Sunday, May 2, 2021

Songs Of The Week, 2021: 4/24- 4/30

 


Rock 'N' Roll Singer- AC/DC
Remember To Remember- Robert Palmer
There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis- Kirsty MacColl
Selene Selene- King Mob
Hey, Hey Helen- Abba
Tonight- The Move
Dance Around The Maypole- The Acid Gallery

zip


Rock 'N' Roll Singer- AC/DC
From my favorite AC/DC record, and I think Lucinda Williams' favorite, as well. This is early, and when compared to the most recent AC/DC record, Brian Johnson makes Bon Scott sound like Lou Rawls.

Remember To Remember- Robert Palmer
A classic deep cut from Robert Palmer employing his usual skills of rhythms and phrasing. But something else, too. It was a comment a few days ago from "hpunch," that pointed out just how Beatle-y this track really is. Never realized that, and now all I hear is mid-60's Beatles.

There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis- Kirsty MacColl
I was looking for this 45 and noticed the U.S. version changed "Chip Shop" to "Truck Stop!" Was that really necessary? What the hell is wrong with us?

Selene Selene- King Mob
This came to me via Randy, a scorcher from King Mob, featuring Chris Spedding and Snips, both formerly of Sharks, and Martin Chambers from Pretenders on drums. Though on this particular track, the nasty groove is played by Andy Newmark.

Hey, Hey Helen- Abba
Abba rocks...occasionally.

Tonight- The Move
This one is about as Move as the Move gets.

Dance Around The Maypole- The Acid Gallery
And speaking of The Move, this one nugget wonder from The Acid Gallery, might as well be The Move, as it was written and produced by Roy Wood.

11 comments:

heartsofstone said...

I love the Kirsty MaccColl track. I never knew of the change for the US version. What is wrong with us is a very complicated question, but answering this one would be a good start.

A Walk In The Woods said...

I've never heard of any of these except the AC/DC tune - looking forward to hearing!

dogbreath said...

Super zipper, many thanks. I guess someone back then thought "chip shop" (a superb British dining establishment par excellence) would confuse some Americans who rather bizarrely call potato crisps, potato chips. I'm always on standby to regurgitate my favourite Churchill quote of "two nations divided by a common language" And Bon Scott sounding like Lou Rawls? - there's a comparison! - especially as I was just listening in the car to Lou belt out "You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine" on an old mix cd. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Cheers!

hpunch said...

Love that Acid Gallery cut.. WOW!!

Crab Devil said...

Thanks for the mix. I love pretty much everything from Kirsty MacColl, and I was fortunate af to see her perform at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. But now I have
a reminiscence which may also pertain to the question of what's wrong with us.

Long ago, I ended up staying in Springfield, Missouri, where I became acquainted with (the late) Lou Whitney. He played bass in bands like the Morells and the Skeletons, and he also ran Column One recording studio. Everyone I’d run into over there would turn out to have performed and/or recorded with, say, the Ozark
Mountain Daredevils, or with Steve Forbert, or with Jonathan Richman, or with Boxcar Willie, or with somebody from the Del Lords or the Smithereens.

So I once asked Lou if there were any new country artists whom he thought were any good (considering that “country” was already, for the most part, vanishing
into a crowd of post-mullets and trenchcoats). He was stumped. He said it seemed that the most authentic country coming out was actually from overseas. In fact,
the one example he could think of, at least off the cuff, was a single from a few years back – a single by a British singer, Kirsty MacColl, titled “There's A Guy
Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis.”

soundsource said...

cool ABBA song and it does rock don't mention it to feldman

cmealha said...

I thought I had tracked most of Roy Wood’s extra-curricular activity. Missed this one. Love it. Vintage Roy.

A guy called Tak said...

Crab Devil - I was at that Troubadour show myself! it was so tragic that she passed away from that accident... I did not know about US version issue.
Anyhow, nice ZIP one, Sal. P.S. I love that R.P. track.

Anonymous said...

Love Crab Devil's story, cuz I love the Skeletons and the Morells and my understanding is that everybody loved Lou Whitney. I drove over 250 miles back in the day to get a vinyl copy of 'In The Flesh', not trusting that it would ever come out on CD. It's still one of my all-time-favorite albums.
C in California

Anonymous said...

Crab Devil/C in California:

My feet hit the ground every morning in Springfield, MO when I get out of bed. Lou and Donnie are in my DNA. Ages ago there was an article in a local music 'zine asking Donnie his top ten albums and Kirsty's Desperate Character was one of them.

And, yes, everyone did love Lou.

Randy

Dave McNally said...

Always glad to be reminded of Robert Palmer. I have trouble with the album this track on on, Secrets, getting past Mean Old World - an Andy Fraser song so incredibly well played and sung, and might just be my favourite all-time Palmer track