R.I.P. 2014

Date
January 1, 2015!

Miracler
Toby Barlow

Location 
Detroit

Who's on it? 
Toby Barlow's on it. Our Ministry of Memorial-ization has graced us with another year-end musical wrap-up, and it's a good thing, too, after some of 2014's hits. This guy gave us RIP mixes from 2013 and 2012 and 2011 and 2010 and 2009 — did you really think he'd leave us hanging?

Liner Notes by TB

Here’s a nice little intro tune to warm us up. The writer of this one, Arthur Smith, had to sue to get paid when the song was used in the film Deliverance and subsequently became an unlikely smash Billboard hit (hard to imagine a banjo tune making it this big these days. But then, you never know.)

Ah, Pete Seeger. It was extremely difficult to pick a song of Pete’s, his influence is so deep, profound and beautiful, from the Byrds “Turn, Turn, Turn” to Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “If I Had A Hammer” to Judy Collins “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” to the joyful covers Springsteen put together, including the raucous “Pay Me My Money Down.” But I picked this one, not for the Weeds fans out there, but because I remember him singing it in an old documentary about the Weavers, which I saw as a kid down at the Key Theater in DC, and in it he described how he came up with the song, driving over the hill from San Francisco and looking at the lousy buildings they had strewn up across the hillsides above Brisbane. Years later, when I had moved west, I always thought of that song whenever drive down to SFO, imagining how beautiful that land must have been once, a long time ago…

Rosetta Hightower was with the Orions when they sang this tune, Wah-Watusi. It was produced by Dave Appell. Appell was a busy guy, hustling, producing, writing and performing novelty tunes like The Mexican Hat Rock amongst others. He made a lot of stuff happen in the burgeoning Philly music scene, a scene that – as we all know - rivaled Detroit and Memphis as the heart of where American music was back in the 50’s. I wish we still felt cities in music like we did back then.

Sugaree is a great word. It almost sounds like it’s got powers beyond. The Grateful Dead ran with it, Mary Lou Lord made good use of it, Greta Gaines sings it, but to my knowledge Rusty York was the first to make a hit out of that magic word.

I remember driving down I-95 one beautiful day in the early eighties when Blondie had just broken big with this song. It was on every radio station we drove through from NYC through Philly and Baltimore to DC. I loved it, because I was a huge Blondie fan and had just a mad crush on Debbie Harry, but it also confused me a bit, because it didn’t sound like a Blondie song. Well, I was right. It was really a Paragon song. And John Holt was the one who made it eternally theirs.

Meanwhile, at pretty much the same time, in the underground scene, this one was everyone’s tune. You couldn’t go anywhere around DC without hearing this it covered by punk bands of some stripe. All the mohawk kids I knew were screaming this out, I thought it was a DOA tune and then I thought it was a Sex Pistols tune, but it turned out it was a Paul Revere tune first. Paul Revere Dick was another musical hustler out of Boise, Idaho. It has been argued that his band was just a poor man’s Creedence, but I think they’ll come out on the right side of history.

When you talk about the heart of the 3 Minute Pop Miracle, if The Kinks are the right ventricle, then the Small Faces are probably the left. Ian McLagan played keyboards for the band, and later, with the addition of Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck, he played keyboards for the now not so small Faces.

Bobby Montgomery wrote Misty Blue. What a beautiful song.

Anna Gordy Gaye was Barry Gordy’s sister and the wife of Marvin (notably, she was also 17 years older than Marvin.) She was also a dynamite force on her own, helping to pen numerous songs and running her own record label. The Gordys were as close to royalty as you could get in Detroit and Anna was a key player in their kingdom. In the end, though, she is mostly remembered for the fact that Gaye’s entire album “Here, My Dear” was, in essence, his alimony payment.

“Grazing in the Grass” is indeed a gas. Jessica Cleaves sang it out with the Friends of Distinction. Coincidentally, I heard someone the other day singing the “I can dig it, he can dig it, she can dig it, we can dig it” part which says this was more than a one hit wonder, it is now a part our cosmic unconsciousness. Dig it.

Speaking of coincidences, I sincerely doubt anyone except the most hardcore 3 Minute Miracler would even care about what I’m about to lay down, but here it is:

The Crusader’s rhythm and blues tune “Street Life” came out in ’79 and was a soul hit, disco hit, and charted at #36 on the pop charts. It was in the soundtrack to Burt Reynolds “Sharkey’s Machine” and Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.” The tune was written by Joe Sample, who died on September 12^th.

Now, get this, on the exact same day, September 12, 2014, John Gustafson also died. And he played bass on “Street Life.” No, not the aforementioned ’79 hit by the Crusaders but rather the classic title track by Roxy Music from the ‘73 album Stranded. Gustafson played on some of Roxy’s best albums, including Country Life, Siren and Viva.

Alvin Stardust seemed to be riding the caboose in the glittery Starlight Express train that was glam rock in the 70’s.

Listen to Bobby Key’s sax. On countless Stones tunes, Key was the root tying them to what they really wanted to be, southern, fun, and over the top. He was the connection. Bobby played on other stuff too, his solo into on Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” is clearly the inspiration for SNL’s sax opening, which for a lot of us is the tune that defines Saturday Night. Which is saying something.

Search and Destroy. The Stooges’ Scott Ashton is gone. Now, only Iggy remains.

The Monks are fascinating, named as an influence by Jack White and others, these early purveyors of garage rock are pretty much completely unknown by anyone who does not name them as an influence. Early in their career they crossed paths with an all too clever German promoter who said he would back them if they shaved the top of their heads like actual monks. Brian Epstein this fellow was not and the Monks promptly vanished into deep, deep obscurity. Gary Burger sang lead.

Speaking of those nutty Germans, here’s one of the unlikeliest songs ever to become a hit that then, years later, became the unlikeliest jingle ever which in turn launched one of the best advertising campaigns of the last 25 years. Who’d a thunk this little Trio song would do all that? Well, Gert Krawinkel probably did, he played guitar and sang on the tune.

Admittedly, this next entry is a bit of a hangover from Lou leaving us back in 2013, but Maggie Estep was a trooper who departed way too soon. She was a legitimate spoken word star back when MTV thought that genre was going to be the next big thing. But then people figured out rap was a lot more fun. Maggie reminds me of the New York City when you could eat at Florent, shop at Tower Records, and gaze over at Brooklyn like it was Narnia.

Phil Everly passed away too. When I was a kid, his stuff already sounded old, and it took some time for my ears to open up to it all. But once you hear it, once you know what that magical harmony is all about, well, it stays with you, humming in you rib cage and chest plate and on up your spine into the heart of your lizard brain, where it trues you.

Did anyone ever misunderstand Joe Cocker? I suppose some people only saw him as a clown, but those are the sort of people who misunderstand everything. They don’t know what money is for, or sex, or honeybees or two dollar bills (fyi, two dollar bills are for tipping bartenders with because they’re twice as good as one dollar bills.) Not to get all preachy, but if you don’t understand Joe Cocker, you had better stop and question a lot of the elemental things currently surrounding you, because chances are you’re completely wrong about most of it. Sorry.

Alberta Adams was a Detroit singer who went to Chicago and recorded for Chess Records and then she came back to Detroit and sang until she couldn’t sing anymore. She died last week at the age of 97.

We’re going to leave with Pete again, because what he sang about was what we all need to sing about, every single day. These struggles of ours never end and we have such a long way to go, so very far. We have to work together and we have to be generous and kind and we have to keep trying to get there. So, play this loud and sing along with the fullest voice you have. Get everyone around you to sing along too. Just do it, right now, it might feel silly or square at first, but it won’t feel silly by the time you’re through singing, because it’s a really, really good song.

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