John’s November Recommendations: 2 Covers by Super Groups (Tin Machine’s “If There Is Something” & Beck’s “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime”

I remember reading Reeves Gabrels’s articles in Guitar For The Practicing Musician back in high school.  He’d write about unconventional guitar techniques every month, like using a TV remote to make “bleep-bloop” noises come from your guitar pickups, or stringing a plastic garbage bag twist-ties between your guitar strings to make it sounds like a banjo.  I never heard him play until the mid-nighties while watching a rerun of an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Macaulay Culkin.  Gabrels, along with David Bowie and the Sales brothers (who played with Todd Rundgren, among others) performed a blistering cover of Roxy Music’s “If There Is Something.”  Holy moly…  Instantly a fan.  Sorry to say that the studio version of Tin Machine never lived up to their live performances.  (Isn’t that often the way with super groups?)  And you can’t find a recording of that SnL live performance anywhere on the internet.  (Their second performance of the night “Baby Universal” is available, but not nearly as cool.)  So this recording is the closest thing I could find in that spirit.

My second recommendation is a cover by Beck from the soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  First let me say that movies were better about 10 years ago, or at least more interesting.  Also this is a supergroup performance of sorts, too, as it features an introspective Beck coming off his Sea Change album and Jon Brion performing, arranging and producing pretty much everything on this track.  It’s one of my favorite recordings ever, and the cover is light years beyond what the original ever hoped to be.

Mike’s 1978

Albums:

1. Pere Ubu—The Modern Dance. (“Non-Alignment Pact“)  Took my head off.

2. Talking Heads—More Songs about Buildings and Food.  (“Warning Sign“) This too is among my favorite albums of all time.

3. Rush—Hemispheres. I’m not a big Rush fan and this is the only album I ever play of theirs any more. They finally put it all together here. As melodic as anything they’d ever do and unapologetically prog. This grabs you by the throat and never lets go. Fun stuff.

4. Dire Straits—Dire Straits. (“Water of Love“) This deserves so much more love than it generally receives. Yes, Mark wears his influences on his sleeve (the recently departed JJ Cale mostly) and this is somewhat derivative, but it is just so well done. The songs are gorgeous and sometimes haunting and the playing throughout is both solid (that rhythm section) and spectacular (Mark). The perfect album for a hot summer night, under the stars, on the back porch.

5. Captain Beefheart—Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). (“When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy“) It’s a tough call whether this or Doc at the Radar Station is the greatest Beefheart. I grew up with the two on either side of a beloved dubbed cassette and while they are both strong start to finish, I adore every note on Shiny Beast. Love his painting on the cover too.

6. Elvis Costello—This Year’s Model. (“Pump It Up“) I listened to a lot of the stuff on this list when it came out. Yes, I’m that old. I’m also nostalgic. If I loved something once, doesn’t matter when, I love it forever. The Dire Straits, Rush and Tull picks apply here. The Styx “Pieces of Eight” and Genesis “And Then There Were Three…” albums would too if I had the balls to include them. I missed out on punk/new wave when it first arrived. It wasn’t until the following year, 1979, that Elvis Costello gave me my first glimpse, in 8^th grade, with the release of “Armed Forces”, the 8-track purchased or possibly stolen from the Van Leunen’s department store. I came to TYM much later and now hold it above everything else he ever did…except for Armed Forces that is.

7. The Stranglers—Black and White.  (“Outside Tokyo“) Another old fave. Brent, is there another album you and I listened to more often when I was in high school?

8. Pere Ubu—Dub Housing. (“Navvy“)

9. Blondie—Parallel Lines. (“Hanging on the Telephone“) Tim is so right. Hanging on the Telephone is amber perfection.

10. Genesis—…And Then There Were Three… (“Deep in the Motherlode“) Oh what the hell, I can’t deny it.

There are a ton of good/not great 1978 albums that contain great songs and so many great singles, making this year’s selection of ten songs just impossible. Here’s an attempt, but wishing I could list another 100 or so:

Songs:

1. Buzzcocks—I Don’t Mind. Right on Tim. Impossible for me to pick between this and “What Do I Get” and  “Ever Fallen in Love…” but this one has always pushed me over the edge.

2. The Albion Band—Poor Old Horse

3. Stiff Little Fingers—Suspect Device

4. The Police—So Lonely

5. Bruce Cockburn—Laughter

6. Robert Gordon—I Want To Be Free. Can’t play this without heartily singing along. Just can’t be done. The whole album is a delight (check also the lovely album closer “Blue Eyes”)

7. Todd Rundgren—Bag Lady

8.Kate Bush—Wuthering Heights

9. X—We’re Desperate

10. The Cars—All Mixed Up