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Dave's Song of the Day
The Guitar Man – Bread
Tuesday song of the day: The guitar solo on today’s song was performed by the band’s keyboard player.
David Gates was in demand as a songwriter, arranger, producer, and studio musician before he founded the band Bread in 1968. The next year they signed with Elektra Records and had a string of big soft rock/easy listening hits in the early 1970s. One of these hits was The Guitar Man, which told of a guitar player in a band. The song centered on the musician’s life on the road and the relationship between performers and fans.
Written by David Gates, The Guitar Man featured a prominent section of a lead guitar played through a wah-wah effects pedal. Bread’s two primary guitarists, Gates and Jimmy Griffin, could not get a guitar solo that they felt fit the song well, so instead they let keyboardist/bassist Larry Knechtel give it a try. Gates later described the session, “James went out and tried to play a solo that wasn’t sounding right, and I went out and tried it and didn’t have any luck either. Larry plays a little guitar, so I asked him to try it. He hooked up a little wah-wah pedal, and came up with all those things on the spot. I bet that wasn’t more than two hours of work on his part.”
The song was included on Bread’s 1972 album Guitar Man [For some reason the album title deletes the word “The” but the song that clearly serves as the title track retains it.] The Guitar Man was the album’s first single, released in July 1972. It went to #1 on the Easy Listening chart, and #11 on the overall Billboard Hot 100.
The album went on to have two more hits, Aubrey and Sweet Surrender, but tensions between Gates and Griffin led to Bread breaking up in 1973. They reunited a few years later, and while having a final hit in 1976, never again attained the level of popularity that they had enjoyed in the early 1970s. Personally, I find Bread’s music cloying, but I have to admit that for a few years they were a major force on the record charts.
View: https://youtu.be/5fYUpVAb34I
Tomorrow: Drive-ins on Friday night
The Guitar Man – Bread
Tuesday song of the day: The guitar solo on today’s song was performed by the band’s keyboard player.
David Gates was in demand as a songwriter, arranger, producer, and studio musician before he founded the band Bread in 1968. The next year they signed with Elektra Records and had a string of big soft rock/easy listening hits in the early 1970s. One of these hits was The Guitar Man, which told of a guitar player in a band. The song centered on the musician’s life on the road and the relationship between performers and fans.
Written by David Gates, The Guitar Man featured a prominent section of a lead guitar played through a wah-wah effects pedal. Bread’s two primary guitarists, Gates and Jimmy Griffin, could not get a guitar solo that they felt fit the song well, so instead they let keyboardist/bassist Larry Knechtel give it a try. Gates later described the session, “James went out and tried to play a solo that wasn’t sounding right, and I went out and tried it and didn’t have any luck either. Larry plays a little guitar, so I asked him to try it. He hooked up a little wah-wah pedal, and came up with all those things on the spot. I bet that wasn’t more than two hours of work on his part.”
The song was included on Bread’s 1972 album Guitar Man [For some reason the album title deletes the word “The” but the song that clearly serves as the title track retains it.] The Guitar Man was the album’s first single, released in July 1972. It went to #1 on the Easy Listening chart, and #11 on the overall Billboard Hot 100.
The album went on to have two more hits, Aubrey and Sweet Surrender, but tensions between Gates and Griffin led to Bread breaking up in 1973. They reunited a few years later, and while having a final hit in 1976, never again attained the level of popularity that they had enjoyed in the early 1970s. Personally, I find Bread’s music cloying, but I have to admit that for a few years they were a major force on the record charts.
View: https://youtu.be/5fYUpVAb34I
Tomorrow: Drive-ins on Friday night
God damn I miss live shows. I was at this one. Quite the banger.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wdv5-TrUhg&ab_channel=JRoddyWalston
The good news is once they open shit up the amount of bands that will immediately go on tour will be insane.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wdv5-TrUhg&ab_channel=JRoddyWalston
The good news is once they open shit up the amount of bands that will immediately go on tour will be insane.
Fuck, I hope so!
Like many, I’ve been missing live music. Austin without shows has been weird
They just now started doing live shows again in KY. They have live "shows" in Cincy too.
But there aren't enough states opened up for the out-of-town guys to tour so it's mostly just local dudes. Which is better than nothing.
If Texas opens up, I'd imagine you'll get a flood of bands right away.
Some bars started allowing performers a while back (small time local musicians), but a lot of them halted that because only like 10 people would show up so it wasn’t cost efficient for the bars to keep paying them if they couldn’t recoup the price of the band. I know a handful of local musicians that have slowly started getting more gigs, but none of the big venues have been running (and therefore limited band offerings).
2020 was easily the weirdest year I’ve ever spent in Austin. And our fucking town motto is “Keep Austin Weird” lol
Dave's Song of the Day
Popsicles and Icicles – The Murmaids
Wednesday song of the day: Today’s song was issued in pressings with four separate songs serving as B-sides.
Yesterday in discussing Bread’s hit The Guitar Man, I mentioned that David Gates was known as a songwriter, session musician, and producer before forming the soft-rock band Bread. Today’s song is a hit that Gates wrote for a girl group several years prior to Bread.
The song Popsicles and Icicles shows some of the blandness and sentimentality that Gates would employ with his later band. It was a fairly simple song of a girl telling of the things that she and her boyfriend both enjoyed. The group that recorded the song was The Murmaids, The girl group consisted of three teenagers, including seventeen year old Terry Fischer, her fifteen year old sister Carol, and their friend Sally Gordon, who was also seventeen. The Fischer sisters’ father was a composer and musical director, and their mother was a big band singer, and through their connections in the music industry the girls were signed to the small Los Angeles label Chattahoochee Records. In late 1963 The Murmaids recorded five songs, produced by Kim Fowley [who years later would create another girl group, The Runaways]. The songs were the David Gates composition Popsicles and Icicles, along with Blue Dress, Bunny Stomp, Comedy and Tragedy, and Huntington Flats. The standout was Popsicles and Icicles, and it was released as the A-side of a single. There were multiple pressings of the record, with all four of the other songs alternated as B-sides on separate releases.
Popsicles and Icicles was released in October 1963 and immediately started getting airplay in the Los Angeles area. In November it began breaking through in other cities, and eventually it became a nationwide hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1964. After they recorded the songs, the girls made a few TV appearances, but beyond that they just got on with their lives and didn’t really capitalize on their hit record. Terry Fischer recalls that “within…three months we had recorded the single, recorded an album and.had risen to #3. The downside is it lasted about 6 months and then it was finished.” She later explained, “When Popsicles and Icicles was a hit, we had calls from every major record company and mother said, ‘No, [Chattahoochee Records owner Ruth Conti] took a chance on us and we’re gonna stick with her.’ I guess we did about two television shows and a local concert here. And that’s all we did. At that time we got a statement from the record company charging us an exorbitant amount of money against royalties. Everyone else got paid. Kim Fowley got paid. The musicians got paid. We were paid nothing.”
View: https://youtu.be/z9uUU_m_33o
Tomorrow: Come and get it, boys
Popsicles and Icicles – The Murmaids
Wednesday song of the day: Today’s song was issued in pressings with four separate songs serving as B-sides.
Yesterday in discussing Bread’s hit The Guitar Man, I mentioned that David Gates was known as a songwriter, session musician, and producer before forming the soft-rock band Bread. Today’s song is a hit that Gates wrote for a girl group several years prior to Bread.
The song Popsicles and Icicles shows some of the blandness and sentimentality that Gates would employ with his later band. It was a fairly simple song of a girl telling of the things that she and her boyfriend both enjoyed. The group that recorded the song was The Murmaids, The girl group consisted of three teenagers, including seventeen year old Terry Fischer, her fifteen year old sister Carol, and their friend Sally Gordon, who was also seventeen. The Fischer sisters’ father was a composer and musical director, and their mother was a big band singer, and through their connections in the music industry the girls were signed to the small Los Angeles label Chattahoochee Records. In late 1963 The Murmaids recorded five songs, produced by Kim Fowley [who years later would create another girl group, The Runaways]. The songs were the David Gates composition Popsicles and Icicles, along with Blue Dress, Bunny Stomp, Comedy and Tragedy, and Huntington Flats. The standout was Popsicles and Icicles, and it was released as the A-side of a single. There were multiple pressings of the record, with all four of the other songs alternated as B-sides on separate releases.
Popsicles and Icicles was released in October 1963 and immediately started getting airplay in the Los Angeles area. In November it began breaking through in other cities, and eventually it became a nationwide hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1964. After they recorded the songs, the girls made a few TV appearances, but beyond that they just got on with their lives and didn’t really capitalize on their hit record. Terry Fischer recalls that “within…three months we had recorded the single, recorded an album and.had risen to #3. The downside is it lasted about 6 months and then it was finished.” She later explained, “When Popsicles and Icicles was a hit, we had calls from every major record company and mother said, ‘No, [Chattahoochee Records owner Ruth Conti] took a chance on us and we’re gonna stick with her.’ I guess we did about two television shows and a local concert here. And that’s all we did. At that time we got a statement from the record company charging us an exorbitant amount of money against royalties. Everyone else got paid. Kim Fowley got paid. The musicians got paid. We were paid nothing.”
View: https://youtu.be/z9uUU_m_33o
Tomorrow: Come and get it, boys
Back in the 90s I was a big fan of the Black Crowes and saw them a number of times. But I haven't kept up with those guys for a long time now. But I've heard the Brotherhood is pretty decent.
I like them. Just chill, bluesy/country/rock music. Some longer jam songs. If you liked the Crowes you'll probably dig Brotherhood.
They disbanded when their lead guitarist committed suicide a couple years ago.
I was a big Crowes fan too. Saw them open up for Aerosmith back in 1990 or 91. Great show.
I'll add that "She Talks to Angels" is the tune that got me to try an open guitar tuning for the first time. I think I could still play it, but that was always a fun one to play. Now I'm going to have to re-tune one of my axes tonight and see if I still have it down. It's in open E, but I don't like tuning up so I go to open D and capo at 2.
That song drove me nuts as a young guitarist. I was trying to figure it out by ear but was in standard tuning. Never could get it down to where it sounded right. Then after a couple of months someone told me about open tunings. Haha.
I had a very similar experience with learning that song. I think I bought a copy of Acoustic Guitar magazine that had that as one of the tabbed songs. A Eureka moment when I saw it was in that tuning
Dave's Song of the Day
Queens of Noise – The Runaways
Thursday song of the day: The title of today’s song comes from one of the band’s earlier lyrics.
I really, really, really love The Runaways. A lot.
Yesterday’s song, Popsicles and Icicles by The Murmaids, was produced by Kim Fowley. Fowley was by all accounts a creepy scumbag, and later he was involved in the formation of a very influential female band of the 1970s, The Runaways. The Runaways were a rock band composed of teenage girls, including such later stars as Joan Jett and Lita Ford. They never had a hit in the United States, but were very popular in Japan, scoring a #1 hit there with Cherry Bomb. [The Runaways’ iconic Cherry Bomb was song of the day for August 3rd, 2014 here: Cherry Bomb – The Runaways ]
While the group didn’t sell a lot of records in the US and were in existence only from 1975 to 1979, they have had a lasting legacy as inspirations for future generations of female bands.
The song Queens of Noise was written for the band by Billy Bizeau of The Quick, another band managed by Fowley. He got the idea for the song from a line in a song on The Runaways’ first album. The song American Nights included the lyric “We live in the streets/In the alleys of screams/Cause we’re the queens of noise/The answer to your dreams.” Bizeau took the line and turned it into an anthem for the band.
The Runaways had two lead singers, with singer/guitarist Joan Jett singing lead on some songs and singer Cherie Currie taking lead on others. The split was roughly even, but it did create tensions between the two. In the case of Queens of Noise, both Jett and Currie wanted to sing lead, but in the end, Currie was not available when the band recorded the song (she was recuperating from an abortion for a few days), so Jett sang lead on the record. For live shows they compromised, with Cherie singing lead on the first verse and Joan singing the second verse.
Queens of Noise was the title track for the band’s second album, released in January 1977. Later in the year, the band split from manager Kim Fowley over financial and control issues, and Currie left the band in the late summer/early fall of 1977. The band put out two more albums in late 1977 and 1978 but broke up in early 1979. Since then, Currie has continued to record sporadically and had success as an actress in the 1980s. Lita Ford has had a successful solo career, scoring two Top 40 hits, the #12 Kiss Me Deadly in 1988, and the #8 duet with Ozzy Osbourne, Close My Eyes Forever, in 1989. Joan Jett, of course, has had a legendary solo career and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 2015.
In 2010, The Runaways, a film about the band based on Cherie Currie’s memoirs was released. The film starred Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, and the two actresses recorded a cover of Queens of Noise for the film’s soundtrack.
View: https://youtu.be/LGgua7N2PEU
Live in Japan, 1977
View: https://youtu.be/ElqU3ZGXoXo
Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart from the film The Runaways, 2010
View: https://youtu.be/vwRsl8YF4Fk
Tomorrow: I’d wipe the cobwebs from my eyes
Queens of Noise – The Runaways
Thursday song of the day: The title of today’s song comes from one of the band’s earlier lyrics.
I really, really, really love The Runaways. A lot.
Yesterday’s song, Popsicles and Icicles by The Murmaids, was produced by Kim Fowley. Fowley was by all accounts a creepy scumbag, and later he was involved in the formation of a very influential female band of the 1970s, The Runaways. The Runaways were a rock band composed of teenage girls, including such later stars as Joan Jett and Lita Ford. They never had a hit in the United States, but were very popular in Japan, scoring a #1 hit there with Cherry Bomb. [The Runaways’ iconic Cherry Bomb was song of the day for August 3rd, 2014 here: Cherry Bomb – The Runaways ]
While the group didn’t sell a lot of records in the US and were in existence only from 1975 to 1979, they have had a lasting legacy as inspirations for future generations of female bands.
The song Queens of Noise was written for the band by Billy Bizeau of The Quick, another band managed by Fowley. He got the idea for the song from a line in a song on The Runaways’ first album. The song American Nights included the lyric “We live in the streets/In the alleys of screams/Cause we’re the queens of noise/The answer to your dreams.” Bizeau took the line and turned it into an anthem for the band.
The Runaways had two lead singers, with singer/guitarist Joan Jett singing lead on some songs and singer Cherie Currie taking lead on others. The split was roughly even, but it did create tensions between the two. In the case of Queens of Noise, both Jett and Currie wanted to sing lead, but in the end, Currie was not available when the band recorded the song (she was recuperating from an abortion for a few days), so Jett sang lead on the record. For live shows they compromised, with Cherie singing lead on the first verse and Joan singing the second verse.
Queens of Noise was the title track for the band’s second album, released in January 1977. Later in the year, the band split from manager Kim Fowley over financial and control issues, and Currie left the band in the late summer/early fall of 1977. The band put out two more albums in late 1977 and 1978 but broke up in early 1979. Since then, Currie has continued to record sporadically and had success as an actress in the 1980s. Lita Ford has had a successful solo career, scoring two Top 40 hits, the #12 Kiss Me Deadly in 1988, and the #8 duet with Ozzy Osbourne, Close My Eyes Forever, in 1989. Joan Jett, of course, has had a legendary solo career and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 2015.
In 2010, The Runaways, a film about the band based on Cherie Currie’s memoirs was released. The film starred Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, and the two actresses recorded a cover of Queens of Noise for the film’s soundtrack.
View: https://youtu.be/LGgua7N2PEU
Live in Japan, 1977
View: https://youtu.be/ElqU3ZGXoXo
Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart from the film The Runaways, 2010
View: https://youtu.be/vwRsl8YF4Fk
Tomorrow: I’d wipe the cobwebs from my eyes