Author: Kim Simpson

“Maybe I’m Amazed” (1970) – Paul McCartney * Written and Produced by Paul McCartney * LP: McCartney * Label: Apple

On one hand, Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles debut album (McCartney), with its homemade aura and willfully frivolous song selection, lifted a middle finger to the Beatle machinery and the pop music biz it propelled. On the other hand, it snuggled appropriately into its inward-looking era. “Maybe I’m Amazed” is the album’s deepest reacher, taking the crooning-then-wailing approach of Abbey Road‘s “Oh Darling” and letting McCartney’s heart do the rest. It became his solo album’s anchor, paying tribute to his new wife Linda who, as we’ve learned from bios and interviews, helped him through a gloomy, transitional time after the Beatles breakup. Tucked away as an album track on side 2, “Maybe I’m Amazed” could have been a big single, but McCartney opted not to release it as such. No matter – a live version became a radio smash seven years later.

“Acostumbrado a ver T.V. los Martes 36” (1968) – Los Shakers * Written by Hugo Fattorusso and Osvaldo Fattorusso * LP: La Conferencia Secreta del Toto’s Bar * Label: Odeon Pops

Los Shakers, who sang in heavily accented English, were Uruguay’s very own mop tops, and they enjoyed a pan-South American following during the sixties. In spite of their brazenly derivative approach, the group’s knack for hooks and cheerful guilelessness – featuring the kind of vibrato-free vocals typical of children – is both endearing and addictive. Their La Conferencia Secreta del Toto’s Bar, long title and all, aims for the Sgt. Pepper album’s levels of philoso-poetry, but ends up winning listeners over with its bossanova-tinged hooks and ESL charm. “Acostumbrado a ver T.V. los Martes 36” is one of its highlights, using a “Day in the Life” news motif (the title translates to “I used to watch TV on Tuesday 36”). “Here I am in my chair,” they sing with gusto. “I try to found the channel that I used to watch, a special one that never has commercial talk.”

“There’s a Story in Your Voice” (2004) – Elvis Costello and the Imposters (with Lucinda Williams) * Written and produced by Elvis Costello * LP: The Delivery Man * Label: Lost Highway

Take a whole sack of one liners, equal parts chord changes, douse it in prepared angst, put a hat on it, and you’ve got yourself an Elvis Costello song circa 2004. The hookiest track on The Delivery Man is called “There’s a Story in Your Voice” and it’s also the most annoying, vying for a “love to hate” reaction in the listener. It’s that aforementioned prepared angst that’s the “story” in the voices of both Costello and guest Lucinda Williams, causing Williams to oversnarl. When cats do this outside your window, you throw things at them.

“After Midnight” (1986) – Fastway * Written by Eddie Clarke, Dave King, Shane Carroll, Alan Connor, and Paul Reid * 45: “After Midnight” / “Don’t Stop the Fight” * LP: Trick or Treat (soundtrack) * Produced by Eddie Clarke and Will Reid Dick

This hair metal ear candy supports the notion that a listener’s taste for the genre connects to positive childhood associations with Halloween. Former Motörhead guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke grabs from a bowlful of AC/DC chords for this leadoff single from the soundtrack for Trick or Treat, a film that offers no crucial cultural literacy rewards for those who haven’t seen it. It does contain a few ingredients worth mentioning, though: a cameo by Ozzy Osbourne as an anti-metal evangelist; another cameo by Gene Simmons as a DJ; and a backwards-record plot gimmick. In an era when parents feared metal’s corrosive powers, the movie depicted a resurrected metal musician with murder on its undead brain. Director Charles Martin Smith had played Toad on American Graffiti, from which he lifted that movie’s DJ-as-enabler idea.

“(The Best Part of) Breaking Up” (1973) – The Seashells * Written by Phil Spector, Pete Andreoli, and Vince Poncia * 45: “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up” / “Play That Song” * Produced by Johnny Arthey and Phillip Swern * Label: Columbia

Johnny Arthey and Phillip Swern orchestrated and produced key late-sixties reggae singles by Desmond Dekker, The Pioneers, Bob and Marcia, and others. This 1973 single shares no musical similarities with any of those. It’s a version of a 1964 Ronettes hit that sounds, rather incredibly, like a lost vintage Abba track. The Seashells were a Liverpool girl group that included Vicki Brown and Mary Partington (who were sisters), along with Laura Lee. Brown, who is now deceased, was the wife of UK musican Joe Brown and the mother of vocalist Sam Brown, who had a US charting hit called “Stop” in 1989.

“Abbandonato (Los ejes de mi carreta)” (2012) – Vinicio Capossela * Written by Atahualpa Yupanqui and Romildo Risso * Adapted by Vincio Capossela * LP: Rebetiko Gymnastas * Produced by Vinicio Capossela * Label: La Cupa

Argentinian troubadour Atahualpa Yupanqui turned a Uruguayan poem called “The Axles of My Cart” into a famous song in which various levels of meaning complemented each other, e.g., a worker’s loneliness, resilience, and/or refusal to keep quiet. The song has since come to life in numerous milonga and tango versions, suggesting additional meanings. A recent Italian interpretation by Vinicio Capossela, which uses Greek instrumentation offers this one: the resolve to dance coyly. The song’s video depicts Capossela and his band performing in a gym while dancers rehearse.

“Abacab” (1981) – Genesis * Written and produced by Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins and Tony Banks * 45: “Abacab” / “Another Record” * LP: Abacab * Label: Charisma (UK)/Atlantic (US)

The generation of males who flashback to junior high at the sound of this song’s opening pulse could fill many stadiums. For them, the entire Abacab album represents the last of the tolerable Phil Collins recordings. Its sci-fi synth-blasts, sexually-frustrated lyrics, and prog-tech vibe played well with them as teens, but Collins’s output as an aggressively marketed adult contemporary radio mascot subsequently bypassed the entire male 12-25 demographic.

“Achmed” (1969) – Heads, Hands and Feet * Written by Tony Colton and Ray Smith * LP: Home from Home (The Missing Album) * Produced by Tony Colton * Label: Pucka

Here’s a short but punchy trifle from the underappreciated supergroup Heads, Hands and Feet’s posthumously released Home from Home (The Missing Album) (1995). It was actually the second album recorded by their earlier incarnation, Poet and the One Man Band. MGM/Verve, who released that group’s debut, ended up shelving this follow up, after which the newly re-christened quintet considered using it for their own debut on Capitol, opting instead to record something new. Both incarnations of the band included chicken pickin’ guitarist Albert Lee, so he usually gave their songs his instrumental signature. This one, though, is all about Pat Donaldson, a tall, mutton-chopped bassist who went on to become a fixture on the British folk rock scene. His foundational groove on this will certainly be sampled someday and turned into a powerhouse dance/rap track. Also featured: politically incorrect faux-Arabic that mostly references cuisine. Future “cockney rock” practitioner Chas Hodges ended up taking Donaldson’s place shortly after this was recorded. 

“Gary Gilmore’s  Eyes” (1977) – The Adverts * Written by T.V. Smith * 45: “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” / “Bored Teenagers” * Produced by the Adverts and Larry Wallis * Label: Anchor

Music journalist Mikal Gilmore is the younger brother of the infamous spree killer who demanded execution by firing squad, thereby reinstating the death penalty in 1977. In his memoir Shot to the Heart, Mikal writes of his own days immediately following the execution: “I …spent many nights lost in the dark glory of punk rock. I liked the way the music tried to make its listeners accommodate the reality of a merciless world. One of the best punk songs of the period was by a British band, the Adverts. It was called ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes.’ What would it be like, the song asked, to see the world through Gary Gilmore’s dead eyes? Would you see through the eyes of somebody who wanted to kill the world, and then kill himself?”

“Będziesz panią w moim piekle” (1970) – Romuald i Roman * Written by Andrzej Kuryło and Roman Runowicz * LP: Z Archiwum Polskiego Radia, Vol. 5 (2007)

In the late ’60s, Polish rock pioneers Romuald Piasecki and Roman Runowicza formed a band named after themselves and got some quick traction. Someone in the paisley underground ’80s ought to have covered this folk-rock brooder, the title of which translates to “You Should Be in My Hell.” Strangely, only two facts testify of this song’s very existence: 1) Its appearance in several fall 1970 issues of Billboard‘s “Hits of the World” charts as a Polish Top 5 single, and 2) A YouTube video of the song (linked below). Was it ever actually released as a single? It appears on the recent compilation of radio recordings pictured here, but shows up nowhere in any online discographies. So maybe it charted in Poland only on the basis of airplay. A few years after this, the group would reorganize itself as the legendary band Nurt, who would also record a version of this song.