Archives for July 2016

Certain Songs #588: The Heptones – “Book of Rules”

July 10, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Book of Rules
Year: 1973

While The Harder They Come soundtrack has forever been touted as the essential reggae soundtrack compilation, the 1980 soundtrack to much-less-well-known Rockers was nearly as important to me.

And that’s just for a single song, The Heptones’ otherworldly “Book of Rules”

Definitely on the short list of the The Prettiest Song Ever Recorded, Reggae Division, “Book of Rules” is utterly, unapologetically religious. And like the best reggae songs is mysterious and powerful enough to convert a unreconstructed heathen like me.

Certain Songs #587: Heavy D & The Boyz – “Gyrlz, They Love Me”

July 9, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Big Tyme
Year: 1989

When people refer to the late 80s /early 90s as the “Golden Age” of Hip-Hop, I always wonder if that secretly means “when white indie-rock guys like me started listening to it.”

Certainly, the vast majority of hip-hop I’m writing about will come from that period, where even songs like this obvious LL Cool J rip loomed large.

When I came across “Gyrlz, They Love Me” on the MTV — probably on Yo! MTV Raps, but not necessarily — I was instantly attracted to its sparseness, big-ass hook and overall sense of play.

Certain Songs #586: The Headboys – “The Shape of Things To Come”

July 8, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Headboys
Year: 1979

It’s sometime in late 1979, I’m a senior in high school, and Fresno is blessed with a pretty great free-form rock station, KKDJ. While they weren’t playing straight out punk rock, they were playing everything else, depending on who the DJ was.

Which meant that at any time, I could turn on my radio and hear a song that made me wanna immediately run out and buy the album.

For example, “The Shape of Things To Come,” the almost-hit-single by Scotland’s The Headboys.

Certain Songs #585: Heart – “Even It Up”

July 7, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bebe Le Strange
Year: 1980

In 1980, we had one of the weirdest micro trends ever: established mainstream artists making their “New Wave” album. Which, depending on the artist, either meant replacing guitars with synths, or streamlining their sound somehow.

So within a few months, we got records like Alice Cooper’s Flush The Fashion, Billy Joel’s (yes really) Glass Houses (which had the execrable “It’s Still Rock ‘n’ Roll To Me”) and of course, Heart’s Bebe LeStrange.

Certain Songs #584: Heart – “Crazy On You”

July 6, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Dreamboat Annie
Year: 1976

While the follow-ups “Magic Man” and “Barracuda” were both bigger hits, this is the early Heart single that I truly loved.

With Roger Fisher’s corkscrew riff spiraling over Nancy Wilson’s rapidly-strummed acoustic guitar, “Crazy On You” exploded from the radio in 1976, marking Heart as something different from the very start.

Certain Songs #583: Hawkwind – “Space is Deep”

July 5, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Doremi Faso Latido
Year: 1972

I really don’t know much about Hawkwind, outside of the fact that they were the band that Lemmy was in prior to forming Motörhead.

Which makes me just like the rest of you.

I mean, of course, except for that one guy (and it will definitely be a guy) who owns several Hawkwind albums, and is either laughing or moaning at my choice here.

Certain Songs #582: Harvey Danger – “Flagpole Sitta”

July 1, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where Have All Of The Merrymakers Gone?
Year: 1997

So why “Flagpole Sitta,” anyways? Out of all of the pop-punk songs that came flying out of the back half of the 1990s after Green Day proved that there was a perpetual market for snotty punk rock, “Flagpole Sitta” seems like an unlikely candidate for immortality.

And in fact, if you’ve had any reason to listen to commercial alternative (whatever that is anymore) radio over the past two decades, you’re probably sick of this song. Shit, I’m probably sick of this song.