This Week’s Theme: Some Of My Favorite Records You May Not Have Heard Before
Last week’s show of selections from the Trouser Press Record Guide dove into my alt-music past. After a week of listening to those records, I decided to make a show focused on some of my favorite albums that are not very well-known. We all have plenty of favorite albums that we share in popularity with others. That is one of the cornerstones of finding friends who share your musical tastes. It is one, of many, great things about Ms. Faux – she shares a lot of my music tastes so we are able to enjoy music together every day. However, we also all have favorite albums that are not as well-known to others. These may be records that were important to us when we were young and building our music tastes, records by artists local to us that others never even had a chance to discover, or simply records by our favorite artists that were not as popular as their other releases. No matter what the origin of our love for these albums, they are important to us and can sometimes stay in our personal heavy rotation for years, decades, or a lifetime.
Welcome to Radio Faux Show Volume Two, Number Thirty-One.
First things first – click a link to start listening and then come back to read about this week’s songs.
My method for selecting this week’s songs was comparatively free form. The only commonality across them is that they are all from the 20th century. Some of these albums have been favorites of mine since they were first released, some represent periods of my life where I discovered specific types of music, and some are discoveries that I have enjoyed more recently. In all cases, these are all albums that I assume most people do not very well, if at all, but I still enjoy. For example, there aren’t any albums from my teenage years that I loved at the time but now never listen to, and there aren’t any popular albums by my favorite artists. This show, possibly more than any other I’ve made, gives some insight into the more eclectic aspects of my music tastes and shines a light on songs that I love for unexplainable reasons. After all, the Faux Show is based on the fact that all music is worth a listen and everyone has their own unique tastes that should not be judged or criticized, especially if those tastes are based on having an open mind and willingness to explore the unknown.
Guilty Pleasures
This week’s show is NOT a collection of guilty pleasures. Here at the Faux household, we do not believe in the common concept known as guilty pleasures. Ms. Faux and I have discussed on more than one occasion that the phrase is not allowed in our house. Although we understand that this is, at its core, a phrase meant to give people the right to like whatever music they want to like, we don’t appreciate the context of the phrase. There is NO GUILT in liking whatever you like. This is true for all aspects of life, from the more banal such as music, movies, tv, and books, to the more culturally significant such as food, clothing, and hairstyle, to the more consequential such as religion, politics, and sexuality. This is not only important in understanding other people’s opinions, but also in accepting your own opinions as valid and empowering yourself to question the assumed truths that drive most of our daily lives. That is not to say that we should all agree with everyone about everything they believe, but we should allow them their opinions with an open mind toward discussion, understanding, and acceptance. If we can all stop screaming at each other because we are different, perhaps we can learn something we don’t know, realize that we aren’t really all that different, and finally figure out a way for us all to live on this fragile planet together, in peace, before we are all wiped out of existence.
Theme Highlights
Many of this week’s songs are part of mini-themes and get some attention in those sections, but there are a few that I will highlight on their own.
Spirit Spirit “Mechanical World”: One day in the late ’80s I went to my favorite local record store and bought an album because the cover looked interesting and I had a vague notion that I might like the music. It was a double album with a weird cover photo of a woman’s face and turned out to be the first and third records by psychedelic band Spirit.
Released in 1973, it provides a bookend for their second album that contains their Top 40 hit “I Got A Line On You.” I have listened to this double album hundreds of times over the last thirty-five years, especially side one of their debut album.
Opener “Fresh Garbage” is a solid psych-rock song of the era. Track four, “Taurus,” is the song that Led Zeppelin won a lawsuit over (you can go look that one up, but Jimmy Page clearly ripped off this song as the opening for “Stairway To Heaven” after hearing it while opening for Spirit on a U.S. tour). Most importantly, track three “Mechanical World” has kept me coming back to this piece of vinyl over and over for years. Randy California was only seventeen at the time, but his solo guitar work on this song is timeless. It is absolutely one of the best songs of ’60s psychedelia and belongs with tracks such as Cream’s “White Room” and Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” as definitive songs of the era.
T. Rex Futuristic Dragon “Calling All Destroyers”: Sometimes you love a band so much that you get to a point at which all of their albums become favorites. For me, T. Rex is one of those bands. I would never try to argue that Electric Warrior and The Slider aren’t Marc Bolan’s two best albums, but after that I am a fan of his last two records above the others. Before his tragic death in 1977, he released Dandy In The Underworld, a great album of solid Bolan boogie tunes that is an overlooked gem. Prior to that release, in 1976, an even better album called Futuristic Dragon was released to a world that no longer cared and a fanbase who were not impressed. That is unfortunate, because I believe this album to be one of the best of the year. “New York City” is now considered a T. Rex classic, and “Jupiter Liar” and “Chrome Sitar” are great examples of the sound Bolan was producing at the end of his career. “Calling All Destroyers” and the title track also stand out as sounding very different than most of the group’s recordings. “Destroyers” is an odd jam with an apocalyptic feel, and “Futuristic Dragon” is a whacked out guitar solo with spoken word poetry. I have been a fan of T. Rex since the early ’90s, and I’ve listened to all of their albums more times than anyone probably should, and Futuristic Dragon is now the one I come back to more than any other.
Mark Hollis Mark Hollis “The Colour Of Spring”: In 1991, Mark Hollis and his band Talk Talk released the best album of the year, Laughing Stock. No one bought it, no one listened to it, and no one cared. Years later, it is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the ’90s and a top contender for best post-rock album ever recorded. After the commercial and critical failure of that album, Hollis stopped recording for seven years, although the band toured until 1996. For some reason – I don’t know why – he decided to release a self-titled solo album in 1998. No one bought it, no one listened to it, and no one cared. I don’t know what people think of it over twenty years later, but I believe it is one of the best albums of that year. It is a stripped down Laughing Stock, which is saying something if you know that album. Each track is a soulfully powerful experience, and by the end you are thankful that Hollis allowed you in to his idiosyncratic musical world. Hollis never recorded again, although rumors swirled for years that he might be working on something. He died in 2019, age 64 – one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated artists of the ’80s – but every year there are young music fans who discover his work and become fans for life. It happened to me and it happened to Faux Jr. and some of his friends and I’m sure it is happening right now to someone out there looking for music that bores into your soul.
The Mommyheads Acorn “Cactus Farm”: The Mommyheads were the best band that no one knew about in the late ’80s/early ’90s. I saw them live every chance I could get. They played a form of indie-rock that was popular at the time – a sort of catchy noodling art rock – with interesting rhythms, guitar lines, and lyrics. I believe that this record was recorded by founding member Adam Cohen in his bedroom while just a teenager. Every song on this record is amazing, and it has been burned into my memory after hundreds of listens. They were always great live and never got the attention they deserved. After they broke up in 1998, they returned ten years later with a great album called “You’re Not A Dream,” a much more complex album than their original, humble beginnings. That album, and the rest of their catalog, is worth searching out, but the debut album Acorn will always be my favorite, and an important album in my growth toward an understanding of true alternative music.
Artist of the Week: Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri is one of the most successful Latin jazz musicians. He has been performing and recording for sixty years and is one of the primary influences on the modern sound of Latin jazz, including Pachanga, mambo, salsa, Mozambique, and other similar forms. Early in his career he created a new form of Pachanga music; the Pachanga was a dance craze in the ‘early ’60s and ruled the dance halls, much like the Twist explosion in the U.S. at the same time. Palmieri replaced the traditional violins of the style with trombones, and thus created what is now known as the Palmieri Sound. He continued to evolve his sound throughout the ’60s, adding more jazz elements as he went, and then in the ’70s his sound solidified into a new form of salsa and Latin jazz. This led to his groundbreaking 1975 album The Sun Of Latin Music, which won the first Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording. He has been a Latin Jazz legend since then, performing internationally for decades, winning seven more Grammy Awards (including for the fantastic album Masterpiece, recorded with Tito Puente in 2000), and receiving an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music.
From a personal viewpoint, I have been a fan of Palmieri for about fifteen years. After Ms. Faux got me into Latin jazz in the early 2000s, The Sun Of Latin Music was one of the first albums I discovered and I have been listening to it regularly since. Palmieri did not record very much for Fania Records, which is where I go to find most of the Latin music I enjoy, but he is my favorite Latin jazz artist nonetheless.
Let’s Take a Trip Around the World
Germany
Faust “Giggy Smile”: I’ve included my fair share of Kraut rock artists on the Faux Show, and bands like Can, Neu!, and Kraftwerk get a lot of attention from people who care about this sort of music. Faust, on the other hand, get much less but are also worthy of notice, especially their fourth album. They are definitely harder to classify than their German progressive contemporaries, and the music is often a little more difficult, but songs like this one are worth looking for.
Mexico
Esquivel “Anna (El Negro Zumbon)”: I own one Esquivel record. They are hard to find unless you are shopping like a collector. I remember obtaining my sole piece of Esquivel vinyl when my dad brought home a box of records he bought at some yard sale for two bucks. I have no idea what else was in there – probably some Molly Hatchet and Lawrence Welk – but sitting in the middle of the stack was Esquivel’s Infinity In Sound, Volume 2. If you don’t know Esquivel, then you will know if you like him as soon as you listen to this track. He was a space-age bachelor pad composer and bandleader, and was the King of Space Age Pop. His prolific discography from the late ’50s and early ’60s is now known as lounge music and influenced the next generation of instrumental composers.
Japan
Casiopea “Flying”: Casiopea is one of several artists that I like to listen to while working, especially if I am doing repetitive, mindless, computer tasks. Spyro Gyra is at the top of that list, and I’ve been listening to them since the ’80s. Casiopea is a much more recent discovery that Faux Jr. introduced to me. They have a lot more street cred than smooth jazz groups like Spyro Gyra, but in the end it is all the same if you just want some groovy instrumental music to play in the background.
New Zealand
Chris Knox “Not Given Lightly”: I bought this record, an import on the incredible New Zealand label Flying Nun, at my local college record store. I had only heard one song off of it at the time I bought it, and it is still one of the best purchases I ever made. Seizure is the best record from 1989 that you have never heard, and possibly my favorite of the year (although that is probably The Cure Disintegration if I am thinking hard about it). Chris Knox is one half of the experimental New Zealand pop band Tall Dwarfs. They are much more difficult listening than their contemporaries such as The Clean, The Chills, and The Bats, but they have an immediately identifiable sound that still seems fresh over thirty years later. I like Tall Dwarfs, but none of their releases are anywhere near as good as this incredible Chris Knox solo album.
3 Chunks of Funk
Mother’s Finest “Mickey’s Monkey”: This song is on an album I have owned on vinyl for as long as I can remember, although I don’t remember how I came to own it. My guess is that it was mixed into a box of records I bought somewhere and it wasn’t until I played it that I realized how great it is. Mother’s Finest are what many would call an acquired taste – a mix of funk, soul, and rock, but not as interesting as Sly Stone and not as good as Funkadelic. They are probably best described as a ’70s Living Color. “Mickey’s Monkey” is a rocked out funk version of a Smokey Robinson hit from the early ’60s.
Ann Peebles “A Good Day For Lovin'”: This song is from Peebles’ 1977 album If This Is Heaven, a long-forgotten album that is two LPs removed from her most successful album, I Can’t Stand The Rain. I bought the CD after first falling in love with the better-known album, and have always thought it was fantastic. It has a little bit of a late ’70s feel to it, but it is still the Hi Records studio band, so it can’t help but be good.
Sly & The Family Stone “Underdog”: The debut by this band, A Whole New Thing, is probably the best-known album on this week’s show, but it is still extremely under-rated and probably the group’s least known of all of their original string of classic LPs. It isn’t as consistent as the records to follow, but it is groundbreaking nonetheless, and the opener, “Underdog,” is one of the best songs they ever recorded.
Happy Birthday (August 28)
Wayne Osmond is the second oldest of the Osmond brothers, and I wouldn’t have included an Osmonds album on this week’s show if it wasn’t his birthday. Still, this was a great chance for me to include a song that only true Osmond fans, or fans of strange music by famous bands, would know. I have loved “Crazy Horses” since the first time I heard it. This is another album that I most likely picked up as part of a box of LPs I bought somewhere. It is certainly an album that used to fill up the Goodwill record section back in the day. I can’t imagine many Osmonds fans brought this one home and enjoyed it very much. You have to listen to it to believe it – it sounds like mid ’70s metal by a ’70s horn band, and the vocals are just incredible.
Alternative Times
These three artists were successful college radio artists during the heyday of alternative music in the late ’80s/early ’90s. They were three of my favorites at the time, and I still go back to these records when I feel nostalgic.
Big Dipper “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House”: The band’s 1988 album Craps is still one of my favorites of the year. Big Dipper are long-forgotten unless you were a fan at the time. This song, a fan favorite, tells the story of Ron Klaus, bassist from Kansas band The Embarrassment, who broke up in 1983. This may be apocryphal, but I believe the story goes that Klaus had to leave his house because his lease was up or he was leaving town or some other reason that he would have a going away party. A band, let’s say Aerosmith (although I really don’t know for sure) played the party and in the end the house was destroyed. This could all be a story I made up or was told by someone as a joke, but I like to think he’d do it again.
Doughboys “Numbered Days”: This is another album, Home Again from 1989, that I loved at the time. The band played crisp pop-punk, and are even more lost to time than Big Dipper. They were very much a Lemonheads-style band, which means they were a Husker Du style band, but they wrote much catchier songs, albeit with less of an edge and less commercial success.
Lemonheads “Second Chance”: Before Evan Dando took this band from moderate indie-rock success to national stardom with the album “It’s A Shame About Ray” in 1992, they employed a rough Husker Du sound with two vocalists and songwriters. I stopped paying attention to the band after co-founder Ben Deily left following their great album Lick in 1989, but those first three records are still three of my favorites of the era. I always preferred Deily’s songs, which is the main reason I stopped paying attention after he left, and this song has always been my favorite.
Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll
I decided to select three old R&B artists who are not as well-known as legends such as Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, and Louis Prima. I ended up with these three because they are three of my favorite songs of early rock and roll.
Smiley Lewis – “I Hear You Knockin’”: Smiley Lewis was a New Orleans contemporary of Fats Domino whose main success outside of the local scene was this song. I’ve always enjoyed his ’50s recordings, especially this one. This is the original version of this song, which hit #2 on the R&B charts for Lewis in 1955, and has been covered by dozens of other artists over the last seventy years.
Stick McGhee “Drinkin’ Wine (Spo Dee O Dee)”: This song was made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1973, but the original was written by Stick McGhee in 1949. This may be apocryphal, and I am writing from memory, but I believe that the song was adapted from a ditty that McGhee used to play while in the Army with lyrics something like “Drinking Wine Mother Fucker,” but that obviously could not be recorded. McGhee’s original version was a local hit, and when Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records heard it he had McGhee re-record it for his label. It became a #2 R&B hit. Also of interest is that Stick McGhee was blues legend Brownie McGhee’s brother, and got his name because he would push Brownie around as a young boy in a cart by using a stick against the back of the wagon.
The Treniers “Poon-Tang!”: There are plenty of raunchy early R&B songs. Some are obvious sexual prowess songs, such as “Sixty Minute Man” by the Dominoes and Ruth Brown’s answer song “5-10-15 Hours,” in which the stamina is upped from one hour to fifteen hours. Many use terms like “Rocking,” “Rolling,” or “Riding” in order to talk about cars, chairs, and anything else that rocks, rolls, or rides, but in actuality are about sex. The best, though, are those that take the double entendre to its ultimate level. In my opinion, there are three of these that stand out above the rest. First, and the best of these songs, is “Big Ten Inch Record” by Bullmoose Jackson, an incredible song even without its classic lyrics of “Got me the strangest woman, believe it this chicks no cinch, but I really get her goin’, when I take out my big ten inch…record of the band that plays the blues.” Just as good, and even raunchier, is Wynonie Harris’ classic “Keep On Churnin,” with its lyrics “Keep on churnin’ till the butter comes, keep on pumpin’ make the butter flow, wipe off the paddle and churn some more.” However, the most adventurous and least known of the top 3 is this song by The Treniers. What makes it so amazing is that instead of taking a double entendre and lyricizing it in place of the obvious sexual reference, they use the actual sexual term poontang and then define it in the lyrics as meaning hugging and kissing. “Poon is a hug, tang is a kiss…now that I’m home I go right out and get me some poontang.” The Treniers were incredibly influential on the early sound of rock and roll, especially on Bill Haley & His Comets, but they are now lost to time to all but those who dig deep into the history of this type of music. One of the first ever televised rock and roll performances was The Treniers on the Martin & Lewis Colgate Comedy Hour in 1954. Their most famous song is “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” from 1955, but “Poon-Tang!” is their true addition to the history of rock and roll. Bands like this, who were willing to push the boundaries of what was acceptable at the time, are the reason that popular music has been allowed to progress lyrically like it has over the last seventy years.
I Write the Songs
Elton John “Dear God”: Elton John is famous. After he and Bernie Taupin paused their songwriting collaboration, John worked with several other lyricists. Many of his albums during this period are not great, and none are as good as his classic period from 1970-75. My favorite of this next period of albums is 1980’s 21 at 33. “Little Jeannie” is a second-tier John hit, “Sartorial Eloquence” is a nice, fairly unknown hit, and “Dear God” is a beautiful song that was a live show staple for many years.
Daniel Johnston “True Love Will Find You In The End”: Daniel Johnston is arguably the greatest outsider artist/songwriter of them all. A Faux Show about outsider artists is on my short list of future themes, so for now let’s just say that the music of Daniel Johnston cannot be understood and appreciated on its surface. It requires an open mind and open heart. His 1990 album 1990 is one of my favorites from his extensive catalog. It is one his first releases after years of self-released audiotape recordings, and it is one of his most personal and soul-baring records.
Bert Sommer “Smile”
Bert Sommer was a Cat Stevens-esque singer/songwriter from the early ’70s and most people, including me, have no reason to really know him as an artist. He was one of the main stars of the musical Hair and was the third performer on the first day of Woodstock. He had a very nice little career, wasn’t anything special, and I don’t know any music other than his second album, Inside Bert Sommer, which I really don’t know that well either and never listen to. However, there is a story I will tell about how young Deejay Faux discovered this album in the mid-80s.
My Bert Sommer Story
One summer, let’s say around 1984, I was on vacation with my family and was reading Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter. That is the book about the Manson murders. I was well into the book, and had gotten through the chapters about all of the insane connections to the music of The Beatles and Manson’s efforts as a songwriter. I had looked at the photos enough to be a little freaked out by his crazy eyes. I was young and naïve, and those photos and stories about Manson singing his crazy songs to his murderous Family had freaked me out, especially reading them while alone at night in a strange place. My understanding of hippies at the time was minimal, so anything I learned in that book constituted the vast majority of my knowledge of ’60s free love and commune culture.
One night during that trip, we went to a mall and I was in a record store where they had a bin of cut-out records for ten cents. Yes, ten CENTS. Cutouts were old records that were sold at reduced price after an album failed commercially and the labels wanted to try to get rid of their extra product. Sometimes you could find good stuff in those bins, especially if you liked one song by an artist on an unpopular album, but usually they were total garbage and not worth your time. Still, I was on vacation, probably bored out of my mind while the rest of my family was wandering around looking at clothes or toys or something like that, and they had most likely dropped me off at the record store knowing it would keep me occupied for awhile. As I flipped through the cut-out bin, I came upon an album with a long-haired guy who looked a little bit like Manson, singing songs called “Uncle Charlie,” “Zip Zap Medley,” and “Here In The Timeless Life.” I bought it for ten cents. My only purchase of the night. That night, I opened it up and discovered it was a gatefold sleeve with photos of Sommer walking along across both outside covers and jumping in the air, only to land on the inside cover, walk to a refrigerator and then sit down to eat food out of it. I couldn’t listen to it, but it freaked me out. The image of this hippie eating food on the floor made me think of the stories of the Manson Family eating garbage. The lyrics, including a song called “Uncle Charlie,” were not sinister in any way, except to me, a young teen spending his evenings reading about crazy mass murderers obsessed with a false prophet who they called “Charlie.” When I finally did listen to it, it was just a guy singing songs, and they were actually pretty good.
In the end, to be clear, there is no connection between Bert Sommer and Charles Manson. I am the only person in the world who ever made this connection, and it was an entirely coincidental connection that never would have happened if not for the fact that vinyl records are an integral part of my life history, and I felt then and still feel now a tangible connection to not only the music, but the covers, art, lyric sheets, and physical vinyl product. I can still vividly remember sitting and staring at that record and feeling freaked out. This story is not something I have thought about for many years, but it is certainly a wonderful memory of an experience that was only possible in that time period, when a young kid could go into a mall, look at actual music product, and buy something for ten cents.
A Little Jazz
I have mentioned on past Faux Shows that there was a period in my life where I listened almost exclusively to Ray Charles, late ’40s R&B, and experimental jazz. My two favorite jazz artists during this period were introduced to me by an old deejay friend, and I still listen to both of them thirty years later. These are from two of my favorite albums by those artists.
Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy “I Only Have Eyes For You”: This is the title track to the group’s 1985 album, and is my favorite Lester Bowie performance of them all. The song is from the ’30s, but has been a standard for almost one hundred years. The most famous version is the 1959 doo wop version by The Flamingos, and that is the version that Bowie chose to re-invent with this amazing recording of experimental big band jazz. The tune starts out simply enough, with a beautiful horn line that pays homage to the Flamingos classic vocal backing harmony “doo bop shoo bop.” The trumpet then takes the main melody along for a ride like only Bowie can do, and slowly builds into a wonderful full band melody. Then at around the 3:35 mark, Bowie delivers what I believe to be his most impressive solo, a 2-minute slow burn that glides in and out of the melody with the band comping a quiet riff underneath. This is followed by a fuller improvisational section that allows the entire band to play around with the original song for about 3 minutes before an incredible meditational ending that slowly fades into closure. I have listened to this 10-minute long jazz tune hundreds of times in my life and I am always sad when it ends. Like classic mid-60s Coltrane recordings, or the best of Miles Davis’ late ’50s work, this is jazz that demands your attention and keeps you pulled in from start to finish.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk “Serenade To A Cuckoo”: This is the opening track on Kirk’s 1977 album Kirkatron. Kirk died tragically at the age of 42 shortly after the release of this album, and like all of his ’70s work, this is a virtuosic record from start to finish. This track, in particular, showcases his flute playing. It was recorded live and features his trademark sense of humor. Kirk was one of the most joyful jazz artists of the 20th century, and this album (although very late in his discography) is a great introduction for anyone who hasn’t already discovered his genius.
Before They Were Famous
Journey “All Too Much”: Before Steve Perry joined Journey for their fourth album, Infinity, in 1978, they were a prog rock band with vocals by keyboardist Gregg Rolie. They were huge in San Francisco, but not many people outside that city paid much attention to their first albums. In the end, this was a good thing, because the addition of Steve Perry led to some of the best songs of pop history, especially “Don’t Stop Believin’.” However, their first few albums are really good prog-rock in the psychedelic/jam vein, with a great rhythm section and amazing guitar work by Neal Schon. I’ve been a Journey fan since the ’70s, although I didn’t get a hold of their first albums until later in their career, and I’ve always enjoyed them for what they are.
Scorpions “This Is My Song”: Everything I just wrote about Journey is very similar to Scorpions. The albums everyone knows weren’t recorded until after the addition of guitarist Matthias Jabs in 1978. I started listening to them during my early teens, with a focus on their most successful albums Blackout and Love At First Sting. Later in the ’80s I discovered their earlier work, a collection of dark psych-metal albums that helped define the twin-guitar rock sound that would become known to the world as heavy metal after Judas Priest perfected it. My favorite of those early albums is the more well-known In Trance, but I’ve always enjoyed their first full-length, Fly To The Rainbow, as a prime example of the invention of metal in the early ’70s.
Brief mention of some others
Scott Walker Climate of Hunter “Rawhide”: I will just say that Scott Walker is a tortured genius and if you can connect with his music then it is mesmerizing.
Pere Ubu Dub Housing “Navvy”: This is one of the most difficult post-punk bands to listen to, but those who give in to their angular, disjointed noise know that it is worth the struggle.
The Monkees The Monkees Present: Mickey, David, and Michael “Listen To The Band”: Faux Show readers know I love The Monkees. This is their first album after Peter left the band. It is lesser-known, but this song is one of their best. It was, as were many of their best songs, written by Michael Nesmith.
Rainbow Straight Between The Eyes “Bring On The Night (Dream Chaser)”: If there was to be a song on this week’s show that I would identify as a guilty pleasure, it would be this one. I am the first to acknowledge that this song and this album and, oftentimes, this band are not very good. I can’t explain why I still love this record, especially the songs that aren’t the band’s only Top 40 hit, “Stone Cold,” and even that song is most likely despised by most people who remember it. This is hard rock with no edge and provides nothing memorable or special within the nine songs on the album. The lyrics are not very good and the playing is rote. But, there is no accounting for taste and I still love it now as much as I did as a young teen.
Final Thoughts About Personal Acceptance
In the end, it is possible that the next-to-last song on this week’s show, and most likely the worst song on the show (“Dream Chaser” by Rainbow) is also the song that everyone can and should identify with the most. Whether your musical tastes are diverse or one-dimensional, we all have songs we love that most people hate. It is easy to conform, whether in music through the love of an artist like The Beatles, Michael Jackson, or Madonna, or in any other aspect of life, but a true understanding and acceptance of oneself comes from owning your opinions when they don’t conform to the mainstream. I love the song “Dream Chaser” and I don’t care if you like it or not. I will listen to it again and again and again for the rest of my life, and will sing it at the top of my lungs with no embarrassment. I was not always able to accept myself in that way, and most people, especially when young, are not able to do so. My wish this week is that anyone out in the world struggling with acceptance of their true self by themselves or others is able to find the ability to make that leap into acceptance. People in the world today, especially the young, are struggling more than ever with their place in the world, and for much more serious reasons than what kind of music they like. I can only hope that they are able to find the support they need in order to enjoy a joyful, peaceful, and fulfilling life as themselves.
Thanks for listening (and reading)!
Track List
| Track | Artist | Song Title |
| 1 | Spirit | Mechanical World |
| 2 | Sly & The Family Stone | Underdog |
| 3 | Ann Peebles | A Good Day For Lovin’ |
| 4 | Mother’s Finest | Mickey’s Monkey |
| 5 | Journey | It’s All Too Much |
| 6 | T. Rex | Calling All Destroyers |
| 7 | Osmonds, The | Crazy Horses |
| 8 | Pere Ubu | Navvy |
| 9 | Mommyheads, The | Cactus Farm |
| 10 | Faust | Giggy Smile |
| 11 | Esquivel | Anna (El Negro Zumbon) |
| 12 | Eddie Palmieri | Nada de Ti |
| 13 | Casiopea | Flying |
| 14 | Chris Knox | Not Given Lightly |
| 15 | Daniel Johnston | True Love Will Find You In The End |
| 16 | Bert Sommer | Smile |
| 17 | Elton John | Dear God |
| 18 | Scott Walker | Rawhide |
| 19 | Mark Hollis | The Colour Of Spring |
| 20 | Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy | I Only Have Eyes For You |
| 21 | Rahsaan Roland Kirk | Serenade To A Cuckoo |
| 22 | Treniers, The | Poon-Tang! |
| 23 | Stick McGhee | Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-dee-o-dee |
| 24 | Smiley Lewis | I Hear You Knocking |
| 25 | Monkees, The | Listen To The Band |
| 26 | Big Dipper | Ron Klaus Wrecked His House |
| 27 | Doughboys | Numbered Days |
| 28 | Lemonheads, The | Second Chance |
| 29 | Rainbow | Bring On The Night (Dream Chaser) |
| 30 | Scorpions | This Is My Song |
The Radio Faux Show 