Eddie Van Halen [1955-2020]

Artist: Van Halen

LP: 7" single

Song: "Pretty Woman"

[ listen ]

 

I have to admit, I've never been a huge Van Halen fan or anything, but still I was sad to hear that guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. Everyone else seemed to be jumping online to post eulogies to Van Halen today, so I figured... might as well jump. 

 

"Pretty Woman" was the first Van Halen song I became aware of; it was played on the radio a lot when my brother Matt and I first began paying rapt attention to pop music in late 1981 and early 1982. ("Pretty Women" peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in '82.) You can read all about Van Halen here, and go here to find a nice obituary for Eddie in the NY Times. I didn't know he had been married to Valerie Bertinelli!

 

[ L to R: Michael Anthony, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen ]

 

Eddie Van Halen

[ January 26, 1955 — October 6, 2020 ]

We will miss you, Eddie.

Eurythmics

Artist: Eurythmics

LP: 7" single

Song: "Never Gonna Cry Again"

[ listen ]

While I'm driving the truck around delivering mail each day, I begin the morning by listening to 95.7 The Jet FM, which is a local '80s music station. Unfortunately, they only seem to be aware of about 112 songs from the 1980s, so they just keep playing those same ones over and over again. Some of the songs are SO overplayed, I finally had to make a rule. At first, I decided I would change the dial over to 90.3 KEXP whenever The Jet played any one of these three songs: 1.) "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor; 2.) "Sunglasses At Night" by Corey Hart; or 3.) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics. 

But then I got so tired of hearing "American Pie" by Don McLean every 75 minutes (it turns out I absolutely hate this song; it's like some awful children's rhyming game!) and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (not his finest moment, surely) that I had to add them to the list too. Then there's that other song, maybe by The Traveling Hillbillies or whatever, where the guy (Tom Petty?) whines, "She's a good girl...she's crazy about Elvis..." Oh, please. She sounds like a bore! I had to add that one to the list too. So basically, I listen to 95.7 The Jet for about 11 minutes every morning before they overplay one of these songs again and I have to change the station. 

We could choose any '80s artist for the following game, but let's take, for example, Eurythmics. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a fantastic song (it went to no. 1 in 1983). But if you're going to claim that you play "the very best variety" of '80s music on the radio, then there's simply no reason in heaven or on earth to be playing this (or any other) song 6 or 7 times a day! Every now and then The Jet remembers about "Here Comes the Rain Again" (no. 4 in 1984), but as for Eurythmics, that's it, buddy. That's all you get. No "Missionary Man" (no. 14 in 1986), no "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" (w/ Aretha Franklin! - no. 18 in 1985), no "Right By Your Side" (no. 29 in 1983), no "I Need a Man" (no. 46 in 1988), no "Thorn In My Side" (no. 68 in 1986), no "Would I Lie to You?" (no. 5 in 1985), no "Love Is a Stranger" (no. 23 in 1983), no "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)" (no. 22 in 1985), no "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" (no. 78 in 1986), no "Don't Ask Me Why" (no. 40 in 1988) and no "Who's That Girl" (no. 21 in 1983). And they've certainly never played "Never Gonna Cry Again," which is Eurythmics' first single, from 1981. It didn't chart in the US at all, and only went to no. 63 in the UK. I think I'll start calling the station to request it. Relentlessly.

[ Eurythmics in 1981 ]

Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours

 Artist: Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours

LP: Country Dance Time

Song: "Detour"

[ listen ]

Song: "Leon's Guitar Boogie"

[ listen ]

I'm back. Here are a couple of tunes from this Ernest Tubb (with his Texas Troubadours) record I picked up at Fat Cat Records for just $.99 the other day. I'm willing to guess this record once belonged to someone with the initials "JHN." (John Henry Nashville? Jeb Henry Nistlethwhite? Who knows!) A lot has happened over the past four months while I haven't been posting. I wonder what some of the titles would be if Ernest Tubb and His Texas Troubadours were still around to write an LP full of songs about everything that's going on right now.

[ Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours ]

ABBA / Matt Williams [1967-2020]

Artist: ABBA

LP: Super Trouper
Song: "Super Trouper"

[ listen ]

Speaking of "family vibes," my brother Matt died suddenly of a heart-attack this past Saturday morning down in Portland, Oregon. I could write 100+ paragraphs filled with all the memories I have of him, but I'm just gonna mention one. And then I'm going to post 100+ photos instead.

Matt loved ABBA. I mean, he didn't dress up like them or anything, but I remember when he was about 13 years old in the early '80s, he had ABBA's "Super Trouper" on cassette and played it a lot. Well at age 11, I was just hip enough to know that ABBA had gone slightly out of fashion, so I teased him in front of his friends: "You like ABBA! You like ABBA!" Now of course I have all of ABBA's albums and recognize that they are actually one of the coolest things ever to come out of Europe...and also that another one of the coolest things ever is to be slightly out of fashion. My brother was way ahead of me.

Matt liked the album's title track in particular...and I do too. If anyone was a Super Trouper, it was Matt. In spite of  whatever I or anyone else believes, I like to think that now lights are gonna' find him shining like the sun, smiling, having fun, feeling like a #1. And I hope he won't ever feel blue, like he'd sometimes be, 'cause somewhere in the crowd there's me.

[ As a young lad, sittin' on the shag ]

[ Bug eyes ]

[ Photo for the cover of our first LP ]

[ Matt the baker boy ]

[ Matt and his glass ]

[ Out at the farm, slightly overdressed ]

[ Marching to the beat of our own drum ]

[ Okay, actually maybe Matt DID dress like ABBA ]

[ ABBA ]

[ Brothers at the oven ]

 [ Brothers at the campground ]

 

[ The Williams Family siblings ]

[ Happy to be taking care of his little brother ]

[ Matt with friends, champions at the table ]

[ At the table with mom ]

[ At Original Hotcake & Steak House in Portland, OR ]

[ Matt turns six ]

Matthew Lawrence Williams
[ January 21, 1967 — May 30, 2020 ]

We will miss you, Matt. Please let me know when you've seen this.

The Family Vibes

Artist: The Family Vibes

LP: Confined to Soul
Song: "Garbage Man"

[ listen ]

Here's a little something for a funky Friday, coming at you from all the way back in 1973. The Family Vibes are reportedly Ike Turner's backing band, which I suppose is why he is presenting them to us. Thank you. I love this "Garbage Man" track, in which a neighborhood garbage man woos his lady by offering to grant her an unlimited number of treasures that he has gleaned from his work. 

I remember reading about a documentary someone made a few years ago in New Zealand or someplace like that, and it was all about garbage men. They even choreographed a musical number in which all the men sang and danced as they collected the city's refuse. But now that I've typed that out, I wonder if I actually read about this film, or if maybe it was just something that happened in one of my dreams.

I feel like people in society generally look down their noses at garbage men (like, they wouldn't want their daughter or son to date them). But I've run into quite a few garbage men in the North Seattle neighborhood alleyways while delivering mail, and they're generally a friendly bunch, and rather fit too from lifting loads of everyone's discarded shit all day long! The recycling and yard waste fellows are generally an attractive set as well. And who knows? Maybe one day one of them could become a famous artist!

[The Family Vibes ]

Russell Dean

Artist: Russell Dean

LP: Russell Dean
Song: "Foreign Legion Seaman"

[ listen ]

It seems Russell Dean only made this one LP, back in 1971. So you have to ask: Why did it flop? Was it the bangs? The cover of my copy has been vandalized by someone with poor grammar. You have to ask: Did the perpetrator ever eventually learn the proper usage of indefinite articles 'a' vs. 'an'? Their brief critique of Russell is rather harsh, and you have to ask: Was it due to some interpersonal misunderstanding or maybe a hostile confrontation at an open-mic session at a popular Kansas City cafe, something like that...or was it, you know, the bangs? I wonder if Russell Dean is still alive. I just found out that Lynn Shelton and Fred Willard aren't, so you have to ask: Is anyone still alive? I looked for Russell online and came up with several possibilities, so you have to ask: Could one of THESE be this same Russell Dean? ...the one who's a idiot, I mean. These; these; these; these