Archives for January 2019

Certain Songs #1442: Paul Kelly and The Messengers – “The Execution”

January 31, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gossip
Year: 1986

There was a bit of an Australian invasion during the 1980s, probably sparked off by the surprising success of Men At Work, but throughout the decade, band like Hoodoo Gurus, The Church and Midnight Oil made splashes and even had hit singles, which, of course led to even more Australian signings.

One of those signings was a singer/songwriter named Paul Kelly, who along with his band — renamed from the problematic “Coloured Girls” (a “Walk on the Wild Side” reference) to the more generic “Messengers” — made music that somehow split the middle ground between Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

Certain Songs #1441: Paul Collins Beat – “I Will Say No”

January 30, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Kids Are The Same
Year: 1982

The final song on The Kids are The Same isn’t really a power pop song at all.

And fact, it’s a big generic rocker, cut more from the cloth of the dreaded “On The Highway” than the sublime “The Kids Are The Same.” And therefore, it only makes sense that it’s also my favorite song from the original incarnation of the Paul Collins Beat, as well as a song that I never really get sick of.

Certain Songs #1440: Paul Collins Beat – “The Kids Are The Same”

January 29, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Kids Are The Same
Year: 1982

By the fashion of the time, it took quite a long time for Paul Collins and company to follow up on The Beat, as The Kids Are The Same didn’t come out until 1982, this time fully credited to Paul Collins Beat, as by that time, both I Just Can’t Stop It and Wha’ppen had both come out on these shores.

The difference between the two albums is mostly signified by the track lengths: on The Beat, 9 out of the 12 songs were under 3:00, signifying that album’s focus on catchy power-pop. On The Kids Are The Same only 3 out of the 10 songs were under 3:00, because Paul Collins had decided to expand his music, make it more than just snappy power pop tunes.

Certain Songs #1439: Paul Collins Beat – “Don’t Wait Up For Me”

January 28, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Beat
Year: 1979

Of course, The Beat wasn’t the first group that Paul Collins was in.

During the mid-1970s, he was the drummer in a proto power pow trio called The Nerves, which featured Peter Case — whom we will be getting to soon enough — on bass, and a guy named Jack Lee on guitar. Outside of letting both Case and Collins develop their songwriting chops, The Nerves are mostly known for Jack Lee’s “Hanging on the Telephone,” which is a song that I probably should have written about back in early 2015 when I criminally underserved Blondie.

Certain Songs #1438: Paul Collins Beat – “Rock N Roll Girl”

January 27, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Beat
Year: 1979

What’s weird is that “The Beat” is such a great name for a band is that it took until 1979 for any band to use it. And then, it turned out that two bands decided to use it.

One of those bands was English, and one of those bands was led by Paul Collins, and so for the past 40 years I’ve referred to both bands as “The English Beat” or “Paul Collins Beat,” even when I think of them both as “The Beat” with absolutely no confusion, given that the English Beat traded in ska and the Paul Collins Beat were as pure of a power pop band that ever existed.

Certain Songs #1437: Patti Smith – “April Fool”

January 25, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Banga
Year: 2012

After the back-to-back triumphs of Gone Again and Peace and Noise, Patti Smith settled into a cadence that you’d expect from a getting-up-there-in-years legacy artist who isn’t named “Neil Young” and started releasing new studio albums at an ever-decreasing clip, interspersed with best-ofs, blown-out reissues and cover albums.

And while I didn’t fully enjoy either 2000’s Trampin’ or 2004’s Gung Ho, I’m willing to put that on me, especially since I loved 2012’s Banga as much as any record she’s ever released outside of the almighty Horses.

Certain Songs #1436: Patti Smith – “Memento Mori”

January 24, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peace and Noise
Year: 1997

On a roll after the artistic successes of her comeback tour and Gone Again, Patti Smith went back into the studio and produced a fine follow-up, Peace and Noise.

With the latest incarnation of her band — original members Lenny Kaye & Jay Dee Daughtrey augmented by bassist Tony Shanahan and guitarist Oliver Ray — fully solidified, Peace and Noise was both more assured and more experimental than its predecessor, and even garnered Smith her first Grammy nomination for “1959.”

Certain Songs #1435: Patti Smith – “Beneath The Southern Cross”

January 23, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gone Again
Year: 1996

And just like that, it was the mid-1990s. But, of course, it wasn’t “just like that.” After the success of “Because The Night,” and the relatively strong sales of Easter and Wave, it seemed like Patti would ride into the eighties on top of the momentum she had created. So she did the exact opposite.

Instead, she married former MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, broke up her band, and essentially retired from the rock ‘n’ roll game, releasing only a single album — 1988’s Dream of Life — in the 80s and first half of the 1990s. She kept such a low profile that another Patti Smyth was able to emerge and forever cause confusion.

Certain Songs #1434: Patti Smith Group – “Dancing Barefoot”

January 22, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Wave
Year: 1979

Then the weirdest thing happened: in 1978 Patti Smith became a one-hit wonder with her remake / remodel of Bruce Springsteen’s “Because The Night.” That, of course, was the first time I ever heard her in any context, and, I gotta admit, I only thought it was OK. When it came on the radio, I didn’t turn it off, but I didn’t turn it up, either.

That said, “Because The Night” did generate enough buzz that its mothership Easter, and the follow-up, Wave both cracked the top 20, and I even remember her pretty decent cover of The Byrds “So You Wanna Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” got pretty decent airplay on KKDJ.

Certain Songs #1433: Patti Smith Group – “Pumping (My Heart)”

January 21, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Radio Ethiopia
Year: 1976

Horses, of course, was produced by Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, who found the exact balance between highlighting what Patti Smith was singing and the backing band coalescing around her. Radio Ethiopia was produced by Jack Douglas, who had just produced Aerosmith’s Rocks and was just about to produce Cheap Trick’s debut.

Now, of course, I love both Cheap Trick and Aerosmith — Rocks is one of my all-time favorite albums — Douglas wasn’t the right producer for the Patti Smith Group (as they were now called), and critics at the time slagged Radio Ethiopia for trying to hard to be commercial (which I don’t give a shit about), and how he overwhelmed Patti’s vocals in the mix (which I do).