Tune Tag #12 with Nick S: Bowie, Blue Öyster Cult, Jen Chapin, Roches, Corb Lund & More

Curious covers merge into a family affair of sorts, as writer and reader swap tunes that span the genres from country to metal to folk!

Tag! You’re it, Nick!

Nick, while not a writer on Substack, is a voracious reader on the site, and a valued friend of FR&B who reads everything we publish, and eagerly adds his valuable contributions to our comment sections! Catch Nick’s second Tune Tag (#20) here:

Tune Tag #20 with Nick S, Pt. 2: Bob Marley, Laura Nyro, Dixie Cups, Meters, Martin Mull

Welcome, Nick! Let’s Tag Tunes!

Nick: “My primary goal is to share music that I like. I’m looking forward to the Tune Tag process, but my measure of success is hoping to find some new listeners for some favorite songs. So, I want to pick things that are fun, accessible, and things that might not be familiar to everyone (without trying to be obscure).

“I know that my bread and butter is singer-songwriters of various styles. I also know that, when I'm trying to catch people’s attention, I have a tendency to reach for things that are emotionally intimate and intense. To temper that I want to start with something funny”:

Nick’s Song #1 sent to Brad: Corb Lund, “Hard On Equipment (Tool For the Job),” 2007

Nick’s rationale: I was introduced to Canadian, Corb Lund, years ago by a friend who listened to a lot of CBC/Radio-Canada, and he completely clicked for me. I like his writing, his performance style and his sense of humor. I know that country music can be divisive, so I’ve picked a song that should be relatable.

My favorite Corb Lund album is Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer (2005), but this song (“Hard On Equipment” from his 2007 Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! album) shows off many of his strengths. 

Brad’s Song #1 sent to Nick: Blue Öyster Cult, “Hammer Back,” 1998

Nick’s response: Hmmm. I haven’t listened to Blue Öyster Cult before. I assume that Brad is connecting the lyrics by selecting another song with “hammer” in the chorus. I’m not quite sure what I want to do with this.

Brad’s rationale: Even though Nick’s song spoke of a hammer as a standard carpentry tool, this song’s hammer is referring to the hammer on a gun: “Keep your hammer back, don’t leave the safety on.”

Back to Nick: I hear the word “carjack” and think about, “Gimme A Ride To Heaven (Boy)” by Terry Allen, but I don't want to choose a second country song, so instead I bring a fork to a gun fight. . . .

Nick’s Song #2: Hamell On Trial, "Blood of the Wolf," 1994 (Explicit Lyrics)

Ending up at a Denny’s, Hamell on Trial holds court, waiting patiently for the jury to file in at the corner four-top.

Brad’s response: A band/person I’m unfamiliar with, I notice the singer not only mentions Bon Scott and AC/DC in his lyrics (and an apparently oddly-menacing fork), but he doesn’t sing, he talks….and, in a rapid-fire cadence like he’s delivering a 6 o’clock news account of a corner robbery….with equally fast guitar accompaniment. On trial or not, I don’t think I’m Hamell’s newest fan. We’ll have to settle for hoping the grand jury doesn’t indict.

Sure enough, a little research unearths the fact that Hamell on Trial is one Edward James “Ed” Hamell, an American punk rock, anti-folk, spoken word musician, described by Righteous Babe Records (Ed’s former record label founded by Ani DiFranco) as “loud, fast music informed by politics, passion, energy and intelligence, played by a guy with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of humor.”

As it happens, Ed is playing Austin, TX (my current city of residence…in fact, native New Yorker Ed’s current hometown, as well!) November 18, but he’ll be playing a club in S. Austin, and darn the luck, I live in N. Austin.

Nick’s rationale: Here’s a song that inverts the sense of threat in BÖC’s “Hammer Back” with a story of a robbery in which the violence is muted. I feel good about this selection as soon as I think of it. I like the thematic fit, and I’m glad to include the song. 

I feel a little bit protective of this album. It’s a rare CD that I bought not having heard anything about it (either online or from friends). I don’t know why it caught my attention, but what a find. It’s a gem of an album with 2-3 standout songs, and this is one of them.

The next day other connections occur to me. The story in the Hammer on Trial song is set in NYC, where Blue Öyster Cult is from, and Corb Lund’s first hit was about being stuck in a truck -- on the other side of the Canadian border.

Brad’s Song #2: Hybrid Children, “Hungry Like the Wolf,” 1995 cover of the Duran Duran song

Nick’s response: I’m almost the right age to have heard [the original] “Hungry Like the Wolf” growing up, but I didn’t, and it never made much of an impression on me. I’m a little worried at this point. I feel like Brad and I may be pulling in different directions, and I’m not sure how to respond (spoiler alert: I feel much better after the next song).

I assume Brad is again matching on the words -- both songs have “Wolf” in the title, and this cover is only one year removed from my selection. I enjoy the cover (by a Finnish band, that’s surprising), which appreciates the catchiness of the original while taking the piss a little bit.

I don’t know whether Brad was inspired to pick a cover because of the reference, in my Hamill on Trial song, with the lyrical Frank imitating Bon Scott, but that gives me a direction.

Brad’s rationale: Again, I’m going no deeper than simply matching one title word with another. One of the first “wolf” songs that hit my brain was the Duran Duran 1982 original, written by the band members, and produced by Colin Thurston.

In fact, so self-absorbed was this single (with its attendant heavy-MTV-rotation music video) that it was released in three different lengths: 3:23 single version, the 4:11 U.S. album remix, and for some reason, the 5:14 Night version. Why there was no 3 1/2-day live version is a mystery to me.