Tune Tag #80 with Tom Moloney of "Music's Most Underrated": Pink Floyd, Manhattan Transfer, Dire Straits, Nirvana, The Beatles, Donovan, Paolo Nutini
I've got some 45 years on Mr. Moloney, but I'm sensing the youngster can more than hold his own in this Tune Tag! Pull up a bean bag and a Tab, and set a spell!
Welcome, Tom! Tag, You’re IT!
“Hey, where’d ya go? These tunes won’t tag themselves, y’know!”
Meet , creator of Music’s Most Underrated!
Tom: Music’s Most Underrated was started as a means for me to create a community where albums or artists that deserve a bigger light can be shared. These aren’t always little-known discoveries, with many of my favourite records coming from successful musicians who have either been quickly forgotten or didn’t get the attention their talents may deserve.
With music being my #1 passion and my constant desire to discover the next “on-repeat” artist or album, this is my way of sharing those gems I find along the way. It also provides a fantastic platform for other people to share their favourite music. Some of my best discoveries have come through Music’s Most Underrated, namely jazz pianist and virtuoso, Hiromi, and indie folk singer, Adrianne Lenker of Brooklyn’s Big Thief, both catching my attention.
My Substack is rather simple, but that is what I love so much about it! I post a fortnightly “Artist of the Week,” and a fortnightly “Not Spoken About Enough Album,” where I do a deep dive into an underrated album or artist.
[Brad: A favorite of mine has been Tom’s recent dive into George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass!]. These alternate each week, providing you with something new to listen to, as well as a bit of context behind the music!
Work to expand the content within Music’s Most Underrated is underway, and I am excited to share this with you all shortly!
Last week, we were gobsmacked by the terrific Tune Tag performance by of Infrequency-FM:
Next week, join us in welcoming , creator of Music of the Day, into the Tune Tag arena!
Tom’s song #1 sent to Brad: Pink Floyd, “Mother,” 1979
Tom’s rationale: I gave this first song a bit of thought as I wanted it to have some level of meaning to me. “Mother” (from 1979’s The Wall, Columbia Records) encapsulates everything that I love about music. I am a big advocate for simplicity and repetition, and “Mother” has this in abundance. I am a firm believer that when you find a chord progression or melody that hooks the listener and catches their attention, then simply repeat it, and let the musician’s talent and passion shine through.
As a guitarist, like millions of others, I have tried to mimic David Gilmour’s sound more times than I can count, and the solo to “Mother” is one of my favourites. The vocals are raw and passionate and the entrance of the solo is at the perfect time to intensify the emotions in the song.
The lyrics scream out to me as a young adult. They show the vulnerable side to life and the reliance on your loved ones to help you navigate through life. They discuss that the world has a lot of dangers in it; lots of these dangers are new to young people and having someone you can trust, no-matter-what, is something quite beautiful. In the case of the narrator, it is his mother, a figure who raised him from birth and constantly shows her unquestionable.
Brad’s song #1 sent to Tom: Manhattan Transfer, “Who, What, When, Where, Why,” 1978
Tom’s response: This is an interesting song, and one which I had never heard before. I love the different layers to the vocals and the tone of the piano. I spent a little bit of time listening to the song and trying to see if there was a musical link to the song, but I couldn’t come up with much.
Then, after doing a bit of research, and looking at the different songs from the same album, the year it was released, I then had a quick look at the personnel on the song. There you will see that Jeff Porcaro, maybe most famously known for founding rock band Toto, provided drums on both “Mother” and “Who, What, When, Where, Why” during a very successful period as a session drummer. [More Toto and Porcaro]:
Brad’s rationale: Drummer Jeff Porcaro played on both “Mother” and Rupert Holmes’ “Who, What, When, Where, Why” cover by Manhattan Transfer, produced by Transfer member, Tim Hauser, and veteran songwriter/producer, Steve Barri, now 83 (from their 1978 album, Pastiche, on Atlantic Records).
Rupert Holmes is one of my all-time favorite musicalities (musical personalities). A singer/songwriter and producer, he’s also adept at conducting, scoring, and arranging (and he plays guitar and keyboards). In other words, he’s enormously prodigious and versatile! In some more other words, he’s so much more than his 1979 “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” hit! Here’s proof:
In 1971, Holmes’ “Timothy” (written specifically to be banned, and thus, gain more attention and airplay…wish you had been that subversive at 23?) “cannibalized” its way to #17 on the U.S. pop charts. He tapped The Buoys to record the song, and off they went with this song (click here for YouTube link).
“The challenge was to write something that could get played, but that some people would ban,” Holmes once told Rolling Stone. “If I wrote a song where the lyrics were obscene, or I described something sexual that was not allowed in those days, or if there was a clear drug reference, that would not work, because it would just never get played at all.” The Professor of Rock interviewed Holmes 3 years ago:
In 1975, Holmes wrote and arranged (with Jeffrey Lesser producing) “I Don’t Want to Hold Your Hand,” with as many subtle Beatles buttons’n’hooks as you could hope for! Click here for the YouTube audio/video, and see how many you can find and name!
That same year, Barbra Streisand called and summoned him (and his usual studio partner, Lesser) to produce what would become her 17th studio album, Lazy Afternoon. Seems she had heard Holmes’ 1974 Widescreen album, and loved the way he composed songs “cinematically,” and wanted that feel for her new Columbia album!
Tom’s song #2: Dire Straits, “Sultans of Swing,” 1978
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