Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXXII--Argent: Hold Your Head Up

Back in the 70's, every Friday night after the The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson there was a musical show called The Midnight Special, which featured the biggest music acts of the day performing their hits live.  From Marvin Gaye to David Bowie to Steely Dan to Ray Charles, the show featured a diverse array of music that was wonderful to a young man like me looking to learn more about the fabulous world of rock and roll.  The show was also my introduction to this week's tune, which I didn't realize until I did my half ass research that its appearance was actually on the show's debut episode.

Argent was formed in 1969 by surprisingly enough, keyboardist Rod Argent in London.  The band had a modicum of success, including a #13 album in their native UK, through 1976 before disbanding.  For their career the band released 7 studio albums, 4 live albums, and 5 compilations.  Argent has reunited three times (2010, 2012, 2013) for short tours and benefit shows.

"Hold Your Head Up" was released as a single in 1972 from their album All Together Now.  The single would be their biggest of their career, reaching #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the U.K. charts.  The album was also their best selling, hitting #23 here in the States and #13 in the U.K.  The single has two versions, a short radio edit version, and the studio version which lasts a little over six minutes.

"Hold Your Head Up," for some odd reason, is the second straight song featured here on Friday Night Jukebox whose message is one of resilience in the face of times of trouble, which is especially necessary now in light of the coronavirus pandemic we're living through now.  The song opens (and I remember, even these many years later, how much I loved it the first time I heard it) with the bass guitar and drums synchronized like a rhythmic heartbeat, before the electric guitar kicks in to drive the beginning of the vocals.  The remainder of the song features some nice keyboard work by Argent and keeps hammering home the song's message of keep on keepin' on.  "Hold Your Head Up" is another in a long line of excellent rock singles to come out of the 1970's, and remains as relevant today as it was when it was originally released.

Liner Notes:  "And if it's bad/Don't let it get you down/You can take it..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXVI--Graham Parker: You Can't Be Too Strong

Back in the days before music television channels, music videos were rare and the only places I recall seeing them was on an old NBC TV show called The Midnight Special (music acts galore every Friday at midnight) and in between movies on a fledgling network called HBO.  It was in between one such set of movies when I first discovered a song called "Local Girls," which caused me to seek out an album called Squeezing Out Sparks, and to eventually become a fan of one Graham Parker.

As time went on I would discover that Parker was considered a rock wunderkind by critics and there was much anticipation of great things to come from the angry young man from London.  While Squeezing Out Sparks would go on to make many album of the year lists in 1979 (and eventually was ranked #335 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time), it peaked at #40 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard 200 and would pretty much be the pinnacle both commercially and critically in Parker's career.  Although Parker records and tours to this day, he never achieved the commercial success that so many expected, myself included.

No matter.  Parker would provide me (at least until the early 90's when life and cash flow got in the way) and many others with much great music through the years.  And Squeezing Out Sparks is a timeless classic that still might make my top ten of all-time even some thirty-six years later.

"You Can't Be Too Strong" is one of rock's more controversial songs--it's seen by many as an anti-abortion song (though Parker refutes this).  I've always thought it was more a portrait of a young man whose pregnant girlfriend got an abortion and the only thing he knows is that he really cares about the young lady and is completely bewildered by the circumstances.  It's really quite a powerful song--for those familiar with Graham Parker, you'll know his vocal stylings are nothing short of amazing, falling somewhere between fellow Brits Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart.  "You Can't Be Too Strong" is full of pregnant pauses and staccato bursts from Parker's vocal cords as the lyrics roll off his tongue.  There's some nice acoustic guitar work, ditto the keyboards, and a resounding closing with Parker reeling off all sorts of things you can't be too much of:  too strong, too right, too wrong.

It also contains one of the great lines in rock lyric history:  "It must have felt strange to find me inside you, I hadn't intended to stay..."

Just a great ballad.

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee