GROW BIGGER EARS #10:🐵Salute to Simians "Audio Autopsy" Power Pop Playlist
Gorilla my dreams, I adore you, ape days a week.💖It's monkey sing, monkey do in a vine-swingin' jungle of staves'n'notes from a dizzying zoo of rock'n'pop genres.
As always, our “Audio Autopsy” (with mini-deep dives into songs and artists) Power Pop Playlist is neither a ranking nor a top sales chart of any sort. Nor are all chosen songs literally or specifically “power pop.”
They’re simply songs lovingly filtered through my generally power pop-informed sensibilities, and most are songs I’ve known since original release (in this case, 2/3 of them)! So, pull up a banana, and enjoy a toast to our furry, genetically adjacent brethren!
“Wot Gorilla?”, Genesis, 1976, Atco Records (US)/Charisma (UK)
Their second album of 1976 (following A Trick of the Tail), and second since lead singer, Peter Gabriel, split to go solo, Wind and Wuthering featured three instrumentals, with “Wot Gorilla?” closing out Side One.
Drummer/singer, Phil Collins describes “Wot Gorilla?” as one of his favorite tracks on the album (per a 2007 interview included on a Genesis box set release), as it brought in his influences of jazz fusion and Weather Report. Guitarist Mike Rutherford said of the track, “It’s a reprise of a section out of ‘One for the Vine’ (Track Two on the album). It was Phil’s idea to play a fast, jazzy rhythm,” that built on the success of “Los Endos” from the previous album.
For my account on seeing Genesis in concert (with Peter Gabriel) in 1974 in Austin, TX (and meeting Peter afterwards), click here:
“Gorilla,” James Taylor, 1975, Warner Bros. Records
Taylor’s “Gorilla” appeared as the fifth of eleven songs on his similarly-named album, his sixth collection, fifth for Warner Bros., and his next-to-last before he signed a massive free-agent deal with CBS Records, who released his JT in 1977.
“You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla),” The Dickies, 1979, A&M Records
The Dickies, signed by A&M shortly after the L.A.-based label famously signed and promptly dumped the Sex Pistols (and thus, desperate to appear on the forefront of “this whole new punk thing”), the San Fernando Valley natives were seen, in some camps, as a West Coast Ramones, but that’s a slap in the face of the far more respected eventual Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famers (2002).
To me, back in that day, I considered the Dickies’ rock gravitas about as “important” as if The Three Stooges had picked up guitars (a mantle I’m sure they were happy to pick up, and eagerly adopted years later by Green Day).
It didn’t help that (in that same year) they recorded TV’s furry Banana Splits’ theme song (“The Tra La La Song”). Fun? Sure. Funny? Yeah, I guess; but, looking back, their main musical contribution seems to be limited to helping record buyers appreciate the eventual arrival of Weird Al Yankovic that much more.
This song, from their Incredible Shrinking Dickies debut, was written by band members Stan Lee and Chuck Wagon (aka Bob Davis), and showcased their speed as well as their awareness of odd English idioms and some simple simian synonyms.
“Tweeter and the Monkey Man,” The Headstones, 1993, MCA Records
Thankfully, I’m protected against writer’s whiplash, necessary when one goes from The Dickies to a song written by George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Yep, this one was originally recorded by one-off supergroup (with two albums), The Traveling Wilburys, in 1988.
Canadians, The Headstones were the next to cover the song (on their debut Picture of Health album), some five years later. In fact, it would take another decade until another artist (Moses Wiggins) took a shot at it in 2004.
“Steel Monkey,” Jethro Tull, 1987, Chrysalis Records
“Steel Monkey,” the lead-off single from their Crest of a Knave album in 1987 (the band’s 16th studio album), the song was also the long-player’s kick-off track, written by singer/guitarist/flautist, Ian Anderson.
Crest of a Knave was notable (and even notorious) for two reasons: It was the first Tull album recorded following three years of Anderson’s medical hiatus due to a throat infection. The malady forever affected his singing voice, particularly his range.
The “notorious” tag is affixed to this album because Crest of a Knave went on to win the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, Vocal or Instrumental, beating the heavily favored ...And Justice for All by Metallica, and many critics’ choice, Nothing’s Shocking by Jane’s Addiction.
Tull’s Grammy win was highly controversial as many did not consider the album or the band to be hard rock, and certainly not heavy metal. Under advisement from their manager, no one from the band turned up at the award ceremony, as they were told that they had no chance of winning.
In response to the controversy, the band’s label, Chrysalis, took out an ad in a British music tabloid, with the line, “The flute is a heavy, metal instrument,” winning them no new fans (but possibly spotlighting the weaknesses in their PR department). The combined Grammy category, hard rock/metal, was then split into two categories and re-named after this fiasco.
“Monkey to Man,” The Elastic No-No Band, 2005, self-recorded
In existence from 2004 through 2011, The Elastic No-No Band (originally a pseudonym for main songwriter and leader, Justin Remer, as well as a play on The Plastic Ono Band) was in what was called New York City’s “anti-folk” scene. Key, too, to the ENB ethos was a decidedly DIY, home-recorded process.
Such is the case with Elvis Costello’s evolutionary “Monkey to Man,” from Remer’s album of EC covers, 2005’s Every Elvis Has His Army: ENB Does EC. The album was initially distributed using the CD-R format, then made available as a free music download from Elastic No-No Band’s website, no longer in service.
For Substack’s premier Elvis Costello-centric newsletter, check out Matt Springer’s That Fatal Mailing List, and consider subscribing, as I do!
One More “Gorilla”
A special nod goes to the ever-loveable Rubinoos, and their 1978 take on Dennis Tracy’s (author of little-heard 1974 album, Show Biz, from which came the title song cover by Helen Reddy in ‘74) “Gorilla,” itself a cover of The DeFranco Family’s teeny-pop turn in 1973:
Hear more Rubinoos in GROW BIGGER EARS #7, with their “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” here:
Thanks for getting me to relisten to Wot Gorilla after 40(?) years--it was part of my college soundtrack--along with Weather Report of course. I knew the Dickies but never would have guessed that they did the Banana Splits theme song. My little brother was totally into the show and used to walk around the house singing the chorus. Never heard of the Headstones but that's a great cover--it's also a testament to great songwriting!
No mention of Gorilla Biscuits? Not power pop, but still...