MFD Random Five #52

In which I shuffle through some music files and listen to the first five songs from the years 1976-85 that randomly pop up.

---

1. "Alone-6 AM" by George Duke (1979, Epic)
   A brief piano interlude from the classic A Brazilian Love Affair album. Sounds like a pianist messing around on a piano at 6 AM after a long night of recording, then there's about 10 seconds of upbeat stuff before someone shuts the tape turns off.


2. "Puppet Life" by Punishment of Luxury (1978, Small Wonder)
   From the 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979 box set, this odd tune is a cross between punk, Franz Ferdinand (the aughts band, not the Austrian archduke), and Karl King's "Barnum & Bailey's Favorite." I find it to be fascinating, just not very good.


3. "Marsha's Car" by David Bean (1983, Wasted Talent)
   David Bean is the singer/songwriter/leader of The Judy's, a local favorite from the Houston area when I was in high school and college. This was the lead song from his solo EP, Modomusic. Bean's voice is an acquired taste, but this thing is 4 minutes of pop perfection. The 7-song mini-album was available in three different colors - yellow, blue and pink. I opted for blue.
   
   

   

   from the MFD archives

   In the mid-1990's when e-mail was a newfangled thing to me, I wrote a fanboy email to David Bean, who had become a science teacher by that time, I believe. Turns out that the email address belonged to David's father, also named David. The elder Bean was quite kind and gracious in his response and didn't seem to mind responding to such emails, which had become a regular occurrence in his life at that time.


4. "The Rowe" by Thompson Twins (1982, T Records)
   Sounding more like Talking Heads wannabes than later pop-styled Thompson Twins, this is a 2 chord album cut that holds your attention for about 3½ minutes, so it's a shame that the track is 6½ minutes long.


5. "She Believes In Me" by Kenny Rogers (1979, United Artists)
   This song was huge in my little world, ca. 7th grade. In an earlier post on this blog, I wrote: "This reminds me a little of Bread's 'Lost Without Your Love' but not enough to distract from its soft rock crossover goodness. This topped both the country and AC charts while peaking at #5 in the Top 40." Rogers once stated that he looked for ballads "that say what every man wants to say and what every woman wants to hear." Check and check.
   
   KR crossover songs from 1979-80 always remind me of a girl named Melinda, until we get to "Lady" which reminds me of Danette. No, these ladies weren't my girlfriends, but not for lack of trying on my part. More on my geekiness around that time here. 

MFD Not-So-Random Five #8

In which I select five songs from 1976-1985 based on an arbitrary theme. (Not to be confused with this blog's Random Five feature, a different exercise in arbitrariness). Today's theme, for the "dog days of summer:" songs that have the word "dog" in their title.

---

1. "Do the Dog" by The Specials (1979, 2 Tone)
   A ska cover of Rufus Thomas' 1963 single "The Dog" which is more like a complete deconstruction of the song than a cover. But I still dig it.
   


2. "Dog Eat Dog" by Adam and the Ants (1980, Epic)
   The first Adam and the Ants tune I ever heard was "Killer in the Home." It appeared on a 1981 Epic sampler cassette titled Exposed. I was intrigued. Then "Dog Eat Dog" came up on the second side of the tape and I was hooked. Purchase of the Kings of the Wild Frontier album quickly followed, and I stayed with Adam Ant until he teamed up with Phil Collins, then I quickly lost interest. But Kings of the Wild Frontier is one of my favorite albums of 1980 (even though I didn't hear it until later) and "Dog Eat Dog" is side 1, track 1 of that album.
   
   
   


3. "Dog and Butterfly" by Heart  (1979, Portrait)
   When I was a kid, I thought this was an Olivia Newton-John tune (I never claimed I was a smart kid, just a smart ass). But Ann Wilson sure brings it with these vocals, don't she? The star of this show, however, is the laid back folkish songwriting and subtle arrangement. The song barely cracked the Top 40, peaking at #34, which is a damn shame. Of course, Top 40 at that time was mainly disco and country crossover, so there really wasn't room for a folk ballad, no matter how beautiful it was. (note: I just checked out the Hot 100 chart of March 31, 1979 and that's a helluva chart. Maybe that explains why "Dog and Butterfly" didn't get any higher: too much competition. Or maybe this song just lulled me into a nostalgic 7th grade daze.)


4. "Dogs" by The Judy's (1980, Wasted Talent)
   The Judy's were a local band out of Pearland, Texas, just south of Houston. The trio would end up as opening acts for groups like Talking Heads and The B-52's (oddly enough, a then-unknown R.E.M. opened for The Judy's in Austin in 1981). They became a regional favorite, then me and my high school friends fell in love with them in the summer of 1982 with their album Washarama. "Dogs" comes from the EP released prior to Washarama, The Wonderful World of Appliances. Sung from the perspective of David Berkowitz, this song is an odd exploration of The Son of Sam. Far from my favorite tune by the band, it's creepy and catchy at the same time.
   


5. "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton (1982, Capitol)
   When you read this set's theme, you probably guessed I'd include this song by Dr. Funkenstein. "Bow-wow-wow-yippee-yo-yippee-yay!" may be some of my favorite '80s lyrics. Amazingly, this 1982 single never charted on the Billboard Hot 100 (it "bubbled under" at 101, but it topped the R&B chart and peaked at #38 Disco). I didn't love this as much in the early '80s as I should have. Now a classic, being widely sampled in hip-hop music for the last 35+ years.