I FOUND GARAGE BAND HITS FROM 1966 IN A RECENT HORROR FILM

In trying to get some authenticity for my novel I've been writing, which takes place in the Spring of 1966, I've been looking at old radio hit survey's on line to find what was being played on Top 40 at that time. Top 40 radio figures into the story, because the main character lands his first job at the only Top 40 radio station in the small college town, that is the setting for the story. Also the fact that Top 40 radio was inexpensive entertainment, as well as being about all there was at the time.

Garage bands were popular at the time, as suburban kids decided to try to emulate The Beatles & the Rolling Stones, after playing folk music. Trying to find some of these bands the pop up on these surveys on I-Tunes or Amazon can be impossible. Same with some soul artist on independent record labels.

Click to Enlarge

So I was surprised, when I looked up a band I found on a radio survey from Lansing, Michigan. The band was called The Plagues. The song I was looking for turned up on a garage band compilation, but I noticed a band called The Plagues came up on the soundtracks to some recent horror films ( Parasomnia & Fear Dot Com)came up. I figured this was a Pantera/GWAR sounding death metal bands on these soundtracks, but I previewed the songs anyway. It was 1966 garage band music on these soundtracks, which was a pleasant surprise. This would require some Googling to find out how songs by an obscure 60s garage band turned up in a recent horror film.

The answer turns out to be pretty simple. The director of Parasomnia & Fear Dot Com is William Malone. When he was in high school in Lansing, Michigan, he was the lead singer of a garage band called (You guest it) The Plagues. I checked You Tube, to see if there was an interview with him, talking about The Plagues. I didn't find any interviews where he mentioned that, but did find that I knew who William Malone was before this. One of the videos that turned up was part of a documentary I used to have on VHS about Famous Monsters magazine. Malone was in that video, showing off a large collection of memorabilia that included Robby the Robot and the Robin costume from the Batman TV series. Amazing how all of this is connected.

So I will be downloading these songs. I'm also interested in watching William Malone's movies. 

PODCAST TAKES YOU BACK TO THE SPRING OF 1966

The new format for the podcast are a success. Jeff & Jamie's trial run as guest host of the podcast has had more hits than any other podcast on this website.This time Jeff is by himself with a musical montage on memories from the spring of 1966, the height of Batmania. Using the Airheads Radio Survey Archive as a reference, he has mixed the major hits, that have been overplayed on Oldies radio stations for years, with songs that were favorites on Top 40 radio, but have rarely been heard from since 1966.

This was the era of the British Invasion, Motown & Stax soul, folk rock, garage bands, and girl groups. Emerging sounds included psychedelia, easy listening and country pop.

How many songs will you recognize? Enjoy!

R.I.P PAUL REVERE

PUSHIN TOO HARD IS A COOLER SONG THAN CHICKEN FRIED

I realize the last "cooler than" post probably lost some people, but it was a personal vindication for me. Now comes another apples to oranges "cooler than" but I it is a point I feel I have to make. The Seeds 1966 hit "Pushin Too Hard" is cooler song than "Chicken Fried." I posted about my disdain for the song "Chicken Fried" on the old blog.

Why this comparison? These are two totally different songs. True, but there was a time in the recent past when these songs were part of a battle at the local location of a popular chain restaurant. I began going there after I would get off from work. It was a stressful time for me at my job. Part of the stress was due to the fact that some of the people, who worked at the radio station where I was employed, didn't like that I frequently made fun of a competing radio station. I'll let you think about the absurdity that situation. It was kind of like the CEOs at K-Mart not wanting anyone to disparage Wal-Mart.

Back to the subject of the post. I would go to The Buffalo Wild Wings location on Battlefield Road in Springfield to blow off steam and because it was near my apartment. One reason I liked to got there was they had a Touch Tunes jukebox. This jukebox isn't bound by a limited number of CDs or records, but you can find just about anything in one of these (with a few exceptions). It is kind of like a giant Ipod on a wall.

I find when I'm in a bad mood, there are certain songs that I want to hear that make me feel better.  So I was pleased to find that one of my all-time favorite songs could be played on the Touch Tunes jukebox: "Pushin Too Hard" by the Seeds.

I discovered the song when I was eight years old on a compilation LP of my older sister's called 24 Original Happening Hits (above). When I was eight years old, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Torquemada (not her real name), hated me. She treated me like dirt. One day, I decided to play this record to see what it sounded like because I had always been intrigued by the cover art of dancing people without faces. I heard a song with a guy snarling these words:

"All I want is to just be free
Live my life the way I wanna be
All I want is to just have fun
Live my life like it's just begun
But you're pushin' too hard
Pushin' too hard on me (too hard)" 

This song summed my life at eight years old, and pretty much the rest of my life. I also loved the fuzztone guitar solo in the middle of the song, which I always described as giving me the same sensation as chomping down on a piece of tinfoil while sticking your tongue in the prong on a 9 volt battery. Every time I hear it, I have to play air guitar to it.

So I was thrilled to find "Pushin Too Hard" in a modern jukebox. I began playing The Seeds only Top 40 hit every time I was at  Buffalo Wild Wings. The Touch Tunes jukebox had a section that listed the most played songs at that location and I had succeeded in making "Pushin Too Hard" one of the most played songs at the Battlefield Road location of Buffalo Wild Wings. That also made me some enemies.

At that time, there was a group of regulars that would be at BWW when I would be there. The nicest way I could say it is the group was made up of redneck goober guys in their late teens and early 20s, one or two attractive girls and a foursome of marauding fat girls.

This last group were the worst. If they saw you put money in the jukebox, they would run up and ask you what you were playing. When you told them what you were selecting, they would scream in your ear, "DON'T PLAY THAT! PLAY "CHICKEN FRIED"!" The nerve of these young women to ask me to play THEIR FAVORITE SONG with MY MONEY was maddening. Obviously, there were some people just stupid enough to comply with their demands, because "Chicken Fried" would play usually about four times in the two hours between the time I arrived after work and closing time. If you refused they did something that I called "song jumping." The jukebox has a feature where if you pay extra money you could "hear your song next." They would use their own money to "jump" my selections, including "Pushin Too Hard."
  
Why do I believe "Pushin Too Hard" is a cooler song than "Chicken Fried"?  One word: conformity!  "Pushin Too Hard" is in-your-face rebellion at it's best. It is the musical equivalent of a middle finger. It is Brando saying "I don't know. What ya got?" when the girl at the soda counter ask what he is rebelling against in The Wild One, it is Peter Fonda tying up the preacher in Wild Angels, it is Jack Nicholson telling the crabby waitress to "hold the chicken between your knees" in Five Easy Pieces, it is the Delta House gang disrupting the homecoming parade at the end of Animal House, it is Andy Travis putting the KISS Spirit of 76 poster over a funeral home calender in the pilot of WKRP in Cincinnati, and, for that matter, it is The Seeds performing "Pushin Too Hard" on The Mother-In-Laws (watch the adults faces).  The Seeds "Pushin Too Hard" paved the way for The Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen," Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," The Beastie Boys "Fight For Your Right" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

"Chicken Fried" is a checklist for people wanting to live the small town, redneck, square in the post 9-11 America (or is it Murica). It is the equivalent of those dumb memes posted every day on Facebook by the people you didn't like in junior high school. I'm surprised it doesn't mention watching The Waltons or Little House on The Prairie reruns on satellite TV.


Which brings me to another reason I don't like "Chicken Fried." I hate most country music anyway, but "Chicken Fried" is part of a trend I dubbed the "cut-and-paste" country song. All of these songs have identical lyrics. I was surprised to find out that Zac Brown, himself, has criticized this trend.
Granted, there were several songs of the same theme as "Pushin Too Hard" in the late 60s, i.e: "Let Me Be" The Turtles, "I'm Not Your Steppin Stone" The Monkees, "Talk Talk" The Music Machine, "Satisfaction" The Rolling Stones. The difference is the lyrics are different not exactly the same.

Every crappy country song these people played on the Touch Tunes jukebox was indistinguishable from "Chicken Fried."  They may have called them "Country Boy" by Aaron Lewis or "Dirt Road Anthem" by Jason Aldean, but they are basically "Chicken Fried." I will go further that these songs are barely removed from "Dixieland Delight" by Alabama. 

As I mentioned, my love for the song "Pushin Too Hard" by the Seeds goes back to childhood. When I was younger, I heard a longer version of  "Pushin Too Hard" on oldies stations. I cannot seem to find a version of this. It was not on the original LP. Sadly, most oldies and classic rock station no longer play the song. Even worse, Touch Tunes has removed The Seeds masterpiece rock anthem from their jukeboxes. Unfortunately, "Chicken Fried" remains in the jukebox and is only a one credit play. There is some horrible injustice about the disrespect for a song as cool as "Pushin Too Hard" and idiots liking "Chicken Fried."

RIGHT, CASEY??


 

YOUR DAILY ALLOWANCE OF FUZZTONE GUITAR

Recently, I was watching commercials from the 80s and 90s on You Tube. They reminded me of something I forgot about from that era: the obsession with bran. Every cereal boasted "Your daily allowance of bran."

At the time, I was one of the student DJs on the "Midnight Snack" on KSMU-FM. I would say, "Have you gotten your daily allowance of fuzztone guitar?"

A little quick trivia before I give you an Ipod playlist of "Your daily allowance of fuzztone guitar."
While it is commonly associated with psychedelia and heavy metal, fuzztone was created by accident by COUNTRY MUSIC PEOPLE IN NASHVILLE. Something was not hooked up right during the recording of Marty Robbins "Don't Worry." Not long after that, Chet Adkins decided to create his own version on a record for Ann Margaret called "I Just Don't Understand."

The Ventures then contacted Red Rhodes, who worked on the Marty Robbins hit about recreating that sound for an instrumental called "The 200 Pound Bee." Rhodes worked out the first pedal for fuzztone. They went on the market in 1962, but didn't sell well because the admen decided to market the fuzztone pedal as a device to make a guitar sound like a violin or horn.

The next year, Keith Richards used it on a Rolling Stones song called "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." From that moment on, fuzztone was a major part of rock and roll.

Here is a daily dose of fuzztone guitar for you readers. Note: this is not a "best" or "greatest" list. Don't argue with this list. It is a prescription; a health dose of fuzz tone guitar to make you feel better. I may prescribe another dose latter.  

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - The Rolling Stones
"Pushin Too Hard" - The Seeds
"To Die Alone" - The Bush
"Talk Talk" - The Music Machine
"Spirit In The Sky" - Norman Greenbaum
"She's Fallen In Love With a Monster Man" - Screaming Lord Sutch
"I Can See For Miles" - The Who
"I Heard Her Call My Name" - Velvet Underground
"I Can Only Give You Everything" - The Troggs
"Blue's Theme (From Wild Angels)" - Dave Allen & the Arrows
"House of the Rising Sun" - Fryjid Pink
"Your Auntie Grizelda" - The Monkees
"Heart Full of Soul" - The Yardbirds
"Bad Little Woman" - Shadows of Knight
"Addicted To Love" - Robert Palmer
"When Doves Cry" - Prince & the Revolution
"The Nile Song" - Pink Floyd
"Cowgirl In The Sand" - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
"Deflecting Grey" - The Pretty Things
"Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits
"I Take What I Want" - James & Bobby Purify
"Beat It" - Michael Jackson
"I'll Make You Pay" - The Shady Daze
"No Fun" - The Stooges
"Whole Lotta Love" - Led Zeppelin
"You Don't Love Me" - Kaleidoscope
"Foxy Lady" - Jimi Hendrix Experience
"No Time" - The Guess Who
"Think For Yourself" - The Beatles
"San Francisco Girls (Return To The Native)" - Fever Tree
"A Girl Like You" - Edwyn Collins
"Shadows" - The Electric Prunes
"Hurdy Gurdy Man' - Donovan
"Paranoid" Black Sabbath
"Smoke On the Water" - Deep Purple
"Bluebird" - Buffalo Springfield
"Who Is Gonna Mow Your Grass" - Buck Owens

I AM NOT ASHAMED PLAYLIST 5

It is time for me to list more songs that are in my Ipod that I'm not ashamed to admit to liking. Some call these guilty pleasures. Life is to short to be guilty about your entertainment choices.

Ars Nova - "March of the Mad Duke's Circus" (An early prog rock band)
Capt. Groovy and His Bubble Gum Army - "Capt. Groovy and His Bubble Gum Army" (Really Bobby  Bloom of "Montego Bay" fame)
The Monroes - "What Do All the People Know" (Great lost hit of the 80s)

Geoff Goddard - "Sky Men" (A sci-fi Joe Meek novelty. Goddard played keyboard on the more successful Joe Meek production "Telestar")

The Squares - "This is Airebeat" (British New Wave/pop pop of late 70s/early 80s "This has always been a backwater")
Tommy Roe - "Dizzy"
The English Congregation - "Softly Whispering I Love You"
The Fabulous Poodles - "Mirror Star" (A 70s punk song about playing air guitar)
Chad McDevitt Skiffle Group with Nancy Whiskey - "Freight Train" (Early British hit in this country in the 1950s)
Baz Luhrman - "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" (One of the best spoken word/recitations ever)
Cee Lo Green - "Forget You" (One of the great ultimate break up songs - How could anybody not like it?)
Ray Parker - "The Other Woman" (A great R&B hit of the 80s that you don't hear anymore)
Blondie - "Heart of Glass"
Louie Armstrong - "Old Man Mose"
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - "Abba Zaba"
The Rembrandts - "I'll Be There For You" (YES I DO LIKE THE THEME SONG TO FRIENDS! WANNA MAKE SOMETHING OF IT!)
The Breakfast Club - "Right On Track" (A memory from high school)
Owl City - "Fireflies"
Rockwell - "Somebody's Watching Me" (Barry Gordy Jr's son - featuring backing vocals by Michael and Jermaine Jackson)
The Combo Kings - "Batman A Go Go" (A soul dance hit from 1966 - There was a similar James Bond dance number)
The Seeds - "Pushing Too Hard" (One of my all time favorite songs. It sums up my life. If I ever find who was responsible for taking this out of the TouchTunes juke box at Buffalo Wild Wings, I will kill them!)
Charlie Dore - "Pilot of the Airwaves" (A song about a girl in love with a radio DJ. Dore was a Emmylou Harris sound alike from Australia)
Robbie Dupree - "Hot Rod Hearts" (I was told this was "dirty" when I was in elementary school - Never figured out why)
The Lettermen - "Come Back Silly Girl " (Early sunshine pop -slightly un-PC title)
October Country - "My Girlfriend Is a Witch" (Psychedelic/Sunshine Pop by Ray Bradbury fans - he even wrote the liner notes on their only LP)
Sarah Brightman/Michael Crawford - "The Phantom of the Opera"
The Beginning of the End - "Funky Nassau" (Fast reggae hit of the early 70s)
The Bosstweeds - "The Theme from Faster Pussycat Kill Kill"
The Coasters - "Little Egypt" (Singing Yiiiinnnng YYYaaang! Gitchy gitchy!)
The Hollywood Argyles - "Alley Oop"
Morris Day & the Time - "Jungle Love"
Even & Jaron - "Crazy About This Girl"
Cliff Richard - "Dreaming"
Hank Ballard & The Midniters - "Annie Had a Baby"
The Floaters - "Float On" (A Quiet Storm hit featuring the most romantic line ever "Cancer and my name is Larry")
The Bangles - "Walk Like an Egyptian"
Neil Sedaka "Bad Blood"
Lady Antebellum - "Need You Now"
The Hollies - "If the Lights Go Out" (From their 80s reunion LP - Why was this song not a bigger hit?)

If you want to see the previous "I AM NOT ASHAMED" Ipod playlist, here are links:
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4 

I AM NOT ASHAMED PART 3

More songs that "I AM NOT ASHAMED" to like (What most people call musical guilty pleasures).

"Lake Shore Drive" Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah (Country psychedelia with a ragtime piano? You knew a radio station was cool if they played this. KSHE & KFBD are two of those radio stations.)
"I Eat Cannibals" Total Coelo (British girl group with a sexually suggestive song and tacky 80s video)

"Living On A Prayer" Bon Jovi

"Don't You Want Me" Human League

"Mary's Prayer" Meet Danny Wilson

"I Fell In Love" Carlene Carter (Besides being a great song, Carlene Carter looks like Jennifer Sims, the first girl I ever kissed. She is on Mad Men some times.)
"Boy On the Roof" The Outnumbered (A Paisley Underground group singing about life as a gay teen - great fuzztone guitar fiff. I first heard this on KSMU in Springfield.)

"That Same Old Feeling" Pickettywitch

"I Know a Heartache When I See One" Jennifer Warnes (I heard this on KGBX-AM coming from an emergency doctor's visit to Springfield. The sun was setting in the fall. So I always think a sunset when I hear this sexy song from that nerdy, little, blond girl from the Smothers Brothers show.)
"Tight Fittin Jeans" Conway Twitty (Memories of the 80s and those designer jeans.)
"Raise A Little Hell" Trooper (A great lost heavy metal anthem)
"Like To Get To Know You" Spanky & Our Gang (Sunshine pop/psychedelia/lounge music)
"Chemistry" Semisonic (A power pop/Beach Boys-influenced minor hit that is 10 times better than there big hit "Closing Time")
"Glamorous Life" Shelia E (I had a crush on Shelia E when this was a hit. She was Prince's main squeeze at the time.)

"Rico Suave" Gerardo

"No Rain" Blind Melon (I wonder what the bee girl is doing today?)
"Hair" The Cowsills (How did the Cowsills get to record the coolest Broadway show tune ever?)

"The Warrior" Scandal

"Working On a Groovy Thing" The 5th Dimension

"Euro-Trash Girl" Cracker (Kerouacian song that beats, no pun intended, their big hit "Low")
"Jingle Jangle" The Archies (Is that Betty or Veronica singing with Archie on this? Saturday morning cartoon memories.)
"Solfeggio (Song of the Nairobi Trio)" - Robert Maxwell Orchestra (Ernie Kovacs & Sammy B. Goode fans know this song.)
"Stumblin In" Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman (Not only is this a great song, but it proves I still have a crush on Leather Tuscadaro.)

"Tragedy" The Bee Gees

"Lightening Strikes" Lou Christie

"Walking On Sunshine" Katrina & the Waves (Memories of drivers ed with Eunice Moneymaker-the summer of 1985)
"Tomorrow Never Knows" The Beatles (The beginning of the psychedelic music revolution)

"Close To You" Maxi Priest

"I'd To Teach The World To Sing" The New Seekers (The best soda pop jingle ever - Anybody that hates this song is stupid!)
"Artificial Flowers" Bobby Darin (Bobby Darin had a knack for making morbid subjects into great toe-tapping hits. Dickie Goodman used this in one of his parodies of The Untouchables.)
"La-La-La-La-La" The Blendells (A Hispanic garage band singing a Stevie Wonder song-that is just cool all over.)
"It's a Heartache" Bonnie Tyler (She looked like Eunice Moneymaker but sounded like Rod Stewart's sister-one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Thieman, used to play this for girls in our class experiencing relationship drama.)
"Tighter" Paul Revere & the Raiders (A psychedelic/sunshine pop love song that isn't heard enough)
"Makin It" David Naughton (The only big hit for the star of Dr. Pepper commercials and American Werewolf in London. This song was a major part of my childhood.)
"Out of the Question" Gilbert O'Sullivan (You never hear this song today-It is the one of the few songs of his that isn't politically correct in some way.)

"The Tra La La Song (The Banana Splits Theme)" The Banana Splits

"Super Freak" Rick James

"Loser" Beck

"Ebony Eyes" Bob Welch (Great guitar riff - RIP Bob)

"Beg Borrow and Steal" The Rare Breed

"Feed The Tree" Belly

"Precious To Me" Phil Seymour

"Pretty Flamingo" Manfred Mann

"Magic" Olivia Newton-John

"Paradise Garden" Peter Jay (An early 60s Joe Meek masterpiece)

"Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie! (A Man After Midnight)" ABBA

"Jungle Rock" Hank Mizell (A rockabilly tune that hit about 20 years after its release)

"Edge of a Broken Heart" Vixen

"Diggin For Gold" David John & the Mood (More Joe Meek stuff)
"Lonely Days" Bee Gees (Pre-disco hit of the 70s)
"In a Gadda Da Vida" Iron Butterfly (All 19 minutes of this psychedelic heavy metal masterpiece!)

"Mickey" Toni Basil

"You Are the Woman" Firefall

"C'est La Vie" B*Witched

"Barnabas Theme" The First Theremin Era (A disco version of the Dark Shadows theme song from 1969)
"Coronet Blue" Lenny Welch (Cool theme to a 60s TV show about a guy with amnesia- Cee-Lo Green needs to do a cover for a new movie version) 
"Don't Touch Me There" The Tubes (Best of the Phil Spector homages of the 70s. Sorry Carpenters.)
"Love Potion Number Nine" The Clovers ( I prefer the version that mentions Love Potion Number Ten)

"Marrakesh Express" Crosby, Stills & Nash

"Wigwam" Bob Dylan (Dylan as the Trololo Guy)
"Superstar" The Carpenters (Made famous by Chris Farley and David Spade in Tommy Boy)
"The End" Earl Grant      

I AM NOT ASHAMED PART 2

I couldn't wait. I needed to post a second volume of guilty pleasures  music "I am not ashamed" to like. I hope to update the Amazon store at the left of the blog with these songs or I may link them to Amazon's downloads.

DESDINOVA'S "I AM NOT ASHAMED" GUILTY PLEASURES PLAYLIST:

Amy Holland - "How Do I Survive"

Jennifer Page - "Crush"

The Equals - "Baby Come Back" (Early Eddy Grant)
The Bluenotes - "I Don't Know What It Is" (Cheesy 50s rock & roll love song)
Bob Seger and the Last Heard - "East Side Story" (His first record)

Vanilla Fudge - "You Keep Me Hanging On"

Karla Bonoff - "Personally"

Kate Bush - "Hammer Horror"

Tanya Tucker - "Can I See You Tonight?" (Remember the poster of her in a black leather jumpsuit holding T.N.T?)
Mama Cass - "California Earthquake" (She had a lot of courage to sing the line, "They tell me the fault-line runs right through here." Just saying.)

The Kingston Trio - "M.T.A"

Lindsfarne - "Lady Elenore"

Earl Grant - "House of Bamboo" (A cool song from an organist who sounded like Nat King Cole)
Kim Wilde - "Love Blonde" (The video sold me on this song. Kim Wilde is sssoooo sexy!)
Glen Campbell - "Wichita Lineman" (Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell-sunshine pop/country masterpiece with a synthesizer. I also like this because my father was a lineman at the time this was popular.)
Peter Murphy - "Cuts You Up" (Former Bauhaus singer with a Goth rock hit from my early days in radio)

Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield - "What Have I Done To Deserve This?"

Argent - "Hold Your Head Up"

Labelle - "Lady Marmalade"

Boys Don't Cry - "I Want To Be a Cowboy"

Middle of the Road - "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"

Katy Perry - "I Kissed a Girl"

James & Bobby Purify - "I'm Your Puppet"

Michael Cox - "Angela Jones" (Another cover better than the original. A Joe Meek production.)
The Buggles - "Video Killed the Radio Star" (Actually it was stupid, greedy people in management.)

Nik Kershaw - "Wouldn't It Be Good" 

Dean Friedman - "Ariel" (At the time this came out, people mistakenly thought this song was by Billy Joel.)
Roseanne Cash - "Seven Year Ache" (I always wanted to be the guy she is singing about.)
Canned Heat - "Going Up The Country" (I also like the song they did with the Chipmunks.)

Depeche Mode - "People Are People"

Daniel Boone - "Beautiful Sunday"

Fever Tree - "San Francisco Girls" (Is there a bad record containing fuzztone guitar and feedback?)
Olivia Newton-John - "Physical" (A big number one hit that radio stations don't play today.)

Marcy Playground - "Sex and Candy"

The Barbarians - "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?" (A mid-60s garage band making fun of homophobic jerks. The band's drummer, Moultly, had a prosthetic hook for a hand.)
Focus - "Hocus Pocus" (70s Prog/metal with a yodeler)

Four Seasons - "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)"

The Blow Monkeys - "Digging Your Scene" (I'd like anything from a group called The Blow Monkeys.)

The Bay City Rollers - "You Made Me Believe Magic"

Circus Maximus - "The Wind" (Jazzy/folk/psychedelic group with Jerry Jeff Walker)
Bananarama - "Cruel Summer"   

I AM NOT ASHAMED or DESDINOVA'S MUSICAL GUILTY PLEASURES

This post has two titles, because websites call what I'm about to post by another name and people looking for such will no doubt Google the more common phrase. This is a list of songs I like that many bloggers and pop culture websites refer to as "guilty pleasures." However, I have a different view point than most people (Don't I always) on this. I will turn 43 later this year and I have two college degrees...I WILL LIKE WHATEVER I WANT AN NOT APOLOGIZE FOR IT!

I have gotten flak about the music I like ever since I was in elementary school. Rednecks who tell you that the only music you should like is Hank Junior or people, who  tell you that the music you like is affiliated with the Satanic/Leftist/drug culture. I thought being in radio, I would meet people that liked as many various kinds of music as I did. WRONG! The problem with radio is there are people who only like what is popular at that moment or hate everything that is popular. Of course, the morons in the talk radio area HATE pop music of any kind and want it all banned from radio.If you mention that you like a certain pop song around these people they frequently tell you "The only song I like is the Star Spangle Banner." These people also claim to carry a copy of the Constitution with them everywhere.

On a personal note, I have always made fun of people who like country music and I tell people that I hate country music. Truth is there are a few songs on here that are country songs that I cannot live without.

So I have decided to swipe a phrase from the types of people, who usually criticize my musical taste, use in their little cut-and-paste postings on Facebook.. This is not so much a guilty pleasures list but the "I AM NOT ASHAMED" list. This is only the start of this. I plan to do follow up list.

DESDINOVA'S GUILTY PLEASURES "I AM NOT ASHAMED" PLAYLIST LIST
(In no particular order)

"Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" Culture Club - (Boy George is the most underated singers of all time).
"Lonely Boy" - Andrew Gold (I hated this song when I was younger, until I noticed it kind of rocks).
"May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" - Little Jimmy Dickens
"Just Like Heaven" - The Cure
"Fancy" - Bobbie Gentry
"Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein or Dracula" - The Diamonds (If I ever meet a horror movie loving girl like the one in this song, I will marry her on the spot).
"Click Click" - Dicky Doo & the Donts
"Green Slime" - The Green Slime
"Dress You Up" - Madonna
"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" - Edison Lighthouse
"Grazing In the Grass" - Friends of Distinction
"Rock & Roll Waltz" - Kay Starr
"Goodbye Earl" - The Dixie Chicks
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" - Bauhaus
"You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma" - David Frizzell & Shelly West
"Alice Long (You're Still My Favorite Girlfriend)" - Boyce & Hart
"Take On Me" - A-Ha
"Eloise" - The Damned (One of the few remakes that is better than the original).
"She-Bop" - Cyndi Lauper
"Point of No Return" - Expose
"Mmmbop" - Hanson
"Batman's Theme" - The Markets
"How About Us" - Champagne
"Let It All Hang Out" - The Hombres (Some people have called this a bad Bob Dylan imitation. I believe it is a really good imitation of Roger Miller).
"Della and the Dealer" - Hoyt Axton
"Gotta Get Away" - Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch (This song is in the pilot episode of the TV 70s show The Persuaders).
"Come Softly To Me" - Jane Olivor (Another remake that is better than the original).
"Pop Muzik" - M (This song bridged the gap between the disco era of the late 70s and the new wave era of the early 80s).
"Stop & Get A Ticket" - The Clefts of Lavender Hill
"I Can Make It With You" - Pozo-Seco Singers (Another underated singer, Don Willaims, before he was a major star).
"Psilocybe" - The Mad Violets (80s psychedelia)
"If I Can't Have You" - Yvonne Elliman
"Give It Up" - K.C. & The Sunshine Band
"Bad Time" - Grand Funk Railroad (This is as close as Grand Funk came to a power ballad - ignorred by classic rock radio).
"In The Year 2525" - Zager & Evans (The greatest one-hit wonder of the rock and roll era. It was number one the day we walked on the moon and the day I was born).
"Goody Goody Gumdrops" - 1910 Fruitgum Company
"Seventeen" - Winger
"I'd Love To Change the World" - Ten Years After
"Pretty Blue Eyes" - Steve Lawrence
"Rock Me Gently" - Andy Kim
"Unbelievable"  - EMF
"Experiments With Mice" - Johnny Dawkworth Orchestra
"Radioactive" - The Firm
"125" - The Haunted
"Yankee Rose" - David Lee Roth
"Don't Stop Believin" - Journey
"Walk Away Renee" - The Left Banke
"If You Seek Amy" - Britney Spears
"Rio" - Duran Duran
"Dust In the Wind" - Kansas
"Cherry Hill Park" - Billy Joe Royal
"King of Wishful Thinking" - Go West
"Tainted Love" - Soft Cell
"Bubblegum Factory" - Redd Kross
"Indian Reservation" - The Raiders
"Bend Me, Shape Me" - The American Breed
"Windy" - The Association
"Laid' - James
"My Special Angel" - Bobby Helms
"Butterflies Are Free" - The Free Design
"Who Do You Love (I Want To Know) - The Sapphires (One of the great lost R & B classics. Why oldies radio stations don't play it anymore is beyond me).
"Naughty Naughty" - John Parr
"Lotta Love" - Nicolette Larson
  

THE MUSIC MACHINE'S SEAN BONNIWELL DEAD AT 71

According to a website called Rock Edition, Sean Bonniwell, lead singer of the influential 60s garage band The Music Machine, has died at age 71. This is about the only article on Boniwell's death on the Internet. Apparently, the mainstream media is more interested in unimportant people like Tim Tebow and Sarah Palin.

The Music Machine had one major Top 40 hit in 1966 with "Talk Talk," followed by "People In Me," which made it to #66 in 1967. They also had two singles in 1967 that became cult favorites, "Double Yellow Line" and "The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly."  When they moved to Warner Brothers in late 1967, they became known as The Bonniwell Music Machine, which was more sunshine pop than early punk/metal.

With Sean Bonniwell and Michael Jackson both deceased (as well as Slappy White), we will probably be forced to listen to some doofus country singer who wears two gloves (probably those Wells Lamont gloves because Paul Harvey advertised them).

The video is of the Music Machine performing "Talk Talk" on Where The Action Is. Along with "Pushin Too Hard" by the The Seeds, "Talk Talk" could be the story of my life.

UPDATE (12/29/2011):  The Los Angeles Times has an article on the death of Sean Bonniwell. Kudos to them.