Scotch Sampler

From the Live Aid performance, the height of technology in 1985

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IdRatherBeSkiing said:
The first Cars album has more 'hits' than 'album cuts'. Most albums have 2 or 3 really good songs and then filler. This does not. Others which IMHO do not have any filler that come to mind: Bat out of Hell and Born in the USA.
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Yeah, that's why I ended up with 5 songs from a single album as "favorites".
 
Who knew the first Cars album was really...... a rock opera! Move over Tommy. (Not joking BTW, it works!)

Yeah their first two albums are classics. My go-to is the over-polished (admittedly) Heartbeat City though.

My band actually agreed to cover "Moving In Stereo" back in the day. No synths, just chunky nu-metal guitars. It worked well, people responded well to it!
 
sadchild said:
Who knew the first Cars album was really...... a rock opera! Move over Tommy. (Not joking BTW, it works!)

Yeah their first two albums are classics. My go-to is the over-polished (admittedly) Heartbeat City though.

My band actually agreed to cover "Moving In Stereo" back in the day. No synths, just chunky nu-metal guitars. It worked well, people responded well to it!
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Your band doesn't sound too agreeable. Half your stories are about stuff they won't cover.
 
I've had a long run of members who think the only covers you can do are things like either Godsmack and Metallica songs, or "Jump Around" and "Push It". And if they don't hear the song 10x a month, it must be "obscure" and I'm just "being weird" again.

Here some "obscure" songs I've suggested over the years:

Billy Joel "The Stranger"
Eagles "Those Shoes"
Elvis Costello "Pump It Up"
Eurythmics "Don't Ask Me Why"
Frida "I Know There's Something Going On"
Heart "If Looks Could Kill"
Joan Jett "Little Liar"
Men At Work "Overkill"
Nick Lowe "Cruel To Be Kind"
Pantera "This Love"
Pat Benatar "Hell Is For Children"
Pet Shop Boys "It's A Sin"
Police "Invisible Sun"
Suicidal Tendencies "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow"
Til Tuesday "Voices Carry"
 
The Cars was an AMAZING album! Gold from first to last.

And you could go through the full nights party arc during one album? Each of your phases took us an album to get through. We partied like we were marathon runners, not sprinters. Did you have to be home and in bed by 10:00 to keep from getting grounded?
 
HecticArt said:
The Cars was an AMAZING album! Gold from first to last.

And you could go through the full nights party arc during one album? Each of your phases took us an album to get through. We partied like we were marathon runners, not sprinters. Did you have to be home and in bed by 10:00 to keep from getting grounded?
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Admittedly, things are usually cooking pretty good when The Cars is dropped. But it captures the peak and post-peak perfectly.
 
sadchild said:
Elvis Costello "Pump It Up"
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sadchild said:
Frida "I Know There's Something Going On"
Heart "If Looks Could Kill"
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sadchild said:
Men At Work "Overkill"
Nick Lowe "Cruel To Be Kind"
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sadchild said:
Pat Benatar "Hell Is For Children"
Pet Shop Boys "It's A Sin"
Police "Invisible Sun"
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Those would all be pretty cool crunched up like you're talking about.

The guys in my band don't have any vision either. They are all like "we don't have a synth player, or we don't have a sampler, or we don't have anyone that can sing like that, or we don't have any talent.:rolleyes: I can't convince them it's OK if it doesn't sound like the radio, just learn the chords and the attitude. We do the Cake version of I Will Survive. When I brought it up, and played it for them it started off OK, but as soon as the trumpet kicked in they didn't think we could pull it off. I told them to give it a chance. I do the trumpet as a raunchy overdriven guitar solo, and it sounds pretty good. (For us.) That's about as much imagination as I can muster up out of those clowns.

I'd love to do Brooklyn is Burning, or Dead Man's Party, or KMFDM's Juke Joint Jezebel, or Daft Punk is Playing at My House, or some other amped up electro-party tunes with a guitar oriented band.
 
For today's installment, I'm going with Supertramp; another band whose earlier work I discovered after buying their current albums. I first bought the brilliant Breakfast in America, and then discovered their earlier work, Crime of the Century, which had become an audiophile standard. It's one of the top titles in the Mobile Fidelity half-speed master collection. Crime is one of those albums where the songs are connected, and is best listened to in one sitting. I think they call it Drama Rock, it's a mix of progressive rock with elements of a musical, play, or symphony. This is the album
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While the album would make my top 20 list of favorite albums, I don't have a single favorite song from it; plus I don't think you guys would be interested anyway.

But before Breakfast, the album that had their first international hit was Even in the Quietest Moments..., with Give a Little Bit
Supertramp – Give a Little Bit (live)



Breakfast in America was a breakthrough album, with a half-dozen hits on it. As they always do, each track alternates between Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson as the writer and lead singer. All of the following favorite song performances came from the same 1979 Paris concert. It shows that Supertramp are a bunch of amazingly talented live musicians.

Supertramp – The Logical Song (live)



Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger (live)



Supertramp – Take the Long Way Home (live)
 
At a previous job, back in the mid-90s, I worked with someone who raved about Crime Of The Century. He saw them live on that tour and said it was mind-blowing. I respect Supertramp but I don't own any of their songs. However, if any of these come on, I'll usually listen: "Dreamer", "Give A Little Bit", "The Logical Song", "Take The Long Way Home", "It's Raining Again". He's got one of those Jon Anderson-high voices!!
 
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Odds and ends: I'm missing a lot of music from the mid-70's. Here are some favorites that I haven't mentioned.

Styx -
Lady
Fooling Yourself
Come Sail Away
Blue Collar Man
Renegade

Queen -
Keep Yourself Alive
Bohemian Rhapsody
Tie Your Mother Down
We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions
Fat Bottomed Girls
Don't Stop Me Now

Ramones -
Blitzkrieg Bop (first heard in National Lampoon's Vacation)
I Wanna Be Sedated

Feature of the day: Elvis Costello.

When he hit the scene, looking like this
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we thought it was a joke, but he was putting out some good music, such as Pump It Up and Radio Radio, which famously got him banned from SNL




And one of my favorites
Elvis Costello - Accidents Will Happen (live)
 
"Come Sail Away" is a great one. Otherwise, I don't go out of my way for Styx.

Queen

1. (coming up on the 333)
2. (coming up on the 333)
3. (coming up on the 333)
4. (coming up on the 333)
5. We Are The Champions (on my 500+ list)
6. Hammer To Fall
7. Another One Bites The Dust
8. Headlong
9. One Vision
10. Radio Gaga
11. I Want It All
12. Gimme The Prize
13. Flash
14. Don't Lose Your Head
15. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
 
My Queen top 10 will come when we get the Qs.

My Styx top 10 will come when we get to the Ss.

The only Elvis Costello song I have is 13 Steps Lead Down. Good song.

I have both of those Ramones songs. Where in Vacation is it? I don't recall.
 
Elvis Costello is great.
My favorites:

The Angels want to wear My Red Shoes
Oliver's Army
Alison
Pump It Up
Radio, Radio
Veronica
Everyday I Write the Book
Peace Love and Understanding
Man Out of Time
 
Elvis Costello

1. Veronica (#260 on my 333)
2. Pump It Up
3. Walk Us Uptown (with The Roots)
4. The Only Flame In Town (with Daryl Hall)
5. Every Day I Write The Book
 
With the mention of Genesis, it seems like a good time to do them. They have a few old (70's) songs I like, and some 80's songs I like, so while I want to give them a shout-out, I don't want to get too ahead of myself (chronologically).

They had a lot of good songs with Peter Gabriel, including The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. After he left, they had a hit with Follow You Follow Me.

I was hooked on Genesis after that, and bought their next 3 albums. Duke was somewhat of a themed album, but this was my favorite

Genesis – Turn It On Again (live)



Then Abacab was full of hits, including No Reply At All, Man On the Corner, and Keep it Dark. Here's an extended version of the title track

Genesis – Abacab (live)



The next self-titled album was great too, as was the one that followed (Invisible Touch), but that's getting too far into the 80's for now.
 
Genesis

1. (coming up on 333)
2. Mama (#258)
3. Abacab (on 500+ list)
4. Illegal Alien (for expanding past 500 list)
5. Just A Job To Do
6. Follow You Follow Me
7. Turn It On Again
8. Paperlate
9. That's All
10. Man On The Corner
 
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