The Music Biz: My Record Company

k's Choice: My Record Company

[purchase]

I am not sure what is more surprising, that more anti-record company songs aren't made considering how many artists get screwed over by them, or that there still are some that make it onto major label albums despite their "bite the hand that feeds them" content.

Belgian brother/sister fronted band k's choice released their 1996 album "Paradise in Me" on Epic's 550 Records. The album contained many songs with biting social commentary, including the song "My Record Company" that expressed how record executives "smell like food that has gone bad" among other pleasantries.

The Music Biz: Rules 2 The Game

Arrested Development - Rules 2 Tha Game
Arrested Development - Lost Soldiers

[purchase]

When we received the email this weekend to know what this week's theme was a virtual waterfall of hiphop songs started washing over me. I even emailed Boyhowdy saying I for saw a lot of hiphop tracks from me this week. He requested that I try and mix some old school stuff into the mix since the hiphop posts lately have been gleaning towards newer material. To this I say, Good. I'm not really a look back type of poster neither here nor on ninebullets. Too many artists trying to sell records in the now and not being able to eat....but, in an effort to keep the peace I open this week with a compromise of sorts...an old school band still quietly pumping out music:

Arrested Development.
Yeah, the Mr. Wendel Arrested Development.

Did you know they're still putting out albums? Most people don't. These tracks come from their 2002 effort, Heroes of the Harvest. It came out with zero fanfare and even less buzz, but it was everything you would/should expect from Arrested Development. It’s not “Tennessee part 2″, but it was vintage Arrested Development and said more than 90% of that years releases. I’m not even sure if Heroes got a U.S. release or not, but it is available on Amazon MP3 for less than 10 dollars. Well worth it, if you ask me.

The Music Biz: EMI

Sex Pistols: EMI

[purchase]


The facts do a pretty good job speaking for themselves - the story behind EMI:

November 1976: EMI releases "Anarchy in the U.K." by the Sex Pistols, in the U.K.

December 1, 1976: The Sex Pistols appear as guests on Bill Grundy's dinner-hour TV show, Today. The host provokes a confrontation that degenerates into profanity and shocks the British people.

January 12, 1977: The Sex Pistols are dropped by EMI and "Anarchy in the U.K." is withdrawn. The group does get to keep their advance of 40,000 British pounds, however.

March 10, 1977: The Sex Pistols are signed to A&M Records for 50,000 British pounds and released a week later for another 25,000 British pounds after incidents of "vandalism" at the label's London offices.

Bill Grundy interviews the Sex Pistols (NWS)

Unlimited supply
There is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it 'cause of fame
I do not need the pressure
I can't stand those useless fools
Unlimited supply
Hello E.M.I
Goodbye A & M

The Music Biz: Garden Party

Rick Nelson: Garden Party

[purchase]


Rick Nelson's Garden Party reached #6 on Billboard in the fall of 1972, remaining in the Top 40 for 12 weeks. In my opinion, it's twangy feel helped open the door for Country Rock acts like The Eagles and Pure Prarie League. While researching this song, I came across this great piece from the website, Straight Dope - the writer does a fantastic job dissecting the tune.

In Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party," who is Mr. Hughes?

Dear Straight Dope:

In Ricky Nelson's song "Garden Party," there is mention of a Mr. Hughes who "hid in Dylan's shoes." Who the heck is this guy? I've searched and searched but I have no idea.

— Josh

Ah yes, one of my favorite songs from the 70s. I used to listen for the point about two-thirds of the way through when, instead of going to a 1-4 chord change, Nelson went to a 1-4m9 change--rather dramatic for a musician. But I digress. You're not talking about the music, you're talking about the lyrics.

Symbolism abounds in this song. Eric Hilliard Nelson, better known as Ricky, joined the cast of his parent's ABC sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in 1952 at age 11. A fall 1956 episode had him organizing a rock 'n' roll band in high school. Then in an April 1957 telecast he was drafted to perform with a local band and sang a currently popular Fats Domino hit, "I'm Walkin'"--which, backed with "A Teenager's Romance," promptly became a real-life million-selling record for him. Ricky went on to be one of the biggest stars of the early rock and roll era.

His star faded in the mid 1960s. He tried valiantly to regain the top of the charts, but it seemed the British invasion was thwarting him at every turn. Ironically, however, a song he wrote in the early 1970s about his disillusionment with the music industry was his biggest hit.

In October 1971 Rick was invited to play in a reunion show at Madison Square Garden, alongside such early rock luminaries as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard and others. By this time his hair had grown shoulder length and he was heavily into the country rock genre. When he mixed in new material with his old music, the audience began to boo. Whether it was really their reaction to their idol's new look and sound, or, as one report states, " ...there were reports that police were in the back moving people out, and in the political spirit of the early 70's the crowd was actually booing the police activity," Rick felt the crowd was booing him. He wrote about the experience: "I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends / A chance to share old memories and play our songs again. / When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name / No one recognized me, I didn't look the same."

Rick realized at that point that he had to be true to himself. Hence the chorus of the song: "I learned my lesson well. You see, you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself."

"Garden Party" was pounced on by the pundits and dissected unmercifully. Some clues were obvious. For instance, "Yoko brought her walrus"--John Lennon and Yoko Ono were at the concert. Lennon, of course, was responsible for the Beatles song "I Am The Walrus."

The lyric you ask about, "Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise," is more difficult to interpret, but I finally found it for you. ""Mr Hughes" isn't Howard Hughes, as most people think, but refers to George Harrison, the ex-Beatle. Rick Nelson was good friends and next-door neighbor to Harrison, and was also a good friend of Bob Dylan. "Mr. Hughes" was the alias Harrison used while traveling, and "hid in Dylan's shoes" apparently refers to an album of Bob Dylan covers Harrison was planning that never came to fruition. "Wearing his disguise" is more obscure, but presumably had something to do with Harrison's habit of traveling incognito.

"Garden Party" was one of my favorite songs as a teen. I still remember that line:

You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself...

Powerful stuff, at least for a 13 year old.

The Music Biz: Mercury Poisoning

Graham Parker: Mercury Poisoning

[purchase]


In 1979, after releasing four albums for Mercury Records, Graham Parker, frustrated with their distribution and promotion departments, wrote a parting shot, Mercury Poisoning, before heading for the greener pastures of Arista Records. While at Arista, he had the two strongest albums of his career - Squeezing Out Sparks and The Up Escalator. Mercury Poisoning was a red-headed step-child, no record company wanted much to do with a song that dissed one of their brethren. It had been released as an under-promoted single and included with a promotional-only radio station album. Now, it can be had as part of Master Hits, a collection of Parker's best.

No more pretending that advertising's dying in its nest
The company is crippling me, the worst trying to ruin the best
Their promotion's so lame, they could never ever take me to the real ball game
Maybe they think I'm a pet, well I got all the diseases
I`m breaking out in sweat, you bet, 'cause
I've got mercury poisoning, it's fatal and it don't get better
I've got mercury poisoning, the best-kept secret in the West

The Music Biz: Lodi

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Lodi

[purchase]

Best known for its Zinfandel, Lodi is a mid-sized town in California’s Central Valley. Although John Fogarty had never actually been to Lodi, he picked it to be the setting for his famous tribute to a stalled musical career because of its "cool" sounding name. Good reason.

The man from the magazine said I was on my way
Somewhere I lost connections, ran out of songs to play
I came into town, a one night stand
Looks like my plans fell through
Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again . . .

The Music Biz: How Many Friends

The Who: How Many Friends

[purchase]

With the exception of Squeeze Box, every song on The Who By Numbers is at least a little bit depressing. The album was released when Townshend was 30 years old, and much of it casts a shadow of midlife crisis.

In How Many Friends, Pete Townshend laments the fact that he is surrounded by people who want something from him because of his fame. This is the dark side of massive success.

The Music Biz: I Love My Label

Nick Lowe: I Love My Label

[purchase]

According to the liner notes for his rarities and covers compilation The Wilderness Years, pivotal pub rock and new wave icon and sideman-to-the-stars Nick Lowe recorded this wonderful tongue-in-cheek, utterly too-perfect pop song about label love in the mid seventies, somewhere between leaving Brinsley Schwarz and recording his first solo album Jesus of Cool (originally released in the US by Columbia Records under the title Pure Pop For Now People), in order to get out of his major label contract with United Artists.

The song was released as one of the very first singles from the newly-formed Stiff Records, where Lowe was in-house producer; both Lowe and the fledgling indie label he worked for would go on to become powerful forces behind the early punk and new wave sound of Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, and others in the late seventies and early eighties. Thought the single is long gone for all but the most fervent of collectors, the song is newly available on the reissued version of Jesus Is Cool, where it probably makes current re-issuing label Yep Roc Records proud, in a hipstery, ironical sort of way. And you thought the indie movement was something new, didn't you?

Clothes: Clothing Clearance

Folks, we gotta move out the old before we can bring in the new - first come, first served! Remember, we value your patronage, thank you for chosing Star Maker Machine for your music needs.


Pulp: Underwear

[purchase]


PJ Harvey: Dress

[purchase]


Public Image Ltd.: The Suit

[purchase]


Marty Robbins: A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)

[purchase]


Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Green Shirt - Demo

[purchase]

Clothes: Che Guevara T-Shirt

Richard Shindell: Che Guevara T-Shirt

[purchase]

A song of immigration and racial inequality from Richard Shindell, one of my favorite still-standing Fast Folk-era folksingers, who has a way with the words of the downtrodden and their confrontations with the trappings of so-called justice which in his best moments transcends even the crushed hopes and longing of Springsteen or Joan Baez on similar topics. Here, our titular shirt is worn by the narrator's young love, a girl for whom he has embarked upon a dangerous journey to the land of milk and honey, only to be stymied by terrorist-dream-driven border patrol assumptions about the iconic portrayal which she sports on her chest in the photograph he carries.

It's like I tell my media students: never forget the power of the iconographic to be misunderstood. What you wear speaks volumes, and though it may have a particular meaning to you, its message is hardly ever clear.

Clothes: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White

Standells - Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White [purchase]

"Good guys, bad guys
Which is which?
The white collar worker
Or the digger in the ditch?
And who's to say who's the better man?
Man, I've always done the best I can."

Like their breakthrough hit, "Dirty Water," The Standells' second charting single of 1966 tapped into Rolling Stones-esque angst, laying the groundwork for garage rock and punk rock. While I've linked above to a good Standells two-fer disc, you can also find "Good Guys" on Disc 3 of the beyond essential Nuggets box set. If you have even a shred of rock 'n' roll in your DNA, this 4-disc collection is no-brainer. 118 mostly great, almost uniformly obscure tracks and unbelievably thorough liner notes and photos adds up to Punk Rock 101.

Speaking of which, here's a couple bonus cover versions that further demonstrate the punk lineage:

Minor Threat - Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White [purchase]

Minor Threat included "Good Guys" on their swan song Salad Days EP, one of the few MT songs to feature an acoustic guitar. In fact, I'd say it's this close to being a pop song. Out of step, indeed.

Uncle Tupelo - Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White [live in '92; not available for purchase]

This comes from a March 1992 show at Lounge Ax in Chicago, about six weeks before original drummer, Mike Heidorn, quit the band. Capturing UT at the possible height of their powers, this gig also featured covers of "Love's Gonna Live Here Again" (Buck Owens), "Brand New Cadillac" (Clash), "Blue Eyes" (Gram Parsons/ISB), "The Concept" (they'd just finished a tour opening for Teenage Fanclub), and a medley of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Steppin' Stone." OK, so maybe sometimes good guys do wear white.

Clothes: Watch Chain

Chris Mills: Watch Chain

[purchase]

Chris Mills's album Kiss it Goodbye is, in my opinion, an unheralded classic of the turn-of-the-century alt-country boom. His lyrics can be decimating (though this song isn't the best example of that), and the musicianship on the record is great. I think some people are put off by his gravelly voice, if they give enough time to listen at all. What I like about a lot of the songs on this album, as opposed to some of his later records, is that he pairs his lead vocals with great backing singers. I think the secret weapon of this song is the guy singing harmonies. There is some quality to the tone of his voice that, for some reason, I really respond to. Perhaps it's simply the register and the smoothness of it, in contrast to Mills's smoker's rasp.

Clothes: Dress Blues

Jason Isbell - Dress Blues

[purchase]

Okay, I guess I lied yesterday when I said the Nelly tripe would be my last post on the clothes theme. I really did intend to be done yesterday but then last night this song came across the iPod while I was out for a road ride and it was an "I should've had a V8 moment" and I knew it had to be posted.

"Dress Blues" is about Jason's high school friend, Matthew Conley. Matthew joined the Marines out of high school and ended up being deployed to Iraq. He is survived by his wife Nicole and a daughter he never saw, Catherine.

This isn't a political song. You're pro-war or you're anti-war. This is a song about the human impact of the war. You can read more about Matthew's story here if you want. While the studio version of the song is moving enough, personally I think this live performance really drives the song home:

Clothes: White Habit

The Biscuit Boys: White Habit

[purchase]

Here's a nun "chaser" for anyone who needs to cleanse the palate after the sexy clothes subtheme we seem to have evolved today. Step back a bit, and they look like a raft of penguins.

The accompanying crisp, pristine bluegrass instrumental comes courtesy of The Biscuit Boys, a short-lived band of young string wizards which broke up a year or two after after the millennium, just a little too early to take advantage of the whole next generation bluegrass revival which has been taking root over the past few years. And, as a relevant bonus, here's their great cover of John Hartford's You Don't have To Do That, which includes the lines Now why you gotta spend all that time in front of the mirror / And why you gotta spend all that time tryin' on clothes. It even has a kazoo in it, which is about as far from sexy as it gets.

The Biscuit Boys: You Don't Have To Do That

Clothes: Jackie, Dressed in Cobras

The New Pornographers: Jackie, Dressed in Cobras

[purchase]

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this song for this week, since it's kind of a square peg for this week's theme. But then I found this image. And since the selections today seem to be more image-driven than anything else... why not. Also, it's a great song by one of my favorite bands.

Clothes: Tangerine Speedo

Caviar: Tangerine Speedo

[purchase]


I had no intention of posting this song this week since it is not one of my favorites, but I feel I must do something to off set the glut of female body parts that have made their way into the blog this week by posting some male flesh as well. So ladies...this is for you.

Caviar is a Chicago-based rock band and this song got some airplay shortly after it was released. It also appeared in movies like the first Charlie's Angels, among others. At the very least, it's a really fun and catchy novelty-type song about a cute cabana boy that wears a tangerine-colored Speedo.

Clothes: Air Force Ones

Nelly - Air Force Ones

[purchase, if you really must]

I figured I'd close this week out with a sample of everything that's wrong with hip-pop. Blatant consumerism and sellouts the likes of Nelly.

Yes it's a shitty song. Yes Nelly and his ilk are butt-fucking a proud genre of music while real hip-hop artist struggle but I felt no "clothes" week would be complete without at least one vapid radio friendly "go out to the mall and buy this" pop song.

My apologies and I'll try and make it up to you next week.

Clothes: Top Hat, White Tie and Tails

Fred Astaire: Top Hat, White Tie and Tails

[purchase]

This classic comes from the 1935 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movie Top Hat, which was their most successful collaboration and also Astaire's second-most successful film of his career (second only to Easter Parade). All the songs in the film, including this one and the even-more-famous "Cheek to Cheek," were written by Irving Berlin.

Clothes: Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)

The Hollies: Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)

[purchase]


In an ironic twist, The Hollies' biggest hit was released after singer Allan Clarke, the last original member, left the band - it charted at #1 in both the US and Canada. What made it even a bit more odd: the group had just left their original record company, EMI/Parlophone, to sign with Polydor. In the meantime, EMI took a two year old track, Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress), and released it as a rival to The Hollies first Polydor single. Rock out to the tale of the 5'9", beautiful, tall beauty and FBI agent - sounds a bit like Twin Peaks!

Clothes: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

The Mothers Of Invention: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

[purchase]

If clothes are good, I posit that the removal of clothes is even better.

For soundtrack to my opinion, I submit this go-go number from the under-rated 1968 version of The Mother Of Invention.

There will come a time when every evil
That we know will be an evil...
That we can rise above (rise above)