On this day in 1978, the 10cc LP “Bloody Tourists” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #114 (October 14)
The English band’s sixth studio album was their first studio album to feature the band as a six piece.
The hit single from the album “Dreadlock Holiday” was based on real events Eric Stewart and Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward experienced in Barbados; and Graham Gouldman experienced in Jamaica.
Graham Gouldman commented: "Some of the experiences that are mentioned are true, and some of them are ... fairly true!"
The album went all the way to #1 in the UK, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Belgium, #2 in Australia and Ireland, #5 in Switzerland, #7 in Norway, #11 in Germany, and #44 in the US.
More great cover art by Hipgnosis.
Click on the link below to watch “Dreadlock Holiday”:
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On this day in 1989, the Billy Joel single “We Didn’t Start The Fire” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 (October 14)
In the liner notes of Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel, Joel explains that he wrote the song after a conversation with John Lennon's son Sean.
Joel was in the studio trying to come up with song ideas for the album, when Sean Lennon stopped by with his friend, who had just turned 21 and was lamenting over how tough his generation had it.
Joel, who was approaching 40, commiserated with the young men, recalling how 21 was also a tough age for him with the Vietnam War, civil rights upheavals, and other crises, but was astounded when Sean's friend claimed Joel didn't have it so bad because he grew up in the '50s, and "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."
In response, Joel started jotting down all of the events and major figures he could remember from his generation and a song idea was born - not just for baby boomers, but for anyone struggling in this perpetually messy world.
Joel told biographer Fred Schruers: "What does the song really mean? Is it an apologia for the baby boomers? No, it's not. It's just a song that says the world's a mess.
It's always been a mess, it's always going to be a mess."
He recalled:
“I started with Harry Truman because in 1949, the year I was born, Harry Truman was president.
From there it kind of wrote itself."
The clever song with the stream-of-consciousness, rapid-fire list-style lyrics chronicling world events and pop culture throughout the decades, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and eventually became Joel's third single to reach #1 on the US charts, after "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" and "Tell Her About It."
“The River Of Dreams" hit #1 six years later.
It was also a Top 5 song in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland and Canada, and #7 in the UK.
There are 118 separate events listed in the song…
It’s a polarizing song for Billy Joel fans; not all like it, but to watch the clip, click on the link below:
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On this day in 1978, the Ace Frehley single “New York Groove” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #87 (October 14)
"New York Groove" was written by English singer/songwriter Russ Ballard, and originally released by British glam rock band Hello, before Ace released his version on his solo album.
It was by far the highest-charting single from any of the four solo albums, going to #4 in South Africa, #13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, #24 in New Zealand, #25 in Canada, and #29 in Australia.
Frehley once told Rolling Stone magazine that his unique take on the song was inspired by his experience with hookers in New York City's Times Square in the 1970s.
Click on the link below to watch Kiss doing it live:
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this day in 1977, David Bowie released the LP “Heroes” (October 14)
One of Bowie’s best and most significant albums from his prolific body of work, John Lennon commented in 1980 that, when making his album “Double Fantasy”, his ambition was to "do something as good as "Heroes"."
Brian Eno is credited as co-author on four of the ten songs on “Heroes”, and acted as "assistant director" to Bowie in the studio, giving feedback to the musicians and suggesting new – and unusual – ways to approach the tracks.
An addition to the recording lineup was guitarist Robert Fripp, formerly of King Crimson, who was recruited at Eno's suggestion.
Fripp recorded lead guitar parts for tracks he had never heard before, receiving little guidance from Bowie, who had yet to write lyrics or melodies, and completed all his guitar parts in three days. His playing received significant praise from producer Tony Visconti and Eno, who were impressed with Fripp's ability to play for songs he had never heard before with such "virtuosity".
The majority of the tracks were composed on the spot in the studio in Berlin where the album was recorded, the lyrics not being written until Bowie stood in front of the microphone.
The studio was a former concert hall converted into a recording studio that had been used by Gestapo officers during World War II as a ballroom.
The studio in West Berlin was located about 500 yards from the Berlin Wall, leading Bowie to describe it as "the hall by the wall".
Describing how the location of the studio affected the creative process, producer Tony Visconti recalled: "Every afternoon I'd sit down at [a] desk and see three Russian Red Guards looking at us with binoculars, with their Sten guns over their shoulders, and the barbed wire, and I knew that there were mines buried in that wall, and that atmosphere was so provocative and so stimulating and so frightening that the band played with so much energy".
Inspired by the sight of Visconti embracing his lover by the Berlin Wall, the title track of the album tells the story of two lovers, one from East and one from West Berlin.
Bowie's performance of "'Heroes'" on 6 June 1987, at the German Reichstag in West Berlin has been considered one of the catalysts to the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall.
Following his death in January 2016, the German government thanked Bowie for "helping to bring down the Wall", adding "you are now among Heroes".
The song “Heroes'" has received numerous accolades since its release, including inclusion on lists of the greatest songs of all time; Rolling Stone named the song the 23rd greatest ever, and NME named it the 15th greatest. Bowie scholar David Buckley has written that "'Heroes'" "is perhaps pop's definitive statement of the potential triumph of the human spirit over adversity".
Interestingly, the song was not a huge hit on its release, peaking at #24 in the UK, and #126 in the US.
It charted highest in Ireland (#8), the Netherlands (#9), and Australia (#11).
The album went to #3 in the UK and the Netherlands, #6 in Australia, #11 in Italy, #13 in Norway and Sweden, #15 in New Zealand, #19 in France and Austria, and #35 in the US.
Click on the link below for the title track clip:
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On this day in 1979, the Cheap Trick single “Dream Police” debuted on the Australian charts at #91 (October 15)
The Rick Nielsen-penned 70s power pop classic from the LP of the same name eventually peaked at #5 in Australia, #7 in New Zealand, #9 in Canada, #26 in the US, and #37 in the Netherlands.
The song “Dream Police" actually dates back to 1976.
It was one of 22 songs the band had written for their first album, but didn't make the cut.
The song evolved though, as the band from Rockford, Illinois, played it live and refined it in the studio, and was eventually released as the title track of their fourth studio album.
In the 2007 book "Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide", author John M. Borack wrote "Entire careers have been built around lesser songs than this monster, which sits proudly alongside "Surrender" as the quintessential Cheap Trick song.
Everything about it is perfect, from Zander's alternately cute and menacing vocal to Carlos's pounding drums to Nielsen's cracked spoken-word interlude.
Oh, can't forget the instrumental build up heading back into the final chorus, which is pure genius."
Because it was a very cool video, when MTV went on the air in 1981, this song was almost two years old, but they played it anyway, giving the song renewed exposure.
Click on the link below to watch it:
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This week in 1979, the AC/DC LP “Highway To Hell” debuted on the Australian charts (October 15)
It was the first of three albums produced by legendary producer “Mutt” Lange, and was the last studio album featuring the one and only Bon Scott, who died on 19 February 1980.
The reason they went with Lange is that the American branch of Atlantic Records believed the band was poised to strike it big in the States if only they would work with a producer who could give them a radio-friendly sound.
Since their 1975 Australian debut “High Voltage”, all of AC/DC's albums had been produced by George Young and Harry Vanda.
According to the book “AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll”, the band was not enthusiastic about the idea, especially Angus and Malcolm Young, who felt a strong sense of loyalty to their older brother George:
“Being told what to do was bad enough but what really pissed off Malcolm and Angus was they felt that George was being treated disrespectfully by Atlantic, like an amateur with no great track record when it came to production ... Malcolm seemed less pleased with the situation and went so far as to tell Radio 2JJ in Sydney that the band had been virtually "forced" to go with an outside producer.”
But they soon warmed to him…
Malcolm Young said that Lange "liked the simplicity of a band. We were all minimalist. We felt it was the best way to be ... He knew we were all dedicated so he sort of got it.
But he made sure the tracks were solid…”
Angus Young added, "He was meticulous about sound, getting right guitars and drums.
He would zero in—and he was good too on the vocal side.
Even Bon was impressed with how he could get his voice to sound."
In AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, Arnaud Durieux writes that Lange, a trained singer, showed Scott how to breathe so he could be a technically better singer…
Tour manager, Ian Jeffery recalled:
“I remember one day Bon coming in with his lyrics to "If You Want Blood".
He starts doing it and he’s struggling, you know? There’s more ****ing breath than voice coming out.
Mutt says to him, ‘Listen, you’ve got to co-ordinate your breathing.’
Bon was like, ‘You're so f**king good, c**t, you do it!’
Mutt sat in his seat and did it without standing up! That was when they all went, "What the ****ing hell we dealing with here?"
As far as the title went? As Angus explained:
“… all we'd done is describe what it's like to be on the road for four years, like we'd been.
A lot of it was bus and car touring, with no real break.
You crawl off the bus at four o'clock in the morning, and some journalist's doing a story and he says, "What would you call an AC/DC tour?" Well, it was a highway to hell. It really was.
When you're sleeping with the singer's socks two inches from your nose, that's pretty close to hell!”
The iconic riff that intros the title track has gone down as an absolute classic in Oz rock.
There were hundreds of riffs going down every day," recalled Malcolm Young. "But this one, we thought, 'That's good.'
It just stuck out like a dog's balls!”
The album became AC/DC's first LP to break the Top 100 of the US Billboard 200 chart, eventually reaching #17, also peaking at #7 in Germany, #8 in the UK, #13 in Australia, #14 in the Netherlands, #24 in Sweden, #38 in Norway, #40 in Canada, and #46 in New Zealand.
The album was ranked #200 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2012 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The 2010 book The 100 Best Australian Albums included Highway to Hell in the top 50 (Back in Black was #2).
Click on the link below to watch the title track:
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On this day in 1984, the Pogues released their debut LP “Red Roses for Me” (October 15)
Founded in King's Cross, London, in 1982, as Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse" the Anglo-Irish band, fusing Celtic and punk influences with instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, Irish bouzouki, cittern, mandolin and accordion, started off playing in London pubs and clubs, and became known for their energetic, chaotic, and raucous live shows.
They were initially poorly received in traditional Irish music circles—the noted musician Tommy Makem called them "the greatest disaster ever to hit Irish music"—but were subsequently credited with reinvigorating the genre.
After gaining wider attention as an opening act for The Clash on their 1984 tour, and shortening their name to the Pogues—to circumvent BBC censorship, following complaints from Scottish Gaelic speakers—they released their debut studio album “Red Roses for Me”, which was named after the 1942 play by Irish dramatist Seán O'Casey.
It peaked at a modest #89 in the UK, and failed to chart elsewhere…
This debut album from the irreverent funsters features a mix of traditional Irish songs and original compositions by Shane MacGowan, and is a rollicking good time, setting the tone for the years to come for MacGowan and the band, with songs like this one, “Streams of Whiskey”:
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This week in 1978, The Jam released the single
"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" (October 13)
The Paul Weller-penned single from the LP “All Mod Cons” was backed by an excellent cover version of The Who's song "So Sad About Us", and "The Night", written by Bruce Foxton.
Originally Paul Weller had wanted to exclude the song from the “All Mod Cons” album, but was persuaded to include it by producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven.
The sound of an Underground train at the beginning and end of the song was recorded at St John's Wood Station in north-west London.
The song peaked at #15 on the UK charts…
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