Tune Tag #110 with Steve Goldberg of Earworms & Song Loops, Pt. 4: Eddie Murphy, 10cc, Melissa Manchester, Nick Mason, Joe Piscopo, Jennifer Love Hewitt
With a league-leading 4 Tune Tags under his belt (or wherever he keeps them...I'm not one to pry), Steve is back to help us weave through some humor-infused music, or vice-versa! Toe-tappin' giggles!
Hang on, Steve…ushers are still showing folks to their balcony seats; once they’ve got ‘em all…….ah, there we go! OK, places everyone!
Welcome back to Tune Tag, of !
Steve paid his last visit to us the Halloween of ‘24, wearing this baseball uniform as his costume…he went as a Little Leaguer! Pretty convincing, I’d say!
Last week, we were pleased to host of Critical Hit Parader!
Tune in next week for the debut Tune Tag appearance of Bubble Puppy drummer, of ! From Texas, Bubble Puppy had a #14 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 1969 with “Hot Smoke & Sassafras”!
Steve’s song #1 sent to Brad: Eddie Murphy, “Party All the Time,” 1985
Brad’s response: Written and produced by Rick James, he’d be the obvious next-song go-to! But, as much as Steve is well aware that the mid-to late-’80s is my pop cultural black hole (having returned to college as a 29-year-old sophomore in ‘84), I’m just as certain to not go in what might appear to be the obvious direction for a song in Tune Tag! So there!
Steve’s rationale: Why did I pick this smash hit #2 Billboard Hot 100 single from 1985 to start off this Tune Tag? Well, because it happened to be the earworm torturing me when Brad invited me to participate for the 4th time in this grand musical adventure.
I was a high school senior when “Party All the Time” came out, and I remember its ubiquity on the radio and MTV. The reaction to it was mixed, but I thought it was catchy as hell back then, and even more so now. It’s essentially a Rick James song, as he wrote it, produced it, and even sings backup on the track. I mention this not to slight Eddie, as his lead vocals are top-notch here, but it feels wholly like a Rick James song!
The chorus is the stickiest part, but what I can’t get enough of are the hand-claps. I equate hand-claps with cowbells. Songs are better with more of both. This earworm got me thinking about TV stars who’d recorded hit songs after they’d become famous on screen, so I was thrilled Brad kept this direction going for his first song.
Brad’s song #1 sent to Steve: Joe Piscopo, “New Jersey,” Live, 1986
Steve’s response: I vaguely remember Joe Piscopo’s Bruce Springsteen “Born To Run” homage/parody, but I’m not sure if he performed it on the show or just in concert. Joe was a fantastic impressionist. His Jerry Lewis is masterful. The SNL skit, when Jerry appears beside him, is still one of my favorites:
In terms of the connection to my pick? It seems pretty obvious that Brad is keeping with the SNL star-performing theme. Even more impressive is that both Piscopo and Murphy were featured performers at the same time!
Steve’s song #2: Blues Brothers, “Rubber Biscuit,” 1978 (Live, New Year’s Eve 1978, Winterland/SF)
Brad’s response: The SNL connection continues with another classic musical moment!
Steve’s rationale: I decided to keep the SNL cast member/recorded music theme going, with perhaps the most famous musical SNL offshoot, and arguably the best. The Blues Brothers is also one of my favorite films, so that’s an added bonus!
John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd are top-notch band leaders who knew that the surest path to success was hiring a killer band. They more than hold their own alongside legends such as Donald “Duck” Dunn, Steve Cropper, Paul Shaffer, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Eddie Floyd, and many more.
“Rubber Biscuit” shows off Aykroyd’s vocal dexterity. It’s a cover song by The Chips (1956) and written by Charles “Kenrod” Johnson. I wrote about this track in a post featuring gibberish songs:
Brad’s song #2: 10cc, “Rubber Bullets,” 1973 (synching to studio-recorded track on UK’s Top of the Pops TV show):
Steve’s response: Brad thankfully saved us from an all-SNL cast member Tune Tag! Though I was secretly hoping he was going to pick Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.”
Instead, I think the connection here is simply that both songs have the word “Rubber” in the title, but it is possible that someone from the Blues Brothers band played with 10cc. But my cursory research has not unearthed that info yet.
Outside of “I’m Not in Love,” I would bet that “Rubber Bullets” is the most recognized 10cc tune. Oh, wait, I forgot about “The Things We Do For Love.” Okay, #3 then. The less said about “Dreadlock Holiday,” the better.
Brad’s rationale: “Things Made of Rubber for $200, please, Alex.” “All right….For $200, the answer is, Something you bake and something you shoot.” “What are biscuits and bullets, Alex?” “Correct for $200. Select again.”
The Official 10cc Fan Club site allows this: “Rubber Bullets” features a double-speed guitar solo, guitarist Eric Stewart explained:
That’s a double-track solo on that. It’s, very, very high, of course, going through a Marshall stack, then I slowed the tape to half speed – seven and a half [inches per second] – and recorded it, you know, going [plays single picked notes slowly] and when you speed it back up you've got an octave up, but there’s a screaming fuzz on the top of it, that’s an octave higher than it was recorded.
So it’s a very unusual sound done in that way, just an experiment. Because 10cc, we love to experiment, we used to love to waste time. And having the beauty of having our own studio, we didn’t have a clock in there so we weren’t restricted.
Stewart also recalled:
I was amazed, but pleased that the BBC never banned the track, although they limited its airplay, because they thought it was about the ongoing Northern Ireland conflicts. In fact, it was about an Attica State Prison riot like the ones in the old James Cagney films.
Bassist Graham Gouldman remembered:
Kevin and Lol [later, recording duo, Godley & Creme] had the chorus and part of the verse, but then got stuck. We all loved the chorus and realized it was a hit in itself, so we wanted to persist with it. I chipped in the line ‘we’ve all got balls and brains, but some’s got balls and chains.’ One of my finer couplets.
Steve’s song #3: Nick Mason (feat. David Gilmour), “Lie for a Lie,” 1985
Brad’s response: Pink Floyd’s drummer (the only member to appear on each and every Floyd album!), Nick Mason with Rick Fenn, who (unbeknownst to me), was/has been a member of 10cc since 1976! I’ve been on 10cc since their ‘73 debut, and have never heard of Rick Fenn! But, he joined for the recording of the band’s Deceptive Bends album in ‘77, shortly after the departure of Godley and Creme.
Also a guitarist and keyboardist, Fenn co-produced and co-engineered this Mason + Fenn album, Profiles. I’m discovering so much more Fenn has done, and something from his career should influence my next selection!
Steve’s rationale: I knew that this one would be easy for Brad, even with his blind spot of mid-’80s rock. He certainly will know that Rick Fenn was a 10cc member and a regular collaborator with Pink Floyd drummer, Nick Mason.
This track features fellow Floydian, David Gilmour, providing the only vocals on the otherwise instrumental Profiles album (1985). I own this album, for some reason. I played it again while prepping for this, and it has not aged well. Nostalgia can be a fickle beast. Mason and Fenn would record another album together in 2017, the soundtrack to White of the Eye. I have not heard it. I secretly want this to be the connection for Brad’s next pick, but I think it’s just a nice coincidence.
Brad’s song #3: Wax, “Right Between the Eyes,” 1986
Steve’s response: The connection here is that vocalist/guitarist for Wax is former 10cc member, Graham Gouldman, and lead singer/bassist Andrew Gold, from countless other associated artists (Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkel, Eric Carmen, to name a few).
I was not familiar with Wax, and I thank every deity for this fact. Boy, is this a terrible song. No offense if this is a favorite of yours, Brad. Or anyone else. The music video is even worse than the song. I’m giving you fair warning in case you hit play on the clip above.
Brad’s rationale: Rick Fenn, producer and multi-instrumentalist on the Nick Mason album, toured at some point, with Wax (Andrew Gold and Graham Gouldman, former 10cc member), according to Fenn’s Wiki page, hence the “live” TV clip of Wax “performing” “Right Between the Eyes.” They’re actually synching to the recorded track, but I suppose there’s the off-chance that that’s Fenn at the keyboards in the video!
I hope Steve doesn’t get ticked at such a flimsy Fenn tag, but from Gouldman and/or Gold, he ought to find more than enough things from which to possibly send as his next song!
Steve’s song #4: Jennifer Love Hewitt, “Baby I’m a Want You,” 1995
Brad’s response: Wax’s Andrew Gold co-wrote “In Another Life,” another song that appears on the same album as “Baby I’m a Want You,” Let’s Go Bang (a thoroughly legit Tag, and actually, a really shrewd one)! That opens up the whole album for me, as well, and I may go looking for players throughout the album, or a cover of another song on the album!
Steve’s rationale: Wishing I had more wax in my ears to muffle the whacks that unexpectedly entered my sound canals, I was determined to find an even more awful song to tag as my closer. It took me some time, but I think I succeeded….in scaring off ¾ of the TT audience!
I am cheating a little bit here, as the song that Andrew Gold wrote for Love-Hewitt’s second album, Let’s Go Bang (and can I say what a creepy, disgusting title JLH certainly didn’t choose herself? She was barely 15 when she recorded it), was “In Another Life”:
But, as a big fan of Bread (both the band and the carb-filled food product), I had to go with her cover of the soft-rock legends’ 1971 classic, “Baby I’m-A Want You.”
It’s a truly terrible cover, but in all the best ways. It’s one of those “so bad it’s good” rarities. Also, I wanted to loop back to the whole TV star/music star theme I started. Even if JLH began her career in music, releasing her debut album Love Songs at age 12!
Brad: I’m hard-pressed to find, really, any musicians on the credit list on Ms. Hewitt’s debut album, Steve (and readers)! What I found was a list of engineers so numerous as to likely exceed those employed by Amtrak! No fewer than 21 engineers are listed on this album’s Discogs page! What on earth was going on during those sessions?
If a tree falls in an empty forest, does it make a sound? If no musician is found during a recording session, is any music produced? Guitar? Nope, no guitarist listed. How about keyboards? No, again. Oh, they’ve got to have drums! Wanna bet? 39 bodies are listed, pictured, and named on that album’s info page. Not one of them plays a musical instrument!
Mercifully, though, there is a page where musicians are actually mentioned on Jennifer’s album….and, not a moment too soon!
Brad’s song #4: Melissa Manchester, “Wish We Were Heroes,” 1982
Brad’s rationale: David Gates plays acoustic guitar and duets with Melissa on this track.
Sure enough, Gates’ Wiki bio informs us that “the Tulsa native moved with his family to L.A. in 1961 (he would’ve been 21). Gates continued writing songs, plus he worked as a music copyist, a studio musician, and as a producer for many artists – including Pat Boone! Further proving his early versatility, in 1965, Gates arranged folk singer Glenn Yarbrough’s hit, ‘Baby, The Rain Must Fall’; the following year, he produced two singles on A&M Records for Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band!”
Speaking of Melissa…….
Steve’s response: With the last word, Brad properly upped the schmaltz factor from Jennifer Love Hewitt. I grew up with Melissa Manchester playing on the turntable (or was it 8-track?) at my house. I wasn’t familiar with “Wish We Were Heroes,” but it’s off her Grammy-winning 1982 album, Hey Ricky (produced by Arif Mardin).
At that time, I was a heavy-metal-loving teenager, and songs like this were like sunlight to a vampire. Allmusic.com was a bust for figuring out the connection, but Wikipedia was able to tell me that Melissa was dueting with David Gates from soft-rock legends, Bread, on this track.
A decade on from those Bread hits, his voice sounds quite different here. He can’t compete with Melissa’s pipes. I know I don’t get a fifth song, but as a genuine fan of Bread (and bread, yum), and to wash out the taste of the gooey cheese of that tune, can you end it with “Guitar Man”? It’s a personal fave.
Steve has some final thoughts:
It’s always a privilege and an honor to enter the song ring with Brad. I’ve told this to him directly, but I like to say that I describe my Substack life as “BTT” and “ATT”.
Before Tune Tag, this was a desolate and cold landscape. I had to wear a parka and mittens when writing my essays. Now it’s Bermuda shorts, flip-flops, and sunglasses. Thanks for creating a perpetual summer for all of us!
 | A guest post by
|
Really the Blues this is not but it's real. JP does not represent what's best about Jerzy but BS is his forte and hell hath no fury like a comedian scorned. Jersey is jazz, soul, blues, country and R&R. I grew up surrounded by Jimmy Dean, Leslie Gore, Wilson Pickett, Dizzy Gillespie, and for comedy I was friends with legendary Dick Shawn's kid. So, no Piscopo for me, thank you. But Eddie is Englewood royalty as well and the best of us. Don't mess with Texas? Don't F with NJ!
Also, who doesn't like Bread? I dare ya! Another great one my friend. I'll take the fifth!
Hardie har har as Jackie would say. I'll get to TT #109 but for non-obvious reasons saving it.
Oh wow, outrageous and fun TT, gents! I was kinda hoping for the SNL theme to continue, but then I would not have heard the wild 10cc track or JLH (miter needs her team of engineers). hahaha