Jim Connelly

Certain Songs #1838: Real Estate – “It’s Real”

June 10, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Days
Year: 2011

. . .

In the first half of the last decade, the New Jersey indie-rock band Real Estate made a pair of jangly-guitar albums that definitely stand in the pantheon. While not as majestic as, say, the intertwinings of Marty Wilson-Piper & Peter Koppes of the Church or Glenn Mercer and Bill Million of The Feelies, the dual guitars of Martin Courtney and Matt Mondanile definitely invoked some of the same feeling, minus the psychedelic grandeur of the former or the rhythmic insistence of the latter.

In fact, that would be the one ding I would have on Days — or Real Estate in general — that it was perhaps, calmer, than I would like. Real Estate often made better “lie in a field music” than “zip down the highway” music.

Certain Songs #1837: Ray Parker, Jr. – “Ghostbusters”

June 9, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1984

. . .

I’m not a massive film nerd, but some perfunctory internet research leads me to believe that from 1984-1988, at least one of the two highest-grossing films in the U.S. was a comedy, which I think might be the only time in history there’s been a run like that. I mean, it got so weird that the biggest film of 1987 was Three Men and a Baby. You could look it up.

That’s just how bad life was in the Reagan 80s.

Certain Songs #1836: Ray Parker, Jr. – “The Other Woman”

June 8, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Other Woman
Year: 1982

. . .

After three albums of pop-funk with Raydio that yielded crossover singles I still remember even though I ignored them at the time, Ray Parker, Jr. struck out on his own, and in retrospect, it seems like he’d been listening to a shitload of Prince, because “The Other Woman” is a genreless mash-up of rock and pop and funk that stand as the man’s best song.

Certain Songs #1835: The Rave-Ups – “She Says (Come Around)”

June 7, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Chance
Year: 1990

After all of these years, I couldn’t remember anything about the initial time I was exposed to the Rave-Ups, and why — given not just their exposure in Pretty in Pink, but also some of the good reviews they got — given their name and their look, I didn’t get their albums back in the day.

So, thanks to YouTube, I checked out the big song from their debut album, Town and Country, “Positively Lost Me,” and all I could hear was a decent — not great — tune, lost in shitty 80s production. So I either dismissed them out of hand, I guess, like a lot of mid-80s bands who might have had their hearts in the right place but got fucked up by their record companies. And even back when I had all the time in the world, I didn’t have time for that.

Certain Songs #1834: Ratboys – “Printer’s Devil”

June 6, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Printer’s Devil
Year: 2020

. . .

While the Chicago indie band Ratboys has been around since 2010, they didn’t come across my radar until their sophomore album 2017’s GN, which combined singer Julia Steiner’s winning vocals with guitarist Dave Stenger’s reliable folk-rock guitar.

GN was full of some really good songs, my favorites being “GM” and “Elvis is in the Freezer,” but it wasn’t until the title track of 2020’s Printer’s Devil where they totally blew me away with a song.

Certain Songs #1833: Raspberries – “Overnight Sensation”

June 5, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Starting Over
Year: 1974

Want a hit record, yeah!

The other night, our most recent single was played on the radio.

Want a hit record, yeah!

Sure, the DJ was my long-time friend, Nate, and the radio station was KFSR, which at once point in my life I had a deep association with, and yeah, the song was about life during quarantine, so it was also timely. But it still counts! Our song got played on the radio and strangers heard it!!!

Certain Songs #1832: Raspberries – “Tonight”

June 4, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Side 3
Year: 1973

. . .

I hope that Doc doesn’t kick me out of the band for this confession, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of the Raspberries four studio albums as actual, you know, albums.

I mean, in 1981, I got their 1976 Raspberries Best compilation, and given how many great songs it collected and their rep as an Eric Carmen-driven singles band, I figured that I’d pretty much nailed it. In any event, the fact that the Raspberries put out their first album in 1972 and had enough killer singles for a fantastic best-of in 1976 — two years after their last album — says something about the early 1970s.

Certain Songs #1831: Raspberries – “I Wanna Be With You”

June 3, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fresh
Year: 1972

While Eric Carmen played bass on the Raspberries debut, I guess after the success of “Go All The Way,” it was decided that frontmen had to play guitar, so Carmen switched to rhythm guitar and Dave Smalley switched to bass for the rest of their run.

Not that it mattered on their next great single, which was sonically dominated by the guitar of Wally Bryson, who — after a tight-ass drumroll from Jim Bonfanti — instantly launched “I Wanna Be With You” into the stratosphere with just his guitar, after which Eric Carmen starts right up with the sex talk.

Certain Songs #1830: Raspberries – “Go All The Way”

June 1, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Raspberries
Year: 1972

Well, this is pretty much a perfect song, isn’t it? I mean, those raspy guitars, the fantastic, multi-layered harmonies, the lyrics about fucking that don’t have a single dirty word in them and sound romantic as all hell, to boot. It’s just the perfect package, one of the ur-power pop songs.

Certain Songs #1829: Rare Earth – “I Just Want to Celebrate”

May 29, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: One World
Year: 1971

. . .

The late 1960s and early 1970s was filled with manly bands filled with manly men singing funky rock songs with their manly voices. While the biggest of these bands was Grand Funk Railroad, there were others, starting off with The Doors, MC5, Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf and, of course, Rare Earth, who started in 1960, and — according to their Wikipedia page — are still going 60 years later. With an original member! Saxist Gil Bridges was there from the start, and is still there, so good job, Gil!!