Throwback Tracks -- January 19, 2017
Shaun Cordingley
Welcome back to Throwback Tracks for 2017!
Hope you had a restful and fun holiday, and are ready to head back into more 20th century music!
This week I am going to be all over the place (no theme AT ALL) for...reasons that I will get into after we enjoy some music:
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
Dancing With Myself - Generation X (Gen X)
English punk-pop group Generation X (or Gen X for their last album) is perhaps best remembered now as being the launching point for their lead singers' solo career (Billy Idol), however, I have to say I have always liked the Gen X version of "Dancing With Myself", released in 1980 as a single, and as a part of their last album Kiss Me Deadly in 1981 to Idol's single version. At the end of the day, they are not too different from each other, however the Gen X "Dancing With Myself" has way more guitar in it--feels more punk than Idol's version later, which is very much mixed to feature his vocals over everything else. Nothing wrong with that I guess (solo career and all, get out of the way band), but honestly, the whole package working together is just the way I like it.
End of the day, it's a fun, high energy track to get Throwback Tracks started for the year.
Your Woman - White Town
Jyoti Prakash Mishra aka White Town is an English one-man-band project that is essentially a one-hit wonder with his 1997 single "Your Woman" off of his album Women in Technology. It's a hard song to categorize, though I do appreciate the term 'funktronica'...it's an alt-trip-hop song which Mishra has said is about "being a member of an orthodox Totskyist/Marxist movement. Being a straight guy in love with a lesbian. Being a gay guy in love with a straight man. Being a straight girl in love with a lying, two-timing, fake-arse Marxist. The hypocrisy that results when love and lust get mixed up with highbrow ideals"....now did I get any of that when this song came out in middle school?
nope.
Do I really follow a lot of that now?
Better?
"Your Woman" is still a weirdly complex song, with it's strange sing-spoke vocals and that trip-hop, subdued trumpet sample, but it's still as catchy and enjoyable as ever.
More Than a Feeling - Boston
I have been sitting here thinking about this for a little while, and you will have to let me know if I have missed something, but "More Than a Feeling" has got to be one of the best debut singles of any band...ever....(obviously not counting one hit wonders, which Boston is definitely not, though I am not sure they ever topped "Feeling").
Released in September of 1976 as their debut single off of their self-titled first album, "More Than a Feeling" peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top 100, but let's be honest: this is probably one of the true staples of classic rock: great vocals, great guitar, deceptively effective drums...."Feeling" just works, and I completely support VH1 in their declaration that this is the 39th best Hard Rock song of all-time.
We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place - The Animals
This is the second time we've talked about The Animals on Throwback Tracks, with the first being back in October, and really, "We Gotta Get out of This Place" is just another example of how great of a 60s rock band The Animals were, and how good a lead vocalist Eric Burdon is.
I probably first found out about this song thanks to Hamburger Hill, but to be honest, the themes and sound of "We Gotta Get out of This Place" are just so perfect for a lot of situations in life--I completely understand why it became popular for GI's in Vietnam, but I also get how it works at graduation parties, or going away parties, or retirements.....it just works.
This version, by the way, is the actual/official version of the song; there were two different releases of the track, one in the US, and one in the UK/most of everywhere else thanks to a mix-up at the American label. You can tell the difference (primarily) by listening to the first lyric in the second verse: "Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'" versus the American version which says "See my daddy in bed a-dyin"...which while similar, does change the feeling of that line a fair amount.
Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield
I felt that "Move On Up" by one of the most influential soul musicians of all-time, Curtis Mayfield would be a nice way to wrap this week up. This is the original, funky as hell nine minute long version of the track from his 1970 debut album Curtis, though a shortened, single version was released (failing to chart in the US, though peaking at #12 in the UK), but this is one of those songs that has, over time, become a classic.
It's hard not to feel the need to move listening to "Move On Up", as there is such an urgent energy infused to the whole thing that is really quite special (and something we just don't get in modern music--this is a song and a half by modern standards). Some of you may recognize it as well, even if you haven't heard it before (somehow), as a slowed down version was used in 2005's "Touch the Sky" by Kanye West.
Here is the November 2016 Throwback Playlist--again we're lucky enough to get every track on the list, which is one helluva 90 minute experience (little bit of everything, and some epic swings).
In case you missed our previous Throwback Track playlists, here they are:
October 2016 Throwback Playlist,
September 2016 Throwback Playlist
Remember, as I use Apple Music, that is where the playlists live, but if you want me to look into other services, just hit me up on Twitter and we'll chat about it.
This will by my last Throwback Tracks for a while--Dave is stepping up and will be taking the weekly article over for a while, so it's going to be a little different musically (but not that much). That's also why there was no theme this week, as I wanted to give Dave a few good entry points for when he builds the forthcoming playlist.
I'm sure I'll still reappear from time to time as well, but yeah....
Have a good week, and WE will see you next Thursday!
-S (@Shauncord)