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One for Friday: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, “You Can’t Take It with You”

Dan Seeger

Paul Kelly was a major figure for me during my inaugural year at the college radio station. His was a name I carried in with me, largely because a couple of his albums made unlikely appearances deep in the album review section of Rolling Stone, well past the point most readers had probably determined the artists and titles were getting too obscure to bother with and flipped the magazine closed. (I can’t find digital versions of those reviews, but there’s some circumstantial evidence that the column inches were courtesy of the championing of David Fricke, who still takes every reasonable … Continue reading One for Friday: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, “You Can’t Take It with You”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 193 – 191

Dan Seeger

193. Blue Öyster Cult, “Burnin’ for You” Naturally the process of trekking through a two hundred and fifty songs was going to lead to a few discoveries that would have been useful for me earlier. Almost exactly two months after retiring the “Top 40 Smash Taps” feature on this site, acknowledging that my collection of posts was probably not comprehensive (but was also “good enough, to be sure”), here I find another one that meets the qualifications for inclusion. “Burnin’ for You,” the lead single from the Blue Öyster Cult’s Fire of Unknown Origin LP, became their second to cross … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 193 – 191

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One For Friday: Kasey Chambers, “Better Be Home Soon”

Dan Seeger

Like a lot of other DJs at my college radio station, I gravitated to covers. It was commonplace in the nineteen-nineties, which is part of the reason labels we’re always pushing artists to include revamps of familiar songs on their albums. In a crowded marketplace, it was one of the surest ways to grab the fickle attention of student broadcasters. With limited spots on a playlist, anything with a whiff of the familiar held an appealing safety. And yet I didn’t actively chase covers, not until years later. That’s when my splendid partner-in-all-things made it clear that she found covers … Continue reading One For Friday: Kasey Chambers, “Better Be Home Soon”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 196 – 194

Dan Seeger

196. The Psychedelic Furs, “All That Money Wants” Richard Butler intended “All That Money Wants” to be his closing statement on the Psychedelic Furs. The song was written as a direct response to his dismay over the heavy commercial push given to the band’s 1987 album, Midnight to Midnight, which Columbia Records touted as “The Psychedelic Furs’ Masterstroke” in advertisements. Throughout the supporting tour, Butler found that he was growing increasingly detached from the lyrics he was singing onstage. In explaining “All That Money Wants,” Butler said, “It was about the success of Midnight to Midnight and how people began to look … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 196 – 194

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 199 – 197

Dan Seeger

199. Joan Jett, “Bad Reputation” While it’s hardly the most pertinent detail to share about the life and career of Joan Jett, the fact that I’m typing this out while seated in a coffee shop in Wisconsin’s capital city makes me feel obligated to begin with the following: Jett is a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan. She reported falling in love with the team as a kid, based almost entirely on the image on a Sports Illustrated cover. Her affection for the Baltimore Orioles was even more pronounced, leading her to add a liner note dedication to the team when she reissued … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 199 – 197

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From the Archive: Five for Friday, Bettering Edward Elgar edition

Dan Seeger

For eight years, I was in charge of the graduation ceremony at Warren Wilson College. Today, I return to view it as a spectator, fulfilling a promise to several dear friends of mine who will be walking across the stage to claim well-earned diplomas.In celebration, I reach back to a post that is almost precisely ten years old. In my former online home, the work week regularly ended with a feature called “Five for Friday,” in which I listed a quintet of songs that suited a specific prompt, inviting folks to “please play along” and contribute their personal choices. This … Continue reading From the Archive: Five for Friday, Bettering Edward Elgar edition

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One for Friday: Texas, “I Don’t Want a Lover”

Dan Seeger

  At the college radio station, I was always firmly committed to the idea that we were supposed to dig deeper onto albums. Our commercial competitors up the dial were the sad souls that could only be bothered with one or two tracks from most artists, blandly following the directive of label executives who deemed certain songs more likely to burrow their ways into the minds of helpless listeners. Those of us who staffed the student-run outlet were no sycophants. We still believed rock ‘n’ roll was about rebellion and open expression. Personal choice dictated our playlists, not craven market-researched grasping … Continue reading One for Friday: Texas, “I Don’t Want a Lover”

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The New Releases Shelf: Lemonade

Dan Seeger

As the recording industry continues to get hacked into splinters by a rapidly changing media environment the powers that be resolutely refuse to understand, it’s reassuring to discover that an album can still arrive and truly, deeply matter. Granted, it would be myopic understatement to term Beyoncé’s Lemonade as simply an album. It is a full-on cross-media event, complete with an HBO special, an enormous world tour, and an expertly catalyzed supporting campaign of gossipy chatter and rash reaction think pieces. Delivered as a surprise, as Beyoncé is wont to do, the album is cunningly designed to capture attention, filled as it … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Lemonade

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 202 – 200

Dan Seeger

202. The Who, “You Better You Bet” A necessary piece of music trivia in the arsenal of every fan so inclined to mentally gather such minutiae is the status of the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” as the very first music video played on MTV. You’ll never win a bar bet with that factoid, but knowing the first song to be played twice on the network could earn a free drink. Following the Buggles’ inaugurating clip, Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run,” and Rod Stewart’s “She Won’t Dance with Me,” MTV aired the music video for “You Better You Bet,” the first … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 202 – 200