8 November 2021 - John Waite - Missing You

This song is a complete lie.  

Well, the chorus is, anyway.  But haven't we all been there?  Our heart is broken, and we're missing someone terribly, and we're trying not to miss them, and we're insisting that we are fine and don't miss them.

Well, John Waite really was missing his lover in this 1984 #1 hit.   There is, after all, a storm raging through his frozen heart.   

John Waite extended his lie by including Alison Krause on a rerecorded version in 2007.  It hit #34 on the Country Charts.   

7 November 2021 - Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence

"Mrs. Robinson" may be the song most associated with the Mike Nichols film The Graduate, but it wasn't the song used in the iconic final scene.  That song was the first Simon and Garfunkel #1 hit, "The Sound Of Silence", which Nichols convinced the duo to rerecord for the soundtrack.   Paul Simon wrote the song in the echo of his dark bathroom - hance the sound of silence.   

The song is sad and stark in its imagery, while retaining a harmonic beauty.  It picks up tempo as it roles along, ending with an abrupt deadening in tempo.   

In context, here is that last scene of the movie.  The song is slightly different in this version, and it matches the feeling of the scene - the unknown, not knowing what's next, the good and bad of the reality of what just happened hitting you.  There's some excitement to this, and at the same time, fear. 

5 November 2021 - The Pointer Sisters - I'm So Excited

This single was released TWICE - once in 1982, and once in a remixed form in 1984, when it became a top 10 hit.  Written by the three sisters, it's a song about.... being excited.  What did you think I was going to say?

In all seriousness, it's a sexually charged song, which was atypical for a girl group in the early 1980s.  This video is for the 1982 release, but is the gold standard, featuring all three sisters getting ready for a formal event.  It also matches the lyrical content of the song. 

You all came for the Jessie Spano version.  I know this.   Here it is.  

4 November 2021 - Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

Remember when life was simpler?  Remember when songs were written just to show off a sweet new stereo?

Well, that's exactly why Steppenwolf wrote and performed this song.  Sure, there might have been some drug references in there, but at the end of the day, it was a song about a sweet new stereo.   

3 November 2021 - School Of Fish - 3 Strange Days

In 1991, my friend Heather Deane and I went to see the DiVinyls.  I wrote pretty extensively about that nine years ago.  

What I left out of my original telling was the opening act, School of Fish.  They are the band that really made Heather's ears right, literally for days.  Weeks, even.

This song was one of their biggest "hits" back in the day, getting some significant MTV Buzz Bin airplay.  There's a little blast from the past for y'all.  Written by Josh Clayton-Felt & Michael Ward, the song is a trippy straight-ahead rock song that brings the listener through a psychedelic journey of.... well, three strange days, I guess.   

2 November 2021 - Dr. Hook - When You're In Love with a Beautiful Woman

In 1978, Dr. Hook (which was the name of the BAND) released what would be their biggest hit worldwide and one of their biggest in the United States. Their look really gave away their easy listening/country crossover song, but for this single, penned by Even Stevens, the traditional sound gave way to one that was a little more disco-tinged.   

The song sounds like it's sweet - and in some ways, it is - but it's really about jealousy.   It's about the lingering self-doubt that comes with dating someone who is better looking than you.  

1 November 2021 - John Wesley Harding - The Devil in Me

Wesley Stace is a British folksinger and author of four novels.  You might not know his name as a musician, though, because most of his music is under the stage name John Wesley Harding.   This was his debut single, from his debut album Here Comes The Groom.  

The song, as the rest of the album, draws comparisons to Elvis Costello - and since a couple of The Attractions make up part of his backing band here, that's understandable.  Lyrically, the song compares the attrocities of human behavior to, well, the devil.   It is a brilliant and sardonic take on the subject.