Re-Flex – "The Politics of Dancing" (1983)

It’s in the papers

It’s on your TV news

In these unprecedented times – which are not only unprecedented, but also challenging, difficult, trying, and uncertain – it’s important to remember that we’ll get through this.  

In fact, we’ll not only get through it, but will come out on the other side stronger than ever.

There’s no doubt that COVID-19 is a game changer, and that the new normal will require us to navigate uncharted waters.  But while there are unprecedented headwinds holding us back, there are also tailwinds propelling us and our economy forward.  Which is why we’re seeing green shoots popping up everywhere.  

Of course we need to remain focused on maintaining social distance and flattening the curve.  But now more than ever, it’s crucial that we keep pivoting in response to the unprecedented challenges we’re facing.

2 or 3 lines – which remains asymptomatic – views each and every one of you as essential workers.  We promise that we will continue to make only data-driven decisions, to deliver the monetary and fiscal stimulus that we so desperately need, and to always keep you in our thoughts and prayers . . . which we’ve been ramping up ever since the beginning of this unprecedented global pandemic.

In closing, please believe that we’re here for you 24/7.  After all, it is what it is.

If you don’t believe me, just read your newspaper or watch the TV news.  You’ll see that I’m 100% right.

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“The Politics of Dancing” was released in 1983 by Re-Flex, a one-hit-wonder group from Birmingham, UK:

Re-Flex

I’ve been trying to decide whether “The Politics of Dancing” sounds more like David Bowie or the Talking Heads.  What do you think?

Click here to listen to “The Politics of Dancing.”

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Foghat – "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (1975)

I don’t want you cook my bread

I don’t want you make my bed

I don’t want your money too

I just want to make love to you

Let’s be honest.  You don’t really want to “make love” to her, do you?

(Guys will say anything.)

*     *     *     *     *

Chicago blues legend Willie Dixon wrote “I Just Want to Make Love to You” in 1954.   (Dixon’s songs – he wrote or co-wrote over 500 – have been recorded not only by many great blues singers, but also by classic rock bands like the Rolling Stones, Doors, and Led Zeppelin.)

Willie Dixon

Muddy Waters was the first to record “I Just Want to Make Love to You.”  In his version of the song, the verse quoted above is the third verse.  

In Dixon’s own recording, it’s the second verse.

But it’s the first verse in Foghat’s cover of the song.

Foghat also leaves out the “to” that precedes the verbs in most of the song’s lines.  (“I don’t want you to cook my bread” becomes “I don’t want you cook my bread” and “I don’t want you to make my bed” becomes “I don’t want you make my bed.”)  

Producer Dave Edmunds may have gotten that idea from the Animals’ recording of the song, which not only omitted the “to’s” but also made the verse quoted above the first verse.  

By the way . . . do you find it odd that Dixon wrote “cook my bread” rather than “bake my bread”?  (I haven’t seen that expression anywhere else.)

*     *     *     *     *

I never thought much about Foghat – never bought any of their albums.  But they were money!  (Of their first eight albums, five went gold, one went platinum, and one went double platinum.)

Foghat in 1975

“Fool for the City” was a great hard-rock record – I’m shocked it made it only to #45 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”

And what’s not to like about “Slow Ride”?  After all, Richard Linklater chose it to accompany the final scene of his iconic movie, Dazed and Confused.  (If “Slow Ride’ is good enough for Mitch Kramer, David Wooderson et al., it’s good enough for me.)

“I Just Want to Make Love to You” was the first track off Foghat’s eponymous debut album – these guys didn't waste any time in kicking *ss and taking names.  (For those of you who are relatively new to 2 or 3 lines, you should know that I rarely go longer than a month without slipping “eponymous debut album” into a post.)

Click here to listen to Foghat’s recording of “I Just Want to Make Love to You.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Eddie Cochran – "Summertime Blues" (1958)

I called my congressman

And he said, quote:

“I’d like to help you, son,

But you’re too young to vote”

Eddie Cochran was 19 years old – which at the time was too young to vote in the United States – when his recording of “Summertime Blues” was released in 1958.  

But even if Cochran hadn’t been too young to vote, I would have advised him not to count on his congressman (or congresswoman) for any help.

*     *     *     *     *

Here’s what you get if you translate I Corinthians 13:13 into 2 or 3 lines-speak:

But now abideth the song’s music and lyrics, the song’s arrangement, and the song’s attitude; and the greatest of these is ATTITUDE. 

When it comes to capturing the typical teenage male’s attitude, “Summertime Blues” hit the nail squarely on the head.  

Eddie Cochran died when he was 21

“Summertime Blues” doesn’t generate attitude by engaging in a lot of histrionics.  To the contrary, the lyrics of the song – which was co-written by Cochran and his manager, Jerry Capehart – and Cochran’s delivery of those lyrics are rather matter of fact.

The situation the singer of the song finds himself in is somewhat mundane: he’s battling to get out from under the thumbs of his pain-in-the-ass parents and boss.  (Who amongst us has not been there?)

His parents tell him that if he expects to use the family car to go on a date, he has to earn some money.  So he goes out and gets a job.  Problem solved, right?  

Nope . . . because when he’s about to punch out and meet up with his girlfriend , his boss informs him that he has to work late.

It’s catch-22 all over again.  (Heads I win, tails you lose.)  

*     *     *     *     *

There are a lot of rock ’n’ roll songs that score A-plus when it comes to attitude – “My Generation” (the Who), “It’s My Life” (Animals), “Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones), “Born to be Wild” (Steppenwolf), and “Oh Well (Part I)” (Fleetwood Mac), to name just a few.

But “Summertime Blues” came first.

*     *     *     *     *

Summer is obviously the best season, of the year . . . which means it’s the worst season to have the blues.

Summer ends at 9:31 am today – Tuesday, September 22, 2020.  That means you’ll have to wait nine months to have the summertime blues again.

But it’s not too early to start feeling the autumn blues.

Click here to listen to Eddie Cochran’s 1958 recording of “Summertime Blues” – a song that was famously covered by Blue Cheer in 1968 and regularly performed live by the Who.

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Bad Company – "Bad Company" (1974)

Bad company

Till the day I die

Here are a few of the comments that have been posted on the YouTube page where I went to listen to today’s featured song:

“This makes me want to shoot arrows through people to awaken their fighting spirit.”

“This song reminds me of an older brother that I never had.”

“Tim McVeigh was listening to this song as he lit the fuse for the Oklahoma City bombing.”

“Our son competed in bodybuilding to this song and won a trophy.  Thanks, Bad Company – great posing music!”

“The first eight-track tape I ever bought – along with a $15 eight-track player – in 1976, at the flea market held every Saturday at the drive-in theater in Standale, Michigan.  My older cousin, who I looked up to, gave me a nod of approval when he saw my selection.”

And last but not least:

“My next door neighbors listened to this all the time . . . whether they wanted to or not!”

*     *     *     *     *

Today’s featured song – “Bad Company” – was released on Bad Company’s debut album, Bad Company, in 1974.

It’s not unusual for an album to be named after the band that recorded it.  And it’s not unusual for an album and one track on that album to share the same title.

But it’s very unusual for a song, an album, and the band that recorded the album to all have the same name.  In fact, I can’t think of another example of that kind of trifecta.

*     *     *     *     *

That’s pretty much all I’ve got for you today.  See you next time!

*     *     *     *     *

Click here to listen to Bad Company’s “Bad Company,” which is the first track on side two of the Bad Company album.

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Elton John – "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (1975)

You almost had your hooks in me

Didn’t you, dear?

You nearly had me roped and tied

The last 2 or 3 lines featured “Kids,” a song from the Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie.  

While writing that post, I watched a clip from the movie version of Bye Bye Birdie that included “Kids” being sung.  Just before the singing starts, there’s a scene involving the main male character, Albert Peterson (played by Dick Van Dyke) and his widowed mother (played by Maureen Stapleton).

(Obviously not an electric oven.)

Albert – who still lives with his domineering mother – has told her he is planning to get married.  She is aghast that her little boy (who looks to be about 40 years old) is going to move out of her house, and goes to extraordinary lengths to persuade him to call off the marriage and keep living with her.

For example, she marches into the kitchen of the neighbor’s house where the scene takes place, falls to her knees, pulls open the oven door, and sticks her head inside.  As the horrified Albert runs to her side to prevent any attempt at suicide, the neighbor taps him on the shoulder and delivers this line:

“It’s not gas.  It’s electric.”

*     *     *     *     *

The next day, I came across something very interesting while I was reading a spy novel called The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer.

One of the key events in the novel is the death of a Russian dissident named Anna Urusov.  The government claims that she committed suicide by sticking her head in her oven and turning on the gas.

The Americans think that the Russians murdered the dissident to silence her , and send a spy stationed in Moscow to search the her apartment.  After he’s finished snooping around, the undercover agent is overcome by morbid curiosity and takes a peek inside the oven that was supposedly used by Urusov to commit suicide:

Only as he was closing it did he register the most striking detail.  It was an electric oven, not gas.  

 *     *     *     *     *

In 1968, Elton John was living with his fiancee, Linda Woodrow, in a flat in North London.  John was desperate to escape from the relationship, but saw no way out of it because he thought she was pregnant.  So he attempted to commit suicide by asphyxiating himself in a gas oven.

Bernie Taupin, John’s long-time songwriting partner, says he was the one who discovered John attempting to kill himself.  According to Taupin, John had turned on the gas oven and lay down on the floor to it.  But before doing so, he apparently opened the kitchen window – which some people believe was an indication that he didn’t really want to die. 

But at least he didn’t use an electric oven.

*     *     *     *     *

John’s 1975 single, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” was inspired by  engagement and suicide attempt.  At 6:45, it’s unusually long for a single, but John refused to let his record company release a shorter version.

Despite its length, the record got plenty of radio play in the U.S., and made it all the way to #4 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”

Click here to listen to “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

Click on the link below to buy the recording from Amazon:

"Bye Bye Birdie" Film Soundtrack – "Kids" (1963)

Kids!

I don't know what's wrong

With these kids today!

Alexandre Dumas had it right when he wrote, “Cherchez la femme!”

The phrase – which translates to “Look for the woman!” – became a cliche in crime fiction.  When a murder was committed in an old-school mystery novel, it was a safe assumption that a woman was somehow responsible for it.

If the woman didn’t commit the murder herself, she usually was the reason for the crime.  Perhaps she manipulated the murderer into doing the deed on her behalf.  Or perhaps the murderer was a jealous husband or boyfriend seeking revenge after being rejected by her. 

So cherchez la femme when there’s a murder to be solved, and you will usually be able to solve it. 

*     *     *     *     *

So there I was . . . zooming along on my bike on the Cape Cod Rail Trail in Yarmouth . . . minding my own business . . . when I saw four tweens on bikes approaching me from the other direction.

I keep my eyes wide open when I’m on a busy bike trail.  The biggest hazards are people walking dogs on long leashes, and little kids on bikes that wander across the center line into oncoming traffic.

Because I watch everyone on the trail, I wasn’t taken unaware when the four tweens yelled at me loudly as they passed me – I saw them open their mouths as we were about to pass each other.  

Good thing I was paying attention to them – if I had been daydreaming, the unexpected screams could have startled me and caused me to veer off the trail into a tree.

Which was exactly what the tweens were hoping would happen, of course.

*     *     *     *     *

I had planned to ride a couple of more miles to the east before turning around and returning to my car.  But after ruminating on what had happened, I decided to turn around at the next intersection and go in hot pursuit of the four brats.  

I figured that I was a much faster rider than they were, and that it wouldn’t take me long to run them down.

I was right.  After a minute or two, I had the perpetrators in sight.  You’d best believe they were not expecting to see me when I pulled up next to them, ordered them to stop – which they did – and began to berate them (loudly) for trying to make me have an accident.

The group consisted of three boys and one girl.  The biggest of the boys quickly denied any evil intent, although he had nothing to say when I asked him why he and his pals yelled at me.

I pulled out my phone and told the lead rider – a dweebish, slack-jawed lad – that I was going to send his picture to the authorities.

As I turned to photograph the other three, the girl told her partners-in-crime to cover their faces, which they did:

Cherchez la femme!

*     *     *     *     *

Of course the girl was the ringleader.  Cherchez la femme, after all.  

“You can’t take our picture!” she shouted as she covered up.  “It’s illegal!”

“No, it’s not!” I replied.  “I know because I’m a lawyer!”  (Not a very snappy comeback, I admit.)

As she tried to pedal away, I caught up and rode next to her so I could continue our discussion.

“Stop following me!” she yelled. “I’ll call the police!”

“Please do!” I answered. “We can have a little chat with them together!”

I was bluffing, of course.  I knew I was 100% in the right – it was absolutely clear what these little whippersnappers were up to – but I didn’t really want to get into it with a manipulative 13-year-old girl in front of the po-po.  All she would have to do was start crying and claim I had touched her, and I could have found myself telling it to the judge.

*     *     *     *     *

Here’s a postscript to this tale.

Two days later, I was riding the same stretch of the rail trail when I saw that little b**** and the big lug who had almost wet his pants when I initially confronted them.

She gave me the evil eye and loudly ordered me to go away – she wasn’t a bit afraid of me.

I played it cool, and simply smiled and waved at her I rode by.  (Guess I showed her, huh?)

*     *     *     *     *  

“Kids” is one of the most memorable songs from Bye Bye Birdie, a very successful Broadway musical that opened in 1960 and was made into a movie a few years later.

The original Broadway cast of Bye Bye Birdie included Dick Van Dyke as the male lead, Albert Peterson.  When Van Dyke had to take two weeks off to film the pilot episode of his eponymous CBS television sitcom, he was temporarily replaced by Charles Nelson Reilly, who I remember mostly from his years as a panelist on The Match Game.  (Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers cracking wise on The Match Game – that was some must-see television!)

Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett
Somers, and Gene Rayburn

Speaking of The Match Game, the show’s host – Gene Rayburn – took over the Albert Peterson role on Broadway when Van Dyke left the production about a year after the show opened.

The original Broadway cast also included Paul Lynde, who sat in the center square on The Hollywood Squares for 13 years.  The host of The Hollywood Squares, Peter Marshall played Albert Peterson in the London production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Small world, eh?

Click here to listen to the movie soundtrack recording of “Kids.”

Click below to buy that recording from Amazon:

Talking Heads – "Girlfriend Is Better" (1983)

I got a girlfriend that’s better than that

And she goes wherever she likes

(There she goes!)

Earlier this year, I was flipping through my copy of the Rice University alumni magazine when I came across an article about an artist named Kathryn Dunlevie.

Wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute, I said to myself.  There was a woman in my Rice class named Kathryn Dunlevie.

Sure enough, the artist who was the subject of that magazine story and my college classmate were one and the same.  (You can click here to read that article, which was titled “The Art of the Enigmatic.”)

Kathryn Dunlevie
(photo by Louise Williams)

I e-mailed Kathryn to congratulate her on being featured in the magazine, and sent her links to a few 2 or 3 lines posts that I thought might interest her.

When she complimented my wildly successful little blog, I asked her if she would contribute a guest post.  She graciously agreed to do so, and I was very pleased that she chose to write about “Girlfriend Is Better,” a great song by one of my all-time favorite groups, the Talking Heads.  (She also sent along photos of a number of her striking photo-collages, which you will see below.)

Kathryn, the floor is yours.

*     *     *     *     *

The first I ever heard of the Talking Heads was 1979, at one of my openings in Houston, when a friend told me he’d just heard “some punk band’s cover of an Al Green song.” 

Manhattan Falconer

A few months later I was living in Madrid, making do with a local radio station that featured the music of groups like Alaska y los Pegamoides and Ejecutivos Agresivos, when the same friend showed up with a copy of the Talking Heads’ third album, Fear of Music.  It was my introduction to the Talking Heads, and it was life changing.

Rescue

My drawings immediately shifted to undulating rhythmic patterns of dash-like broken brushstrokes. 

Tipping Point

The next thing I knew, I was back in Houston and expecting my first child.  (What a year in a Catholic country will do.)  I immediately bought a copy of the newest Talking Heads album, Remain in Light, which had just been released.  

The famous line from that album’s first single, “Once in a Lifetime”  – “How did I get here?” – resonated with me. 

Touching Down

I had my baby and a year later, with my own “Houses in Motion,” I moved to the Bay Area.

The Long Goodbye

My best friend from college lived in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, and my toddler and I spent a lot of time with her.  I did more rhythmic pattern drawings, and tried to get used to the cold and damp.  

Undercover

When the next Talking Heads album, Speaking in Tongues, came out in 1983, it was something of a deliverance.  Though my days were divided between “This Must Be the Place” and “Burning Down the House,” everyone who came to my house ended up dancing. 

Ipanema

That’s when I started making my first serious mixed-media work.  And I got to see the Talking Heads at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, on their “Stop Making Sense” tour.  It was cinematic.

And nothing is better than that – is it?

Dr. Who’s Girlfriend

All these years later, I still find myself inspired by the Talking Heads.  My latest series, Women of Wonder, harkens back specifically to “Girlfriend is Better.”

*     *     *     *     *

In case you didn’t figure it out, the friend who told Kathryn about hearing “some punk band’s cover of an Al Green song” was referring to the famous Talking Heads cover of “Take Me to the River,” which David Byrne later described as “a song that combines teenage lust with baptism.”  

The two Spanish bands that Kathryn remembers hearing on the radio when she lived in Spain in 1980 – Alaska y los Pegamoides and Ejecutivos Agresivos – released some very interesting records back in the day.  I plan to feature songs by both of them on 2 or 3 lines in the near future.

Kathryn heard the Talking Heads at the Greek Theatre on the UC-Berkeley campus in September 1983.  Here’s a poster advertising their Berkeley appearances:

*     *     *     *     *

The photos that accompany Kathryn’s account of how she came to know and love the music of the Talking Heads depict eight pieces from her most recent series of collages, which she has titled Women of Wonder.  (Note: the collage titled “The Long Goodbye” was inspired by the 1973 Robert Altman-directed movie of the same name – a favorite of mine since I saw it when I was in college, and a favorite of Kathryn’s as well.  Click here to watch the opening credit sequence from this very idiosyncratic movie.) 

Kathryn was planning to show that series this spring at the Hooks-Epstein Gallery in Houston as part of the FotoFest Biennial 2020.  But the gallery could only exhibit Women of Wonder virtually due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Here’s a brief description of Women of Wonder written by the artist, along with photos of a few more collages from that series:

Intermixing my own photographs with elements from popular as well as historical sources conjures up unsettling entities and strange scenarios.  

Marlowe’s Mistake

The characters that emerge from this process find themselves in locales ranging from Rome’s Fiumicino in “Touching Down,” to Turkey’s western Aegean coast in “Hitchhiker's Guide to Kusadasi.”

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Kusadasi

“Khidr” harkens back to ancient times, while “Dr. Who’s Girlfriend” has arrived from outside of time.  

Khidr

“Our Lady of the Harbor” has escaped pre-disaster Pompeii and is on a mission to contemporary Los Angeles, while the denizen of “Tipping Point” floats above it all in a tent that has no floor and  apparently no gravity.

Our Lady of the Harbor

As diverse images converge and give rise to outlandish creatures and enigmatic situations, the Women of Wonder inspire us to go, unabashedly, wherever we like – and to proceed, without constraint, as we choose.

And nothing is better than that – is it?

*     *     *     *     *

“And nothing is better than that – is it?” is a slightly paraphrased version of the last line of “Girlfriend Is Better.”   But you knew that, right?

Click here to go to Kathryn's website, which includes a biography, links to a number of articles about her art, and photos of hundreds of her collages.  (I was especially intrigued by the collages in her “Cover Versions” series, each of which incorporates a vintage album cover.)

Click here to see the Talking Heads performing “Girlfriend Is Better” in perhaps the greatest rock concert movie ever made, Stop Making Sense.  (The performances that were filmed for that movie took place shortly after the group’s Berkeley appearances, so what you see and hear in that video is very close to what Kathryn saw and heard back in 1983.)

The Speaking In Tongues album cover

Click here to listen to the version of “Girlfriend Is Better” that was released on the Speaking In Tongues album.

Finally, you can click on the link below to buy the studio version of “Girlfriend Is Better” from Amazon:

(All the photographs of Kathryn Dunlevie’s art that are included in this post are © 2020 by the artist.  All rights reserved.)