Our Love Will Still Be There - The Troggs

I love this song by The Troggs. They're mostly known for "Wild Thing," but they have so many other great songs (and another #1 hit.)

This wasn't that other #1 hit but it's so, so good:

Neil Young - Powderfinger (1975 alternate version)

Neil Young just put this up today:

Powderfinger

That link leads to some just-released old Neil Young including an alternate take of Powderfinger. That's hands-down my favorite Neil Young song . . . and a new recording of it is something I always appreciate it. Too bad that 22 year old protagonist never learned not to fire back at the cops.

Happy Halloween - Alice Cooper on The Muppet Show

Welcome to my Nightmare:

Happy Birthday Stiv Bators!

It would have been Stiv Bators's 71st birthday today.

This is the first song I ever heard with him:

I like the cover better: Devo, "Head Like a Hole"

I had no idea this cover existed until today:

Happy Birthday Dave Blood!

Dave Blood of the Dead Milkmen would have been 64 today, if I've done my sums right.

Walter Lure & the Waldos - Crazy Kids

Here is a great track by Walter Lure & the Waldos.

Walter Lure played guitar in The Heartbreakers aka Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers.

Supertramp - Give A Little Bit

This is not the most rockin' song ever. But it's one of my favorites, and despite my general "meh" reaction to most of Supertramp's library, this cements them in my mind as a good band.

Billie Joe Armstrong - Whole Wide World

Billie Joe Armstrong just released a cover of Wreckless Eric's classic Whole Wide World:



Good stuff!

I prefer the original:




And I also like this cover by The Prissteens better:




That's actually the first version I heard of the song. I heard the original after listening to that Prissteens version over and over again.
(I first heard them on Terre T's show on WFMU, where she said that The Prissteens put the angry in Shangri-Las. Awesome.)


You could go down a whole rabbit hole of covers of this song - The Proclaimers do a good cover, for one, (and one with Eric), and Torres, as did Green Day:

Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation

I first heard this on a collection of punk 45s. It's still a classic:



Great guitar start and rhythm change.

錯乱前戦 - Sakuranzensen

Thanks to my friend Ed for recommending these guys.

Here they are playing Taximan



They're awesome.

The Stranglers - Live in 1977

Here are The Stranglers, live in 1977:

Fuzzbob - Rules and Regulations

Thanks to my friend Tom for sending me one of this band's songs. I know nothing about them except that I really like this:

Jonathan Richman article

My friend Ed sent me this article. It's a wonderful look at one of my favorite, Jonathan Richman.

The radical positivity of cult pop star Jonathan Richman

Here is one of his songs - one of the first I ever heard.

The Queers - You're Tripping

I mentioned about six years back that I needed to post something by The Queers. So, it took a while, but here you go. Something old but topical.

I feel the same about Nazis that they do.

The White Stripes - De Stilj turns 20

NPR has a nice article up about The White Stripes and their second album, De Stilj.

Me, I didn't discover them until a local radio station played "Fell In Love With A Girl." I loved it instantly with its Kinks-like distortion and Ramones-like brevity and simplicity. I ended up going to see them shortly after.

20 Years of The White Stripes De Stilj

I'm still sad they aren't together any more. I understand Meg White is done with music . . . but I'd welcome her back in a heartbeat.

Spizzenergi - Where is Captain Kirk?

So, it took decades, but Spizz finally found Captain Kirk:

Where's Captain Kirk? Spizz finally meets Shatner.

By the way, the best line in Fight Club? "Shatner. I'd fight William Shatner."

Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science

Joe Walsh played this song on his show tonight.

This song got me into Thomas Dolby. I bought this album and played it over and over and over. This, and One of Our Submarines, are my favorite tracks by Thomas Dolby.



My favorite lines:

"Good heavens Miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!"

and

"There she goes again! She's tidied up, and I can't find anything!"

I've been in both situations.

Turns out the second line is also Joe's favorite line.

The Kinks - State of Confusion

Happy Birthday Ray Davies!

"It gets worse, the older that you get."

The Dead Kennedys - Police Truck

This seems topical.

Also, it's the birthday of my friend Tom, who kept playing DK for me until I liked them. It took a while, but I'm glad I finally got what was so good about them.

Death - Politicians In My Eyes

I first heard of Death in an article in a newspaper - I want to say it was the New York Times. How this band went forgotten for so long is really hard to understand when you hear them. They're incredible - one of the earliest proto-punk / punk bands. Like the MC5 and The Dictators in power and intensity, and with lyrics I'd find so drawn to from The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers . . . as refined as later punk groups like Rancid . . . they're just amazing.



Listen to anything by them. Listen to everything by them. It's all good.

Pete Shelley - Homosapian

I first heard this song in the 90s on a collection of 80s New Wave CDs. I knew Pete Shelley as the lead singer of the Buzzcocks but not his solo work.

This song is amazing.

I still remember hearing a Buzzcocks song for the first time - it was "Orgasm Addict" and it grabbed me and never let go.

Equally I still remember hearing the Buzzcocks on the radio back in December of 2018 . . . and then another song right after. I just went, "Oh no . . . "

Sad to lose him, so great to have had him.

Happy Birthday Wendy O. Williams

Wendy O. Williams would have been 71 today.

She's my favorite woman in rock.

I'm still very sad that depression caused her to take her own life. It's her life, and she did what she liked, but I'm so sorry she chose to end it.

Here is some awesome stuff by The Plasmatics to make up for her loss.


I miss you WOW!

Magazine - Shot by Both Sides

This song alone should cement Magazine's place in Rock and Roll history:



The riff might sound familiar - if so, it's because Pete Shelley wrote it and gave it to his former Buzzcocks member and Magazine founder Howard Devoto. He then used it for the Buzzcock's song Lipstick:



Howard Devote gets songwriting credit on that one, and Pete Shelley on "Shot by Both Sides." Can't go wrong with that kind of post-split collaboration.

I Like the Cover Better: Without You

The song Without You, done by Harry Nilsson, is one of my favorite songs of all time.



He didn't write it, though. The original is by Badfinger, and it's also excellent:



Still . . . as the title says, I like the cover better.

Neil Young - Unknown Legend

This song is more country than rock, really, but has some of the finest guitar playing ever by Neil Young . . . who has played some of the best guitar in rock and roll, period.

The Stranglers - Get a Grip on Yourself

Dammit, COVID-19 took another musician from a band I love - the keyboardist from The Stranglers.

Wendy O Williams - It's My Life

Wendy Orleans Williams, one of my punk rock heroes, took her own life on this date. I'm still not over that.

It was her life . . . but I sure wish that wasn't what she felt like she wanted to do.



Thanks for the music and the attitude Wendy. Rule in Metal-Punk Heaven with Lemmy at your side.

Bonus track - Masterplan (live)

We're Not Gonna Take It - Acoustic

I love this version of "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister's lead singer, Dee Snyder:



I don't love the original any less than this, but this is great. You can really get the power of the lyrics, as simple and straightforward as they are. I always liked that we worked in the criticism "trite" into a metal song.

Rush - Tom Sawyer (Exit Stage Left)

This is the first video I saw from Rush, back when I was a teen watching MTV:



I'm sure it's the first Rush song I heard, too, followed soon by Limelight. I liked them ever since then. One of my close friends was a huge Rush fan. Thanks to him I ended up with cassette copies of A Farewell to Kings and Moving Pictures. I went on to buy a bunch more Rush on vinyl and later on CD.

We lost Neil Peart, but as the Rancid song says, "through our music, we will live forever."