The other day, we lost Glenn Frey, the guitarist and songwriter for one of the biggest bands of all time, the Eagles. And although not on the same level, we also lost the drummer for the band Mott the Hoople, whose success in the Glam Rock era was no doubt due to Bowie's genius. Oh, and how about the lead singer of The American Breed, the "one-hit wonder" of "Bend Me, Shape Me" fame, who just happened to be a guiding force in his own right, over the career of a major Arena Rock band through much of their career?
Wow....that was a mouthful already. And then, top that off, with news that Don McLean, who had a massive hit in the early 1970's with "American Pie", chronicling early rock history, as well as other hits like 'Vincent", and "Crying" was arrested and charged with domestic abuse. But that one is a story for another time.
And we're hard on today's pop stars.
Well, let's start with Frey. I have to admit, I liked the Eagles, maybe not passionately, but definitely I would list them as one of my top ten acts from the 1970's. They were definitely part of the L.A. rock scene in the 1970's, but played a brand of country rock. And Frey was, along with Don Henley at the heart and soul of the whole operation. They had their initial experience working with another budding performer, Linda Ronstadt, as well as singer/songwriter Jackson Browne. They backed Ronstadt on her early solo recordings, and their first hit was indeed a rendition of Browne's "Take It Easy", right around the time that Browne himself it pay dirt for the first time, with "Doctor My Eyes", all taking place in the early summer of 1972. With rock uncertain where to go next after its creative peak at the turn of the decade, it split off into many factions.
There was glam, of course, which Bowie helped put on the map. The singer/songwriter era, sparked by artists like James Taylor, Carole King, Carly Simon, and you could put Browne in there too, perhaps, created the "soft rock" genre. Southern Rock was courtesy of the Allman Brothers (and later, Lynyrd Skynard and Marshall Tucker among others, Then the country-based rock, which the Eagles introduced. You could also make a case that they perhaps started the catch-all "Arena Rock" tag as well. Frey was a major part of that, of course, co-writing with Henley much of their songs, and occasionally singing lead.
"Peaceful Easy Feeling", one of the songs he sang lead, was a decent sized hit, and during the first few years, always seemed to be a part of local artists' gigs around here in New Jersey pubs and coffeehouses. During my freshman year in college, on Wednesday nights, we had something called the "Catacombs". The premise was that in a small place, a coffeehouse-like setting, a singer with a guitar doing acoustic songs. That Eagles song, along with "Take It Easy" would most certainly be a part of that set. What was interesting, was that for a time, they re-vamped the Catacombs to a larger venue (one of the campus cafeterias) and put on rock bands from the area. One of them was Roselle Park's own English Creek Road, which contained some guys I went to school with and was in Band class with. Yes, they did "Peaceful Easy Feeling", but then tacked on the more rocking "Already Gone" to it. That song, another written and sung by Frey, was my favorite song by them to date; a top 20 hit just after I graduated high school. It actually reminded me of a workshop at the college one weekend shortly after that graduation. "Already Gone" for a while became my theme song of sorts during my college days! He also sang lead on "Lyin' Eyes" from One of These Nights, which was part of my soundtrack to the autumn of 1975, my favorite semester at school, sophomore year.
As the 1970's rolled on, the Eagles became more rocking, thanks mainly to the addition of Jersey boy Joe Walsh, but Frey remained a big part of the band. Hotel California, released in late 1976, featured "New Kid in Town", and what turned out to be the band's swan song, 1979's The Long Run, featured Frey on "Heartache Tonight". Both of those songs hit #1 on the Billboard charts.
After the split, Frey, along with Henley, maintained solo careers; in fact, for awhile they were pretty much even in their success, often putting out records at the same time. Some memorable Frey tunes for me, were "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "You Belong to the City", "The Heat is On", and others. Like his contemporary Kenny Loggins, much of his 80's solo hits were from soundtracks, most notably "Miami Vice", which he at frequently appeared in as an actor. The premise of that crime show was based on music videos, which Frey was a major part of.
After that success, however, Frey's career began to cool off (as opposed to Henley's, who was hot commodity all the way through the start of the next decade. But when it eventually did, the band reformed, something that was pretty much unheard of back during the breakup. Both Frey and Henley would respond to questions of a reformation, "when hell freezes over" But in 1994, it did indeed freeze over, and the Eagles recorded and toured once more. Their final studio album came in 2007 Long Road Out of Eden, and Frey's last solo effort was a pop standards album, After Hours, released in 2012.
As with many 1970's band that became successful, it was cool to not like the Eagles. They had mixed reviews from critics and perhaps they got on people's nerves. Who could forget that scene in the movie "The Big Lebowski", in which The Dude (played by Jeff Bridges) is riding in a cab, and the driver has "Peaceful Easy Feeling" playing on the radio, and Dude begs him to turn the station, saying he had a bad day and that he "hates the f**kin' Eagles. Was I offended, being an Eagles fan? Some were; reportedly Frey wasn't too thrilled, but several decades removed from that era, I got a nice good chuckle out of it...heck anything music related brings a smile to me.
Glenn Frey died of cancer at age 67, and he will be missed.
Mott the Hoople, my any measure, probably wouldn't be in the discussion when it comes to all time favorite rock bands; and to be honest, I wasn't much of a fan, but their drummer Dale Griffin passed away the same time. Last week, I mentioned that Bowie finally found his footing when he leashed his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, in 1972. Mott was pretty much drifting off in no-mans land, when Bowie took the reins and wrote "All the Young Dudes", their biggest hit, as well as the album of the same name. They became one of the major proponents of glam, and carried that success for a couple more years, with bands such as Aerosmith and Queen opening up for them at shows. Many of their members, including Mick Ralphs, Mick Ronson, and Ian Hunter, became respected musicians in their own right. After two more albums, Mott reorganized and kicked around until 1980, with Griffin remaining a part of the band. That included several reunions, the final one being in 2013.
Griffin died in his sleep, he was 67 years old.
Mention The American Breed, and you immediately think of "Bend Me, Shape Me", their big hit from late 1967/early 1968. Although they were considered a "one hit wonder", they actually had three top 40 hits, their first "Step Out of Your Mind" reached the top 30 in the psychedelic Summer of Love. The follow-up to "Bend Me Shape Me" was "Green Light" which skimmed the top 40 in the spring of 1968.
The lead singer of that band was Gary Loizzo. While it's probably the thing to say that the group disappeared into oblivion, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, all of the band members played a key role in the 1970's music scene. Most of the other members (except for Liozzo) formed what eventually became the R&B/funk band Rufus, which had many hits in the 1970's, which featured Chaka Khan on lead vocals). Liozzo was no slouch, either. He opened his own studio and became the arranger and producer for several arena rock bands, most notably Styx, whose success owed a big part to Loizzo, even up to the current day. He reunited with The American Breed briefly for an album in 1986 and a few other appearances since then.
Liozzo died of cancer at age 70.
BACK TO THE PRESENT: Not really much to write home about on my current SNS playlist, as radio stations and record companies are slow to release new material this early in the year. It was nice, however, to see David Bowie's Blackstar, debut at #1, his first album to top Billboard's album chart. Two songs also reached the Billboard Hot 100 (the title track and "Lazarus", which moves up to #67 on my list), his first songs to do so since "I'm Afraid of Americans" in 1997.
As far as my Top 20, there's little action, other than Adele's "Hello" dropping from #2 to #9, but the songs from #2 to #11 are all bunched together ahead of the rest of the top 20. Some minor gains result in larger jumps, largely because older songs are dropping further down than the newer ones are gaining. Incidentally, Justin Bieber's "Sorry" which debuted at #2 behind "Hello" 11 weeks ago, finally knocks Adele's song off the top of the Hot 100. No comment; I'm just putting that out there for you.
BEFORE SHE CHARTS: Taylor Centers is an aspiring singer/songwriter from Charlotte, North Carolina, who is a good friend of my hometown friend Mary Anne Reed Nolan, who recommended her music to me a while back. And she has made my top 20 a couple times with pop-oriented songs. If you recall, last year, I mentioned that she was changing her genre to the Country field from pop, and cutting an EP. Well, she had just announced that Gypsy Heart, has been released, with the lead single and video, "Dodged Your Bullet". After a listen, you will know it's "today's country", but for all practical matters, you can call it country in 2016. The song sounds a lot like "Before He Cheats" a big hit for Carrie Underwood. I should say however that it isn't a rip-off or anything; just the texture of it is, but it's a song all her own.
In an article written last summer by local Charlotte reporter Jeff Hahne, Centers remarked: "As I progress, I want it to lean more rock and raw like those artists", referring to her influences like Kasey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, and Eric Church. She continues, "My name is Taylor---but I'm not like Taylor Swift. If my name was Rachel, I'd never be compared to her. I love pop country, but I'll never put one of her songs in my set or want to be compared to her, referring to the former country queen gone pop, sort of the reverse of what Ms. Centers is doing.
It is, however, interesting that she used the arbitrary name "Rachel" (as opposed to another name). I am, of course, referring to New Jersey's own "homegrown" country artist, Rachel Allyn, who, like Centers, also requested assistance to her fans to help fund her soon-to-be-released EP, Next Year's Girl. It's hard for any artist to get a foot in the door to the charts, these days, as it is. But I do wish the best for Taylor (and eventually, for Rachel as well) on their latest projects.
"Dodged Your Bullet" debuts at #69 this week.
SHALL WE DNCE?: Debuting this week behind Taylor, is the outfit DNCE at #77, which is the backup pop band to Joe Jonas (of Jonas Brothers). It is, as you'd expect, sugary pop, but not bad at all, especially since the members actually play instruments. It's in a similar vein as some recent pop hits like "Same Old Love" for example.
Three artists that appeared on Brian Sniatkowski's top 25 Album list of 2015 also debut. The latest from Silversun Pickups, "Circadian Rhythm", their next from Brother Nature; "Space Song" from Beach House, best known for SNS hits like "Zebra", "Lazuli" and "Myth" (all SNS top 20 items), from Thank Your Lucky Stars; and finally "Giant Peach" by Wolf Alice, the third track, from My Love is Cool. All are worthy listens.
Three other debuts occur as follow-ups to successes. Foo Fighters, fresh off their top 20 SNS "Outside" come right back with a rocking piece, "Saint Cecilia", from their newly released EP of the same name. This release was a "thank you" to the band's fans (it was offered at no charge), as well as a tribute to the victims of the recent Paris terrorist attacks . Lucius, a band that has struck SNS gold twice in the past two years, is back with "Born Again Teen", presumably from a forthcoming album. Like the Wild Belle song I reviewed last week, this is a bit more rhythmic and less soulful (and more rocking) than "Hey Doreen" or "Turn It Around". Again, multiple/repeated listens will soon decide on its fate here And finally, Hippo Campus' follow to "Suicide Saturday", "South", a viable follow-up with that indie-pop sound, even more than that of its predecessor with more of a dreamy pop vein here. It's the title track from their latest.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
January 17,
2016
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 1 | NUMBER ONE:
"Queen of Peace"
Album: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
(4 weeks at #1)
|
12 |
| 2 | 4 | Thomas Rhett - Crash and Burn | 13 |
| 3 | 3 | Leila Hegazy - Maybe If We Try | 9 |
| 4 | 6 | The Dreamers - Wolves (You Got Me) | 10 |
| 5 | 8 | Coldplay - Adventure of A Lifetime | 7 |
| 6 | 5 | Selena Gomez - Same Old Love | 12 |
| 7 | 9 | Gwen Stefani - Used to Love You | 9 |
| 8 | 10 | Smash Palace - Haddontown | 11 |
| 9 | 2 | Adele - Hello | 11 |
| 10 | 11 | Zac Brown Band - Loving You Easy | 12 |
| 11 | 7 | St. Paul & the Broken Bones - Broken Bones & Pocket Change | 16 |
| 12 | 13 | Iration - 867 | 8 |
| 13 | 12 | The Decemberists - Philomena | 12 |
| 14 | 15 | Brick + Mortar - Train | 8 |
| 15 | 19 | Mutemath - Monument | 8 |
| 16 | 20 | Cage the Elephant - Mess Around | 11 |
| 17 | 22 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Keep
Going"
Album: Men Amongst Mountains
|
10 |
| 18 | 24 | Alison Iraheta & Halo Circus - Do You Believe In Shame | 13 |
| 19 | 14 | Foo Fighters - Outside | 16 |
| 20 | 21 | Palma Violets - Danger in the Club | 17 |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more plays on my iPod.
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