Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. LXXXII--Freedy Johnston: Bad Reputation

We have another Jukebox first this week--the first time a week's featured artist has done a (killer) cover version of the preceding week's tune.  That's right--Freedy Johnston did an "It's The Shit" rendition of "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)."

Anyhoo, the best praise I can give to this week's tune is that as I was listening to "Bad Reputation" earlier this week in preparation for this post about halfway through I literally said aloud, "Jesus Christ this is a great fucking song."

Not quite the gravitas of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" but here in 2016 U.S.A., about as good of an exaltation as you'll get.

Freedy (a nickname of his mother for him) Johnston was born Frederic John Fatzer in the swarming metropolis of Kinsley, Kansas (pop. 1658 as of 2009).  At the age of 16 he bought his first guitar via mail order; at the age of 24 he moved to New York City to become a star.  While he never quite became the next Bob Dylan, he began recording albums in 1989 and has been at it ever since.  Johnston is known as a "songwriter's songwriter" (maybe someday when I get big somebody will refer to me as a "blogger's blogger") and was voted songwriter of the year in 1994 by Rolling Stone.  Not a bad resume for a guy who probably truly knows the meaning of "...we're not in Kansas, anymore...."

Released in 1994 on his This Perfect World LP, "Bad Reputation" is Johnston's best known song, reaching #54 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  It's the love song of a troubled man, warning a woman that though he's trying he probably won't be the man she deserves--though she already knows this.  Still he sees her face everywhere and can't get her out of his mind.

"Bad Reputation" is a song of wonderful moments, the first of which is the opening (which for whatever reason, reminds me of The Temptations "Ain't Too Proud to Beg") which starts like a million other ballads only to break, out of nowhere, into one of the catchiest choruses you'll ever hear.  Another is Johnston's use of repetitive words ("and it isn't just talk, talk, talk" or "just wasting your time, time, time").   And still another is when toward the end of the song the instrumentation cuts and leaves a stanza just to Johnston, his guitar and his vocals.  In the end, though, it's (as is often the case) Johnston's vocals which seal the deal.  He strikes just the right balance between sorrow and regret without ever becoming maudlin.  And "Bad Reputation" is another in a long line of fine additions to Friday Night Jukebox.

Liner notes:  "Suddenly I'm on the street/Seven years disappear below my feet..."

Enjoy:

Bonus Video (because you can't--well I can't anyway--get enough of "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes")):

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. LXXXI--Edison Lighthouse: Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

This one's on the regular loop in Pop Song Heaven...

Fun fact #1:  Tony Burrows, lead singer for Edison Lighthouse, had a second top five hit with the band The First Class, with "Beach Baby" in 1974.

Fun fact #2:  "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" hit the top of the UK charts the second week after its release--the fastest jump to the number one slot in the history of the UK charts.

And that's about it--Edison Lighthouse (named for the famed Eddyson Lighthouse off the coast of Devon--yeah, you've got me, too) was basically a studio band formed in London, England to release a great single.  They stayed together for about two years and then called it quits.  While they began touring again in 2001 (where there's a buck there's a way), there are separate UK and US versions of the band (WTF, am I right?).  No Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, no drug addictions, no Grammy Awards--just one golden moment.  A true one hit wonder.

But if they're just going to have one, Edison Lighthouse could not have picked a better tune to do it with.  Released in 1970--and I shit you not, there wasn't even an album along with it--"Love Grows" would go on to reach #5 (most assuredly with a bullet!) on The Billboard Hot 100, and give the band a slot on almost every one hit wonder compilation ever released.  It's basically guitars, drums, background strings, some righteous lead vocals, and perhaps one of the catchiest choruses ever released.  It's a love song devoted to one Rosemary, who's wild and free and obviously a child of the sixties. There's a nice bass line that runs through the song and keeps tempo with the vocals--but this is just one of those songs they used to release back in the day just because it was a great song and not because it was some corporate idiot's idea of what would sell commercials on the radio or help build a band's brand.  There's a joy that runs throughout the song that I don't hear too often anymore...

...and don't I sound like one of those old farts who used to have to walk ten miles to school in the snow, uphill, backward, and barefoot?

What the hell--they just don't release one hit wonders like this one anymore...

Lyric sheet:  "She's really got a magical spell/And it's working so well that I can't get away..."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee