DOPPLENAMER Volume 3: Pere Ubu Edition!

Happy Halloween, everybody!  Several more blog friends have shared festive music for this spooky season.  Pee-Pee Soaked Heckhole has arisen from its heckish slumber! One Buck Guy resurrected his Horror Film Soundtrack mix, and added a bonus track!  Ape Mummy has The Mummies battling The Wolfmen!  Khayem has a kreepy kool komp!  Groovy Library is still in the Samhain spirit!  And our pal Viacom at Down Underground has dug up the diabolical Danzig!

Stinky first proposed the DOPPLENAMER idea many months ago.  I was immediately excited by the concept, but found it more difficult than expected to come up with my own list of Dopplenamers.  That was until I remembered that PERE UBU has a long list of songs with titles that were borrowed from other songs (as well as titles from film and literature).

Prior to the release of the Lady From Shanghai album in 2013, David Thomas announced that Pere Ubu's new record would "fix the problem" of dance music.  I sometimes wonder if he intended to "fix" other songs when he borrowed their titles.  Maybe he was just making mischief.  His Dopplenamers were certainly more than a coincidence, judging by the sheer number of them that have been gathered here today. 

There are only a few cover songs in Pere Ubu's discography, which is surprising when you consider that Ubu existed for almost half a century (starting in 1975, with a hiatus between 1982 and 1987, and ending upon the death of David Thomas earlier this year). Ubu recorded The Osmonds' Crazy Horses and The Beach Boys' Surfer Girl, and there were a few live covers (like Pushin Too Hard and Kick Out The Jams).  David sang Sloop John B with The Pedestrians, and Strychnine with Rocket From The Tombs. Just a handful, unless you count the RFTT songs as covers.

Anyway, Stinky put a lot of time and thought into the Dopplenamer concept, and got some grief from a few readers.  How about some encouragement to keep the Dopplenamers coming?

ELSEHWERE ON THE BLOG:  more Halloween music!

 

DOPPLENAMER Vol. 1 & 2 - Like Doppelgangers--But With Songs!

DOPPLENAMER Volumes 1 & 2

I came up with DOPPLENAMER to describe songs that share their title with an earlier (often much better) song.  

Casual visitors to the blog know that I love cover versions.  Local radio was behind the times in my home town, so when I was a teenager, I'd often buy albums without knowing much about the contents.  I'd look for names I knew like producer Mike Chapman to improve my chances of finding something worth listening to.

In the case of a two-way tie, if I had to decide which album I was going to buy, and which one I'd put back, I usually bought the LP that had a cover song that I liked on it.  I figured that I liked at least one song on it.  And if the band and I agreed on one song’s merits, I figured I was more likely to enjoy the songs that the band wrote--we were simpatico.

On occasion, I’ve been swayed by a dopplenamer because I failed to read the fine print.  One that comes to mind is THE RUMOUR album with their original song Tired Of Waiting on it.  Did it not occur to them that people would assume it was a cover of THE KINKS' classic track?  Or is that what they were hoping for?

That track may not wind up on a future volume—because it’s not a great song—but it’s a world-class dopplenamer.  

That’s the challenge with the some concepts—after all a successful compilation should warrant repeated listenings.  The World’s Worst Covers isn’t likely to get played twice (but that didn’t stop me from compiling that series--I just haven’t shared it!)  

So here are tunes that aren't exactly original as far as the song title is concerned, that are actually great songs.  Maybe it's not a bad thing that you can't copyright a title.

Volume 1 features great songs, in their own right, that share a name with another (often better-known) song.  

Carlene Carter's Every Little Thing and Laura Brannigan's Gloria bear no resemblance to the songs by The Beatles & Them--nor does Joe Grushecky's I Can't Control Myself have anything to do with The Troggs' catalogue.  

Styx's massive hit Lady may have gone unnoticed by The Little River Band, & who knows; Bowie's Ashes To Ashes may have escaped the notice of Faith No More.  Talk Talk seem to have named themselves after the song by The Music Machine, but (if that's the case) that didn't stop them from recording a dopplenamer--as did The Psychedelic Furs:

Volume 2's Breakdown by The Alan Parsons Project may not make me forget that Tom Petty has a song with the same name, but it pulls me in anyway.  So does Blondie’s Call Me, Romeo Void’s Wrap It Up, and so on.  And Volume 2 has a pretty good flow, if I can be permitted to say so.

Don't be the last person on your block to have the first two volumes of Dopplenamers (anywhere), compliments of JOKONKY.

 

F-Beat Records 1980 - 1986

In last week’s post, I described how Jake Riviera had moved from Stiff to Radar Records and taking Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and others with him.  However Radar didn’t last long, just 2 years (I don’t count the short revival during the mid-90s) and Jake moved on…

This time together with Andrew Lauder to start F-Beat Records which released quite a lot of albums and singles in their 6 year lifespan.
Unlike Radar though their number of artists was relatively small: Nick Lowe, Carlene Carter, the Blasters, Blanket of Secrecy, and a few others.  The album and single sleeves were mostly designed by Barney Bubbles.   

In 1986 Jake pulled out the plug of F-Beat and some of its artists ended up on Demon Records.  Similar to Radar, no ‘Best of F-Beat’ ever materialized, therefore once again Jokonky stepped in, and our 28 track promo compilation includes:

Rockpile
Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds
Nick Lowe
Kenny Pickett
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
The Coward Brothers
The Costello Show Featuring The Attractions
The Costello Show Featuring Confederates
Clive Langer & The Boxes
Carlene Carter & Paul Carrack
Carlene Carter & Dave Edmunds
Carlene Carter
The Blasters
Blanket Of Secrecy
Steve Nieve
The Attractions
 
Enjoy!

New Wave On My Radio in 1982 (Q-Wave pt 2)

Dig if you will a picture:  It’s a Sunday evening in suburban southern 'Scansin.  A pimply, bespectacled teenager peels the shrinkwrap from a C-90 and puts it in the tape deck.  He spins the FM dial from left to center, from WMSE to WQFM.  They’re probably playing REO Dragwagon. 

But soon it will be time for “Q-Wave”, hosted by “Downstairs Dan” Hansen.  Hit the record button!  The week ahead will be spent listening to that tape over and over, noting the song titles and artists.  Next, poring over mail order catalogs from Rough Trade, Rather Ripped Records, and Enigma in search of these punk and new wave records.  Or maybe a trip to Milwaukee, to comb the racks at Ludwig Van Ear with an alphabetized wantlist in hand, and cash in pocket from my after school job delivering newspapers by bicycle.

Here’s a sequel to my previous post of songs played on “Q-Wave”.  This music was hard to find back then in the ‘burbs.  I knew one kid whose family had cable TV, so I only saw MTV during sleepovers.  Once in awhile SNL would have a musical guest like Devo, Elvis Costello, or (gasp) Fear.  A rival late night show called Fridays hosted the Clash and the Jam.  But these were rare sightings, and we didn’t have a VCR.

I didn’t have older siblings or uncles to borrow records from, and the kids at school were mystified by my Circle Jerks and Bad Brains t-shirts. I was 16, and all-ages shows were rare. “Q-Wave” and WMSE (the college station at the Milwaukee School of Engineering) were my lifeline to the world that I read about in Creem and Trouser Press.  

I wrote letters to Downstairs Dan, and he read one of them on the air!  After I started a fanzine, he interviewed me on another WQFM show, “Talking To Q”.  Had I stayed in Wisconsin, I might have become a student DJ on WMSE.  But dad’s career uprooted our family again, this time to Georgia.

There were great college stations in Georgia (WREK, WRAS, and WUOG). And I kept my “Q-Wave” tapes. When I got into hip hop some years later, I found another weekly radio show (“The Beatbox” on WRAS, with DJ JD) and followed the same process: tape the show, learn the songs, find the records.

TISH! That's FRENCH! Vol. 3 - Songs En Francais!

TISH! That's French! Vol. 3

My unrelenting fascination with songs that contain passages in French, are entirely in French, or are covers of hit songs sung in French continues!

This third volume (through the fifth) contain a lot of suggestions from regular JOKONKY visitors/commenters, so thanks to everyone who suggested a track or a group (Merci pour le partage).  Bucephalus went as far as to generously send me tons of great stuff—but I haven’t sorted through it all yet—so they’ll probably start popping up in Volume 6. 

Psycho Killer is simply a great way to start off any comp, in my opinion, and right on Talking Heads’ heels are one of the groups that set my fixation in motion; Les Rita Mitsouko.  Another combo that really “set the hook” was Stereolab, with their briskly hypnotic Speedy Car.

One can always count on The Stranglers, & Debbie Harry to dabble in French.  Sunday Girl was on an earlier volume, & here she sets her sights on French Kissin' In The USA.  

There are lots of French artists on this installment, from Halo Maud (who has a LOT of aliases) to Serge Gainsbourg, and of course ye ye girls galore like France Gall, Sylvie Vartan, and the queen of them all Francoise Hardy.  

As suggested by a friend of the blog, Claude Francois' Comme D'Habitude makes an appearance--which I'm told is far superior to the Paul Anka-ized reworking that became one of Frank Sinatra's signature songs: My Way.  I'll have to take his word for it.  Just because I enjoy songs in French, doesn't mean I can understand what they're singing about.  I know what I like, but I don't know what I like.

I'm entranced by Anne Issermann's minimalistic rendition of Ca Plane Pour Moi--a song that pops up on most of the volumes.  I've embedded the video below.  It's her only video on YouTube, & I can't find anything more about her online, but she claims to be the king of the divan, & I believe her.

Sonny & Cher’s C’est La Vie might offend some people of French descent because of Sonny’s unimaginative stereotyping—but I feel like it was all in fun—& I loved the song as a kid (and I'm half French).  You couldn’t escape them for a few years in the seventies, & I didn’t want to.

Bringing it all home are The Beatles, who were the first artists I was aware of who recorded versions of their songs in other languages.  Here they stir some French, & German, into an run-through of Get Back.

 

Radar Records Singles 1978-79

After my Howard Werth post I finally bought The Wild World Of Barney Bubbles, an absolutely fabulous treasure trove of his designs and paintings. He was miles ahead of others during that time, great to read about his influences and concepts.  It also provided a lot of insight of the music scene in those days and the groups/musicians he was close with; Hawkwind, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Billy Bragg, a.m.o.

Special mention must be made for Jake Riviera as ‘mover & shaker’, a British music business entrepreneur, manager of Costello and Lowe, and co-founder (with Dave Robinson) of Stiff Records.  He was a firm supporter of Barney and in 1977 recruited Bubbles to work with him on an impressive run of designs for record sleeves, posters, badges and advertising and promotional campaigns for Lowe, The Damned, Costello and such performers as Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric and the veteran music hall star Max Wall.

However later that same year Riviera left Stiff, taking with him Barney, Costello and Lowe to the newly launched label Radar Records.  Nick Lowe’s Breaking Glass was the first Radar 45 release and a hit for the new label.  Barney had designed both the Radar Label’s logo and the sleeve for Nick’s hit!

Radar lasted only 2 years before Riviera moved on, again taking key artists and Barney with him, to another new label… But during those 2 years Radar released a lot of good music, besides Costello and Lowe, there were also excellent records by Bram Tchaikovsky, Inmates, 999, Yachts, The Pop Group, a.o.

Several of Radar's early releases (including Iggy Pop and James Williamson's Kill City, the Good Rats' From Rats to Riches and Pezband's Laughing in the Dark) were licensed from independent American labels. 

After reading and thinking about the above I suddenly realized something odd! During my vinyl buying days in the previous century I bought quite a few Stiff and Radar singles, extended plays, and albums. I have good memories of the various Stiff artists compilations (later CDs as well), and downloaded Stiff collections from different blogs, etc. But I never bought a various Radar artists album/CD or found a digital collection online.   

This is because strangely enough Radar never released any such compilation... 

As for why nobody ever considered putting a digital collection together, that's anyone's guess...  Therefore Jokonky proudly announces the arrival of the Radar Records Singles 1978-79 compilation!

Despite the fact that virtually all of regular visitors are probably familiar with Lowe & Costello, I still felt that I had to include them. A perfect candidate was the Nick Lowe single I bought back in 1978: A side - American Squirm with on the B What’s So Funny ‘Bout (Peace, Love and Understanding) by Nick Lowe And His Sound which turned out to be Elvis Costello!

Besides the earlier mentioned Radar artists and groups, there are also: Bette Bright And The Illuminations, Metal Urbain, Neon, Ray Campi (licensed from Rollin’ Rock!), The Red Crayola, The Soft Boys, Sussex, Tanz Der Youth, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Visage, and Wayne Kramer.

Bomb Squad Productions (1987-1993)

And now for something completely different!  Hip hop has rarely been featured on this blog, on themed compilations or the occasional Comeback Special.  I'm a fan, especially of the "Golden Age of Hip Hop" (mid-1980's to mid-1990's), when amazing creative and technical innovations were happening at a rapid pace.  

It was a period when hip hop entered the commercial mainstream through artists like Run-DMC and LL Cool J.  West Coast "gangsta" rappers Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur would become superstars.  The "Dirty South" started to have its say.  On the East Coast, new groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest began to expand what the music could sound like, the topics that rappers could address, and the persona of the MC. Hip hop crossed over into rock, jazz and dancehall.  For DJ's and producers, the Golden Age was the peak of the "sampling sport" (before copyright lawsuits made it prohibitively expensive for some artists to clear samples). 

One of the most innovative production teams was the Bomb Squad.  The Bomb Squad made its recorded debut in 1987 with Public Enemy's first singles and debut album. Hank Shocklee, his brother Keith, Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, Bill Stephney and Carlton Ridenhour (aka Chuck D) were the original members of the Bomb Squad.  Gary "G-Wiz" Rinaldo joined in 1990.

In 1988, the Bomb Squad produced half of the tracks on Slick Rick's first album, as well as the title track of Vanessa Williams' debut album.  They went on to write, produce and remix records for some of the most popular female singers (including Jody Watley, Paula Abdul, Jasmine Guy, Janet Jackson, Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Lisa Stansfield, and Sinead O'Connor).

When Ice Cube left NWA for a solo career, the Bomb Squad produced his debut album.  After the group New Edition split up, the Bomb Squad wrote and produced singles for the newly formed Bell Biv Devoe, and helped to define the "New Jack Swing" sound of contemporary R&B.  

In 1990, Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney started a record label, SOUL (Sound Of Urban Listeners).  They signed and produced Leaders Of The New School, Son Of Bazerk, the Young Black Teenagers (a group of white rappers) and a nepo baby who called himself Chilly Tee.  

Today's share features some of the best Bomb Squad productions outside of Public Enemy.  They range from early P.E. contemporaries (Kings Of Pressure and True Mathematics) to some of hip hop's all-time greats (Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Run-DMC and Ice Cube).  Hank Shocklee once said of the Bomb Squad, "We believed that music is nothing but organized noise. You can take anything — street sounds, us talking, whatever you want — and make it music by organizing it. That's still our philosophy, to show people that this thing you call music is a lot broader than you think it is."

Almost forgot to mention the new Public Enemy album, Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025!