Archives for May 2021

Certain Songs #2115: Roxy Music – “Re-Make/Re-Model”

May 27, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Roxy Music
Year: 1972

. . .

I was a few years too young to discover Roxy Music in real time, but it seems to me “Re-Make/Re-Model” was probably the most striking side one track one declaration of intent since “Good Times, Bad Times”

Which was only three years prior, I know, but still. That said, the songs stated entirely different things: “Good Times, Bad Times” was “hey, look at what we can do,” displaying Zeppelins virtuosity from the opening section. But “Re-Make/Re-Model” was more like “hey, look at what you can do,” displaying their amateurishness — not to mention weirdness — the second Phil Manzanera’s guitar, Graham Simpson’s bass and Paul Thompson’s drums come driving in over Bryan Ferry’s opening piano.

Certain Songs #2114: Rose Royce – “Car Wash”

May 26, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Year: 1976

. . .

Doing the soundtrack for Car Wash was definitely a money gig for Norman Whitfield, the famed producer best-known for shepharding the Temptations into their amazing psychedelic soul phase, but he still took it seriously enough to come up with a stone classic in “Car Wash,” which he used to launch the career of a funk band he’d recently signed, Rose Royce.

Certain Songs #2113: The Rose of Avalanche – “Velveteen”

May 25, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1986

. . .

The Rose of Avalanche’s website calls them “the legendary alt/goth/rock band from Leeds, England” and since I really don’t remember anything at all about them, let’s go with that.

I do seem to recall that “Velveteen” was part of a self-titled compilation that we had at the radio station, and that I didn’t like any of the other songs on that compilation, but I could totally be making that up. Wikipedia tells me they had a spate of top ten indie singles in the U.K. in the mid-1980s and that they had the balls, temerity and sense of humour to name an album In Rock, and their website helpfully adds that they broke up in 1992 only to re-form 27 years later, only to lose a year to COVID, to which I can totally relate.

Certain Songs #2112: Rush – “2112”

May 24, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: 2112
Year: 1976

. . .

Sorry, but if you know me at all, you’d know that there was literally no way I could resist doing “2112” as the 2112st Certain Song post. Especially since we’re only a month or so from Rush, anyways.

So let me start with this: right now, there is at least one kid in the world who will get to listen to “2112” in the year 2112. Mind. Blown.

Certain Songs #2111: Rosanne Cash – “50,000 Watts”

May 22, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The River and the Thread
Year: 2014

. . .

Despite liking “Seven Year Ache” and seeing and enjoying Rosanne Cash when Tim & I saw her at the Big Fresno Fair in 1982, I’ll admit that I didn’t closely follow her career. I would occasionally read about an album that got critical acclaim: Kings Record Shop or Black Cadillac are two that I remember at least reading about, and I gather that over the years, her music mutated from country to more of an singer-songwriter who ended up being bunched in the Americana bucket.

Certain Songs #2110: Rosanne Cash – “Seven Year Ache”

May 20, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Seven Year Ache
Year: 1981

. . .

It’s not easy being the scion of a bona fide legend. Over the years, we’ve watched folks like Jakob Dylan, Julian Lennon and Ziggy Marley have some initial successes, and maybe even careers, but still not escape the shadow cast by their parents. Not so with Roseanne Cash, who has pretty much escaped the orbit of her legendary father and sustained a career for 40 years, putting albums in the Country top 10 off and on since 1981 — most recently in 2014.

Her breakthrough was the self-penned “Seven Year Ache,” the title track to her third album, and a tune that more than held its own with the Merle Haggard and Tom Petty songs that it rubbed shoulders with on the album.

Certain Songs #2109: The Ronettes – “Be My Baby”

May 19, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica
Year: 1963

. . .

So, as always, the usual disclaimer about Phil Spector: he was an abuser and a murderer and by pretty much all accounts, an incredibly shitty person. And Ronnie Spector, who sang “Be My Baby” bore far more of his abuse than any person should have to endure. So, in conclusion, fuck Phil Spector.

That said, “Be My Baby” is a helluva record, and Spector gets credit for co-writing it and producing it, though one suspects that the bulk of the writing was done by Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich and the bulk of the arranging was by Jack Nitzche. And, at least from my standpoint, the success of “Be My Baby” is down to two people: the aforementioned Ronnie and drummer Hal Blaine, who powers the song with one of the greatest drum performances on any pop record.

Certain Songs #2108: Romeo Void – “Never Say Never”

May 18, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Never Say Never EP
Year: 1981.

. . .

Romeo Void so quickly followed up their debut album with a four-song EP, it was clear they’d recorded a song and they couldn’t wait for people to hear it. And they were right, as the EP was named for not just their greatest song, but one of the great dance-punk songs of all time, the timeless “Never Say Never,” which stretched out over six glorious minutes and basically dwarfed the other songs on the EP.

While they did stick a shorter version of “Never Say Never” as the opening track of their second album, 1982’s Benefactor and a remixed version on their 1991 best of Warm, In Your Coat, the original is the one to seek out. Opening with guitarist Peter Woods scratching his guitar like he’s auditioning for the Gang of Four, and almost instantly falling into a groove with bassist Frank Zincavage and new drummer Larry Carter, the band is already cooking by the time Deborah Iyall starts singing, her voice distorted and reverbed.

Certain Songs #2107: Romeo Void – “White Sweater”

May 17, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: It’s A Condition
Year: 1981

. . .

Like a lot of the bands that came out on San Francisco’s 415 Records in the very very early 1980s, Romeo Void seemed to spring out of nowhere with a sound very much their own, which featured the danceable rhythms of bassist Frank Zincavage & drummer John Haines; the everything-in-its-right-place guitar of Peter Woods, the avant-garde-adjacent sax of Benjamin Bossi, and of course, the ice queen vocals of Deborah Iyall, who at some point I discovered grew up in Fresno.

I’m not sure if I knew that in 1981, but what I did know was that It’s A Condition had a few songs that I really loved, most of all the final song on the first side, “White Sweater,” which brings it all together.

Certain Songs #2106: The Romantics – “What I Like About You”

May 13, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Romantics
Year: 1980

. . .

Because it’s a truth that I hold self-evident, I didn’t really discuss the influence of the Rolling Stones in the eight zillion posts I just wrote about them, but one of the first things they influenced was the initial wave of American garage-rockers who emulated not just the Stones, but their British Invasion contemporaries like The Kinks and The Who, and for some reason, electric Dylan.

A little over a decade later, a second wave of this stuff came around: young kids writing big fat riffs and basing their entire songs around those big fat riffs. And one of the greatest songs to come from this second wave was the immortal “What I Like About You” from Detroit’s The Romantics, which was as great as, say “All Day and All of The Night” or “I Can’t Explain.”