As a teenager, I wasn’t sure if I should listen to Lou Reed – or his band, The Velvet Underground. I wasn’t sure whether I could handle the drone of “Venus in Furs” or fuzzy, buzzy epic “Sister Ray.” Of course, the tunes that once intimidated me now seem almost quaint or folky in spots. They’re still songs about junkies and BDSM, but everything eventually becomes the music of your mom and dad’s generation.

Despite his rep, Lou Reed also made some very poppy music in his career. This is stuff that’s not going to show up on any of his greatest hits collections – and there are 17 of them according to Wikipedia. “The Original Wrapper” is off Reed’s 1986 album “Mistrial,” which I owned on cassette and most likely bought at the long-gone Streetside Records in Columbia, MO. I’m not sure if Lou is genuinely trying to musically stretch here or if he’s just half-heartedly jumping on the rap train – probably both. Continue reading

Wow, this “part two” took almost as long as “Mary Poppins Returns.” Back here, I started writing about the music of Paul Carrack, one of those singers who’s famous for not being more famous. He’s got a beautiful voice and still tours the UK, but doesn’t get the US name recognition of folks like Hall & Oates or Bill Withers.

After scoring radio hits as a member of Ace, Squeeze, and Mike + the Mechanics, Paul barely got into the Top 40 (#37) with a song recorded under his own name, 1982’s “I Need You.” Then, on the next album in 1987, the song “Don’t Shed a Tear” just exploded. It went to #9, stayed in the Top 40 for thirteen weeks, and got big play on MTV. It was co-written by Eddie Schwartz, who also wrote Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.” The 1987 production sound dates “Don’t Shed a Tear,” and Paul doesn’t look much like an MTV star in the video, but his voice makes the song into something special.

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Paul Carrack has a new album out, which makes me very happy. The record is called “One on One” and at 70, Paul will be touring from January 2022 into April – but so far, not in the USA.  Back home in England, Paul is known and loved for his soulful sound. The BBC even made a 2012 documentary about him called “The Man with the Golden Voice.” That he’s not well-known in America is even stranger when you realize you’ve heard Paul Carrack’s voice on American radio for decades. You just never suspected all those songs from different bands had the same guy on lead vocal. Let’s start with Carrack’s hit with the band Ace. In 1975, “How Long” went to #3 in America.

I’ve written before about my side gig as a weekend Smooth Jazz DJ. We played “How Long” all the time. No way is it jazz, but you can’t deny it’s smooth. After Ace, Carrack joined Squeeze for what is probably his best-known vocal. “Tempted” was written by Squeeze’s core duo, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, but mostly sung by the band’s new keyboardist. This isn’t the version of the video that was on MTV, but it’s the one that’s on YouTube, so here we go…

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I’m working my way through all the episodes of “The Muppet Show” on Disney+ and I noticed that when a Muppet picks up a musical instrument, they almost always play left-handed. Kermit plucks banjo strings with his left flipper in “The Muppet Movie.” In The Electric Mayhem, Janice and Floyd hold their guitars like lefties, although Floyd’s sax grip looks like a rightie. (It’s tough to tell with drums and impossible with keyboards.) Scooter plays guitar to the left. Marvin Suggs plays the Muppahone with the mallet in his left hand. Even The County Trio – Muppets that look like, and are puppeted by, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson – all play like southpaws.

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I’m looking forward to the end of July and the release of Los Lobos’ new album, “Native Sons.” The band has gone back and recorded covers of Los Angeles bands and musicians that influenced them at the start. So far, there have been previews of songs originally by Thee Midniters, The Beach Boys, and Barrett Strong, who co-wrote “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and Edwin Starr’s “War.” This is Barrett’s “Misery.”

“Native Sons” also includes covers of Buffalo Springfield, Jackson Brown, and The Blasters (which used to include now-Los Lobos member Steve Berlin). This isn’t the first covers album for Los Lobos. They released “Los Lobos Goes Disney” back in 2009 and I directed an unofficial music video for “Heigh-Ho” that actually had all the members of Los Lobos in it. You can go back and read the original post here.