F.A.T. – Funny Album Titles

I’ve been thinking about record albums — you know those round, 33 and 1/3 RPM things? I was a teenager in the 80s during the cassette/CD era, but albums were still around and I remember them from my even younger days.

Recently, I saw the film “Wayne’s World” again and it got me thinking about album titles. There’s a scene where Wayne tells musician Cassandra she and her band, “kick ass. You’re Double Live Gonzo! Intensity in 10 Cities. Live at Budokan” — all references to rock album titles. Here’s a short list of some of my favorite album TITLES. As a disclaimer, I have never owned any of these, but definitely enjoy these songs and artists.

First up, is a selection of my midwestern bias. I’m talking about the band REO Speedwagon. Their 1978 album was entitled “You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish.” One song on the album is called “The Unidentified Flying Tuna Trot.”

Kudos to lead guitarist Gary Richrath for this instrumental. I always chuckled in the record store when I would see this album title.

My second pick comes from Leslie West. He’s the portly dude who played guitar in the band Mountain and sang lead vocals on “Mississippi Queen.” West apparently had a great sense of humor because his 1975 solo album was entitled “The Great Fatsby.” One of the interesting covers on the record is “If I Were a Carpenter”.

The song was written by Tim Hardin. (Oh, and The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read it my freshman year in high school.) Leslie West also recorded some other interesting covers on the album like “Honkytonk Women” and “House of the Rising Sun.”

My third pick for Funny Album Title comes from former Thin Lizzy frontman-bassist Phil Lynott. I don’t know that there’s ever been a better solo album title released from a band member than “Solo in Soho.” One cut is a tribute to Elvis Presley called “King’s Call.”

Mark Knopfler contributed the weepy sounding guitar on the track. There’s another song on the album called “Yellow Pearl” which was used as a theme song for Top of the Pops.

Well those are my three picks for Funniest Album Title. I wonder if record company execs objected to any or all of these titles? Nevertheless, they are memorable.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Great Whitford’s Ghost!

Once in a while you find a song whose title isn’t really a prominent part of the lyrics. Led Zeppelin has a few songs, if not several, which fall into this category: “Black Dog”, “Over the Hills and Far Away”, etc. The song which popped into my head recently isn’t by Led Zeppelin, but rather by Aerosmith. This one has a hypnotic bass and guitar riff and is called “Last Child.” It was written by band members Steven Tyler and Brad Whitford.

Whitford might be thought of as “the other guitarist in Aerosmith” or “the one who isn’t Joe Perry”. Kudos to Brad Whitford on this one. While Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are the band’s primary songwriters he definitely came up with a good one here.

There aren’t a ton of covers of this song, but there’s one by Canadian guitarist Pat Travers. I always think of Travers as the “Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)” Guy. I like his take on this one.

You can find another Travers’ version with drummer Carmine Appice. Another noteworthy version appeared on “Not the Same Old Song and Dance – Tribute to Aerosmith”.

This version featured singer Mickey Thomas, guitarist Earl Slick, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Stephen Ferrone.

What else can you say about “Last Child”? The intro is an interesting contrast to the rest of the riff-driven song. You have some off the wall lyrics including mentions of the meadow vs. the ghetto, J. Paul Getty, and of course South Tallahassee.

Till next time keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Mobilizing the Mods

I had to go to a work conference about 60 miles away recently and found myself thinking of a particular song throughout my journey. The song isn’t one of my all-time favorites, but it just popped to mind and I think it’s an interesting listen. I don’t know if anyone really thinks of this one as a road tripping song, but “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” by The Who is the song in question. You might think of it as more an anthem of independence.

The song is right in line with a lot of other songs from the mid-sixties. It’s got a youthful, Mod innocence about it including a strummy guitar intro. At the same time you see and hear the elements that make them The Who in the video: windmill guitar, cascading drums a la Keith Moon…and raucous volume. I really enjoy the falsetto backing vocals from Pete Townshend and John Entwistle on this track. One interesting thing about this song is Roger Daltrey shares songwriting credits with Pete Townshend on it. Also, there’s a piano on it as well, which was played by Nicky Hopkins.

Years later, The Who would release “Going Mobile” on 1971’s “Who’s Next” album. This one is more of an RV anthem.

Roger Daltrey apparently didn’t participate in the writing or recording of this one. Sole songwriting credits go to Townshend on this one…and, yes, he apparently had his own mobile home.

Sadly, I have seen some news stories about The Who’s recent squabbles with drummer Zak Starkey. It makes me think they’ve become the old farts they were rebelling against as Mods, but I could be wrong.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Hold That Tigrette

It’s been a busy summer…I’ve been busy mowing the yard, keeping the mower operational, and popping enough allergy meds to kill most people. That said, I came across something blog-worthy today. I was surfing YouTube and watched a horribly AI-narrated video about George Harrison when I learned something new. I had previously heard Harrison had an affair with Ringo Starr’s first wife Maureen “Mo” Cox, but I never really knew what happened to her P.B.B. — Post Beatles Breakup. It turns out she married this guy named Isaac Tigrett so the Yes version of “Tiger Rag” seems appropriate.

So who is Tigrett and why should you know his name? Well, he was one of two guys (the other being Peter Morton) who started the original Hard Rock Cafe and later House of Blues (with Dan Akroyd). I feel like the rock music memorabilia themed chain came to my attention during high school and college. You’d see people walking around with the iconic logo sweatshirts labelled with locations like London, etc. Apparently, Tigrett was inspired to name his place after a photo of The Doors on their Morrison Hotel album. I went to the Hard Rock in St. Louis, MO before it closed.

If you’ve ever seen The Beatles farewell rooftop performance, Maureen Cox is the “Mo” Paul McCartney acknowledges.

McCartney also wrote a song called “Little Willow” as a tribute to her. Jeff Lynne shares a co-writing credit.

Sadly, Maureen Cox Tigrett died at the age of 48 following a battle with leukemia. It’s amazing how many different bands and musicians intersected as part of this blog entry.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Exotic Angle-Land?

I found myself thinking about Sherlock Holmes recently. I woke up in the middle of the night and turned on the 1939 film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles starring Basil Rathbone (What a name!). I enjoyed this old black and white film and it got me thinking about some things tied to the whole “Hound of the B” thing.

One thing I find interesting is some of the terminology used in both the film and the book. Growing up in suburban St. Louis, we didn’t have “moors” and “bogs”. I guess we had fog occasionally, but it’s not really the same. Even San Francisco fog isn’t really the same either. While we’re all still mourning the death of Englishman Ozzy Osbourne, I think Bark at the Moon is appropriate.

I wonder if the Baskerville Hound bore any resemblance to the one in the Ozzy video, but I digress…

I looked up some info about the setting of the story. We’re talking about Dartmoor, which is apparently in the county of Devon. More specifically there is a location called Fox Tor Mire which is apparently the inspiration for Conan Doyle’s Grimpen Mire. Grimpen Mire?? How would you like to hear a game show host tell you that you’ve won an all expenses paid trip to Grimpen Mire? Personally, I think it would be a great name for a heavy metal band if it hasn’t been done already. However, I think Grympen Myre is much more metal.

I’d love to see what a tourism brochure for the area looks like. Explore the countryside…feed the Hound….fall in a bog! In conclusion, I think there needs to be a parody version of Ozzy’s song called “Bark on the Moor.” Conan Doyle was into the occult, so I think he would approve.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Eternal Ozzness?

It’s ironic that every TV news station is doing their “tributes” to the late Ozzy Osbourne this morning. Why is it ironic? Because he was a guy who made a name for himself by being scrutinized by said media throughout a good deal of his musical career. I’ve never been an Ozzy superfan, but definitely have some songs of his I’ve always enjoyed. One Ozzy tune I think has been overlooked is Shot in the Dark from the 1986 album Ultimate Sin.

Osbourne’s first three solo albums had great titles: Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, and Bark at the Moon. Years later there was Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy. See what I mean?

I would probably have to pick his work with Randy Rhoads as my favorite chapter in his career. I might still have the double album Randy Rhoads Tribute on cassette somewhere. It’s a good collection of his Black Sabbath and solo efforts. Flying High Again is a good cut.

There’s plenty more which can be said about Osbourne, but one thing worth noting, in my opinion, is he was a big fan of The Beatles. I saw an interview where he talked about having a dream where his sister married Paul McCartney. You know, he went downstairs to breakfast and they were having corn flakes. I guess it beats Bats Head Soup.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Betwixt or Between?

It’s weird how we all are exposed to different pieces of art, whether it’s music, film, paintings or something else. Sometimes it comes via friends, family, or co-workers. Sometimes it seems completely random. Such is the case with the 2011 film “Twixt” which not only starred Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, and Elle Fanning, but was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I was basically channel surfing and came across this one. I couldn’t think of any songs with “betwixt” in the title so I’m sharing George Harrison’s tasty cover of “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.”

I’d never seen the video prior to today, but it looks George was having good ole time with his musical mates.

Getting back to the film, “Twixt” was apparently inspired by a dream of Francis Ford Coppola’s. The basic story involves a low-budget writer (Kilmer) who arrives in a Gothic, Stephen King-eque town where he encounters the sheriff (Dern) and a ghostly young girl (Fanning). After Kilmer’s book signing at the local hardware store, he stays at The Chickering Hotel. It’s a place where Edgar Allen Poe stayed (at least in the story). There’s a lot more supernatural aspects to the story and it’s visually interesting to watch. There’s also some clocktower with 7 different times running simultaneously. “Twixt” is definitely an off the beaten path film.

From what I read, Coppola intended to release the film and then sort of extend different scenes as an audience was watching in the theatre. Cool concept, but it was costly.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

P.S. “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” was written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Cab Calloway recorded the original version.

Case of The Blue Mondays

Well it’s another Monday and that means back to work for most of us. That general feeling of “uggghhh” got me thinking about the song “Blue Monday” which was written by New Orleans songwriting staple Dave Bartholomew. It was originally released by Smiley Lewis, but perhaps the best known version was recorded by Fats Domino. For some reason, I found a video with the lyrics in both English and Spanish. I guess Mondays suck south of the border, too.

I always liked this song. I remember it was prominently featured in the film “This Boy’s Life”, which starred Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio. (It’s definitely blog-worthy.) Today I scrolled through a few covers of “Blue Monday” and found one by Dave Edmunds.

If you know Dave Edmunds’ music, you can probably hear some similarity between this one and his version of “I Hear You Knocking”, which was also written by Dave Bartholomew and first released by Smiley Lewis. (Edmunds even calls out Smiley Lewis’ name during the song.)

My Monday hasn’t been bad, but it’s just the idea of going back to work which gives us all “A Case of the Mondays” ( a la the film “Office Space).

Till next time keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

No Fading, Buddy – Pt. 5

For whatever reason, a sense of duty, personal taste, or just sheer randomness, I decided to share some different versions of the Buddy Holly song “Not Fade Away.” So far, most of the versions have been male vocalists with the exception of Sheryl Crow (and Hank Marvin’s instrumental.) After watching a few interviews with Crow, I know Stevie Nicks happens to be one of her big influences. It just so happens that Nicks also recorded this one for a Buddy Holly tribute.

Nicks and Crow aren’t the only female singers to cover it. Tanya Tucker even did her take on it during the late 70s.

I wonder if her record company tracked the number of albums bought due to her wearing leather pants on the cover?

Anyway, if I absolutely had to pick a favorite version, it would probably be The Rolling Stones or the original Buddy Holly version. Apparently, the original featured some high dollar percussion on it. That is to say, a cardboard box.

Jerry Allison apparently used his sticks on both the cardboard box AND actual drums. What else can you say about the song? It was recorded in Clovis, New Mexico for what that’s worth. I could have broken down each instrument into isolated sections, but I think you get the idea.

My love for “Not Fade Away” is bigger than a Cadillac. It always has been and always will be.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

No Fading, Buddy – Pt. 4

I suppose you can consider this my own personal blog binge. If I were more patient, I would space these entries across a week, but that’s just not me. I’m talking about the Buddy Holly original tune “Not Fade Away” which has been recorded many times by many different recording artists. You have The Stones, The Dead, Rush, Sheryl Crow, and even more. One of those “mores” is blues guitarist Walter Trout. Like many versions out there, the drums start the groove of this one.

While I’m no expert on Walter Trout, I know his name. Somewhere along the way I heard an interview with him where he talked about his shoulder(s) not being able to take the weight of a guitar anymore. I’d call that dedication. He’s also been part of groups like John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Canned Heat, and been a sideman for blues legends like John Lee Hooker.

Another musician who has recorded Holly’s “Not Fade Away” is Hank Marvin. Marvin not only wore thick rimmed glasses like Holly, but also learned a thing or two about playing electric guitar. Marvin is known for playing with The Shadows…as in Cliff Richard and The Shadows. They were bigger in England than in the U-S-of-A. Naturally, Marvin’s take is an instrumental.

I appreciate the use of a Wah pedal in Marvin’s version. You can also hear a bit of harmonica as well. I don’t think playing a Fender Stratocaster is a requirement for recording or playing on this tune, but it seems like a popular choice.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!