The Mystery of Led Zeppelin's "In Through the Out Door" LP Cover

     

 The year was 1979 and both Led Zeppelin songs "Fool In The Rain and "All My Love" were being played at regular rotation on the radio. Music sounded great, but we all HAD to wonder about the LP the songs came from. The album was called "In Through the Out Door" and what made it stand out was the fact that the entire album was wrapped up in brown paper so you could not see what was on the cover! 

Was it something offensive like profanity on the cover? Something ultra-violent and bloody, or -gasp- overtly SEXUAL? We didn't know,  and the only way to find out was to purchase the thing!

BUY IT I did, and going home and unwrapping it, I didn't know WHAT to expect- but the last thing I could have foreseen was what I saw- a very plain (yet very noir-ish) black and white photo of a nattily dressed man  in white outfit and hat at a bar, burning a letter with a lighter.

EH? THIS was the cover they didn't want anyone to see? Was this depicting some controversial political thing or something? I just didn't get it!

At my father's workplace, there was an older guy working there who was a musician and a great source of rock n roll information to my burgeoning early rock-n-roll dabbling, and I made sure to ask him about it the next time I saw him. "Say, why did Led Zeppelin wrap the In Through the Out Door album with brown paper?" He though about it and shrugged, saying "I think they did it just to be artistic." Well, that wasn't the answer I'd hoped for, but with little else to go on, left it at that!

Some weeks later and I was at my friend Jason's house and his sister has also bought the album. We pondered the many reasons why they might have covered up the LP ( sex, violence, profanity) but it wasn't until I sat back and looked at his sister's copy of In Through The Out Door...and realized something was off! It was the same depiction of the man in the bar burning the photo...but THEIR copy was shot in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT viewpoint from the picture on MY copy at home!

"HEY! I shouted, "My cover is different from yours! Say, I bet  there must be a dozen different covers, and they covered it so you wouldn't know which one you got til you bought it and unwrapped it!" Turning the album around, I realized even the BACK cover was different from mine! This gimmick HAD to be the reason for the wrapping!

Running to that guy at my Dad's workplace the following week, I told him of my discovery, but he didn't quite believe me. "Why would they do that?" he countered, hinting I must be imagining things, but I insisted my copy and my friend's copy were different. "I know," I told him-"Next week, bring your copy and I'll bring mine and we'll compare and see if they're the same!"

Of course there was a chance that his copy and mine might be the exact SAME versions and I wouldn't have proven anything, however, when he brought his LP in, it TOO was drastically different from mine, showing once and for all that the variant covers (Such a new novelty at the time!) was really a thing!

In all there were 6 variations of the albums, each depicting the viewpoint of one character in the barroom, a fact I didn't discover til I saw the complete photos in the "In Through the Out Door" Guitar Songbook. What a cool concept from the geniuses at Hipgnosis!

And of COURSE, the MUSIC itself was a masterpiece, with not only the aforementioned tracks All My Love and Fool in the Rain, but the groovy "South Bound Saurez", the down-home contry kickin' "Hot Dog" and the epic synthesizer masterpiece "Carouselambra", the latter of which remains one of my BIG faves from the band.

As drummer John Bonham died after this release, In Through the Out Door became the band's last official album to be released, with only the odds-n-ends leftovers for "CODA" to follow. A strong album perfectly closing an awesome run!

Favorite Albums: Lesley Gore Sings Of Mixed-Up Hearts

Sometimes I'll pull out an album I haven't heard in awhile and just get blown away by the sheer AWESOMENESS of it, and so it was this weekend when I dug out my Lesley Gore album "Lesley Gore Sings Of Mixed-Up Hearts". 

Holy TOLEDO, I FORGOT how amazing this album was, really simply POP PERFECT!

Long a mainstay in my ever-shifting "FAVE 100 ALBUMS of ALL TIME, I was STILL blown away listening to it again. As some of you know well, I'm a big fan of Lesley's and adore her music, but this was like hearing it all over again for the first time! 

The perfect opening track (She's A Fool), Perfect Side Two Opening Track (You Don't Own Me) and album closers (I Struck a Match, If That's the Way You Want It,  Time To Go)....just a perfectly orchestrated masterpiece!!

And the songs themselves are some of the most catchy, beat-boppin' tunes, a terrific encapsulation of early 60's Rock 'n' Roll, penned by such greats as Goffin/King, Paul Anka, and Marvin Hamlisch...When you hear these tunes, ya just GOTTA get up and DANCE!

After that I had to listen to  a few more of my fave albums from her; "I'll Cry if I Want To",  "Boys Boys Boys", "Girl Talk", even the later "California Nights". Then going online to read up on her and being sadly reminded that Lesley was taken from us in 2015 due to Lung Cancer, a real "too Soon" tragedy...Thankfully we will always have her music to warm our hearts!

posted by zdorama

Favorite Albums: Betty Boo / Boomania

Way back in the early 90’s, my friend made me a mixed cassette tape opening with an extremely dancey pop song which he’d culled off of the Career Opportunities soundtrack which he’d recently picked up. This song was called Where Are You Baby, by a mysterious singer named Betty Boo, and I loved it so much, I needed to hear MORE from this artist!

Happily, my brother owned a copy of Betty Boo’s new release Boomania, an album which featured Where Are You Baby as its opening track, and my GOSH, all it took was one spin and I fell in love with almost every track! One after the other, the songs coming at me were sooo, sooo rocking and catchy, I just HAD to pick the album up for myself!

Back in the days before Wikipedia and such, there was really nowhere to learn more about Betty Boo- where did she come from? What was her “Deal”? Of course, now I know quite a bit about the former Ms. Alison Clarkson, but at the time, all I knew was what was provided in the CD liner notes. In fact, it wasn’t until months later that I even saw any videoclips of Betty, and I have to say it was quite something seeing her performing “Hey DJ/I Can’t Dance To that Music” for the first time- complete with 1960’s James Bond Secret Agent kitsch- what a conundrum she was!

Of all the songs, the stand out tracks for me are Doing The Do, Hey DJ (I Can’t Dance To That Music You’re Playing, Boo’s Booming, 24 Hours, Don’t Know What To Do (dreamy synth pop here) and of course Where are You Baby, the song that started it all! Though Betty Boo’s music is decidedly more on the Rap/R&B side, there is something about its that makes it seem more like alternative music than soul- at the time I reflected that her sound sounded a lot like Dance Pop Trio Dee-Light, with their song Groove is in the Heart…

Betty followed Boomania with  a quirky album called “Grrr! It’s Betty Boo”, but after that, I didn’t hear much more from her. No matter, it’s Boomania that will stand the test of time, and in the years since its come out, I’ve introduced the album to many, MANY new fans and they all agree that Boomania is a snappy little masterpiece!

Favorite Albums: Buddy Holly "20 Golden Greats"

I’ve always been quite fascinated by the Fabulous Ffties (and what kid growing up in the seventies wasn’t? With movies like American Graffiti and Grease out and TV Shows like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, we were simply inundated with the stuff! HWne me and my friend began showing an interest in learning more of the music from that golden era, my friend’s mother introduced us to some of her LPS, and one of the ones I absolutely LOVED was a nifty little “Greatest Hits” collection of sorts by Buddy Holly called “20 Golden Greats”
 As the song implies, it was a record of 20 songs with 10 songs per side, and what awesome songs they were! First off I was amazed at just how many of Buddy Holly’s songs I already KNEW, with songs like “That’s Be The Day”, Everyday”, and "Maybe Baby” to name a few, but it was  equally surprising to find that even the songs I hadn’t heard before were soooo sooo good too! Songs like “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Think It Over” were pure pop masterpieces, and songs like “Oh Boy!”,“Rave On” and the kickin’ Chuck Berry classic “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” were as rock ‘n’ Rollin’ as you got!  And songs Like “True Love Ways and “Raining In My Heart” really captured that pure 1950’s essence that made me feel like I was being transported back to those days! After a few weeks of listening to the LP at his house, I HAD to go out and get my own!

I don’t know who chose these particular songs to make up this collection, but I want to shake his or her hand. Through the years I’ve gotten quite a few Buddy Holly collections, but none have had the perfect balance of pop, rock and ballads to them like 20 Golden Greats had. It was just perfection!

  The cover for 20 Golden Greats was pretty basic: Just a brick wall with the words “Buddy Holly Lives” sprayed on it, so I would spend the entire time listening to the record reading and re-reading the song credits on the back of the album with a stoic Buddy Holly  photo smiling down  upon me. But the words that summed it up best was the text above the picture of Buddy: “In Just 18 Months, Buddy Holly Recorded 9 Top Ten Smash Hits. He Was Ahead Of His Time. He Died Before His Time. His Music Lives On.”

Favorite Albums: "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" by The Rolling Stones

Maybe you can blame it on me being really young when I first got it, (like 12-14 yrs old), but THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES' REQUEST is probably my favorite of all the early Rolling Stones albums! 
While we all know that this album is the one labeled as "The album where the Stones tried to do Sgt Peppers", being a HUGE Beatles fan, rather than a deterrent, this labeling made me want to hear it even MORE! Growing up, I was DYING to get my hands on this album, the Colorful Psychedelic flicker-card cover ALONE made me want it bad! When I eventually saved up enough money to get it, I dove in head first and immersed myself in it, and I was NOT disappointed! The Stones' one and only "psychedelic phase" was as high as the moon and as trippy as a dream, I must have played that thing over and over again for weeks, getting into the music and staring at the strange, spacey artwork on the covers, gatefold and inside sleeves! 

 While not your usual Stones fare, I love all of these songs, from the well-known classics like "She's a Rainbow" and "2000 Light Years From Home"...

...the artsy minstrel sounding songs like "Lantern" and "Citadel", (How can these songs sound so folksy with those tasty Richards licks gracing them? Too awesome!)

...the super catchy and funky "Gomper", the Beatlesy rip-off "Why Don't We Sing This Song Together" and "On With the Show" (complete with Jagger trying to do his nasally Paul McCartney voice), and even the zany Bill Wyman tune "In Another Land"...gosh, even just typing these titles is taking me back to my teenage years locked in my room and spacing out listening to this album!

  Don’t get me wrong, I love ALL the Stones albums from the first Introduction LP to the intense 70’s albums like Exile On Main Street, down through Emotional Resuce, Dirty Work and later ones like Steel Wheels, etc, but there is really something special I hold in my heart for this one particular album!

Favorite Albums: Fleetwood Mac / Mirage

Around Mid- 1983, I was insanely in love with singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks, and was voraciously devouring anything and everything to do with her. Though I’d always loved her Fleetwood Mac songs and was even a fan of her Bella Donna solo album (especially the rocking Edge Of Seventeen), it wasn’t until her second album The Wild Heart came out that I totally flipped for her and began worshipping her as the rock-goddess she was!

  Back then, out video station of choice was Night Tracks on WTBS, and me and my friends tuned in every weekend to check out the latest videos before heading out for the night’s activities. At that time, my favorite videos were Stevie’s "If Anyone Falls" as well as "Stand Back", but I was curious about another Stevie video that Night Tracks routinely played, and that was the dreamy and mystical Gypsy, which credits told me was off of Fleetwood Mac’s latest album Mirage, which had just come out a few months earlier.

  Mirage? What was that album? I’d heard of Rumours, of course, as well as the big (at that time) album Tusk, but didn’t know anything about this one, nor did I know anyone who’d picked it up. But I really wanted the Gypsy Track, and when my friend Herb informed me that it also had the fun song “Hold Me” on it, I was convinced!

   We went down to Tower Records, and as I waited in line looking over the George Hurell-shot cover, I remember the first thing that shocked me was getting used to Lindsey Buckingham without his trademark afro and goatee! The cover was kind of a wraparound thing, with Lindsey and the girls on the front, and the Fleetwood and Mac group namesakes on the back, looking very much like the wards of the ‘Mac Estate!

We took the album home and immediately dove in. While my friend Herb showed only passing interest in the tracks, I was immediately smitten and would go on to not only repeatedly play that album over and over, but make all my FRIENDS listen to it, too!

  One great thing about having three prolific songwriters in the group is a LOT of diversity, and Mirage is another great showcase of the members’ talents. Christine, Lindsey and Stevie each take turns with their compositions, giving the album a decidedly “White Album” feel to it as they build up a musical “quilt” of song genres!

  With Lindsey Buckingham, It’s funny, that in the first two ‘Mac albums he and Stevie were in, his songs were carefully crafted pop/rock tunes, but by the time TUSK came out, his songwriting (to ME at least) started to sound like that Dana Carvey "Choppin' Broccoli" songwriting character who makes up songs as he goes along, and songs like “Not That Funny!” and “What Makes You Think You’re The One” sounded more like jam sessions with nonsensical lyrics than actual singles. 

The songs he penned for Mirage still have this loose free-form feel to them (as in songs like "Book of Love", "Diane" and "Can’t Go Back”, but they are fun and catchy as hell! There’s this one goofy song called “Eyes of the World”, and with its refrain of “eyes…eyes…eyes” as its chorus, my friend James once exclaimed “What the heck is this crap?!” before dancing around, pointing at his eyes in tune with the song. AHAHAHA! But the one masterpiece Lindsey DID lay down for this album was the cool, rocking song EMPIRE STATE, about his experiences in the Big Apple (as opposed to Sunny California). MAN, I love to blast this one!

  Stevie is the one who’s experimented the most with her songwriting, and though “Gypsy” sounds most like her previous work (almost like a sequel of sorts to “Rhiannon”), her other two songs sound more like the stuff she was writing for her solo albums. “That’s Alright” is a country-tinged kicker that almost seems like a precursor for her later “Enchanted” song, but it’s her third track “Straight Back!” that sounds the most like the “solo” Stevie Nicks songs, a slow rocker driven by some awesome keyboards by Christine. The song fades out too soon; I really wish this song could have been a bit longer for how good it is!

 Of the three, Christine McVie is the most reliable here, and she exudes the same romantic pop stylings that gave us songs like “You Make Loving Fun”, “Warm Ways” and “Songbird”. Opening the album with the awesome toe-tapping sunshine-y song “Love In Store”, she runs the gamut through tunes like “Out Of My Mind” and the fun aforementioned song “Hold Me” before closing the album with the beautifully melancholy “Wish You Were Here”, one of her BEST ballads, ever!

 High on the album, that Christmas I was THRILLED to find that they’d released a Videodisc concert of their MIRAGE tour, and after I bought it (at the local RCA dealership), it quickly became the most played movie that season! Songs form Mirage like Love In Store”, “Gypsy” and “Eyes Of The World”(!) were all featured here, and the show even had one of the coolest openings ever with “The Chain”, and one of the sweetest closing songs with “Songbird”!

Although I know that albums like Rumours and the eponymous titled Fleetwood Mac albums are probably greater albums overall, I’ve really come to embrace MIRAGE as my own, because while most Fleetwood Mac fans either love the “Bare Trees” era, the Rumours era, or the “Tango in The Night” comeback era, I have never, NEVER met another fan who owns, much less loves MIRAGE as much as me. Which is strange, because it was a bestseller when it came out…where did all those purchasers get to?

Favorite Albums: Dead Milkmen / Eat Your Paisley!

I was first introduced to the sounds of the Dead Milkmen by a local band called X=X. Among the songs in their setlist was a groovy and fun song called “The Thing That Only Eats Hippies”, and when I asked the bassist about the song one evening, he informed me that the song was in fact a cover of a group with the zany name of the Dead Milkmen!

Dead milkmen? Well, that was a sillier name than I could have imagined, but when you consider that this is a band who sings lyrics like:

“What Do they Taste Like?

Some Kind Of Treat?

How Many Hippies Can This Monster Eat?

It Ate Stills and Nash Before they Could Shout

And then it chewed on David Crosby- But it spit him out!”

I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any less!!! HAHAHAHA

 That weekend I made my way to the local record store in an attempt to find the Dead Milkmen album with The Thing That Only Eats Hippies. This wasn’t too hard a feat seeing as how the Milkmen only had a couple of albums out, the other one being “Big Lizard in My Backyard”. The Hippies song was on their latest album, a crayon-drawn cover with the curious title “Eat Your Paisley”!

Well, the title alone indicated that the album would be as much fun as the Hippies song, and not only did it not disappoint, it blew us away! Every song was SOOOO MUCH FUN! Listening to EAT YOUR PAISLEY was like watching a marathon of  “The Kids In The Hall”, it was so zany! And Catchy! Man, that album became the soundtrack for me and my friends that summer!

Days were spent on campus singing the lyrics to “Where the Tarantula Lives”, and nights were spent driving around town loudly singing along to deliciously warped tunes like “Beach Party Vietnam” “Air-Crash Museum”, and the acidic poseur-bashing tune “Moron”, and a favorite to all was blasting the epic album closing song “The Fez”!

Of course, in later years, the Dead Milkmen would gain a larger audience with their peppy song “Punk-Rock Girl (probably the song they’re most known for nowadays), but Man, nothing can top those  college days of Eat Your Paisley!

Favorite Albums: Petula Clark / My Love

One of my all-time favorite female vocallists, Petula Clark probably THE female vocallist of the “Swinging Sixites” sound with hits like “Downtown” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”, among others!

Growing up, my favorite song from Ms. Clark, or “Pet” as they called her occasionally, was the super-positive, horn blaring single A SIGN OF THE TIMES. I always turned this one up whenver it came on the radio, Petula’s voice always seemed so sincere and happy as she sang the lines “You’ve changed a lot somehow from the one I used to know, ‘cause when you hold me now, it feels like you never wanna let me go!”.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t until I fell in love with ANOTHER one of her singles that I finally decided I’d better pick up an album from her: One day we were all riding down to drop someone off at the Denver Airport, and Pet’s song MY LOVE came on the radio. With its simplistic lyrics, it was one of those songs that everybody knew the words to, and everyone in the car started singing at the tops of their lungs, “MY LOVE IS WARMER THAN THE WARMEST SUNSHINE SOFTER THAN A SIGH MY LOVE IS DEEPER THAN THE DEEPEST OCEAN WIDER THAN THE SKY MY LOVE IS BRIGHTER THAN THE BRIGHTEST STAR THAT SHINES EVERY NIGHT ABOVE, AND THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAN CAN EVER CHANGE MY LOVEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” After the song ended, we all sat around grinning like idiots, that song made us so happy! I said, “Ah, I really must pick up this song the next time I’m a a record store!”

Well, when I finally got down to the record store, I was PLEASANTLY surprised to find that the album “My Love”ALSO featured my old favorite, “A Sign Of The Times”!! I couldn’t believe it! How did I ever miss picking this album up originally?! For a very modest $6.99 I was able to purchase that album and take it home!

Well, for weeks and weeks, that album was my main disc to play almost every track was just pure pop perfection. Arranged and Conducted by Tony Hatch, the sound of Pet’s recordings really had that Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” aura about it, the tunes just blared out with droning horns, banging drums and riffin’ guitars!

Nowadays, young people cannot imagine having to change sides to hear a complete album, but that’s how it was, and sometimes it would happen that you’d get attatched to one side more than the other…that’s what happened to me with the My Love album!

For some reason, even though side A started with “My Love”, all of my favorite songs form the album were on side B, so it may seem like I have a LOT more to say about the tracks on the second side!!

After  “My Love” starts Side One, next we had “Hold Onto What You’ve Got” and “We Can Work It Out”, and  although only the latter was penned by Mssrs. Lennon and McCartney, both are really Beatlesy in flavor, at least as far as THESE ears are concerned!

“Time for Love” is the song I called the “Downtown” of this album, It really sounds like a song recorded during THAT session with its bright keyboards chirping away!

An emotional Pet on “Just Say Goodbye”, my fave line’s when she sings “It’s sad that you must go, you loved me once, I know, this much I can’t deny”…

“Life and Soul of the Party”-I don’t know if it’s the fact that the song’s about being at a PARTY, but I’ve always thought of this as Pet singing a  LESLEY GORE song, really “Judy’s Turn to Cry” in feeling!

And THAT ends Side One…

 Side Two:

First off, “A Sign of The Times”, followed by a GREAT rendition of  the standard “The Thirty-First of June”, a song that Petula made her own, as she did on so many other tunes!

I think this is Pet singing at her heart-wrenching best, with its “darling” hook, and especially when the song swells up and she sings the lines “Even so, deep inside the fire of love still burns, so please return and love me now!” Powerful!

“I Can’t Remember Ever Loving You” has that tinkly piano that I always thought sounded like “Precious and Few” by Climax, a song that was almost the exact OPPOSITE of Pet’s sad song that ‘s more akin to Barry Manilow’s “Trying To Get That Feeling Again”!

“Dance with Me” features a VERY “Soundtrack-y” orchestration behind her vocals, even slightly reminiscent of the intro to “The Age Of Aquarius” and even a bit of  “My Hawaii” by the Young Rascals!

And closing the album with one of my very, very favorite Petula Clark tracks, Pet’s take on the Guys and Dolls standard “If I Were a Bell”…folks, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say, it just doesn’t get better than this! The horns, drums, Pet’s solid vocals, WOW, this had all the aura of Las Vegas in the 60’s, when everything was “Cool, Baby!”

Why, Pet even throw in a few “Ring-a-Dings” just in case you didn’t catch that one!

This pourchase was soon followed by what would become my OTHER favorite album from Pet, “Petula Sings The International Hits” but these were only the beginning of a long and lasting love of all things Petula Clark and I was probably the happiest guy at Tower Records when, years later, they FINALLYgot around to re-releasing all of Pet’s albums on CD! What they’d done was , each CD combined TWO of Pet’s albums, in the case of MY LOVE, it was on the same CD with  I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOUR LOVE. Funny thing, THAT album began with Pet’s take on “Strangers in the Night”, and since it followed the MY LOVE album, “If I Were A Bell” went right into “Strangers in the Night”, a PERFECT coupling, both with that aforementioned “Vegassy” feel and Sinatra connection! Ahahahaha

Favorite Albums: The Electric Prunes / Underground

Most people are familiar with The Electric Prunes as the one-hit-wonder group who did the song "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”. And while that song rocks, (as does the entire album it is from), my favorite album from the Prunes is their second album, UNDERGROUND.

   Unlike the first album, this one featured a more focused group that was branching off into psychedelia and concept songs. Like the first album, the songs balanced between rocking, bluesy and just plain silly songs, but here the group started really experimenting with effects and studio trickery, and you end up with a far out album that is as great as any of the other concept albums around ’68.

Highlights for me are “The Great Banana Hoax” (which has nothing to do with bananas or hoaxes, but features a groovy rumbling drum beat!), “Captain Glory” , “Hideaway”, and the mystifying dreamy rocker “Antique Doll” .

 Even the silly songs here are catchy enough...(though not enough that I felt like uploading 'em here!) and the zany song "Dr. Do-Good" was even released as a SINGLE?! Sounds a bit like "They're Coming to take me away!"

Heck, I even like their take on Nashville in the wacky country tune "It's Not Fair"!

Favorite Albums: The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

There was a time when my favorite group was The Kinks, and I was busy trying to get all the albums that featured my favorite songs by the eclectic British Invasion group. From You Really Got Me, through Lola and All Day and All of the Night, I picked em all up! But there was one particular album that I didn’t know anything about. It was called The Village Green Preservation Society, and was one of the last albums featuring the original 4-man lineup of Ray, Dave, Mick and Pete. What WAS this album? Was it Country? or, by the look of the cover, was it Folk?

Well, I didn’t know, but since the album was one of the few Kinks albums in the NICE PRICE line, (for those who don’t remember, the NICE PRICE albums were these selected cheaper priced albums that sold for $3.99) I didn’t have anything to lose by purchasing the album and checking it out- and MY GOSH, did THAT end up being a BARGAIN!

Like I said, I assumed it was going to be a country or folk album just by the title and cover picture, so I was COMPLETELY TAKEN UNAWARE when I was hit by one of the most witty, sentimental and HILARIOUS concept albums I’d ever heard in my life! Listening to this album was like foraging through an old chest of treasures in a dusty attic- all these little gems singing about the most mundane things in life, tunes that were innovative AND catchy at the same time!  We only had to listen to it once before the album became THE soundtrack me and my friends listened to for MONTHS, and to this day, The Village Green Preservation Society still remains one of my most beloved albums in my collection, easily one of the top twenty LPs I own!

The Village Green Preservation Society

An Ode to all things pure and simple in the world, championing such things as antique tables, little shops and virginity! This song about celebrating all the everyday things in life sets the template for the theme of the Village Green Preservation Society LP!

Do You Remember Walter?

A sentimental song about a childhood friendship. After reminiscing about adventures he’s had as a kid with a friend named Walter, he realizes that if he were to meet Walter now, He’d probably be nothing like the childhood friend he knew, and would probably not even care about the things they did. But that’s okay, because he still has his memories of their childhood days.

Picture Book

A song about the magic of looking through old Photo Albums, this song is more recently known for its brief stint as the theme song for one of those computer photo printers.

A sort of precursor for the album closer “People Take Pictures of each other”.

Johnny Thunder

We’ve always debated whether this song was about a true Paul Bunyan-ish hero or a misunderstood savior, but one thing is sure- Johnny Thunder’s a tough  ol’ guy, and he has a little sweetheart named Helena who has all the faith in the world in him.

Last of the Steam-Powered Trains

A sad song sung in the first person of a now passé Steam-Engine lamenting his replacement by the more slick and modern express Trains  that progress has presented. But he perks up by saying that by being an antique and placed in a museum, his well-being will be seen to!

I love the way this song’s beat trudges along like a train chugging, slowly picking up speed as the song progresses, to its big end!

Big Sky

And just who might the character “Big Sky” be, if not our Father who Art In Heaven?

A song about the sometimes callous indifference God has regarding the trials and tribulations we petty humans go through, while reminding us that one day, all our suffering will be rewarded. “One day we’ll be free, til that day can be, don’t let it get you down!”

Sitting By The Riverside

Ah, a song drenched with shades of Maurice Chevalier! This song completely encapsulates a dreamy scene sitting in a little café sipping tea as gondolas go by in the orange sunset, soaking in the Joi de vivre…

A sweet way to end Side One!

Animal Farm

Side Two’s opening track about leaving the headaches and bustle of the big, noisy city and moving to the country, where a man can rest easy and clear his head, free of traffic and superficial people…

Village Green

A sort of sequel to Animal Farm, this one’s about a fine, upstanding young man who has made a name for himself in the big city, but has fond memories about his days growing up in the simple country.

Phenomenal Cat

And what would an album  about the sweet and innocent things in life be without a NURSERY RHYME? A song that conjures up the images of “The Owl and The Pussycat”, the highlight of the melody is Ray’s own distorted singing as the voice of the Phenomenal Cat merrily humming away!

Starstruck

A fun ditty about a young girl who gets obsessed by the glitz and glamour of the  Hollywood scene, and her subsequent transformation into a wanna-be socialite, this tune is made fun by it’s showtime revue refrain: Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba!!

All of My Friends Were There

A trauma all of us go through- drinking too much and making a fool of yourself in front of everyone!

Wicked Annabella

Once you’ve sung a nursery rhyme, what could be more appropriate than to follow it up with a Fairy Tale? And a pretty spooky one, at that! The story of a wicked old Witch that flies the skies at night, looking for kids who haven’t gone to sleep like good little children…

Effectively sinister guitar riffs for this one, too!

Ah, haven’t we all known girls like the songs titular heroine? Smart, sexy, and oh-so-highly desirable, Monica knows she’s too good for just about ANYONE, and enjoys shooting hopeful young suitors down in flames! A man obsessed with a gal just aglow with confidence and charisma!

People Take Pictures Of Each Other

A HILARIOUS, fun way to end the album! The song sings about the wonder of Photo taking and photo sharing, and as the nostalgic host shows more and more pictures to his guest, the bored captive audience begs, “Don’t show me no more, please”! Something that ANYONE who’s been forced to watch somebody else’s family slideshows can relate to!

Favorite Albums: Duran Duran / Rio

It was actually my sister who introduced me to the music of Duran Duran as a whole. Before she started bringing home all their albums and EPs, the only song I knew from them was the heavily-played on MTV song Hungry Like The Wolf. But after a few months of listening to her playing her albums over and over, I actually began to dig their music quite a bit!

I had an RCA Videodisc Player which I had purchased so I could watch The Who’s “Kids Are Alright” movie (the only format it was available in at the time), so most of my music concerts were in the Videodisc format as well. Discs like The Beatles’ “Let It Be” (Yes! They released it on Videodisc!) and Fleetwood Mac’s “Mirage” Tour Concert were bought on a regular basis, and one day my sister asked me if I’d let her use the Videodisc Player if she bought a Videodisc of her own. I said sure, and the following weekend, she came home with a video collection of DURAN DURAN!

For a guy who didn’t know much about Duran Duran , this was a  mind-blowing and very educational experience! You got to see the band go through their early new wave roots up to their current (at the time) status as video-as-art mavericks! You got to see them go through several phases of “looks”…The songs segued into each other, making the contrasts of each type of video all the more palatable! And the SONGS were so damn good!

Eventually I had to go ahead and purchase their albums myself, including both versions of their “first” album, as well as what I consider their pop-art masterpiece, RIO.

The cover art for Rio was the (soon to be) iconical image of a smiling woman done by Patrick Nagel, at once capturing the whole “Nu-Romantic” feel before you’d even started playing the record!

1.Rio

The album starts off with a single synthesizer note, then the drums kick in to introduce the beat and then the song turns this into a jumping, rocking piece, setting the stage for your musical trip!

 2. Most of the songs here had videos shot on exotic locations (like, famously, Sri Lanka) and so when hearing songs like “Lonely in Your Nightmare” conjures up visions of faraway lands, giving you a melancholy (and quite lonely) feeling, John’s bass solos are particularly expressive here.

3.The version of the song “My Own Way” I learned was from the video, which featured the dance-“night” version of the song, and when I first made a cassette to play in my car, it was THAT version I inserted into the album’s playlist. And even now I still would prefer to listed to that version than the decidedly slower one originally on the album!

4. The one song I’d already known before coming in, this is a fun number that’s only marred by an EXTREMELY irritating end with a lady loudly moaning during the fade out. WTF, this wasn’t so noticeable in the single version!

5. Hold Back The Rain

Side One ended with this longish song in ths style of the above Hungry Like the Wolf track, this one foreshadowed later songs New Moon On Monday and Union of the Snake.

7. New Religion

This is one ROCKING number, another one driven by John’s distinctive bass plucking.

ME and my friends would LOVE to sing this song with its interesting lead vocal overlaid with a counter vocal during the choruses! One of my faves from this album!

8.Last Chance On The Stairway

 Ah, another BIG favorite  of mine- this one begins with an almost whimsical and romantic feel (with him sweetly reminiscing "I don't remember quite how I met you, wasn't long ago") but turns into a rocking song full of desperation!

9. Save A Prayer

Like Lonely In Your Nightmare, this one was shot on location and so gives an added feel of displacement, loss and loneliness. One of the more famous MTV videos by them, I might add. A truly beautiful and haunting song!

10. The Chauffeur
Did I mention Haunting? MAN, songs like  album closer “The Chauffeur” go even further by giving you the strangest sense of unease!  its Magical Toyland feel to it, I've always imagined the picture on the cover of Aerosmith's "Toys In The Attic" with the dolls and hobby-horses coming to life, and there's even a disembodied voice asking about "the toys in the attic" A mesmerizing end to an amazing album!!

Years later, and though they’ve made many video collections after that, they’ve never released that original Duran Duran Video Collection on DVD. Sure, the videos themselves are (for the most part) available on other collections, but there was something about the way that old video was put together that just made it…perfect! 

Favorite Albums: 10,000 Maniacs / In My Tribe

I’ve already written about how my friend turned me onto the Maniacs with the rocking tune SCORPIO RISING and their subsequent album THE WISHING CHAIR, but it wasn’t until the band released their second album that I became a hardcore 10,000 Maniacs fan for life. I had picked up the album on cassette so I could listen to it walking to work, and from the first listen I knew it was going to be one of my very favorite albums, ever!!

What’s The Matter Here?

Words cannot aptly describe what I felt the first time I heard the opening track “ What’s The Matter Here?” This song was just incredible, from its driving  drum beat and melodic guitars showcasing Natalie singing about the helplessness of witnessing child abuse…I still think this is one of the finest tunes ever written! But it didn’t stop there…. one after another, the perfect pop tunes kept coming at me!

Hey Jack Kerouac

If I hadn’t already associated the band with the beat poet/coffee house scene, the Maniacs’ ode to the tragic Jack Kerouac certainlywould’ve done the trick! Awesome Beat and melody, this one!

Like The Weather

The very first video I ever saw of the group, on the brand new VH1 video station, of all places. At the time I remember thinking Natalie looked a LOT older than the pic on the back of The Wishing Chair! This song is probably their first biggie.

Cherry Tree

A song about the shame of illiteracy. A peppy tune about an important subject! I remember my friend Herbert thinking that the Maniacs’ style of writing was “weird”, and he cites the quirky end of Cherry Tree as an example.

Hmmm…That ending never bothered me! In fact, it was pretty upbeat!

The Painted Desert

Lots of echo effect on the guitar chords really give this song the feel of the vast, wide-open space of the desert.

Don’t Talk

A real rocking song. They performed this one on Late Night with David Letterman one night, and it just knocked me OUT! As for the topic of this song; of not wanting to argue with someone who’s drunk off his ass, haven’t we all been in this kind of situation at one time or another? Heh Heh!

Peace Train

I’ve always liked the way the Beatles followed up I WANT YOU (She’s So Heavy) on side A of Abbey Road with HERE COMES THE SUN on Side B. After a loud, powerful saturated song, side two begins with a breath of fresh air. And that’s just what the Maniacs did when they ended side One of In y Tribe with Don’t Talk, and began side Two with “Peace Train”.

  A sweet, feel-good song, I rmember being really bummed out when I heard they were removing this song off future CD releases of In My Tribe, but in recent times it seems that it has been re-instated into its proper place. And if not, you can always still get it off the terrific “Campfire Songs” collection.

  There’s a video for this song out there somewhere, but to this day I’ve only seen snippets on Youtube, scenes of Natalie and the boys floating down a river on a raft like Huckleberry Finn…

A Campfire Song

 Obligatory Michael Stipe appearance here. It was around this time that everyone was buzzing about the two of them as an item, and boy does that seem silly in this day and age. A fun song to watch Natalie sing live when she invites unwitting audience members to sing the Michael Stipe parts! AHAHAHA

Gun Shy

 Another song that  Herbert used to point out as a “weird” written song. “They have this maddening way of ending their songs with these weird clipped statements”…

ell, in any cas, it’s a nice, thoughtfully sung song, about a girl porud that her brother’s grown up, but also sad because he’s joined the army. Beware, peaceniks!

My Sister Rose

Fun song a la DAKTARI about all the extravagance of a Sister’s Wedding Day. Yet another song Herbert singled out as strange. I remember when Natalie sang the closing line, “But You’re My-SISTER-ROSE-THE-SAME!” Herb leaped up and cried, “Yaah! See? That song had that kind of ending, too!” Hahahaha Too funny!

City Of Angels

A Powerful song, another that, Like “Painted Desert”,uses echo and effeets to really create the feeling of a HUGE, VAST CITY, bulidings towering over you,looking down endless streets…The drums really pack a wallop here, too. A song about the allure of  the big city, and the dregs of failures who came to “make it” and didn’t succeed. One of my faves.

Verdi Cries

And then we have Natalie’s epic closing song, the incredible “Verdi Cries”. Melancholy and moving- with wonderful picturesque lyricsgiving you at once the feeling of yearning, lonliness and homesickness!!! When you have an album open with a song like “What’s the matter here”, and end it with a song like “Verdi Cries”, it’s no wonder this album is so highly regarded as the Maniacs’ finest, an opinion I WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT!

Shortly after falling in love with the album, 10,000 Maniacs appeared on Saturday Night Live (guest host: Judge Reinhold), and performed Like The Weather and What’s The Matter Here. Like the Weather was fun and breezy, but it was the performance of What’s The Matter Here that did it for me. THIS WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PERFS I’D EVER SEEN! There was no going back for me, and I became a rabid Maniacs fan from then on!