Show #152 August 13, 2016

This one's for Holly... no question!

Holly (Would You Turn Me On?) All Time Low So Wrong, It's Right
Just Who Is The 5 O'Clock Hero? The Jam Direction, Reaction, Creation
Are You Receiving Me? XTC Fossil Fuel The XTC Singles 1977-92
Are We Gonna Be Alright? Ric Menck The Ballad Of Ric Menck
Are You Passionate? Groovie Ghoulies Go! Stories
^Can You Dig It? Mock Turtles Can You Dig It?
Can I Take The Car Tonight? Incredible Kidda Band Too Much, Too Little, Too Late!
Can't We Do Anything Right? Mike Viola and The Candy Butchers Falling Into Place
Do You Compute? Donnie Iris Do You Compute?
Do You Have to Go? Rooney Washed Away
Do You Wanna Get High? Weezer Weezer (White Album)
Does Anyone Know Where The March Is? Newtown Neurotics Punk Collection
Does She Talk? Matthew Sweet Girlfriend
Does It Matter As Much To You? The Innocents No Hit Wonders From Down-Under
How Do You Know? The Lyres How Do You Know 7"
How Do You Do? The Boomtown Rats A Tonic For The Troops
How Long Will It Take? The Plimsouls The Plimsouls... Plus
Is It Day Or Night? The Runaways The Runaways
Is There Anybody In My World? Little Murders Stop Plus Singles 1978-1986
Is This Real? Wipers Is This Real?
What Do I Get? Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady
What's With Terry? The Undertones Hypnotised
What If I Killed Your Boyfriend? Material Issue Telecommando Americano
Where's The Boy For Me? The Revillos Rev Up
Where's Bill Grundy Now? Television Personalities Where's Bill Grundy Now? EP
Where's Your Mom? Chixdiggit! Chixdiggit
>Who Are the Mystery Girls? New York Dolls Rock 'N Roll
Who's Your Boyfriend? Piper Piper
Who Will Save Rock and Roll? The Dictators D.F.F.D.
Who Loves Life More? Sloan Action Pact
Why Is It Always This Way? The Ramones Rocket To Russia
Why Can't I Be You? The Cure Why Can't I Be You?
Why Can't I? Liz Phair Liz Phair
Life On Mars? David Bowie Hunky Dory

^Power Pop Peak:  #18 UK Singles Chart 3/9/91

ALL SacroSets:  ? Songs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1974

540 Forest Ave, Brockton, Mass

I have always loved libraries.  My first was the West Branch of the Brockton Public Library on Forest Ave.  It was one of the few places I was allowed to ride my bike to by myself.  When I was in the third grade some fifth graders beat the crap out of me when I was coming home from the library (luckily without any books) yet within a week I was back going through the stacks.  When we moved to Duxbury, Mass I didn't get to the library as much.  They call it the Duxbury "Free" Library, which still strikes me as redundant because I've never heard of a "pay" library.  Wouldn't that just be a "bookstore?"  But I digress.  The Duxbury library was all the way across town from my house and it was right beside the Intermediate School and The High School so there was no way to enjoy the place without being hassled by douche bags from school.  (Yes, I'd taken a beating from school bullies in Brockton but that was pretty random since John F. Kennedy Elementary and the West Side Branch were about ten miles away from each other.)

128 St. George St, Duxbury, Mass

As much as I loved my library in Brockton, it couldn't hold a candle to the library I'd discover in college.  One of the reasons I chose to go to Emerson was its radio station, WERS.  Thanks to Cousin Rich, I had discovered college radio, "the left of the dial," in high school.  I listened to the evening Niteklub show on WERS and the famed Late Riser's Club on Massachusetts Institute of Technology station WTBS (later WMBR after they sold the call letters to Ted Turner).  I did pretty well in high school but math and science were not my strong suit so there was no way in hell I was going to get into MIT.  Emerson it was then.  The first day of school I took the shuttle from my Fensgate dorm down to 130 Beacon Street and climbed the stairs to the third floor, the WERS studios and, more importantly, the station record library!

130 Beacon St, Boston, Mass (corner left)

"Hollywood" Michael Shannon

The studios were at the front of the building, top left in the photo above, and were not air conditioned so on hot days the windows would be open and on the air you could clearly hear Beacon Street traffic in the background which I thought was incredibly cool.  This traffic noise was often referred to as "Live Traffic Reports" by DJ Michael Shannon called this traffic noise. (No, not the talented actor from HBO's Boardwalk Empire and the fantastic films 99 Homes, The Iceman and Take Shelter but another guy named Michael who had one of those difficult to pronounce eastern European names that is all consonants and chose "Shannon" because it sounded Irish and you can't go wrong with an Irish sounding name in Boston... until they find out you're not Irish.)  Anyway, at the back of the building was the record library, thousands of albums stored on floor to ceiling heavy steel racks with plywood shelving and bookcases of 7 inch singles in beaten up cardboard boxes.  Those first few months at school I spent many hours browsing the WERS record library though I was sheepish about pulling anything to listen to on the "preview station" (a turntable, 70's era receiver and the stankiest pair of headphones in the world).  That changed when I got my first

From "A"

shift in December- taking advantage of the regular Niteklub hosts leaving for Christmas break.  From then on I spent as much time as possible listening to music at WERS.  I started with the A's (the letter, but also the Philly Power Pop band) and worked my way through the alphabet listening to anything I hadn't heard

to "Z"

before.  It was awesome-  like getting a PHD in underground rock and roll!  I discovered so many great records, many of which I'd later find at stores like Nuggets, In Your Ear, Looney Tunes and Planet Records.  Yes, I probably could've gotten laid more my freshman year but I stand by my decision!!


After college I got a show on WMBR and did the same thing over the course of three years.  The WMBR library was even better than the one at WERS, going back to the 60's and with a ton of obscure rarities and old tapes of Boston bands.  (The WMBR music library had MUCH better security!)  Sad to say, WERS got rid of most of their vinyl records in the late 90's but on a return visit to WMBR ten years ago I was very happy to see that not only had they kept everything- the station had knocked down a wall next door doubling the size of their record library.  Those MIT people are wicked smart!

These days my personal record library grows by about 30-40 vinyl LP's a year, 10-15 CD's and a handful of seven inch singles.  On the other hand, my digital library probably grows by 20-30 albums per month and roughly the same number of singles.  I'm amassing more music than ever before, luckily I can listen to it in a lot more places on my phone and laptop.  

As I've said before, without my digital library, there is no way I could make ALL KINDSA GIRLS happen- there simply isn't enough time to create shows with vinyl and CD's.  Plus, just doing different sorts in iTunes gives me lots of ideas for shows like Show #151's "Head Over Heels" features and tonight's ? Songs.  Not only does iTunes inspire themes, it allows me to indulge all my OCD tendencies putting a

show together.  Case in point, I was listening to music on shuffle and The Lyres classic "How Do You Know?" (shown at the top of this post) came up- the original version on Sounds Interesting records- a Boston rock and roll classic!  This got me thinking about songs that ask questions, so I made an iTunes smart playlist looking for "?" in the name of a song.  This yielded 142 responses and from there I was down the rabbit hole...

• I decided all selections must include a question mark, which excluded great songs like "Do You Want Crying" by Katrina and The Waves and "What's Going Ahn" by Big Star.  Subsequently I discovered several instances of crappy tagging by record companies who left off the "?" in a song title which stopped me from considering "Can I Be Your Hero?" by Wreckless Eric and "Who's Gonna Tell Mary?" by The Moondogs.  Then there is Kiss' "Do You Love Me" which doesn't have a "?" on the vinyl LP but does on the CD- SLOPPY WORK PEOPLE!

• Seeing a pattern in ? Songs, I decided to go with sets of three songs, each beginning with the same word.

• I then felt these three song sets should be in alphabetical order, starting with Are?, Can?, Do?, Does?, How?, Is?, What?, Where?, Who?, and Why?  It kind of bugs me that I didn't get all the "5 W's" (Who, What, When, Where and Why?) or do them in this order but I was running out of time and already committed to the alphabetical order.

• I still wanted to do my Power Pop Peak (slot 9) and Power Pop Prototype (slot 25) so that meant finding a hit song that started with "Can?" and an older song starting with "Where?" or "Who?"  I had to fudge it a little on the Peak going with the Mock Turtles' "Can You Dig It?" which was only a hit in England, but "Who Are The Mystery Girls?" was an easy choice for the Prototype (though I had to bump it to slot 27).

• My goal for each show is to end with a song that is slower, more contemplative, perhaps even elegiac.  In my opinion, David Bowie's "Life On Mars?" was the perfect choice.  I LOVE that song!

  
Perhaps I've revealed too much and you now think I should be under a doctor's care, or perhaps serve as an OCD case study. On the other hand, you've got to admit it makes for a cool radio show so thanks for indulging me!

Stream/download the show below:
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #152

Show #151 July 16, 2016

This one's for Ginny!

Ginny- Denny and the Dropouts Denny and the Dropouts 
Head Over Heels- Cute Lepers Adventure Time 
You Bring the Summer- The Monkees Good Times! 
Why Should It Be Mine- The Aces One Way St. 
The Crime- True Love Wings 
Now the Time Has Come- Bruce Foxton Smash The Clock 
(You're Just A) Button On A Shirt- The Works (You're Just A) Button On A Shirt
No Direction Home- Cheap Trick Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello 
^Head Over Heels- The Go-Go's Head Over Heels 
*Head Over Heels- Tuff Darts! Tuff Darts! 
*Head Over Heels- JD McPherson Let The Good Times Roll 
Why (feat. Soko)- Rooney Washed Away 
Playing The Fool- In The Gym Playing The Fool 7" 
Right. Now.- Wyatt Funderburk Novel and Profane 
CONCEITED.- The Genuine Fakes CONCEITED. 
Bitter Fingers- Elton John Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy 
Gotta Place In My Heart- The Night Brigade Gotta Place In My Heart
*Head Over Heels- Midnight Oil Midnight Oil 
*Head Over Heels- Blue Rodeo Five Days In July 
*Head Over Heels- Upstarts Teen Line no. 4 
We R Power- The Posies Solid States 
Get What I Can- Battered Wives Battered Wives 
Put Some Rhythm To It- Emitt Rhodes Rainbow Ends 
>Head Over Heels- ABBA Head Over Heels 
Universe-sized Arms- Chris Stamey Euphoria 
Give Me A Can Of Spray Paint- Airship Get Out... 7" 
Supersonic- Soul Asylum Change Of Fortune 
American Heartbeat- Slowguns T.V. Movie 7" 
Head Over Heels- Tears for Fears Shout: The Very Best of 

^Power Pop Prototype:   #11 Billboard Hot 100 2/21/84

*SacroSet[s]:  "Head Over Heels" Songs 

>Power Pop Prototype:  1981

Alive II tattoos

As I've shared in this space several times, I was a huge Kiss fan growing up.  Along with the music on their records, I also loved the stuff that came in their records.  I still have my unused tattoos from Kiss Alive II and it took me years to track down another sticker from Rock and Roll Over after I stupidly used mine in middle school.  And of course, who could forget the Love Gun from the album of the same name (some assembly required).

In my opinion only two other albums come close to Kiss in providing such awesome added swag.  The first was released on March 1, 1973 and is one of the top selling albums of all time with 45 million claimed sales (making it #3 overall) and 22.7 million RIAA certified sales (making it #9).  Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon came with not one, but TWO posters as well as two stickers.

Like those in the photo above, my copy had the portrait format band poster (I've also seen it in landscape format) and green pyramid poster (as opposed to blue).  I'm ashamed to say I returned my first Dark Side without the posters and stickers to Echoes in Marshfield, Mass saying the record was "defective" so I could get a new album with a second set of each.  Not my finest moment.  There was a teacher at Duxbury High School who I'll call Mr. A that most kids found super weird but since he had the Dark Side green pyramid poster hanging in his classroom, I thought he was vaguely cool.

The other album that had Kiss-level bonus materials is an all-time favorite that was recently reissued and is featured on tonight's show. Released on May 19, 1975- Elton John's Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy was the first album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed in the top spot for the next seven weeks.  I'd been listening to Elton John ever since my dad bought me his Greatest Hits album in 1974 so I was primed for Captain Fantastic the following spring.  I bought it the day it came out and was blown away to find that not only did the album have a cool gatefold cover, it came with a poster, lyrics book and scrapbook!  What an embarrassment of riches!!

Fantastic Indeed!

Every song on Side 1 is a classic:  the title track, "Tower of Babel," "Bitter Fingers," "Tell Me When The Whistle Blows" and the album's lone single, "Someone Saved My Life Tonight."  And it's a crime that "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket," the first track on Side 2, is not a staple of Classic Rock radio playlists.  In a 2006 Rolling Stone interview, Elton John told Cameron Crowe:

"I've always thought that Captain Fantastic was probably my finest album because it wasn't commercial in any way. We did have songs such as 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight,' which is one of the best songs that Bernie and I have ever written together, but whether a song like that could be a single these days, since it's [more than] six minutes long, is questionable. Captain Fantastic was written from start to finish in running order, as a kind of story about coming to terms with failure—or trying desperately not to be one. We lived that story."

Being able to listen to the music while reading along with the lyrics was a new experience that helped me bond with the album.  The scrap book includes photos, press clippings, journal entries and a comic called The Life and Loves of Elton John.   The comic starts with the disclaimer "This picture story is not totally factual, and is provided for your entertainment."  I can't be sure, but they might be talking about this panel specifically:

Click to Enlarge

The Captain and The Kid

I was really struck at the time by how Elton John gave Bernie Taupin nearly equal billing, like in the ad at the top of this post.  I was used to bands having a singer and guitarist share the spotlight but a lyricist?  That was new to me.  In fact Bernie is prominently featured inside the gatefold and appears in an orb on the back cover.

In 2013 Elton told Cameron Crowe:

“Every lyric on Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy was about Bernie and me, about our experiences of being able to make songs and make it big. … In a way, years later, I ended up being Captain Fantastic and he ended up the Brown Dirt Cowboy: Here, I’m living my fabulous lifestyle, collecting paintings, and Bernie is interested in horses and bull riding and shit like that. We became those characters. Who was to know?” 
 

(The animation in this TV ad reminds me a little of Pink Floyd's The Wall which came out seven years later.)
 
The Captain Fantastic album art by Alan Aldridge is a trip and blew my mind because, among other things, it showed...  NAKED LADIES!  Granted they have Bird and Alligator heads, respectively, but at age 10 I'd take my naked ladies any way I could get 'em!

Naked Lady 1

Naked Lady 2

I immediately put the poster up in my room and it was an added treat that neither of my parents noticed I HAD NAKED LADIES ON MY WALL!!!

Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights

Researching this post I found an article that shows how Aldridge's Captain Fantastic artwork was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch: 

Davey Johnstone's 30th Anniversary Les Paul

So to review, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy has great music and lyrics, cool gatefold cover art inspired by a 16th century Dutch master, a poster, a lyric book and a scrapbook with biographical comic.  On a trip to the Last Record Store in Santa Rosa with my kids a few years back I found a mint copy of Captain Fantastic with all the extras for a DOLLAR!  I snatched it up and while the kids were ambivalent about the music, they were mightily impressed with all the swag.  Take THAT- CD's and downloads! 

Oh, were I a rich man....

As important as Captain Fantastic is to me, the album marked the end of my obsession with Elton John and I blame him for my waning passion.  In my opinion around this time Elton decided to switch from being a rock star to a pop star.  The reason "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the only single from the album is that two non-album singles, "Philadelphia Freedom" (A DISCO song!) and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (with it's weird reggae breakdown) were already at the top of the charts.  (It still bugs me that I never got to hear "Bitter Fingers" or "Tower of Babel" on the radio.)  The next single was the equally poppy "Island Girl" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was the final nail in the coffin.  A few months later I was listening to Kiss Destroyer and Elton John was a distant memory.

Too late Elton and Kiki- the damage is done!

p.s.  I recently saw the movie called Captain Fantastic and was a little disappointed.  While I knew it had nothing to do with the Elton John album, I think my expectations were raised by the title and I probably would've liked it more had they called it something else.  Warning to future artists mining our cultural history... you better bring your A-game if you're going to even tangentially associate your piece with a beloved work from our past.

The link for this week's show is below, click to stream or right click and "Save Link As:"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #151