Show #125 October 11, 2014

YEAH- this one's dedicated to Jill!

Jill- Mod Lang Yellow Pills Vol 4 The Best of American Pop! 
It's All Yeah!- Hundred Million Martians Solid Rock Planet 
Yeah- Queen Made In Heaven
Yeah- The Wannadies Yeah
Yeh Yeh- Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames Yeh Yeh
Yea, Yea- Ramones Road To Ruin
Yeah Yeah- The Revillos Rev Up 
Yeah Yeah- The Reducers Guitars, Bass and Drums
Yeah Yeah- Cheap Trick Cheap Trick [1997]
Yeah Yeah- Salad Yeah Yeah
Yeah Yeah Yeah- The Vibrators Pure Mania
Yeah Yeah Yeah- The Outlets I Remember 
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah- Alice Cooper Killer 
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah- Kix Kix 
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah- The Wellingtons Keeping Up With The Wellingtons 
Yeah (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)- The Greenberry Woods Big Money Item 
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah- Travis Writing To Reach You 
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah- The Pogues Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah 
You've Got A Lot On Your Mind- Sloan Commonwealth
Champions of Red Wine- The New Pornographers Brill Bruisers 
The Light- Bracket Hold Your Applause 
Let The Beauty Be- Bob Mould Beauty and Ruin 
Thinking About Leaving- The Connection Let It Rock 
And A Whole Lotta You- The Yum Yums ...Play Good Music 
Reasons- Nick Piunti 13 In My Head 
Hey Tonight- Free Energy Love Sign 
Say Yeah- Utopia Utopia
Yeah You- The Neighborhoods ...The High Hard One... 
You, Yeah You- The Quick Untold Rock Stories
Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)- Joan Jett and The Blackhearts Greatest Hits
Yeah My Baby- The Flamin' Groovies Groovies Greatest Grooves
Yeah Sapphire- The Hold Steady Stay Positive

Man, I am WAY behind on blog posts but I vowed to try and catch up during the holidays.  My goal for this show was to do nothing but songs with "YEAH" in the title, similar to the "WANNA" show I did a few months back.  I started building music sets based on the number of times "yeah" appeared.  I start with Queen's "Yeah," which is four seconds long, solely consisting of Freddy Mercury singing "yeah."  



Mercury recorded the song a few months before he died in 1991 and it wasn't released until four years later on 1995's Made In Heaven.  Knowing this I find the song pretty moving- Freddy sending us a positive message from beyond the grave.

As you can see, at the height of the yeah song bell curve are those in which the word appears twice (I didn't discriminate by spelling or punctuation so this includes "Yeh Yeh," "Yea, Yea," "Yeah Yeah," etc.)  I'm still kicking myself for missing Matt and Kim's "Yea Yeah" but I'll make up for that by including it here:



Could they be any more adorable?  Something about the concept of "yeah" makes for positive, upbeat and amazingly catchy songwriting.  Whether it's just one "yeah" or five, there is not a downer dirge in the bunch.  Credit where credit is due, I owe the whole "yeah song" concept to The Revillos "Yeah Yeah" which has always been a favorite of mine.  Check out these lyrics:

Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah, yeah.
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah- Yeah!
(drum solo)
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah, yeah.
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah- Yeah!
(guitar solo)
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah, yeah.
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah- Yeah! 
(bass solo)
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah Yeah Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah.  Yeah, yeah.
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah- Yeah!(everything solo)
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah! (repeat infinity times)

Five Yeah's!

Now that is the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance!  Here's the thing though, after two "yeah" songs, six "yeah yeah," four "yeah yeah yeah," three "yeah yeah yeah yeah" and one "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" I was about to drive a pencil into my brain.  I've done shows of all dog songs, and the aforementioned evening of "wanna" but they didn't affect me this way.  As positive as they are, after sixteen "yeah" songs I was climbing the walls.  Something about the repetition of that single syllable really put me on edge.  Not in a "death metal interrogation in Guantanamo" way exactly, but not something pleasant either.  

Why Joan,  Why?

Yuck!

For some "yeah" relief I called an audible and threw together a set of four songs from records released in 2014.  This didn't seem like enough of a "palate cleanser," so I followed it with a set of four 2013 records.  Only then was I able to finish up with a few more "yeah" songs.  I really debated playing Joan Jett's "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" because I find listening to that song difficult, and not just because of the numerous bikini shots in the video.  (Seriously-- a bikini!?!  Is there any apparel less suited to her exquisite Joan Jettness?  What genius thought that up and why would she ever agree to do it!?!)  No, the reason I have a problem with "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" is that it was written by Gary Glitter, the British singer who made it a hit before racking up numerous criminal convictions for possession of child pornography, child sexual abuse, sex tourism and the like.  I decided to put my love and respect for Joan Jett first and play the song but it still didn't sound right to me.  In fact, just writing "Do You Wanna Touch Me" so many times in this post is making my mouth fill with bile...


Anyway, I have eight or nine non-pedophile penned songs called "Oh Yeah" that I'll use as a SacroSet in an upcoming show.  Somehow adding the "oh" to "yeah" makes it okay to my ears and I certainly won't be playing 16 of them in a row!

Sorry to say it took to long to put this post together so the download links have been taken down.  I'll re-post if they become available! 

Show #124 September 20, 2014

Dedicated to Lucy!

Lucy- The Boys The Complete Boys Punk Singles Collection 
The Ballad- Chris Von Sneidern Sight and Sound 
Can't Shake That Girl- The Real Kids Shake...Outta Control 
Fanzine- Holly and the Italians The Right to Be Italian 
Break Down The Walls- Ken Sharp Yellow Pills Vol 1 The Best of American Pop! 
You Don't Need Excuses To Be Good- Sloan Commonwealth 
Carnival of Souls- Wondermints The Wondermints
All I Need Is You- The Click Five Modern Minds And Pastimes 
^The Ballad of Mona Lisa- Panic! At The Disco The Ballad Of Mona Lisa 
Sweety Of The St. Moritz- The 101'ers Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited 
Blinded By The Light- This Perfect Day Don't Smile 
*Ballad Of A Love Doll- Redd Kross Neurotica
*The Ballad of Bjorn Borg- Pernice Brothers The World Won't End 
*The Ballad Of Dwight Fry- Alice Cooper Love It To Death
*The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead- XTC Fossil Fuel The XTC Singles 1977-92 
*The Ballad Of El Goodo- Big Star #1 Record 
*Ballad Of A Comeback Kid- The New Pornographers Electric Version 
*Ballad Of Cowboy Mouth- Cowboy Mouth All You Need Is Live 
*The Ballad of the Gravel Pit- The Gravel Pit Mass Avenue Freeze-Out 
*The Ballad of TV Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)- Cheap Trick Cheap Trick 
*Ballad Of A Lonely Man- Material Issue Destination Universe 
*The Ballad of Ranch Hand Rivera- The Soda Pop Kids Teen Bop Dream 
*Ballad Of The Lower East Side- Michael Monroe Horns And Halos 
*Ballad of Don Crawford- Pills A Fistful of Pills 
>Ballad Of A Useless Man- Paul Revere and The Raiders Midnight Ride 
The Ballad of Harry Noryb- The Verlaines Hallelujah All The Way Home 

^Power Pop Peak:  #89 Billboard Hot 100 2/1/11

*SacroSet:  The Ballad Of....

>Power Pop Prototype:  1966

I'm guessing many of you are surprised to see Marshall and RiRi at the top of an ALL KINDSA GIRLS blog post.  Rest assured I have never played either on the show, nor do I ever intend to.  No, the pictures are here because of a road trip I took my son and his friends on in August.  As soon as they announced the three city/six date Eminem/Rihanna Monster Tour last March Jack started bugging his mom and I to go to one of the Rose Bowl shows.  I didn't say "no" because it was so far in the future I figured he'd never get it together to go.  That was my first mistake.  He got his friend Aidan (and more importantly, Aidan's mom) involved and sure enough they managed to get tickets to the August 8 show.  At that point Jack's other friend named Aydan (I know, it's confusing) said he would drive.  None of the moms liked the idea of three boys who've never driven farther than San Francisco trekking down to Pasadena so they roped me into going for the price of a ticket.  As long as I didn't have to drive, I figured what the hell.


All this Monster business was put in place before we planned

our trip to Michigan and right before we left Aydan tells us he crashed his car and can't drive.  I'm more than ready to throw in the towel but Aidan's mom comes to the rescue and offers her Suburban.  I had one day between Michigan and Monster so of course we just had to get screwed on our return flights:  cancelled out of Grand Rapids, five hour wait for re-routed flight to DFW, two hour delay in Dallas.  I'm committed at this point (or I should have been) so 36 hours later I'm driving a monster Suburban down godforsaken I-5 to the Monster Tour in Pasadena. 

While many Cali- fornians crap on the Central Valley, I've only seen it at 75mph from I-5.  I can attest to the fact that it is an incredibly boring ride.  I've done it so many times that to amuse myself I mark the distance with a couple of jokes.  The first is "Ladies Love.... Coalinga!"  (I didn't say it was "A" material, it is brain dead car ride material.)  Further south you come to the town of Shafter, CA:  "Shafter... I hardly even KNOW her! (rimshot!) I'll be here all week!"  While both are clearly off-color, neither of these jokes comes close to the level of offensiveness of a third I-5 joke that my wife of all people once tossed out.  To set the stage, depending on which way the wind is blowing, you start to smell Harris Ranch a few miles before you see it.  Just when you think the stink can't get any worse this is what you come upon:

Harris Ranch

I'm a lifelong meat-eater, but this place makes you think.  Anyway, driving by one time when it was 100 degrees outside and we could see the waves of rising stank trying to permeate our sealed car Jaime called the place "Cowschwitz."  Offensive, no doubt but looking at the picture above... like I said it makes you think.  After Harris you hit the engine-punishing Grapevine Highway before dropping down into Magic Mountain territory.  Whenever I see Magic Mountain I always think "What- were you too tired to drive to Disney?" but I'm sure it's a lovely place.

We got into Pasadena about 2:30- just in time for some record shopping!  I'm happy to report that there are a few fine record stores in Pasadena.  The first one the boys and I went to was Canterbury Records.  The store looks like it has been

there forever, which it pretty much has since I later learned it opened in 1956.  I could easily picture a Don Draper type going in and buying an Esquivel record a few years later.   Heading out of

Old Town Pasadena on East Colorado you come to Poo Bah records.  This store is more what I'm used to- loud, chaotic sensory overload with music blaring, records and posters covering every inch of wall space- yep, I was home.  I could have spent a couple of hours in Poo Bah but unfortunately we had to get to the Rose Bowl.

I'm not an arena concert guy, my favorite shows are usually me and 199 other people packed into a sweaty basement club.  I wasn't dreading the Monster show but even as an Eminem fan I was dreading the hassle.  We took a ride share van to skip the parking nightmare.  It was pretty cool to come around the corner and see the iconic Rose Bowl sign.

Aydan, Jack, Aidan, me

We got there early and had a long wait for the show to start so it was mostly people watching, which got boring pretty quickly because 99% of the crowd was just like us- white people from the suburbs.

Our seats were pretty high up but the sound was fantastic.  The challenge for me with a show like this is to focus on the performers themselves and not their images up on the video screens.  I always feel like I'm not getting my money's worth if I'm just watching screens the whole time.  BTW- the huge half circle in the image above is the head of the dude in front of us.

Eminem and Rihanna started the show together and the first

Rose Bowl, August 8

thing I noticed is that she's wearing a Judas Priest shirt (admittedly I was only able to see this on the video screens).  It's hard for me to imagine that RiRi has EVER listened to Rob Halford and company so I figured her stylist put it together as some kind of homage to arena rock shows.  The rest of her outfits that night were standard pop fashion fare but that Judas Priest shirt really stuck in my mind.  When I Googled the Monster Tour I saw that the previous night she had chosen to honor:  

Rose Bowl, August 7

Krokus!  If you thought her being a Judas Priest fan was a stretch, how about the Swiss hair metal douche bags named after a flower that gave us "Midnight Maniac," a song I had to look up on youtube and don't remember ever hearing before.  Did Rihanna's stylist think the blue in the shirt made her eyes "pop" or something?  Further research shows that Rihanna kicked off each Monster tour show in a rock t-shirt:

New Jersey, August 16 Motley Crue

New Jersey, August 17 Jim Morrison

Detroit, August 22 Alice Cooper

 (Nice touch paying tribute to Alice in his home town.)

Detroit, August 23 Bon Jovi

I have to admit the red leather bondage pants are quite fetching- no doubt Rihanna is a beautiful woman.  Yet, with rock and roll in its current doldrums I find her (or more likely, her stylist's) appropriation of rock inconography deeply troubling.  Or maybe I have my head up my butt and like me she is a huge rock and roll fan, because in my search I also found this picture of her just walking down the street:

Sex Pistols!?!

You decide- my head hurts.  As for the rest of the Eminem/Rihanna show, there's not much to say.  She did her thing, he did his (including a Slim Shady medley... no lie, a medley) and they both hit all their marks.  My son and his friends loved it, especially the Slim Shady medley, though none of them blinked an eye at the Judas Priest t-shirt (sigh).

Download links for this show have expired- I'll be sure to re-post if they become available.

Show #123 August 30, 2014

Tonight we rock for fair Desiree...

Desiree- Hoodoo Gurus Kinky
I Never Came Down- The Golden Horde The Golden Horde
Born With a Sound- The New Pornographers Brill Bruisers
Setting Sun- Throwback Suburbia Shot Glass Souvenir
Lonely Nights- Hawks Hawks 
Put It Around- The Nerves Notre Demo 
Lucky Day- The Trend Lucky Day 
Somehow- The Vapors Anthology 
^Too Much Passion- The Smithereens Blow Up 
Alright- Travoltas Teenbeat 
Nowhere Left to Turn- The Tearaways Ground's the Limit 
*Can't Get You On My Mind- Adam Schmitt World So Bright 
*Holy War- Matthew Sweet Girlfriend 
*Something Came Over Me- Chris Stamey Fireworks 
*Tin Whistle And A Wooden Drum- Jimmy Silva and The Goats Heidi 
*Window To The World- Velvet Crush In The Presence Of Greatness 
*Valerie Loves Me- Material Issue International Pop Overthrow 
*Brighter Than the Sun- Summer Suns Calpurnia 
*The Concept- Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque 
*Falling Away- Richard X. Heyman Hey Man! 
*Long Haired Guys From England- Too Much Joy Cereal Killers 
*Fame Is- Crowded House Woodface
*Backlash- Joan Jett and The Blackhearts Notorious 
*Shoot You Down- Birdland Birdland 
*American Music- Violent Femmes Why Do Birds Sing? 
Forever- The Muffs Whoop Dee Doo 
>I Can't Control Myself- The Troggs Hit Single Anthology 
Goodnight- The Zeros 4-3-2-1-The Zeros

^Power Pop Peak:  

*SacroSet:  1991

>Power Pop Prototype:  1968 (album released 1991)


If you and I have ever spent any time talking about rock and

Kids In Satanic Service

roll, you've probably heard this rant but I still think it's worth putting down here.  Like any self-respecting punk rocker in the 80's, I truly despised the body of music we have come to call "hair metal" created by "hair bands."  Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure why I hated these groups so hard.  Kiss was my favorite band growing up and by the early 80's I had discovered and fallen in love with the New York Dolls (pictured at the top of this post in all their masculine

Hanoi Rocks (Razzle second from right)

glory) for their music, style and attitude.  In college I interviewed UK Subs lead singer Charlie Harper and when I asked what he was listening to he raved about the "gay heavy metal band" from Finland called Hanoi Rocks.  Following in the Dolls' tradition, I immediately saw what Charlie was talking about- Hanoi Rocks did just that.  What an amazing live band!  As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite rock and roll memories from the mid-80's is seeing the look of horror/disgust on my girlfriend Sue's face as lead singer Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy's sharing of a microphone dissolved into a big fat french kiss.  (Neither guy is gay- that's how committed they were to the band's glam rock swagger).  I got to see Hanoi Rocks twice before Motley Crue dickhead/lead singer murdered their drummer Razzle in a drunk driving wreck (for which Neil served 15 whole days in jail).  

Anyway, Hanoi Rocks' lasting impact on "hair bands"

Quiet Riot

wouldn't be felt until Guns N' Roses broke out in 1987.  Most critics consider Quiet Riot's 1983 album Metal Health to be the first "hair metal" record.  It may be a subtle difference to you, but I think these guys are ass clowns compared to Hanoi Rocks, The Dolls or even GN'R.  The fact that Quiet Riot's biggest song is a cover (an inferior version of Slade's 1973 UK hit "Cum On Feel The Noize) is straight up lame.  And if that isn't bad enough, Quiet Riot covered ANOTHER Slade song ("Mama

David (urp!) Coverdale

We're All Crazee Now") on their next record.  Seriously- it's like they're a third rate Slade cover band!  From Quiet Riot it's only a short hop to REALLY gross groups like Whitesnake.  I had a primal aversion to Whitesnake lead singer David Coverdale- seeing him on MTV would actually make me throw up in my mouth a little bit.  And don't get me started on Christian hair metal band Stryper and their signature "bumblebee" look.

Stryper? I hardly even know her!

I was not completely immune to the charms of several hair metal singles, including Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," Ratt's "Round And Round," Y and T's "Summertime Girls" or "Panama" by Van Halen.  Yet, the bull**it hedonism of the most of the genre's "women are whores" uptempo party

Husker Du (fashion don't!)

tracks and alternating bull**it sensitivity of their "women are angels" power ballads was too much to take.  You have to remember I was listening and going to see punk bands like Husker Du and The Replacements at the time so the whole hair band thing seemed completely artificial.

Looking back now, it's easy to see how Grunge drove a stake through hair metal's bedazzled heart. It comes down to simple physics- the universe can't abide rock stardom for guys who look like this: 

Brett Michaels, lead singer of Poison

while it simultaneously grants rock stardom to guys who look like this:

Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam

Grunge called bullsh**t on hair metal and showed us what we really already knew- the long haired emperor has no clothes.  At the time I was happy about it.  I bought Seattle band Mudhoney's debut single "Touch Me I'm Sick" when it came out in 1988 and the following summer I went to tiny club Green Street

Station to catch Nirvana's Boston debut.  (I thought Mudhoney was the better group by far- shows what I know).  Two years later I was as blown away as everyone else when I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit"and after that everything changed.  They even made a movie about it called 1991:  The Year Punk Broke. (As tonight's SacroSet shows, 1991 was also a good year for Power Pop.)
 
When Grunge came along, it wasn't cool to be a rock star anymore.  The clothes, the girls, the drugs, the swagger- all the excess that made bored white kids from the suburbs like me want to be Steven Tyler had fallen out of fashion.  Eddie Vedder's signature "loser" t-shirt was a sign of the new paradigm.  Kurt Cobain's dread fear of being perceived as a "sell out" (apparently the worst thing ever) helped him into an early grave.  What I've come to realize now is that Grunge not only killed hair metal, it also killed mass-appeal mainstream rock and roll.  Sad to say but by the start of the new millennium, hip hop had largely replaced rock and roll as the rebellious "piss off your parents" music choice of

Apparently it was all done for "the nookie"

suburban youth.  The record industry's disastrous attempt to retake this mantle from hip hop in the late 1990's gave us rap rock, which in retrospect looks like rock and roll's death rattle and produced some of the most godawful music ever.

Quick- name a legitimate superstar rock band of the 2000's.  None you mention, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, even The White Stripes, come anywhere close to the impact of a Van Halen or Guns N' Roses.  In fact Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine" may be the last across the board Super Bowl half time show worthy rock and roll smash hit of our lifetime- and it came out in 1987.  The complete refusal of today's leading rock musician's to act like rock star divas doesn't help.  C'mon Billie Joe Armstrong, Dave Grohl and Anthony Kiedis- would it kill you to date/publicly break up with a supermodel, crash a Ferrari or trash a hotel suite!  No you have to "spend time with your family."  (The fact that many of you readers might not know the three men I just mentioned only proves my point.)

So I've come full circle on hair metal.  I love the scene in

The Wrestler, 2008

Darren Aronofsky's  The Wrestler where Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) puts "Round And Round" by Ratt on a bar jukebox has this conversation with his stripper friend Cassidy (Marissa Tomei): 

Randy: Godda**n they don't make em' like they used to. 
Cassidy: F***in' 80's man, best shit ever ! 
Randy: Bet'chr ass man, Guns N' Roses! Rules. 
Cassidy: Crue! 
Randy: Yeah! 
Cassidy: Def Lep! 
Randy: Then that Cobain pussy had to come around and ruin it all. 
Cassidy: Like there's something wrong with just wanting to have a good time? 
Randy: I'll tell you somethin', I hate the f***in' 90's. 
Cassidy: F***in' 90's sucked. 
Randy: F***in' 90's sucked.
 
She's right:  what is so bad about just wanting to have a good time?  Furthermore, would I love to hear kids singing along to songs like "Unskinny Bop," "You Give Love A Bad Name" and "Rock of Ages" on pop radio again?  Would I like to hear teenage garage bands slaughtering "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Rock You Like A Hurricane," and "Paradise City" again?  You're damn right I would!

Here are the links to this week's show, click to stream or right click and "Save Link As" to download:
Hour 1
Hour 2

Show #122 August 16, 2014

Dedicated to Jennette and the great Tommy Ramone!

Jennette- Darlington Classics 2
She Was The Girl- The Wellingtons Keeping Up With The Wellingtons
Talkin' 'Bout Summer- The Britannicas High Tea
(I Feel Like A) Dictionary- The Trend Yellow Pills Prefill
No Excuse- Bracket Hold Your Applause
Going In Circles- Warm Soda Young Reckless Hearts
Vengeance- The Nips Gabrielle 7"
I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You- The Hold Steady Teeth Dreams
^I Don't Like Mondays- The Boomtown Rats The Fine Art Of Surfacing
Shook Down Softly- The Bye Bye Blackbirds We Need The Rain
Nobody Loves Me- The Letters Nobody Loves Me 7"
Where There's A Will There's A Way- The Jeremy Band All Over The World
My Street Stinks- 999 999
Come Down and Rock- Librarians The Pathetic Aesthetic
*Sunday Gurl- Silver Sun Dad's Weird Dream
*Monday Morning- The Rooks Encore Echoes
*Groovy Tuesday- The Smithereens Especially For You
*Every Wednesday Night At Eight- The Innocents One Way Love 7"
*Thursday Night- Chixdiggit! Double Diggits!
*Friday Night- The Click Five Greetings From Imrie House
*Saturday Every Day- The Soda Pop Kids Teen Bop Dream
Take a Take a Me- The Muffs Whoop Dee Doo
Still Smiling Today- The Mod Frames Hit Records Single
Dream City- Free Energy Stuck On Nothing
>Pleasant Valley Sunday- The Monkees Listen To The Band
Lonely Boys Brigade- The Dahlmanns All Dahled Up
I Can Be- The Misstakes National Pastime
In the Back- Buzzcocks The Way
Take My Chances- The Laughing Dogs Meet Their Makers
Every Day's A Holiday, Every Day's A Party- The Saints Prehistoric Sounds

^Power Pop Peak: #73 Billboard Hot 100 2/2/80

*SacroSet:  Days of the Week

>Power Pop Prototype: 1967

With my Michigan trip in July and all the earthquake hoopla

Tommy in (rare) color

in August I haven't had a chance to pay tribute to a great man we lost recently.  Tommy Ramone died of bile duct cancer on July 11, 2014.  He outlived band mates Joey (d. 4/15/01 lymphoma), Dee Dee (d. 6/5/02 heroin overdose) and Johnny (d. 9/15/04 prostrate cancer). Less than 40 years after they first got together in 1974, all four of the original Ramones are gone, three of them losing a battle with cancer.  None of them lived longer than 65 years and three didn't see 55.  This REALLY sucks!

In the early days of The Ramones Tommy was the glue that held the band together (the metaphorical glue rather than the "Now I Wanna Sniff Some..." kind).  Born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest, Hungary, his family emigrated to the U.S. when Tommy was four.  During his high school years in Forest Hills, Queens Tommy was in a band called Tangerine Puppets with bass player John Cummings, the future Johnny Ramone.  Picking up live sound and studio work wherever he could, at the age of 21 Tommy worked as an assistant engineer on the Jimi Hendrix

Tangerine Puppets (Tommy far left, Johnny far right)

live album Band of Gypsys.  (Shaving three years off his age while in The Ramones- listing a birth year of 1952 rather than 1949- caused more than a few rock critics to wonder if Tommy really could've had the Gypsys job at 18.)  Inspired by a New York Dolls show in the city, Tommy went back to Forest Hills to share his vision with Johnny as well as the newly recruited Jeffrey Hyman (Joey) and Douglas Colvin (Dee Dee).

As band manager, Tommy completely restructured the

Tommy's early 70's Marc Bolan phase

group because in his words singer Dee Dee was "hoarse after about three songs" and Joey "wasn't that good a drummer."  Joey took over lead vocals and though limited to bass duties, Dee Dee still got to start each song with his iconic "1-2-3-4!"  That left the drum stool open and Tommy had a very clear vision of the type of drumming The Ramones needed:

"eight-notes across, with the 'one' on the bass and the 'two' on the snare, fast and consistent."  

As is often the case with genius, this style of drumming is very simple.  Yet, after auditioning a ton of drummers who were either unwilling or unable to lay off the rolls and fills, Tommy himself ended up behind the drum kit.  He had never played drums in a band but like all his decisions regarding The Ramones, Tommy once again made the right call.

On debut album The Ramones Tommy wrote "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and the anthem "Blitzkreig Bop," originally titled "Animal Hop" until Dee Dee got his hands on the song and, like he so often did, gave it a German spin (Dee Dee grew up in Berlin).  Here's what Craig Leon who produced that first album, had to say about Tommy in a recent interview in LA Record:

Dee Dee, Joey, Tommy, Johnny

"Tom Erdelyi [aka Tommy Ramone] was the manager of the band and had the concept of the band which to me was very, very important, which is why I credited him as associate producer on the album because he actually came up with the concept for the band."

Rock critic Robert Christgau agrees: 

"Although Tommy may have faded from view, becoming the least vivid of the four Queens weirdos who invented punk rock, it was he who conceptualized them most clearly."

Tommy himself has said pretty much the same thing:

"It wasn't just music in The Ramones: it was an idea. It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music -- it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different." 

Tommy also won every belly-showing contest

After four years and three brilliant albums, all of which he co-produced, Tommy quit The

Johnny and Tommy

Ramones- life on the road with the domineering Johnny, OCD Joey and bi-polar Dee Dee was no longer tenable.  Far from abandoning the band, however, he trained replacement Marc Bell (soon to be Marky Ramone) and co-produced their next album, Road To Ruin, which includes the band's "hit" single "I Wanna Be Sedated."  Tommy returned in 1984, producing The Ramones' best post-70's album Too Tough To Die, and went on to produce major records for The Replacements (Tim) and Redd Kross (Neurotica).

The Ramones had an enormous impact on budding musicians all over the world.  I loved Kiss, Rush and AC/DC but in a million years I could never hope to play guitar that well. Listening to The Ramones, on the other hand, was a huge inspiration. As I've mentioned in this blog before, the first Ramones album separated Dee Dee's bass on the left and Johnny's guitar on the right (I like to think this was Tommy's idea).  When I learned to play fifths (the precursor to bar chords) I would turn down the right channel and figure out how to play the song.  Within about fifteen minutes I was playing along with Tommy, Dee Dee and Joey.  Talk about empowering- it was AWESOME!

Tommy back in the day and earlier this year

I'd argue that more than the name, the look and even the songs- the "back to basics" concept was the key in the early days of The Ramones, one of the greatest and most influential bands in rock and roll history.  We all, those of us who love punk rock and its antecedents, owe Tommy Ramone a HUGE debt of gratitude. 

Stream/download this week's show here (Right click and "Save Link As:")
Hour 1
Hour 2