Return with no Return

Comebacks, Reunions and remakes all played an integral part of the fabric of the 1980's. Early on in the decade we saw the return of 50's and 60's icons including Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, and Gary U.S. Bonds, all of whom returned with new albums filled with original material. Then there were the established bands of the 80's who elected to re-visit the music of their youth, before it became somewhat of the norm. Van Halen's 1982 release, Diver Down is a perfect example. The band struck gold for the second time in their career with a monster rendition of a 1960's classic. Following the earlier success of You Really Got Me, along came an unforgettable rendition of Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman. The album featured five cover tunes and only seven originals. Whether or not VH purists embraced the record was of no consequence, as it propelled this band beyond popularity and into the realm of super-stardom. Burgeoning artist or mainstream performer, there was big money to be made in remakes; a substantial return on a return to the past. Billy Idol exploded on to the early 80's scene with the Tommy James and the Shondell's classic, Mony Mony. Who can forget Naked Eyes hitting it big with There's Always Something There to Remind Me; a semi-forgettable Burt Bacharach penned tune. Cheap Trick stayed current with a memorable version of the Elvis Presley fave, Don't Be Cruel. David Lee Roth on his solo outing continued to hit with cover tunes including the Beach Boys California Girls, and the flamboyant Just a Gigolo/Ain't Got Nobody. The medley version dated back to the mid 1950's, but the individual tunes go back to the early 1900's! Equally unlikely was the resurfacing of a 1929 Irving Berlin classic made popular by Fred Astaire. Taco's Puttin' on the Ritz put him on the map in 1982. There are certainly many more both worthy of mention, and probably quite a few that were not so worthy. This month I will take you back to 1985, 1983, and 1984 respectively. The possibility exists that some of these tunes are indeed not unknown, but most certainly have been forgotten. As curator, of an 80's museum in my mind, I felt it time to dust off the vinyl, and bring these classic tunes back from the grave to hopefully gain a small bit of notoriety, or at the very least a smile or two. I am assuming by now that all of you know the drill, however should this be your first time here, I urge you to hit the play button below, close your eyes, and journey back with me once more into the land of the Unknown 80's.

Morty!

June 2009

If at First You Don't Succeed...

We have this radio station here in Manhattan, that when it made its debut back in the late 90's seemed like a much needed breath of fresh air. Of course with maturity setting in, a classic rock format centered primarily around the music of my childhood would make for a comfortable place to call home, a respite from the loud abrasive current sound that the younger generation found inspirational.

Do we eventually become our parents, closing our minds to the newer sound, finding refuge in our past?

I still enjoy the stereo cranked up to eleven; a not so obscure 80's reference, primarily when it is blasting the music of said decade now almost thirty years gone.

Where am I going with this rant?

When our beloved New York City classic rock station hit the airwaves, they boasted the largest rock and roll library in the country.

(Maybe the world, I don't pay attention to buzz words and tag lines).

Apparently, the library is not as large as we were led to believe. I figure I have counted two hundred songs (give or take), which at one time may have been considered downright bountiful, but in the days of the mighty iPod...

Thus the need for a place called "The Unknown 80's."

Somewhere beneath the radio hits and one hit wonders that current radio stations rally around during their once a week, once a day (etc.) 80's marathons lies some incredible music that inexplicably has been overlooked.

This time around, we take you to the nation's capital, home of Tommy Keene, an artist often considered one of the 1980s most critically acclaimed (and commercially ignored) singer/songwriters.

The Morty story takes us back once again to radio station WNYT, where for a limited period of time, this unknown musical talent found respect in the guise of "heavy rotation" on college radio. Whether I (permanently) borrowed this EP long after it had been forgotten, or quite possibly (yet highly unlikely) had been handed this piece of vinyl to store in a Morty musical time capsule not to be unearthed again for a minimum of a quarter century remains to be seen. While this audio treasure spent the better part of that time collecting dust, its title track remained forever locked within the fringes of my subconscious.

The result?

Surviving move after move, apartment after apartment, to deservedly find a home here on the World Wide Web, where hopefully, those well outside the circle of that small college radio station and my (thankfully) large and intact memory can come to enjoy this nugget of musical history.

As always, I ask you to leave a comment on your way out, just a small hint of your visit here. Regardless, my mission continues.

Hit the play button below, and take a trip with me once more. Tell your friends, relatives, enemies, ex-spouses...

You get the message.

Blast from Two Pasts

Well it's nice to be back here after a month long hiatus, not that too many people noticed, but I'm okay with that. My major focus has been on the alternate sight at mortmaz.blogspot.com, where following the unfortunate passing of one of my favorite musicians, and all around nice guy, I spent literally weeks combing back through my life to dredge up everything I could remember to tell my tale of a rock and roll obsession. If I have wet your whistle, or aroused your curiosity, I hope you will drop by there to see what I am talking about. That said, let's take it back to my favorite year in the unknown 80's realm, 1984. This artist comes once again from my college radio past at New York Tech's WNYT. The only vinyl I recall seeing from this guy was a 12" sampler sent primarily to radio stations in advance of the upcoming album release. Side A featured what I am assuming was the single. Music director, (we'll call him M) wrote: "I'm not sure who did the original of this classic, but you'll recognize it instantly"

I didn't.

Go back over the last few posts and re-familiarize yourselves with my ailment called Musical Cluenessness.

In fact, none of us at 'NYT could remember. I took a stab at The Dave Clark Five. It was not until 1987, following the release of an uber-popular, yet far from critically acclaimed cinematic flick, that any of us would find out who recorded this now iconic classic.

"It's a great cover, really good production, 80's sounding, yet tough enough," continues M.

Side A featured a longer club mix version of the tune, while side B featured the radio mix, and another cut, Palm of My Hand.

Musically clueless and close minded as I was back then, I never listened to the second cut, and only discovered it on this cool rainy Saturday afternoon.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER!

"Try Palm of my Hand," M concludes. It makes a great segue with Van Halen's Jump.

I can guarantee that for the short time this record was in rotation, many a WNYT DJ tested the segue theory as per the esteemed music director.

I'll try it later and see how it sounds.

M was primarily an alternative music aficionado, thus the limited amount of information revealed about the artist. It took me quarter of a century to do the research and find out that this guy comes from an impressive rock and roll past! I am duly impressed and will reveal no more here. For that bit of info, you will have to once again hit the play button below and take another trip with me back in time to the Unknown 80's. Please make sure to leave a comment on your way out, and pass the word to other 80's enthusiasts.

See you next time,

Morty!

RPM: A Long (Island) Time ago in a club scene far, far away...

With six weeks of winter ahead, what better place to hibernate than deep within the realm of the Unknown 80's?
Welcome back.
This time around, I thought I might try something different. While researching last months featured artist; Yipes, I had come across a small number of pictures highlighting the band in an early 80's live performance at a college. While there was nothing groundbreaking there, the candid's got me to thinking about the band's earlier days, before the A&R person came along with a pen in one hand and a recording contract in the other.
Everyone starts somewhere.
What were they doing in the weeks, months and years leading up to that momentous occasion?
How difficult was it to play original material in the Wisconsin club scene at that time?
What did it take to rise above the other bands and get those tunes heard?
How did it differ from that of the Long Island club scene with which I had become so familiar?
I can pretty much break down the 1980's Long Island scene into two categories:
A. Bands in pursuit of a record deal
B. Bands in pursuit of a party.
RPM fell into the latter category.
This is not to take away from the musical prowess of any of the individuals depicted here. Each and every one of them were musically gifted in their own right. RPM left an indelible imprint on the Long Island circuit. Beginning in 1984 as a cover band, they started out in smaller clubs, often opening for some of the more established local acts. It was on one such night, in a room in the New York City borough of Queens that I had first come across RPM. Specifically, it was on the eve of the historic Live Aid show that would commence the next morning several miles south in Philadelphia, Pa. I listened with half an ear, waiting rather impatiently for the main act to hit the stage, a group of friends whom I will one day write a book about as it was they, who more or less provided the soundtrack of my life during those years. RPM however had not gone forgotten. I vividly remember the band capably covering the Steel Breeze hit "You Don't Want Me Anymore," one of my favorite one-hit wonders from the early part of the decade. The memory stops there. It would be another two years yet, before I would cross paths with these guys again. By the fall of 1987, the RPM I had stumbled upon was a completely different unit. Scaled down to four members, the band was now led by renowned front man Joel Frixx. Having made a name for himself over the years with Long Island's Vixen, followed by Tara, Joel brought RPM out of the smaller rooms and into the Long Island limelight, cementing themselves as one of the top drawing bands on the copy circuit. An entirely different dynamic, the band ran through an immense catalog of tunes ranging from the 1960's through the new music sounds of the mid-80's, covering the likes of New Order, Erasure, The Cure, and Depeche Mode to name a few. The idea of performing a set of their own music had never been a priority, primarily because there just were not enough original tunes to draw from, yet in 1986, the band had been offered a gig at Long Island's legendary My Father's Place, an institution that gave rise to the likes of Billy Joel, The Police, The Talking Heads, and so many more. With less than two weeks to prepare, they put their heads together and (in what I would like to assume was an intense writing session) rapidly penned enough tunes to cover a set. Today, they laughingly admit that most of those tunes were not worth much more than the paper on which they were written. A small number of similar gigs would follow in Manhattan, but after a short period of time, the band went back to doing what they did best, conducting some of the greatest party nights that Long Island club owners and patrons would remember long after those years had become but a memory.
It is with that very thought in mind, that I happily induct into my personal Unknown 80's hall of fame; a group of guys that I am both proud and honored to consider as friends. The live footage that follows was shot in 1987 at Long Island's Rumrunner of Oyster Bay. The interviews were conducted at EKO studio's in Deer Park, Long Island nearly a decade later, in the fall of 1996 as the band was preparing for a 10 year reunion/anniversary celebration. The original music featured here is really only of the tip of the iceberg, yet briefly allows a small glimpse into Long Island's 80's music scene.
Sound Engineer, Steve Porcelli summed it up best during the recording of the '96 interviews:
"They don't want to tell you about all of the debauchery that this band has left in its wake."
What is left for me are some of the greatest memories of those carefree years, and it is my hope that for some, this preview might rekindle just a bit of the good times that transpired back then. For the rest of you; enjoy this trip back in time. Once again, I implore you to leave a comment on your way out, and spread the word. In the meantime, hit the play button below and take a journey with me once more into the world of the Unknown 80's.
See you next month!
Morty
Feb. 2009

YIPES!! How Did We Wind Up Here?

Happy New Year to all of you who have made your way here either in the past or now, for the first time. As we usher in a new year, I thought I might take you back to the beginning of a new decade. Alright, twenty-nine years ago it was a new decade. Unbeknownst to me then, it had become a decade that I would often defer to musically, and almost thirty years later make a valiant attempt at briefly educating other's in a subject I have come to receive an imaginary PhD in; the "Unknown 80's."

It was not until 1981 when I had accidentally stumbled across this 1980 release by a band that hailed from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Musically clueless; a condition you will find noted on this site repeatedly, I was still in the judge a book by it's cover state of mind. Generally, the bland coloring on this, their second album cover, tied in with the simplistic name of the band would have made for an instant turn-off, had I not flipped the cover over to peruse the album's contents. Stop right there, my musically uneducated mind commanded! Is that Darlin' listed on side two? Darlin' as in the Wilson/Love Darlin' made famous by The Beach Boys? This called for an immediate spin on WNYT Radio's production studio turntable, an easy task as I was already in that very space perusing the soon to be discarded records along the back wall. The space had been inexplicably reserved for albums no longer considered for radio station airplay. Most of those that had found their way to this lowly were there for good reason. This particular record however was a gem, a true piece of gold haphazardly deposited amongst the wasteland of Fool's Gold. Admittedly, had it not been for the accidental finding of a Beach Boys remake here, this musical treasure may forever have remained buried. As the album would surely not be missed, I took it home on a permanent loan basis where it now resides safely amongst the records on my back wall, a place I return to often.

The Official Story:

From Wikipedia:

Front man McCurdy was influenced at an early age by the first appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. After teaching himself guitar and participating in several high school bands, he went on to front Yipes! in the late 1970s. Often described as a power pop or New Wave band, Yipes! enjoyed some moderate success after being signed to RCA/Millennium in 1978. However, the label dropped the band after only a few years.


From TrouserPress.com:

Wisconsin's Yipes! first appeared on Big Hits of Mid-America Vol. 3, the watershed Twin/Tone compilation. Their two albums are filled with sprightly, hard-edged power pop given distinction by energetic, cliché-free music, witty songs and Pat McCurdy's expressive, gangly vocals. What makes Yipes! worthwhile is their spirit of good fun, an avoidance of obvious derivativeness and well-conveyed enthusiasm.


Although I have chosen not to feature "The Ballad of Rudolf Kaiser" in this go around, I do feel the need to highlight just a bit of the quirky lyrical witticism that is Pat McCurdy.

The Ballad of Rudolf Kaiser (Einstein)

Hey Mr. Einstein brilliant as a man can be

Messing with the universe, thinking scientifically

Well, if you're so smart

Why is your daughter hanging around with me?

Hey Mr. Einstein it don't mean that much to me

If matter isn't relative or MC squared don't equal E

And my one track mind says

Your little girl was meant for me

Pat McCurdy continues to make music and tour today. Visit his website at www.patmccurdy.com/, where you can secure your own copy of this long lost treasure along with several of Mr. McCurdy's other musical contributions. Now go ahead and hit the play button below, remove yourself from the New Year and take it back twenty-nine years to the burgeoning of a new decade musically. Thanks again for dropping by. Make sure to leave a comment on your way out, then pass along the word.
See ya next month!

Morty!
Jan. 2009

With a Bullet!

The soundtrack to the vampire romance, "Twilight" recently debuted at number one on the Billboard chart. Having barely heard of any of the artists that have contributed to this impressive accomplishment, I can openly admit that I know even less about the movie itself. The irony however, that it rests at the top of the musical heap with a bullet is not lost on me. It is after all, well known that a silver bullet can kill a vampire...or is that a werewolf?

I don't follow the billboard charts much anymore, but often recall the old saying, "it's number one with a bullet." Movie soundtracks these days don't seem to carry the weight or the importance that they once had, which leaves me to ponder the question, will any of the artists on Twilight reach the iconic status of so many that had come before them? Who can forget the Bee Gee's meteoric rise to super stardom with the release of Saturday Night Fever? What about Olivia Newton John's return to the top with Grease? 1988's Cocktail brought the Beach Boys out of record chart obscurity landing them in the coveted top spot for the first time in over two decades with Kokomo. Growing up during my favorite musical decade, I remember movie soundtracks suddenly becoming the hot thing. Shortly following the slasher/horror movie craze, it was the coming of age teen genre that seemed to rule the box office. Does anyone remember the classics, A Night In Heaven, Party Party, The Last American Virgin, The Wild Life? Individual cult followings notwithstanding, it's a good bet that most of these movies will remain long forgotten. Certain to commit box office suicide, someone had the foresight to sell the idea another way. Let the music drive the movie. Madonna, Journey, Huey Lewis, Don Henley, Bob Seger, Bryan Adams, Cheap Trick, The Pointer Sisters, The Go-Go's, the list is endless. Far from Box Office Gold, many of the artists that contributed to so many lackluster films, did hit music gold. Survivor was making records long before Rocky III's "Eye of the Tiger" made them 1980's superstars. While already doing just fine, Journey scored a big hit with "Ask the Lonely" as did Madonna with "Crazy For You" from 1985's Vision Quest. Cheap Trick did well enough on their own during the decade of decadence and would most likely rather forget some of their soundtrack offerings, as most of the general public already has. As you've probably already figured out, this time around I will bring back into the spotlight some of these tunes that have long faded into the obscure realms of one of my favorite places in the universe, the Unknown 80's. Now hit the play button below and take a trip with me back to the days of the four dollar movie. Spending any more than that while admitting to seeing Up the Creek during it's first and only run might prove embarrassing. As always I IMPLORE YOU to leave a comment, or some clue as to your visit here. In the meantime, Happy Holidays. Thanks again for stopping by. See y'all in '09!

Morty!

"Here We Go Again...," Looking back at THE LOOK

This time around, the year is 1984.
Fantasy Records, famous for playing host to rock Icon's Creedence Clearwater Revival signs Detroit rocker's, The Look. Everybody's Acting is the band's third release and features an altogether different sound from what the Michigan based group was known for.
This little tidbit comes once again via The Internet, to which I humbly say thank you again, Mr. Gore.

It was only recently that I had spent a few hours of exhaustive research to find out these guys had been around since 1977, and are still making music today! I'll dispense with the factual information at this point and get on to the Morty part of the story.
My first look at The Look (couldn't resist the quick pun) dates back of course to my college radio days at WNYT; the radio station of Old Westbury's New York Institute of Technology. By the golden year of Orwell's 1984, I was now comfortable in my role as a college radio personality. Musically of course, I was still relatively clueless. The rock and roll format as laid out by the programming department was loose enough to the point that air staff could more or less cater a show to their own tastes. With enough well known artists in the rotation, it was always a pleasant experience for me. When it came time to play something in the "new music" category, I was always a little wary. This part of the programming hour was reserved for up and comer's, new artists that had yet to make it to mainstream radio. College radio was always a great proving ground for testing such waters. Usually for me as an on-air jock, this often meant a roll of the dice, heads or tails, eenie, meenie, minee, mo. The Look was the winner during one such hour. Taking a cue from the brief notes left by the music department, I chose to spin their updated version of the Motown classic, "The Way You Do the Things You Do." I can say with some degree of confidence here that I had never heard of the song. The light pop sensibility of this remake played right into my musical tastes at the time. The rest, as they say is history. The radio station always had a few extra copies of records lying around, so I helped myself to one, took it home and became an East Coast fan of The Look for a short period of time. Twenty-four years have elapsed since that afternoon, and now I find myself a fan of these guys all over again. That said, I now invite you to hit the play button below, close your eyes and take a trip with me back to the good old days. Don't forget to post a comment, then tell your friends to drop in as well. There's lots more Unknown 80's to explore!