Deep Tracks

I can turn back the hands of time

Posted on by brucehhackett

It’s fairly amazing that I continue to find, or rediscover, great old songs tucked away on vinyl from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. You’d think the well would eventually run dry. But hey, there were more than 500 albums released every year during those decades (I think the number is even higher these days), so it’s easy to overlook the gems hidden on albums you thought you knew.

Since 2015, I’ve published 36 posts that each offer a dozen “lost classics” worthy of your attention. For this post, I am featuring a fresh dozen of these unearthed beauties, mostly from the ’80s this time. Some you may recognize; others will be all new to you. In either case, they’re here because I think they’re proof of the preponderance of great music that was written, recorded and released in rock music’s formative years.

Naturally, you’ll find an accompanying Spotify playlist at the end. Crank it up! Revel in it. Bathe in it. Get up and dance to it!

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“Alabama Getaway,” Grateful Dead, 1980

When The Dead signed with Clive Davis and Arista Records in 1978, they attempted a more commercial sound (“Shakedown Street”) that didn’t sit as well with longtime fans. The 1980 LP “Go to Heaven” was largely rejected at the time because it looked like a disco album (the band dressed in Bee Gees white suits on the cover), but the music was unfairly maligned. Time has somewhat mellowed the general disdain that critics and Deadheads felt upon its release, and I urge you to give this album a fresh look. Case in point: The band had appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1980 playing the spirited opening track, a Chuck Berry-ish romp called “Alabama Getaway,” a Jerry Garcia tune featuring “Captain Trips” on guitar and lead vocals, with new Dead member Brent Mydland contributing a surprising miniMoog solo and backing vocals. The song went on to become a concert favorite over the next 15 years until Garcia’s death in 1995.

“Lion’s Den,” Bruce Springsteen, 1982/1998

In 1982, Springsteen was writing songs at a furious pace as he geared up for his next rock album. He and the E Street Band recorded several dozen tunes, but he found that he preferred his homemade demos of about 10 of these because the sparse arrangements matched the dark, reflective lyrics, so he chose to release them as the startling LP “Nebraska,” a complete departure from all previous Springsteen albums. Critics gushed over it, but I was never crazy about it. Of the remaining E Street recordings, many were resurrected two years later to become the multiplatinum “Born in the USA” album. One of the best tracks from this period, to my ears, was the exhilarating “Lion’s Den,” which remained in the vaults until included on his 4-disc “Tracks” collection of outtakes in 1998. One listen will make you question Springsteen’s reasoning sometimes. How could a song this good languish on the shelf when it could’ve been polished up, maybe extended another minute or so, and been a solid rock radio favorite?

“Let’s See Action,” The Who, 1972/1981

This rocker was written in 1971 as part of Pete Townshend’s aborted “Lifehouse” project for The Who in 1971, and was released in the UK as a single in October of that year, reaching #16 there. Townshend recorded his own longer version, officially titled “Nothing is Everything (Let’s See Action),” on his first solo LP, “Who Came First,” which was released in both countries in October 1972. The Who’s version of the song, which packs more punch and features Roger Daltrey’s vocals and Nicky Hopkins on piano, didn’t show up in the US until 1981 when it was included on the compilation LP “Hooligans.” The lyrics borrow from the teachings of Townshend’s guru Meher Baba regarding positive impulses and cosmic soul searching: “Let’s see action, let’s see people, /Let’s be free, let’s see who cares, /Nothing is everything, everything is nothing…”

“What About Love,” ‘Til Tuesday, 1986

Emerging from Boston in the mid-’80s, ‘Til Tuesday was a favorite on MTV among fans of New Wave, particularly their amazing Top Ten hit “Voices Carry.” Lead singer Aimee Mann’s commanding, haunting lead vocals rightly became the band’s focal point, and her songwriting has made her a critic’s darling ever since. Although the group’s second LP, the beautifully produced “Welcome Home” in 1986, was chock full of excellent songs, it underperformed on the charts and led to the group’s dissolution two years later when their third LP stiffed badly. Tracks like “Will She Just Fall Down,” “Sleeping and Waking,” “Lovers’ Day” and “Coming Up Close” gave the album impressive consistency, but curiously, the sonically rich single “What About Love” managed to reach only #26. For my money, this is one of the best albums of the 1980s.

“All the Children Sing,” Todd Rundgren, 1978

Rundgren was feeling wistful and reflective in 1977 due to the breakup of his relationship with Bebe Buell, caused partly by the birth of Buell’s daughter, Liv, who turned out to be the result of a tryst between Buell and Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler. Rundgren chose to isolate in his upstate New York home nearby the Utopia Sound Studios he built there, creating a batch of songs that became “Hermit of Mink Hollow,” one of his most commercially successful LPs. The tracks were intended to be played on piano with minimal arrangements, and one of them, the autobiographical “Can We Still Be Friends?”, emerged as one of his biggest hits. The album opener, “All the Children Sing,” offered a sing-song melody and words that celebrated how children’s voices can bring such joy to the world.

“Home and Dry,” Gerry Rafferty, 1978

This Scottish singer/songwriter composed many wonderfully infectious tunes and made nearly a dozen winning albums, but he shunned the limelight, touring very sporadically, and a developing problem with alcoholism certainly didn’t help, curtailing his life at age 63 in 2011. First with the 1973 Top Ten single “Stuck in the Middle With You” as part of Stealers Wheel and then on his own with the phenomenal “City to City” LP in 1978, Rafferty turned a lot of heads in the US and elsewhere. “Baker Street,” of course, was his biggest hit, followed by the pleasing “Right Down the Line,” but largely forgotten was the third single from “City to City,” a majestic track called “Home and Dry,” which reached #26 in the US late in 1978. I suggest you check out more of Raffery’s repertoire on LPs like “Night Owl” (1979), “Sleepwalking” (1984) and “North and South” (1988).

“First We Take Manhattan,” Jennifer Warnes, 1986

A starring role in the LA production of the musical “Hair” in 1968 helped Warnes kick off her career, and by 1977, she reached the Top 10 on US pop charts with “Right Time of the Night,” sounding uncannily like Linda Ronstadt. Two years later, Warnes was the singer of the Oscar-winning song “It Goes Like It Goes” from the film “Norma Rae,” which jump-started a successful run of movie soundtrack hit singles, including two #1s: From “An Officer and a Gentleman” in 1982 came “Up Where We Belong” with Joe Cocker, and from “Dirty Dancing in 1991 came “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” with Bill Medley. Between those two award-winners, she earned high praise for her LP “Famous Blue Raincoat,” on which she covered some of songwriter Leonard Cohen’s finest tunes, including a new one he hadn’t yet recorded himself, “First We Take Manhattan.” It’s a powerful track, with Stevie Ray Vaughn making a guest appearance on guitar.

“Caribbean Wind,” Bob Dylan, 1981/1985

This is one of those Dylan songs he said he never fully finished, rewriting the lyrics and recording it more than once, but he never felt satisfied, so it was shelved. He first recorded it in 1980 and twice more in 1981 during sessions for his “Shot of Love” LP, with different lyrics in each case. It first appeared on the “Biograph” box set in 1985 and later on his “Side Tracks” compilation in 2013, and it’s such a fine song, you’ve got to wonder why he felty it unworthy of release at the time of recording. Backed by the likes of keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarists Fred Tackett and Steve Ripley, Dylan offers a fine vocal performance and probably the best version of the lyrics, even though he has always said he isn’t really sure what the song is about. “Sometimes you write something to be very inspired, but you don’t quite finish it for one reason or another,” he said. “Then you’ll go back and try and pick it up, and the inspiration is just gone. Very frustrating.”

“Angel (What in the World’s Come Over Us),” Atlanta Rhythm Section, 1974

For ten years (1972-1982), the Atlanta Rhythm Section cranked out album after album of pleasing Southern rock, carried by the warm vocals of Ronnie Hammond and instantly accessible melodies and ensemble playing. They eventually had some big hits in 1977-78 (“Imaginary Lover,” “So Into You,” “Champagne Jam,” “I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight”) but their early records were unjustly ignored. Their 1974 release “Third Annual Pipe Dream,” yielded their first Top 40 hit “Doraville,” a tribute to the Atlanta suburb where they recorded. Although it stalled as the follow-up single, “Angel (What in the World’s Come Over Us)” is even better, with the band jamming away on the main riff and giving hints of the strong musicianship ARS would bring to bear on subsequent albums.

“Keep On Going,” Fleetwood Mac, 1973

Between the formative blues music of the Peter Green period (1967-1970) and the sunny pop of the Buckingham/Nicks era (1975 onward), Fleetwood Mac managed to survive the 1971-1975 years thanks to great songs by Danny Kirwan (“Bare Trees”) and Bob Welch (“Hypnotized”). On their 1973 LP “Mystery to Me,” Kirwan had already split, but Christine McVie stepped up as a formidable singer and songwriter as well. Generally, each song’s writer also sang lead vocals, but in one case, Welch turned over his song “Keep On Going” to the dulcet tones of McVie, which served the recording better. A dominant, aggressive string arrangement gave the track additional oomph that helped it earn FM rock radio airplay then and ever since. I’ve always enjoyed most of the music from this middle period of the group.

“Moonlight in Samosa,” Robert Plant, 1982

When Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham, most observers figured Jimmy Page would be the one to watch, but it turned out to be Plant who pursued the more ambitious recording and touring schedule. His debut solo album, 1982’s “Pictures at Eleven,” was the result of Plant’s new collaboration with British session guitarist Robbie Blunt, who deserves credit just for trying to fill Page’s shoes. Indeed, on the lovely, downbeat track “Moonlight in Samosa,” it is Blunt’s understated electric and acoustic guitar work that stands out as counterpoint to the quieter side of Plant’s vocal stylings. Through 11 studio albums of quality material and performances, Plant has put up as solid a track record as we could hope to expect from one of rock’s most amazing vocalists.

“See the Lights,” Simple Minds, 1991

Among US music listeners, Simple Minds has one of the most overlooked catalogs in rock. Sure, we obsessed over “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” (from “The Breakfast Club”) and their 1985 LP “Once Upon a Time” (with “Sanctify Yourself” and “All the Things She Said”) but there was so much more from singer/songwriter Jim Kerr and the band. Their audiences in the UK and Europe were always more appreciative, giving them numerous Top Ten album chart successes throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. From their solid 1991 LP “Real Life,” check out the impressive “See the Lights,” the last of their songs to sneak into the US Top 40 and a bonafide hit on alternative and mainstream rock charts. It has such a pleasing groove and arrangement, and hearing it again reminds me to play their music more often.

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Now my calendar’s complete

Posted on by brucehhackett

Gathering classic rock songs that share a common subject has been a pastime of mine since the early 1970s when I bought my first cassette tape deck.

Songs about food, cars, sex. Songs about countries, cities, streets. Songs about girls’ names, boys’ names, celebrities. My playlists on Spotify now have well over 100 themes represented.

Having recently explored songs in the rock music vault having to do with the signs of the zodiac, I realized I’d never put together a similar playlist of songs about the months of the year. Much like a list I compiled several years ago about days of the week — when I found there were way more choices for Saturday or Sunday than, say, Wednesday — I found some months are very well represented (September, December) while others have maybe one or two decent selections (March, October).

I’ve selected an eclectic dozen to commemorate each of the twelve months of the year, and I’ve also included another two dozen “honorable mentions to beef up that list. Feel free to listen along as you read.

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“January Stars,” Sting, 1993

The former bassist/vocalist of The Police went on quite a tear when he embarked on a solo career in 1985. The LPs “The Dream of the Blue Turtles” (1985), “Nothing But the Sun” (1987), “The Soul Cages” (1991) and especially “Ten Summoner’s Tales” (1993) were packed with compelling music that charted high on US album charts and produced ten Top 20 singles here. During sessions for “Summoner,” Sting wrote a song that he recorded twice with two completely different titles and lyrics. “Everybody Laughed But You” ended up on the LP, but the alternate version, entitled “January Stars,” appeared only on the “maxi-single” release with the big hit “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You.” It’s arguably a better set of lyrics and seemed an appropriate choice to feature as my “January” representative to the playlist: “And as I watched the mercury, and thought about the prophecy, /A new moon and an early thaw, /I watched the door for you, /January stars, January stars came true…”

“February Stars,” Foo Fighters, 1997

I have enormous respect for Dave Grohl, who played drums behind Kurt Cobain in Nirvana and then, in the wake of Cobain’s suicide, formed Foo Fighters, one of the most popular bands of the past quarter-century. Amazingly, he quickly broadened his talents from drums to become his new band’s guitarist, singer and chief songwriter as well. The first Foo Fighters release in 1995 was essentially a Grohl solo affair, but 1997’s “The Colour and The Shape” was the first true group effort, which reached the Top 10 and went multi-platinum, thanks to “Everlong,” “Monkey Wrench” and “My Hero.” Described at the time of its release as “alternative post-grunge rock,” the album featured some strong songwriting like “February Stars,” a track Grohl wrote “about just hanging on by your fingertips and hoping you don’t slip and fall.” It’s about a relationship that’s dwindling away, despite efforts to hang on to it, finally concluding that it just won’t last: “I’m hanging on here until I’m gone, /Right where I belong, just hanging on, /February stars, floating in the dark, /Temporary scars, February stars…”

“March, the Mad Scientist,” Jethro Tull, 1976

Almost from the beginning, Tull frontman Ian Anderson typically wrote more songs than would fit on whatever album the band was in the process of recording. By 1976, he had compiled a number of finished tracks, several of which had a Christmastime flavor to them. “I’ve always enjoyed the Yuletide season and have written often about it,” Anderson said. He decided to release an EP in England (though not in the US, where EPs were rarely issued) that gathered four holiday-related songs: “Ring Out, Solstice Bells” (which also appeared on the “Songs From the Wood” album a couple months later), “Christmas Song” (first released back in 1969), “Pan Dance” and “March, the Mad Scientist.” The latter, clocking in at a brief 1:48, focuses on the post-Christmas months: “April is summer-bound, and February’s blue, /But March, the mad scientist, brings a new change in ever-dancing colours…”

“April Come She Will,” Simon and Garfunkel, 1966

When bass, drums and electric guitar were grafted onto the original acoustic recording of “The Sound of Silence” and it became a #1 hit in early 1966, Simon and Garfunkel hurried into the studio to record the wistful songs Simon had written while living in London (including “I Am a Rock,” “Kathy’s Song,” “Richard Cory” and “April Come She Will”) and rush-released the LP “Sounds of Silence.” When director Mike Nichols chose to prominently use several Simon and Garfunkel songs in the soundtrack of “The Graduate,” in 1967, “April Come She Will” was among them because Nichols related to the lyrics about the sad arc of an affair that runs its course in six months, much like the tryst depicted in the film: “April, come she will… /May, she will stay… /June, she’ll change her tune… /July, she will fly… /August. die she must… /September I’ll remember…”

“Then Came the Last Days of May,” Blue Oyster Cult, 1972

Donald Roeser, Blue Oyster Cult’s guitarist/singer who went by the stage name Buck Dharma, wrote this harrowing tale of a drug deal gone bad that appears on the group’s 1972 self-titled debut LP. He recalls, “Back in 1969, the band was playing dances at Stony Brook University on Long Island.  Three students from the college had gone out to Tucson, Arizona, at the end of May to buy some bulk marijuana for resale. It turned out the guys they were meeting there never intended to sell them any pot. They just wanted to drive them out to the desert, steal their money and shoot them, which they did, although one kid managed to survive. I wrote the lyrics from the newspaper accounts”: “It wasn’t until the car suddenly stopped in the middle of a cold and barren plain, /And the other guy turned and spilled three boys’ blood, /Did they know a trap had been laid?…” The song was a regular part of the band’s in-concert set list for many years

“Atlanta June,” Pablo Cruise, 1977

This San Francisco-based band enjoyed some decent chart success in the late ’70s with a pair of albums (1977’s “A Place in the Sun” and 1978’s “Worlds Away) and a handful of singles (“Whatcha Gonna Do?” “Love Will Find a Way,” “I Go to Rio”). These days, they’re lumped in with what is derisively known as “yacht rock,” but for my money, they offered feel-good music professionally executed, and I still enjoy hearing them from time to time. There’s a deep track on “A Place in the Sun” called “Atlanta June” that I think deserves your attention, even though it’s about a woman named June rather than the month of June: “Come here baby and sit down with me, I got something on my mind, /And I’ve got to tell you how I feel ’cause I know I’ll soon be gone, /Atlanta, Atlanta June, I’ll be leaving you and Georgia soon, /But someday maybe I’ll find a way back to you, Atlanta June…”

“Black Day in July,” Gordon Lightfoot, 1968

An escalating conflict between police and Black residents of Detroit that began on July 23, 1967, was the subject of Lightfoot’s powerful, poignant song. In seven verses, he tells of the violence and government response that resulted in the deadliest civil disturbance in US history: “Motor City madness has touched the countryside, /And the people rise in anger and the streets begin to fill, /And there’s gunfire from the rooftops and the blood begins to spill, /Black Day in July…” Lightfoot wasn’t yet a big name in the US but the song, which appeared on his 1968 “Did She Mention My Name?” LP, was nonetheless banned from many radio stations. It was by far Lightfoot’s most vivid protest song, with prominent percussion and dominant minor chords that symbolized the tension of the events.

“First Day in August,” Carole King, 1972

One of the greatest songwriters of the 1960s, King fed infectious tunes to her then-husband lyricist Gerry Goffin, and together they cranked out dozens of songs for other artists to turn into big hits. Then in 1971, her “Tapestry” album made her the featured recording artist and became one of the best-selling albums of all time. The half-dozen albums that came after that masterpiece never quite measured up, but individual songs like “Been to Canaan,” “Sweet Seasons,” “Bitter With the Sweet” and “Jazzman” were very worthy additions to her repertoire. From her 1972 LP “Rhymes and Reasons” is a little forgotten gem called “First Day in August,” an intimate ballad that celebrates a loving relationship with these tender lyrics: “On the first day in August, I want to wake up by your side, /After sleeping with you on the last night in July, /In the morning, we’ll catch the sun rising, /And we’ll chase it from the mountains to the bottom of the sea…”

“September,” Earth, Wind and Fire, 1978

I deliberated a while about which of the many songs about September that turned up in my search would be the one I would feature here. I’ve always been partial to the old standard, “September in the Rain,” as sung by Frank Sinatra in 1961, or even “See You in September” by the sunshine-pop group The Happenings in 1966. But I pretty much had to go with the EW&F hit, which reached #6 in 1978 as the new single included on the group’s “Best Of, Vol. 1” LP. The infectious R&B tune was written by Maurice White and his occasional collaborator Alley Willis, who initially objected to White’s memorable “ba-dee-ya” nonsense lyric in the chorus, “but he taught me an important lesson about not letting the lyric get in the way of a great groove.” The significance of the 21st of September, said White’s wife, was it was the original due date of their son: “Our hearts were ringing in the key that our souls were singing as we danced in the night, /Remember how the stars stole the night away, /Ba-dee-ya, say do you remember, /Ba-dee-ya, dancing in September, /Ba-dee-ya, never was a cloudy day…”

“October Road,” James Taylor, 2002

After cranking out classic albums every year through the 1970s, and every two or three years in the ’80s and ’90s, Taylor started experiencing writer’s block by the 2000s. Indeed, he has released only two albums of new material in the past 25 years, and to my ears, they weren’t quite as consistent as we’ve come to expect from this talented tunesmith. The title track from his 2002 LP “October Road” has a fine country-funk arrangement going that sets it a notch higher than the album’s other tracks. Its lyrics do a marvelous job of capturing his time-honored image of “walking on a country road,” only this time as soothing medicine for a worn-out psyche damaged from too much fame and travel: “I got so low down, fed up, my God, I could hardly move, /Won’t you come on, my brother, get on up and help me find my groove, /Keep me walking, October road, /Keep me walking in the sunshine, yeah, little friend of mine, October road…”

“November Rain,” Guns ‘n Roses, 1991

While I’ve never been much of a fan of Guns ‘n Roses, it’s impossible to deny the majestic sweep of this tour de force from their “Use Your Illusion I” album. Like other epic rock songs of its era, “November Rain” uses mellower melodic passages offset by screaming guitar sections to create compelling drama over its nine-minute length. Significantly, it’s one of the longest songs to ever reach the Top Five of the US Top 40 pop chart. “We call it ‘the Layla song’,” joked guitarist Slash, referencing a similarly constructed rock song with a long, instrumental second part. Lead singer Axl Rose describes how a rainy day in the eleventh month can be so unpleasant: “When I look into your eyes, I can see a love restrained, /But, darlin’, when I hold you, don’t you know I feel the same? /’Cause nothing lasts forever, and we both know hearts can change, /And it’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain…”

“December 1963 (Oh What a Night),” The Four Seasons, 1975

Bob Gaudio, longtime member of The Four Seasons and a primary songwriter for them, said this song’s lyrics originally focused on December 5, 1933, the day that Prohibition was repealed, but his wife suggested he change the focus to December of 1963, when the two first met. “It was more in line with the kind of song The Four Seasons typically sang,” he said, “and it ended up being a good decision.” The group hadn’t had a Top Ten hit since 1967, and the release of their “Who Loves You” album in 1975 put them back on the charts in a big way, first with the title song (which peaked at #3) and then “December 1963,” which held the #1 slot for three weeks in early 1976: “Oh, what a night, late December, back in ’63, /What a very special time for me, as I remember, what a night, /Oh, what a night, you know, I didn’t even know her name, /But I was never gonna be the same, what a lady, what a night…”

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Honorable mentions:

“January,” Pilot, 1975; “January Friend,” Goo Goo Dolls, 1998; “February Seven,” Avett Brothers, 2012; “Waters of March,” Art Garfunkel, 1975; “Sometimes It Snows in April,” Prince, 1986; “Pieces of April,” Three Dog Night, 1972; “First of May,” James Taylor, 1988; “First of May,” The Bee Gees, 1968; “June Hymn,” The Decemberists, 2011; “July Morning,” Uriah Heep, 1971; “August,” Taylor Swift, 2020; “See You in September,” The Happenings, 1966; “September Grass,” James Taylor, 2002; “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” Green Day, 2004; “September Morn,” Neil Diamond, 1979; “September in the Rain,” Frank Sinatra, 1961; “October,” U2, 1981; “November Spawned a Monster,” Morrissey, 1990; “Denouncing November,” The Avett Brothers, 2006; “December,” Collective Soul, 1995; “A Long December,” Counting Crows, 1996; “December,” Norah Jones, 2009; “December Snow,” Moody Blues, 2003.

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