Song Nebula

“Dum Dum Girl” (1984) – Talk Talk * Written by Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene * 45: “Dum Dum Girl” / “Without You” * LP: It’s My Life * Produced by Tim Friese-Greene * Label: EMI

The year 1984 seemed to be Talk Talk’s most cheerful one, in which the pop world these future post-rock icons inhabited made them laugh in a way it couldn’t make them do in later years. All three of the Tim Pope-directed videos for their It’s My Life album (“Such a Shame,” “It’s My Life” and “Dum Dum Girl”) show them making fun of the music video idiom. For the pensive “Dum Dum Girl,” a “first take” goof-off became more familiar (and effective) than the official video. Or was that the plan all along?

“Danas Majko ženiš sina” (1972) – Slavko Petrović * Written by Aleksandar Nikolić (lyrics) and Budimer Jovanović (music) * EP: Danas Majko ženiš sina * Label: PGP RTB

Not to be confused with the previous entry’s subject (Slavko Perović), whose surname lacks a T. Although the title song on Slavko Petrović’s debut EP is a known Montenegrin folk song (title translation: “Mother, today you’re marrying off your son”), a co-credit for authorship is given to Budimir Jovanović, the record’s Serbian accordionist and ensemble leader. This is a genre the Serbs call “national” music, which correlates with American country music in that it changes very little conceptually across the decades, save for some technological giveaways. Although Petrovic’s early seventies-to-early eighties recordings float around online, substantial info about him certainly does not.

“Ne ljuti se, Dragana” (1979) – Slavko Perović * Written by Branislav Radonjić * Produced by Slobodan Nikolić * LP: Ne ljuti se, Dragana * Label: Jugoton

Slavko Perović is a Serbian singer with a backlog of participation in the mariachi craze of fifties-sixties Yugoslavia. His 1979 LP Ne ljuti se, Dragana (don’t be angry, Dragana) is an affable assortment of acoustic schlager, with four of the ten songs, including the title track, being compositions credited to Branislav Radonjić. He’s the one who also leads the trio of musicians (two guitars and a flute, an unusual combo for the genre) who accompany Perović. All of the rest are traditional.

“Adios” (1989) – Linda Ronstadt * Written by Jimmy Webb * LP: Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind * Produced by Peter Asher * Label: Elektra * Charts: Billboard Adult Contemporary (#9)

The closing track from Ronstadt’s Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind showcases three American pop masters who, in comeback mode, are actually at the top of their game: Linda as lead vocalist, Jimmy Webb as songwriter, and Brian Wilson as vocal arranger. As one of two singles released from the album (the other one being “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,” Ronstadt’s duet with Aaron Neville), “Adios” received enough radio love from Lite FM stations to reach #9 on Billboard’s AC chart.

This was the era of Wilson’s late ’80s revival, a time of musical productivity that was compromised, in many ways, by the smothering watchfulness of his psychotherapist Eugene Landy. According to two reports—Ronstadt’s Simple Dreams memoir and Christian Matijas-Mecca’s The Words and Music of Brian Wilson—the sessions for “Adios” were somehow Landy-free, which gives Wilson’s five-part harmonies, all sung by him, even more fresh-air resonance.  In her book, Ronstadt refers to Webb’s song as “wistful,” but listen and hear how Wilson turns it into something more heart-rending.

“Them Changes” (1970) – Ramsey Lewis * Written by Buddy Miles * 45: “Them Changes” / “Unsilent Majority” * LP: Them Changes * Produced by Ramsey Lewis * Label: Cadet

Jazz keyboardist Ramsey Lewis had a knack for the single format; too bad his “Them Changes” never got much radio traction, although playlists show that Los Angeles MOR station KMPC used to give it some air time. Recorded live at the Depot in Minneapolis in May 1970, this Rhodes piano version of Buddy Miles’s signature song hearkens back to the club-date sound of earlier Lewis hits like “The In Crowd” and “Hang on Sloopy,” locking into a deep groove with the help of Morris Jennings (drums), Cleveland Eaton (bass), and Phil Upchurch (guitar). The current-event images on the cover give the instrumental album an activist vibe. (The 45 version cretits “Ramsey Lewis & Co.”).

“After the Fox” (1966) – The Hollies * Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David * 45: “After the Fox” / “The Fox-Trot” * LP: After the Fox (soundtrack) * Producer: A.I.R. (London) Ltd. * Label: United Artists

“After the Fox” is a lesser known Burt Bacharach/Hal David movie theme featuring harpsichord and beguiling chord changes. Released the year after What’s New Pussycat, the song plays during a candy-colored, animated intro (linked below). Leading man Peter Sellers provides comical interjections between the Hollies’ lead vocals. The After the Fox film, more appreciated today than in 1966, serves as a cineaste’s field day with its numerous industry in-jokes.

“Tickler” (1971) – Earth Quake * Written by J. Robert Dunbar * Produced by Earth Quake and Allan Mason * 45: “Tickler” / “Guarding You” * LP: Earth Quake * Label: A&M

San Francisco’s Earth Quake played the type of melodic, carefully proportioned rock and roll that would eventually get called power pop. Heavy airplay in the Bay Area for their song “Tickler” got them close to national chart placement when it appeared in Billboard as a San Francisco “regional breakout hit,” but it never, in fact, broke out. Frustration with the A&M label prompted manager Matthew “King” Kaufman to form the label Beserkley, housing Earth Quake until they’d call it quits in 1979, but eventually having chart success with the Greg Kihn Band. (Adapted from a longer post at Early 70s Radio.)

The fiddle of London-born Dave Swarbrick sounds like the very essence of the sixties-and-beyond British folk revival. He made it sing with a distinct combination of wisdom, lamentation, and (especially) humor, and fiddlers have been using his sound as a role model for half a century now. Although he was among the first to plug into an amplifier and breathe fire as he would do alongside Richard Thompson in Fairport Convention, the Dave Swarbrick identifier that might open the ideal playlist is this 1976 instrumental version of “Byker Hill.” It’s a 9/8 reinterpretation of a miner song that he and Martin Carthy had originally recorded with vocals in 1967, but this one, from his solo debut LP Swarbrick, gambols and spins so effortlessly that even though it clocks in at five minutes — twice the time of the earlier version — it could go on for another ten or fifteen minutes and you’d be too entranced to notice.

“Heydarbaba” (2011) – Sari Gelin Ensemble * Written by Mohammad-Hossein Shariar and B. Kerimov * CD: Azerbaijan Traditional Music * Label: ARC

The notes for this disc on the ARC label, billed to the Lök-Batan Folklore Group, credits the “emotive vocals” of Zulfiya Mamedova, who’s female, but the bonus track at the end features an uncredited male vocalist. He’s Gochaq Askerov of the Sari Gelin Ensemble, and he’s singing a musical rendering of the Iranian Azerbaijani poet Mohammad-Hossein Shariar’s “Heydar Babaya Salam.” It’s a mountain of a poem expressing Shariar’s childhood memories of a real, geographical mountain near Tabriz, Iran. Written in the Azer dialect, the verses won a place in the hearts of all Turkic nations to the extent that it brought Shariar’s dialect acceptance in Iran, while certain phrases in the poem became Azeri idioms. A full translation of it can be seen at Azerbaijan International. Music credits go to “B. Kerimov,” who is also credited on YouTube versions by the Azerbaijani vocalist Rubabe Muradova (1930-1983).

“Strand” (1967) – Boudewijn De Groot * Written by Boudewijn De Groot and Lennaert Nijgh * Netherlands 45: “Strand” / “Referein Voor…” * Label: Decca

A Dutch singer-songwriter with a successful 50+ year career, Boudewijn de Groot’s first single appeared in 1964. It’s called “the beach” and enumerates, in rapid-fire fashion, all the memorable things that can happen there: sunburn, fights, poker, hanky panky, crosswords, car crashes, french fries, keggers, arrests, and if translations are reliable, swimming “like a rat.” The Beach Boys this ain’t.