|
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Here are the latest entries in the "albums that influenced me" series I started writing in May 2020.
Note: Just because an album appears on this list doesn't mean I give it a blanket endorsement. Many of the secular albums on this list are mainly there because they wound up being spoofed by ApologetiX.
1556. Hell Freezes Over - Eagles
Released on November 8, 1994, Hell Freezes Over was an Eagles reunion album consisting of four new studio tracks plus 11 live versions of previously released songs recorded on May 27 of that year for an MTV special. The album was a massive success, spending two weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and selling nine million copies. Ironically, it knocked another MTV live album out of the top spot, Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York. Each of the new Eagles songs made it onto at least one of the major Billboard charts: "Get Over It" (#31 pop, #4 mainstream rock, #21 adult contemporary), "Learn to Be Still" (#61 pop airplay, #33 mainstream rock, #15 AC), "Love Will Keep Us Alive" (#1 AC for three weeks), and "The Girl From Yesterday" (#58 country). They all had their own merits, but I was particularly impressed with "Get Over It," which seems more applicable today than ever. The title of Hell Freezes Over alluded to a 1980 quote from Eagle Don Henley in regard to when the band would play together again. Although some of the group members had famously fallen out before embarking on solo careers, Eagles co-leader Glenn Frey announced at the beginning of the concert recording, "For the record, we never broke up; we just took a 14-year vacation." Most of the old songs on Hell Freezes Over were played and sung in a fashion fairly faithful to the originals (a longstanding hallmark of Eagles concerts), with the notable exception of "Hotel California," which featured a fancy intro highlighting percussive elements and acoustic, Spanish-flavored guitars. Five of the live selections came from the group's Hotel California LP, two apiece from Deperado and The Long Run, one from their debut LP, and another from Henley's solo LP The End of the Innocence. He provided lead vocals on eight of the tracks ("Get Over It," "Learn to Be Still," "Hotel California," "Wasted Time," "New York Minute," "The Last Resort," "Life in the Fast Lane," "Desperado"), Frey sang three ("The Girl From Yesterday," "Tequila Sunrise," "Take It Easy"), and Timothy B. Schmit sang two ("Love Will Keep Us Alive," "I Can't Tell You Why"), as did Joe Walsh ("Pretty Maids All in a Row," "In the City"). The reunion was rooted in a 1993 tribute album by various country artists called Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, which included a cover of "Take It Easy" by Travis Tritt, who asked Eagles band members to appear in the video. Common Thread went to #3 on the Billboard 200, and Tritt's single reached #21 on the country chart.
1557. No Fun Aloud - Glenn Frey
Eagles co-leader Glenn Frey was the main voice on a number of their best-loved songs, including "Take It Easy," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Tequila Sunrise," "Already Gone," "James Dean," "Lyin' Eyes," "After the Thrill Is Gone," "New Kid in Town," and "Heartache Tonight." He also played guitar and keyboards for the group until they called it quits (for 14 years) in 1980. Frey's debut LP, No Fun Aloud, came out May 28, 1982, two and half months before his ex-partner Don Henley's first solo project, I Can't Stand Still. Both albums sold half a million copies, although Henley's charted higher (#24 vs. #32). Nevertheless, five cuts from Frey's freshman effort hit the Top 40 on at least one significant U.S chart: "The One You Love" (#2 AC for four weeks, #15 pop), "Partytown" (#5 mainstream rock), "Don't Give Up" (#25 mainstream), "I Found Somebody" (#27 adult contemporary, #31 pop, #57 mainstream) and "All Those Lies" (#28 AC, #41 pop). Other tracks I enjoyed included "I Volunteer" and "I've Been Born Again." The latter is not a declaration of faith but a declaration of fidelity. Frey also did a cover version of an old '50s hit I already liked, "Sea Cruise" by Frankie Ford. ApologetiX hasn't spoofed any of Frey's solo hits, but I did write a parody of "Partytown" and performed it at the Paradise Club at a special concert in the fall of 1992 with a bunch of musician friends we called "J. Jackson & Friends." I wonder how many people ever noticed the pun in the title of No Fun Aloud. As I recall, it took me a while. I wasn't really aware of the record until my freshman semester of college in the fall of '82. Although I'd owned and enjoyed Eagles records in high school, I don't think I initially realized that was where Frey and Henley came from. Hey, cut me some slack; that was over 40 years ago. I bought my copy of No Fun Aloud in 2007. The early-'80s sound on some of the arrangements hasn't aged as well as Frey's later material or even his earlier Eagles recordings, but "The One You Love" is timeless, and I think "I Found Somebody" coulda shoulda been a country hit.
1558. Classic Glenn Frey: The Universal Masters Collection - Glenn Frey
In a solid solo career between 1982 and 1993, Glenn Frey saw 15 of his songs hit the pop, adult contemporary, and/or mainstream rock charts. Released in 2001, Classic Glenn Frey: The Universal Masters Collection featured most, but not all, of them. I ranked the ones it contained in order of the chart where they peaked the highest: "You Belong to the City" (#1 mainstream rock for three weeks, #2 pop, #2 AC), "The Heat Is On" (#2 pop, #4 mainstream rock, #36 AC), "The One You Love" (#2 AC, #15 pop), "True Love" (#2 AC, #13 pop, #15 mainstream), "Soul Searchin'" (#5 AC), "Part of Me, Part of You" (#7 AC, #9 mainstream, #55 pop), "Smuggler's Blues" (#12 pop, #13 mainstream), "I've Got Mine" (#12 AC, #91 pop), "Sexy Girl" (#20 pop, #23 AC), "River of Dreams" (#27 AC), "The Allnighter" (#54 pop), and "Love in the 21st Century" (#112 pop). The version of "The One You Love" on Classic Glenn Frey was actually a live recording, not the one that charted, most likely because the original was on Asylum Records, and this collection was on MCA. That's probably why it doesn't include "I Found Somebody" (#31 pop, #27 adult contemporary, #57 mainstream rock) or "All Those Lies" (#28 AC, #41 pop, #28), either. It's also missing "Livin' Right" (#22 AC, #90 pop), but that one was on MCA. My favorites are "Smuggler's Blues," "You Belong to the City," "The Heat Is On," and "Part of Me, Part of You." Frey was also originally asked to record "Shakedown" for the Beverly Hills Cop II soundtrack but didn't like the lyrics and came down with laryngitis a little over a week before the recording session. His old friend Bob Seger sang it instead, changing the words in the verses but keeping the chorus, and wound up with his first and only #1 pop record. It also hit #1 on the mainstream rock chart for four weeks.
1559. The Gilded Palace of Sin and Burrito Deluxe - The Flying Burrito Brothers
This CD combined the first two albums by country-rock pioneers The Flying Burrito Brothers — The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969) and Burrito Deluxe (1970). I bought it at a truck stop on Friday, June 1, 2007 in a pre-emptive effort to keep myself awake while driving 600 miles through the night by myself in a rental car from Chattanooga TN to Pittsburgh PA. ApologetiX had just played a big radio-sponsored festival in Chattanooga called J-Fest, and we were slated to do another show in Tulsa OK the next day. The other guys were just going to fly from Tennessee to Oklahoma, but I had promised my wife months earlier that I'd be in Pittsburgh the next morning to participate in a walk for Autism Speaks in honor of our third daughter, Kelly, who was three and a half at the time. After the walk, I was scheduled to catch a plane out of Pittsburgh and meet the rest of the band in Tulsa, so that's why I was driving home by myself. I had mistakenly assumed the rental car would have a tape deck I could hook up to my iPod cassette adaptor. It turned out the vehicle only had a CD player, which left me at the mercy of the truck stop's very limited selection. In addition to The Flying Burrito Brothers, I also picked up a copy of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II. I'd read about the Burritos (led by ex-Byrds Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman) and their influence on artists like The Eagles before but hadn't heard any of their music. The opening track on The Gilded Palace of Sin, "Christine's Tune (Devil in Disguise)," made a great first impression! Wow. I've never gotten tired of it. Other songs from The Gilded Palace of Sin that caught my fancy (but to a lesser extent) were "Sin City" and "My Uncle." I also noticed immediately that the album had back-to-back tracks I'd previously heard covered by The Commitments — Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman" and James Carr's "Dark End of the Street", both written by Chips Moman and Dan Penn. Burrito Deluxe wasn't as critically acclaimed as The Gilded Palace of Sin, but I actually like it better overall, probably because it incorporates more rock and roll. Highlights of that one for me are "Lazy Day," "Down in the Churchyard," "Cody, Cody," "Image of Me," "If You Gotta Go," "Older Guys," "Man in the Fog," and "Fashion Queen."
1560. The Ultimate Collection - The Kinks
If you've been following my influential album entries since the early days, you know I owned many Kinks albums, but The Ultimate Collection was the most comprehensive Kinks compilation I'd ever come across, as it featured most of their hits from the '60s, '70's, and '80s. Released in 2002, this 44-track two-CD set was only available as a European import. I ordered my copy on August 31, 2007, shortly after reading a new book called The Kinks by Neville Marten and Jeff Hudson. The Ultimate Collection featured all 15 of the Kinks singles that had hit the Top 10 on the U.K. and/or U.S. pop charts: "You Really Got Me" (#1 U.K., #7 U.S.), "Tired of Waiting for You" (#1 U.K., #6 U.S.), "Sunny Afternoon" (#1 U.K., #14 U.S.), "All Day and All of the Night" (#2 U.K., #7 U.S.), "Lola" (#2 U.K., #9 U.S.), "Waterloo Sunset" (#2 U.K.), "Death of a Clown" (#3 U.K.), "Autumn Almanac" (#3 U.K.), "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" (#4 U.K., #36 U.S.), "Apeman" (#5 U.K., #45 U.S.), "Dead End Street" (#5 U.K., #73 U.S.), "Come Dancing" (#6 U.S., #12 U.K.), "Till the End of the Day" (#8 U.K., #50 U.S.), "Set Me Free" (#9 U.K., #23 U.S.), and "See My Friends" (#10 U.K.). Moreover, it included 10 additional singles that hit the U.K. or U.S. Top 40: "Days" (#12 U.K.), "A Well Respected Man" (#13 U.S.), "Supersonic Rocket Ship" (#16 U.K., #111 U.S.), "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" (#17 U.K.), "Susannah's Still Alive" (#20 U.K.), "Don't Forget to Dance" (#29 U.S., #58 U.K.), "Plastic Man" (#31 U.K.), "Victoria" (#33 U.K., #62 U.S.), "Who'll Be the Next in Line" (#34 U.S.), and "Wonderboy" (#36 U.K.). The only Top 40 hit absent was "A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" (#30 U.S.), although five other charting songs did make the cut: "Wish I Could Fly Like Superman" (#41 U.S.), "Do It Again" (#41 U.S. pop, #4 U.S. mainstream rock), "Better Things" (#46 U.K., #90 U.S. pop, #10 U.S. mainstream), "Mr. Pleasant" (#80 U.S.), and "Living on a Thin Line" (#24 U.S. mainstream). On top of that, The Ultimate Collection threw in several Kinks songs famously covered by other artists: "Dandy" (Herman's Hermits), "David Watts" (The Jam), "Stop Your Sobbing" (The Pretenders), and "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" (Van Halen). Even the non-hits were great: "I Gotta Move" "I Need You," "Sittin' on My Sofa," "Starstruck," "Shangri-La," "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "God's Children," "Love Me Till the Sun Shines,' and two of my all-time favorites "She's Got Everything" and "Celluloid Heroes." Years later, my old college roommate Tom gave me the 2014 book God Save The Kinks: A Biography by Rob Jovanovic, which I also enjoyed.
1561. Chosen Ones - ApologetiX
Released in October 2007, the 14th ApologetiX LP was recorded in concert, but it wasn't your typical live album. In July 2007, we gave our fans a list of 25 unreleased parodies for which we already had lyrics, and then asked them to choose the 10 they'd most like to see us do. We kept track of all the votes and then performed the top 10 vote-getters in front of a live audience in Lisbon OH on August 3, 2007. In addition, we chose to rerecord two previously released tracks, because we thought our current live versions were better. So all the songs on this CD were chosen ones, hence the title. The final track listing included spoofs of songs by Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, The Beach Boys, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Eagles, Bad Company, AC/DC and two each by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and The Doors. Of course, we also had a biblical angle for the title, too: In John 15:16, Jesus says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” Three verses later, he adds that “I have chosen you out of the world.” Jesus specifically calls God’s people “chosen ones” in Luke 18:7, reiterating a term used six times in the Old Testament. Both Peter and Paul echo Christ’s words. Peter says believers “have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood” (1 Peter 1:2) and are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). Paul calls believers “God’s chosen people” (Colossians 3:12), elaborating in Ephesians 1:11: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will...”
1562. Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1977 - Various Artists
This album came out in 2000, but I ordered my copy in 2007. Half of the 12 tracks were #1 hits: "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" by Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., "Car Wash" by Rose Royce, "Rich Girl" by Daryl Hall & John Oates, "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston, "Looks Like We Made It" by Barry Manilow, and "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" by Andy Gibb. Five addition selections made the Top Five, and they all made it to #1 on at least one other significant chart: "I'm in You" by Peter Frampton (#2 Billboard, #1 Cash Box, #1 Radio & Records, #1 Canada), "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" by Rita Coolidge (#2 Billboard, #1 Cash Box, #1 Canada), "Easy" by The Commodores (#4 pop, #1 R&B), "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me" by Barry White (#4 pop, #1 R&B), and "The Things We Do for Love" by 10cc (#5 Billboard, #1 Canada). The remaining track, "Native New Yorker" by Oyssey (#21 pop), stuck out like a sore thumb, but I like it a lot, probably because I haven't heard it nearly as much as the others. However, it reach the Top 10 on a few other notable charts (#3 dance, #5 U.K., #6 R&B). ApologetiX has spoofed "Rich Girl" and "Easy," but there are a few others on this collection I'd love to cover as well.
|
