Tune Tag #30 with Paul Macko of "Deplatformable Newsletter": Johnny Winter, Joe Walsh, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, Mick Ronson

He wanted a guitar-centric Tune Tag. "Hey, the Tag goes where it wants to go," we replied. Apparently, this Tune Tag wanted to go to Guitar Center and to the sold-out arena! "This one goes to 11!"🎸🎵

Hey, Paul! TAG! You’re It!

Paul Macko (

🅟🅐🅤🅛 🅜🅐🅒🅚🅞

) is the creator of one of the most unique and indispensable Substack entries, Deplatformable Newsletter. As he says: “My own personal media e̶m̶p̶i̶r̶e̶. stuff. Stay ahead of the curve: Substack Hacks, Tech, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Investing, Products, Art, New Business Ideas, Podcasts, and more. Trend setting. Not the worst way to spend a few minutes today!”

On Mondays, the Deplatformable Newsletter goes directly to your inbox, when you subscribe. On Tuesdays and Fridays, Paul sends you “One Thing“!

Paul’s Song #1 sent to Brad: Mick Ronson, “Empty Bed (Io Me Ne Andrei),” 1975

Paul’s rationale: I chose the Ronson song because it is very different than his usual “Spiders from Mars” guitar work. He turns into a crooner like Frank Sinatra or Michael Bublé. 

Mick Ronson wrote the English lyrics while he was on tour with David Bowie in Italy. He was feeling homesick and missing his wife and children, and the song was a way for him to express his feelings of loneliness and longing. And, as I’m writing this in early February, Valentine’s day is close.

Brad’s response: Like Johnny Cougar (later John Mellencamp), Iggy Pop, Mott the Hoople, Dana Gillespie (singer of my first song sent to Paul, below), and a couple others, David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars guitarist, Ronson, was signed to Bowie’s MainMan Management, founded and fronted by his manager, Tony Defries. Play Don’t Worry was Ronno’s second solo album on RCA Records in the mid-’70s.

“Empty Bed (Io Me Ne Andrei)” was written by Italian singer/songwriter, Claudio Baglioni and Italian composer, Antonio Coggio (music). Baglioni wrote the original Italian lyrics. “Io Me Ne Andrei” in English is “I would leave.”

Brad’s song #1 sent to Paul: Dana Gillespie, “Empty Bed Blues,” 1984

Paul’s response: I’m sure you chose “Empty Bed Blues” because of the song title. The song starts with “Woke up this morning,” as so many blues songs do.

Brad’s rationale: Yep, nothing more or other than matching different, yet similarly-titled songs. “Empty Bed Blues” is the stereotypical “bawdy blues song” (written by J.C. Johnson) perfectly executed by the legendary Bessie Smith on Columbia Records in 1928. Her recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1983. Gillespie recorded her cover the very next year.

Dana was part of the extended (and extensive) Bowie entourage in the early-’70s. Back in ‘73-era Bowieland, pix of Bowie, wife Angie, best bud, Iggy, and Dana were all over the rock press!

“David could be ruthless in the way he treated people, but I remember him very fondly.”-Gillespie, now 74, in The Guardian, August 12, 2021. Above, David’n’Dana together, 1971📸Michael Stroud/Getty Images

Paul’s song #2: Johnny Winter, “Too Much Seconal,” 1973

Brad’s response: Hmmm…..Dana and 1973 Johnny Winter, both singing “I woke up this morning”: Knowing Ms. Gillespie’s well-chronicled “escapades” (through which she proudly parades in her 2020 Weren’t Born a Man tell-all), I’m gonna guess their morning began on the same Serta Perfect Sleeper. But, I could be wrong.

This studio album (on Columbia Records), a bit of a comeback after nearly three vinyl-less years, was produced by guitarist Rick Derringer (who was in Johnny’s brother’s Edgar Winter Group), and featured Todd Rundgren on mellotron on one track.

Robert Christgau

, in his 1981 Christgau’s Record Guide: Rock Albums of the ‘70s, said, “I like what he’s putting out on this monkey-off-my-comeback: two late-Stones covers, plenty of slide, and a good helping of nasty.”

Paul’s rationale: I chose this Johnny Winter song because: 1) Your bluesy Dana Gillespie song starts with the same lyrics (“Woke up this morning”) as does Johnny Winter’s original, “Too Much Seconal.” These lyrics are prevalent in the blues. 2) Johnny is my favourite guitarist, and 3) Unfortunately, Johnny was a drug addict most of his playing life, and this song speaks about a person with addiction.

However, his guitar playing on his records were always played “just like a ringin’ a bell.” Go Go, Go Johnny Go!