Because Redd Kross always seemed to be riding a kitschy 1970s schtick from early on and played that up in their videos, I think they were always unfairly dismissed. Their 1990 Atlantic-label album “Third Eye” is a pop masterpiece and would easily be on my Top 100 desert island albums list. “Annie’s Gone” should have been a monster hit, and while it got some play on college radio, it didn’t go much further from that. A severely underrated band and album.
A loving tribute to funk, recorded by a couple of Talking Heads on vacation (Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz), Adrian Belew, and others. The song became a classic, being sampled endlessly in the early days of hip-hop. However, as great and as groundbreaking as the song was/is, the animated video is even better. Almost 35 years later, it still seems revolutionary.
Alt-country legends the Bottle Rockets do a slammin’, very heavy cover of Neil Young’s deep album cut from the bleak masterpiece “Tonight’s the Night.” All I can say is, “Damn!” And also, “Why haven’t the Rockets ever officially released a cover of this?”
Before the Tuff Darts recorded their first album for Sire, Robert Gordon left the group and arguably had greater success as a rockabilly singer. This cover of Jack Scott’s “The Way I Walk” with 50s guitar legend Link Wray is a masterpiece of swagger and menace. Wray’s guitar on this track must rank among the sickest solos ever recorded. In 1994, this was used during the pre-credits sequence of Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.”
A common misconception is that Lou Reed was the Prince of Darkness in the Velvet Underground. While Reed is pretty dark, many would argue that John Cale was the real dark one in the VU. Don’t believe me? Look at the Velvet Underground’s output once Cale left the group. With Cale, the Velvets recorded “Heroin,” “Venus in Furs,” “White Light/White Heat,” “Sister Ray,” and “The Gift.” Post Cale: “What Goes On,” “Jesus,” “Sweet Jane,” “Rock and Roll.”
Cale can dress things up beautifully with orchestral arrangements and lilting vocals (his best known song is arguably his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” from the “Shrek” soundtrack) . But during the mid-late 1970s, Cale let his freak flag fly with some brilliant, disturbing, and very heavy stuff. “Chickens–t” is from Cale’s lesser-known post-Island records period, more specifically the 1977 EP “Animal Justice.” A wonderfully malevolent and sinister hard rock masterpiece.
Another moment of genius from the early Stones. From their severely underrated album “Out of our Heads” comes this cover of a song first recorded by Solomon Burke in 1962. Like many of their early great songs, the song builds wonderful tension that explodes during the chorus. Classic rock stations: burn that freakin’ copy of “Hot Rocks 1964-1971” you play ad nauseum and start digging deep!!!
Dave’s Strange World just had it’s 2,000th view today. Many thanks to everyone, from followers to lurkers, for the continued success of this blog.
To celebrate, esteemed British actor Oliver Reed has agreed to come back from the grave to do a solo performance of what dance purists call “Drunk on Aspel.”
The all-time Top 10 most popular posts on Dave’s Strange World:
10. “Copendium” written by Julian Cope
9. “Mother” – Natalie Maines (with Fred Norris) live on the Howard Stern Show 1-4-2013
8. “The Rebel Jesus” – Jackson Browne and the Chieftains
7. “Spirit of Truth aka One Man Show” (1997) – Vincent Stewart as Reverend X
5. “Russ Meyer’s Vixen” (1968) dir. Russ Meyer
4. “Saturday Night Live 1980″ – Nathan Rabin’s “How Bad Can it Be? Case File #23″
2. “Everything is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson” by Kevin Avery
and still #1 with a bazooka …
A mature and meaningful love / breakup song from Earle’s “Jerusalem” album that was overshadowed by the controversy over “John Walker’s Blues.” An instant classic that’s just waiting to be covered and made into a huge hit.
Bryan Ferry’s raw and beautiful cover of Dylan’s classic. Another example of how much better Ferry is getting, the older he gets.
A song that’s always a breath of fresh air on any 80s mix. “Under the Milky Way” is a lovely and eerie acoustic-guitar (and bagpipes ?!?) driven ballad that got as high as number 24 on the Billboard singles chart in 1988. Considering the crap that was on the Top 40 that year, that’s quite an accomplishment. Produced by Warren Zevon’s producing right-hand man Waddy Wachtel.
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