost love, and how it can both ease a memory's pain and sharpen its joy.  In the end, its been forty-three years since the song's release and if you turned on any classic rock radio station in America, you'd be hard pressed to go more than a day without hearing it once.  It's enduring relevance is a legacy unto itself.

Liner Notes:  "When I'm tired and thinking cold/I hide in my music, forget the day/And dream of a girl I used to know/I closed my eyes and she slipped away..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CLII--The Magnetic Fields--Nothing Matters When We're Dancing

Truth be told, my love affair with this week's tune began the first time I heard the chorus, when the word "dancing" was rhymed with the city of "Lansing."  Whether this was because I live in Michigan, or because it's incredibly clever, only the Gods of Pop Music know for sure....

The Magnetic Fields are the brainchild of one Stephin Merritt, and were formed in 1989.  Merritt is an offbeat songwriter, and the band helps to showcase his lyrical talents.  Near as I can tell, the band has had zero in the way of what would be considered mainstream musical success--no hit singles, no million selling albums, no Grammy nominations let alone awards, and no record breaking world tours.  Nevertheless, they've released eleven albums over the course of their twenty-eight year career, the latest being released just this year.  Their album 69 Songs (which oddly enough, features 69 songs spread over three CDs, including this week's tune) is considered their best album and was released to extreme critical acclaim in 1999, including finishing second in the hipster's newspaper of choice, The Village Voice, year end Pazz and Jop poll.  The three CD box set sold a whopping 83,000 copies (still 83,000 more CDs than I've ever sold).  Sadly, they are another in a long line of bands that had their been world enough and time, I may have become a huge fan of, but I'll settle for having heard their delightful 69 Songs album, and the joy it brought me for months on end.

"Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" was never released as a single, though if it could have been transported back to the 40's or 50's and been given to Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett or Nat King Cole it probably would have rocketed up the charts.  Featuring a deliciously strummed ukulele (another of those not oft used instruments that in the right place can take a song to another plane), Merritt's distinctive baritone, and some oh so perfect harmonies in the chorus, the song tells the tale of two old lovers lost amongst each other as they dance to the last song of the night in some old dilapidated dance hall.  I'd be the first to admit it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea--a balls out rocker it ain't--but every time I hear it it adds a little sunshine to my day and I'll be singing it over and over for days on end.  Sometimes a pretty song is just a pretty song....

Lyric Sheet:  "And nothing matters when we're dancing/In tat or tatters you're entrancing/Be we in Paris or in Lansing/Nothing matters when we're dancing..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXXIII--The Cars: My Best Friend's Girl

Hard as it may be to believe nearly forty years down the road, but when the Cars released their first album in 1978 they were right up there with a slew of bands from the mid to late 70's such as Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Police, Talking Heads, and Dire Straits as far as bands that all the cool kids (or music dorks) were listening to and music critics were fawning over.  Alas, unlike the the other performers who shared their time frame (with the exception of Dire Straits who pretty much followed a similar career path as the Cars), the Cars stopped pushing the envelope musically after their first LP and headed straight into massive mainstream success and rested upon the laurels of their debut album.

But, oh, what laurels to rest upon....

Formed circa 1976 in Boston Massachusetts, the Cars exploded onto the music scene in 1978 on the heels of their aptly entitled debut, The Cars, which would go on to sell six million copies and remain on the Billboard 200 for 139 weeks (and rank at #284 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list),  Over the course of the next ten years the Cars would release five more albums, garner a couple of Grammy nominations, win the first ever Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 (Zzzzz....), sell millions more records, and call it quits in 1988.   Twenty-two years later they reformed and released the obligatory reunion album replete with the obligatory reunion tour (sadly, co-founder--along with Ric Ocasek--Benjamin Orr had passed away in 2000 from pancreatic cancer), and they remain together to the present day, still touring and still hoping for that call from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that so many of their contemporaries noted above (except Dire Straits) have already received.

Fun (and slightly sad) Fact:  Nirvana performed a cover version of "My Best Friend's Girl" at their final concert in 1994.

Opening with a funkily tuned guitar that until I did my weekly half-assed research I had always assumed was a bass guitar line, and mixing in some hand claps shortly thereafter, "My Best Friend's Girl" can best be described as quirky fun--without being a novelty song.  The rather strange subject matter (a man salaciously describing his best friend's girlfriend...who it just so happens, used to be his girlfriend), Ric Ocasek's matter of fact vocals, and, of all things, some rockabilly guitar licks surrounded by synth pop technology made for a song (as with others on their debut album) that wasn't quite like anything I'd ever heard before in 1978, and made for months of delicious fun singing along with the band's backing vocalists as they harmonized "my best friend's girlfriend" again and again in support of Ocasek's oddball lyrics and lovestruck vocals.  Alas, the song would only reach #35 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, but would go to #3 in the U.K. (why are there so many cool kids in the British Isles?).  Still, it's a delightful blast from my past, and has not diminished in my eyes one iota in the last forty years, and is just as joyous and catchy as the first time I heard it.

Lyric Sheet:  "You're always dancing down the street/With your suede blue eyes..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee