39. Sports by Huey Lewis and The News

 39. Sports by Huey Lewis and The News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7JVlpm0eRs&list=OLAK5uy_m_-Vy4Z_37aAqfRAwq0gYYnXhjc6reILA

This album came out in September 1983, and while none of the songs really hit that #1 spot on the charts--a respectable #6 was as high as any single song got--the songs consistently stayed on the Billboard charts all through senior year of high school, and the album itself hit the #1 spot on the Billboard album chart in June of 1984. 

"Heart and Soul" triggers lots of good memories of the beginning of my senior year--from August through October of 1983--which was actually a pretty damn good 3 months for me. It all went super-south in November, but for those 3 golden months, I was at the top of my game. And it's kind of amazing how much good music came out in those 3 months. Or maybe it was just that I was in such a damn good mood for all that time that the music just seemed so much better. 

"I Want a New Drug," "The Heart of Rock 'n Roll," and "If This Is It" all charted during high school too, with the last song being the one I remember John singing during a summer evening of cruising Arimo with Hondo Joe in The Hulk, only John changed the lyrics to "If It's a Zit!" "Walking on a Thin Line" hit the charts, but topped out at #18. I think it's got a solid beat, good guitars, and pretty good lyrics, so I don't know why it didn't chart higher. Maybe it was just the case that after a year of hearing the other songs on the album, and after the album itself topped out the album sales, people weren't as interested in buying the single anymore.

When I got back from my mission, I raided my brother-in-law's record collection and made a tape of Sports, which I listened to a LOT in my black step-side Chevy pickup during that summer and through college. So the album also is associated with good memories of dating Julie in college and living with Hondo Joe during the summer of '88. That's why I enjoy many of the other songs on the album that didn't chart. "Bad Is Bad" is not bad. "You Crack Me Up" is a peppy tune that makes a good workout song. "Finally Found a Home" is listenable enough to not fast forward through the tape. "Honky Tonk Blues" is the weakest link on the album, being a remake of a Hank Williams' song. Still, it's a fast-paced song that shows Huey Lewis and The News aren't afraid to country things up a little, giving us a little more sense of the musical range that the band had.

But I have to admit that one of the main reasons this album is on my list is because of how much I like "Heart and Soul." Whenever I hear it, I get this mainline emotional connection to that period of time when I was so blissfully in love with the girl of my dreams. It was, in retrospect, quite sickening. I guess I should have seen the bad end coming from the good beginning. 

However, musically speaking, I think the other reason I love this song so very, very much is because it is one of the greatest cowbell performances in all of rock and roll music! I mean, listen to how they make that cowbell sing! It's more subtle in some places than others, but the cowbell is woven throughout the song.

Why am I sure Huey used the cowbell in the song and not some other bell-like percussive instrument? 

Because this song is actually a remake of a song released by Exile on their 1981 album Heart and Soul, which does heavily feature the cowbell in the chorus.

https://youtu.be/pBCrrniVZZE

Apparently, 3/5ths of Exile think that Huey Lewis and The News' version of the song sounded exactly like theirs, and they are befuddled by the fact that they didn't have a bigger hit on their hands when they first released it in 1981. They even tried to stir up a controversy on this matter with the audience during a recent performance of the song back in 2016. And they do specifically mention Huey's use of the cowbell.

https://youtu.be/m9r7qVzeeJA

Here's the thing. Exile's version does share a lot of similarities with Huey Lewis and The News' version. I'll give them that. But Huey's use of the cowbell in the song is much more artistic with the way that it's mixed into the percussion track in lots of different ways. And multiple cowbells are used throughout the entire song, not just one cowbell on the chorus. So, no, Exile, Huey's harder rockin' version was a bigger hit because...and I can't emphasize this too much.. it's got MORE COWBELL!

End of controversy. 

Anyway, this song takes me back to the glory days of double-dating with Hondo Joe back when we both had high hopes of getting the high-school sweetheart of our dreams. Yes. The good life was good then. But after Halloween, it all turned bad. And like Huey says, sometimes bad is bad.

Nardo

40. The Long Run by The Eagles

 40. The Long Run by The Eagles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skC2GToR1uY&list=PLs9vIZChB0tcwRDcPSBPf3ugKtsZ_D-8c&index=1

The Long Run was another 8-track album abandoned by Renda when she went of to college. Released at the end of 1979, it was the last album the Eagles released before their break-up. Well, actually, they had kind of already broken up with Don Felder leaving the group in 1977. While the album had some hits, some critics said the album just wasn't as good as Hotel California. Yeah. They're right, of course. That's because Hotel California is FRICKIN' HOTEL CALIFORNIA! If you're going to compare the rest of The Eagles work to an epic album like that, then yeah, you're going to find lots wrong with it.

But lets talk about what's right with The Long Run. First, there's the song "The Long Run," which is a good song by most people's standards, but it's an excellent song by the standards of high school boys that run the mile and two mile in track. 

Second, if you can't immediately tell why "I Can't Tell You Why" is a masterpiece of late-night love-makin' yacht rock, well, then I can't tell you why. 

Third, "In the City" is the best Eagles song with Joe Walsh as the lead singer. That's because it features his signature voice AND signature guitar sound. "Pretty Maids All in a Row" on Hotel California is a good vocal song for Joe, but you don't get to hear his guitar playing on that song. And that's it. Those are the only two songs he sang lead on--until they put out another album in 2007, in which he got to sing two more. But let's be real, we're talking about classic 70s Eagles albums and songs here, and 2007 is about 30 years too late. 

Fourth, while I admit I don't find the music all that appealing, there is something completely irresistible about a song titled "The Disco Strangler." So, yeah, the title saved the song for me on this one.

Fifth, "King of Hollywood" is a scathing portrait of Hollywood producers that use their positions to satisfy their insatiable lusts and narcissistic cravings for power. But in my teen years it mainly reminded me of a few of the older guys I worked with at the swimming pool who were just the biggest man-whores you could ever imagine. 

Sixth, if you've never turned up the volume knob to full blast and tried to sing harmony as loud as you can on "A Heartache Tonight," then you simply just don't get The Eagles. On top of that, it's got the mother of all hand-clap-along drum beats, excellent Joe-Walsh steel guitar wailing, and there's a really fun "Woo-Hoo!" and a spoken "Break my heart" at the end. But the best part for a teenage boy is, of course, the fact that you can replace the word "heartache" with "fartache." 

Seventh, and the most important reason of all, is "Those Shoes" is the best damn Eagles song for jilted 17-year-old teenage me. I used to cue up this song on the 8-track, then I'd play "Miss America" and immediately afterwards pop in "Those Shoes." It was just the best song combo ever! And one night, decades later, as I was driving to Boise late at night and listening to the radio, I heard "Miss America" and thoroughly enjoyed it, but then I was thinking to myself as it came to a close, "I wish they'd play Those Shoes now." And they DID! It came on immediately after with no commercial breaks, just like how I listened to it in my basement in Arimo all those years ago. I nearly lost my mind! 

Eight, jilted 17-year-old teenage me was always delighted to belt out the lyrics to "Teenage Jail" while imagining it was a song about those girls that had done the jilting. 

Nine, "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" is a monster of a party song! Also, for a teenager boy, it was especially fun to sing the lyrics "You got down and did the gator, and half an hour later, you were barfing all over your girlfriend's shoes." As a teenager, I thought there just weren't enough good rock songs with the word "barf" in them. And adult me still thinks that's the case today. Gator!

Ten, while teenage me didn't have much love for "The Sad Cafe"--although when I was in a really depressed mood, it seemed to fit the bill quite well--the current old-man me thinks it's a pretty damn good song. And it becomes exponentially better if you imagine that "The Sad Cafe" is actually "Rand's Cafe" in Arimo.

The clouds rolled in and hid that shore
Now that Glory Train, it don't stop here no more
Now I look at the years gone by,
And wonder at the powers that be.
I don't know why fortune smiles on some
And lets the rest go free

Maybe the time has drawn the faces I recall
But things in this life change very slowly,
If they ever change at all
There's no use in asking why,
It just turned out that way
So meet me at midnight baby
Inside the Sad Cafe.
Why don't you meet me at midnight baby
Inside the Sad Cafe.

(Sax solo!)

41. The Grand Illusion by Styx

 41. The Grand Illusion by Styx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIuCdQtNBgg&list=OLAK5uy_lFI8Niz0KvEK_YdIo-ixA464L3jVaF2Go

I'm not sure why Renda bought the 8-track of The Grand Illusion while she was in high school and then didn't take it with her when she went to college. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was an 8-track. But I'm glad she left it, because I nearly wore parts of that tape out from hitting that ca-chunk button to try to get back to a place where I could hear my favorite songs again. Eventually, I came to like the entire album so much that I didn't really hit the ca-chunk button as much. 

For some reason, during my freshman or sophomore year (I can't remember which one), Santa thought I'd like a weight set for Christmas. In my vain attempt to get jacked up for football, track, and basketball, I would put this album on and go through my workout routine at least three or four times a week. I'd also lift weights and listen to it whenever I felt in an especially pissed off mood. (Why must you be such an angry young man?) That's why this album got a lot of airplay during the last three months of 1983 and the first 8 months of 1984. After that, I went to college and couldn't take the album with me. Why? Because it was an 8-track, and I was going to college. And although I had never been to college, I was pretty sure that (a) I couldn't take the stereo with the 8-track player with me and (b) if I played 8-tracks in college, I'd be made fun of by everyone else in the dorm.

The album was a huge success for Styx when it was first released on 7/7/77. (Nice date. THANKS!) And songs from the album still get regular airplay on the classic rock stations--mostly "Come Sail Away" and "Fooling Yourself." But the song that got me ca-chunking the hell out of that 8-track was, of course, "Miss America." In my teenage mind, it was the best song on the album. 

You were the apple of the public's eye
As you cut the ribbon at the local mall.
A mirage of both you and us.
How can it be real?

We love your body in that photograph.
Your home state sure must be proud.
The queen of the United States!
Have you lost your crown?

Well, are you really who we think you are?
Or does your smile seem to wear you down?
Is the girl who you once were
Screaming to jump out?

And the dream that you must live,
A disease for which there is no cure,
This roller coaster ride you're on
Won't stop to let you off.

Well, it's true. Just take a look.
The cover sometimes makes the book.
And the judges, did they ever ask
To read between your lines?

In your cage at the human zoo,
They all stop to look at you.
Next year, what will you do
When you have been forgotten?

Well, aren't you? (Miss America)
Don't you? (Miss America)
Won't you? (Miss America, our love)

James Young's lyrics and Tommy Shaw's driving rock guitar in this song encapsulated the feelings of my 17-year-old jilted heart so magnificently that there were times I was sorely tempted to go buy the vinyl record so that I wouldn't have to ca-chunk that 8-track anymore, and I could just easily move the needle back to listen to the song over and over as many times as I wanted. However, it would have been impossible to justify to Dad why I had spent money on buying an album that we already had in the family's collection, so I just had to keep on ca-chunking my rage away in between all those sets of arm curls and bench presses.

Now that my youthful rage (and muscles) has been replaced by aged hopelessness (and fat), my 55-year-old mind says that "Man in the Wilderness" is the best song on the album, hands down.

Another year has passed me by.
Still I look at myself and cry
What kind of man have I become?
All of the years I've spent in search of myself,
And I'm still in the dark,
'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone.

Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness.
I'm a lonely soldier off to war.
Sent away to die, never quite knowing why.
Sometimes it makes no sense at all.

Yep. That pretty much sums it up for me.

Of course, when I'm on my deathbed, I'll probably wish that I could see a gathering of angels appear above my head and sing to me a song of hope. At that point, I might decide "Come Sail Away" is really the best song. However, if much to my surprise, the angels turn out to be aliens that just want to add me to their collection of human oddities, I'll become super-pissed again, and my teenage rage will emerge yet again, and I will battle these space invaders to the death by shooting at them from behind small green buildings. 

Unless the ship looks like one of those that I've seen on ELO album covers. In that case, I'll be happy to climb aboard their starship and head for the skies. 

Nardo