Posts Tagged ‘Randy Newman’

Saturday Matinee – Hoyt Axton & His Mom, Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Randy Newman, X, Paul McCartney

Saturday, 10 September 2011

That’s Steppenwolf, as if I had to tell you. “Born To Be Wild” was released in 1968, as was “The Pusher,” written by Hoyt Axton. Axton also wrote “Joy To The World,” a major hit recorded by Three Dog Night, and one of the worst songs in rock history, IMO. I refuse to post it, so I’ll go with this 1970 classic:

“Mama Told Me Not To Come” was written by Randy Newman.

I don’t care much for his politiks, but he’s a funny guy. Hell, anyone that can blatantly mock L.A. without Los Angelenos catching on is all right by me.

Okay, I looked for a decent vid of X‘ “Los Angeles” but settled for “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline” instead, just to keep the vibe going. (No, really. I looked. Serious Ramones influence on that.)

Now back to Hoyt Axton. His mother wrote this: [Insert John Cale garbage here] I can tolerate a lot of alternative experimental stuff, but John Cale’s version of “Heartbreak Hotel” is so wrong.

This, on the other hand is honest: Paul McCartney plays Hoyt Axton’s Mom.

And with that, we’re out of here. Have a great weekend, folks, and be back tomorrow for more stuff.

Saturday Matinee – The Clarks, Dan Akroyd, Eubie Blake, Tandy & Randy Newman

Saturday, 26 June 2010

The Clarks! Tip o’ the Tarboosh to coldwarrior.

Dan Akroyd plays James Cotton‘s version of Ike Turner‘s Rocket 88.

Eubie Blake was awesome. He was 95 in 1978 when this interview was recorded.

During the break there’s  an advertisement for the troublesome RadioShack TRS-80 computer system, using magenetic tape cassettes for data storage. Only cost $599! That’s about $2,000 in today’s dollars. Later on, after users complained about problems with the cassette drives, Tandy eventually offered an awesome 5MB hard drive accessory, about the same size as a PC today, for $1,500 – a whopping $4,900 today.

Okay, 1978 was probably the peak of the (gag) disco phase, and the birth of R&B pop love anthems. There is absolutely nothing that ranked in the top 20 that I’d post here, except for maybe for the Stone’s “Miss You.” Worst song they ever did IMO.

On the other hand, this song made No. 41, and Randy Newman gets kudos for writing the most misunderstood song of the year:

Have a great weekend, folks, and meet me back here tomorrow.


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