Arrested Development - "Mr Wendal"

(from 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of..., 1992)

The album title referred to how long it took this Atlanta hip hop group to land a record deal.

Libellés : 1990sSOTD

The Pointer Sisters - "I'm So Excited"

(from So Excited!, 1982)

While 1st released in '82, hitting 30 on the pop chart, a version of it was added to the group's next LP ('84's Break Out) and re-released as a single. This time, it peaked at 9.

Libellés : 1980sSOTD

The Police - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"

(from Ghost in the Machine, 1981)

This song was the only time the band brought in a session keyboardist to assist: Jean Roussel, who also worked with Cat Stevens, Bob Marley, and 10cc.

Libellés : 1980sSOTD

Beastie Boys - "Body Movin'"

(from Hello Nasty, 1998)

 

The Boston Globe trashed this album upon release, its critic writing, "'Hello Nasty' makes a case for the trio to focus on studio production and leave the rapping to rappers."

Libellés : 1990sSOTD

Kim Wilde - "Go For It"

(from Teases and Dares, 1984)

The song was originally named "The Second Time," but was retitled for the US market. (It's under the real name on streaming services.) Peaked at 65 on US pop chart and 32 on dance chart.

Libellés : 1980sSOTD

"Cowpunk"
album: Your Fool
Enigma, 1984

---

In college radio, I was at first on the air during the wee hours of the morning, hypnotically watching those vinyl discs go round and round on the turntables with headphones on, soaking up every note of the new wave, punk, and indie music that my pre-college experience listening to rock radio hasn't taught me.

There were a handful of bands on Enigma Records I discovered I liked--Game Theory, Rain Parade, and Green on Red among them--so I kept my eye out for that odd logo, usually emblazoned in red, on the back of album jackets.

One night, I spotted an Enigma EP in the new release bin called Your Fool, from someone I hadn't heard of: Scott Goddard. A sticker on the front declared him to be a former member of the Surf Punks. Although I had vaguely heard of them, I didn't know the Surf Punks--and in those pre-internet days, information was either from a magazine, learned via word-of-mouth, or in the Trouser Press Record Guide.

"Cowpunk" was the song we began playing at 'ICB, and I loved it. I learned every word, even though I hgad no idea the song's bridge was liberally quoting Hank Williams and was only vaguely aware of Bakersfield's location.

Even though most DJs at the station played only "Cowpunk" from the EP, I branched out to other cuts like the Dickies cover "Manny, Moe & Jack" and especially "Panic in Van Nuys."

When Goddard's full-length album Eleventy Billion came out in 1986, I rushed out to buy a copy. Although tracks like "Two Triple Cheese" and Goddard's cover of "Ballad of Jed Clampett" were enjoyable, much of the album was covers or written by album producer (and future half of The Rembrandts) Danny Wilde and Rubber City Rebel Rod Firestone. The only Goddard-penned track was the previously-released "Cowpunk" itself. The album simply didn't have the same zing as the best songs from the Your Fool EP.

The other day, though, I was saddened to read this webpage which says that Goddard passed away last spring:

Robert Scott Goddard, a true original, peacefully left this life March 19, 2006 in Santa Barbara, California, succumbing to liver cancer.

Born July 9,1952 in Van Nuys, Scott lived many lives in his brief stay on Earth: surfer, hippie, punk rocker, counselor, born-again Christian, and family man.

An innovative musician, composer and producer, he worked with Leon Russell, The Spinners, Mike Johnstone, Kim Fowley, McCoo & Davis, Dennis Dragon, The Dickies, Danny Wilde and Art Laboe.

So I pulled out my old Eleventy Billion vinyl (and the unfortunately out-of-print compilation CD You Break It, You Bought It) to appreciate his talents.

"Cowpunk"

And I look over younder, tell me what do I see
Can it be a special angel built 'specially for me
With that long black hair, yeah, her eyes are so bright
Yeah, she looks real good underneath the bar lights

She drives a new Thunderbird, owns a stack of credit cards
Yeah, she parties real cool, she parties real hard
I've been to Bakersfield twice and four county fairs
But I've never seen a woman like that anywheres

All those night in Fillmore, who could ask for anything more
Saw you dancing in the heat, you threw my love right out on the street
Oh, cowpunk, that girl was much too tough
She's cowpunk
She's cowpunk

Yeah, she's my little sugar and we have so much fun
Yeah, we'll hit the bowling alley when the work day is done
She's my little baby and she loves me so right
Yeah, she holds me in the morning right on into the night

I got a hot rod Ford and a two dollar bill
And I know a joint right over the that hill
Well, they got loud music and the band's really good
Yeah, they drive here d'rectly from North Hollywood

All those night in Fillmore, who could ask for anything more
I saw you dancing in the heat, you stopped my heart like it's hamburger meat
Oh, cowpunk, aw, that girl was much too tough
Cowpunk
Cowpunk

Hey, let's party and get funky with these folks dagnab it
How 'bout it?

Cowpunk, cowpunk
Cowpunk, cowpunk
Cowpunk, cowpunk
Cowpunk, cowpunk

---

And by the way, since even All Music Guide doesn't have a tracklisting for Eleventy Billion, here it is to feed the hungry maw of Google's databanks:

Eleventy Billion
(818 Records)

Side 1
Two Triple Cheese (George Frayne)
Ballad of Jed Clampett (Paul Henning)
Some Kind of Miracle (Winorowski/Lara)
Running Bear (J.P. Richardson)
Only Hurts When I Cry (D. Wilde)
Talk Talk (Sean Bonniweil)

Side 2
Get Rhythm (Johnny Cash)
Cowpunk (S. Goddard)
Beverly (Rod Firestone)
Get Away (D. Wilde)
Stuck on You (Firestone/Wilde)


I wish I had a copy of Your Fool to include info about it, but I recollect it being a six song EP featuring "Cowpunk," "Manny, Moe & Jack," "Panic in Van Nuys," the title song, plus two others. Please add info in comments if you can.

note: in most cases, link for songs are active for only a week. all music is for evaluation and educational spelunking use only. you are encouraged to support all artists wherever possible. if copyright holder would like the file removed, please let me know. album purchasing link here.

"What's Going On"
album: Lenin & McCarthy
Arista, 1992 [out of print]

---

The 25th of May were another in a long string of cool Brit dance-rock groups that appeared in record bins in those days before grunge effectively killed the genre, Following the footsteps of Pop Will Eat Itself, Happy Mondays, Carter U.S.M, or Happyhead, the 25th of May were based in Liverpool and led by the frontman Steve Swindelli.

"What's Going On" started off with a sample from The Terminator ("there's a storm coming in") and quickly established a syncopated piano rhythm alternating with guitar power chords on the chorus. Lyrically, the song was an ecstacy-fueled hippy political anthem, spouting lines like "you got to ride the storm, man/kick some doors in/take a fall, but never get used" (appropriately, my copy is autographed by Swindelli and amply decorated by him with peace and anarchy signs).

Six of the album's tracks (including this one) was co-produced by Marius de Vries in one of his early production projects, long before his notable work with David Gray, Rufus Wainwright, and others.

Swindelli later tried again five years later with the group Manbreak, yet another band which succumbed to obscurity after only one album. By the end of the decade, he apparently also recorded dance music under the name Omaha. Lately, I've heard tell that he was doing musical theater in ther U.K.

note: links for songs are for limited duration. all music is for evaluation and educational spelunking use only. you are encouraged to support all artists wherever possible. if copyright holder would like the file removed, please let me know.

"Rhythm Master"
album: The Dads
Estate/CBS, 1984

---

I started college in the fall of 1984--and, more importantly, began working at the college radio station--just as the pop music world was making the transition from the carefree New Wave era into a resurgence of social consciousness (what Alicia Silverstone's character would dismissively label as "complaint rock" more than a decade later in Clueless--a harbinger of the cultural pendulum swinging back once again).

During that autumn, the song generating the most reaction among my college radio station's listeners was--by far--"Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The song had a veneer of politics associated with it. A patina. It was nominally about the Cold War, a had a video featuring lookalikes of Ronald Reagan and then-USSR leader Konstantin Chernenko fighting each other mano-a-mano, pro-wrestling style. But like Paul Hardcastle's hit "19" the following year, very little was on the minds of FGTH or their fans except dancing. It was, after all, from an album called Welcome to the Pleasuredome.

Meanwhile, the Psychedelic Furs saw a ghost in you. Ultravox was dancing with tears in their eyes. OMD was talking loud and clear. The Hoodoo Gurus were just hitting local record stores for the first time, asking us to let's all turn on.

Also that year a burgeoning movement was afoot in the U.S. South. A number of bands had been emerging with a "jangly" guitar sound that bridged the gap between New Wave and the country music heritage of their hometowns. While Athens, GA's R.E.M. was the standard bearer of this movement, there was also the Chapel Hill band of R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter, Let's Active. From Winston-Salem, there were The DB's, and Marietta, GA, spawned Guadalcanal Diary. Each of these groups released key albums in 1984:

• R.E.M., Reckoning
• Let's Active, Cypress
• The DB's, Like This
• Guadalcanal Diary, Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man

Another band which came out at this time, a little further north, was the Richmond, VA, quartet The Dads. The Dads played an upbeat guitar pop that leaned a little further towards British bands like Roman Holliday and JoBoxers. Other songs recall Difford & Tilbrook's 1984 self-titled album and there's even an approximation of U2's style (which was then de rigueur among rock bands). The ten songs on the band's one album are highly catchy and sweetly harmony-laden, although some suffer under the weight of an excessively '80s production sound (also, in retrospect, not uncommon for the times).

The Dads were managed and produced by Paul Leka, a producer and songwriter who produced the Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine" and co-wrote and performed on Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye." In a 2003 message board posting by a "Snowdome01,"

According to someone I knew in the band--and, kids, knowing a Dad in those days meant something, damn it--Leka was visiting DC and saw them busking in the Riggs Bank parking lot at the corner of Wisconsin & M, liked what he saw/heard (probably in that order), stood around for a while, and then laid some rap on them about being an NYC producer, etc. Anyway, they agreed sort on the spot to a spec deal under which we would endeavor to bag them a record deal in return for a piece of the action, ie cut of the advance.

The band members were guitarist/singer Kevin Pittman, guitarist David Ayers, drummer Michael Tubb, and the bass player and singer was Bryan Harvey.

Harvey would later form House of Freaks, along with drummer Johnny Hott, a terrific duo which would release about four albums before disbanding. Both Harvey and Hott would also become members of the indie "supergroup" Gutterball (which also featured the Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn and Bob Rupe of The Silos fame).

And even later--on New Year's Day 2006--Harvey would be murdered in his Richmond home along with his wife and two children.

"It's safe inside these four walls when the atmosphere's all wrong...Ooh, that's the only place to hide away...They say the world's a mess but not here in my room..." ~~The Dads, "Four Walls"

When I read the story, I was deeply saddened. The deaths of his nine- and four-year-old daughters made a brutal crime much, much worse. And to have enjoyed Harvey's music for so long made it feel like he was an acquaintance of mine. Not only did I play the hell out of "Rhythm Master" from The Dads in college, but I loved the House of Freaks' music, particularly their Cakewalk album, released just as I was beginning my full time career in radio--an important milestone in my life during which all the period's music was burned indelibly into my consciousness, just as it was when I was beginning my college radio experiences in 1984.

Oh yeah...so sad...that's right...too bad...what do...you do...it hurts...me too...I was always upset, but I have too much to learn...you don't inherit crazy, it's something that you earn... ~~The Dads, "Wonderworld"

This weekend, I pulled out my vinyl copy of the album by the The Dads, a name which now rings with a touch of heartbreaking irony (actually many of the lyrics have unintended resonances, as quotes above and below may attest). Although out-of-print and hard to find today, it's worth seeking out.

"From our old hiding place down to the lake, I heard your favorite song and now it's keeping me awake... Oooh, you made it clear that all I have are souvenirs... ~~The Dads, "Souvenirs"

According to the latest news, two suspects for the Harvey family murders are now in custody.

UPDATE (August): The killer was convicted.

note: in most cases, link for songs are active for only a week. all music is for evaluation and educational spelunking use only. you are encouraged to support all artists wherever possible. if copyright holder would like the file removed, please let me know.