Tune Tag #103 with Hugh Jones of The Record Store Years, Pt. 2: Cheri Knight, XTC, J. Geils Band, Jason Crest, Zuider Zee, Millennium, Liverpool Express
These 2 record store management veterans from the '70s & beyond go bin diving so deep that scuba gear may be needed. You'll get some faves here, but keep an open 👂for some of the new-new-to-you, too!
When they told me my newest rescue had once been a show dog, I had no idea…….
Be that as it may, we welcome back of , for his second Tune Tag!
Hugh: “I am a writer, musician and carpenter living in Seattle, Washington. I spent 25 years (1975-2000) with a small chain of Seattle-area record stores known as Cellophane Square, and also published the Led Zeppelin fanzine, Proximity, during this time.”
Hugh’s first Tune Tag happened 50 weeks ago, in August of ‘24:
Last week, we tagged terrific tunes with
of :
Next week, we’ll sweep the Welcome Mat and welcome back
of If You Get Confused, for his Tune Tag, Pt. 2!
Hugh’s song #1 sent to Brad: Cheri Knight, “Crawling,” 1998
Hugh’s rationale: I chose this song to start my second Tune Tag for a few reasons: One, I love it. Two, not many people know about Cheri Knight, and three, I thought it could provide a variety of different directions for Brad to go from a musical or musician standpoint – The Twangtrust, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, E-Squared Records, etc.
I also have the ulterior motive of turning more people on to this wonderful artist – she only made two solo records, The Knitter in 1995, and The Northeast Kingdom in 1998, from which this track comes, after which she retired from the biz, and sadly, has not been heard from since, at least musically. I could go on and on about her and these two albums, and in fact I will be doing exactly that in a post at some point in the future! But right now, on with the tagging!
Brad’s song #1 sent to Hugh: Zuider Zee, “Listen to the Words,” 1975
Hugh’s response: I spent some time researching this band, whom I’d never heard of, and searched in vain for a musical, lyrical or technical connection between these two songs written and recorded over 20 years apart.
The music couldn’t be more different too, but after bringing up both artists’ Wikipedia pages side-by-side, the connection suddenly dawned on me: Zuider Zee’s songwriter & mastermind was one Richard Orange, and Cheri Knight’s original band, before going solo, was Blood Oranges.
The only other thing that I come up with is that both artists are pretty obscure and never had a ‘hit,’ and Zuider Zee is bemoaning the fact that people don’t “Listen To The Words,” and Cheri is a songwriter who has a way with words – “. . . I know I’ve got to do something ‘bout you, but nothing. . . is all I can do.”
Brad’s rationale: As Cheri Knight spent much of the ‘90s in The Blood Oranges, my citrus-forward mind went immediately to
and his mid-’70s band (on Columbia Records in 1975), Zuider Zee. If Hugh is familiar with her previous band (and, there’s nothing to suggest he wouldn’t be), he’ll guess the link immediately. If not, I found it through looking up Ms. Knight, and he’ll bump into The B.O.s, too, at some point!🍊Curiosity, too, makes me wonder if, in his record store days, Hugh knows of (or has heard…and likes!) Mr. Orange and his Zuider Zee (their Columbia debut was released in the same year Hugh began his quarter-century career in retail records)!
As I was wont to do fairly frequently back then (I was 20, and already in radio in ‘75), I thought nothing of writing artists when the whim struck me, and indeed, Richard wrote back several times, as we became rather chummy pen pals of a sort long before things like texting and social media were ever a thing!
That may have been my motivation for putting this piece together over three years ago:
A recent original recording by Richard, “Million Miles Away” (not the Plimsouls hit):
Hugh’s song #2: J. Geils Band, “Orange Driver,” 1975
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