Putting Great Bands To Bed

Throughout most of my life, I have valued studio recordings over live performances when it comes to music. Really good bands will take their time crafting studio recordings as those serve as the reference when discussing an album or song. And given when I was born, this makes sense. The Beatles became a better band when they stopped touring. That is, their albums got a lot better, in my opinion. Some other bands, like Genesis, made great albums with the limited time and resources they had, but were even better live, as they refined their performances and impressed audiences through not just delivering complex compositions, but building and improving upon the studio recordings. And the more I think about it, the best live bands were those that exceeded the expectations of matching the sound of their records. That includes Queen, The Police, King Crimson, Rush, Tool, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and for short periods, R.E.M., Living Colour, Fleetwood Mac and U2, among many others.

The commonality here is that these are all bands, an increasingly rare sight on the mainstream pop charts. The world still has a lot of great bands, most of them in indie rock and international rock. Live shows restarted in 2021. I’ll set aside the fact that in 2021 and today, we’re still in a single, active pandemic. The restart of live shows made performance revenue bigger than ever for artists, and the pent-up demand of audiences to see their favorite acts -some for the final time- pushed ticket prices to new highs.

For the most past, I paused going to individual live shows from roughly 2004 to 2007. That was a long time when I was still young. I remember seeing Peter Gabriel’s Up tour at Madison Square Garden in 2002 and then Genesis’ Turn It On Again tour at Hartford in 2007. I sisn’t see another MSG show until George Michael did his last US arena tour in 2008 (the 25 Live tour).

I didn’t realize it at the time but I had put George Michael to bed. That was the start of this project that I’m now documenting.

My next big MSG shows were Prince’s massive greatest hits shows, the Welcome2America tour, in December 2010 and February 2011.

I had put Prince to bed. Again, I didn’t know it

Then I mostly switched from arena and theater shows in favor of festivals. I stopped going to New York City venues like Irving Plaza, Webster Hall and Bowery Ballroom. I started going to the Newport Folk Festival each July. And I would only go to a club or theater show to see artists I had seen at Newport like Glen Hansard, L.A. Salami, Khruangbin, and Yola.

Then I went though another adjustment in my relationship with live music. I started going to small shows again, provided the band or artist was really special and meaningful to me and/or my partner. In May 2018 I saw Editors at Irving Plaza. A year later, I saw Killing Joke at Saint Vitus, which just might be the most special small show I’ll ever see. It is also the last time I’ll ever see Killing Joke, as sounding guitarist Geordie Walker passed away just over 4 years later. So Killing Joke was been put to bed in 2023.

Then the pandemic started. After about 15 months, bands and artists started to tour again. They went into a new landscape of more audience demand, higher ticket prices, and more of a need to make money performing live than ever before. By the end of 2021, I decided to go see some important shows. I had to choose indoor shows carefully, and wear protection to the ones I attended.

First up was Genesis’ penultimate show in the United States, at Boston’s TD Garden. They played on December 15 2021. Delayed by at least a year, it was the most expensive concert ticket I ever bought. And it was somehow worth it. I got to say goodbye to Genesis, and they played Dutchess. I wept. My friend and I were masked.

Just a few weeks later, on February 19 2022, I went back to TD Garden to see Tool. Same friend. Closer seats. And my gawd they were amazing. I know I will see Tool probably one last time. But I’m including this here to show just how many great bands hit the road as soon as they were able. Live music had a boom once venues reopened.

After Tool, my concerts have been almost all outdoors. I transitioned into an outdoor venue concert goer. and since the Summer of 2022, I have gone hard. I was already an occasional festival attendee. But I can see myself going to outdoor shows and festivals very regularly for the next 10 years. Maybe longer.

I kicked off my ‘outdoor era’ of live shows with one that was delayed nearly 2 full years, which was Deftones at Pier 17. It was downright intimate. Just me and 4,000 other fans dressed in black took in a great set that included Royal. Yeah. That was my first Deftones show. My summer of 2022 then took me and my partner to Jones Beach Amphitheater. We saw Garbage, Tears for Fears, Berlin, Howard Jones and Culture Club, with its three primary members. All put to bed! (Well, Tears For Fears might not be finished yet.)

Then it was on to the summer of 2023, and I put Duran Duran to bed at the Minnesota State Fair.

And then this summer, I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts for the first and final time, as they opened for Alanis Morrissette. Jane’s Addiction imploded two nights after playing Pier 17, putting themselves to bed. And that in turn ended Love And Rockets, the great band that was opening for them! And I would have put Massive Attack to bed last week, but they canceled all of their US shows!

My next indoor show is another bedtime opportunity. Deftones are going on their very first, and probably last headlining arena tour. Stay tuned. I plan to review their Boston show next spring and compare it to their Pier 17 show from 2022.

Thompson Twins Sure Had Some Weak Lyrics

Well here’s a post that’s more than 40 years late to the party. I first got the idea to do this post when I saw a standup bit about Spandau Ballet’s lyrics for their massive hit song, True, sometime around 2007 when this blog started. Imagine my surprise when, decades later, I learned that Gary Kemp wrote those nonsensical lyrics as a coded love letter to one of his peers, Scottish actress and signer Clare Grogan.

So true, funny how it seems
Always in time, but never in line for dreams
Head over heels when toe to toe
This is the sound of my soul
This is the sound
I bought a ticket to the world
But now I've come back again
Why do I find it hard to write the next line?
Oh I want the truth to be said

Okay, I said. There’s an explanation as to why True has such hilariously nonsensical lyrics. Fine. Moving on.

But there’s another New Wave band I can’t quite leave unmentioned in this blog. Its name is Thompson Twins. The British music press used to refer to them as The Three Haircuts. They were helped by their style, musical connections, and crucial airtime on MTV that cemented them as a significant synth-pop band of the 1980s. And I write this knowing that there are far more influential electronic bands of the era out there, mainly from the Industrial sub-genre and also in avant garde pop, which includes A Flock Of Seagulls, a much better band that I will get to in a future post.

Wikipedia led me down quite an amazing history of the band and those they have either worked with or met. Thomas Dolby. Robin Hitchcock. Alex Sadkin (and the whole Island Records family behind him - Grace Jones, Robert Palmer, Duran Duran, Nile Rodgers, Bob Marley and his eldest son, Ziggy).

Thompson Twins had some great things going for them in 1983. They had a hit single from the previous year that people remembered called In The Name Of Love.

On the heels of that hit in 1982, they and their manager secretly worked to cut the band from 7 members to 3, and shuttled the trio of Alanah Currie, Tom Bailey and Joe Leeway to Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas to make more hit singles with legendary Island Records producer Alex Sadkin. The next three years of their lives were about to get nuts. They were going to become stars with three quick albums, music videos, hit singles on the Billboard and BBC charts and even a messy Live Aid appearance in Philadelphia with Madonna and Steve Stevens. They even added a logo by British graphic designer Andy Airfix. It looked really good and was perfectly fitted to the early 80s.

The band as we remember it was formed in London. Tom Bailey was the singer, from Halifax, West Yorkshire. And the driver of this bus, it seemed, was Alanah Currie, the blonde percussionist and writer from New Zealand. She took on most lyric duties, which I’ll get to in a bit.

I remember exactly where I was in 1983 when they released their next two singles, Lies and Love On Your Side. I was at Whitman School in Brockton finishing fourth grade. I liked what I heard and saw, since the band fit right into the new generation of synthesizer bands. I particularly liked the bands diversity and the somewhat distinctive, almost drunken bass sound. I don’t think Joseph Martin Leeway gets enough credit for his use of an upright, fretless electric bass from 1983-1986. A very similar sounding bass appears in Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science in 1983, and interestingly, it was played by Matthew Seligman, one of the four Twins members who was let go.

So here we have a band with the right look and sound for as many singles as they can deliver for the label. They had engineering and programming help from Thomas Dolby, who had been making money in the business since 1981 on Foreigner’s fourth album (“4”). They were just missing one key thing: consistently good lyrics. That’s one of their few weaknesses, and it has irked me for years. What brought this on is the numerous times I have compared Thompson Twins to their contemporaries in the synth-pop genre, particularly A Flock Of Seagulls, who in my analysis, did a little more with a little less. So let me dive into to some weak lines.

From Hold Me Now (1984)

You say I'm a dreamer, we're two of a kind
Both of us searching for some perfect world we know we'll never find
So perhaps I should leave here
Yeah, yeah, and go far away
But you know that there's nowhere that I'd rather be than with you here today

The video, by the way, is one of the best studio-shot music videos of the 1980s, up there with Killing Joke’s Love Like Blood.

The first verse of this smash hit is actually really good, depicting a couple that has their ups and downs. But things go off the rails in the second verse. We’re dreamers, fine. And then there’s this silly empty threat to run away. ‘Just kidding! I’d never do that. The perfect world is here babe, even though I just said we’ll never find it.’ Ugh, this is messy and weak. And yet the musical composition and mix makes it one of their best songs. In fact, if they didn’t have this smash hit, their shelf life would have been a lot shorter.

Moving on. The Gap (1984)

East is east, west is west
Two different colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
Keep moving out into the gap

To a degree, I like the humor in this song. It’s inspired by 1,000 Nights with a sprinkle of good ‘ol T.E. Lawrence British imperialism, and it’s not not meant to be taken seriously. But I know poor lyrics when I hear them. Often it is better to be obtuse and weird than pull off this silly path to get to the title of the song. So, wait, this really is about geography?

And finally King For A Day (1985)

If I was king for just one day
I would give it all away
I would give it all away to be with you

If I was king for just one day
I have just one thing to say
You know what love is
All we need to get us through

Ugh. This is the culprit. This is the song that throws us a false scenario (like the 'I’m leaving, just kidding’ line, from Hold Me Now) and also a direct quote of a Beatles song. Plus it gives us a list of luxurious things the singer could have if he was king, but also a declaration that if he was king, he’d give it up for his love. I can’t deal with this. I gong this song. Into the trap door it goes. I don’t think I like a single verse of this song. It sucks.

Okay, I have written a lot and I’ve taken some big swings at a synth-pop band that has poor lyrics in 3 of their big hits. That’s not so bad, considering how many other bands of the era had bigger hits with poor lyrics. I guess what bothers me is that these were hits. Howard Jones had hits, from 1983 to 1989. Jones had smarter lyrics.

Did Thompson Twins have any good songs? Why yes, they did!

While I don’t love their minor 1983 hit, We Are Detective, the lyrics are good. They make sense and don’t annoy. It’s a whimsical, comical song inspired by The Adventures of Tintin, which I didn’t know in 1983 and I still don’t know now.

What’s that? The band name is also inspired by Tintin? The Thompson Twins are twin detectives in the comic? Someone really liked Tintin.

A Thompson Twins song I really like is Love On Your Side (1983). It’s simple, but it also isn’t. There is some slick, radio-friendly channel separation at work. This song has their trademark groovy bass, that sounds a bit like the bass synth in Human League’s Don’t You Want Me (1982). It has a chanting chorus and some good synth drums. It’s a little dark and self-deprecating. It’s about a guy who just isn’t going to win the one he desires. And -bonus- it references In The Name Of Love with a quick keyboard riff! It’s one of their very best tracks. It’s almost precisely 4 minutes long. “Rap, Boy, rap!”

Doctor! Doctor! (1984) is better still! I was a big fan of Dr. Who at the time, so that only helped matters. Silly lyrics, yes. Notice how the sung words start and stop. There’s very little flow. In many Thompson Twins songs, these starts and stops draw attention to how poor the lyrics are. But Doctor! Doctor! makes sense! There are stronger harmonies and backing vocals on this one as well, plus a real, genuine synthesizer solo (featuring a Oberheim OBX, I think). The drum machine / percussion sounds are from a Prophet 5.

While weaker, and hobbled a by use of the inappropriate Oriental Riff, Lies (1983) is still a good Twins hit. It was the single that came after Love on Your Side on their first of three biggest albums. Again, a chant-like chorus carries it. And it is somewhat fun. I will always like the line “Cleopatra died for Egypt, what a waste of time.” I never saw the video for this song. It’s a wacky homage to the final scene from 2001. It is weird! Is the band both in the bed and dancing around the room?

I’m saving the best for last. Their best song is probably Lay Your Hands On Me (1985). The first recorded version was okay. It has their trademark bass and that percussion tone that I think is a Prophet 5. So it sounds like a song from their 1984 record, like Hold Me Now. But Nile Rodgers was brought in to punch it up, and punch it up he did, with a guitar, some better layering and more backing vocals. This wasn’t just a hit, it was their last great original song. And I can say that with confidence as the other singles on their 1985 album were the awful Don’t Mess With Doctor Dream, King For A Day, and their worst song, You Killed The Clown.

Can I pause for a moment and say how much I hate You Killed The Clown? I think the dislike for clowns is pretty widespread, so the title alone is a strike against the song. When I first heard the song around 2002, devouring as much New Wave music as I could, I remember questioning the meaning. Did a Debbie Downer put a stop to the fun? Did someone put a stop to comedy at a party or on a night out? Well, the lyrics suggest that someone shot down a woman who was being funny. Someone shut down the girl who was about to become the life of the party:

Draped in silk gown
She danced around
She filled this place with her smile
She was the queen
Of an Amazon dream
She made us feel for a while

Was it from spite
Or just sheer delight
You stooped so low
I wanna know
Why you killed the clown
(Yeah) You shot her down

I watch you try
Try to make that girl cry
So you could be king for just one day
And you said that her smile
Was no more than a lie
Just because she had something, something to say

Was it from spite
Or just sheer delight
You stooped so low
I wanna know
Why you killed the clown
(Yeah) You shot her down

Yeah! Why did you shoot her down? And why did you make her cry so you could be king for a day? Ah, there goes Alanah Currie, referencing another bad song on the album! This band released their most successful trio of albums between 1983 and 1985. The last of that trilogy was terrible, aside from the great Lay Your Hands On Me. But the first two are their best. That wonderful bass and Prophet 5 is prevalent in so many of their songs from this trilogy. That’s their defining sound. That bass setup is overused, perhaps, but look at what they accomplished. They made four albums (half of which were good) and delivered over 10 hit singles in under four years. They toured. They played Live Aid in Philadelphia (while their close friend Thomas Dolby played keyboards for David Bowie at Wembley). Their sound and theme was consistent. They worked themselves to utter exhaustion (as young New Wave bands do). And then when Joe Leeway left the band, they carried on as a duo for 7 long years.

In the years that followed, I paid no attention to Thompson Twins, with one big exception. Their very good dance cover of Cole Porter’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was recorded around 1989, and was included on the excellent AIDS research and activism benefit album Red Hot + Blue.

Today, the Thompson Twins carry on with just lead man Tom Bailey touring and performing, occasionally joined by Thomas Dolby. They are touring together in this summer’s Totally Tubular Festival in the US.

We Have New Music Queens Now

One of the many discarded blog post ideas I’ve had over the last 15 years or so was a quick post about female pop stars in the mid 2000s. My post was going to make the case that Rihanna and Katy Perry are not as talented or as wildly creative as the stars we saw rise in the 1990s (Tori Amos, Fiona Apple), but they served their purpose for the present. They did the job, held the fort, and each gave us Super Bowl performances. But flash forward to 2023, and the pop landscape is very different. The best and most artistic artists are not on the big labels. Instead they are the independents. They probably always have been, but now in the streaming music era, they are so much easier to find, share, and mix together.

Lana Del Rey, Jessie Ware, FKA Twigs, Weyes Blood (Natalie Mering), and Caroline Polacek (“the girl in that band”) are not new in the music industry. They are all in their mid to late 30s. But they are the artists who are peaking right now to mark the next wave of greats. Several senior artists have guided them to greatness, particularly Enya. And in the case of Polacek and Wyse Blood, Brian Eno is also an influence. You can hear a lot of Eno in the guitar solo of Weyes Blood’s Mirror Forever and her last two albums overall. I also think Eno’s sound is found in the metallic guitar solo in Polacek’s Billions before Trinity School’s choir (out of Croydon, London) takes us home to close the album. It is May, and I still have Billions down as my best song of 2023, three months after it was officially released.

Natalie Mering admits Eno was on her mind when she made her 2019 album, Titanic Rising. As she explained to the Australian Broadcasting Company:

We created a mood board, which was a picture of the Titanic with Brian Ferry on the stern and Brian Eno on the hull of the ship. It was rising out of the water like a phoenix from the ashes.

Many critics picked-up on the Eno-like sounds and techniques, as AllMusic did:

Here she underscores enormously orchestrated pop songs with eerie experimental ambience, imagining a dreamworld where Joni Mitchell's late-'70s output was produced by Brian Eno.

Titanic Rising was more than a signer-songwriter project. Mering is a co-producer and she made sure her album had digital effects and soundscapes. Working with Jonathan Rado, she added a layer of psychedelic elements, walking the tightrope between futuristic and retro vinyl and cassette sounds. Her reluctant love song Andromeda even opens with the simulated sound of a damaged cassette tape. That sonic direction continues with her latest album and will likely continue with her next, which will close-out a planned trilogy of records for our dark, turbulent times.

While FKA Twigs is working on her new, possibly more commercial album, we must acknowledge the triumph of her second full length album, Magdalene (2019), which helped make 2019 a pivotal year for women music artists. 2019 was also the breakthrough year for Caroline Polachek and Weyes Blood, who seem to recognize this and are now contemplating working together on a song. The year before the pandemic was a like a big bang for this new music. We got a buch of incredible songs like Cellophane, Daybed, Ocean Of Tears, Door, Movies and Wild Time. And now, women in their 30s, who cite Enya as a influence, rule the streaming playlists.

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Weyes Blood at KEXP studios, August 2019.

Reigns by IDLES Is The Best Anti-Monarchy Song In Decades

This is for you, United Kingdom. You will one day dispose of your monarchy. But not tomorrow.

Not since the great anti-Thatcher and anti-Queen songs of late 1970s and early 1980s has there been a more blistering rant against the way the UK is run and by whom. The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead (1986) and a line in Blur’s This Is A Low (1994) do come close as the last great songs that fit this definition.

I never heard of IDLES until this year. And fuck me, they are opening for LCD Soundsystem this June at Forest Hills Stadium - a show I have so far decided to skip because at the time, I was like, who are IDLES? Lesson learned. IDLES is a good left-wing neo-punk band. Tickets for that show are still available.

Lyrics:

How does it feel to have blue blood coursing through your veins?

How does it feel to have blue blood coursing through your veins?

How does it feel to have blue blood coursing through your veins?

How does it feel to have blue blood coursing through your veins?

Huh?

Pull on my reigns

Pull on my reigns

How does it feel to have shanked the working classes into dust?

How does it feel to have shanked the working classes into dust?

How does it feel to have won the war that nobody wants?

How does it feel to have won the war that nobody wants?

Huh?

Pull on my reigns

Pull on my reigns

Pull on my reigns

Pull on my reigns

How does it feel

How does it feel

How does it feel

How does it feel

Reigns

Pull on my reigns

Pull on my reigns

Pull on my reigns

Thoughts On My Music Festival Travels In 2022

July 2022 was a fun and exhausting month for me. I left NYC and came back knowing new recording artists and being more tanned. I was almond colored. I successfully attended two major summer music festivals: the one-day Palomino country and folk festival at the Rose Bowl golf course, and the Newport Folk Festival in Newport Rhode Island.

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2022 Palomino Festival

The inaugural Palomino festival was a one-day country, folk and blues music festival on Saturday July 9, organized by Goldenvoice, the same people behind the much larger Coachella and Stagecoach festivals in the desert of Indio, California. I decided to go to Palomino because the 2022 edition of the Newport Folk Festival was not securing any fun, big name acts (in the end, Newport got a few, which I will explain later). Palomino would be my opportunity to see party boy Paul Cauthen, Saskatchewan cowboy crooner Orville Peck, and folk greats Old Crow Medicine Show and Jason Isbell.

Here are some of the artists I enjoyed.

Country does not need another fat dude singing about cocaine and champagne. But Paul Cauthen of east Texas brings it. And he has a good voice.

Zach Bryan was a late addition to the festival, and I didn’t appreciate him at the show as much as I love him now. This young son of Navy parents served in the Navy himself for most of his 20s and is now cranking out well written songs like Something In The Orange, and this instant classic, Godspeed.

Orville Peck is like Roy Orbison. He has a strong, memorable voice. He's not taken too seriously. He prefers to be anonymous. But people who follow him know he has one of the best voices in country music.

I finally saw a Willie Nelson set. Willie at age 89 can still play guitar very well and sing at about 70% of his 1970s prime voice. He was flanked by his sons Lukas (who we have seen many times in Newport and New York) and Micah (who we saw open for Midland in September 2019.). I liked Willie so much, I saw him do another set at Central Park Summerstage in Septeber. I know now every Willie Nelson set starts with Whiskey River.

Jason Isbell knows how to write a great song. If We Were Vampires is probably the saddest English language love song this century.

The festival itself was not the best organized. It wasn't clear where to park. The food truck lines were long. They ran out of craft beer before I could try Ride On IPA by Golden Road brewing. But the music setup was perfect. A band would play one stage, and the second they ended, the next band would start playing at the stage next door, about 400 feet away. And they perfectly alternated and remained on-time.

As we drove back to our guest house in San Gabriel Valley, we turned onto our street and saw a really cute coyote trotting across. Our route home from the Rose Bowl to San Gabriel Valley included historic downtown Pasadena.

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2022 Newport Folk Festival

The marathon, three day Newport Folk Festival didn't have as much star power in 2022. I theorize that newer festivals like Palomino offered artists more money. Add the fact that just about every artist and band is touring this year and competing for venues, and you have quite a minefield of conflicts and missed connections.

My partner was trying to enjoy the Newport festival and prepare for a professional certification exam that Monday (the day after the festival wrapped) so it was difficult to see many acts nor enjoy the show very much. But we saw 40-50 minute sets by the following artists.

On Friday we caught Arooj Aftab, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, and Cortney Barnett.

On Saturday we saw Lucy Dacus, Clairo, Langhorne Slim, and Lucius.

On Sunday, we saw the excellent Hermanos Gutiérrez, Valerie June, Sylvan Esso, The Roots and the finale, Brandi Carlile and friends with Joni Mitchell.

Two sets really stood out in the final hours: Sylvan Esso and The Roots. Sylvan Esso is an electronic husband and wife duo from Durham who somehow make dance music that is folk-adjacent, thanks in large part to the dense lyrics. We liked them so much, we caught their show at Forest Hills Stadium in August.

The Roots, let by drummer Questlove, were on fire. They brought a big fun set that filled the fort with beats and a lot of energy. “Do you want more!,” shouted out Black Thought. I wish they had played another 20 minutes.

After the Roots played, a cold, dirty fog rolled in. While it put a stop to the super hot sun, it was an unwelcome change as we were not dressed for such a drop in temperature and rise in dirtiness. A wet film covered us. It was gross.

And that final set was uncomfortable. Let me explain.

It felt like I was seeing a contrived, forced event. It also felt mildly exploitative.

It started out well. Brandi Carlile -who has become the captain of the festival in recent years- played her own short set, and it was great. She then told the crowd to hold tight for the set to follow.

About 20 minutes later, Carlile returned to the stage, in front of a living room set of chairs, sofas and tables. She explained that since 2018, she's been invited to Joni Mitchell’s house in Laurel Canyon to perform songs with other artists while Joni holds court. It was a nervous affair for all the invitees and until 2022, it was sort of a secret society. Brandi and the festival decided it was a good idea to fly Joni out to Newport to recreate what happens in the Hollywood Hills.

Well, I don't think that was a good idea.

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But I admit, the first half of the set was a small miracle. Joni didn't sing all the songs. The artists surrounding her were singing more to Joni than to the audience. But we can say accurately that this was Joni's longest set since June 2000. With an unknown amount of rehearsal, the ensemble plus Joni delivered Carey, Come In Form The Cold, Help Me, A Case Of You, Big Yellow Taxi, and Just Like This Train, complete with a surprising guitar instrumental by Joni herself that showed off her unorthodox strumming style (a result of suffering from polio as a child).

The second half of the set, punctuated by what I consider to be black American standards, lost of lot of momentum and energy, became awkward, and began to feel like a memorial service. It didn't help that Wynona Judd sort of hung there over everything. She sat in the back, probably still grieving over her mother. Judd was supposed to sing with Joni on the final song, The Circle Game, but I noticed that Judd seemed to change her mind and go back to her seat. Everyone was afraid of stepping on Joni's lines.

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Which reminds me, in the first half of the set, when Joni started to sing in the middle of one of the early songs, Brandi Carlile exclaimed, "She's on, guys!" Does that mean there was a chance that Joni wouldn't be on? I cringed.

The cold fog had already rolled in after the red hot set by The Roots. But by 7pm, everyone was clammy, dirty and cold. As it wound down, the set we were treated to felt like Joni's funeral. The magic happened in the first half of the set. During the second half, I regretted choosing Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell over Japanese Breakfast (who were playing inside the fort quadrangle).

This is terrible, but as the set wrapped, I had this thought that Joni might not live to see California again. I felt she was fading before our eyes.

I think the 2023 Newport Folk Festival can only be better given how that ended.

Analyzing 40 Years Of Tears For Fears

On February 25, the world got a new album by Tears For Fears. The Tipping Point is the band’s seventh studio album, and not surprisingly, it is very good.

Tears For Fears don't have a single poor album. My favorite TFF albums continue to be The Hurting (1983) and Elemental (1993). I also defend Everybody Loves A Happy Ending (2004), with its powerful Brian Wilson style production. I knew Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, our boys from Bath, wouldn't come back with a studio album unless they had something important to say. I didn’t realize that they have been actively playing shows since 2004. They stepped-up their live shows and set list for a lot of outdoor, warm weather UK shows in the years before the pandemic. Both Curt and Roland have personal things to air out on this possible final album. There are some beautiful moments on The Tipping Point, and I would rank it along with Sowing The Seeds Of Love (1989) and Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995) as a solid, contemplative TFF album.

In 1990, I read stories saying that these guys were done. Curt wanted out of the band before the Seeds Of Love tour even began. But here we are 31 years later with 4 more albums, bringing the total to 7. Seeing the TFF songbook expand to nearly 100 songs is a great achievement. Not bad for two men who were seen as more sensitive and sadder than their contemporaries Duran Duran, XTC, The Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk and Simple Minds, who filled arenas with their thoughtful, romantic pop.

I wasn’t going to do a ranked list. This is not a music blog. I don’t do rankings. But screw it! Let’s do this!

Here are all 7 Tears For Fears studio albums, ranked how I, Mister Sterling, see them.

Oh, but first! Something has to be acknowledged. A lot of their material is inspired by the late American psychologist, Arthur Janov, specifically his book, The Primal Scream and his development of primal therapy. Considering that Dr. Janov became a bit of a celebrity psychologist to famous people like John Lennon, I have a theory as well. I don’t think highly of Freudian theory, and primal theory was a revival of that. But I acknowledge that in the 1970s and 1980s, that second look at Freud helped inspire some good art and art criticism. I had a professor who made me view Italian Neorealism through a Freudian lens, and it proved to add a layer of entertainment and discussion, and very little else.

Since Roland Orzabal has written songs either adjacent to or inspired by The Primal Scream, we can conclude that the book had a profound influence on his life. The Primal Scream inspired the band’s name, and most of the tracks on their debut album. (Interestingly it didn’t inspire Shout - that’s just a good protest song).

I notice two things. First, we all go through phases of being influenced by media (the smart among us, anyway). The Primal Scream is the big bang that gave us Tears For Fears, but it didn’t remain the inspiration for their songs after their first two albums. Second, flawed inspiration or not, it set the tone for Tears For Fears as an emotionally-charged band. Some of their songs make me and millions of others cry. These boys broke from the chains of English society in which young men are seen and not heard (and girls fare even worse, of course). These boys were going to put their feelings out there. They presented themselves as university students in sweaters (“jumpers” as the British call them). Visually they looked like conformists, but they were anything but. They were and remain understated, sensitive rebels, much like their contemporary from Manchester, Morrissey. And well, isn’t that very English?

7. The Tipping Point (2022)

Wait, didn’t I just say that The Tipping Point is very good? It is. It’s also the album in the band’s discography I don’t see myself going back to often. Like I wrote above, Roland and Curt wouldn’t record new songs unless they had something important to say. Tears For Fears is a project that juxtaposes memorable well crafted music with serious, sometimes depressing subject matter. As usual, it’s Roland who has the most to share, as he is the primary lyricist on all TFF albums. On Tipping Point, he brings at least three (and arguably four) songs about his late wife, Caroline, to whom he was married for nearly 35 years.

There is not a bad song on this, or any Tears For Fears album. That can be a problem if you are trying to rank them. But The Tipping Point is mainly a personal affair. Roland has important things he wants to air out. Rivers Of Mercy and Please Be Happy form the emotional core of this album. I think Rivers Of Mercy is fantastic.

The most fun track on the album is My Demons. They could have leaned into a more 80s synth sound, but that would have made the song trendy. This final version will hold up.

The title track, which was released in September 2021, was a clear signal that Tears For Fears were not messing around. After touring together off and on since 2004 or so, it was time to record some new songs. This is a great song, true to the band’s roots.

The pair have said that there were more songs recorded with up and coming producers dating back to 2019 or so, but Roland and Curt rejected most of them. I’d be curious to know how those sounded. Maybe they have some remnants that can go into an eighth album. They are not done yet.

6. The Seeds Of Love (1989)

This album has two great songs: Woman In Chains and Advice For The Young At Heart. But I rank it low, because again. when I judge a discography this strong, some good albums aren’t going to make my top three.

In August 1989 this album’s lead single blazed across FM radio stations and on MTV. The band’s third studio album belongs to a shortlist of albums that were made to show off the CD format. Albums like Brothers in Arms and So were big sellers in the relatively new format, as was Songs From The Big Chair and this album.

Even though the production of this album was aimed for pristine CD sound, every album by Tears for Fears is under 51 minutes. This allows all of their albums to be pressed on a standard, two sided vinyl LP. And The Seeds Of Love was arranged with this in mind. It has four songs on each side, with side B being the less commercial side. But make no mistake, this whole album is a blend of two styles of pop. First, it is a Brian Wilson-inspired sound that brings Tears For Fears close to the sound of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and XTC (who had their sonically bright album Oranges And Lemons that same year).

But, second, let’s tackle the core of this album. This is the band’s ‘quiet storm’ album. Side B has moments that sound like Sade (her band, which is also called Sade). There are also elements soul, such as the self deprecating Bad Man’s Song on Side A. That piece was inspired by Orzabal overhearing tour crew members speaking very negatively of him.

The Seeds Of Love has a magnificent soundstage. You want to play this on a high end home system, through wood and Kevlar speakers that themselves recreate the big stage. The album sounds like a live performance.

It has to be said that Side A is just about perfect. Tears For Fears being the downers that they are, the album begins with Woman In Chains, which is one of their very best tracks. It was the second single from the album. Phil Collins delivers a restrained performance on drums and the song introduces the world to the voice of Oleta Adams. I know exactly where I was in my life when I first saw this video on MTV in November 1989.

Bad Man’s Song, the second track on the album, is very complex. It starts as a jazz track, with piano and drums, then abruptly shifts to country style with the opening verse. And then it settles to a blend of jazz, soul and even some gospel. You have to wait for the hook. But by the time you get to it, the song is in full Quiet Storm mode; a blend of soul and jazz. It’s weird and good. Just listen to that production and mix.

Go big or go home with the lead single. Sowing The Seeds Of Love is the third track. Very few songs to ever reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 are this layered, big sounding and complex. In terms of similar songs from the same year, I like XTC’s King For A Day and even Elvis Costello’s Veronica better. But this song is a lush, retro mid-60s style hit number one in the USA the same year Madonna, Richard Marx, Janet Jackson and Bobby Brown topped the same Hot 100 chart.

I will point out that Sowing The Seeds Of Love wasn’t entirely alone at the top of the charts that year. Good Thing by Fine Young Cannibals had a retro, early 1960s style.

The final song on Side A, and third single from the album, Advice For The Young At Heart, is a jazz song. It’s also another songwriting triumph. It’s beautiful. And it could have been the last single from the band, or the last single to have Curt on lead vocals. Miraculously it was neither.

The production of Seeds Of Love cost more than twice what the boys expected. They went through three producers, including their friend Chris Hughes, who had produced Songs From The Big Chair. In the end they re-recorded the album themselves, self-produced in their own studio. The final cost was over £1 Million. In today’s dollars, that’s over £2.5 Million. You can hear the money.

5. Everyone Loves A Happy Ending (2004)

This is the previous time Roland and Curt got together in the studio to make a final statement. That’s now 18 years ago, and a new final statement is available for the world to listen. In a way, this album a direct sequel to The Seeds Of Love, thanks to its wonderful, lush production inspired by Brian Wilson and The Beatles. Perhaps Roland decided to make a bright pop album to celebrate the return of Curt. Or maybe he thought that The Seeds Of Love deserved a sequel. But, as we shall see, he took Tears For Fears to exciting new places with the two albums he led on his own. This album was a return to a 1960s sound, but my no means a regression.

I think most fans like this album, but don’t love it. I myself haven’t memorized the title of every song. But what I do know is that it is a more complete album than The Seeds Of Love. The themes and musical styles come together better, and it’s more consistent. It was made under the assumption that it could be their last studio album (hence, the “ending.”). Roland was tired of label executives asking him to reunite with Curt. Over the years, they continued to meet with their lawyers and accountants for business reasons, like signing legal papers, and reviewing royalties and revenue sharing. Eventually, they started talking to each other, and the musical partnership resumed, and that’s the happy ending the label and fans wanted.

Orzabal stuck with producer Tim Palmer, making this their third consecutive Tears For Fears album together. This means that Curt was rejoining a band that changed its studio and production team two years after he left it.

I remember spinning the CD the day it was released, and it was a tense listen. I didn’t want one of my favorite bands to release a poor album when they didn’t have to release an album at all. The music critics at the time were fawning over The White Stripes and Interpol. Tears For Fears could have just done a greatest hits tour. But they gave us a new album that was better than The Seeds Of Love. The backing personnel had changed since 1989, but Roland and Curt continued to mature and grow as artists.

This album demands a full play, start to finish. It features bright songs that evoke movement, and feature a lot of guitar and drums. For example, I really like Killing With Kindness. I’m sure the boys like Thomas Dolby, but Killing With Kindness includes the line, “Don’t blind them with science.” I get a kick out of that reference to a fellow New Wave artist.

The brightest and perhaps best song on the album is Call Me Mellow. Here, Orzabal and company nail that mid 1960s sound they had been chasing. This is beautiful and a bit psychedelic. Keen musicians will also note that there is a harmony of G, D, C# in the chorus, much like There She Goes by the La’s. Roland is transparent in his borrowing, but he backs it up with well composed and arranged music.

Secret World is yet another bright mid-1960s style song, complete with a horn section. The band continue to play this live in 2022. I think what makes this album so good is that all the songs have good structure. They have memorable choruses, good bridges, and are all under 6 minutes long.

On Size Of Sorrow, we get a solid Tears For Fears song. This could have been a track off of Roland’s albums from the previous decade. It’s a melancholy song about the band. They “borrow” styles from artists who came before. They know they can’t match their “high wire” days of 1985 to 1989. Yeah, this is about them.

Ladybird is a great, sad number about aging, I think. It’s very XTC with its Beatles sound and powerful chorus:

Ladybird fly away our friends are gone
Ladybird fly away our house is on fire

That chorus was written by Curt well before he rejoined the band. He presented it to Roland Orzabal and Chris Hughes, and Roland had the verses done in just a few hours.

Curt borrowed from the classic, dark English nursery rhyme, Ladybird Ladybird:

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,

Your house is on fire and your children are gone

The album’s closer is appropriately titled Last Days On Earth. I think it has a groovy 1970s soul bass line. I certainly thought this was finally the end. Roland and Curt were well into their forties. But they were friends again, or at least working partners. This felt like closure.

4. Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995)

I like to think of Tears For Fears in the 1990s as being a band in exile. Curt has left the band and is living in Los Angeles. Most fans have put their cassettes and CDs into a bookcase and have moved on, listening to grunge, “alternative,” or adult contemporary tunes. Roland took his time to build a home studio and retained rights to use the Tears For Fears name (sort of a Roger Waters situation, but if Waters actually recorded and toured as Pink Floyd after 1983). I had no idea if the door for Curt to return was open or closed. And probably neither did Roland. He just carried on and did exactly what he did on The Seeds Of Love. He hired a band. He produced and arranged the music. He let his influences guide him through two albums.

Raoul And The Kings Of Spain is the second of those albums, recorded in 1994 and released in 1995 with the same personnel as Elemental (1993). This is a very personal album for Roland -his most personal until The Tipping Point (2022). He explores his Spanish and Basque heritage (on his father’s side). Don’t expect many happy songs with hooks here. Roland looks inward here. But some of the songs are simply gorgeous.

God’s Mistake has the chorus, “Love is God’s mistake.” Not pulling punches on this catchy number. Notice how Roland was at his vocal peak. He could almost make himself sound like Curt. The lyrics include the words paradigm and pantomime. I don’t think you’ll find those words together in any other song.

Sketches Of Pain. It's Folk and country in style, with a strong dose of flamenco. The title is a play on “Sketches Of Spain,” perhaps?

Secrets totally fits as a Tears For Fears song, both lyrically and musically.

And the album closes with the magnificent Me And My Big Ideas. It has lament, reflection, humility, and the return of Oleta Adams, who Orzabal was working with on her solo albums in the 1990s. When I heard this track, I thought this was the end of the band. It was yet another perfect final album track.

Oh, this album ends with a reprise of a song that appears earlier on the album - Los reyes Católicos. What was that I said about filler and artists highlighting their own work? Still fine. I rank this album high for having a huge heart.

3. Elemental (1993)

Elemental continues to stun me as a near perfect pop album. This is also the album that made me a Tears For Fears fan, after 8 years resisting them. I was working as an unpaid intern at WBCN radio in Boston when this album came out. Of the six or so DJs who worked the classic late 80s/early 90s rotation at that station, one of them, Mark Parenteau, recommended the new Tears For Fears album more than once on-air. Tears For Fears had no chance of being played on WBCN in 1993. Songs in heavy rotation during my first few weeks at the station included Pets, Creep, the other Creep, Plush, and No Rain. But by the end of that summer, the two new CDs I wanted to bring with me for my third year at University were Robert Plant’s Fate Of Nations, and this one (oh, and Songs Of Faith And Devotion by Depeche Mode!).

What makes Elemental a triumph? Roland Orzabal took full control. He wasn’t going to bend to trends or what was hot in pop music in 1992. He was going to ignore techno, trance and grunge. He knew the new album would struggle to go gold (which it did). He knew MTV wasn’t going to play any videos. And he knew that it was too soon for people to want to hear his songs from the 1980s (except, apparently, the audience in Bogotá, which depressed him). So he assembled an all new band and production team, led by Alan Griffiths and Tim Palmer. The latter mixed Pearl Jam’s debut album and became a fine producer himself starting with Elemental.

This album has peaks and valleys. It takes us somewhere. It has payoffs. I won’t link to every track, but anyone who likes Tears For Fears who has never listened to this album needs to sit down and give it a chance. It’s every bit as good as the albums that follow it in my ranking. This is the Tears For Fears podium -the top three.

The first three songs set the tone. This is the new Tears For Fears, and it’s on these tracks you clearly notice Curt is not there. But Roland’s electric guitars are back for the first time since Songs From The Big Chair.

The following three songs bring things down to a simmer, but they are still all very good. Notably, Fish Out Of Water is about Curt leaving the band. Roland even included it in the Elemental tour set list. Curt really took that jab well. He has said on numerous occasions that he found it funny. What a good sport. The guy has had to deal with Roland’s dominating personality and excessive creative control for decades.

The seventh track, Gas Giants, is a bass-synth heavy instrumental that signals the album’s final third. And what follows are three songs, two of which are among my very favorites from Tears For Fears.

Power is a power pop song about, well, power. And while the lyrics dance around the topic, I think it’s a highlight of the TFF songbook. Just when you thought this album was winding down, it hits you with this.

The Goodnight Song is a great country song about performing music live in front of an audience. That’s both corny and on the nose for a final song on an album. But there is a reason so many people think that not only is this a great Tears For Fears song, but it’s an underrated highlight of the 1990s. It’s wonderfully made, has a hook, and a guitar solo closes it. In this final track, I think Roland was trying to sound like Curt in the second verse. He had me fooled for a moment.

When the new Tears For Fears hit the road in the summer of 1993, songs were already written for the next album, Raoul And The Kings Of Spain. Orzabal would simply have the same crew reconvene in his studio to record the next album. Tears For Fears the band was not just alive, it was going thorough the busiest period of its existence. Roland was driving this bus, and he delivered two albums, one of which might be his career peak.

2. The Hurting (1983)

The Hurting is a bold debut album. The Hurting is as much a pop album than a depressing diary of a young man. It arguably has breakup songs, or perhaps those songs are about being abandoned by one’s parents (“you don’t give me love”). But it doesn’t have a single love song. It’s a downer, and it’s my favorite Tears For Fears album.

I’m a closeted goth. No, the music isn’t goth. But how can I not love this album? It is such a downer.

Recorded in 1982 and released in 1983, The Hurting is a snapshot of two young men and their nation in a particularly bleak moment in time. It is the time of Thatcherism, a made-up word with a very real history behind it. It’s the history of austerity being sold to people as an improvement over a previous political regime. But the austerity actually brought more sadness and social destruction. This is the backdrop of The Hurting.

At the age of 20 or 21, living in a flat above a pizzeria, probably lying on his bed or sofa, an unemployed Roland Orbazal wrote these extraordinary lyrics while watching people walk and drive by.

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello, teacher! Tell me, what's my lesson?
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world

Enlarging your world
Mad world

This is their first single. Curt sang the vocals. They had low expectations. Mercury, the record label, had low expectations. At least the label hired Depeche Mode’s director to shoot the music video. This song went to to number three on the UK pop chart on Halloween, 1982! Number three! And it stayed there for three weeks, not far from smash hits like Pass The Dutchie, and Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (both of which went to number one!). A note about those: New Wave included some reggae and both of those chart toppers are reggae songs. Eddie Grant’s Electric Avenue would be released just weeks later.

And with that, Tears For Fears was born.

The Hurting is equal parts finished songs and equal parts experimental or undercooked songs. But collectively it is a landmark album and quite listenable. The boys and their producer couldn’t replicate an electronic band like Depeche Mode or Yazoo, but we hear them trying a few different things.

Curt Smith was given signing duties for the most catchy songs, Mad World, Pale Shelter and Change. But there isn’t a single happy song on this album.

When you don't give me love (You gave me pale shelter)
You don't give me love (you give me cold hands)
And I can't operate on this failure
When all I want to be is
Completely in command

The Hurting is one of the greatest debut albums of all time. It launched Tears For Fears into a most crowded market of New Wave artists. U2, Simple Minds, Talk Talk, Duran Duran, INXS, The Psychedelic Furs, Echo & the Bunnymen, Missing Persons, REM, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, The Human League, Heaven 17, The Cure, OMD, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, A Flock Of Seagulls, Thompson Twins, Adam Ant, XTC, Eurythmics, Gary Numan, Culture Club, The Police and so many others were already established. Most were already on their second or third albums (or more). But we consider Tears For Fears to be in that class. They (and Erasure, I guess) got in towards the end of the “Second British invasion.”

And yet (yet!) The Hurting is not even the best debut album of 1983. Incredible! That title goes to The Script Of The Bridge by The Chameleons. A very crowded market, indeed.

I love the long synth and drum machine outro to Memories Fade. This ends side A.

The Hurting LP is 10 songs, with 5 songs per side. Side B is pretty damn serious and shows a songwriter who is more mature than his age suggests. Suffer The Children is sung to a parent, presumably older than Orzabal. Maybe his single mom. It has perhaps the best written and sung chorus on the album.

And all this time he's been getting you down
You ought to pick him up when there's no one around
And convince him
Just talk to him
'cause he knows in his heart you won't be home soon
He's an only child in an only room
And he's dependent on you
Oh he's dependent on you

That’s Orbazal’s wife Caroline singing the La La La part.

With the next track, Watch Me Bleed, the doom doesn’t stop.

It’s important to finish strong. I think Roland lives by this rule, because The Start Of The Breakdown might be the best composition on the album, and includes either a grand piano or a piano synth (a Roland Jupiter? A Prophet T8?) a real drum kit, and an extended instrumental section with a drum solo to close it. The song is about Roland’s father, who physically and emotionally abused Roland’s mother, had arterial scoliosis (“ice in the vein”), and suffered a nervous breakdown. Orzabal’s mother would soon move out of the house with her three boys and raise them alone in Bath.

Mercury Records wanted more from this band, and fast. They knew Roland was developing a new song called Head Over Heels, but it wasn’t ready. And while the label pressured Roland and Curt to have a second album ready for 1984, they got the boys to release a cut track, The Way You Are, to hold fans over while Songs From The Big Chair was being developed. They toured. They took extra months to make their masterpiece. And then they toured again. No wonder they were too exhausted to play Live Aid on a day off in their summer 1985 tour.

1. Songs From The Big Chair (1985)

I didn’t want this to be my number one. Nope. I really wanted to put The Hurting here.

However, I gave Songs From The Big Chair two full listens for this blog post. I had never listened to this album twice in a day, and I hadn’t played it in probably 12 years, because I feel it is their best known and most overplayed work. But after serious listens, I have a new judgement of this album. I heard things I hadn’t noticed nor appreciated before. Things like the Fairlight CMI in Shout. Sure I have heard the song dozens of times, but hearing it in 2022 let me think back and connect the dots. I first heard the Fairlight CMI on Peter Gabriel’s Security Album in 1982, and then Herbie Hancock’s Rockit album in 1983. By 1984, it was everywhere, even in hair metal. Phil Collins even dissed it. But you know what? The Farlight rules. Shout is also one of the few protest songs to chart in the 1980s.

Once they get that out of the way, what’s the second song? The Working Hour, which is 6 and a half minutes. Roland is so proud of this song, he still includes it in live set lists and almost named the album after it. Listen to that production and big budget mix. Remind you of another artist? Here’s a hint: he’s also from Bath. Yes, this is a very Peter Gabriel song for me. It’s like a cousin of Red Rain, with its grand piano and wide stereo sound (but Gabriel liked the Yamaha and Roland piano synths, right?). Jerry Marotta plays both drums and keyboards on The Working Hour. Perhaps just weeks after this album was released, Marotta would lay down the drum tracks for Red Rain (with Stewart Copeland performing the cymbals and high hat). This album makes the case for greatness with just its second track.

But you know what’s coming next. Track # 3. Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Could this be the best pop song of 1985? If not this, then what? Raspberry Beret? Sussudio? I Feel For You? Take On Me? Money For Nothing? Don’t You (Forget About Me)? Everything She Wants? The Boys Of Summer? In 1985 you had so much to choose from. But this stays in the mixtape. How can it not? Shit, the 1985 mixtape has to start with this song.

Side A ends with Mother’s Talk. It’s fine. Compared to what came before, it’s a little lazy. It has a dash of primal theory. Play it through and turn that LP over. And then prepare for a dramatic shift.

Hope you got your dancing done on Side A. Because Side B starts with one of my very favorite Tears For Fears songs. At first glance, it might be an optimistic tune. It’s called “I Believe.” Hey guys, Roland believes in something! And then you listen to the words. and it is a marvelous punch in the gut:

That's why I believe it is too late for anyone to believe

Or how about the end?

And I believe, no I can't believe that every time you hear a newborn scream
You just can't see the shaping of a life
The shaping of a life
It's too late

Primal theory again, there.

Roland delivers some of his very best vocals, backed by a grand piano, a drum kit and a saxophone. What sounds like the sample of a record skipping backwards opens the track. It’s a jazz song, like Advice For The Young At Heart.

This won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo or Group, right?

No?

The Grammy went to [checks Wikipedia] Quincy Jones and USA for Africa for We Are The World.

Well, fuck! FUCK!!!!

Phil Collins got his male solo Grammy for No Jacket Required. Fine. But seriously, fuck this shit. We knew that New Wave power groups Simple Minds nor U2 weren’t going to win for best Pop Duo or Group. And I love three of Wham’s songs, but Wham was not going to win a trophy. It should have been Tears For Fears.

Side B of Songs From The Big chair is short. It goes by real quick. We are left reeling from I Believe, but the boys proceed with a sandwich of three tracks to take us home: Broken, Head Over Heels, and a snippet of the Broken instrumental, played live. I wasn’t annoyed when artists added a “reprise” or alternate mix version of a song on their albums in the 80s. It was a way to add some filler, and get a window on what the artist thought was a highlight of the production. But I am surprised Tears For Fears did this. The next critically acclaimed band to repeat themselves was probably Radiohead some 15 years later, with Morning Bell. Broken is an odd song. It kicks off super strong with a long instrumental introduction, complete with a Roland guitar solo. “We are broken” is the first chorus, and then the song takes us to what sounds like a second chorus:

In my mind's eye
One little boy anger one little man
Funny how time flies

This leads straight to one of their greatest songs that also ends with those very same lines.

Head Over Heels is the first love song Tears For Fears put on a record. It’s their wonderfully awkward love song. "Something happens" is passive voice. The songwriting here is genius. This describes anxiety, fear and a little anger all so well and efficiently. It's the love song for people who aren't players nor have any game. And it opens with chords that are instantly recognizable, just like Everybody Wants To Rule The World.

The final track is Listen. It’s mostly instrumental, and it dabs in World Music, but not the great way Peter Gabriel does it. If we knew this would be the final Tears For Fears album, it would go down as a weak final studio track. Roland Orzabal arranges the tracks. He knows how to pick them. Six of their seven albums close with really strong, fitting songs. The weakest closer, in my opinion is Listen. But can anyone complain after 8 songs -6 of them phenomenal- in just 41 minutes? Take your prize, Tears For Fears. This album is your masterpiece. It was produced by Chris Hughes, Adam Ant’s drummer. All synthesizers, programming, sequencing, and the Fairlight CMI were manned by Ian Stanley. Aside from Roland’s vocals and guitar, he IS this record, and he’s the guy in the Head Over Heels Video who’s got game.

And this incredible album almost didn’t happen. Their label wanted this sophomore album released in 1984, hot on the heels of their great debut and first tour. But the boys would not rush things. They spent nearly all their money renovating a Grade II listed 16th century building, called The Wool Hall, converting it into their recording studio. Thus they made a studio that suited them, their sound, and their work pace.

They released Songs From The Big Chair when it was ready.
That too describes their fellow Bath native, Peter Gabriel. The world is still waiting for him to release his tenth and final studio album (it will probably never come). And this album set the standard for all Tears For Fears albums that followed. Roland Orbazal is the creative director, and he decides when a project is done.

Are they done? Not this year. They start a US and UK tour this spring.

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10,000 Days Is Tool's Second Best Album

For years and years I thought 10,000 Days was weak. I've been a Tool fan since a friend forced me to listen to Opiate and Undertow in early 1994 at a snowbound U Mass. Each new album has arrived at a different stage in my life. But I was an idiot, an absolute idiot, for not loving 10,000 Days on the first listen.

My expectations for the album were low after the deafening, apocalyptic masterpiece of Lateralus. What on earth made me think that Lateralus would be as high as this band could get? Well, that was my very strange bias. And my bias that 10,000 Days would be a mild disappointment is the reason I didn't spin the album on my Yamaha CD player and Bowers & Wilkens speakers at home. I either ripped the CD to MP3 or copied the CD to MiniDisc and listened to the album, just once, on the NYC subway for an 80 minute ride. Seriously, I listed to it once in late April 2006, shrugged and thought, "It's okay, but I don't hear anything close to Parabola," and then filed the CD into my cabinet of 4,000 discs.

Fear Inoculum made me appreciate just how great Danny Carey has become. He's my second best active rock drummer after Gavin Harrison. The pandemic era let me finally collect and appreciate Puscifer's discography (as well as their two streaming specials during this pandemic). And then finally, just this past summer, I spun 10,000 Days, properly, at home. It was a revelation. It's their peak. It's MJK's peak vocal performance, for sure - as strong as his work on the first A Perfect Circle album 7 years earlier. The lyrics are clever. The band performance is incredible. This is the recording in which Carey shows us that he is a master percussionist. The mixing and mastering couldn't be more perfect. In terms of themes and track order, it is a very complete album, up there or better than Ænima and Undertow when played start to finish. And then there's the energy. Compared for Fear Inoculum, the boys sound more than 20 years younger.

In the summer of 2021, this progressive rock / metal fan finally listened to 10,000 Days and I now agree that it is their second best album. I now feel like a Radiohead fan who stands by The King Of Limbs or In Rainbows as their best, but I've made my choice. 10,000 Days is a continuation of Tool's peak, which began with Lateralus. And their decades-long run of great albums and epic live shows continues.

There Will Be No 'Roaring Twenties'

American mainstream news thinks it is so smart. It knows history! It knows that after the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, the US economy boomed into what we call the Roaring Twenties. If we ignore suppression of freedom in the form of segregation and prohibition, the 1920s were a damn good time! And it had to be triggered by the end of the pandemic, right? And history is going to repeat perfectly, 100 years later, right?

If only it was that simple. Thankfully, plenty of people still understand that economics is adjacent to history as a field of study. Some might argue that they are inseparable. How could you describe the rise or decline of an empire or nation without addressing its economy?

The Roaring Twenties, like any economic boom, was brought about by a variety of factors. We had a continued immigration surge (immigration surges almost always lead to economic growth), widespread electrification, the rise of corporations, the dawn of the modern consumer culture, the rise of the US labor movement, and American culture began to define itself.

A note on the last part: popular culture came of age. The rise of the music recording industry and radio went hand in hand, and great American music genres like blues, bluegrass and jazz were the main beneficiaries. Also, it has to be said that American culture is black. We can give white men some credit for the original American spirits. applejack and bourbon (although black people have been involved with those from the start in one form or another). But blues, bluegrass, jazz, barbecue cuisine, and (later) rock n’ roll, R&B, soul, funk, hip hop and rap are distinctly American and all black. And in the 1920s, only a lucky few black men and women could get a taste -a tiny serving- of prosperity and freedom that came with being an accomplished music artist. Later, some black artists would find more freedom in Paris, especially after the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. Let’s be clear. American culture is driven by black American culture. But black people are not allowed to be prosperous or be free. Still.

On the economic side of things, there really was a sea change. Publicly-traded corporations became powerful in the 1920s. But so did a new labor movement, which led to the standard five-day work week. The 1920s gave us weekends, right before the stock market crash and depression. And incredibly, the depression didn’t take our weekends away. Consumers in the late 19th century would often have to buy goods at a general store, and occasionally order products from a catalog (like a proto-Internet). In the 1920s, consumers still used mail order, but more of what they wanted was immediately available in bigger grocery stores and brightly-lit department stores. The American consumer themes of bigger faster and more had come of age. Automobiles were beginning to be owned by every family. Travelling from coast to coast was now possible in 4-5 days by train. The United States was starting to flex its industrial and technological muscle.

We still have a few intelligent people who know that history won’t be repeated simply because a pandemic is ending. Assuming we are just a few months away from this pandemic bing downgraded to an endemic, there can’t be a long-term surge in prosperity after what we’ve just seen in 2020. There are a few reasons for this.

First, last year was a windfall for the billionaires. The wealth transfer in 2020 alone was shocking, even compared to the overall wealth transfer over the last 40 years. Some individuals just ran away with all the wealth. Kanye West (!) entered the billionaire club. And four of the wealthiest Americans alive saw their net worth grow by a combined $229 Billion. There is no catching up for the rest of humanity. This bigger wealth gap simply sets the stage for stagnant wealth creation for the global middle class, and the greater probability of political and social turmoil over wealth inequality. We can’t have a roaring 2020s if the only ones partying are 5,000 US families with a net worth over $100 Million. That’s a wealth gap on the scale of the Philippines, Russia or Brazil.

Second, there doesn’t appear to be a technological revolution to supercharge wealth creation. Autonomous driving isn’t it. Machine learning (marketed as AI) isn’t it. Billionaires buying tickets to low Earth orbit or the Moon isn’t it. Even the vaccines and biotech, as amazing as they are, aren’t it. Free broadband Internet access for all would be significant. But most municipalities aren’t on-board with that idea. Either that or they’re broke.

Third, did I mention we’re broke? We aren’t rebuilding infrastructure. We’re letting municipal water systems fail and die. We aren’t putting money into the hands of builders. We aren’t making public university free of charge. We aren’t forgiving college debt. We aren’t expanding Medicare for all. We aren’t even trying to house the homeless. And where is our shift to clean, renewable energy? What moon shot do we have in us to kick-start a decade of strong economic growth?

Fourth, American manufacturing will never disappear, but the days of a healthy manufacturing sector are long gone. Manufacturing jobs have been replaced by Amazon warehouse and gig delivery jobs that pay a fraction of what the manufacturing jobs paid. Millions of Americans are working just as hard for less, and half of all Americans are poor. We’re going into to 2020s with the poverty, wealth gap and despair of the Great Depression.

Fifth, after the partial recovery of the travel, live entertainment, hospitality and dining sectors, we will still have a black hole in commercial real estate, as many workers are not returning to office spaces full-time. Working from home is now the norm for many, especially in information technology and information security. Some companies are learning to trust their remote workers to maintain their productivity, and are ending their leases for office space. A lot of commercial office space is going to have to convert to residential apartment space. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of buildings, did anyone notice how many vacant retail spaces there were in cities like New York and San Francisco back when the economy was growing? Brick and mortar retail is dead. All the cash is flowing to Amazon.

In sum, I just don’t see years of strong economic growth ahead. A return to the slow growth seen under Obama and Trump would be welcome. But long term, we are still in late capitalism. And man, does it suck. It’s a dystopian capitalist nightmare, frankly.

Another Reason Rhymesayers Entertainment Has he Best Artist Roster

Prof: Squad Goals (2020). Explicit lyrics below.

Rhymesayers Entertainment has such great artists as Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, Dilated Peoples and Atmosphere. Prof is less serious, but his rhyming here is quite good. The video is excellent.

I got guns, hoes, money, dro
Cars, boats, you should know
Dogs, bros, squad goals
Hold up,  whoa
You name it

Guns, hoes,  money, dro

Cars, boats, you should know
Dogs,  bros, squad goals
Hold up, whoa
You name it

I’m throwing money off balcony into the crowd because I want to

God damn I feel good
Sure that you already know
One things understood
Ain’t nothin that can stop my glow
Mmm dog gonit
Can’t I just take my time?
All these clout chasing motherfuckers rushin all around me I’m like
Bitch hold your horses

(Prof you’re the best)

I’m like true I am
Rosario Dawson know who I am
If it’s cool with you, girl I could move right in
You do not understand just how cool I am
Like see, look at me, look at me
I’m on a beach
Don’t try to holler cause I’m out of reach
I got no service, I’m out on the keys
A couple woman
My dollars and me
Bout to go swimming
Thank god I’m a G
One shot for me
Un bebidas para ti
Let’s skinny dip in the sea

(You know what I’m saying
I’d rather do things we remember later
You know what I mean?)

I got guns, hoes, money, dro
Cars, boats, you should know
Dogs, bros, squad goals
Hold up, whoa
You name it

Guns, hoes, money, dro
Cars, boats, you should know
Dogs, bros, squad goals
Hold up, whoa
You name it

I’m throwing money off balcony into the crowd because I want to

Oooh, seriously, look at myself
Condom model over here
Oooh, seriously, look at my flow
Colder than a polar bear
Oooh, straight up I’m an awesome person
Oooh, you ain’t ready for this sauce I’m serving
Oooh, straight up, I’m an awesome person
Oooh, you ain’t ready for the sauuuce

Young Pookie, your highness
Gone find the finest vaginas
From China to Thailand
Got ‘em whinin
Why not combine ‘em?
Pardon me let me chime in
But there’s science behind my conniving
I’m refined and violent
Throw the lime in, fine dine the hyman

Swag
Swag
(aaahh)

I got guns, hoes, money, dro
Cars, boats, you should know
Dogs, bros, squad goals
Hold up, whoa
You name it

Guns, hoes, money, dro
Cars, boats, you should know
Dogs, bros, squad goals
Hold up, whoa
You name it

I’m throwing money off balcony into the crowd because I want to

(Hey)

Fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up

(Hey)
Swear to god, if you could throw it at me that I’ll grab it and fuck it up
(Hey)
Fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck it up

(Hey)
Swear to god, if you could throw it at me that I’ll grab it and fuck it up

Oooh, how bout that drink
You gonna finish that?
If your bro talking shit I’m gon’ get his ass
I got two hands that gon’ fit his ass
Knock him out cold, he gon’ shit his ass
Talk on the phones up in Trinidad
Bout to make films up on SkinaMax
Oh you just jealous because my bedroom sounds like
It’s a fucking womens tennis match
(aaahh)

I feel good
(ooohh-ahhh)
I feel good
(Yeah)
I feel good
(ooohh-ahhh)
I feel good
(Alright, yeah, alright)
(I feel good)

I got guns, hoes, money, dro
(Feel good)
Cars, boats, (oooh I feel good) you should know
Dogs, bros, squad goals
Hold up, whoa (heyyy)

A Song For Our Apocalypse

Editors have a new album. It's their sixth. And it's good. I would rank it as their fifth best in an overall strong and diverse discography. Yeah, Editors hold a special place in my heart. Their worst album, despite some poor arrangements and nods to Journey and Phil Collins, is still pretty good.  

I like 7 of the 9 tracks on the album. One song, No Sound But The Wind, was originally inspired by Cormac McCarthy's The Road. But it has gone through two different iterations.

The first recorded version was a demo that somehow made it onto the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. You can see how it fits into a teen vampire romantic drama. Lyrics are below the video. 

We can never go home
We no longer have one
I'll help you carry the load
I'll carry you in my arms
The kiss of the snow
The crescent moon above us
Our blood is cold
And we're alone
But I'm alone with you

Help me to carry the fire
We will keep it alight together
Help me to carry the fire
It will light our way forever

If I say shut your eyes
If I say look away
Bury your face in my shoulder
Think of a birthday
The things you put in your head
They will stay here forever
Our blood is cold
And we're alone, love
But I'm alone with you

Help me to carry the fire
We will keep it alight together
Help me to carry the fire
It will light our way forever

Help me to carry the fire
We will keep it alight together
Now help me to carry the fire
It will light up our way forever

If I say shut your eyes
If I say shut your eyes
Bury me in suprise
Where I say shut your eyes

Help me to carry the fire
We will keep it alight together
Help me carry the fire
It will light our way forever

The band never formally recorded the song as it was originally written, with lyrics inspired by the premise of The Road. They started playing the original version live in 2010 and finally recorded it in 2017. But the world has changed quite a bit from 2010. And hearing this song for the first time in March 2018, I interpreted it as a song for a world with a broken EU and a US being driven into the ground by Donald Trump's GOP. It's a song for our Theresa May and Donald Trump apocalypse. Lyrics are below the video. 

We can never go home
We no longer have one
I'll help you carry the load
I'll carry you in my arms
We walk through the ash
And the charred remains of our country
Keep an eye on my back
I'll keep an eye on the road

Help me to carry the fire
To keep it alight together
Help me to carry the fire
This road won't go on forever

If I say shut your eyes
If I say look away
Bury your face in my shoulder
Think of a birthday
The things you put in your head
They will stay there forever
I'm trying hard to hide your soul, son
From things it's not meant to see

Help me to carry the fire
To keep it alight together
Help me to carry the fire
This road won't go on forever

Help me to carry the fire
To keep it alight together
Help me to carry the fire
This road won't go on forever

If I say shut your eyes
If I say shut your eyes
Bury me in surprise
When I say shut your eyes, eyes

Help me to carry the fire
To keep it alight together
Help me to carry the fire
This road won't go on forever

30 Years Ago Today: The Joshua Tree

30 years ago today, we got The Joshua Tree. A front-heavy rock album. Not as consistently great as The Unforgettable Fire (1984). But it was the commercial peak U2 fans knew they were capable of. Suddenly, I was not alone in choosing U2 on the jukebox in my favorite pizza joints in Brockton, Massachsusetts. I was in my final weeks in junior high, surrounded by kids who loved Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, and they HATED U2. Come September, I was in a high school where if you didn't love U2, you were considered way out of touch. You could love R.E.M. You could secretly listen to New Order or Depeche Mode. Or you could be so far ahead of the curve like me and own three Pixies albums by 1989. But if you didn't express your love of U2, you were an automatic outsider.

Now the album itself does not move me like the next three U2 albums did. I still think Achtung Baby is their best masterpiece. But there are very few rock albums that open as strongly as The Joshua Tree. We're talking Led Zepplin IV or Back In Black-caliber openings. Where The Streets Have No Name is a soaring opening - peak classic U2. I Still haven't Found What I'm Looking For is this emotional gospel rock anthem. And despite its basic four bars, and resemblance to another Eno-produced four-bar classic, Once In A Lifetime, With Or Without You is still, still a great song thanks to the lyrics and Edge's galloping riffs. Then they follow that up with Bullet The Blue Sky, the leftist, violent song about Reagan's proxy wars, among other things. And then, THEN, U2 give us another anthem - the major-keyed song about heroin addiction, Running To Stand Still. Holy shit, this album. 30 years, kids.

The Most Requested Photo In The US National Archives

This is one of the funniest pictures of the twentieth century. An obviously drug-addled Elvis Presley (then age 35), visiting a cynically bemused Richard Nixon, shaking hands in the White House and discussing the recently declared "War on Drugs," has to be one of the jaw dropping moments of recent history. Is this a great country or what!

The news item, that this picture is still in high demand, made me think: we don't obsess with Evis as much as we did 30 years ago. History remembers him. His legacy is safe. But the current culture doesn't include him in conversation nearly as much as it did in the 1980s and 1990s. It seemed to reach a peak from 1987 (the 20th anniversary of his death) to about 1997. Notable American pop culture examples include the movies Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), and True Romance (1993) which both reference The King. And for me personally, two of my favorite guilty-pleasure songs from that period include Elvis is Dead (1990) and Elvis Ate America (1995).

The King is dead. America just took a while to move on.

Chvrches Is Back With A New Single

Glasgow-based electronic pop trio, Chvrches is back with a catchy new single called Get Away. That's cool. This track has been added to the BBC-commissioned supplemental soundtrack for Nicholas Winding Refin's 2011 film, Drive, which is becoming a cult hit in the UK. That is also cool. Here's hoping this single and/or album is available to purchase soon.

Just What Was Tom Smith Thinking?

The stages of finding the first bad song by one of my favorite bands:

1. A grandiose breakup song. Okay.

2. Sustained falsetto. That's....different.

3. Holy shit, it's a Journey song!

4. But it's got a hook. Play it again. And again.

5. Singing along is actually possible, and fun, so long as you act sincere.

6. Oh hell, this is a cheesy Phil Collins song!

7. Some country band could cover this and make it a smash country hit. Just maybe.

Postmodernism

Trent Reznor gets it. Always did. This is Copy of A, from Nails' first album in 5 years.

I am just a copy of a copy of a copy
Everything I say has come before
Assembled into something into something into something
I am never certain anymore

I am just a shadow of a shadow of a shadow
Always trying to catch up with myself
I am just an echo of an echo of an echo
Listening to someone's cry for help

Look what you had to start
Why all the change of heart?
Well you need to play your part
A copy of a copy of a
Look what you've gone and done
Well that doesn't sound like fun
See I'm not the only one
A copy of a copy of a

I am little pieces little pieces little pieces
Pieces that were picked up on the way
Imprinted with a purpose with a purpose with a purpose
A purpose that's become quite clear today

Look what you had to start
Why all the change of heart?
Well you need to play your part
A copy of a copy of a
Look what you've gone and done
Well that doesn't sound like fun
See I'm not the only one
A copy of a copy of a

I am just a finger on a trigger on a finger
Doing everything I'm told to do
Always my intention my intention your attention
Just doing everything you tell me to

Look what you had to start
Why all the change of heart?
Well you need to play your part
A copy of a copy of a
Now look what you gone and done
Well that doesn't sound like fun
So I'm not the only one
A copy of a copy of a

Look what you had to start
Why all the change of heart?
Well you need to play your part
A copy of a copy of a
Now look what you gone and done
Well that doesn't sound like fun
See I'm not the only one
A copy of a copy of a

(Look what you had to start) Look what you had to start
(Why all the change of heart) Why all the change of heart
(You need to play your part) You need to play your part
A copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a
(Look what you've gone and done) And look what you've gone and done
(Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun) That doesn't sound like fun
(Yeah, I'm not the only one) See I'm not the only one
A copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a

Guns N' Roses Return To New York With Three Memorable Shows

Guns N' Roses returned to New York City for the first time in two years for a three show "residency," that coincided with the year's first Fashion Week. This latest GNR tour, which celebrates 25 years since the band's major label breakthrough (with Appetite for Destruction), has critics nationwide agreeing that it is the band's best outing since Slash left the band 16 years ago. It is also the band's best lineup since that time, as it seems that positive chemistry and fun is back in the band. Axl's current band is so good, in fact, they seem capable of producing a quality album if they committed to the project. And it is this lineup that will probably take the podium when the band is inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame this April.

On Friday February 10th, they rocked Roseland Ballroom with a three hour set.

On Sunday February 12th, they stepped up their game at Terminal 5.

And on Wednesday February 15th, they returned to Webster Hall for the first time in nearly 24 years (23 years, 10 months to be exact), when they took the Appetite for Destruction tour to the venue then known as The Ritz. The Webster Hall show lived up to its high ticket price as a once in a lifetime chance to see the band perform a four hour show, which added five songs to the Terminal 5 setlist, including You're Crazy, Civil War, and My Michelle. 

I attended the second show, at Terminal 5 in Hell's Kitchen. Below is the review I originally sent out to friends the next morning.

The concert was a bit surreal. We never thought we'd see Guns N Roses live (they virtually broke up in 1996, but Axl never let the band die). Only Dizzy Reed on piano has stayed with Axl since the glory days. I do have to say, the rest of the band is immensely talented. They have four 6 string guitarists replacing the original two (three power guitarists and a backup/tech backstage who got credit), and the solos were Rock God quality, I think. Slash's late replacement, DJ Ashba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Ashba ) worshiped Motley Crue as a teenager and his distorted Les Paul guitar seemed to fill in for Slash perfectly.

Axl is not fat. He's still fit. But his face is bigger and shows signs of botox work. His blue eyes are electric. And he has become quite a good piano player. Twenty years ago, he would lay down some riffs in a ballad. Now he can play jazz and blues on the keys. We were impressed. And yes, he played on a baldwin baby grand.

We had to freeze outside of Terminal 5 on West 56th Street from about 9pm to 9:40. Once inside, we took our places on the main floor as the balconies had filled up. But the floor was the place to be. The show was sold out with a crowd of 3,000.

A subpar hard rock band called the Chelsea Smiles opened the show shortly after 10pm. Now that I think about it, a more appropriate band would have been Powerman 5000 (led by Rob Zombie's brother), or the Dutch 1960s style band, The Hives. But we take what we're given. And the uninspired 6 songs served by the Chelsea Smiles were forgettable.

Guns N Roses took the stage at 11:40, and played pretty much straight with minor breaks until at least 2:30. Yes, a three hour epic. Did I mention we were impressed? Here is the set list:

00 - Intro [Recorded music: Dexter]

01 - Chinese Democracy (they opened with Jungle two nights prior, and we were puzzled by this selection)

02 - Welcome to the Jungle (it was 1988 all over again)

03 - It's So Easy

04 - Mr Brownstone (highlight of the show's first half)

05 - Sorry (At this point, the computer generated video behind the band was replaced by Karaoke style live action videos, featuring suicidal teenagers, Sunset Strip pole dancers, and Formula One footage from the early 2000s (for You Could Be Mine). So....cheesy? Rush invests six figures into their graphics, man! "That's not Tom Sawyer, that's Huckleberry Finn, stupid!!"

06 - Rocket Queen

07 - Estranged

08 - Richard Fortus guitar solo (who resembles Adrian Brody a bit) - James Bond Theme (which was spectacular)

09 - Live and Let Die

10 - Instrumental Jam - A reprise of ZZ Top's La Grange

11 - This I Love

12 - What's Your Motivation (led and sung by bassist Tommy Stinson, who resembles a young Rod Stewart, who can play bass very well, but unfortunately can't sing.) UPDATE 01/08/2020: I was mistaken. Tommy Stinson is a damn legend, as he was the bassist for The Replacements and has grown into a decent frontman in his own band. I saw him and his band open for the Psychedelic Furs in 2017.

13 - Dizzy Reed piano solo - The Who's Baba O'Riely, possibly the first hard rock hit single in 1971, the crowd should have sung every line, but most were too young to know the lyrics, or too stoned to care

14 - Street of Dreams

15 - You Could Be Mine (which they did not play Friday night, one of the reasons this show was so long)

16 - DJ Ashba guitar solo - The Ballad of Death

17 - Sweet Child O' Mine (THE highlight of the show - Axl briefly swaying his hips to "Where do we go now")

18 - Moving the baby grand to the stage, the band plays Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, and Axl sings the chorus once he is able to sit at the piano, which led to the most abrupt transition of the night -

19 - Axl Rose piano solo - a bluesy medley of Gran Torino and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

20 - November Rain (of course)

21 - Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal guitar solo - The Pink Panther Theme (yes, and it was very 60s psychedelic and loud - good, unorthodox choice)

22 - Knockin' on Heaven's Door (great, even as Axl's wireless microphones began to fail him)

23 - Night Train

----------------------

Encore:

24 - Instrumental jam

25 - Madagascar

26 - Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal guitar intro / Don't Cry

27 - Better

28 - Whole Lotta Rosie

29 - Instrumental jam

30 - Patience

31 - Instrumental jam

32 - Paradise City

33 - Outro [Recorded music: My Way]

Got home at 03:30. What a concert. Did that just happen?

Goodbye, R.E.M.

I've had two weeks to digest R.E.M.'s inevitable breakup announcement. I have to say, they went out with class. While they lost of lot of listeners after New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), the last four R.E.M. albums were all very good. They were true to the band's roots, involved a fresh dose of Brian Wilson influences, and a few times went back to the sound of perhaps their most loved album, Automatic for the People (1992).

R.E.M. spent over 10 years as a consensus choice as one of the best rock bands in the US. They shared that title with other acts that have come and gone, including Talking Heads, The Pixies, Living Colour, Soundgarden, Metallica, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Luna (and some that have stayed, such as Wilco and Interpol). They were not only one of the best bands in the US, but they were also part of the New Wave. They entered the scene thanks to airplay on American college radio alongside the likes of Talking Heads and U2. And they were simultaneously part of the Athens Georgia music scene, which, along with Boston, Chicago, and Seattle, is a founding city of the Indie music scene of the 1980s and 90s (later to be branded "Alternative" by the music industry). R.E.M. is one of the few bands (the only band?) to bridge the New Wave movement and the American Indie movement, and arguably helped to found the Indie movement. While their Athens counterparts, the B-52s, remained in the New Wave movement, R.E.M. established the framework of how a small band from a college town could get radio airplay nationwide and music videos on MTV. In just four short years, R.E.M. went from having a critically acclaimed, yet underground album (Murmur (1983)), to a breakthrough video on MTV in September, 1987 for The One I Love:

I entered high school with Document, graduated college weeks after drummer Bill Berry suffered a ruptured aneurysm on atage (and bought a Georgia farm in preparation for his retirement), and firmly settled into New York to the sounds of New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I rocked out in my dorm room to the contemporary, distortion pedal sounds of Monster (1994) and enjoyed drinks in a bar in north Amherst with friends and the occasional female to the sounds of the honest, somber masterpeice, Automatic for the People.

There have been magnificent articles and books written about R.E.M. I close this post with some recent articles I've read in the past few years.

 Josh Modell, Spin:

Here, [in Collapse Into Now], they discover the glow of middle age, warmly acknowledging the past -- hello again, Peter Buck's mandolin -- while realizing that the present can feel just as comforting. The sober, pretty "Uberlin" sounds like a happier cousin to "Drive." Twinkling ballad "Every Day Is Yours to Win" updates "Everybody Hurts" for the other side of despair, when optimism seeps back in. "Discoverer" and "All the Best" deliver sexy crunch for Monster fans. It's R.E.M.'s many faces, collapsing into now.

Annie Zaleski, Salon:

Even as the band’s popularity increased — Top 10 Billboard hits, MTV heavy rotation, arena tours, mainstream radio airplay — there was nothing overtly contemporary about their music.

 Chris Sullentrop, Slate:

From almost the beginning, there's been something backward-looking about R.E.M. fandom, a secret wish that R.E.M. never become more than a heralded but middling-selling college band from Athens, Ga.—even though such obscurity would mean that the vast majority of R.E.M. fans engaged in this Edenic pining would never have discovered them.

 Dan Kois, Slate:

Even R.E.M.'s "political" songs of the era, like "Fall on Me" or "Exhuming McCarthy," are tricky to parse. " Fall on Me" could maybe be about acid rain, or maybe air pollution in general, or maybe, uh, missile defense? Whereas U2's political songs of the 1980s are a little easier to work out: "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is about Martin Luther King Jr., for example, and "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is about Bloody Sunday. Stirring as those songs are, there's very little a listener can bring to them; they are Bono's take, not yours, unlike "Fall on Me," which, for me, in 1987, was a deeply personal song about the crushing whatever of existence.

WBCN Goes Digital-Only

I wish I had learned about this sooner. But news in Boston seldom travels out of the city (unless it's an embarrassing episode involving Mayor Menino).

Boston's most legendary rock radio station, WBCN, ended its 41-year analog broadcast run just after midnight on Wednesday, August 12th (here's how the station went out). The station will continue to stream classic and alternative rock from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s on HD digital radio and the Internet. It is most easily accessed on iTunes, in the Radio folder, under the 'rock' category.

I worked at WBCN's original Boylston Street location in the summer of 1993 as a sales / copywriting intern. I was in the only office with windows, facing north, overlooking the brick and mint green facade of Fenway Park. I mostly did traffic reports and put together media kits. But eventually, I got to cover the switchboard (Peter Wolf once called with, 'Hey this is Peter Wolf, who's this?'), write a couple of radio commercials, and attend a Lansdowne Street block party to send off Mayor Ray Flynn, who was chosen by Bill Clinton to become ambassador to the Vatican ('natch).

It was an unforgettable summer...to be 20 years old and working (albeit part-time) at the most popular radio station in Boston, a city that was undergoing a healthy economic, cultural, and architectural boom that continued into this decade. The current stream at WBCN captures a lot of songs from that era by such bands as Stone Temple Pilots, The Breders, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins and so many others. I love my XM Radio, both in my car and online, but I do hope CBS Radio keeps WBCN alive online. The online stream acts as a kind of live memorial or historical archive (the classic WBCN station ID's from the 1990s continue to be used). I can see CBS shutting it down in a few years. But until then, we have a fairly good rock radio stream that captures the 90s rock revivl (the 'alternative rock' era).

It was Boston's first full-time contemporary rock station. It was the first commercial US radio station to play U2 songs. And it had the best morning show (The Big Mattress) for 28 years.

Just listen to the voices in this MP3 clip that closed out the analog broadcast.

It's Obama!

Motörhead: 'Bomber', from BBC's Top Of The Pops

The Technics Brand Is Going Away

This was a long time coming. Matsushita, the parent corporation of Panasonic, has decided to rename itself and all of its brands as "Panasonic." This will close a major era in popular music and dance culture. The Technics SL-1200 turntable, the staple of DJs for over 20 years, will be renamed the Panasonic SL-1200. Come October, the Technics name will be no more.

My grandad had a consumer / non-DJ version of the SL-1200 when I was a kid. The thing was indestructible. The SL1200 will live on under a different name, but the Technics name will live in infamy. Whenever I hear a rap song that mentions Technics, I will remember that I once used a few examples of products under that brand.

In fact, I'm going to spin the Analog Brothers CD and play the track, Analog Technics before I go to bed tonight.

Technics will be missed. If you ever wanted a Technics-branded turntable, go out (or login to Amazon) and get one now.