There Was Something About You

The nice thing about these music blogs is that soon after a famed musician passes away people can write their thoughts and post some songs from the deceased person's career. In the time I've been doing this I haven't had the need to do one of those tribute posts. But, the time arose, and I was on vacation so I couldn't do it until now.

As many of you probably know, last week Brad Delp, lead singer of the famed rock band Boston, still constantly heard on the classic rock stations, was found dead. A few days later, word got out that he committed suicide, and the matter which he did so, carbon monoxide poisoning, wasn't so strange. It's not uncommon to people to turn their car on in the garage and sit in the vehicle, but the way he did it had to be a first in the history of humankind. He lit two charcoal grills in his bathroom and that's how he received the carbon monoxide. My God, how do you come up with that kind of idea? But, I don't mean to sound flippant about his death. It's always disappointing when you hear that someone developed the feeling of they would be better off leaving mortality and going into the afterlife rather than dealing with their life.

To pay tribute to him I'll post two songs where he was the lead singer. The first is from Boston's debut album from 1976. While most people are familiar with "Foreplay/Long Time" or "More Than A Feeling" from said album, I actually like "Something About You" the most. The opening is fucking awesome, there's no better way to put it. It certainly sets you in the mood for the rest of the song, which is as catchy as you can get and also does a nice job of displaying Delp's vocals.

The second tune is actually from an album that is not by Boston, but rather, "Boston-lite", as many people referred to it as. It was a 1980 album by Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau, and in essence everyone else in the band besides their grand poobah, Tom Scholz; it was done as they didn't want to wait forever for him to finish work on their next album. At least it took Tom less time than it's taken Axl Rose. I think the Cubs will win the World Series before Chinese Democracy is released to the public! I listened to a few songs off the album and while it without doubt has the Boston sound, it's missing that extra something to make it special, which probably proves the importance of Scholz to the mix. But, I decided to post the song "Mean Woman Blues" just for the novelty of a "Boston sound" being sprinkled with some blues, although it won't exactly make you forget Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters here. Still, if you like Boston, then you might as well give it a try just to see what you think of it.

Boston-"Something About You" (5.23 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/zDLQmvX245769/Boston%20-%20Something%20About%20You.MP3.html

Barry Goudreau-"Mean Woman Blues" (3.64 MB, 128Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ea1uJV245762/BARRY%20GOUDREAU%20AND%20BRAD%20DELP%20-%20MEAN%20WOMAN%20BLUES.MP3.html

I'll be back on either Thursday or Friday with my next tune.

Hey, It's Better Than Cowboy Troy

Most of you know Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice and some of you may have even heard of this tune, but the popular misconception was that it was done by those hippie stoners Phish. That was due to Napster; I never used that service myself, as back in the day I used to use the great service known as Audiogalaxy, back before they shut down and then reappeared a few years later in a new terrible form.

I first heard this in college, as I have to assume most people have. A country/bluegrass version of a rap song is always good for the WTF factor, but The Gourds (the real band behind the tune) did a nice job with it. Country is a genre which a lot of experimentation has not been done with it yet in terms of going into genres that have nothing to do with it, but who knows, in the future it may become more viable. After all, who could've imagined Nelly and Tim McGraw would've gotten together for a song, and it didn't turn out to be horrible?

The Gourds-"Gin and Juice" (8.86 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/SgP4Q239256/The%20Gourds-Gin%20and%20Juice.MP3.html

I'll be back in a week and a half as I'll be on vacation.

Wrestling...YAY!

Tuesday night after I got back from a wrestling show I was on a local messageboard that I often deride (if you don't know why, please don't ask me to explain). This note, though, I found something that was gold, and that is the YouTube video to The Wrestlerock Rumble, something put out by the AWA to build to their major "Wrestlerock '86" show at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It officially starts about 25 seconds into the video. Yes, at the time ESPN carried pro wrestling. It sure beats that poker horseshit you now find on a dozen different channels (even Bravo and The Travel Channel; WTF?)

For ages I've heard how it was a Super Bowl Shuffle ripoff and how it was awful beyond comprehension, but this was solidified once I saw it with my own eyes. I mean, it sounds ~exactly~ like The Super Bowl Shuffle to the point where I'm surprised no lawsuits were filed. The way the wrestlers sung it, they made Jim McMahon and William "Refrigerator" Perry sound like Tupac Shakur in comparison! Really. Just singing to the beat was something a lot of them couldn't do! My God. Talk about something that actually exceeded my expectations. The video was classic in 37 different ways, from the Z-rate Las Vegas personalities plugging the show (why should we care that a Marilyn Monroe impersonator wants us to see the event?) to AWA TV show host Ken Resnick's attempts at dancing… oh it was tremendous all around. The fact that it sounds SO 80's you expect to see some of them inhaling lines of coke or seeing the women wearing banana clips or headbands, or everyone wearing acidwashed jeans-that's the icing on the cake.

While doing some more searching on the song, I found a writeup (which wasn't perfect; the guy who sang after Larry Z was Scott LeDoux, a former pro boxer who was a referee for a few matches in AWA before starting a feud with Larry; also, despite what everyone says, it sounds like Curt Hennig called the Long Riders "Dirtball dumbos, not "gumbos") and, best of all, a link to download the song. I uploaded it again for your listening enjoyment. Even if you don't know Jack Shit about pro wrestling, this is still something you have to listen to, even if it's for masochistic reasons.

The American Wrestling Association-"Wrestlerock Rumble" (1.69 MB, 64Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/wcgHGRg237702/awa_-_wrestlerock_rumble.mp3.html

I'll be back on Friday with the last cover and last song before I'm gone for a week and a half on my trip to Illinois.

She's Just A Woman

This post will be short as tomorrow I'll be putting up a special post; it isn't a cover, but rather a rare (but hilarious) Super Bowl Shuffle ripoff where you'll get to hear a cornucopia of PRO WRESTLERS rapping; oh it's even worse than it sounds!

Today, though, is Great White (as an aside, lead singer Jack Russell is not related to me) and their cover of the classic Led Zeppelin song "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)", a song still commonly heard on classic rock stations in tandem with "Heartbreaker". Ironically, it was something Great White did in concert, while the original Led Zeppelin version was never performed in front of crowds. It makes sense for Great White to pick this tune out, as many people have noted how they sound similar to Zeppelin in terms of vocals and music. That's a lot more believable to me than the claims of Whitesnake sounding a lot like Zep.

I first heard the song at a wrestling show, of all places, and I found it on one of those cheap 6 dollar CD's you can find in places like Best Buy. I can't find it online so instead here is a similar CD that also has the song.

Great White-"Living Loving Maid" (live) (3.81 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/XnLucjI238273/Great%20White-Living%20Loving%20Maid%20(Live).MP3.html

Tomorrow afternoon will be the wrestling-related song.

The World Isn't Ready For Jewish Rappers

Everyone and their mother knows the song "Funkytown", by Lipps Inc.*, and you either love it or you hate it. Not a lot of people remember the late 80's cover by Pseudo Echo that also did well on the charts.

* I'll never forget the few minutes of the MTV episode Made I saw once… don't worry, I never watch that show except for brief glances… except for that one with the obviously chubby gay guy (who was not unlike that creepy Ross from The Tonight Show) who wanted to become a soccer player; that was great comedy… anyway, I did see an episode where the producer of "Funkytown" had a son that wanted to be a rapper, even though he was about as white as Casper, and yeah, of the Jewish persuasion. His dad was all acting like "Funktown" was a great and serious musical work… um, I don't think so! Why there is an underground rapper named "C-Rayz Walz" puzzles me. What a terrible name!

Funnily enough, back when I first heard the Pseudo Echo version in the 90's I thought it sucked ass. It was years before I heard that tune again and I did a total 180 on it. I can't really explain WHY my opinion changed; it just did. This version is totally "80's" in sound, believe me… I'll just warn anyone who doesn't like that type of jingle on their computer hard drive.

Oh, and you can usually only find the single version of the song (3 and a half minutes). Well, I did find the original album version (almost 5 minutes long) and that's what I uploaded.

Pseudo Echo-"Funkytown" (6.73 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/96I34Ru236690/Pseudo%20Echo-Funky%20Town.MP3.html

I'll be out of town on Tuesday so the next cover will be up Wednesday.

Winding Your Way Down To Baker Street

This wasn't planned out in advance, but from now until I leave for my vacation back to my old stomping grounds in Illinois (meaning that after this Friday, this page will be taking a vacation too, for a week and a half), I will be doing a "cover songs" week.

Many people are familiar with the song "Baker Street", the late 70's radio staple by Gerry Rafferty; even if you think you don't, if you heard the distinctive saxophone part you'll go, "Oh yeah, I recognize this tune!"

A cover version of this song that actually received some radio airplay back in the late 90's (although I only remember hearing it like two times on the stations) was by The Foo Fighters*. It was actually a B-side to one of their singles, so thus you can't find it on any album, making it perfect for me uploading it for all the alt-rock fans who read this blog.

* Here's a story that will make me look rather dumb, but I have to be honest. Back in 2000, before my "hip" days, I was chatting with a lady I know, and she mentioned Dave Grohl. I was like, "Um… who's that?" I know, I know… those days are long gone, though.

The Foo Fighters-"Baker Street" (8.45 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/Fv505sI236177/Foo%20Fighters-Baker%20Street.MP3.html

I'll be back on Monday with another cover.

Apache!

I know, I'm doing this at a late hour, but I just got out of bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I got online and then realized that this, which I had typed up on MS Word, wasn't put up on here yet. Whoopsie!

While I was looking at the Wikipedia entry for Apache for the entry concerning the Sugarhill Gang I noticed that one version of the song was by Tommy Seebach, a Danish dude, and that the video was high in kitsch value. I didn't think anything of it until a few days later on a messageboard (no, not the two ones I feud with all the time now) I noticed someone post a YouTube link to the video, so I watched it, and I was completely blown away. I know, for some of you, you've seen it already when it was popular like 2 years ago, but I don't look at those hipster sites so this was a new experience for me. It's better (and funnier) than that "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" gobbledygook.

This is simply the greatest music video ever made. You have:

• Tommy and his band playing out in the middle of the woods.
• Tommy playing his multi-keyboard setup while looking at the camera like, "I'm Tommy Seebach, motherfucker, and I'm much cooler than you'll ever dream of being!"
• Three Eurobabes playing the part of Indian princesses.
• Tommy's maniacal laugh.
• Tommy standing there, hands on his hips as the Eurobabes feel him up, with the "Yep, I'm fucking awesome" look on his face… as he IS awesome, I have to admit.
• Tommy taking time out to break it down with the Eurobabes.
• And so much more.

Unfortunately it's nigh impossible to find an MP3 of the song (just for the purposes of downloading, of course; it's not like I ENJOY the tune or anything… oh ok, I do like the song!) but hey, even better than just hearing the song is being able to enjoy the video on your own TV anytime of the day or not. Here's a link to download said video:

Tommy Seebach-"Apache" music video (44 MB)

http://he.fi/video/apache.mpg

I'll be back during the weekend with a song to download.