53 comments

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  mike

  2 years ago

  gooood.
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  David

  2 years ago

  I never picked up that was Trevor Horn on the chorus of "Owner." The things you learn ...
  
  I may be one of six people (there were five guys in Yes at the time) who considers Drama to be one of their finest albums.
  
  I also like Trevor Rabin's vocals more than Jon Anderson's.
  
  Clearly, I am losing credibility here.
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  JT

  2 years ago

  J, thank you for the Stevie B nod. :-) You know, I got this letter, from the postman just the other day...(okay, I've officially killed the joke now, and we can all move on. T'was a fun ride while it lasted.) SO - what next? It's gotta bea small story I can share re: the harmonica solo in I guess that's why they call it the blues. (Forgive me if you already knew about this and I told you in college.) The idea to get a harmonica for Chanukah came from (you guessed it) Adam Sandler's song. So, I was up in G'ville, went to a music store, and bought myself my very first harp. The assistant asked what chord (cord?) I wanted. I had no idea. Didn't know they came in chords. All I knew was that I wanted to teach myself how to play - you guessed it - the solo from IGTWTCITB (along with Bono's solo at the end of Desire but that's for another Chart Attack). So, I went back to my dorm, tape recorded the solo, brought it back to the guy, had him listen to it and tell me what kind of harmonica I needed based on the solo. Alas, he had no clue. (Why I was surprised by this I don't know. Oh - and I should mention - this was before the internet was invented. Well, not really, but the internet only had 5 websites total at that time.) So I liked the way E sounded, so I bought that one. Needless to say, I fiddled with it, and it went the way of many a Chanukah gift - in the drawer for safe keeping.
  Happy Friday everyone!
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  MichaelWSP

  2 years ago

  I found that chord so annoying to play on guitar that I eventually pleaded to Mike to just change it to a plain C chord, which actually works also. So I guess the point of this story is that Im not talented, and Matthew Wilder is some sort of genius.
  
  Actually, we let him play an Eb chord, the song is in Eb. The Cdim (spelled C Eb Gb (And Bb if you want to throw the 7th in) is a substitute for the tonic chord Eb (Eb G Bb) at the beginning of each trip through the verse chords. Jason called it a C chord because he played the song capoed on the third fret, where an open C shape sounds as Eb.
  
  Yes, I am THAT MUCH of a dork.
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  Py Korry

  2 years ago

  Nice Attack! I really like the fact that you devoted so much time to Two of a Kind.I have never seen the film, but I'm sure it was on the Top 10 Worst films of 1984.
  I'm a mild Yes fan, so I was surprised to learn that Yes became Cinema. I guess that's why one of the cuts on 90125/90210 was called Cinema. I really liked that abum, but their follow up (Big Generator) was a big pile 'o shit.
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  Velma

  2 years ago

  Drama was a good album, then -- in my case, in large part because Jon Anderson isn't singing on it. And Jason, if you've never seen one, look for the Peter Frame Rock Family Tree books (http://www.amazon.com/Pete-Frames-Complete-Fami...) -- they're as helpful as anything can be in tracking the history of Yes and other British bands. (I particularly like the little notes that read, left music, became a carpet salesman in Milton Keynes and things of that sort.)
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  woofpop

  2 years ago

  Is it me, or does Matthew WIlder kind of look like Arnold Horschack from Welcome Back Kotter? (if Arnold hada moustache and one of those oh-so-cool at the time snap shirts)..
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  
  
  Velma - nice to hear from you. That book looks pretty ood. Speaking of, I haven't forgotten - I still have your other book. So sorry I have not returned it as of yet. I'm hoping to photocopy the charts very soon.
  
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  Carlos

  2 years ago

  I work for a producer management company and one our clients is MATTHEW WILDER.
  
  I love it!
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  MichaelWSP

  2 years ago

  Stevie does indeed play chromatic harp.
  
  
  
  That Wilder clip is hysterical.
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  MichaelWSP

  2 years ago

  this link on Cross harp for more info.
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  That harmonica's in the drawer and it's STAYING in the drawer!
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  Friday Night Videos and USA's Radio 1990 (1990 -- the future!) and Night Flight and other random non-MTV shows for our video fix. I guess my brother and my friends and I just never saw the video for Break My Stride. Now I know better.
  
  Isn't it odd that The Girl Is Mine was the first single from Thriller? Maybe the thinking behind that decision was Let's get the worst song on the album out of the way first. Yes, I do think Baby Be Mine and even The Lady in My Life are better songs (the latter was nicely sampled/interpolated on Angie Stone's Lovers' Ghetto in 2004). Say Say Say was definitely an improvement in terms of these superstars' duets. And Jackson's version of Girlfriend is better than McCartney's.
  
  I never met a Duran Duran song I really liked. I thought I would've found a few that I'd like by now, 20 years later, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Is it just me?
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  Thriller's release. I'm pretty sure the reasoning was that a lead-off track featuring Paul McCartney would be enough to catch people's attention. Nobody knew that the Motown 25 special would be enough to catapult Michael Jackson into a whole new category.
  That being said, if memory serves correctly, the first single off of Bad was I Just Can't Stop Loving You, the duet with Siedah Garrett, which was also one of the weaker tracks on the album, so what do I know.
  
  I was thinking last night about what my favorite Duran Duran song is. I still don't have an answer.
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  Matthew

  2 years ago

  Robert:
  Personally, I think P.Y.T. is the worst from Thriller, which means that out of the seven singles on the album (out of nine songs...wow), the first and the last could/should have been replaced by the two deep cuts, or at least one of them with Lady in my Life, which is an awesome slow jam....and if I remember correctly, before it was the basis for the Angie Stone song, it was the basis for the LL Cool J/Boyz II Men collaboration Hey Lover
  As for Duran Duran, their music hasn't aged well...the production incorporates the worst of the 80s sound: compressed, in your face vocals, synths that don't resemble any sort of instrument, the real instruments burried in the mix, or tweaked until they don't sound real, and those electronic drums....oh those electronic drums! Which is a shame, really, because they actually can play the hell out of their instruments. Try to track down a boot of their reunion tour from a couple of years ago. Just for a starters, you'll be amazed at how much Hungry Like the Wolf, stripped of the studio excess, actually rocks.
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  Elaine

  2 years ago

  I can answer affirmatively to the Duran question. They hit the scene when I was an impressionable underclassman in high school, so I actually do remember their music (mostly) fondly. Some more than others, of course. Anyway, do you hate Come Undone? It's not bad. The Rio album has its charm. If nothing else, obtain the sheet music for Hungry like the Wolf and play it with sincerity on acoustic piano. It's good for chuckles at parties, in a Richard Cheese kind of way.
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  
  
  I hope my sis-in-law Heather chimes in; she's a Duran fan and I'd like to hear her favorites. I do like Rio, The Reflex and Ordinary World; I just don't know if I like them that much more than any of the others.
  
  As for Thriller, I love P.Y.T. but I think Human Nature might be my favorite. I'd say that this merits its own posting, but I posted about it on my old blog a little over a year ago: check it out.
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  Elaine

  2 years ago

  I picked up somewhere, it might have been at Jefito's, the David Mead cover version of Human Nature. I like it a lot better than the original. MJ has (had?) his skills, but his vibrato and quirks overpowered that song.
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  Well, remember that Michael Jackson wasnt the biggest star on Earth at the time of Thriller's release. Im pretty sure the reasoning was that a lead-off track featuring Paul McCartney would be enough to catch peoples attention.
  
  I don't want to hear your logic right now, sir! But yes, it obviously makes sense to release the McCartney duet first. I just wonder if anyone in Jackson's camp really thought The Girl Is Mine was all that good. I do like P.Y.T., Matthew, but I can see why others might not. (I had no idea about Hey Lover. Thanks for the trivia!) And Jason, I've never stopped loving I Just Can't Stop Loving You, but I know I'm in the minority with that one. In fact, it and Bad are the only songs I like from Bad. I am happy to say that I recently realized how good Remember the Time is. And 2001's You Rock My World is better than I remembered. If you've never heard li'l Michael's song I Wanna Be Where You Are from the early '70s, I recommend you do so NOW!
  
  I don't hate any Duran Duran songs (I'm not sure if I even remember Come Undone -- was that from their '93 album?), but I don't have any nostalgic grade-school affection for any of them either. I thought I would by now, but I don't. I thought A View to a Kill would give me some sort of nostalgic rush when I heard it again last summer for the first time in years, but nope. I'd like to hear John Taylor's Do What I Gotta Do to Have You, or whatever it was called, again, but the closest I've come to liking a Duran Duran song is the Power Station's Some Like It Hot.
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  Thriller, Jason, and as for the mama-say-mama-sah-muh-mah-koo-sah chant in Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', it comes from Manu DiBango's Soul Makossa.
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  need to know). Thanks, Robert!
  
  I think Human Nature got better for me once I knew members of Toto were involved.
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  JT

  2 years ago

  Thank you, Michael.
  J, thank you for explaining harmonicas to me. :-) I had no idea it was more complex than, ahem, s-b-s-s-b. ;-) (Which, even thatI could not master. ) ;-)
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  woofpop

  2 years ago

  Rio is really good - almost like a lost Roxy Music 'Avalon' era song ducks. But I could do without the whole rest of the DD catalog.
  Robert: 100 bonus points for mentioning I Wanna Be Where You Are. That song is one of the finest '70's Motown creations, period. Yes, right up there with Innervisions and What's Going On.
  The Girl Is Mine - terrible, terrible. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember it coming out a while before Thriller .It could have been out there just as much to help Paul - remember this wasmonths after Ebony and Ivory, and despite that smash, there weren't any other hits on Tug Of War , so they both needed a boost.
  I don't know, I always liked I Just Can't Stop Loving You, but, yeah, it was an odd choice to lead off the follow up to the biggest thing, ever..
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  BD

  2 years ago

  Fragile and Close to the Edge.)Matthew Wilder had one other decent song, which I think involved bouncing.The Romantics were huge then. IIRC, Talking in Your Sleep led a lot of people to discover or re-discover What I Like About You. I remember the drummer saying the first single off that album should've been Rock You Up rather than Talking. He had a good sense of humor about it.
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  heather

  2 years ago

  Duran Duran rocks!
  Oh wait, they use way too much synth to rock. Have you ever listened to musicand just picked a certain line to follow through the song? I'd pick the guitar or the bass or the vocals, sometimes the drums, but I can't recall ever listening for the synth.
  There are songs that rock--My Own Way off of Rio can really rock, and First Impression from Libertystarts off as their very processed sound then finds a real guitar. I really enjoyed that one.
  Their latest album has a great opening--perfect for waking up to.
  So I went to see them in November, and they really do rock live. Although as I was leaving I heard one of the other concert goers complaining about not hearing the synth too well. (They were breaking in a new guitarist) And I was thinking, that was a bad thing?
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  woofpop

  2 years ago

  BD,
  But that's a GREAT Yes lineup...
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  Tug of War (I think it reached #10). I live for the minutiae ...brbrI should've mentioned this a few comments ago -- a friend of a friend used to work in the Levi Jeans store on Michigan Ave. (on the Magnificent Mile) here in Chicago. Simon Le Bon's manager once called ahead to the store to let them know that Simon would be arriving shortly, and would the employees please recognize Simon as he's shopping? He apparently likes to be recognized.
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  woofpop

  2 years ago

  Take It Away - I remember it being a big video item, but I was really surprised that it was that big of a hit. I love that jeans store story. Excuse me, but aren't you Simon LeBon? Wow - right there in the jeans store.
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  Matt

  2 years ago

  Bill Bruford hasn't been in Yes since the Union fiasco. It's been Alan White (not the former Oasis guy!)on drums for over 30 years now, which means the current lineup of Yes is the Going for the Topographic Tormato lineup. One great record (Going), onetotal piece of crap with a good finale (Tormato), and of course, the most bloated, pompous double album of all time. And you can't even play the Sandinista game and edit it down yourself because all the songs are full LP sides!
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  BD

  2 years ago

  Topographic Oceans/Going for the One/Tormato lineup (which would have set a continuity record in the 70s if Wakeman hadn't stalked off to let them do Relayer without him). It's a mere four-fifths of the Fragile/Close to the Edge lineup.I still can't believe the two Alan Whites aren't related. Could've sworn there was a family resemblance, and what are the odds!
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  Emily

  2 years ago

  Jason- this is why I love you (and Mike) and yes, you are super talented and yes, that video is HOT! Viva Matthew Wilder!
  Also, I headed up a group to see Duran Duran at MSG during their last visit to NYC andit was everything my little 7-year-old-self wanted it to be! I broke out my walkman and listened to my mix tape of Duran Duran songs for WEEKS after the concert. Can't wait for the chart attack where you break down the pros and cons of View to a Kill as a James Bond themesong....
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  Ha! That job will have to go to someone else, as I've only seen a handful of the Bond movies - so it'd be hard to compare. I DO like View To A Kill. I mean, it's no Die Another Day by Madonna, but WHATEVER.... ;)
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  Emily

  2 years ago

  Argh. Me and my crazy requests! How do you put up with me?!
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  Woofpop, I've never seen the video for "Take It Away." I didn't know there was a video. Life ... isn't ... fair.
  
  And now, after getting home from work and being able to watch the "Break My Stride" video on my own computer, I see that it's not a video at all! It's a "Solid Gold" clip. What the hell! Therefore I stand by the playground gossip from 1984 that claimed there was no real video for "Break My Stride."
  
  David Arnold and Aimee Mann's cover of "Nobody Does It Better" is the best Bond theme ever, if you ask me (even if it's not the version that appeared in "The Spy Who Loved Me").
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  David

  2 years ago

  (Watches Wilder video/Solid Gold clip)
  
  Wow. By my count, it took six musicians to perform that song "live," vs. the one (and his casio) it took to record it.
  
  Seven, actually, if you count Matthew's offstage moustache handler.
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  Dw Dunphy

  2 years ago

  So much! So much!!
  Okay then, we start with the basics. At this point in her career, Olivia Newt was not an Aussie songbird anymore, she was a sex symbol. Hard to fathom from this vantage point, but the Physical album and all the press photos therein of black and white and heavy breathing had changed the US perception of little miss Goody Two-Shoes into a hot mama. This is the only reason to expain how anything from Two Of A Kind got into the top ten.
  True story: back when the local mall was an enjoyable place to be, way back in the late 80s, there was a store that sold high end home entertainment equipment like big-ass projection tv's, high end Beta and VHS machines and the wave of the future, the 12 inch laserdisc. Every time they popped in the VHS of Star Wars they'd draw a crowd. And every time they played Two Of A Kind, they scattered the whole floor level. It was hilarious.
  They also, close to closing time, played the infamous Duran Duran music video for Girls On Film with the female boxers icing down their nipples. This leads me to the Durannies, whose output was wildly varied. I agree that Save A Prayer has a slight Roxy feel, but by then all the Brit bands were adopting that Nu-Romantic Stephen Hague productionsound. The big surprise was the self-titled album featuring Come Undone and Ordinary World. These two songs actually changed my perception of the band, which at that time was summed up thusly - kinda gay.
  I'm in the deep, deep minority that likesYes' Big Generator. No, it ain't prog, not in the slightest. But I always liked Shoot High Aim Low, especially for it's mood. That said, I also think Drama was a hugely underrated disc. Tempus Fugit did a near impossible feat: make Yes rock steady ska-punks. But the word I received was that Trevor Horn was a realy difficult guy to work with, not necessarily that he could never truly sing the back catalogue right. One of the former Yes guys slagged him pretty soundly in an interview once, but I can't remember if it was Chris Squire or Trevor Rabin... so I'll put this all back under 'speculative'.
  And finally, I saw Steve Howe at this past summer's Asia reunion show. He played just as amazingly as you'd expect, but with his entry into town came a mild flurry of press talk that he's fighting cancer... I hope it's not true, but he did look even more frail and wispy than he used to. Don't expect any full scale Yes projects anytime soon, and save a prayer for Steve.
  
  DwD
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  Matt

  2 years ago

  There's another pair of bands with identically named drummers... Duran Duran and Queen both have Roger Taylors. (funny how everything goes full-circle, eh?) And although the Alan Whites aren't related, the Oasis Alan White is the younger brother of drummer Steve White, who's been with Paul Weller since the Style Council.
  And while we're discussing Duran Duran, I saw the video for A View to a Kill recently... what was SO cool when I was 13 is beyond cheesy today. Bon... Simon Le Bon :)
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  woofpop

  2 years ago

  Robert,
  That video for 'Take It Away' was constantly on MTV in the summer of '82, and featured Ringo, Sir George Martin and William Hurt. It's easily seen on YouTube - I had forgotten how much I had liked that song. I was surprised that it was such a big hit, because it got virtually no radio airplay in my area.
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  That's odd, because I definitely remember "Take It Away" on the Top 40 station in Macon that summer. (Or maybe it's not odd, because before 1996 not every radio station was owned by the same three companies, right? Therefore not every playlist would be the same.) And like I said, we didn't have MTV until '85, although I was aware of certain videos like the ones for "Mickey" and "Centerfold" at that point.
  
  I now need to seek out this music video featuring William Hurt. I wonder if Paul was hoping to land Kathleen Turner in the video instead.
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  I found the video. Still doesn't ring a bell. And I think that instead of William Hurt, who was once kissed by a spider woman, you meant John Hurt, whose face was once hugged by an alien.
  
  I wish I knew something interesting about Yes so I could keep talking, but I don't, so I won't.
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  Dw Dunphy

  2 years ago

  Hmm... things you didn't know about Yes that could keep the conversation going...Jon Anderson was a guest vocalist for King Crimson (Lizard), Kitaro (Dream) and was a part of the Jon And Vangelis duo. Trevor Rabin is now a big-time film score writer and an integral part of Hans Zimmer's conclave of writers. Prior to his involvement in Yes, he recorded the album Wolf at Ray Davies' Konk Studios.Alan White was a part of John Lennon's touring group in the early seventies.Rick Wakeman provided tasty mellotron parts for David Bowie's Space Oddity.Patrick Moraz was the keyboardist on Relayer, and only on Relayer. Afterward, he joined The Moody Blues and was a major part of their big comeback disc Long Distance Voyager.DwD
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  Scraps

  2 years ago

  
  
  There are a few notable singles that became much bigger hits over time than they were in the first place. What I Like About You is one of the best examples. I don't have a Billboard reference with me, but two more that I know charted lower than people think are Walking on Sunshine and Turning Japanese.
  
  The cheesy backing vocals for I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues are probably a big part of why it's become a huge piano bar favorite. Of course, Elton John is the reigning king of pop piano bar songs, but still, you don't hear them play Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance).
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  Scraps

  2 years ago

  Incidentally, the song never does explain why they call it the blues. What's up with that?
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  Dw Dunphy

  2 years ago

  Scraps, it's a testicle reference.
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  woofpop

  2 years ago

  Yeah, big typo on my part with William Hurt.. D'oh.
  Scraps, there are tons of those songs that have become bigger in retrospect. I Melt With You, Squeeze's Tempted are just a couple that come to mind right now..
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  Scraps

  2 years ago

  I think the early to mid-eighties are particularly heavy with songs that became bigger in retrospect, because of the influence of MTV, in that brief period when they played non-guaranteed-hit videos. The songs we've mentioned weren't played on pop radio, but they were all played on MTV.
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  D-Pete

  2 years ago

  As a big Jon Anderson fan, I'm almost embarrassed to mention this, but as a solo artist Jon dabbled in smooth wussy music in the late 80s with his album In the City of Angels. He worked with some of the fellows from Toto on it, and it's slick as all get out. You can watch the atrocious video for the album's single, Hold on to Love, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yMCKk9Qtug ... it's as if Jon is trying to channel Al Jarreau or something. This from the man who sang Roundabout and I've Seen All Good People. Yeesh!
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  Christy

  2 years ago

  I think View to A Kill is the best Bond them there is. Followed by The Spy Who Loved Me by Carly Simon.
  Please don't come to my website and make fun of me.
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  Broad

  2 years ago

  Totally Hot album of 1978? It was right after Grease came out, and she was all in black and looking sultry standing against the wall and everything ...Or are y'all going to make me start backing my stuff up with Billboard charts? Don't I get credit for just remembering some of this stuff?
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  tres

  2 years ago

  Oddly, I'm cool with that Matthew Wilder clip. I can deal with the hair, and I dig his Star Trek meets V top that is appropriatly unbutton and folded down in one corner - giving him that essential sci-fi dishelved look...but oh that moustache. He's the fey man's Oates. He looks like Adam Sandler's limo driving friend in The Wedding Singer.
  Break My Stridewas like a bonding song for my mom and me. She'd pick me up from 4th grade, I'd be all pissy to her, than break my stride would come on and we'd be laughing like school girls in no time. Now THAT'S a gift. - thank U Mr. Wilder!
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  Robert

  2 years ago

  Grease, in which Sandy shows up at the carnival or whatever (I've never seen the movie all the way through) in tight black spandex, the initial coming-out of Olivia's sex appeal?
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  Jason

  2 years ago

  Maybe this says something about my taste in women, but I always thought she was much sexier as the goody two-shoes.
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  Broad

  2 years ago

  @ Robert: It was indeed.@ Jason: Appropos of little, my dad was a huge fan of Doris Day, so you're in fine company. Now, if you say you found ONJ hot after Sordid Lives (which was a great film, btw), you might need a little ostracizing.
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