Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DLXXXVII--Badfinger: Day After Day

 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

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXCIV--The Alarm: Sixty Eight Guns

 This week's featured artist started off with back-to-back dynamite singles and began drawing comparisons (and arguably so) to another young band at that time:  U2.  The years weren't nearly as kind to them (at least commercially and critically) as they have been to U2, but the rest of us will always have two wondrous anthemic gems to enjoy....

The Alarm formed in 1981 in Rhyl, Wales (funny how the memory plays tricks on us--until I did my weekly half-assed research, I would have sworn that, like U2, they were from Ireland).  The band had some success early in their career with a number of hit singles and LPS (more so in their native U.K., but they did have a modicum of success here in the U.S.) and were the opening act for both the Pretenders and U2 at different stages.  By 1991 the Alarm had folded but founding member Mike Peters reformed the band in a different incarnation in 1999 (and changed their name to The Alarm MM++) and the second version of the band is performing to this day.  The original cast of the Alarm released five albums with all five reaching the top 35 in Great Britain (with a best at #6) and at least hitting the charts in America (with one landing at #39).  The Alarm MM++ has released fourteen studio albums.  The band has also had a top twenty single in the U.K., and one single here in the States that peaked at #50.

"Sixty Eight Guns" was originally released only as a single in 1983, before being added to their debut album Declaration in 1984.  Both were the band's best showing in the U.K., with the single hitting #17 and the album #36.  They would go on to have higher charting success in the U.S. with other recordings as "Sixty Eight Guns" only hit #106 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and Declaration would only hit #50 on the Billboard 200.

When the Alarm first started, they were a politically and socially conscious band which was a natural for me at a time when Ronald Reagan was beginning the republican party's war on anyone who wasn't a white Christian male.  While "Sixty Eight Guns" is of a different political stripe than the ones we Americans were facing in the early eighties (War on the Poor, War on Unions, codifying their racism-- among many others), it's still a song of defiance and that was enough when far too many Americans were all too happy to sell their souls for platitudes from a second-rate actor.  There was power in the vocals, there was power in the music, there was power in the lyrics--and that power was us fighting for the destiny that was America's better angels and not the trappings of republican fascism.  Sadly we're still fighting it, but as long as they haven't silenced our soundtrack they haven't silenced us and we can still make a difference.  Power to the people, right on....

Lyric Sheet:  "And now they are trying to take my life away/Forever young I cannot stay/Hey!/On every corner I can see them there/They don't know my name, they don't know my kind..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXVIII--Catatonia: Mulder and Scully

Another tune introduced to me by my darling daughter...as I sink farther and farther into the "How Many Weeks Can I Fall Behind on Friday Night Jukebox?" abyss...

Catatonia formed in Wales (which may be an FNJ first, but after two hundred and twenty some odd tunes I honestly can't remember if there's another band in here from Wales) in 1992, when lead singer Cerys (definitely the first time FNJ  has had a band member with the first name Cerys) Matthews met Mark Roberts and the pair began both a romantic relationship and writing songs together.  They had a nice run of success in the U.K. from 1998-2001, accumulating two number one LPs, and six singles that cracked the top twenty on the U.K. Charts (the band had very little commercial success outside of their homeland).  Unfortunately, Matthews and Roberts relationship didn't last, Matthews had quite a problem with alcohol, and after she went into rehab in 2001 the band was disbanded and as of yet hasn't gotten back together for the obligatory golden oldies reunion.  Fortunately, Matthews did not fall into the Amy Winehouse Chasm and has recovered enough to A) Still be alive, and B) Release several solo albums.  Roberts has became a radio personality, and the rest of the band is making music for a living which has always seemed to me to be a pretty good gig.  In all, Catatonia released four albums, 18 singles, and like Squeeze last week has more compilation albums (six) than studio albums.  

Fun Fact:  Though it wasn't true, the band's bio claimed that Roberts and Matthews met while busking, which before I read their Wikipedia entry, I had no idea what it was.  Busking is playing music on the streets for the change thrown in a hat or, better yet, a guitar case.  Oh the things you learn while researching for Friday Night Jukebox!

"Mulder and Scully" was released as a single in 1998 from Catatonia's album International Velvet.  The song would become their highest charting single in the U.K., peaking at #3, and the album was one of their two number ones in the U.K.

A little known yet completely uninteresting fact about emaycee is that he is a huge fan of The X-Files, having seen every episode of the original series, all of both reboot episodes, and both movies.  Sadly, "Mulder and Scully" has very little to do with The X-Files...but that doesn't mean it's still not a great pop tune.  The song's protagonist is falling in love and experiencing both the exhilaration and terror of it, and believes the dichotomy is a question for Mulder and Scully.  In listening to it over the past couple of days, it struck me that a key reason for the song's success is Matthews' vocals, which captures both the joy and pain, as well as being somewhat unique, kind of a cross between Cyndi Lauper and Melissa Etheridge.  There's some nice understated slashing guitar work, pulsating drumming, a catchy as all hell melody, and a dreamlike instrumental coda that actually gets better the more I hear it.  Catatonia is considered an indie/alternative band, but I think this one certainly owes a nod to eighties new wave.  All in all, another one of those little magical moments that bands create that has given me so much joy since I started falling in love with pop music as a dorky fifteen-year-old listening to Top 40 radio.

Lyric Sheet:  "Things are getting strange, I'm starting to worry/This could be a case for Mulder and Scully..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCVI--Shakin' Stevens: You Drive Me Crazy

When my first wife and I were still newlyweds, I used to bring home all the promotional singles from the Camelot Music store that I managed and after dinner we'd listen to several of them to entertain ourselves, in the days when we were too poor to do much else.  Admittedly, it was probably more enjoyable for me than her, but I was amazed at the number of songs (mostly from up and coming artists, most of whom we'd never heard of, some who never did hit the big time) that we ended up liking.  One such tune was this week's featured song--and it still serves as a reminder to me that there's a hell of a lot of music out there, and even though I'll never be able to discover all of it, to try and enjoy all the more the tunes I do find.

Shakin' Stevens was born Michael Barrat in Cardiff, Wales in 1948 (first artist from Wales here on FNJ, I believe).  He started his working career as a milkman while playing gigs on the weekends before embarking on a music career in earnest with his first band, Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets, in the late sixties.  Stevens' band had very little commercial success though they toured a lot before he was offered a role in the musical Elvis! in London in 1977.  Stevens parlayed the hit show into a solo career, and throughout the eighties was the best selling singles artist in the UK.  While Stevens has never done anything here in the States, in his native UK he has had 33 top forty singles, four number one singles, two number two singles, and three top ten albums.  Over the course of his career, he has released twenty studio albums, twenty-one compilation albums, and 69 singles.  He released his last album in 2016, and will be touring the UK and Europe in 2019.  Good thing he gave up on that milkman gig....

"You Drive Me Crazy" was released in 1981 on Steven's only #1 LP, Shaky (Stevens' nickname, for those wondering, which is probably no one...).  The single would hit #2 (with a bullet...maybe, because I don't know if the UK Top 75 has bullets on hit records) on the UK  Singles chart, and #1 on the charts in Australia, Denmark, and Ireland (so many cool kids in Australia, Denmark, and Ireland...).

Fun Fact:  Though I'm sure she doesn't remember it, my daughter did a mean two legged stomp to "You Drive Me Crazy" when she was a toddler...

For those not familiar with Shakin' Stevens (which would probably be most anyone outside of Europe and the UK), his shtick is basically as a fifties cover artist extraordinaire (great gig in the UK which is nuts for fifties rock and roll), though he generally sticks to less well known songs from that era.  While "You Drive Me Crazy" definitely has a fifties vibe to it, it is actually an original song written around the time the song was recorded.  There's nothing fancy about this one--catchy music, love song lyrics, and an echoed chorus (Cray-ay-zee...).  Stevens sings with a lot of joy and gives the song a real rockabilly feel and there's a short guitar solo as well as some "It's got a good beat and I could dance to it" drumming.  If you're looking for "Born to Run" or "Baba O'Reilly" this one probably isn't for you, but if you like to shake your hips a bit and sing along, it'll do just fine.

Lyric Sheet:  "And when I'm looking in those big blue eyes/I start a'floating 'round in paradise/You drive me crazy..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee