There are enough people out there who yearn for the arcane, the odd, the unsuccessful, the strange, and the historically overlooked to justify 200 podcast episodes of D-Sides, Orphans, and Oddities. This makes me happy, and the topics are inexhaustible. From the strange singles of Freddie Cannon and Lou Christie to the occasionally wonderful singles of Les Humphries Singers, Doris, Os Mutantes, to the strange paths to fame like The American Breed ("Bend Me Shape Me") evolving into Rufus, and then Chaka Kahn, and then "I Feel For You", her biggest hit, written by Prince, but the Kahn version was actually the 4th release and, had Patrice Rushen opted to try it (she turned it down), the 5th. A Prince song with Stevie Wonder playing harmonica over his own voice being sampled. To me, pop music is styles and the biggest records tend to be styles smooshed together. People like dangerous white music and safe black music. People like rap, but with a melodic vocal hook. While the Bee Gees were not a disco group, the Saturday Night Fever movie was a perfect petri dish. Combine Travolta's white-hot star power with the zeitgeist of Disco and the very odd recordings the Bee Gees were doing at that time. It was the success and the playing it safe in the movie's wake that doomed them. The Beatles were preternaturally gifted with a work ethic that would kill the musicians of today. But their fame was also born of withering luck. A producer and a manager (and record company) that didn't really know what they were supposed to do with these four tough guys. None of them tried to make The Beatles pick a lead singer, so, like their live act, all four would do it. Because they had the shocking temerity to say "Nope, we're not doing that song...", it was like saying to someone with a gun In your face, "Go ahead. We've come this far. You don't know WHAT we've seen. We see through you, over and over. In Germany. In Sweden. In Wales. We never said 'no' to a gig, no matter how much driving or begging or lack of sleep, and if the Reeperbahn couldn't stop us, what makes you think YOU will?" And their genuine love of Black music somehow broke the barriers for generations of singers, players, etc. Imagine that moment. You're in The Beatles, you've struggled and burned the roads up and played innumerable gigs, and sat, nose to nose, creating songs in your room that people would be singing and playing for 60 years hence. But now, the sessions begin, and the man in the tie wants you to record a "ringer". And you try it, but it doesn't really do anything. It's ok. But you have to decide. Play the game? Or risk this dude's red pen. Or show up with something better. And the guy with the tie has been through some shit as well. And he's tired of being relegated to 2nd string and he resents being put in a place where these four punks dare question his choice. Do better. I'm tired of this shit. And "Please Please Me" is as black a record as anything any band from England before them had tried. And that little phrase can be attributed to everything they tried after that. Because they proved it, in that ONE shot across the bow that would resonate for what will be eons, that your old choices for ringers, publishing company favors, Brill building production lines, plug-and-play Motown stuff, etc., were going to either fade or have to adapt. I stop my show pretty much at 1980 because that's when drum machines and synths became songwriting devices. I never liked Joy Division. I just don't get it. At that point, and with exceptions, sure, drum programming and synth programming made songwriting easy. That didn't make the songs any better. Just easier to make. Someone else can do that show. Anyhow, this is to say thank you to all the folks that have listened and downloaded. THIS show is me delivering a preamble and then playing 4 hours of music from past shows that I really like. Let's call this "Part 1" because the show, as I originally tried to put it together, lasted 10+ hours. So consider this show when you're on a long drive, doing work, making love to your woman, or man, or both, or none. So...... This is the setlist, but they’re not all ‘good songs’. Some are meant to show you the arcane nature of what I find most enjoyable. Song-poems (“The Beatle Boys”), artists coping with the end of their heyday (Gary Glitter) and ill-prepared for life after that, or artists way before they found their niche (The Gap Band). And, of course, groups I love like Rose Tattoo, The Free Design, and SAHB. Leo’s Sunshipp - Give Me The Sunshine (1978) The Free Design - My Very Own Angel (1969) GLS United - Rapper’s Deutsch (1980) Samples “Rapper’s Delight”, which samples “Good Times” by Chic, “Here Comes That Sound Again” by Love De-Luxe with Hawkin’s Discophonia (which i played on one of my previous shows), and a quote from the movie Five on the Black Hand Side, specifically, a scene in the barbershop that predated...
