Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXV--David Bowie: Rebel Rebel

 The first time I heard this week's tune, I was driving my parents car to one of my college classes, and I was absolutely convinced it was a Neil Young song I'd never heard before because the guitars sounded exactly like Neil Young guitars.  When I got home later that day I immediately went to check my three or four Neil Young albums and was extremely disappointed that it appeared on none of them.  Some time later, I managed to get to a music store and checked the big music catalogs they used to have (whose name I have completely forgotten) and discovered it was by David Bowie.  Oddly enough, as I did my half-assed research this week, the guitar work in the song was compared again and again to the Rolling Stones.  After re-listening, I still think it sounds a lot more like Neil Young....

Man, I'm not even going to try a synopsis of David Bowie's career.  Not only is it long, varied, and critically acclaimed,  it is flat intimidating.  He truly was one of the few geniuses pop music ever spawned, and his influence will be felt long after most of us have left this vale.  Just to give you an idea, in the first week after his death, Bowie had 19 albums and 13 singles in the U.K. top one hundred albums and singles.  He is obviously a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2016 Rolling Stone named him the greatest rock star ever (debatable, but I certainly didn't think "You've got to be fucking kidding!").  In the you don't know what you've got till it's gone category, Bowie won the bulk of his Grammy Awards and Brit Awards after his death in 2016.  His discography is mammoth, having released 27 studio LPs and 128 singles over the course of his 54 year career. He will be remembered for his music, his lyricism, his artistic tendencies, and his showmanship.  A once in a lifetime artist--enough said.

Fun Fact:  I was actually going to make this post's fun fact the fact that I could have made an entire post of fun facts just about Bowie's career, but I decided to opt instead for what Bowie said after he listened to "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard for the first time:  it was like he had "heard God."

"Rebel Rebel" was released as the first single from Bowie's seminal work Diamond Dogs in 1974.  The single would hit #5 in his native U.K. and a somewhat disappointing #64 (with a bullet!) in the U.S. (possibly because his label released a shorter version here that most think pales in comparison to the original).  The album went to #1 in the U.K. and was Bowie's first big hit in the States, peaking at #5 on the Billboard 200.

"Rebel Rebel" is considered to be Bowie's goodbye to glam rock and his Ziggy Stardust persona, and if so, it's a hell of a parting.  Needless to say, the amount of my life spent partaking in anything other than reading about glam would fit inside Donald Trump's pea brain.  Nonetheless, when you hear Bowie's guitars (and yes, it's Bowie playing the guitar) and his fuck all vocals you are left captured by an incredible swan song.  And the fact that you don't need to live the glam life to both feel and understand this paean to youth probably says all you need to know about it.  It was the song that made me begin paying attention to David Bowie, and had I but world enough and time, I'm sure I would have explored every nook and cranny of his music.    As is, a brilliant tune from a brilliant--and much missed--artist.

Lyric Sheet:  "We like dancing and we look divine/You love bands when they're playing hard/You want more and you want it fast..."

Enjoy:

400,000 Dead Americans Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXXXVII--Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes

My introduction to this week's tune, oddly enough, came when Queen had success with the David Bowie penned "Under Pressure."  I was about six months into my career with Camelot Music when the song was released, and a co-worker noted upon it reaching hit status that Bowie had bailed out another band whose career was headed into oblivion (might have been a slight exaggeration for Queen).  I nodded like I understood what he meant (actually had no clue) and went home that night and found some old rock and roll books and was able to deduce that he was speaking of this week's tune....

Mott the Hoople (named for a character in a novel of the same name who earned his living as a circus freak) formed in 1969 in England and had a couple of incarnations before settling in as a band.  They had some moderate success with their first four albums, but were ready to disband when David Bowie, a fan of the group, heard and offered them his song "Suffragette City."  The band said no thanks (who the fuck turns down a song from David Bowie?), so Bowie offered them this week's tune in 1972 and the rest, as they say, is history.  The single gave them enough credibility that they were able to continue as a band until 1980.  They've had four reunions since then, and as of this year are officially a group once again.  For their career, Mott the Hoople released 7 studio albums (and two more as just Mott), nine live albums, and 12 compilations.  They also released 15 singles, seven of which charted in the U.K., and three of which charted here in the states.  Sadly, two of the band's original members have gone to The Great Rock Concert in the Sky, but as noted above, Mott the Hoople continues to trudge along the oldies circuit.

"All the Young Dudes" was released as a single in 1972 from their album entitled, appropriately enough, All the Young Dudes.  The song would go on to become the biggest hit of their career, reaching #3 in their native U.K. and #37 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  It was also #253 on Rolling Stone's original list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time.

Fun Fact:  The song is often considered a glam rock anthem and/or a gay anthem, but Bowie staunchly insisted it was neither.  He said it was about the end of life as we know it on earth and the young men having to deliver that news to the rest us.

While Bowie may not have considered the song to be an anthem, that is certainly what it became.  I've seen (on film) Bowie perform it live (remarkably similar to Mott the Hoople's version), and I can guarantee you it's one of those songs that not one person in the audience isn't singing and swaying along.  Vocally, Ian Hunter delivers the performance of a lifetime, replete with an urgency reflected again and again in the impromptu shouts of the chorus that gives the song a life of its own.  All the more is that Bowie wrote what may be the best lyrics of his career (I'm sure many would disagree) and Hunter and the band do not waste a one of them--from the poignant guitar that opens to the rousing backing vocals through the chorus there is never a doubt in this one that you are listening to one of the truly great songs in the annals of rock and roll.

Lyric Sheet:   "Television man is crazy/Saying we're juvenile delinquent wrecks/Oh, man, I need TV when I got T-Rex..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXII--Sweet: Ballroom Blitz

Dork Alert:  Me, my kid brother, and one his friends used to like cranking this week's tune really loud and playing air band in my family's living room.  Let me just say that whatever we lacked in talent (actually, we had none) we more than made up for with enthusiasm for the song.  Or not--time often plays tricks with the mind...

Sweet had a very convoluted (and not all that interesting) beginning before finally coming together in their most successful incarnation as a foursome in the early 70's (give or take).  They originally started out as bubble gum pop before they decided to rock the casbah like their musical heroes The Who (nnnnnoooottttt quite...).  They released their first album in 1971 and had some success in their native UK, but by the time their second album was released they were ready to move on from the top of the pops into glam rock.  They would have a fine run of success through the mid-1970's including fifteen top forty singles in the UK and four top ten singles here in the states.  Unfortunately for the band, their albums never sold quite as well as their singles and they were also unable to draw crowds when they headlined their tours (though they had some success as an opening act) and by the early eighties they were done releasing new material.  Over the course of their career Sweet released nine albums, and had a gold record here in the States and a gold and a silver in the U.K.  Sadly, lead singer Brian Connolly succumbed to the ravages of alcoholism (probably played a part in the band's lack of success after the 70's) in 1997 at the age of 51, and drummer Mick Tucker died of leukemia in 2002 at the age of 54.  The band still tours--guitarist Andy Scott performs with his version of the band in the U.K., while bassist Steve Priest has a version here in the U.S.A.  Not a bad gig if you can get it...

"Ballroom Blitz" was originally released as a single in the U.K. in 1973 where it reached #17 on the charts.  It was released here in America on their album Desolation Boulevard  in 1975 and re-released in England and it went on to reach #2 there, #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 in Canada (so many cool kids north of the border!).

Not So Fun Fact:  The album cover for Desolation Boulevard was photographed near the entrance of a Sunset Boulevard music club called The Central.  It would eventually become The Viper Room--which is where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween in 1993.

In one of the more interesting origins for a song here on FNJ. Sweet wrote "Ballroom Blitz" about being driven off stage from a show in Scotland by a slew of bottles being thrown at them (there seems to be some question as to whether this was because the band had changed its musical persona or because it was four men on stage with long hair and eye-liner).  The song is quintessential 1970's rock--lots of electric guitar and prominent drumming with a smidge of bass line thrown in the obligatory instrumental break.   Connolly delivers vocals that convey the band's plight--note the beginning when he asks each band member if they'e ready to rock--and Steve Priest throws in some haunting spoken vocals that further enrich the story.  The song plays as an adrenaline rush of rock and roll gone out of control--and is a nice reminder that there were a hell of a lot of good tunes that came out of the 70's.  Or else that I was a lot younger then and had a lot more time to appreciate music...either way, it's cool.

Lyric Sheet:  "Are you ready, Steve?  Uh-huh/Andy? Yeah/Mick? Okay/Alright fellas, let's go..."

Enjoy (and note that these guys had to be an inspiration for eighties hair metal bands...):

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee