Tune Tag #92 with David Ross of A Bin Full of Tissues: Diana Ross, English Beat, Wham!, Associates, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., Nerves, Miracles, Paul Young
Like The Ricardos & Mertzes driving to Hollywood, we're all over the map on this one! A little rock, a little soul; a little pop, a little roll. We just may have to get up to get down!
Tag….oops! You’re IT, Dave!
Tune Tag welcomes David Ross of A Bin Full Of Tissues!
Last week, we were graced by the presence of Kristin DeMarr of All the Things She Said:
Next week, tune into the continuing Tune Tag saga, as we welcome Gayle Ramage of Music, Movies, Stories and Mutterings!
Dave: I turn 60 this year. I write about music for a hobby. I work in community transport helping those who can’t get out and about using regular transport through disability or just plain old age.
Our tag line is “Delivering Independence and Tackling Isolation”. The scale of the challenge is huge and growing as public funding is cut. It’s why I’m playing tennis for 16 hours on 21st June to raise funds and awareness. My Just Giving page you ask? Of course, it’s just here… Dave’s Tennis-A-Thon.
I don’t usually do photos, but Brad asked nicely, so here’s a picture of The Jam’s Paul Weller looking a bit like me. It’s actually incredible how much the young Paul Weller looks like one of my sons, but maybe that’s for another time.
My latest Substack piece was on Paul Weller, so perhaps it’s serendipity:
Brad contacted me about Tune Tag, and I leapt in without thought as usual, but I’m very glad I did! So here we go….
David’s song #1 sent to Brad: The Associates, “Club Country,” 1982 (Sulk album)
Dave’s rationale: I sent Brad The Associates - “Club Country” from their Sulk album (1982), quite simply because it’s my favourite song of all time! Not only that, it marked a move from borrowing music from my older brother or friends to discovering something that was mine: 16, clumsy and shy.
Recovering from a broken ankle suffered playing football (soccer), and this song entered my world via Top Of The Pops. I. Was. Hooked:
Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine had my heart and soul. How could I have known in 1982 that 43 years later this euphoric, relentless whirlwind of a song would still mean so much, and that Billy in particular would have become the artist of my life?
With Billy, at 39, tragically taking his own life in 1997, he became something else, something outside of the music: Someone to miss, to mourn and revere. His music with and without The Associates still surprises and thrills like no other. How much does he mean, Dave?
I think this staggering opportunity I had a couple of years ago to interview his friend and collaborator for the last year of his life, Steve Aungle, will go some way to explaining. We discussed many things including a 3-CD collection, Satellite Life. To be able to properly introduce The Associates to Brad is such a pleasure. Too much to say “privilege”? I cannot wait to hear what he thinks.
Brad’s response: Hadn’t heard of The Associates before. 1982 was just at the end of my decade in radio and retail records, so I was beginning a transition to a major career change at that time. As for ‘80s artists, I had a few favorites that seemed to swim in similar genre waters as The Associates, namely ABC, Spandau Ballet, and, in 1985, discovering Scritti Politti.
Above: In researching the duo, I found it fascinating that their first recording was the unauthorized June 1979 release of David Bowie’s just-released “Boys Keep Swinging” (late April 1979, written by Bowie and Brian Eno) six weeks after Bowie released it on his 1979 Lodger album. Bowie’s David Mallet-directed music video (released two years before MTV emerged) was played (along with his “D.J.” music vid) for customers at Houston’s Cactus Records, where I worked from 1978-1980. Bowie and his original “Boys Keep Swinging”:
Brad’s song #1 sent to David: Diana Ross, “I Thought It Took a Little Time (But Today I Fell in Love),” 1976
Dave’s response: Could Brad have linked to my surname and Auntie Diana (as I like to call her)? It’s such a gorgeous song and so evocative for me. Two sisters (ten and twelve years older than I) meant that I was surrounded by pop music from a very young age….this song puts me in their bedroom, a sensory overload of sights, sounds and smells!
Bins full of tissues from made-up faces, cheap perfume and Motown classics. Diana is such a superstar, it’s easy to overlook the sheer gossamer beauty of her voice. Great choice, Brad.
Or, maybe the title refers to Brad hearing “Club Country” and The Associates, and he’s fallen in love in a flash just as I did in 1982! I’m so jealous of the journey of discovery he has ahead of him. As we originally connected through a mutual love of another ‘80s genius, Green Gartside of Scritti Politti (shown below), I’m certain The Associates will become a huge part of his life.
All this being said, I will avoid the obvious and won’t be making The Associates’ cover of Diana’s Love Hangover my second song. Diana’s remains the definitive version, sexy and sumptuous. Right, on to my next choice and for this, I’ll take myself out of my comfort zone and directly into Motown, then quickly back to what I know, and a Ska cover!
Brad’s rationale: Pam Sawyer, the great London-born songwriter, wrote this 1976 song (along with Michael Masser, who produced, with Gene Page arranging) for Diana Ross. Sometime in 1976, this 21-year-old sent a cassette tape (with this song on it…Diana’s version) to longtime friend and fellow native Houstonian, Lisa Hartman.
She had just recorded her debut album for Kirshner/CBS Records (produced by living legend, Jeff Barry…see FR&B article below), and I thought this would be a perfect song for Lisa to cover for her album #2! I didn’t hear back, and she never recorded it.
Jeff Barry, in the late-’70s, also wrote songs with FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE exclusive contributor, Stephen Michael Schwartz. Here’s one of them, in a complete and rare demo with Stephen singing and playing guitar, fully-produced by Barry:
The Associates included a Pam Sawyer/Marilyn McLeod cover song (“Love Hangover,” recorded by Diana on her 1976 self-titled album) on their Sulk album, but only on the U.S. and EU version…not included on the UK and Canada releases, which may trip up the UK-tied Dave. We’ll see.
Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. recorded the song 2 years after Diana, and performed it on their short-lived TV variety show:
David’s song #2: The English Beat, “Tears of a Clown,” 1979
Brad’s response: David’s keeping it in the voluminous Motown “fambly”! When I first saw the video he sent, I saw the title: “The Beat…Tears of a Clown (Top of the Pops 1979)”….My first thought went to Paul Collins’ power poppers, The Beat….so, I thinks to myself, “Oh, I didn’t know The Beat covered that!” Wrong Beat….or, I guess I should say, “The other Beat”!
I do remember UK’s ska Beat at the time (and this cover), but that’s also the relative late-’70s prominence of the U.S. Beat aka Paul Collins’ Beat! Now, do I go directly to that Beat, or change the…uh, tempo up a bit?
Dave’s rationale: Smokey Robinson’s Motown classic is in itself one of the greatest records ever made. When it’s given a Two Tone/Ska remake by a multi-racial band of brothers from UK’s Birmingham, it becomes exhilarating.
The Beat transcended the political scene in the UK where racism and race riots were aplenty in the late-’70s and early-’80s. Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger drew on their influences and became an unlikely hit machine but this cover shows them at their barn-storming best: Dave drives the song to unknown heights until Roger steps in with his toasting stylings to give it a magical twist. A remarkable record from a remarkable time.
Brad’s song #2: The Nerves, “When You Find Out,” 1976
Dave’s response: Not a song that leaps out as anything special. A very sixties vocal over some fairly elementary rhythm guitar. It didn’t take long to find a connection, though, to The Beat, as The Nerves’ drummer, Paul Collins, went on to form a band called The Beat which I assume is why Dave Wakeling’s current version of his band is known as The English Beat (at least in N. America).
However, their back-story includes a link to Green Day’s Broadway musical, American Idiot, and writing “Hanging On The Telephone,” so plenty to ponder...
Brad’s rationale: I chose the band that preceded The (U.S.) Beat (aka Paul Collins’ Beat)…L.A.’s The Nerves, formed in San Francisco in 1974, with Jack Lee, Paul Collins, and Peter Case. I had the original, self-pressed single version.
From Sweden, Peter Bjorn and John give “When You Find Out” a go at a magazine’s offices in 2011:
David’s song #3: Paul Young, “Come Back and Stay,” 1983
Brad’s response: The rare and oft-cited “other” Jack Lee composition, “Come Back and Stay,” written in 1981! It’s always interesting to see an early MTV video…this Paul Young vid, within the cable channel’s first couple of years! From his 1983 debut, No Parlez, on which “Come Back and Stay” is one of three Jack Lee songs on this album (joining “Sex” and “Oh Women”)!
Dave’s rationale: Wait! What? Not Blondie? Not Green Day? No. I’ve gone for none more English icon than Paul Young and a song written by The Nerves’ guitarist, Jack Lee. First and foremost it’s a great song perfectly suited to Paul Young’s gravelly tones and beautifully accompanied by his Fabulous Wealthy Tarts.
Paul Young is an enigma: Came up the hard way through pubs and clubs. Was so famous in 1984, he was chosen to be the voice that opened Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas. A bona fide ‘80s mega-star. Fast forward and his multi-million-seller, No Parlez, is mocked for it’s ubiquity in the charity shops of the UK!
It even has its own social media pages. Vinyl heads gleefully post photos whenever they see it in the bargain racks. Me? I won’t have a word said against it. A perfect time capsule of 1983 and brilliantly performed by Young, especially the magnificent “Come Back And Stay.” I saw Paul Young supporting Go West a few years ago, and his voice is shot; I found it a hard watch, to be honest. That said, he was greeted rapturously and remembered for being the British pop royalty he absolutely once was!
Brad’s song #3: Bad Boys Blue, “Come Back and Stay,” 1987
Dave’s response: Nope. Never heard of it, but Brad’s link is pretty obvious. I find it on YouTube and apparently I’m the 23,839,990th person to do so! It’s a classic Europop hit and video. Wikipedia tells me it made #14 in Finland and #18 in Germany. I’m clearly missing something here: How do you leap from #14 in the Finnish charts to nearly 24 million You Tube views?
There’s only 6 million Fins. Paul Young’s “Come Back and Stay,” #4 in the UK charts, has a mere 19 million You Tube views. Anyway, I’m getting distracted, but fortunately Brad has served me up a perfect connection for me to finish on!
Brad’s rationale: The rare same title/different song that we love so much! Jack Lee on the Paul Young arrangement; Cologne, Germany’s Bad Boys Blue with the composition by the producing team that brought them together in 1984, Tony Hendrik and his lyricist wife, Karin van Haaren. This “Come Back and Stay” comes back and stays on their 1987 Love is No Crime album, which was never released in the U.S. (virtually every other country, though).
The view from The Benelux, and our good friend, PeDupre, creator of The Twelve Inch (Disco/80s):
Bad Boys Blue is essentially a clone, or let’s say a “budget version,” of Modern Talking. While Modern Talking was a major success story for Germany in the ’80s, landing top 10 hits across Europe, Bad Boys Blue only managed one real breakthrough: 1985’s “You’re a Woman.”
They kept at it though, releasing single after single. Their “Come Back and Stay” is one of those later efforts, a minor hit at best, peaking at #16 in Germany. This is the kind of music you only really appreciate after a long day of skiing in the Austrian Alps, slightly buzzed on Jägermeister shots!🍺
David’s song #4 Wham!, “Bad Boys,” 1983
Brad’s response: The George Michael composition, sans the “Blue” of the previous group, becomes “Bad Boys,” which I don’t recall ever hearing before….‘83 was my first year back at college, as a 28-year-old sophomore searching for a new career path! I suppose I could come back with Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls”…..
Dave’s rationale: George Michael would be my favourite singer of all time if Billy MacKenzie didn’t exist. From Wham! and into his solo career, George has created magic consistently under intense scrutiny and into a tragic end not dissimilar to Billy’s.
This is a recent piece I wrote in which I compare George and Billy’s careers, finding links and connections from the ‘80s through to the mid-’90s, culminating in an imaginary Billy MacKenzie solo album inspired by George’s Older:
Brad’s song #4: The Miracles, “Love Machine,” 1975
Dave’s response: What a song Brad has chosen as his final selection! A song that played endlessly at the various clubs and Soul Weekenders I was dragged to by my mates in the mid-’80s. I went along and probably danced and enjoyed myself, but it wasn’t my zone. It brings back some incredibly happy memories, though!
Of course, we can link The Miracles back to Smokey Robinson and The English Beat’s cover of “The Tears of A Clown.” However, while my mates loved the original soul classics, my heart was in the charts and pop music, so the connection with Wham’s cover of the song from their 1983 album, Fantastic, is the connection I’m sticking with! Wham! were total and utter joy grown out of a friendship between George and Andrew Ridgely.
Brad’s rationale: Wham! did a cover of “Love Machine” on Fantastic, the same album on which “Bad Boys” appeared. I had that Miracles album in ‘75, City of Angels, on Tamla/Motown. It was written by Billy Griffin and his Miracles group-mate, original Miracle Pete Moore, with whom he wrote the rest of the City of Angels tracks.
The song features a growling vocal by Miracle Bobby Rogers, with group baritone Ronnie White repeating “yeah, baby” throughout the song.
Wham! “Love Machine,” 1983:
Thanks, Brad, for this fantastic opportunity to share and discover some new music and a different way to look at songs I love. It’s a wonderful format and idea!
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Brad, what a blast and a fabulous response. Must do it again sometime
Those two versions of Love Machine and the English Beat's Tears of a Clown got me dancing. Hadn't heard the others before, thought I knew Wham's songs, so that was great fun. The Diana Ross song was gorgeous, also new to me.