I was a huge Elton John fan back in high school and all 28 of my graduating class can attest to that. I played his music during art class, and a fellow fan and I would draw pictures inspired by his music. For Homecoming, 1974, I went to bat for “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” to be our coronation theme, kinda dorky, right? However, we distilled the title to just Sunset and created a beautiful *insert sarcasm* crepe paper sunset for the gym. Our music teacher who sang “Time in a Bottle” the year before, sang an acoustic version of the Elton John hit. In ’74 I felt cheated that DLtSGDoM didn’t hit Number One, so I was avenged in 1992.
As the person in charge of music for our sock hops, I played a lot of Elton John among the Bad Company, Sly and the Family Stone, Bachman Turner Overdrive, etc. One song that I’d play was for me and three of my friends who comprised the “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” Fan Club. We all agreed that when we died someone would have to play FfaF/LLB at our funerals. It was never morbid, but more celebratory. I’d drop the needle on the song, and the fan club would stand in front of the speakers and sway to the orchestral song from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It was our song and we owned it, dorky or not.
We haven’t had to make good on our pact, yet. D, K, L and I are still above ground. However last Thursday I awoke to a text from a friend who informed me that a mutual friend died of Covid. His health the last few years had been up and down due to complications from Diabetes, and when I heard he had Covid, I knew the worst was possible. He was a good, humorous, creative man who tried to bring lightness to his friends.
When Betty White died, someone said she died knowing the world loved her. I am certain that Bobo knew his friends loved him too. We loved the Art Institute of Chicago graduate who drew crayon drawings of horses while we dined at Hamburger Mary’s and at a fancy Chicago steak house. We loved the Cubs fan who made jokes about his own lack of athleticism. We loved the guy who would insert a joke when things got tense, even while dealing with disease. We loved the man who had sinister plans for Erin Napier from HGTV’s Home Town so he could have Ben all to himself. We loved the guy who had an irrational/rational fear of Wisconsin.
Don’t be stingy with words of love, especially for those close to you. I realize that our group is special in that we are music focused, and that we’ll probably have songs picked out for our own life celebrations. For Bobo I’m playing “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” “Can’t Fight This Feeling” and “Tarzan Boy” for reasons only a few would know. Finally, I will make him an unofficial member of the “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” Fan Club as I sway in front of the speakers and thumb my nose at Wisconsin. Safe travels my friend.
Naive is the word I think of when I think of MJ. He was not ready for this world or any other world he could exist in. His best music and his worst music has a bit of naïveté and often the difference is a fine line.
One thing Prince knew that Michael didn’t, was that he’d never have an album as big as Purple Rain or in Michael’s case, Thriller. Prince spent the rest of his career zigging and zagging, sometimes beholden to his chart woes, at other times defiant.
Michael kept searching for the next Thriller, applying the same formulas and often overworking the details. Things that made him Michael became overworked. The hics, tics and grunts which worked before and were a signature, overwhelmed his singing.
We rarely got something just Michael, something where the naïveté is a feature, not a bug.
Will You Be There feels like a classic MJ song, one that would be a highlight on any album and it deserves Tom’s 10/10
Lots of snow here this morning, half of the staff called in. The drive was treacherous, I’m glad I didn’t hit a drift, you know this much is true.
I’d Die Without You 10/10
Adrift 9/10
Okay it took me two breaks to watch this, long story…
Working retail does a thing on Christmas spirit. Usually it’s been beaten out of me and then something happens on Christmas Eve and it comes back like chartbusters.
You, MT are the Christmas Spirit that ignited my Christmas Spirit this year. You are the Goodie in the Hoodie. Thanks for being a friend.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone.
I will admit I’m a fan of Masked Singer and MB made an appearance on MS as a duet partner do I had a chance to reassess him. Reassessment: nope, naw, can’t do it.
I remember visiting the DJ booth at First Avenue when Mountains was the single. The DJ played the extended version to little audience enthusiasm. He too was a fan, but it just didn't fill the dance floor.
The Paul Oakenfold remix of EBTTRT floats over the top of the outro of The Pressure then you hear the gospelesque Take me higher from U2 and the mix does just that
I’m on the Alphabet Street trip especially after I attributed the name to the alphabetically organized street names of North and South Minneapolis. I lived on Colfax, he recorded his demo partly on Dupont and it just makes me feel like he was going home.
As a Minneapolitan who worked with a woman that sang with Sounds of Blackness, The Pressure is a 10/10 and mixes well with Even Better Than the Real Thing.
From the November 9, 1991 issue of Billboard:
WE GET LETTERS: John Farkas of Cleveland notes that two of the top three singles on the Hot 100 -Mariah Carey's "Emotions" and Prince & the N.P.G.'s "Cream" -share their titles with the names of top groups of the '60s and '70s. Three other singles on the Hot 100 also share titles with the names of prominent groups: Big Audio Dynamite II's "Rush," Corina's "Whispers," and Lisa Stansfield's "Change" ... Farkas adds that Prince has borrowed the names of top groups for the titles of three of his chart hits: "Cream," "Kiss," and "America." It would have been four had Prince did not add an S to “Mountains”
I’m gonna let you in on a little secret about “Cream.” It’s about Prince. Prince was music’s greatest workaholic, narcissist, and ultimate Baby Boomer all rolled into one, and he knew it
The workaholic tag is well documented. He was constantly working, rehearsing and recording because he was convinced he was going to be big. Prince created his own competition to help hype the Minneapolis sound. He wrote, produced, and sang under various names, Camille, Jamie Starr, Joey Coco, and Christopher Tracy for instance. His bandmates also talked of his multiple personalities, joking that they were working with “Marilyn” today, for instance. They also noted that when multi-tracking vocals, Prince would adopt different personalities to ensure the vocals sounded unique, and not just multi-tracked Prince.
The narcissist in Prince was self-aware. After Purple Rain, Prince knew he had hit is peak popularity, so he responded by following multiple creative muses. As a narcissist, those muses were often Prince. Throughout his career you can find examples of songs about Prince, by Prince. “Baby I’m a Star” “Nothing Compares 2 U” “Controversy” “All the Critics Love U in New York”
Also, as a narcissist, even a self-aware narcissist, Prince couldn’t stand being passed by. Every attempt to regain his Black following came up short.This is where Baby Boomer Prince comes into play. Black music fans had moved on to New Jack Swing, Hip Hop, and Rap. Baby Boomer Princefumed as he worked hard, playing multiple instruments, dancing, writing, doing everything, while people who were just talking over beats that they stole from someone else were dominating. Prince also reportedly fumed when he found out about Janet Jacksons big contract in 1991.
This leads up to “Cream” which is nothing more than a pep talk Prince gave himself.
“This is it
It's time for u to go to the wire”
“U're so good
Baby there ain't nobody better (Ain't nobody better)
So u should
Never, ever go by the letter (Never ever)
U're so cool (Cool)
Everything u do is success
Make the rules (Rules)
Then break them all cuz u are the best”
And then the last bit of proof:
“Look up in the air, it's your guitar”
As great as Prince was on guitar, his ability was often overlooked by those compiling greatest guitarists list at the time. So, Prince wrote a little guitar choogling ditty that would have made T-Rex proud. “Cream” could have been a hit in 1971, with echoes of the Stones, T-Rex, even some CCR, and fittingly when he says “Look up in the air, it’s your guitar” he doesn’t shred, he plays a simple line. When you’re a great guitarist, you don’t need to shred every line.
Ultimately the Prince pep talk worked. The pre-Soundscan Number Ones are open to interpretation, but the “Cream” of Prince got on top. And his 1992 contract beat Janet’s contract, for a few years at least.
THe Imperfect Storm
October 1991, The Minnesota Twins win their second World Series against Atlanta. While the Twins were at the top of their heap, the Billboard chart for the week ending 11/2 had 3 songs artists with Minneapolis connections in the top 4, the Jam & Lewis produced Romantic by Karen White, Do Anything by Natural Selection, and a certain guy named Prince.
Later in the week, I was at a friend’s house for a party. After the party I had to chisel about an inch of ice off my car before a treacherous ride home. Sometimes it snows in April, especially in Minnesota, but freezing rain, not Purple Rain was common in October in North Dakota. The same storm that swept through North Dakota, met wet weather coming up from Texas.
Everyone who was alive in Minnesota in 1991 remembers the Halloween storm. Thundersnow happened as far north as Duluth, with total accumulation from a foot to 31 plus inches in Duluth. I missed out on the snow, but I will always remember the connection between the Twins, the Twin City sound and snow, lots of snow.
I now realize that when “Emotions” was popular I was saying “ Well ackshually quite frequently.
WA this song is nothing but a good copy of Best of My Love by The Emotions.
WA Now That We Found Love was a Disco hit back in the day
WA Good Vibrations takes a hook line and singer from Love Sensation.
WA Disco isn’t dead.
I remember record shopping in 1980 at a store frequented by DJs. There was a group of Gay men in clone drag; white t shirts, 501 Levi’s, black boots. The 12 inch of choice was Love Sensation. DJs and dancers at Gay clubs kept divas like Loleatta, Jocelyn and Martha front and center long before they were sampled. The sampling introduced them and their underground hits to a wider audience.
Disco has had a larger footprint on the history of Pop music than the songs that supplanted it after its death. It has me feeling Emotions.
TNOCS math.
Love Sensation is 10/10
30% of Good Vibrations is Loleatta Holloway howling a few of the many many hooks from Love Sensation
10/10 X .30 = 3/10
Tom I’d not wrong with the 9/10 and the general feeling that a new sound was happening. Rhythmic music on the radio was quite diverse and sounded fresh among the soporific ballads on the radio.
Early that summer I was visiting a friend in Minneapolis and we helped another friend retrieve his champagne 1962 Ford Thunderbird from storage at the state fair grounds. I drove that Thunderbird back to his place, windows down, arm on the door, while Unbelievable played on the radio. Even though it was a 62, not a 66/67 it was still so glamour it was absurd.
Which reminds me, Alphaber St. Unbelievable and Burning Down the House are all about the same BPM. I think mix that would fill a dance floor
I’m on break and I can’t check every post, but we should take a moment to acknowledge the nicest person in Hollywood, Keanu Reeves. He ensures everyone on a movie is well paid and also isn’t afraid to lend a hand when needed.
He gets so many karma points that I forgive any missteps he may have made on screen.
I saw them open for ZZ Top sometime in the early 90s and thought, "Oh yeah they do this song." The rest of the act was forgettable. It was like seeing Modern English live in the 80s when they did song, song, song, song, song, song, song, Melt With You.
ZZTop did their whole set with treadmills, live, long before that OK band that was known for their viral videos.
Tom not liking a song provides enough energy to power a small Minnesota town.
Robert the Bruce is a great grandfather of some magnitude and I’m related to St. Patrick and a couple of the Plantagenet royal family so I have the Isles covered
I grew up in a very small town but not on a farm.
I’ll not comment on FFA because I knew a few members.
There is another FFA that I learned about in the late 70s. Again I’m not a member.
Un-choiring minds want to know if a perfectly fine group of singers were to sing about a pent up herd of cattle, would that be an OK Chorale?
Which brings me to this question, why do cows have hooves instead of feet?
Because they lactose.
You may be thinking how dairy continue to make cow puns?
Because I was in a moooo'd.
The long haired, heavy metal loving, record store employee from Bismarck loved Joyride. That’s all you need to know.
Other than I searched Wikitree to see if I was related to Marie Fredriksson and I came up empty. I checked the connection option and through marriage I was connected. I couldn’t check Per because as a living person his family tree is private, if it exists at all.
There are famous living people who have public family trees on Wikitree. On a whim last night I clicked on my cousin connections and pretty high on the list was a very familiar name to anyone who follows popular music. We haven’t covered her Number Ones yet, but Tom will be writing numerous articles about her.
I’m fifth cousins to…
A couple in Bismarck were trying to get me into CCM, possibly to save my heathen ass. They played the Amy Grant album, plus took me to a concert of a man they called the Christian Rock Elton John. Amy Grant was serviceable, but the Christian Elton concert was frighteningly bad.
I played Baby Baby at our stores Christmas party that year and made her happy. However, my heathen ass was never saved.
Meanwhile on my family tree:
Brian Wilson is my 10th cousin which makes 2/3 of Wilson Phillips my 10th cousins, one time removed. We share a 9th great grandfather in Edward Colver Sr.
Number Ones family tree: Henry the 8th by Herman’s Hermits isn’t about Henry the 8th but Henry Tudor is my 2nd cousin 16 times removed. When Gbear found out I was a Tudor he threatened to change the locks.
I saw The Waterboys at First Avenue in the mid to late 80s. I now wonder if Prince was there hiding away, taking notes.
Recently I’ve seen videos of The Rolling Stones live in Minneapolis. They inject a bit of Controversy into Miss You, plus there were other nods to Prince. A fitting tribute from a band that was involved in one of Prince’s most pivotal performances.
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