The BoDeans - She's A Runaway I can recall the exact moment when I first heard the BoDeans. It was during a car ride from Merrimack, NH to Portsmouth, NH to go to Pease AFB for some reason or another (most likely to shop in the base exchange.) We switched radio stations in search of music, as we always do when commercials interrupt our music. This song was playing, and I hoped the dj would announce the song title/artist. Back then, there was no web site to look it up, and we had to rely on the d...
Apr 09, 2009•4 min
Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army I can't believe it's been 30 years since this was released. You know, it still sounds fresh to these old ears. The song was never a hit in the US, but I was a huge fan of the album it appears on, Armed Forces. I still consider it one of the peaks of Costello's long, varied career. According to Songfacts.com: Costello told Q Magazine in March 2008: "I don't think its success was because of the lyrics. I always liked the idea of a bright pop tune that you could be si...
Mar 27, 2009•3 min
Steve Forbert - Goin' Down to Laurel I flip through lots of magazines while I wait in lines, and I have noticed article after article in the ladies mags hyping how to save money on this and that, how to cut the bills, and how to cut back in these trying economic times. I mean, you'd think it was the seventies or something. Don't you people know how to save money already? Didn't your parents teach you this stuff? Oh yeah. I'm old and my parents were Depression babies. I keep forgetting that not A...
Mar 06, 2009•5 min
Stevie Wonder - Pastime Paradise I've been having Stevie Wonder flashbacks since I produced a Powerpoint slide show for my Aunt Mary's birthday a few weeks ago. (I used Isn't She Lovely with silly pictures of old ladies, and it was a hit.) So, keep it hush, since I don't want to be hunted down by the mean old RIAA or anything. Anyway... Back to Stevie. Songs In The Key Of Life (1976) is part of the holy trinity of magical Wonder albums, along with Innervisions and Talking Book, and I like to rev...
Feb 06, 2009•4 min
Monday, when I participated in the Monday Movie Meme, I totally spaced out and forgot one of my favorite musicals: Little Shop Of Horrors. Sticks was in the pit band for a community theater production, and it was one of the best I've ever seen. The movie was meh, but I did love Ellen Green as Audrey and Steve Martin killed (literally!) as that demented dentist (people will pay you to be inhumane!) The songs are all based in sixties pop, complete with Motown and girl-group sounds. These songs are...
Jan 30, 2009•6 min
It's been awhile, but I'm back! The The - This Is The Day I just flashed back to this when I wrote the Top 5 on Friday post this morning! It's from The The's 1983 album, Soul Mining, and it cannot leave you feeling anything but smiling and happy. You have my Nat guarantee!
Jan 23, 2009•5 min
The Neil Young show rocked, and my favorite song in the set was Cortez The Killer. Need I explain the flashback any further? I didn't get out to any other shows besides this one and the Christmas TSO show, but the quality of this Young show more than made up for it. This is one I'll remember forever. From 1975's Zuma, here's the original Cortez from Neil Young & Crazy Horse.
Dec 19, 2008•8 min
Fountains Of Wayne - Valley Winter Song The other day, I was thinking about creating a playlist of songs that aren't Christmas songs, but sound like they could be Christmas songs. I know, it's wordy. Anyway, I was watching TV and saw an L.L. Bean Christmas commercial featuring this song, and it's perfect for the playlist. This is from the 2003 FOW album, Welcome Interstate Managers, and it fits the playlist. Now, what else to add? I can think of Low's Just Like Christmas, The Weepies' All That I...
Dec 05, 2008•4 min
James - She's A Star Smiths wannabes, James, never really caught on over here in the States, but they did get some MTV time in the 90's when Laid hit number 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers album chart. Their highest US-charting song, Laid, comes from the album of the same name, and it climbed up to number 3 in Modern Rock Tracks and 61 in the Hot 100. But do I flash back to that song in the car when the radio personality is talking about James? Naaaaah. My brain is stuck on the sweet little pop s...
Nov 28, 2008•4 min
Sister Hazel - All For You I was watching the morning news on the Boston Fox station, and I heard some familiar music accompanying one story. I couldn't identify it right away and that always drives me nuts. When the segment ended, I just kept humming the tune to myself. I knew it was a nineties hit, so I tried like hell to spark my memory. Lil Sticks used to love this song, and I knew it was a hit when he was in junior high. Finally, the band name snapped into my consciousness: Sister Hazel. Th...
Nov 20, 2008•8 min
Graham Parker - White Honey This week, I spent so much time focusing on the election hoohaa that I pretty much zoned out everything else. To remedy that, I listened to Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey cd in the car, since it seems that is where I do my best listening. (By the way, I highly recommend Morrison to soothe your soul and reclaim your brain. Trust me.) In typical ADD fashion, my mind wandered to Graham Parker's White Honey. Parker pays homage to Morrison's style by invoking the blue-eyed so...
Nov 07, 2008•4 min
Yesterday, I shopped in this very stodgy gift shop in the swanky new section of the Natick Mall, errr, I mean The Natick Collection. (Hoity-toity enough for ya?) This is the kind of store that usually features music like Yanni or Enya or something else from that blah, new-agey, mind-numbing genre in their overhead play, so you'll forget about why you're there and buy an overpriced Willow Tree angel. You know the store. It's the one with the sales lady that wears prissy sweater sets, reeks of Sha...
Oct 31, 2008•9 min
Donnie Iris - Ah! Leah! Yes, it's totally cheesy, but whenever I hear it, it sends me back to 1981, when I finally moved back to the states from Guam. I had just settled in a duplex in OB (That's Ocean Beach, and I still call it that. I also have an OB decal on my car window to this day.), and I was in radio heaven. After four years living in a place that had one decent radio station, and one so-so backup, I had plenty of choice. There were a few good stations in San Diego, and if I tweaked my a...
Oct 24, 2008•4 min
This week on the Contrast Podcast, the theme was Album Closers, and I chose Elvis Costello's final song from the US release of "This Year's Model", "Radio Radio." I usually put considerable thought into my choice, so I mulled over several choices of what I consider perfect album closers before I settled on the Costello song. Here's a short list: The Beatles - A Day In The Life, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Who - Love, Reign O'er Me from Quadrophenia Radiohead - Street Spirit (F...
Oct 17, 2008•5 min
Music of 1973 Imagine this: you are hit by a car and knocked out, and when you come to, it's 1973. That is the premise of the new ABC series (based on a BBC show), Life On Mars. Sounds cool. If you've seen the trailers or just some stills of the cast and you can remember 1973, you might say, "Groovy," or "Far Out." I mean, check out Michael Imperioli's hair and suit. He looks like he could fit right in with Barney Miller's 12th precinct guys. Of course, all of this has me flashing back to the fa...
Oct 09, 2008•15 min
70's Power Pop Flashback Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action The Rubinoos - The Girl 20/20 - Yellow Pills I'm on a little power pop kick, trying to get out of a funk I've been in all year. Nothing makes me feel better than the blissful sounds of 3 chords chiming out on electric guitars over some soaring harmonies and a driving drum beat. This week's flashback is a three-fer, since we could all use a little lift from the battering of bad news we've been having lately. This week, those Flamin' Gr...
Oct 02, 2008•11 min
The Plimsouls - A Million Miles Away These flashbacks are giving me a headache. Oh wait, maybe it's just the war, the 700 billion dollar bailout, the prospect of a depression, the ..... You get it. I wish I was a million miles away sometimes. Thank goodness I have music like this Plimsouls song and mood-enhancing candles and bubble bath to help alleviate the pain of it all. From 1983, here's a power pop classic, A Million Miles Away.
Sep 25, 2008•4 min
Three Dog Night - The Show Must Go On This week's flashback occured last Saturday during Sticks' company outing at Canobie Lake Park. Every time I go to an amusement park, I get this Three Dog Night song stuck in my head because of the circusy calliope part that rears its ugly head over and over. 3DN's version is a cover of a Leo Sayer song, which I recall seeing him perform in clown makeup on either The Midnight Special or one of those other pop music shows in the seventies. Sayer's is kind of ...
Sep 19, 2008•4 min
David Naughton - Makin' It The thing about flashbacks is that they're not always pleasant or welcome, as was the case this week. I was lazy and a little bit tired on Wednesday, which was brought on by a bout of insomnia the night before. I was, therefore, loafing on the sofa in the afternoon, flipping through channel after channel of television mediocrity, until I hit paydirt: Meatballs! Hot damn, I saw that at the movies in its original release! I remember thinking it was hilarious, even though...
Sep 12, 2008•3 min
The Rumour - My Little Red Book Even though I quit my job, I'm filling up my date book with workshops, meetings, girls days out, and the like. I don't know where I'd be without my little red book (well, it's more of a maroon, but that's red, right?) As I stood at my kitchen island filling in dates, I flashed back to this cool song from The Rumour, one of those new-wavy contemporaries of Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. They were on Stiff Records, which was a tres cool label filled with new wave and...
Sep 04, 2008•3 min
The previous episode of Psychedelic Sunday featured The Incredible String Band, who had bowed out of their Friday night performance at Woodstock 39 years ago. In their stead, a little-known folk singer by the name of Melanie took the stage. Prior to Woodstock, she'd recorded for Columbia Records and released two singles, one of which, Beautiful People, had minor success in the Netherlands. In a radio interview with WAMC in Albany, NY, Melanie says she was invited to play at the Woodstock festiva...
Aug 31, 2008•8 min
This week's Democratic National Convention has been boring the hell out of me striking up my enthusiasm for the November election. Doesn't it just get your blood pumping, like back in the good old days of the 1968 convention in Chicago? Who needs Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin? We've got three guys with guns, drugs, and walkie talkies, who have the Feds looking into an Obama assassination plot. We've got thousands in a stadium being entertained by the likes of Stevie Wonder! It's just not that po...
Aug 29, 2008•2 min
Joe Walsh - Turn To Stone Those American girls gave brilliant performances on the gym floor in Beijing this year, even when the odds seemed stacked against them. (No way in hell that all of those Chinese girls were at least 15. Just no friggin' way.) I was immediately impressed by Nastia Liukin's elegance and fluidity, but, damn girl, maybe you could smile a little?! I don't think she cracked a grin until she triumphed in the All-around. Perhaps it's a way of psyching out her opponents or someth...
Aug 22, 2008•5 min
The Incredible String Band - Painting Box The Incredible String Band was a British folk trio (sometimes duo), whose biggest claim to fame is that they appeared at Woodstock. Due to the downpours on Friday night, the band ditched their plans to play, and were replaced by young Melanie Safka, aka Melanie. She later wrote a big hit song about that appearance, Lay Down (Candles In The Rain.) The Incredible Strings, squeezed between Creedence and Canned Heat, finally appeared on the Woodstock stage o...
Aug 17, 2008•5 min
New series here, featuring old songs every week. This week, with the Olympics in full swing and sports on our minds at the Contrast Podcast, I flashed back to this song, and how my classmates at Lancaster Catholic used to chant the chorus "na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye" to taunt the losing opponents' fans, especially when the opponents were from public schools. We had God on our side, after all, so had a right to display cockiness. Go Crusaders! Here's the 1970 original, from on...
Aug 15, 2008•4 min
The Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow Is Born Previously on Psychedelic Sunday, I featured Old Man Going from The Pretty Things' groundbreaking 1968 album, S.F. Sorrow. The album was one of the earliest rock operas, preceeding The Who's Tommy (but not surpassing it, by any means.) In true Nat fashion, I presented the songs ass backwards, as Old Man Going is the second-to-the-last song on side two of the album, and is, of course, about the ending of S.F. Sorrow's life. Today, here's the song about S.F....
Jul 19, 2008•4 min
Sing Me Spanish Techno - From the 2005 release, "Twin Cinema" Mutiny, I Promise You - From "Challengers", a 2007 release The Laws Have Changed - From "Electric Version", 2003 Mass Romantic - From their 2000 debut, "Mass Romantic" Use It - From "Twin Cinema"
Jun 19, 2008•21 min
It's back to the sensational sixties this week, with a band I have not featured before. How could it be that I've been at these psych-rock songs for over two years and I haven't played The Troggs? When I mentioned The Troggs, did you immediately start singing, "wild thing, you make my heart sing" in your head? Busted! In 1966, that song became their highest-charting single. As a pop-lovin' kid back then, I really didn't like that song. When it played on the radio, I think I'd tune it out of my c...
Jun 15, 2008•4 min
Lost 80's Tunes Some might argue that there's a reason these songs aren't played so much, even on classic rock radio, but I like all five of these tunes. My favorite song of the set it Zebra's Who's Behind The Door?, though, due to the whole Zep feeling Zebra established on their debut album. I just read that this album sold 75,000 copies in the first week, which was an astounding number for the times. I also love David & David's Welcome To The Boomtown, mostly because I'm a Baerwald fan. Th...
Jun 05, 2008•25 min
Slade - My Life Is Natural Sometimes, I like to delve into the era spawned by 60's psychedelia, the hard-rockin' early 70's, so this week I bring you: Son Of Psychedelic Sunday! Slade was a band that never quite became a household name in the US, even as glam artists such as David Bowie, T. Rex, and Sweet were embraced by many mainstream-loving fans. Glam made lots of people nervous, since ambiguous sexuality was a hallmark of the genre, and that's not something 15-year-old record-buying boys fe...
May 25, 2008•4 min
