Thanks, I hadn't heard this demo version of the The Kings song. I have fond memories of the track because I was living in Chicago at the time and the big FM rocker in town - "The Loop" played the song non-stop. My recollection is that it was much bigger there than just about anywhere else.
I highly recommend the Donnie Iris song "Love Is Like A Rock," which was one of the singles off of the follow-up album.
Thanks for that regional check-in, Rick! You're right....so many songs got jump-starts in this city or that region! I don't doubt your Chicago big-ness assertion! The Loop was a tastemaker, and jocks, countrywide, would follow their lead! Plus, I know the trades would've been reporting that, as well!
I'm gonna see if "Love is Like a Rock" can find a place somewhere here....if not "Yacht Pop Anchors," then, possibly, "Inside Tracks"! It was mentioned all over in my research, and I know I heard it back in the day, but need to refresh my memory!
Two amazing songs with equally astounding "existence" stories....and, both from 1980....meant to highlight that in the piece! May now!
Love "Ah! Leah!" -- my local classic rock station occasionally plays it and I crank up the radio. Such a great cruisin' in the car record. Glad you covered this!
I forgot about "The Rapper" but it came back immediately. Pretty funny. We all knew 'rappers' back then! R&B girl group TLC called them 'scrubs' 30 years later (the broke mama's boy type) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM.
Classic rock.....he fits! That's cool his song is given life on that format! Didn't know scrubs and Donnie's description of early "rappers" were synonymous! I'd heard "Scrubs," and assumed it was somewhat pejorative, but didn't bother to look it up!
Yeah, rappers and scrubs are both fast-talking, undeserving players putting the moves on. Same game, different generation -- which inspire 'avoid this dude' songs.
'Ah! Leah!' Oh My God. I've not heard that song in, well, far too many years. What a great track - one of those that 'kids these days' are missing out on. And it's raw, too - I'm with Steve Goldberg: despite its slick early 80s production, it's a lust song, not a love song. When I was 12 I knew they were two lovers who just shouldn't/couldn't/had to be together - and, damn, I wanted a Leah! 'Ah! Leah!' is in the same box as Prince's 'Little Red Corvette' for me. Thanks for putting this back on my playlist!
There’s something I’ve wanted to say for a while, but only held back because I heard on the grapevine that you were a youth minister. But I’ll say it, because it’s true: with all due respect, Front Row and Backstage is the BIBLE of music knowledge. There it is, I said it, caps lock and all 😂 Now seriously. You have no idea how much you actually know. The level of detail, research, the connection between tracks and musicians, who produced what, the degrees of separation between artists, bands, producers, records… Thank you, Brad, for sharing all your knowledge, every time, without fail.
As Marcel Marceau used to say....."I'm speechless." Or, as Betty White in her Rose character on the hilarious "Golden Girls" once said, prior to delivering a eulogy: "I'm speechless, except for the one that I have prepared." See....I can't help myself!!!😂
I proudly accept your kind and sweet words, Andy, if you'll give major, massive, mad props to Steve! He came through, under a stringent deadline (he apparently has a tyrant of an occasional editor!) to come up with his consistently reliable funny and relatable info to add to the Iris section! I'd love to use his talents far more frequently, but I also want to be mindful of the fact he works, and he's got a family, with his own "Earworms & Song Loops" to keep magnificently afloat! So, time is far more of a lean and valuable commodity for him than the retired me!
Thanks again, Andy.....I value your readership, your comments, and most of all, your friendship.
Thank you, Brad! Absolutely: mad props to Steve as well. His boundless creativity and witty sense of humour have made me literally scream with laughter on a train full of strangers. The combination of you and Steve is explosive. I would LOVE more of that, but of course I understand Steve’s time constraints (similar to mine, in a way).
What always amazes me is how you carefully and masterfully pull the “narrative thread”, which is something I’m trying to learn from you (like I did in my post about your and Kadrian’s recording-selling adventures).
Cheers to all you said, and above all, thank YOU for your friendship 🥂🍻🎶🎼
thanks for the collab invite, Brad! I’ll take credit for the Donnie Iris side of the duo of YPAs but by name only! We shall see where I take the tune for my EW&SL treatment! No, I don’t pre-pare these ahead of time!
Looking forward to your Earworms treatment of "Ah! Choo!"....I mean, "Ah! Leah!" Your contribution to our YPA was really cool! I like hearing other peoples' experience with any given song. I'm trying to remember my first hearings of both. '80, of course, was when I moved from Houston to L.A., and I immediately landed at Music Plus, the Southland's largest record store chain. I was at their Glendale store, and I'm sure we played the promos of each in the store for customers to hear.
I was still reading the rock press pretty heavily, so I was likely aware of their pending releases, as well as reading their reviews, and notices in the trades. As you can imagine, I loved both on first listen. I know I had both albums, and I'm sure they were promos. I didn't listen to much L.A. radio...I'm sure I tried to find Rodney on KROQ, and listened sparingly to AM hit radio, but probably shoved in a cassette when I could!
I was a senior in high school when these songs came out. They were played a LOT in Chicago and I bought the 45s! I particularly liked the way This Beat Goes On went right into Switchin' to Glide. The stations played both! I still need to get them as one track!
See Rick Ellis's comment above, Dan! Chicago gets another shout-out, yo! I'm sure the band, themselves, would echo The Windy City's importance in leading the record's charge across the country! It's amazing, at nearly 6 minutes, it got the AM radio play it did! Far more "important" rock songs lost airplay time simply because of their length!
While The Kings' "medley" was honest, organic, and not contrived as a ploy, I'm surprised other acts didn't, at least, try and pass off a 6-minute single that merges two "songs" as a way to woo some airplay! It helped that Elektra didn't mess with it, and service radio with edited, "split-up" songs! They are to be applauded, too, for even releasing the un-split songs as a single!
Despite my applause for them for that, it should be noted the label DID release ONLY "Switchin' to Glide" as the album's first single! The duo-song single was released shortly thereafter. I think it's that time between "Switchin"s single release and the dual release had a lot to do with swelling radio airplay.....leading the charge? CHICAGO!!
I wish more radio stations had done the same! I remember how well Donna Summer's Hot Stuff bled into Bad Girls. No one ever played both together, probably because they were released as separate singles. Still, it's hard to find such songs as one track on Apple Music or Spotify today.
Not a Summer aficionado, per se, but I'm certainly aware of her catalog, and have liked some of it! One of my subscribers actually wrote a song that she once recorded! As for Donna's records, you had, I think, the breakout of more disco oriented (and R&B during the late-'70s/'80s) stations who might've been more likely to program (club-like) music, and segueing from one song to another (even by the same artist)!
Any thoughts, Dan, from '80, on the Iris cut? Do you remember hearing it back in the day at all?
Oh, that didn't slip by me, Dan! If either one of them had made your '80 Top Ten, I would've noticed and said something!! I'm just going to imagine both songs were "bubbling under" and held down the #11 and #12 spots on your list!!!😉
Great story, Bob! I trust, by now, she knows the full story behind her name (and has heard the song)....assuming she's old enough to understand! I'd love to think, too, that she came to you asking how she got her name! I've taught 5th graders who had no idea where their name came from! If your name is Geronimo (like one of my former students), and you're ten or 11, I'd like to think your curiosity is aroused, at some point!
As a fan of the Old West and Native Americans, I asked him. "I dunno," was his response. I proceeded to "introduce" him to the former Apache chief (whose grave I visited at Fort Sill a dozen years ago, in the same cemetery as one of my life heroes, Quanah Parker! Now, whether "my" Geronimo was actually named after the famous one, I don't know, but I did ask him to ask his folks about his name that very evening. I can't remember if I followed up, but I'm hoping he did, and gained a little bit of proud knowledge in whatever direction!
Both of my girls have music to thank for their first names. And yes, they both received a complete music history lesson. They struggle for a time when they were younger, but now they love their names.
However, pulling their middle names from Star Trek might have been over the top.
And, like so many great songs, the sound captured by the producer on record is usually the "chocolate chips" that make the cookie (dammit, now I'm hungry! WORDS......am I right, Andrew?😉). The arrangement and the unique attention to those sonic details were key, too!
I think we both can number in the dozens the artists who could've taken this same song, and given it a dull, same-ole arrangement (sans chorus wall and aggressive guitar sound), and made it just another plodding arena rocker! I was amazed, listening to the live performances, how they were/are able to make it do both....get 'em up on their feet, and stay true to what made the record work in the first place! Goatfury rocks!
Thanks, I hadn't heard this demo version of the The Kings song. I have fond memories of the track because I was living in Chicago at the time and the big FM rocker in town - "The Loop" played the song non-stop. My recollection is that it was much bigger there than just about anywhere else.
I highly recommend the Donnie Iris song "Love Is Like A Rock," which was one of the singles off of the follow-up album.
Thanks for that regional check-in, Rick! You're right....so many songs got jump-starts in this city or that region! I don't doubt your Chicago big-ness assertion! The Loop was a tastemaker, and jocks, countrywide, would follow their lead! Plus, I know the trades would've been reporting that, as well!
I'm gonna see if "Love is Like a Rock" can find a place somewhere here....if not "Yacht Pop Anchors," then, possibly, "Inside Tracks"! It was mentioned all over in my research, and I know I heard it back in the day, but need to refresh my memory!
Two amazing songs with equally astounding "existence" stories....and, both from 1980....meant to highlight that in the piece! May now!
Love "Ah! Leah!" -- my local classic rock station occasionally plays it and I crank up the radio. Such a great cruisin' in the car record. Glad you covered this!
I forgot about "The Rapper" but it came back immediately. Pretty funny. We all knew 'rappers' back then! R&B girl group TLC called them 'scrubs' 30 years later (the broke mama's boy type) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM.
Classic rock.....he fits! That's cool his song is given life on that format! Didn't know scrubs and Donnie's description of early "rappers" were synonymous! I'd heard "Scrubs," and assumed it was somewhat pejorative, but didn't bother to look it up!
Yeah, rappers and scrubs are both fast-talking, undeserving players putting the moves on. Same game, different generation -- which inspire 'avoid this dude' songs.
'Ah! Leah!' Oh My God. I've not heard that song in, well, far too many years. What a great track - one of those that 'kids these days' are missing out on. And it's raw, too - I'm with Steve Goldberg: despite its slick early 80s production, it's a lust song, not a love song. When I was 12 I knew they were two lovers who just shouldn't/couldn't/had to be together - and, damn, I wanted a Leah! 'Ah! Leah!' is in the same box as Prince's 'Little Red Corvette' for me. Thanks for putting this back on my playlist!
Yep, Steve nailed it! Thanks, Bryan!
There’s something I’ve wanted to say for a while, but only held back because I heard on the grapevine that you were a youth minister. But I’ll say it, because it’s true: with all due respect, Front Row and Backstage is the BIBLE of music knowledge. There it is, I said it, caps lock and all 😂 Now seriously. You have no idea how much you actually know. The level of detail, research, the connection between tracks and musicians, who produced what, the degrees of separation between artists, bands, producers, records… Thank you, Brad, for sharing all your knowledge, every time, without fail.
As Marcel Marceau used to say....."I'm speechless." Or, as Betty White in her Rose character on the hilarious "Golden Girls" once said, prior to delivering a eulogy: "I'm speechless, except for the one that I have prepared." See....I can't help myself!!!😂
I proudly accept your kind and sweet words, Andy, if you'll give major, massive, mad props to Steve! He came through, under a stringent deadline (he apparently has a tyrant of an occasional editor!) to come up with his consistently reliable funny and relatable info to add to the Iris section! I'd love to use his talents far more frequently, but I also want to be mindful of the fact he works, and he's got a family, with his own "Earworms & Song Loops" to keep magnificently afloat! So, time is far more of a lean and valuable commodity for him than the retired me!
Thanks again, Andy.....I value your readership, your comments, and most of all, your friendship.
Thank you, Brad! Absolutely: mad props to Steve as well. His boundless creativity and witty sense of humour have made me literally scream with laughter on a train full of strangers. The combination of you and Steve is explosive. I would LOVE more of that, but of course I understand Steve’s time constraints (similar to mine, in a way).
What always amazes me is how you carefully and masterfully pull the “narrative thread”, which is something I’m trying to learn from you (like I did in my post about your and Kadrian’s recording-selling adventures).
Cheers to all you said, and above all, thank YOU for your friendship 🥂🍻🎶🎼
thanks for the collab invite, Brad! I’ll take credit for the Donnie Iris side of the duo of YPAs but by name only! We shall see where I take the tune for my EW&SL treatment! No, I don’t pre-pare these ahead of time!
Looking forward to your Earworms treatment of "Ah! Choo!"....I mean, "Ah! Leah!" Your contribution to our YPA was really cool! I like hearing other peoples' experience with any given song. I'm trying to remember my first hearings of both. '80, of course, was when I moved from Houston to L.A., and I immediately landed at Music Plus, the Southland's largest record store chain. I was at their Glendale store, and I'm sure we played the promos of each in the store for customers to hear.
I was still reading the rock press pretty heavily, so I was likely aware of their pending releases, as well as reading their reviews, and notices in the trades. As you can imagine, I loved both on first listen. I know I had both albums, and I'm sure they were promos. I didn't listen to much L.A. radio...I'm sure I tried to find Rodney on KROQ, and listened sparingly to AM hit radio, but probably shoved in a cassette when I could!
I was a senior in high school when these songs came out. They were played a LOT in Chicago and I bought the 45s! I particularly liked the way This Beat Goes On went right into Switchin' to Glide. The stations played both! I still need to get them as one track!
See Rick Ellis's comment above, Dan! Chicago gets another shout-out, yo! I'm sure the band, themselves, would echo The Windy City's importance in leading the record's charge across the country! It's amazing, at nearly 6 minutes, it got the AM radio play it did! Far more "important" rock songs lost airplay time simply because of their length!
While The Kings' "medley" was honest, organic, and not contrived as a ploy, I'm surprised other acts didn't, at least, try and pass off a 6-minute single that merges two "songs" as a way to woo some airplay! It helped that Elektra didn't mess with it, and service radio with edited, "split-up" songs! They are to be applauded, too, for even releasing the un-split songs as a single!
Despite my applause for them for that, it should be noted the label DID release ONLY "Switchin' to Glide" as the album's first single! The duo-song single was released shortly thereafter. I think it's that time between "Switchin"s single release and the dual release had a lot to do with swelling radio airplay.....leading the charge? CHICAGO!!
I wish more radio stations had done the same! I remember how well Donna Summer's Hot Stuff bled into Bad Girls. No one ever played both together, probably because they were released as separate singles. Still, it's hard to find such songs as one track on Apple Music or Spotify today.
Not a Summer aficionado, per se, but I'm certainly aware of her catalog, and have liked some of it! One of my subscribers actually wrote a song that she once recorded! As for Donna's records, you had, I think, the breakout of more disco oriented (and R&B during the late-'70s/'80s) stations who might've been more likely to program (club-like) music, and segueing from one song to another (even by the same artist)!
Any thoughts, Dan, from '80, on the Iris cut? Do you remember hearing it back in the day at all?
Oh yeah, for sure! Very popular song! I had the 45. Didn't quite make my Top Ten that year but it was definitely played a lot.
Oh, that didn't slip by me, Dan! If either one of them had made your '80 Top Ten, I would've noticed and said something!! I'm just going to imagine both songs were "bubbling under" and held down the #11 and #12 spots on your list!!!😉
"Ah, Leah" is an awesome song. My youngest daughter got her first name from that song.
Great story, Bob! I trust, by now, she knows the full story behind her name (and has heard the song)....assuming she's old enough to understand! I'd love to think, too, that she came to you asking how she got her name! I've taught 5th graders who had no idea where their name came from! If your name is Geronimo (like one of my former students), and you're ten or 11, I'd like to think your curiosity is aroused, at some point!
As a fan of the Old West and Native Americans, I asked him. "I dunno," was his response. I proceeded to "introduce" him to the former Apache chief (whose grave I visited at Fort Sill a dozen years ago, in the same cemetery as one of my life heroes, Quanah Parker! Now, whether "my" Geronimo was actually named after the famous one, I don't know, but I did ask him to ask his folks about his name that very evening. I can't remember if I followed up, but I'm hoping he did, and gained a little bit of proud knowledge in whatever direction!
Both of my girls have music to thank for their first names. And yes, they both received a complete music history lesson. They struggle for a time when they were younger, but now they love their names.
However, pulling their middle names from Star Trek might have been over the top.
Ha! Great stuff, Bob! Thanks!
"Ah, Leah" is a great song!
And, like so many great songs, the sound captured by the producer on record is usually the "chocolate chips" that make the cookie (dammit, now I'm hungry! WORDS......am I right, Andrew?😉). The arrangement and the unique attention to those sonic details were key, too!
I think we both can number in the dozens the artists who could've taken this same song, and given it a dull, same-ole arrangement (sans chorus wall and aggressive guitar sound), and made it just another plodding arena rocker! I was amazed, listening to the live performances, how they were/are able to make it do both....get 'em up on their feet, and stay true to what made the record work in the first place! Goatfury rocks!