Good Girls Don’t by The Knack

She’s your adolescent dream

Schoolboy stuff, a sticky sweet romance

And she makes you want to scream

Wishing you could get inside her pants

So you fantasize away

An adolescent is a young person who has started puberty, but has not reached maturity—schoolboy stuff, for sure, and schoolgirl stuff. In “Good Girls Don’t,” the male fantasizes about getting into the good girl’s pants, and probably getting into something on the other side of the pants. Sticky, sweet wet dreams, as he fantasizes about what could be.

And while you’re squeezing her (metaphorically speaking, while he squeezes something else), you think you hear her saying…
“Good girls don’t,
Good girls don’t,
Good girls don’t, but I do.”

What a lovely fantasy for a teenage boy, and a hope for the future, when she says she does, and his fantasy becomes reality.

The Knack followed “Good Girls Don’t” with the song “That’s What the Little Girls Do.”

“She’s the virgin queen, dancing in your dreams
Yes, she plays the part
If you let her go, she will break your ego and your heart”

She is still in his dreams, but she’s become the little girl who makes his dreams come true.

Good Girls Don’t was a #1 hit for The Knack, from the number-one album Get The Knack in June 1979. At the time, the album was one of the most successful debuts in history, selling over 1,000,000 copies in less than 2 months and spending 5 weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Enough to take your breath away. Maybe even every breath you take.

Every Breath You Take   The Police

“Every Breath You Take” is a song by the English rock band The Police from their fifth and final studio album Synchronicity (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest American and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band’s only No. 1 hit on that chart), and the Canadian RPM chart for two weeks. Their fifth UK No. 1, “Every Breath You Take” topped the UK singles chart for four weeks. It also reached the top 10 in numerous other countries. In May 2019, BMI recognized the song as the most-played song in radio history.

Every breath you take

And every move you make

Every single day

And every word you say

Every move you make, every step you take

I’ll be watching you

When I listen to the song “Every Breath You Take“, I hear a jilted lover stalking his prey. In the chorus, the protagonist says, “Oh, can’t you see, you belong to me”? Sting has said that he thinks “the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it’s quite the opposite.” In fact, it often gets featured at weddings, which is bizarre. “Every breath you take, every move you make… I’ll be watching you” describes a toxic, invasive relationship in which the speaker says, “You belong to me,” showing a dark possessiveness and haunting the female’s every breath and every step, rather than a healthy relationship.

“Every Breath You Take” is an easy song to tap your toe to and sing quietly along with, and I think most people don’t know the deeper truth in the lyrics. A great bit of rock and roll all in all.

Lola      The Kinks

Lola is an attractive transvestite, according to songwriter Ray Davies, and the narrator is a young man flattered by the attention paid to him by her. 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. The song details a romantic encounter in a Soho bar between a young man and Lola, who is most likely a drag queen or a trans woman. In the song, the narrator describes his confusion towards Lola, who “walked like a woman but talked like a man“, yet he remains infatuated with her.

Since its release, “Lola” became a mainstay in the Kinks’ live repertoire, appearing in most of the band’s subsequent setlists until the group’s breakup in 1997. Since its release, “Lola” has appeared on multiple compilation and live albums.

I don’t think there is much I can say about the lyrics to “Lola.” The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory, with a trans person or a cross-dresser featuring prominently in the narrative. The song has polarized listeners and critics alike from its release to this day. Some radio stations refused to play the song; Ray Davies addressed the matter, saying, “It really doesn’t matter what sex Lola is, I think she’s all right.” In what I think is a hilarious take on the song, the BBC banned the track for a different reason: the original stereo recording had the words “Coca-Cola” in the lyrics, but because of BBC Radio’s policy against product placement, Ray Davies was forced to make a 6,000-mile (9,700 km) round-trip flight from New York to London and back on 3 June 1970, interrupting the band’s American tour, to change those words to the generic “cherry cola” for the single release, which is included on various compilation albums as well.

The lyrics don’t matter to me; Lola is a great uptempo song, perfect for cruising with the windows down, with no particular place to go.

Well, I’d left home just a week before

And I’d never, ever kissed a woman before

Lola smiled and took me by the hand

She said, “Dear boy, gonna make you a man”

Well I’m not the world’s most masculine man

But I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man

And so is Lola

Undercover Angel   Alan O’Day

Cryin’ on my pillow, lonely in my bed

Undercover angel, midnight fantasy

I never had a dream that made sweet love to me, ooh

Undercover Angel has plenty of ambiguity in the lyrics, but I’ll focus on the three lines above: a man alone in bed, lamenting his loneliness. Then the undercover angel appears; is this an apparition, a real woman, a dream, or a lonely man’s wish? I lean hard into the words “fantasy” and “dream.” As they appear in the lyrics, I hear the plea of a lonely man living in a fantasy about the woman of his dreams. The undercover angel was a midnight fantasy that made love to the narrator in his dreams.

Undercover Angel is considered a one-hit wonder and charted at #1 when it was released in 1977. Alan O’Day had more success writing hits for other musicians even though he was a good musician in his own right. 

Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon        Neil Diamond

Girl, you’ll be a woman soon

Please, come take my hand

Girl, you’ll be a woman soon

Soon, you’ll need a man

A song from a boy and a girl, whose family says he’s no good, as he declares that she’ll soon be a woman and will need a man. The song says she is a girl now, but she will soon be a woman, and when she is, she will need a man. She will not just want a man; she will need a man. They wait until she is old enough to make her own choices, rather than having her family stop her from having a relationship with this boy. This song is another about the transition from adolescence to maturity. “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” peaked at number 10 on the charts, has been covered by many, and got a second life in the movie Pulp Fiction, with a version by Urge Overkill.

Only Sixteen         Dr. Hook

She was only sixteen, only sixteen (Sixteen, sixteen)

I loved her so

But she was too young to fall in love (Sixteen, sixteen)

And I was too young to know

While “Only Sixteen” is not overtly sexual, there is a tension with the transition from adolescence and being “too young to know” to being a year older and the transition to maturity. A nice little ditty about youthful romance; I like the Dr. Hook version.

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen        Neil Sedaka

Tonight’s the night I’ve waited for

Because you’re not a baby anymore

You’ve turned into the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen

Happy birthday, sweet sixteen

“Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” is another song similar to “Only Sixteen.” Lots of songs feature sixteen as an important age of transition from adolescence to maturity, including the classic “Sweet Sixteen and Never Been Kissed”, from 1932. In Neil Sedaka’s song, the girl is “not a baby anymore,”; she is sixteen and a pretty girl now.

Calendar Girl    Neil Sedaka

I love, I love, I love my little calendar girl

Every day (Every day)

Every day (Every day)

Of the year (Every day of the year)

I light the candles at your sweet sixteen

In another song from Neil Sedaka’s prolific writing, we get the ambiguous “Calendar Girl.” I mention this song along with “Pictures of Lily” by The Who, “Six Days of Paper Ladies” by Humphrey and the Dumptrucks, and “Dreaming From The Waist” by The Who.

Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful

Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night

Pictures of Lily solved my childhood problems

Pictures of Lily helped me feel alright

Dreaming From The Waist       The Who

I’ve got the hots for the sluts in the well thumbed pages of a magazine

I want to drive, want to fly like I do in the dreams I’ve never really been in

I want to hump, want to jump, want to heat up and cool down in a dream machine

I’m dreaming from the waist on down

Six Days of Paper Ladies         Humphrey and the Dumptrucks

This is the story of a touring musician who spends six days on the road, with paper ladies to keep him company until he gets home again. In this context, it isn’t a huge leap of logic from an innocent calendar of his favourite pin-up girl to pictures that provide sexual release, such as pictures of Lily, paper ladies, and the hot sluts in the well-thumbed pages of a magazine.

Rosie     Jackson Browne

But Rosie, you’re all right, you wear my ring

When you hold me tight, Rosie, that’s my thing

When you turn out the light, I got to hand it to me

Looks like it’s me and you again tonight, Rosie

Rosie is from Jackson Browne’s 1977 album Running on Empty. Hand in hand (pun intended) is the fourth of the four songs we have, Rosie, a song that is quite obviously about self-love, a.k.a. masturbation. An argument could be made that Calendar Girl, Pictures of Lily and Six Days of Paper Ladies are all about the same thing, getting it off with Rosie and her four sisters.

Donald and Lydia     John Prine

Making change behind the counter in a penny arcade

Sat the fat girl daughter of Virginia and Ray, Lydia

She read romance magazines up in her room

And felt just like Sunday on Saturday afternoon

Bunk beds, shaved heads, Saturday night

A warehouse of strangers with sixty-watt lights

Staring through the ceiling, just wanting to be

Lay one of too many, a young PFC, Donald

He envisioned the details of romantic scenes

After midnight in the stillness of the barracks latrine

Donald and Lydia made love that night

They made love in the mountains, they made love in the streams

They made love in the valleys, they made love in their dreams

But when they were finished, there was nothing to say

‘Cause mostly they made love from ten miles away

I hold John Prine’s songwriting in high regard, and this story song is right up there with his best. The key line is the last one: “they made love from ten miles away.” And presto, we have another song about masturbation.

Afternoon Delight   Starland Vocal Band

Thinking of you’s working up my appetite

Looking forward to a little afternoon delight

In 1976, when this song came out, I was working with a guy who had a girl who was about 5 years old. They listened to the radio everywhere they drove, and before long, this child was singing about afternoon delight. It is a very catchy tune, and it is easy to hear why the child would learn the lyrics. Afternoon Delight hit number one in July, just in time to evoke the Bicentennial summer’s fireworks displays with the chorus “skyrockets in flight”. Starland Vocal Band won two Grammy Awards, beating Boston for Album of the Year. Starland Vocal Band faded away, and Boston by Boston became one of the best-selling debut albums in U.S. history.

I am closing this blog with two powerful songs. Songs delivered by strong women who aren’t afraid to speak their mind.

Above The Neck        Sofia Isella

Sofia lashes out at the porn industry and the way society tries to oversexualize young girls. She takes a stand against pictures of Lily, paper ladies, and hot sluts in the well-thumbed pages of a magazine. This is a very well-done song, regardless of what it says, and part of a really good EP, Something Is a Shell; check it out.

Your hands are down your pants, you’re settled in for the night

It’s time to watch eighteen-year-olds on a private browser site

But eighteen years isn’t short enough for you

They have pigtails and Hello Kitty shorts on to undo

They’ve learned that the closer you look like to a kid

The more money you get from a forty-two-year-old piece of shit

So on screen, they’ll touch a dick and act so confused

Because cluelessness is easier to get off to

There’s no button to push for third base

I’m not trying to seduce you, fuckface

I’ll be out in your lawn, covered in snot

I get away with so much shit ’cause you think I’m hot

Oh, you’ll praise the virgin, self-absorbent

You think your penis is very important

But if something’s dirty after you touch it

The problem is your hands, dipshit, cut it off

Why d’Ya Do It             Marianne Faithfull

A standout B-side hit from Marianne Faithfull’s seventh studio album Broken English. Interviewed with Stereo Society, her producer and collaborator Barry Reynolds states:

“With Marianne, probably one of the best things we ever put down was Why D’Ya Do It? a lyric by Heathcote Williams. She came in and read it, and it was so outrageous. The band just sat around listening to these “Why do you suck my dick?” Why do you…? At that point, we had a guitarist in the band that was a Jimi Hendrix fan, and he started playing All Along the Watchtower. I changed it a bit by adding a reggae-feel around it. Marianne just started narrating this thing, and it was amazing. I knew that it was working as soon as she started talking over that rhythm, and then it came to the chorus–Why’d you do it, she said. Why’d you do what you did? Why’d you do it? It was perfect.”

I am choosing not to print the lyrics, not because of the content, but because it is a long read, to “Why d’Ya Do It”; you can read them here. https://genius.com/Marianne-faithfull-why-dya-do-it-lyrics

Broken English is the seventh studio album by English singer Marianne Faithfull. Island Records released it on 2 November 1979. The album marked a major comeback for Faithfull after years of drug abuse, homelessness and anorexia. It is often regarded as her definitive recording, and Faithfull herself described it as her “masterpiece”. I agree with her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_English_(album)

I consider Broken English one of my favourite 1970s albums. Her rendition of 
“The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” written by Shel Silverstein, and John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” are equally as powerful as Why, d’Ya Do It. I honestly don’t know what superlatives to use. They are amazing versions of songs others wrote, and she made them her own. She didn’t cover them; she reinvented them. Marianne Faithfull closes our rambling path through the agonies of adolescence into (occasionally) mature people. I hope you enjoy reading and listening to this as much as I enjoyed stitching it together.

Bonus: Have You Seen Jackie? by The Dukes of Stratosphear

“Jackie couldn’t decide if he was a girl or if she was a boy.”

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6rE7v1qjyIOl52YGac-OYGt7Zi7GcVA2&si=4MIfpc77AByg1k3w

I had a very interesting week of music with more twists and turns than you can throw a stick at.

I started off listening to a record in the country & western music genre. It was a tip of the hat to my parents. C/W music was all they listened to. I don’t know where my diverse musical taste comes from. I know I passed that diversity on to my son, who has a taste in music very similar to mine.

The Honest To Goodness Country Music Hits brought back lots of memories. It has Hank Snow, who my recently deceased Mom liked listening to. Porter Wagoner and Pee Wee King are two artists that I got to see at The Grand Ole’ Opry. Classic old-school C&W, I love it. Jim Reeves was a favourite of my Mom-in-law. Besides these C&W stars, there are nine more top-notch songs from very talented artists.

Cowboy Junkies have been on my turntable since the 1980s. I saw them at a show in the University of Alberta’s Power Plant room in 1988. I was mesmerized and bought the Trinity Session album, which I still listen to at least once a year.

The Trinity Session album was recorded in Toronto‘s Church of the Holy Trinity on November 27, 1987, with the band gathered around a single microphone. The album includes a mix of original material and covers of classic folk, rock, and country songs. Notable among the songs is the band’s most famous single, a cover of The Velvet Underground‘s “Sweet Jane“, based on the version found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live.

Trinity Session has appeared on many lists of accolades; in 2000, it was ranked number 999 in the third edition of the book All Time Top 1000 Albums. Pitchfork listed it as the 42nd best album of the 1980s in 2002. In Bob Mersereau‘s 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums, The Trinity Session ranked 62nd. In 2015, the album won the 1980s category of the inaugural Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, an annual Canadian music award for classic albums released before the Polaris Music Prize. It was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. And Norman thinks it is a very good album that balances Margo Timmins’ whispery voice with the top-notch playing of the band backing her up.

This week, I got a nice CD of Cowboy Junkies‘ first album, Whites Off Earth Now!! It came out two years before Trinity Sessions. I had never heard it before yesterday, but I was blown away when I heard it. Whites Off Earth Now!! is a more aggressive album than Trinity Sessions and showcases Margo Timmins’ voice.

I have been a fan of The Clash forever and still listen to them frequently; of course, London Calling is my favourite, but Armageddon is a very close second, and their eponymous first album is a tight third.

Joe Strummer didn’t sit on his laurels and collect royalties for his work in The Clash. Since the band broke up in 1986, Joe Strummer has been busy. Strummer’s other career highlights include stints with the 101ers, the Latino Rockabilly War, the Mescaleros, and the Pogues, as well as solo music, acting, scoring television shows and films, and hosting the BBC Radio show London Calling.

Unfortunately, Joe Strummer passed away in 2002 at the age of 52. Before that fateful day, Joe recorded Streetcore with his backing band, The Mescaleros. Martin Slattery and Scott Shields completed the album after Joe Strummer’s death, and it was released on 21 October 2003.

I love Streetcore. Due to Strummer’s death, many of the vocal performances are first takes. “Midnight Jam” has no lyrics; instead, samplings from Joe’s BBC Radio show, Joe Strummer’s London Calling, are intermixed with the music. Other tracks, such as a cover of Bob Marley‘s “Redemption Song” and “Long Shadow“, were recorded with famed producer Rick Rubin, and it is unclear whether these tracks were originally intended for this album. Another notable track is “Long Shadow“, which was originally written by Strummer for Johnny Cash. Rubin would, however, get Strummer and Cash, who died a year after Strummer, together in the studio as the two recorded a version of “Redemption Song” that was featured on Cash’s posthumously released Unearthed box set.

I want to give a big thank you to Shauna McLarnon at Shameless Promotion PR contact@shamelesspromotionpr.com for suggesting Know Associates by The Paranoid Style. It is an interesting album. Led by husband-and-wife duo Elizabeth Nelson and Timothy Bracy, this album introduced me to a band that’s been around since 2012; it is their fifth album, but I didn’t know them until Know Associates came up in my inbox. Some of them slip by under the radar.

Elizabeth Nelson’s vocal style reminds me of Ferron on her album Shadows On A Dime. It is an evocative voice that emphasizes the words and harmonizes with the instruments. I like it. Musically, The Paranoid Style explores a rock-and-roll landscape, not as gentle as Ferron’s musings. Spin’s Dan Weiss said that The Paranoid Style plays “some of the smartest rip-and-roar you’ll hear”. The Vinyl District‘s Michael Little said, “I love Nelson and her band, paranoid or not. I expect great things of The Paranoid Style, because they have it all. They’re a thinking person’s rock band that never fails to set Nelson’s ingenious, humorous musings to great melodies, then jack up the volume to remind you that what you’re hearing is good old-fashioned, explosive hard rock.

Lyrically, The Paranoid Style do not create sappy love stories. Their lyrics include plenty of references, from politics to observations on the human condition. They are indeed a thinking person’s rock band. If you take the time to really listen, you will find yourself drawn into the orbit of The Paranoid Style.

I listened to a bunch of other recordings and had a very pleasant time doing so.

Until next week, happy listening.

The Saint James Society	Bab(A/Y)Lon Rising
Carly Simon	No Secrets
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros	Streetcore
Joan as Police Woman	Real Life Evolution
David Byrne	Who Is The Sky
Billy Joel	Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II
Shack Of Peasants	Classic Blues Volume 1
Hey Rosetta!	Plan Your Escape
The Paranoid Style	Know Associates
Uriah Heep	The Magician’s Birthday
Neil Young	After The Gold Rush
Cowboy Junkies	Whites Off Earth Now
Robert Beaser / Paula Robison, Eliot Fisk	Mountain Songs: A Cycle Of American Folk Music

1978 and 1979 were stellar years in rock and roll history, and in the subgenre of New Wave music. They were also amazing years for my record collection. I fell in love with New Wave music, listened to a lot of it, and still do. I recently watched a YouTube video about Nick Lowe that inspired me to write a blog about my love of his music and the New Wave Scene in general.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I555mo22Tuw)

New Wave music built its foundation on the same ground as the 1960s pop, namely 7” singles. New Wave and power pop helped make 1978 the best-selling year for 7″ singles in UK chart history, only to break that record a year later. No other year has achieved as many singles as 1979. I didn’t, and still don’t, buy, listen to or review singles. Yes, I am an album snob, always have been and at my age, imagine I always will be.

Before the boom of New Wave music in 1978/79, there were the seeds of what would grow to be the British New Wave scene. A pivotal band in that music scene was a man and a band named Brinsley Schwarz. Brinsley Schwarz played with various musicians over the years, most notably Nick Lowe, who joined the band in 1969. In 1971, guitarist Ian Gomm joined the band. Brinsley Schwarz toured extensively in the early 1970s, and their solid live performances soon earned them a large fanbase in London. Between 1970 and 1974, Brinsley Schwarz released 6 albums, which were well received but none of which sold very well.

Wikipedia: “In 1974, they arranged for Dave Edmunds to produce their sixth album The New Favourites of… Brinsley Schwarz, which was more polished, and again received good reviews. This association also led to their touring as Dave Edmunds‘ backing band, appearing on the live tracks of his Subtle as a Flying Mallet album. In addition to the albums, Brinsley Schwarz also issued a series of singles under their own name and various pseudonyms, but none charted. They recorded a final album, It’s All Over Now, in 1974, but this was not released at the time. They finally disbanded in March 1975.” It’s All Over Now was released in 1978, the year New Wave music exploded onto the scene, and my wallet imploded.

1978 had the #2 single, Blondie‘s Heart of Glass, and its top-selling album, Parallel Lines. 1978 also saw Nick Lowe, the instigator of this blog, release Jesus of Cool in the UK in March 1978. In the United States, Columbia Records reconfigured the album and retitled it Pure Pop for Now People, which is what I listened to tonight. This album has stuck with me since I bought it and marked the start of a long history with Nick Lowe, including numerous other releases. I am not a completist; I don’t have deep enough pockets, but when I like an album or artist, I will play it till the grooves are worn out. Such is the case with Pure Pop for Now People; I am still waiting to purchase a copy of Jesus of Cool,  the UK release.

Pure Pop for Now People was released in 1978, and in 1979  he released another powerhouse album, Labour of Lust. These two albums defined my love of Nick Lowe’s music and sparked my love of New Wave. I have other albums from Nick Lowe’s mid-career as well as some of his more recent releases, but I always come back to Pure Pop for Now People and Labour of Lust.

In the late 1970s, a new band was forming: Rockpile, with Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, plus Billy Bremner and Terry Williams. Rockpile was an on-again, off-again venture that recorded expensively, toured occasionally, and became a foundational influence on New Wave and British pub rock.

Rockpile recorded almost enough material for five studio albums, though only one, Seconds of Pleasure, was released under the Rockpile banner. Three other albums, Tracks on Wax 4, Repeat When Necessary, and Twangin…, were released as Dave Edmunds solo albums, and one more, Labour of Lust, was released as a Nick Lowe solo album. You can also find scattered Rockpile tracks on a few other Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds solo albums. Additionally, Rockpile served as backing group on tracks recorded by Mickey Jupp in 1978 and Carlene Carter in 1980.

For a pub rock band that barely made a ripple beyond the shores of England, Rockpile were influential in the NewWave music scene in both England and abroad. I tried to make ripple and New Wave connect, but it was too corny, so I didn’t. I also find it interesting how interwoven the British New Wave scene was. Names like Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and Ian Gomme keep popping up, not only on each other’s albums, but also on the music of other artists.

Nick Lowe produced Elvis Costello‘s first five albums, from 1977 to 1981, including My Aim Is True, This Year’s Model, and Armed Forces, which spun off numerous charting UK hit singles. Other artists Nick Lowe has worked with include Graham Parker, Johnny Cash, and John Hiatt, among many others.

Dave Edmunds had more UK hits during this time, including Nick Lowe‘s “I Knew the Bride”, Elvis Costello‘s “Girls Talk”, Hank DeVito‘s “Queen of Hearts” (later a larger, international hit for American country-rock singer Juice Newton), Graham Parker‘s “Crawling from the Wreckage”, and Melvin Endsley‘s “Singing the Blues.”

Ian Gomm has worked with Brinsley Schwarz, the Stranglers, and Alexis Korner. He also toured with Dire Straits on their Sultans of Swing tour.

The run of New Wave number ones of 1979 began in January with Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, followed by Heart of Glass by Blondie, which topped the charts for four straight weeks through most of February. 

Spring 1979 was to prove the high point of New Wave‘s popularity.  March saw new music from Elvis Costello and Lene Lovich. They occupied the number two and number three spots with Oliver’s Army and Lucky Number, respectively. Elvis Costello had released three blockbuster albums, My Aim Is True in 1977, This Year’s Model in 1978, and Armed Forces in 1979. These three albums marked the start of a long and rewarding career for Elvis Costello that continues to this day. Much like Nick Lowe, I am infatuated with the first three albums of Elvis Costello’s career. He has released a lot of music between the late 70’s and now, but those three are seared into the musical part of my brain, or at least what’s left of it.

The North American New Wave music began trickling in during 1978; it was a bit behind the UK wave. Although less well defined than the British wave, 1978 still produced a few notable albums. Devo released their eponymous album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! in August of 1978.

Blondie was a flag bearer for the New Wave music scene in North America, starting in New York and in the club scene at venues like CBGBs. Blondie were fronted by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. Although the band started in 1974, the release of Parallel Lines in 1978 pushed them to the forefront of the nascent North American New Wave music scene.

The B-52’s released their self-titled album in July 1979, which triggered a bevy of New Wave releases from American artists closing out the year. I have fond memories of skating in a roller rink while Rock Lobster flooded the room. The B-52’s is a very good listen; even today, it has aged well. The B-52’s have kept their band together, with an album in 2008 and a live show as recently as 2025.

One of my desert island bands, The Talking Heads, were very active in the late 70s. In 1977, they released their debut album, Talking Heads: 77. More Songs About Buildings and Food arrived in 1978 and my favourite, Fear of Music,in August of 1979. I still remember buying Fear of Music and being so enthralled that I bought a cassette so I could listen to it in my truck. I was working as a surveyor, and we were roaming the back roads of Alberta doing well site locations; I had Fear of Music on constantly. Fortunately, my workmate liked music and didn’t complain about the endless Fear of Music. I recently saw David Byrne in concert and have watched him on TV; he still plays “I Zimbra” live.

I don’t know why, but those three acts are the sum total of my North American New Wave listening.

Back across the pond, excellent New Wave was still alive and well in the U.K. XTC released Drums and Wires in August 1979, with the hit single Making Plans for Nigel. Gary Numan released The Pleasure Principle in September 1979, with the hit single “Cars.”

Over in Ireland, The Boomtown Rats released the record The Fine Art Of Surfacing in October 1979. That album had the hit single I Don’t Like Mondays. I saw them in concert in April 1980; it was a good show. It was also memorable because the chap that went to the show with me was so drunk he passed out about halfway through the show. I don’t know if he still likes The Boomtown Rats; I do, and I still listen to this album.

Finally, we close out 1979 and our short excursion through New Wave music with the huge album, London Calling by The Clash, released in December 1979. I had a short stint in a band, and London Calling was on our set list. I surrounded myself with musicians better than me and kept my volume knob set very low. The Clash had three great albums in quick succession: their debut, the eponymous The Clash in 1977, Give ‘Em Enough Rope in 1978, and London Calling in 1979. I couldn’t pick just one; I listen to all three frequently. Taking a step into the future, they also released Sandinista! in 1980. Listening to all four of these albums in one sitting is not a venture for the faint of heart. While The Clash and Give ‘Em Enough Rope are single-disc releases, London Calling is a double album and Sandinista! is a triple album. While The Clash are often labelled a punk band, I think they are also a New Wave band. They took their music into many genres, including  punk, New Wave, reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly. Putting a label on them for just one branch of music means pruning the other branches from their tree; it can’t be done. They have many roots and many branches, and that is what makes them a good band to end this blog with.

New Wave was born in punk rock and power pop but grew to encompass a broad palette of genres. While the edges of New Wave may be fuzzy, the foundation was always the 7” singles of 1960s pop music. New Wave gave birth to true stars of music such as Elvis Costello, The Clash, and The Talking Heads. While the wave had largely moved on during the 1980s, its influence can still be heard in today’s grunge and alternative bands. I fell in love with New Wave in the late 1970s, and that passion has endured to this day. I think I’ll have a coffee and listen to some music to end this blog. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Discography:

Nick Lowe – Pure Pop For Now People – March 1978

Dave Edmunds – Tracks on Wax 4 – September 1978

Nick Lowe – Labour of Lust – June 1979

Ian Gomme – Gomm With The Wind – July 1979

Elvis Costello And The Attractions – Armed Forces – January 1979

Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Do It Yourself- May 1979

Dave Edmunds – Repeat When Necessary – June 1979

Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! – August 1978

Blondie – Parallel Lines – September 1978

B-52’s – S/T – July 1979

Talking Heads. – Fear of Music – August 1979

XTC – Drums And Wires – August 1979

Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle – September 1979

The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art Of Surfacing – October 1979

The Clash – April 1977

Give ‘Em Enough Rope – November 1978

The Clash – London Calling – December 1979

Sandinista! – December 1980

In the end, I listened to The Beatles’ song The End on their album Abbey Road.

My Mom came to the end of her worldly journey last week at the age of 96. She shuffled off her mortal coil and went to meet her maker. I was tempted to add the Norwegian Blue list, but resisted. 

Mom wasn’t what I would call a musical person. She enjoyed listening to Dad play guitar and sing, but that was pretty much it. She didn’t play any instruments herself and seldom played music in her daily life. When she was younger, she went to a few live shows, notably Johnny Horton, Kitty Wells and Ray Price. Dad played many standards from the 1950s and 60s, lots of Hank Williams.

A couple of musical moments come to mind when I think about Mom and music. The first is the first album that I bought, The Best of the Bee Gees. We had one record player in the house; I listened to my new record on it, and Mom listened. There were no headphone jacks on the old Sears phonograph. She surprised me and liked that album, which I proceeded to play dozens of times. Radio was hit-or-miss in some of the places we lived, so records became my only option. I listened to Dad’s albums, including “King Of The Road & Other Country And Western Comedy Hits” and “30 Grand Ole Country & Western Favorites,” until I could sing the songs from memory.

The next memory moment was a double hitter: John Lennon‘s album Imagine and Jethro Tull‘s Aqualung. Mom was a devout Christian and didn’t want any blasphemous music in her house. “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try” was too much for her evangelical ears. “Cross-eyed Mary” and “We are our own saviours” were too touchy for my mother Mary. I played the records when she wasn’t home, until I could buy my own stereo and listen to anything I wanted, anytime I wanted.

In conclusion, Mom, rest in peace, you can spend eternity listening to Dad play Hank Williams.

I wasn’t listening to music this week with my usual frequency or attentiveness. I will expand on that in next week’s blog, or the week after. Time will tell. That doesn’t mean I didn’t listen to some good music, because I did. I listened to Martha and the Muffins sing about Echo Beach, a good slice of Canadiana. The Hoodoo Gurus tell us that Mars Needs Guitars. The Rolling Stones cooked up some Goats Head Soup, and John Prine sings about Sweet Revenge. I gave Sandinista from The Clash another good spin; it still has holding power for me. David Allan Coe was a fine listen. I enjoyed re-hearing some of his classic stuff, and “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” is a great song that parodies country and western music with a good old belly laugh. “And In The End,) I listened to The Beatles on Abbey Road, which brings us back to the start and the title of this blog.

This blog is a response to a page on Facebook called “Fans Of Real 80’s CCM.” I was a fan of Contemporary Christian Music for many years and still listen to a narrow bandwidth of artists from that era. There was a lot of good music in that decade, and there are obviously many fans of the gospel music that persists to this day, as evidenced by the comments on the Facebook page.

One article sent my musical senses into overdrive. The album of the day was Tonio K‘s “Notes From A Lost Civilization”. I have his first five albums, and his first album, “Life In The Foodchain,” is my go-to from his discography. Steven M. Krikorian aka Tonio K says that “Life In The Foodchain ” and “Notes From A Lost Civilization” are his favourites. It had been a while since I had listened to “Notes From A Lost Civilization,” so I needed a refresher. While I was at it, I decided to go back and listen to all five albums chronologically and comment on the Christianity in the lyrics and some of the philosophy as well. Tonio K’s lyrics are smart, concise, and often oblique. They can make me laugh, turn on a dime, and pause to wonder what the h-e-double-l is going on. He is also a great storyteller; I like that.

“His faith was energized by the Jesus movement, but unlike those who saw that revival as an opportunity to create and hang out in a subculture, Tonio K and his compadres stayed engaged with the wider world with their hope, their faith, and their love stirred honestly and authentically into their work.”

From The True Tunes Podcast: Tonio K. Walks On: Notes From A Lost World – 2023-01-23

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vj5i3-136e6c7?utm_campaign=a_share_ep&utm_source=a_share_pb&utm_medium=dlink

So, without further ado, here we go on our little voyage to a lost civilization with some pit stops.

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First stop: Life In The Foodchain. In 1978, Tonio K went solo with Life in the Foodchain on Irving Azoff’s Full Moon/Epic label. Adopting the moniker Tonio K., a reference to the writings of Kafka and Thomas Mann, two authors that I have never read. Tonio K was hailed as America’s answer to Britain’s Angry Young Men (Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Graham Parker) and the “funniest serious songwriter in America”.  Life In The Foodchain was produced by Rob Fraboni (The Band, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker) and featured a supporting cast that included Earl Slick, Garth Hudson, Dick Dale and Albert Lee.

Track 1: Life In The Foodchain

The closest this song gets to being Christian is in the line about the Catholic dogma of crossing themselves.

“It’s watch your step and cross yourself,
And get back in the house.” 

Philosophically speaking, there is an element of resignation or defeatism: 

“I guess that you’ve finally got to accept
That there’s nothing you can do about it”

Christianity teaches that we can improve our lives, so there is something we can do about it. There is prayer, asking God to help, and expecting God’s help, based on the scriptures, that “we can do all things through Christ.”

Track 2: The Funky Western Civilization

This is probably one of my favourite Tonio K songs. There are lots of good ones, so picking a single best song is difficult. The lyrics do mention sinners.

“There’s a sinner bein’ trampled
By a thousand pious feet
There’s a baby every minute
Bein’ born without a chance
Now don’t that make you want
To jump right up and start to dance?”

I don’t think the congregations or leaders of any mainline church would approve of these lines from the chorus:

“You just grab your partner by the hair
Throw her down and leave her there”

And eventually, we have Jesus making a guest appearance.

“They put Jesus on a cross
They put a hole in J.F.K
They put Hitler in the driver’s seat
And looked the other way
Now they’ve got poison in the water
And the whole world in a trance
But just because we’re hypnotized
That don’t mean we can’t dance”

It could be postulated that the great unwashed population are hypnotized by church leaders, politicians, etc. But we can still dance, just like on the Titanic. In the song “Amusing Ourselves To Death” by Garth Hewitt, there is a cunning reference to dancing while the ship goes down. “We’ve chosen the path of pleasure even if it kills.” That’s a great album, by the way; it should be in the CCM group on Facebook, even though it was released in 1990.

Back to the lyrics of The Funky Western Civilization:

“And I, I’ve never heard nothing like this in my life
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know what to make of it
Good God almighty
Scares me every time I hear it
Scares me every time I think about it”

“Good God almighty.” Is that a genuine cry out to the capital G God of the Christian Bible, or is it an expletive? I don’t know, and I don’t have any commentary from Tonio K himself or an uber fan to clarify that statement for us.

Track 3: Willie And The Pigman

This song has zero references to anything spiritual; it is a story song about the mob and unions.

Track 4: The Ballad Of The Night The Clocks All Quit (And The Government Failed)

Again, nothing spiritual other than a vague reference to John the Baptist.

“And John the Baptist and Uncle Sam
They was carryin’ the plans for some new kind of object of faith”

Track 5: American Love Affair

This song is a commentary on the American dream. Waylon Jennings offered a great commentary on the American Dream in the song “Luckenbach, Texas” (Back to the Basics of Love). “Four-car garage and we’re still buildin’ on.” Not really spiritual, but a good commentary on human nature and the pursuit of the American Dream, or the American Love Affair.

Track 6: How Come I Can’t See You In My Mirror?

This could be a commentary on ignoring our sinful nature, or it could be a comical song that deserves a place in Dr. Demonto’s playlist. Nothing spiritual, other than the possibility that the vampire could put off some Christians.

Track 7: Better Late Than Never

What we have here is “a long way from Heaven.” A lament on a broken relationship- is it spiritual or not? Depends on which side of the church you sit on; some are ok with divorce, others aren’t.

Track 8: A Lover’s Plea

“Think about all the things that we’ve been through
Or think about how a cast would look on you

Don’t you go and break my heart
No don’t do it
If you do
I’ll go crazy
Maybe hurt myself
Or more significant
I might hurt you”

Another relationship is falling apart, and apparently a divorce isn’t in the mix for the singer of this song. A threat of violence isn’t exactly Christian, although some passages in the Old Testament allude or lean hard towards violence as a solution for all kinds of things.

Track 9: H-A-T-R-E-D

I am going to stand back and let these lyrics play out without commentary. If you wish, you can comment on how this is Christian; it eludes me.

“Now I know it’s not unusual
It’s nothing so unique
There’s probably hundreds of wonderful love affairs
That go bad in this town every week
It’s a big town, but all of them others
Them sad-hearted lovers could cry in their beer
What the hey, it didn’t concern me
Was none of my business
I never had nothin’ to say
But suddenly darlin’ the table has turned
You have left me for somebody new
And now it’s hard to express the resentment I feel
For the years that I’ve wasted on you
But let me kind of put this another way
Okay?
Eins, zwei, drei, vier!

[Verse 1]
I know it’s not unusual
It’s nothing so unique
There’s probably hundreds of wonderful love affairs
That go bad in this town every week

But all of them others, them sad-hearted lovers
Could cry in their beer, what the hey
It didn’t concern me, was none of my business
I never had nothin’ to say
But suddenly darlin’ the table has turned
You have left me for somebody new
And now it’s hard to express the resentment I feel
For the years that I’ve pissed away on you

[Chorus]
I’m full of
H-A-T-R-E-D
I’m bitter and malign
You’ve got me
P-I-S-S-E-D off
I’m angry most of the time
Why don’t you
G-O T-O H-E-double-L
You tramp
You philandering bitch
I’m going to
K-I-L-L one of us baby
Give me time and I’ll decide on which
But wait a minute

[Verse 2]
And I know I’m acting immature
I’m acting like a child
I should display some self-control
Instead of going wild like this
And I wish I could accept all this
As simply “life” which includes pain
And act upon the actual fact
That nobody’s to blame
Yes I wish I was as mellow
As for instance Jackson Browne
But “Fountain of Sorrow” my ass motherfucker
I hope you wind up in the ground
I’m so full of

[Chorus]
H-A-T-R-E-D
I’m bitter and malign
You’ve got me
P-I-S-S-E-D off
I’m angry most of the time
Why don’t you
G-O T-O H-E-double-L
You tramp
You philandering bitch
I’m going to
K-I-L-L one of us baby
When I’m sober I’ll decide on which

I’m full of
H-A-T-R-E-D
I’m bitter, I’m maligned
You’ve got me
P-I-S-S-E-D off
You know I’m angry most of the time
Why don’t you
G-O T-O H-E-double-L
You tramp
You bitch
I’m going to
K-I-L-L one of us baby
Give me time I’ll decide on which

[Outro]
I’m full of
H-A-T-R-E-D
Why don’t you
G-O T-O H-E-double-L
You tramp
You philandering bitch
I’m going to
K-I-L-L one of us baby
Give me time and I’ll decide on which

H-A-T-R-E-D
What’s that spell?
What’s that spell?
What’s that spell?
But then again, maybe with the proper counselling we can work this out”

And that concludes my commentary on Tonio K’s first album Life In The Foodchain.

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Now we move on to Tonio K’s second album, Amerika, released in 1980 via Clive Davis’s Arista Records. Filled with literary and political references, the album was hailed as “punk for academics,” and once again Simels from Stereo Review called it “the greatest record ever recorded.” 

Track 1: Amerika

Nothing spiritual about this song. It has lots of tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the state of the world in 1980; it hasn’t changed much by 2016.

Track 2: Say Goodbye

Some lyrics in Say Goodbye allude to faith.

“everybody say a prayer for the age of innocence
everybody say a prayer for the days gone by
it’s a sin and it’s a shame
but those days will not come again
blow a kiss and dry your eyes
say goodbye”

There is an element of resignation or defeatism similar to those in “Life In The Food Chain.” Tonio K throws in an accusation that could be applied to anyone in leadership, political or spiritual.

“they confuse and they tangle the truth up
with fast talk and promises
they abuse and abandon each other
outside on the street
yeah the signs are everywhere
only no one even cares
this paradise is dying
say goodbye”

Track 3: Sons Of The Revolution

Political commentary.

Track 4: Go Away

Risque song about a failed relationship.

“Oh you’re a spicy little number
But your mind’s between your legs”

Track 5: Cinderella’s Baby

I think these are more political/state-of-the-world lyrics.

Track 6: Trouble

We finally get some lyrics that have a smattering of Christianity.

“I can’t believe it
Everywhere trouble (trouble)
It’s right out of the book of Revelation
Trouble (trouble)
Why don’t you read it, read all about it
Trouble (trouble)”

Those lines aren’t exactly an endorsement for the Christian faith; it’s all trouble. The song Trouble has more commentary on the state of America than the state of our souls.

“Are you men associated with the American army
No we’re not associated with anybody”

Track 7: Girl Crazy

Nothing Christian here.

Track 8: I’ll Buy It

Nothing Christian here either.

Track 9: The Night Fast Rodney Want Crazy

A story song, but not a Bible story.

Track 10: Merzsuite: Let Us Join Together in a Tune/Umore/Futt Futt Futt/Umore

I don’t entirely know what Tonio K is trying to say in this song, but it is not a Bible lesson.

At the end of this album, there is precious little related to Christianity.

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La Bomba was Tonio K’s next release. Capitol Records released it in 1982 as a 12-inch EP. Recorded as a live-in-the-studio album produced by Carter (Motels, Tina Turner, Paula Cole). Recorded in Capitol Studio B, it featured K.’s touring band: George “Geo” Conner (guitar), Alfredo Acosta Alwag (drums), and Enrique “Eric” Gotthelf (bass). The song “Mars Needs Women” also appears on the EP; a few years later, Hoodoo Gurus released an album with the song “Mars Needs Guitars,” a reference to the 1967 science fiction film “Mars Needs Women.” I enjoy random facts like that. And once again pronounced by Simels to be “the greatest record ever recorded”

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Tonio K next released Romeo Unchained on What?/A&M Records. What? Records was a short-lived record label started by Word Records and A&M Records, intended to focus on creative and unusual rock and roll records with spiritual messages. The intention was to feature Christian Rock artists that “wouldn’t be too obvious” about their faith. It was founded in 1986. Its first release was Tonio K.’s Romeo Unchained. In my opinion, it was on Romeo Unchained that Tonio K. got labelled as a “Christian” artist.

In the short time that the label existed, it released albums by Mark Heard (under the name of iDEoLA), Tonio K. (two albums, the second of which was produced by T-Bone Burnett), and Chagall Guevara’s Dave Perkins. I love the music of all the artists mentioned above. Mark Heard is the most “Christian” in their lyrics; it is not my place to judge their faith.

Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as “the best Bob Dylan album since Dylan himself lost interest in the pop song form,” Romeo Unchained landed on numerous critics’ top 10 albums of the year lists. Simels once again called it “the greatest record ever recorded.” Recorded in 1985 and 1986, it was produced by Rick Neigher, Bob Rose, and T Bone Burnett. The musicians on these recordings included Neigher (on many instruments), Rose, Burnett, Peter Banks, David Mansfield, David Miner, David Raven, Tim Pierce, Tim Chandler, and Rob Watson. 

Track 1: True Confessions

True Confessions starts with some Biblical references:

“It’s a jungle out there
Used to be a garden
But the times got tough
And now all those innocent hearts have hardened
You got Cain and Abel
You got Jack and Jill
They’re out looking for love, love, love
On a Saturday night in a Coup de Ville”

And it stops there. I wonder if the title references confessing our sins?

---

Track 2: Perfect World

Zero Biblical or spiritual lines in this song, just a longing for a perfect world and lamentations on the fact that the world we live in is far from perfect.

---

Track 3: Romeo and Jane

The words “they have fallen east of Eden” are the closest Romeo and Jane get to a perfect world.

---

Track 4: You Belong With Me

A love song with very little in the way of theology, but I love the line “what passes for love on the streets these days is a joke.”

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Track 5: Impressed

Finally, we get something straight out of the Bible.

“’Cause love is gentle love is kind
Doesn’t poison baby’s wine
Isn’t jealous or provoked
Doesn’t quit or give up hope”

1 Corinthians 13:4–7

These words are used in as many weddings as the line “I do.” 

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Track 6: I Handle Snakes

“They will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” – Mark 16:18

Over the last 100 years, about 100 church leaders have died from snake bites in the USA. That puts a damper on their theology about not getting hurt from snakes or poison.

I feel like Tonio K is singing this song more in jest than condemnation; the fact that so many die is the condemnation part. Is this song “Christian?” I suppose so, but:

“But I don’t say hallelujah
I don’t even say grace
I make my statement
I say it with snakes”

“The theological treatise, “I Handle Snakes”, was written and recorded in mid-1980. Thematically, it has nothing to do with the other songs on, or intent of, the record. It is included here only at the insistence of certain A&R, managerial, and media folk. They know who they are, you decide what you think.” K. – from the Romeo Unchained liner notes

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Track 7: Emotional War Games

“Lord teach me patience, show me a way
Teach us forgiveness before it’s too late
Because I want my baby and she wants me too
But if we don’t stop fighting, Lord, we’re all through.”

A cry to the Lord for help, to learn patience and forgiveness. Two tough lessons that I am still working on.

---

Track 8: Living Doll

This is a weird song. The lyrics brought Shirley Temple to mind, who was a living doll in many aspects.

No spiritual references to be found in this song.

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Track 9: You Don’t Belong Here

Nothing from the Bible in this song other than saying a prayer for someone to leave soon.

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Track 10: You Will Go Free

The album Romeo Unchained closes with some good Bible teaching, including the famous phrase “the truth will set you free,” from John 8:32, where Jesus says, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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Is Romeo Unchained a “Christian” album? I don’t think so. I hear it as a good lyricist who uses some Biblicalreferences to bolster the story. It is a good record, but don’t expect any of these songs to appear in your church on Sunday morning.

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Notes From The Lost Civilization is our closing album and the star attraction of this blog.

Notes from the Lost Civilization, again on What?/A&M, followed in 1988. It was concurrently released on the Wordlabel, a gospel/Christian music subsidiary of A&M; the Word version of the release did not include the song “What Women Want” (presumably for the lyric “they want sex, yeah that’s true,” although the point of the song is that women want love). Produced by Tonio K. and David Miner, with T Bone Burnett serving as executive producer, the all-star cast of supporting musicians included Burnett, Booker T. Jones on Hammond B-3, Jim Keltner, Raymond Poundsand Alex Acuña on drums and percussion, James Jamerson, Jr.and David Miner on bass, and Charlie Sexton and Jack Sherman on additional guitars. The video for the single, “Without Love“, marked Tonio’s first airplay on MTV.

Track 1: Without Love

Immediately before the love scripture in the song Impress, these verses are about being without love.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (NIV): “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy… but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor… but do not have love, I gain nothing.“

Tonio K goes through a laundry list of things that mean nothing without love.

Track 2: Children’s Crusade

There have been two historical children’s crusades. The first one was the Medieval Children’s Crusade of 1212. Thousands of young people and poor peasants set out to peacefully march to the Holy Land and recover Jerusalemafter adult-led crusades had stalled. Unfortunately, they were ill-equipped, suffered from a lack of provisions, and the crusade ended before it reached the Holy Land. Many questions remain about what really happened. Although it is called the Children’s Crusade, Pope Innocent III never approved it as an official crusade. The traditional narrative likely conflates historical and mythical events, including the preaching of visions by a French boy and a German boy, and an intention to convert Muslims in the Holy Land to Christianity peacefully.

The second was the Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963, in which over 1000 schoolchildren went to 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, to march peacefully against racial segregation. Public Safety Commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama, Bull Connor met the children with high-pressure fire hoses and attack dogs, generating global outrage. The shocking media coverage forced federal intervention, heavily influenced President John F. Kennedy’s support for civil rights legislation, and paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was far more successful than the 1212 crusade.

Back to the present, what does all of this have to do with the Tonio K song titled Children’s Crusade? I don’t have the foggiest idea.

Track 3: Stay

More lamentations about broken hearts.

Track 4: City Life

A love song from Tonio K to his home city, warts and all.

Track 5: You Were There

This is the most Christian song so far. It covers a lot of ground, starting with Eden, fittingly.

“[Chorus]
And you were there waiting for me
You shined the light when I couldn’t see
I stood at the gate like a stranger
And you were there waiting for me”

Track 6: The Executioners Song

I don’t know what this song is about.

Track 7: I Can’t Stand It

In this song, I discern a jab at the televangelist preachers.

“I heard about a new religion
Where the money talks
And the women scream
And the people worship the wildest things”

Track 8: What Women Want

This is the song Word Records wouldn’t put on their version of the album because of the lyric that uses the word sex. The funny thing is that the song adds an emphatic “but,” then goes on to say that women want love among other things.

Track 9: I Can’t Stop

I like this song on many levels. I used to work in an addiction recovery program, and one of my little sayings was: “If you make a mess, clean it up. If you see a mess, clean it up. If you are a mess, come and talk to me.”

“Got my personal story
Got the six o’clock news
It’s all driving me crazy”

This brought to mind the great Larry Norman song, “I Am The Six O’clock News.” A hard-hitting commentary on war-mongering by an amazing Christian musician. I don’t have to do a blog about whether or not Larry Norman makes “Christian” music; he shoves it in your face. Unfortunately, a lot of churches didn’t like his edgy lyrics, and he became trapped in a genre that is too religious for mainstream music and too mainstream for churches.

Back to Tonio K’s song. I really like this chorus.

I
I can’t stop
I can’t stop thinking
I can’t stop thinking about you

Track 10: Where Is That Place

This song is perfect for the age of Trumpism. I’m doing the whole song in one dump.

[Verse 1]
It used to be the teacher’s favorite country
It used to be the showplace of the west
Everything worked and everyone smiled
It used to be another word for the best

[Chorus]
Where is that place? Where did it go?
Whatever happened to that place? God only knows
That isn’t it over there and this isn’t it here
Now how did a place that big just disappear?

[Verse 2]
You could see it in the distance across the desert
You could see it from a hundred miles away
It glowed in the dark, it lit up the world
It seemed as if the sun shined night and day

[Chorus]
Where is that place? Where did it go?
Whatever happened to that place? God only knows
That isn’t it over there and this isn’t it here
Now how did a place that big just disappear?

[Bridge]
They dealt in fantasy and fashion
They dealt in flesh and blood
Multiple millions of dollars
You could buy anything but love

[Chorus]
Where is that place? Where did it go?
Whatever happened to that place? God only knows
That isn’t it over there and this isn’t it here
Now how can a place that big just disappear?

Where is that place? Where did it go?
Whatever happened to that place? God only knows
That isn’t it over there and this isn’t it here
So how can a place that big just disappear?

Where that place is a darn good question; God only knows, and that is a fitting close to our blog.

I set out some four thousand words ago to examine Tonio K’s music and specifically his album Notes From A Lost Civilization, to see whether it is Christian music or not. I lean towards saying maybe. Tonio K has stated that he believes there is a God. It seems to me that he would fall into the group of believers that only congregate for weddings and funerals. Or maybe even a CEO, Christmas and Easter Only. It is not my place to judge another person’s faith; if there is a God, that is his job, not mine. What I can do, however, is to listen to the songs of others and see if they sound like gospel music to me, or not. There are certainly moments in Tonio K’s discography that lean hard into Christian music, but there are also moments that lean hard away from the Christian genre. The bottom line for me is this: I enjoy his music and will keep listening to it whenever the urge hits me. I don’t sit and think about his theology; I take the music at face value and enjoy listening to it.

I finished reading James Acaster’s new book, Perfect Sound Whatever. I know James from the BBC & YouTube, where he is a regular guest on panel shows and solo stand-up comedy appearances. I bought this book expecting some good laughs; that didn’t happen. There are moments of humour scattered through the book, delivered in classic James Acaster deadpan style. The heart of the book is not about humorous events in his life; it is about his life and his relationship with music and people through one specific year, 2016, with a few bits from other years.

For those who know me, it is no secret that I am passionate about music. I listen to music, a lot of music. James Acaster listens to a lot of music as well, and our tastes overlap a surprising number of times considering our age gap; he is 41, I am 71. In this book, James walks us through a year in his life and the music he listens to during that year and beyond. He makes the bold statement that 2016 was the Greatest Year of All Time. GYoAT? The Greatest (Year) Of All Time, GOAT? Specifically, James asserts that 2016 was the greatest year in music of all time, and he walks us through all the music he listened to that year, with short album reviews along the way.

James includes a calendar at the end of the book with an album for each day of the leap year, 366 albums. He also includes an appendage because he listened to a lot more than just those 366 albums. 

I loved the book and plowed through it way too fast. I will have to revisit the reviews at a more pedestrian pace, giving myself time to listen to the music, perhaps not all 366, but samples of them all and deeper listens for ones that catch my ear, or his synopsis resonates with me. This will not be a year-long process, hopefully, but I do intend to listen to some music from 2016 that is new to me. I have already listened to or owned several of the albums listed and have listened to several of the albums that James Acaster listened to from his 2016 list.

Pink Floyd	Meddle
Joe Cocker	Gold
Mal Devisa	Kiid
George Harrison	All Things Must Pass
Zeal & Ardor	Zeal and Ardor
Christian Fitness	This Taco Is Not Correct
Jeff Beck	Truth

As seen above, I listened to more than just James Acaster’s albums; I know they aren’t his albums, but you know what I mean. I also listened to some good older tunes.

Pink Floyd are one of my top bands to listen to. I can go through their entire catalogue up to a certain point, and then it loses its appeal. The turning point is The Wall. The Wall is still listenable, but I find my mind wandering as I listen; it doesn’t hold me as much as their earlier material. On the other hand, I can listen to Meddle several times a year. With The Wall, once a year is enough. I think that may be an incendiary statement to some, who will strongly defend The Wall. I would posit, however, that they perhaps don’t have the career-spanning experience that I have had with Pink Floyd. I am of the opinion that a lot of younger fans are only familiar with the DSotM to The Wall period in the Pink Floyd discography.

Meddle is the sixth studio album by Pink Floyd and is separated from DS0tM by only one album, Obscured By Clouds, which was written as a soundtrack, not a stand-alone studio album. Meddle is significant in the timeline of Pink Floyd because it is the fulcrum that moved the band away from the Syd Barrett era into the Gilmour, Mason, Waters, Wright era. On Meddle, the song composition was a group effort, whereas Waters would dominate the lyrics in future albums.

The band started using more studio effects on Meddle, effects that would show up frequently in later albums. It is easy to hear the influence of Meddle as a precursor to DSotM, and influence that had a ripple effect through the remainder of their catalogue, with the possible exception of their last four albums, Final Cut, Momentary Lapse of Reason, Division Bell, and Endless River. The Final Cut is the last Pink Floyd album to feature founding member Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985. It is the only Pink Floyd album without founding member and keyboardist Richard Wright, who had left the band under pressure from Waters after the Wall sessions.

Back to Meddle for a moment. The album opens with One of These Days, which is mostly instrumental, with a howling wind followed by a thundering bass line for a few measures, then the other instruments. It is a great intro because of the pounding bass throughout, including the bass drum and keyboards. Gilmour noodles on guitar throughout, tying the song together. The band fill side one with four more tracks that offer some contrast from the cohesive structure of future Pink Floyd albums. Side two of Meddle is the epic Echoes, 23¹⁄₂ minutes long. Echoes was used by different members of the band through their solo careers and is considered by many to be the definitive transition point from the little-known band with an avid cultish following to a mainstream band. It is considered by many to be one of the band’s best cuts. Several publications have remarked on it as one of the best songs by the group. Pink Floyd themselves have mixed views of the track, but it was a particular favourite of Richard Wright’s.

---

Joe Cocker Gold was a thrift store find that made a good listen for the drive home. It is loaded with top ten hits and sing-along songs.

---

I don’t think I had ever sat down and listened to All Things Must Pass start to finish. I was, of course, familiar with his radio-friendly hit singles “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life“. I can’t say that listening to the album start to finish caused me to jump up and run to Record Collectors Paradise to buy a copy. While I worked in the store’s warehouse, we sorted plenty of copies of the album, and most of the covers were in tatters, with vinyl condition that hovered around VG. I’ll have to revisit this album sometime in the future, perhaps even on physical format if I can find a good one at the right price. Music prices have gone through the roof!

---

I have long admired the guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck, and I have several physical copies of his music that I revisit periodically. My favourite is Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live. I had read someone praising the Jeff Beck album Truth, which I had not heard, so I gave it a spin. Truth is Jeff Beck’s debut album and features a stellar lineup of musicians. The core members of The Jeff Beck Group on this and most of his early albums were Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on guitar. Additional cast included:

• John Paul Jones – bass guitar on “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and “Beck’s Bolero”; Hammond organ on “Ol’ Man River” and “You Shook Me”; arrangements on “Hi Ho Silver Lining”
• Nicky Hopkins – piano on “Morning Dew”, “You Shook Me”, “Beck’s Bolero” and “Blues Deluxe”
• Keith Moon (credited as “You Know Who”) – drums on “Beck’s Bolero”; timpani on “Ol’ Man River”
• Madeline Bell – backing vocals on “I’ve Been Drinking”
• John Carter and Ken Lewis – backing vocals on “Tallyman”
• Clem Cattini – drums on “Hi Ho Silver Lining”
• Aynsley Dunbar – drums on “Tallyman” and “Rock My Plimsoul (single version).”
• Jimmy Page – 12-string Fender Electric XII guitar on “Beck’s Bolero

An impressive assortment of musicians that make an enjoyable album. I will add this to my already too long want list.

---

One of the albums that James Acaster talked about was Kiids by Mal Devisa. I was hooked on this album after the first song and basked in the rest of it. On the album Kiid, Mal opens with a simple ballad of her voice and a guitar, Fire. She has a good voice that carries the emotion of the lyrics well. Then, in the last 30 seconds of the track, the gentle acoustic guitar transforms into a hard rocker with a scream in the background and a harder edge to Mal’s voice. The second track, In My Neighbourhood, opens with a delicious bass line. I won’t go into detail on each track, but suffice to say that this whole album deserves more than one listen, and it deserves to be more than background noise; it demands paying attention and asking yourself what is going on both lyrically and instrumentally. I have lost count of how many times I have listened to Kiid; suffice to say that it will be an end-of-year candidate.

---

Zeal and Ardor is another of James Acaster’s picks. He listened to their album Devil is Fine, which was quite enjoyable. It wanders between blues, black gospel and industrial metal. I don’t know if I will listen to their music again; it is good, but I confess that I don’t listen to much doom/industrial/metal music—a bit of an acquired taste on this album. Interesting lyrics, I will add. Don’t give up on the album after hearing only one or two tracks; it is much more diverse than those two songs. There are touches of blues, a smattering of black gospel and even what sounds like a harpsichord in their songs. Diverse and challenging, in a good way.

---

This Taco Is Not Correct is a great album title; it caught my attention and made me curious to find out what the heck is going on. The band name is also interesting: Christian Fitness. I want a physical copy, unfortunatly they are sold out. It is still a good listen streaming; I’m just old school and like vinyl. I have spun this album around a couple of times, and I keep hearing it differently each time. I like that. I don’t want to miss anything, so I have to focus and listen intentionally. The music is all over the place when it comes to genre. It could be alternative rock, indie rock, garage, metal, or even noise rock. I don’t care what label it gets; I like the music.

---

So, there we have it, another week of great tunes. I look forward to next week and another batch of new (to me) music and some old favourites.

Syd Barrett	Opel
Bee Gees	Bee Gees 1st
Pink Floyd	A Saucerful of Secrets
Flea	Honora
Pink Floyd	Meddle
The Stevenson Ranch Davidians	Amerika
Pink Floyd	Meddle
Joe Cocker	Gold

It has been a rather slow week musically. I am still reading the Pink Floyd book, A Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaffner, and listening to the albums as I travel through the band’s timeline. I made it up to Meddle this week twice. I consider it an album that should get more respect than it does. Meddle sits at the doorstep to Dark Side of the Moon, and you can hear the band developing in that direction. I liked it enough to listen to it again.

Syd Barrett’s solo album Opel is not a fun listen; it is, in fact, rather painful. I do not recommend listening to it unless you do it purely for historical research.

I bought the album Honora by Flea, the bass player of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and listened to it back to back when I got home. I had listened to it upteen times on YouTube Music, but had to get a physical copy to play on the big stereo. It is an amazing album that will easily make it to my end-of-year round-up. On Honora, Flea steps back from the rock and roll of RHCPs and his many collaborations to focus on his trumpet playing and make an album that is more jazz-influenced. Flea pays homage to some of his musical heroes, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Wayne Shorter, among others. The album has five original tunes from Flea, one collaboration with Josh Johnson and Thom Yorke, and four cover songs. The list of contributors to this album is incredible. I won’t even try to list them; it would fill a page on its own. I will give a hint: it has the previously mentioned Thom Yorke, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. All in all, I can’t gush effusively enough about this release; I love it start to finish.

I enjoyed some new-to-me music. It comes to me courtesy of Shauna at Shameless Promotion PRhttp://www.shamelesspromotionpr.com/. The band is The Stevenson Ranch Davidians, who released a single that will appear on their next album, due in early 2027. I listened to their last album, Amerikana https://thedavidians.bandcamp.com/album/amerikana and really liked it. The band have a “60s psych, folk and soul, woven with strands of early American roots music” vibe to it, as described in their press handout. The album was released in 2017, so it will be a ten-year gap between albums, and the single preview takes their music in a new direction while retaining a good portion of the 60s psych sound, with some great organ work. https://youtu.be/dB4BkEnrn1g

I gave this album a couple of listens and then put in an order for the CD. I look forward to hearing it through the big boy speakers and then the long wait for their new album.

I closed out the week with some Joe Cocker tunes. He has a unique sound, and I like that. I did not watch any videos this time; I wanted the music to stand on its own, and it stands tall. Joe does a lot of covers, and he does them well. This heavy-duty two-CD package starts with “Feelin’ Alright,” originally a Traffic track (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Joe brings energy and passion to the song and sets the tone for the rest of this career-spanning collection of tunes. He continues with more from his A&M early material with: “With a Little Help from My Friends“, a cover of the Beatles, not an easy song to pull off, but Joe does it wonderfully. Other tracks include: “Delta Lady“, “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window“, and “The Letter“.

One of his biggest hits was “Up Where We Belong“, his 1992 number-one duet with Jennifer Warnes. There are too many great tracks in this collection to list them all so I will close with a few favourites of mine: Cry Me A River (Live), Many Rivers To Cross, Summer In The City, and First We Take Manhattan. First We Take Manhattan was written by Leonard Cohen. Jennifer Warnes first released the song on her 1986 album Famous Blue Raincoat, a great album IMHO. Interesting factoid: Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar on the album, and Leonard Cohen himself sang a duet with Warnes on “Joan of Arc“. “First We Take Manhattan” is from Cohen’s album I’m Your Man, released in 1988. I’ll have to listen to this as well; it’s shaping up to be a great listening week. Back to Joe Cocker, the collection of songs is a great sweeping overview of his career and makes for some great listening. It was also a good listen on the road, bonus!

This past week may not have been big in quantity, but it was big on quality. I look forward to another week of tunes; music makes my world go round. Happy listening, everyone.

Oops! I nearly forgot that I listened to the Bee Gees’ third album, 1st. Great tunes and a great listen. It includes the songs: Holiday, Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You, New York Mining Disaster 1941, I Can’t See Nobody and more. I love this album, almost as much as the compilation album Best of the Bee Gees, which was the first full-length album that I bought.

Michael Knott had a life of emotional and spiritual anguish that showed up in his music. His lyrics spoke of the streets he lived on and the people that he lived among. He was prolific, with over 35 albums and EPs between his solo work and his work with the bands he played in. He was born in Aurora, Illinois, but moved to California, where he was part of the emerging alternative Christian rock scene. He also founded the record labels Blonde Vinyl Records and Siren Music, and served as an inspiration for the founding of Tooth & Nail Records. Below are some of the bands that Michael Knott recorded with.

• The Hightops – Early pop-punk band when Knott was a teenager (songs appear as bonus tracks on Huntington Beach album)
• The Lifesavors or Lifesavers – Early ’80s pop punk
• Lifesavers Underground, aka L.S. Underground, aka LSU – Darker, goth-y alt-rock
• Bomb Bay Babies – General market guitar-driven pop punk band
• Idle Lovell – Dark alt-rock in a slightly different vein than LSU
• Michael Moret – A Dead or Alive-style new wave dance album that Knott wished he’d never made
• Aunt Bettys – a storytelling general market rock band Knott started in 1993
• Cush – Post-modern rock band with former members of The Prayer Chain
• Strung Gurus – Acoustic rock band with Social Distortion guitarist Dennis Danell (RIP February 29, 2000)
• Struck Last May – 2007 project with Rick McDonough that dabbles in “… To Kill a Mocking Bird meets Sesame Street”

I don’t have physical copies of every release, but I do have a decent slice of his output. However, I am not going to do a career-spanning overview of Michael Knott in this blog; that would be on the verge of overwhelming. What I want to do is highlight the album and band, Aunt Bettys, and a few side roads thrown in. I drove to the grocery store today and listened to Aunt Bettys again. I’ve had Aunt Bettys in my car for ages now and haven’t tired of it. It came out in 1996 and has aged well in my opinion. What got me hooked was the song “Rocket And A Bomb.” Knott released an album titled “Rocket And A Bomb,” but the lyrics are different other than the refrain, “And all I ever wanted was a good job and some bus fare and a rocket and a bomb.”  I will focus on the Aunt Bettys version, as well as some of the other tracks on this album. So here we go…

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mAItK-AZa7qfENUSsrSHEW5Yxfy75eXL4

Aunt Bettys are like Pink Floyd. There is no “The” in the title. Formed in the mid-1990s in Hollywood, California, Aunt Bettys was signed to Elektra Records by Seymour Stein. The band released a self-titled, 16-track alternative rock album featuring tracks like “Jesus,” “Mother Trucker,” and “Rocket & A Bomb”. Though championed as the “next big thing,” the album suffered due to label disputes and was largely overlooked at the time, later becoming a cult favourite. The band later released an EP titled Off the Record. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

The album starts with the song “Jesus”, which no doubt alienated him from the popular music market. His music also alienated him from the Christian market because of his honest approach to touchy topics and the occasional “shit” in the lyrics. I can relate. I got my fingers slapped at a Christian church for playing the intro to Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”-no lyrics, just the intro. It was OK to play a clip of the Iron Man movie, but not the song.

Michael Knott was not afraid of taking on touchy topics like addiction, sex, and hypocrisy.

Knott’s songwriting appealed to many people, particularly those who could admit their flaws and appreciated the honesty with which he confronted his own shortcomings. A lot of his music was biographical and spoke to the issues he struggled with, such as addiction, and the people he encountered on the streets where he lived. Real people. I probably relate to much of Michael Knotts’ music because addiction and life on the streets have been a huge part of my life story.

Getting back to the song “Jesus”, I couldn’t help but see a parallel here with the song “Mercedes Benz” written by the American singer Janis Joplin with Bob Neuwirth and the poet Michael McClure.

Michael Knott:

Jesus
Won’t you help me find my way?
Won’t you send me some money in the mail?

Janis Joplin:

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Michael Knott:

Jesus
Won’t you let me drink one more?
It helps me to ignore how much I’ve failed.

Janis Joplin:

Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down
Prove that you love me and buy the next round

The song “Mercedes Benz” was recorded in 1970; “Jesus” was recorded in 1996; there are similarities, but they are not the same. I don’t think this is a Jimmy Page moment.

Michael Knott goes on to sing a long litany of things that he is getting. 

I’m getting sick, getting ill, getting tired, getting fired
I’m getting killed, getting chilled, getting crazy, I’m getting lazy
I’m getting screwed, I’m getting used, I’m getting kicked, I’m getting tricked

What a way to start an album. I am sure there were some people who never got past the title and wrote it off as a soppy Christian song. The lyrics might shock some because they don’t align with the white Christian evangelical movement. Perhaps they didn’t think Jesus would show up in the places and people that Michael Knott sings about.

“A man after God’s own heart is not welcome in the Christian industry,” he said, laughing, in a 1998 interview. “I think that the fault belongs to American Christianity — it is cultural. Everyone runs away from drinking and smoking, experiencing and living life, and they end up being extremely disturbed and they lose all their faith and have no hope in the end.”

Mike Knott told an interviewer that “Jesus”

“gets violent at times, but that’s what life is like. The song is not anti-religious. I believe in God, but my life has gotten screwed up somehow, and no matter what I believe, this is how it I feel.”

The song closes with a refrain that will no doubt ring true to anyone who has struggled with addiction.

“I’m getting out, getting out, getting out, getting out
I’m getting out, I’m getting out, I’m getting out, I’m getting out
I’m getting out, I’m getting out, I’m getting out, I’m getting out.”

Telling other people not to worry about me because I’m getting out, I’m gettin’ out startin’ Monday.

https://music.youtube.com/search?q=startin%27+monday

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The next song, “Mother Trucker,” is directed at church culture.

“Can I make all your insecure decisions?
And can I steal all your cash for my religion?
And can I tell you what to think and how?”

Next up is Star Baby. In Michael Knott’s own words

The true story behind “Star Baby” is pretty much as it appears in the lyrics: A beautiful woman came into Mike Knott’s bar in Hollywood, announced that she was the product of a sexual relationship between her (human) mother and a Martian, and then told him that she’d been commanded to kill a rock and roll singer. As Knott says, “of course, everyone in the band pointed at me.”

The song “Feel” is a wild ride, in which the singer is a man whose wife has become a lesbian and who wants to stay with her badly enough to get a sex-change operation. Wow, I bet this song went over well in the Bible Study group.

And now we come to the song that kept my finger on repeat for the last month, Rocket and a Bomb. It is not “A”Rocket and a Bomb; it is just Rocket and a Bomb. I love this song.

“Rocket And A Bomb.”

[Chorus]
All I ever wanted
Was a good job, some bus fare
A rocket and a bomb, uh huh
Yeah

[Verse 1]
Had a dream I’d be all right
Had a nightmare I’d be cracking
Up this ‘caine
I lit your vision for a time
‘Til it snapped my spine
And bled me from your vein

[Pre-Chorus]
It keeps pushing
It keeps pushing you away

[Chorus]
All I ever wanted
Was a good job, some bus fare
A rocket and a bomb, uh huh
Yeah

[Verse 2]
It’s not your fault I made you ill
From this open sore that spills
Pus in your name
I tried to fix on what I feel
Beg another meal
And shame your pride again

[Pre-Chorus]
It keeps pushing
It keeps pushing
It keeps pushing you away

[Pre-Chorus]
It keeps pushing
It keeps pushing
It keeps pushing
It keeps pushing you away

[Chorus]
All I ever wanted
Was a good job, some bus fare
A rocket and a bomb, uh huh
All I ever wanted
Was a good job, some bus fare
A rocket and a bomb, uh huh
Yeah

[Coda]
Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit.

The singer starts by telling us what he wants, simple desires that could apply to many of us. “All I ever wanted was a good job, some bus fare.” They show the singer’s plea for creature comforts, financial security, and the ability to just get by in a stressful society. I can get behind that sentiment because those are wants that I have wanted throughout my working life. I’m retired now, so my wants have altered somewhat. Now I want a comfortable chair, some good music on the turntable, and to watch the fireworks on July 1st. Similar to a rocket and a bomb, not quite as violent though.

In sharp contrast to those reasonable hopes is the chorus line: “And a rocket and a bomb.” This pushes aside societal norms and lashes out in anger and desperation. Unable to fit in, the singer lashes out. This brought to mind the song “I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats. The protagonists in both songs resort to violence when the American Dream of a good job and a house in the suburbs fails to materialize.

Had a dream I’d be all right
Had a nightmare I’d be cracking
Up this ‘caine
I lit your vision for a time
‘Til it snapped my spine
And bled me from your vein

He had a dream that he could be all right. The Great American dream, a two-car garage in the suburbs, 2.4 children, and mow the lawn on Saturday. Martin Luther King also spoke of a great American dream that ended in violence, as the two songs “Rocket and a Bomb” and “I Don’t Like Mondays” did. And a nightmare of crack cocaine that gave him a spark for a time till it broke him and left him bleeding from the needle in his vein.

All he ever wanted was a good job and bus fare. A good job and bus fare. Is that too much to ask for? Unfortunately, that dream all too frequently becomes a nightmare of survival on the streets, begging for the next meal, craving the next fix and a life of emotional torture. A life that “Rocket and a Bomb” spells out for us clearly and concisely.

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Michael Knott’s lyrics push boundaries. From the character in the song “Feel” being willing to have a sex change to keep a lover happy to “Addict,” which is about drugs, a recurring theme in Michael Knott’s lyrics. “Speeder Mode” is about a crazy girlfriend he can’t keep up with. “Suicide Sex Doll” is about a veteran’s sexual desires. A wild punk girl with “a great big mouth, a great big lie/there’s a handful of this, a throatful of that, and she gets it done, it’s a bloody mess” is in the song “Little Fighter”. This album is full of characters who populated the bars and alleyways of Orange County, Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip, where Michael was living and making music. These songs are stories about the lives of people he met. These are also songs about his own struggles with addiction and mental health. This album is rough around the edges, but well worth the effort of listening to. AllMusic gave it 2.5/5. I give it 4/5. It has only gotten better over the years and with the many times I have played it. It may move up to 4.5/5 in the near future. Until then, enjoy the music.

A bonus of having physical copies is the artwork that goes with the music. Aunt Bettys have visually strong artwork. Michael Knott was also an avid painter and used that for many of his album covers. Not on this CD, though; the original artwork was by Tim Okamura. It is amazing. Physical copies are available on Discogs and eBay.

Boards of Canada	Inferno
Allies	The River
Stuart Copeland	The Rhythmatist
Ike White	Changin’ Times
The Carpenters	The Singles
Boards of Canada	Trans Canada Highway
Mashmakhan	Mashmakhan
Lacy J. Dalton	16th Avenue
Oxbow	Thin White Duke
Ian Gomm	Gomm With The Wind
Modest Mouse	An Eraser and a Maze
Black Midi	Schlagenheim
Richard Wright	Wet Dream

I have had an interesting week of tunes. I started the week re-listening to the new Boards of Canada album, Inferno. I was in love with it on the first listen, a bit less on the second listen, and a bit more than a bit less on the third, but a bit less than the first. It’s a good album overall and does break some new ground for the band. I listened to Trans Canada Highway later in the week to give me some contrast to base my opinion on, and I like where the band has gone on Inferno. There is a definite fresh approach to Inferno, and they are not just rehashing their former sounds. Boards of Canada get a solid 4.5 out of 5 from me for Inferno. As a bonus, I like the nod of appreciation to Canada, where I live. The brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin were brought up in Cullen, Moray, on the northeast coast of Scotland, but from 1979 to 1980, they lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, while their father, who worked in construction, helped build the Saddledome, which is being replaced as we speak.

I have seen Stewart Copeland live, and Sting. No Andy Summers, yet. I have a lot of respect for the percussion work of Stewart Copeland. He has an immense knowledge of the science behind percussive sounds and an immense love for making music with those sounds. I will admit that I haven’t listened to Copeland’s back catalogue, but I have listened to The Rhythmatist, and I like it. Following the breakup of The Police, their drummer, Stewart Copeland, undertook a musical odyssey through the heart of Africa in search of the roots of rock & roll. The Rhythmatist, 1985, came out a year before Paul Simon’s amazing exploration of African sounds on Graceland, 1986. The Rhythmatist was a 2026 Record Store Day release and will no doubt be overpriced, meaning I can only listen to it on YouTube Music. I will keep an eye on Record Collectors Paradise to see if any copies pop up; either original or repress is fine with me. I confess, I love bin diving.

Mashmakhan. Be honest. Did you know about this band/album before now? I bought this album in 1970 in Montreal, where the band were living at the time. Mashmakhan debuted with the single “As the Years Go By,” which became a smash hit and was released in an edited form. The single sold 100,000 copies in Canada, 500,000 copies in the United States, and over 1,000,000 copies in Japan. The only number I could find for album sales was “This disc sold over one million copies globally, and received a gold disc.” – https://citizenfreak.com/artists/99111-mashmakhan The album has aged quite well, and I enjoyed the trip down memory lane when I played this album.

Oxbow was an American experimental rock band from San Francisco, California. Founded in 1988, the band released eight studio albums, disbanding in 2024. According to Pitchfork writer Zoe Camp, the album “envision[s] a world domineered by disorder, a carnivalesque arena where music’s most intimidating, grandiose genres (free jazz, high-concept chamber pop, noise, neoclassical, metal) can duke it out like gladiators one minute, and come together for a grotesque group hug the next.

Thin Black Duke by Oxbow was met with critical acclaim upon its release. The album received an average score of 87/100 from 9 reviews on Metacritic, indicating “universal acclaim”. In a positive review with The Quietus, Sean Guthrie wrote, “By rights no group should be peaking after 30 years of making music together, yet that is the situation in which Oxbow find themselves. Will they ever transcend Thin Black Duke? Such are the ideas and attention to detail on this record, only a fool would bet against them. Zoe Camp of Pitchfork was positive on the album, but she did not see Thin Black Duke as Oxbow’s “definitive show of force”.

To my ears, Thin Black Duke is an album that lives in the genre of experimental music. Yes, there are elements that Zoe Camp lists in her assessment of the album, but for simplicity’s sake, I will only call it experimental. This is an album that needs more than one listening session. It also works better with focused, attentive listening; there is a lot going on. I enjoy Thin White Duke more each time I listen to it. As a matter of fact, I am going to listen to it again right now.

Ian Gomm, Gomm With The Wind, is a favourite throwback to the golden age of New Wave music. I love it!

Modest Mouse have dropped a new album, An Eraser and a Maze. I generally like Modest Mouse and have a couple of their recordings; Strangers To Ourselves is my favourite. An Eraser and a Maze sounds like Modest Mouse; it has their familiar feel working around the cadence of Isaac Brock’s vocals. It is the band’s first album since the death of founding drummer Jeremiah Green in 2022, and the band’s first to feature new members Simon O’Connor (guitar), Damon Cox (drums) and Keith Karman (keyboards). The new members bring new flavours to Modest Mouse, but the album still retains the familiar sound that longtime fans will recognize. While not straying too far from their tried-and-true sound, the album still offers enough new material to appeal to both new fans and longtime listeners. I think I may have to acquire An Eraser and a Maze on vinyl, since I like it more with each listening session. Good music start to finish.

I saw a video of the song “bmbmbm” and was blown away by Black Midi’s manic energetic performance. I bought the album Schlagenheim, and it has become a regular listen over the years. It has aged well and is a good example of a great debut album. If you want to see Black Midi in performance, I recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc3LSW_XTwI for the song “bmbmbm” (boomboomboom). Unfortunately, the lead guitar for Black Midi, Matthew Antony Kwasniewski-Kelvin, took a sabbatical from the band after the release of Schlagenheim and, in January of this year, passed away from complications related to mental health issues. Apart from the song bmbmbm, the rest of the album is a solid listen.

I ended the week with the album Wet Dreams by keyboardist/vocalist Richard Wright, a co-founder of Pink Floyd. He appeared on almost every Pink Floyd album and performed on all of their tours. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Pink Floyd. Wright died from lung cancer at his home in London on 15 September 2008, aged 65. At the time of his death, he had been working on a new solo album, thought to comprise a series of instrumental pieces.

The surviving members of Pink Floyd paid tribute to Wright. Roger Waters said it was “hard to overstate the importance of his musical voice in the Pink Floyd of the 60s and 70s”, and he added that he was happy they had reunited for Live 8. The drummer for Pink Floyd, Nick Mason, said Wright’s contributions were underrated, and that his playing “was the sound that knitted it all together”, comparing his “quiet one” status in the band to George Harrison of the Beatles. David Gilmour called him “my musical partner and my friend” and praised Wright’s ability to blend his voice with Gilmour’s, such as on “Echoes“. Gilmour reiterated that it would be wrong to continue as Pink Floyd without him. In the updated edition of his memoir, Mason wrote that “the distinctive, floating textures and colours [Wright] brought into the mix were absolutely critical to what people recognize as the sound of Pink Floyd … He once summed up his musical philosophy by saying, ‘Technique is so secondary to ideas.’ Many fine keyboard players could and did emulate and recreate his parts, but nobody else, other than Rick, had the ability to create them in the first place.”

Following Barrett’s replacement by David Gilmour, Wright took over some songwriting, but gradually became less involved. His keyboard playing remained an integral part of the band’s live set, particularly on “Interstellar Overdrive“, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” and “Careful with That Axe, Eugene“. He contributed themes for Pink Floyd’s film scores for More, Zabriskie Point and Obscured by Clouds. He made significant contributions to the arrangement of longer compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother, “Echoes” (on which he sang lead vocals with Gilmour) and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond“. On 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, he composed the music for “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Us and Them“. He also contributed to the composition of tracks such as “Time“, for which he sang lead on the bridge, “Breathe“, and “Any Colour You Like“.

I have the feeling that a lot of fair-weather listeners, who may only be familiar with Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, don’t realize the extent of Wright’s contribution to the band. He wasn’t just the keyboard player; he was an essential part of Pink Floyd and contributed significantly to their success.

While Wet Dreams isn’t my favourite solo album from the members of Pink Floyd, it is still a good recording. Listening to his solo work gives an opportunity to hear his “sound” and to appreciate how good he really was. He had a unique style of keyboard playing and a fine voice. Wet Dreams is a good way to end my listening week.