Archives for April 2018

Certain Songs #1191: The Monkees – “I’m A Believer”

April 20, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: More of the Monkees
Year: 1966

Written by Neil Diamond — you know, the guy who wrote “Kentucky Woman” for Deep Purple and “Red Red Wine” for UB40 — the first thing I need to report about “I’m A Believer” was that it kept future Certain Song “Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron” from hitting #1 at the end of 1966, something which young Jim might have been pissed off about had he cared about anything but singing “Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron” over and over and over again.

That’s Diamond on the acoustic rhythm guitar — it’s a good performance, I wonder whatever happened to that dude? — probably his way of making sure that his song-for-hire was in the right hands.

Certain Songs #1190: The Monkees – “Last Train To Clarksville”

April 19, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Monkees
Year: 1966

Over 50 years later, the authenticity debate rages on.

There are literally still people who care only that The Monkees were artificially created because a TV executive saw A Hard Day’s Night and exclaimed “hey, we gotta get us one of those!” I’m not one of them: I loved the TV show as a kid, and again as an adult, and the Monkees were perhaps the first example of an artist whose critical reputation grew as the people who loved them as kids became adults.

Not to mention, since we’ve gone into a more overtly pop-oriented era, those old debates seem, well, old.

Certain Songs #1189: Molly Hatchet – “Flirtin’ With Disaster”

April 18, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Flirtin’ With Disaster
Year: 1979

After Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane went down, there was a bit of a rush to fill the void left by Ronnie Van Zant’s death.

At first people people thought that maybe one of the bands of Ronnie’s brothers, Johnny & Donnie, might fill the hole. Not so much, as Johnny changed his band’s name, released a bunch of albums to squat until he just said fuck it and joined the reunited Skynyrd in 1987, and has now been with them three times as long as Ronnie was.

Certain Songs #1188: The Modern Lovers – “I’m Straight”

April 17, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Modern Lovers (reissue)
Year: 1980

Like Big Star’s Third, it seems like The Modern Lovers has a different track listing upon each reissue, as the definition of what “counts” on a record that was released years after it was recorded expands and contracts over time.

This first happened in 1986, when Rhino reissued The Modern Lovers added three songs to the original LP: “Dignified and Old,” “Government Center” and “I’m Straight.” The former two were fine, if minor additions to the album (and “Government Center” is a horrible way to end the record, both aurally and thematically, after the summation of “The Modern World.”)

Certain Songs #1187: The Modern Lovers – “Girl Friend”

April 16, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Modern Lovers
Year: 1976

At some point in 1973 — around the time The Modern Lovers were signed to Warner Brothers — Jonathan Richman had a change of musical heart. It wasn’t that he didn’t still love rock ‘n’ roll, but rather he didn’t want to make loud, noisy, overly electric rock ‘n’ roll.

Which meant that when it came time to properly record the songs that had been demoed for WB and A&M, Jonathan really didn’t want to. Which was a problem, of course, for his band, their producer John Cale, and eventually Warner Brothers records, who reacted to Jonathan’s compromise of recording the songs but not touring them by dropping the band.

Certain Songs #1186: The Modern Lovers – “Someone I Care About”

April 15, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Modern Lovers
Year: 1976

Wither Ernie Brooks? As the bass player in The Modern Lovers, his massive, roiling basslines were definitely part of what gave them such a primal power. But, unlike keyboardist Jerry Harrison, who ended up being the final piece of the puzzle that was Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Talking Heads, David Robinson, who ended up being the drive train for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Cars, and Jonathan Richman, who ended up being Jonathan Richman, Ernie Brooks didn’t go on to huge musical acclaim in his post Modern Lovers career.

That said: it wasn’t like he stopped playing. He played bass for folks like Elliot Murphy, David Johansen and even hooked back up with his old college roomie Jerry Harrison after Talking Heads disbanded, and as recently as 2014, still had fond things to say about his experiences with The Modern Lovers, as you might when you know that you were part of one of the greatest albums ever.

Certain Songs #1185: The Modern Lovers – “Old World”

April 14, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Modern Lovers
Year: 1976

Most of the songs on The Modern Lovers were produced by John Cale. Or really, in the tradition of Steve Albini, recorded by John Cale. Since they were originally conceived as demos, there really weren’t a lot of overdubs, or even going back to fix mistakes. At that time — 1972 — The Modern Lovers were being being courted by both Warner Brothers and A&M, and one can imagine an alternate world where they went back and re-recorded these songs for either label and the Modern Lovers were suddenly a huge deal.

Which is weird to imagine: would “official” versions songs of like “Pablo Picasso,” “Astral Plane,” “She Cracked,” etc. released in late 1973 have broken through on FM radio, with a 3:33 version of “Roadrunner” scraping the bottom of the top 40, fighting for AM radio space with “We’re An American Band” and “Smoke on the Water?”

And would the re-recorded versions have the raw immediacy that made The Modern Lovers an eventual classics, relegating the versions of these songs we know and love to whispered-about bootlegs that would have eventually surfaced on a CD reissue in 1991? Maybe. After all, they were going into the studio with John Cale, not Bob Ezrin. But still, it’s entirely possible that something would have been lost, especially given Richman’s change of heart about electric music.

Certain Songs #1184: The Modern Lovers – “Roadrunner”

April 13, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Modern Lovers
Year: 1976

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!

One of the most joyous, primal songs ever recorded, “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers is a serious contender for The Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Song ever, full stop. I’ve listened to it and loved countless times. Weirdly enough, though, that Modern Lovers version wasn’t even the first version of “Roadrunner” I heard.

In fact, in the late 1970s “Roadrunner” was one of those songs I read about without actually hearing, one of those songs that you’d read about as a huge influence on punk rock, but nearly impossible to find. In fact, I’m pretty sure the first time I actually heard any version of “Roadrunner” was the Sex Pistols half-homage half-desecration from The Great Rock ‘n’ Swindle, which I bought as an import in spring of 1980. It’s where they start playing “Johnny B. Goode” — the ur-source of Steve Jones’s riffs — but Johnny Rotten realizes he doesn’t know any of the words, so he starts yelling for them to play “Roadrunner,” and when they do, realizes that he doesn’t know any of the words to that one either, and makes a hash of the whole thing.

Certain Songs #1183: Moby Grape – “I Am Not Willing”

April 12, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Moby Grape ’69
Year: 1969

On the shortlist of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Cosmic Psychedelic Country Division, “I Am Not Willing” isn’t just the highlight of Moby Grape’s third album, 1969’s Moby Grape ’69 (nice!), but the greatest song they ever wrote, sporting a melody that is both as old and as deep as the mountains, while remaining fresh today as it was 50 years ago.

I mean, after all, I bought the the two-CD Moby Grape Vintage compilation back in 1993 because I wanted to have their classic debut on CD — and they knew it, as the first disc is all Moby Grape plus outtakes and live versions, leaving their other three records to share the second disc — so when “I Am Not Willing” showed up near the end of the second disc, I was completely gobsmacked. How wasn’t I prepared for this?

Certain Songs #1182: Moby Grape – “Murder in My Heart For The Judge”

April 11, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Wow
Year: 1968

One of the myths that grew up around Moby Grape was that they made one great, undeniable album, and then didn’t do anything worthwhile after it. That my was dispelled in 1993, when Columbia reissued a two-CD retrospective called Vintage, which simultaneously reinforced the myth — including the debut in its entirety — and dispelled it forever, as there a bunch of great songs on subsequent records.

The problem was, of course, those great songs were spread out among the rest of their career. Nevertheless, Moby Grape produced a couple of sleeper classics, one of which — “Murder in My Heart For The Judge” — wasn’t really much of a sleeper, as it was almost immediately covered by Three Dog Night and Lee Michaels.