Friday, August 5, 2011
JOHNNY WAS JUST A SCHOOL BOY, WHEN HE HEARD HIS FIRST BEATLES SONG. LOVE ME DO, I THINK IT WAS, AND FROM THERE IT DIDN'T TAKE HIM LONG: This week's Friday Playlist request: Songs about the career arc of the band in question or songs about a mythical band's career arc. There are many great songs, too, that editorialize about life as a rock n' roll star (e.g., Moody Blues - "I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band" and The Byrds - "So You Want to be a Rock N' Roll Star"). Add those, too, but I'm really looking for a definitive list of songs about a guy who starts the song without a band, has one in the middle, and is either dead because of/nostalgic for/or jaded by his time with that band.
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Maybe Rock and Roll Band by Boston. Not sure if the beginning is early enough or the ending is late enough, but there is a definite arc.
ReplyDeleteZiggy Stardust (Bowie) and Juke Box Hero (Foreigner) come to mind.
ReplyDeleteNone of these really fit the TPE ideal expressed above, but most are band formation/life on the road songs:
ReplyDeleteTenth Avenue Freezeout, Springsteen (which tells the ESB story but ends before jadedness)
Cinnamon Girl (either the original Neil version, or the Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs cover)
The Road, Jackson Browne
The Load Out/Stay, Jackson Browne (or you could go with the Browne/Bruce/ESB live version of Stay from the No Nukes show -- "And the Big Man don't mind" "No no, no no.")
Pop Singer, John (Cougar?) Mellencamp - this one gets to the jadedness.
Creeque Alley!
ReplyDeleteBenny and the Jets
ReplyDeletePop Goes the World
Into the Great Wide Open
2541 by Grant Hart, When it Began by the Mats, Band Called Bud by Blue Mountain, Lodi by CCR.
ReplyDeleteI was going with Into the Great Wide Open but D'Arcy beat me.
ReplyDeleteAs I said at HQ, "The Late Greats" is the gold standard for me, but 12-year-old me has a soft spot for "Juke Box Hero."
ReplyDeleteArmy by Ben Folds Five
ReplyDeleteHmm, not exactly what you asked for, but close: Billy Joel's "The Entertainer."
ReplyDeleteAlso not the TPE "ideal," but Billy Joel's "The Entertainer."
ReplyDeleteSummer of 69 - Bryan Adams (had a band and we tried real hard)
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I didn't think of that one!!!
ReplyDeleteDan Fogelberg, Same Old Lang Syne.
ReplyDeleteI am hopelessly uncool. Will try to think of more.
I think it's a solo artist rather than a band, but it's a career arc - Barenaked Ladies, Box Set.
ReplyDeleteSk8tr Boi by Avril Levigne
ReplyDeletewhich is and both so is not the TPE ideal
ReplyDeletePassing reference in The Kinks' "Come Dancing." (Now I'm grown up and playing in a band... <span>And there's a car park where the Palais used to stand...)</span>
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you combine "Johnny B Goode" with "Limelight"? But geez, that would be awful.
ReplyDeleteAw, beat me to it.
ReplyDelete"Looking for an Echo" (my favorite version is by The Persuasions). Off this particular beaten path, but I can usually be counted on for the a cappella entry...
ReplyDeleteThese are more "life as a rock n roll star":
ReplyDeleteArt Is Hard - Cursive
Faithfully - Journey
This Boy Is Exhausted - Wrens
More the TPE Arc:
Saturday Gigs - Mott the Hoople
When We Was Fab - George Harrison
And it's really a stretch, but tonally fits the "arc" theme - "RocknRoll Lifestyele" by Cake
Not exactly what TPE is looking for but Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've now lumped this and the monkey post in my head and I keep wanting to post "Ape Man" by the Kinks. Confusion.
And one more non-TPE musician song: "On the Road Again" Willie Nelson.
ReplyDeleteNarrative, "Are you sure Hank done it this way," Waylon Jennings.
ReplyDeleteThe editorial, "Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh.
and since i like to throw classical music in there, "Kreisleriana" by Robert Schumann; "The Meistersingers of Nuremberg" by Richard Wagner; "Palestrina" by Hans Pfitzner.
ReplyDeleteJWH - 1993 - Talking Return of the Great Folk Scare Blues (close to completely auobiographical), 2009 - Top of the Bottom (some embellishment).
ReplyDelete--bd
How did I not think of this one either?!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this fits, but maybe "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)", AC/DC. It definitely talks about the hard life as a start-up band. And I love the guitar work in it.
ReplyDelete"Lucky" by Britney Spears.
ReplyDeleteThat was the first one that came to mind for me, too.
ReplyDeleteBrad Paisley with Keith Urban, Start a Band.
ReplyDeleteAh! Ah hah! Got one. "Seattle Grunge Rock Blues", Todd Snider.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/lYm8HotzmSw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Would Dylan's "My Back Pages" qualify?
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't fit TPE's requirements but it's a food song, nonetheless: Sweet Music Man by Kenny Rogers
ReplyDeleteLa Binsk
I like Sebadoh's "Gimme Indie Rock," because it's Lou Barlow's bitter retelling of how his former band got started:
ReplyDelete<span>Started back in '83
Started seeing things differently.
And hardcore was doing it for me,
No More.
Started smoking pot.
Thought things sounded better slow.
Much slower and heavier.
Black magic melody to sink this poser's soul.
VU, Stooges, undeniably cool.
Took a lesson from that drone rock school
Manipulate musicians, hack righteous drool.
Getting loose with the Pussy Galore.
Cracking jokes like Thurston Moore.
Pedal-hopping like a Dinosaur, J.
Rock n' Roll genius, ride the middle of the road.
Milk that sound, blow your load.
Soon it's smoother than you ever said it go.
Four stars in the Rolling Stone.
Oh, its sludge rock.
and its harsh.
Just Gimme Indie Rock!</span>
There aren't too many that have the whole saga -- but Rock and Roll Band was the song that made me think of this in the first place. But I liked the words to Bad Company's "Shooting Star" for an opener.
ReplyDeleteThe Late Great Johnny Ace, Paul Simon
ReplyDeleteTurn the Page, Bob Seger
Lynyrd Skynyrd - The Ballad of Curtis Loew (although I may be stretching the idea of a career "arc").
ReplyDeleteAnd as an Add those, too, Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band.
I've always thought that Shooting Star and Juke Box Hero were the same song just remade again. The one redeeming aspect of the Foreigner take is the looping structure of having made it to the top, the Hero inspires another Johnny to take up the faith and start the climb to stardom.
ReplyDeleteIn another media, Jimmy Thudpucker's career was encapsulated in a Doonesbury Sunday Strip following the arc including the inevitable trip to Rehab, the Comeback and touring as a Amusement Park Nostalgia Act, funny stuff if you can find it.
I can't think of any songs that cover the entire rise-and-fall arc that haven't already been mentioned, but here are some that cover part of the story.
ReplyDeleteGuitar Man - Elvis Presley, in which the singer quits his job at the carwash to travel around the south trying to make money playing his guitar and winds up at a club called Big Jacks fronting the finest little five-piece group up and down the Gulf of Mexico.
Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job - George Thouroughgood, in which the singer, after trying a nine-to-five job, but refusing to cut his hair, finds a band with good songs to play and hits the big time, becoming ten times richer than his more appropriately coiffed big brother Bob.
Late in the Evening - Paul Simon, in which the singer, perhaps scarred from his early childhood memory of hearing his parents make love to the sounds of the radio, becomes a teenage drug user and guitar prodigy at a funky bar.
The Story of Them - Them, featuring Van Morrison, in which Van relates how he and his bandmates, barred from pubs, clubs, and dancehalls, began playing at the Maritime and every thing was right.
Message to Martha/Michael - Jerry Butler or Dionne Warwick, in which the singer has been left behind in a Kentucky small town by his girl/boyfriend who has gone to New Orleans to find wealth and fame singing in a small cafe under an assumed name.
The Homecoming - Tom T. Hall, a sung monologue in which the singer relates his half of a conversation with his father, from which we learn he's a country singer who's achieved some measure of success, but hasn't seen his family for many years.
Legend in Your Own Time - Carly Simon, in which the singer describes her childhood friend who has grown up to become a successful musician and songwriter, but who's sometimes lonely and has disappointed his mother.
"Rosalita" by Bruce Springsteen: "The record company Rosie, just gave me a big advance!"
ReplyDeleteAnd a song about being another band: "We're The Replacements" by They Might Be Giants (See also: TMBG's "At The End of the Tour")
Jukebox Hero!
ReplyDeleteAlso arguably "I've Had It" by Aimee Mann
ReplyDeleteWhat about Jethro Tull's "Too Old to Rock'n'Roll..." (song and/or album)?
ReplyDeleteFrom country music of the contemporary bent (ish) Travis Tritt's "I Wanna Be Somebody"
ReplyDelete"Beat Up Guitar," by The Hooters. You can't get to heaven on the Frankford El....
ReplyDelete"Blaze of Glory" - Joe Jackson
ReplyDeleteJimmy Thudpucker is perfect!
ReplyDelete"Bobby California" by Curt Boettcher has a similar obscurity-to-death arc.
ReplyDelete