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Eddie writesTake Two: “These Eyes” (The Guess Who Vs. Jr. Walker & The All Stars)
by Eddie Sayago
There is a chance that you have come across a song (or two, or so many more) that you enjoy and did not realize that it's either been covered by someone else or is a cover itself. We hope that this series allows you to appreciate both the original and the covers they have inspired, and to seek out and enjoy new music in the process.
For this entry, we take a look at a love song that was performed by two very different performers and released in the same year.
The Original: The Guess Who
From the album Wheatfield Soul (RCA, 1969)
Three albums into their career, Canadian rock band The Guess Band took a couple different steps in their journey. First, they got a new lead singer, Burton Cummings, replacing original lead Chad Allen. Next, they leaned into psychedelic and British rock influences for Wheatfield Soul (album #4).
The album wasn’t a big commercial success but “These Eyes” became a hit in their native Canada and their first Top 10 hit in the U.S. (peaked at #6 on Billboard Hot 100), so 1969 wasn’t too bad. And guess what? Their biggest success arrived the following year with their first #1 hit song and album of the same name, "American Woman."
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (Nov 1 - Nov 7)
On the Podcast:
- Mick R talks with Doug Kaplan and Max Allison of Hausu Mountain Records
On the Blog:
- Mick R. talks with Rick Santilli
- Kyle Sanders reviews two recent documentaires from the 2021 Chicago Internatonal Film Festival
- Kyle Sanders reviews the new horror flick Antlers
- Eddie Sayago takes a listen to two different verstions of "The Safety Dance"
- Clarence Ewing takes a listen to two different verstions of "I Want Candy"
Top of the CHIRP Charts for the week of 10/25/21:
Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekkou (Fire)
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesTake Two: “I Want Candy” (The Strangeloves Vs. Bow Wow Wow)
by Clarence Ewing
There is a chance that you have come across a song (or two, or so many more) that you enjoy and did not realize that it's either been covered by someone else or is a cover itself. We hope that this series allows you to appreciate both the original and the covers they have inspired, and to seek out and enjoy new music in the process.
The Original: The Strangeloves
from the album I Want Candy (Bang, 1965)
The Strangeloves were a New York based production team that had a handful of singles chart in the bottom half of the Hot 100 during the mid-to-late '60s, sometimes using different band names. "I Want Candy" was their 2nd single of note. The percussion sets the tone with an overwhelimg Bo Didley rhythm, immediately putting the listener in the middle of the best beach party ever. It also featues one of the most gloriously ragged guilar riffs in pop music history. At a time when Elvis Presley and Annette Funicello were making the "Beach Party" scene popular across the USA, This was a song that got the go-go dancers movin'.
KSanders writesFilm Review: “Antlers”
by Kyle Sanders
Antlers (Dir. Scott Cooper)
"Doh! A dud, a real bad dud..."
Behind every horror film there's a message, and that message is usually about something bad we humans have done.
Whether it's the human error of hubris (think Frankenstein, Godzilla, The Human Centipede), facing our violent pasts (Candyman, The Devil's Backbone, The Grudge), a rejection of American Values (The Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) or punishment for premarital relations (pretty much any slasher flick from the '80s), horror films seem to be mankind's response to a guilty conscience: we've done something bad, and we must pay for it one way or another, preferably in the most fucked up way imaginable.
Before the dawn of horror films however, we had myths, which typically served as an explanation for the unexplainable. If there is no other reasonable resolution, then the answer must be due to some vengeful spirit from beyond the grave or a reclusive monster lurking deep in the woods, right?
Eddie writesTake Two: “The Safety Dance” (Men Without Hats vs. Angel Olsen)
by Eddie Sayago
There is a chance that you have come across a song (or two, or so many more) that you enjoy and did not realize that it's either been covered by someone else or is a cover itself. We hope that this series allows you to appreciate both the original and the covers they have inspired, and to seek out and enjoy new music in the process.
The Original: Men Without Hats
from the album Rhythm of Youth (Sire, 1982)
A good dance song doesn’t need much. A catchy beat and an easy to learn chorus is all one needs to create a hit song that will outlive almost everything else. inspiration hit lead singer Ivan Doroschuk to write “The Safety Dance” after getting kicked out of a club for pogo dancing. (When someone jumps up and down like a pogo stick on the dance floor.) “I was kind of mad that they wouldn’t let me dance if I wanted to, so I took matters in my own hands and wrote an anthem of it,” said Doroschuck in an interview in 2012.
“The Safety Dance” peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been cited as one of the most popular one-hit wonders in pop culture history. The music video, set in a very believable Renaissance Faire, features the band and their friends dancing however they wish while dressed in some of the best medieval outfits one can buy on a tight budget.