Spectropop - Digest Number 603

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002

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                        Jamie LePage (1953-2002)
                  http://www.spectropop.com/Jamie.htm
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There are 9 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

      1. You will buy Ripples 8
           From: Mark Frumento 
      2. Re: Mostly radio
           From: james botticelli 
      3. The Begining Of The Century
           From: Martin Roberts 
      4. Re: Mostly radio
           From: Javed Jafri 
      5. old new stuff...  still catchin' up here
           From: Alan Gordon 
      6. Toni Wine live in L.A.
           From: a toombs 
      7. Re: more on Classic Hits
           From: Phil Milstein 
      8. Ladybugs/Clingers - all girl groups
           From: Patrick Rands 
      9. RAMONES!  They changed my life.
           From: Neil Hever 


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Message: 1
   Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 22:21:13 -0400
   From: Mark Frumento 
Subject: You will buy Ripples 8

Hows that for really poor subliminal advertising?

Got my copy of Ripples 8 a few days ago (from good ol' 
Amazon.uk). It's taken me this time to digest the darn thing. 
As adverstised, Kingsley and co have delivered a set very 
different from the others in the series. The main difference 
being that there are very few cover versions on #8 (in fact 
I only recognize two, Let's Ride by the Montanas and Butterfly 
by Marmalade).

Some of the highlights for me:
The Blinkers - Dreams Secondhand - Killer soul/pop but still 
retains its Britishness. Many of us have this song on Sequel's 
'Paisley Pop' but the sound is better here. This track could 
be on 5 different comps and I'd never grow tired of the 
incredible hook.

Britt - You Really Have Started Something - OK, I have an 
affection for Carter/Lewis songs. 

The Two of Each - Trinity Street - Add one more song to your 
Hatch/Trent collection. Great, bouncy, catchy stuff!

The Onyx - It's All a Put On - Starts off like PF Sloan but 
twists around to find itself back in the UK.... maybe its 
the faint mellotron that does it? For me this is the best 
all-round song on the CD.

Freshmen - Close Your Eyes - Have it already but it don't 
matter! A real revelation from the pen of Peter Lee Stirling. 

Val McKenna - Don't Hesitate - The song is muffled and raw, 
it can't be more than a demo, it's sloppy, it's over before 
it starts. I love it!

James Galt - With My Baby - Lyle and Gallagher song that 
sounds like they spent 3 full days listening to the Impressions 
before they wrote this one. It's alright with me!

John Christian Dee  - Take Me Along - Anyone who could write 
a song called "Daddy is a Baddie" can't be bad at all. This 
one is written by John Carter so I'm bound to love it.

Pinkerton's Colors - Mum & Dad - . A British take on the 
"yes we are young but why can't do as grown ups do" theme 
and it works in its own sly way. Any song that opens with 
the line "Mum and Dad used ta, so they say. Mum and Dad used 
ta, every day" has got to be a classic.

Strawberry Jam - This Is to a Girl - Like the liner notes say... 
tons of twists and turns... deserves many repeat listens.

The Bloomfields - Homing In on the Next Trade Wind - Great title 
and something amazing from the brother Gibb Maurice. Shocked the 
heck out of me.

Buy Ripples 8. Keep quality comps like this on the market.



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Message: 2
   Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 16:06:38 -0400
   From: james botticelli 
Subject: Re: Mostly radio

Country Paul wrote:
> Focus groups and 10-second snippets on the telephone have 
> taken the place of people "with ears", and it shows.  
> Oldies stations are egregious sinners in this field - yes,
> Fats Domino had more hits than "Blueberry Hill" - honest!,
> but this shortsightedness transcends all formats.

Actually fragmentation or "fragging" was radio's first line 
of defense when television threatened its profitability in 
the 1950's. Whereas people had listened to radio for family 
entertainment prior to TV's advent, they now listened to radio 
only when they weren't gathered 'round the box. This meant that 
while Dad might enjoy Tommy Dorsey, Frankie, June, etc., Junior 
and Juniorette were less than thrilled with Dad's preferences 
and listened to their own radios in their bedrooms. 
I now take you to Omaha, Nebraska, circa 1949 or thereabouts, 
where two local DJs were swilling at the local gin mill and 
noticed over the course of the evening that people were making 
the same selections again and again at the jukebox. They reported 
this to their station's owner and suggested that increased 
listenership might result if the station stopped its practice of 
playing every record that came in and focused on the best-selling/
popular-with-the-drinkin'-crowd sounds. The owner bit, and the 
result was the gradual birth of Top 40. Radio has been in a 
continuous struggle to report the level of profits television 
boasts, and the result is this "fragged" out, play-it-safe 
programming philosophy that has a chokehold on the industry today.

> "New country", 
> for example, a wide-open free-ranging sound when it coalesced
> in the late 80s, is now as stereotypical in its mid-tempo
> suburban-blue-collar-plus-twang sound as top 40
> (or Contemporary Hit Radio) is with its narrow
> Britney-boy-band-and-hip-hop focus.

Again, its all about the demographic fragment.

> When somehow something of
> quality finds its way onto the charts despite lack of airplay,
> or something different from the expected norm hits big (the most
> famous recent examples being the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou"
> soundtrack in the country field, or the John Mayer album in pop),
> the suits just mutter "aberration," go back to their ever-narrowing
> charts, and wonder where the listeners went.......

.....and try to please Clear Channel's or whoever's stockholders 
with nice quarterly statements. I like my mutual funds to grow 
too. Whoever said that totalitarianism would be Communism's 
Achilles' heel? We've created our own form of totalitarianism
with "free market" capitalism.

JB/headed off to Boston Market, Toys 'r' Us and then to Sam Goody's



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Message: 3
   Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 22:07:56 +0100
   From: Martin Roberts 
Subject: The Begining Of The Century

How come no mention yet of The Ramones "End Of The Century" 
CD reissue? With the Spectropop talk on Oldies radio, great 
to hear "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio" this has to be 
one of the best intros ever. This and the 'interesting' (I 
like it!) "Baby I Love You" were big hits in England and I 
still recall the smug way I'd 'mention' to anyone within 
earshot of either track playing on the radio, "Oh yeah, Phil 
Spector produced this". Happy Days!
The CD is reissued with six bonus tracks including Phil's 
"I Want You Around" remix. (previously only available on 45). 
I remember the original LP release very fondly and most of 
it still sounds great. The CD has a marvellous booklet with 
good pictures and excellent - as to be expected - sleeve notes 
by Harvey Kubernik
Martin



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Message: 4
   Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 19:53:31 -0400
   From: Javed Jafri 
Subject: Re: Mostly radio

Thank You Paul for your excellent commentary on radio. 
My two favorite formats are the classic top 40 era 1966-68 
and progressive free-form 69-74.

Incidentally 1050 CHUM in Toronto has been resurrected and 
is once again playing oldies after a 16 month try at sports 
talk. I listened to them in the car recently and was happily 
surprised to hear  a wider mix during one set. The set included 
Sail on Sailor by the Beach Boys, a song by Ken Tobias, Rhiannon 
by Fleetwood Mac and Unless You Care by Terry Black.

When CHUM folded it's oldies format last time around I was very 
disappointed by their narrow selection. Non Canadian listeners 
may have thought that they had quite a varied format due to 
Canadian content regulations. They played a lot of Canadian songs 
that never charted anywhere else or only reached the lower rungs 
of the charts. Some surprising selections were simply written or
produced by a Canadian born artist.

I hope things are more varied this time around. At the very least 
they seem to have expanded into the late 70's and early 80's. I 
know that is not necessarily a good thing. It's too early to tell 
really. Terry Black's 3 hits have always been staples on CHUM but 
the Ken Tobias track they played was not one of the regulars and 
of course Sail On Sailor did nor even crack the top 40.

Also someone recently mentioned that only about 9 Beatles songs 
are heard on oldies radio but I think they are the one exception 
to the rule. I recently heard Misery and While My Guitar Gently 
Weeps on CHUM and have heard many other album tracks by the Beatles 
on various oldies stations.

Javed



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Message: 5
   Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 16:56:49 -0700
   From: Alan Gordon 
Subject: old new stuff...  still catchin' up here

Neil Hever:
> I also think the XTC side project Dukes of  the Stratosphear 
> "25 0'clock" was really quite groovy. Any thoughts?  I sure 
> would like to get some new "old" stuff I missed along the way.

I love that XTC album.  A trio of very talented, tongue-planted
-firmly-in-cheek, ironists (is that a word?  should be).

As was offered a few times in the group:  the soundtrack to 
"That Thing You Do) is not exactly in that "groovy," time, 
more like "cool-man".  One of my fave raves.

Not exactly Retro Future or Present Retro or whateveryouwannacallit... 
Jellyfish is a fantastic band outta the early '90's that has 
a very "groovy," pseudo-psychedelic, paisley, backwards guitar 
sorta sound, a la Beach Boys crossed with Badfinger, Queen and 
Revolver era Beatles.  Very cool stuff.



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Message: 6
   Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 09:39:02 -0000
   From: a toombs 
Subject: Toni Wine live in L.A.

Just saw that Toni Wine, co-writer of "Groovy Kind Of Love", 
"Black Pearl" and "Candida" and one of the top background 
singers of the 60's and 70's (the voices of Betty & Veronica 
on the early Archies records, including "Sugar, Sugar" and 
"Jingle Jangle" among many others) will be playing at 
Genghis Cohen in L.A. this Friday at 9:30. 
I've never heard of her performing before. The club doesn't 
have much information about what's going to happen, and they 
don't take reservations. I've been there before and the room 
is small, but the sound is very good.



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Message: 7
   Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 09:29:39 +0000
   From: Phil Milstein 
Subject: Re: more on Classic Hits

Walking by an indoor construction site this morning, I 
overheard a worker's sarcastic reaction to the opening 
chords of an overly-familiar Classic Hit on the radio. 
"I haven't heard this song since yesterday afternoon", 
he said, which despite the sparsity of words seemed to 
say it all on the narrowing of radio formats.

--Phil Milstein



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Message: 8
   Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 15:47:05 -0000
   From: Patrick Rands 
Subject: Ladybugs/Clingers - all girl groups

I recently got my hands on video footage of a couple of 
exciting all-girl bands doing Beatles covers in the 60s. 
If anyone knows if either of these were released as records 
please let me know. The first all girl band was the Ladybugs 
(from Petticoat Junction) who appeared on Ed Sullivan in 1964 
doing a fun version of "I Saw Him Standing There". I'm sure 
there's a story behind this one - here's a picture of the 
Ladybugs: http://petticoat.topcities.com/photo9.htm

The second is the Clingers doing a version of "Good Day 
Sunshine". This is exciting because it has some more of the 
Clingers Janis Joplin inspired singing you can also hear on 
the Easybeats cover "Gonna Have A Good Time" single.

I would love to hear more about all-girl bands from the 60s. 
Are there any others which come to mind who were fun or 
exciting?

:Patrick



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Message: 9
   Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 16:34:43 -0000
   From: Neil Hever 
Subject: RAMONES!  They changed my life.

Martin et al, It was the Ramones who brought me back to my 
music roots.  I remember hearing a DJ play "Surfin' Bird" 
and making a connection to the 60s.  It made me think about 
great music I heard as a a kid including The Trashmen, Music 
Explosion, Count Five and so forth.  The Ramones stuff could 
be played easily simply by open tuning a guitar making it 
accessible to someone my age.  The Ramones opened a door again 
to great rock and garage style music.  I found "new" old 
recordings by The Chocolate Watchband, Thirteenth Floor 
Elevators, The Remains and a whole host of others on Nuggets 
and Pebbles.  Truly, the Ramones changed my life!!  
Neil Hever



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