Classic Rock Song of the Day (Deep Cuts now being featured!!)

[jjrock88]

Classic! Was just listening to the Dream Theater version this morning.

[Orbert]

I hear these two together on the radio all the time, and to be honest, it bugs me.  I see "Us and Them" and "Any Colour You Like" as also part of that same medley, and "Any Colour You Like" is my favorite Pink Floyd instrumental, so I would rather hear the whole thing.  Just as you say that either of these songs would be incomplete without the other, I feel that with these two, we're still only getting half the medley.

But for that matter, each half of Dark Side of the Moon is all connected, and as with any concept album, it's better to just listen to the whole thing straight through.  But at least "Side One" and "Side Two".

[masterthes]

Great closer to a great album. One of my first favorite Pink Floyd tracks

[KevShmev]

Okay, back-to-back week is over, and we now return to out regularly scheduled programming.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

This is definitely one of those songs that I never go out of my way to listen to, but if it comes on, I am not likely to turn it off.   Reading up on it, it looks like it actually went to number 1 on the pop charts, so it wasn't just a classic rock staple that pop audiences were clueless about.

[Orbert]

I like this song.  It's catchy and doesn't take itself too seriously.  According to the story, Randy Bachman wrote the song as a joke for his brother Gary, who stutters.  They were making Not Fragile at the time, but they were just going to send the song to Gary, not actually put it on the album.  Eventually they decided to put it on the album, but with straight vocals, which "sounded like Frank Sinatra" (according to Bachman himself) so they went with the "joke" version, and it went to Number 1.

[masterthes]

the stuttering annoys me at times, but it's still a solid tune

[7deg_inner_happiness]

the stuttering annoys me at times, but it's still a solid tune

Y'know...Y'know...Y'know....B.B.B.B.B.B.B.baby....That classic stuttering DEFINES the song!  And yet..andyet....andyet....The tune would probably be forgettable without it.
 

Time to end back-to-back week with...

Pink Floyd - Brain Damage / Eclipse

Now, these are two songs which cannot be isolated and played on their own, otherwise neither would sound right.  In fact, I remember being shocked that they were considered two separate songs.  When I got into Dark Side of the Moon, I just listened to it from start to finish repeatedly, without giving a lot of thought into what track started where, so it never occurred to me that Brain Damage and Eclipse weren't one single track.  But anywaaaaaaaay, these songs are obviously nothing short of magnificent, musically and lyrically, as they come from what I consider the best rock album ever.  Pretty much all-around.

Certainly many consider DSotM to be the best rock album of all time....definitely one of them anyway.

Older ZZ Top is still the best.  Yeah, they had a bunch of 80's hits with cool videos with the three babes and the Eliminator car, but give me the bluesy, Texas-style rock of the original six pack.

Two good tunes here, good for a quick ZZ Top fix.  For the longest time, I had no idea what the titles were.  I just figured the first one was "Have Mercy" (I can't be the only one who thought this) and didn't even realize that they were two separate songs, even though the break between them is pretty obvious once you know.

I love their early stuff, too.....Up to and including Deguelo.

[KevShmev]

Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight

I used to work with a couple of Clapton fans who thought this song was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I was always like, really?  I mean, it's okay, but I always thought it was their way of admitting they loved a sappy song, since it was by a rocker and a guitar legend, so, ya know, that makes it alright.   Again, it's an okay song, but I can't imagine ever going out of my way to hear it.

[7deg_inner_happiness]

Slow Hand has recorded so many great songs over his career.  IMO Wonderful Tonight was (still is) overplayed.  I prefer The Core from the same album.

[Orbert]

This song is the aural equivalent of a chick flick.  Yeah, it's well done and I can't honestly find anything wrong with it, but it's not my cup of tea and I suspect that that's true for most guys.  Girls, however, seem to love it because it's so romantic.  So there ya go.

[masterthes]

Couldn't have said it better

[nicmos]

ditto

[KevShmev]

.38 Special - Hold On Loosely

Another catchy, fun rocker by these southern rockers.  While I never go out of my way to listen to these guys or any of their songs, the riff in this song is enough of a grabber than I am likely to leave it on and crank it up every time it comes on.

[KevShmev]

*thud*   

Anyway, moving on...

REO Speedwagon - Don't Let Him Go

I was never a big fan of REO, as their sappy songs were a bit too sappy, and were often their most popular and played songs, but they had a handful or so of good rocking tunes that I enjoyed enough, and this is one I like.  I like the pace and rhythm of this one.  The intro grabs you and sucks you right in from the start.

[bl5150]

.38 Special - Hold On Loosely

Another catchy, fun rocker by these southern rockers.  While I never go out of my way to listen to these guys or any of their songs, the riff in this song is enough of a grabber than I am likely to leave it on and crank it up every time it comes on.

I don't mind some .38 special occasionally ............a lot of it's a bit too fluffy but I like Don Barnes' voice - I have the Anthology album which is 30-something tracks long . I have an unreleased solo album of his kicking around somewhere on CDR too.  (Ride The Storm)   

Edit...here we go.  Found a stream if anyone is interested in it.

https://scpublicity.com/ridethestorm/

"Ride the storm" features Don Barnes (Guitars & Vocals), Mike Porcaro (Bass), Jeff Porcaro (Drums), Alan Pasqua (Keyboards), Dann Huff (Additional Guitar), Bill Cuomo (Additional Keyboards), Denny Carmassi (Drums) and Jesse Harms (Keyboards).      Not the worst lineup of all time

[Orbert]

I guess I waited too long for "Hold On Loosely".  I was holding off because the only thing I can ever think of to say about it is the story of seeing a bar band absolutely butcher the song.  I don't know the song, but the opening chords are something like E-B-D-A, with inversions such that the top notes come down chromatically, E-D#-D-C#.  The band didn't understand this, and just played major chords coming down, E-D#-D-C#.  It sounded absofuckinglutely horrible.  The song itself is okay, though.

Like most people of my generation, I grew up with the REO Speedwagon live album You Get What You Play For.  This was back when a live album could be a breakthrough album for a band (see also Alive! and Frampton Comes Alive!) and we played the hell out of it.  I always thought Kevin Cronin had a distinctive but weird way of delivering certain lines, and I kinda got sick of his voice.  Then REO Speedwagon hit the big time, and there was that weird voice all over the airwaves.  Bleah.  Their uptempo songs usually rock out, so this one's okay, but man their mellow songs blow.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I guess I waited too long for "Hold On Loosely".  I was holding off because the only thing I can ever think of to say about it is the story of seeing a bar band absolutely butcher the song.  I don't know the song, but the opening chords are something like E-B-D-A, with inversions such that the top notes come down chromatically, E-D#-D-C#.  The band didn't understand this, and just played major chords coming down, E-D#-D-C#.  It sounded absofuckinglutely horrible.  The song itself is okay, though.

I would've bitch slapped that band.  We do that one in one of my bands and it's a fun song to do.  Great soloing at the end.  But I think I just kind of assumed that was one of those easy songs that nobody in a band could really screw up that bad.  If you have even the remotest of a discerning ear on an instrument, you can clearly hear the chords you're referring to: E5 - B/D# - D5 - A/C#.  Those inversions are obviously the KEY to that riff, the part that make it sound so cool.  I guess it shouldn't surprise me that this is something that could be easily misheard somehow, but when you play it as all major chords, you can't NOT hear that you're somehow doing it wrong.  Wow.

[Orbert]

That's the thing.  Maybe you think that's what you hear, but then you try it and it's obvious that that's not it.  Instead, they actually learned the song this way, and fucking played it live this way, apparently oblivious to how horrible it sounded.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Exactly that.  You play it and find that it's obvious NOT what you're playing.  These guys clearly don't have any discerning type of ear that could tell them "Hmmm, not quite right".  That or they operate on the "meh, good enough" principle, which I've seen happen before.  The fact that there are musicians out there gigging that are incapable of hearing how wrong they're doing something amazes me.

I feel for you.  That had to be painful to sit through.

[jingle.boy]

Sorry to interrupt the nerd music talk... 

didn't know that .38 Special tune.  Don't Let Him Go is a great tune, especially the live version.  The drum beat to carry the whole feel of the song.  I agree with Bob that their sappy slow songs just suck the life out of you - except when we were pre-teens at the elementary school dance... then we could wait for Can't Fight This Feeling and Keep on Loving You.  Then we were all lining up for the most 'developed' 13 year old we could find for a very special 4 minutes.

[KevShmev]

Foreigner - Double Vision

This is one of those classic rock songs I've heard so many times, despite never really go out of my way to hear it, I know it like the back of my hand.  That is how often I used to hear it back in the day.  Good song, and I swear, I remember them performing it live as an acoustic song on a radio station once, and that later got dubbed into the original somehow, like the first verse was the on-air acoustic version and then it segued into the studio version during the 2nd verse or something like that.  Anyone else remember that?

[Big Hath]

Mick Jones was on That Metal Show a couple of weeks ago and mentioned that the inspiration for this song was a late 70's New York Rangers hockey game.  John Davidson, the Rangers goalie, was knocked down and had to be removed from the game because he was experiencing double vision.  The announcers kept using the term "double vision", and they thought that would be a cool song title.

[JayOctavarium]

Not much of a Foreigner fan.. but not a bad song

[Orbert]

Good song.

I have Foreigner's first album, as does anyone else who was alive in the 70's, and it's great, but somehow I never really followed up with them.  Years later, I picked up Foreigner 4 on CD because Thomas Dolby plays keyboards on it, but it was overall a bit disappointing, so I guess Foreigner isn't really my thing.

[KevShmev]

Thomas Dolby played on Foreigner 4?  Interesting; I never knew that.

I am similar to you in that I was never really a fan of this band, even though they had 8-10 songs or so that I knew and liked.  I still own their debut on CD, although it's packed away somewhere, but I am pretty sure I got that during my "buying everything classic rock" phase.

[Orbert]

I seem to remember that he's credited as "Tom Dolby".  Not sure why.

I thought the keyboard work on "Waiting for a Girl Like You" was a step up from their usual stuff (which isn't bad, just somewhat basic).  The layers, the production, and the sophistication of the patches themselves.  We did that song in the band for a while as our "slow song" and when I sat down to learn it, I was amazed at the work that had gone into it.  Ian McDonald had left the band and there's no way that that was Mick Jones, so I got the album just to check the credits (and have a good copy of the song to learn) hoping for some tasty album tracks.  Nope.  "Tom Dolby" is just a hired gun, as is Bob Mayo ("Bob Mayo, on the keyboards... Bob Mayo!").  Some dude named Michael Fonfara is apparently the main keyboard player on the album, but whatever, it was disappointing overall.

[KevShmev]

What's funny about Foreigner's slow songs is they had three big slower hits in the 80s:

Waiting for a Girl Like You
I Want to Know What Love Is
I Don't Want to Live Without You

And honestly, it is hard to tell the three apart.  If you turned one on in the middle with a verse playing, I doubt I'd be able to tell you which one is which.

[Orbert]

I've never even heard of the third one.  Or maybe I have, and just thought it was one of the other two. 

[masterthes]

More the first and third are almost interchangeable. I Want To Know What Love Is has a more distinct sound imo

[jingle.boy]

I'm a fan of the radio hits, this being one of my lesser enjoyed ones by them to tell you the truth.  I probably could've gotten more 'in' to the band if I had the inclination, but just never did.

[KevShmev]

Kansas - Point of Know Return

Like many Kansas classic songs, the first time I heard this got a "holy shit, this is totally awesome" reaction out of me.  That was like 24 years ago, and I can listen to it and enjoy it to pieces.  Great, catchy song by a great, great band. 

[masterthes]

Sweet song. Great vocals

[Jaq]

More the first and third are almost interchangeable. I Want To Know What Love Is has a more distinct sound imo

Yeah the other two songs are more uptempo relative to I Want To Know What Love Is. Plus once the gospel choir comes in at the end, should be pretty obvious which one it is.

And shame Kev, I mentioned Thomas Dolby playing on that album ages ago. 

Point of Know Return's a great album opener, and that rarest of beasts, a short prog rock song. 

[Orbert]

Point of Know Return is a great song.  I guess it's kinda prog, too, though I've never really thought about it.  Kansas had a pop side to them, but usually even their pop songs had a bit more going on, musically, which is which I like them.  I was with them up through this album, but they started to lose me after this.  The first five are all gold, though.

[KevShmev]

Yeah the other two songs are more uptempo relative to I Want To Know What Love Is. Plus once the gospel choir comes in at the end, should be pretty obvious which one it is.
 

That is why I said, turn them on with all of the verses already playing and I wouldn't be to tell the difference.   Obviously, the chorus, where they sing the titles, will be dead giveaways.

And shame Kev, I mentioned Thomas Dolby playing on that album ages ago. 

 

 

Damn me to hell for not remembering random Foreigner inside information.

Point of Know Return is a great song.  I guess it's kinda prog, too, though I've never really thought about it.  Kansas had a pop side to them, but usually even their pop songs had a bit more going on, musically, which is which I like them.  I was with them up through this album, but they started to lose me after this.  The first five are all gold, though.

Monolith and Audi-Visions are both a bit inconsistent, but, man, there are still some terrific songs on both of those records.