Here’s the playlist for 1-29-2023, in which I read an article about the Presto Hotdogger, played the latest installment of my tribute to Jeff Beck, and for the live segment, played Midnight North:
Hour 1.
Bonerama, “Hey Hey What Can I Do” [Bonerama Plays Zeppelin (2019)]
The dBs, “Working for Somebody Else” [The Sound of Music (1987)]
Alex Chilton & Hi Rhythm Section, “Boogie Shoes” [Boogie Shoes: Live on Beale Street (2021)]
Chris Stamey was born and raised in North Carolina and was one of the first musicians influenced by Big Star and the power pop scene around Memphis. He traveled to New York City, where he played bass with Alex Chilton and founded Car Records, which released Chris Bell’s single “I Am the Cosmos” b/w “You And Your Sister”. Car Records also released “(I Thought You) Wanted to Know” b/w “If and When” in 1978. This song was credited to “Chris Stamey and the dBs” and had Richard Lloyd on guitar, Gene Holder on bass, and Will Rigby on drums. Pete Holsapple joined in October 1978, thus completing the classic dBs lineup.
The dBs released their second single, “Black and White” b/w “Soul Kiss” in 1980. They then signed with Albion Records, which released their debut album, “Stands for Decibels”, in January 1981. This album was a critical success but a commercial failure. Their next album, “Repercussion”, was released in April 1982. It, too, did not sell well, and Chris Stamey left the dBs after its release, leaving the band to continue as a trio with Holsapple writing most of the songs. They signed with a new record label, Bearsville Records, which released “Like This” in 1984. But Bearsville went bankrupt that year, and, needless to say, the album did not do well. The dBs released “The Sound of Music” as a last-ditch effort in 1987, and when that, too, was a commercial flop, the dBs broke up.
The following is a chronology of albums released by the dBs before their dissolution:
Stands for Decibels (1981): This album is legitmately considered a power pop classic. Singing and songwriting are split between the talented Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple. Contains the first single, “Black and White”, “Dynamite” (the organ on this track is quite awesome), “The Fight” and “Bad Reputation”. The dBs count as influences not only American power pop originals such as Big Star, but also their British counterparts such as The Beatles. This is an enjoyable album, containing melodious harmonies and harmonic melodies.
Repercussion (1982): Here, the dBs repeat the formula that made “Stands for Decibels” successful, only this time, it’s more polished and refined than it was on the first album. This album contains the classic “Amplifier” and “Ask for Jill”, a homage to a producer.
Like This (1984): Now that Chris Stamey had left the band, the dBs were reduced to a trio, signed with a new label (Bearsville) and released a new album. The band relies on Holsapple for songwriting, and stripped of the artsy quirks of Stamey, they perform some good rockers and country-influenced songs. Highlights include “Love Is for Lovers”, “Not Cool”, and “A Spy in the House of Love”.
The Sound of Music (1987): Bearsville Records had gone bankrupt in the same year that “Like This” had been released; the band was in legal limbo for the next few years, bound by an exclusivity deal with their non-existant label. They ultimately signed with I.R.S. Records, and released this album, which they treated as a make-or-break record. This time, Jeff Beninato joined the dBs on bass, and Holsapple wrote all songs except “Feel Alright” (written by Tommy Edwards). Once again, the band eschews the quirkiness of “Stands for Decibels” and “Repercussion” and records surprisingly catchy songs like “Changing with the Changing Times”, “Bonneville”, and “Working for Somebody Else”.
That would pretty much be the chronicle of the dBs…if not for the fact that they reunited in the early 2010s:
Falling Off the Sky (2012): All four members of the classic lineup (Stamey, Holsapple, Holder and Rigby) reuinited for this album. It’s a good album in that all four members show their individual personalities in their music, but thirty years have passed since the original lineup was intact, so it’s not quite the same band as existed before. Still, this is great stuff. The best tracks are “The Wonder of Love” and “Write Back”.
Here’s the playlist for 1-22-2023, in which I talked about how I fixed Radio Free NJ, paid tribute to David Crosby by playing a bunch of cover versions, and had U-Melt as the live segement:
Hour 1
Roxy Music, “Eight Miles High” [Flesh + Blood (1980)]
Dinosaur Jr., “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” [Time Between: A Tribute to the Byrds (1989)]
Here’s the playlist for 1-8-2023, in which I read an article about Soylent Green, had Anthony Gomes as the featured artist, and had Carbon Leaf as the live segment:
Recently, I had as the featured artist segment on my show Big Star. At the time, I thought of it as basically a reset: I was going back to the beginning and playing the first major power pop band. Big Star can be said to be the first band that basically was trying to emulate The Beatles, and artists such as R.E.M., the dBs and Bill Lloyd have cited Big Star as an influence.
In 1967, Alex Chilton became the lead singer for the Box Tops, a blue-eyed soul group that had a #1 hit with “The Letter” when he was sixteen. The band had a few more hits before Chilton left the band in 1970. He recorded a solo album; then Chris Bell asked him to join Icewater, comprised of Bell, drummer Jody Stephens and bassist Andy Hummel. They renamed themselves Big Star (after Big Star Markets, a grocery store near Ardent Studios). They signed with Ardent Records, a label established by Ardent Studios founder John Fry and started work on their first album.
1 Record (April 1972): What is interesting about Big Star’s first album is how it holds up over the years. It could easily pass for an album released ten years later or even twenty years later. Although the freshness is gone – after all, many power pop bands have followed the same formula over the years – there is no denying that these are well-crafted pop songs. We get “Feel”, which starts the album off on a good note, and “The Ballad of El Goodo”, a lush, dreamy ballad. “In the Street” is familiar as the “That ’70s Show” theme song. “Thirteen” is an acoustic ballad that states “Rock and roll is here to stay”. These four songs are worth the price of admission alone, but there are other solid songs.
Unfortunately “#1 Record” did not sell well. Ardent was an independent label and Stax Records handled distribution. Stax apparently didn’t know how to distribute a power pop album. When Stax signed a deal with Colombia Records, it did not improve matters, either; Columbia removed the existing copies of #1 Record from the stores. By the end of 1972, Bell had quit Big Star, which had disbanded. But after a few months, Chilton, Stephens and Hummel decided to reform Big Star, and the trio resumed work on their second album (work had begun on the album when Bell was still a member of the band).
Radio City (February 1974): The quartet had been reduced to a trio, which you think would have doomed the band. But this album is actually better than the previous one, with several songs written or co-written by Andy Hummel, including the classic “Way Out West”, a song written for Hummel’s girlfriend. We start to see the beginnings of Chilton’s eccentricities, and there are several standout songs, including “O My Soul”, and the single “September Gurls” b/w “Mod Lang”. Again, sales of “Radio City” failed due to poor marketing and poor distribution. Colombia refused to distribute the album following a disagreement. Sales of the album were far greater than that of “#1 Record”, but it only sold about 20,000 copies. With the failure of two albums, Andy Hummel left to go back to school, and the band was reduced to a duo of Chilton and Stephens, who returned to Ardent Studios to work on a third album.
Third/Sister Lovers (March 1978): Now that both Bell and Hummel had left the band, there was nothing to stop Chilton from becoming a dominant creative force, and it’s not without justification that this album is called “Chilton’s untidy masterpiece”. It includes my personal favorites “Thank You Friends”, “Holocaust”, and the Christmas song, “Jesus Christ”. By now, Ardent Records had folded, and John Fry and producer John Dickinson flew to New York with promotional copies and met with a number of record labels. But they failed to generate interest in the album. The album was not released until 1978, when PVC, and independent label, was given the tapes and released the album in the UK, and then a year later, released it in the U.S. In that same year, Chris Bell died in a car accident at the age of 27. That would be the end of the Big Star story…if not for the fact that the band was cited as influences with the new generation of power pop artists and continued to have a cult following. They would reunite with guitarist Jon Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow (of the Posies) joining Chilton and Stephens. The resurrected band made its debut at the 1993 University of Missouri spring music festival, and they would tour Europe and Japan. They also released a new album.
In Space (September 2005): This is not really a Big Star album, but more of an Alex Chilton album – albeit a very good Alex Chilton album. While it doesn’t really achieve the high water mark of the three albums Big Star recorded from 1972 to 1975, it is quite good. Highlights include “Dony”, “Lady Sweet”, “Turn My Back on the Sun”, and the funky “Love Revolution”. Alex Chilton suffered a fatal heart attack on March 17, 2010 and Andy Hummel died four months later of cancer, so now Jody Stephens was the last surviving member. In May 2010, the surviving members put on an Alex Chilton tribute show, and Stephens said it would be Big Star’s last show. Apart from the occasional reunion concert, Big Star is history – but their legacy lives on.
Here’s the playlist for 1-1-2023, in which I ushered in the new year (Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time), had John H*mmond as the featured artist, and played Skyfoot in the live segment:
Hour 1
Thor, “The Party Never Ends” [Rising (2020)]
Van Duren, “New Year’s Eve” [Are You Serious? (1978)]
U2, “New Year’s Day” [War (1983/2008)]
The Heartbeats, “After New Year’s Eve” [The Ultimate Christmas Album (2001)]
Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners, “Another Lonely New Year’s Eve” [The Ultimate Christmas Album (2001)]
Dressy Bessy, “This May Hurt (A Little)” [Dressy Bessy (2003)]
Dan Fogelberg, “Same Old Lang Syne” [The Innocent Age (1981)]
Guy Lombardo, “Enjoy Yourself” [78 RPM single (1949)]
The Specials, “Enjoy Yourself” [More Specials (1980)]
Prince Buster, “Enjoy Yourself” [King of Ska (1968/2000)]
Jolie Holland, “Enjoy Yourself” [The Living and the Dead (2008)}
Hour 2
Transvision Vamp, “I Want Your Love” [I Want Your Love (1989/2019)]
Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, “Glad All Over” [The High and the Mighty (1982)]
The Waitresses, “They’re All Out of Liquor, Let’s Find Another Party” [Bruisology (1983)]
New Music Express
Hallelujahs, “I’m Not Green” [Eat Meat, Swear an Oath (2022)]
Shannen Moser, “Two Eyes” [The Sun Still Seems to Move (2022)]
Popular Creeps, “Tear Me Apart” [All of This WIll End in Tears (2022)]
Featured artist: John Hammond Jr.
John Hammond, “Two Trains Running” [John Hammond (1963)]
John Hammond, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” [John Hammond (1963)]
John Hammond, “I’m Ready” [Big City Blues (1964)]
John Hammond, “Barbecue Blues” [Big City Blues (1964)]
John Hammond, “Big Boss Man” [So Many Roads (1965)]
John Hammond, “You Can’t Judge a Book By The Cover” [So Many Roads (1965)]
John Hammond, “Crawling Kingsnake” [Country Blues (1965)]
Hour 3
The Donnas, “Here for the Party” [Bitchin’ (2007)
The J. Geils Band, “(Ain’t Nothin’ But a) House Party” [Bloodshot (1973)]
The Rubinoos, “Party Insurance” [45 (2014)]
The Yardbirds, “The Yardbirds Give Their New Year’s Resolutions” [BBC Sessions (1968)]
The Yardbirds, “You’re a Better Man Than I” [For Your Love (1965)]
Zumpano, “The Party Rages On” [Look What the Rookie Did (1995)]
Live Segment: Skyfoot
Skyfoot, “Yes We Can Can” [Live at Portland House of Music, Portland Maine, 3-4-2022]
Skyfoot, “Bluebird” [Live at Portland House of Music, Portland Maine, 3-4-2022]
