They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool

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‘Working Class Hero.’ John Lennon never wrote truer words. Practically the story of my life, and the song has always resonated with me. Never more so than the past seven years - and then put on turbo speed with COVID-19 - when true colors finally started coming through and all is now being laid bare. Confirming the worst and most cynical inclinations I had harbored about people for the 37 years of my life leading up to that pivotal moment in 2016 when the masks started coming off. And it wasn’t merely political, Trump’s arrival was just the catalyst for this willful betrayal of common sense and decency that has now creeped into nearly all areas of our lives. Trump gave them permission to be their true selves, while others of us were forced to do some hard soul searching and reassess so much of what we once believed. John Lennon wrote these words over 50 years ago, but they are more relevant than ever - 

As soon as you're born, they make you feel small

By giving you no time instead of it all

'Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool

'Til you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years

Then they expect you to pick a career

When you can't really function, you're so full of fear

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free

But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill

If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Wayne Shorter, Jazz, and reflections of my life

Robert Ascroft

NPR - Jazz great Wayne Shorter dies at 89

Thank you, Wayne Shorter, for your life, and for helping to open myself to an artform that I now consider to be one of the only things in this cold world that makes life worth living. It wasn’t until my late-thirties that I began listening to Jazz in earnest, and now at 45 I am still catching up and learning. Just cannot believe I wasted so many years before that having basically ignored this greatest of musical forms, while spending way too much with rock music. Sort of akin to being offered a juicy sirloin steak, and turning it down in favor of a fast-food cheeseburger.

Particularly when I was really young - going back to, say, my early-twenties and earlier - I settled for listening to so much mediocre rock music. Notice I said ‘mediocre’ rock; ‘butt rock’ would be another good descriptor, for I am not speaking of the good stuff that I still love and talk about such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and too many others to list here. For instance, when I was 12 years-old and they were a contemporary hit-making band, I thought Mötley Crüe were the greatest band on earth. Decades later, I’d rather listen to an entire night’s worth of cats in heat than even one minute of any of their songs, and I find their members to be repugnant human beings. I’ve grown tired of Aerosmith, AC/DC, Metallica, and Van Halen - even Guns N’ Roses to a far lesser extent - though I will say none of those bands ‘suck’ by any means (except for Aerosmith for the past thirty years.) At times in my misguided youth, I did listen to some rock music that was legitimately awful. All the hair bands when I was in elementary and middle school, various crap throughout the ‘alternative’ crazed ‘90s, and maybe a little into the 2000s. What a waste of time, and intellect. Especially intellect.

A story for another time, but I worked as the shipping and receiving director at a chain record store outlet for several years in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Certainly, I had access to most any genre available, but working in that nut house nearly killed my love of music; embracing Jazz later on helped to restore it. How much better would my life have turned out had I exposed myself to Jazz - along with a greater helping of Classical, it should be said - at a younger age? Obviously, nothing can be proven, but I have this innate sense that my world would be a different and much-improved place today had I pursued better things when it mattered most. My cognitive abilities would be greater, and I would have made wiser choices. ‘Better late than never,’ they say, but a sense of shame and even horror comes over me when I reflect on these things. For a long-time, I failed too many of the greats of this world - such as Wayne Shorter - by not paying them heed and giving them an ear. Part of me longs to go back and fix those mistakes, but then I do not believe I could actually endure having to live those incredibly painful years over again, not for any reason. At least in the here-and-now, I have acquired better tastes, and Wayne Shorter is absolutely a huge part of making that happen. A true legend, RIP.

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Fly high, Songbird: Remembering Christine McVie, and the major impact Fleetwood Mac had on the singles charts on both sides of the pond

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Reading many posts about the passing of the all-time great keyboardist and singer-songwriter Christine McVie, and it got me to thinking: ‘Just how many hits did Fleetwood Mac have?’ Well, I went to Wikipedia and looked up the numbers for the three biggest global markets: the United States, the UK, and (West) Germany. While most (not all) of these chart hits are well-remembered today all over the world, this served as a good exercise as to why chart positions do not tell the whole tale. A good number of the most popular songs from their two most popular albums - 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours - were never released as commercial singles, and therefore were not eligible to chart. So for those wondering where are ‘The Chain,’ ‘Gold Dust Woman,’ ‘Songbird,’ the studio version of ‘Landslide,’ ‘Never Going Back Again,’ 'Oh Daddy,' 'World Turning,' or ‘I’m So Afraid,’ they are not here. This was actually very smart business, largely pioneered by The Beatles with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and then taken to another level by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and most of the major rock bands of the time: Make people buy the album if they want the hits. And we all know the self-titled Fleetwood Mac and Rumours sold more copies than the Bible, and continue to sell in large numbers to this day …

More interesting caveats and factoids: Peter Green’s ‘Black Magic Woman’ was a middling chart hit in the UK in 1967, but became a major hit for Santana in 1970. The haunting ‘Hypnotized’ was a popular album rock radio hit in 1973, and one may still hear it on some classic rock stations today. ‘Sentimental Lady’ was originally done by the band in 1972 and was released as a single, but failed to chart anywhere. Bob Welch - with Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and Lindsey Buckingham backing him - re-recorded it in 1978, and it did become a major hit in the United States at that time, peaking at number 8. And the Stevie Nicks classic ‘Silver Springs,’ from 1997’s huge-selling comeback album, The Dance, was not released as a commercial single, but the song was everywhere and undeniably a hit by any other standard. As for solo work, Christine McVie had one fairly big hit in 1984 with ‘Got a Hold of Me’ (number 10 in the U.S.), while Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and the aforementioned Bob Welch all had multiple hit singles on their own. Much of the reason for this disparity is that Christine simply did not record very much in the way of solo material, and she did retire from the music business for a lengthy spell beginning in 1998 before eventually returning. In fact, just in the last year she was out on the road with Fleetwood Mac …

Interesting to note that Fleetwood Mac’s most commercially successful period as a singles act in the UK was actually during the Peter Green era in the late ‘60s, whereas the period between 1975 and 1977 was easily their biggest period in the U.S. The singles from those two big records performed much more modestly in the UK and Germany, perhaps a testament to how dramatically American and European musical tastes diverged around that time. However, 45 years later, I’m fairly certain those albums and songs are just as well-known and beloved in the UK as they are in America or anywhere else. Their biggest-ever hit in the UK, and only number one, is an instrumental, the immortal ‘Albatross.’ Their only number one in America is, not surprisingly, ‘Dreams’ (but only 24 in the UK, and 33 in Germany.) Notice how barren the period between 1971 and 1974 is; the sad thing about that is the group actually made some really great records during that period. Future Games, the first album with Christine as a full member from 1971, is a particular favorite of mine. Sadly, ‘Dragonfly’ is the only Danny Kirwan song to chart anywhere (No. 52 in 1970 in the UK), but so many of his songs are absolute gems that deserved to be heard. My favorite Fleetwood Mac album will always be Then Play On, from 1969: Christine McVie was not an official member of the band at the time, but she was very much in their orbit as Mrs. John McVie, and does contribute some keyboards on it. (I will take this opportunity to point out that Mr. McVie is one of the most underrated bassists ever, bar none) ...

Commercial hits do not tell the whole tale of any artist or band, nor do they necessarily speak to musical quality. There are at least a few Fleetwood Mac ‘deep tracks’ - particularly from that commercially-barren period in the early ‘70s - that I would rank ahead of some of these songs that charted. ‘Sisters of the Moon’ may have only reached no. 86, but on every level it is far superior to ‘Big Love,’ a worldwide top ten in 1987. But the impressive tallies of Fleetwood Mac certainly speaks to how beloved and influential they will forever be. So, without further ado, here are the lists of all the top 100 Fleetwood Mac singles from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Thank you for your life, Christine McVie, and condolences to (first and foremost) John, Mick, Lindsey, Stevie, and all the others still living that came and went through this amazing band over the years. It is hard to imagine that with Christine gone, Lindsey Buckingham out of the picture, and everyone else being up in years that Fleetwood Mac is going to continue. I am immensely grateful this legendary band existed, and their music will live forever. - 

UK [28 total]: 1967 - 'Black Magic Woman' (37); 1968 - 'Need Your Love So Bad' (31), 'Albatross' (1); 1969 - 'Man of the World' (2), 'Oh Well' (2); 1970 - 'Green Manalishi' (10), 'Dragonfly' (52); 1976 - 'Rhiannon' (46), 'Say You Love Me' (40), 'Go Your Own Way' (38); 1977 - 'Dreams' (24), 'Don’t Stop' (32), 'You Make Loving Fun' (45); 1979 - 'Tusk' (6), 'Sara' (37); 1982 - 'Hold Me' (94), 'Gypsy' (46), 'Oh Diane' (9); 1983 - 'Can’t Go Back' (83); 1987 - 'Big Love' (9), 'Seven Wonders' (56), 'Little Lies' (5); 1988 - 'Everywhere' (4), 'Family Man' (54), 'Isn’t It Midnight' (60), 'As Long As You Follow' (66); 1990 - 'Save Me' (53), 'In the Back of My Mind' (58).

America [25 total]: 1969 - 'Oh Well' (55); 1975 - 'Over My Head' (20); 1976 - 'Rhiannon' (11), 'Say You Love Me' (11), 'Go Your Own Way' (10); 1977 - 'Dreams' (1), 'Don’t Stop' (3), 'You Make Loving Fun' (9); 1979 - 'Tusk' (8), 'Sara' (7); 1980 - 'Think About Me' (20), 'Sisters of the Moon' (86); 1981 - 'Fireflies' (60); 1982 - 'Hold Me' (4), 'Gypsy' (12), 'Love In Store' (22); 1987 - 'Big Love' (5), 'Seven Wonders' (19), 'Little Lies' (4); 1988 - 'Everywhere' (14), 'Family Man' (90), 'As Long As You Follow' (43); 1990 - 'Save Me' (33); 1998 - 'Landslide,' live version (51); 2003 - 'Peacekeeper' (80).

Germany [18 total]: 1968 - 'Albatross' (19); 1969 - 'Man of the World' (23), 'Oh Well' (5); 1970 - 'Green Manalishi' (16); 1976 - 'Go Your Own Way' (11); 1977 - 'Dreams' (33), 'Don’t Stop' (41); 1979 - 'Tusk' (7), 'Sara' (44); 1982 - 'Hold Me' (64), 'Gypsy' (35), 'Oh Diane' (46); 1987 - 'Big Love' (17), 'Seven Wonders' (47), 'Little Lies' (3); 1988 - 'Family Man' (29); 1990 - 'Save Me' (36); 1997 - 'Temporary One,' live version (99).

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Remembering Elvis Presley on the 45th anniversary of his passing

Bettmann /Getty Images/The Vintage News

#OTD 1977, Elvis Presley dies at age 42 - Am I myself a huge Elvis fan? Not exactly, for there are other singers and musicians from his prime era - roughly 1956 to 1962 - whose work I enjoy more (Chuck Berry, for instance.) But there is no question the early Elvis was a superstar; a charismatic presence that one couldn’t turn away from even as old prudes and morons attempted to censor his hip-shaking. In those years, Elvis worked with some great musicians, songwriters, and producers. He made a series of fun movies in the early 60s, appearing in a couple of them alongside Ann-Margret, which he had to have very much enjoyed (I know I would have.) The later period Elvis that had a residence in Vegas, gained a ton of weight, and wore silly jumpsuits invokes only feelings of pity and sadness for the man. Frankly, his music from the 1970s is hot garbage, absolutely cheesy pablum barely worthy of the likes of Pat Boone or Tony Orlando & Dawn. By every account I’ve ever seen, Elvis was an overall good-hearted individual who, upon reaching fame, took care of the various people who had shaped him in his youth. He fell in love with a 14-year-old named Priscilla, which is kind of skeevy, but he also waited for her to come of age before he made his move. The worst that could be said about him is that he was allegedly a philanderer; and perhaps a bit naive, having fallen under the control of an infamously crooked ‘Colonel’ that robbed him of millions and controlled most aspects of his life. Had he lived and continued to maintain a career into the ‘80s, ‘90s and beyond, the results probably would not have been great, and his legacy would be viewed very differently. Dying at 42 was unequivocally Elvis’ most successful career move. Through it all, he was never anything less than a completely authentic, once-in-a-lifetime performer and individual, and it is impossible to imagine American popular music over the past 75 years without him. Rest in Peace always, Elvis Presley.

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On This Day, 1987: Appetite for Destruction is unleashed on an unsuspecting world

#OTD 1987: Want to feel old? This thing is turning 35 - As ubiquitous an album as there ever has been in my lifetime. I am not at all in the mood to listen to Guns N’ Roses these days - in more of a Bach and Mozart mood - but they were a juggernaut. Even now - with Slash and Duff having reunited with Axl Rose some years back - they are one of the bigger touring acts in the world, their back catalog continues to sell in big numbers, and their music is seemingly everywhere. While the ‘90s produced many huge rock acts - and not so much since then - there simply has not been a band that was quite as big as Guns N’ Roses were in the late ‘80s and into the early ‘90s. Purely in terms of popularity, U2 and Metallica about equaled them, and Pearl Jam came very close for a couple of years, but nobody was bigger (of course, I’m talking specifically about bands that were contemporaries of Guns N’ Roses, not including earlier acts that even now remain huge, i.e. the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc. But even on that count, GNR compares very favorably to anybody at all.) It could be argued that, for all intents and purposes, GNR were the last of the seriously decadent, over-the-top rock and roll bands before the genre was watered down and rap/hip-hop largely replaced it as the music of rebellious youth. And they played the part of decadent rock gods all too well; all of that crap is well-documented in countless forums, I’m not going to present any history of Guns N’ Roses here. The fact that all of the relevant players are still alive is just a wonder. So, no actual review - I’ve already spent enough time just coming up with this paragraph, and I’m busy - but you all know it and love it: it’s Appetite for Destruction, the most important rock and roll album of the 1980s.

GRADE: A+

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On This Date, 1977: YES releases 'Going for the One'

YES onstage in 1977. From Left to Right: Alan White, Steve Howe, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Chris Squire. Getty Images/BBC

YES: Going for the One - Released on this day in 1977. A timeless, flawless album that nonetheless sounded out of place for its time and in its environment. The United Kingdom was in a very dark mood in 1977, exemplified musically by the burgeoning Punk Rock movement, and also brilliantly reflected by Pink Floyd on their masterpiece of that year, ‘Animals.’ YES is still operating very much in the spirit of the Summer of Love here, so in the context of 1977 ‘Going for the One’ was viewed as an anachronism and out-of-touch. In spite of that, the album managed to sell fairly well (and in spite of a truly awful choice for cover art, featuring a naked man’s buttocks, that undoubtedly turned off Middle American male teenagers who otherwise were lapping this stuff up in the ‘70s. Remember, we’re talking about 1977, and even now we are not as enlightened in matters of sexuality as we pretend to believe. However, let’s also be clear that one does not have to be a raging homophobe to not want to look at another person’s bare ass, but I digress.) YES even managed to notch their highest-charting single ever in the UK, ‘Wonderous Stories’ (peaked at No. 7. By contrast, their biggest American single - the No. 1 ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ from 1983, only peaked at No. 28 in the UK.) Rick Wakeman’s return to the band after being away for close to three years no doubt helped sales, even in the midst of a pretty vicious backlash against Progressive Rock in the UK. The unfortunate choice of cover art, however, was made worse by the fact that the imagery had absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the album. With its depiction of a naked man standing in front of the Century Towers in Los Angeles, the cover suggests something futuristic, but pretty much all of ‘Going for the One’ is nostalgic and/or pastoral in nature. The Chris Squire standout ‘Parallels’ - arguably the most modern-sounding track - opens with a glorious Rick Wakeman organ line straight out of the Baroque Era. The emotional and sweeping Steve Howe showcase ‘Turn of the Century’ is not looking forward to the coming Millennium, but is rather wistful for the Victorian Age. The two tracks that make up side two - the UK radio hit ‘Wonderous Stories’ and the supremely majestic epic ‘Awaken’ - speak to matters that transcend time and space. Even the raucous opening title track - one of the hardest-rocking songs in the entire YES catalog - looks back a couple decades with its Rockabilly flourishes via Steve Howe’s steel guitar. ‘Going for the One’ is an album that is accessible enough for more mainstream and casual listeners, and still pleasing to the devoted fans who demand complexity and unconventionality. By my count, YES has exactly eight albums that are basically perfect from beginning-to-end - all of them recorded between 1971 and 1983, with only one record in that entire period not being up to par, 1978’s ‘Tormato.’ ‘Going for the One’ is a vibrant, life-affirming record, and the sound of the most masterful musicians of their age at the height of their magical powers. With the recent passing of drummer Alan White and the passing of Chris Squire in 2015, this record has only taken on more poignancy for me. As essential a record as there is.

GRADE: A+

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On This Date, 1972: Emerson, Lake and Palmer release Trilogy

Hipgnosis

Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Trilogy - Released 50 years ago today, July 6, 1972. This album and its follow-up, Brain Salad Surgery, are the ultimate peak of the legendary (or infamously) aristocratic and bombastic ELP. Easily a tighter, more-focused affair than the album that preceded it, 1971’s Tarkus. How many times have I heard ‘From the Beginning’ over the years? Maybe 10,000 times or so, yet that spacey outro never fails to send a chill down my spine. The perfect song for around Midnight. Another classic rock radio staple to this day is the wonderful take on Copland, ‘Hoedown.’ How I love that technicolor moment about three minutes into the title track when the tempo picks up pace dramatically, like Dorothy entering the Land of Oz. The closing march, ‘Abaddon’s Bolero,’ is pure bliss. Frankly, after not having played Trilogy from beginning-to-end and in one sitting in many years, I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed revisiting this record. ELP is not my absolute favorite band from the era, but this is an absolutely essential masterwork of 1970s Progressive and Classic Rock, no questions asked. (That cover, on the other hand, is hideous. There was a strange trend of bands consisting of pale, skinny, ugly white guys posing shirtless for publicity photos and album covers at that time.)

GRADE: A

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On This Date, 1972: Frank Zappa's Waka/Jawaka is released

Cal Schenkel

Frank Zappa: Waka/Jawaka - Released 50 years ago today - July 5, 1972. The 17:23 instrumental opener ‘Big Swifty’ is top-notch, ultra-quirky jazz fusion that explicitly pays tribute to Miles, and is guaranteed to greatly irritate anyone with more conventional tastes. Two shorter vocal tracks in the middle are at least as quirky, but do not really stand out relative to the overall multitude of satirical songs Zappa put forth in his time. Then, however, we come to the 11:17 instrumental closing title track, and another great ear worm for those of us who are demented enough to enjoy this sort of thing. For the two pieces bookending it, Waka/Jawaka is a must-have for all fans of Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion, Free Jazz, and novelty songs.

GRADE: A-

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Inaugural Post: Hey Hey Rise Up

Please continue to stream and download 'Hey Hey Rise Up.' All proceeds go to Ukrainian relief efforts. - 

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