Stars! They’re just like us!

Shoutout to the original fast food pit

brb gonna IHOP in the pit

i am shocked that a consensus list made by highly engaged music fans is similar to other consensus lists made by highly engaged music fans.

Please stop. I’m damn near done.

Judge: “Case Dismissed. No one knows a Yellowcard song that isn’t Ocean Avenue. Now please leave this town and run forever.”

You gotta wait.

Ah, here we are windin’ our way down on Baker Street. A song that apparently was destined to be #1, but strong-arming tactics of Andy Gibb and possibly Robert Stigwood himself, convinced Bill Wardlow at Billboard Magazine to backpedal and award the #1 song to “Shadow Dancing” for a 7th week. While that part of the story is alleged, what is true is that Casey Kasem at American Top 40 had already recorded the weekly show with “Baker Street” at #1, but an unusual phone call from Billboard forced a re-recording of the show’s #1 and #2 spot. Here’s the interesting article documenting the shenanigans.

https://djrobblog.com/archives/6222

Also in this article is an account of the controversy surrounding who wrote the famous saxophone solo. The mystery seems laid to rest as demos of the song clearly feature Gerry playing the solo on guitar before Raphael Ravenscroft was invited to play. And the supposed ripoff of the jazz song by Steve Marcus is pretty far fetched. My mind is comfortable with Gerry’s authorship of the solo.

I remember the day we bought “Baker Street”. I was barely 8 years old when my mom bought the 45 (something she did maybe once every 3 years or so) in Sears. It had that wonderful 70’s United Artists record label with the sunshine and crepuscular rays. I asked her what song it was, but didn’t recognize the title. “You’ll know it when you hear it,” she assured me. She was right. It was all over the radio. I loved it and the quirky B-side “Big Change in the Weather”.

It was not until my junior year of high school or so that I finally bought the album. It is great. Gerry hadn’t been able to record an album for 3 years due to contract disputes. He obviously had a lot of great ideas to put down by the end of the 3 years. Side 1 in particular is one of the best album sides in my collection, I’d wager. A couple years later I bought a new copy of the single (because I had worn out my version of the B-side, unavailable anywhere else at the time).

“Baker Street” had to be such an obvious hit once it was done. The sax solo alone is iconic. But also, how crazy is that intro with its triplet cymbal rolls? Pretty pretentious if it didn’t all fit together so well. And listen to those guitar slides during the instrumental chorus (they sound like the skyrockets in flight part of “Afternoon Delight”). They are so majestic. And by the end the strings come forward in the mix for such a great effect. It is a cinematic, musical experience.

I joke about the song being the international yacht rock anthem, but it really lacks the R&B aspect (though the sax solo brings it to some extent). Gerry was more of a folk artist. This is more of a soft rock song with yacht rock elements.

City to City is a fabulous album. Here’s what future TNO artist Rick Springfield had to say:
A spiritual being that I have loved since I was 25. Beautiful voice, amazing writing and kicked everyone’s ass in the ’70s. You would do yourself a favor to get a copy of City to City and live with his soul for a month or two. No one moves at his speed anymore.

As I’d mentioned before, his other albums fall short of this greatness. Can I Have My Money Back and Night Owl have some considerably good material as well as some of the Steelers Wheel stuff. “Stuck in the Middle with You” is obviously a 10 and his forgotten 1979 minor hit “Get it Right Next Time” is a 10 as well for me. But much of the other stuff is quite overcast and gloomy and, frankly, boring.

I hope I haven’t left any doubt how I feel about this song. And I hope that I’ve diverted some of the attention away from Andy Gibb. Having already spent a combined 12 weeks at #1 in his career, stealing one week from Gerry reminds me of the prophet Nathan rebuking King David for plotting to murder Uriah so that he could add Uriah’s only wife Bathsheba to his own huge collection of wives. Ok, that may not be the perfect analogy, but Gerry did get ripped off.

“Shadow Dancing” is a 7 or 8.

As someone who’s also done desperate things for money this news resonates with me.

I’m currently compiling a best of list of you bitchin’ about best of lists.

Hard to cull down to just 10

That songs of the decade list is essentially a carbon copy of every other best songs of the decade list.

By a mile my least favorite Christmas song. Possibly my overall least favorite pop song. If there were any justice in this world, she would have done time in prison for releasing it.

Heroes? Really? The kids that get away with things these days (roll my eyes moment.) Very strange.

Maybe it IS important for each person on here to post a list since it seems the majority of SG Voters just cop their opinions from other publications best of lists.

Alright isn’t even the best song on TPAB and most people would’ve agreed a year ago. Until the media suddenly positioned it as a Black Lives Matter anthem and topped their year end lists with it because of that….which SG users then just ripped off.

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(My notes, on occasion, can be quite myopic,
So I’m asking forgiveness, for posting off-topic…)
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Just a week before Christmas – my mind’s reeling and rocking,
What to get for my friends? What to put in each stocking?

Scented candle… necktie… gift card… sweater…?
(I had hoped to come up with something much better.)

Virtual, this place: so wrapped boxes aren’t right…
… maybe I’ll make something! That they’d possibly like?

So if you’ve a few minutes: it’s no work of art,
And not very much – but it’s straight from my heart.

For all who respond to our daily roll call,
Merry Christmas, best wishes…

… and…

https://youtu.be/eOrFrm-e54o