The lead-off track from Public Enemy’s groundbreaking 1987 debut album “Yo! Bum Rush the Show.” I came to this album late in the game, having been a fan of the epic follow-up “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” from 1988.
Admittedly, it took me a while to get into it. It had a different sound and feel that “Nation of Millions” … less “in-your-face,” but more cool and subtly menacing. Trust me when I say, it’s no less intense. Over time, I grew to prefer “Yo! Bum Rush the Show” over “Nation of Millions.” You keep expecting “Yo! Bum Rush the Show” to explode, but never quite does. It’s that tension that keeps you on edge the entire time and makes it … at least in my mind … the one I keep coming back to.
One of the very odd and gloriously demented singles off Ween’s 1994 masterpiece “Chocolate and Cheese.” The best way to describe “Voodoo Lady” is to imagine if Captain Beefheart fronted the Talking Heads. This is disco from hell … stripped down and lo-fi … with some very loud and unholy guitar noise. The video alone is bound to give you nightmares, especially that odd looking child giving flowers to the singers.
Bryan Ferry’s unique and eerie cover of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” I say eerie because there’s a sense of unease throughout this version that’s postively chilling.
Considering that the accompanying video from 1993 features Ferry crooning to Anna Nicole Smith, maybe he knew something that the public wouldn’t find out until years later. All kidding aside, Smith is quite beautiful here and it’s a sad reminder of what she looked like before she became a pop culture joke / tragedy.
One of Steely Dan’s bleakest and heaviest songs. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not about the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It’s actually about the Fisk/Gould scandal of 1869 where two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, attempted to corner the gold market … with, some have argued, either the approval or deliberate blind eye of then-president Ulysses S. Grant. Fisk and Gould’s efforts to hoard gold caused stocks to plummet.
The song has one of the darkest opening stanzas of any song in the rock era: “When Black Friday comes / I’ll stand down by the door / And catch the grey men when they dive from the fourteenth floor.” Damn.
A fine, unsweetened live version of “Swamp” from the Talking Heads’ “Speaking in Tongues” tour in 1983. I say unsweetened, because the version included on the “Stop Making Sense” live CD released in 1984 from some concerts in Los Angeles was allegedly not quite as live as people were led to believe. This version comes from a soundboard recording at the Saratoga show. I’ve always love the dirty, creepy vibe of this song.
Here’s another in-depth interview with comic genius Phil Hendrie, this time by actor/comedian Kevin Pollak for his online talk show “The Kevin Pollak Chat Show.” I’m not sure when this interview was done, but it’s even more in-depth (and p–s your pants hysterical) than the terrific one I linked up last week that Marc Maron did with Hendrie.
For the uninitiated, Hendrie’s talk radio show is basically Hendrie playing himself as a frustrated straight-man radio host interviewing people who are … to put it kindly … some of the most repulsive, idiotic, insensitive, and delusional human beings who have ever existed. The catch is that Hendrie also plays the people he’s interviewing. The joke is on those in the audience who have no clue this is a joke and call in to mercilessly berate the interviewee. The show is comic gold and is the best parody of talk radio you’ll ever experience.
If you’ve never heard Hendrie, this is the place to begin. Hendrie discusses in-depth into why he does he does and goes into the background of several of the characters he’s created on his legendary radio show. If you have heard of Hendrie and especially if you love him, this will be a lot of fun.
The interview is long (approximately 2 hours) … and doesn’t really start until about 22:45 into the program … , but I promise, it’s very entertaining and extremely funny. I should warn you that if you’re sensitive about … well … almost anything … Phil WILL offend you. His job for the last 20 + years has been finding everyone’s sensitive spot and creating a character that will jab a knife in it. Not safe for work or little ones, but I guarantee that you won’t have a better time being offended anywhere else.
And finally … damn, Kevin Pollak is a kick-ass interviewer! But damn, that’s a LONG intro.
From the 1983 album “Subterranean Jungle,” this is the Ramones directly addressing the hardcore turn punk rock had gone by the early 1980s. As record companies abandoned punk for more radio- and video-friendly New Wave, some bands got rawer and more aggressive. The Ramones saw the ante being upped and did their own version of hardcore … fast, nasty, and intense with a tsunami of guitar noise that will drown you within the first 30 seconds.
Ironically, “Psycho Therapy” was produced by 1960s bubblegum rock legend Ritchie Cordell (who wrote the bubblegum classics “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’,” and “Indian Giver”).
The accompanying video was banned by MTV for graphic violence. In other words, not safe for work.
Cock Sparrer had an interesting history back in the early days of punk. They were allegedly approached by the notorious Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren in 1976 to become one of a group of bands he was trying to sign. According to the band, the deal fell apart due to McLaren not buying them a round of beer … or because they refused to cut their hair in the style McLaren wanted … or something … I don’t know. I got this off Wikipedia, so you know it’s true …
Anyway, they had a deal with Decca Records, recorded a self-titled album that was only released in Spain, mainly because Decca had fallen apart as a label by 1977. That first album is a damn fine punk version of the Rolling Stones and eventually became available under different names like “True Grit,” “The Decca Years,” and “Rarities.” Well worth checking out.
Sparrer didn’t release another album until 1983, but what they released was worth the wait. The sound of “Shock Troops” is less bluesy than the album recorded for Decca and more in line with the punk the day. The album has a nice sense of melody and toughness. “Where Are They Now?” is the great lead-off track.
This Leonard Cohen song is almost becoming a cliche in terms of being covered by singers trying to be “serious” or “spiritual.” But it’s still a great song. Jeff Buckley’s 1997 cover is probably the most famous of all the most recent versions, but I prefer John Cale’s take. Cale’s cover was the version that was featured rather prominently in the first “Shrek” film. Hearing Cale’s inimitable Welsh voice sing this while watching a very mainstream family film was an odd, but very cool experience when I saw “Shrek” in 2001.
The 2nd track from the classic “The Velvet and Underground and Nico” album from 1967, this is a song about buying heroin in NYC when songs about heroin were not chic or cool. This drug song is not about expanding your mind, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is about the cold reality of street drugs and the desperate need for them. The relentless, driving rhythm of this song is infectious, but scary given the subject matter.
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