Tune Tag #56 with Bryan Padrick of "The Bus": Frank Zappa, Diana Ross, Steely Dan, Tom Waits, Joe Cocker, Richard Thompson

I took a rather simple road in choosing my tagged songs. Bryan somehow managed to find links from one song to the next I'd not even considered! Standing O for Mr. Padrick even before we start!

Here ya go, Bryan! I’m blue; you be green!

Aw, nuts to him….we’ve got Tunes to Tag! Let’s do this!

Tune Tag proudly welcomes

Bryan Padrick

of The Bus on Substack!

Bryan: I’m an almost-55-year-old ex-pat who moved to England 22 years ago as part of a teacher exchange program and just never returned. I’m teaching English Literature, full time, for the first time since leaving the States, and thoroughly enjoying myself!

I’ve been a music fanatic since the mid/late ‘70s, and my memory is rich with music-related experiences. My uncle had an enormous album collection which my younger brother and I’d explore whenever we visited, the radio at home was always on, and the moment I was old enough to buy my own music, any money I had was spent on 45s, LPs and cassettes.

In 1984, not long after I turned 15, for some reason, I took a brief hiatus from pop music, and began to secretly listen to nothing (seriously - nothing) but Bach for about six months before returning to the real world!

And when that happened, I was a changed kid! I still love Bach, and credit my understanding of music to this immersion in his works. But, at the time, this newfound appreciation for Bach led me to an understanding of composition and performance (I played piano and trombone, so I understood the musical “language”), which enabled me to really get into all sorts of music: Beatles, Floyd, Hendrix, Stones, Zeppelin, Davis, Mingus, Coltrane (John and Alice), and others. Name it, and I’d, at least, give it a listen…and this interest has never let up!

Last week, we enjoyed the company of

Chase Roper

of Kiss Me, Son of Blog:

Tune Tag #55 with Chase Roper of "Kiss Me, Son of Blog": They Might Be Giants, Scorpions, Royal Canoe, Miriam Makeba, Manhattan Transfer

Next week, tune in to enjoy the Tune Tag skills of Ryan Stubbs aka

Miter

of Washed Memoir in Real Time, for his Tune Tag, Part 2!

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“OK, everyone! We’re here at the Tune Tag Arena! Everyone stay together, now!”

Bryan’s song #1 sent to Brad: Frank Zappa, “Camarillo Brillo,” 1973

Bryan’s rationale: Brad’s invitation to play Tune Tag arrived around the same time I was immersed in a third listening to Zappa’s Lumpy Gravy, an album (I’m embarrassed to say) I’d barely listened to before being directed to it via an article in

Tom Moon

’s excellent Substack, EchoLocator. So, it was a head full of Zappa that inspired the choice of the brilliant “Camarillo Brillo” to start off this dive down the rabbit hole.

Brad’s song #1 sent to Bryan: Tom Waits, “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night,” 1974

Bryan’s response: I wasn’t sure, at first, about the connection between the Waits and Zappa tracks. Thematically, they’re both about the bizarre side of L.A., with characters exploring and having adventures amongst the city’s stranger denizens.

Typically, Waits’ voice alone paints a seedy – whisky, cigarettes, rainy, dark, and noir-ish back alleys – image of the city, while in this instance Zappa’s tune, while more ‘psychedelic,’ seems to be emphasizing that that particular era has begun to wane (possibly why it’s time for the lady in the song to change her ‘rancid poncho’)!

But, reading Tune Tag has revealed that more than likely it’s a technical aspect which links the tunes, so this sent me looking at the personnel on each album. The only crossover I could find was that Cal Schenkel produced artwork for both albums, which, of course, is a decent connection, but I think the real link is that Waits toured with Zappa prior to writing and recording this album.

Cal Schenkel photographed in 2005 with one of his framed Zappa cover-art pieces.

Brad’s rationale: The first Tune Tag connection of one art director! Cal Schenkel illustrated the inside cover of Over-Nite Sensation, and he was the art director for the cover of Waits’ The Heart of Saturday Night 1974 album (with cover art created by Lynn Lascaro). The title song was written as a tribute to Jack Kerouac, according to UK’s The Daily Telegraph’s Martin Chilton in 2017. The song itself is a melancholy reflection of exploring the city streets at night.

Another Zappa connection: After completing the 1973 album Closing Time (that preceded The Heart of Saturday Night), Waits toured with Frank Zappa.

The album cover is based on the artwork for the 1955 In the Wee Small Hours album jacket by Frank Sinatra, according to the album’s liner notes. It is an illustration featuring a tired Tom Waits being observed by a blonde woman as he exits a neon-lit cocktail lounge late at night, according to Jay Jacobs in his 2010 Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits.

Please enjoy this personal look at the Waits album, The Heart of Saturday Night, from friend of FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE (and Founding Member),

Andres

of The Vinyl Room, and please consider subscribing!👇

Late night confessions

Bryan’s song #2: Steely Dan, “Charlie Freak,” 1974

Steely Dan’s Walter Becker (l) and Donald Fagen with producer Gary Katz (seated) at Village Recorders, Los Angeles, during the 1974 sessions for Pretzel Logic.

Brad’s response: Hmmm, this could be a call-back to Bryan’s Zappa song. I think Frank had an album called Freak-Out. Is there a character in the Waits song named Charlie? Is Waits singing about a burned-out druggie? A guy down on his luck?

I remember Pretzel Logic distinctly: Released in mid-February 1974, I was in my dorm, Kerr Hall at N. Texas State U. (now U of N. Texas) in my freshman year. Now without my usual haul of promo albums Dad used to bring home from the radio station he was an ad exec at (going back to the mid-’60s when I was 10), I was left to buy an occasional album I really wanted!😱And, this one I had heard good things about, so I bought it at a nearby downtown Denton record store.

Bryan’s rationale: One of the best things about Tune Tag is that tunes just pop into your head, as if your subconscious is saying “choose this one”! And, “Charlie Freak” was one that did just this. Thematically, it sticks with the previous tune’s portrayal of the seedier side of LA, a definitive aspect of Steely Dan in general, and this morality tale in particular.

But, the technical reason I chose this tune was because Steely Dan’s session drummer on this track, the late Jim Gordon, also played on the Waits album (Bones Howe produced).

As a side note, this is a beautifully constructed short song, and contains probably the best use of sleigh bells outside of a Christmas song [Brad: Or a Phil Spector or Brian Wilson late-’60s Gold Star session!]. There are so many classic tracks on 1974’s Pretzel Logic (the utter lecherousness of “Rikki,” anyone?), but this one always returns to that special, dark place in my heart.

Pretzel Logic was produced by Gary Katz, one of the more influential figures in the careers of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, starting at their very beginning as ABC Records staff songwriters. The duo’s incredible origin story is here:

Audio Archaeology, 1960s-1971: The Steely Dan & Becker/Fagen Songwriting Team Origin Story

Brad’s song #2: Charlie, “Johnny Hold Back,” 1977