kevinpaquet.com

I was very saddened to hear of Andrew Gold’s sudden death in his sleep yesterday at the age of 59. Gold was truly a musical phenomenon of the 70s and 80s, and even if his name does not sound familiar, you know his songs.

His two biggest hits were the out-of-left-field 1977 psychodrama “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You For Being A Friend,” the latter which went on to be the long-running theme song for the TV show “Golden Girls.” While these two songs brought Gold his biggest success, they were far from his best work and don’t even hint at the amazing jack-of-all-trades talent he was.

Gold’s initial impact came as part of Linda Ronstadt’s band in the first half of the 70s, when the singer was in her heyday. He helped pioneer the Ronstadt “Southern California” sound blending rock and country by arranging many of her hits and playing a very distinct twangy guitar. Think about the solo in the middle of Ronstadt’s cover of the Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved” and you’ll know what I mean. Here’s Ronstadt performing it on “The Midnight Special” with Gold on the left behind her.

His background vocals were very distinct on her recordings, and if you go through them, you’ll definitely hear all those arranging, musical and vocal trademarks.

When Gold stepped out on his own, it was in the era of multi-instrumentalists, where people like Todd Rundgren, Stevie Wonder and Dan Fogelberg played nearly every instrument on their albums through the process of overdubbing. Gold mastered the guitar, bass and piano for many of his solo recordings.

While “Lonely Boy” (from his second album) and “Thank You For Being A Friend” (from his third album) brought him the biggest commercial success, it was his 1975 debut album that was by far his best. Loved by the critics and not selling many copies, Andrew Gold (cover seen above) was Southern California rock at its best, with touches of country and pop, but really the first look at his songwriting. We knew about his singing and playing, but man, this guy could write hooks the size of a skyscraper. Expert musicianship, sounding much like those distinct Ronstadt records, and lots of harmonies. Just a great album with 10 absolutely unforgettable songs.

It’s also the first time the public got a taste of Gold’s twisted sense of humor and storytelling: the ballad “Endless Flight,” with some poor guy on a bumpy flight pondering the future of a relationship at the same time… another guy on the lam from a crime warns his girlfriend to “Hang My Picture Straight”….

Even if the record didn’t sell, at least Gold got royalties from Leo Sayer’s cover of “Endless Flight.”

Beyond those two megahits (and writing the theme song for 90′s sitcom “Mad About You”), Gold’s song were not destined to last, as country/rock fell out of favor and even Ronstadt had to figure out what her next phase was going to be. Gold periodically released albums, including a mesmerizing tongue-in-cheek tribute to 60s psychedelia under pseudonym Fraternal Order of The All called Greetings From Planet Love. That album had a carbon copy Byrds song called “Somewhere In Space And Time,” and nods to “Magical Mystery Tour”-era Beatles, and a John Lennon/Bob Dylan combo called “Mr. Plastic Business Man.”

Another side project was really something out of a pop lover’s dream — teaming with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman in 1988 to form Wax UK, which had a US cult following and something more than that in Europe. They had one fantastic single, “Bridge To Your Heart,” which was accompanied by a crazy Peter Gabriel-ish video.

While many people will remember Gold for those two 70s hits, I will remember him for forging a unique rock sound in that era, writing many memorable songs that nobody would exactly call “easy,” superb musicianship and frankly, I can’t help but admire a guy who was as talented as he was.

He will definitely be missed.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

When you’re the so-called “Zelig of rock and roll,” you’re entitled to do what you please.

Al Kooper can merit many pages of biography — from the guy who played organ on Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” to the man who discovered and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Tubes, and perhaps you know he helped found Blood, Sweat & Tears? That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Read his web site’s bio and his “selected” discography.

Let’s turn the dial back to 1977, and Kooper’s seventh solo album, Act Like Nothing’s Wrong, shows up at the college radio station as well as the school paper’s music section. The cover catches my eye because let’s face it — it is damn weird with Kooper’s head on a babe’s body and the back cover is the reverse. And he is Al Kooper, he’s got loads of credentials, and frankly, I didn’t know what he sounded like as a solo artist.

Open up the record (on the late lamented United Artists label), and the inner sleeve reads: “Dedicated to my influences”followed by a long, long list of rock, pop, and soul artists. Never has a dedication worked so well on double duty describing what the album actually is.

Kooper has taken a collection of original and semi-obscure tunes and re-arranged them into the many recognizable styles of popular artists of the 70s. The whole album is a fun game of “spot the artist.”

His own 60s hit, “This Diamond Ring,” is reworked into a minor-key Little Feat funk workout. “Hollywood Vampire” is a paean to the dire L.A. landscape of Joe Walsh and The Eagles, notably the power chords of “Turn To Stone.” And yes, that is Mr. Walsh guesting on slide guitar, in case you didn’t make the connection.

For this post, I came really close to picking “She Don’t Ever Lose Her Groove,” a bobbing Al Green tribute where Kooper gets all soulful and hot and bothered, the Tower of Power horns doing a perfect mock-up of Willie Mitchell’s old arrangements, and a killer fluid guitar solo at the end.

We went with the ridiculously catchy “(Please Not) One More Time,” which can best be summed up like this: Steely Dan’s “My Old School” meets The Beach Boys. Recorded with some of Nashville’s finest musicians, Kooper meticulously gets every Fagen and Becker nuance right, with a hefty dose of Brian Wilson: up and down clavinet riff, ascending chord structure, mock horn riffs (including the dead-on break arrangement), and yes, lots and lots of layered Endless Summer-like vocals courtesy of the Ron Hicklin Singers.

And instead of tackling the good old days at Bard College, Kooper gets caught in the cross fire of a long-distance relationship between California and Atlanta, GA, along with some double-entendre rumors thrown in (not having the “energy to go down one more time?”). Hey, there can only be one Fagen and Becker.

Doesn’t matter. Here is the very non-subtle “wear your influences on your sleeves” tune along with a video I created which is as much a tribute to Kooper as it is to the song itself.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

Gerry Rafferty died today at the age of 63 years old after “a long illness.”

While the name doesn’t ring a bell with many people under the age of 40, I guarantee they’ve all heard his distinctive voice. I know my kids have. He sang lead on Steelers Wheel’s 1972 hit “Stuck In The Middle With You,” which of course later went down in cinema history in the famous ear-cutting scene in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film “Reservoir Dogs.”

It wasn’t until 1978 that Rafferty achieved his biggest success, the City to City album, which contained several huge hits, but nothing compared to the impact of his “Baker Street” single.

The late 70s was a fruitful period for English singer/songwriters whose sophisticated tunes were carried away by equally imaginative hometown producers. In the hands of mega-producer/engineer Alan Parsons, folkie Al Stewart went through the roof with “Year Of The Cat,” “On The Border” and “Time Passages,” all elaborately orchestrated productions.

Rafferty followed the same blueprint with City to City, except with a slightly more Scottish flavor. Each song was at least five minutes long, little detailed stories of English lives, and you could best describe them as “sophisticated English folk pop.” Producer Hugh Murphy supported each one with the best UK studio musicians, impeccable arrangements, and a warm, homey analog flavor.

“Baker Street” was the album signature song, with a killer saxophone hook that just echoed on and on. Trust me when I say that “Baker Street” was played on every radio station morning, noon, and night. This was another one of those songs where the lyrics were desolate while the melody was deceptively upbeat and happy.

Windin’ your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well another crazy day
You’ll drink the night away
And forget about everything
This city desert makes you feel so cold.
It’s got so many people but it’s got no soul
And it’s taking you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it had everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you’re tryin’
You’re tryin’ now
Another year and then you’ll be happy
Just one more year and then you’ll be happy
But you’re cryin’
You’re cryin’ now

Way down the street there’s a lad in his place
He opens the door he’s got that look on his face
And he asks you where you’ve been
You tell him who you’ve seen
And you talk about anything

He’s got this dream about buyin’ some land
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one night stands
And then he’ll settle down there’s a quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he’ll always keep movin’
You know he’s never gonna stop movin
Cus he’s rollin’
He’s the rollin’ stone

And when you wake up it’s a new mornin’
The sun is shinin’ it’s a new morning
You’re goin’
You’re goin’ home.

While “Baker Street” cleaned up, there were two other singles from the album, “Right Down The Line” and “Home And Dry” which hit the Top 40. I was a big fan of the first song, “The Ark,” probably because it was atypically slow for an album opener, as well as the title “City to City” cut because nothing beats a good train song.

Rafferty never achieved anything close to this kind of success again and eventually faded from sight. He showed up on Mark Knopfler’s beautiful soundtrack score to “Local Hero.” For some reason, I remember reading an interview with him sometime in 2010 — still as crusty as ever, railing against the recording industry — but anxious to release more music.

Below are a few videos of Rafferty’s hits from City to City — “Baker Street” in its 4-minute form (originally 6 minutes on the album), “Right Down The Line” and “Home And Dry.” Enjoy them — Rafferty’s best gleaming moments in music that he gave us.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

What Boz Scaggs had wrought.

When Silk Degrees became a multi-million selling album in 1976, he basically busted open the door for blue-eyed soul like never before. Suddenly, it totally cool for white guys to sing soul music blatantly in the style of Motown, Philly and Stax. Of course, the guys who really took that concept to the bank were Daryl Hall and John Oates, right through most of the 80s.

But let’s go back to the Silk Degrees era. In 1977, English guitarist Dave Mason had the biggest selling album of his career when Columbia Records paired him with producer Ron Nevison for a slickly-produced collection of catchy rock tunes. Mason’s band was a collection of immensely talented musicians and composers. The single that drove it through the roof, “We Just Disagree,” was written by his guitarist Jim Krueger. Also in the band was keyboardist Mike Finnigan, who had already played on Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and other classic rock records.

Mason’s album Let It Flow sold tons, so all of a sudden those talented guys in his band had solo albums released on Columbia, who probably thought they could duplicate that success. While we will discuss Krueger’s impressive Sweet Salvation another time, Finnigan released what was actually his second album under his own name, called Black and White.

Not a subtle reference, Black and White was like the Boz Scaggs album that Boz never did. Also produced by Nevison, Finnigan sounds remarkably like Mr. Scaggs’ deep voice, powerful and emotional all at once. Other than covering Krueger’s straightforward rock ballad, “The Words,” every song is right out of the Philly and Chicago soul playbook, and it seems they were all written by, yes, white guys! One exception — his completely fitting cover of The Soul Survivors’ “Expressway To Your Heart.”

Finnigan’s keyboards are right up front, either with a B3 organ or piano, sometimes very gospel-ish, or downright bluesy. And this guy could sing. The obvious single was the unforgettable lead-off tune from the album, “Just One Minute More,” co-written by music legend Al Kooper. All slick guitars, orchestration, Finnigan’s insanely pleading vocals (“He wants you for decoration/But I need you just to live!”), and thumpety drums. It’s just one of those songs you can’t get out of your head, right out of another era.

These days, Finnigan is touring all over the world, welcomes just about anybody to friend him on Facebook (over 4,600 of them as of this writing), and contributes to the political blog Crooks & Liars in pretty much the same way he performs — no holding back. If you want to hear true songcraft style and singing, well, let’s go to the video… (and if you’d like the song, you can download the album from Mike himself)…

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

Although a number of albums made a huge and lasting impression on me during my four years at SUNY at Buffalo, one of the records that hit the hardest was Genesis’ A Trick Of The Tail.

I certainly enjoyed my share of 70′s heyday prog rock from Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but this was the first one that really cut to me emotionally. I was not a particular Genesis fan entering college, and about the only song I knew from the band was “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.”

What I was just discovering was that Buffalo was a city with musical tastes all its own, and living there, you couldn’t help being widely exposed to artists that were not even registering a blip elsewhere. This was a Midwestern blue collar city by Lake Erie that happened to be located on the northwest corner of New York State, just a Peace Bridge ride to Canada and Toronto.

Much like Washington D.C. adopted Little Feat and Baltimore took in Crack The Sky, Buffalo was a Genesis city.

Although the release of A Trick of The Tail didn’t even register with me, the album was soon blasting loudly through the UB dormitories, and when spring came, out the windows as often as Peter Frampton Comes Alive.

I succumbed to the incredibly melodic snapshots, sweeping Melotron strings, Steve Hackett’s acoustic guitar arpeggios and ringing chords, and Phil Collins’ numerous ripping drums. Each song was its own little story, with the characters illustrated on the front and back covers of the album: a nurse sedating her patient (“Entangled”), a hunter seeking a mythical creature that turns into a “pool of tears” (“Squonk”), a thief who constantly denies his guilt right up until his death (“Robbery, Assault and Battery”), and a mythical creature who outwits his captors (“A Trick Of The Tail”).

All magnificent and epic, but the real stunner to me was keyboardist Tony Banks’ “Mad Man Moon,” a complex ballad of mixed time signatures, a shift from its E minor verses to a magical D flat major interlude in the middle, and then a yearning return to the verses. It was as close to classical Chopin preludes as Genesis was ever to get, and a true showcase of Banks’ piano and synth skills. Only in the prog rock genre could you get away with a tale of lost love, mortality, and madness on an epic poetic journey such as this, all seven and a half minutes and not one moment wasted.

Was it summer when the river ran dry
Or was it just another dam
When the evil of a snowflake in June
Could still be a source of relief

Oh, how I love you, I once cried long ago
But I was the one who decided to go
To search beyond the final crest
Though I’d heard it said just birds could dwell so high

So I pretended to have wings for my arms
And took off in the air
I flew to places which the clouds never see
Too close to the deserts of sand

Where a thousand mirages, the shepherds of lies
Forced me to land and take a disguise
I would welcome a horse’s kick to send me back
If I could find a horse not made of sand

If this desert’s all there’ll ever be
Then tell me what becomes of me, a fall of rain?
That must have been another of your dreams
A dream of mad man moon

Hey, man, I’m the sandman
And boy have I news for you
They’re gonna throw you in gaol
And you know they can’t fail
‘Cause sand is thicker than blood

But a prison in sand is a haven in hell
For a gaol can give you a goal
A goal can find you a role on a muddy pitch in Newcastle
Where it rains so much, you can’t wait for a touch
Of sun and sand, sun and sand

Within the valley of shadowless death
They pray for thunderclouds and rain
But to the multitude who stand in the rain
Heaven is where the sun shines

The grass will be greener till the stems turn to brown
And thoughts will fly higher till the earth brings them down
Forever caught in desert lands one has to learn
To disbelieve the sea

If this desert’s all there’ll ever be
Then tell me what becomes of me, a fall of rain?
That must have been another of your dreams
A dream of mad man moon.

Buffalo was certainly ahead of its time, as this was way before Genesis decided to go the pop route and hit the top 40. A Trick of The Tail was Genesis’ first album after Peter Gabriel left the band, when they decided to put drummer Phil Collins in front of a mic and step into those big shoes. As assured as Collins was as a vocalist, this album belonged to Banks and guitarist Hackett, who both stepped forward with their respective instruments, and the former as a composer. Collins was pretty unknown — his goofy persona and Motown phase were still a long way off, thank God.

Their next album, Wind & Wuthering, was a sequel of sorts to A Trick of The Tail, except they got a bit silly (“Wot Gorilla,” “All In a Mouse’s Night”) and dipped their toe into the pop pool successfully to their own surprise (“Your Own Special Way”). After that album Hackett left, Genesis became a threesome, dropped the “prog” part of their style, and headed on the fast track to the Top 40. All those big hits like “Invisible Touch,” “No Reply At All,” and “In Too Deep” bore almost no resemblance to all that great music when they were with Hackett and Gabriel.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

Legendary power pop bands are split into three divisions: the ones that are revered and charted (The Beatles, Badfinger, The Raspberries, The Cars), the ones who didn’t chart but command a huge cult following in their aftermath (Jellyfish, Big Star), and the many regional bands who may have cut an album or two and are now just a mere memory for obsessives.

Shoes (note: no “The”) fell between the second and third categories and probably constitute indie rock’s first pioneers of the “DIY” ethos. Famous for being based in Zion, IL, Shoes were recording and distributing their own homemade EP’s and albums way before new wave acts like The Police and 90′s grunge bands were doing it.

They pressed and distributed their Black Vinyl Shoes record in 1977, became the toast of music critics, were signed to Elektra Records and immediately teamed with Queen producer Mike Stone for their Present Tense album. While some people consider that to be Shoes’ finest moments, I prefer their follow-up, Tongue Twister, co-produced by the band and Fleetwood Mac producer Richard Dashut.

Imagine Shoes as a raw version of the Cars with no synthesizers. As a matter of fact, like Boston and Queen’s early albums, they were purists who often boasted about the no synth approach (and with Shoes, no keyboards at all). Extremely melodic mid-tempo to fast songs, definitely more on the “rock” side than pop, very 4/4, and the real operating word here is “crunch” — the riffs and power chords were mixed right up front for your air guitar pleasure.

Tongue Twister made full use of overdrive and distortion in both the rhythm and lead guitars, twiddling the pedal knobs for all kinds of effects with a little acoustic tones blended in periodically. No, this did not sound like Fleetwood Mac at all, despite Dashut’s credentials, and not blues based, like many classic rock acts, but power pop rock on the order of Cheap Trick’s first three albums. Real drums and guitars, Gary Klebe’s scratchy vocals, tastefully placed and sparingly used harmonies, nothing more than three minutes long, and one in a while, you’ll hear a chord riff EQ’d perfectly, sitting in one speaker like ear candy.

In John Borack’s superb 2007 Shake Some Action book (subtitled: “The Ultimate Power Pop Guide”), Shoes’ Jeff Murphy cites his 10 favorite pop songs, which should give you an idea of where the band drew their influences: The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Big Star’s “September Gurls,” Todd Rundgren’s “Couldn’t I Just Tell You,” Badfinger’s “Baby Blue,” The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out,” Paul Revere and The Raiders’ “Hungry,” The Beatles’ “You Never Give Me Your Money” medley, The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated,” Big Star’s “The Ballad of El Gordo,” and Cheap Trick’s “He’s A Whore.”

I assembled this 14-minute tour through my five favorite songs from Tongue Twister, followed by the Shoes’ official videos for the two best songs from Present Tense – the Byrds-ish “Too Late” and “Tomorrow Night.” It’s worth noting that they were played on MTV’s launch date of August 1, 1981.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

One of my biggest music turning points took place in 1997 when I was browsing the lower level of the late HMV on East 86th Street in Manhattan. I remember not being terribly impressed by anything on the radio, grunge’s heyday had passed, my son was just one year old, so I found myself walking up to 86th Street to do a cultural clean sweep between HMV and Barnes & Noble.

In the compilations section, I ran across three new CD’s from the Warner Brothers archival label Rhino devoted to power pop of the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s respectively, the famous (and brave) Poptopia series.

I was familiar with almost all the 70′s content (The Raspberries, Dwight Twilley, Badfinger, Nick Lowe, Cheap Trick, Shoes, etc.), about half the the 80′s edition and almost none of the 90′s. As a matter of fact, I was surprised there was a CD devoted to the 90′s at all — there was power pop going on now? I bought the last two decade editions and brought them home to sample.

Even though I had never heard of most of the 90′s bands, it was clear that three-minute jangly guitar rock was alive and well. As is my habit of diving in deeply into my passions, I researched every one of my favorite songs on that CD, typed in “power pop” into a search engine, and among the top results was Colorado-based power pop store/label Not Lame. I had struck gold, because here was a site that was slavishly devoted to the whole genre, selling CD’s from all kinds of regional labels, with a special section devoted to Swedish power pop!

I took the safe route by ordering a Not Lame compilation modestly titled The World’s Best Power Pop Compilation… Really! Volume One. After the Rhino Poptopia compilation, this was another CD sent from rock heaven, cracking open the that genre even further with more artists to relish and research. Good taste travels because there was one band both CD’s shared — The Rooks.

If the Beatles could release double A-sided singles (i.e. “Paperback Writer”/”Rain” and “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever”), the Rooks could have put out one of their own with “Reasons” (from Poptopia) on one side and “Colors” (from World’s Best Power Pop) on the other.

Here was New York City-based band, right in my own backyard, emulating British Invasion guitar bands, an American version of the beloved UK New Wave group The Records, with chiming Rickenbackers and Fenders, layered harmonies, bristling tambourines, and the occasional two-lead attack (see The Records’ “Starry Eyes” for reference!). Both “Reasons” and “Colors” are turn-it-up-loud songs that you can sing to, with modern analog production, yet sounding delightfully retro, like when you first heard the jangle of The Hollies’ “On A Carousel.”

I’ll admit that “Reasons” has very few lyrics, and you really have to listen to get all the words of “Colors” through the mix, but it honestly makes no difference. Who could decipher what Michael Stipe was singing about on the first four R.E.M. albums behind the jangly guitars of Peter Buck?

The Rooks, led by songwriter/singer/guitarist Mike Mazzarella, remained local underground favorites throughout the 90′s who were loved by the alternative music writers and critics, but sadly never able to break out on any wide basis. They produced indie label albums and singles and found themselves on other compilations, and I don’t even know if they are technically still “together.”

Their web site at www.therooks.com is alive and well with a tremendous amount of content and scrapbooks. In his online bio, Mazzarrella writes: “Today, most songs are written around riffs, samples and patterns and that is where the classic song structure suffers. If I can’t perform a song on an acoustic guitar or piano and make it work, then it’s not worth my time.”

I have the best of the Rooks in one good place, their Not Lame compilation called Encore Echoes, which contains “Reasons,” “Colors” and a whole lot more of their great songs if you appreciate British Invasion-influenced guitar bands.

Since there are no videos for “Reasons” and “Colors,” I’ve created one of my own featuring both songs, incorporating much of the artwork from The Rooks’ web site. Below that is a fun 3 1/2 minute overview from a never completed 1998 documentary about the band, featuring the backing tracks of another song, “Love Said To Me.”

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

I was updating my entry from two years ago for The Greg Kihn Band’s Byrds-like cover version of Bruce Springsteen’s “For You” with a homemade video, which brought up memories of seeing them perform at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, LI back in 1981. “The Breakup Song” finally got him into the Top 40, but his biggest chart topper, “Jeopardy,” was two yearsaway.

Kihn had toured relentlessly behind behind five very solid rock albums before “Jeopardy” become a hit and he put on a hell of a show. Real essence of rock and roll, stripped down, all emotion and sweat.

He’s now the morning DJ at a classic rock station in San Jose, CA, still performing with a band, and even with four horror novels under his belt! And his son’s name is Ry, after Ry Cooder, so there’s more serious cool.

Finally found out what the striking five-sided guitar Kihn is always playing as his trademark: it’s a Vox Phantom XII.

Springsteen returned Kihn the favor by giving him “Rendevous” for the With The Naked Eye album. Kihn loved doing covers, not only on albums, but in concert too. Let me share with you some of those live tunes on video, and you’ll see what you’re missing from a long time ago.

“Rendevous” (Bruce Springsteen)

“Roadrunner” (Jonathan Richman)


“For Your Love” (The Yardbirds)

“Sheila” (Tommy Roe)

“Higher and Higher” (Jackie Wilson)

“Telstar” (The Tornados) (this video from 1978)

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

In the early 70′s, Warner Brothers/Reprise Records had a counterculture-spiked advertising/promotional campaign that they ran in magazines like National Lampoon and Rolling Stone promoting their lively roster of artists including from Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Wildman Fisher (!!), Norman Greenbaum, The Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt and Tower of Power. Featuring Robert Crumb-inspired art, they offered a free promotional record to sample their artists. It’s hard to forget that promotion, as it appeared regularly and was given out at record stores.

Then sometime in 1974, still in high school, I read a rave review of the new Tower of Power album, Urban Renewal, singling out “Only So Much Oil In The Ground” as perceptive, topical, and… uh, funky. Then everybody started talking about that song. Maybe I heard it once on the radio, I don’t exactly remember — Tower of Power was never embraced by radio, for some reason.

But this was the heyday of record album buying, where I absorbed rock critics in newspapers and magazines, and if they thought this was outstanding, I was going to spend my or a buy the record. And that album cover was not exactly a big fish hook to reel’em in, a demolished building is not a pretty sight.

The first thing that hit me when I put the album on was everything. That bulldozer horn section knocks you over from the very opening of “Only So Much Oil” and really doesn’t stop. Horns, drums, bass, organ — all cooking at the same time. Unlike, say, a typical pop record which actually builds, layering on more instruments and licks, these guys operated on full steam for nearly every song.

Why wasn’t the band on the cover? You could see them on the back cover in a tightly cropped photo — this ensemble was nearly all white boys playing in your face soul and funk. Only keyboardist Chester Thompson and singer Lenny Williams were black. This was the same year the Average White Band broke through with a similar concept on “Pick Up The Pieces” (and they were not on their album covers either), so you’d think TOP would get their radio play with less obstacles by this time. Nope, and this was two years before Wild Cherry would just make fun of the whole thing with the classic “Play That Funky Music (white boy).”

Ironically, with a topical leadoff single and a staggeringly timely cover, the rest of Urban Renewal was not going to be the next socially-conscious What’s Going On. Heavily influenced by James Brown’s horn jams (except with twice as many brass players!), TOP swooped and cut like daredevils through funky numbers, all musicians at the top of their game, much like Frank Zappa always had the cream of the crop. This was the Oakland, California sound, patented in their previous album, Back To Oakland.

Everything was complex… but it totally cooked. There were swooning ballads (“Willing To Learn,” “It Can Never Be The Same,” “I Won’t Leave Unless You Want Me To”) and always the dizzying 6-minute instrumental jam (in this case, “Walking Up Hip Street”). Taking from the Motown tradition, they wrote lyrics based on old sayings, slogans, warnings, double entendres and metaphors — “It’s not the crime/It’s if you get caught!” “Maybe it’ll rub off!” “(To Say The Least) You’re The Most.”

To record a large group like this requires quite an engineering job and even on vinyl during those days, you couldn’t help but be impressed by how these records sounded. Full of life, everything clear and crackling, giving the speakers the full workout.

The members of Tower of Power were always worshiped like musical gods, now in their 40th year. Co-founders Emilio Castillo, bassist Rocco Prestia and the professorial looking Stephen “Doc” Kupka always get the familiar screams and yells. David Garibaldi is known as one of the best funk and soul drummers anywhere (and I own his drum sample/loop disc “Tower of Funk”). Former saxophonist Lenny Pickett would do the wildest things on record and stage with that instrument, stoking the crowds into loud screams, shouts and whistles, and he would eventually leave to be in Saturday Night Live’s house band. Trumpeter Greg Adams spent 25 years arranging the magical material until he left to release solo albums (and I own his loop/samples DVD, “Greg Adams Big Band Brass” — check out the cool music on his web site).

The band has been through more lead singers than Spinal Tap has with drummers. Old school TOP fans still think Lenny Williams was the best of the long line, some of whom sounded eerily like the man himself.

I’ve seen them live half a dozen times and if you think they’re a party on record, then you haven’t seen nothing yet. A TOP concert is a bring down the house experience, with more people playing “air horns” and “air drums” than any other act I can think of.

I do have to give a tip of the hat to my friend down the hall at SUNY at Buffalo during freshman year, Doug Alpern, for coming armed to school with more TOP albums and opening the whole scene to me.

So here they are, live from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006, is Tower of Power knocking everybody out with “Only So Much Oil In The Ground,” which still seems to be a timely message today.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr

Many people forget that Mark Knopfler used to really rock and roll. Nearly all his solo albums have been so low key, that they can often blend right into each other. But when he led Dire Straits in the late 70′s though the mid-80′s, he knew how to turn on the jets. I miss that Mark Knopfler.

After two successful albums that sounded pretty much the same, rhythm guitarist David Knopfler left the band. Dire Straits decided to employ a New York City-based production and engineering staff who worked behind hit albums behind Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Patti Smith.

First there was co-producer Jimmy Iovine, who produced some of the best rock albums of that era before tossing it away to form Interscope Records and rap success. Engineer Shelly Yakus had worked on everybody from Van Marrison and Blue Oyster Cult to Alice Cooper and Lo Reed. And if there wasn’t enough of a Springsteen connection, all the keyboards were played by Roy Bittan.

They wanted something that was going to sound different and succeeded in every way. Poetic, big in your face drums, closely mic’d guitars — this was the early 80′s rock vibe being sent out by the studios of New York.

I was doing a publishing internship with the 13-30 Corporation in Knoxville, TN, the first and only time I lived in the south, when this album arrived in the mail. I had made friends with the guys in my building, all U of T students, who thought it was pretty cool that a New York City guy was getting freebie albums in the mail.

Making Movies arrived in a flat cardboard box. I took it to my friend’s apartment, put it on the phonograph, and commenced our nightly foosball match. I’m not kidding when I tell you that we played it twice that night, it was that good. This was not the light and airy Dire Straits of “Sultans of Swing” or “Lady Writer,” but one with overdrive muscle, huge sound, and cinematic scope (hence the album title).

If “Lady Writer” is my favorite Dire Straits song, the album opening 8-minute epic “Tunnel of Love” is millimeters away as a close second. When CD players first appeared in the US in 1983, I was a early adopter, even though the discs all had to be imported at that time (there were no US plants — nobody was sure if the format would take off). One of my very first CD’s was Dire Straits’ Making Movies on Vertigo Records, and the accompanying booklet was”printed in West Germany.” For several years after that, when I wanted to demonstrate how awesome a CD could sound on a decent set of speakers, that was the first disc I went to, cranking up “Tunnel of Love,” letting the brief Rogers & Hammerstein “Carousel Waltz” blend into that first minor power chord with drums forming the wall with it.

I’ll concede that composing songs as coherent stories is difficult. It is like writing at least several short stories, and somehow making the lyrics fit the music in telling those tales. To this day, Knopfler has that God-given skill (next to his absolutely certified Fender Strat style) of spinning musical yarns.

“Tunnel of Love” is a moving nostalgic trip about a wild night out at the carnival, one which Knopfler says in the video below was near Newcastle, the now gone amusement park called “The Spanish City.” This rollicking speedboat of a song captures the frenzy, lights, games and chasing a mysterious girl with great emotion that goes up and down like that roller coaster. But in one part, he alludes that the character is reliving that colorful scene with that same girl. You’re never sure. The song actually slows down considerably in the middle and Knopfler sings that verse twice, pausing for effect, sounding weary, perhaps nostalgic.

Getting crazy on the waltzers but its life that choose,
Sing about the sixblade sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo.
And I been riding on a ghost train where the cars they scream and slam,
And I don’t know Ill be tonight but Id always tell you where I am.

In a screaming ring of faces I seen her standing in the light,
She had a ticket for the race just like me she was a victim of the night.
I put my hand upon the lever said let it rock and let it roll,
I had the one arm bandit fever there was an arrow through my heart and my soul.

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above,
And I’m just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl.
On the tunnel of love.

It’s just the danger when you’re riding at your own risk,
She said you are the perfect stranger she said baby lets keep it like this.
Its just a cakewalk twisting baby step right up and say,
Hey mister give me two give me two cos two can play.

And the big wheel on turning neon burning up above
And I’m just high on the world
Come on and take the low ride with me girl.
On the tunnel or love.

Well it’s been money for muscle another whirligig,
Money for muscle another girl I dig,
Another hustle just to make it big,
And Rockaway Rockaway.

And girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did,
Like the Spanish city to me when we where kids.
Oh girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did,
Like the Spanish city to me when we where kids.

She took off a silver locket she said remember me by this,
She put her hand in my pocket I got a keepsake and a kiss.
And in the roar of dust and diesel I stood and watched her walk away,
I could have caught up with her easy enough but something must have made me stay.

And the big wheel keep on turning neon up above
And I’m high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl.
On the tunnel of love.

And now I’m searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades,
Searching everywhere from steeplechase to Palisades.
In any shooting gallery where promises are made,
To Rockaway Rockaway from Cullercoats and Whitley Bay out to Rockaway.

And girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did,
Like the Spanish city to me when we where kids.
Girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did,
Like the Spanish city to me when we where kids.

Now that you’ve caught your breath with this first sweeping song, it’s time to get to the rest of what is undoubtedly Dire Straits’ best album. The absolutely haunting “Romeo and Juliet,” more skirt chasing in “Espresso Love,” and the mournful “Hand In Hand” all follow. On their double album of covers and b-sides from a couple of years ago, The Killers had their cover of “Romeo and Juliet” (which didn’t even come remotely close to the original, but I’ll give them points for excellent taste).

From the Brothers in Arms tour in 1985, here is Dire Straits performing “Tunnel of Love” at Wembley Arena in two parts. Knopfler in his usual bandanna, a complete master of the guitar, tossing off little bits of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “Stop In The Name of Love” in the opening intro. That’s longtime bassist John Ilsley in the blue shirt to Knopfler’s right. Former Rockpile drummer Terry Williams was behind the kit. With the introduction of piano in Making Movies, Knopfler recruited Guy Williams to the band. Watching the video reminds me of a British Springsteen — clearly Knopfler was influenced by the man.

TOTAL MUSIC GEEK by Drew Kerr