The 500 - #443 - Cheap Trick - In Color

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week(ish) and at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

Album # 443

Album Title: In Color
Artist: Cheap Trick
Released: September, 1977
My age at release: 12
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Downed (Suggested by friend and music aficiondo Claudio)


If asked to name my favourite bands when I was about 15, I would have said, without hesitation...

1. Rush
2. Van Halen
3. Cheap Trick

The album that made me a fan of Cheap Trick was their 1979 live release, At Budokan. It appears at #426 on this list and will be the focus of a future blog post. 

I never owned the album In Color even though I contemplated purchasing it many times. I was always fascinated by the jacket. On the front, in colour, were the band's "eye-candy", Robin Zander and Tom Petersson, straddling motorcycles and looking 70s, long-hair, uber-cool . 

However, I was more intrigued by the back cover - a black and white picture, printed upside-down that featured guitarist (and principal songwriter) Rick Neilsen, with drummer Bun E. Carlos, looking decidedly uncool...on children's bicycles. 

There was something liberating about the dichotomy of these two pictures and the band members in them. Sure, I wanted to grow my hair out and look like a rock-star. But, at a time in my life when I was an awkward, self-conscious bundle of hormones and acne, there was comfort in knowing that it was okay to embrace my inner-nerd.

Things I learned...

• The song Southern Girls is about girls from the southern part of Canada. The band, who are from Rockford, Illinois, toured Canada extensively in the mid-70s. The original lyric, "Southern Canadian Girls" just didn't work - so it was truncated.
• In Color was re-recorded in 1997. The band's intention was to "record the album on their own terms" unencumbered by the demands of the record company. Dubbed "The Steve Albini Sessions" (after the producer who worked with them on the re-recording), it has never been officially released. However, a rough mix of some of the tracks can be found here. After listening to it a few times, I'll admit that I like it much more. It's raw and rocking - more dirty punk than polished pop-rock.

The 500 - #444 - War - The World is a Ghetto

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week(ish) and at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

Album # 444

Album Title: The World is a Ghetto
Artist: War
Released: November, 1972
My age at release: 7
How familiar was I with it before this week: A little
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: City Country City
Great Lyric:
"I knew we met each other this morning for a reason.
Thinking, talking, we've worked out our problems.
Looked like we should have better days in front.
Just because we took our time to think and talk,
For a much better understanding." 
(Four Cornered Room)

There is so much to like about the band War. They are a true, musical crossover act that blends elements of Latin-tinged funk with rock, soul, rhythm and blues, reggae and jazz. They boast a multi-ethnic line-up of talented players who, as BBC writer Daryl Easlea put it, "effortlessly transcended racial and cultural barriers."

Originally formed in 1969 by record producer Jerry Goldstein who paired Eric Burdon, former lead singer of the UK band The Animals, with a group of North Hollywood session players. The band were, at the time, backing NFL defensive-end turned musician and actor Deacon Jones in LA clubs. Those of my vintage might remember Jones best from his appearance on the television program The Brady Bunch.

The band's goal, according to original member Leroy "Lonnie" Jordan, was "to spread a message of brotherhood and harmony, using instruments and voices to speak out against racism, warfare, gangs, crime and poverty."

My exposure to the band was through a string of hit records played in heavy rotation on both FM radio and featured in film soundtracks through the 80s and 90s. In particular, Spill the Wine, The Cisco Kid, Why Can't We Be Friends and Low Rider. 

I've given The World is a Ghetto multiple listens this week. The rhythmic percussion is undeniable and the soulful, jazzy grooves feel like a slow drive in a large sedan through an inner-city in the early 70s, particularly City Country City which I selected for my Spotify Mix. Granted, my opinion is gleaned from films or television programs from the era and a few trips through downtown Detroit to see Tigers' games when I was a boy.

If you would like to learn more about this record, Josh's Podcast provides greater context and insight. His guest, former NBA champion Caron Butler, is an engaging and honest storyteller. Butler is currently working with producer/actor Mark Wahlberg on a film about his life based on his memoir Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA.

The 500 - #445 - Steve Miller Band - Fly like an Eagle

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) and at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

Album # 445

Album Title: Fly Like An Eagle
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Released: May, 1976
My age at release: 10
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix:  Wild Mountain Honey  (selected by my chum, musician Cam Grant)
Great Lyric:
"This here's a story 'bout Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue
Two young lovers with nothing better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here's what happened when they decided to cut loose"
(Take the Money and Run)

My first high school was in the small Ontario town of Kingsville located along the shores of Lake Erie, not far from the Windsor/Detroit border. The high school library was remarkable because it boasted an impressive collection of albums that students could borrow for two nights at a time.

Suddenly, some of the most important or commercially successful records of the past decade were readily available to me. This, along with my friendship with schoolmate Andrew Harris (who had access to his older brothers' collection), was my introduction to great music. Indeed, many of the records on Rolling Stone's list were in one or both of these collections.

Album #445 Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band and Greatest Hits (1974 - 1978) were two records I borrowed and listened to many times on my parents' stereo system in the back room of our home. To this day, any song from these two discs transports me immediately to lazy evenings, stretched out on the carpeted floor absorbing the sounds and while devouring the album cover content and liner notes, likely while avoiding homework.

Steve Miller has been pigeonholed as Dad Rock during the past few decades and his music has become a staple of soft and classic rock radio stations. However, he is an exemplary guitar player and a first-rate songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. The induction was, however, marred by controversy. Miller was introduced by musicians Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney of the band The Black Keys who are 35 years his junior. The pair grew up as fans of Miller but the experience that evening was horrendous for them. As Auerback put it in this interview in Rolling Stone Magazine.

We got a really uncomfortable feeling when we first met Steve. He had no idea who we were. No idea. The first thing he told us was, "I can't wait to get out of here." He knew that we signed up to do this speech for him. And he made no effort to even [laughs uncomfortably] — he didn't even figure out who we were. I don't live in New York City. This is like three days out of my life flying from Nashville and leaving my kids at home.

It seems that Miller has become a curmudgeon in his senior years and the speech he made following the induction was a profane tirade leveled at the music industry and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He may have had legitimate points but, this was the wrong place and time to vent.

This saddens me. I am always a little disheartened when an artist I've admired turns out to be unkind, mean-spirited or unable to show simple decency. Unfortunately, that moment on the stage in 2016 may be a lasting part of Miller's legacy rather than the fantastic music he created during my youth.

The 500 - #446 - MC5 - Back in the USA

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) and at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

Album # 446

Album Title: Back in the USA
Artist: MC5
Released: January, 1970
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Shakin' Street (selected by my friend Claudio)
Great Lyric:
"Sixty-nine America in terminal stasis
The air's so thick it's like drowning in molasses
I'm sick and tired of paying these dues
And I'm finally getting hip to the American ruse." 
(The American Ruse)

Around 1981, a school pal Pat Keep and I bonded around our mutual interest of fantasy literature, Dungeons & Dragons and the progressive-rock band Yes. Over the next few months we shared records and cassettes in an attempt to influence each other's tastes. 
Pat took to the sound of the hard-rock band Blue Ӧyster Cult (abbreviated to BӦC). Yes, they rocked the Metal Umlaut (Ӧ) in their name. It was a decorative diacrtic employed by several heavy metal and punk rock bands in the 70s/80s. I've mentioned my humourous relationship with the Metal Umlaut in a previous post about album #488 by Husker Dü.

One weekend, Pat loaned me Blue Ӧyster Cult's 1978 live release Some Enchanted Evening. It was a seven track record which featured five of BӦC's hits and covers of We Gotta Get Out of this Place by The Animals and Kick out the Jams by MC5. This would be my introduction to the high energy sound of MC5 (short for Motor City Five - a nod to their Detroit roots) and I became a fan, albeit a casual one. 

Kick out the Jams appears on the first record by MC5, which we will encounter when I get to Album #294 on the Rolling Stone's list -- in about fours years. I was unfamiliar with Back in the USA but loved it from the opening track, a boisterous, uptempo version of Little Richard's Tutti Frutti.  

There was a time when I pigeonholed this band as a straight-ahead garage band/proto-punk act. Infact, they embraced left-leaning, sometimes radical, politics from the late 60s. This is evident on the tracks The American Ruse in which the band "attacks the hypocritical idea of freedom espoused by the U.S. government" and The Human Being Lawnmower, a not-so-subtle commentary on America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

In 1975, addiction issues resulted in the arrest of guitarist/singer Wayne Kramer who was caught selling cocaine to undercover federal agents. He served two years in a prison in Lexington, KY where he met Jazz trumpeter Red Rodney (of Charlie Parker fame). The two began to perform each Sunday in chapel. Eventually, their musical collaboration contributed significantly to Kramer's recovery. 

In 1978, The Clash released the song Jail Guitar Doors, rooted in Kramer's incarceration. Thirty years later, to honour the life of Clash founder Joe Strummer, musician Billy Bragg began an program to provide musical equipment to help rehabilitate inmates in the U.K. The project was named for the aforementioned song and, in 2009, Wayne Kramer helped found Jail Guitar Doors: USA - completing an interesting musical circle. 

Addendum
I learned about Jail Guitar Doors: USA about seven years ago while listening to Kramer share his story on Episode 186 of Jay Mohr's podcast Mohrstories. If you would like to learn more about MC5, Kramer, or this project, give it a listen.

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The 500 - #447 - Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) & at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

Album # 447

Album Title: Getz/Gilberto
Artist: Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto
Released: March, 1964
My age at release: Not born yet
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very Familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: 
The Girl from Ipanema

Great Lyric:
"Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile, but she
Doesn't see. She just doesn't see"

When I reached out on social media for assistance picking a song for my 500 Spotify Playlist I included the caveat ... "other than The Girl from Ipanema." To me, it was overplayed and that my list needed a deeper cut from the record.

My friend James, an ardent fan of jazz, immediately responded by saying, "It's overplayed for a reason. It's an incredible track." I agreed, and the track has been added to the playlist.

This is a record I heard many times while working as a bartender at Garlic's Restaurant. I was excited to learn more about the history of it through The 500 podcast. On this episode, Josh's guest was Jade Catta-Preta, a Brazillian-American comic and actor. Throughout the interview, she provided an engaging perspective on a Jazz/Bossa Nova masterpiece that was a staple in her home as a child. Additionally, I learned how to correctly pronounce Brazillian guitarist Joao Gilberto's name as well as many of the song titles I had been verbally butchering.

My first year of high school was in Kingsville, Ontario. Early on, I met Andrew and we bonded around our mutual love of comedy, Saturday Night Live and Steve Martin in particular.

Andrew older brothers had an impressive record collection and I spent hours in their den listening to records. This will certainly come up in future posts because this was my first exposure to albums by David Bowie, The Who and The Beatles that were not "Greatest Hits" packages.

The brothers also had a National Lampoon record called That's Not Funny, That's Sick. It was entirely inappropriate, full of vulgar, irreverent sketches and rife with profane language. In other words, everything a 13-year-old finds hysterical. 

The album featured John Belushi, Bill Murray, Christopher Guest and Richard Belzer well before they became television and movie stars. 

One track, Love Birds/Flashanova featured a parody of a Getz/Gilberto song. The music was strangely familiar and, even though it was a comedic version, it introduced me to the Bossa Nova sound and I was hooked. As a saxophone player, I was astonished by the gorgeous, almost wispy timbre of Stan Getz' playing.

A few years later, I tracked down this Getz/Gilberto record at the local library. At 16, I really felt quite mature when I piped it through headphones in the soundbooth. As an adult, I imagined, this would be the music I would play in my penthouse apartment while entertaining guests. We would be talk about the stock market, sip martinis and wear formal attire. Meanwhile, the record would provide the ideal soundtrack to our fascinating lives. The premier episode of season six of Mad Men came awfully close to my inaccurate teenage vision.

The magic has never gone away and I have played it at parties. I was just wrong about the other details. After listening to it again while writing this post, I'll gladly admit that James was right - The Girl from Ipanema is overplayed...and for good reason.

The 500 - #448 - The Police - Synchronicity

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) & at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

It had to happen eventually: Writer's Block. Well, not so much writer's block as a sudden loss of motivation to write. 

Interestingly, I experienced a similar malaise at this time last year when, fortunately, I came across The 500 Podcast which got me back to the keyboard. 

Then, it struck me. I was still trying to process the passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart. I couldn't write about Synchronicity without writing about my favourite band of all time. Curiously, Rush didn't manage to get a record on the 500 list. So, I wrote about Neil, and now I'm ready to move on.

Album # 449
Album Title: Synchronicity
Artist: The Police
Released: June, 1983
My age at release: 17
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Tea in the Sahara
Great Lyric: (So many to choose from)
"Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky.
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today,
He doesn't think to wonder why.
The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts in a red light street,
But all he ever thinks to do is watch.
And every single meeting with his so-called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch.
Many miles away something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch" (Synchronicity II)

The Police were one of the first bands that excited my interest for music in the late 70s. The band has four records on The 500 list but, surprisingly, my favourite, Zenyatta Mondatta, is not one of them. The band only had five studio releases in total. So, four out of five making this list is awfully impressive and not surprising. They are exceptional talents. 

With the release of Synchronicity in 1983, The Police were heralded by critics as "The Biggest Band in the World" and rightly so. They were headlining stadiums across the world, performing in front of 70,000 people at a time in some venues.

My friends and I were actually a little disgruntled by their commercial success. This was high school for us and the power of the clique was strong. We had loved The Police when they were an eclectic trio, playing a fusion of punk, reggae and jazz. We had been fans for five years (a lifetime when you are a teenager). 

Now, seemingly suddenly, they were popular with everyone, even the nauseating Preppie Crowd who would have looked down their noses at us for wearing an Outlandos d'Amour T-shirt from a Police Picnic show at the CNE grounds in Toronto.

I have regretted missing that show for years. However, many of my friends were in attendance, some seeing the band for a second or third time. Consequently, we collectively bristled at their new-found celebrity among the great unwashed. Now, it is me who bristles when I reflect on the narrow-minded sensibilities of youth. What can I say? It was high school.

The most salient memory I have about this record involves a time when I angrily "stormed out of my home" over some small injustice involving my parents. I was in Grade 12, in the autumn of 1983, and I was determined ...NEVER TO RETURN.

My friend Stan convinced his mother that my situation was dire and she agreed to let me stay. She was a single mother who was putting herself through university and lived in a small apartment with her three children. I was given a spot on the floor in Stan's room (which he shared with his brother). In retrospect, I suspect she was too exhausted to argue with Stan about bringing home a stray. 

Stan lived humbly and didn't have much of a music collection. Mine, mainly vinyl, was still at home...right beside a comfortable bed in which I should have been sleeping. However, Stan did have Synchronicity on cassette and I had brought my Walkman. I played on my headphones when I was falling asleep on the floor for nearly a week. 

Eventually, I returned home to my comfortable middle-class life and my copy of the record on vinyl. However, the experience left its mark and, whenever I hear it, my back gets a little sore and I swear I can still feel rough, industrial strength carpet on my back. 

Bonus Content

Stan also worked at a nearby Singles Bar called "Sweetwaters" as a busser. While the thirty-something crowd were romancing each other on the dance floor (or in their cars in the parking lot), Stan would "clean-up" packs of cigarettes and lighters from the temporarily abandoned cocktail tables. He didn't smoke, but I did and was elated. Eventually, we were so well stocked that we began selling half-packs on the smoking patios of our respective high schools for a discount price. Unfortunately, our get-rich-quick enterprise went up in smoke. Stan was caught (liberating a pack) by an eagle-eyed customer, who complained. The jig was up. Still, it was good while it lasted and certainly revealed Stan's entrepreneurial spirit that he would eventually leverage into his own successful business in his 20s. 

On the passing of Neil Peart

On Friday, January 10, I learned of the passing of Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. To say that I was obsessed with the music of Rush and the writing of Peart during my teen years would be an understatement. Long before taking on the challenge of writing about The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time I wrote a post about the impact the band had on my formative years.

One of my favourite posters - this was on my bedroom wall from 1980-1985

Now, years later, I want to write a tribute to Neil and his significant impact on my life. However, this is a difficult task given:

• How can I write about teenage emotions when I am no longer close to those feelings? 
• How did that fiery cocktail of earnest passion, precocious intellect and quixotic romanticism that once raged within me become this dull and flickering, nostalgic reminiscence?

It is difficult to explain how important the music of Rush and the lyrics of Neil Peart were without providing some background. In the early 80s, I was a Canadian teenager living in a city subdivision. At the risk of sounding very "kids these days have it easy...." let me share the following:

• There were no digital downloads or streaming services for music (iTunes, Spotify). I built my Rush record collection one album at a time, even taking two buses to track down a copy of Farewell to Kings in a shopping mall on the other side of the city.
• I didn't own a record player until I was 17. I took my albums to the public library and borrowed headphones to use in the music listening booths.
• Visiting the library was additionally important because I needed to research the complex references buried within Neil's lyrics. It was more than 15 years before the launch of Google.

I look back on this time fondly. The challenge of building my Rush collection brought me immense joy. With each purchase, I felt like I revealed another piece in an elaborate puzzle that had been constructed specifically for me. No other music I had listened to reflected so perfectly my emotional state and experiences.

The earliest works by Rush tapped into my love of literature, including mythology, fantasy and science fiction, as well as my growing interest in science and philosophy.

• Fly By Night featured songs such as... 
• Anthem which was inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand on the philosophical tenets of objectivisim. 
• Rivendell, a song about retiring to the fictional world of the elves featured in JRR Tolkien's fantasy series The Lord of the Rings 
• Bytor and the Snowdog an eight-minute, multi-part epic about a battle between good and evil on the edge of the mythical underworld of Hades.
  
• Caress of Steel featured...
• Two epic fantasy tracks: The Necromancer and The Fountains of Lamneth. The latter took up the entire side of the record.
• The song Lakeside Park, which was about a small recreation area on the shores of Lake Ontario in Port Dalhousie. Growing up in nearby St. Catharines, I visited this place regularly. It was one of the many times when I felt as if Neil's words were penned for me.

"Midway hawkers calling 'Try your luck with me!' 
 Merry-go-round wheezing the same old melody.
A thousand ten-cent wonders, who could ask for more
A pocket full of silver - the key to heaven's door.
Lakeside Park, willows in the breeze
Lakeside Park, so many memories
Laughing rides, Midway lights
Shining stars on summer nights."

The next album, 2112, tells the story of the fictional city of Megadon in the year 2112. Individualism and creativity have been outlawed by a cabal of priests who rule from the Temples of Syrinx. A nameless protagonist discovers a guitar hidden in a cave behind a waterfall and excitedly brings it to the priests who ultimately destoy it after telling him:

"Oh yes we know, it's nothing new
It's just a waste of time.
We have no need for ancient ways
Our world is doing fine.
Another toy, that helped destroy
The elder race of man.
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan."

A dystopian tale about corrupt malevolant leaders quashing creativity fit perfectly in my angsty wheelhouse as an early teen. The lyrics are certainly a bit dated - but, I still listen to the album at least once a year.

That, perhaps, is the most remarkable thing about Rush and the lyrics Neil wrote. He grew as a writer in nearly perfect step with my growing maturity and changing tastes. 

By the time Moving Pictures and Signals were released, Neil was nearing his 30s and his writing reflected reality rather than fantasy. Once again, his lyrics in the song Subdivision seemed to have been written for me, the suburban, Canadian teenager. The song captured the entire time, but I will share one lyric that perfectly reflects it: 

"Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth 
That the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth."

Since Neil's death, I have been taking a journey through my "Rush-centric" memories. Such as:

Eagerly anticipating the release of every record since Moving Pictures in February of 1981.

Taking a two-hour train trip to Toronto to purchase Rush records, patches, posters & pins that could not be found in my hometown and finding the building featured on the Moving Pictures album cover. (It's the Ontario Legistlative Building in Queen's Park). 

Seeing them perform live seven times, including their final performance in Toronto in 2015. 

Spending hours reading album liner notes and lyrics as well as newsletters from the Rush Backstage Fan Club. I still have the certificate.

However, the memory that always lingers is a drive with my girlfriend, now wife, to Algonquin Park in August, 1987. We were heading to Pog Lake for a week-long camping adventure with friends. While on Hwy. 11, just past Orillia, the song Time Stand Still played on the car stereo. I distinctly remember reflecting deeply about the lyrics. It has become my favourite Rush song and hearing it or even thinking about the words always fills me with a wistful melancholy that I simultaneously embrace and eschew. (If that makes sense)

Thank you, Neil. 
Rest in Peace.