Monday, January 4, 2016
Starting The Year Off "Weird"
I recently watched a terrific BBC documentary on one of my favorite bands, 10cc. All four original members were on board for interviews, and in the all-too-brief running time of 60 minutes, I learned something. These guys are lot better than I thought they were and I've been a huge fan since Day Three. I'll explain.
Though each member had been around the block and back by 1974, having written hit songs and playing in hit bands in the 60s, producing others, recording together as Hotlegs and then twice under the name 10cc. I wasn't paying close attention until their third release "The Original Soundtrack" And it wasn't because of the hit single. WNEW-FM, probably Scott Muni, played the opening track "Une Nuit A Paris," an 8 minute suite not unlike something off of Queen's "A Night At The Opera," with mulitiple parts and characters, operatic vocals and harmonies, and I was floored. Once I bought the record, I discovered "I'm Not In Love," a song that has now become a monster, and the rest of the LP, which seamlessly covers just about every musical genre known to man.
I went back of course, and purchased their first two records and everything after, until they turned into a bad, faux-reggae band sometime in 1978. But up to and including 1978's "Bloody Tourists," there was no band quite like 10cc. Talk about "chutzpah."
40 years after the release of their 4th record, "How Dare You," I am still completely rattled by a song that appears on Side One, "I Wanna Rule The World." (See video above) This isn't just "Lumpy Gravy" weird. This is a frightening 4 minutes that seems to be an overture of some sort, with a dozen themes, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, all from some possible demented theatre piece.
Let's face it, there are some weird artists and weird songs out there. But I can't recall, in the short time I tried recalling, a weirder song by a band who was so capable of producing a pop hit as sunny as "The Things We Do For Love."
So excluding obvious choices like Zappa, Beefheart, the Ass Orbiters, etc., can you think of a band or individual who has had huge AM radio success, like 10cc had with "I'm Not In Love" and "The Things We Do For Love" and also released music as bizarre as "I Wanna Rule The World?"
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15 comments:
First one that comes to mind is City Boy - had a Foreigner-ish hit with "5705," but otherwise was a Tubes-ish genre-hopping band.
Devo for a hot minute?
It'll take some calm reflection to come up with one example. But the condition you underline here is what tore the original band apart, with Godley and Creme chafing at the pop success of "I'm Not in Love" and "Things We Do for Love" ... but it was good to see both admit in the documentary that those were simply great pop songs, and they were in different heads at that time and not interested in going that direction. It's strange but when you listen to an 80's Godley and Creme song like "Cry" ... that's as pop as anything 10CC did after their departure, albeit their video production skills were on display just as much as their songwriting abilities with that track.
Of course, there's that side doc simply about the creation of "I'm Not in Love" that's a great watch. Like everyone else at the time, I had no idea a majority of what I was hearing on that track were phased vocal tracks serving as harmonic beds. I just assumed they were synthesizers of some sort.
"Good Vibrations"? The song has become so much part of the pop music culture that we don't grasp how revolutionary the track was at the time, especially in the context of what The Beach Boys were known for. It would seem to me "weird" in a pop context implies a song that shifts gears one or more times. McCartney was good at that: Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Band on the Run ... even A Day in the Life when you think about it.
I think there is a startling contrast between "The Things We Do For Love" and what goes on in "I Wanna Rule The World," far weirder than say "Whip It" versus "Mongoloid" or "Uncle Albert" versus "Silly Love Songs." But to your point, William, about what broke up 10cc, while that may be true, some of the weirder stuff on the first two records were co-written by the straight guys Stewart/Gouldman and some of the straighter stuff was sung beautifully by the oddballs, Godley/Creme. The split, as least to my ears, didn't seem as inevitable as the band suggests in the doc.
Let's see Lou Reed did "Walk On The Wild Side" then gave us "Metal Machine Music" The same could be said of Jimi Hendrix's "Nine To The Universe"
But if you recall at the time, one of the main selling points of Godley and Creme leaving 10CC was their invention of the "gizmotron" and desire to record with it. In retrospect, it seems kind of tame, basically just a MIDI-sort of device that could be attached to the guitar, but I recall this being touted as a breakthrough at the time. I never heard the recordings Godley & Creme made with the gizmotron until a few years ago ... and when I did, I was underwhelmed. Although admittedly, they gave little or no regard to presenting the songs/material as potential pop singles. Given that prog had been huge at the time and was just starting to wane, I'm not quite sure what they were getting at.
Prog music, in and of itself, might fit the category you're looking to define here, although most of those bands never got anywhere near the Top 40 with singles (cough, until Phil Collins took over, cough).
The Turtles?
A big swath of AM radio pop friendly hits ("with a bullet!")
But full of odd album tracks/B-sides like "Grim Reaper Of Love", "Buzzsaw", "Umbassa And The Dragon", "Food", "Chicken Little Was Right", "I'm Chief Kamanawanalea..." etc...
I suppose you could blame the 60's drug scene, I guess... This was pre-Zappa, too...
Well, there's the Beatles themselves, who had everything, and then What's The New Mary Jane, Revolution #9, Two Virgins, etc.
There's Pink Floyd, who had huge hits like Money and Another Brick2, and then also gave us Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict, and a dozen other true oddities.
There's The Grateful Dead, who gave us sublime pop beauty like Ripple, and catchy AM radio-friendly tunes like Truckin, Casey Jones, Uncle John's Band, yet were also responsible for Aoxomoxoa, Anthem Of The Sun, What's Become Of The Baby, and borderline prog like Terrapin Station and the Weather Report Suite.
I'd defy any other band to say they did as wide a range as the Dead did in every single show, hitting Drums and Space style avant-jazz, even noise improvisations and explorations sometimes directly before going into Good Lovin, or another pop or country tune.
Other people I'd say hit the same range of bafflingly weird and ambitious all the way to stunningly accomplished pop beauty would be Todd Rundgren, Ryan Adams (go deep, it's there), David Bowie, Jefferson Airplane, Prince, maybe even VU counts.
With the exception of the "huge radio success" (although they should have had it), I would say NRBQ. They only had a few minor hits but certainly had enough radio-friendly tunes. And yet on the same album they could give you a 'Tapdancing Bats' or a "Rocket #9".
I always plump for Bowie when this question pops up, particularly the baffling (to me at any rate) divergence into Tin Machine as well as a few other entries from way out of left field. But the man continues to confound, surprise and delight and I'm eagerly awaiting "Black Star" to see what comes forth.
god(dess) I love this blogspot. True fact (best kind).
I'm thinking Procol Harum certainly made some wide musical mood swings and had a monster AM hit right out the box. Have you listened to "In Held Twas In I" recently? (ever?) Or plop on "A Salty Dog" and feel yourself shivering to that one. Then just jump aboard the "Whisky Train" and check out "Power Failure" when you have a second. These are all departures from "A Whiter Shade of Pale" for sure. Great stuff! .....And I LOVE "The Original Soundtrack" like crazy!
The first thing I think of is Bill Withers. How could the same guy who did junk like "Just The Two Of Us" create a whole dystopic, Lolita-obsessed universe in "Ain't No Sunshine."
I still maintain that is the oddest song to be a Top Ten hit.
Another one that comes to mind is Bowie's "Aladdin Sane," which I say is the 2nd-oddest radio hit ever, with that crazy piano solo. How can the same guy do "Modern Love" and "Aladdin Sane"?
Jonathan Richman went from "Road Runner" and "She Cracked" to,"Ice Cream Man" and "Here Come the Martian Martians." But I don't think any single release shocked me as much as Dylan's "Self Portrait."
Dave F.
The guess Who's "Friends of Mine" was whacky hippie song way different than the top 40 stuff they're known for. It sounded dated when released, even more so now.
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