Saturday, January 12, 2008

A Cheat Entry from the Musical Time Machine (next to the Sick Bed)

My lungs and I are not cooperating this weekend, so the muse is taking a couple of days off to play blackjack in Atlantic City. In the interim, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite songs of the late 1970s - gather around kiddies for a little musical edjamacation, and, fellow 40-somethings, feel a little nostalgia for stringy haircuts and jeans so tight they may have caused peripheral artery disease!

First, one of my all time faves, 10cc with "The Things You Do For Love":



10cc had Godley & Creme and Eric Stewart - the guys were no slouches. It's got a good hook, and I put it on just about every mix I make.

And how about one of the coolest early (1978) new wave-ish songs around, Sniff 'n' the Tears' "Driver's Seat":



Whatever happened to Sniff 'n' the peeps? Not a clue. Guess I could look 'em up on Wikipedia, but maybe it's better to think of their fate as a mystery rather than find out they're working the drive-thru window somewhere...

And, finally, a track that has everything right about it. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" was written by Nick Lowe (who also produced this track and "Armed Forces" the album on which this appeared in the U.S.) and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Just look at those skinny English boys frolick, and, damn, listen to that skinny English boy just belt that out!



That was 1979, when I think I really first started to listen to my own music, as opposed to whatever my sisters were listening to. I see Elvis in that tweedy overcoat with those huge eyeglasses and I swoon.

And then I realize that was how I dressed, pretty much the haircut I had, and the glasses I wore through much of the 1980s. Yes, I was a slave to new wave fashion. Men's new wave fashion. Go figure.

Now, just for kicks, here's a 2004 performance of "(What's So Funny 'Bout)..." by Elvis and Nick Lowe together. Slowed down, with a sweet harmony:



Back to the sofa with me. Hope you enjoyed the musical interlude!

More when the muse returns (hopefully with a couple hundred bucks and a hangover.)

3 comments:

Cyn said...

Ah...10cc...how could I have forgotten that song? "Like walkin' in the rain and the snow..." Yep, that was a big favorite for me too (although more for the verse than chorus.) I'm sure a 10cc album resides somewhere on a shelf upstairs, still, probably next to Sweet. (Who somehow failed to really convince me that love was like oxygen, despite their best efforts.)

You know how I feel about EC I think, so no further comment necessary.

Merujo said...

Omigod, Sweet! I had a gym teacher in high school who made us do modern dance routines to "Love Is Like Oxygen"! I did not look good in a leotard trying to appear lithe and hip. Not enough and you're gonna die!

radiocynic said...

I must add, for no reason other than self-embarassment, that I used to cover that song in a top 40 band, and of course in a wedding trio. Although, sorry, my fave 10cc is still the "incessantly airiest background vocals in the universe" song, "I'm Not In Love." And I still say that The Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" was an early precursor to punk/newwave.

Lord, the oldness is palpable.