By Don Jacobson

The other day I was listening to a great old album on WREK-FM, one of our better non-commercial, student-run stations, from Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The program was Stonehenge, WREK’s weekly “deep tracks” classic rock show, and the album was Humble Pie’s first effort, 1969’s “As Safe As Yesterday Is.” It was so good, it got me wondering, why didn’t Steve Marriott ever become the ultra-special hyperstar he should have been? What happened to him in the years between Humble Pie’s break-up in 1975 and his premature, accidental death in a 1991 house fire?

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Posted on November 26, 2007

By Don Jacobson

In this special edition of Chicago In Song, we take an in-depth look at one song from The Hold Steady and see how it illustrates the connection to what could be the ultimate source of the ubiquitous Chicago-bashing in modern song lyrics and pop culture – our very own Nelson Algren.
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The Hold Steady/Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
The Hold Steady is “officially” from Brooklyn, but it still seems, even after a decade or so of living there, that the vast majority of frontman Craig Finn’s dense and symbolic lyrics are still rather specifically about the Twin Cities, where he’s from. In “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night,” though, he takes that propensity and shows that he also knows a thing or two about the Windy City, specifically about its literary patron saint, and mixing up the geographical references. He succeeds at both. And, really, this is a very special song and Finn is a very special songwriter because, if for no other reason, he’s one of the very few lyricists I’ve come across that references Chicago as something other than a horrific hellhole.

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Posted on November 19, 2007

By Don Jacobson

There is an uncharted and obscure spot in the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum where the Addams Family, Muscle Beach, novelty drive-in speakers, furious rockabilly, true soul shouting and high-booted go-go girls all meet up in an acidy haze, where fuzz guitars and B-movie posters screaming sex and blood light the way to what seems an exit, but when you burst through it leads only to a scene from a William Castle cheese-fest as seen through Roy Orbison’s sunglasses. Yes, you’re in too deep in the frightening, monstrous and ultracool retro world of DJ Howie Pyro and his Intoxica Radio show, webcast weekly on LuxuriaMusic.com and available as a podcast.

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Posted on November 14, 2007

By Dan Zapruder Phillips

Before I was exposed to a lick of their music, Led Zeppelin’s reputation preceded them by about a mile. Before the Internet – before MTV, even – their fans spat out extra-musical information like fog from a dry ice machine, all of it either deviant, creepy or both. How was I expected to wrap my junior high brain around those weird symbols that formed the “title” of their fourth album? Was one of those basically pot?
Then there were the rumors of backstage shenanigans with a baby shark (or a snapper, depending on who you asked). Not to mention the spooky backwards messages “hidden” on their records, professing allegiance to Almighty Satan. Or how about the cast of characters I’d see emblazoned on their T-shirts between every class, each one reeking of sneaked cigarettes? There was the “winged hippie,” the old hooded dude with the lantern and those naked, possessed kids from the Houses of the Holy artwork . . . Couldn’t these guys just show their faces on their album covers? Like Hall and Oates? Or Tears for Fears?

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Posted on November 12, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

Beachwood Bob, the co-owner with his brother of the Beachwood Inn, recently held a tag sale to clear out various items inside an old house they owned down the block from the bar. In after-sale scavenging, Bob gave me the pick of whatever records remained. This is what I grabbed.
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1. All-Time Country & Western Hits/Nashville All Stars
A Dynagroove Recording as well as an RCA Victor Record Club Special. Produced by Bob Ferguson and Chet Atkins, 1965.
2. This Is Music From Nashville/Columbia Special Products
Includes Ray Price, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Marty Robbins, Mac Davis, and Johnny Cash.
3. Golden Hits/Roger Miller
“Years before Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson grew their hair long, Miller took country to the counterculture with these hipster twists on the Nashville sound,” writes Dan Cooper of All Music Guide. “No tunesmith in Music City had ever tossed off songs like ‘Dang Me,’ ‘King of the Road,’ ‘Chug-A-Lug,’ and ‘Engine Engine #9.’ No one has since.” From Smash Records.

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Posted on November 7, 2007

By Crazy Fingers

First in a continuing series.
Okay, so, I know you’re already rolling your eyes and scrolling down to see what’s next. But wait! There’s actually real value in what I have to say. So hear me out and then you can go check out what’s new in disco or whatever.
I’ve always loved the kind of music the Dead played. My father used to take us to go see bluegrass shows at a state park on weekends and it wasn’t a big leap ’til my older brother fell for the Dead. He toured; he even took the old man to a show (the only time they played in Hershey, PA, in 1985). My dad loved it.
I fell for them in early high school. I remember one of the cool kids in my study hall saying to the rest of the honors class, “I bet out of all of you, she’s the only one that can name a Dead song that’s not on the Greatest Hits album.” He was right.

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Posted on November 5, 2007