Tune Tag #41 with S.W. Lauden, Pt. 2: Weezer, Love, Murray Head, Kate Clover, Dandy Warhols, Cheryl Lynn, Runaways

Published author, former major-label drummer, and power pop advocate and aficionado. He even sports a nifty nom-de-tune, which we'll discover! Along the way, Tune Tag spans the decades and genres!🎶

Charlie Brown gotcha, Steve! Tag! You’re It!

Tune Tag welcomes back

S.W. Lauden

of Remember The Lightning on Substack!

S.W. Lauden is the editor of the essay collections, Go All The Way: A Literary Appreciation of Power Pop and Forbidden Beat: Perspectives on Punk Drumming.

His power pop-themed crime fiction novellas include That'll Be The Day: A Power Pop Heist and Good Girls Don’t. He is also the author of the Greg Salem punk rock PI trilogy, starting with Bad Citizen Corporation. Find more of Steve’s music writing on Substack at Remember The Lightning, including his semi-annual print/ebook, Guitar Pop Journal, Volume 3!

Steve’s first Tune Tag has been preserved, and is accessible here:

Tune Tag #18 with S.W. Lauden of "Remember the Lightning": Descendents, The Last, Lisa Hartman, Sparks, Hüsker Dü, Redd Kross

Last week, we Tune Tagged with

NickS (WA)

of Earnestness is Underrated:

Tune Tag #40 with Nick S (WA), Pt. 3: Dionne Warwick, Carole King, Nikki Jean, Gretchen Peters, John Williams, Neko Case

Next week, we tag tunes with

Chris Dalla Riva

of Can’t Get Much Higher!

Steve’s Song #1 sent to Brad: Weezer, “Say It Ain’t So,” 2004

Steve’s rationale: It’s hard to believe that Weezer’s debut turns 30 this year. I still remember walking from my Hermosa Beach (L.A. county) home into the Moby Disc Records in Santa Monica where my friend Mike Randle (about whom you’ll hear more, later) worked in 1994 and hearing The Blue Album for the first time.

It really sounded like a logical progression of the pop-oriented college/grunge/alternative rock that I loved by bands like Nirvana and Pixies, complete with quiet/loud song structures, big hooks, self-effacing lyrics, and crunchy guitars. Perfection.

No doubt this became a hugely influential alt rock album, but I witnessed its early impact firsthand when I was part of the vibrant Hollywood music scene in the ‘90s as the drummer for Ridel High.

Ridel High, 1997 (L-to-R): Steve LeRoy, Kevin Ridel, and (in simpler times) Steve Coulter, 27 years before his first Tune Tag encounter.

So, it was a real thrill to see Weezer perform the whole album at a small Los Angeles club in March. There was an amazing moment when they played my favorite track, “Say It Ain’t So,” with the entire crowd screaming the choruses at the top of our lungs. Pure magic.

“H” of consent: Wheezer? Apparently not, despite all being in their mid-50s!

Brad’s #1 song sent to Steve: Murray Head, “Say It Ain’t So, Joe,” 1975

Steve’s response: I have to imagine that Brad chose this song based on the title. Interestingly, the Murray Head single and album were released in the U.S. by A&M Records, which is the Hollywood soundstage where I believe Weezer shot the video for their breakout single, “Undone-The Sweater Song” (see photo below).

If that’s one of Brad’s connections, it’s a deep cut!

A&M Records and what was their longtime location for offices and recording (1967-1999) on La Brea, just south of Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. You’re looking at what used to be the old Charlie Chaplin movie lot and studios (1917 to 1953), and what has been the location of The Jim Henson Company Lot since 2000. Brad toured the lot (with an A&M exec showing the way) in 1980, shortly after moving from Houston.

Brad’s rationale: As soon as Steve sent the Weezer song (which had been sung ad infinitum by many bar patrons a decade ago (along with “Royals,” in my near-nightly karaoke sprint over a couple years!), I remembered this Murray Head song and album. Some people wonder (‘cause they’ve asked me) how I do what I do in Tune Tag.

Granted, sometimes I’ll search for “songs with ___in the title,” etc, but here, I had this Murray Head promo album upon its ‘75 release (I was 20, and was making my transition from the U of Houston radio station to my first pro gig at Houston’s KLOL), and I had forgotten Head’s “Joe” in the title, but clearly recalled him and his similarly-titled song when I saw Steve’s Weezer song!

Born in London in 1946, Murray Seafield St George Head has had success on Broadway ("Jesus Christ Superstar"), as well as the pop charts, with "One Night in Bangkok," written and produced by Tim Rice and the male half of ABBA, Bjorn & Benny. It topped the charts in many countries, including South Africa, The Netherlands, West Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Australia. It peaked at #3 in both Canada and the U.S. in May 1985, and at #12 in the UK.

From Genius.com: “According to singer/actor Head (now 78), he wrote the song about fallen heroes. He re-released the song in 1995 on the album, When You’re in Love, and he wrote the following comment in the liner notes:

“‘Say It Ain’t So, Joe’ was provoked by a ‘70s documentary on Richard Nixon prior to his resignation. The presenter was asking the editor of a small town newspaper outside Washington, how, in the face of conclusive evidence and proof, his readers could still show such undying support for the president they elected. The editor likens the situation to a scandal in the twenties, when [Shoeless] Joe Jackson, the famous baseball player, was rumoured to have taken a bribe to sink his team in the finale of the World Series. His fans hung around the stadium chanting, ‘Say it ain’t so Joe’!

“The song is on an album, which has sold over a million copies, and was produced by Paul Samwell-Smith, who recently decided to re-record the song. Shortly afterwards I was watching another documentary on the O.J. Simpson case, and they showed a note pinned to his gate on which was written, ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe’. Two days later a friend, just returned from L.A., rang me to tell me they’d seen placards with that same old phrase. The occasion seemed apt for a re-release.
- Murray Head, 1994”

Steve’s song #2: Love, “Hey Joe,” 1966