Album Review: Gorillaz- Cracker Island

Did anyone expect Gorillaz to have the career they have had? The debut album came out in 2001. Blur may have been heroes of Britpop, but that movement never gained much traction in the United States. Not that it was anything to be embarrassed of, but Blur was a mid tier band in America So I doubt anyone could expect Gorillaz to be Damon Albarn’s legacy. As compact discs changed to streaming and the music industry becoming highly fragmented- Gorillaz somehow has thrived. There are very few rock bands that get as much attention as this “cartoon” one. It’s really hard to think of many bands that currently exist with as much in terms of sales and airplay and critical acclaim and attention. It’s pop, it’s rock, it’s alternative. The bands second album 2005s Demon Days is probably where the legacy begins. That legacy begins not only with “Feel Good Inc” which was a smash hit, but with an album that sets up a template of this musical menagerie full of rock n roll animals (if you will, stay tuned) and sounds. While Ibrahim Ferrer and the Tom Tom Club played on tracks on the debut. Demon Days starts to resemble a soundtrack. There’s Shaun Ryder, De La Soul, Neneh Cherry, Ike Turner, Roots Manuva and even Dennis Hopper among others While Demon Days is clearly the bands high watermark to date, I am a big fan of the third album 2010s Plastic Beach and it’s improbable lineup of galactic talent- Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, Mick Jones & Paul Simonon and Snoop Dogg Since then, Gorillaz has leaned into one genre or another. 2017s Humanz is largely funk, hip hop and R&B with guests like Mavis Staples, Grace Jones, Pusha T, Vince Staples and Anthony Hamilton. In 2020, it was more new wave and rock sounds like Peter Hook of New Order, Robert Smith of the Cure, Beck, St Vincent and Elton John for the first part of Song Machine, while the second half had Earthgang, Skepta and Goldlink featured alongside artists like Chai and Joan as Police Woman Cracker Island largely succeeds because it doesn’t particularly try to be as ambitious or scattershot or genre schizophrenic as some recent work It generally feels like a sequenced albums. Clearly helped by the anchor of two great singles “Skinny Ape” and “Silent Running” and a killer opener and solid closer “Possession Island”. Not that it isn’t an all star lineup with Stevie Nicks, Bad Bunny, Tame Impala, Thundercat, Beck and Bootie Brown from the Pharcyde, but it always feels like a Gorillaz album with the star names generally playing supporting roles In a year where I have largely been listening to old favorites instead of new releases, Cracker Island has been a nice surprise (Note: I generally try not to read other reviews of a record until after I wrote mine. I have now read the Guardian’s review which makes mine feel like a cheap carbon copy. I guess that means this album does give off particular vibes I also read Pitchfork which gave it a 6.5 which proves my Theory that 6.5 is the sweet spot for Pitchfork reviews. Under that probably is deserving, but their 8, 9 and 10s are generally given to those “critics darlings” that Pitchfork will quickly discard by the wayside as the same artist makes the tragic mistake of making a third album or turning Thirty.)

Moms Music- Paul McCartney

There weren’t a ton of records in my house (#momsrecords) growing up so the ones there were, hold a significant weight. There are people who venerate Paul McCartney (the local indie radio treats him as he was Jack White) and undoubtedly there’s people who don’t care for him. Not surprising maybe, I should say that I fall somewhere in between To be honest, I actually must like Paul quite a bit. As a social media experiment, I thought of the first ten favorite Beatles songs and I believe they were 6-3 Macca. I don’t love any of “those” ballads but I do love a lot of his songs and I would also add I like most of those best known Wings a lot. Like Elton John (at least to an extent), his 80s and 90s singles have a reputation as being somewhat lesser. But I do like quite a bit of his songs of this era and I will probably get around to writing about those some day. Also while I am airing it all out, I quite like the much maligned Give My Regards to Broadstreet and am always happy to find someone who shares that view. The Paul album in my house was 1982s “Tug of War”. “Coming Up” had been ubiquitous, the Wings were in the past, and now John Lennon was dead. My memory of Tug of War was that it was a very good album. Sure there’s that one well-meant but frankly terrible song that everyone knows (and inspired a great Saturday Night Live skit) but the rest is pretty great. It was a reunion with George Martin. “Take it Away” was one of my favorite songs of that age. There’s a little bit of everything that defined Macca’s career- baroque pop, straight traditional rock and novelty aside ambition. With age, it seems he’s rarely been back to these artistic heights and yet the album seems a bit lost to being obscured to earlier releases. Here Today could sit along his best work- a ballad obviously dedicated to John - not cloying but heartfelt. Get It is a classic quirky jaunt tribute to early rock n roll with Carl Perkins guesting. The Pound is Sinking is in the spirit of Uncle Albert or Band on the Run. The title track has a real world weary feel but still succeeds as a real memorable and listenable song. These days critics would probably make a pithy comment about Wanderlust sounding like an AI generated McCartney song. It does remind me of other Paul songs, though not in a bad way. It still stands on its own So here’s the thing- I think these songs stand up on their own and separately. I think any of the songs I mentioned could hang as singles. Tug of War, the album, may now be a “forgotten” classic 1982 - Columbia/Parlophone

Moms Music- Rod McKuen

My moms record collection (#momsrecords) is inevitably divided into two categories- artists that I love (Dylan, the Who, Donovan, etc) and artists that I hate (I will avoid naming names in case they might be some of your favorite artists). Really until recent years, I would have happily included Rod McKuen in the latter. But that is no longer the case. I attribute the Specials 2021 covers records as the catalyst (they cover the Vietnam era “Soldiers who want to be Heroes”) and so I am frankly excited to have more McKuen in my life. Now, I probably should like McKuen. I do like “Seasons in the Sun” among his most famous songs, a perennial contender for worst song of all time as made famous by Terry Jacks. I am a huge Marc Almond fan and one of his biggest influences is the Belgian singer Jacques Brel (Brel has been claimed as an influence by David Bowie, the Divine Comedy and the Manic Street Preachers to name a few of many). It was McKuen of course that brought Brel to an English speaking audience. So I should recognize “If You Go Away” as a song covered by both McKuen and Almond. McKuen compiled his Brel compositions in an compilation in 1972. Almond recorded an album of all Brel covers during some of his most fruitful solo years in 1989. McKuen’s history is an interesting and surprisingly non traditional one. He was for a time the biggest selling poet in the world. In so much as McKuen would become a LGBT+ trailblazer, that wasn’t a particularly lucrative profession (in fact of course, quite the opposite.). In hindsight, we respect that, but it wouldn’t have been much of a career benefit at the time. I suspect that as many came along and saw the many McKuen albums in garage sales and secondhand shops, they had the same impression I had. McKuen may have been popular but he was increasingly less hip as time went on. His Wikipedia entry has an entire section on how much critics hated his work) But that may be too easy, in a Slate feature on the rise and fall of McKuen, the author suggests he sees McKuen influences in artists like Richard Hell, Nirvana, and Ween. Really being surprised how much I am enjoying listening to these songs, I would say my journey into McKuen is still very much at the beginning.

Moms music- Chicago

I would say that Chicago was my answer as unhippest band of all time. They were the soundtrack to the middle school/grade school slow dances of the 80s (that predated the era of “metal” power ballads). It was Chicago and Peter Cetera first together and the separately, that ruled the day. 12 Top 40 hits for Chicago (nearly all in the Top 20) on that decade while Cetera had 3 songs he took Top Ten. Now, of course Chicago had slowly evolved from a Jazz Rock band to a Ballad band. I will never forget one of the first documentaries I ever watched on “punk rock” and it juxtaposed the band’s 1976 #1 “If You Leave Me Now” and the band Bread with the Dead Boys “Caught with the Meat in Your Mouth”. It is hard to argue the cause and effect or a bigger selling point for punk. But strangely, I have come around a bit to Chicago. I have been exposed to their earlier albums and have come to enjoy them. Like many, I think my entry into Chicago is the guitar heroics of Terry Kath. Kath famously is attributed as being one of Jimi Hendrix’s favorite guitarists and the fact occasionally goes viral. The troubled Kath died in 1978 of an unintentional self inflicted gunshot, leaving a “what if” in terms of what he would have done in the 80s either in term of staying with the band or going solo. If asked, my favorite Chicago track is a guilty pleasure ballad. 1974s “Wishing You were Here”. A song that is unusual in that Kath plays bass and bassist Cetera plays lead guitar. It is also a more radio oriented song despite the band still largely being in their jazz and prog phase. It’s also too low for Cetera to sing (although he wrote it), so Kath takes lead vocals. I particularly love how Kath drives the song with mellow soul but the interplay with Cetera singing the bridge (and backing vocals by The Beach Boys) add up to something really special. I have added “Chicago V” from my #momsrecords. It’s pretty much in line with the bands early material but does have the radio hit “Saturday in the Park”. “Saturday..” is a moment in time for the band. Songwriting duties will largely pass from Richard Lamm to Cetera or James Pankow after this album It’s an overplayed song by now of course but Lamm (who wrote it) really is able to showcase the talent of all involved and giving real spotlight to Cetera and Kath. The effect is either Beatlesque or maybe “wimp rock” depending on your perspective, but it’s truly an Evergreen now. Chicago V might be that album that determines if the band is for you. It has a lot of the ambition of their early iteration which may or may not be your jam. The opening track namedrops Edgar Varese, and although it doesn’t necessarily sound like his stuff, it’s rare to see his name mentioned by anyone in rock outside individuals like Frank Zappa and John Zorn. “Dialogue” starts as just that- a sort of hippy dippy conversation between Kath and Cetera, not exactly Gil Scott-Heron, concluding with the positive alternating mantra of “we can save the children” and “we can make it happen”. It then turns into the kind of early 70s funk/jazz/rock jam that was popular at the time with the band members showcasing their instrumental skills. Not for everyone but it’s also what Chicago does best and is catchy as all heck. Later in the album, Kath takes point on “Alma Mater”- an oddity on this album, which Allmusic not wrongly compares to Randy Newman in its sensibility. Kath is still probably my favorite part of the band, but I have really grown to love Cetera's voice especially the way it sounds within in the multiple-singer aspect of the early band. I’m not sure if my journey with Chicago will continue after the heavy rotation of this disc in recent weeks. Still, I appreciate the time spent with it.

Moms Music- Dave Clark Five

In my Moms collection #momsrecords, there were quite a few Dave Clark Five records. There is an old urban rock legend that Dave named the band after himself because he was a crappy drummer but no one is going to be able to kick Dave Clark out of the Dave Clark Five (I have no idea if this is true or if he is even a subpar musician but as we all know what happened to Pete Best maybe there is some credence in it. Google doesn’t really help me here, either, though you don’t have to go far to find the rumor the studio albums were “enhanced” mentioned) Awhile back, I watched 2014s “Dave Clark and Beyond” documentary. Now, I think that might have taken some hagiographic extremes (Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Paul McCartney all give glowing interviews as if there was no more important band.) But let’s look at that argument. The DC5 had some great songs and it is true that before there were the Beatles and the Stones, the Beatles primary chart competition was the Dave Clark Five. The hit list is surprisingly longer than you might think. There are a genuine handful of pop standards, but Dave Clark really had a string of UK hits from 1963 until 1970 (the US hits end around 1967 but considering the climate is nearly as impressive) It’s probably easy to dismiss the band for not adapting to the time. My mom’s DC5 collection ends with 1965s “Having A Wild Weekend” which contained “Catch Us if You Can” and I think this is where most Americans’ knowledge ends. Researching on wiki, one of the band’s last singles was a cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man” (a non-charter for a final iteration of the band called Dave Clark and Friends in 1971). It’s worth a search to hear and wonder if there might have been a 70s future for them. The Clark doc mentions his 1986 musical “Time” which I don’t recall having much an impact in the US, and I am not sure how big of a deal it was in the UK or Australia. It stands as a curiosity- a Doctor Who inspired space opera with a range of performers from Cliff Richard to Freddie Mercury to Julian Lennon to Ashford and Simpson and even Sir Laurence Olivier. I suspect it hasn’t stood up the test to time but who knows, but I came to praise Dave Clark not bury him, and a great body of work.

Mom's Music- The Moody Blues

As a teenager, I looked forward to the day I would have my moms record collection. I suppose this is the sin of coveting but I think it’s a very human emotion we all have felt. We have all surely given some thought to the stuff that was going to be passed on. Here we are 30 years later and we have arrived at the date and it doesn’t feel like I thought it would. The unexpected factor here was these records which invoked these dreams ended the last few years in a garage in what could have been an episode of Hoarders. As a fan and collector, I really had no concerns of trying to make money off them. I believe records are meant to be played not stored (though that is fine too). It’s just that surely there’s not much more depressing than them laying there bare to the elements My next few posts are about my mothers collection #momsrecords. Awhile back I did get some of my favorites from her. Knowing her, I imagine I had to pay something for them. I don’t picture her just giving them to me for free. I will probably get around to talking about them some day- but those records have been mine for awhile (Donovan, Dylan, Stones, Who). Outside of the Beatles, the artist my mother had the most records of was the Moody Blues. Her collection starts (as does the bands career) with 1965s “Go Now” (“The Magnificent Moodys” in the UK). There’s surely no bigger gap between albums than that standard R&B offering and 1967s prog concept album Days of Future Passed Times change and tastes change and the Moodys seem to be a bit forgotten. I doubt they were ever ‘that’ hip. But they were hugely popular. And even if they fell over the line of pretentiousness, they were incredibly talented Any discussion I have of the band these days, usually lands on the unlistenableness of Nights in White Satin and I always joke to those people that the Dickies did it right by making it less than three minutes There is a world of difference in the pretensions of Leonard Cohen and “David’s secret chord” and the Moodys looking for the lost chord. But I don’t mind it. Even if they come up more Spinal Tap than Pink Floyd. There are moments that it all comes together. “Question” the opener of 1970s Question of Balance is one of those, or a lesser known track like “A Simple Game” from 1968 which was appended to the This is the Moody Blues greatest hits compilation I actually like the band’s 80s singles that popped up on the radio while 60s bands like Manfred Mann, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead and Starship were having one last chart run. “In Your Wildest Dreams” (1986) and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” (1988) condense the arena rock of the 70s into an 80s three minute radio timeframe As an unlikely coda to their career, “Live at Red Rocks” became an iconic concert that became famous as a PBS (American Public Television) Fundraiser in the 90s My favorite song though without question is the impossibly dramatic and pulsating “I’m Just A Singer in a Rock and Roll Band”. Sure, nearly everyone has done a take on being the “Band on the Run”. It’s exciting, terrifying even. Surely the drummer, the late Graeme Edge, is one of the unheralded heroes of rock- overshadowed by the more charismatic contemporary Bonhams and Moons.

Album Review- Bug Club

The Bug Club checks off all the marks for a buzz band. Reviews pop with references about the Kinks, the Velvet Underground and Jonathan Richman. They seem to fit the bill as a cult band but easily fit in with the current “scene”. There’s plenty of hints on the sound inside this album. The title - Green Dream in F#. The cover art. The fact there’s 14 songs in 30 minutes Im not sure any of the artists above get to the sound (the spirit, sure) in my opinion which is a mix of 90s slacker indie and late 70s power pop style new wave (think Squeeze and XTC). A user review at AOTY compares them to the Vaselines which is a lot closer to the mark. But (not so childish) childish pop is the realm of Jonathan Richman, so it’s likely inevitable. The ideal entry point has to be “It’s Art” which seems like a statement of purpose (Chorus: “It’s Art/You aren’t supposed to feel it”) but “Green Dream…” is good wherever you decide to drop the needle.

Album Review- Phil Selway

A favorite recent “obscure” album is 2010s Familial, the debut record. by Philip Selway. Weird in some ways because of the MadLibs nature of it - in this case the (drummer) of (Radiohead). Weird in that Familial is for lack of a better term- an indie folk record I’m not one to make fun of appearances, but Selway surely looks like he would belong in a prog or classic metal band, but this instead is in full Nick Drake and Badly Drawn Boy territory. Selway was part of the Neil Finn fronted indie supergroup Seven Worlds Collide, and Familial contains a similar cast or talented (and unexpected personnel including Lisa Germano, Sebastian Stienberg of Soul Coughing and most of Wilco. In 2014, Selway recorded the follow up Weatherhouse. Here, Selway took his folk sound a bit closer to the Radiohead template to create a fine (if forgettable) second album. 2023s Strange Dance is somewhere in between. It isn’t quite as delicate as Familial and it probably isn’t completely accurate to say it splits the difference between that album and Weatherhouse, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it Selway brings in Adrian Utley of Portishead, Hannah Peel and producer Marta Salogni (who worked on the new Depeche Mode album and a whole list of others - Black MIDI, Goldfrapp, David Byrne, Tracey Thorn, Groove Armada) alongside multi instrumentalist Quinta from the previous album. It captures some of the intimacy of Familal that way without being "bare". I think it’s a nice addition to Selway’s catalog and one of my favorite releases of early 2023. I don’t expect everyone to have the same reaction but I do think it deserves to be heard.

Album Review- Clean Cut Kid

Just bubbling under my Best Albums of 2022 was HISS, the fourth album by Liverpool four piece Clean Cut Kid. I’m never great at describing bands, but looking at Wikipedia, they do fit with the mid-200xs bands that preceded them by a decade like the Fratellis, the Kooks and the Courteeners. Incidentally, I can’t seem to find many reviews of HISS that doesn’t mention one of my favorite artists, Passenger. I don’t really think of Passenger when listening to them though I do occasionally hear a similar song structure, like on opener "Our Wasted Hours". The band definitely follows a thread of Sgt Pepper style pop that has been filtered through the 70s Cat Stevens style songwriter sound. So there is that thread they share with Passenger and I suppose maybe someone like Bon Iver (who is probably the second most referenced band in album reviews). Songs on HISS feel very recognizable. There are moments where they go too whimsical for me but generally that’s the exception.

Album Review: Meditations on Crime

Harper Simon is one of my favorite musicians. Certainly one of my favorite underrated musicians Being Paul Simon’s son is kind of a blessing and a curse. He gets lumped in the child of musician crowd with Rufus Wainwright, Adam Cohen, Teddy Thompson and so on, but he’s never seemed to get the attention I thought he deserved. He has to date, released two worthwhile albums in 2010 and 2013 and yes, that’s been awhile so I was excited to see new music from him. And a bit perplexed You see Harper’s latest album isn’t what you’d expect. It’s part of a project that includes a book called Meditations on Crime The soundtrack is helmed by Simon and fellow musician Julia Holter and the obligatory “cast of thousands”. There are a few points I want to make about this group of guests. First, they are largely a group that you would not associate with Simon or at least his style of music. Second, there’s a surprising coincidence of many of my favorite musicians appearing here (despite as I said, not sounding like Simon). Third and last, it also seems like an assembly of musicians that must have been pulled from some “Random Artist Generator” insomuch this grouping covers such a wide range of musical territory. Joining Simon and Holter here are Cole Alexander (Black Lips) Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux/Pussy Galore), King Khan, Geologist (Animal Collective), Gang Gang Dance, Ariel Pink, Ian Svenouis (The Make Up/Nation of Ulysses), Paz Lenchantin(Pixies/A Perfect Circle/Zwan), and the Sun Ra Arkestra. The bigger project brings in everyone from Laurie Anderson and Wayne Kramer to Kenneth Anger to Raymond Pettibon to the late Hal Willner As an album, “Meditations on Crime” may appeal to some who are looking for audio noir- jazzy, experimental, ambient. It definitely falls in the “mileage may vary” category. It may become a favorite cult album for you or maybe one listening will be enough, and even though I am generally impressed with the concept, am not sure that I will come back to it that often. It will be one of the last products Willner produced (and fits in perfectly with his best known work like Stay Awake, Rogues Gallery and September Songs) and one of the last works of Danny Ray Thompson, the saxophonist who was a mainstay (and manager) of the Sun Ra Arkestra. 2022 - AntiFragile Music

Concert Review- Rev Horton Heat

The answer to the question of which musical artist have seen the most time in concerts (and even then it is a relatively small number) is the Reverend Horton Heat. Horton Heat’s discography is dominated by his first two records released on SubPop in 1990 and 1993. Considering non-fans might see Heat as a gimmick, there are a lot of memorable moments in the 30+ years career comparable to say the Cramps, in that Heat could often find a way to make a new album sound fresh. Des Moines, Iowa post pandemic has went from five small music venues (and two medium and one large) to three small music venues, and Rev Horton Heat played at the “punk” one near Drake University (upcoming shows include DRI and the Cro Mags). He did have a great crowd and I admit there was a good atmosphere for him here It has been 20 years since I have been to that venue and close to 25 since seeing the Rev. This has been the fourth time I have seen him. Two things stand out, one being the opening bands were always slightly better than normal fare (BR549, Amazing Royal Crowns, Voodoo Glow Souls) The other being, the Reverend effortlessly making these amazing sounds from his guitar with seemingly no effort (and of course Jimbo’s stand up bass). I never saw Dick Dale but I suspect he did the same. But as much as I remembered him putting an entertaining show, this concert was really top tier. I know he’s a true road warrior. He had great rapport with the crowd, and thought I am sure some was well rehearsed, he also was adaptable to being spontaneous to the audience. For example, Heat telling the blast he had meeting Carl Perkins or how much the hip “lounge movement of 1998” (the fans, not the bands) hated them but it was ironic since they had recorded “It’s Martini Time” in 1996. Heat is now 63 but as he always adapted the image of an old rockabilly star, it has always felt like he has been 60. Heat’s releases had always been major events but I think the last time I had the Reverend on my radar was 2014’s appropriately titled REV as he changed over from Yep Roc to the hardcore punk label Victory Records. REV was probably the most well regarded Heat album since 2000s Spend A Night in the Box So I either missed or had forgotten 2018s Whole New Life- an album that added a keyboard player making the band a quartet and thus adding Jerry Lee Lewis and Professor Longhair motifs to the band The band is back as a trio with Jonathan Jeter now as the drummer. Jeter also fronts his own band Jonathan Jeter and the Revelators. Heat has a new album -a tribute to his roots named surely enough Roots of the Rev volume one- -a mix of inspirations and friends like Perkins, Ronnie Dawson and Willie Nelson and mixes a few well known rockabilly tunes with a few more obscure ones. One would suspect Heat wouldn’t like streaming but he did mention his most successful song financially was “In Your Wildest Dreams” which had been used in move and televison and was getting royalties for him and co-writer Jimbo. Off of 94s “Liquor in the Front” album, it must have jumpfrogged some of the MTV hits he had earlier. Opener was Scott H Biram. I knew the name but not anything about him. He calls himself the “Dirty One Man Band”. He is as described- making his first big steps into stardom with that movement of the early 00s. His songs have been covered in record by Nashville Pussy, Hank Williams 3 and Whitey Morgan and he has played with Jesse Dayton and Shooter Jennings. His style is hard to describe but fits those mentioned above- usually a metal fan’s image of an old blues belter and guitarist (think Muddy Waters or Mississippi Fred McDowell). He would slide from Nashville Pussy style sleazeball southern hard rock to ZZTop style blues to punk Americana like Dayton to n-th generation Tom Waits (he also gives by the Reverend Scott H Biram) Biram gives a heck of a performance. He’s like some crude, profane, Wild one man band from some imaginary smoky bar in the middle of nowhere More than anyone, his music reminds me of Bob Log III, the outsider blues punk one man band contemporary. Biram isn’t my normal cup of tea but I am glad I got to see him. Local support was Loose Gravel (a Des Moines band not to be confused with a Minnesota Classic Country or Classic Rock New York State band). They played that modern outlaw country sound that is defined by Skynyrd, AC/DC and the Drive By Truckers and were very good.

Raised on Radio- George Benson

I think the music of my youth is the best ever. For a second, I will pretend that everyone doesn’t also think the music of their youth is the all time best. I will also pretend that any given time, there isn’t an active scene for every genre if you look for it. The transition from the 70s to the 80s really felt like a true blending of cultures. Perhaps it took disco dying and those bands reinventing themselves into rock. Perhaps it was videos replacing the radio. In any case, there’s no bigger artist that brought music from the 1970s to the 1980s than Kool and the Gang. Just kidding, of course. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but I doubt you would take me seriously if I gave any other answer to that question but Michael Jackson. Still, Kool and the Gang’s 1984 album Emergency is really that moment for me where Rock and R&B combine. There were others of course, Cameo, Gap Band, the Dazz Band, Chaka Khan and Rufus and of course, plenty more that I wouldn’t hear until many years later like Zapp, George Duke, the Brothers Johnson Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and others that weren’t being played on my particular radio channels. Also, there were the guitar and jazz fusion bands like Weather Report and Spyro Gyra, which again would not have been on my radar but were making some noise. I did hear jazz voices like Lou Rawls and Al Jarreau on the radio, and Stanley Clarke even had a Top 40 radio hit Which brings me to this post. George Benson is probably best known for being one of the greatest jazz guitarists on the planet. There are plenty of places to read his story, but for the purpose of the story of what I am going to tell, I am focusing on 1976 to 1984 where Benson put 14 songs on the Billboard Top 100. Breezin’ from the 1976 album of the same name is a song I can’t really discuss reasonably. It is a light jazz song that likely is one that I have heard on the radio just about as much as any. I know there’s a crowd for that but it’s not me. But Benson in the early 80s, now we are talking. “Give me the Night” popped up recently on television (in a show or ad, I forget) and I get it, it’s timeless. I remember it was a favorite song of mine at the time and it still stands up. It is sort of a summary of his long career- it’s jazz, funk, pop, soul, disco and rock. Probably no shock that Quincy Jones was the producer. I will throw in “Turn Your Love Around” as a little bit more jazzy but still great all around all time song. Again you have an all star cast with Bill Champlin, Steve Lukather and producer Jay Graydon. My memory gets fuzzy and nostalgic radio isn’t kind to artists but 1983’s “Let Me Love You One More Time” was another big hit that I recognized as soon as I hit play. You also got some members of Toto helping out (Howard and Paitch this time). No telling if there’s more Benson #raisedonradio radio staples that I have forgotten in the ensuing 40 years.

Raised on Radio- Gino Vanelli

I try to write about the forgotten radio heroes of my youth and I think Gino Vanelli fits that bill. A huge star in Canada, I feel he’s lesser known in the US But he had a run of hits in the pre-MTV 70s. If I think of the songs of the youth, one on the list is 1978’s “I Just Wanna Stop” a soft rock song that went to #4. 1981s “Living Inside Myself” is slightly further down the list. It was still a hit of the time and went to #5 But where I really got my ears to listen was his 80s Songs. There’s 1984s Black Cars. It didn’t make it any higher than 42 on the US charts but was the kind of perfect song to sneak in on the CHR/Hot Hots stations that were popular in the era The Gino Vanelli here doesn’t sound like the Gino Vanelli I knew. Like everyone, he was making a move to change with the times and his 70s and 80s hits are as far away stylistically as “Running on Empty” is to “Lawyers in Love” or “Captain Jack” is to “Uptown Girl”. Black Cars feel like if a Chat GPS wrote an eighties song with its great keyboard hook and of course cars and night in the lyrics. I remember 1987s Wild Horses being a bigger hit though Wikipedia says it stalled even lower (55) on the US charts. You may be a fan or not, but for me, I find these artists who sort of filled in the cracks of the charts with the Michael Jacksons, Princes, and Madonnas. I love looking at their careers and sharing what I learned. I remember the excitement of listening to these songs in my youth. #raisedonradio